faces

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Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

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for the couch:

Pete and Allan

Allan and Jim (NCN )(had to do this one all Nor'westy like...)

_

there once was a life I sailed the wwwebly seas

on ocean often calm
but sometimes not
with a motley crew
all wisey-kind in cleverish ways
we fought, often for days
against them blarney types
or, against each other
all-friendly-like o' course
and we'd gather
from places far, far away
strangers some
but then not for long
for a brisk skirmish
made friends of those
who stand side by side

those days I sometimes miss
when asses we'd kick
when Malcolm would cry out
"heave to boys!"
and Nemo would point
"thar she blows!"
characters all
would stand as one
(well, maybe 1 1/2...)
dark and bb, ddc
hope and all
I salute yer raggedy
piratical anarchal arses

thanks for the memories
Huzzah!

-

the return... da da da dum!

~~~

“Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.”

- Thomas Merton

~~~

Well, gosh. I've been away from blogging because technology passed me right by. The world of course hasn't gone away, I've just had to step aside for awhile so I didn't get run over on the information highway. What does Info Hwy roadkill look like? See, the questions are just boundless!

First some shout outs:

To my classmates from San Pedro HS, class of '69, I swear I'll make it for the 50th! I'm really curious... :)

To my couchmates over at Pete Guither's Drug WarRant. If you are interested in drug policy that's the place to go. If you support drugs prohibition, we'd love to have you, be it for breakfast, lunch or dinner/supper. I've been hanging out with some of these anti-prohibition scalawags for over a decade. End the drug war, Damitol!®

And a shout out to a young woman that provided inspiration to me for months while she rented a room in my house here at the farm. Courtney Appleseed is a gorgeous and talented young woman and it was truly a pleasure to have her in my home. I had no idea that muses are real, but they are! I had one and I will forever be in her debt for her friendship and her inspiring work as a model.

My first digital camera went belly up (more than less) and I had to find me a new one. Bought a Pentax K5II. Lovin' it. As always I'll be sharing images once I hit my stride on this blogging thing.

Oh and a shout out to Kevin Sabet and Calvina Fay... NANNER NANNER! It takes a real creative loser to call an ass-whupping a victory. But Prohibition IS coming to an end, again.

I'll be having a whole lot more to say on a lot of things, so please, grab your coffee, pull up your chair and share with me in hopefully providing something of value to our world.

do me a favor...

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“Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.”

- Will Rogers
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So, anyway... we all know the drug war sucks, that it has completely and utterly failed and that the only ones in favor of the War On (some) Drugs are either the cartels raking in the profits from the international illegal drugs business (worth nearly 10% of the entire annual global marketplace) or those in the employ of the massive prohibition bureaucracy (the war profiteers). Please do me a favor and go sign this international petition calling for an end to the War On Drugs, here. Join the more than 300,000 of us from all across the planet who have signed in just a couple of days.

The petition will be accompanying a report to be released in a few days by the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

A single, simple yet pointed paragraph:

To Ban Ki-moon and all Heads of State:

We call on you to end the war on drugs and the prohibition regime, and move towards a system based on decriminalisation, regulation, public health and education. This 50 year old policy has failed, fuels violent organised crime, devastates lives and is costing billions. It is time for a humane and effective approach.

Thanks y'all.

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Junkies in our midst...

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“We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyones arguing over where they're going to sit.”

- David Suzuki
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It's been over a month since the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. We now have acknowledgement from BP that the leak is bigger than the 5,000 barrels a day claimed since the disaster first happened.

While no one knows exactly how much oil is leaking, legitimate estimates range from 20,000 barrels a day to upwards of 100,000 barrels a day. And at what? 42 gallons per barrel... that's a lot of bubblin' crude.

An important point to be aware of in this incident is that there were those who warned of such possi-/proba-bilities:

How Technology Failed in the Gulf Spill

While the Deepwater Horizon leaks' depth is unprecedented, it was not unanticipated. A report by engineering consulting firm URS Corp. in 2002 concluded that "Technologies used in shallow waters are no longer adequate for water depths over 1,000 meters. As a result, the environmental consequences of some of the newer deepwater technologies are not well understood."

In 2005 petroleum engineering researchers from Texas A&M University suggested that drilling in the "dangerous and unknown" ultra-deep environment required new blowout control measures: "While drilling as a whole may be advancing to keep up with these environments, some parts lag behind. An area that has seen this stagnation and resulting call for change has been blowout control."

An analysis of incidents in the Gulf of Mexico by the Texas A&M researchers showed that offshore blowouts had continued at "a fairly stable rate" since 1960 despite the use of BOPs. Regulators require inspection of BOPs every 14 days. BP says it inspected the Deepwater Horizon's 10 days before last month's blowout.

Two attempts by BP to cap the well have failed and thousands of barrels of oil continue to spill into the Gulf of Mexico waters.

Frank Rich has a well crafted piece in the NY Times: Obama’s Katrina? Maybe Worse

FOR Barack Obama’s knee-jerk foes, of course it was his Katrina. But for the rest of us, there’s the nagging fear that the largest oil spill in our history could yet prove worse if it drags on much longer. It might not only wreck the ecology of a region but capsize the principal mission of the Obama presidency.

-snip-

The only good news from the oil spill is that when catastrophe strikes, even some hard-line conservatives, like Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, start begging for the federal government to act, and act big. It’s the crunch moment for government to make its case — as Obama belatedly started to do on Thursday. But words are no match for results. As long as the stain washes up on shore, the hole in BP’s pipe will serve the right as a gaping hole in the president’s argument for expanded government supervision of, for starters, Big Oil and big banks. It’s not just the gulf that could suffer for decades to come.

This is a disaster - and not just an environmental one. The BP spill is also a disastrous failure of technology. How could this happen? How can companies be allowed such activities when the technology to stop such a disaster is apparently lagging behind the ability to poke holes in the ocean floor? Remember that thing our parents used to tell us? "... just because you can doesn't mean you should." Well if there is a better example than this of the principle of that...

