a rambling mind stuck in an aging body...

it is that time of year again...the lifts have stopped running as the snow levels drop quickly at taos...the cubs have returned to wrigley and realistically should be 6-2 at this point, but we’ll take 5-3...albuquerque has been hot...and I have begun my inevitable yearly pining for the city (a real city). and as time passes me by and I wish my 20’s would just be over already and let me get on with life, my brain is overloading and needs to be dumped...

hillary clinton has been telling us she will be "ready on day one" to run the country...except she can’t even run a primary campaign. her campaign is a mess and broke. here’s the thing hill - you can’t "loan" the country a few million when you fuck it up and expect everything to be ok. hillary clinton - ready to continue to run this country into the ground from day one...

anyone else noticing that the safety net for Big Business and Big Banks grows and grows and grows (and yes, I understand it is necessary) while the safety net for you and I shrinks and shrinks and shrinks. not a problem, except that when Big Business and Big Banks need continuous bailouts it can’t keep on forever, and eventually the crash happens and a few million of us get thrown out of work and out of our homes. but there won’t be any fed billions to throw at us...just a conservative scolding for not making good decisions.

tim russert got all over obama saying he didn’t want his daughters to be "punished with a baby" if they made a mistake about sex. here came the indignant "a baby is never a punishment" cries...and again the press fell right into the conservative trap and pushed their message. but that is exactly what the conservative movement thinks, even if they refuse to say it in public - for young girls that have sex they should learn a lesson by having to raise a baby. it is meant to be punishment...and that is why they hate contraception and they hate abortion. they think it lets girls and women "off the hook" for making poor decisions. so to tim russert and the rest of the media - we are sick of you feeding us conservative bullshit. and to obama - thanks for having the courage to say what we all feel.

the international olympic committee thinks that the growing protests around the torch relay are reaching a crisis. jacgues rogge, a spineless fuckbag and president of the IOC, spoke out against the protests before asking the chinese to open up a little bit. that’s the problem with giving the olympics to a country that is notorious for human rights abuses...makes me rethink whether chicago should get them.

rogge joined the chorus of fucking morons that are scared that china "will close itself off to the rest of the world, which, don’t forget, it has done for some 2,000 years." um...yea. that is a realistic possibility. true, the rest of the "world" can’t get by without china, and they know this. but then china can’t really get by without the rest of the world...and they know this.

not to say that some of the indignation in china is not warranted...afterall, how can world leaders from nations that abuse human rights in the name of freedom and capitalism honestly criticize the chinese for holding onto tibet and crushing dissent. afterall, if you don’t like it, you can just "get out."

so part of me is all for a boycott...except for one thing. a very dear friend of mine has worked her ass off for years to get a shot at an olympic games...and if she and others like her were to be deprived of that opportunity because the fucking IOC decided they would celebrate all that is good about humanity in a place that is symbolic of a lot that is bad about humanity it would be heartbreaking. disrupt the games, disrupt the ceremonies, try and douse the torch...but let the kids play.

my ride gets around 30 miles per gallon when I drive it right, and 35 on the highway. the fact that such "efficiency" is considered good in this country is embarrassing. when the gas crisis crippled us in the 70’s we could have kept up advancements and pressured car makers to give us what we all know they can...cars that can go without pissing gas like they’ve been boozing all night and broke the seal early on. instead, we subsidized the oil industry to keep gas artificially low...and now it is the people that can afford it least that get hit the hardest...

of course that’s the american way...fuck the folks that can’t afford it...because if they can’t afford it, it means you can afford to keep their voice muffled.

which reminds me...how can we be upset about corruption in the third world and blame corruption on the failure of many nations to rise out of poverty and the suffering of their people? hasn’t anybody studied any bit of history? anyone remember the hell we went through during industrialization in this nation? anyone remember how ridiculously corrupt our government was (makes todays government look like its run by fucking girl scouts)? its ludicruous to thrust a harsh transition on a nation, and expect them to get it right in 5 years when it took us a century.

somebody vandalized trees near chicago by cutting down a bunch of old trees...what the fuck?

little noticed story of late...the gap between the rich and the poor is growing at a quicker and quicker pace. and in the meantime, the government and hillary’s main advisor are trying to find ways to enter into a new "free" trade agreement. they stopped listening to us a long time ago...its about damn time we force it back on them...

and for those of you in pennsylvania still leaning towards hillary - um, why? she cheered for NAFTA (even when she claims to have been against it all the way) when bill pushed it down our throats...and now her go-to guy wants a columbian version. yup...those clintons sure have been good to you blue collar folks.

amid all the hoopla over reverend wright’s statements about how america has fucked up an interesting thing is forgotten...MLK was preaching the same shit near the end...

maybe that is why he had to be shot. afterall, a charismatic black leader telling the world that america ain’t the princess she looks under the pretty dress is a frightening prospect...for god’s sake, they might learn that we have been trying to fuck everyone but the uber-rich for centuries.

and maybe that is why mccain stood against a holiday for the man in arizona. way to go john...if there is anything I want in a president it is an ability to take tough stances - like ignoring the quintessential american because he’s black. afterall, what says "america" like a rich old militaristic fool ignoring the pleas of a black man?

this town has a way of crushing my soul. fortunately I’ve found a little something that lifts the weight as of late.

but man do I miss a real skyline...and busy foot traffic...and double-digit storied buildings...and taxis that you can flag down...and public transit...and waterfronts...and expensive beer...and anonymity.

music is my savior...