Orwellian 1984 has made it to China. The production of constant surveillance equipment is high. How long until “Golden Shield” technology is in place in your town? Is it already there?

This article from Naomi Klien is long but worth the read at Rolling Stone .com.

Here is another link to commentary and analisys of the impact on the United States. The Left Coaster

Look at the evil in the grinning eyes in that photo from CBS News that was released by the AP. The look of demonic glee Robert Gates has is probably in response to his buddy’s announcement today about Iran and their alleged involvement in the training and funding of Iraq’s largest militia. It’s like he just can’t wait to get our country involved in another war with the worlds 4th largest oil producer.

Today National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said Iran was a threat in Iraq. He has been hyping a future war with Iran along with the rest of the Bushies for quite awhile now. This time it isn’t about nukes but about Shia followers helping other Shi’ites to defend their country against the people of the west who are trying to forcibly change their way of life. Supposedly Iran is training and funding the Shia led soldiers who are seen as the biggest threat to the US installed government puppets in Iraq.

Thinking people know it’s about the over 4 million barrels of oil Iran produces every day but the administration is pumping anti-Iran hatred so they can gain control of more of the worlds oil trade.

I am too disgusted and tired to expound much more so here’s a link and I’ll let you come to your own conclusion.

Without capital punishment Christianity wouldn’t be a religion.

No wonder the Christian majority support it.

Probably the most appalling news item from the mouths of the liars is our esteemed military veteran (ahem…ahem) and President saying he was envious of those who serve in the “romantic war in Afghanistan”.

Or perhaps the senate Minority Leader republican Mitch McConnell going all George Orwell on us and saying “the purpose of war is peace.

ABC received and published the report on al Qaeda and Iraq that the government doesn’t want you to read.

Truck drivers are sacrificing service, and thereby safety, because of the high price of fuel.

NAFTA is hurting more than our economy. It is breaking the backs of Mexican Farmers as well.

The treasurer of the Repube Congressional Commitee stole a million from…himself?

Geraldine Ferraro, former congresswoman and VP contender let her racism show again. She has been heard saying negative racist things for a while now. Years ago about Jesse Jackson and now about Obama. Clinton fired her (sorta) but not before her negativity bit Hillary in the ass.

One of Andrew Sullivans readers suggested we “Defuse Hussein”. Tippin’ the space helmet towards Crooks And Liars.

In response to the picture of Obama in another culture’s garb, pissedonpolitics exposes the Islamo/Communist leaders of America.

Stephen who is Drinking Liberally In New Milford lets us see deeper into the ties Victor Bout, an arms dealer who was arrested in Thailand Thursday has ties to our government officials.

From the house of cats we hear about how OPEC is tightening its grip.

Ted is back on the Soapbox talking about how Halliburtons Kellogg Brown & Root is ripping our country off.

ViceZilla is viewing bin Laden’s value to our president.

A few years ago I met a charming little woman that impacted my life in many ways. The little sister of my second wife, she whirled in and out of my life quite a bit. While making me laugh most of the time I was never sure when we would lock horns. Both of us being stubborn there were many times our differences caused screaming fights. Almost like we were siblings and had been doing this for years. I always wanted us to get along and most of the time we did.

When she was sober we were close. When she had a couple of drinks she got silly and laughter abounded. I have spent many great times with her and her sister.  We would go out and have great times. Lots of Scrabble games at home brought hilarity and a unity that could never be replaced. She got along with my friends and even said she liked my fundamentalist preacher parents. Like I said she was charming.

She struggled hard getting her degree from the University of New Orleans. Going back to school in her late 30’s it was a triumphant victory when she got that diploma. A bachelors degree in English was the open door for her to persue her dream of becoming a writer. She had great stories to tell and could spin a yarn in a flash. If she had ever gotten published the stories of the local scene in New Orleans would have made your sides split. The things she has seen living in the Big Easy gave her plenty to tell.

I  have listened to her stories with close attention because I also aspire to be a writer. The way she told us the things she experienced daily in the Mardi Gras City usually had us rolling on the floor in giggles. She inspired more than one of my short stories. Life in New Orleans can be crazy and has given many writers inspiration for stories we have all read. Unfortunately so many of these stories get lost at the bar where the inspiration came from. That could be the reason Jans stories will never be read.

About 5 years ago my sister in law started drinking heavy.  Like I said earlier after a couple of drinks she could be funny. After the third one she became kinda mean. Thats when the fights always started with me. Being the intolerant bastard I am I began to dislike her and I let it get out of hand. I refused to talk to her after a big fight we had in my home one night. That was about five years ago and I have avoided her since then.

