The rain has returned to San Francisco. I am mildly depressed. Reading blogs and sensing a growing helplessness to world events. The lies and deliberate manipulation of events! Kids being eaten by neighbors in Mexico, English interns killing little kids in hospitals for shear sport. The Bush Administration calloused attitude toward death and slaughter in Iraq and US media silence concerning the tribal warfare in Afghanistan. Here in SF the psychopath Chris Daly is still on the Board of Supervisors. He is the next Dan White. He will assassinate Mayor Newsom before it's over. And why not? This looser runs amuck in City Hall and the fools just laugh! Dan White did all the same and then got five years for two premeditated homicides! Chris Daly will soon realize that no one is listening and he will have a loud exit. The path has been followed so many times before. Why would this psychopath be different?

I am tired of scamers and street grifters coming into Starbucks and willfully creating loud disturbances! SF has become a asylum for the hustler and mentally troubled.

New York City has a better attitude toward the characters.

The rain will stop and life will go on. Well, maybe!

When I was a boy, Johnny Carson came along and he offered the country a quality product, not as smooth a Jack Paar or as hip as Steve Allen, but better. Carson had class, the real thing. He gave as good as he got and he never willfully injured anyone, even the arrogant actors that occasionally abused him on his show. Jerry Lewis was a bore and Carson soothed the rage, transforming Lewis into a tolerable presence. Carson gave time to near greats and has beens, treating them with polite ease and never making them feel hopeless. He gave a generation a gold standard and left a legacy that will be hard to top.
Dr. Drew Pensky on LoveLine said Sunday night "Carson was the last power of his generation, he hands off the future to us; we are all orphans now." I agree. Johnny Carson gave us ideals and great whimsy when we needed it. Now we are up to bat to prove ourselves.
And we will. Jimmy Kimel, David Letterman and even Jay Leno in his slapstick style will do well.
Letterman said "After Carson we're all pretenders!" Well, maybe.
Jack Benny and Stan Laurel are happy now, a much awaited friend has arrived.
Thanks Mr. Carson, you were splendid.

Thank God for the British. They can always be counted on to give an absurdist tinge to the day. The noise over Prince Harry coming to a costume party as a Nazi is priceless. The world needs a laugh. In truth we all need to stop this relentless rant over Nazi's. They lost the war and that was 60 years ago! Get over it. Attacking a boy born 40 years after the wars end, and abusing him is stupid. The British Press seems unwilling to allow youth to be what it is, innocent and insensitive!
Prince Harry should tell the media to drop dead and get on with his life. He has done nothing wrong, except be a bit of a tease. Maybe the real issue here is that he is young, and will be around long after his gray haired critics are dead and forgotten?

In recent days I've detected a growing sentiment in the blogsphere from all sides, left and right, that the Bush Administration is little more than persistent liars. Conservatives who have lambasted liberals for their phoniness and self absorption are now growing quiet as they sense they are being had by GW Bush and Co..
Liberals are stunned at the boldface antics and are getting set to pounce. After the inaugural things will get partisan fast. Do we need this? The GOP should be offering a way out. Further political agitation will solve nothing and divide the country further. I am amazed at the willingness of the Republicans to squander any good will they had.
The Bush Camp acts as if we all forget each day at sun set. The willingness to give explanations for physical abuse at Abu Ghrab as well as Guantonimo can not be defended. Either you have a moral foundation recognized by most of society or you don't!
Perceptions rule. Blaming the "Other Guy" or trying to dismiss the importance of an issue just antagonize the perception of willful lying.
The Liberal Left is showing signs it sees a pattern in Bush Administration public statements. Think about WMDs and the long train of statements, all appearing not as cynical in hindsight, but as foolish and perhaps reflecting a delusional mindset.

The President again makes statements about faith that are feckless and should not have been made.
Andrew Sullivan has covered the abuse trials and the faith statements, all are good coverage.

Was Abe Lincoln Bi Sexual or Homosexual? Who cares? The man has been dead almost one hundred and fifty years! Let him rest in peace! Saying he was Homosexual will not change attitudes in the 21st century!

Cobb County Georgia got slapped down again today. They have to remove anti evolution stickers from text books. (See Atlanta Journal Constitution article)
Creationists never learn the big lesson, honest ideas don't need stickers in text books!

I sense a whiff of smoldering anger developing across the political spectrum. The Country wants the second Bush Administration to be different and fears it won't.
The president should ease up on the Social Security reform package. This will bite the GOP big time. Mr. Bush has a developing credibility problem. Hustling the country on Social Security could erase any good will and inflame the Democrats. Bush should concentrate on Iraq a few months and then with new trust built up, offer Social Security reform.
My gut says that by May the country will be in fits over a bungled Iraqi withdrawal, a fumbled domestic agenda, and a miscalculation on the faith issue.
2005 may prove to be the undoing of GW Bush.

