So I went on a trip recently. Contrary to common thought, and perhaps sensibility, I simply cannot imagine a future without you or my kids. I went first to places near that reminded me of all of you, places that I held dear. Next, I went to places farther away.

A fun place, though not to my eldest daughter, was a rest stop on I-5. If you don't remember, Levi puked on Kayla while we delivered her to Sea-Tac with Deanna. I can't describe how funny it was to see her light out of the car as if she were on fire.

I then went on toward where we went camping a couple of birthdays past. It still looks much the same, yet it just wasn't quite without having the kids there to laugh and explore and ask questions.

After this, I traveled to the town where we saw the mountain goats that walked right up to the fences. I spent two days there, petting the goats and exploring the area.

From there, I visited the place that we went fishing on the river. Sadly, the boulders that I fished on and around were covered and isolated by the raging current. As before, it wasn't quite as fun without the kids playing and helping and questioning. Nothing is as fun anymore without them or their mother.

My Father's Day

So tomorrow is Father's Day. I'll be spending it without my children, yet again. Why? Well I'll explain.

My first two children live in California, and if I chose to visit I could. California and I disagree on my future though. They seem to think my future would be best in prison.

My third daughter also lives there, though even if I traveled I couldn't visit her. Her mother, long ago, revealed herself as a liar par excellence. She went to court and called me names, yet I never was allowed to contest her accusations. Recently, that came to bite me again, as a recent judge called her unfounded allegations "charges" and found against me on that basis. This deplorable and hate-filled creature has recently discovered that she can still fuck with my life, and I have no doubt that it fills her with untold joy.

My last daughter and two sons live near here, yet the judge that I spoke of made sure that I can't see them. She allowed my ex to have a restraining order against me, and included the kids on the strength of the supposed "charges" that aren't charges. Six months ago, my ex and I had a blow-up fight. We both said that we wished the other were dead, among other things. I'd also made a simple joke to a friend, which she took as sex talk somehow. She then forbid me from seeing my kids. I didn't really worry, as this happened with some regularity this last year. A couple months of getting along, followed by a couple months of no contact. Then she decided that I'd committed a mortal offence, and called my third daughter's mother. This, of course, was what has allowed my third daughter's mother to screw with my life yet again. She was always very good at lying, and I have no idea what she's been saying now.

I'd always thought my ex, despite occasional weirdness and sometimes seeming craziness, to be a good person at heart. I'd even thought to myself, more than once, that at least she'd never be like that bitch in the past. Either I was wrong or she has allowed herself to be taken in by sadness and the terrible advice of others. I seriously hope that I wasn't misled all these years, yet I'm sadly thinking that there is no way to combat my past and the people in it... especially since my side cannot be heard.

What makes me saddest, is that I miss my kids terribly, and I know they miss me. The shy way that my daughter reads books (stagefright), the rambunctiousness of my oldest son, my youngest child, whom I barely know since he was born after the breakup with my ex; I'm really missing them and it breaks my heart. What is worse is that I know they desperately miss me also. I'd give anything to go hiking with them again, it is a favourite pastime of both my youngest daughter and oldest son. Even though my left leg can't support me for long and is not capable of long walks without severe pain, I'd still love nothing more than to go hiking or fishing or climbing with them again. I can only hope that I was right all these years and she is still a good person beneath the anger and sadness. It simply isn't right to punish me and my kids this way, children are thinking and feeling people and shouldn't be used as weapons.

So, as I said, I'll be spending this Father's Day sans children. Hopefully, next year will be very different.

"... the science I’ve presented suggests that the political right and left are quite different animals; that they perceive the world differently and handle evidence differently; and most importantly, that the polarization and the denial of science in modern American politics are fundamentally the fault of the authoritarian right." 


 "In other words, if my book is right, we have to discard much that we thought we knew about politics. If the science of political ideology is right, then the ground shifts beneath us."

This is utterly and completely true! I'm desperately tired of people who claim that "the Left is just as bad as the Right." No, they really aren't. The left wants society to be a framework that supports economic growth, personal rights and responsibilities, and methods to ensure that our weakest citizens aren't dying in the gutter from starvation. Just a decade ago, the Right wanted these also, just to a lesser degree.

