Cowboys in the Capitol

When Representative Wes McKinley and Billy Whitfield show up in their starched white shirts and cowboy hats, you are in for some good old-fashioned pickin' and singin'.

...Like It Is

Disappearing Radiation - Part 1

State Representative Wesley McKinley is nothing if not persistent. Ever since he was the foreman of the Rocky Flats Grand Jury back in 1989, he has written and spoken out at every opportunity. Now that the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant has been renamed the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge, he continued his efforts on Wednesday (1/21/09) at a hearing on HB 1060, a bill he put forward to inform the potential visitors to the site of its history, by putting up a sign. Expert testimony was provided by, among others, Dr. LeRoy Moore, Ph.D., currently with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. Dr. Moore, who has worked on this issue for the past 30 years, testified as to the continuing dangers of plutonium at the site. Read more on the issue here.

 

Spoiler: The bill was voted down 7-5, so this sign will not be posted. The site is currently closed (due to lack of funding) and no visitors are allowed. If and when it does open, will the visitors be informed of the potential dangers?

 

MLK Marade in Denver, Colorado 1-19-09

This year's Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration in Denver, Colorado was the biggest I've seen. Beautiful weather and the impending inauguration of Barrack Obama combined to make it a day to remember. John Delvano of Healthcare for all Colorado encourages viewers to check out the website.

Film and Video in Colorado

Video and text by Juliette Mondot Colorado House Bill 1010 will give film/video projects a 10% state tax income credit that can be transferred or sold on pre approved projects for Colorado expenditures. It's not a 25% rebate check like New Mexico offers, but it's better than nothing. Last year Rep. Douglas Bruce shot down proposed film incentives saying he would not support Spielburg. The Spielburgs of Colorado assembled at this Film Rally to support the legislation this year and we are glad Bruce is gone, especially after he infamously kicked a newspaper photographer. The last major feature film shot in Colorado was Nowhereland with Eddie Murphy. Paramount spent over a million dollars in September of 2007 with two weeks of shooting. Colorado has great locations and crew.

More Adventures in Second Life

Note Dr. Dave's logo hanging on wall in virtual Second Life cabin.

I spent two hours this afternoon participating in a Second Life discussion group on lucid dreaming, which was, itself, sort of a lucid dream. About 10 of us sat around in a cabin and talked (some only typed). Very interesting session as individuals told their stories through the recounting of personal dreams and dream-related experiences. Thanks to the host, Marlena Poliatevska, for setting everything up for Dr. Dave, of ShrinkRapRadio. I'll try to give it some advance notice next time. If you haven’t given Second Life a try, now’s the time. It’s free, much refined, fairly easy to use, and guaranteed to bend your mind.

Neil Young - Fork In The Road Lyrics to "Fork in the Road" 
Got a pot belly. 
It's not too big. 
Gets in my way 
when I'm driving my rig.
 Driving this country
 in a big old rig, 
things I see
 mean a lot.

 My friend has a pickup. Drives his kid to school.
 Then he takes his wife
 to beauty school.

 Now she's doin' nails.
 Gonna get a job.
 Got a good teacher. 
There's a fork in the road ahead. I don't which way I'm gonna turn. There's a fork in the road ahead. Forgot this year, 
to salute the troops. 
They're all still there
 in a fucking war. It's no good.
 Whose idea was that?

 I've got hope,
 but you can't eat hope. 
I'm not done. 
Not giving up. 
Not cashing in.
 Too late. There's a bailout coming but it's not for me. 
It's for all those creeps watching tickers on TV. 
There's a bailout coming but it's not for me. I'm a big rock star.
 My sales have tanked,
 but I still got you. Thanks!
 Download this.
 Sounds like shit. 

Keep on bloggin' 'til the power goes out,
 and your battery's dead. Twist and Shout. 
On the radio.
 Those were the days.
 Bring 'em back. There's a bailout coming but it's not for you.
 It's for all those creeps hiding what they do.
 There's a bailout coming but it's not for you.
 Bailout coming but it's not for you. Got my flat new flat-screen. Got it repo'd now. 
They picked it up.
 Left a hole in the wall.
 Last Saturday.
 Missed the Raiders game. There's a bailout coming but it's not for you. There's a bailout coming but it's not for you.
 It's for all those creeps hiding what they do.

Financial News You Need to Know

Keep your eye on the US Dollar Index here. When it goes below 70 you are out of time.

Editor’s note: I’ve been “away on assignment” for the past three weeks, which explains the lack of postings. Unfortunately, the “assignment” was to the world of pain, as I was stricken with a gastric attack. Trip to the ER, CT scan, no clear diagnosis. (At least I refrained from posting under the influence of percoset). I’m feeling better now, and I lost 23 pounds in the process, so maybe I’m better off than before. Leaner and meaner in 2009!

