Obama Wins!

Finally, it appears that the reign of the Neo-cons is over! Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new era for the United States and the rest of the world. May the forces of darkness quake in fear! May peace prevail upon the planet. Perhaps, we can restore our tarnished image. Perhaps, we can once again hold our heads high and proudly say we are Americans!

Perhaps......
The Democrats share a lot of the blame for the illegal and immoral war that is still raging across the planet; the fiscal policies that have led to the financial crisis effecting the world's markets; the assault on the US Constitution and the civil rights it was designed to protect; and, the damage to the environment that could ultimately lead to the extinction of many species of plants and animals, including humans.
Because, I wanted to send a message to the Democrats and I knew that my vote would not effect the outcome of the election in California, I voted my conscious in this election. I voted Green. Nevertheless I am glad that the Democrats won, and I hope that President Obama is not as centrist as he pretends to be.

May the world forgive us for the crimes of the Bush administration and their supporters! May the Iraqi people and the rest of the middle-eastern countries forgive us for the war-crimes of Bush, Cheney, and the Republican party.
Thank you, President Obama!

Is Nuclear Power Really Safe?

Recently, I have heard a lot of conservatives talking about how "safe" nuclear power is. Is it possible that they don't remember the nuclear-meltdown that is still affecting the Town of Chernobyl? They don't remember the Three-Mile Island debacle? Can it be that they never head about what happened in Japan a number of years back? Nuclear power is not safe--it has never been, and never will be safe to use on Earth, because there is no way to dispose of the radioactive waste which results from nuclear fission.
However, nuclear power could be safely used in space. Space is already radioactive, so there would be no harm from the radioactive by-products that result from generating nuclear power in space. Nuclear waste could be fired out of the solar-system or into the Sun, and it wouldn't hurt anybody. The energy generated by nuclear reactors (or solar panels) in space could then be be transmitted to a receiving station on Earth, via microwave. The result would be clean, cheap, and plentiful energy for the entire planet.

Don't Hesitate to Greet Someone You Recognize

Not long after settling in Novato, I was riding my bike around one day in San Francisco. While I was waiting at an interesection for the traffic light to change, I was approached by a young prostitute. She walked up to me and said her name was Jennifer. She was not very attractive and there was a sense of desperation about her; she asked if I "wanted to party." I've never paid for sex before, and I refused her advances. She seemed dissapointed--said she was hungry. I was trying to be polite, and told her I didn't have any money.
About a month later, I was walking around the city looking for work and I ran into her again. I was waiting to cross the street when I was startled by a loud, sharp noise--it sounded like an explosion. I looked to my right and there was Jennifer again. She looked better now, clean and happy--we looked each other straight in the eyes and I recognized her immediately--I don't think she recognized me, though. It took me a few moments to remember where I knew her from and, as I was already almost across the street, I didn't speak to her. I was truly shocked at running into this girl twice within a month in the immense metropolitan area of San Francisco. When I got to the opposite corner I turned around and looked at her again; we gazed at each other momentarily. She was trying, but I don't think she figured out that I was the man that she had propositioned weeks before, because now I was wearing a suit and tie. She was looking to turn a trick and I think she got scared. Maybe she thought I was a cop, or maybe she was just trying to figure out where she had met me before. I walked away and continued my search for a good noodle-house. While eating my noodle-soup in a little Thai place I had found, I made up my mind that I would go look for her and call her by name. I was fascinated; I wanted to tell her I was a friend, but when I got back to the corner where I had seen her, she was gone. I was surprised at my own sense of disappointment.
Later I was riding a bus through the city, trying to get back to Marin. I sat next to a man that reminded me of a guy I had met on the plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico, named John. People always had thought of him as retarded, because it seemed like he was. Actually I thought of him as more of an idiot-savant--often I would chat with him on the plaza, and we were friends. He spoke to me on the bus as if he had known me for years. He followed me when I reached my stop. I was having trouble finding my way back to the the Golden-Gate to catch a bus back to Marin and, as I sought a place to catch another bus that would get me where I was going, he followed me further. He spoke to me in such a familiar way, that I became concerned he would try to follow me home. We got on the next bus together and rode for awhile. He kept staring at me as if he was waiting for me to recognize him. Then he suddenly got off the bus. As the bus was pullling away, he turned and stared into my eyes from the sidwalk. Now as I write this, I believe it really was my friend John, who was sitting next to me on the bus. I wished I had realized it sooner. I saw him again a few weeks later, but again, I didn't realize it until it was too late. I turned and ran back down the sidewalk, but he was gone again.
David Scott, 10-05-2007