 Now however, the Right has completely abandoned any semblance of societal responsibility and has decided that the only rights necessary to promote are those that belong to wealthy men. Sadly, and whenever possible, light-skinned wealthy men that only speak English are the true targets of Republican largess. This is more extreme than at any time since the early 1920's.

 People that were securely Moderate just a decade ago are now considered Flaming Lefties. As I just said however, they haven't changed teams, the playing field has drastically shifted. The corporate media keeps making the same false equivalancy, though they do so more out of corporate mandate and to falsely claim fairness than any desire to be fair. Please people, quit playing this game, there really is a bad guy in this nation, and it doesn't mean that you are a bad person if you accept that!

 Please don't wait until you are working for fifty cents and hour, living in a clap together shelter near the toxic waste dump that was once a gradeschool, while your family starves beside you. Make no mistake, this is the future that Ron Paul, the Koch brothers, and other Teapublicans want for you.


http://www.alternet.org/books/155646/conservatives_attack_scientific_findings_about_why_they_hate_science_%28helping_to_confirm_the_science%29/?page=entire

Racist "Jokes" Aren't Funny.

It happens often; some person makes a statement or tells a so-called joke that either exploits a stereotype or invokes a disparaging racial slur. When called out on it, almost invariably "Dude, it's just a joke!" pops out. Sometimes the person even has the grace to blush or stammer out a weak excuse about how they were just trying to lighten the mood... whatever the hell that means. This never impresses me. When I was younger, and far more ignorant, I tried to be racist. I really sucked at it, yet I still used such language and attitudes.

This is to my shame and I cannot express how badly I feel about such actions and attitudes I once held. This isn't a case of "White Guilt" or "PC" or any other such nonsense that people with racist tendencies love to attribute criticism of themselves to. People are simply people. Many of the best people in my life could have been simply dismissed as belonging to a stereotypical group. My life would be so much poorer had I not seen beyond the pale reflections that society imposes on the unsuspecting minds and attitudes in popular culture.

So many poets are lost to fame because their medium is looked down on as some negative racial characteristic. So many natural mathematicians are overlooked because they are raised in poverty or in "one of those" neighbourhoods. So many loving people are kept at arms length because they have a "wrong" skin tone or clothing style. Very little disappoints me as much as someone I consider a friend tossing out a racial joke or commenting on some apparent stereotype. It doesn't matter if you apologise afterwards. I have a very mixed family, and I'm incredibly proud and pleased to know (and be related to) people of all stripes.

Once you let that obscene thought out of your mouth, you have just diminished my friends, my family, and often my role models. Worse yet, you have made me wonder just how poor a judge of character I am by accepting you in my life. Before you make an "off colour" joke, I'd like you to ask yourself a very simple question. How would you feel if that were your daughter or your mother or your twin that was "joked" about? How would you feel if this happened, not just once, but routinely and on a societal level? If you couldn't care less, guess what? I couldn't care less about you either. But if you can honestly apply it to yourself or your family and see the problem, then please don't be silent when others do so. We only accept these things when we don't think about the causes or results.

Many things were once acceptable, until we stopped accepting them. It's past time to stop accepting jokes and attitudes that do nothing but diminish others.

Keeping Marriage Safe

As I was going to the store, I saw a very small group of people holding signs that said "Support God and help prevent the attack o n marriage." I congratulated them on their efforts to make divorce illegal and asked what penalties that they are proposing against the Kardashians, Britney Spears, and other repeat offenders. For some reason, they became quite angry. I pointed out that the only assault on marriage is in fact divorce; notably serial divorcees. They attempted to correct me by claiming that gay marriage is an assault on marriage. When I pointed out that gay marriage actually allowed marriage to profligate, to increase the number of committed relationships, the all too common "But it's unnatural" and "It's against normal marriage" arguments came out. Sadly, my leg and the pain it causes me prevented me from returning with my camera to document both the signs and the idiot arguments. Please rest assured that I will no longer be leaving the house without the camera, these people are just too good as fodder to be allowed to act and speak about topics without being challenged.

Warning: Vitriol

She is utterly worthless, and always has been. My error was not recognising that she'd never change for the better.
She is an utter waste of resources; food, water, and oxygen.
Every bowel movement I have is more worthwhile, and will have a greater positive impact on society, than she can ever dream of being or having.
I'd call her a septic tank leech, yet that would unnecessarily insult blood sucking parasites everywhere.
That nasty stuff found between one's toes after days of hiking and lacking a bath is better for a person to cultivate than a single moment in her presence.

