Bob Dylan couldn't do it.

Jack Kerouac couldn't do it.

Hunter S Thompson couldn't do it.

Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten couldn't do it.

Kurt Cobain couldn't do it.

Jim Morrison couldn't do it.

Daniel Ellsberg couldn't do it.

Sidney Shanberg couldn't do it.

Barack Obama couldn't do it.

Howard Dean couldn't do it.

No one can do it - but you...



Because it's up to us...to do it...

I love the fact that I can get to the beach from most places within 3 hours

I love the fact that I can get to snow, most of the year, within 3 hours

I love the fact that almost everyone smokes pot here, and it's seen as better than alcohol

I love the fact that smoking just isn't done in restaurants, and hasn't for years

I love the fact that most people I meet have gone to college

I love the fact that most people I meet who haven't gone to college are still very smart

I love the fact that we have Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Pismo Beach, San Diego, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Malibu, Venice and Santa Monica. It's also nice to have San Jose, Fremont, and Chico.

I love that Jerry Brown is our Governor.

I love that he has solved the budget crisis, which would have killed any other state.

I love this song:

https://

I love the fact that the Dead came from San Francisco.

Cheers!

That last episode - we have learned NOTHING

It needs to be treated like a public health issue - not a criminal one. Don't get me wrong, I know we need to get guns off the street and make them hard as hell to get. However, we'll never be able to do that by force.

Think smoking in the 1950s. Lots of people did it, and it was everywhere. When the surgeon general report came out, some people quit but in the late 60s to today, we've been running a public health campaign like no other. We were able to get 75% of all smokers to quit - simply by changing public perception from being cool to being the epitome of uncool.

Now we do the same things with guns - ads that make gun owners look stupid, careless, reckless, and dangerous. Ads that show kids finding guns. Ads that show kids getting into gun safes. Ads that show the numbers about the danger of guns. Then, have a long standing buy back program - no questions.

Soon, you will have thieves selling their stolen guns instead of keeping them. Instant cash! Put big warning stickers on the guns themselves - or etch it onto the gun itself. WARNING: HAVING A GUN IN YOUR HOME INCREASES YOUR CHANCE OF DYING BY x%, for example.

And I'm not talking a few ads on the sides of buses. I am saying make it part of the national school curriculum. Teach it so that kids think having guns is akin to sniffing glue or not showering. Make the ads so omnipresent that you can't tie your shoe without being reminded how dangerous guns are.

In 15 years, I predict gun owners will be a small sliver of a minority.

There are varying degrees of military worship - the Third Reich practically turned the SS into gods among men in propaganda.

Then you can go to countries like Costa Rica that do not even have an army.

We are somewhere in between the two, but at times I fear the constant military tie ins on the news is taking us in this direction.

I don't think military worship is a safe road for us to travel. To be completely honest, it is relatively new to Americans - it wasn't always so.

IT seemed like it started during WWII but never ended when the war did.

"Support the Troops" has become a litmus test for many, and any time an atrocity caused by them happens, many are stumbling over each other to point out this was "one bad apple" and certainly "there is no problem with the rest of the barrel so please stop looking over there."

And it is a form of blind faith.

I realize not every person in the military commits atrocities.

But you take men and women, at their prime physical peak years, train them to kill in the most efficient way possible - what would you expect? That they wouldn't climb over that metaphorical bridge from "killing under orders and "killing?"

Sadly, it seems every decade we become more militarized, more of a threat to the world and ourselves. Let's not kid ourselves - this is what killed the USSR. It wasn't Reagan, and it wasn't Nixon, but they killed themselves by over-militarizing and overreaching.

To the military worshippers out there, let me suggest a reading. It was written by a veteran of several wars who rose to the rank of Major General. His name was Smedly Butler, and the book he wrote was "War is a Racket."


I suggest you take a look....


http://lmgtfy.com/?q=war+is+a+racket+by+smedly+butler

That means I think we need to rid ourselves of leaders. Not laws.

Anarchism, the most misunderstood theory, argues that man does not need leaders.

They are fine with police, fire and medical.

But leaders? Fuck 'em.

All they do is bring down productivity, instill fear in their workers and act like a king.

I want a flat system, dammit

Egalitarian

All as one

I heard about it in the morning from the radio show I listened to every morning. I was a Beatle fan. And I was ten.

All my life, the Beatles were the only rock band my parents listened to - hence, it was the only rock band I listened to.

I remember dancing myself sick to "Hey Jude," hearing the melody to "Ticket to Ride" every time I took a roller coaster and thinking Pepperland, from the movie, must have been the coolest place in the world.

So when I heard that John, the smart Beatle, was gunned down senselessly on the morning of Dec 8, 1980 - I couldn't help but cry.

I ran in and told my parents. My dad was disinterested and my mom felt sad, but life goes on.

That's what I was doing.

What were you doing?

I've been trying to decode my parents for years. I'm GenX, and they are Silent Gen. Straight out of Mad Men: Mom was a flight attendant in the 60s, before air travel was horrible, and being part of an airline held a certain status. Dad was a cop, in the sixties, in San Francisco, during all of that.

Their code, just as every generation has some code of ethics, was unique. They were able to grow up during the war and depression, thus strengthening them, and come of age in a time of plenty. As far as I can tell, the collective values seemed to be:

1 - Religion. Everybody goes to church. Even if you hate it or don't believe. You just show up and attend Sundays.

2 - Family. The Father is the head of the household. Pure Pater Familias stuff here: children and wife are a form of property. As head, the male makes the important decisions.

3 - Music. Something much more soothing than the Swing music their parents listened to: Percy Faith, Perry Como, etc. You want something to play at parties for the purpose of stimulating conversations.

4 - Parties. Parties were a big part of our parent's lives. They weren't just about drinking, although they did have a lot of that. They were about social gatherings, and pecking orders. One party could get one into the right clubs, the right organizations, etc. When choosing guests, the higher up the pecking order the better.

5 -Outward personality. It was go along to get along. You didn't speak your mind, and after speaking with someone for hours, you still couldn't tell their religion or politics.

6 - Children. Children were to be seen and not heard. You didn't teach them anything yourself, but expected them to figure it out.

----------------------------------------------

So from these values, and from our parents' experiences - what can we learn?

What mistakes can we avoid, and which ones can we utilize?

And - is there something beyond this in the reading of our parents that I am missing?