"sTATE FARM" car insurance is probably unnecessarily EXPENSIVE, because,,,

from personal experience recently, they don't seem to care how long a body shop has a car in for covered repairs.

Our family car recently had a dented rear fender from hitting a pole in a parking lot, so we took it in to a famous local body shop and they did a fabulous job in one week. Within a few months, an old lady ran into the same bumper, and "State Farm" told us to wait for permission before going back to the same excellent body shop-WHAT?!-and also tried to steer us to other "recommended " body shops that we did not want to go to-WHAT?!-and let us use an expensive rental car for 3 FULL WEEKS to do pretty much the same work that we had just done in a week-WHAT?!. They said the part was not available locally, and it would take more than 2 weeks. So i phoned around and found at least 2 of the same identical rear bumpers less than a mile away.

So if you have "State Farm" , you are paying for this longer repair time with larger bill for rental car. And if you get hit, at no fault of your own, by someone with "State Farm", well, expect a lot of nonsense like "permission" to have your car taken immediately to where you want to go instead of their "approved list",,,and then weeks and weeks, in this case 2 extra unnecessary weeks, in a much lower quality rental car not of your choice.

"CONSUMER REPORTS.ORG" website is removing the product evaluation publish dates from its online version. The public and other members need to tell CR

to "do it right", and put the date of the product evaluation report online ,,,just as they do in their magazine. Thank you.

What i hope will happen in September 2009:President Obama will show LEADERSHIP,having given the loser Republicans enough time for "bipartisan coop."

President Obama will make a good "9-11" speech, but then will make a Great Speech on moving America forward with medical reform-public option and lots of other needs after decades of Republican-rule "deregulation" failure, bringing back memories of Kennedy's speech on "to the Moon!" and Eisenhower in and after ww2 and FDR in the Great Depression. This speech will let his slacker Democrats know who was elected President and put the loser Republicans in their proper place. It will be strong, eloquent, and unequivocal in its Presidential Leadership. It will be quoted and remembered for decades, and centuries, as the turning point for the USA from the steady national decline with "less govt. ,less taxes, and more debt for your grandchildren" total failure of federal government.

There is so little hope out there. What's left is like Southern fireflys ,,or the stars over LA on a typical summer smoggy night, that are barely visible. Just us little people out here,,,hanging on by hope. Hope President Obama will not just be famous for being the first black American President. What a waste of opportunity that would be !! His campaign was so brave to talk about the need for single payer/universal government health care, and already the Democrats have easily rolled over and now even tiny token of a public option is in peril due to the lack of strong leadership, like Reagan, even tho that was in the wrong direction. And during the campaign there was talk and promises about getting our bloody and amputee military out of Iraq,,,and now those forces are just moving next door to an even worse military situation of Afganistan. Before the election, the free marketeers and deregulators like Greenspan ran the Federal banking and (not) regulating,,,and now we have more of the same with Mr. Bernake, who is greatly profiting the banks who said they did not want and did not need Fed stimulus money ,,,even tho they are failing by the score/dozen,,,while all the little people lose their jobs, go into foreclosure when FannieMae and FreddieMac should be bailing each one out with 3%fixed loans for 30 years, and there is still no windfall profit tax as our debt and deficit skyrocket.

So little hope for the USA,,,

Silicon Valley's computer speed average is about 2-12 Mbps,,,and Japan is 50 Mbps,,,isn't there somethiing baskassward therer??

Silicon Valley in California is the supposed birthplace/original factories for many computer parts,,,yet the computer and cellphone-monopoly standards are so very low,,,The former center of tech has certainly slipped,,,oh, and the car traffic design and planning really stink !!

"Make it Happen"movie review: Mary Eliz. Winstead can Dance! and carry a movie lead, so why butcher-edit her final dance scene?

Very attractive actress, great dancer, beautiful face and super fit body, very photogenic, and great smile,,,so good luck in the future , and hopefully the director and or producer will not butcher-edit your good work ! This could have been another popular dance flick, like #5 "Step Up",$65M,,,easily,,,or #3 "Save the Last Dance",$91M,,,easy,,,and maybe #2 "Flashdance",(fav.)$92M,,,if not #1,"SNF",$94M,,,and #4,"Footloose",$80M (my fav.).

Movies are a group effort and often the lead or star gets way way too much of the blame. Wake up!!, movie reviewers !!

Is it just common sense to me ?,,,if they have the film , why not do a second version, less Botched edit ?? So many films could be improved on instead of acetate left "in concrete",,,

"9-11" September 11th is near and almost time to honor our dead

Remember how workers were told to go back to their offices, after the terrorist plane crash?

Remember how airlines spent so little on basic common sense safety that the airplane doors were ,,,not secure?

Remember,,,how the flight attendants did not organize the passengers to take away just knives not guns,,,from the terrorists,,,and just let people sit,,,crash,,,and die in jet fuel burning flames on crashing?

Remember,,,how Shocked!!,,, and Angry!!,,,and Upset!!,,,and Hurt!!,,,and even Crying!!,,,on being told the news,,, President Bush was ,,,on national tv ?

Remember how little information was given to the victim's families about this terrorist multiple attack,,,even the planes are barely visible thru the security-degraded digital cameras?

Remember,,,how badly our current air traffic system worked,,,with air traffic controllers not knowing or guessing why a commercial passenger jet was off course? And how little we have progressed since then, not even gps on every airplane ?

Remember,,,how lousy the military response was, scrambled fighter jets arriving too late,,,no comprehension of how wide a terrorist threat this was?

Remember,,,how badly the FBI and the CIA and the other national and state law enforcement agencies failed ,,,at sharing information,,,that could have stopped this at the flight schools,,,and instead the whistleblowers were crucified, as usual ?

Remember,,,how these terrorist plane attacks targeting the World Trade Center again,,,we the excuse President Bush needed to get us knee-deep in American blood , Trillions of $ of taxpayer money wasted, and lots of new enemies created in the Middle East 'conflicts' since they are not official 'wars' ?

Remember,,,how many husbands and wives and children ,,,are never going to see their family members,,,ever again?

Happy 40th Brithday, Woodstock !!

Tried L'Oreal Paris Couleur Experte 5.1 truffle medium ash brown,,,followed directions,,,came out way too dark

Maybe i will only let it set over the sink for half the time ,,,next time.

Attempts at polite political "Bipartisanship" have failed. Now it is time to treat the opposition, the Republicans, the way they treated those out of

power in the last 8 years of Bush and before! Let's, Democrats, get SERIOUS and HARD NOSED with these Republican time and opportunity WASTERS !!

Consumer Reports has rated Swiss Diamond non-stick as the best, tho expensive

After Dupont tried to secretly settle with the Feds over unhealthy Teflon, it is good to know some people are on the ball and inventing something safer and better for us to use. I shop at Los Gatos's(CA.) Domus store ,,,or you can get a set online (with or) without membership to Stauers.com, of cheap watches and cheap jewelry fame,,,in 2 set sizes.

BE HEALTHY !!

Tuesday afternoon, 18 August 2009,,,and it took a full 15 MINUTES WAITING on the cellphone to get through to LIFELOCK !!

15 MINUTES IS UN-ACCEPTABLE !! Guess with success, you will have to hire some more polite csr s,,,

MSN's Hotmail recently is way too slow clicking through pages of email,,,and often jams,,,suggest you use new and MUCH FASTER google CHROME !!

Customer service sucks at Microsoft, even tho you can "feedback" fairly easily nowadays. I have been jammed in may email by this "(unattached)"-whatever lately,,,and am fed up with waiting for Microsoft to fix it ,,,in their own sweet long time !!

So i switched to GOOGLE CHROME, and it is FAST !! The USAToday article said it was silly milimeters fast, BUT THEY ARE WRONG, IN REAL LIFE APPLICATION IT IS MUCH MUCH FASTER THAN msn hotmail or internet explorer,,,or even Yahoo,,, I was using Firefox to get to my Hotmail, but now it seems i will be using Chrome mostly to get to my Hotmail.

Do not expect any Republican to "Man Up" responsibly about how it was the Republicans who brought the USA to the BRINK OF FINANCIAL RUIN,,,

At quite a few of these town hall meetings, obvious Republicans ,even some wearing baseball caps instead of suits, are asking how we can spend more money,,,on this "public option",,,when we are already so IN DEBT and NEAR FINANCIAL MELTDOWN (because of the Republican at least last 2 terms, of 4 years each, of mis-direction and misled leadership by President Bush, from "deregulation" of almost anything, to extremely wasteful spending on the military ,such a vehicles that are not protected from road bombs being sent at the cost of millions,,,and billions,,,and trillions,,,to Iraq.)

Our President is too civilized and polite to ask if the person with the fear-driven question is a Republican, just out to scare the public from what is good for the USA in a "public option". Same old , same old ,,,Republican dirty tricks,,,from Nixon,,,to now,,,

The one Simple, Obvious Weakest Link reason HEALTH CARE REFORM might fail this 2009 year,,,again like under Clinton, that far back,,,

Congress has become full of lazy, dishonest WHORES to pac-funds, slush funds, any and all campaign funds ,,,to get re-elected,,,TO DO AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. Yes ,yes ,yes they have TAKEN AN OATH WITH THEIR HANDS ON THEIR HEARTS OR A BIBLE,,,and they are breaking it every day, in every way.

We the public know this, but wish/hope to believe the way Congress is suppose to work,,,instead of the way it really works. Watch the movies about Congress again, as they are trying to tell us the myth is not the reality. Watch "G.I. Jane", or my favorite of the one where Jimmy Stewart takes his ideals to Congress,,,and is almost killed by the devious dishonest venal wasteful irresponsible outright lies of Congress, day to day ,every day.

Unless we shame Congress to do the RIGHT THING,,,and force them to change with only publically-funded campaigns with free tv and free radio time, then the USA will continue on its Titanic slide from being a civilized ideal-promoting advanced powerful country,,,to something pitiable like Mexico. You know it, you see it in our job losses, we all read about it in the newspapers and magazines. Yet Congress continues,,,to DO,,,AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. Aren't you embarrassed yet?

The God-blessed, even a child could understand, reason WE MUST PASS HEALTH CARE REFORM this year: The Republicans don't have a plan. Period.Open.Shut.