I'm sitting in Starbucks in the Nikko Hotel, here in San Francisco. The weather has been cold and wet. Topic A has been the tragedy in Sumatra and the tragic loss of life. The Bay Area has several casualties to contend with. Long term assistance and serious financial aid will be a must for years to come. The United States should establish a small loan service with minimal interest payments. Most affected are neighborhood cafes, convience stores, and shops of all sorts. In a few weeks the novelty of the tragedy will fade and the folks just starting to recover will go broke and end up destitute. Feeding the hungry is a honorable deed, but long term success is dependent on money and plenty of it.

I respect GW Bush decision to employ his father and President Clinton. I do hope these wise men will keep pressure on Congress to help next year and the year after. We all will benefit. Tamel guerrillas in Sre Linka and Mao guerrillas in Indonesia are waiting for the international help to dry up. They as well as Al Qaeda will feed on the desperation.

All of this is a bit obvious, but it needs to be said again and again.

I now have wireless Internet access. I've been testing free hotspots around downtown San Francisco. Needless to say I am having fun. The Westin St. Francis has 625KPS T1 access in the lobby and function room areas. I'm in the lobby in a sitting area. No one has bothered me and I assume the key is discretion. The access portal is Starwood. Its stable, and fast. I downloaded a brief trailer for the film "Rear Window" from Trailers.com and it came in at 1.4MB per second. In 41 seconds the download was complete.
There's a excellent hopspot (Free) at Cup of Joe on the corner of Sutter and Leavenworth. Good coffee and perfect T3 internet. I was in Union Square and picked up Citi Net as well as a hotspot from Macy's across the street. I gave up because I kept getting popup ads from Macy's. They are smart folks over there!
I have 811-G and it works wonders. I'm using a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4020 CDT just a P2 300Mghtz and 160MB RAM. A marvelous laptop from 1999. It serves me well.
2
Fire Rumsfeld and let Rudy Giuliani run defense! He will rattle the Iraqi Insurgents! Hey, he cut crime in NYC 70% in five years. I think the thugs found him so obnoxious they left town! Ha!
Later!

Yesterday December 14th was my 54th birthday. I was delighted to receive calls from old friends and a sweet card from a pen pal of 16 years that I have yet to meet face to face. The day was fun and I felt that life was as it should be. My mentor, who is now all of ninety-five told me years ago that 54 is the youth of old age. Memory begins to fail, sight dims, hearing goes flat, sexual proweses fade and everything appears to be a vague repeat of twenty years ago. Friends and lovers begin to die off and treasured possession's break, get lost or loose their meaning.

Well! I can live with it. Life has its rhythms and our time on Earth is limited which is just as well. The young are free of the curse of "knowing too Much" the are excited and willing to take risks. The bitter quarrels both political and social fade as a new generation appears and does not share the passions of old.

Renewal means letting yesterdays wonderment disappear so that tomorrows wonderment has the stage to itself.

The Baby Boomers are all over 40 now, the old guys and gals and America, the world has a new Hip Hop face and a funkier and frankly better attitude about love, sex, and having fun!

The politics of the 2020s has already started, it is so much better! A true international culture is developing from world consumerism and international investment. The rationale for war is fading as humanity becomes integrated through media and entertainment.

GW Bush is 58 he is part of a generation of American South boys and girls stunned by the Civil Rights movement that shamed them and their parents. The pivotal event in GW Bush's life is the world telling "Dixie" 'you are wrong!'"

This new generation is indifferent to just about all the old racial, ethnic, and social stereotypes or differences. Today people are judged by their talents and the skill in using them. All these reality TV shows reinforce a sense of personal ability ability the want to use them well.

When I was born in 1950 America was in the height of the Post War Red Scare and paranoia was the call of the day. The country was prosperous, but fretful. Religion was at a high tide, Churches were full and faith was rock solid.

In his recent book Robert S. Elwood "1950: Crossroads of American Life" he shows that's much of the fear and uncertainty of today was white hot in 1950. Nothing is new, it all comes around again and again. The final consequence of the intense religiosity of the 1950s was rebellion against the rightness, lack of modern thought, and a lingering suspicion that religious leaders were cynical hucksters on the make.

Today as religion draws our attention will it again reveal itself not to be a constructive answer to our fears? Will we again turn away because religious figures will expose their inflexibility and lack of genuine insight?

As I get older I see a tragic miscalculation on the part of both sides in America's social debates. The conservatives are far to harsh, dogmatic and at times outright cruel. The liberals are too fuzzy, indecisive, and at times mean spirited in their rants at the conservatives.

Both sides need to think of the consequence of such beliefs. In 1950 church attendance was 91% at 1964 it was 43% by 1980 it was 31% in 1990 it was 52% and today despite the noise church attendance is just 54%

The United States is such a fabulous, absolutely dynamic civilization with a wonderful future. We are a sound people and we are smart in all the ways that count. We won't fail. But we must be careful and not humiliate the rest of humanity. By the time I'm 84, China and Brazil will be serious world powers. The European Union will be a center of economic muscle and cultural authority. The United States must accommodate the changes that are coming and be generous in doing so. If we act wisely, the 21st century will be a marvelous time to be alive.

I have had great fun, life has been sweet. I am blessed by superb friends and I have exciting times ahead as I publish my book and start to travel.

Youth was an adventure, old age will be a revelation and a time of exhilaration. I know I'll leave this world with a smile.