Racism is Dead!

Racism is dead!

Proven morally and intellectually defunct. Good riddance, goodbye, time to put all that energy into something else. Almost anything else. Hopefully something positive.

Okay, I admit that I can not single-handedly kill racism. I am thinking that it needs to be declared dead so we Earthlings can start to move forward. I know one can still see signs of racism. Much like one can still see Lenin, pickled and entombed under glass in Russia. He is long dead but still viewable. Many things are long gone that linger on. Remember that Spanish American War Tax that was buried into our telecommunication taxes for over 100 years before it was officially removed? Anyway, I have researched the issue.

THE SCIENCE: Skin color is simply a pigment evolved at different rates depending on the weather. We all are related. Humans most likely ALL came from Africa. Ever see a picture of Earth from outer space? Well... that is our hometown, we all come from and live there, very much connected and related.

THE HISTORY: Slavery is a big part of history. Slavery in America was helped by Africans selling Africans to Europeans. Some tribes look down on those that are darker, some tribes are the opposite. Of course it makes no sense. Can’t we all just get along?

CURRENT EVENTS: There is still slavery today. Child Labor, Sex Slaves, villagers forced to fight guerilla wars and people are still bought and sold in many ways in more than a few countries. As I am writing this, Barack Obama is leading in the polls to become the first Black President. Actually he is of mixed race (aren’t we all really?). Sadly society is still a bit hung up so he is rarely referred to as anything other than African American, even though the truth is more inclusive and well... honest. Still, very cool to have someone different so close to being president. If I had an ounce of “White Guilt” (or lived in a "swing" state) I would vote for him. But since I had nothing to do with slavery, my family fought for the North (and don’t get me started on my Cherokee relatives, the Trail of Tears and that traitor Andrew Jackson). I once again will be voting for a Third Party candidate. Yes I actually vote by the issues. My “Litmus Test” is The United States Constitution and Quality of Life. When I hear people say that they vote for “The lesser of two evils” I just want to smack them upside the head with a crucifix!

PERSONAL: I have been “Girl Crazy” since the third grade. My school mates said “girls have cooties” but I was drawn to them. I always thought that a pretty girl was a pretty girl and variety of skin, eyes, hair, accents and shapes only made them more attractive to me. Conversely, I found little in life as ugly as a racist. And not just the toothless rednecks with poor grammar but all the hateful people of all colors and shades. I ran into a couple of Black Americans in Africa (actually they were more of a Mocha color) and we had lunch, drinks and a lot of laughs about our experiences in Africa. I had much more in common with them than I did with my White safari guide and they had more in common with me than with all of the Black Africans. Simply because our differences, and similarities, are cultural and not racial. Something that the race baiters who are on the wrong side of the Illegal Immigration debate never seem to realize. Another plus is that we can all have fun joking on each others culture without being accused of being racist (sorry my black brothers but you are third behind the French and Armenians in my yet to be written stand-up comedian routine but I do thank you for boinking all the chubby strawberry-blondes. They need lovin’ too and I just can’t go there).

Years ago, I started taping interviews of my family members. I asked my Father, who was a child of the 50’s “Space Age”, if this is what he thought the future would be like when he was a kid. He replied that he thought the world would be very different. Flying cars, Food Tablets and he thought that we would be Well Past Racism. Interestingly my dad is far from a Liberal Ideologue and even as a child he knew that seeing past race was a “no brainer”.

When I was three years old my Great Grandmother told us that a “Colored Man” had broken into her home. I sat quietly and confused. On the drive home I asked my dad “Why the Colored Man broke into Grandmas house?” “Was he not making enough money at the carnival?” After a while my dad realized that I thought a colored man was a tattooed carnival performer. She said “colored”. I did not know that meant only one color at a time. My imagination was much more vivid than that! You see I was old enough, at age three, to understand the principals of commerce but if society had not made a big deal out of skin tone I would not have thought that much about it.

So... can we just declare it dead already? We can come up with an official date at a later time. Maybe the 5th of July or on Bob Marley or MLK Jr.’s birthday or today, right now, yesterday, whatever. I will organize the funeral. We can have a symbolic coffin made out of something like pressed seaweed. We can march down Venice Beach with a New Orleans style Jazz Band playing taps. We will put the coffin out to sea, all ablaze Viking style. We can all sing and party till dawn. The next day we can work on things like Peace, Shelter, Food, Clean Air and Water, Removing Toxins from well... everything, Space Exploration, Corruption, Clean Energy, Health, Meteor Defense, Prison Reform, Education, Building a better Hammock, anything, everything!

