A Feel Good Story

Amid the war and the homicide trials, the liberal left has produced a feel good story for all. A small High School in Riverside, California is making people in the minority feel alive. The High School is California School For The Deaf- Riverside. The varsity football team defied odds this season. Opponents of the school think because they are deaf, they can not play. Just ask Fairmont Prep, who at home, lost to Riverside by a score of 70 to 8. A 9 and 1 record in the regular season earned the Riverside kids a shot at the playoffs. On November 19th, the Riverside squad took the field against Malibu. They put up 27 points against Malibu, but it was not enough to win, as Malibu scored 41. You ask how this is feel good or the left fighting back? This is feel good, because the kids at Riverside can not hear the whistle or their opponents call an audible. They just stop when the play is over. It is the left fighting back, because The Riverside Cubs are the minority. They just wouldn't roll over and play dead. After all they are deaf, not dead. Yes they didn't win the playoff game, but who thought they would even get there. My hat goes off to the Riverside Cubs and I think yours should too. Check out their season highlights at:
http://www.maxpreps.com/FanPages/FanPages.aspx/Team?State=CA&SSID=aa457e4c-bb59-4abe-b350-10f34b2d5b4b&AreaID=89ae2e0f-e108-4054-9df3-329f0579f86d&SchoolID=d0f61b94-3531-45b1-bc0d-21bf7c70959c

Thanksgiving

Ah...football, turkey, day off of work. What is not to like about Thanksgiving. There are a lot of things I am thankful for this year. I got married back in May and I am thankful for that. My wife is wonderful. I don't think anyone has ever loved me as much. She was in a car accident on Tuesday, and let me tell you that you never know how much you love someone until a situation like that. She is fine. She is a little sore, bad case of whiplash, but she will be alright. Our daughter is a bundle of joy as well. Being a parent is a wonderful experience. The unconditional love between a parent and a child is the greatest experience a person can have. I am thankful for being part of our 5 year olds life. I do have a seven year old, but I am being kept from being a part of her life. My biological daughter is in New Jersey. Being part of our five year olds life means that much more, because I was denied a right I should have had. I am thankful for my wife's trust, love and commitment. It takes a lot to let someone else help raise your child.

I am thankful for this blog page. I have wonderful readers, loyal and friendly. Thank you Ed Cone for getting me addicted to this blog thing. It is the Internets version of crack. This is where I release all that is inside me. It is my creative outlet. I played music for 25 years, 18 years professionally. I stopped this year to pursue a family and getting my life together. Blogging has replaced music as my creative energy. It is hard to be a touring musician and be home to have a family. Of the two, music and family, I wanted a family more. Playing music does not promote saving money and building a future. It is hard to work a job and be in a band that is taking things seriously. I am thankful to have had such wonderful experiences playing music all these years. I had great times and met wonderful people. I was fortunate to have met my wife. It was an introduction in passing. Neither of us really wanted to meet. She said that I almost knocked her over on my way to the stage. Boy was she pissed. We were introduced by a mutual friend. After my show at Ziggy's that particular night, when I saw her leaving, something told me to run after her. Maybe it was her beauty, her charisma, her smile. Whatever it was, it is the single greatest decision I have ever made.

I have a ton of great friends all over the country. I have a great family. I have a great life. It is time to overdose on triptophane, watch football, and relax. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Subscription With the News and Record

Three weeks ago, I got fed up with not getting the entire Sunday paper, when I purchased it at a convenience store. I called the N&R and ordered the Sunday only subscription. I thought my problem was solved. Was I ever wrong. I get less paper now, then before I subscribed. Here is my three week account of a subscription to the N&R.

Week 1: I got up on Sunday and went outside in the cold. I went to get my brand spanking new N&R subscription. I was excited to not have to drive to the store. I was excited to read Cone's column in print. I was excited to check out what was on sale this week. Not that I could afford any of it, but it's nice to dream. No paper. I called customer service and reported the lack of said paper. They told me, "We will have someone deliver it to you by noon." It was 9:30am when I called. Noon came and went. The office for the N&R was closed. I got in my car and went to the store to get my paper.

