The war on drugs is a failure. An abject total complete failure. In 30+ years on fighting drug use we've really done two separate and completely unrelated paths. The first path, and probably the one that's had significant success has been the worth working on has been the social and health care argument. Drug use is down, where it's down because people have been convinced that cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana and what ever else has been shown to many to be a disaster for you as a personal choice.

That's the good news.

The bad news is this:

Ok, so peak oil is an idea, that some people don't believe. In addition global warming is also an idea that generates quite a bit of controversy. What shouldn't be anywhere near as controversial is how much we are sending over seas with our current oil binge mentality. The cost of oil to the US is now 700Billion dollars a year. We can't keep that payment level up.

T. Boone Pickens has a plan.

I've started using Twitter.com to micro-blog. I'm not doing it often enough to really describe where I am all the time, but I think it's an interesting way to inform anyone who cares to know what's going on. I can't imagine that would be more than a few friends and family.

Tony

Apologies to James Brown, but that title to his song "Living in America" has been going through my head the last few weeks.

I bought a GPS car navigation system. I've wanted once since I first started using them on trips to California back in 2000. Back then I used the Hertz Never Lost units which are made by Magellan.

This new system is made by Tom Tom, it's a refurbished system. Which I bought at MicroCenter for $100. It was the price that finally pushed me to get this unit.

I found out that George Carlin was dead through an email from one of my good friends. I was stunned. Just stunned.

Later that day I was driving home from New York back to Virginia and on the radio was an interview with George Carlin. The program was Fresh Air, and if you've listened to that show you know that Terry Gross is a great interviewer. I listened to George speak and I was stuck by how much I loved his words. I don't want to say I'm a fan of George Carlin, because I'm not.

Why does it always go more slowly than I hope. My bathroom is now painted, but I still need to do some detail work. However, the new cabinet is in place, the new sink, the new toilet, I've fixed the area above the stall, mostly. The room is painted fairly well. The door still hasn't been put on. I do have the new hingers, and the new door, just need to cut the holes for the handle and hang it in the frame.

New door has to be put on the far bedroom. I'm looking forward to that.

I've been a fan of science fiction since I first started watching Star Trek the original series at the age of 6 or 7. I've read so much over the years. And enjoyed so much good science fiction. Movies, TV, books, short stories. I had the first four issues of the Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Magazine. Its always been something I really enjoyed.

It was with a bit of a surprise last year that I came across Firefly. I'm not sure now, even how it happened. I read a comment, somewhere, on the web about the "Brown Coats", and it piqued my interest.

http://change-congress.org

I've watched over the last 8 years and really probably the last 30 as my country has changed. Changed in ways that I think are abhorrent. The one truth is that we as individuals are powerless, we only can gain power by banding together and working together. The last 30 years has seen the government actively work to undermine the power that people have and keep us at a disadvantage.