I think I can write about his now.  A little background, before we begin...

       Jeff: My eldest son. In 1984, Jeff's mother vanished, quite deliberately, with Jeff and his sister. With no help from the courts or law enforcement, who only seemed to be interested in whether or not my child support was paid up, it took me 17 years and a stroke of pure brilliance from Anita to find them. Since then, we have kept in touch online and over the phone. That is, until Christmas Eve. More on that later. In the meantime, if you want to find a lost family member, drop me a note. Unlike me, my wife truly is a genius.

     Jason: My stepson, until his mother and I split up in 1998. He was five when we got together. He always knew who his father was and has always had a relationship with him. Be that as it may, Jason, to this day (and now a grown man of 27), still calls me Dad.

    Tyler: My youngest son. Raised by his mother and me until he was eight, he lived with her in Tampa until the age of fourteen, when she sent him to live with me because he was out of control, using drugs and getting into trouble with the law. He lived with me, drug free and unarrested, for a year before his mother moved him back in with her.

    Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I received a phone call that, initially, chilled my blood, then quickly warmed my heart. Jeff, who lives in Las Vegas, had told me he would be flying out to spend Thanksgiving weekend with his Aunt Karen in California. It was while he was on his way back home that my phone rang. It was from a young lady named Jen, who initially described herself to me as Jeff's roommate. At first I thought there had been an accident. I had never spoken to this young lady before. She quickly apologized for aging me five years in as many seconds, then proceeded to inform me that she needed to speak to me "while Jeff wasn't around." Another five years flew by. Did this girl know I have a heart condition?

     Anyway, she finally explained that she had a plan. She wanted to fly me out to Las Vegas, to arrive on Christmas Eve, so that Jeff and I, who hadn't seen each other in 23 years, remember, could spend a week together. This would, of course, result in Anita and I spending our first Christmas apart, as there was no way, short of a winning lottery ticket, that Anita would be able to get free from work to join me. I thanked Jen for the thoughtfulness of her gift to my son (and to me, as it worked out) and told her that I would have to discuss it with my wife and call her back.

    Well, any of you who know Anita personally or even from just meeting her here, already know how that conversation went. Although she was the one who had finally put us back in touch again and deeply wished to be there when we came face to face again, she was thrilled for both of us at this opportunity and practically screamed at me to call Jen back and tell her YES! I will spare you the three weeks of conspiratorial phone calls and surreptitious emails that ensued and just tell you that, at sometime after 5 p.m. on December 24th,  landed at McCarran International Airport. Thus ends the story of how Anita let a 23-year-old babe fly me out to Vegas for a week.

    We had a wonderful visit. Jeff was blown away to walk in the door and see me sitting there under the tree with a bow on my head. No shit. Jen even took some pictures and I think she plans to post them on her page. Anyway, it was great to finally spend some time with my son after all these years and see the fine young man he had grown into. Some of you have met him here. If not, he is number three on my friends list. Get to know him. I have good reason to be proud of him, in spite of how terrifyingly alike we are. While you are at it, get to know Jen. She is a wonderful person with a good heart. If you could meet her family, as I had the pleasure over that week, the kind of person she is will come as no surprise. We all have too few people like these in our lives.

     If I had the power, there is one thing about that week between Christmas and the New Year that I would change.

     On December 28^th, Jason called me fromTampa.

Apparently, after moving back up to his

mom's,Tyler had taken up with the same circle of friends with whom he used to get into trouble before she sent him down to me. On the night of the 27^th, while his mother and stepfather were out

of town, Tyler went out with some of these friends. He overdosed on Coricidin Cough and Cold, his drug of choice for some time. The kids call it "Triple-C." Clever. His "friends," out of fear of getting in trouble, let him lie there for three hours before some genius finally called for help. Tyler, my 17-year-old son, was cremated on New Year's Eve.

     It has been five hours between that sentence and this one. Tyler was a bright, funny, caring, friendly, loving and troubled young man. I have spoken openly with you about my long-past problems with drugs. I did the same with my children, including my step-children. To me, there is no difference. Some of them have had their own problems some have not. Two who did and have since gotten their feet back under them will tell you, as they have told me, that, at least in some small part, my honesty with them about drugs, addictions and my own problems with same were part of the reason they got it together. However true or untrue that may be, I cannot say but it is nice to think that being open about my own past failings may have helped these people I love to overcome their own and survive. That being said, it would be a lot nicer to think about if it had the same effect on Tyler.

    I think it would be great if, while our schools are so busy teaching us Calculus, Trigonometry and Applied Physics to prepare us for our jobs stamping "DENIED" on forms at the insurance company, they could teach us how to reach all of our kids instead of just most of them. At the very least, they might offer a course in Grief Mechanics, so that we will have some idea what to do when one of our children dies. It seems to me that there should be at least some effort put into preparing a person for something this unnatural but there will always be a part of me, especially now, that is certain that such a feat could never be accomplished.

     A note to family and friends: I am grateful to and especially for each and every one of you, even for those of you for whom the feeling is not mutual. (Those of you to whom the last part of that sentence applies know who you are and I want you to know, I understand. I love you anyway.

    When it comes to an epitaph, I'm sorry, but I have nothing appropriate. Every time I think about it I am drawn back to one of the last conversations Tyler and I had on this subject before he moved back to Tampa. He didn't like the rules in my house. Too strict. I didn't trust him enough. I'll never forget it. He was screaming at me…

     TYLER: "All I want to do is live my own life and make my own decisions! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME DO THAT?"

     ME: "Because I don't want to bury you."

     Millions of American children are slogging (and in some cases, traipsing) through their days under the influence of psychotropic "medications." In some cases, these kids are consuming a cocktail made up of as many as twelve pills per day. Many are beginning these regimens at the ripe old age of two or three. What is wrong with these children that they should need so many powerful drugs just to function? Who decides which child needs what and how much they need? What are the long – term effects of this program? For the answers to these questions, we need to turn to the Psychiatric community. After all, they have all the answers…
     When you ask a Psychiatrist what causes ADD, ADHD, OCD, ODD, Depression, Bipolar Disorder (formerly called Manic Depression), Anxiety or any of the myriad diseases and disorders that seem to suddenly be troubling record numbers of our youth, you get the same generic, vague answer. According to these highly-trained professionals, all of these maladies are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Now, if you are bored one day and want to have some fun, gather a bunch of these people together and ask them which chemicals and how far out of balance. Then sit back and watch the dogfight begin. They will never agree on the answer to your question. This brings up another question. How do they diagnose a child as having a particular disorder? It may comfort you to know that they do agree on the methodology of diagnosis. One arrives at a diagnosis by "observing symptoms and behaviors." How is this careful observation carried out? That's easy. So easy, in fact, that one wonders what part of this practice calls for three hundred dollars per hour. The following is a description of the comprehensive observations of symptoms and behaviors that takes place in psychiatric offices every day.
    Parent or parents bring Mikey in to see the doctor. They begin telling the doctor that eight-year-old Mikey is quite the handful. He has boundless energy, seems easily distracted, doesn't like school and gets in trouble for acting up in class, talks a lot, gets angry and/or talks back when told to do something he doesn't want to do, doesn't want to go to bed when he's told, etc, etc, ad nauseum. After 15 or 20 minutes of listening to stories about how annoying Mikey is, out comes the pad and Mikey begins his new childhood mission, the endless pursuit of the White Rabbit. It is to this brief period that Psychiatrists refer when they describe their diagnostic methodology as the "observation of symptoms and behaviors." It is upon this careful study and investigation that they base their decisions to start pumping our children with powerful, brain altering drugs.
     Courtesy of the National Institutes of Mental Health, this is a chart showing some of the psychotropic medications being prescribed to our children in record numbers.

National Institutes of Health

Medications Chart

     At this point, I feel compelled to make a few observations, to be followed by a few suggestions.
     OBSERVATIONS
     All of these medications have dramatic effects on brain chemistry and function. The brains of children are in a constant state of growth and change. Finding a way to keep the dosages and balance of these added chemicals in proper lock-step with the ever-changing brain of a child, especially say, a child of THREE, is all but impossible. Psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical companies openly admit that these medications have not been tested on children and that the meds are being dispensed "off-label," meaning that they are intended to be used on adults but are routinely prescribed to children. By their own admission, they have no idea how chronic use of these drugs will impact the children, especially over the long-term, including possible effects on normal brain development. (I don't know why but every time I think about that, I am reminded of the Thalidomide babies. Actually, I DO know why).
     It seems as though every behavior exhibited by children throughout time is now a disorder requiring immediate chemical intervention. Can a pill alter the behavior of a person? Obviously. Does that mean that the first place we should run is the medicine cabinet? Conditions like Tourette's Syndrome or seizure disorders clearly require medication. These are neurological  disorders, not psychological. Unlike all of these weirdo, new "disorders" that mysteriously seem to have an expensive medication even before they are discovered, they are also proven diseases for which there are tangible, measurable tests. You don't need to guess at a person's brain chemistry in order to see that they are having a seizure. Assuming it even exists, is it really the best course of action to treat ADD in the same manner that we treat Epilepsy? If this "disease" had existed when I was in school, I would have been diagnosed and medicated in no time. The problem is, I didn't have ADD. I was bored. I learned too easily for a normal classroom pace to hold my interest. Still, in this day and age, I would have been diagnosed in record time and gulping down psychotropic drugs like they were Pez, all under doctor's orders.