A moronic Libertarian solution to gas prices

This is an article, and I use the term loosely, in which a person not only denies reality, physics, geology, and basic politics, but also assumes that you have no access to actual knowledge. My rebuttals follow each ridiculously stupid point. This must have been written by a Ron Paul supporter.



Speaking of bumper stickers, remember “Yes We Can”, Mr. President? No one understands the concept better than the oil and gas industry. The main thing holding domestic energy companies back from making a stronger commitment to future domestic supplies is uncertainty. Capital hates uncertainty, avoids it like the plague. Your rhetoric may appease your doctrinaire base, but it makes domestic energy producers hold back, fearful that you will punish their success, or that you will change the rules on them in the middle of the game.
Erasing uncertainty is the #1 thing you can do as a national leader if you truly desire to lower gasoline prices. Not only could it change the psychology of energy investing, there is still time for companies to change their 2012 investment plans.
Below the fold is my humble 10-point plan: Things President Obama could (but won’t) do to reduce domestic gasoline prices by November 2012.

This is my response to this flaming moron. His statements and words are in italics, mine are normal. I find this to be good because his are based in fantasy land and mine are… well… based in reality.

1)Commit to a strategic goal of North American energy security. That includes reasonable and responsible domestic drilling. That includes taking the lead on the Keystone XL Pipeline; we could find a way to make it happen while addressing the legitimate environmental concerns of Nebraskans. It includes a commitment to maintaining the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and opening ANWR.

Fuck NO! The Keystone pipeline will be based on previous designs, all of which leak routinely and some, like the Wyoming pipeline (same company), leaked 12 times in the first year and a half alone. This pipeline is meant to be built directly above/through North America’s largest aquifer. Add to this that this oil will not be destined for USA gasoline, it is marked for export. America’s number one manufactured export is gasoline. If you want the gas prices to lower, insist that oil companies be forced to pay export fees. You’ll suddenly see prices drop due to available excess.
Opening ANWAR, which btw is being drilled as I type this, to unrestrained drilling will do nothing but destroy a region and ecosystem. Already we produce enough gasoline to have it as our number one manufactured export. Rather than promote policies that allow oil companies to destroy more land, why don’t we insist that the results be used and available here?

2)Ditch the anti-industry, anti-capitalist rhetoric. It is not the President’s or the government’s place to decide when an industry’s profitability is “high enough”. High oil company profits fund more drilling; more drilling means more future supply and lower prices. Besides, American oil companies are not owned by a cabal of wealthy executives, but by America’s pension funds, mutual funds and private investment accounts. “They” are “us”.

They are us? Are you fucking kidding me? The oil companies pay dividends to a very small group of investors. Koch and friends have paid for politicians and governors in numerous states who have ended union, retirement, and investment accounts.
Yes, the government should step in when insider trading and monopolies gouge the common folk. That is actually written in to every facet of American law… right up until this recent mockery of a Supreme Court. Not only this, but one fact seems to escape the standard moron… errmmm…. Libertarian…. talking points. Obama has granted more drilling allowances and permits than Shrub did, after less than four years.

3)Stop targeting the oil industry for punitive tax treatment. States such as Texas and Louisiana have production tax abatement programs that have successfully encouraged new drilling. If you don’t believe that the threat of increased taxes discourages drilling, just ask Governor Perry or Governor Jindal.
Taxes do two things that should happen! They force companies to pay for public resources that the companies exploit and encourage other activities.

Drilling is not the goddamn issue!
The issue is that speculators and oil companies have an agenda, and that agenda is taking your money. This is not some mysterious lack of product or production, it is gouging. If you want more drilling, demand that some of what we produce stays here in America. Then, when we have a glut, argue that we need more drilling.

4)Realize that Uncle Sam is in the energy business and is a partner in industry’s success. Oil and gas royalties are the federal government’s #2 source of revenue, after the income tax. Offshore slowdowns hurt not only industry and jobs, but government revenue.

