Three Strikes and You're Out, revisited

Torture can take many forms. Like, for example, locking up some poor schlep for 19 years, or 31 years, or even LIFE, because he made the stupid-ass mistake of stealing a set of golf clubs, maybe on top of having done some real crimes - or some NOT SO REAL crimes, back in 1973, 1978, and lastly, in 2002. California has finally come to its senses, a bit, with respect to its notorious, cruel, sadistic, unfair, destructive "Three Strikes and You're Out" penalties, inflicted not just on the poor schleps who were consigned to a dungeon all these "get-tough-on-crime" years and decades, but upon us all, who may or may not come in contact with that law's shell-shocked victims. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/magazine/you-just-got-out-of-prison-now-what.html?_r=0

Donald T. Rump speaks one piece of truth

Gawd help us all when Donald Trump says anything TRUE, but he was right the other day when he criticized Scott Walker. As all thoughtful people in the Badger State know, Wisconsin IS a disaster! http://www.nationalmemo.com/wisconsin-economy-falls-to-49th-in-economic-outlook-under-scott-walker/

Jonathan Pollard to be released after serving 30 years

I am well-known as no friend of the state of Israel. But life, or even thirty years in prison for "espionage" strikes me as a typically excessive sentence. The US notoriously overdoes it in the length, severity and harshness of it's sentencing patterns, whether at the state or federal level. Not to mention the sheer NUMBER of people locked up, the majority for non-violent offenses. It's obscene. Mr. Pollard deserves to be released - the best years of his life are already forfeit. Remember the Rosenbergs! http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/world/middleeast/jonathan-pollard-spy-for-israel-to-be-released-on-parole-in-november.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

1979-1980

It's beginning to feel a lot like 1979-1980 in Decatur, Alabama, Greensboro NC, Buffalo NY, Boston MA, and so many other cities and towns across America. Anyone who remembers the climate back then will realize - that's not a good thing. These Confederate freakazoids were guilty of disorderly conduct, AT LEAST. Why did the cops do nothing? Because police are often hesitant to restrain, let alone arrest or cite their friends. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/27/1406207/-Armed-Confederate-supporters-interrupt-Black-child-s-birthday-party-w-racial-slurs-death-threats?detail=email#

You, You..... YOU took me away from my place in litrerature...?!?

"You," as in the "you" of "the generalized other;" including "you" as the sender and recipient of electronic communications, all having the effect of ripping most possible introspection, dispassion and quiet asunder; the "you" of various, often poorly defined social obligations.... Addressing "you" collectively.... YOU weren't the ones who pried me away from my cool and soothing preoccupation with literature. But it happened, and I found myself firmly planted in that "other" world, of swirling emotions and infantile emoticons. And I lost it - lost sight of it, anyway - the POSITIVE aspect of being the bookworm. I succumbed to a certain unstated but very real form of pressure. For I had, for many many years, the incomprehensible and still not fully comprehending LUXURY of a great remove, an elite remoteness, whether I wanted to admit to that or not. But I NEEDED it then, and I still NEED it today. That calm, maybe a BIT contrived but absolutely essential objective mood. Contrived, I ask myself? And I ANSWER: that sort of artifice becomes real enough when you seek it - carefully, silently, intently. Meet me halfway there, even, and and you will BEGIN to know the "sane" me. https://books.google.com/books?id=FfdhjEhoYeYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+death+of+innocents+sister+helen+prejean&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAGoVChMIldzRipDwxgIVSY0NCh1OLQgN#v=onepage&q=the%20death%20of%20innocents%20sister%20helen%20prejean&f=false

A change is in the air above Key West & Havana

It's been a long time coming, but the thaw is here at last, and it's palpable. You can feel it in the tropical air over the Straits of Florida. Or you COULD feel it, NOW, if you stood at the "Southernmost Point" in Key West, as I did in 1998, 2000 and 2005. Back then, I felt that a trip to Havana would present me with nearly insurmountable diplomatic obstacles - the Gusano (Miami Cubano) presence in South Florida being mostly too reactionary, too persistent, and too influential in the worst way. The economic blockade remains in place of course - that won't change without cooperation from the US Congress, and as that demented body remains firmly in Republican hands, one has a hard time envisioning the Senate and House coming to its senses - doing the obviously right thing and opening up unrestricted trade with Cuba. But all the Ileana Ros-Lehtinens in the world, particularly in South Florida, couldn't stop Obama from doing this one, decent thing before he's out of office. I don't know if I would have "Liked Ike," but the embargo imposed against Cuba was one of Dwight D. Eisenhower's worst acts ever. Let us enter a new era of mutual cooperation in terms of trade and especially health care! (Don't forget Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the USA.) For the skeptics out there, among my fellow Americans reading this - Consider how Midwestern US farmers stand to benefit with the opening of this eager market so close to the American mainland. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/20/cuban-embassy-opens-washington-embargo-guantanamo