Week 2: I called twice during the week and was guaranteed I would get my paper and it would be on my doorstep. Alas. Sunday comes and there is my paper.

Week 3: Thinking that everything has been fixed, I went to bed Saturday night without a worry. I awoke this morning, went outside, looked around.....CRAP, no paper!! I called customer service this morning at 8:30am. The line was busy for 45 minutes. I finally got through and they said, "We have had a major press failure, and we are working on getting you your paper." Alright, I can understand that. I asked when I would get my paper and they said about 4 hours from now. Unfortunately, I had to go to work this morning. I called home and then called the N&R three times today. Finally, leaving work at 5pm, I had called four times today, my wife called twice, there was still no paper. Again, I had to go to the store and buy a Sunday N&R, when it should be on my doorstep.

When I talked to customer service, I had told them that leaving my neighborhood, everyone else had a paper in their driveway. They said my carrier could have run out and that I would be getting a paper. I asked why there would be papers, in mass, at the store on the way to work. No reply really, except an apology and a broken promise. I don't know how everyone else feels, but I would think that my subscribers would come first before the newsstands. I know that while I lived in the NYC area, all the major papers would take care of their subscriptions first and then stock the newsstands. It just seems logical.

I love the direction the News and Record is going in. The paper and it's editor publicly support blogs and have blogs. It is an open minded, new age of journalism, paper. Fuck! Cone writes a great opinion piece every Sunday, and that alone is worth the buck twenty five. I guess the only direction the N&R isn't going in is the direction of my front door. Guess it sucks to be me. I will finally sit down and read my Sunday paper, two and a half hours shy of Monday.

What Happened to Humanity?

I watched a story on Lou Dobbs tonight about Bigorexia. Bigorexia is the opposite of anorexia. Men are the only gender who can get this condition. It is defined as men who are unhappy with their bodies and go on diet after diet in search of getting as lean as possible while bulking up muscle. You can go to a behavioral therapist for treatment to regain your self confidence.

This is one of many conditions that plague our very existence. Botox has been the Hollywood craze for a couple of years now. For those of you who don't know what Botox actually is, it is the practice of injecting Botulinum Toxin Type A (a biological warfare agent) into muscles to temporarily reduce frown lines, as a cosmetic surgery. Wonder what would happen if we injected sarin gas into our faces? Or maybe plutonium and uranium. Enriched, of course.

Clinical depression is probably my biggest problem with our society. Sure, I am sure that some people are clinically depressed. Those people need therapists and medications to help with the condition they have. Now for the shocking number. 10 million children are on anti-depressant medications. About a month ago, Bill Maher said, "Of course they are depressed. They have to live with 2 middle aged assholes telling them what to do all the time." At the same time they are going through puberty. They are dealing with social pressures and they want to do things they are condemned from doing. I surely didn't have a rough upbringing in what used to be middle class America, but I didn't need drugs like Prozac to keep me in line with reality. A swift kick in the ass was good enough to put things in perspective. Parents can not do that now a days, because DSS will not have it. You are abusing your child if you spank them or slap their hand for doing something wrong. The power of parenting has been lifted by the government and set our children free to do what they will. So they need drugs to live a normal life, taking the place of discipline and being taught right from wrong. In addition, we are finding out that the very drugs we are giving our children are causing them to commit suicide. One of many examples of the FDA supporting the pharmaceutical companies and pushing through clinical trials without decisive results.

In Great Britain, they have discovered that the water supply is tainted with traces of Prozac. The micro-filtration systems that clean their sewage are not small enough to clean out the waste we pass from Prozac. What if I am highly allergic to Prozac? Can I shower? Drink water? Cook with water? In America we haven't tested our water supplies for this same effect. Scary stuff floating around in your water, huh?

