- The iPad, soon to take over your life, or the life of every twenty to thirty-something near you.

You can watch the video, if you want to watch some truly delusional people practice a level of mock-holy douchebaggery, rarely seen since the time of… (fill in your favorite mock-holy douchebag).

Q: How many apple iPads can dance on the head of a pin?

A: How much money you got?

It doesn’t run a complete Mac operating system, so you’re stuck running gadget programs from the iTunes store. You can spend all day playing games though, if that helps you while away your life. It also lacks a single USB port. Yes, that’s right. Indeed, why let people work with anything but proprietary technology?

And, it’s “Magical!” You can read newspapers on it! (You can in real life too). You can look at photos! You can watch YouTube! ANYWHERE! You can even touch it! And it will touch you right back.

You’ll never be without a friend again. Go buy one. It’s only 500 dollars. Be an individual. I mean, what’s 500 dollars? Surely not much money to the people in Africa who have so much clean drinking water that they die every 5 minutes from dysentery – Sorry. Sorry…I forgot. Fun. Apple is fun.

Hey, can I get any large business to sign on to a well-digging and sewage-treating charity for South, West and Eastern Africa? Like, you know, two percent? So, let’s see… two percent of 500 dollars… 10 dollars? Could 10 dollars from the purchase of every iPad go to a well digging project in any African nation?

Cause they don’t have really like a lot of totally clean water there, you know. And like, it would be really cool, like you know, if they could, totally, like, drink water without getting parasites and dysentary, and like, wasting away to nothing.

But, then, product “RED” will be there to help them with the drugs they really, really, really need. Like Nevirapine.

Oh, but I’m such a bother. I know, Apple is a wonderfully innovative company, making fun and creative electronic tools for so many people to tool around with. But at some point, when we can’t read without a 500 electronic device, when we can’t walk down the street without calling our spouse or roommate to find out if the plain yogurt is “okay” to buy, when we can’t draw or write without the presence of a ‘touch screen qwerty device,’ then, my friends, we’re no longer using the computer. It’s using us.

As the comedian said: It’s not the tool. We are.

And it’s good as far as it goes. It might hold up the massive health care fraud. It does announce that many old Dems will be vacating their positions soon, and Congress and the Senate will see some new blood, most of which will be quickly corrupted.

New can be good, but it only goes so far…

Democrats will remain what they have been, and so will Republicans.

Democrats have played the part of the willingly brainwashed by every bit of pandering fear-mongering pushed out of the unholy craw of the WHO and NIH (Bird, Goat, Snail, Mouse flu, SARS, HIV, HTLV, H1N8, R2D2, etc),

Or the the Fed (“The sky is falling, the sky is falling (give us your money”), or of just about anything else (with one notable exception… hold tight for a moment and I’ll get there).

On the other shore, Republicans have the general good sense to mistrust D.C., the NIH and WHO on most counts, stating the following, more or less:

“People get the flu, that’s life. HIV seems confined (mysteriously) to very high ‘risk groups.’ Global warming? Puh! Phooey! Government science is bought and paid for. Anyway, we’re not going to gum up good business for Al Gore’s fantasies of religious grandeur!”

I am pleased that Dems and Repubs battle each other on these issues, because they tend to prevent the greatest of all possible calamaties from occurring: That one side could have their way entirely.

But where both cast a blind eye is toward the fairly complex idea that has bedeviled every society on earth:

That what we, (as a nation of individuals), do, want and defend as ‘right,’ might in fact, at times, or often, be self-destructive. Even pathologically self-destructive.

The defense of hamburger, factory-farmed, as a badge of national identity. The embrace of NASCAR amid violent wars for acquistion of oil-rich nations. “The Defense Against Exercise Act,” sure to be enacted as soon as its called for, as a means to reduce the cost of pharmaceutical-only health care.

Are we a pathological nation? (Aren’t all nations, at times, self-destructive?)

Take public policy issue number one: The War, the cause of the War, the causes of the War, the War, and the War. It is now seen as universally important that “we” be always and forever, and for eternity “against the terrorists,” in whatever means are necessary to be “against the terrorists.”

I have no problem with being against terrorists, myself. But, (and I’m quoting a friend of mine just un-indentured from his military service), “What is there left to bomb in Afghanistan?”

Let it ring for a moment, because you won’t hear the question in D.C. press briefings.

