Here's a new post so Google doesn't shut this account off.

Does this thing still work?

Anyone still here?

I totally stole this. Google it to find out who realy wrote it.

I just watched the movie traffic and it got me thinking about some issues that are actually in the media lately. Actually they might not be, I don't really follow the media. Forget the previous 2 sentences, I'm abandoning the pretense that I am in any way aware of what issues are in the media.

Imagine that Canada is relaxing on the prosecution of small pot offences and it looks like steps towards the legalization of marijiruana. I think that is a terrible idea, and I'm not saying this to endorse the views of any religions or to suggest that straight-edge is anything but a bunch of chickenshit wieners. Here's my reasoning.

Think of all the people that legalization is going to put out of work. College kids, prozac addled middle aged bohemian artists and weekend hippie/weekday yuppies on their way to folk festivals buy their weed from guys who may seem harmless in their silly hats, but those drug dealers are just the presentable front line. Behind them is an army of self employed risk friendly entreprenuers who have a propensity for making a living outside the regular 9 to 5.

There's a fucking reason those guys sell drugs for a living. Here's a hint, its not because they didn't like all the overtime they had to put in down at Price Waterhouse. They chose the job drug dealer because the non-illegal job market wasn't really their cup of tea. Now if the government starts selling prescription joints at Shoppers Drug Mart these guys are suddenly out of business.

Maybe this is just the wake up call that drug dealers need to clean up their act. Maybe they will ditch that can't win attitude and really try to be somebody. Or maybe they'll just switch to stealing. I'm sure some will try working at gas stations or burger king, but how long is that gonna last? 1 paycheck. Maybe I'm being a pessimist.

Another argument is why bother, its already everywhere anyway. Does anyone think marijiruana hard to get now? If I believe what I see in the movies its already easier to find the weed than the Dark Side of The Moon box set to accompany it. At least while its illegal getting it is a slight challenge for the potheads. It gives them something to organize themselves a little. Don't take that away from them.

They say weed is a gateway drug, which means it leads to harder drugs. I doubt that is common, but I have seen it happen. I have seen drugs fuck up reasonable people.

So does booze though and I drink like a Russian. But as a society we permit the release valve of booze because otherwise people would go insane. As a result we get homicides, drunk driving and all the funniest fat guys in parking lots doing gymnastics you'll ever see on COPS. We trade off the carnage for the freedom to escape our boring lives and in my specific case to look and act like Garfield.

So I'm anti-drug, and not just for me, but for the children!

On the topic of growing up, I've made a decision which was partially inspired by my older brother.

I think my brother doesn't like it when I write about him. He's probably one of the most together and reliable people I know. He does have a tendency to initiate rather long and winding sentences and to ramble about some stupid computer game he's playing, as if I care, but he's practically a genius. Also he has this hilarious habit. When we're driving around sometimes we'll see someone standing somewhere or doing something which will look a little odd and he will say:

"Look at that woman, she is obviously crazy. Look how crazy she is."

"What are you talking about?" I will reply.

"Look at her eyes, she looks insane."

This conversation inevitably decays into me saying he drives like a wimp, but suffice it to say he's a funny and smart guy. I trust his advice. Although I usually ignore it I often ask for his opinion. He thinks I'm stalling in the past and I should be looking forward. He's 100% right.

I used to have a dream. I wanted to write a good novel. I temporarily abandoned that idea since it was more fun to procrastinate and imagine what it would be like to have it done instead of actually doing anything about it.

Well I'm going to do it. And here's the plot. I have no idea, but its gonna have love, greed, sex and death and one chapter written entirely in spanish. The title I already have, its going to be called Hurricane Warning. Also the book is going to have a hurricane which will be instrumental to the story in some way that I'm not going to tell you. Or it might not. In fact I've already given away too much.

Chapter One.

Adios.

new stuff

WTF

Why did the government think they could do something about a child trapped in a balloon except wait for it to fall out of the sky? I mean do something other than shoot the balloon down.

Pragmatism Trumps Racism In The Adoption Process

“It’s important to me that my child looks like us.” As soon as I said it I thought we’d be thrown out of there. It smacks of intolerance and that subtle New England brand of racism. We love the race but hate that ethnic family that lives down the street and cooks strange food. Ok, we like the food but that family is sooo “not our kind, dear.” Imagine my surprise when I learned that there is one institution that formally accepts racism. In fact they demand a level of honesty that is hard for the politically correct modern American to admit to.