High school students could have done a better job running the Fed and our Nation's economy than Mr. Greenspan, who now says he trusted the bankers and financiers to self-correct and keep the entire economy from ALMOST !! blowing up. At least teenagers know that people, classmates, students in their classes, their very friends, their very teachers who should be doing their best instead of as little as possible like only reading the textbook to the class day after day,,,have feet of clay, and are easily tempted to do the wrong and easy thing , lie to teachers and even friends, cheat , steal, take drugs against your own body and your own family, engage in super-risky premarital sex before they even are comfortable with their own sexuality and putting a condom on in the daylight of their own private bedrooms, cheating on tests, do their worst to get back at their parents who at 7 years or 10 years are hounding them to "pick a major and a career!!"-the idiots-instead of doing their best for themselves.

Teenagers know one thing: there is the fantasy of values, religion, faith, and friendship,,,and then there is the cruel harsh often-exact-opposite of how the real world is, the reality, a very cold , miserable place if you can't see the difference and deal with the difference.

Teenagers can tell you that continuing to let selfish insurance companies run most of the USA 's health care, with the signifigant exceptions of Medicare, Medicaid, and VA-Fed med. that the Republicans want to do away with,,,is probably inviting excess profit taking, irresponsible behavior by a only slightly regulated industry, and higher and higher prices,,,that they see every day at the snack counter at school or the stores in malls they visit seeing clothes they want but can not get their parents to buy for them. Kids learn early that a business IS in the business of making as much money as possible, cuz a pair of cotton jeans is only worth over $100 if you can sucker your parents to buy them for you, instead of your own kid hard-earned money.

Open letter to California's 2 senior senators, Mrs. Feinstein and Mrs. Pelosi

California is hurting, in a budget mess, and delinquent in its basic financial obligations with the lowest state bond rating in the USA. Why aren't you doing more for your home state ? California. That is your home state, right ?

In less than 50 years , we have gone from being the pride of the USA,,,to the dog of North America:from the best public education in the US to the worst with superintendents making multimillion contracts that are not tied to performance like in banking and corp. and have golden parachutes even tho they just watch the decline of another and another California school district,,, San Jose State College got to re-name itself a University, after losing most greeks, and the respect compared to ucsf of most of us that went there with the east side of campus an eyesore and ghetto and rip-off prices for textbooks the Student Union should be selling to benefit the students as ebooks, but that is not happening much at any California state college or state joke 'university' or University of Ca.,,,

Silicon Valley began as a first,,,and with little state or federal regulation, computer companies were allowed to store very unhealthy and environmentally dangerous chemicals underground in tanks that shortly leaked this poison into the south San Francisco Bay Area's water system, causing cancers, acute and chronic sickness, and death. We now have more Superfund sites concentrated here, than anywhere else in the USA, even Love Canal or 3 mile island nuclear reactor American disaster area.

Most of our expressways and boulevards do not have timed lights, thus wasting over these 50 years or less, millions and billions of gallons of diesel and gasoline and trillions of hours stuck in traffic while you just make smog and go no where, and many more people suffer respiratory distress, asthma, and death,,,just because we lack leadership to do something as simple and obvious and no-brainer as time the traffic lights at just below the speed limit on divided 2x2 major thoroughfares like boulevards and expressways. We talk Environmentalism, but we don't walk or drive it. Watch the dvd of "Why they took away the Electric Cars".

Governor Arnold has a huge tv campaign to bring more new people to reside in California, even tho we are getting less rain and much less snow-from 10feet of snow pack every year at Donner Pass on highway 80,,,to 3 feet of snow pack there in the last several years. And global warming or this decline in the states water supply is not being planned for with more reservoirs and less wasteful use by the big 'cheap' water users, like farmers. In California, corporate farmers are secretly subsidized, and have been for decades, with 'cheap' water that they get at less than $50 /acre foot ,,,and they take the top 70% of this state's water,,,and waste it by flooding their fields and growing water intensive crops that are not in short supply like non-organic cotton our most toxic farm crop and alfalfa and rice,,,when home owners in Silicon Valley are paying about $50-100/month for water rationing in the dark for a standard 3br 2ba house and yard with front and back lawns and landscaping on terrible sticky clay soil that nature gave us.

After the disaster of the infamous Enron and Governor Grey Davis home energy deregulation, why have you not brought back full energy price controls, when senior couples like my parents on one teacher's retirement salary are paying $500 /month for electricity for a 3br 2ba standard house, with doctor-prescribed new central air conditioning?!!

Our roads, highways and freeways have gone from being the best maintained in the USA to the worst with potholes everywhere. Our Senators must not drive to be inconvenienced by expensive tire blowouts, yearly steering alignment and wheel balancing, and road surfaces so rough you can not listen to CDs in your car because of the hard jolts that cause cd players to skip. The state's infrastructure, from roads to highways to power transmission to SF's( mayor Gavin Newsom's,,,trying to run for Governor?!!) water diversion pipes from Yosemite, are all falling apart due to the lack of proper maintenance funding. What are you doing about this, as state leaders, when our movie star Governor seems unwilling or incapable of doing anything, other than his promise 'not to raise taxes'-hell, that is one tombstone he is going to regret?!!

On the much larger scale, at the Federal level, we have a run-away Department of Defense and affiliates budget with irresponsible spending of $350 million for EACH of over 150 new super high tech F-22 fighter jets , that without a major cold war like with China or tiny Russia, we do not need. Billions are hidden and trillions have been wasted , because our 2 California Senators can not or will not stand up to the old boys in Washington, D.C. And that means there is less money for these inappropriate weapons like the Humvee-what a waste/joke to replace the jeep-, new and expensive DE-1071 anti-sub destroyer with massive rear sonar spool uselessly sent to VietNam, a Army and Marine Corp that failed in Somalia and just made matters worse, military academies even the Air Force Academy that have had repeated sex scandals of men raping women by Officer Candidates!, and the stupid anti-gay "don't ask" policy when Britain does just fine respecting citizen soldiers differences. Now our military is trying to leave Iraq, grudgingly not staying forever, and instead of coming home to protect our borders from terrorists who easily cross unlike in Switzerland with machine guns everywhere, they are getting our new President Obama to make more terrorist enemies and increase the American and allied forces in next door Afganistan. More bad expensive no-possible-victory decisions from our own military, with little control seen from Congress.

As women, we expected better from you. But, we have gotten more of the old-boy politics that have failed us all. I, for one, am extremely disappointed in your lack of state and federal leadership.

China is a currency manipulator, in violation of the WTO, and to the detriment of the USA, but out Feds do NOTHING,,,

For years China has gotten away will illegally manipulating its currency and keeping it artificially much lower, yet the WTO and the leading nations of the world do little or nothing. What good is it then to be part of the WTO ?!!

Do not move to California because of the huge increase in electricity prices: a 3 br 2 ba standard house monthly bill is $500, with air conditioning !

We have been cursed by debt-trail Republican Governors, but one of the worst was Governor Grey Davis ,who promised us that if we deregulated home gas and electric prices the market would make the prices go down. Of course, the prices skyrocketed!! He lied. He got immediately fired as Governor of California, the first and probably not the last time in the states history.

And now Governor Arnold S. can not seem to balance the state budget either, with his promise "not to raise taxes". So the state of California is in terrible terrible economic and state government shape. Most people have little or no respect anymore for the state legislature in Sacramento, that is constantly late in its annual budget.

And there is no hope in sight,,,None, not one, of the current candidates has a announced and reasonable plan to budget us out of this mismanagement mess.

Republicans and so-called Blue Dog Democrats are acting like TRAITORS in August recess 2009

Republicans, after more than 8 years of total failure ruling the Federal government, and these disloyal Blue Dog democrats are acting in a TRAITOROUS non-patriotic fashion with now blantant disregard for what is best for the usa in favor of a very limited and few monied interests, the medical insurance lobby. Either these democrats do their duty to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and do what is in the best interest of the UNION, or they should be run out on a rail of the democratic party,,,and Congress for their election coffer compromised ethical position against anything but for-super-excessive-profit private health care. We need a public option, not just for Senators and Representatives, and Veterans at the scary VA, and the two huge programs of federal medical called Medicaid and Medicare, that some Republicans want to do away with so we are more like Mexico, a 3rd world country/power, ruled by the rich few to the shame and degradation of the poor and uneducated and largely unskilled masses. That is where the Republican Party was taking us.

God save these United States of America from "enemies for foreign and DOMESTIC !!" And that is you!, Republican Party of Abramoff and Madoff, and you!, spineless cashed out Blue Dog democrats !!

11 August 2009, Did you see todays GMA/Good Morning America with the NYC Broadway hit "BURN THE FLOOR" dance show !!?

It was Hot,,,and Free !! The music was a good choice, the dance performance area too small in a tv studio like ABC natch, and the camera angles and direction not the best. The the shows best dancers were there: the redhead, the long black hair, the two blondes,,,and the guys !!

If you are in or going to NYC, I highly recommend you take in this dance show spectacular !! Great job, dancers !!

To win the usa health reform debate: keep it SIMPLE and REPEAT the 5 major flaws of doing nothing,,,

Comparing our terrible usa health care to Europe or Germany always works, since many remember somehow 'winning' in ww2. So basic , generally accepted fact number
1=we pay too much, more than Germans,
and get much less for our hard earned
buck . That is a fact, jack.
2=we are talking about a federal, not state
by state mess, OPTION to super expensive and low quality and low responsibility current PRIVATE MEDICAL INSURANCE,,,and supposedly we americans like competition. So, again, this is a go for all the boneheads and drunks out there.

3=with this FEDERAL PUBLIC OPTION, we will all benefit by lower drug prices, since the fed can pool its buying power , like it already does for Medicare and Medicaid and the high quality Federal medical insurance your senator gets. So for idiots and super-stupid or super-stubborn people out there that say this is creeping socialism, go to Denmark and compare, cuz this is just the basics that most of us agree on,,,like Social Security and SDI and another worker paid into plan called Unemployment Insurance, you blooming uneducated ignoramuses out there.
4=you want the Feds to run it cuz you can't trust the now bankrupt state of california or any other state, and if you are dumb enough to trust a business like AIG or Madoff, instead of the Feds and the runaway military budget, then you are too stupid to be a successful american and deserve to suffer for your stupidity, you bonehead.
5=the public should have CHOICE, QUALITY CARE and LOW COST/FAIR COST health care,,,as this is not another going to the moon kind of problem. This is just setting limits on what business can steal from all of us with monopolies and what our government can screw up , like it did our entire nations banking and finance system recently.