How about this one: “We, (that is “We,” the government of the United States, without much regard for the wishes of the people), are occupying a now destroyed, once sovereign nation in the Middle East. “We” have killed some hundred to two hundred thousand individuals in this occupation and quest. We rationalize this by not talking about it at all.”

This site claims to tally civilian deaths, have a gander, s.v.p. www.iraqbodycount.org/

Does this make us less than “noble?” If we are to believe the Republican cause – the nobility of our invasion of the Middle East after the events of 9-11, then we should at least believe the grievance – that 3,000 Americans were killed on that day by an attack, and that all else is justifiable retribution – but not retribution. “Democracy bringing,” though not “nation building.”

If we then begin to tally the loss of those lives, on that September day, we must go to the cause of those deaths – the collapse of two, or three, buildings in New York City. Collapse of steel structures at free-fall speed, with concrete exploding outward into dust plumes that blanketed the five boroughs, and beyond.

Who believes that a steel tower can dissipate into dust and shrapnel, with no assistance, other than heat? No explosive material, just heat, applied in only a small part of the entire structure?

Three times?

On the same day?

In the same place?

Who believes it?

Belief is easy. “Who looks into it,” is the question.

(“Not us,” say the American people….)

But, back to “reality…”

I take as my military inspiration Union commander and Indian fighter William T. Sherman, a man whom I dare you to hate, because hating is easy. Sherman marched his army through the South, and in line with his political philosophy, made it near to uninhabitable, burning a path behind him, tearing up railroads and communication lines, so that the recalcitrant, trouble-making South (in his opinion, certainly), would have no option but to surrender.

I am not a fan of warfare, per se, but if I were going to wage a war, I’d wage it to win it.

The Democrats can’t wage war to win, because it’s not in their philosophy. They are too concerned with human rights not to continue the slow torture and murder of a country (ours or theirs). They’d rather that than a brutal but shorter-fought military victory.

And Republicans, it seems, are little better, confused as they are by the rationale for invasion and occupation.

Now, I am not for the razing of Iraq or Afghanistan. I was not for their invasion and occupation. I consider all of it a crime of such immense proportions. I do not doubt that many future historians will be as occupied with counting those murdered in their own countries by American adventures in ‘democracy-spreading,’ as they are in real or perceived attacks against America.

But, I am left to wonder, with my mouth agape, at the manner in which “we” are conducting these two wars against sovereign people. So much like a badly applied tourniquet, slowing and fitfully strangling the life from them, because we know, deep in our hearts, that we should never have waged a war on those people to begin with.

Victory in warfare requires a pure, distilled hatred, that rationalizes, for a moment, total suspension of the 10 commandments, or any other injunction against inhumanity towards another. Without that gut feeling, war cannot be won.

I’m not confused that these nations do not harbor an historical feeling for pluralistic bi-partisanship in the philosophy (but not the actual manner) of the French Enlightenment. I am aware that violence brews beneath the surface of much of the world, with only a thin veneer of repressive authoritarian government to keep it at bay. And if I am aware of these things, who in the world isn’t?

Or, more to the point, how is it that the military leaders, graduated from West Point and the like, entered this war with the idea of bringing “American Democracy” to nations that do not have the infrastructure, or the historical or philosophical disposition, to carry the weight of such a strange, historical experiment, such as are we?

And so, while I am pleased that Scott Brown won in Massachusetts – and while I am pleased that a whorish old Democratic machine in that State has been pushed backward onto its duff, perhaps to re-consider its disregard of its citizenry – I remain absolutely frightened for the future of this country, having waged two illegal wars, against nations whose crimes were, primarily, guilt by association, or by projection.

Terrorism can be fought in many ways. Creating unstable nations in areas of terrorism is not one of them.

And now the false question will ring: “What will Scott Brown do?”

And the deeper questions will remain in obscurity.

I’ve recently had an experience with the very friendly Facebook platform, which has made me evaluate its friendliness and utility.

I had accrued some massive coterie of ‘friends’ on the site – most of whom I did not know (that’s the great lie of the internet age – that we’re all one happy group of well-informed people just amiably chatting with each other (about the end of the world and other topics))…

I began to use the site for longer for conversations in topics of my interest, such as religion, philosophy, science, etc, and was enjoying some of that banter, and so was somewhat put off when I arrived one day at the sign in to find that I could not sign in! I had been deleted, in total, and without explanation.

