TUESDAY POLITICS

“Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed reservations November 29, 2004 about allowing medical marijuana for sick patients whose doctors have recommended they smoke it for pain. The justices appeared sympathetic to the federal government’s argument that it has the power to prosecute or take other action against patients who use home-grown marijuana in states with laws allowing medical use. ” See this article.

I just have to say that I think this is one of the most extreme examples of fear-based political meddling in the very large group of such activities currently underway in the second term of Hell we’ve just elected. While Angel Reich begs for help with brain tumor pain on TV and thousands of other patients crawl out of their sickbeds to grow their own weed because they can’t just buy it even if it’s prescribed by their doctor in the few liberal states that allow even that, millions of people walk into their local supermarket and buy legal alcohol and go home and get drunk and beat their wives to death and batter their children and drink themselves into an early grave, but hey…… guess who has the biggest lobby? Give me a freaking break!

Deep Thought: “I’ll take that little one, way in the back,” I said. “That little collie mix?” said the animal shelter guy. “No,” I said, “the other one behind him.” “The gray terrier?” he said. “He’s gray,” I said, “but way in the back, in the corner.” “You mean the water faucet?” he said. I realized then it was a water faucet, but I didn’t want to look like a jerk, so I said, “Yeah, that’s the one I want.” It ended up costing me almost five hundred dollars to get that faucet removed. But you know, I’ve still got that faucet, and I wouldn’t trade it for any dog in the world.”
Today I am grateful for: Sobriety
Guess the Movie: “1791 was the year it happened. I was 24, younger than you are now, but times were different then. I was a man at that age: the master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans. I had lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been buried less than half a year; I would have been happy to join them. I couldn’t bear the pain of their loss: I longed to be released from it.” Answer: Interview with the Vampire, 1994. Winner: thenarrator.
You Want A Moral Issue? How About Drugs That Don’t Kill?
by Arianna Huffington
As Democrats continue to search heaven and earth for a moral values issue they can call their own, I have just the prescription: Why not start with the immoral behavior of giant drug companies such as Merck that continue to sacrifice the health of the public on the altar of higher and higher profits?
(Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:16 pm
+ = Doesn’t look likely that they’ll pass a constitutional amendment to elect Schwarzenegger before he’s too old to run.
- = I’m feeling the Christmas pressure already and it isn’t even December yet, well not for another 4 hours anyway.

MONDAY BOOK

Seasons of the Spirit
Daily Meditations for Adults in Mid Life

November 29
Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. – Douglas MacArthur

Life gives us as much adventure as our visions will allow. We can accomplish only what we are willing to dream. We are as limited as our fears.
With many of our structured years behind us, we now have the opportunity to reshape our destiny. Many of us begin planning for retirement and adventure in our 30s, 40s, and 50s. Instead of being put out to pasture, we are choosing to create our own field of dreams, to make our own spiritual and emotional fortunes.
We can choose now how we will live our last fifty years. Daring to plan early on can make our dreams come true. It is never too early to risk living as we really want to live.
Are we cutting back on nonessential tasks or are we taking on more and more limiting responsibilities? We must make the space in our lives so our dreams can grow and develop. Today is when we can start planning for our future. What risks are we willing to take? What changes are we willing to make so our lives can be the way we want them to be? When will be begin?
Today, let me believe that I deserve to have my dreams come true. Let me do one thing to make them happen.
Check any local bookstore shelves these days and you’ll find a row of these “day-by-days” on many different themes. They’re handy to dip into at moments when you might feel a little adrift, a little gloomed out, a little resentful, a little itch in your soul for something in black and white to center you. Now I’ll go get busy making something happen. Have a great day!

Deep Thought: “Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don’t know what your rights are, or who the person is you’re talking to. Then, on the way out, slam the door.”
Today I am grateful for: Multi-colored Christmas ribbon
Guess the Movie: “Didn’t know they grew ‘em so small on the farm.” Answer: Hoosiers, 1986. Winner: thenarrator.
Democrats Need to Hang on to Values
by Helen Thomas
 Democrats who joked about fleeing to Canada after the re-election of President Bush should stick around and stick to their values.
President Bush appears likely to launch vigorous policy assaults that Democrats will need to counter. The Bush drive to privatize Social Security and his eagerness to stack the U.S. Supreme Court with right-wing justices are two instances where the loyal opposition of the minority Democratic Party will be essential. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:48 pm
+ = Made a new xangan friend today in person.
- = Why are there so few camcorder repair people in the world and why do they charge so much – $120+ flat fee?

PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT
(See sidebar for others)

Helen Keller and Martin Luther King, Jr.

First of all, I’ve been meaning to mention that I’m having such a good time doing this series because I’m learning a lot about people already familiar to me and some I’ve never heard of before. It’s kind of like being back in school and not having to be graded. When I was deciding on the person(s) for today, I was actually going to go with Bernard Kouchner, the French humanitarian who co-founded Doctors Without Borders among many other things until I discovered he agreed with starting the war in Iraq. I also considered Jack Kerouac, but I’ve mentioned him already in past blogs, or Garrison Keillor whose radio show always cheers me up when I happen upon it while driving around on Sundays. But I chose Keller and King because they had something fascinating in common. The lives of both these famous Americans were shaped by the very nature of their being – one born African-American in a country unfortunately still suffering the disease of racism today, the other left blind and deaf by an illness before she was two years old. In spite of being in this world with the deck significantly stacked against them, they rose to the occasion. Helen Keller was born in 1880 in a small Alabama community to parents who had supported the Confederacy. She was blessed by acquiring a teacher who taught her to read, write and speak, but then took that gift and went on to graduate with honors from Radcliffe College and receive degrees from Harvard and other universities. She lectured throughout the world and served on councils and foundations for the blind and deaf, and sometimes for causes like socialism and women’s rights. She also wrote an autobiography, The Story of My Life, and several other books that gave hope and inspiration to many. When she was already 49 years old, another Southerner was born in Atlanta, Georgia, his father and grandfather both Christian ministers. Like Helen Keller, his name is a household word today, as he took the circumstances of his life and turned them into a fight for social justice and civil rights that eventually led to the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Four years later, on April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed while in Tennessee to support a strike of black garbage men. He was 39 years old. Two months after his death and many miles away in Connecticut, at the age of 88, Helen Keller also left her legacy behind. For both of them, the words on King’s tombstone ring out, “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.”

Deep Thought: “I think the things you remember most are the little things, like that little space guy I kept tied up down in the basement. That little guy was only about five inches tall! He used to beg me to untie his rope, but I knew he’d just run away if I did. I think the cat finally got him, but the cat had little burn marks on him, from where the space guy shot him with his little gun, before his ammo ran out. I remember things like that. “
Today I am grateful for: Wood ducks
Guess the Movie: “When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.” Answer: Groundhog Day, 1993. Winner: swawg.
It’s Time for Americans to Support Peace Instead of US War Machine
by Bill Dunn
I look high and low for a sense of outrage at what America is doing in Iraq and see only tepid glimpses. But of course, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
On the day when some 500 people marched for peace in Madison, about 80,000 made it to the Badger game against Minnesota. Bucky triumphed, as did death and destruction in Iraq. We claimed the coveted Axe and hammered Fallujah with 500-pound bombs. Yes, “we.” It’s being done in your name and in your children’s. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 10:46 pm
+ = Yummy breakfast out this morning.
- = I can’t believe I’m blogging this late so off to bed.

SATURDAY POEMS I ADMIRE
(See sidebar for others)

Some Days It is All I Can Do (for Margaret Hassan)

to keep myself from walking around crying
babbling when someone asks about
last night’s brain-dead comedy
I felt someone pulled off the streets
of baghdad this morning
her fear fogged my glasses
I reached in my pocket and lint
was pulled out
as the blindfold came down
over her eyes
the hard chair pressing against
her back
is stiffness in my neck
the tears are just there
behind my eyes like
the drops on the window
if she dies tonight
I will bathe in my tears
to try and cleanse at least
one soul

Light Under the Door

(In Memoriam: Margaret Hassan)
she did not toil there
to profit
from the flow of black gold
a brass door knob
a rusty bottle cap
a young girls voice saying thank you
may have found its way
into her suitcase
her hands trembled
not when the door was locked
but when it opened
not knowing the time
chosen to write upon her death
I see how this false war
could have led to this
the blackness echoed back to her
to the light under the door
she whispered
I would not have done otherwise

Randolph Nesbitt
47 years old
Aliso Viejo, CA
poet/artist/photographer, mortgage broker by trade, Poet Against the War

