Would The True Uncola Be Alocnu?

As if the last post wasn't enough, let's have another word from another sponsor, (but not one that sponsors this blog!)

Only a soda-drinking, bar-code reader of Adbusters will truly appreciate this video. Sphere: Related Content

Are You Excited About New iPhone Apps?

Sometimes it takes a dramatization to make the point. Forthwith, this little video about the latest Apple iPhone invention. Enjoy the newest advance of tech. Sphere: Related Content

How Smart Is A Cockatiel?

Only life with a pet bird, a cockatiel, (ours is named "Buddy") could inspire this nugget of a story idea.

Suppose for a moment the bird is super-smart. You whistle to him and he whistles back and you're entertained. You care for this wonderful, grey-winged squawker.

You line the bottom of the cage with newspapers. The financial section, the sports section. Week after week.

Buddy reads the stocks, keeps up with sports. He's got some tips for me. I hear him whistle in an unusual way, and I investigate. It's some kind of...code...and I figure it out! His stock tips actually...make me money! Think of the ramifications.

I begin to wonder. Just how "old" is Buddy? Are there any more of his type out there? And how can I keep this avian wonder a secret?

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Is California Trying To Hurt Women?

Watched the start of David Duchovny's "Californication" (Showtime) series. He plays a convincing role as talented writer Hank Moody dealing with his former significant other and their teenage daughter.

But since the show's setting is today's Hollywood, he's also finding various women (for various reasons) hitting on him. And we see how he does--and doesn't--resist temptation. After all, he's a troubled genius. (He's "moody," get it?) And his publisher is pressuring him to blog--yep, blog--for an entertainment web site.

Hey...blogging is getting some recognition now, eh?

Somewhere in the show, Hank observes that he thinks "California is killing it's women." Then I thought of the crash dieting, liposuction plastic surgery, vaginal reconstruction surgery, excessive spa time, general "beauty" advertising which implies women can always be "better," but only with the sponsor's product(s).

Then when a woman has her "looks" together, it's another tough hill to climb to advance in the workplace, often dominated by men. I'd love this to change, but the program's picture of women's status is pretty depressing.

No wonder Hank thinks what he thinks. What do you think?

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Fast Forward To Summer 2009

Yes, a couple of years goes by fast and before you know it, the summer of Woodstock's 40th anniversary is upon us!

It will be a tie-dyed haze for a bit, but then the fuzziness wears off and you're "back in your own reality, driving something other than that VW bus from back in the day.

I'm now 62, married (last October) to sweet Deborah and moving forward into the future. Gladly accepting the Social Security I've contributed to for most of my working life and receiving high-level health care from the Veterans Administration. If this is "socialism," then that's ok with me.

[But if it's "socialism," then what about your local fire department, police department, public works department--road paving, etc.--library, the country's armed forces, etc.?]

Some people confuse the role of government--doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves--with a governing system disconnected from its population, allowing no input to the process. Sorta like what the pure "Objectivist" free-marketeer philosophy of Ayn Rand would do to a nation.

At the moment, "the Woodstock Nation" has voted a Democratic black president into the White House and the Democratic Party controls the House and Senate. Our pragmatic selves and children now have that moment for "change" we have been waiting for and are up to the challenge, because, "we can!"

My hunch is we'll see a public option health care reform enacted into law. After that, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will be approved. Of course, this will not be easy because the status-quo resistance of entrenched "big money interests" will try to block progress every step of the way. Look for lunatic reasoning and fear-mongering. It's the only tricks they have left!

Much closer to home, I'm reactivating this blog to create a space for my writer's instincts, because these thoughts don't always lend themselves to the Newsmission focus. Here's where I'll ask "what if?" and jot down ideas. Make of it what you will.

Feel free to post a comment. This writer loves fearless feedback.

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