Nightgaunt

WHO SUMMONS ME?! Oh, hey Cherny.

There may be a less-rare-than-a-Spook-TaysteeWonderbunny-sighting-but-nonetheless-fairly-uncommon-these-days-Tszura-Nightgaunt-sighting, as well.

Let's not forget your obsession with Robert Goulet...

The first women I was consciously attracted to (I was 4 or 5 years old) were: 1. Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams) 2. Lynda Carter Both of which served to cement my predilection for curvy brunettes.

It seems to me that the sole basis of the "Bert and Ernie are homosexuals" hypothesis is the fact that they live together and sleep in the same bedroom. I spent about 5 years of my adult life sleeping in the same room with various male room mates. Would that lead you to assume that I must be gay? Could it be that perhaps what Children's Television Workshop was trying to do was teach children that even people with opposite personalities can learn to get along and be best friends? To me, this smacks of the "Pink Lincoln" debacle in which people claimed that Abraham Lincoln was gay because he would sleep in the same bed with male friends when traveling. Actual historians came back with the fact that this was common practice for the time, due to limited space at inns and for fiscal reasons. Take a look at photos of WWII-era men and their friends. You'll see a lot of hand-holding and arms around each other. This isn't evidence of homosexuality; it's simply how people posed for photos back then. When we stop pointing out the slightest hint of non-heterosexuality and giggling, "Oooooooh look! So gay! Tee hee!" then we can perhaps begin growing the fuck up as a culture. Some people are straight, some people are gay, some people are bi, and some people are transgendered. Get over it. NOTE: This is not aimed at you specifically, Simon. The post just brought up a pet peeve of mine.

We can throw statistics back and forth until doomsday, but I use a simpler approach: follow the money. Al Gore says there's a big problem with the environment! Carbon dioxide, that gas that plants breathe and turn into oxygen is a deadly toxin that's killing the planet! Horrors! Fortunately, he has a solution: a system of "carbon credits" that will force polluters to pay for the privilege of emitting CO2. And conveniently, Al Gore owns the company that sells these planet-saving credits! So convenient! I'm sure he feels really badly about the fact that his inherited fortune comes from his father's involvement with Occidental Oil. Maybe all this new righteous money will offset the old, bad, polluting money.

The police were clearly in the wrong here, but I think it's more important to address this "ADHD" thing. A few years ago, my son was exhibiting all the signs of this made-up illness. He couldn't focus, lashed out physically against adults and other kids, etc. Tszura and I developed a system of clearly defined and simple rules that he had to follow, as well as a consistent disciplinary plan. We set clear boundaries. We worked with him and taught him the skills necessary to focus and explained to him in terms a four-year-old could understand the reasons behind the rules he was being made to follow. I know it's hard to believe, but we actually did our job as parents, and lo and behold: it worked. At the age of 6, he is a well-adjusted and ridiculously well-behaved (not to mention happy) child. All this was accomplished with neither corporeal punishment nor psychoactive drugs. It is my opinion that children are diagnosed as having ADHD (a psychobabble term meaning "rambunctious child"), given drugs, and the parents think that there's nothing that they can do because it's a medical condition. Parents love it, because it absolves them of the responsibility of actually being expected to raise the children properly; teachers love it because the drugs turn the children into passive zombies; pharmaceutical companies love it because it means huge profits; the government loves it because the ramifications of the "disease" gives it more excuses to intrude upon our personal lives. The only losers are the children of intellectually lazy parents and it's a goddamn shame.

The ACLU, while not my favorite organization, has championed the Constitution in several cases. The problem is that they tend to pick and choose, based on political bias.

The Occupy protests have given me a little glimmer of hope, but the more I look into what their demands are, the more questions I have as to who's really behind it. They're really pushing this Buffett Rule, but I just can't get behind a piece of legislation that the government has been so careful to keep offline. There are plenty of pundits giving their spin on it, and I'd really like to know where they're finding the original text. Anyway, as a veteran of the tea parties who watched them go from grass-roots gatherings to Neo-con circle jerks, I present you with this... How COINTELPRO really works and destroys social movements Regardless, I'll be at the train station on October 21st for the Occupy Detroit kickoff, pissing and moaning about the Fed, as always.

