Grateful Dead

Has been lost and we continue to pay a ridiculous price every day, whether it be the innocents we put at risk or the tax dollars we vacuum up or the corruption that seeps it's way into every corner of every city. I'd rather just give a needle and junk to a junkie who refuses every form of help then allow the current status quo to keep blowing through our land.

In a surprise move, the The US & Russia have announced from Geneva that Syria will inventory it's chemical stockpile within one week and destroy them within the rough timeline of mid-2014. While the US has stopped posturing militarily, Obama has clearly stated that he reserves the right to unilaterally strike militarily if the Syrians deviate significantly or the Russians fail to live up to their commitments in pushing the Syrians. If it works it is a significant diplomatic coup for the Obama team. If it turns into months of foot-dragging without a clear ending then nothing will have been accomplished and Putin gets to have a distribution center to sell conventional weapons all over the Middle East.

My views on drugs are very liberal. What one does to their self is their own business. But, this day care center in The Bronx that was a front for a major narcotics operation is just wrong. 1 kilo of powdered cocaine. 180 grams of crack cocaine. 1,000 oxycodone tablets. 1 loaded handgun. $180,000 cash. In a facility that serviced 15 children everyday. Definitely a moral interlude with those people.

Last year and again this spring, it was ravaging forest fires consuming beetle-kill evergreens. Now it's raging floodwaters washing out the mountain canyons and inundating cities and towns from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins. Let's hope the rains let up and people get a chance to clean up.Furthur arrives at Red Rocks next Thursday....

Because the Constitution protects property and contracts rather than people.

Most of us contribute to polluting the environment in some way and I won"t state the obvious. But what sickens me is the poor families living anywhere near a well that have to pick up and leave (if they can afford it) without any compensation for having too. It's just sort of a "tough luck, kiss my ass" approach that these companies are using simply because they know these people can't fight back. Not right Who has hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight for whats theirs? These companies aren't only destroying the land, they're also getting away with murder. Many people are dreadfully sick because of these bastards. I just don't get how they're allowed to destroy peoples lives. I guess there aren't enough Erin Brockovich's on the planet. Anyways...it's hard not to think that we are most definitely, doomed. Sooner rather than later. I'm really not a pessimist, by nature. It's just hard to see a any of this changing.

Doesn't it seem like some sort of evolving picture of hell? Mad Max doesn't begin to describe it. We have earthquakes and waste water and benzene clouds and old mine cave-ins. It seems like 1/3 of our country is in the path of this demonic fuel repository. I hate fracking. It's terrible. But I've been through some of those towns where people can't put a roof over their heads or provide for their kids because there is NOTHING for them. Are we supposed to condemn them? Tell them to move away from their families? Are we, who are more fortunate, supposed to say: "Don't work there, It's bad for the Earth! I hate fracking and greedheads who make money off of it. But I can't bring myself to say to them: "Don't take the only work in town!"

I saw my first pro-fracking commercial this morning when my wife turned on "The Today Show," and it reminded me why I stopped watching television. Reminds me of the anti-corn syrup commercials that quickly turned into pro-corn syrup commercials, only the lasting health effects are much, much more devastating. And I'm sure, like the good little sheep they are, the American base will start supporting fracking as the answer to cheap energy. Flammable tap water has to be better than another oil spill in the ocean, right? Right...?

Most of us who voted and worked for Obama wanted a US President who would consult with allies and form coalitions and generally follow after alternative methods to war. We certainly got that with Barak Obama, the one who won the Nobel Peace Prize upon taking office. What we got last night was as an uncertain commander-in-chief who seemed unsure as to what to do in that face of a difficult situation such as he now faces in Syria. Faced with the desertion of our British "Cousins" and the will of the people themselves in the form of their representatives in our Republican form of government, the President was faced with an historic choice and it sure felt to me like he picked the wrong way. It seems unlikely that Syria will give up it's entire chemical weapons arsenal with the help of Putin and the Russians. Putin's interests lie in the continued sale of arms to the Middle East, including to the Syrians. It would seem Putin wants to push out every contract for arms he can before somebody in the US with some balls decided to strike boldly and force the issue. This is one of those types of issues that pits left against right in a game where the scales weigh up the least amount of dead bodies in the end.

Rather, a cynicism that fairly leaked out the top of his head in asking for a postponement of the vote in the Senate on 9/11. Even the rich symbolism of what happened one year ago in Bhenghazi and what happened 12 years ago in NYC was mot enough to move the 20% gap in the Congress. One should have listened very closely to the President. He is giving up none of his prerogatives as he realizes this will be one of the defining moments of his presidency in foreign policy. The UN and Russians and have about two weeks to resolve the matter by destroying the collection of stockpiles of nerve agents and destroying the weapons delivery systems. Look for Obama not to utter another word before he gives the order to pull the trigger. No president will allow the American people to tell him what to do. Not unless it is the richest directors of corporations in interlocking directorates. Those people pay for politicians to get elected.