As young person attending high school I was shocked to learn that President Ronald Reagan agreed to an ordinance that would allow the seizure of property if illegal drugs were found there. I remember hearing about a man who had his boat seized somewhere in the USA, when all he had on his vessel was Cannabis cigarette butt.

This seemed to me to be “unusual” punishment, if not “cruel,” and did not seem in accordance with the Bill of Rights as I was taught it in public school. Quite simply, I could not understand why the government was taking such Draconian measures against people, most of whom were simply engaging in their pursuit of happiness and not hurting a soul. (OK, a stoned boater may be a less-than-pristine boater, but he’s less dangerous than a drunken boater.)

Still, others point to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s mandatory minimum sentences of the 1970s for non-violent drug offenders as being the worst of the programs, but some of the punishments in the South have been pretty severe, too.

The Drug War goes back to the mid-teens, early 1920s. Before that, people were free to do as they pleased with their own bodies insofar as substances were concerned.

President Reagan’s scheme was supposed to be about reversing “libertine” trends started in the late ’50s. It was to reduce the number of drug users and protect children from exposure to drugs. Few of us would disagree with these aims, and I do not disagree, but the manner in which the government continued its pursuit of these ends has been at times pernicious.

I am not so well informed about the current levels of drug use in this country. How can one be? I look at the numbers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and I get confused. Besides, there is apparently no long-term study of use-trends to be found anywhere on the site. Is drug use up or down overall? If someone can point to a long-term study at NIDA, then please do so.

Looking at NIDA’s Web site, it seems that the government’s is not interested at all as to where we’ve been with this, or how things have changed over the past 20 or so years. NIDA focuses only on the “now,” perhaps the last year or two, with no regard to long-term patterns or consequences apparently. Sound familiar?

Somewhere on NIDA I read news that Cannabis use was down among teens in 2004, and this was seen as good news, but it seems that more young people are now resorting to painkillers such as Oxycontin and inhalants, substances that are quite dangerous. What good news?

According a report from the University of St. Louis called USA Drug Policy History, the “federal anti-drug budget increase(d) ten fold ($1.5 billion in 1989–$18.5 billion in 2000),” under President Clinton. Hmm. OK … What’s the upshot? More jobs for certain people and overtime … to what ends? Would America have been better served if some of this budgetary largesse had gone to anti-terrorism services?

Ignore it and it will go away?
I was last told that in the USA regular Cannabis users numbered about 20 million. This was about 10 years ago and the source knew his subject matter. NIDA’s most recent figure shown on this table here indicates that there were about 25.75 million Cannabis smokers in 2002 and 25.23 million in 2003. With all of the Clinton administration’s spending, why are there five million more Cannabis smokers in the USA now?

Should we incarcerate these 25 million people? (Former Drug Czar [aka Caesar] Bill Bennett once said we have prison space for all of them.) Or should we just eliminate this underground market that has caused so much suffering and ruined so many lives?

I vote for the latter. Cannabis should be regulated and sold at liquor stores with similar (and perhaps even more extensive) rules as those that apply to alcohol use. Few people will choose to grow it and those that do will have to do so with regulations. (How many people do you know that make their own beer, when they can spend a few bucks for a six-pack. Would people really go to all the trouble to grow this stuff if it were available at a reasonable price and in a quality condition? The answer is clearly no, for the most part.) Grown in the USA, creating jobs for citizens, raising tax revenues, and redirecting law enforcement resources away from Cannabis and towards those most pressing issues — I would hope some of our leaders would at least consider this concept.

(I had earlier said that medical Cannabis was the only issue and casual use must take a back seat, but how else to end the underground market than to legalize, tax it for revenue and make this reasonable for all? So I take back what I said earlier about this.)

Still, more important is the medical issue, which the current administration seems to continue to ignore, at least publicly. Some cancer, AIDS and glaucoma sufferers have realized the benefits of Cannabis and have found ways to obtain it to relieve their suffering. Federal officials have cracked down on certain individuals who by all appearances just seemed to be doing their jobs under local laws, but federal law trumps state law and some individuals have been arrested.

A subject close to my heart, cannabis for those suffering from multiple sclerosis, appeared on the BBC’s Web site: Cannabis study encouraging for MS. Encouraging? To me it’s great news.

I have seen a number of studies in the past that indicate the medicinal benefits of Cannabis, only to see them ignored by the federal government and the FDA. I hope that as the whole truth emerges we may see changes on our government’s attitude toward this therapeutic substance.

