People Power Is More Than Just a Slogan Today

Good Day World!

For the first time in my 65 years of existense, the phrase "Power to the People" is more than just a slogan.

When I was a teenager in the Sixties, it seemed like every group was using it. The Black Panthers, hippies and radicals had that in common.

It's not like people didn't join them; it's just that most of the time the slogan was more of a siren call than anything really effecting change. 

The hippie's philosophy of free love and flowers floating in air faded away with too many LSD trips, quietly disappearing into the "Me" Seventies.

Radicals, like the "Weather Underground," called on anarchists and disenfranchised minorities to wage war in America's streets. Their version of people power was more like a scene from the apocalypse. In the end, the group perished in a fiery shootout with police.

Then there were the Black Panthers. Their message of "Power to the People" carried revolutionary tones and called for a new society where African Americans would be treated equally. Their mission was to help struggling black communities.

African Americans are still fighting a race war for equality today.

But a newfound confidence has sprung up worldwide, as citizens feel more empowered. A good example of how to tap into that power can be found at Change.org, a website with a platform dedicated to letting anyone start a petition.

For better or worse, people can organize almost instantly now and get their message across loud and clear. 

Standing on street corners and waving signs, hoping people will notice and perhaps honk their horns in support, doesn't cut it in this new age of technology.

The age of people power is here. You are part of a revolution that will forever change the way things are done by local and national governments.

As It Stands, it's exciting to see the ascension of the common man, but now the question is, where will it eventually lead us?

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Crazed killer escapes from mental hospital, a miracle diet, and Trump dumped in new poll

Good Day World!

It's one of those freaky Fridays...

An escapee from a Seattle, Washington, mental hospital was last seen buying a ticket to Spokane on a Greyhound bus. 
(This undated photo provided by the Lakewood Police Department shows Anthony Garver.Lakewood Police Department via AP)

Just how far south Anthony Garver has gone no one knows yet.

I live in Oregon, and hope he doesn't make it this far south. The police say he's 'Scary and dangerous,' and warned the public to call 911 if they see him.

With that unpleasent thought lingering like a snake in the grass, let's move on to more weighty matters...

It's hard for me to believe in a diet where you eat next to nothing one day and gorge the next...and actually lose weight! That's freaky.

Watch this video and see what you think.

There is Growing Evidence That Fasting Diets Really Work

Here's the freakiest story for the day...

How is it that Donald Trump is the GOP frontrunner when you see polls like this?

Seven in 10 people, including close to half of Republican voters, have an unfavorable view of Trump, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Go figure. Having a reality star run for president is about as freaky as it gets!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

When love calls: a brief look at a four-letter word

Good Day World!
  
The Beatles had it right when they sang, “All you need is love.” 

  The most positive emotion in humans is love. It moves mountains.
(Photo-My wife Shirley, and I.) 

It saves lives. No amount of money will ever buy it. Your body and mind need it like oxygen.
  
   It has spawned poems since ancient times when rhymes were written for Kings and Queens.

  C.S. Elliot describes four kinds of love in his book “The Four Loves.”  They are based upon the Greek words for love;  Storge (affection), Phileo (friendship,) Eros (romance), and Agape (unconditional love). 

   Love is the best anti-depressant, but many of our ideas about it are wrong. Most of us get our ideas about love from the popular culture. We expect to be swept off our feet when in love. We tend to have unrealistic images that don’t fit with the real world.

   The myth in our culture is love just happens. It appears out of nowhere and suddenly you are intoxicated. It doesn’t work that way. You have to actively pursue love by learning a variety of skills. You can’t just sit down and wait for love to come to you. That’s a mistake a lot of us make.

   “Hate controls everything it touches, but love sets everything it touches free,” said Bryant McGill, in The Voice of Reason. It’s true. Love can give us a new lease on life. It has no boundaries, other than the ones we set upon it.

   An extremist when it came to love, Kurt Vonnegut also had a healthy irreverence about it. In The Sirens of Titan he said, “A purpose in human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”

  In The Brothers Karamazov Fydor Dostoyevsky forcefully describes love. “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” 

   Paulo Coelho in Zahir: A Novel of Obsession, wrote, “Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.”