This isn’t an issue of revenue. The top oil companies paid less in total federal taxes than a single warehouse worker. They paid none. In fact, they received subsidies. Not only that, they also accepted many tens of millions of dollars in tax refunds. Quit the lie about government revenue, the tax-payers are hemorrhaging money to oil companies, both at the pump and when we pay taxes.

5)Recognize that industry does not need to be led by government; industry needs to be unleashed and encouraged to innovate. The resurgence of the domestic energy sector was rooted in the private sector, not matter how much President Obama and Dr. Chu would like to take credit for it. The growth in North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas happened in spite of the federal government, not because of it.

More Libertarian claptrap. This is not even slightly truthful or based in reality. Industry needs to be controlled by a firm national structure; or else Gingrich, Romney, and Paul will get their wish and small children will again be forced to work in mines and fields.

6)Trust that no oil operator wants to be the “next BP”. The BP spill cost that company something on the order of $40 billion. Industry safety and environmental commitment is motivated more out of self-interest and less out of fear of the government. When it comes to federal regulation, the nation would be better served by Sheriff Taylor, not Barney Fife.

More bullshit. A company that earned $60 billion in a single quarter of a year and tossed much of the cost of this particular cleanup onto the American taxpayer doesn’t give a damn about that spill. It still hasn’t refunded the government or even paid out 1/10 of suits that have been found against it. Ron Paul is Barney Fife, I prefer to have real policing organisations against these corporations.

7)Return offshore permitting to the pre-Macondo pace. Your overreaction to the BP Spill has cost on the order of 500,000 barrels per day of domestic oil production from the Gulf of Mexico. The ridiculous “Worst Case Discharge” calculation as a routine part of offshore permitting is engineering malpractice, in my humble opinion. The professional staff of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is capable of reasoned regulation, but they currently operate in fear of their political masters.

WTF? The rational, science knowledgeable, concerned people are upset at Obama for allowing so much drilling! He is set to break records for allowances! Yet again: Our number one manufactured export is gasoline! Production is not the issue!

8)Declare hydraulic fracturing & well design to be the regulatory domain of the states, not the EPA. Geology and environment vary widely; Pennsylvania is not Louisiana is not North Dakota is not California. It is insanity to think that one broadly-applied set of rules can be applied to regulate industry without suffocating development.

No. Absolutely not. Places like Texas and Arizona would be deathtraps. Geologic features might change, but geology doesn’t. Fracking destroys land and water tables, this isn’t up for debate and no credible scientist says that it is. There is no possible development that would make fracking worthwhile. It’s like murdering a child so that she never get her heart broken, a very fucked up concept.

9)Rescind the recently-enacted royalty rate increase for new onshore Federal oil and gas leases. Secretary Salazar’s stated rationale for increasing the government’s take by a whopping 50% – from 12.5% to 18.75% of gross production – was to equate onshore royalties with the offshore royalty rate. That makes no sense. Higher royalties mean less drilling, poorer economics of production and premature abandonment of wells. Besides, an IHS-CERA Study recently showed that the federal government’s total take of offshore cash flows makes the Gulf of Mexico the second-most punitive fiscal regime in the world, after Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. [Update: In keeping with the First Rule of Holes, rolling back the royalty rate increase may be the first thing the government should do if it is serious about reducing energy prices. - Ed.]

I think this incredible stupidity has been addressed well enough above.

10)Encourage development of a nationwide distribution system of natural gas as a transportation fuel. Natural gas is clean, abundant and nearly 100% domestic. Its potential as a transportation fuel has scarcely been tapped.

Holy Hell! I can’t believe this nonsense is still being promoted! Natural gas is “cleaner,” not clean. Fracking and other extraction methods destroy water tables and regions and burning the gas emits tonnes of pollutants. Less than coal and oil, but nowhere near clean.

Bonus #11: Get real about the promise of alternative fuels. Recently you said: “You’ve got a bunch of algae out there; If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing alright.” Maybe so, but I will stick my neck out and say it ain’t gonna happen, at least not in my lifetime, not on a scale that will impact pump prices.

And here I end, with a very serious guffaw at the disingenuous liar that wrote this article. We have a president that is working very hard to promote alternative fuels and resources and is being blocked on every level. This writer’s interpretation seems to be that since Obama isn’t god, and can change the opposition on demand, he needs to be replaced by one of the fuckwits running for rethuglican candidate.