SOMA?? That’s a laugh. OK, I’ll break this down the easy way, to make it a little bit clearer, for those too young  to remember, that this has been going on for YEARS, since the 60s in fact! The most likely scenario I picture is, the kid got hold of some of the stuff at home, when mom or dad had a backache, it was leftover in the medicine cabinet, it gave em a decent buzz, so when they went down to Mexico, and knowing it was available OTC there, bought some. Now, HERE’S MY point, there are things MUCH stronger than SOMA available OTC in Mexico. IF you have the slightest clue what you’re looking for (although Rohypnal “the date rape drug” comes to mind, Mexican pharmacies are MOSTLY reluctant to give the STRONG stuff up(except to locals). But, go to enough pharmacies, and you can find it. If you know the generic name for just about ANY…say; benzodiazepine, if they stock it, you can go home with a tidy little supply of…Lorazepam(Ativan), Diazepam(Valium), Alprazolam(Xanax), Chlordiazepoxide(Librium), Chlorazepate(Tranxene), Butalbital compound (Fioricet, Fiorinal) ALL of the preceding, are available OTC in Mex. all are WAY more dangerous than SOMA, and all are addictive. All benzos, with the exception of Butalbital, which contains a barbiturate, and is usually prescribed for migraines. I would say that the vast majority of todays ‘parents’ are, either actively using drugs (marijuana, coke, meth), or did when they were teens, if not excessively, then at least recreationally. Yet the Media talks about the situation as though we have “Ward and June Cleaver” suddenly completely befuddled, by “The Beav’s “ errant behavior. No, I think todays parents, rather than being ‘enlightened’, by the media, are seeing a recurrence of their own behavior, and it scares the hell out of them, on the one hand, you have THE MEDIA, and on the other, their own knowledge of what drugs were like when they were in High school. Well parents, I can tell you THIS, you can, for the most part, relax. MOST of the dangerous stuff we did as teenagers, (at least the pharmaceuticals , Quaaluude, reds, yellows, x-mas trees, black beauties (the REAL ones), black n whites”bi-phetamine” etc) have all but been taken out of the loop, for the most part, in fact, no-one even MAKES Quaaluude anymore (except in Cuba), and the barbiturates, nembutal, seconal, tuinal, are only prescribed under the most dire circumstances. It’s not like the 60′s, 70′s & 80s, when DRs were handing the stuff out like candy. So, with the exception of OxyContin, (hillbilly heroin) there are very few prescription drugs left, that one could ‘easily’ OD on. I remember having a pocket full of reds (even after being told “Take your dose, and put them away, because you’ll forget that you took 2, and you’ll take more and etc…..”) they were right, and sure enough, I OD’d, luckily for ME, I had an extremely high tolerance for those types of drugs. Hence, I’m ALIVE to tell the tale, the REALLY dangerous stuff, the barbiturates and such, are no longer available, or if they ARE, they’re REALLY hard to get your hands on (yep, I’ve tried). The ironic thing, is that all of MY friends used to give ME a hard time about taking prescription drugs, while at the same time they’d do a couple hits of acid, or PCP (‘T’ as it used to be known), or smoke some angel dust, and yet I was the ‘druggie’ *laughs*, and THEY’RE doing junk mixed in a bathtub, by 2nd yr. Chem students LMAO, yeah right!!!!! Anyhow, back to the SOMA I would argue that, although it’s probably not a good idea to pop a few, and get behind the wheel, I’ve taken LOADS of them, for long periods of time, for back pain, I NEVER experienced any withdrawal symptoms, after taking them daily for as long as 6 months, and stopping ‘treatment’, without tapering off of them, I’d call that NON- addictive. Mentally addictive? Sure, you WANT some more of it, but your BODY doesn’t NEED it, i.e. you don’t get “sick” when you stop taking it THAT’S the difference.
The only conclusion I can draw from the fact that the kid didn’t bring back anything more dangerous than SOMA, is simple ignorance. Which in this case is a GOOD thing, he/she didn’t know about the cornucopia you can bring back legally. But if the media has its way, they’ll ALL know, before this essay is finished, there’s more available, ever vigilant souls that they are, you know, they really do have the “best interests”of the public at heart, when “warning” us all of new threats to our increasingly threatened ‘well being’, will make sure of that!