   Honore de Balzac, who knew a thing or two about all-consuming love, wrote Physiologie Du Marriage.  In it he states, “The more one judges, the less one loves.” The wisdom of this quote really resonates when you think about it. I think we’re all guilty, at one time or another, of harshly judging others.

   One of my favorite quotes about love comes from Agatha Christie who wrote in her biography: “It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize how much you love them.” 

   It was Albert Einstein who asked, “How are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?” When I try to describe my first love (who I married) the words seem sappy and silly. I found that love grew, and was not a static thing.

   The longer you love, the deeper it goes. I know this from experience. Poets and authors worldwide have talked about love since the days of yore, but the subject never seems to be exhausted. People have always written about it, big and small. Love is always a fresh subject.

   Love is hard to define. How do you avoid mistaking it for infatuation or lust? Not even an experienced person can give a definite answer to that question. Psychologists talk about “that initial glow” (for the first six months) when a couple fall in love. It’s almost a fairytale come true, but always ends in reality. If love survives the rigors of  the world, it’s true love.

   “Love is your mother watching basketball games with me, even though she doesn’t care about the game,” I explained to my sons early on. “Love is selfless. It bends under stress, but always rebounds when given a chance.”

   Contrary to what some people may think, love has no price, yet still has to be earned. A mother’s love for her child is the exception, because it has no bounds or requirements. I’ve seen love in my wife’s eyes for 41 years, despite all the dumb things I’ve done during that time.

   Yes, I believe in the power of love. During my hippie days in the late sixties, I eagerly embraced the message of “Peace and Love” even though I was a stranger to it. Love does make the world go around, of that I‘m sure.

    As It Stands, to have truly lived, we must have love in our lives.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

A word of wisdom: remember to be wise in your whining ways!

 Good Day World!           
                                                       
 I’m a whiner when it comes to pain these days.

 Seems like I get a new pain everyday when I wake up. I can strain a pinkie doing something stupid the day before, and the pain will greet me in the morning like an unwanted in-law seeking to move into my den.

 I try to take solace in the fact experts say my habit of cracking my knuckles when I was young didn’t cause the arthritis that I currently suffer. They say cracking my knuckles was simply forming - then popping - an air bubble in my synovial fluid. That’s the gooey stuff in the cavities of your joints.

 I have a lousy left knee. It crunches when I walk. When I had it examined and the word surgery came up, I decided it still had mileage left despite the near constant pain. So I wear a brace - sporadically - and whine for all to hear as I lumber along. 

 I just read an article about a sugar solution injected into the knee for pain relief. The technique - known as dextrose prolotherapy - has been around for 75 years but is still considered an "alternative" therapy. 

 If I used this method for pain relief I’d probably get sugar diabetes! Alternate pain solutions have produced problems for me in the past and I‘m gun shy of shooting myself in the foot again!

Seriously, I do look for ways to alleviate my pain without taking meds. I use relaxation techniques, smoke ganja, and watch my diet. 

 I’m careful not to twist my back when I bend over and pet my pug. Basic stuff. I use the cane when my right leg goes totally numb, as it will after I stand upright for long periods of time. Comes from nerve damage in my back. If I don’t resort to the cane after a certain point, I look like Big Bird on a binge! 

 I’ve discovered that whining can feel good. People pay attention and you might even get babied for your efforts! If you’re really lucky, they offer to get whatever you want, and are happy to run to the store for your favorite chocolate peanut butter ice cream!

 I just have to remember to be wise in my whining ways. Too much produces the opposite effect of what I want. Everyone disappears suddenly, and I’m left to lament in solitude. There is a fine line.

 I whine about bruises. The darn things pop up out of nowhere on parts of my body that barely got bumped the day before. If it’s a really dark bruise I display it as proof that I have a reason to whine. 

“Look at this dear,” I tell my wife, displaying a dark spot on my forearm. She patiently nods in sympathy.

 I don’t know what good it does to whine when I hurt. When I was younger it was the last thing I would let anyone know. Heavens no! I was way too tough to let on I was human. Especially in the Army.

 Age does something to a person however. As I settle into my sixties, all the abuse I subjected my body to is coming back to haunt me like old competitors on steroids! 