All that Wasted Time and Energy. All that Hate and Ignorance. The only single thing worse than all that stuff in our Past is letting it into our Future. Racism is Dead! It belongs in the scrap pile of history. Our grandchildren will have to shake their heads in amazement to learn that we once thought the Earth was Flat and we judged a person by the Color of their Skin and not by the Content of their Character.

Let FreeDUMB Ring!

You have likely heard it often said that people are “basically smart”.

Politicians like to say that a lot! That is the first red flag that it is likely not so.

They also like to say that “people are basically good” and or ‘kind”. Most often they are referring to Americans. I do believe it true that most people are good. We want the same things; justice, food, shelter, companionship, drinkable water and breathable air. But I am convinced that a lot of people are NOT smart. This likely does not apply to anyone reading this, as this is posted online. One needs to be motivated and educated enough to navigate a computer and the internet, be interested enough in other opinions out of curiosity or a desire to expand ones mind and lastly, must be able to read.

Being smart, alone, is not necessarily a virtue. The Nazi’s were plenty smart, yet they were a bunch of evil thugs. My point is simply that I am tired of hearing lies from our leaders, and saying that America is “Number One” or that “Americans are smart” is a lie.

I do not expect perfection from a politician, or anyone else, but if the leaders are so stupid, corrupt, perverted and criminal, then what does that say about our country? Even if you do not vote, (not smart) they are still your leaders. Even if you do not literally follow them, they set policy and the world sees them as our leaders.

One policy example is our current draconian Drug Policies. George W. was a coke head and boozer, Clinton smoked pot, Bush Sr. had his life saved in WWII by using a HEMP parachute and Reagan sold cocaine through the Air Force (known as the Iran Contra Affair). So did policy for regular Americans change? No way! In their minds, that would make them look like they were “soft on crime”. The lesson is - only the rich and connected can make mistakes and/or do drugs with impunity. As for the rest of us? Hemp can be imported but not grown and mandatory minimums for drug offenses!

In many states one can get less than 11 years for murder but 20 years for a non violent pot offense. Too bad we can’t all be like Reagan’s boy Oliver North and stand wearing our military uniforms when we testify. Did he get the years in prison that he deserved? Hell no, he got a talk show!

Stupid policies are great examples. Dangerously poor border policies, harmful food, water and imports policies, lousy health policies and the policy for politicians to keep giving themselves raises and vacations while our quality of pay, life, health and education goes down the toilette. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But my all time favorite example is New Mexico. This single example alone stands as a beacon to the continuing stupidity of Americans. Next time you see a car with a New Mexico license plate notice that at the bottom it reads “United States”. Why? Too many people do not even know that it is a state. I have encountered more than a few of these products of public education. The last time was when renting a car and the woman insisted that I could not take the car out of the country. It took me a good amount of time, and a conversation with her supervisor, to convince her that New Mexico was part of the United States. Sadly, I have plenty of other examples but New Mexico is my favorite.

Full Disclosure:
(I too am a product of Public Education. Attending 19 schools in 12 years and can factually testify that Teachers can also be the opposite of smart)

My second favorite example and the only reality show worth watching, is the TV show COPS. COPS show us that stupid plus alcohol can be entertaining. It shows Public Servants (the cops) displaying Constitutionally questionable behavior. (Imagine what must get edited out!) It shows us that people are so very, very stupid that they give permission to search their trunks when they could legally and politely refuse. Followed by, surprise, they get busted.

Thirdly, more people voted for the “American Idol” than for the President. Those that even bother to vote, claim to be disappointed with both parties. Yet very few vote for a third party. If only half of the non voters and half unhappy voters voted for a third party, it would be a landslide victory sending an undeniable message to Washington D.C.

Too smart to ever happen?

Fourth. If Darwin was correct, how long before the stupid kill themselves off? Like the true story of the 3 men who tried to commit insurance fraud by driving their compact car under a speeding semi-truck. Wow, three people that stupid in one car.

They were all killed of course.