     SUGGESTIONS
     May I suggest that spending 20 minutes listening to someone whine about how annoying their child is does not constitute "observation of symptoms and behavior." May I suggest that such tales of parental woe may be just as indicative of an inability of the parent to tolerate normal, annoying behavior as it is of a serious brain disorder on the part of the child. There is, after all, a very good reason why every one of us has heard our parents say, "I can't wait until YOU have kids! Then you'll understand!" Kids are commonly, noisy, pouty, angry, feisty, defiant, disruptive and generally annoying. Often all at the same time. That is why we call them "children." Childhood causes disorder but it is not a disorder in and of itself.
     May I suggest that automatically shoving pills down the throats of millions of children to manage their moods or behavior will likely have the result of creating an entire generation of adults who are constantly popping all sorts of pills to augment their daily lives and justifying it by pointing out that this is how their parents and doctors taught them to handle sadness, anxiety, anger, tension and whatever else life throws at them.
     May I remind you that we have no idea what the long-term use of these drugs will do to their bodies, minds, perhaps even their DNA but all of these kids are going to grow up to breed. We have no idea if Adderall or Haldol cause birth defects but I guarantee we won't find out until it is far too late. Again, remember Thalidomide? Is that really a risk worth taking to prevent Mikey from talking his mother's ear off or cracking jokes in class?
     While we dive blithely down the Rabbit Hole of zombiefying our kids, think about this: Shoving chemicals willy-nilly into the brains of our children is just like pulling the trigger on a gun. Once the bullet leaves the barrel, you have no control over the damage that it does.
     Chemically altering the developing brain of a child is no longer a decision of last resort, to be attempted rarely and with great caution, only after all other options have failed. That SHOULD be a scary thought. It doesn't seem to be. Now, that IS a scary thought.
     If you really want a Stepford Child, your friendly neighborhood psychiatrist will be only too happy to provide one for you. For a price.

        In my time writing this blog, I have written (much to your collective annoyance, I'm sure) on a variety of subjects. Heart Disease, the death of Brad Delp, censorship, the role of fear in gun ownership, the changes in our society and technology over the last forty years, what my wife means to me and why, a "thank you" letter to the President, the Constitutional and mathematical realities of impeachment, the curse of immortality, how innocent people wind up in prison and why it is important that we stop doing that, my observations on name-calling, immigration, the unabashed joke that is the "war" on drugs, a plea for help in finding my missing friend, three short stories and more. (The "and more" part is my way of saying my memory is fading and I can't remember all of the subjects I have tackled here. Give me a break. This is my 59^th post.)
     Of course, there are people who will read this who have written many more than 59 posts and will be able to tell you the subject of each and every one. Do not be misled. This is not proof that their memory is better than mine. All it means is that they only write about one thing. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. If you thought that sentence was annoying, try reading their blogs.
     Now, I'm not talking about the people who have a specific heading at the top of their blog. Something like, "Gay rights in America" or "Joe's Blog of Body Piercing Tips." When you see a specific header like that on a blog, you can assume that every post on that blog will likely be on the subject so prominently displayed in the header. I wouldn't go to the "Gay Rights in America" blog and expect to see a wide-ranging variety of posts on subjects like car repair, Springsteen's latest album or how in the Hell David Caruso ever got a job. I would expect to see a series of posts about Gay rights. I have no problem with that. My problem is with the bloggers who don't warn you they intend to spend their entire lives writing on only one topic, from only one perspective.
     If you are going to call your blog, "My Thoughts on Education," you aren't going to be doing yourself or your readers any favors if you post daily and every single post is about how you think the "No Child Left Behind" Act is a crock. Throw in the occasional post about class size or teacher salaries or outdated textbooks or school security or student apathy or how do we educate the thousands of homeless kids so we can break the cycle of poverty or the disruptive influence of gang activity or bullying or how a student is supposed to concentrate when his teacher is sitting at the front of the classroom wearing a skirt that makes her look like Britney Spears getting out of a car. ANYTHING, just so long as you mix it up a little. Don't you ever get bored? I can tell you, your readers do.
     If every post you write is going to be about how the wimp Liberals are all traitors to their country and should learn to love violence more or just get out, maybe you shouldn't call your blog "The Political Spectrum." If everything you write is going to be on the same subject, perhaps blogging isn't for you. Maybe you would be more comfortable as a graffiti artist. There are bloggers who used to see me on their blog every day, until I got tired of repeating myself. Take politics, for example. I have written extensively on the political scene in my own blog, and each political post I have written has been on a different aspect of our political situation. Between my own writings and comments I have offered on the blogs of others, I have said pretty much all I want to say on the subject, at least until something changes. Since nothing is going to change for at least another 15 months, do you really want to hear me repeating myself for that long? That is exactly what I am going to be doing if I keep visiting these one-note blogs. I swear, there are some blogs out there that have me thinking I should just go into Microsoft Word and create a comment, save it and just copy and paste it when necessary so no one will be offended that I haven't commented on their 300^th post (in a row) about how Barney Frank should not be allowed in politics because he's (GASP!) gay.
     I love the songwriting of Neil Young. I even like to listen to his music. That being said, I can only listen to him in short bursts. Why? Because he has an annoying habit that, over the years, has caused me to dub him the "King of the One-Note Guitar Solo." Before you start screaming at me, listen to Cinnamon Girl. He may play it with his customary passion but it is still one frigging note, over and over for thirty seconds. It drives me nuts. MOVE YOUR DAMN FINGER! THERE ARE SIX STRINGS AND TWENTY-TWO FRETS FOR GOD'S SAKE! PLAY ANOTHER NOTE!
     Sorry, I digress. My point is, a blog can start to sound like the Carpal Tunnel guitar stylings of Neil Young after a while. Does the phrase, "stuck in a rut" mean anything to you? I can't believe people don't get as bored writing the same thing over and over as I get reading it. If you want to take a shot at a particular group in order to get a rise out of them, fine. Do it and move on. Otherwise, you'll end up learning the same lesson about insulting people that my father learned about beating kids. It doesn't take long to lose its effect.
    If you still don't get it, try this. Go out on the sidewalk and yell "FIRE!" a thousand times and see how long you can do it before people stop listening. I'll bet you don't get past the first hundred before passersby start treating you like that guy with the "The-End-is-NEAR!" sandwich sign.
    Bruce Springsteen plays Born to Run in almost every concert he plays with the E Street Band. That is because he knows the audience loves it and is eager to hear it. Other than that, every show has a totally different set list. In 1976, the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas opened a state of the art performance venue called the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts. The first four nights, Neil Diamond played to sold-out crowds. I saw all four shows. Every one was different. The reason Bruce and Neil and so many other artists do this is so they won't get bored. If they get bored, it shows and the audience will pick up on their lack of enthusiasm and they will be bored, too.
     I'm no superstar writer but I have tried to take a cue from the professionals like Neil and Bruce and at least try to keep it fresh. When you read my blog, whether you think I'm nuts or you just don't care about the subject I'm writing about, I don't want you to ever feel like you showed up at a concert to hear Neil Young play his Cinnamon Girl solo 75 times in a row.
    Mix it up a little, People. Every once in a while, throw in a post about your dog or your bad luck with mechanical things or your heavy period. ANYTHING! Remember, there are 88 keys on a piano. Ever wonder why?