Following the advice of the ‘you no longer exist here’ page, which was displayed before me, I wrote the Facebook architects, wherever they may be on earth, and asked them for some assistance in returning use to me.

Alas, four letters over a week sent, and nary a response.

So, I posted a new profile, and left a note for everyone to contact me via email or my webpage, and not FB.

Now, having much free and useful time returned to me, I have noticed something that I had indeed noted before agreeing to use that damned site:

It is a terrible, terrible waste of time and energy. It might have been invented by those very ‘powers that be’ to persuade all interested people to abandon the very public and ‘google-accessible’ world wide web, as a lure to create an artificial bed of newspaper and wood shavings, upon which to sit and nestle oneself comfortably, while regurgitating self-reinforcing opinions to each other, cyclically, so that a great feeling of comfort and sleepiness takes over, and all motion and movement in the visible world ceases, all at once, and for good…

Call that a conspiratorial view – and I’m sure that it wasn’t really invented to hurt activists – but the activity on outside of Facebook websites on some issues that I follow has ground to a quiet whisper, whereas the ‘Facebook universe’ hums and throttles with noise.

Noise that is mute, inaudible, invisible, un-hearable to Google search, to public viewing, to, in that sense, utility.

I share this as an observation. Please keep your Facebook time limited, very limited, and perhaps consider making the posts you would make there, on your own public blog. And if you don’t have one, then please make one:

http://en.wordpress.com/signup/

http://www.blogger.com/home

http://www.blogtext.org/

http://www.google.com/search?q=get+a+free+blog

And link it to the other existing blogs and sites, and make at least the best of what you do, write, think and say about these important issues, or philosophical battles, public, and useful to the entire reading world…

Thank you for your time and consideration, kind regards,

Liam Scheff

“Oh, Avatar! It’s the best movie I’ve EVER SEEN! It’s about US! We, the oppressed people!!! US!!! US!! MEEE!!!! MEEE!!!!”

That’s the general tone of reviews, from whichever group of oppressed peoples you happen to be speaking with. So, how can a movie speak to so many, about one issue? Easy: It uses surrogates – blue people – as stand-ins, for….Well, that’s the genius of ‘avatars.’ They can stand in for all of us.

I seem to be the only one finding the ‘evil super techno society’ message a little over-cooked, especially since the movie that brings you the message is the product of said society.

If it had been a movie about the evil of cellphones, and the idiots who use them while driving, walking, biking, shopping and everything else, I would have been right there with you. Down with cellphones!

(Did I mention biking? I did. Have you seen this? People riding bicycles, in the street, with traffic whizzing, or pushing by, chattering on their radioactive telephone? Where’s that movie?)

I also seem to be the only one even slightly interested in the cost of this great and glorious and ‘important’ movie: $450 million is the the estimated fee (300 million for the film, 150 for the marketing, estimated).

I would therefore like to recommend a short list of films that cost very little, comparatively, and in some cases, simply very little by any measure.

Please do add to this list with your ‘makes you think’ movies. (Note: If “Transformers 2″ is on your list, then I want you to go to the theater right now, and wait for the next sequel. Put a tent on the sidewalk, and let your intentions be known. No need to say anything here).

My list of non-450 million dollar, makes you think, makes you feel, makes you evaluate, makes you wonder, or inspires you movies (in no particular order):

• Festen
• Blind Spot
• 400 Blows
• Joe the King
• Godfather Part II
• Little Big Man
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
• Richard Pryor Live in Concert
• Downfall
• Hard Day’s Night
• Catch a Fire
• Red Dust

And for you sci-fi fans:

Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009 series). Whoops! Try Here.

And finally, because Avatar is, in fact, a 450 million dollar 3D movie that claims to be anti-Imperialist and pro-Nativist (and therefore pro-ecology and anti-technology), which was also produced in the most technologically dependent and complex society ever to exist on earth…I think this would be a good time to review Cracked Magazines 5 most unintentionally racist movies about racism.

“In its earliest days, Christianity did not celebrate the Nativity at all. Only two of the four Gospels even mention it. Instead, the Church calendar was centered on Easter, still by far the most important day in the Christian year. The Last Supper was a Seder, celebrating Passover, which falls on the day of the full moon in the first month of spring in the Hebrew calendar. [...]

