I can understand if you're legitimately oppossed to "socialized medicine." You're wrong, of course, but I can understand.

What I cannot understand, however, is what it is you're really oppossed to, given:

- you said nothing when the GOP *unilaterally* passed a socialized prescription drug plan, fully unfunded, that will cost us a cool $7 TRILLION

- you have never spoken out about cutting/ending Medicare

- the President, Congress and Senate are all democratically elected; the final vote will be public; elections remain, as always; they've been working on this bill, as we all know, for a year now, and in its current form it will pass Constitutional muster and any Supreme Court review

- you never said word one about former President George W. Bush's numerous executive signing statements, some of which, possibly all of which, raise serious Constitutional issues

I hate being left in the dark. Tell me, what is it, honestly, that you're oppossed to? I promise not to tell.

I exclusively use Gmail. Have for years.
Today, and this is the first time it's ever happened (to me), I typed an email to a client and stated that "the x file is attached."

Hit send.

Message popped up to the effect: you say a file is attached, but nothing is attached.

Gmail was correct. My bad. I attached the file.

Very Hal 9000, however.

Yes, I know. Site fall down go boom. Working on it.

Doesn't look like too much has changed in the past couple years.

I love libraries. Does anybody still go to them? I wonder.

I also wonder how much it would cost to provide every child with a Kindle -- which offers thousands of books free or for no more than $1.

There's approximately 100 million 'youths' in the United States. Let's say Amazon is nice enough to offer our government bulk pricing.

So...

100,000,000 x $200 = what is that? $2 billion? No, wait, it's $20 billion.

Seems like a lot.

But it's not.

We spend $15 billion -- EVERY YEAR -- on farm subsidies, which, near as I can tell, result in children being fat. So, how about we cancel subsidies, for just this year, and buy every one 21 and younger a Kindle? Or spend, say, $35 billion and buy every youth an iPad? That means no subsidies for about 2 years. We can do that, right?

By my calculations, and I admit I have a English major brain, we spend about $100 BILLION (that's billion with a fucking BILLION) also EVERY YEAR, on reducing the cost of pharmaceuticals for old folks. How about we cut that, just this year, by a third, and get all America's children an iPad or Kindle?

And if memory serves, our President gave the Dept of Education an *extra* $100 million in stimulus money. Think what kind of juice our children and economy and the killing of the digital divide $20 - $40 billion of just the stimulus, not the normal Dept of Ed budget, which I'm sure is in the tens of billions annually, would provide.

Spend more. Cook slower. Eat better. Live longer.

That's become my own recent personal motto with respect to the food I eat. Maybe I should add 'praise stronger', not sure. It doesn't quite flow as well. Anyway, as I spend more -- buying organic produce, organic milk and cheese, grass fed beef (tres expensive!) and free range pork, chicken and eggs, well, that's a bit of a hit to the wallet.

So I figured I should save some cash and maybe some calories and start eating more nuts instead of just animal protein. Plus there's all that omegas and good fats and what not.

Problem is, at least where I live, buying unroasted, unprocessed nuts is virtually impossible. However, a few extra miles away is a Whole Foods. I ventured in. Felt like Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter at a Tea Party rally. I both belonged and didn't belonge and was welcomed and suspected all at the same time and all by the same people.

But I sallied forth, cause that's how I roll.

Surprise! Organic, raw, unprocessed nuts -- at Whole Foods -- are not cheap. How not cheap? Well, I can't say because on the off chance my mother reads this, it would probably kill her. However, they taste amazing. The raw almonds were delicious, the raw walnuts made me appreciate what all the old people who eat walnuts have been on about all these years. The toasted pumpkin seeds, in fact, were also delicious (and much more affordable).

So far, all this has done is given me less money and a bit less time. However, I have faith; faith that by eating this way, forever, I will do better by my body, my spirit, the community and even the animals.

To your good health!

The more I read about obesity and overweight, the more I learn about heart disease and cancer, and the more I watch children consume garbage and adults buy cheap food, in bulk, the more I begin to understand that I am living wrong.

Probably, you, too.

So I've begun to change my thinking and relationship with food.

I try to come up with the cash to buy only organics, to buy grass fed beef, to buy non-industralized raised animals and spend my hard-earned money on raw cheese and organic milk (the government trusts me with painkillers but not raw milk).

And rather than rushing through drive thrus, I try to make the time to spend more time planning and preparing my meals, and those for my family.

And eat better quality food, while reducing quantity of calories consumed.

I hope this makes me live longer and better.

You, too.

And I will be the first to admit that, two days in, I feel a bit tired and a bit hungry.

Probably, I need to feel this. Feel it to get better, feel it to reconnect with my body, feel it to remind myself of my blessings.

Took this picture today from my smartphone...

...at a kiosk

...in a mall

...in the heart of the Midwest

Yeah, I thought that was a pretty clever title, myself. It's one of my many talents.

Anyway, I notice that I have a lot of first-time visitors lately so I've started up a page where I briefly list my views/beliefs/stands. HERE.

To start...

1. Healthcare for all. Medicare for none.
2. The *only* way to lower taxes is by raising taxes (hint: cause it's the only legitimate, honest, proven way of reigning in spending).
3. You are not spending enough money on feeding your family, nor enough time preparing their meals.
4. Do not walk away from your debts. However, you should walk away from those debts others have amassed that they seek for you to pay (e.g. Medicare, government worker pensions, etc.).

Cisco sees the (white) light at the end of the Great Leveling tunnel, and it is a world where all (yes, all) have a smartphone and video, video calls, 'television' shows, web cams, teleconferencing and all things thick with broadband thrive.

By 2016, most of what you watch will be on your smartphone (or iPad-like device). Guaranteed.

More on the Cisco router announcement here:

“Video is not just the killer app,” Cisco CEO John Chambers said. “It enables new business models, new health care models, new productivity models.”

The company in a much-hyped announcement this morning introduced the CRS-3, a router that can move up to 322 terabits per second — enough to download the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in one second, Cisco said, or deliver all movies ever made in about four minutes. The router has been tested by AT&T (s t) in a successful trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology. Cisco said it has invested $1.6 billion to develop the hardware, which starts at $90,000 and is slated to be available in the third quarter of this year.