     This post will sound two ways. First, it will sound like I am saying something, when in reality, I am asking something. Second, it is going to sound like I am picking on a specific group of people. I am not. I am merely accepting an undeniable reality and asking "why?"
     Although the idea of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe has been dismissed by some Atheists and Agnostics, the overwhelming majority of people who refuse to even acknowledge the possibility are Western, Christian Creationists. Here is where it gets weird for me. Of all the people I could think of to have a problem with the idea, the Creationists should be the last on the list. Oddly, they are first. I am going to explain why I believe it is strange that Creationists would be so vociferously set against the idea, as well as what I believe to be the cause of their vehement reluctance to even entertain the possibility.
     Christianity teaches many things about God. There are two basic precepts to the Christian view of God that factor into this discussion. First, Christianity teaches that God is eternal. To the Christians, this not only means that God will live forever and never die but that he has ALWAYS existed, without Beginning. I know most people believe they can comprehend the notion of living forever into the future. I do not believe we can. I believe that we have convinced ourselves that we understand the depth and implications of the concept. More than that, I do not believe that the Human mind can fully comprehend the concept of always being. Can we really understand what it means to have no beginning? It is concepts such as this that make Faith a necessary part of belief in any Diety. Faith is a mechanism through which we can fill in the blanks left by a lack of facts, information or ability to intellectually understand a concept. For the purpose of this discussion, we will assume that this Faith is not misplaced and that God has indeed existed forever.
     If He has, what has he been doing with his time? Christian tradition teaches that God created the Heavens and the Earth in six days. I know Mike Huckabee believes this to be a fact. I know he is not alone. From our perspective, "six days" means six 24 hour periods. That leaves God with an enormous amount of wasted time on His hands. Archaeology and Anthropology have proven, beyond question, that whether we evolved or were Created, Humans have existed on this planet for millions of years. The Earth itself has existed much longer than that. Even if you accept that the writer of Genesis was engaging in some literary liberties and that it took a lot longer than six of our days, say hundreds, thousands or even millions of years for God to create the Universe and everything in it, that still leaves billions of trillions of years of God's time unaccounted for. What was he doing for the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years before that? Not to mention the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years before that? Now do you understand what I mean about having no beginning? I could have put a 1 at the top of the page and filled the rest of the page with zeros and it would still only represent a microcosm of the time Christianity teaches us that God has already existed. What has a being with His awesome creative powers been doing all this time? He sat around for an eternity to finally get off His cosmic Duff and create, what, US? The experiment He tried here, (I say 'experiment' because the Bible teaches that the purpose of the Great Flood was to wipe out the mistake and start over) He never tried anywhere else in the Universe? If not, then what has He been doing with all His time? Trying to figure out why Britney Spears, Ben Stiller and David Caruso have careers?
     The second teaching of Christianity that factors into this discussion is the idea that we were created in God's image. This belief has the effect of making a person feel special. Taken literally, it means we are nothing short of God-like. That is, in the mind of a Christian anyway, a very unique thing to be. It has long been held by Christians that Mankind represents the pinnacle of God's handiwork. That attitude (and this is where you all get pissed at me) has always seemed like an exercise in arrogance to me. To understand why I feel this way, look at where the idea came from. Thousands of years ago, some guy wrote down that God created us, He did it in six days and we were made in His image. None of us know this guy. We heard that he claimed to be inspired by God to write what he wrote. We have no way of knowing if he really did claim that or if he did, if the claim was true. THAT is what Faith is for. We have chosen to believe it because it makes us feel special and it justifies the superiority, real or imagined, that we have seen fit to bestow upon ourselves.
     As near as I have been able to figure out, it is this arrogance that demands of many of us that we reject the notion that, somewhere else in this vast Universe, God may well have created other forms of intelligent life with all the time He has had on His hands. We are just too unique and special for it to be possible for there to exist other races of beings equal to, or superior to us. Thus it is that the one group of people who should be most open to the idea, given their special knowledge of God's lifespan, not to mention His creative abilities, are the most likely to reject it out of hand. They are unique in all of Creation. The Bible tells them so. Pat Robertson tells them so. Therefore, the question is closed. Arrogance demands it.
     Well, I'm not that arrogant. Are we the crowning achievement of God's creative power? I don't know. If we are, may I politely suggest that He needs more practice? By and large, we suck. I would think that an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God, with eternity and beyond to think about it, could do better than us. I am humble enough to allow for the possibility that He has tried. Perhaps somewhere, on some distant planets, live the results of other creative endeavours He has undertaken throughout limitless Time. Perhaps not. As it stands now, we have no way to know for sure. To insist that we are all there is, that nothing else in the Universe but God Himself can compare to how "amazing" we are, is an exercise in self-convincing, as well as unmitigated arrogance.
     So here are my questions? Why do you believe we are the only sentient, intelligent or "advanced" life in the Universe? Why are you so insistent that the existence of such life elsewhere is impossible? Why is it so damn important to you that we are "all there is?" Can you explain to me how your Bible, which goes to such lengths to demand humility from you, permits such unapologetic arrogance?
     It is possible that I am just hopelessly dense. Be that as it may, I fail to see how, if God created us to live here, He could not have created others to live elsewhere. Could someone please explain to me how those two concepts are mutually exclusive?

     NOTE: I am Agnostic. I am neither a believer or a disbeliever. I do not have enough information to make a decision about the existence of God and Faith doesn't cut it for me. I accept the possibility that there is a God, just as I accept the possibility that there might not be. I am not convinced we just evolved, nor am I convinced we were created. I also do not believe those two states to be mutually exclusive. If there is a God, it may be that we were created to evolve. It may also be that other societies, on other planets, were created to do the same or that they have evolved as we have. Accepting that, I am forced to accept the possibility that other cultures may exist elsewhere and that they may be less or more advanced, (and by unimaginable margins) than we are.
     Although comments and thoughts from all are welcome, I wrote this in the hopes that those who believe in God might be willing or able to explain to me why they seem so dead set against the idea of other worlds being inhabited by intelligent life forms of some kind.
     This is not an attack. It is the result of decades of observation and curiosity about what I have observed, mostly in a particular group of people. If I don't ask, I can't understand.

     I have heard commentary from many adults on the subject of the new CBS show, Kid Nation. For those who are unfamiliar with the premise, they take forty kids to a ghost town and basically, the kids call the shots. They divide up the work, handle any social problems that come up, etc. Pretty much anything that comes up in the operation of a community, it is up to the kids to figure it out and deal with it.
    You can read blogs right here on Myspace calling this the death of Western Civilization and accusing the parents of these kids of neglect and exploitation, not for anything that went on during the production of the show, but simply for allowing the kids to participate in the first place. Many of these attack blogs were up before a single episode of the show had aired. This reminds me of the people who object to the "offensive" content of a movie before a single scene has been shot.
    I have checked out the blogs that are making the accusations of exploitation and, unless the bloggers have since deleted them, I have not seen where one of these champions of presumption have written one single post decrying the exploitation of little girls in so-called "beauty pageants" and the like. I guess it is not considered (at least, apparently, by these bloggers) exploitive to have your six-year-old parading around in a bikini, displaying her Cameltoe for the camera but giving her a chance to find out what it was like to have to haul your own water up from the creek - well, that's just over the line.
     I have a theory about why so many self-proclaimed adults are up in arms about this show. Methinks some people are afraid that the kids are going to be showing up us "grown-ups." When you think about it, this would not be the first time that kids have put their parents to shame by displaying a greater maturity or deeper wisdom than the adults to whom they are tragically exposed. Take for example, a subject too complicated for many adults to sort out: Racism. I see kids all the time, playing together happily, forging friendships with other kids of all races and nationalities. Many of these are the children of self-proclaimed adults who are tempted to, or actually do, quit a job because they can't stand working with the Blacks or the Whites or the Mexicans or whatever. Do you think it's possible that some of us are afraid these kids on the show are going to solve their problems with cooperation, tolerance, teamwork and wisdom and actually do a better job of it than a group of forty adults could do? I think, not only is that the fear, but that the fear is well-founded. These kids are probably going to embarrass alot of people by getting right many of the things we tend to consistently get so horribly wrong.
     Which brings me to another point. Maybe these kids will prove to be the exception to what is fast becoming a rule about this upcoming generation. We, the so-called adults, are turning our kids into a bunch of weak sissies. I don't know about you but I grew up in what could well be called the "Evel Kneivel Generation." We rode our bikes with the unpadded handlebars and crossbars across miles of wild desert and mountain ranges with no elbow pads, knee pads or helmets. We jumped our bikes over dry washes and homemade ramps without helmets. We spent hours in the back yard throwing lawn darts at each other. We worked twelve and fourteen hour days in 115 degree heat alongside our fathers in the summer, for zero pay, tending the fields and the animals, mowing the lawn (when I was ten, our lawn was six acres and I mowed it alone with an old-fashioned push mower with no motor, just a cylinder of steel blades that whirred around as I pushed) fixing the car(s), fixing the house. You want to talk about exploitation? It wasn't even a WORD when I was a kid. At least the kids on the show get to CHOOSE to participate.
    We walked to school, even in the pouring rain or a blinding snowstorm. When I was in junior high, I had to walk from my school to my sister's elementary school to get her and walk her home, often making our way more than two miles through a neighborhood that was in the middle of a race riot.
    These days, if your kid wants to go to their friend's house and it's more than a block away, they whine for a ride. They need specially-made controllers for their X-Box 360 so they won't get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. You AND the kid will wind up in court so fast it will make your head spin if they get caught riding a bike, AT 15, MIND YOU, without a helmet. We used to play tackle football IN THE STREET! Without helmets.
     Forty kids got a chance to participate in a show that will basically teach them how frigging EASY they have it now, compared to generations past. They also get a chance to show the grown-ups how a society is supposed to operate. I have a funny feeling they will do just that. I also have a funny feeling that this is why so many adults are crying FOUL! even before the program has aired.
    Kids need to learn that life isn't handed to you by the ACLU or any other organization that claims, usually dishonestly, to be looking out for your best interests. We are not protecting this "softest generation" by protecting them from the reality that life is often harsh and that weak people probably won't make it. My hat is off to the kids who had the guts to participate in this program. They likely will learn some hard lessons. They will likely learn some things about themselves regarding strengths they heretofore were unaware they had. They likely will be teaching a few lessons to the adults in the audience, assuming those adults aren't too busy wringing their hands over the "exploitation" of these ballsy kids.
    I wish more of the upcoming generation had the stones to try something this difficult and I wish more of the adults of our generation had the balls (and the faith in their kids) to give them a chance to try something that would challenge them.

Something that required a little more moxy and backbone than beating the last level of Star Titties: The Legend of Pamela Lee.