Fifth example. Where we get our news. Besides the lame things that get coverage, those Rating Monkeys are so stupid that they often put their logos over the very news items they are trying to show. News has become gossip and they are so very stupid that when talking about Gas Prices they round the 9/10ths of a cent listed as the price down to zero and not up to one. So, $ 4.19 9/10 becomes $4.19 and not $4.20 as it should be.

Those clowns should give 9/10ths of their salaries to charity!

Speaking of gas... example number six. Some of my earliest memories were the of the fuel crisis 30 years ago. What have we done since? Built bigger cars, lost sells to Japan, polluted our world and made gazillionaires out of terrorist supporting countries! All when the Sun can be tapped in and out of our atmosphere, the Wind continues to blow, Geo Thermal vents continue to produce heat and the Ocean Currents continue to flow; all great sources of energy that could have been perfected by now.

“Lucky” number 7 is the next example. Make up your mind America, are you “One Nation Under God” or are you superstitious? One can follow neither but not both. There is no such thing as luck! There is Fate, Timing and likely even Human Intuition bordering on Psychic Ability, but no luck.

Not walking under a ladder is common sense, not a way to avoid bad luck.

Eighth and final example. We are so stupid and litigious that commercials now need to have written disclaimers that instruct “do not attempt” as a person pretends to eat a roll of coins and “do not attempt, professional driver on a closed course” The “dangerous” stunt was a car gently pulling up to a curb and stopping. The ones where the car flies off the cliff and explodes simply reads “do not attempt”. Too bad the guys who drove under the semi did not see a commercial warning them not to.

And notice on your coffee cup it reads “contents hot”. I also have seen headache medicine that admits that one possible side effect is “headaches”! There should be “mandatory minimums” for the drug pushers at the pharmaceutical companies. But they share ownership of our government along with the Oil companies, HMO’s, and Prison Guard unions. Corruption so blatant that it requires apathy and stupidity to continue.

So exactly what is America “Number One” in? Well, we passed Russia long ago as the world’s number one jailer of our citizens. We have very high rates of murder, pollution, obesity and consumption. We likely export more jobs out of our country than any other. But what about the good stuff? Well, we are not even in the top 20 in education and health care!

Hospital bills are the number one reason for people losing their homes and filling for bankruptcy. (PS. those scumbags in Congress recently let the credit card companies re-write the bankruptcy laws. Next the Wolves get to design the Chicken coups) and regarding education... I am not sure that it is a conspiracy but the definition of conspiracy is simply, when two or more people conspire to do something. So just maybe it is a conspiracy to dumb down the country. Smart people do not stand for injustice as easily as the ignorant. I used to think the education system trained children just enough to be cogs in a wheel, to hold low paying jobs, drink cheap beer and NEVER question authority! But the cheap jobs are taken by illegal immigrants (press 1 for English) and the mid paying jobs go to India and China. China alone will have to be subject of another blog. But preview note: They are NOT our friend! They steal our technology, suppress freedom and will someday want to be a (or the only) world power. The fact that they are signing treaties and cozying up with Russia is a very big deal but the news is too full of fluff for most people to know anything about that major occurrence. I also noticed that my American Flag was “Made in China”.

Back to education... Science has somehow become a political subject instead of cold hard facts (note: reference “worst president ever”), we are 24^th in Math, (may explain the confusion over “9/10ths = zero”) and a kid drops out of school every 9 seconds, about 1 Million a year!

Goodbye Middle Class, hello “New World Order”.

Antibiotic resistant infections are becoming the number one killer of Americans! How much has the news told us about this catastrophe? Almost, nothing! Not as important to them as celebrity gossip, just potentially devastating to mankind.

So we destroy our habitat, poison our food supply, our soil, our water, our air. We lie, cheat, steal and murder. Sometime in the name of God, sometimes because of the failures of mental health availability, sometimes because of greed, ego, intoxication, on and on and on, it “unsmartly” goes....

I love my Country, I love my neighbors, and I love my planet.

We are a lot of things... As a whole, we are not smart!

L. A. Hates You!

Thinking of moving to Los Angeles ? Don’t do it!

Thinking of moving away from Los Angeles ? Please take a few people with you.

Before you start to think that I am some bitter, burnt out, Yankee… let me share with you that I am fully aware of what is good about living in L.A. . This blog is not about that.

What the hell, let’s get the good part out of the way. Los Angeles is great for the weather, the beaches (unless you want to swim – too polluted) the weather, the mountains, the weather, the desert, the weather, travel deals out of LAX, the weather, concerts and the weather!