By the time of the Council of Nicea [325 AD], the Christian Church was making converts by the thousands and, in hopes of still more converts, in 354 Pope Liberius decided to add the Nativity to the church calendar. He also decided to celebrate it on Dec. 25. It was, frankly, a marketing ploy with a little political savvy thrown in.

History does not tell us exactly when in the year Christ was born, but according to the Gospel of St. Luke, “shepherds were abiding in the field and keeping watch over their flocks by night.” This would imply a date in the spring or summer when the flocks were up in the hills and needed to be guarded. In winter they were kept safely in corrals. [...]

It is hard to escape the idea that by making Christmas fall immediately after the Saturnalia, the Pope invited converts to still enjoy the fun and games of the ancient holiday and just call it Christmas. Also, Dec. 25 was the day of the sun god, Sol Invictus, associated with the emperor. By using that date, the church tied itself to the imperial system.

By the high Middle Ages, Christmas was a rowdy, bawdy time, often inside the church as well as outside it. In France, many parishes celebrated the Feast of the Ass, supposedly honoring the donkey that had brought Mary to Bethlehem. Donkeys were brought into the church and the mass ended with priests and parishioners alike making donkey noises.

In the so-called Feast of Fools, the lower clergy would elect a “bishop of fools” to temporarily run the diocese and make fun of church ceremonial and discipline. With this sort of thing going on inside the church to celebrate the Nativity, one can easily imagine the drunken and sexual revelries going on outside it to celebrate what was in all but name the Saturnalia.”

[end excerpt.
Read the full article at the WallStreetJournal.com.]

And so, friends and neighbors, I am inclined to think that we’ve moved yet again, from honoring Saturn, (or rebelling from him), to Christ, to… well, I think we should say a prayer in honor of our true Patron Saint, Adam Smith, whose holiday this is, in so many, many, many ways…

But whoever you pray to, and whatever you worship, a happy Christmas – a good, safe and warm holiday – and best wishes to all. Merry Christmas, everyone.

But, it struck me like a shovel in the kisser. We’re gonna be okay. Maybe not all of us – maybe not me! Maybe not you. But, we, as a group, will be alright. India, China, Amexico. All of  us.

Why?  Nuclear POWER! Oh, kiss my grits. We can run out of oil, and we’ll still be wanking away on our iPods, thanks to unstable radioactive material. That’s right. Nuclear Power. Kiss the blarney stone, the future is bright GREEN.

Science, Politics and Global Warming
by Wal Thornhill

The unpleasant reality is that modern science is an inverted pyramid of hypotheses and beliefs teetering on a foundation of surprising ignorance and historical wrong turns. For example, the ideology of climate science is based on the story of the history of the solar system and the Earth. However, the usual story is a fable based on gravitational theory while gravity itself remains a mystery. Many-body gravitational systems are inherently chaotic, so that it would be a miracle if the order we see in the solar system today were long established, according to that model. But the climate change models take for granted an undisturbed Earth. The models also rely on steady radiant energy generated in the interior of the Sun. But what if that global-warming plasma ball in the sky is powered from the outside? Would not all the planets share in some of that energy? And if so, there is no climate model that accounts for it.

I wrote in February 2007, in Global Warming in a Climate of Ignorance, “Like Darwin’s theory of evolution and Big Bang cosmology, global warming by greenhouse gas emissions has undergone that curious social process in which a scientific theory is promoted to a secular myth. When in fact, science is ignorant about the source of the heat — the Sun.”

Climatologists rely on astrophysicists for the basic assumptions they employ in their climate models. In particular, it is assumed that the Sun is a steady source of radiant energy and that the Earth and its atmosphere have been a closed, undisturbed system for longer than man has walked the Earth. However, the theory of how the Sun works is of Victorian vintage. It was formulated in the gaslight and horse and buggy era, long before the space age showed that space is not empty.

Read the rest…

They feel free to ignore every one of their constituents, state by state, city by city, town by town.

We do not want another trillion dollar buy-out, bail-out, belly-flop.

What we do want, is for you the law-makers, to deal with the following:

• Our nation’s massive trade imbalances and loss of work due to exported jobs,
• Our Debt, Deficit, and foreign ownership of the country by China,
• Future energy sources – think nuclear power supplemented by conservation technology and renewable resources,
• Immigration – figure it out. Close the borders to illegal, open to legal immigration. Process those who are here under a reviewed plan.