     Kevin, heretofore known as Logical Psycho, now to be forever known as The Asshole Who Tagged Me, has tagged me. You know the drill. I have to tell you ten things I want to do before the Dirt Nap, then tag ten other poor saps to do the same and then send them some geeky comment telling them that I have so little respect for their friendship that I tagged them. How charming...

1. Visit Scotland, my paternal Homeland.

2. Be able to use the phrase, "when my first book was published" with a straight face.

3. Hold a grandchild.

4. See Travis Tritt, Martina McBride and Eric Clapton in concert. (Although not necessarily at the same time.)

5. Make enough money that I can afford to move to a town that is too small to have jobs. (Lander, Wyoming would be perfect.)

6. Get my pilot's licence and fly from Maine to San Diego.

7. Get another motorcycle and ride from Fart Louderdale to Vancouver, Washington.

8. Convince the makers of Shockers sour candy to bring back their product, the best sour candy ever made.

9. Convince at least one bigot that a life consumed by hate is wasted.

10. Make sure Anita outlives me, so that I won't have to spend a day without her.

     And now, to my hapless victims...

Edahi (you had to know I would)

Janie

Margaret

Chrissy

Anita

Lady Di

Jason

Doug

Jodie

Lisa (of Rodney and Lisa fame)

Since there is no danger of anyone hating me because I'm beautiful, you may all now hate me for this.

     There's no time for us
     There's no place for us.
     What is this thing that builds our dreams
     yet slips away from us?
     Who wants to live forever?
     Who wants to live forever?

     There's no chance for us.
     It's all decided for us.
     This world has only one brief moment
     set aside for us.
     Who wants to live forever?
     Who wants to live forever
     when love must die?
                        - Brian May

     As a child, like most children, I had my fascinations. History, society, technology and the future were the topics that most occupied my young mind.
     If you look at my profile page, you will see, next to my picture, the following phrase: "...born a hundred years too late, two hundred years too soon." That is how I have felt for much of my life, like a man out of time. I have never felt that I fully belonged in this time in Human history. If you ever read a story or watched a Twilight Zone episode that involved someone who was suddenly displaced in time, that is how it feels to be me. I know. I'm frigging weird. I've learned to live with it.
     I have always imagined what it would be like to go back to various points in history and see, firsthand, what it was like to live through those times. I have also wondered what it would be like if I could go far into the future and see how things turn out for us. This last musing naturally led to thoughts of immortality. What would it be like to live forever? To be able to watch it all unfold, see how (or, perhaps more appropriately, if ) we made it in one piece. Will we survive ourselves? 
    As I have grown older, I have not lost my fascination with history or society. I have found, however, that my fantasy about living forever has waned. Understand, I'm not talking about eternal life in Heaven or Hell, nor am I talking about the eternal life in a Paradise here on Earth, like the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in. I'm talking specifically about the idea of living forever in the world as it is and as it shall become.
     With the passage of years, two things have happened that have put me off the idea of being immortal. First, after much observation and contemplation, it has become clear to me that our world will likely never see an era of marked improvement. This planet won't get any cleaner. It is not one of our goals to reduce pollution. The damage we are doing to our planet will never diminish, mainly because not enough of us are at all concerned about the environment we create for ourselves and our progeny. Some of us don't even believe that pollution is bad. Many believe that the Earth and the resources upon which we depend are impervious to contamination, damage or destruction and even if they aren't, we are. This is nothing short of stupidity but it is a widespread and proudly held stupidity, therefore it is likely to be a part of our world view until the very end. There are people, many of them in undeserved positions of power, who could sit on a melting block of ice and swear that it is growing instead of shrinking. That they could do so vehemently and with a straight face does not bode well for our future.
    From a societal perspective, the future is even more bleak. There will never come a time when the majority of us will be willing to put aside all the differences we create and imagine in order to do what is best for the only race that ultimately matters, the Human race. Humanity is determined to resist the idea that we are all one People and that we need to see ourselves and each other that way in order to ensure our own survival. If survival depends on accepting each other, caring for each other and cooperating with each other, and it does, we would rather welcome our own extinction with open arms than put aside our petty bullshit and save ourselves. Humanity's unparralleled ability to be deliberately obtuse will most definitely be our undoing because, to most of us, this outcome is preferable to exercising the humility necessary to let go of our many excuses for hating anyone who is even slightly different. Over the years, it has become clear to me that I have no desire to see how this ends, any more than I would want to watch a schoolbus full of first-graders hurtling over the side of the Grand Canyon. I know how that will end. There is no reason to watch it.
    The other thing that has quelled my desire for immortality is a little more personal. Over the course of my life, I have been forced to bury nearly every person I have ever loved. At this point, all that remain are Anita, my kids and a handful of half and step-siblings. I am already tired of saying goodbye, even as I know that I have more farewells left to say before my time is done. To have this continue for generations, centuries, millenia, while I lived on and on, is an experience I have decided I can live without. The Human heart, at least on a personal level, seems to have an unlimited capacity, as well as a pressing need, to love. When all of your loved ones have died, it would only be a matter of time before your heart led you to open up and love again, only to lose them, too. I don't know how much of that a person could take before they went mad but I have no desire to be the test subject.
     So, those are my reasons for not being in a hurry to achieve immortality. What about you? Would you be interested in the oppportunity to live forever? Why? Why not?

    Let me know first, then you can call the nice men with the white coats and the neat little van to take me away...

     So, now I find out that the only reason Myspace exists is to brainwash us. Given what I know about brainwashing, you can imagine just how surprised I was to hear this dire warning. Apparently, Rupert Murdoch and a shadowy cabal of "mind rippers" are using Myspace to spy on you and ultimately control your thoughts. Every keystroke of every person on Myspace is carefully catalogued and analyzed. They're making a list, checking it twice...gonna find out who's naughty or nice. I guess that means that Tom is actually Santa Claus. Quick, tell the kids!

Dear Tommyclaus,
      For Christmas, I would like a system in place by which I could post something to my blog without having a 50/50 chance that the whole thing will vanish quicker than a campaign promise the instant I press the "post" button. I would also like a clear definition of the nonsensical phrase, "Unexpected Error."
    Oh yeah, and a Cindy Crawford action-figure, with Kung Fu Grip.
    I've been a good boy (except for those seven or eight anti-neocon posts I wrote).
                Thank you,
              Alan Wallace

     Seriously, do you believe there is a conspiracy afoot here on Myspace to brainwash you? Let's take a look at some of the key ingredients necessary for a campaign of mind control to have any hope of success.

     First, every good brainwashing effort has had one thing in common: A simple, singleminded message.
    Now, let's look at Myspace. Do you see a single message here? I can spend one hour on Myspace and be exposed to the following: Bush is an idiot, Bush is a genius, Bush is God's messenger, Bush is the Anti-Christ, Conservatives are evil, Liberals are evil, Homosexuals are evil, Blacks are evil, Whites are evil, Myspace is the last bastion of truth for the masses, Myspace is the latest bastion of lies for the masses, the lead singer for Fall Out Boy is a hottie, the lead singer for Fall Out Boy needs to be teamed up on by the makers of Nutri-System and Stridex, Sleeza the Blog Ho's boyfriend is an abusive prick. Actually, that last contention is the only one I've ever seen on Myspace that went unchallenged, a prerequisite for brainwashing. As such, it is possible that Sleeza the Blog Ho's boyfriend has cause for alarm that we all might be swayed to hate him but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that all the other people mentioned are fairly safe.
    As someone who was raised in a Jehovah's Witness household, I learned a thing or two very early in life about brainwashing. For the unfamiliar, Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult that has been preaching that Armageddon will be happening "any day now" since 1876. To be fair, they once had the end of the world taking place in 1914. Of course, when 1915 rolled around, they were forced to quietly retool their projections of impending doom. In so doing, they discovered the wisdom of avoiding exact dates and have since resorted to the "any day now" approach, which has served them well in the intervening century. They also preach that anything that doesn't directly "serve Jehovah" is "pagan" and "worldy" and is the work of Satan and no Witness should participate nor even acknowledge such things. I wasn't allowed to watch Caspar- the Friendly Ghost or Scooby-Doo because these dealt with "spiritism" and were tools that the devil used to turn my soul from Jehovah. The same for any translation of the Bible except for the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, a translation of the Bible written by the Jehovah's Witnesses and the only version approved for Witnesses to study. Basically, if you didn't hear it in the Kingdom Hall or read it in their version of the Bible or The Watchtower magazine, it wasn't the truth and you were engaging in "conduct unbecoming a Christian" if you listened to it or asked too many questions.
    THIS is the definition of brainwashing! I lived with this madness for more than nine years. So, when I describe what is necessary for brainwashing, you can understand how I might know.
    Besides a simple, single-minded message, brainwashing also requires constant repetition of that message. This has never occurred on Myspace. If you look around for just a few minutes, you will be exposed to countless differing messages that, if they accomplish anything at all, it is to cancel each other out. This is anathema to any evil Cabal intent on controlling your mind.
   The third ingredient for successful brainwashing is the most important of all. Without it, the first two ingredients of the plot, even if consistently applied in concert, can never achieve the stated goal. The third thing necessary for brainwashing to work is...YOUR COOPERATION. 
   That's right. Just as you cannot be hypnotized without cooperating with the hypnotist, you cannot be brainwashed unless you want to be and you work at it. In both cases, consistent focus is required on the part of the "victim" in order to pull it off. In a society where it is alleged by the psychiatric community that all but four of us suffer from ADD or ADHD, one is forced to wonder if it is even possible to brainwash anyone any more. Rumor (and the pharmaceutical industry) have it that none of us can concentrate our mental energies long enough to allow brainwashing to take place. Either way, it still requires your cooperation and complicity in your own victimization. In an environment such as Myspace, it is impossible to force this brand of single-minded focus without rampant interference from contrary stimuli.
    If it is your GOAL to be brainwashed, not just by the evil Myspacian Cabal of Murdochites, but in any other environment, here is a simple way to make it happen for you.
    First, decide which way you want the brainwashing to take you. This is important. This isn't college. You're trying to be brainwashed here. You can't be changing your "major" every five minutes or the brainwashing won't work.
    Second, remove the filter from your brain. YOU have to do this yourself. The Murdochites can't remove it in your sleep. You have to do it. Removing the filter will prevent you from being able to engage in any critical thinking. I can't stress enough how important this is to the overall success of the brainwashing plot. If you are one of those people who reads or hears something and says, "...well, I don't know but that just doesn't sound right to me. I'm going to do some more research," then you are not a good candidate for brainwashing because your filter is still in place. If you read something and are immediately overcome with an urge to write your own blog to denounce as idiocy the message you just received and can, in so doing, clearly outline your reasons for being in disagreement with the original message, you are a critical thinker who's filter is firmly in place and the Coven of Brainwashers is going to have a serious problem with you unless you wake up, remove the filter, then sit in the corner of a room that is lit only by your computer screen and say "Om" about ten thousand times.
    I'm not sure that all the doomcrying about the plot to control our minds is really worthy of the hand-wringing it seems to be generating in some circles. I have managed to avoid every plot to brainwash me, even the real ones, by the simple expedient of doing my own thinking. Except for the people who have managed to convince themselves that planes didn't actually hit the Twin Towers and the eleven people who truly believe that God chose George W. Bush as his spokesperson, I think most of you are probably safe as long as you continue to do your own thinking.
    Just as watching My Mother, the Car or reading The Shining won't turn me into a henchman of the Dark Master,   I doubt that hanging out on Myspace, chatting with your friends and reading blogs and funny bulletins is going to turn you into a cabalistic, goose-stepping Troll, doomed to haunt the deepest, darkest nether regions of the Land of Murdoch.
    If you spend alot of time here, to the point that you are shunning your friends, family or responsibilities IRL, you may be obsessed. Obsession however, although unhealthy, is not even close to brainwashing. It is also more easily corrected. Simply get up and go do something else. Watch Big Brother or catch up on some back issues of the National Enquirer.
     Just remember, if you are going to hang out here on Myspace, don't take the brown acid...