Being a white male it’s absolutely forbidden for me to talk about race, as if my perspective is some how marginalized. Decades of institutionalized “reverse racism” to make up for past injustice still has “white privilege” to blame for our societies failure to lift the standard of living for the minority community. I am to apologize for my fortunate birth. So OK I’m sorry. I’m not sure what I’m sorry for but I sure am sorry about it.

I make my living judging children on the merits of their scholarship. I’ve only taught at schools which are predominantly white. I’ve seen kids that are lazy and kids that are driven. I haven’t seen too many minority students but I can say that of the few I’ve taught, they’re exactly the same as the majority. Some work hard, some don’t.

Maybe the kids at the privileged schools have more opportunity and I’m seeing the minority students take advantage of opportunities they wouldn’t have in less affluent communities. The most recent data from federal testing suggests that minority communities still offer less opportunity.

Obviously we need more leveling. Despite electing a black president we still aren’t out of the woods in terms of racial equality. There are pockets here and there where we’re beginning to mix. The Echo Generation is very color blind when it comes to choosing their friends. Much more so than my own. It’s much less shocking to see mixed race couples and it doesn’t take quota laws to get children to play together. They just do.

Still there is an inequality between the races in this country. One that still needs coercion to rectify. I don’t think we should think about relaxing anti-discrimination laws for a while. This is were the shock hits. As demonized as discrimination has become in the public arena, that it exists in the private arena can not be ignored. Rather than punish racism, the adoption process acknowledges it and tolerates what some consider racist views. Racial discomfort is forgiven. The alternative is to either drive away otherwise wonderful parents or start a childs life with a family who were so wanting to be parents they denied their basic human nature. That can’t be good for a child.

Umm... Sorry About That

You are not responsible for what happened when you were a toddler. You are not responsible for what another individual does. You are not responsible for what happened before you were born. You are not responsible for what happened without your knowledge or consent.

You are only responsible for what you do. You are responsible for what you allow to be done in your name. Since I've turned voting age I've allowed my country to fuck with (and by extension I have fucked with) the following:

Palestine
Fiji
Bolivia
Panama
Columbia
Libya
Philippines
Afghanistan
Russia
Gulf War 1
Kuwait
Iraq
Balkans
Los Angeles
Somalia
Algeria
Waco
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan
Rwanda
Croatia
Bosnia
Syria
Chiapas, Mexico
Sudan
Nicaragua
East Timor
Kosovo
Haiti
Gulf War 2
Afghanistan (again)
Venezuela
Pakistan
Iraq (again)
Somalia
Bali
Iran

I have no excuse.

Where I've been.

For a few months I haven't really felt like talking. I had a lot on my mind but nothing approaching a cogent thought. For much of the time we were simply exhausted from, well from life.

Lisa's grandfather passed away. Now I'm almost free to talk about it. It's hard to talk without sounding like I'm gloating. I'm not. Tom was my best friend these last few years. We played together. I listened to the same god damned stories every week. Each telling seemed to be taking on a more intense sense of urgency. Tom had to get them out before his end came. He knew it was coming. He fought every slip and slide toward what comes next. Kind of like that Seinfeld episode where George fakes being a marine biologist.

"The sea was angry that day my friend!" "Like an old man sending back a bowl of soup in a restaurant."

Tom refused that last bowl of soup as if he could hold off and hold on to one more rush. But he knew when he bought his last car that he was buying his last car. He knew the mess he was leaving when he burned the engine on his Porsche. He knew no one would buy his broken down Bricklin during his lifetime.

We had the Porsche fixed. I just could not stand the thought of it not rolling around. The Bricklin I can do myself.

He left Lisa the house and the objects there-in. He left the cars to her but it was understood that the cars would be for me to look after as I had when he was living. He left us land that we can't build a house on. The joke's on Wenham. I found a tax loophole that lets me tell them to go fuck off. We can't build and they can't tax us on it. They get my trees for a decade and I have my own adventure park to four wheel drive in.

We have nothing to complain about. Hopefully no one else will and the estate will pass probate quickly. In the mean time, I know what 250 km per hour feels like.