For instance, in the space of one month I learned ; at LEAST 5 new ways to get high with household chemicals, how to break into houses with nothing more than a .50 key, filed in the correct manner (they even showed me HOW to make one), same with cars, apparently, all one needs is a key that can easily be acquired on the net. Or if you can’t find one ready to order, no problem, you can find instructions, to make your own Is it ME, or does the saying, “ignorance is bliss” apply here? Mind you, they’re quick to BLAME the net for this, but let me ask you one thing, Who’s looking this stuff up, and WHY? Just to let us all know it’s there? One has to wonder…

OR, making sex tapes while in the sauna. Then the plucky little twit, is audacious enough to have her PR man, and “all around, convenient fall guy”, or should I say EX PR man, and “all around, convenient fall guy“; Elliot Mintz [how bout that handle?] take the stand on her behalf, testifying the he had informed the bubble headed heiress, who is apparently unable to do her own thinking, that her driving privileges were only suspended for 30 days. Well, he tried, but unfortunately for poor little Paris driving twice the posted speed limit without your headlights on isn’t legal either.

“Don’t YOU know who I AM??”

NOW the pampered little princess has had her sentence REDUCED to 23 days, FOR “GOOD BEHAVIOR!!!!!” WHAT????? Since when does simply going to your hearing equate to “good behavior”???

Well, you know the old Woody Allen saying; “80% of life, is just showing up“, apparently, if you’re a multi million- heiress, that is appallingly true. So, let’s take stock here, ; just what, has Paris learned from all of this? That, if you’re rich, and you make a big enough stink in this country, you can get away with pretty much anything. Multiple DWIs, multiple, driving on suspended license, twice the speed limit without headlights…etc etc, it’s ALL OK, if you throw enough money at it.

You know…another thing that I’d like to know, about this whole bit, is; who are all these fans, crawling out of the woodwork to offer their support, and ‘give her a voice’”? We have”SAVE PARIS“web sites, or so I’m told, I mean, where did they all come from? And more importantly,  why do they care, or do they care, i.e. ‘is it just tongue in cheek’??? It’s not as though she’s  ever lifted a finger to help anyone but herself. Ok, maybe she was a big tipper, but the more likely scenario, is that someone was usually paying  her Tab.

As near as *I* can tell, THAT IS all she’s in-famous for, being a party girl Surely not her *cough cough* ACTING *cough cough* resume. Speaking of which, what a great episode of “The Simple Life” this would make, ya can’t take away more ‘comforts of home’ than throwing one of the stars in the pokey! Now THAT’S “reality TV”. I’ve even heard  the possibility that she might be shippead here to AZ, to “do her time”, in “Tent City” under the ever vigilant eyes of our very own Sherriff Arpaio!!

Tell ya what Paris, I once had to spend 30 days there, in the middle of summer (just like YOU’LL be doing, the tents reach a balmy 150+ in the afternoons some days…….[chuckle] ****and all I can say to you is…it’ll give you a whole NEW meaning for “…THAT’S HOT!!!!”

CREATIVE WRITING !!

I thought the name of the class deserved repeating. I recall MY C.W. class in college. We were required to critique each other’s work, then, we would discuss the stories during the next class, the point being; I read (and contributed), some pretty “disturbing” stories for class discussions, so I assume, this class wasn’t much different. To me, it was almost a part of the fun, of a creative writing class, to see just how disturbed you could make your classmates, you know, ‘shock value’, and all that!

So, we have a CW teacher, who was so “DISTURBED” by one of her student’s writings, that she wanted him taken out of her class? That screams “sociopath”, to ME at least. I mean, “CREATIVE” writing, is just that…CREATIVE! Common sense tells me, that if one is writing material extreme enough to flip out a CW teacher ? It’s gotta be some pretty damn messed up stuff, no??

Well, what’s seen as creative by some, is shocking to others. I mean, somebody had to put their stamp of approval on Freddy Krueger© right? So, this guy had to be…ummm, seriously pushing the envelope, on disturbing, either that, or his C.W. prof. would’ve been better suited to teaching a course on how to write children’s literature, which incidentally, I don’t believe for a second.