She and Cat, her sister I was married to, stopped talking for a while after that as well. They hooked back up about a year ago and things went well with them. Talking often on the phone they rebuilt their relationship back up and things got better. Jan was getting better, getting a new promising job and a new house that was rebuilt after Katrina. Her sweet new room mate has 2 kids and they were bringing a new light to her life. Happiness wasn’t being drowned in the bottle and things were definitely looking up for her.  Cat kept me apprised of her situation and I was pleased. I still refused to talk to her although I could always hear her loud bubbly voice when she was talking to her sister on the phone.

The last thing she always said before telling Cat that she loved her at the end of the call was “Tell Rocky I love him.”. I always shrugged it off tried to ignore that. I never responded, letting that stupid grudge I carried overwhelm the love I once felt for her. I was stupid and thoughtless. I always waited for her apology and even knowing her as well as I did never accepted the love she sent as an apology. Or even just the way she was telling me that it was ok now. That the fights were over and forgotten. That she had forgiven me.  That we should put it all behind us and get on with the love we once had.  The caring and companionship that should have never been  forgotten.

I pushed her away though. I was the stupid fuck that couldn’t see all she had to offer, to me and the world. I was the one who rejected her attempts to make up. My stubbornness and intolerance made me harbor the resentment that kept us apart. Now I don’t have the chance to make up with her. I fucked up major and there is nothing I can do to fix it.

Jan turned 50 in September. The past 50 years were quite a trip for her. She lived her life day to day keeping herself happy.  She was there whenever a friend or family member needed encouragement or a hand up. Strangers in need would get help from a bit of cash, if she could afford it, to a hug and a kind listening ear. She always brought smiles to those around her and was the life of the party when she went out. Loud and boistrous that little woman was a lot of fun. In those fifty years she made a great impact on many lives. Mine included.

Sunday Jan called Cat. She thought she had a broken rib and was having a lot of pain in her chest. Her sister told her to go to the doctor. Jan stubbornly said that a doctor couldn’t do anything for a broken rib. The pain got worse and her room mate finally talked her into going to the hospital. She left the house Monday afternoon and no one knew where she was. Her room mate called last night saying she was missing and because she wasn’t a family member no one could release any information to her. Cat called the police in New Orleans last night to report her missing. They made a report but since she had made a phone call from her cell phone they couldn’t consider her missing. Today Cat started calling the hospitals in New Orleans. The LSU Charity hospital told her that Jan had been admitted yesterday with pneumonia and complications. She was in intensive care and wasn’t doing well. Cardiac arrest was making things worse and things didn’t look good. They had kept her alive but she wasn’t doing good.

A half hour or so later a kind doctor called back to let us know she had passed away. She was alone when she left us. That bright bubbly woman who always had someone around her died without anyone knowing where she was so there was no one to hold her hand. Fuckin’ federal laws that don’t allow non family members to know where or haw their friends are in a medical situation are wrong. Those laws kept her room mate and friends from being there with her when she needed them. The girl who had so many around her when they needed her couldn’t even have them with her in the end.

I wish I would have been less of a dick with her.  I wish my intolerance of folks that let alcohol and drugs run their lives would fade away. I wish…Yes I wish… That doesn’t do me any good now. I made a good person in my life go away and now she has gone for good.

If you are reading this and it reminds you of that person, family member, friend or neighbor that you had a falling out with go try to make it better. Try to do it now. Tomorrow may be too late. Regretting my stubborn bullheaded decision will always be with me. If you still have the chance to make up with them, no matter how much pride you have to swallow, it will be better than living with the woulda, coulda shoulda’s I will always have to live with. Regretting it every time you think about them.

I hope Jan has finally found the peace she fought for all of the time.  I hope she is resting comfortably.

In my previous post about New Orleans and the primaries I erroniously said that today was the elections. They are Saturday in Louisiana.

Musta been looking at January’s calender.

DOH!

No more cookies for me. Today…well….maybe one more.

I am sure I don’t know much about the details except what I have read. Heck, I don’t know that much about blogging out here in the big internets world what with the Googles and all. I do know that sometimes I have an opinion, rant or just some babbling I like to share with whoever will listen. So I started filling the small tubes with my ramblings on Dec. 24 of last year. Kinda like a gift to myself as the myspace thing didn’t reach as far as I want to . I want to be able to stuff my information into the bigger spaces in that series of tubes and hopefully not clog them up.