The AP's Matthew Brown: Cleaning oil-soaked wetlands may be impossible

The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said.

-snip-

White [David White, a wetlands ecologist from Loyola University in New Orleans], the Loyola scientist, predicted at least short-term ruin for some of the wetlands he's been studying for three decades. Under a worst-case scenario, he said the damage could exceed the 217 square miles of wetlands lost during the 2005 hurricane season.

"When I say that my stomach turns," he said.

We are junkies, or at best we are the enablers of addiction. We are addicted to oil and the side effects of that addiction are felt at all levels of society. We need to change, we need to understand that we truly need to find and utilize alternative energy, wind and tide, more mass transit... we need to bring our troops home and work at restoring the Gulf states' damage not just from this oil "spill" (a spill is what happens when a kid's cup tips over) but what remains to be done from the swath of damage from Hurricane Katrina. We have states in the midwest reeling from disastrous tornadoes, states in the east still repairing damage from heavy rains and flooding this past winter and early spring... we have a crumbling infrastructure of highways and bridges...

... our own house is in disrepair and needs our attention. But are we too spoiled as a consumer society to become an effective and active citizenry - a populace that is willing to face the plethora of crises already here and looming on the horizon?

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And from my this-and-that file:

Baltimore’s Crime Drop As War On Drugs Becomes War On Violence

BALTIMORE – In a blighted west Baltimore neighborhood, Lt. Ian Dombroski turns his unmarked police car around a corner and sees several men standing outside a liquor store. They scatter immediately.

Dombroski knows they’re probably selling drugs, but he keeps driving. Five years ago, he said, officers who happened upon a similar scene wouldn’t take such a selective approach.

“We’d all jump out, grab all the junkies, find out who had the drugs on ‘em, lock ‘em up, and that might be three or four drug arrests right there,” Dombroski said. “And we’d go, ‘Good, those are numbers.’”

But under Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, officers in one of the nation’s most violent cities are no longer being told to beef up arrest statistics. The number of arrests has declined the past two years. Yet homicides and shootings are down, too — to totals not seen since the late 1980s.

Officers familiarize themselves with a list of 120 dangerous criminals and patrol where they live, talking to them and working acquaintances for tips. The serving of arrest warrants has been reprioritized to focus on people with violent backgrounds. Gun offenders are also required to register with the city, much like sex offenders do in many places.

“I’m not trying to win the drug war,” Bealefeld said. “I’m out to win the war on violence and deal effectively with violence.”

And speaking of the drug war, a couple of posts back I added a link to police video of a "drug raid" carried out by SWAT in Columbia, Missouri... it's not pretty, one can hear a dog being shot and crying in pain and then 3 shots and silence... and all for a few grams of cannabis (marijuana, pot, weed, etc). The enlightening part of the video (and there's a warehouse of sociologic info in that video) is when the homeowner - the target of the raid - asks "what is happening?" and then demands a lawyer. Best advice ever...

Oh... and the Columbia, Missouri police received heavy national attention when the video went viral on YouTube. Well, not soon after, the beleaguered Columbia PD Chief, Ken Burton, said this:

“I applaud your efforts,” he told a reporter who asked about campaigns to change marijuana laws. “If we could get out of the business [of going after marijuana offenders], I think there would be a lot of police officers that would be happy to do that.”

Look... the drug war is literally our government waging a military assault on US families and individuals under the guise of Prohibition. The Prohbition of Drugs is no different than the Prohibition of Alcohol. Substances when prohibited do not become unpopular... they just become illegal and there are always those willing to be the suppliers of a demand. That's like the most basic law of economics... but what Prohibition does is turn the manufacure and distribution of the banned products over to criminal organizations. Criminal organizations gladly will lose a few soldiers and even suffer some seizures of goods in order to be the recipients of the black market's swollen profit margins.

In international terms the global market in illegal drugs is somewhere around $500 billion a year, just under 10% of total global annual trade. Tax free, all cash, high demand... a capitalist wet dream. And all that cash buys a lot of influence, buys a lot of politicians and members of law enforcement.

There are a lot worse things in life than drugs and their abuse. But I ask you consider that smoking cannabis as a young man did not prevent Barack Obama (or Bill Clinton, prolly George Bush Jr) from becoming President of the United States. An arrest for possession of cannabis would have. And that's plain dumb, especially considering the laws against cannabis come from such putrid, bigoted beginnings.

And speaking of snakes and snakey things, just in case you thought alligators are dangerous, how about alligator-eating-snakes:

Pythons in Florida Stalked by Hunters and Tourists Alike

Thousands of Burmese pythons, the offspring of former pets, have invaded the Everglades, eating birds, bunnies, even alligators. It has gotten so bad that Congress is considering an outright ban on buying or selling nine kinds of giant snakes.

-snip-

“People need to view exotic species invasions as pollution — biopollution,” said David E. Hallac, chief of biological resources for Everglades and Dry Tortugas National Parks. “In some cases, this form of biopollution can be even more difficult to remedy than chemical pollution, mainly because in most cases, we have no way of cleaning up exotic species from our natural environments.”

Kind of fits the theme here today, don't you think? And speaking of exotic species:

Beware alien invaders, says Stephen Hawking

They say strangers are just friends you haven't met yet - but it's not a view Stephen Hawking shares. In a new documentary series for the Discovery channel, he suggests that we should be avoiding making contact with aliens at all costs.

An important and relevant perspective on the financial crisis from Thomas Friedman in the NY Times:

Start-Ups, Not Bailouts

Here’s my fun fact for the day, provided courtesy of Robert Litan, who directs research at the Kauffman Foundation, which specializes in promoting innovation in America: “Between 1980 and 2005, virtually all net new jobs created in the U.S. were created by firms that were 5 years old or less,” said Litan. “That is about 40 million jobs. That means the established firms created no new net jobs during that period.”

