Risky Business

So, should the national government have power over our clocks?  Every year involving a national Daylight Savings Time statute has ended in a seven.  In 1967 we established national daylight saving.  In 1987 we expanded the weeks of daylight savings time effective that year, and in 2007 the effect of another such expansion occurred again.  The Christian Science Monitor said that we don’t save any energy in this clock changing process and in places like Indiana they actually expend more because of added electricity costs for air conditioning on warm evenings in the summer and on those dark mornings with heating and lighting in the fall.   I think if you asked vast segments of people from Trick or Treaters having to go out while it’s still light out, to school kids getting up in the morning, or people commuting to work in their cars in the dark - - these would agree DLST is no good.  Leo Le Port states that there is a strong lobby of a very limited constituency that profit from DLST.  These are golf courses, makers of barbecues, and the petroleum industry.  To me it’s a joke that so many states have bought into all this when logically- states are given permission to exempt themselves from the program entirely but almost no states have chosen to do that- only Arizona and Hawaii right now.  Some areas of the Union benefit from DLST more than others.  We in Southern California benefit from it – most of the time.  But it’s got to be pruned back.  Originally California only had daylight savings time for five months- and I don’t see any reason why we can’t return to this more sensible length on a national basis.  I have my own theory as to when we should go on and off of it, based on Sports.  We should go OFF daylight savings time the Sunday after Labor day of every year. Because this is when the first Sunday NFL game happens.  We should go ON daylight saving time – in my theory an equal number of weeks every year or start and stop parody.  And I pick a time when the college basketball playoffs are completely over and they’d had the Final Four.  Daylight Savings time should start no sooner than April 6^th and no later than April 12^th.  These numbers cam be memorized because both are devisable by six and also because they come one week BEFORE an official “teen” number.  Also both dates should approximately be an equal number of days either after the spring equinox or prior to the fall equinox. 

The Chris Matthews show played that anti Prop 46 commercial at three times the volume of everything else, and they played it every darned time there was a break.  The point was well made that if we have the documented footage of Governor Christie in public acting like a bully, I don't think it's improper to extrapelate or reason that he will behave that way - or more explicitly even - in private, mono a mono.  I watched all of Friday’s show and the first long segment of Thursday’s show.   In terms of Mary Laudreau calling the state of Louisiana racist or “Louisiana hasn’t always been the friendliest state for Black people” anyone with any sense from the Republicans would just leave that statement alone.  But they can’t leave it alone- just like they can’t leave the Ferguson, Mo situation alone.  It’s in their blood and they have to get in front of the TV cameras and continue to make fools of themselves.  One of Thom Hartman’s assertions has been vindicated just now.  In “The Week” magazine they repeated the assertion that California open carry gun laws were changed in 1968 because of the presence of the Black Panther party at the statehouse in Sacramento.  There was some quotation from 1892 that it was a source of pride among Black households to have a firearm at their side as kind of an “equalizer” to protect against lynchings.  I must say I’m not used to thinking of the gun control debate in terms of race.  However I must confess that it’s a common fact that almost all famous assassins and mass murders of renound have been White.  So as such I have viewed if only on a subconscious level that “A reduction of firearms proliferation is a reductions of dangerous weapons in the hands of White people”.   It almost makes you wonder whether the NRA isn’t committing suicide in encouraging more of “those people” to go out and arm themselves- - to protect against people THEY regard as dangerous.

In the words of General Patton, sometimes you have to get really graphic to drive the point home so you won't forget it.  Suppose one night in your kitchen you see a few cockroaches.  You ignore it but then seeing more the next night you have in the meantime armed yourself with a can of Raid.  You spray.  The next night even more bugs come out than before- - so you spray more thoroughly this time.  The following night you seem hopelessly inundated.  Those cockroaches are everywhere.  What has happened.  Obviously you have a regular cockroach invasion from "somewhere" like your neighboring apartment leaving food out and you get the spill over.  Now let's consider tonight's Mc Laughlin group.  The prospective Black voters ARE the cockroaches, and the photo ID and other blocks to registration is the bug spray.  Therefore it is pointless to say that in isolated areas more Blacks are registering than before the bug spray - - ur uh - the restrictions on voter registration were applied.  The Mc Laughlin group has done their expert voter profile analysis and concluded that overall the Republicans will pick up nine senators in take-away from the democrats, but that the Democrats will snatch two from the Republicans giving an overall net gain of Seven Senate Seats, which is one more than is required for the Republicans to take over.  Where I disagree with the group findings is their assertion that the Republicans will pick up seats in the House.  This is wrong.  I believe the democrats will pick up seats in the House of Representatives, but unfortunately, not enough to take control of the House.