The truth is not going away.

Stop Funding Terror
I found the following quote from the Future of Freedom Foundation interesting:

“Moreover, there exists no evidence that sales from the illicit cultivation and use of marijuana — far and away Americans’ illegal drug of choice – have ever been used to fund international terror campaigns. Much of the pot consumed by Americans is grown domestically, and that which is imported comes primarily from Mexico, Jamaica, and Canada — none of which is a known hotbed for international terror organizations.” Paul Armentano, a Senior Policy Analyst for NORML

One may find in most inner cities in the USA heroin and cocaine aplenty, and drug use in the suburbs is no less a problem. My hat’s off to those law enforcement officers’ efforts to stop the heroin and cocaine trade. These drugs, unlike Cannabis, can be deadly in large enough doses. I admire those law enforcement officers for trying in good faith.

A press release from the Canadian Institute of Health Research has announced “North America’s first clinical trial of prescribed heroin for people with chronic heroin addiction who have not been helped by available treatment options.” It’s similar to the European models. I wish our friends up North the best of luck.

According to a UPI report the opium crop in Afghanistan was 19 times larger in 2002 than it was in 2001. And I read in another report that the 2003 crop was twice as big as that of 2002. A USA Today article further underlines the problem in Afghanistan.

This must mean there’s a huge supply of heroin out there. Which means some of it is likely to end up here in the states. (I don’t know this for sure, but it would seem likely.)

I’ve never tried it but, to my knowledge, heroin has never been difficult to obtain here if you live close to one its distribution centers. That goes without saying. In my opinion it’s a horrible addiction, which is a disease, and requires serious medical, therapeutic (and spiritual) treatment to get over it.

In general, the heroin addict with the bottomless supply of the substance would commit crimes no more than any other person (although he or she might overdose). It’s the active heroin or cocaine addict without money or a source that can be a danger to others.

The trends of use in the USA, according to NIDA, are neither encouraging nor discouraging, unless you see no change as discouraging. There has been practically no statistical change in levels of use in recent years. Hmm.

Still, while Cannabis in no way funds terrorism, we know for sure that many opium crops do. The question is: How do we deny all funding to these groups that raise money for terrorists by selling heroin?

Cocaine supports such terrorists groups as the Shining Path in South America. How do we make sure our citizenry in no way funds such a group?

My radical suggestion is to grow our own cocaine and opium and basically give it away to addicts. It’s almost as simple as that (but of course, there would need to be strict regulations). If an addict has a choice to go to the “street” or go to a friendly nearby healthcare facility, then he or she will likely choose the latter. There is often something deep down within a person, I believe, that does not want to live with a disease but would seek good help were it available.

A Dutch Central Committee on the Treatment of Heroin Addicts (CCBH) has produced a number of studies regarding this issue and how to handle it. Although the studies seem timid when it comes to its conclusions, the message seems to be that state-sponsored programs for heroin addicts can be effective.

I’m not quite sure about what should be done about the cocaine issue, except that I believe we have doctors and scientists smart enough to come up with workable treatment plans.

The Question of Chaos
Of course, we’re in the middle of yet another war and, according to some Americans, it is just as important as World War II. My concern about a nuke hitting NYC or some other wonderful American place makes it real enough to me.

Many of you out there might think that I am just creating chaos here. Well, that is certainly not my intent. I hate it that heroin and cocaine are sold on the streets in this country and on those streets of our allies and friends. I hate it that it funds terrorist groups.

I wish heroin and cocaine had never escaped “the doctor’s office” in America. But that’s pretty much what the prohibition of the mid-teens to early 1920s and the underground market did. People in pain had to go elsewhere for relief (and to quell their addictions) and, soon enough, the underground market grew. Money was to be made in this sordid business, the “pusher” emerged, and it has never stopped. A new class of criminals, “the drug dealer” and “the drug addict,” was invented (and some of them eventually did commit real horrible crime to satisfy their addictions or, in the case of dealers, their greed).

Would there be more drug addicts and chaos if the criminality were removed? If yes, then why? Cigarette smoking, which some have claimed is more addictive than heroin, has declined here without the law pounding hard on the tobacco industry or so hard on the tobacco smoker. Why would these other substances become out of control under a reasonable and sensible plan?

I think we’d see less chaos and crime, especially in the long term. By wiping out the underground market, we’d be wiping out all the crime that goes with it. Most importantly, there would be no more of this underground business in the schools because the underground marketers would no longer be in business.