Message: If we want to bring down unemployment in a sustainable way, neither rescuing General Motors nor funding more road construction will do it. We need to create a big bushel of new companies — fast. We’ve got to get more Americans working again for their own dignity — and to generate the rising incomes and wealth we need to pay for existing entitlements, as well as all the new investments we’ll need to make. It was just reported that Social Security this year will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes — a red line we were not expected to cross until at least 2016.

But you cannot say this often enough: Good-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups. And where do start-ups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired risk-takers. How do we get more of those? There are only two ways: grow more by improving our schools or import more by recruiting talented immigrants.

So in light of the multiple wars we have raging - military types, economic, drug, environmental - here's an old fave from the remarkable Samuel Clements (go read the whole thing):

The War Prayer
by Mark Twain

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

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Almost forgot to add... if you're in the Bend, Oregon area my good friend Greg Burke ( http://www.pbase.com/gb_photo/root ) will be having his photography on exhibit at Eastlake Framing, 1335 NW Galveston Ave, Bend, Oregon, 541-389-3770, with the artist's reception this coming Friday, June 4th, from 5 - 8 pm. Say hi to Greg for me if you go!



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“I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty”

- George Burns

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Earth Day everyday... or not...

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“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”

- Wendell Berry
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This blogpost was inspired by an answer to a question I asked my daughter...

"So, what did the high school do for earth day?"

Exasperatedly she said "Nothing... I think only one other kid and I even knew it was earth day."

Really? In a world filled with information highways everywhere - from expressways to dial-up, backwater dirt roads - one would think that some attention is warranted and earth bound beings would relish the chance to take one day a year and celebrate and exclaim their reverence for the source of all the plastic googaws we've surrounded ourselves with. Oh yeah, and stuff like food, the air we breath, the water we drink. Yes? No?

Is this earth, our water planet, our big blue ball spinning in space, an irrelevance? Has the modern world forsaken it's most basic needs as civilization slides into a stupor of ever deepening mediocrity and failure?

I've been doing some focused reading this morning. Wondering about things like, oh... the environment, global climate change and what the future holds for my kids and the coming generations.

I'm no dummy, I may not be the brightest bulb in the marquee but I'm smart enough to know that earth's climate changes cyclically and sometimes dramatically in short periods. That great shifts in our land masses often occur, that volcanoes can erupt and spew enough debris into the air to cause years long changes to global weather patterns.

Volcanoes and Climate Change (NASA)

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines June 15, 1991, an estimated 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide and ash particles blasted more than 12 miles (20 km) high into the atmosphere. The eruption caused widespread destruction and loss of human life. Gases and solids injected into the stratosphere circled the globe for three weeks. Volcanic eruptions of this magnitude can impact global climate, reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface, lowering temperatures in the troposphere, and changing atmospheric circulation patterns.

I'm just sayin'...

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Mat Latos update...

Mat's had a bit of a rough go. After pitching 6 hit ball over 7 innings and (or was it 7 hit ball after 6 innings...?) and only allowing 2 runs against the Giants he went out and suffered two more losses, one where he allowed 4(?) homeruns.

But then the other night he pitched a game against the Houston Astros in which he went 8 innings and only allowed 2 hits, no runs and struck out 9. He's now won 2 and lost 3.

Keep focused Mat.

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Since I started writing this many days ago a few events have passed...

... and the first one I wanna mention is an anniversary that passed just the other day:



40 years ago Ohio Nat'l Guardsmen shot 13 students at Kent State University - yes, we shoot our own. While we citizens may shoot each other that's one thing, but when a government shoots its citizens that's an entirely different disorder, one we shouldn't tolerate. Ever. (for more on this theme, see the last part of this post)

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Another incident of note - just a minor issue - is the slight mishap that just happened in the Gulf of Mexico with one of BP's oil platforms. You know, that rig that blew up killing several humans and certainly destined to kill millions of other life forms living in the warm waters of the gulf.

Some reading material:

BP has long record of legal, ethical violations - Paul Sabin, May 7, in the Kansas City Star

In the Gulf of Mexico, BP and its drilling contractor, Transocean Ltd., chose not to install a $500,000 remote-control shut-off switch that might have contained the recent spill from BP's well. Norway has required these switches since 1993. The U.S. Minerals Management Service considered a similar requirement several years ago, but the oil industry killed off the proposal. And so, but for $500,000, we probably have billions of dollars in liability and cleanup expenses in the Gulf, plus a long-term threat to the livelihoods and ecology of the region that we can't yet quantify.

Cutting corners to keep down costs is an age-old business strategy, from coal mines to sweatshops and the dumping of hazardous wastes. The history of these oil spills makes clear, however, that when it leads to a disaster, cost cutting becomes a bad corporate bet.

[emphasis mine - ae]

Reuters: Special report: Will the cleanup make the BP oil spill worse?

A close examination of studies of the Exxon Valdez disaster and interviews with many people who took part in the cleanup offers a possible peek into what lies ahead for the Gulf Coast in the coming weeks, months, years -- and perhaps decades. Indeed, by one estimate, about 21,000 gallons of oil still linger on some of Alaska's beaches, often in the form of dark brown globs just beneath the rocks.

What's more, there are still some experts who argue that the aggressive cleanup following the Exxon Valdez spill proved more harmful than the oil itself. That continuing debate points to another potential cautionary tale about how conflicts among various groups looking to make things right can end up hampering cleanup efforts.

So... how big a disaster is the BP Deepwater spill?

How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? (BBC News)

In terms of lives lost (11 workers died in the rig explosion), financial cost and environmental damage, the Deepwater Horizon incident is clearly serious. But it is not one of the world's largest spills in terms of size alone.

In fact, based on the estimate above, it would not register in the largest 50 single incident, offshore oil spills that have occurred worldwide. Even the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill - despite the controversy and coverage - is not in the top 10.