SURPRISE SUPREME! Scott Walker has thrown its hat into the ring

How 'bout those Brewers! How 'bout that Gub'ner Walker! Can't comment expertly, to say nothing of expatriately (not yet, anyhow) about the our state's major league LOSERS, recently transformed into a major league phenom, but.... As for Scotty Boy, isn't it an historical oddity - nah, historical obscenity is a better term - to realize he would be the first EVER president from our ripped and ruined state? Some testimonial to the intelligence of nearly half the purported Cheesehead electorate who repeatedly voted for the sorry oligarchical figurehead, and gawd help US all if a notable minority (bare majority?) of eligible Americanoids actually elevate this eminently presidential, plasticized political mandroid to the executive, ahem, function.

Leave this imperfect, soiled and sullen Earth behind!

THIS IS BIG. THIS is HUGE! It's the most important thing in my petty little almost meaningless and comparatively insignificant life since "Welcome Back Kotter" made its debut in 1975. Check out the eerie pictures, here and on other sites. YOU MUST, you WILL. Thou SHALT know Pluto and his underworld, if not his underwear. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=49503 Except for the babies and the children, and a very few special adults, Humanity offers so little and asks for SO MUCH. Now you know what I meant about the petty, insignificant, almost meaningless realm of human affairs, at least as contrasted with the glories of interplanetary and interstellar space. The "news" isn't news and "current events" aren't current, let alone relevant. Take off for better planets, if you've got the billions to do it. https://www.google.com/search?q=new+photos+of+Pluto+july+15+2015&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CB4QsARqFQoTCISWzrCS3sYCFQQ2iAodP8oLrQ&biw=1137&bih=565&dpr=0.9#imgrc=jcEc5jFF9OhViM%3A

The Homos and Dykes, and various other epithets

While I must admit a certain fatigue with the issue of Same-Sex Marriage being in the forefront of the news, and interminably so, IMO.... I DO GET IT. As a practical, everyday matter, workplace discrimination IS discrimination. At least when it's based on a false premise, as in discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc., rather than on one's level of achievement, skill, talent or basic qualification for a particular position. And discrimination in the realm of housing or public accommodation is just wrong, period.

Another extremely interesting, possibly instructive read

"Mere Christianity," by C.S. Lewis: https://books.google.com/books?id=OF-YSMKCVwMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=mere+christianity+cs+lewis&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lFqhVYfuGYLVoATutoW4Dw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=mere%20christianity%20cs%20lewis&f=false

A divine contradiction in terms(?)

"Biblical Interpretation and Christian Ethics." A concept that my parents always inculcated in their offspring was/is an oxymoron. I'm trying hard to be more rational, logical, sequential, dispassionate, detached, disinterested and objective about the subject. An endeavor which God in His infinite wisdom has rendered utterly futile! (LOL!) https://books.google.com/books?id=eMvUFYlGvtIC&pg=PA52&dq=biblical+faith+and+christian+ethics&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a_6fVeOEKZKBygSF5JS4CQ&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=biblical%20faith%20and%20christian%20ethics&f=false

Catechlysmic

Had a go at "The Catechism of the Catholic Church" (1992 edition, "revised" by the Polish Pope and his groupies) yesterday. I have to confess, no pun intended, that except for the "Social Gospel" more or less included therein, it seemed pretty much like meaningless mumbo-jumbo, over and over again, page after page. But I'll continue TRYING to keep an open mind!

Mind Control is a theme I just can't get out of my mind

Americans, generally speaking, are among the cleanest people on Earth. This has to do with the fact they wash their brains, frequently.

Californians Dreaming of a Right to Die

What's so damn controversial about this humane idea? Geography is ONE thing: American culture is now so repressive its "leaders," some of whom are supposedly counted among the society's "Brain Trust" refuse to let any but the privileged out of that three million square mile prison the USA has become, without a passport, an X-Ray scan (or grope) and a hassle. I haven't escaped its borders, myself, in over 12 years. But to not allow those on the verge to die, hopefully with a minimal amount of dignity and grace? I'll let the audience consider the implications with no further editorializing. (I lied about no more comments from the peanut gallery) Remember Jack Kevorkian, with GRATITUDE! "California aid-in-dying bill shelved for the year" http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-california-aid-in-dying-bill-shelved-for-this-year-20150707-story.html