Keep on Keeping on

Bill Le Masters sent this nice time lapse photography link over.

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While we were away, Michael Calvanese, the proprietor of the fabulous Café des Artistes Restaurant in Fallbrook, read one of my short stories, All Hallows' Even, at the Fallbrook Writers Read. I knew that only a true son of Brooklyn could do the story justice. Hear he got an extended standing ovation. Thank you, Michael.

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Muammar, we hardly knew ye...

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Jeffrey Sachs wrote a powerful message to Wall Street yesterday.

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J. P. sent this thought provoking letter over:
New subject for your blog:  have you noticed (I have) that there are members of this attack on Wall Street groups who have taken the view that it's the Jews' fault.  I've seen a placard with a drawing of money coming out of a funnel turning into Israel flags and Stars of David.  Also one blaming the Rothschilds.  And a woman (can you believe it?) stated her name and said she was a member of the LA Unified School District and said on camera that it was the Jews fault.  (She was African American - can you imagine if a Tea Party person said our problems were because of Blacks?  OMG)  Now, I know that these are bad apples (like every group has) but it reminds me of before WWI with the European bad economy and how so many were willing to jump on the "blame it on the Jewish bankers and business people" bandwagon.  Anyway, food for thought.
I have heard several riffs on this theme lately and would like to respond as honestly as I can. There have always been groups in society that have found it convenient to lay their problems on the jewish cabal or grand conspiracy. I know it is not very p.c. but the reality is that the blacks engage at about the same rate as the white supremacists. Now there was a time in the early sixties when jews were getting killed in places like Mississippi demonstrating for african americans but memories are sometimes short. Having said that I think that it would be foolhardy to tar a whole amorphous movement because of a few anecdotal placards. Why that would be like how the left (me?) tarred all the tea partiers based on a few signs of Obama with a bone through his nose. That is the unfortunate thing about movements, especially loose movements without leaders or platforms, any wackjob in the world can tie a rope to your dock and you sort of own them forever.

The Occupy Wall Street guy who was first called out as an anti semite turned out to be a jew, a young and rather stupid jewish guy who probably needed to back away from the bong, but I didn't think he was anti semitic.

It is also true that a quick list of names of the Wall Street mavens does seem to be heavily M.O.T.; Fuld, Blankfein, I think Dimon, Kravis, Milken etc. Thank god Paulson is a Christian Scientist so we don't bear all the wrath. Extremely cerebral jewish guys are known to be very good deal makers, perhaps some of their behavior is borderline sociopathic as well. Bundling trashy paper, selling it to your clients and then betting the other way may make for a great payday but it is not going to endear you to the world at large, gentile or not. Can jewish guys be as venal and selfish as the rest of society, unfortunately, yes we can. Do I think that these guys are out playing screw the goyim? Probably not. Does it look bad? Yes. it does. One bad kreplach spoils the whole bowl of soup. End of sermon.

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Out of all of the conservative columnists I think that I like Debra J. Saunders the best even though I rarely agree with her. When she nails it, she nails it and she is not afraid to go after anybody, liberal and conservative alike. Last week she wrote about Obama's pathetic escalation of the drug war. Candidate Barack was all about decriminalization and respecting states' rights but his justice department has declared war on medical marijuana like a pack of rabid dogs. Four California U.S. Attorneys upped the ante last week, going after landlords and all the low hanging fruit that outed themselves and took the Prez at his word.

What is interesting  is that with a 53% of the country now supporting legalization, Obama decides to play the heavy and he is clearly going to be on the losing side of the pendulum. Watch the movie Prohibition.

And he is going to lose significant votes on this issue. What I find hilarious is that the four U.S. attorneys released a statement after the shit hit the media fan that the whole gulag was their idea and that there was no prodding from the boys in Washington. "We just work for them but we took this one on ourselves. Seemed like a good idea. Right. The old Obama finesse, say one thing, act entirely differently and just keep smiling. Teflonman, nothing sticks. Just doesn't make sense because when he does query the public at town hall type affairs, marijuana legalization always polls as the top question he is confronted with. Why is he playing deaf on this issue? Can he escape the political heat?

I know many senior citizens and other medical marijuana users who are using cannabis for very serious diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis, cancer and chemo. As a person who has survived multiple cancers including bladder, kidney and ureter I can tell you that pot is the only thing that made me feel better and actually kept me off of narcotics during my recuperation and illness. Most people are not capable of growing their own nor should they try with the government being so despicable in its prosecution. A federal government that refuses to even let the benign substance get adequately studied. They have already made their minds up. It is true that many stoners are conveniently using medical marijuana for bullshit reasons and pretexts. I don't really blame them. Legalize it already.

Dispensaries have a right to recover their costs per the law (actually two laws), a law mind you that was voted on by a majority of California citizens. If it needs to be fine tuned it is our problem, not the province of a bunch of hypocritical dinosaurs in Washington who could use their own drug test. The federal government has lost all credibility on this issue and they stand with the cartels in keeping weed illegal, a moneymaker for both the Mexican drug lords and law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

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Presidential candidate Rick Perry announced last week that his plan for an economic recovery was built around a "safe and aggressive" plan for energy exploration in this country. You may be able to have safe and you certainly can have aggressive but I kind of doubt that you can have them both at the same time. Ask the folks down in New Zealand, or the gulf or the people who are still cleaning up arter the Exxon Valdez in Alaska. When it comes to a showdown between energy and the environment, the smart tout says to always bet on money to win.

Ben LeBolt, an Obama spokesman, immediately pounced on Perry, saying that he was utilizing"old thinking" that won't create energy independence or enough jobs.

"The energy policy Gov. Perry outlined last week was a carbon copy of an energy policy that you would have read 40 years ago.""It doubled down on finite resources without really capitalizing on the clean energy market; it ceded that market to China and said we should just use all of our expendable resources, as much and as quickly as possible, without really thinking about taking control of our energy security and building a path to a clean energy future," LaBolt said.

Old thinking? Doubling down on a failed or antiquated policy? Now where have I heard that before?

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I am going through a lot of my black and white photographs trying to come up with a choice few for the show that I am curating, Monochrome. I hope that you will join me and attend the opening reception on October 28th at 6:00 p.m. Pinnell Gallery. I think that we have thirteen photographers this year and it should be quite good.

Editor Debbie Ramsey was kind enough to mention the show in the Fallbrook Village News.