What we don’t want:

• Make believe pandemics.
• Make believe vaccination drives for make-believe pandemics.
• Make-believe “bail-outs” for million-earning Goldman Sachs employees.
• Forced-feeding of banks to the US Government (see Ken Lewis, once revered Ceo of Bank of America, made to swallow US Government bailout money, and his ’surprising’ subsequent ‘fallen from grace,’ when BofA began to hurt from the deal).
• Force-feeding of bullshit by the U.S. Media, now a public relations arm of the Obama White House and CDC (that inventor of public panics and seller of junk pharmaceuticals).

Feel free to add to either list. Vote the bastards out. Neither “Senator,” “Congressmen” is a lifetime position. Vote. The. Bastards. Out.

Is Gore’s Global Warming Just Another Narcissistic Leftist Fantasy?

And

Al Gore Causes Global Warming.

The second post, in which I ridiculed the Left’s useless suggestions for decreasing pollution, and then suggested raising money for “Global Warming” programs by making star-studded environmental disaster movies, was published years ago at the now dead and defunct GNN.tv (where a damned lack of upkeep and organization on the part of the owners killed a most promising endeavor).

The post caused a furor of galactic proportions, as the users declared that I was an ‘environmental hater’ and ‘global warming denier’ and some such variety of things. I explained my long-standing vegetarian lifestyle, lack of auto, intentional lack of contribution to the factory farming industry, and my feeling for the eternal, transcendent living world, of which nature is one of the truest, or most direct manifestations.

‘Screw you,’ was the response, ‘if you don’t love Pope Gore.’

Well, whether weather patterns are changing or aren’t, will or won’t, Global Warming as it is being paraded and used for political purposes, is a leftist fantasy, and it deserves to be known as such. Why? Because it is the fundamentalist atheistic religio-science of the Left that is so desperate for these large existential crises to give their empty iPod lives meaning.

If you tell me that the Right isn’t doing much to stop the fraud, let me agree that the corporate Right does what it always does in times of crisis – tries to make money. The Left, having traded its soulfulness for an unwavering and unchallengeable belief in laboratory gods, leads the world to its destruction, like Stalin, Lenin, Mao and the other ‘Grand Dragons’ of history. (In case that term confuses, that’s not praise, it is a reference to the leadership of the KKK).

What a world, huh?

So, be independent, be conservative, be liberal, but be a critical thinker, and fight against the atheistic religion of these independence-killing pseudo-scientific programs.

And, of course…Happy Holidays!

Yes! It’s HERE! it’s James Cameron’s approximately 450 million dollar (300 for the movie, 150 for the marketing) anti-war, pro-war, anti-imperialist, pro-imperialist, anti-capitalist, pro-money-money-money interstellar nativist pro-tribal land-rights demanding hot interspecies sex-travaganza.

It’s got it all. The most expensive movie ever made, and probably , ever to be made, (at least until Jesus returns to Earth with gold boullion for everyone). Did I mention, “The most expensive movie ever made” …at a time when some 10% of my fellow Americans don’t have paychecks coming in. But, if it entertains, then what the hell! Right?

And no, of course, I haven’t seen the movie yet! (And I won’t, ’till its on DVD, when I probably might, eventually, maybe). But, be excited, because I have seen the extended High-Definition preview. And you know, they give everything away in previews. Here goes:

A wheelchair bound future-marine is given a second chance to search and destroy by becoming the driver of an AVATAR – a living, breathing, blue amphibian-bird-man, lithe with big yellow eyes, and wearing almost nothing, (the cad).

His job (the marine in alien video-game-controlled body) – to interact with the locals (the real blue-bird-gecko people of planet whatever-it’s-called), who live tribally (read ‘natively’ (read “American Indian”)), and to infiltrate and undermined them. Why and for what?

It happens that these “savages” (that’s what the big, bad military commander calls them) are sitting on top of a veritable gold mine, that is, not a “gold” goldmine, but a mineral vein of substance ‘very important thing,’ which is valued at a million dollars a kilogram, because it’s most certainly used for something important. (Damned metrics! That’s about 2.2 pounds, just in case you wanted to convert).

The hitch: Avatar-soldier-boy falls enamored con una chica blue and lithe and yellow-eyed and alien sexy, and so… he… takes on the battle for… ready?

Native land rights!!!

