Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

As I believe I have mentioned in this space before, perhaps even many times, one of my pet peeves is lists.  I don’t mean like a shopping list or a to do list, because I make those myself. I am bad enough at shopping even with a list, I’d be lost without one, coming home from the shop without basic necessities and with 6 different kinds of junk food.  As for to do lists, I frequently make them but they don’t do any good.  I know it’s among the habits of highly successful people (7 habits, 10 habits, I’ve seen a lot of those lists),   but they are highly successful because they actually do the things they put down on the lists, which makes them different from me.

Anyway, I’ve decided that since it’s a total waste of time to even read those lists, (they only write them because they want to take up space and there’s not enough happening in the world to report on, and yes, I’m being sarcastic), from now on when I see the headline, I’m just going to write my own list in my head and be done with it.

Today, I saw two: 7 Things Not to Say to Your Thanksgiving Host, and 5 Things That will Make You Happier Than Shopping on Black Friday, so here goes:

7 Things Not to Say to Your Thanksgiving Host

1. You’re fat and you’re ugly.

2. Good fucking lord, not turkey again!  Every goddamned year, turkey.  Why don’t we just order some pizza?

3. Jesus Christ, this house is a dump, is this the best you can afford?

4. Your kids are morons.

5.  Your husband is cheating on you.

6.  Somebody just puked on the carpet in the bedroom.  It wasn’t me, I swear!

7.  We should do this more often.

5 Things That Will Make You Happier Than Shopping on Black Friday

1. Getting really stoned

2. Getting blind drunk

3. Sex

4. Watching porn on the internet

5.  Not  shopping on Black Friday

See, easy peasy.

Anti-marijuana people are proving to be just as tenacious as tea-baggers, just as completely obstinate in view of facts that prove them wrong, just as delusional and desperate to prove a world view which originates inside their own minds.

Just make sure the neighbors can’t smell it

Marijuana is legal in Colorado now, except for federal laws of course, but the FBI can’t be everywhere, and as far as local law enforcement is concerned, it’s no biggie any more.  But the people who hate marijuana still hate marijuana, despite the fact that all of their reasons have gone up in smoke.  50 years ago they said it was a highly addictive drug which would make you go crazy.  Then they said it was a gateway drug, it would get you hooked on other stuff.  Then they said it’s too early, not enough research has been done, even though this is probably the most thoroughly researched plant in the history of the human species.  We’ve probably had 100 times as many in-depth projects researching marijuana as, for instance, bananas.

Now they say they just hate the smell and the sight of it, and want to make it illegal to smoke it anywhere that anybody else can see it or smell it. 

Personally, I suspect that they are just so invested in winning the argument that they can’t change.   They had the chance in high school but didn’t want to hang with the stoners, the stoners weren’t cool.  In college, it was a bit more socially acceptable, but they still bought into the “not enough research” line.  Then came real life, and work, and kids, and since they weren’t on that path, the opportunities sort of disappeared.

Now, everybody knows that it’s not only harmless but actually in some ways beneficial.  They could try it, without fear of any repercussions whatsoever.  But what if they liked it?  What if they suddenly realized how much more fun they might have had in their student years, how much more pleasant and less stressful their lives might have been?

If you were 90 years old and had been blind from birth, and doctors told you they could suddenly make you see, would you want it?  I suspect it’s a bit like that.

Since I have some friends living in Iran (well, one close friend, a few former students, and maybe a random person I’ve met here and there from my extended travels) I am very happy that it doesn’t look like we’ll go to war with them at any time in the near future.

I haven’t looked at the agreement in any detail, but it seems like the deal is that Iran won’t be too obvious about developing nuclear energy, and we won’t invade them any time soon, and everybody will continue to be on speaking terms with each other.

Naghshe Jahan Square, Isfahan, Iran

This is not perfect but it is not war.  Chances are, Iran is going to develop nukes at some point in the future and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it.  North Korea has nukes.  Israel has them, too.  Hell, half the Manhattan Project team was Jewish*, plus Einstein himself.  They’ve probably had the technology since 1948. (I’m half Jewish, but not above a good conspiracy theory)  India and Pakistan both have nukes, and they hate each other like crazy, but they haven’t blown each other up yet.

It’s a dangerous world.  We have to learn to live with that.  Talking is a good start.

And talking seems to be Obama’s style.  Back when Syria was in the news (why is Syria not in the news lately?  Has their civil war ended? I doubt it.)  Obama was getting shit one day for doing nothing, and then shit the next day for threatening to do too much. So, he did some real clever politicking and a whole lot of talking and disaster was averted.

Of course, he didn’t get much credit for that.  Putin got the credit, and then probably threw some more people in jail.

Still,  I see a pattern.  In Iran, as in Syria, Obama’s just going to try to talk his way out of it.  I, for one, think it is a brilliant strategy.

*probably a slight exaggeration

We’ve been pretty sure for years that they were pulling shit like this, but now we have proof.

CNN has managed to obtain a copy of the Republican anti-Obama playbook, in which they tell all of their party members, and all journalists who are on their team, what they should say about Obamacare, what words they should use, what actions they should take to derail it.

Doing it by the Book

Actually, there’s nothing illegal about this, not even the lying part.  If lying were illegal, everybody in the world would be in jail, which would make it very  difficult for society to function.  In fact, except for the lying part, I wish the Democrats would do the same thing.  It is, apparently, effective.

It also explains a few things.  It explains how John Stewart and Rachel Maddow can do those sequence scenes where all Republicans and every right wing pundit use exactly the same words, or damned similar.  It also explains how nearly every comment thread ultimately gets hijacked by right wingers who all seem to be saying the same thing every other Republican is saying, until all the progressives give up and move to another thread, allowing the baggers to think they have actually won an argument, because the rules for debating the issues are really not that much different than the rules for cagefighting.

Still, Obamacare exists and they can complain about the slowness of the website all they want, people are getting signed up, more of them every day, and eventually they will all shut up about it, because most of them will be on it.

They’ll still bitch about guns and abortion.  That’s timeless.  And they’ll still use a playbook when they do.