1 year ago some of the big boys in the blogging world purged their list of the smaller, less read blogs on their lofty rolls. I don’t know a lot of the details but I do know that without these links posted on other bloggers sites “little guys”, or in my case tiny guy, don’t get the exposure they deserve. Many important things are being said out there and without the blogrolls we wouldn’t know where to read them.

Some of the notable but smaller bloggers took note and instituted a more liberal blogrolling policy.  Jon Swift, a conservative blogger, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (who designed the banner at the top of this post) and some others decided this was a tragedy to the blogging world. They started a pretty liberal policy of adding smaller blogs to their rolls to make sure we have the opportunity to be heard. Skippys site has been a must read for me for a while now, even before I decided to start this thing. The site link has been in my blogroll since the beginning. Quite a few of you have linked to it from here and I am glad.

You may notice that my roll is getting longer this weekend. I have been finding excellent sites and adding them to it. In many cases they have returned the favor and added me to theirs. My traffic is up and I hope it continues growing. I have discovered so many great blogs out there because of this.

One of the first exchanges of blogrolls I made was with Drinking Liberally. Since he put my link on his page a few folks have come over to take the ride on my big rig to insanity.   Stephen in New Milford, Connecticut authors it and through his kind words has given me the inspiration to continue even when I have been down. I thank him personally for giving me an extra push to pick it back up after my Great Dane passed a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure if he even realized it but his push got me back on my blogging feet. Couldn’t have happened without blogrolling.

So go check out the sites I have listed and see what others have to say. I will keep the liberal blogrolling policy going on my site all of the time. If anyone adds me I will add them. Just drop me a commenton a post that day. With few restrictions. No porn links. No hate groups. No extremists who want to deny any of civil rights.

It doesn’t have to look pretty, just expresses the posters opinions.

Thanks to all who have added my humble site;

Rocky in Roswell

I have been feeling really horrible the last couple of days. I hope to post more later today but look for me for sure tomorrow. Sorry!

Since the propaganda of the early thirties caused most Americans to judge marijuana poorly the big pharmaceutical companies have kept those attitudes going. Between the smear campaigns and the hyping of their pills they have been a major force in the disinformation pumped into the publics heads. Along with the government and other corporate influence they have lied about the danger supposedly caused by using mother natures herbs, including marijuana.

Pot has been used as a medicine and intoxicant for thousands of years. When it became outlawed in the U S there were still quite a few users. Some still recognized its therapeutic values but a bunch of them just wanted the buzz. Alcohol is legal but it isn’t everyones choice when it comes down to how they want to party. Weed is a much mellower high and you usually don’t have vomiting or hangovers after smoking a lot of bud. People don’t overdose and die with the natural, unprocessed plant. At most a user sleeps a long time and might miss work or class. While not the best scenario at least they didn’t die. Alcohol poisoning and health problems caused by alcohol kill thousands of people last year. Not 1 recorded death caused by using weed.

In the late 1970’s people started questioning the illegality of a plant much louder. With it’s popularity rising in the ’60’s everyone could see the lies being forced down their throats. Studies were showing the benefits outweighed the risks in treating disease and the side effects of medical treatments. Besides when folks get stoned they are much less likely to fight, crash their cars or become a nusiance. Not so with alcohol.

Big Pharm saw the threat to their drugs which included tranquilizers, anti psycotics and even down to over the counter stomache remedies. If marijuana becomes an acceptible medicine many dollars would be lost for them. So in their interest they fund programs to misinform the public about weed.  Ironically a big part of the funding for Partnership For A Drug Free America comes from drug companies. Bill Mahr once said that if  they could figure out a way to put Pfizer on every leaf weed would become legal in an instant.

Big money is made in other industries as well. The most frightening of these businesses are the rehab industries and the prison systems. Prison systems? Yes. Most states are privatizing their penal systems and the companies that run the new joints make their money from full beds. The taxpayers are still footing the bill but it’s the corporations who profit. Keeping marijuana in a bad light is keeping the cells full.

Over 6 million people have been arrested in the United States since 1990 for marijuana charges. In some states possession is a misdemeanor ticket but in others having a joint will get you 15 or more years.  Alabama has a 10 to 15 year sentence for first offense possession. They have also begun privatizing their prisons. That makes the resistance to changing the laws more understandable. Money talks and bull…well, makes more money.

It is time the American people wake up and demand the truth. Truth has been disguized as fiction and lies have become truth for too many years. Too much like Orwell for me.