Decades of basketball are partially to blame for my pain, but excesses like jumping off roofs of houses when I was in elementary school, contributed to the overall breakdown of my body. 

 Pain comes home to roost in older birds like me who didn’t take good care of themselves. I lived hard, played hard, and still play hard even when it hurts! In that I don’t have any regrets. 

 I’m in my so-called Golden Years, I’m gimping around like Popeye on pot, but I’m lucky to have a wife who’s understanding and will listen to my whining without wanting to see me lose my voice!

 I was talking with another fellow my age the other day and we did a dueling banjos thing where I would whine…then he would…then I would whine even louder.. and he would.. Well, you get the idea.

 As It Stands, they say humor is the best medicine, so I try to remember to laugh after a good whining session! 
(This column first appeared in the Times-Standard in April of 2008)

Time for me to walk on down the road...

2 Nursery Rhymes For The Times

Good Day World!

Hello Boys and Girls!

I've got two Nursery Rhymes about Donald Trump for you today.

The one on the right comes to you via MAD, and the one below via MY twisted brain!

Today's nursery rhyme is about Drump De Dump who wants to be president of the USA.

Here we go;

One day, Trump de Dump sat on an imaginary wall.

But Trump de Dump had a great fall 
when the Mexican government refused to build his giant wall.

Despite being a grump, Trump de Dump still smiled at every rally,
as his followers beat up protesters and kept a weekly tally.

It was amazing what Trump de Dump could do,
if he didn't like you he'd find a reason to sue!

All of the GOP's women and men,
couldn't rein Trump de Dump in!

So, the country is watching Dump's campaign in disgust,
hoping - against all hope - his efforts will be a bust! 

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Sweet Mary Jane: Talking About Sex and Cannabis

Good Day World!

After smoking ganja for 50 years, and researching the many applications that it offers, I'm still always looking for more news about my favorite plant. 

One of the more interesting - and less talked about - uses for pot is to enhance sex. I'm talking about other ways than just sparking a bowl and feeling sexy.

As far back as the seventh century, practitioners of Tantra—the ancient Hindu meditation that aims to “channel the divine energy of the macrocosm or godhead into the human microcosm”—have used weed to, well, channel the energy of a different godhead, too.

According to the journal Psychedelic Drugs, which documented the extensive use of cannabis in Tantra: “The Kama Sutra and Ananga Ranga eloquently detail Hindu sexual techniques, and the Tantras transform such sexual practices into a means of meditational yoga.”

One of my favorite stories is the epic Arabian work 1,001 Nights which detailed the intoxicating and aphrodisiac properties of hashish: 
“Art thou not ashamed, O Hashish-eater, to be sleeping stark naked with stiff standing tool?”

When people want to get down and funky in India they drink bhang (a kind of weed smoothie made of yogurt or milk, nuts, spices, and ground cannabis).

Folks in Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon, consume kif, which refers to the cannabis itself, but is also the name of another kind of blended pot drink that reduces inhibitions and impotence, and increases “transcendental experiences.”

More recently, I found out about marijuana lube for sex (I have a hunch this stuff has been around for a long time). It's called Foria. 
You spray it on your nether bits with the goal of having a localized, sensory-based high with no psychoactive effects.

Apparently it will also “bring to your fingertips the power of ancient plant medicine to inspire deep healing and unlock profound pleasures.” 
(Here’s a video if you want to see women talking about the “beautiful waves” of Foria-induced pleasure.)

Time for me to walk on down the road...

The Banana Generation: Butt-Hurt Youths Struggling With Reality

                                   Good Day World!

Meet the Banana Generation (aka millennials).

Like bananas, their feelings are easily bruised. They think there should be laws for people that make them FEEL unsafe or speak rudely to them.

Our college's are cluttered with bananas who are ill-fitted to go out into the real world. Instead of studying, they're setting up "safe places" for minorities to gather.

One has to wonder what will happen to these fragile souls when they eventually leave campus life. 

According to a recent Pew Research Center report, the nation's 18-to-34-year-olds are less likely to be living on their own today than they were in the depths of the Great Recession despite an upswing in the economy.