Given what little I heard of Cho’s spoken diatribe, or his written “manifesto”, I doubt he could have ‘creatively’ written his way out of a wet paper bag, much less, written something ‘disturbing’ without attaching his “personal style” to it, I.E. making it look as though it were written by a sociopathic nut job, with an agenda, not by an aspiring ‘writer’. That feat, is what was accomplished by most of the students I attended that CW class with, although some of the writing, and short stories could be described as disturbing, it was obvious that the writers themselves weren’t disturbed.

No, I figure his writing was pitifully inadequate, for an English major, if his “manifesto” is any indication, and likely contained ACTUAL threats of bodily harm to REAL people. Now, if “I” were the instructor, I’d say most likely, THAT is where I’d draw the line. I’d really love to see some examples of these “disturbing” papers he authored, for the purpose of determining for myself what, exactly constituted his instructors reaction. But I suppose that information won’t be in the public domain for awhile, if at all.

Apparently, hindsight is, not only 20/20, it’s worthless. Kudos, at least, to her, for noticing the “elephant in the living room“, rather than the rest of the “sheople’s“ reaction, which was to choose, either to look the other way, or bury their heads in the sand, and hope the problem went away, or, at least, didn’t affect THEIR lives. The nagging question I’m left with in the back of my mind, is; WILL the sheeple actually LEARN something from this?? I.E. sometimes ignoring an obvious problem, can actually be counterproductive, I can’t help thinking that at least, some of this nut cases victims were aware that they were in class with a time bomb and CHOSE to do nothing. Fear of, making an enemy, “rocking the boat”, or any number of lame denials they fed themselves, in order to avoid confrontation.

I’m sorry, it’s my belief that someone THAT messed up, HAS to be fairly easy to spot, and if enough people had simply walked into the office of an administrator, or security, or a counselor…SOMEONE with the power to at LEAST keep a closer eye on the man, and SAID something ….even just; “Hey, this guy creeps me out.” Granted, one voice is likely to be ignored. But 20 people, all saying the same thing, about the same person, couldn’t be IGNORED!! Someone would have taken a second look, and maybe, just maybe…there’d be thirty odd people alive today because of that simple communication.

There’s ANOTHER sad end to this little drama, that I don’t believe anyone (save for the few truly astute, analytical minds out there), those who realize, that although the “public” has a ‘right’ to know that these things happen, the popular media does NOT have the right to turn these psychopaths, into the stuff of LEGENDS, JUST to increase their bottom line. Oh yeah, I’ve seen all the phony “empathy”, from all the LOCAL “journalists”, like the blood frenzy of hungry piranhas. Then, it’s on to CNN, MSNBC, and all the others, who examine EVERY aspect of this human refuse, who literally, should be thrown into a trash compactor, and have all records that they ever existed erased from the publics memory.

Instead, they’re immortalized by the media, who, in hot pursuit of the almighty dollar, dig into their past, friends, childhood, employment, EVERY single aspect of this “non-persons” life, thereby making them impossible to forget. In effect, they give them EXACTLY what they wanted in LIFE, AND IN DEATH!! The chance to be REMEMBERED, the chance to make their mark on society…FOREVER!!!!!!!

In Medieval days, people were BANISHED from a certain kingdom, with their names forbidden to be spoken aloud by ANYONE, IN PUBLIC, EVER AGAIN under punishment of DEATH!!! Thereby, effectively erasing them from history. Look at how FAR we’ve come, we now, not only immortalize the criminals, we acknowledge the anniversary of their heinous acts!!

I’m the first to admit, we shouldn’t forget the horrible crimes perpetrated against innocents, and those innocents SHOULD be remembered. But NOT the criminals, let their names, and ANY memory of them be stricken from public record, I should NOT know the names, Cho Seung-hui, or Muhammad Atta, or Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold,or John Gacy, or Ted Bundy, David Koresh, Jim Jones, and THOSE are just the ones who come to mind!!! They should be stricken from public record, beginning the DAY they are proven to be guilty, TOTALLY, their names, no longer spoken, EVER, by ANYONE, unless, they are still AT LARGE, armed, and dangerous, they should ALL be UNWRITTEN from history, FOREVER!!! IMHO, ALL of these nut-jobs, at the bottom of it all, crave ATTENTION, more than ANYTHING. And what does the media DO? IT gives them EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT, again and again and again.