     ...and stay clear of the Kool-Aid while you're at it. You know, just to be on the safe side.
   

     Life is funny. It can race by you like a NASCAR driver on Meth or it can cruise sedately by like a deep river passing over level ground. Either way, if you're paying attention, you stand to learn alot. I've picked up quite a bit in 46 years. Some of it has even proven to be useful. Today, I thought I would share with you some of the things I have learned...along the Way.

     If your dog or your horse doesn't like someone, you probably shouldn't either.

     Ignorance is nothing more than a lack of information. Stupidity, on the other hand, is having that information and refusing to use it or refusing to accept the information in the first place. For this reason, ignorance is curable, stupidity is not.

     Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the heart.

     The only way to change a bigot is to remove the full diaper and replace it with a clean one. Anything else is a waste of time.

     We've all heard "those who can, do...those who can't, teach." This is not true. The truth is, "those who can, do...those who can't, mock."

    If cats were as smart as people say they are, they wouldn't need nine lives.

    You will never get too old to need your parents.

    When the police tell you that, if you're innocent, you don't need a lawyer, call a lawyer. I guarantee every man who has been exonerated by DNA heard those exact words from a police officer. That should be proof enough.

    If you're unhappy with the government, don't blame the government. Much like your children, your leaders will do as much as you let them get away with.

    If the saying, "guns don't kill people. People kill people" is true, then the same holds true for television, movies, music and video games. You can't have it both ways.

    If you don't have the knowledge or the tools to fix something, call a professional. Machismo can be very expensive.

    You can't blame the omelet for the eggs being spoiled.

    Ladies, if you are starting a new relationship, let him drive on your first few dates. Why? Because men make love the same way they drive. If he's one of those guys who floors it when the light turns green, races to the next light, then slams on the brakes, this is good information to have.

    Faith can do as much harm as it does good.

    Forty-five is not "middle-aged," unless you live to be ninety.

    If discrimination is wrong when it works against you, it is still wrong when it works for you.

   If it were true that we get smarter as we get older, scammers wouldn't be able to consistently and successfully target the elderly.

   If it seems like nobody likes you, the problem is probably you.

   The fact that people believe in "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is the biggest reason the owners of Discount Auto Parts and The Home Depot are so rich.

   Just as it is possible to be right yet remain uncertain, it is just as easy to be certain and still be dead wrong.

   Most homeless people are just people who weren't rich when the bad thing happened in their lives. The Dupont, Hilton, Bush and Kennedy families are full of lazy people, addicts and the mentally ill, yet none of them have ever been homeless. Think about it.

   I know your mother probably told you if you want people to like you, just be yourself. Unfortunately, this won't work very well if you're an asshole.

  So, now it's your turn. Tell me what you have learned...along the Way.

     In 1977, my family was living in Windsor, Virginia, a very small town in the southeastern part of the state. The town was so small, there were not separate buses for the elementary and high schools. This left everyone between the ages of five and eighteen riding the same bus into town. At the time, I was fifteen and in high school while my little sister was only ten. The elementary and high school students were separated on the bus by having the older kids sit toward the back of the bus, while the younger were toward the front.
    One morning on our way into town, a tenth-grader who was sitting in the seat closest to the front of the older kids section started picking on my sister, a fifth-grader, mind you, who was sitting in the seat just in front of him at the back of the little kids section. I got up and went forward, intent on making him leave her alone. The bus driver made me sit back down and then told the jackass to leave my sister alone. Of course, he didn't. He just proceeded to pester her more surreptitiously than before. High school started before elementary school so we always got dropped off first. By the time we got to the high school, my sister was getting pretty upset. I made sure I got off the bus before the jackass and I was waitng for him when he got off the bus. I then proceeded to beat the living piss out of the asshole. Probably not the best solution I ever came up with for a problem but it did solve the problem, nonetheless. He never again so much as said one word to my little sister. He avoided me as much as possible after that, as well.
     I told that story to illustrate a point. My relationship with my sister was like most brother/sister relationships. We were family and we loved each other but we also often fought like cats and dogs. We said horrible things to each other, got each other in trouble with Mom and Dad and so on. You know, typical sibling stuff. Still, we were family and if you messed with one of us, you could expect another one of us to pop up and give you Hell. That is what a family is supposed to be. In spite of the infighting, when the chips are down, you're there for each other. One of the beautiful things about being part of a family is that you know someone always has your back.
     In this country, we have every kind of person you can imagine. Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, Europeans, Jews, Arabs, Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Conservatives, Liberals, Moderates, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Regardless of where we hail from or what views or beliefs to which we may individually hold, we do have one thing in common. We are all Americans. To me, this makes us a family. We may fight amongst ourselves and argue. Some of us even like to call each other names. Be that as it may, when you are stupid enough to come from the outside and attack one member of our psychotic little family, suddenly every American is right up in your face.
     In the aftermath of 9-11, I watched this family dynamic play out all across the country. You didn't have to live in New York or Washington to see it or to be a part of it. In the weeks and months that followed that terrible day, we were all just Americans again. It was quieter in the workplace. All the infighting and sniping fell by the wayside. Traffic was less noisy and nasty. Very few horns were honking in frustration and anger. People were more likely to let others merge or finish making their turn without trying to cut them off, ram them or run them over. When we found ourselves waiting in line somewhere, it wasn't that big a deal. No one was bitching about waiting or trying to jump the line. Neighbors who usually never passed so much as a 'hello' between them were now stopping to greet each other and offering to help each other. Political partisanship took a nosedive in favor of a more cooperative spirit, not just in the halls of government but in the streets, as well. We were less petty and impatient with each other. We had bigger problems than whether or not we agreed about estate taxes or prayer in public schools. If there is one thing that horrible day seemed to teach us, it was that we were all Americans and that as such, we are pretty much one big extended family, all living in the same big house.
     For a lesson that was learned at such a high price, we sure wasted little time forgetting it. It only took a couple of months for us to revert to our old, non-productive ways. We couldn't even hold out long enough for the rubble to be cleared from Ground Zero before we were back at each other. Conservatives and Liberals got back to calling each other names, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Birth factions started up again with their eternal fight that neither side will ever really win, everyone went back to cutting each other off in traffic and stabbing each other in the back at work. Business as usual in the self-proclaimed "greatest" nation on Earth.
     What is wrong with us? Was the price we paid to learn this lesson not high enough? We can come together here, on my blog of all places, talk about all sorts of things and, while we may disagree, we manage to treat each other with respect, talk to each other, listen to each other. Why can't we do it in all the other parts of our lives? Can we really call ourselves the Greatest country on Earth if we are completely unable to set the Greatest examples of cooperation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence? More than three thousand of us, three thousand AMERICANS were slaughtered, right here in our own streets, offices and fields by scumbags who pervert their own religion to rationalize their acts of pure evil and the best we can do is avoid spitting on each other for a month or two. Would we have hung together longer if more had been killed? Would five thousand dead have bought us three months? What about ten thousand? Sadly, I believe it would and for that, we should be ashamed.
     We are in a pretty sorry state when it takes someone as twisted and evil as Osama bin-Laden to come in and murder three thousand of us to show us what we are and what we aren't.
    We ARE all Americans. We AREN'T capable of remembering that for more than a couple of months, no matter how many of us have to die horribly to drive the point home. 
    If we really want the rest of the world to follow our lead, we need to be setting an example worthy of respect and admiration. Do you really believe other countries look at us and think, Gee, they work together so well, if we throw in with them, they'll probably treat us with the same kind of respect and caring that they show each other? Actually, that probably is what they are thinking. No wonder they don't want to have anything to do with us.
     The reason that the phrase "those who forget history are condemned to repeat it" is true is because when you forget history, you also forget the lessons that you learned from it.
    The events of 9-11 are part of our history. If we forget the lessons we learned from it, then we are no better off (and no better individually) than we were before that horrible day. 
    More than eight thousand Americans have lost their lives as a result of 9-11. Some died that day. Others have died as a result of the selfless acts they performed that day and in the days that followed. Even more than all of those put together, thousands have died, not only in the brief attempt to find bin-Laden but as a result of the opportunistic nature of the Cheney Administration that has so stupidly and dishonestly mired us in Iraq, while bin-Laden still runs free, laughing.
    I think we owe it to those who have sacrificed so much, including their very lives, to do our best not to forget one of the most expensive lessons we have ever been taught. No matter what your race, your religion, your gender, your sexual orientation, your political persuasion or any other way you may chose to define yourself, above and beyond all of that...