The Pew study shows that while the population of millennials (Bananas) has grown by three million people over the last eight years, there are fewer that are heads of their own households.

I know there's good reasons why some young adults are coming back home again; student debt, etc., but I question their grip on the real world.

One of the reasons I say that is because of advances in computer/video technology. 

It's not unusual to see 33-year-olds living second lives online in video games that are becoming more realistic every day...further blurring the lines between make-believe and reality.

There's a broad suspicion, shared across the ideological spectrum-from right-wing watchdogs to high-minded progressives-that college students these days are absurdly thin-skinned, unduly obsessed with "safe spaces" and political correctness.

As an Independent, I have to agree with that assessment.

In the great fruitbowl of life, the Bananas are going to have to learn to morph into watermelons!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Exploding Killer Lakes, Blood Falls, and Beyond

Good Day World!

We sure live in a wonderful world.

Mother Nature is full of surprises. For example:

Did you know there was such a thing as Exploding Killer Lakes?  It sounds like something from a horror movie, but it's all too true.

(photo - demons carved into walls of Am Phu Cave, Vietnam)

Our world is dotted with spectacular, natural and man-made oddities that may seem too strange to be real. Seeing is believing.

Check out these photos of Strange Natural Wonders of the World

Have you heard of Antarctica's Blood Falls? Scientists say the mysterious red flow is caused by a subterranian lake rich with iron. 

When I was in Vietnam in 1970, I didn't get a chance to visit the Marble Mountains and Am Phu Cave.  Today, visitors can go there and trip out, looking at all of the devilish figures carved in rock.

There's a lot of wonderful things to see around our world. Thank goodness, we have the internet to help discover them if we can't physcially go to them.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Take your politically correct terms and shove them!

                                 Good Day World!

I wrote this column for the Times-Standard three years ago. Not much has changed since then...

The term "politically correct," is an oxymoron. When I first heard it used while working as an editor for a weekly newspaper called The Desert Trail in 29 Palms, California, I thought it was so stupid it would surely go the way of the fabled Dodo bird and the nickel candy bar.

In a 1983 "As It Stands" column, I implored readers to reject the term because it was a political ploy to push certain agendas. I pointed out the new name for a manhole cover was a subterranean ingress and egress aperture cover. That got a lot of laughs.

Somewhere along the line, the laughs slowed down and people started getting serious/stupid about the term. To my dismay, it didn't go away. 

Instead it spread like poison oak in our language garden. It became so pervasive that the PC police think nothing of calling insane people selectively perceptive, or some other equally non-descriptive term.

Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I saw no problem with saying someone without hair was bald. Now, no one is bald, they're comb free. 

Remember when someone had BO (body odor)? That same person today is said to have nondiscretionary fragrance. Please!

You know something isn't right when censorship is foisted off as selective speech and drunks are referred to as spacially perplexed. Politically correct terms came about in order to tell people how they should act. No, really.

Political Correctness denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent, according to Wikipedia.

In other words, political correctness is out of control! My clumsy (excuse me -- uniquely coordinated) attempt to illustrate this contention comes with plenty of examples.

We no longer just have earthquakes, we have geological corrections. Despite that, when the earth starts to shake like a giant baby's rattle I will still scream "earthquake!"

If we don't already have a PC term for crime rate, I imagine civic leaders would be good with the term "street activity index." I have to admit -- with guilty pleasure -- I kinda like the following PC terms for some jobs.

Now, when you get a job in a restaurant you don't have to tell your friends you're just a dishwasher. No, your title will be "utensil sanitizer" and you'll wear a snappy white apron.

How about janitor? It's kinda of a blah description, but when you change it to "sanitation engineer" you're suddenly vaulted into white collar realms when describing your job. The same goes for the garbage man; who is now a sanitation engineer too.

Conversation between a father and a lifeguard who just saved his daughter from being pulled out to sea:

Father: "Thank you! Thank you for saving my drowning daughter!"

Lifeguard: "No problem. I save aquatically challenged people all the time."

Takes the snap out of that conversation doesn't it?

I can see where calling someone "differently weighted" instead of fat would seem a kinder description, but as far as descriptions go it's useless. What's differently weighted supposed to mean? Too fat or too skinny? Perhaps being at a perfect weight? I think you can see my point here.