Are non-DGNers permitted to attend?

Saint Smithens' Day

I like the idea of insinuating our DGN tendrils into Mexicantown.

If you lived through the '70s, you couldn't avoid the Bee Gees. If you were a little kid in the '70s, you pretty much had it hard wired into your vulnerable little developing neural pathways. So yeah, I love the Bee Gees and I don't care who knows it.

It's the Plan of San Diego meets the Plan of San Francisco!

I haz a sad.

Good points, all. Here's how I see it, for whatever it's worth: If someone consumes a legal drug like alcohol and as a result of their impairment, causes the injury or death of another, they're punished. I would assunme the same thing would apply to any newly-decriminalized drug. I'm definitely not in favor of criminalizing something because a small percentage of people make poor choices. I apply the same sort of thinking to doing drugs in public places, at work, while driving, selling to minors, and purchasing with "food stamps". We have laws and restrictions regarding alcohol and cigarettes with regard to these situations, and I see no reason why the same thing wouldn't apply to marijuana, peyote, etc. I've never been in favor of having absolutely no restrictions on drug use, but I do think that decriminalization, ending the ridiculous restrictions on the lives of responsible adults, has to happen if we are to have the kind of free and open society intended by this nation's founders. The only problem I have with this is the unconstitutionality of maintaining a standing army on U.S. soil. Substitute "military" with "civil authorities" abiding by Constitutional law, and I'll support it. I hope I'm not missing your point.

Um, grrr! or something... I thinkj my wife has just condemned me to a new nickname.

I don't really care in this situation either, for different reasons. However, if this country still resembled the Representative Republic that it was set up to be, I would care very much. In fact, I think that the "I don't care" attitude is responsible in part for the situation we find ourselves in now. If we say, "Wellllll...the part of the Constitution that enumerates the requirements for being President isn't really that important," then that opens the door to ultimately saying, "Wellll...that First Amendment isn't really that important." Either you have a Constitution that is the ultimate law of the land, or you don't. The whole point is to prevent a potential dictator from picking and choosing the bits (s)he does or doesn't like. Since however, the citizenry of this country have demonstrated over the course of several generations that it doesn't care about liberty, and has allowed the wholesale shredding of the Constitution, I don't particularly care about the birth certificate issue. We've opted for slavery and we're just waiting for the infrastructure of a police state to be completed. Einstein or a half naked guy? Can't we just thaw out Ron Paul and be done with it?

I'm looking for a car, but not just any car. It's gotta: Be in good working order, Have decent gas mileage, Cost no more than $1200.

O Majik 8-Ball! Tell me true. Will it all come to naught?

I'm still pulling for capes to make a comeback.

First of all, I am sick to goddamned death of being called "racist" every single time I disagree with something that the Obama administration does. I am hereby declaring that anyone who believes that Obama is a citizen is a child molester. How about that? I've just invalidated every argument or opinion you have on the subject by slapping a label on you. True, I may not know you, but it sure is convenient for me. Second, while I do think that there are serious questions that have not been answered, I think that the whole issue is nothing but another distraction. He may not be a citizen and that's unconstitutional, but it pales in comparison to the bigger picture. I'm not going to go off on another of my diatribes. Those with eyes to see will see. I understand that most won't look behind the curtain, because to do so results in a whole lot of worry and anxiety. It throws our whole concept of American government into question when we realize that the whole Republican-Democrat "rivalry" is just a dog and pony show and that other interests are in control. It's scary and we've been conditioned to remain little people and simply believe what we're told by the big people. Seriously, the racism charge is the fallback position of those who just don't want to think. It's insulting and it's nothing but an excuse to avoid considering uncomfortable questions.