Now for the 5 benefits:
1=i will not longer be stuck with an employer provided no option of kaiser of northern california, lousy medical care,,,where nurses have lousy attitudes and don't practice sanitary rules like washing after wound care, and a second opinion is asking the understudy doctor in the same office of the doctor who you think is misdiagnosing you to avoid the cost of immediate surgery on your torn quad muscle.
2=at the federal option, i hopefully will not be paying ridiculous over priced bill for a tube of medicine smaller than my little finger of $40, a wound enzyme to help it heal.
3=hopefully at the federal option we all can chose or not, i will get doctors trained in the usa or better, not worse places,medical schools and countries. Too many doctors have a bad attitude, poor patient relations and should try another business based on their poor performance.
4=hopefully under the federal option, i will be able to complain about a doctor who tried to sterilize me at Mills-Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame and get more action than "you signed away all your rights to court and have to deal with our choice of arbitrators."
5=hopefully under the federal medical option, we will all get better preventative care. So we don't end up sick and old and get this common attitude nowadays at hospitals i am sure you have noticed of "he/she/you are old and sick, so did you expect to live forever?" as the doctor and hospital overcharge us and try and drain our live savings before our lives have ended at the over charging furneral service.

Common Cause and CR and others must have better basic lists of 5 FLAWS and 5 BENEFITS, but i am mad as hell at the current system and fear we all will forget the basics over the details and lose the huge opportunity to make progress in the usa.

"AtTheMoviesTV.com" tv show with 2 guys,,,WHAT IS THAT NETWORK THINKING?!!

Suggest you get a talented, smart, carismatic woman,,,and drop the bearded older guy.

WHAT IS THIS NETWORK ,,,THINKING ?!!

Comcast cable tv and high speed internet service: If you sked an appt, be by your phone for hours !!

Comcast may not tell you when you make the service appointment on your tv cable service and or internet service, but the technician will call your home, not your cellphone, before arriving, and if you do not answer-say you are in the toilet,,,or a good neighbor is at your front door---your supposed "appointment" is automatically cancelled !! Can you believe that ?!

We just had a service tech visit , to fix the Comcast box up on the telephone pole, so NOT OUR FAULT. He took 2 personal calls, at least, from his girlfriend about sub sandwiches for lunch,,,and Giants tickets, so the visit we had to stay around for was longer than it could have been.

video "UNITED breaks guitars" is fantastic social justice and a catchy tune,,,no use wasting millions now on words/ads for YEARS there, UNITED AIRLINE

Massive ad budget "OUCH" to United Airlines. What can you say,,,after such a terribly bad use of corporate judgement??!!
Maybe this will be the last nail of the coffin of a mgmt-bungled and passenger-disrespected too-big-to-care airline,,,

What was the "first oceanside resort community in California" ?

Sausalito?,,,,no
Carmel?,,,,,,,no
Malibu?,,,,,,,,no
Santa Monica,,,no
Redondo Beach,,,no
Huntington Beach,,,,no
Laguna Beach,,,,,,,,no
any socal beach,,,no
La Jolla,,, ha!,,,no
San Diego'sPacific-Mission-Ocean Beach=no
Arcata,,,,,nooo

It is Capitola!! And their downtown village/Esplanade loop side walks are so dirty !! And they do not have a daily/weekly regular water-powerwashing schedule !! YUCK !! A tourist town,,,with a good 'live cam' of the beach you can pan around,,,but the city and chamber of commerce have stopped the popular buy-and-put-your-name-on-a-brick program that could have funded such a regular ,like every 2-3 days, water only power washing sidewalk program.

Gosh, another city government,,,that is dysfunctional,,,

Alaska Governor Palin is attractive,,,and massively uninformed(see katie couric interview,,,) so she is PERFECT for the Republican Party!!

Ronald Reagan, Arnold S. of ca-ca-California, and sooo many more,,,besides Alaska Governor (oh, and she did not have the RESPONSIBILITY to even finish her first term,,,) Palin seem to be ,,,and prove, alas, to be ,,,'just pretty faces'. Look how many Republicans suckered for that !

"Yo!" ,President Obama ! You best get on your Lincoln-FDR A-game to travel, talk, speech, shame debate any and all Republicans,,,to win this HEALTH

CARE DEBATE... "Bring it !!,Mr.President!!"

In August 2009 when Congress goes on vacation, "be prepared" for the usual Republican Party fear-mongering,lies,and half-truth massive media blitz ,,,

AGAINST HEALTH CARE. Do they have a good alternative to the current all-agree overpriced mess? NO !!

Kudos to Jessica Alba,,,and Jessica Biel,,,for looking HOT HOT HOT,,,

Good acting too !!

Scarlett Johansson is SOOO MUCH HOTTER A MOVIE STAR than Angelina Jolie

Just look at her!! And she is a better all around actress.

President Obama is Human!! He said something "stupid",,,and he did not immeditately apologize when he knew he foot-mouthed,,,

Let's see, there is this pompous ass of a Cambridge, Mass. Harvard professor,,,ok,,,who refuses to be polite and obey a cops reasonable order that he produce a good i.d. ,without lip,,,ok,,,but this prof. has a hissy fit and a temper tantrum instead of showing the neighborhood and the world how civilized and well mannered he is,,,ok,,,and gets arrested for "disorderly conduct" and being less than white-polite/obedient to a cop,,,ok,,,and then it turns out that this Harvard prof. is black and claims "racism!!" which is the common cover for most low-standard blacks in the usa, blacks who think it is 'ok' to practice reverse racism and use the 'i am black' excuse to try and succeed in getting ahead in america,,,ok that happens all the time,,,and then our near perfect new President with the smart funny talented and beautiful wife and two children does something perfectly natural by being black and making a human mistake in saying that obviously the cop was "stupid",,,wow he can foot-mouth just like the rest of us,,,and then dear old george stefanopolous has a black woman journalist on on Sunday who says 'we blacks have a long history of suffering from racism' which for a spoiled black woman not sent back to africa who was never a slave nor whose parents were never a slave when she was raised ,is still using the 'big black american sorry ass excuse for low standards' of we be still discriminated against,,,ok,,,and why do whites and others and even blacks still call each other "niggers"?

In such a terrible economy, politicians and media talking head wonder why working poor Americans are buying so many guns

Duh !!! Most of us don't live in gated ,security-patroled communities. Most of us do not have politician's high quality medical insurance and care. Most of us live in towns like San Jose and Fresno with huge, make that HUGE and growing violent gang problems, with police forces that are not even close to being up to the job.

Fresno's gang violence problem was on tv the other night, as an example. Just one gang, the bulldogs, some violent uneducated drug-selling murdering Mexicans ,,,has about 4500 members!! And that is just ONE gang of many in Fresno!! They have killed Fresno Police officers, who don't have the RICO laws to jail and deport every gang member linked to a killing or felony.

And San Jose is almost as bad, but mostly on the multiracial east side. We just don't talk about the violence risk,,,and the inability of the cops and the justice system and our government to effectively deal with it. It is getting worse, year after year. And there is no hope, even with a remarkable new President.

The NRA publishes a magazine with a page of home and personal assault stories in the front. We hear about these violent crimes around us all the time, in Oakland with constant murders, and Richmond, and San Francisco, and even Vacaville.

So no wonder people are going out to buy guns and try to defend themselves, since the police can't,,, and the media just counts the bodies.

San Jose State "University" in Silicon Valley,,,still has only book sellers,,,and no Student Union-run textbook rental !! How antiquated,,,

I went there in the Cambrian Period , the 1960s, and was so ripped off by the off-campus book store , Robert's, that got away for decades with charging obscene prices,,,and at end of term gave you a pittance for a clean, sometimes unopened textbook. I spent $1000/yr back then on textbooks !! ( Hey!, it was a Greek-hell-on-wheels party school.)

Now there is a 'non-profit' textbook seller-buyer biz, i wonder who owns ,at the Student Union. But no student-run,e-book textbook rental for laptops ,like at some real "Universities" and colleges. Yikes!! Talk about a behind the times, backward, antiquated , over-rated, over priced education !! And look at all the superrich and famous that have this college as their alma mater,,,Says a lot about Capitalism and 'what screwed me will screw you and profit me' mentality, doesn't it ? Think of the "college education" cost savings if students got together to help each other with a textbook ebook co-op,,,and let Robert's and the outrageous on-campus "non-profit" book seller rot,,,,

LUNARDI'S of San Jose, California,,,DOES THE COMMUNITY A GREAT SERVICE by allowing a RECYCLER in their parking lot !!

Two big cheers for LUNARDI'S supermarket of San Jose, California, on Meridian and Branham, for having this great PAY THE PUBLIC environmental service of allowing a business to take over the corner of their parking lot,,,so people like you and me and the teenagers across the street can earn a little pocket money by RECYCLING ,,,ALUMINUM CANS ,,,BEVERAGE BOTTLES appropriately marked for recycling,,,and GLASS BOTTLES marked for recycling,,,!!

CLOSED on,,,SUNDAYS,,,and,,,MONDAYS,,,

TUESDAY-SATURDAY,,,9:30am to 4:30pm
Warning:NexCycle tends to run out of cash in the late afternoon,,,and tends to close earlier than "4:30pm",,,so recommend you do your recycling in the Tu-Sa mornings,,,

Thank You, Lunardi's !!

NYC and "9-11" ,,,Did they ever fix their horrendous radio communications problems??

So did NYC ever fix their total failure of emergency radio network that did not work for the firemen and police on the street and in the high rises of this city ??

So what if Mayor B. is only making $1/year and getting lots of empty praise, if firemen and police are STILL AT RISK,,,ALONG WITH THE PUBLIC,,,BECAUSE THE CITY OF NEW YORK CAN NOT FIX this basic problem revealed with the loss of thousands of unnecessary lost civilian and professional city employee lives.

Now comes out that NASA has lost the original footage of the Moon landing; What losers !!

As if the near loss of Apollo 13 (tom hank's movie characters,,,) ,,,and the actual losses of 2 shuttle crews,,,and the botching of the mirror,undetected before launch, on the Hubble Telescope,,,How many more disasters do we have to endure from NASA?!

July 2009, What did we learn in California from the State's Total Financial Collapse: Republicans were failures at leading ,,,and now are failures at

minority cooperation.