However the potential for damage caused by Deepwater Horizon is apparent when looking at the events of June 1979 in the Bay of Campeche, also in the Gulf of Mexico.

In that spill, the exploratory oil well Ixtoc 1 suffered a blowout and wasn't capped until more than nine months later, having released 461,000 tonnes of oil in total.

To my mind it is not a matter of size - though of course size does matter - but the size of the impact of this on an already stressed and strained environment and a damaged and not yet repaired social landscape.

New Orleans and the rest of the US gulf coast still haven't recovered from Hurricane Katrina and now this. Fortunately... lord save us... we have former head of FEMA Michael Brown to look to in order that we are given some sane perspective on this recent mess:

This week in crazy: Michael Brown

"Now you're looking at this oil slick approaching, you know, the Louisiana shore, according to certain -- NOAA and other places, if the winds are right, it will go up the East Coast," Brown said. "This is exactly what they want, because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, 'I'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous,' while Mexico and China and everybody else drills in the Gulf. We're going to get shut down."

What the heck is a bit of oil and an entire region's economy compared to stopping the evil liberals in their tracks?!

I mean please... it's the whole of the liberal-conservative blame game summed up in a nutshell (and I do mean nut). No disaster is so big that it can't be made small and cheap and trivialized and used for political gain. C'mon Brownie, just shut up. Asshat...

Funny too (not) that the oil industry and it's associated industries can be involved in a disaster we here in the states just don't hear about:

Activist: Farmer suicides in India linked to debt, globalization

"The farmer suicides started in 1997. That's when the corporate seed control started," Vandana Shiva told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "And it's directly related to indebtedness, and indebtedness created by two factors linked to globalization."

-snip-

An estimated 200,000 farmers have taken their own lives in India over the past 13 years, according to Indian government statistics.

"The combination is unpayable debt, and it's the day the farmer is going to lose his land for chemicals and seeds, that is the day the farmer drinks pesticide," Shiva said. "And it's totally related to a negative economy, of an agriculture that costs more in production than the farmer can ever earn."

There is a pattern here... gross negligence, conspiracy among the corporate profiteers who capitalize on the good and the bad, for whom the deaths of the oil rig workers, the suicides of peasant farmers in India relates only to the balance in the corporate ledgers...

I'm sorry (not) but we, the people (of all colors, of all nations) are getting screwed. And there's no lovemaking to this, it is pure rape.

Corporations don't vote, corporations can't vote, but corporations sure can buy politicians at a level voters can't touch. (check out Max Baucus and his masterful and profitable work on behalf of the pharamaceutical and health care industry in the recent health care bill wranglings)

We truly do need to stop this behemoth of bureaucracy that seems to pander to everyone and every entity but those very people whom it is meant to serve...

And here is one last bit for you. This is a rather disturbing video (seriously), shot by police while raiding a home in Columbus, Missouri with the SWAT team, searching for cannabis:

This is but one example of why I believe the drug war (Prohibition II) is one of the most pernicious and slimy policies to ever eminate from our government - a position I can easily defend should anyone care to debate the issue with me. And if you haven't discovered Radley Balko before... hooboy... fasten your seat belt. Nobody is covering the plague of police home invasions like Radley. Is this really what we have become?

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“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong it's reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

- Abraham Lincoln

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Not me, or...

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“Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.”

~ Bob Marley
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I know, I know... but I can't stay off the "drugs" topic. Actually I can but there is so much about life today that involves drugs. Legal drugs and illegal drugs.

Let me explain...

Today is April 20th. 4/20, or 420. You know, the unofficial stoner holiday. Today is also the anniversary of the Columbine mess. It's also Adolph Hitler's birthday. Now if that isn't a mix that deserves to have their strings intertwined...

Oh yeah... I'm going to throw random urinalysis into this mix. I hope nobody minds.

So... how does cannabis, Hitler, the Columbine massacre and random drug testing tie together?

For me it was a matter of watching the evening news, listening to my son talk about his day and how all that ties into my work history.

Hitler we all know. Columbine, most folks know about. Pot? Yeah, we all know at least something about that (even if if what we know is wrong). And drug testing? Hang on, I'll get there.

The Rise of Adolph Hitler

I'm not a big Hitler fan, so if you want to know more than what is common knowledge, do your research. There is a lot out there... Google shows almost 6 million hits. What we do know that I need to mention is that Hitler was a master manipulator of fact and the media. He gained his power through a tactical campaign of manipulating public opinion. A lot like the campaign against cannabis.



"OK, Allan", you say, "how does Columbine tie into this, other than it happened on April 20th?"

Oh c'mon. Give me a hard question.

We don't really know what triggered seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to commit such an horrendous act against truly innocent kids. Kind of like we're not sure what exactly triggers kids into doing drugs. But we have some ideas. Chief among them is that kids need recognition. They need to be noticed and paid attention to. They need the parents around them to take their lives seriously and work with all the hormones, growth and childhood angst that the kids are dealing with. But we adults too often don't do these things. And subsequently we miss a lot. We miss the signals that kids send.

Lord knows I do. I'm a single dad w/ two teenagers... a broke single dad with two teens. And thus I've just tied random drug testing into this. When I was fired last summer I wasn't fired for bad work habits or being inefficient. It was just the opposite. I hadn't been fired from a job for 25 years. In fact I have been fired twice in my life. The job I lost was a retail position. I worked in hardware. As a retail salesman, I shine. I'm helpful, intelligent, friendly, even indulgent when that is what is needed.

Which is easy to do... within limits. Some folks just can't be pleased, but after over 40 years of being involved with the public on a business level I have to admit 98% of us just want honest, helpful assistance when we have questions. Kind of like kids...