And so it’s WAR! And it’s 3D WAR! Glorious 3-D WAR!!! All sorts of alien rhino-elephant pterodactyl creatures versus super tank gun ship go-bot super (cool!!) vessels, that make your inner boy nerd squeal with girlish delight.

And so, whatever-the-hay else happens and the battle ensues and I’m sure a cursory character dies meaningfully, and the hero learns a lesson, and gets a deep groovy CGI kiss from his bluegirl-friend, and the movie ends happily, and you walk out of the theater and somebody blows something up in the Middle East. But, it’s important that we remain there. And that we went there. And who cares? That movie was ‘cool.’ 3-D too!

Now, that was worth 450 million dollars, wasn’t it?

James Cameron is a visionary, to be sure, one who has really created an entire genre of film – the space-borg-action-blow-out. A visionary, though, we must admit, one of middling and conflicted aesthetic values. The highs and lows seem to be in conflict…

But, I give him immense credit for knowing one thing about people: We like stories, much, much more than we like reality.

Here it is:

– EPA Chief Lisa P. Jackson Puts CO2 On Notice with New Ruling

Today the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief Martinet (official title) Lisa P. Jackson (formerly of Wendy and Lisa, and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam), has issued orders that Carbon Dioxide, which is what you are breathing out right now, is a deadly pollutant.

Many individuals have been taken by surprise by this official ruling of the Obama administration, including one Terence Wheeler, of Macon County, Georgia, who claims to have been breathing C02 out and in for many years without noticing that he was being poisoned.

– “I did not know that for all these years, I was a criminal and a polluter,” said Mr. Wheeler, after re-education.

But criminalization of this deadly poisonous toxic pollutant that is responsible for all acts of terrorist weather, as well as AIDS, is just the beginning for EPA super-agent Jackson.

Said Mrs. Jackson to the packed hall of reporters, “While it is well known, and I quote, that ‘climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing, possibly driving some women into sex work and thereby increase HIV infection,’ we must take an even larger step than preventing people from having sex, to stop global warming.”

- AP – Mrs. Jackson during the press conference, sending underling out for another ’samwhich.’

No, says Mrs. Jackson, “We’ve got to clean up our acts, and that means going through our closets and finding all the dresses that don’t fit, and whether we like it or not, or think that one day we might squeeze into them again…what was I saying? Oh, yes. We’ve got to throw out those old clothes and old relationships, and start anew.” Said agent Jackson, with a mouthful of hostess devil’s food cake.

“And that’s why we’ve got to cut down the forests of the world.” She told a stunned, but quickly compliant audience.

Following the conference, the EPA issued a formal declaration, explaining that forests were now an ‘Enemy of the State.’ From the briefing:

“Because trees and plants take in C02 and turn it into oxygen, they must be considered enemies of the state, for co-dependently facilitating global warming by not preventing us from stopping production of C02.”

- “Co-dependent forests must be held accountable,” says new EPA ruling.

Several reporters asked the EPA for clarification, at which point they were arrested and moved to an undisclosed location, in Cuba, where it has been reported by insiders, “several accidentally brutally hung themselves from the windows of their holding rooms, while trying to pen recantations and confessions.”

This report has been made possible by the Obama Administration, which wants you to know, that the only thing to fear, is fear of not listening and listening closely to all we say and do not say.

Here she is with Tom Jobim (my hero) with Waters of March:

Here’s Astrud Gilberto with a Quincy Jones Bossa Nova, a sexy number (baby):

And related, but not identical, pick your favorite ‘Look of Love.”

Please see the World AIDS Day Special at RTB. There, you’ll be able to watch and listen to Dr. Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize winner for “co-discovery of HIV,” as he explains the best treatments and preventions for the plague in Africa are….

…nutrition, anti-oxidants, and clean water.

I’ll tell you, I like this guy more and more. See what you think.

Watch the video. Download the 25-page web ‘zine.
Leave comments at RTB and Youtube.

I can’t believe the candor, or the excess, and the lack of pride or self-aggrandizement in the telling. It’s the American Dream, the California Dream, the dream of “liberation,” but it’s no fantasy. It’s a plain horror, lived in tacky Kodachrome, in the sugar-drunk decades of our little failing experimental country. It is just horribly honest about the brutal pagan realities of life. She deserves an award, and I’m sure will be paid in an endless sea of cold shoulders, or perhaps, of syphilitic libertines who are titillated by the topic. Poor girl. Glad she wrote it. I hope she is too.