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Deep Thought: “I think Superman and Santa Claus are actually the same guy, and I’ll tell you why: Both fly, and both have a beard.”
Today I am grateful for: The few things left you can buy without rebates
Guess the Movie: “Wait a minute. You aren’t seriously suggesting that if I get through the wire… and case everything out there… and don’t get picked up… to turn myself in and get thrown back in the cooler for a couple of months so you can get the information you need?” Answer: The Great Escape, 1963. Winner: thenarrator.
A Coward’s Tribute to Margaret Hassan
by Tom Nagy
I am nothing more than a timid college professor, but the likely murder of Margaret Hassan compels me to respond to her honesty, hospitality and ultimate sacrifice with my own painful, but ultimately hopeful tribute. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:00 pm
+ = Feels so good to keep feeding the birds and squirrels as the weather gets colder and colder.
- = Circuit City has the crappiest salespeople.

FRIDAY FIVE

1] Do you remember the very first time that you used the Internet and/or e-mail? What was that experience like?
I first became really aware of computers when my daughter was a senior at Reed College, and being the incredibly hip place it is they had given all seniors access to their very own Mac to use for writing their senior thesis. When my mother cashed out a CD and offered me $1000 to spend on anything I opted for my first Mac, a tiny thing that I can’t remember the model name of now but it did word processing and some rudimentary games in black and white and I thought that was magnificent for starters. Little did I know. Today I’m still a Mac person, and my current Mac, the first of the G4′s, is just about as slow as that original tiny box. I really need to get it fixed some kind of way – just can’t decide whether to do hardware solutions like another hard drive in it, or sign up for that fast service whatever it’s called so I’m not on dial-up any more. Today I can’t imagine the world without word processing, let alone the access to the world that the internet has provided.
2] How many messages are in your inbox right now? Are you usually pretty good at keeping up with e-mail correspondence? I’m kind of behind right now – 42 messages waiting, though some of them are very probably rejects. And this is after I got rid of the spam. For the longest time, I didn’t get much spam on my Mac compared to my PC at work. I hate it that there are so many people out there involved in trying to invade our privacy with all this spam. What does that say about how sick it is out there? On the other hand, I can’t imagine life without email at this point either. In my youth, I wrote massive letters often by hand and mostly to my family from wherever I was in the world. Today nobody I know writes letters – we all send email.
3] What kind of computer[s] do you have?At home, see above. I’d love to start with a new Mac, but they’re so much more expensive than PC’s so for the time being I’ll grind along thinking up ways to inch forward speed-wise. I have it split into an OS9.2 side and an OSX side. I hardly ever use OSX because it seems slower actually. Maybe that’s one thing that’s slowed the whole thing down so much. At work I have a Gateway with a flatscreen monitor woo-hoo. It’s much faster but then we run on a powerful server at work and we have techs that come the minute you have problems and a Helpdesk to call 24/7. I’m my office’s Network Contact, which means when any of the dozens of employees in our department have a computer problem they come to me and I field it on to the Helpdesk folks or summon a tech if I can’t fix it myself. It’s amazing how slow most of them are to learn the rudimentary stuff about computers, especially the older doctors. When I volunteered to make our department’s web pages and have been maintaining and expanding them ever since this past 8 years, the department chairman who resisted even having a computer for the longest time not only didn’t thank me or appreciate it, he NEVER even mentioned it the whole time of his last two years in his post. Sigh.
4] Do you shop online? Why/why not? What are some of your favorite online stores? I have shopped online quite a bit, though I feel pretty nervous about having packages delivered to my house because the mailman just leaves them on the porch for anybody to take, though that has never happened. I especially like to buy books secondhand from Amazon or Powell’s (which is a Portland store). I’m still a little leery of Ebay cuz I don’t totally trust that the sellers are honest, but I know half the world shops there. I check things out on Epinions.com. This Xmas I’m doing most of my shopping at Circuit City, so I check what they have in stock and then read the reviews on Epinions. My daughter discovered (through Xanga) how to use CafePress, where you can sell your own stuff made into various products – cards, mousepads, shirts, mugs, calendars, etc. I’m starting to set a shop up to sell my aunt’s artwork that way.
5] Tell us about a cool/fun/interesting/unique Web site that you’ve discovered lately. Or, if you don’t have one in mind, tell us what your browser’s home page is set to. My home page at home is set to Xanga and at work to my department’s home page. Some sites I enjoy or use a lot are: Craig’s List, Rotten Tomatoes (for movie reviews), iTunes for making CD’s at work and listening to Radio Paradise, Dynamic Drive for HTML goodies, RealAge.com for health, my local library for ordering books and films, and Delphi forums where I get my best news updates.