Good, now that is out of the way.

The first thing you will notice when you move here is that your skin will start to break out and your eyes will burn until you get acclimated to the pollution. We are big on pollution. Graffiti, litter, bad water, even the sand can give you a disease. Next you will need to find a place to live. Right away you will notice that the prices are not listed on the “for rent” signs. This is because the prices change according to how well you speak Spanish, what part of Armenia you are from, the length of you hair, your age, if you request working smoke detectors, on and on and on. So after you found your single apartment renting for $900, you will need a job.

The fun is just starting now. Job listings also have something very conspicuous missing; THE PAY! Internet sites, Craigs List, Monster .com and in print, LA Times, Daily News, every thing every where. No mention of the pay? Why would they waste your time and their own by making you come in for an interview for a job you can not afford to take? Who knows? Maybe they are just too embarrassed to list “experienced needed, Bachelors degree required, no benefits, $9.00 per hour” Lately they will just call you an “independent contractor” that just means – “No Overtime Pay, No Benefits, $9.00 per hour”. You start to see why people live 5 to a room and there is ZERO parking available.

But you gotta have a car! Hope to find an honest mechanic cause the pot holes are worse than Mexico and your car will be broke a lot! Car jackings are minor compared to being shot by an enraged driver. Most common is the guy who cuts you off and apologizes be flipping you the bird. You may have hears that L.A. drivers can not drive in the rain. Not all together true. What is true is that so many new thousands of drivers get their license or just drive illegally every day. Then months later, it rains and these thousands of driver have simply never driven in the rain. Also there are drivers from far flung countries that bring their own driving styles to town. Worst of all are the arrogant trophy wives driving SUV’s like tanks while they chat on the cell phone and bring their inflated sense of entitlement and knowledge that they can afford full coverage insurance, down on all those around them.

Nobody walks in L.A.? We try not to. The sidewalks are falling apart. They are destroyed by tree roots, blocked by debris, trash cans and illegally parked cars. Every street that is lined with hedges or trees, are trimmed so low that one must duck, limbo or walk in the street until the foliage is gone. I suspect that most gardeners must be under 4 feet tall and are on their tippy-toes trying to trim the branches.

You are probably familiar with the term "Trash Track". In L.A. we call them trash trucks not because they pick up the trash but because they consistently have trash flying out of them as the drive the streets and highways. All public services are overwhelmed and/or incompetent. It takes months to years to get something done and amazingly they often seem to make the problem worse. It is not uncommon for them to leave behind destroyed streets and pot holes filled with a soft black substance that immediately adds a four inch ramp into the 10 inch pot hole that it was supposed to have filled. Also left behind are double painted divider lines, no parking, and other, signs, barriers, tools and other equipment purchased by the tax payers.

And the Border, oh yes, this has zero to do about politics or race but it will not take long before you start to hear about long cured diseases like Polio and Leprosy making a come back and wonder how many dirty bombs, viruses, gangs and other weapons of mass destruction must have freely entered our wide open borders both North AND South. That’s right we have plenty of Canadians sneaking here also. Snow-Backs I call them. Try to get a job in Canada , especially in the entertainment business. No way, they won’t let you. Only we are so stupid as to encourage our jobs to go to countries where we can not even follow them.

If you enjoy other cultures, as I do, you may think L.A. is cool for that. Wrong! Why? No desire to assimilate and share culture. Also no such things as Turn Signals or Customer Service. Concerned about crime? You should be. We have a lot of gangs here, approximately 40, 000 gang members! That number bears repeating... FORTY THOUSAND!!! And the LAPD is a big blue gang. Some of them are the most corrupt, criminal bastard in America . Most of them are hard working men and women who simply can not help you. Too few of them! 911 will ring busy and you are on your own even if you get an operator. But if you get murdered… they will come. They will come out in force if you get murdered. Hell, they will even send a helicopter. But short of your violent bloody death, you are on your own!

Sound like a nice place to raise a family? The schools are shit! Your children will have 1/3 less lung capacity due to the pollution and if you live close to a freeway or the port it is likely – not maybe but LIKELY they will develop some horrible ailment and have trouble breathing right up until the time they die young! Yes, once again, L.A. is the most polluted city in America (in your face Houston - maybe next year), We have roughly 3,00 smog related deaths a year. Microscopic particles expelled from tailpipes, factories, diesel trucks that are 75 to 100% above federal standards, all linked to severe asthma, cancer and premature deaths from heart and lung disease.