Now here is where drug testing comes in. I'm not just pissed about losing my job, I'm beyond incensed -- but no worries about going postal, I use cannabis and engage in stress relieving activities - like writing this blog - and working on my photography. Speaking of which... a photo break:







And I guess I've got a case of the mung sai because that firing is not right. Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining, I've learned to roll with the punches... but that failed drug test ties right into students. I think the figure is now 15% of our school kids are drug tested.

So, let me ask: do you approve of drug testing our school kids for drugs?

And let me ask that question again: do you approve of drug testing our school kids without a warrant?

See... for me the crux of the matter is what it says in the Bill of Rights

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

What does that say again?

"no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized"

A search without a warrant is unConstitutional. It is fairly plainly written, even a forklift driver/window cleaner can understand that. So what is the problem with the Supreme Court? They may be scholars of law but they don't know shit about common sense, apparently:

Supreme Court hears arguments in school strip-search case

Supreme Court justices on Tuesday revealed sharp differences over whether Arizona school officials acted properly in strip-searching a 13-year-old girl.

Conservative justices stressed schools' need to combat drug abuse. Other justices suggested that the specific search, involving ibuprofen, might have gone too far. The court's final answer will guide educators nationwide, as the justices determine when standard constitutional protections give way to school safety.

"Having an aspirin tablet does not present a health or safety risk," Justice David Souter said.

Justice Stephen Breyer added that the strip-search of eighth-grader Savana Redding may have been "a little extreme," and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg conveyed dismay at the search's intrusiveness.

See... no one asking "were the parents present?"

C'mon, what are we teaching our kids? Big Bro' knows best? And of course all this discussion of teens, school and drugs brings me me to this little nauseating tale:

Goose Creek Raid

I'm not even going to say much about that... I try real hard not to swear in my writing.

For me, having been fairly intensely involved in drug policy reform for over a decade now I've got my school of hard knocks degree in drug policy. And what I've learned makes me sick. Really. A lot of what I know seems like it should be common knowledge. But I watch mainstream (network) news and I know it is more a case of what we aren't told than us not wanting to know. Things that you have to dig a bit to find. Regional happenings that don't move past the national filters.

There are way too many stories to tell 'em all here, but a couple have gnawed at me and won't let go, so I will use tham as prime examples of why I fight this Prohibitionist scourge. I believe drug Prohibition to be a real debacle, man made. And man can end it. But here, meet Donald Scott:

ARMED AND DANGEROUS
Ranch-coveting officials settle for killing owner

Early on the morning of Oct. 2, 1992, 31 officers from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, Border Patrol, National Guard and Park Service came roaring down the narrow dirt road to Scott's rustic 200-acre ranch. They planned to arrest Scott, the wealthy, eccentric, hard-drinking heir to a Europe-based chemicals fortune, for allegedly running a 4,000-plant marijuana plantation. When deputies broke down the door to Scott's house, Scott's wife would later tell reporters, she screamed, "Don't shoot me. Don't kill me." That brought Scott staggering out of the bedroom, hung-over and bleary-eyed -- he'd just had a cataract operation -- holding a .38 caliber Colt snub-nosed revolver over his head. When he pointed it in the direction of the deputies, they killed him.

-snip-

Despite a subsequent search of Scott's ranch using helicopters, dogs, searchers on foot, and a high-tech Jet Propulsion Laboratory device for detecting trace amounts of sinsemilla, no marijuana --or any other illegal drug -- was ever found.

And even more than my own calamitous direct contacts with the drug war the case of Zeke Hernandez just continues to act as a catalyst to maintaining a voice on the topic of our drug policies.

CASUALTIES OF THE DRUG WAR

Zeke's story was one of the first I had heard about innocent civilians directly killed by our drug war (Prohibition 2.0). Equally as sad... Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta. Kathryn was a near 90 year old black grandmother shot by police who broke down her door on a drug raid based on a perjured warrant and rubber stumped by a judge. She had no drugs. She did have a pistol...

But she lost the gun battle, the police planted drugs and... well, here, you read it:

Kathryn Johnston: A Year Later
92-year-old woman's death has done little to curb the use of paramilitary police tactics around the country.

[...] everything about the Kathryn Johnston murder was corrupt. The initial arrest of the ex-con came via trumped-up charges. The police then invented an informant for the search warrant, and lied about overseeing a drug buy from Johnston's home.

Ms. Johnston didn't actually wound any of the officers. They were wounded by fragments of ricochet from their own storm of bullets. And there was no marijuana. Once they realized their mistake, the officers handcuffed Ms. Johnston and left her to bleed and die on the floor of her own home while they planted marijuana in her basement.

And the names of those with similar stories just gets longer and has become a litany...

Drug War Victims

It is not just what we are teaching our kids but what we are passing on to them. Do we really want to hand them a system that we've forgotten to stand up for? A system with laws based on lies? A system that says "even though you haven't done anything wrong we need to make sure, so just pee in this cup." A funny thing here is how those who have been heavily involved in setting up the system that seeks mandatory drug testing are also those who are the captains of the drug testing corporate world.

DRUG TESTING.
IS IT WORTH IT ?

Carlton Turner was once the United States' drug czar (under Reagan.) After this, he became a very rich man as an advisor for drug testing companies. His partner, Peter Bensinger is a former head of the National Institute on Drug Awareness. Another partner was Robert Dupont, also a former NIDA director. Former White House drug advisor Donald MacDonald now owns Employee Health Programs, which contracts MROs to drug testing programs.

Start a war and then sell the tools of that war. Wow, now there is a story we've never heard before...

And I could go on... about how the early "teen camps" were abusive failures that ended badly for too many and those who were profiting from those "camps" are also *cough* leaders *cough* in the anti-drug movement.

I could talk about a young missionary mother - Veronica Bowers - and her infant daughter Charity, were shot out of the skies over Peru

Or I might mention U.S. Army pilot, Captain Jennifer Odom and her crew and how they were shot down over Colombia and how her Commander, "Col. James Hiett, the top U.S. counter-narcotics official in Colombia, [...] was helping his wife launder the proceeeds of her cocaine smuggling through the U.S. embassy with the help of his chauffeur."