A person should be arrested if he or she commits a crime, no matter what substance said person is on or how addicted they are. No excuses. But so long as the addict does no harm to others, it would be best to leave them to their vice (or encourage them to seek treatment in a benign way).

So for all the efforts of our federal government, there has been no improvement because of the Drug War, in terms of lessening the rate of drug use or saving life. Would we have more drug addicts if this issue were to be handled in a humane, ethical way? My educated opinion is, No. If the country were to have its collective hearts set on a reasonable and humane policy, then good things would happen.

Our current administration would seem to have no plan to change the course of the Drug War. I hope for the sake of effective governance, that this administration would see the importance of prioritizing our nation’s problems and come to understand that there is a better, more ethical way.

At least I hope the American citizenry will demand change in drug policy for the sake of its own health. Society should be better educated about the nature of all of these substances, so they may know the difference. I pray that Americans will work towards something good when it comes to this issue and not repeat so many past mistakes.

It’s been a while since I wrote about Macs. Here are some of my recent thoughts….

Barely have I tried OS X. Haven’t experienced the wonders of iLife, GarageBand, Safari, also the iPod, and all the new ultra-fast and fascinating hardware. Still sloggin’ along with my blue-and-white G3 with the classic OS, I am, but the recent reports here at MyMac have made me so interested in the new Apple software and hardware. Is it time to upgrade?

Alas, I’ve been missing out on the PodCasts here at MyMac.

Of course, it is time to take my blue-and-white G3 over to my Mom’s and let her use it for email, et al. Of course, it is time to immerse myself into OS X, Unix, all the required David Pogue books, not to mention all the great content here at MyMac and the other Mac advocate Web sites. Of course, it’s time to buy a new Dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 with the 20-inch screen (anything larger may cause me to go blind quicker).

Yet circumstances now bind me. I cannot move forward with these dreams. I must wait for (or pursue?) a new business opportunity that will allow to work at home two days per week and carry my Mac mini in it’s appropriate case back and forth from the office (and commuting is what it is). Dream away of these things, and maybe they will happen for me? Picture a dock station for the Mac mini at both workstations that are totally set up, monitor and most everything. The mini just snaps it in. Has someone already thought of this? (I’m thinking of something far simpler, but I love the idea.)

I reminisce about a time when I was using Macs everyday for a publication of about 250,000 readers. Things went so smoothly with those slow, old Macs. Mine was an LC II. The text was rendered so much better than anything I’d seen. WordPerfect 2.0 or 2.1 was a fine piece of software, with a very elegant interface and easy-to-use command options. That’s what I used. And the staff was networked, so when I was finished with my work all I needed to do was drag and drop it into a folder on my desktop for my editor, where it would appear for her or him. It was a real simple publishing process and it helped make work a pleasure. I learned to operate an early version of Quark, too. At the time, I really, really appreciated Macs for publishing. I couldn’t conceive of anything much more useful.

This was at High Times magazine BTW.

I was (still am, sort of) an editor-writer and for me this machine worked amazingly, especially after having spent a couple years at jobs that used DOS machines and software made for them. Macs immediately struck me as just wonderful for ease of use and also for getting jobs done with minimum complication. How great a thing this was after two years of squinting at the orangey brown text on the little cheap screens connected to those DOS machines. I think the Free DOS Project is hilarious. All those commands to be memorized! Of course, on a Mac it didn’t hurt to know the simple commands but on the mouse-less DOS machine it was required. Everything required keyboard strokes and it was laborious and distracting. The Windows machine at AT&T and Merrill Lynch … well those stories will have to wait.

The Future Looks Like the Past … NOT
Now I’m picturing something like the old Pioneer stereo ad with the guy getting blown away by the Pioneer speakers. Only this time, in the present, it’s a guy in a room in a comfy chair, a hand-gadget the size of an iPod in his hands, speakers and the screen is the size of a wall. (The computer, printer and all other peripherals are in another room or hidden behind a moveable wall). All media needs are more than satisfied. Of course, the man is blown away.

I don’t know. The digital lifestyle … Is it really appropriate for humans? Is it healthy?

I say who cares…. Most of us know when we are not paying attention and what that means.

It’s always a pleasure to see Macs actually working, and people focused and working with them. And they are, I know. May this increase and continue for ages.