The lesson: We can ,as a state and a nation, no longer afford the ridiculous irresponsibility of the Republicans and their 'no tax increases' (for the rich that can afford it). Therefore it is state or national suicide to vote for a Republican.

USAToday just did an article on New York State and it seems their state government is now judged to be the most incompetent ,,,in the USA !! More than ca-ca-California ???

"60 Minutes" reveals another crucial new story,,,of how the Bush Admin. totally botched a near capture of #1 terrorist in the world

A ground miltary commander, for the Delta Force , says that we paid a bunch of tribal Afgan leaders MILLIONS and then allowed them to go home at night and not fight for us ,but the enemy!! Then we allowed an exit into Pakistan from the Torabora region of Afganistan, and even tho this American military officer had intel knowing precisly where the rebel terrorist Saudi WAS,,,and then not surrounding the area with more reliable American forces!!
And , of course, the Bush Admin. did not come clean about this while they were in office, being irresponsible , as usual.

Amazing, terrifying news about the overall incompetence of our Federal government and our military,,,in failing to catch when given a chance the #1 terrorist in the WORLD.

Big Warning, Guys:"Black widow" women are out there ,gunning for you with hot sex, lies, and more lies

We guys have all probably had a date or even girlfriend who was good at faking it or good at just lying. Some of us have even had fantastic liars as fantastic lovers. And some of us have been gullible enough to marry these scheming, designing, trajically attractive women.

I have two friends ,over 50, who have married much younger ,and much more attractive , Asian women. They thought they were madly in love and had the house, savings, cars, and good high paying jobs to show they thought they were life experienced and successful.

Now these men are MISERABLE. No affection, certainly not p.d.a.s , and both their wives have them by the pocketbook. These women have short hot tempers and are no fun to live with,,,imagine?

My one big mistake was with a young French woman, tall blonde young and beautiful, who conned or convinced me that she was madly in love with me, wanted to live just in the usa, and did not mind my $40k per year salary in very expensive California. Boy, did she play me!!

I met her on vacation here, with her mother. Then i visited her there in France for weeks and even at "their large new house" in the hills just outside Nice, where i met her "father" and successful "sister, brother-in-law, and their son".

Only problem was was that all that was a lie,,,the house was borrowed for this frame job, as was the man,woman and their child. So i ,sucker, proposed and flew her from Nice to SF and then to Hawaii with all my friends and relatives to get married on the beach.

It was our wedding night, after the service, after sex,,, when she told me she "could not go through with it", it was all a lie, just to get my American citizenship, money and alimony and child support for the next 18 years when she went back to France. I told the family the next morning but they could not believe their ears,,,and still do not!, the fantasy she created was that enticing.

We flew back to SF and she went on to LA, and secret friends she never told me about. It took a great deal of convincing by my family and friends to get her to have an abortion, before she left for France. And, TG, i have never heard from her again. Other than to sign the divorce papers!!

Men, you have been warned!! I only lost about $10,000, and some pride. Another friend married a beautiful woman with 2 kids from a previous marriage, thinking or feeling he was again lucky and totally madly in love with a very beautiful vivaceous smart woman. After 2 more kids and what looked like to me and all his close family as a very happy 6 years of marriage, she left COLD one day, right after he got a huge huge raise, a new big 2 story house to replace the old small average 3br they had, and new expensive luxury car. She cleaned him out,,,and totally broke his heart. He was in therapy for years. And is still,,,still,,,paying alimony and child support ,for his 2 kids he seldom sees because the sick courts gave her primary custody when he was so devastated,,,by her.

His brother thinks she planned this from day one,,,Imagine how sick a woman must be to cause that much pain in so many lives for so many years?

Comcast: More "customer service" glitches,,,oy-vey

Tried to set up a "Comcast.net" account,,,and it took a week of "we will look into this,,,"repeated messages,,,over,,,and over,,,day after,,,day,,,

Kaiser medical insurance hospital surgery wound care:evaluation

First, infection was treated with a standard antibiotic, then both a gram pos. and a gram neg. antibiotic. So that's ok. Grade of "A".

Second, pain management. Was given Vicodin, with no alternative suggested. It was insufficient for minor post-op. surgery pain, so "F" grade.

Third, wound care. Kaiser uses a lot of Kendall gauze bandages directly on the wound, which is itchy like crazy or rough on delicate skin to say the least. So instead of Kendall Curity gauze sponges and Kendall 4x4 gauze dressings, i recommend softer and more comfortable 1)Walgreen's 4x4 Gauze Dressing Sterile All Purpose Dressing next to the skin , if you doc approves, or 2)next in softness is J&Js 4x4 gauze pad. When complaining about the itchy dressing , the patient was ignored, so grade of "F" again.

Lots of room for improvement there, Kaiser, with all your expensive tv ads,,,

Comcast cable tv service has another hidden problem: Favorite lists that can not be edited or cleared

They probably won't tell you about this one, but after you sign up they might tell you,"well, just make another(and another,,,) Favorite list." Crazy, crazy, why not just fix the company software,,,

Post "9-11" reflection,,,Most of the NYC terrorists were Saudi's ,yet we fought their war in Kuwait, lost thousands of American lives in Iraq & Afgan.

And now, July 2009 , President Obama who ran his campaign on getting us out of Iraq quickly, is now keeping all/most of those troops in that area, fighting expanded 'conflicts' in Afganistan,,,and making more enemies and terrorist for us back here for the unprotected in the States.

Mexico is on the verge of collapse, after decades of political corruption and social neglect,,,lacking enough middle income jobs,much public education or public health or environmental health,,, yet our southern border is still open as a desert to drug smugglers and 'coyote'-guides who lead illegal-entry Latinos daily and constantly across our disrespected border, to have children here gaining American citizenship since Congress does not care about the quality or legality of applicants. Our military would rather be on the other side of the world ,fighting a 'conflict' (since it is not an officially declared 'war') that kills thousands of our excess(no jobs,,,) youth, maims thousands, wastes billions and trillions of tax dollars when we CAN LEAST AFFORD IT, and has (honestly) absolutely no chance of success in making those Middle Eastern countries safer for their citizens or more democratic. Our military should be on our border, but that is not testosterone hot enough for the DOD and the Pentagon, who seem to be making national policy, instead of taking orders from our newly elected President.

If Americans are thinking this badly of us from the inside, imagine what our allies are thinking and feeling about our lack of ethics, as in allowing torture under President Bush and his VP,,,

Costco food review: item #992437,Kirkland microwavable Italian Sausage & Beef Lasagna=(D-

The price seems right, but the Big problem with this Costco food product is that it is TOO THIN. When you cook it ,it tends to be overcooked and dry with about 3 layers of pasta and lots of meat, but only about ONE INCH THICK. What was Costco thinking ? Does it look like the cover picture when you cook it? NO.

Costco should change this product, asap, and make it 2xs THICKER, at least, so it will come out moist and more appealing.

July 2009,,,the Sotomayor confirmation hearings are a Republican CIRCUS OF HYPOCRISY!!

When the Republicans were in power, God Help Us!!, were they interested in fairness, moderation and centrist judicial appointments,,, or just packing the most Radical Conservatives on all levels of the Federal Courts? So now, these posers and charlatans and hypocrites of the Republican Party are trying to claim some interest in "centrist" Supreme Court Justice appointees!! Make me laugh, you Republican scum.

The USA will suffer for the lifetimes of your radical freakish conservative Justices !!

July 2009,,,Goldman Sachs the press says will make a huge profit this 2nd Qtr. and pay it's average worker $ ONE MILLION !! Hey, the financial risk

takers, these investment banks like Goldman Sachs, who got us into this mess with a.r.m.s and the terribly risky derivatives based on these substandard mortgages, have received BILLIONS in tax dollars in 't.a.r.p.' bailout money, and now are the very first to excessively profit from ALMOST causing the entire national economy ,Wall Street, and international finance to FAIL !?

The rest of us, on the Verge of another 'Great Depression', have lost our homes and our jobs in the greatest numbers since the 1930s,,,and probably will continue suffering with a falling dollar and the greatest national debt and a destroyed manufacturing base and crumbling national infrastructure FOR YEARS !!

Doesn't that seem somehow very wrong?

July2009, and Congress is over compromising on the National Alt. Health Plan, by leaving workers tied to too expensive Employer private plans:SOLD OUT

It is not too surprising, with all these corporate lobbyists running around our Nation's capital like they owned the place, that Congress has already sold most of us in the low to moderate income "down the river" to being stuck with your Employer's private medical insurance plan, instead of giving us the option of the private or government plan!!

The non-working poor will get cheaper and better quality medicine,as will these politicians and all federal workers,,, but not us $40k/yr. working "poor" !! Is this another Republican insult, after more than 8 years of lies, neglect, suffering, and Republican hypocrisies ??!

President Obama MUST STEP UP TO HIS PROMISED "CHANGE",,,and stop this typical Congressional bad compromise.

50 years of poor modern kitchen design:solo refrigerator versus a combo refrig.-freezer

My parents raised 4 kids and i was always amazed at how mom accepted the necessity of going shopping daily because she had a bottom freezer-top refigerator unit. And we all drank milk by the half gallon,,,daily!! She still ,at 90, enjoys going on a little outing from the family house to the supermarket, daily.

Only three shelves, two drawers for bread and produce, and a little door space,,,really is very little room for fresh fruit, leftovers, condiments, a six pack of beer and a six pack of soda/juice, a few half gallons of fresh milk. Very cramped,,,and you waste lots of time looking for buried food ,,,that may have spoiled.

Even tho we have a 6 ft standup freezer in the next door 'family room'/den. And no pantry back then,,,what were those non-cooking designers thinking ?!!

So why not put a solo refrigerator of 5ft or 6ft in the kitchen,,,and the freezer in the den, basement or garage ? And not have to go to the store ,,,every day as the advertising and marketing people want,,,to buy milk and cheese and fruits and vegetables ?

So i go to Costco biweekly/monthly and put sockeye salmon, shrimp of 2 sizes, and scallops on the top shelf of the freezer. Then steaks and beef patties on the second shelf. And chicken and pork of various cuts on the third shelf. And a variety of breads on the fourth shelf, to 2-3min microwave defrost as needed.

Mom keeps her ice cream in the kitchen freezer 1/2, close.