But I won't... I have to go wash my hands. Happy 420... sigh...

---

“I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas.”

~ Dan Rather

---

oh yeah... that other war... "Who cares if it cures cancer?"

~~~

“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”

~ William F. Buckley, Jr.
~~~

I've been putting off writing this next piece. Its hard to write and say the truth of what must be said. What I've been saying in this long series of posts on the drug war -- aka Prohibition II (or in new millenium parlance: Prohibition 2.0) -- is truthfully a condemnation of my own nation. I like this place. But in the context of where and how we began as a nation I think my attitude is both justified and patriotic.

I continue to stand on the principle of founding that the Constitution is our document. It and its declaration of our right of independence as human beings was placed in our care. But we've neglected our responsibilities. We've left the chicken coop open and the foxes have taken over.

Many, many people are relatively unaware of the drug war's specifics, knowing only what glimmers they glimpse on the news or in their newspapers. Few take the time to investigate the issue and end up being spoon fed misinformation that only serves to further entrench a bureaucracy within which dogma reigns supreme and heaven help those who stand in opposition. A bureaucracy that has as among its guidelines the power to lie:

The Drug Czar is required by law to lie

Title VII Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998: H11225:


Responsibilities. --The Director-- [...]

(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that--

A. is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and
B. has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;

But there is no surprise in that really. Considering the false premises (often inspired by racial bigotry) upon which this nearly century old drugs Prohibition was founded, how else to maintain the lie than to pass a law mandating use of "... such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance..." This is a terrible power to bestow upon a massive government run by human beings. There is no human being that I've met that is perfect. We all suffer the same (yet uniquely individual!) faults just not in the same measures.

Because of who I am and the way I am I've found myself on the unpopular end of a few hot button issues. I've kind of developed a thick skin about epithats flung my way, preferring instead to come to know those who fling them. I actually believe that in the 30 plus years of my politicking things have gotten much better in the US. But fighting against this new/old Prohibition (and I say it that way because Prohibition is a very specific entity and even though it's target may change, Prohibition doesn't because it operates on certain immutable fundamentals) brings up some terrible vitriol from those who are Prohibition's most ardent supporters.

These are people who take to heart the ONDCP's edict to take "such actions" as necessary to prevent legalization. Even discussion is verboten. There is no national dialogue, no debate. The folks who lead this Charge of the Dim Brigade operate free from any major scrutiny. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) head John Walters has never faced tough questions. No reporters who would ask tough questions get close enough to Walters, the "Drug Czar" (and I'm sorry but this is not Russia, we don't have czars in the US), to ask those questions. He operates from behind castle walls, insulated from those who would challenge his falsehoods and end the reign of the czars.

An example of this law-to-lie is the insidious denial of cannabis (marijuana) as a legitimate medicine. The feds firmly deny there is any medical use for pot. Yet the plant has a history as a medicine that goes as far back as recorded history, some 5,000 years ago in China:

"Marijuana has been a medicine for 5,000 years," says Donald I. Abrams, MD. "That's a lot longer than it hasn't been a medicine." Abrams, who is an oncologist and director of clinical research programs at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco, is one of a handful of top-flight doctors in the country researching medical marijuana. "The war on drugs is really a war on patients," he says. (from here) (emphasis mine)

And its not like one day in China there was this big "POOF!" and suddenly this plant appeared. The relationship between cannabis and humanity is so old that we don't know how old our relationship with it is...

"In Chinese medicine," Abrams says, "they prescribe whole herbs and usually combinations of herbs."

It just seems a little odd that what was medicine for millenia is all of a sudden not medicine. Odd that some bureaucrat with more than a trace of racial prejudice could override use of such an ancient, basic resource:

The use of cannabis or hemp can also be traced back to the Stone Age. The cannabis plant is native to Central Asia but had already spread across the Old World before history began. As well as having psychoactive properties the cannabis plant also provides an extremely strong fibre, which has been used from time immemorial. Nevertheless its mind-altering effects were also made use of in Neolithic times. Stone Age cultures on the steppes used it in a ritual fashion at least as far back as the third millennium BC. In a burial site in Romania belonging to the Kurgan people (identified by Gimbutas as the Proto-Indo-Europeans), archaeologists discovered a small ritual brazier which still contained the remains of charred hemp seeds. This, like the use of opium in Old Europe, seems to be a practice that is ancestral to those known from historical sources. ...

... The excavation of Scythian tombs at Pazyryk in the Altai mountains of southern Siberia (dating from the fifth century BC) revealed metal braziers, the burnt remains of cannabis seeds and even the poles used to support the tent! ... The presence of charred seeds in both the Kurgan burial and the Scythian tomb indicates that the combustible (and psychoactive) parts of the plant – namely flowers and leaves – had been consumed and the hard residue left behind.

Cannabis not only went west to Europe from its homeland on the steppes but also travelled to China. Linguistic research undertaken by the Chinese scholar Hui-Lin Li indicates that both the technological and the psychoactive uses of the plant were known to the ancient Chinese. In Chinese, hemp is referred to as ta-ma, meaning 'great fibre' (ma = fibre). Li also points out that in archaic times the character ma had two meanings. The first of these was 'chaotic or numerous', a reference to the appearance and quantity of its fibres. The other meaning was 'numbness or senselessness', a reference to its stupefying qualities, which were apparently made use of for medicinal and ritual reasons. The current state of knowledge concerning the prehistoric use of cannabis indicates that it was first cultivated in northeast Asia both for its fibre and also as a means to induce ecstasy among shamans. There are a number of references in ancient Chinese writings to the use of cannabis by magicians and Taoists, and it appears that such uses stem from their shamanistic forebears. (from here)

I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist or psychotherapist but I do know dementia when I see it (hey, I live in Eugene!) and our prohibition against cannabis (and all the other banned drugs)(its a short list, compared to the thousands of legal drugs) is highly demented.