Adults too, struggle with depression. If you take a look around, there is a lot to be depressed about. War, poverty, finances and job security. I'm depressed about this stuff to. I am certainly not going for a prescription for an anti-depressant drug. I am going to deal with my problems. Like generations past, I will work out my problems and fix them. Our forefathers never would have popped a Prozac and forget about the red coats. They dealt with them. We don't deal with our problems. This is what I see as a fundamental problem with our society today. We hide from them. We pop happy pills to make our problems go away. Everyone knows that the best way to fix a problem is to deal with it. The longer we deny our lives, the longer we will suffer as a society. Thinking as hazily as the very drugs we immerse our problems in.

Not to Harp On The Election

Not to harp on the election, but Yahoo ran an AP story about 4500 votes that were not counted due to miscalculations about the amount of votes a e-voting machine could hold. This happened in Jacksonville, NC. Pretty close to home, huh? Wonder where else in the country this problem happened? We need to fix this before the next election. Paper trails aren't always bad.
Check out the story at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041104/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems& cid=694&ncid=1963&sid=96378798

What next?

What next for the Democratic Party? Yesterday and today were devastating. Matt Gross will be on WNYC tomorrow at 10am. He has posted a story on his appearance and is asking for your ideas to help the Democratic Party's future. Check it out at:http://mathewgross.com/blog/archives/001015.html

I posted the following comments there:

Matt,
First off, thanks for all you have done. I am a registered independent. After the last four years and the next four of the Bush Dictatorship, I am convinced I need to affiliate myself and become a Democrat. I voted Kerry. I am very proud that Guilford Co, NC carried both Kerry and Bowles. The end results were less desirable. I do not think the party as a whole is too far off the right track. Kerry's biggest mistake was being Mister Nice Guy and play to Bush's game. If he was the Kerry of old I think that the results would have been different. I also want to know where the Dem lawyers were at when it came to stopping the 527's that we were supposed to have been ridden of. What is calling me to the party is the bright futures of people like Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Gen Wesley Clark. The issues the democrats stand for are the right issues. The people want this. Unfortunately, the people also want a set of balls to go with it. It is also obvious that the religious right had major influence on the Bush victory. We need to fight to re-instate the separation of church and state. We are the only country that lets religion get involved in our politics. Something definitely has to change, at a grassroots level and up the '08 campaign has to begin today. Nov 2nd and 3rd, 2004 was to Democratic party what 9/11 was to our nation. We must now pick up the pieces, rebuild and come out fighting in '08. Thanks Matt, let me know if I can be any help.


Let us all hope that the religious right does not have their favor to the President be repayed with sympathetic Supreme Court Nominees. Oh, and can you say here comes the draft? I think I'll take Bush's advice and pray. Something I have not done in over two decades.

The Wait

I went and voted for John Kerry today. For those of you who know me that is no surprise. I did also use my first amendment rights to free speech and wore a home made t-shirt to the polls. The front of my t-shirt said, "Bush Is A Terrorist". This is in protest to US foreign policy and also for the fact that we can have WMD's and no one else can. The back of my t-shirt said, "god Loves Gays". This is in protest to having to go to a church to vote, as well as, the unseperation of church and state in our current government. It also is in protest to having gay marriage even be an issue. Gay people are people. I am as heterosexual as a human can be. I have plenty of gay friends. We need to understand that we all are people, we all bleed red. Every man is created equal, right? I expected a lot of bad things to happen because of the shirt. Anything from being whisked away for a vacation to sunny Cuba, be arrested, or confrontations with Bush supporters and the religious right were possible. None of the above happened. I was surprised. No one said anything. People looked and talked amongst themselves. No one said a thing. I was proud of my fellow voters in my home district. The only comment I did get was from a Kerry supporter, who joked, "Voting for Bush, are you?"

I sit and wait. Whoever wins this election,wins. I have done my part. I think the good things that have happened in this election are that, more voters turned out, people spoke their mind, and as a country we will decide the future of this country. We will see if it goes to the courts tomorrow. I don't know the result of the election. I do know that the pulse of the world is on our election. This means a lot to our friends abroad. So we all sit and we all wait. Until tomorrow or at least late tonight we all wait.