You are a Speck

Milky Way

The first day of the year is a good day to step out of yourself and take a look. Thanks to Cenk Uygur by way of The Huffington Post for the help. We are infinitesimally small. We are miniscule animals on a tiny planet circling a small star in a giant galaxy. There are at least 200 billion stars just like ours in our galaxy alone. And there are anywhere between 10 to 100 billion other galaxies. When you zoom out from a single person to the Earth to our sun to the 200 billion other stars in our galaxy and to the billions of other galaxies, you realize we are entirely irrelevant. The Universe is approximately 12 to 15 billion years old. The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Homo sapiens have been around for roughly 100,000 years. Earliest recorded history of humans dates back to at most 30,000 years ago (counting cave art here). 100,000 years among 15 billion years is a cosmic joke. It doesn't even qualify as a hiccup in time. The average life expectancy for humans is under 80 years. The insignificance of that period time within 15 billion years cannot be overstated. Our lives go by quicker than a cosmic second. We are so small as to be nearly nonexistent. Yet we are led to believe that we are the center of the damn universe. Everything we do is so important. We lead these careful, guilt-ridden, cautious lives only to die abruptly and disappear into cosmic insignificance. I don't know where it came from. I don't know what it is or what it means. But we have this incredible gift of life for a very short period of time - and we spend it arguing and worrying and fighting and waiting. What are we waiting for? What - heaven? Hell? You have got to be kidding me. Please don't tell me that you are wasting the one precious life you have waiting around for the fairytales of our ancestors. Our ancestors thought the stars were holes in the sky. They thought the Earth was flat, that the Sun revolved around us and that there is a man with a gray beard up in the sky. My guess is that if you brought back anyone who wrote our ancient religions, they would be amazed at what we have found out since the time they lived. But they would be even more amazed that people still believed what they had written in their utter ignorance. I can see them shaking their heads now, "But why would you believe things we wrote thousands of years ago when you have already proven they are not true? Are you nuts?" "We wrote that woman came from the rib of man because we had no fucking idea where women came from. You've traced back the origin of life and you're still wondering if we knew something you don't know? We were practically cavemen. We knew less science than your average third grader now. We thought natural disasters happened because God was angry at us. You think we would have written such nonsense if we knew about tectonic plate movements? Please don't tell me you still believe what we wrote when we simply didn't know better." You are going to die one day and on your deathbed you are going to think, "What have I done with my life?" What will you answer? Have you lived enough? Have you truly tasted life? Will you be able to tell yourself that you gave life your best run? Look, I'm not telling you to quit your accounting job and run off into fields of flowers. Life might be a flash in the pan in cosmic time, but it lasts quite awhile from our perspective. You have to have balance. Enjoy the short term while planning for the long term. Enjoy yourself without infringing on others. Hedonism is not the answer. But a stodgy, unadventurous life isn't either. There is something liberating about meaninglessness. We are cosmically insignificant, so who cares what we do? If you conquer the world and a comet runs into our planet three and half million years from now and wipes us out of history, your conquest will mean nothing. If you were a pauper who did nothing particularly grand with your life, history will not record that either. If you are gay or straight, an artist or a banker, a doctor or a patient, a cheater or a victim, a king or a peasant, history will not care. The steamroller of time and space will roll over your existence. No one is keeping a ledger. So, for the love of God, just please live the life you want to live, not the one you think you should live. There is no cosmic judge of your life. You will not be given extra credit at the end. You will only have what you have lived. Life is not a pop quiz. You will not graduate on to another life based on your score in this one. I am reminded of the story of the drowning priest: A priest is on a boat that starts to sink. Everyone gets on a lifeboat and they invite the priest on the boat. He declines, "God will save me, I don't need a lifeboat." As the ship sinks further, another shipping vessel comes by and offers to rescue the priest. The priest again turns down the offer, "God will save me, I don't need your ship." Finally, as the situation becomes precarious, a helicopter is sent in to take the priest to safety. But again he refuses saying, "God will save me ..." As the water is about to overtake him, the priest shouts out to God in anger, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" God replies, "I sent you a boat, a ship and a helicopter. What else did you want me to do?" If you believe in God, it is an insult to Him to not cherish the life He has already given you. He has sent you a boat, a ship and a helicopter and you're still wondering when salvation is going to come around. You have been given life so that you may live it. Our very insignificance is our salvation. If there is no meaning to life, there is also no pressure. Meaninglessness is liberating. The universe is indifferent to your tiny existence, so you might as well live it up. There will be no cosmic retribution or redemption. So, you are free to live as you choose. Enjoy.