Deep Thought: “In all the time I was growing up, I only saw Dad cry two times. After the first time, I didn’t say anything. But after the second time I left a note on his dresser that said “See a psychiatrist.” I don’t know if he ever did, but at least I didn’t see him cry again.”
Today I am grateful for: Jungle animals
Guess the Movie: “Man, the world ain’t supposed to work like this. I mean, maybe you don’t know that yet. I’m supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than it is.” Answer: Grand Canyon, 1991. Winner: HomerTheBrave.
How to End the Iraq War
by Tom Hayden
It is in the nature of truly mass movements that people choose the paths that seem to promise effective results, even victories. So it should surprise no one that much of the energy of the peace and justice movement flowed into presidential campaigns for Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich and ultimately John Kerry (the UnBush).
As a result millions of people become engaged politically on grassroots levels, many for the first time. The peace and justice message was heard more widely than before. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:06 pm
+ = Managed to stay out of stores today (except for the pet store for pet food).
- = Found a mouse in my kitchen this morning and threw it out and hope there’s no more.

THURSDAY WHATEVER

With a nice red glass of cranberry juice in hand this morning, I’m sitting down to say that I wish anyone celebrating this holiday today to at least have some moments of peace, if not healing. Like all holidays, it will bring out the best and worst in some of us, and just plain indigestion in others. Yesterday morning I attended Grandparents Day at my 3rd grade granddaughter’s school and sat right in the front row so I could get a good close-up blast of the Spirit. It’s a very WASP type school, mostly upper middle class white, so that my biracial granddaughter and other children of color can be easily spotted like little dots on a dot-to-dot coloring book page. They sang some patriotic songs like Battle Hymn of the Republic for the God-fearing Christians, and then some slave songs (which one of the African-American students introduced) like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot to cover that contingent, and then quite a few songs made up by their music instructor about the Lewis and Clark expedition that mainly alluded to eating one’s boots from starvation, amid various recorder and whistling efforts. I must say that I got a tear in my eye more than once, even as I was trying to scope out the lady next to me’s bright red dagger fingernails and perfectly frosted hair and very good shoes. She and her husband also had a tear in their eye, though as soon as their grandchild had performed they got up and left (long before it was all over). There were some very charming moments as when the dozen children dressed as pilgrims had to scurry from their spots on the bleachers to down front to sing some special song and one forgot her songbook and had to race all the way back to get it trailing white streamers from her bonnet. I noticed one tall boy at the back who held his hand in front of his face almost the whole time, presumably from shyness, and totally identified. Another little girl in the front towards the end of the singing of My Country Tis of Thee began to look very sad and actually was wiping away tears as they finished and left the room. I wondered if her grandparent or Special Person had not shown up. My own precious bundle didn’t spot me at first and her expression became increasingly anxious as she scanned the room, but when she finally found me almost dead center in front of her, the look of relief and pleasure was enough to make it all worth the effort to get there and mingle with this group of other old fools like me who carry our families around in our hearts even when they are physically or emotionally scattered wherever it is they must go to do their journies. And today, I am especially thinking of all those whose family members are dodging bullets in a faraway country in an evil, greedy, hideous war while we sit down to tables groaning with piles of standard Thanksgiving dishes. I hope that whatever the original pilgrims had in mind about living in this new land, it wasn’t anything close to what is happening to it now, where it would seem many freedoms are in danger – not from without but from within. May we renew our energies today toward protecting the rights we have aspired to enjoy here in our homeland for our citizens of all colors and income brackets, and may we continue to fight to bring those children home.