We have neighbors with both 7ft. separate units in the kitchen of a new custom home with a large kitchen. Mom says her old kitchen design with the view blocking cabinets hanging over the range peninsula is too small for that,,,as are both bathrooms that an adult can barely turn around in!! More old bad design,,,

San Jose has a huge real estate problem in its weak 'code' enforcement

My folks have lived in south central SJ since the 50s ,when pride in home ownership was more of a given or standard. Now in Lincoln Glen and Willow Glen, two of the better suburbs, a neighbor can decide to let his front lawn go to weeds, pulling down the resale value of every house on the block, and San Jose can not do anything about it. Or wont.

On Gerald Way, there are a couple houses that do not water or care for their front yards in this expensive $700,000+ ranch home neighborhood, built in the 50s for less than $20k. Then there is the family with all the cars in the driveway and all over the street ,,,and the jungle of vegetation out front. Next door is a extended or very large group of Mexicans, who also fill the driveway and street with all their cars. A "single family home" but San Jose says so many many people living in one house is "legal". Time to move or definitely not consider living in such an irresponsible environment.

One house was repo-ed by the bank, so the yard fell quickly into weeds. Why is the bank not a responsible homeowner and neighbor??! Banks !! These homes are eyesores!!, so if you are thinking of investing your hard earned money in Silicon Valley, you best reconsider!!

Oh, and beware of repainted house with old,50 year old , service lines like electrical and water and sewer that some agent are trying to sell as good as new!! Have you ever seen a 50 year old water pipe or electric wire??!!

2009 Tour de France,,,it is nice they let 3 French men win 3 small 'stage' races

Professional bicycling is becoming like ,,,roller derby,,,and the WWF,,,and horse racing,,,a fixed or staged form of entertainment, where it is too easy to see some try to loose so others can win. Sad. What a lack of team or individual competition !! And stage 19 and 21 were seemingly given to the second place Brit kid, as you could see the other riders closing ,,,and then back off before the line. What a french fraud,,,a rigged event of this magnitude.

Harry Potter,,picks Ginny Weasley!?,,,as if !!,,,What was Rowling thinking,,,

July 2009,,,the week that #6, "the half blood prince" comes out,,,and the tv stations have been replaying #1,2,3, and maybe #4 tonight,,,But there is no "Ginny" to be attracted to,,,No personality, or very little of one,,,

So why would our hero ,Harry, be interested in a "zero" like Ginny Weasley??

And the super smart Hermione is interested in the mean and hurtful tongued, defensive Ron??!! OK,,,maybe , in the stretch of adolescent imaginary love,,,

Yikes !!

July 2009 and California is now 'offically bankrupt',,,What will the Republican Governor and Republicans in the State Legislature ,,,do?

Wonder. We are waiting,,,

Little Problem: Comcast's tv remote does not work to turn on both tv and cable box

I know, i know, it is not worth complaining about, so here goes: Comcast cable tv service has this red "all on" button on the Comcast remote, but it usually, mostly does not work. That means you have to physically get up,,,or tell one of the kids to do it,,,to turn on the whichever unit did not turn on,,,and do it manually. Small problem,,,i know, i know, but very irritating. Yes, yes, we have told Comcast about this until we are "all off" on this business.

Big Problem: Comcast cable has a low-medium only volume problem

We thought it was just a brief, minor glitch,,,that Comcast would fix,,,in a month,,,or two. Yes, we have mentioned the problem to Comcast, many many times. Do you really think the FCC cares?

But it seems to persist. You can not turn your tv volume up above medium, or sitting next to the tv volume. So if you have a big open kitchen and dining area with lots of family and or guests , don't expect to be able to hear the tv. Or if you have a big family room ,,,or a converted basement,,,you can forget about hearing anything over the usual conversations on the Comcast cable tv expensive service.

In May 2009, Kaiser Hospital perscribed VICODIN to this minor post-op. patient

Two months later,,,knowing what we are now more well aware of about the dangers of liver failure from acetaminaphen, I WOULD REFUSE TO TAKE Vicodin. "What is a better alternative, Doctor ?"

Yes, 'liver failure' was one of the 'complications/side effects' listed on the drug sheet along with a lot of other warnings, but it was not stressed enough as to how easy it was to overdose with other medications all 'jacked up' with acetaminaphen.

Would it really hurt/kill Kaiser medical Insurance plan company hospitals to ask their patients every day or every week at least, "So how is that pain relief medication working for you today?" as if they cared ??
Oh, right , these are very busy Professionals: MDs, nurses, and hospital staff,,,

Why has there been so little American medical discovery/advance in the last 50 years??

I use to give $1000 / year to breast cancer research,,,but where have all those millions and billions of medical research dollars gotten us in the last 50 years ?? Cancer is still a very expensive and profitable illness, along with alzheimer's and diabetes. So where are the results, American Medicine ?!

The American Cancer Society was recently on the Today Show and said they were mostly interested in the genetics of the cancer. Maybe if they 'copyright' the discovered cancer gene, they can make more money that way, than finding a cause and cure and relieving suffering and outrageous medical costs.

Kaiser asked me recently if i would like to sleep over for a minimum of $400/night,,,and i told them flat out "no thanks", i have a $990/month rented apartment that i am paying for and sleeping in !! Why would i want to increase Kaiser's profit margin,,,?

My childhood family doctor has alzheimer's and does not recognize his son or large family anymore,,,and why haven't our so lauded American medical research facilities found a way to alleviate much of this disease, or solve it. The family was spending over $45,000 just to have a live-in adult ,non-medical person stay with him at the old family home. Now they are paying much more for a senile/alz. special care resthome...very expensive and very profitable for the medical industry. Who cares ?????

This is an american tragedy.

"Tour de France" bicycle race,,,will not post all contestant's speeds, unlike other vehicle races,,,why??

What are the French,,,and the Bicycle Professional Tours,,,trying to hide?? We can see one racer yeild a win to another, just like we can see European futbol players fake an injury to get sympathy and waste time. I want to KNOW how fast these bicycle racers are going, DON'T YOU?!!

Let's demand it from the tv broadcasters, that is where the money is,,,remember, "follow the money" !! Enough 'tradition' and deception,,,let us know, and stop the secrecy !!

Each riders speed, all day,,,
Road temps, humidity, wind speed & dir.
Road condition on a scale of 1,dirt,to 10,,,
Road angle or incline or decline,,,
This should all be automated,and automatic, not well hidden important facts , like today,,,

Where is the ESPN show on all the big bicycle falls, killers and criticals, how they happened and could they have been avoided,,,the biggest crashes,,,what riders have crashed the most ,broken what bones, and who has never crashed or crashed the least,,,

WHY ARE THEY, THE COMMENTATORS ,AND THE NETWORKS, HIDING ALL THIS VALUABLE INFORMATION FROM US FANS!??

Happy 4th of July , 2009,,,Salute to American Independence: it was impossible for Oswald to shoot 3 hits in less than 6 seconds, end of story.

Lee Harvey Oswald was NOT the solo shooter of President Kennedy, because damn few can shoot 3 bolt action rifle shots and hit a moving target from that distance in less than 6 seconds, with a 3rd rate rifle ,scoped and so little/no ,,, daily/weekly rifle practice. Period. End of story!

Was watching Peter Jenning's take on all the cover-up theories the other night. And this point is always glossed over,,,So who are the best marksmen in the USA?

You may say the Army special forces,,,ok, fine,,,You line up i don't care how many U.S. military soldiers with their "marksman badges" and i bet not even half of them, not even 25% of them, not even 10% of them !!,,,can get off 3 rifle bolt action shots at a moving target at that distance, with hits as in Dallas, in less than the 'proposed' 6 seconds that most people say it took Oswald.

I was raised ,hunting and fishing in the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s, most of my life,,,and i have seen some amazing "crack shots" like my hunting partner Dick, who can hit a trotting deer ,or two, in the neck spine at over 100 yards with one shot each,,,instant merciful death.

If the American military is too cowardly to take the challenge, you can go to any public rifle range of the few still existing in the USA, and politely ask one of the bolt-action rifle users there to show you, for $20 bucks, if they can shoot 3 scoped rifle hit SHOTS at that Dallas distance, fixed or moving target, IN LESS THAN 6 SECONDS.

It ain't going to happen public,,,because it is physically near impossible. Go to a gun store and , with permission, try to do it with an empty bolt rifle, "dry firing". Near impossible, right,,,yet we are to believe some wacko drifter like Oswald who did not practice shooting often enough, was able to pull this off from that Dallas office building,,,Ever since then,our own Federal government has been steadily and constantly lying to us, the electorate, the public. About most everything, from the improbability of global warming,,,to "weapons of mass destruction".

And yet that is the crux of the huge 'propaganda' lie the u.s. government has been trying to trick us with for decades,,,When it happened, there was NO WAY i was going to TRUST President LBJ, who kept us in VietNam and lied to us about any possibility of success/"victory" there, wasting thousands of American lives , bodies, futures, and resources. President Eisenhower warned us all when he left office about the looming background anti-democratic growing influence of the "military ,industrial, Congressional complex",,,and now we have sequential non-official-wars all over the world and a bloated fraudulent out-of-control military that is telling Congress what to do!! Where oh where, God, is the American Peace Movement ?!!

Certainly not going to trust the Warren Commission with President Ford, who spinelessly pardoned President Nixon, who should have been sentenced and jailed,,,but the Fed is no longer " the government of , for ,and by the People". President Nixon will be cursed in the history books forever for his dishonesty and illegality in office, and for stealing with the peace-time "draft" from college students like myself of 2 years of wasted involuntary servitude. Lobbyists for huge money special interests own Congress, which will not do the right thing,,,or much of anything, in these desparate terrible times.

We may still have the freedom of speech,,,but without a federal whistleblower protection strong law, it means less than it should. We still have "life ,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness",,,but in a country legislated by laws and a corrupt,too large and complex to be enforceable IRS tax code written primarily for the benefit of the already rich and secure,,,it doesn't mean as much as it might. The touted "American middle class" has almost been completely destroyed, by our own government! We are making the same mistakes as our forefathers, coming from countries where the rich were pampered and had too much influence and power.

God save what very little is left of America !! Happy 4th of July, 2009.

Shopping for a new 2009/2010 car? Do all sold in USA brands have standard/option of 1,turbo diesel engine,2,xenon vs 1/2 as bright halogen headlights,

,,,and 3,HD radio w/ CD,,,???