Do you think this is a minor issue? What, with our economy in the tank and the general state of today's affairs that its really all about a buncha pot heads who just want to get high? If so then perhaps you need to reread these posts. Or in a kinder more gentle prodding... read on.

I talk about the Constitution quite a bit. There is a lot of momentum among cannabists for the belief that hemp paper was used in the original drafts of the Constitution (or the Declaration of Independence). If that little bit of history is a question of curiosity for you, here is an excellent thread on the topic: Original Declaration of Independence printed on 100% hemp paper?

Of more interest is the face of pot Prohibition today. As a student of the issue I've noticed there are a few names you'll never hear any ardent drug warrior mention:

Donald Scott, killed in a no-knock raid because police (and other agencies) wanted to seize his multi-million property in the coastal mountains of southern Cal. He was "suspected" of growing marijuana. None was found.

Peter McWilliams, died while awaiting trial in federal court on charges of manufacturing marijuana. He was. But Peter was a best-selling author (Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do who suffered from AIDS and cancer.

Patrick Dorismond

And the list is far, far longer. A list comprised of innocents who became victims not of drugs but of the drug war - Prohibition II.

Government's job is not to protect us from ourselves. Besides, pot doesn't kill people:

While there have only been two deaths worldwide attributed to cannabis, alcohol and tobacco together are responsible for an estimated 150,000 deaths per annum in the UK alone.

In the US, the number of deaths from alcohol and tobacco is over 1/2 million per year. Some might call that carnage. If it were a war. But tobacco products can be obtained virtually anywhere. Liquor is sold ubiquitously and the delerium and the social damage it causes is the stuff of legend.

So what would you think if you found out the US governement once stumbled upon a possible cure (or highly effective treatment) for cancer but kept it secret? You'd think that was pretty sick, yes? Well...

US: Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew In '74

Fortunately cancer doesn't run in my family but if it did... wow, I'd be more than a little miffed. Pissed off is what I'd be. And follow up studies have confirmed this trait of cannabis:

Studies Showing an Anti-Cancer Effect

And my my my... what about all you women? Concerned about breast cancer?

Marijuana Compound Shows Promise In Fighting Breast Cancer

“Right now we have a limited range of options in treating aggressive forms of cancer,” says Sean D. McAllister, Ph.D., a cancer researcher at CPMCRI and the lead author of the study. “Those treatments, such as chemotherapy, can be effective but they can also be extremely toxic and difficult for patients. This compound offers the hope of a non-toxic therapy that could achieve the same results without any of the painful side effects.”

It just seems to me that the shelving (burying) of that study in Virginia in 1974 probably set cancer research back 25 years.

And if this all works out the way I believe it will, that cannabis, useful in treating so many medical conditions, will eventually be recognized for multiple benefits for our health and we will have generations of folks wondering why their families were made to suffer at the hands of those who themselves suffer from a disease. A disease known as Reefer Madness...

A pox on the houses of those drug warriors who lie, who have cost us inestimable damage. Being tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail would be too good for them.

To deny reality in such egregious, wholesale fashion is not just un-American it is anti-American. This "war" is not a war on drugs, it is a war on we the people, the very citizens this government was formed to serve.
~~~

“Marijuana is self-punishing. It makes you acutely sensitive, and in this world, what worse punishment could there be?”

~ P. J. O'Rourke

“I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”

~ Willie Nelson

~~~

Franti... and Harmony...

~~~

“Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe. But maybe, by raising my voice I can help the greatest of all causes - goodwill among men and peace on earth.”

~ Albert Einstein
~~~




I know I've mentioned before the fact that I've spent a lot of my life volunteering. Doing something without payment, just giving -- time, energy -- is as old as having neighbors... it is the right thing to do. And most certainly, not all my volunteering has been political in nature. Far from it. Whether it was working with Grampa Semu, or Fresno Wildlife Rehabilitation or the work I do now with Harmony Event Medicine (check out Harmony's MySpace page too), even just picking up trash in the wilderness, or providing a meal to the homeless occasionally... these all benefit others beyond the self.

Selfishness has its virtues... and as an illustration I like using the example of Crazy Horse. He was a terrific warrior but lived with little of his own. He understood the need to remain strong and healthy, to follow his medicine in order to be a quality provider and protector. But he had no need to amass wealth for himself. His prestige in his community came from the good things he did for the elders, for the widows and children... for his people.

I've been volunteering for Harmony Event Medicine (HEM) since its beginning (in about 2003). HEM started from the demise of AVIVA Rock Med... an organization that fell by the wayside, but instrumental in drawing the current HEM folks together. The purpose of HEM is providing medical service to public events. We do mostly concerts and festivals but have provided medical service to the Eugene Celebration and this year we'll be working the Art in the Vineyard event at Eugene's Alton Baker Park.

HEM's volunteers are some great folks, many of whom I've worked with for years. We provide a service that is essential to both the patrons of an event and to the promoter as well. "Event medicine" (as practiced by HEM, came out of the '60s and '70s work by caring medical providers doing what is known as Rock Medicine, or RockMed.

RockMed grew out of the need for intervention at concerts. Folks experiencing "adverse drug reactions" (bad trips) needed friends and an environment of safety in order to come down without suffering mental/emotional trauma. The hospital emergency room or a jail cell is no place for psychedelic journeys. So mainstream is the work of concert/event medicine today that even our local Red Cross is working some events. Which is ironic for me personally...

I post at a blog operated by a California newspaper and there is an "anti-drug activist" (a Prohibition fanatic) there that thought that RockMed should be illegal. OK...

