Category: Things that make you say hmmm?

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Sharing with my Brother

I sent my brother the link to this blog. For better or worse, now he’ll have the opportunity to read some of my thoughts and get to know me in a very different way.

Ive been considering just how comfortable I felt about my family seeing me as I sort out my thoughts and express myself.

My hesitation was in sharing some elements of myself. Then I realized that I’m sharing myself via this blog with potentially the whole fucking world so what’s the difference?

Well… the difference is that via the blog, I have a measure of anonymity.

My brother knows me, he’s eaten at my house, I’ve spent time at his place (not nearly enough). He is potentially going to be able to read details of my most intimate behaviors.

That’s where it gets personal and scary, I was worried about one of the most important people in my life thinking less of me.

In all fairness to him, he’s fucking cool. I don’t think he’s  going to have a problem seeing me as I am.

But Hell! We were raised in different households, we’ve never even changed clothes in the same room together. I know more details of the bodies of guys at the gym than I do my own brother.

As we grew to adulthood we spent very little time together, and as men even less. We’re like intimate strangers, we know a lot about our family, we have connections.  Yet  there’s a distance, I love him dearly but sometimes don’t think we KNOW each other.

So I’m going to be myself regardless of my brother reading this. I’m going to talk about the stuff that goes through my head and not worry about it. My Brother deserves to know anything and everything about me.

I think my biggest fear is summed up in this question.

If we weren’t family, would we like each other and still be friends?

I’d like to think the answer is yes.

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This is a serious WTF?

Due to prison overcrowding in California a significant number of convicted criminals are being released.

So what exactly does this say?

Is this a condition where California has TOO DAMN MANY LAWS?

Or and this may be more likely,

Does California have TOO DAMN MANY CRIMINALS?

I’m blown away by the kind of thinking that says it fine to release known criminals back into society simply because they’re crowded.

Prison is supposed to be a deterrent. In general I agree with Sheriff Joe Arpaios of Arizona methods. His philosophy is in general pretty much like what I was raised with in the South. In the South they still use chain gangs for road cleanup and repair. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE IN PRISON IN THE SOUTH!

I was taught that when you were convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, all but your basic rights were suspended. So you were entitled to an appeal, you were entitled to food, and shelter. Anything beyond that was at the discretion of the Warden.

It astounds me that a California inmate costs the state on average $47000 a year. According to Legislative Analyst’s Office about 2/3 of the cost is administrative in nature (Security, health care, & operations) I think we AS TAXPAYERS are entitled to some kind of compensation. I think that all the inmates should be doing some kind of productive work. Instead of sitting around watching TV, working out, and getting degrees on the taxpayers dime.

Unfortunately, if California tried to use the prison population as a labor force offsetting the cost of incarceration, we’d spend more money fighting legal challenges than we’d save.

There is a subtext in all of this. It’s that there is in fact NO punishment or accountability. Why would the police spend any real effort to deal with petty theft when they know there’s no jail time even if they catch the perpetrator. The problem with this is, now the police are in a position where they’ll pick and choose which cases are more important.

So what’s the answer?

Deport Illegal aliens? Well that would work except that the hardened elements would be back in a week

Accelerate the execution of the prisoners on death row? Well, that would give us a few more cells to work with. It would certainly put the fear of California prison into potential criminals. But cleaning out death row isn’t a viable long term solution.

Eliminate the 3 strike Zero Tolerance laws? I think this actually would help. Zero Tolerance ANYTHING is stupid. When you have mandatory prison terms for certain offenses you automatically stress the prison system. Lets eliminate Zero Tolerance and get back to enforcing the spirit of the law not the letter.

Ship prisoners to out of state prisons? I don’t know if that’s a good idea or a bad one. Eventually, all the prison system will be overloaded, if it’s not already.

Whatever the solution, I don’t think dumping prisoners into society is the answer. Especially not with the state / local budget in crisis and police forces that are understaffed and overworked.

Lets face it most of the time the police arrive in time to clean up the blood, they rarely have an opportunity to actually prevent a crime. Dumping our prison population is far more likely to increase their janitorial duties.

As always, this blog is just my opinion and if you’ve got a different opinion you’re welcome to express it.

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Drug Advertisements

Have you noticed the ad that’s been playing recently for the treatment of Fibromyalgia?
It’s a very interesting ad, especially for someone like me.

I’ve told my physician to his face that I think he’s only 2 or 3 steps removed from waving rattles and dancing around me in a loincloth to heal me. He’s a good guy and he’s not terribly offended by the comment. On the other hand it’s set the tone of our relationship. Since I’m not willing to accept anything he says as gospel, we’ve become partners in my health care.

His knowledge of medicine and my observation of my own body give us the best shot at keeping me around for a while.  I appreciate his compassion for me and patience with me because I know I’m a royal pain in the ass.

So along comes this ad. If you listen carefully to the wording its kind of funny and I’m sure It makes the Doc just cringe.

The Lines that really caught my attention were

After a description of the muscular neural-feedback in the body they say something like,

“It’s thought that this activity is responsible for the symptoms of fibromyalgia.”

Ok, I suppose I can get behind that statement. The next line that caught my attention was something like;

“(Our Drug), is thought to address this neural activity and may provide relief.”

With as much money as has been spent on R&D of these drugs wouldn’t you expect a little more definite statement?

Again I’m left with OGG the Witch-Doctor shaking rattles, dancing around the patient and then feeding the patient a cup of goat pee. (Would probably work too! While the patient is barfing up the goat pee they’re not thinking about their other problems.)

I think part of what caused this to get through my noise filters was the fact that  I KNOW most people heard something more like,

“We’re smart Doctors and scientists and we KNOW your nerves are whats causing you pain and suffering and our drug is the cure. Tell your doctor you want our drug and you’ll feel ever so much better.”

What I heard was;

“We’re guessing here that your nerves are the problem and we kinda think that this drug will maybe make you feel better. Quite frankly we’re pissing in the wind here but hey someone has to pay for the R&D it might as well be you.”

But then I’m a real Cynic.

As always think for yourself, Make you own decisions and don’t eat the pudding.