GMC,,,don't think so
Chevy,,,don't think so
Ford,,,don't think so
Volvo,,,no on turbo diesel, but yes on HD,,,
and Xenon headlights !!
Chrysler,,,
Honda,,,
Toyota,,,
Audi,,,
Saturn,,,
Subaru,,,
Mini-Cooper,,,
Acura(honda),,,
BMW,,,
Kia,,,
VW,,,
Mazda,,,
Porshe,,,
Nissan,,,
Hyundai,,,
Jeep,,,

If we had just 33% of our cars on diesel, as england is about 70%, we would not need one drop of Arab oil ,,,think about that,,,

And don't you want the option of the brightest and safest headlights, Xenon ??,,,think about it,,,

Take "Nuprin",,,instead of over-the-counter dangerous "Tylenol"

You can be stubborn...or stupid...or stubborn and stupid!! and still take acetaminophen/c8h9no2/"tylenol"/"anacin"/"datril"/"panadol",,,with the Now Publicized risk liver doctors have know about for over 10 years!!,,,or you can take ibuprofen / c13h18o2/ "nuprin"/ "advil" / "motrin" / one of the generics ,like at Costco.

So are you going to be stubborn, stupid, or stubborn and stupid !!?

Even safer for me, i think, is to just take aspirin with a big glass of milk,or water,or juice,,,and some food. Aspirin is the most "miracle" drug of all time the newpaper says,,,Too bad some people can't handle aspirin. And you probably don't want to take aspirin with anything else,,,Aspirin originally came from some tree bark, pretty amazing, eh ?

2009, S.E. Alaska halibut and salmon fishing, Expert & Favorite Guide, is Capt. Mark of Yakutat Charter Boat Co.

My friends and Dad and i went to Alaska for years ,,,and had lots of lazy/drunk fishing guide bad experiences in the South East. Then we found Capt. Mark, who is professional, hungry to catch fish and not just wet your lines, and expert with years of boat handling and fishing experience.

So if you want to catch 150-200 lb Halibut, (hint:the big ones hangout with the big ones, and the little ones/'chickens' hang with the little ones,,,so most charter captains take you to 'chicken' roosts,,,) and do it in 80-100 ft of water vs the usual Kenai 200-300 ft (free halibut hint #2:if the halibut is hauled to the surface vs just below it to be shot,,,it will go back to the bottom and you will have to bring that 'barn door' all the way back up again), go to Mark's website, and avoid some really scary operators (heard over the radio on last visit, by big fleet captain "lost in fog just outside harbor,,,can not figure out this gps ,,,") in Yakutat !!

After July 1,,,call Mark for changing season year to year and changing limits,,,you can catch surface fighting silver salmon on light tackle,,,so MUCH FUN !!

Plus , there is the Situk River nearby if you want to fish with grizzly bears and mosquitoes the size of helicopters,,,we caught a bunch of reds/sockeye one year,,,SO DELICIOUS !!,,,on bare big red hooks and chartreuse yarn ! (don't recommend you waste time on pink/humpy salmon,,,or dog/chum salmon,,,as both taste like dogfood !!)

Fly in and out on Alaska Airlines to old ww2 airport, but beware of frequent 'lost fish boxes' on return to lower 48,,,and often misdropped luggage in distant adak, alaska,,,for days,,,without raingear,,,
(free #3,,,Seatac's fisher's freezer on site was not a flash freezer and not nearly cold enough,,,)

Why would the Dept. of Commerce's NOAA National Weather Service,,,"officially report the high in May 2009 in east Santa Cruz at 76F" ,,,20 degrees les

Cherry-picking weather statistics ? Because of global climate change ? Global Warming, maybe ?

This happens a lot and all over, i suspect. Not just 3 days in May at a private house in east Santa Cruz. In early May, the first 3-4 days it rained every day in San Jose, but the DOC-NOAA-NWS says their machine at the San Jose Airport only measured a few tenths of an inch of rain,,,

And the tv and radio wx people just "report"/repeat what they are told by these untrustworthy feds,,,

movie "Summer Catch" 2001,'one star',,but Jessica Biel is in it,,,in a WET T-SHIRT,,,5 STARS !!

Jessica Biel,,,wet t-shirt,,,need we say more? RENT IT,,,

Yes, the dialog is 'high school' as is some of the acting,,,his acting,the 'stars' is worse than hers!! guess the director let him slide, since he did the high school wallflower-prom queen movie,,,and the plot is as predictable as a summer sunburn,,,but, so what ?!

JESSICA BIEL,,, WET T-SHIRT,,,ok acting,,,
and WET T-SHIRT,,,!!

June 2009, tv show "The Crumbling of American "(Infrastructure)

What a shocking public display of decades of state and federal neglect, in funding maintenance of our national infrastructure of Interstate Highways, fresh water main supply lines!!, sewage lines and plants with too much storm drain water when it rains, +35% of bridges in the USA are near failure meaning 1 of 3 bridges you cross,,,you might not cross and live, delta dikes and levees in California built by farmers who did not do it right and now the center of the state in the vast Central Valley is threatened with massive square miles of flooded new luxury homes, luxury cars, and all the luxury furniture inside !!

And the response from the State of California,,,and the Federal Government? California has the lowest and most expensive state bond rating, making for the most expensive loans for its taxpayers,,,and after the Governor Grey Davis fiasco of deregulating energy ,electricity and gas for homes, and the soon to follow Enron scam, along with general fiscal mismanagement by the Republican Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger and the State Legislature,,,California is very near BANKRUPT. Just like we all most were, because of 8 years of Republican rule on a national level, in having a fiscal and economic collapse Greater than the Great Depression and also bringing down the international economy. The Republicans will never admit it or honor up to how close they came to ruining the economy of the USA,,,and there are a lot of people and tv commentators who are choosing to think and look the other way and deny how close we all came to being homeless, jobless, penneyless, and hopelessly out of luck,,,for years!! Even the super-rich might have suffered, a little. God bless the remaining few Middle Income Class !

KKSF, 103.7FM ,,,unfortunately,,,has dropped its popular and unique "smooth jazz" format,,,for the crowded "and more profitable ROCK" format,,,SO SAD

And what about the millions of listeners for all these years?!? In the San Francisco Bay Area, there is not a soft jazz digital HD good alternative yet, that i know of,,,

And the rock market is so crowded, with 98.5FM my FAVORITE BY FAR FOR CLASSIC ROCK,,,then 107.7FM which is my #2 favorite classic rock and roll station in the sf bay area,,,with 'ta-ta tuesdays' and 3 trying comedians. And there is soft rock on 96.5FM and 94.5FM,,,and for the 20? college kids there is 99.7FM and 73.5?FM,,,Seems like an overcrowded "rock" market, since AM is near dead,,,so different from the 50s.

It makes no sense to me that a long established , revered, respected, popular soft jazz station with the popular jazz cruises and popular AIDS cds every year,,,and mostly good djs,,,would make such a risky drastic switch. But then, i'm on the audience's side.

AT&T in its Yellowpages.com and Yellow Pages phone books,,,combines 2 completely different services under one heading:"carpet and rug cleaning" , why?

Carpet cleaning is usually where someone comes to you house or apartment and has a mobile steam cleaning unit, like "Stanley Steemer" , my favorite reliable honest professional and reasonable at $99 special for 2 carpeted rooms and a hallway.

Rug cleaning is where you roll up an area rug and put it in the trunk or back seat, take it to a rug cleaning factory operation, where they clean it on the concrete floor with hoses and brush soap on both sides or put it thru a machine that sprays soapy water on it and then a rinse,,,with both hang drying for 7-10 days. Most rug cleaners will pick up and return your area rugs ,for a fee, say $95 to clean a 7ft x 9ft area rug, with the optional $50-75 fee for pickup and return.

These are two totally different services,,,for two totally different kinds of floor coverings. Yet , AT%T lumps them together. And they have done away with the green pages index,even on the website !! This is not progress. Carpet cleaning,and only carpet cleaning mobile services, belongs under the "c"s,,,and rug cleaning factories belong under the letter "r". Most of America is smart enough to handle that, i hope.

Tennis, Wimbelton, 2009, won't some woman guts up and beat the W. sisters!?

The other day one of the headless female tv commentators said she liked the "intimidation" that was the over weight/fat, out of shape/fitness ,fragile weak ,full of unforced errors, play of Serena Williams. And that is about all she has, "intimidation" ,scary thin bad play and this continuing mesmerization of her skin color.

Watching her sister, Venus W. , play Bondarenko, the servile ,weak-wristed, could have been beaten by anybody with so little self-confidence in her play, which is good at first game, 40-40 and could have won, but she got obsessed with watching Venus instead of the ball and the court. And any beginner can tell you you don't play to your opponent's strengths, you play to their weaknesses, put the ball where they are not, get them moving,,,as they are probably a little nervous too. Venus won 6-3,6-2 to a Bondarenko swimming in fear.

But look back at the first 5 games. Venus hit unforced errors and all these overpaid softsoap female commentators could come up with was,,,(wait for the off subject hype,,,), "Venus won here,,,5 times !!",,,and "Serena won here at Wimbleton,,,2 times." Over and over , these two chicken reporters under-reported, afraid to say anything negative about the W. sister's weak play. Net balls, several long balls, double faults, poor strategy,,,all the the W. sisters faulty play was ignored. Women's tennis worldwide is so weak !!

Leaving the sad and depressing women's side of tennis, let's give a look at the so much stronger men's side of tennis. A big "Congratulations!!" to Robert Kendrick's fantastic no-surrender play against #3 Andy Murray. The tennis rankings are all off on this guy; Kendrick played amazing tennis!! The best match-dog fight i have seen in months. Thank you Robert Kendrick !! Even tho Murray eventually won, it was Kendrick's play that was not only much higher than the tennis wonks expected, it was 'no surrender/quit' gutsy great, high entertainment !! You go, Kendrick !! Great mental and physical strength, Kendrick !!

Congrats!! to Sabine Lisiki,germany, 6-2,7-5,,,over BIG UPSET,,,S.Kuznetsova#5,,,great physical & emotional control, tennis,you GO girl !!
Beautiful , and in control of her nerves/emotions...you can do this,,,stay positive and optimistic !! And do not listen to those tv-radio commentators, as they are sooo old, what do they know about you ??

Also Congrats !! to Melanie Oudin,usa,6-7,7-5,6-2, in HUGE WIN UPSET over J. Jankovic,,,again, a beautiful new face, with physical fitness and more importantly control of her nerves/emotions.
Stay positive, be confident in yourself, don't get deer-in-the-headlights mesmerized by any, ANY, of your opponents,,,Use your head and strategy, like Federer and it looks so easy,,,Good Luck !!