But Event Medicine is basic common sense. When you have an event -- whether its for a few hours or a few days -- what you have is a small temporary community (and sometimes not-so-small). There is generally a team of personnel that insures security, there are folks providing food and liquids, there are those maintaining the infrastructure, folks coordinating the entertainment, folks who do the cleaning/trash pick and sanitation... so why not medical services? It just makes sense... its an added level of safety for the event goers (the citizens of the temporary community). Now, not to harp but it is a major sticking in my craw, under the philosophy of the drugwar/Prohibition mind set, there is no allowance for the possibility of drug use and what we get is the anithesis of RockMed... militarized police intervention. Which...well... just doesn't work. (Unless of course the goal is to prove how big a prick government can be.) Take for example the experience of attendees at a Rave in 2005 in Utah:

Close to midnight on a Saturday evening late this summer, a police helicopter crested over a ridge in a desert canyon near Salt Lake City, descended into a low hover over a private ranch, and lit up the area with floodlights. Below, about 1,000 young people were dancing to electronic music at a legal, long-planned rave. They had no idea the police in the sky were armed to teeth and had them surrounded.

Suddenly, cops on the ground stormed in to stop the whole thing.

About 90 uniformed officers, equipped with guns, dogs, Tasers and tear gas, marched like a conquering army into the crowd.

They shut off the music and ordered people to leave; anyone who gave them trouble -- anyone who merely asked what was going on -- was dealt with harshly.

People in the crowd reported being brutalized, terrorized with guns, dogs and other weapons.

Those who dream up these militarized invasions of private citizens are -- I'm sorry -- un-American Jackasses who should be run out of town. This is not Soviet Russia, the old USSR, this is the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." Remember?

... sigh...

Anyway... where was I? Ah ha! HEM...

Our volunteers are just folks who have medical training ranging from CPR/1st Aid all the way up to ER nurses, doctors, EMTs... but the common thread that binds us all is a love of music. Live music...

Like the show I worked at Eugene's Cuthbert Amphitheater on Saturday night...

Probably my favorite contemporary group, Michael Franti and Spearhead always provide a great show attended by a crowd that loves their Spearhead... and Michael Franti. The group's music is definitely political/consciousness based with a style that is unique. Not HipHop, not reggae, not Rock&Roll but all of those in a unique blend that absolutely rocks the house. For the first time in a long time I took my camera:





If you haven't heard Michael Franti and you like energetic, good music, buy one of Spearheads' CDs or better yet, catch them live at one of their upcoming shows.

If you live in Oregon, are medically trained (at whatever level) and like good music, consider volunteering with Harmony. If you live somewhere east of Oregon and want to work RockMed (there seems to be little of this type of service provided anywhere else in the country) contact me or HEM and we'll try and assist you in either hooking up with an organization or getting you started in doing something similar.







Yesterday, Alex and I headed up to Opal Creek to shoot some waterfall pics. They'll be posted next time. Until then...

Kay sh'nuk sh'mah...

[post edit]

I sent an email to my friends at Fresno Wildlife Rehab, telling them that I gave them a mention in this post. I rec'd a reply that I just have to share. Dave and Cathy Garner run FWRRS and have since its beginnings. They're great people and have been providing this service to the Fresno area since before I met them in the very early 1980s. Totally dedicated to what they do they also help people. Giving presentations to school classes, scout groups, service clubs... they stay pretty darned busy. But over the many years they have shepherded a large herd of volunteers through the process of caring for a wide variety of critters, injured and orphaned. I haven't seen them for about 25 years but I still feel real connected and any time I think about the birds and other fauna I took under my wing (doh!)... so to speak... I can't help but smile.

Anyway in their email they said this:

Good things have been happening to FWR over the past few years. Did you ever see the thing that Audubon did on us? We were their cover story for their March 2004 magazine. It was a real treat and took them almost two years to do it.

This past fall, Jeff Corwin came and filmed a fox, bobcat and great horned owl release with us. It recently aired on his new series "Into the West" with Jeff Corwin, so I guess it showed all over the world. Pretty cool. If you go to Google videos and type in wildlife you can see what one of our volunteers did with his filming of the show filming us. It was a hoot!

Just this coming June, we are being honored as "The Spirit of Clovis" by the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. Who would have ever thought???????????? Also, this year, we got the cover of Clovis' magazine called "Connecting with Clovis." We got the cover shot and one more inside but no real article, just a note. Anyway it still brings in interest and that is OK but what we really need are donations to build our nature center. Have you heard about our project to build a nature education and wildlife rehabilitation center in Clovis? If you know anyone with bug bucks, we need some serious cash to begin this much needed work. Once it is built, we will be able to match up kids with critters, many of the kids come from bad environments, gangs, etc. and wildlife help the kids reach for other goals in life. Dave and I are 61 years old now and realize that if we don't get this thing moving, it may never happen in our lifetime.

Keep up the great blog you have. It is very impressive. When do you have the time??? I can barely find time to tie my shoelaces. Too many mouths to feed............see how some things never change? Right now we have 9 Red-shouldered hawk youngsters in a playpen, 3 Kestrels in the kitchen and 5 Barn Owls in the laundry room and various other animals outside. Whew, and that doesn't count the many animals that are at volunteer's homes. What a crazy life we have created for ourselves. One year we worked with over 1200 birds and mammals. Believe me, there are many late nights when these two old timers flop into bed and ask each other, "Why did we ever start this thing?"

Thats a busy, busy life. And they do it with great love, caring and enthusiasm. If anyone is in or has friends in the Fresno/Clovis, California area and can help them out contact them through their website, posted above in a hyperlink, or email me and I'll get you connected. There is no experience like the first time you care for an orphaned batch of barn owls. The first day you wake up and find them all laying down the first thought is "are they dead?" But they're not. Just sleeping the way they sleep... and then when they're watching you from their nestbox... wow...

Thanks for all you do, Dave and Cathy! You both are wonderful folks I'm very proud to call friends.

~~~

“kudos to the educators, athletes, dancers, judges, janitors, politicians, artists, actors, writers, singers, poets, and social activist, to all who dare to look at life with humor, determination and respect”

~ Maya Angelou

~~~