Don’t be so naive as to think that there aren’t a few hundred OTHER nut jobs out there, paying CLOSE attention, I’d stake my life on it. “Hmmmmmm, if I kill a bunch of school kids, in cold blood, I’ll be remembered FOREVER!!!!”

Am I Wrong? Possibly, but, don’t the acts of these people who snap seem to be escalating, each time one happens…….?

Check these quotes from “Hannity and Colmes”, a dialogue between Hannity, Colmes, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of ABC’s “The View”; HANNITY: ...All right, let’s talk a little bit — I think everyone in the country now is talking about speech. How far can anybody go? I want to get your opinion on the two people that were sort of leading this charge to get Imus fired. They have controversial, – ahem- , backgrounds. The Reverend Jesse Jackson once said he was sick of hearing about the Holocaust, Hymietown. [My Comment... suuuure, and us "white folk" AREN'T getting sick of hearing about "2 acres and a mule"]… Once admitted he spit in people’s food because they were white. You’ve got the “diamond merchant” comments, “Greek homos, white interlopers” of Al Sharpton, [Ton of credibility THERE huh??]. THINK before you cry about her(Rosie’s) “First Amendment” rights, THINK “Double Standard“, for starters. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Imus or,[insert loooong list of "SHOCK JOCKS", here], I don’t particularly care for that brand of “humor”, it’s juvenile, and IMHO, appeals to the lowest common denominator. That being said, I have to wonder WHY so many people CARE?? Generally, when I have mud thrown in MY direction, I look at the SOURCE, to determine its importance/relevance, in my life.

WOW!!!!Imus must REALLY be one super important dude, to cause THIS much of a stir, dontcha think? I mean, COME ON, you’d think the guy had a MUCH larger audience than he actually has! Okay…show of hands here, how many people would have heard about this, had ONE OR TWO no doubt, self appointed, “Racial watchdogs”(read; RACISTS, looking for ANY excuse to point a finger at SOMEONE, in order to PROVE they’re “NOT” actually worse bigots than ANYONE), not caught it, and shouted it from the rooftops?? 100? 200? Maybe, more likely, it would have blown over faster than a sun shower. Again, in MY OWN opinion, it’s the BIG DEAL that’s made over things like this, that PERPETUATE THE IDEOLOGY!!!! What did we all learn about the ‘bullies’ at school when we were kids? Anyone??

IGNORE THEM, AND THEY’LL GET BORED, AND GO PICK ON SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!!!!! GOD, how true that is of this “Crying RACISM” shit!!! —WARNING, ADVANCED CONCEPTS COMING UP-– All, this “He said, she said” bullshit does, is bring out the RACIST in EVERYONE, yes Virginia, EVERYONE!!!! Go ahead and delude yourself if you want to, Shakespeare will ALWAYS come to MY mind, “…methinks, the lady, doth protest too much...”, the ones squawking loudest about NOT being bigoted? Are usually the worst. The other night, one of the guests Hannity and Colmes had on, was Dick Gregory . He had to be, one of the most savvy guys I’ve heard, talking about this whole issue, he had a lot of insight into the situation, from his comments about Imus, to those regarding Jackson and Sharpton, that seemed inescapable, and I’ll say another thing about him, that man, is DEFINITELY NOT a racist. You’ll have to go to that link that says “Top Video” (yes, that’s the link I used, but they’re using a proprietary vid. player, so the link takes you to the appropriate page , but you’re on your own on the stream), because I’m unable to quote him word for word on the subject, but he sure does seem to be hip to what the motivations behind this whole debacle were. Some of the remarks made by Elisabeth Hasselbeck , co-host of the ever controversial “The View”, were rather interesting, in a “WHAT?! You can’t be serious!”, sort of way, (you can use the vid links, or read the transcript, whichever YOU find more intellectually stimulating), in all honesty, although I disagree with her, I give her credit for being able to work with Rosie, without throttling her, there is that. Not to mention being a somewhat ‘conservative’ voice, amongst a bunch of flaming whack-jobs.