Deep Thought: “It’s funny, but when you look at an old man, then you look at a photo of him when he was a young man, then you look at the old man, then the photo, back and forth, pretty soon you’ll do whatever anybody tell you to.”
Today I am grateful for: Oases
Guess the Movie: “Why shouldn’t I work for the N.S.A.? That’s a tough one, but I’ll give it a shot. Say I’m working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself, ’cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin’, “Send in the marines to secure the area” ’cause they don’t give a shit. It won’t be their kid over there, gettin’ shot. Just like it wasn’t them when their number was called, ’cause they were pullin’ a tour in the National Guard. It’ll be some guy from Southie takin’ shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, ’cause he’ll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain’t helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they’re takin’ their sweet time bringin’ the oil back, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain’t too long ’til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy’s out of work and he can’t afford to drive, so he’s got to walk to the job interviews, which sucks ’cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin’ him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he’s starvin’ ’cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they’re servin’ is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what do I think? I’m holdin’ out for somethin’ better. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.” Answer: Good Will Hunting, 1997. Winner: strawberry14

See Thanksgiving article at bottom of yesterday’s post. It was a good one.
End of Day: 8:55 pm
+ = Got through day relatively unscathed.
- = Have to take kitty in to vet in the morning for dental cleaning so won’t be able to have my morning fire in the fireplace.

WEDNESDAY MOVIE

Elf

There I was in the video store, which is like my Cheers, and they were playing Elf on the screens dotted around the walls and it just struck me right for the frame of mind I was in. My grandchildren had already seen it twice without me, so I figured why not find out what they liked about it. Well, I still don’t know what they liked about it, but what I liked was that it was funny enough to make me laugh out loud, friendly enough to keep my stomach from curdling (unlike Bad Santa), and full of lovable characters who, besides Will Ferrell (brilliant as usual), included Jimmy Caan (so nice to see the bad boys of earlier years like him and Walken playing comedy roles in their old age), Mary Steenburgen, and Bob Newhart, plus Ed Asner as Santa. It’s a definite child-at-heart movie with no pretensions for Academy Awards, just good cheer and warm fuzzies. Take a time out and watch it over the holidays (if you haven’t already).

Deep Thought: “As I walked through the woods, I looked up and saw a squirrel. I smiled and he smiled. At least I think it was a smile. My teeth were showing and my cheeks were pulled up. That’s a smile, isn’t it? (The squirrel was definitely smiling.)”
Today I am grateful for: Holidays that are supposed to be about gratitude
Guess the Movie: “Hey, we’re back. That last two seconds of silence was Marcel Marceau’s newest hit single, “Walkin In The Wind.” And now, here are the headlines. Here they come right now. Pope actually found to be Jewish. Liberace is Anastasia and Ethel Merman jams Russian radar. The East Germans, today, claimed the Berlin Wall was a fraternity prank. Also the Pope decided today to release Vatican-related bath products. An incredible thing, yes, it’s the new Pope On A Rope. That’s right. Pope On A Rope. Wash with it, go straight to heaven. Thank you.” Answer: Good Morning, Vietnam!. Winner: suzyQ_darnit.
America’s Heartfelt Holiday
by James Carroll
Thanksgiving is preferable to Christmas. No denominational strings are attached to this week’s observance, to the benefit of those for whom the birth of Jesus Christ is an emblem of exclusion. Thanksgiving has not been taken hostage by the extravagance of gift-giving or the burdens of shopping. Built around the meal, the feast celebrates the exquisite tension between appetite and its satisfaction. Honoring the turning of the year, it is a first pushing back against winter’s cold darkness with the warmth and light of fireplaces, candles, the illuminations of reunion. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:15 pm
+ = Let go of an obligation that was weighing me down.
- = Butterflies only live 2-4 weeks.

A Dandy Petition to Sign and other petitions online.

And enjoy the Depressed Democrats Guide to Recovery

TUESDAY POLITICS

Some ideas from an individual who posts at a forum called, coincidentally, The Resistance:
(What do you think, do we have it in us yet?)

As the darkness spreads, people of courage and integrity will have to find ways to resist. 

“‘Tis far far better to be pissed off than pissed on.But those are not the only choices.” — Solomon Short
Opinions Unrestrained”Free speech is more than a right,it’s a responsibility.” 