I failed to find much enlightening when it came to "Light Room" verses "Photo Shop" technologies for image editing.  I can "perform the surgery" of editing out people - - and even Vince said I caught on doing that pretty quickly - - but I use Photo Impression for that.  I am uncertain why you would need a "subscription" for something you should own outright, and I just checked to make sure my Photo Impression CD was secure - if I should replace my computer.  Photography is like advertizing or politics - - controling the imaging - - catering to people's carnality and/or aesthetics.  You won't be able to "sell" anything, unless you make it appealing.   With photography it's about substance framing - (you've heard is "issue" framing, or "framing the debate) - - and of course lighting- and all that entails - and point of view (another word with a double meaning) - alias lens F aperture. 3.5 is considered 'normal" according to Dad, and I am in agreement with that.  When you have the thing set at 3.5 generally it's with the lens wide open.  My lens is 2.7 which means I know I'm going to have "more image than photographers are generally used to.  You can choose to deliberately make certain things either in the foreground of background out of focus - or not.  With political advertizing you can change the music from a gloomy selection when talking about your opponent, to an upbeat happy little ditty when discussing the virtues of your own candidate.   We know that with either a political crook or a religious person - - as knowledge increases, the material your opponent has to work from gets less and less.  As enlightenment grows on your part- - the realm of the Unknown shrinks, but only a little in too many cases, since there is so much that you Don't Know.  (Selah)  One of our mystery rock group origens is now Solved.  "Guns and Roses" is an Alpha Virgo group as is by the way "Tears for Fears", which is the other group we didn't know the cosmic identity of. This is the same Cosmic group Radio Head is in.  I guess Clowie Lane has been an alpha female in her life, but she's never been an alpha Virgo.  

Life is simple if you’re a Christian.  There is this great conflict of God and the Devil and since God is mightier, he is assured to win any battle.  In fact Christianity goes on to assure us that the devil has ALREADY been defeated!   Right here of course you already see the break-down in logic.  It’s like fundamentalists tell you there is mighty power in prayer, but when you try prayer borne out of that newfound belief, and the thing does not come to pass, then you get raked over the coals by that same Pastor for any number of reasons.   My view of God these days does not admit to God being some sort of “partner warrier” with you.  It was Jesus Himself who stated “You don’t have the power to turn one hair on your head from white to black”.  If we lack this miniscule control over the smallest event outcome- - how can it be said we can get to God to intervene on any affair we are involved in?   For the Federation life is not so simple.  There is not some monolithic “Devil” out there like the Klingons we can just go in there and “Waste”.   To a degree it’s like giving anti-biotics.  These do not work against viruses, as I have found out with this cold I’ve had.  Also you can wipe out the good with the bad, which is what happened with my Dad.  Your gut has a lot of good flora and fawna in it.  You should listen to it.  Now it is said that “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.  No.  They BOTH might be your enemies but they can be pitted against each other.  The problem with the game of risk is that so many unknown factors are beyond your control.  You don’t know whether you need a good strategist to win the game, or a prognosticator.  Because alliances may form among your enemies which will do you in.  Or it could come to pass that with the right goading and prompting on your part, you can get two or more of your enemies to hate and thus fight each other.  For instance in the Cosmos - - there is not one monolithic source of “Tea party evil”.   We know all the evil chemical companies out there such as Dow, and Du-pont, Monsanto, and Koch Brothers.  Many of these ,ale the grand pitch about making products better and safer for your everyday lives.  Yet they are not one of cosmic origen- - but there is the factor of the “common need” driving rivals to make common cause with each other.  We liberals could learn from this.   Now there are some rivalries you can exploit- - we know the Edomized Centaurians hate the Alcyonized Sutterans.   But I now realize that being President is not as simple of “Showing your enemies your big stick and expect all of them to start running”.   Like I say- life is only that simple in Bible literature.