But again, her case seems to be overstated as well, it’s almost as though Imus (who’s been using the same schtick for years, is suddenly some kind of focal point for all the racial hatred, comments, et al, perpetrated over the last 3 decades or more. With all the media frenzy, all the people hopping on the moral bandwagon. And I’m sorry, let’s face it, it IS/WAS, WAY overblown, I have to ask myself those few nagging questions, why HIM? WHY NOW? Did the media sharks sense that we were all getting a little bored with Brittney, so they threw the public the Anna Nichole tedium, and once they’d milked every last buffalo nickel out of that, along comes Imus. Hey, I’ll tell you how I know this piece is too late……..two words, Virginia Tech, how long will THAT be the #1 story??

It’s the TIMING of all these “events”, that has ME worried…

….which, IS in ITSELF kind of a paranoid sounding, “Rosie-esque, comment….which concerns me EVEN MORE!!! 

Before I go too much further with this, let me just stress that, this rant is in no way a rant against WordPress, it is by far the best platform I’ve used thus far, and the one I plan on continuing to use. This is nothing more than ME blowing off steam, at “dumb luck” , which it would appear, is NOT blowing in my favor at the moment Consider that smiley a period, just because it’s one of my eccentricities[?], that I think a period looks goofy following an emoticon. But I digress which, as you’ll see, I do a lot, nevertheless I just wanted to make that point clear, I realize “botm” is a random thing, I just wish it could have picked a post worth picking.

Hopefully that brought a little clarity as to my intentions regarding this post, if not, well…I tried . So, with any luck at all, the sparsity of my very first blog, on WP at least, will be forgiven. Hell, maybe someone will take what I said, and out of sheer curiosity, probably the same kind one has when passing a wreck on the freeway , use it as a reason to at least bookmark the page…maybe. Rest assured, under ordinary circumstances, my reaction to the fact that it showed up there at all, would have been FAR different, i.e. a reaction, somewhat similar to the one I’d have if Ed McMahon (is he still alive?), knocked on my door, telling me I won; Publishers Clearing House giveaway, [Tangent] which BTW, I’m convinced no-one actually ever WINS, but…there I go, off on another tangent again, see? I told you .  Seriously, I’ve come to look at my tangents as, a mental metronome, of sorts, if you will, almost an integral part of my writing. Somewhat analogous to one of those noises you don’t quite hear, but as soon as it’s no longer there, you get the feeling that something is missing, you’ve no idea as to what that something might be, you just know it’s not there anymore…TICK…TICK…TICK…TICK. So I guess you could say, I’ve accepted them as a consequence of being ‘manic-depressive‘, and having the attention span of a Gerbil, not that I know what kind of attention span Gerbils have, I just liked the way it sounded…sue me. [/Tangent]

Okaaaaaayyy……where was I, before I so rudely interrupted myself? Ahhh yes, increasing readership/page hits. Well, as I said at that time, I can only hope that my original post, generated enough curiosity, in at least a few people, that perhaps, they’ll come back and have a look sometime. I will do my damnedest to stick to my promise; of making this site a bit more interesting than, at least, say…watching paint dry.

Hey, in society in general, the theme seems to be “CYA”, and I KNOW I can make my site more interesting than “watching paint dry“…  , I mean, let’s not set the bar too high, right at the outset…………….

Monday Apr. 02, 2007

I remember being able to pull back any thread with a reference ID on Usenet, “Deja” becoming “Google”, then, for awhile unless your NNTP server had some hardcore retention, the old archives were just, “GONE”, which pissed off ALLOT of people. Then, just as suddenly, it seemed they ‘reappeared‘, you could go to Google/Groups, and find all the stuff from WAY back to the ‘Empire of Meow‘,<— [when I'm feeling less lazy, I'll link that up with the original MEOW/Matt Bruce/ alt.fan.Karl-Malden.nose story] days. How much further do the archives go back, hmmmm. All the way back to the first newsgroups? Interesting thought, I mean it would be pretty interesting to see the creation of Usenet, ISTR someone pulling back the original AFKMN control message…heh, whoops , amazing how I start slipping back into the ‘lingo’, when I start reminiscing ’bout the old Usenet days…….