Congratulations to Ana Ivanovic,#13 in win 7-5,6-2 over S.Stosur#18,aussie,,,now that Sharapova has imploded ,you are my hope for a win against the W. sisters, since i tend to prefer brunnettes,,,Please stay positive, use STRATEGY and not just hard tiring hits, you can do this, Beautiful !! Best wishes ladies !!

Why is Andy Roddick,,,still,,,so angry on court?? His play is better, tho still not 100%reliable self-confident,,,Is the stress too much? Doesn't he love the game,,,and love winning? Lives in Austin, has beautiful dedicated wife,,,rich,,,what's the problem? I would be happy-as-Connors with those circumstances,,,

Congratulations to CILIC, who did not win, but played a grueling great match with Hass#24,,,!! Great physical and mental play, kid !!

Hewitt won,,,but it must be sweaty sticky uncomfortable-hot there in London,,,as he seemed to struggle,,,another hard-hitting gun slinger who tires himself, over strategy,,,Good luck.

Here was a weak, hard to watch, women's match, Dulko 6-2,3-6,6-4,,,,barely beating Sharapova, who is yelling too much, needs some Proactiv, is not as strong physically with weak lazy legs, nor mentally with way too many unforced errors and general sloppy play,,,Maria, Maria, Maria, Where has your head gone ???

Venus Williams almost lost today to the today mentally-weak Navarro, who physically was in good shape,,,but just could not get her head around beating Venus,,,6-0,5-4 game at 30-30 and replay that terrible play by Venus, YIKES !! This crappy play, from a "5 time Wimbelton Champion"??!?? Venus' break point conversion was only 5 of 12!!/42%(embarrassing,,,),,and she had 14 !! unforced errors !! (Ladies, Venus is oozing fear, frail play,,,and failure,,,so get in there and beat this weakling!!),,,and Venus' first serve percentage was only 66%, or 2 out of 3,,,weak, weak , weak,,,yes, enough to win, but nothing to brag about. Venus can be beaten , Ladies !! Go for it !! A sixth win at Wimbelton would just show how mentally weak the whole womens side of tennis is,,,

That is all , for Sunday 28 June 2009,,,

Monday morning, 29 june 2009, and the talented, major-winning, and so Beautiful Ana Ivanovic had to pull out of her match with Venus W. with a left thigh injury,,,bum-mer!!!!,,,Ana, please take good care of yourself, you are young and very talented, and you will come back if you want,,,get well and best wishes !

D.Hantuchova,,,too thin like scary bulimia/anexoria thin and weak, and mentally-emotionally not ready,,,lost to S. Williams, 6-3 and 6-1,,,Why isn't Women's Tennis doing a better job of looking out for these mental-emotional basket cases on the Pro Tours that are playing on tv??? Or even Pro Tennis, what the heck are they not doing??

Tennis,French Open,2009:big news is VENUS W. AND SERENA W. both lose

Are you as tired as i am of the "hype" and servile spit-polishing of the W. sisters by the male and female tv commentators?

Here is new evident of how weak the two of them are, noting how terribly weak the whole women's side of tennis is. Serena W. ,,,LOST,,,in the quarterfinals,,,to #7,S. Kuznetsova. And her sister, Venus W. ,,,LOST,,,in the 3rd!!! round !!!,,,to A. Szavay,#29 !!!.

So Mr. Williams looks scary as hell in the bleachers!? Until some woman, almost any woman, can take her eyes of this black skin issue with the sisters and play the ball in the court,,,instead of being mezmerized ,still, by a black skinned woman on a tennis court,,,you can forget about woman's tennis.

The Department of Defense budget is totally out of control, so why doesn't Congress do anything about it ???

Haven't you also heard all the stories about contract fraud and the Iraq semi-war, with millions and millions of tax dollars wasted, according to the OMB and the CBO. But who cares!!, it's the Defense Department, with all the orders for humvees with inadequately protected floors that maimed hundreds of our soldiers going over road bombs. So why, when the President ran on getting us out of Iraq in less than a year, are we going for a long military commitment next door in Afganistan, when there is equally little or no hope of doing more than wasting American taxpayer dollars and American blood, bodyparts, and lives ?? Such cowardice in Congress to confront the necessary difficult choices,,,and not touch the sacred 'cow' of the DOD,,,is the root of why so little gets done in our Federal Government.

Now it is poorly designed troop vehicles, and in VietNam is was army rifles that often jammed in fire fights and Navy jets like the Phantom that did not have fighter guns, and in WW2 it was the too long endured for years acceptance of flawed inoperable torpedo design by the U.S. military, and on and on,,,When, with so many good reasons, are we going to stop worshiping at the altar of unlimited U.S. military spending?

Great Britain is PROUD of its Gays in its Military,,,So what is so very Wrong with the Pentagon??

Even a smart black man and General like Colin Powell is or was against having gays and lesbians in our American armed services,,,yikes, if a smart ,educated, privledged, rich, successful black man can not get the social injustice of it,,,Yikes !!

Not that i am for mandatory service in the military, or even the draft, as i have been 2 years in the Navy, with a bunch of alcoholics, high school dropouts, social misfits and psycho-sickos, court redirects that should have gone to jail, and the sickest 2 social tier society of officers and enlisteds in the ugliest,dumbest-looking hat ever!!, i never want to be a part of again,,,getting back to real life was almost a nervous breakdown going from being treated under the UCMJ like a nigger-slave without any rights of the Constitution,,,to freedom and liberty.

But if you, or a gay or a lesbian, want to so-called SERVE,,,then that should be your right ,unless you are Charles Manson. The military has had to lower its standards so much with little or no p.t. or physical daily training,so lots and lots of fat and obese so-called soldiers are serving, at least in the Navy.

PCH/Publisher's Clearing House,,,uses a pricing system in its offers i find deceptive ,so why do we put up with it !!

Do you get alot of daily contest come-ons and solicitations for junk, with pricing "4 payments each only" in small print so you don't notice possibly that part,,,and "$2.99" in large print, to obviously deceive the gullible and old,senile ?

And this is acceptable,,,in the U.S. of A. ?

Election Fraud, American-style, then and now, 21st Century

Iran is in the news tonight about the Presidental election possibly being stolen by the incumbent over there. Most people here might be saying to themselves 'well it is the intolerant, dictatorial, backward, violent and terrorist-riddled Middle East,,,'

But such city, county, state and federal election corruption,outright buying votes, and other embarrassments are familiar to many American states and the Nation over the years. Florida and Ohio's part in 2 recent Presidential elections were shocking in there obvious dishonesty and disenfranchisement by delay and denial of being registered.

Blacks for decades put up with terrible injustice, even after they won their freedom after the bloodshed of the Civil War, and even after the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and 70s.

Locally, the s.f. paper had an article about full ballot boxes floating in San Francisco Bay after a recent major election,,,but no one ,especially not the State of California's Attorney General , did anything about it. We americans are use to election abuse and outright , in broad daylight , multiple varieties of election fraud, even today, in the 21st Century.

This will be one of the causes of our national decline.

june 2009,,,When is the new President Obama going to show us how Environmental he was elected to be??

Maybe with the Pebble Mine, in Alaska, that threatens not only most of the state's salmon industry but also most if not all of their crab industry. Since the state leaders up there are too short sighted to care as much as most Americans do, we need much stronger Federal protection of our water, air, food, land, and wild animals,,,not to mention human health from all the toxics the lousy Republicans allowed over their disasterous 8 year rule.

The Feds are pushing the destruction of the dollar and inflation over deflation, which some experts like mr. weiss recommend instead

Do the Feds know what they are doing? What if , in making the dollar near worthless, the world chooses another currency as the world currency? Pretty risky brinkmanship, by a bunch of Free Market-Excess Executive pay-Deregulators. They certainly are not honest about the increase in the national deficit and debt, according to experts like mr. weiss. And most now know the so-called "stress test" was a sham , a con, a weak test so all would pass.

Shareholders now have a voice, only advisory, in executive pay, when as the cash for share paper owners should have a more than advisory say in executive pay. Shareholders, not the usual rubber stamp boards, should control executive pay,,,but that probably won't happen even with the new Democratic President and Democratic Congress,spineless as the Republicans when it comes to doing the right thing vs the easy/nothing.

Besides our shiny new President, all of his subordinate Financial Experts are of the Free Market-Deregulation School,,,and stumbling and fumbling in

trying to re-regulate,,,

Where,,,oh where,,,is the much needed Federal Whistleblower Law ???

Lobbyists own and control Congress, so don't hold your breath,,,

Besides 'banks that are too big to fail' we need to break down the oil companies ,,,who are robbing us blind

Not that our Congress has the spine to do the right thing,,,

Back in the 70s or 80s Congress softened the usury/excessive interest by banks law, so isn't it time to reverse that??

Someone might think that it would be smart to again toughen the usury laws for banks. But ,in spite of all the national and international pain caused by the wreckless and irresponsible banks, that probably will not happen. Not now,,,not next year,,,maybe not for years,,,

June 2009,,,California has been mismanaged for decades,,,and is on the verge of bankruptcy and STATE COLLAPSE !!

Now even the politicians are calling for a state convention to totally re-write a state constitution for California ,so maybe it will work better. Now 'better' for the politicians is not the same as 'better' for democracy or the citizens of California.

We just took away the corrupt ability of the State Legislature to GERRYMANDER/draw it own election district lines , because it was resulting in permanent legislators of the less than best variety, like Tom Lantos. Bet you the state legislature wants that power back, not for good, but for more dark backroom corruption for corporate and special interests.

We now have initiative ,recall and referendum and i bet the state legislature wants to take them away. Yes, we have made mistakes being swayed by marketing money to make some bad initiative measures, like Proposition 13 never should have applied to commercial property but just to residential property, and the supreme protection of the mountain lion has resulted in injury attacks and human deaths because the animal rights nuts equated the wild lion with home cats, and the marriage religion ballots when marriage is a legal contract and what religion you are or are not should not be controlled by the state,,,and there may be a few others. But in the absence of honest responsible open state government, we the public needed to step in and in effect run the state. For 20 years the budget has been late ,,,and there is NO EXCUSE.