Can't drink the water. Some of the worst in the country. So drink bottled water until we are choking on plastic waste but you will still need to bathe in it. Best to not breath in a steamy shower.

But before you have a family you will likely date. Oh, the L.A. dating scene. If you are a woman you need to deal with the fact that the media glamorizes plastic perfection type super model looks and the perception of every guy thinking you are a gold digging bitch. If you are a man you will have to deal with being surrounded by mostly gold digging bitches. There are some very cool, funky artsy types in town and great relationships can be had, but again, that is not what this particular blog is about.

So now you are stuck in traffic surrounded by SUV’s and Brown and Tan Toyota Celica’s, every drive is a near death experience and the stress kills you as surely as the polluted beef supply. You day dream about your family and friends who are paying $900 for their mortgage when you are paying $1600 to rent. You think about buying a home but can’t bring yourself to spend close to One Million Dollars to live in a graffiti, gang infested neighborhood where, did I mention, the schools are shit! And how can you afford it anyway? The pay sucks, the roads suck, the hospitals suck, the infrastructure is falling apart! Everything sucks except our vacuums! Anyway, you have been warned. If you come anyway, bring a lot of money, an oxygen mask, a big gun and please, please, please take somebody back with you when you leave. Gotta love this weather!!!

Open Letter to the Candidates

Dear Candidates,

While you talk, maneuver, talk, pretend to be real and talk. Most of us are simply turned off. You talk about how much better you are than the other candidates but to us you are all the same. The country's infrastructure falls apart, our borders are wide open, jobs leave the country as you give tax breaks to the companies that leave and none of you can get health care fixed. Children starve and die of preventable ailments right here in the richest country in the world.

Even though George Bush used Cocaine and Bill Clinton Smoked pot, none of you seem willing to reform our unconstitutionally insane drug policies. We have become the number one jailer of our citizens. More than China , more than Russia , number one world wide. Violent offenders get out early to make room for non violent drug users that would be better served by treatment. We can't use marijuana as medicine, even when voters mandate it, and we cant grow Hemp for fuel, paper or clothing even though it is impossible to get high from it! All because all of you are afraid to seem weak on crime. That and the fact that you are owned by the Pharmaceutical companies, Prison Guards Union and Lumber and Oil companies! Pathetic! We also assume that every last one of you are corrupt, bought and paid for by special interest groups.

You all have health care, you all give yourselves raises, long paid vacations and you spend away the future of our children like drunken sailors. You build Bridges to Nowhere, pay $2000 for hammers, give no-bid contracts to your friends and the more conservative you want to appear the more sexually deviant you are found out to be.

We do not have safe water to drink, the air is polluted and the food supply, especially the meat, is poisoned. So while you argue about your perceived difference we think you are all the same – rotten! So the next president will do a better job than George Bush? That is nothing to brag about! That bar is now set so low that most anybody will do a better job than Bush. Open the White Pages, close your eyes and point to a name. That person would do a better job. So please take some advice from a concerned citizen. Shut up, get to work, kick out the special interest! Stop being so fearful of how you appear and start doing the right things. All of you are rich enough already, right? Life is too short and your position has too much responsibility for you to continue business as usual. Meanwhile I will be voting for a third party candidate. And when all the pissed off Americans join me it will be a landslide.

I am not old enough to remember but according to recent history, Conservatives used to actually conserve! Conserve and protect the environment and they stood for smaller government and fiscal responsibility. Liberal used to mean open minded and forward thinking. Now Conservative translates to mean spirited, greedy, war mongers who have been hijacked by the radical religious elements while single handily destroying the planet. (Actually, over time, the planet will be just fine; it's the humans that are endangered) Conversely, Liberal now stands for tree hugging, socialist who want to pervert our family values, kill babies and return the Southwest back to Mexico . I for one refuse to buy into the madness. I choose to define Liberal and Conservative closer to how the dictionary does. Again, as you try to define yourselves as Conservative or Liberal, many of us consider you as all the same! Corrupt, ineffective and obnoxious!

Our Founding Fathers believed that a revolution was needed every so often to purge the corruption and restore justice. My hope is that it is not too late to have a bloodless revolution. Hopefully soon we can get back to laughing at how ridiculous you all are. Today the stakes are too high to be funny.