     ...We are a family and our name is AMERICA.

     We'll get to the open forum Q and A later. First, I want to clear something up that appears to be a point of confusion for some of you. Those who have been reading my blog for a while probably already know most of this. Those who are new to the conversation taking place in my little corner of Myspace might be wondering. This is for you.
     So, is the Overfed, Long-haired, Leaping Gnome a Flaming Liberal or a Stick-up-his-ass Conservative? The answer is, both and neither. I don't believe in blanket descriptions. Unless one is dancing on the extreme fringe, one is likely a little of both. Those on the Far Left really don't consider me a Liberal. Those on the Far Right don't consider me a Conservative. If you're confused, don't panic. I can explain why. 
     Socially, I tend to be Liberal. I need to qualify that with my definition of the word "liberal." Put simply, to me, a Liberal is a person who knows that most social issues are none of his business until they actually affect him. When I call myself a social Liberal, what I mean is, it is none of my business what you read, the kind of music you listen to, the kind of movies or T.V. you like to watch, the kind of sex you like to have, or with whom, as long as they are of age and willing, who you love, who you marry, how or even if  you choose to worship God, private medical decisions, such as if you want to have an abortion or you want to end your life peacefully on your own terms rather than suffer every torturous second of a terminal illness, and so on. I don't want anyone making these decisions for me and I do not presume the right to make these decisions for others.
     Do I believe that abortion is a good thing? No. Too many people use it as a form of birth control, as a convenience. To me, this is wrong. I don't believe it is wrong to get an abortion if there is a clear and present danger of death, or in cases of child rape and impregnation. Those are decisions that should be made by the pregnant person and their doctor and family. I have no place in this process unless it is happening in my family. Even then, the final decision is between the pregnant person and their God. I would like the right to make medical decisions for myself and I can't very well demand that right if I am unwilling to respect that others have the same right. That doesn't mean that I condone the action, merely that I know when to mind my own business.
     Do I believe that Homosexuals should be allowed to marry? Why not. As Americans, they not only have the inalienable right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they also have the right to restrict that liberty and pursue misery. Are you a heterosexual? Would you like the government to give me the power to choose for you who you can or cannot marry? I hope you do because, if the government grants me the right to make that choice for Homosexuals, how do you know that you won't be next? It is none of my business who you marry if your "straight" so why should it become my business just because you're Gay?
     Do I believe in the Death Penalty? Yes. Surprised? That's what you get for jumping to conclusions and judging people. I do not believe that all life is sacred. That is one of the luxuries of being Agnostic. There are some people who, by the heinous, evil nature of their crimes, have forfeited any sacred aspect their lives may once have held. In other words, there are some people we just don't need. Does this mean I want to see condemned people executed? No. I know, you're confused now. Hang on. I have two problems with the Death Penalty.
     PROBLEM ONE: I don't care what anyone tells you, it is not a deterrent. Don't believe me, look at Texas. They have the most "quick-draw" style Death Row in the country. They also have one of the highest murder rates in the country. No matter how eager they are to execute people, they can't seem to put a dent in the number of Texans who want to kill each other. Beyond the Texas example, let me share with you something I learned "straight from the Horse's mouth," as it were, while I was serving time in the Florida State Prison, back in the 80's. I lived side by side with many murderers and I asked them if the fact that Florida is a Death Penalty state entered into their thoughts when they were planning to kill someone. None of them said 'yes.' Before you get all excited, none of them said the reason they weren't worried was because it takes so long between sentencing and the Chair. For every one of them, their only concern about the Death Penalty began after they got caught. If they wanted to kill, they killed. The Death Penalty became an  issue pre-trial, when they accepted plea bargains to avoid it. The word 'deterrent' implies that it should deter the crime itself, not the trial. This is not the case and therefore, the Death Penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime, as our legislators would have you believe.
     PROBLEM TWO: The Law Enforcement community, including Police and Prosecutors, are not adept enough (or in many cases, honest enough) to make sure that they are convicting the guilty. DNA has exonerated more than 200 men since its inception as a tool of criminal forensics. More than 130 of those men were exonerated from Death Row. That means that we were preparing to kill more than 130 innocent men and then pat ourselves on the back for it. Until Law Enforcement and the "Justice" system can do their jobs correctly and/or honorably, executions are a joy we cannot allow ourselves. An execution is something that can almost never be taken back. Once dead, it's too late for "Oops! My bad." See what I mean about confusing? To many, being pro-Death Penalty makes me a Conservative. Most Conservatives, however, would point to my concern for executing the innocent as proof positive that I must be a Flaming Liberal. You decide. At least now, you have some information upon which to base your conclusion.
    Where do I stand on the war? This will have the same result as my stance on the Death Penalty. Although I dislike war and I would be one of the happiest people on Earth if I live to see the day when we stop killing each other over what amounts to nothing more than differences in political or religious opinion, I am fully cognizant of the reality that sometimes, you have to stand up and fight. For instance, we had no choice but to go after Osama bin-Laden and his dogs with guns blazing. We were attacked, for God's sake. Not only were we attacked, but the attack was launched against innocent, unarmed non-combatants. This was not a military action. It was the cowardly slaughter of civilians, with no intent to engage our military forces. Civilians die in times of war but they should never be the primary targets. I was all for hunting down al-Qeada and wiping them off the face of the Earth. They earned it. We had no choice. On the other hand, we DID have a choice about going into Iraq. I know it seemed like we had no choice because our "leadership" lied to us about the reasons for invading Iraq, just as they lied to Congress and the United Nations. The truth, as it turns out, is that those of us who were shaking our heads in disbelief and saying "What about bin-Laden?" were right all along. Iraq was not the place where we needed to bog down 90% of our military for four years and counting. Everyone says that if we pull out of Iraq now, the situation will erupt in mutual sectarian genocide and long-running civil war. They are right, although they choose to ignore the fact that this disintegration will take place no matter when we leave. Tomorrow, next year or forty years from now, as soon as we pull out, the result will be the same. Have you ever looked at one of the tires on your car and noticed that it had a nail or a screw stuck in it but it was still inflated? You have no idea how long that nail or screw has been there. What happens when you pull it out? Instant deflation, right? Well, consider this reality: Iraq is the tire and WE are the screw. No matter when we pull ourselves out of that tire, the result will be the same. The question isn't "do we want Iraq to destabilize?" The question is only "WHEN do we want Iraq to destabilize even further than we have destabilized it?" Truth be told, we had more important things to do than invade Iraq. We never should have gone into that country in the first place, at least not then. Now that we are there, there will likely be only one result, regardless of when we leave. Was Saddam Hussein a tyrant who abused his own people and should have been removed? Sure. But that is not why we invaded Iraq. We invaded Iraq because they were in cahoots with Osama and were stockpiling WMD to launch another attack on us, the way they did on 9-11. It was only after that information, repeatedly drilled into the American public, Congress and the U.N., turned out to be either the worst job of intelligence gathering since Brutus told Ceasar "Don't worry, I've got your back," or a pack of deliberate lies, that the "Saddam is a tyrant" ballyhoo started in earnest. I approve of going to war as a means of defending ourselves, which, I guess to some, makes me a Conservative. I would rather we not be led into war with a pack of lies or the shittiest job in history of gathering intelligence. I guess to some, that makes me a Liberal.
     I'm all for smaller government, which is perfect Conservative philosophy, on the face of it. Where I differ from Conservatives is in how to achieve it. Let's take a look at Universal Health Care, as an example. While I am all for reducing wasteful spending on the part of our leadership, I don't think it is wasteful to provide basic health care to our citizens who do not have the luxury of health insurance. I have two reasons for being in favor of a national health plan.
REASON ONE: I do not believe it is wrong to provide basic health coverage to defenseless children. I would think, and apparently I am wrong about this, that RELIGIOUS Conservatives, at least, would agree with me on that one. If you read the Bible, Jesus said many things that it would seem put him four-square in the corner of helping uninsured children get to a doctor if they need one. Now, if you don't believe his magnanimity extended to uninsured adults, that brings me to reason Two.
     REASON TWO: There is a practical reason to cover uninsured adults. Sick or dying adults can't work, at least not as efficiently as before. This makes them a drain on the tax base, instead of regular contributors to it. Providing coverage, on a sliding scale, to working adults whose employers do not provide it, allows them to get healthy, or, in the case of preventive medicine, stay healthy so they can continue to earn money to support their families, contribute to the tax base, contribute to the GNP and GDP, and on and on. This keeps production up and unemployment down, which is good for the economy and thus, the country as a whole. Now, if you want to provide this coverage by helping employers to provide privately administered coverage to their employees or by providing it directly to each working citizen and their dependents on a sliding scale, comensurate with their earnings, fine. My point is, that it makes good fiscal sense to create some kind of system under which every American citizen can be kept healthy and productive. I'm not talking about a handout here. Everyone would be paying into the system at a fair rate, just as they do with Social Security and Income Taxes. They could take your contribution right out of your check along with everything else they already take. Healthy workers keep the country on a paying basis. Sick or dying workers don't. Decide what you want. We could save enough money to insure every uninsured person in America if we cut 20% of the governmental waste of our tax dollars. I'm all for smaller government. Just make it smaller in areas where we have no need. There are tons of governmental jobs, perks and opportunities to mismanage money that do not need to exist. Eliminate those and use the billions upon billions that would be saved annually to do something that is actually good and productive for a change. I think it's worth a try.
     Well, you've always wondered. Now you know. Or do you? You know where I stand politically and socially. I could have told you my stance on every single issue facing us but frankly, I don't have the room. I tried to cover the "biggies" because I thought that would be the best way to help you decide who is writing this blog without actually writing a book on the subject. I'm only 46, (shut UP!) and, five heart attacks or not, I'm not ready to write my memoirs just yet. Hopefully, I've answered some of the questions that have been asked, as well as some that have doubtless been thought but never asked.
    I thought it would be fun to open things up a little bit. Here's my proposition to you:

   In the comments section below, you may feel free to ask me any question you would like. I can't promise you the answer you might want to get, but I can promise that my answers will be honest. If there has ever been anything you have wanted to know about me but never dared to ask, now is the time. If you are new to my blog and suddenly wondering what kind of lunatic you've gotten hooked up with here, this is your opportunity to find out before we spend too much time together and you are irretrievably damaged. Either way, the floor is now open to questions. These questions need not be limited to political or social issues. Any question, no matter how personal, will be answered, so long as I can do so while still respecting the rights of my family members to keep private matters private.

    Let the bloodletting commence!

     What do violent crime and politics have in common? The media. Every day in this country, millions upon millions of good, decent people get through their whole day without killing anyone because that was their intention. Every day, a few dozen or, at the most, a few hundred kill someone. So, when you turn on the news, what do you see? A half hour of stories of people behaving peacefully, thoughtfully, constructively? Nope. Why not. Peaceful behavior doesn't have the attention-grabbing quality of violence and danger. It isn't "sexy." Now, if the media was telling us the truth when they say we are suffering an epidemic of crime and violence, peaceful behavior would grab and hold our attention, simply because it would be unusual. The fact is, it is not in the least bit unusual for people to be non-violent. The overwhelming majority of us do just that, every day. Only a handful hurt others but they are the ones getting all the press. What does all this have to do with politics. I'm glad you asked...
     When you hear about politics in the news, what do you hear? Watch carefully and it will become apparent that most of the political activity covered by the media involves two things: scandals or extremism. There are one billion practitioners of Islam in the world. Islam is a peaceful religion. Read the Koran before you declare that statement to be a lie. Stop listening to bin-Laden and others of his ilk that are being forced down your throats 24/7 by the media (at the behest of our government) and then deciding that you understand their religion. The extremists, who are the only people you are allowed to see and hear from on the subject, are just that, extremists. There is a reason that we only hear from them. The majority of Islam is peaceful and moderate. Unfortunately, that isn't going to make you support the destruction of their countries and the wholesale slaughter of their people, so no one in power want you to know about them. They insist that you focus your attention only on the psychos.
     Our government and media are also hoping you will do the same with American extremists. Who gets all the press? The extreme, Lunatic Fringe of both the Right and the Left. The powers that be would like you to believe that there are only two kinds of people in America. Rabid, gun-toting, war-mongering, Xenophobic, Homophobic Bible-slinging freaks who are so far gone they actually believe that George W. Bush is the voice of God on Earth, and on the other side, wimp Liberals who believe that every problem in the world can be solved with a flower and a smile, who have never seen an unborn baby that they didn't want to gleefully kill and can't wait until first graders are being given condoms every morning on their way into school so they will be prepared for the Homeroom porno movie and orgy.
    Are there lunatics like those described above on each extreme end of their respective parties? I'm sure there are. Probably about a dozen of each. The vast majority of Conservatives and Liberals are fairly moderate and fall somewhere in the middle between those two extremes. This overwhelming majority of Americans are constantly trying to work togehter to solve problems and create a better society for us all. You probably don't believe that. Blame the media. Blame the political Machine.
    The media focuses on the political extremists in this country for the same reason that they like to focus on the extremists of Islam. It's riveting. It's exciting. It creates a visceral, emotional response in the viewer that cannot be created by producing stories about calm, rational, caring, serious people working shoulder to shoulder, across political and yes, even religious lines to make their communities, their nations and their world a better place. This sort of thing happens all the time, in this country especially, but you won't hear about in on the news or read it in the paper. It doesn't sell. So where does that leave us?
     Being that people in this country tend to get most of their information about others from the media, it leaves us divided. If you believe the Liberal media, all Conservatives are determined to create the Great American Theocracy. If you believe the Conservative media outlets, all Liberals are stripping down to their g-strings in preparation for the Great American Sexocracy. This is crap and if you allow the government and the media to manipulate you like this, you deserve what you get.
    Politicians, on both sides, feed these misconceptions because of misconceptions about the American voter. They believe that the only way to convince a voter to vote for their side is to demonize the other side.

"Every Liberal wants to take away your guns!"

"Every Conservative wants to have the right to shoot Homosexuals on sight!"

"Every Liberal wants every 5-year-old girl to get pregnant so they can kill the babies!"

"Every Conservative wants to outlaw dancing and dating and any activity that doesn't include constant prayer!"

"VOTE FOR US BECAUSE THEY'RE INSANE!"

"VOTE FOR US BECAUSE THEY'RE EVIL!"

     This is all complete bullshit but it is the way that politics and the media like to work. Please try to understand what they are doing to you.

    It's called 'divide and conquer.'

   Any group, including a nation of people, is more easily defeated and ultimately controlled if they are divided against each other. While you are all busy fighting with your brothers, your fathers, your neighbors, you will be too busy to notice when me and my boys move in and clean out your houses of everything of value.
    If there is anything our government fears, it is that we will one day wake up, cast off the old, counterproductive "party" system and come together with one goal. They need us at war with each other in order to maintain a firm grip on their power over us. The media is complicit in this because of their clear desire to give airtime only to the most insane, goofy, divisive bastards from both sides. Why are shows like Survivor and Big Brother such big hits? Because freaks sell. P.T. Barnum knew it. The ancient Romans knew it. Our modern media knows it, too. Normal people don't get your attention. How many people do you walk by every day without paying them any attention at all, simply because they aren't doing anything out of the ordinary? Quite a few, I'm sure. How many people do you notice and remember because they are doing something freaky or stupid? That's what I thought. That's what the media knows. That's what our government knows. They have never hesitated to use the media as a willing pawn to distract you from the fact that most of us are basically the same, that the people who hold the extreme views, the views that make you want to hate them and avoid cooperating with them, are an extreme minority.
     The next time you see some screaming, spitting Wingnut on the evening news, spouting his outlandish, divisive babble, remember who wants you to see him, hear him and remember only him when you step into the voting booth. Remember the politics of divisiveness and deliberately promulgated distrust that is being used by those in power, on both sides, to keep the power in their hands. Then I want you to ask yourself a few questions.

     Why do we believe we need parties, anyway? Aren't parties just watering holes for extremists? Aren't they just being foisted upon us as a means of dividing and thus weakening us? If all of the moderates, from all parties joined together against the extreme Wingnuts, from all parties, wouldn't the Wingnuts be left out in the cold, leaving the power in the hands of the more sensible and balanced majority of moderates?

