...eh, William Timberman? (I was only correcting omooex re: my gender, as this screen name and my "tone" can be confusing.)

Btw, did you see the crossword puzzle movie of the same name? Very entertaining and engaging. Even for non-puzzlers.

HRH...

Fwiw, my last post to you much earlier on was posted before I saw the one in which you described your current situation. Just so you know, I added you and your wife to a prayer list that lasts for a month of 24/7. I might not have mentioned it, but I thought I should give you a heads-up, since I figure you're going to need some kind of epiphany in order to allow anything good into your life (and I can understand why-- I'm not being flippant)...

No guarantees... but it can't hurt, and it might help.

The single most horrifying concept I think I have ever encountered is that we are each of us living in our own solipsist universe wherein we never die. Our personal existence merely becomes more and more unlikely as our friends, loved ones and everything we are familiar with evaporates from around us as we move through an eternity of loneliness.

Think "I Am Legend" multiplied by infinity.

The worst thing you can do to a human really is to completely cut them off from other human contact.

Pete Townshend had it right: I hope I die before I get old.

Yep, the whole notion of prostitution as a victimless crime is bankrupt. I did my senior thesis at Berkeley on victimless crime. If recreational drugs were legal, there might be instances of victimless behavior, but that begs the question, not only of the public health implications, but of the ripples that go through relationships, families, and communities when people abuse themselves, or one another. I'm no bluenose, but I have to say I was gobsmacked by that statistic of one in four teenaged girls having STD. On one level, it really does make me think of the sixties as the good old days. But that's superficial. Lives, reproductive futures, are at risk in appalling numbers. My quick look said that it's one if five white girls, one in two black girls. Do we need health care? Hell yes, for everyone, now. Is the mockery of "abstain and don't complain" teaching working? The stat speaks for itself. To be fair, though, our former president diid say that a blow job wasn't sex. As I dimly recall, it sure felt like it to me. tom

Fwiw, my last post to you much earlier on was posted before I saw the one in which you described your current situation. Just so you know, I added you and your wife to a prayer list that lasts for a month of 24/7. I might not have mentioned it, but I thought I should give you a heads-up, since I figure you're going to need some kind of epiphany in order to allow anything good into your life (and I can understand why-- I'm not being flippant)...

I appreciate the thought..

There is much good in my life, just very little is about me personally..

I have a loving family and three beautiful and intelligent grandchildren. They are what drives much of my ranting.. I hate the idea that they are going to grow up in a quasi theocratic police state. Personally I suspect I'll be dead before things get really ugly, given how many foolhardy stunts I've pulled I'm actually more than a bit surprised to have lasted as long as I have.

I guess I'm a bit of a masochist but I've always had a taste for dystopian stories.. 1984, Brave New World, Make Room Make Room, The Stainless Steel Rat, Gulliver's Travels, Marching Through Georgia, Courtship Rite and so on.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever. -Orwell

That is what I fear for my descendants..

I tried not to read about what I actually knew about -- I didn't want to get pissed at the authors. The best books were apocryphal -- Emmet Grogan's Ringolevio,The Butterfly Kid.

Those two were there -- in fact, they were the birthgivers -- and so they lied about everything. In doing so, or course, they told the truth, as anyone who was there with them can attest. In those days, you see, our lives were our fictions, and vice versa. We wrote with our selves.

And now.... All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. I read that Rutger Hauer adlibbed that speech. Talk about apocrypha....

P.S. A phone call from my daughter interrupted this, so it may seem out of place now. Aych, you're on my list as well, and I agree with you. Immortality would suck.

Chester Anderson's The Butterfly Kid. Damn! I previewed that at least once. Gremlins invaded while I was on the phone?

...the global economy will collapse long before anything like 1984 comes to pass ;}

If recreational drugs were legal, there might be instances of victimless behavior, but that begs the question, not only of the public health implications, but of the ripples that go through relationships, families, and communities when people abuse themselves, or one another.

You know, I'm getting really tired of pointing out the glaringly obvious to people who really should know better.

Alcohol ((((is)))) a recreational drug you maroon..

And just about the most violence inducing one there is at that.

Just compare the original Woodstock with the reenactment a few years ago.

Original Woodstock.. Lots of drugs other than alcohol and no violence.

Woodstock II.. Lots of alcohol, not so many other drugs and ended in a drunken riot.

JESSE VENTURA, HOST: Imagine an alien suddenly dropped into the 21st century America. He goes to a Monday night football game and witnesses thousands of people guzzling a liquid refreshment as fast as vendors can supply it.

Observing the spectacle of the game itself, the alien is constantly distracted by fans whose behavior seems to become more and more bizarre. He watches as fights

break out between half-naked fans with painted bodies.

By the end of the contest, on the playing field, he notes that most of the people around him seem to have lost their ability to walk and for some reason, their speech has changed. Words are less audible. They seem to be talking in slow motion. Once the game is over, he watches the fans stumbling toward their cars, cursing and threatening other fans.

Clearly, the alien observes, something has caused these fans to have a mind-altering experience. But whatever is going on, it seems to be acceptable behavior for this society, because all the while, many police officers observe the behavior, but remain at a distance and don't interfere.

The next day, the alien attends a lecture on a college campus. After the lecture, he's invited by some students to a party. At the party, students are sitting around drawing smoke from a bottle-like structure with water in it. The

smoke is inhaled into their bodies, the conversation is friendly, calm and respectful, and music is playing in the background. But all of a sudden, many police officers arrive with guns, grab the water-filled bottle, put handcuffs on

everyone in the room, and take them off to jail. The alien is totally confused.

Welcome to the United States of America, the land of hypocrisy.