I refuse to consider "motivationally dispossessed" as another term for lazy.

Just for a laugh, if you want to take this whole PC discussion to the next level, let's look at some political correct terms for females and males.

For the women:

-- Her breasts will never sag, they will lose their vertical hold.

-- She does not snore, she is nasally repetitive.

-- She does not get drunk, she becomes verbally dyslexic.

-- She is not a bad driver, she is automotively challenged.

For the men:

-- He is not a sex machine. He is romantically automated.

-- He is not a male chauvinist pig, he has swine empathy.

-- He does not get lost all the time, he discovers alternate destinations.

-- He does not fart and belch, he is gastronomically expressive.

You may think I'm ignorant (factually unencumbered), but you have to admit the PC police continue to clutter the language with terms best left under rocks!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Why You Don't Have To Worry About Trump Becoming Our Next President

Good Day World!

It's going to be okay.

The good news; Donald Trump will not be elected president of the United States.

The bad news; we still have months of Trump antics ahead.

I'm predicting that Trump WILL NOT even get the GOP nomination.

There is going to be a GOP Contested Convention in Cleveland. The establishment will do everything it can (including changing rules) to keep Trump from being nominated.

Odds are, Trump will get dumped in Cleveland.

Why A Contested Convention Favors Cruz

GOP panelists eager to scrap rule that helps Trump

I can see chaos breaking out long before the balloting begins at the convention. 

Emerging from the flaming rhetoric and dirty tricks will be a flawed nominee, scorched and defiant. If it isn't Cruz, then someone else may appear at the 11th hour.

But say I'm wrong, and Trump surfaces as the nominee. What are his chances of winning a general election aganist Hillary Clinton?

A Vote For Trump is a Vote for Hillary Clinton: Why Trump is a Sure Loser

Trump Is Killing the GOP’s Brand Among Minorities, Making It Even More Dependent on Whites

General Election: Trump vs Clinton (Clinton wins)

Donald Trump is Really Unpopular With General Election Voters

According to Moody's Analytics Presidential Election Model, which has correctly predicted the last nine elections, Clinton would win.

Why Hillary Clinton Could Beat Donald Trump

Trump has a serious problem when it comes to women voters. Most don't like him. Half of the Republican women polled recently said they can't see themselves voting for him.

Nationally the odds are even worse - with 73% of the women polled saying they'd never vote for Trump. 

Why Donald Trump Can't Win The White House

To all of you people who've been stressing out over the possibility of The Donald getting elected president...relax. It's not going to happen.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Gun Love: The Social Impact of Guns In Our Society

Good Day World!

One of the most devisive topics in America today is gun control.

Some Americans believe there should be more controls on buying guns and what kind of guns should be legal. Other Americans believe that there shouldn't be any controls on gun use.

People often cite the 2nd Amendment when any kind of gun control measures are proposed. Extreme gun advocates don't see anything wrong with owning ANY type of gun; 50 Cal Machine Guns, etc.

With this controversial backdrop, I'm going to take a look at the impact of guns in our society today:

Compared to other countries with similar levels of development or socioeconomic status, the United States has exceptional homicide rates, and it's driven by gun violence.

Visualizing gun deaths: Comparing the U.S. to rest of the world

Accidents caused by guns are common in our country today:

Video - Gun Accidents By Careless People

Article - Guns hospitalize more than 7,000 children per year in U.S.: study 

Article - A Gun In The Home Increases The Risk of Accidents. So does a gun next store

Article - Gun Violence: Facts and Statistics

I looked around for the advantages to owning guns, but frankly there's just not that many examples out there. I did come up with a couple of articles however:

Article - Advantages and Disadvantages To Owning Guns

Article - Should You Buy A Firearm? Pros and Cons of Gun Ownership

Reasons why we buy guns:

Article - Why Own A Gun? Exploring The Reasons Why People Buy Guns

I leave you to draw your own conclusions about the roll of guns in our lives today.

Meanwhile remember when the Beatles sang Happiness is a Warm Gun (bang bang! shoot! shoot!) 

Time for me to walk on down the road...