Philosophical Question

If there are no comments to my postings, were they really out there at all?

San Francisco

I don't people in San Francisco like me.

One time, I was in Dottie's one morning and ask ed the waitress for cream. Apparently I didn't ask nicely enough because I was subjected to a recurring, piecemeal lecture on the evils of the 'white male' dominated society. This was between delivery of food so I wasn't too comfortable in eating the food.

Recently, I was in Mill Valley in search of pizza. As I perused Ton y Tutto's menu, I notice that pepperoni was not available. In fact, no meat was available at all. When I inquired, the man behind the counter says 'You mean want meat?!?'. He said meat like it was a four letter word. Snd then laughed at me with his partner as I left the place in search of better pizza.

more later....

Separate but not equal

I am in the middle of a trial. The lit support guy on our team is gay. His S.O. [through civil union] is falling apart and this makes our lit support guy very unhappy. It amazes me to see the pain people go through in relationships. It also a great day to see when people are happy together. The best of those days is the day of marriage.

I can't imagine saying to this person he can't get married because the person he happens to love is of the same gender. I can't imagine the lack of compassion that must exist to be able to say to a person: you can't be happy. To say you are not the same as me. It reminds me of the education arguments: separate but equal. And the civil unions some how have to be the substitute for marriage. It is separate but it certainly is not equal.

Erection Addiction

Would you have really looked at this post if it was about the election? Just swap the l for an r wherever election appears if this is too boring for you.

I am obsessed with the presidential election. I have three different electronic maps of the U.S. indicating voter polls. Each one provides different outcomes. They rarely change but I monitor them several times a day on my Iphone to see the slightest change from the most recent overnight tracking polls. Obama is ahead in all of them but the potential Bradley effect makes all of that tenuous at best.

I have to check MSNBC against Foxnews to get a balance of what might be true out there. It has to lie between the two chasms of media bias. Fox does very little to hide its bias. And yet it is number one in the U.S. That says something America's politics. I can tell there is a different America out there that I have to visit some day to understand.

Finally, I am on the Yelp talk threads to discuss politics. I don't learn anything because I am not arguing with the brightest folks in the world. And we aren't looking to change each other's minds. Clever insults are about all that really comes out of it all.

Last night I got into discussion with a lawyer in my office about the election. He started making arguments I had never come across before [Obama = Bush]. I thought for a moment I had missed out on a whole body of electoral issues. He was getting visceral. I started quoting the bible to him. I was having trouble keeping up with him because it was in person / rapid e-mail and much faster than the online format I was used to.

Then he e-mailed me his sources. Newsmax. Newsbuster. Steve Gill. I knew at that moment the election was over. Even the smart, conservative guys were getting desperate for an argument for a McCain presidency. He was resorting to discredited right wing crap.

When the election is over I'll go back to doing my little food reviews.

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Working Criminal Class

The presidential campaigns talk about the middle class as if they needed saving every four years. The tax plans always talk about tax relief for middle America and their kitchen table issues. But no one wants to help the working criminal class.

Yet it exists behind the economic shadows of American life. Who are they? Small time criminal enterprises carried by folks who have regular jobs. What do they do? Transport drug paraphenalia, import prescription drugs, produce counterfeit tickets, grift rent from illegal immigrants, etc. All of this activity is done on small scale. Why do they do it? Well it isn't just money which would seem to be the incentive. For some of these guys, it's part f the thrill. Selling legitimate products just isn't enough. But in some cases it is the only way to pay bills. Especially when the regular 9 to 5 gig doesn't have health insurance.

I can't imagine the logic behind risking personal freedom so a guy can sit in better seats at Dodger stadium. Or planning the length of one's vacation based on the amount of Hawaiian red one can sell among friends in New York. One guy had the nerve to turn a 6 hour Tokyo layover into a temporary marketplace for Valiums @ $3 each.

Most of this may just be talk. But I remember my Russian friends from the 1980s tell me the real Soviet economy was run out of the trunks of taxi cabs. And America has lots of taxi cabs.

Too old for this crap

I thought McCain was running for President. But with the recent flip flops on taxes, immigration and other important issues, maybe he's better suited for the Summer Olympics as a gymnast.

Just lost my lunch imagining him in a leotard. If he did wear a leotard then he would be a 'tard in a 'tard.