Deep Thought: “Probably one of the worst things about being a genie in a magic lamp is a little thing called “lamp stench.”
Today I am grateful for: Trail mix
Guess the Movie: “Well, this is great. If the ionization-rate is constant for all ectoplasmic entities, we can really bust some heads… in a spiritual sense of course.” Answer: Ghostbusters, 1984. Winner: dancing_pen .
Going Nuclear: The Coming Wars with Iran and North Korea
Learning from Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Loss of Historical Memory?
by David B. Willis and Walter W. Enloe
 The news from Washington this past week had eerie echoes of the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Now that George Bush has been re-elected President what might we anticipate as future scenarios? If the doctrine of pre-emption is followed the next conflict is likely to go nuclear.
One plausible scenario is that the Neocons will stop at nothing to bring the other members of the Axis of Evil to their knees. There has already been considerable talk along these lines following the election. The Neocons have said as much when they have called for imminent regime change in these countries in documents such as the Project for the New American Century. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:55 pm
+ = Going to Grandparents’ Day at my granddaughter’ school tomorrow morning.
- = Rainy yucky cold today.

MONDAY BOOK

Beneath the Diamond Sky – Haight-Ashbury 1965-70
Barney Hoskyns

I’m almost done writing Chapter 8 of my life story which covers this period. We actually moved to the Haight in January 1967, my baby daughter and I, just in time for the famous Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park, which she attended riding on my hip. We lived at 221 Downey St., the street just next to Ashbury and up the hill from Haight. It was the year of the Summer of Love, and there was plenty of that heady substance to be found as the sun shone down on concerts in the Panhandle, visits to the Free Clinic by teenagers far from home who had never taken care of themselves in their lives before, and communal living par excellence. For a few months we did wear flowers in our hair and traipse around the streets at night on acid with no fear, but by August of that year a shadow fell upon us and glided slowly across the scene, bringing dealers with guns, slick marketeers of the hippie look, and angry cops in riot gear. Something was definitely “happening here…..” An excerpt from Hoskyns’ book:

If you looked at the city soberly…it was turning into a pressure cooker of malevolent forces–a frightening, paranoid community ot the kind depicted in Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly. In August, the dealer John Kent “Shob” Carter was stabbed to death by a disturbed acid casualty. His hand had been amputated, probably because his money briefcase had been cuffed to it. Three days later, the body of another dealer, “Superspade,” was found tossed over a hillside in Marin County. In September, Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising was screened at the Straight Theater, with a soundtrack by “Bummer” Bobby Beausoleil and his Chamber Orkustra.

On October 6, 1967, a year after the “Love Pageant Rally” in the Hashbury, the Diggers organized a “Death of Hippie” march along Haight Street, a parade that concluded with the burial of the sign which had hung outside the Psychedelic Shop. “The media cast nets, create bags for the identity hungry to climb in,” the Digger press release ranted. “Your face on TV, your style immortalized without soul…the free man vomits his images and laughs in the clouds…” Within months, the Thelin brothers had departed the Haight, along with Allen Cohen and Michael Bowen. Emmett Grogan returned to New York, while other Diggers moved up to the Morning Star ranch (a.k.a. the Digger Farm) owned by Lou Gottlieb.

A general exodus from Haight-Ashbury was beginning, as people left to “get it together in the country” in the hippie communes. What Bill Graham called the “general hope” of the Haight’s heyday had died. In the words of Derek Taylor–who’d enjoyed a blissful trip at Monterey on Owsley’s “Purple Haze”–”people always fuck up in the end.”

And so, I took my daughter and my now brand new son of a rock musician and after a few false starts we moved across the bridge to Marin County, where we lived for a time on welfare in the second richest county in the United States after Westchester in New York before we began to follow the arc of the future back to “responsible, productive” American life.

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Deep Thought: “The first time I ever saw the ocean, I was real disappointed. “That’s the ocean?!” I said. No, said Mom and Dad, that’s just the parking lot. When we pulled into the lot, I was real disappointed in it. It was hard to find a spot, and the spaces seemed way too narrow, in my book. The ocean was okay, I guess, but I still can’t get over how disappointing that parking lot was.”
Today I am grateful for: Everything good I received in those magic months of the late 60′s
Guess the Movie: “You can’t just blurt it out like that! And quit moving around, because you’re starting to make me dizzy. I’ll just tell her in my own way.” Answer: Ghost, 1990. Winner: thenarrator.
World Eschews Rice
by Eric Margolis
Condoleezza Rice may be the apple of U.S. President George W. Bush’s eye, but in Europe her nomination as Secretary of State is being met with disappointment and dismay. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:49 pm
+ = Survived trip to beauty salon AND vet.
- = Both cost WAY too much money.