     If the paradigm shift of that last question were to come to pass, to which group would you want to belong?
    When are you going to get tired of letting the politicians and the media pull your strings and make you dance their dance? Can't you see the current divisive system only serves those who already have the power? Can you remember a time when your vote actually counted because you weren't being misled into wasting it in a misguided effort to stifle the ambitions of a few extremists from the other side, extremeists whose ony real power is in being used as a cattle prod to control you and hijack your vote?
     Let the extreme Right Wing Hootenanny and the extreme Left Wing Jamboree tie each other up with the spitting and the hollering. While those fools are distracting each other with their psychotic bullshit, the normal people with balanced minds and open hearts will take back control of this once great nation and guide it back to where all four whells are on the highway, instead of joggling along with either our right or our left wheels in the ditch, the way the Wingnuts like it.
     Madmen have been running this country for too long. It is time for balanced minds to take the wheel.

OUTLINE for the REPUBLICAN CONVENTION

8:00 a.m. Prayer (led by Ted Haggard)

8:30 a.m. Book Burning - Harry Potter to be featured

9:00 a.m. Roundtable discussion on upcoming anti Gay legislation - with Mark Foley, Larry Craig and Ted Haggard

10:00 a.m. Book Burning - J.D. Salinger to be featured

10:30 a.m. Family Values speech by Newt Gingrich

11:30 - 1:00 p.m. Prayer Luncheon

1:00 p.m. Male Senate Page Bikini Contest - hosted by Mark Foley

3:00 p.m. How to Outlaw Abortion (Audience discussion)

4:00 p.m. How to Block Legislation that Would Provide Medical Care to Uninsured Children

5:00 p.m. Prayer Dinner

6:30 p.m. Avoiding the Appearance of Hypocrisy - Moderated by all the closet Homosexuals who voted against the aforementioned Insurance Bill.

7:30 p.m. Video Burning - Teletubbies to be featured

8:00p.m. "Is Wanting a Weaker Nation's Oil Really Covetousness?" - by D. Cheney and the Board of Haliburton

9:00 p.m. "10 Reasons Why Slurpees Shouldn't be Allowed on Airplanes." by The Republican Committee to Expand Tolerance

10:00 p.m. Prayer Happy Hour

11:00 p.m. Video Burning - Midnight Cowboy and Alladin to be featured

12:00 a.m. Delegates Invade Senate Page Dormitory to Practice "Conversion by the Sword."

5:00 a.m. Prayer

     The problems between men and women can all be traced back to one thing. We just don't understand each other. I know that women have created an industry around the observation that men just don't understand them. Ladies, you have never been more right. We don't. On the other hand, you really don't "get" us, either. I am hoping that we can clear some of this up in the conversation that is certain to ensue from this, possibly my most provocative post to date.
     For those who still don't get it, let me explain why I do what I do. I write provocatively about provocative topics, not to piss people off, (although that can be fun, I'll admit) but to arouse people to the point that they can't resist the urge to speak up and tell others how they feel. The end result of this is that we end up communicating with each other, something that I have found most of us reluctant to do these days. I don't think it helps any of us to shut each other out, so I try to get us talking. It is my belief that this is the shortest, least painful path to mutual understanding. In short, yes, you are being manipulated but in a good way, so relax.
    Now, about the confusion the genders have for each other. It is real, it is understandable and it is usually not spoken of, except in the most superficial, mutually-accusatory manner. Today, I would like to try something different. I would like it if we could all be honest with ourselves, each other and the subject matter. Leave the anger and accusations at the door and just talk to each other. I will begin by sharing my beliefs and observations with you, then I will open the floor to discussion and, if I have miscalculated my audience, my own crucifixion, as well. Here we go...

WHAT WOMEN DON'T GET (a brief biology lesson)

     The following is a breakdown of the male of our species. I trust this will be different than what you were taught in biology class. This is because you were misled in biology class. The male human, at various points in his development, can be classed into three, not two, subgroups.

                                   MALES

SUBGROUP 1:  Boys. At the "boy" stage, the male is physically, mentally, emotionally and socially immature and underdeveloped.

SUBGROUP 2: Guys. Upon entering the "guy" stage, the male, although physically mature, is still quite immature and underdeveloped mentally, emotionally and socially.

SUBGROUP 3: Men. The male, once reaching the "men" stage, is fully developed, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and socially, as well. Although it is a point of vociferous contention in some circles, there have been males who have achieved this level of development. Some exist, even today. Unfortunately, due to the apparent infrequency of opportunities for observation of and interaction with these fully developed specimens, the existence of these creatures is still hotly debated, especially in feminine circles.

     There you have it, ladies. That is why you don't get men. No one ever told you about Subgroup 2. Although guys may visually resemble men, there are very important differences between the two. The problem you face, as I see it, is if they look alike, how do you tell the difference? Allow me to offer you some clues that may help when you are trying to determine if you are dealing with a man or just a guy, in man's clothing.
    Beats on you, cheats on you, has a "barefoot-and-pregnant" attitude about your place in his life or in society, insists on making decisions for you including your choice in friends, interests, hobbies or activities, insists that you do nothing that does not include him, tries to control your every move, insists that you report to him constantly about where you are, what you are doing and who you are with, has ever used the phrase "women's work" while not joking around, worries more about your appearance while you are in public with him than he does about his appearance while he is in public with you, gets pissed off and pouty when you are "too tired," gets jealous and aggressive toward you or the person you are talking to if that person happens to be another male, tries to talk you into getting breast augmentation surgery. These are some of the bahaviors that, if observed in your male, are clear indications that you are dealing with a guy instead of a man. Men don't do these things. I know they look alike but guys and men are totally different. I hope this has helped to clear up some of the confusion.
     Females can be confusing for males, too. The reasons are largely the same.

                                FEMALES

SUBGROUP 1: Girls. At this stage, females tend to be physically, mentally, emotionally and socially immature and underdeveloped. Although completely aware of the physical aspect of their developmental process, females possess a gene that most males do not, which makes them believe they are fully developed in all other areas, even while still in utero.

SUBGROUP 2. Chicks. Although similar in physical appearance, Chicks possess little of the mental, emotional or social maturity of Women. They still have that "belief" gene, though.

SUBGROUP 3: Women. Although not all Chicks mature into Women, more do than the number of Guys who mature into Men. As Women, females are fully mature in all areas, in spite of the fact that the "belief" gene mentioned earlier tends to make them think they have always been this way.

     Now, gentlemen, here is where it gets confusing. Some, but not all, of the indications that your Woman is really a Chick are the same as the indications that your Woman is convinced, rightly or wrongly (although probably rightly) that you are just a Guy instead of a Man. This is why it is, for the most part anyway, easier for them to understand us than for us to understand them. Whatever their illusions about being fully mature from the moment their mother's egg was fertilized, they ARE more complex than we are. Remember that while I give you some clues about whether or not your Woman is really a Chick. The following are a few examples of Chick behavior.

     Pretends there is nothing about you that she would want to change while you are only dating, only to badger you without mercy about all sorts of behaviors, hobbies, habits and personality traits once you are in a committed relationship. Is all over you like a hooker in debt to a sadistic loan shark while you are dating, only to have her legs snap shut like a well-oiled bear trap about ten minutes after the wedding guests have gone home. Is roughly the same sexually during your committed relationship as she was when you were dating, only so she can use her blanket sexual veto power to manipulate and control you. Can enter a beauty pageant and parade around in a string bikini specifically chosen to accentuate and display her forty-thousand dollar boob job and butt-cheek implants, then, with a straight face mind you, complain about the objectification of women. Pouts if you enjoy golf, football, sports in general or any activity that doesn't involve four hours spent in Ann Taylor Loft, needlepoint exhibits of Great Moments in Women's History or comparison shopping for winged Maxi Pads. Claims publicly that the size of a man's penis doesn't matter to women, only to get together with her female friends and tell hilarious stories about how briefly they dated men who weren't hung like Secretariat. Can't understand why you thought "Ghost" was a great movie the first eight times you watched it together but that it is starting to lose its appeal for you now that you have the dialogue, scene blocking and bigraphical information of everyone involved with the picture, including the extras and catering crew, memorized. Tells you that real men aren't afraid to express their emotions or even cry, for that matter, only to lose all respect for you when you finally open up. Says she wants a mature, sensitive man that will treat her with respect, then will walk right past those men without even acknowledging their existence to fall dreamily into the arms of some gorgeous "bad-boy" hunk who will do nothing but treat her like crap.

     And you wonder why we don't understand each other. So, what's the deal? Guys, why are you the way you are and why are you making it so hard for the men in our group to get any respect from the other side? Ladies, why can't you blame guys for what they are (and aren't) and give the men a break? Why do both sides spend so much energy pretending like we have the other side figured out when we so obviously don't? Why can't more Chicks behave like Women and more Guys behave like Men? Why do so many of us on both sides feel like the fact that the genders are different is somehow a problem when we all know, at least intellectually, that it is really what makes the whole dance so amazingly cool?
    I really want to hear from everyone  on this one. Even the people who ordinarily just lurk. (You know who you are...and so do I.) Tell us what you think. Tell us how you feel. Tell me why you will be deleting me from your friends list after this.