The state legislators probably want to take away recall because we recalled the only governor in history , and a lot of other corrupt dishonest and incompetent elected officials, specifically Governor Gray Davis who told us that we should DEREGULATE HOME HEATING GAS AND ELECTRICITY STATE PRICE CONTROLS AND THAT IF WE DID THAT THE MARKET WOULD MAKE THE PRICE OF NATURAL GAS AND ELECTRICITY GO DOWN. It went up and some friends saw their home energy bill quadruple in the first month,,,and then it bankrupted the state of california, with ENRON, just watch the movie dvd.

Unless we get the governor and state legislature to have total political sunshine and zero lobbyist money replaced with state funding of all elections, we will only be opening the door for more corruption, more back room dealings, more elected officials who do not represent their districts nor state interests, just payola special interests.

We have an admired movie star again as Governor and even he can not hire a competent state administrator and political advisor wise enough to win over the slimy corrupt state legislature. Therefore we have one of the worst bond ratings for a state and pay much higher interest to borrow money, which should not be, especially for a Republican Governor when Republicans are always spouting off on how fiscally responsible they are compared to the Democrats. Not one of our Republican Governors in the last 50 years has left us with a big budget surplus, no state debt, and a huge emergency fund,,,not one.

So here we are, going from the 1960s as the 7th largest and richest economy in the world,,,to the laughing stock of the USA, too poor to pay for teachers, or police claiming fat pensions and disability like retiring firemen, and unable to maintain our roads and state infrastructure. The press or media is not honest enough,,,or interested enough until the blood flows down the street,,,to honestly discuss how this happened, what are our options, and what is the best course for the collapsing state of california. Just more 'business as usual'.

On this sacred 65th anniversary of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy ,France, why are we still hiding the secret of the ships that failed to shell that

50 mile stretch of beach,,,resulting in about 10,000 deaths ?? Were they British ships that could not hit the side of a barn with their guns, or French ships,,,or Canadian ships,,,and why was the immediate chain of command broken when the execution was so flawed and no corrective action by the generals and admirals was taken ?? Is it the American Navy-military that can't admit it screwed up big time??

Watch 'Band of Brothers' and all the others to see the incompetence and waste of the military and war.

Past and recent white male Supreme Court justices,C.Thomas too, have shown usually the social empathy of a used smelly high school jock strap

Whether it was their high-minded approval of slavery or their stupidity of allowing Prohibition, most males on the Supreme Court are as out of touch with society as prisoners in the county lockup.

Yikes!, we elect a black President,,,and the ugly undemocratic PATRONAGE sleaze of Congress still rears its ugly head with the 3 appointments of

Ambassadors to Japan, England and France, but big donors instead of professional diplomats.

Guess the bank and other sleazy corporate lobbyists still 'own' and control Congress. And you probably thought that Congress would do the right thing for the public and the usa,,,oh, isn't that just too too trusting and sucker stupid naivety.

new "Royal Pains" tv show(pilot)2009,,,Nothing is more unattractive in a man than WALLOWING IN SELF-PITY,,,

and being STUBBORN-STUPID,,,for more than a day or week, especially for MORE THAN A MONTH, even after loosing a shallow gold-digger girlfriend. Still , the show premise is good. But then, the brother is such an east coast loser, shallow and boring, a real parasite,,,

Hope the lead character grows up faster ,,,than the writers. Otherwise, i/we will not be waiting and watching for long. If the lead is such an idealistic doctor, then why was he working for such a elitist-shit hospital in the first place ,,,and did not do volunteer work at an inner city clinic since ? Ah, hollywood tv fantasy...

Does your city have a WEAK TREE POLICY like SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA ?

My family has lived since the 50s in south Willow Glen, one of the nicest old suburbs of San Jose, California , and i was talking with a neighbor about the drastic decline in city property,city parking strip trees, especially on our street compared to other nearby streets. Houses here still sell for $700,000 to over a $million. We both agreed that more and more trees were dying , being removed, and NOT REPLACED with a city government that did not seem to care, unless you filed an individual complaint. The next block looks so much better and more livable than ours , just because it has most of its parking strip 2 trees per lot. And obviously the residents on the next block appreciate the increase in home and neighborhood real estate value !!

So i called the city Arborist, in the Transportation dept., a strange place to have an Arborist city office. Not very enthusiastic, which is so very sad when we need more oxygen creating, and carbon dioxide absorbing trees here in summer very smogy Silicon Valley, NOT LESS! The city manager's office and the mayor's office were not very encouraging either, basically telling me it was the property owner's responsibility to pay for the removal of dead trees in the parking strip and also the planting of replacement trees.

Now that is a POLICY DESIGNED TO FAIL,,,and notice how many ranch house owners have paved over the city-owned parking strip, with the CITY OF SAN JOSE DOING LITTLE OR NOTHING ABOUT IT !? Isn't it strange that ,i seem to remember, the city winning some kind of a tree award,,,a few years back,,,AND NOW SAN JOSE IS TURNING ITS BACK ON HAVING AS MANY TREES AS POSSIBLE FOR CITY BEAUTIFICATION, OUR COLLECTIVE HEALTH(cough cough tear tear cough cough), AND A BIG INCREASE IN PROPERTY VALUES ??

The ''Big 3" collapsed finally now ,as everyone knows but does ot want to admit, that they REFUSED TO BE COMPETITIVE since the 1960s !!!!!

You can fool yourself by saying this 'was' a big american automobile company,,,or that you bought what 'were' not junk-rated bonds,,,or that you put $70,ooo of your own retirement money in the stock and you 'expect' every stock to be successful expecially when the federal government has been bailing out the big 3 since the 60s or 70s with tax breaks, loans of taxpayer money, and lately $billions in advances on the big 3 designing cutting edge diesel-electric cars but not having to sell a single one. A farce, a tragedy before our very eyes, a collective misplacement of trust.

So you can hide your head in the sand,,,or be 'in denial' ,but we all saw it, the press reported it constantly, and we just got use to GM and Ford and Chrysler being management mediocre and making mediocre cars. The Hummer is a loser on the battlefield because the floor is too close to the ground and can not fit a v-shaped road explosive shield. The GM Citation(a girlfriend had one,,,) was a total piece of crap , like the Chrysler Mercury Capri(my sister had one and the interior ,for one, disintegrated and peeled off like the piece of crap it was).

We americans have been looking the other way at many of our state and national problems , thinking i/we will be ok, but god help the sucker that comes after us !! And that the Feds will always be there to save us, when we now know that this worldwide financial crisis started by the Republican Party basic idea of "deregulation" was what was best for Wall Street and all of us was a big fat known lie and may still ruin the entire international banking system, worse than the so-called 'great depression' that both my parents lived through somehow(one was given away to relatives who could afford to feed him and his sister, imagine,,,).

Will the restructured 'big 3' be able to compete and redesign badly designed and poorly made cars to compete with the japanese and the germans and the other better cars ,since the 60s ? It is extremely doubtful, because creativity is not in a can unlike finance which comes with a off the shelf software program disc. And do you realize how cheap cars are to make?! Ask one of these closed car dealers the big fat industry secret that i learned decades ago that we have been paying luxury retail for years to car companies who lost vision and lost the fire to compete and just stumbled and fumbled along, like the new Camero redesign.

Remember all the VW bugs and VW campers you saw in the 60s all of a sudden, even tho the terrible air cooled pancake engine was notoriously labor intensive like a Porsche and if you did not have/do the dirty valve adjustment job before 3000 miles the engine would blow up, like mine did twice , before i swore never to own an aircooled pancake engine again !

Remember in the 70s, and if you were alive i am sure you do, the huge influx of much better quality and durability and attractive design of the japanese car invasion to the shores of the usa ? i bought a toyota corolla and was amazed that for 10 years it never broke down once,not once!, and only needed its exhaust manifold talken off and filed once, and was much more reliable and more fun to drive and much more fuel efficient ,even tho it was a horrible shade of orange mustard (yikes) and i got it as the last model on the lot at the end of the year at a huge discount because no one else liked the color either. But you could not ignore, unless you were really sick with perceptive denial, that we were being invaded by other,japanese or german, car makers of much better milage cars(the bug and college students) and more attractive cars some or most with better quality and durability,like the old not the new bmw and mb, than most of the crap 'produced in america'.

i laughed at the time,,,and now,,,with the failure of AOL buying TIME-WARNER,,,

What the hell were the supposedly smart people at Time thinking ,allowing themselves to be bought out by a second rate internet provider, a DIAL UP company, like AOL ?!

AOL had a huge ego and lots and lots of moola, but how crazy for a limited company to buy a huge conglomerate !! And Time magazine likes to cultivate an image of being so smart. Yikes.

228-230 people die in an AirFrance jet from Rio to Paris,,,flying below vs above a thunderstorm!!

Didn't they watch the Tom Hank's movie?!! You fly around or above the weather and definitely not through a thunderstorm, unless you have a soccer ball. What the hell was that airline and captain thinkking,,,?!! "Flying blind" is NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE !!!!!

It is bad enough that modern passenger jets do not have radar and have to rely on air traffic coordinators. According to the CNN broadcast this morning, 1 june 2009, the plane did not even have a $100 GPS unit on it ,so it could be tracked by satellite!! No one knows where this large passenger jet is, what happened to it, if there are any survivors, or where in the Atlantic it might be !!

Expect the airline industry to come out with the same propaganda of 'it is the safest mode of mass transit, even safer than getting up out of bed,,,or walking across San Francisco". These are preventable crashes and therefore are UNACCEPTABLE IN THE FUTURE; whether 'human error' or 'part malfunction' we and the industry should have a much higher standard ,than to constantly sacrifice your relatives or you,,,or someone's relatives,,,on the p.r. standard of 'safer than' vs SAFE AS CAN BE.

Have you had enough yet of irresponsible companies and governments running airlines like people and their very lives did not matter ????? Isn't it time for the USA and Europe to lead , leadership, the world into the 21st century with satellite tracking of all airplanes and much safer basic standards for any airplane with a person/people on board ?

Be prepared to hear from United and Delta and all the major airlines that they can not afford such basic safety upgrades 'at this time' ,,,and be prepared to tell them 'now, or we will not longer fly!!' Be prepared for governments to say that during an economic world crisis like now that 'this is not the right time to spend lots and lots of money on basic airline and airport safety',,,and you can tell them 'we would rather spend it on this than those greedy fat-cat irresponsible negligent selfish and despicable bankers!!".