I thought this deserved a mention: The PBS series “Slavery and the Making of America” is IMO the greatest TV show ever seen on American TV about slavery. Narrrated by the excellent Morgan Freeman, the show goes deeper into American slavery than any thing that I have seen on mainstream TV.

More importantly, it brings to light what has all-so-frequently been omitted in US history books. That is, the great role that slaves and ex-slaves played in the building of the USA. It’s a four-part series, each part two-hours long, covering the beginning of slavery in the American colonies to its end in the Civil War and the Reconstruction period.

It goes into territory that we “yankees” sometimes in the past have ignored: that is, slavery in the Northeast or “New England.” According to writer Richard Brookhiser, slavery had a “real presence” in New York; furthermore, the family of the wife of the second US president, John Adams, owned slaves in Massachusetts. It’s covered differently in the series, but the shameful hypocrisy is evident. People that some of us thought didn’t own slaves, in fact, did own them.

I am very pleased to see that something so excellent as this has been broadcast to celebrate Black History Month this year (I know, it’s March now, but still…). I hope everyone gets the chance to see this series and, hopefully, better understand the subject.

For those few who have not heard the news there’s an extremely dangerous and possibly pandemic problem in Wisconsin. That is, former house cats and their offspring. This one is not for the faint-hearted. No, nothing more than “by any means necessary” action is called for.

Has the Wisconsin National Guard been called? Seriously, grenades, bazookas, and all the rifles that can be mustered should be called out!

Sure, we’ve heard cries from pet owners. “Snowball is so fluffy no one can see her collar.” (Supposedly cats wearing the correct collar will not be blown to smithereens.) Oh, boo-hoo. Too bad. Snowball is a carnivorous breeder capable of producing hordes of offspring that will only continue to breed more pure danger. How do we know her owner will have her spayed?

Pre-emptive action should be taken against Snowball! Before all goes awry! ….

(Joke over.)

Thankfully, Wisconsin [is] unlikely to legalize killing feral cats, governor says.

I love cats. There’s a better way, I’m sure, and I am pleased the governor appears to be moving this issue in a saner direction.

————–

Want an excuse to hunt for real? Go after the feral hogs down in the South. They’ve escaped domesticity, as have the cats, and are TRULY wreaking havoc on the native fauna and flora. Of course, feral hogs are very dangerous. Hunting them is an environmental service IMO.

Yep. I’m happy about one thing. It’s gone. The blog I loath is gone. Dropped off the front page. I wrote it. I loath this particular blog of mine and I’m glad it’s gone. Yep. Wrong time, wrong place for that piece whether I agree with it or not.

As one fine writer here wrote to me, “Wisdom is elusive.” It sure is, at least for me. I hope to grow in that area. I hate to offend people, but it comes with being opinionated and, perhaps, not being thoughtful enough at times.

New Jersey has been beautiful and warm this spring and even the staunchest reclusives can’t help feeling a lessening of SAD. The sun has been shining through whether I like it or not.

For a lot of people today was the kind of day that a shakes out the winter doldrums. And “Splendid Isolation” (think Warren Zevon) is not always so splendid, is it? (The song is super cool, though.) It’s just good to be around people more again as the season opens up.

The sun after a gray nippy New Jersey winter … can be sublime.

Since New Year’s resolutions are all absurb anyway I’ve decided to make my now: I’m getting constructive things done on my Mac, a Blue & White Power Mac G3. I’m listening to beautiful music (I’ve taken to classical again and now choir music). I’m playing punk-bluegrass-folk-jazz acoustic music on my round-shouldered dreadnaught guitar — making progress on something creative. I’m doing something that I love (as most everyone keeps telling me to do).

And then it might be back to Web production. Hmm. Is this possible?

Who Are We?

Is it a new career? The blogger, that is. I saw on a certain major Cable News TV program people being interviewed (or even working?) and their screen title was “Blogger.” Hmm. An occupation? I don’t know. It was all so fast on the screen.

I thought blogging was just “writing on the side” and open diary-type stuff. I thought it could be newsy or politically opinionated, but without so much digito monstrari. Perhaps not so much, is there? Should there be more? (More would not help matters IMO.)

How will a person make their living as a blogger? Is it a new career path? Should it be? Will it just be loads of people shilling for market edge?

No. I don’t like it one bit.

Anyone have ideas about this here? A wider perspective? (Sorry so many questions with few answers. Yeah, I know, invita Minerva … hopefully conditions will improve.)

OK. I had heard this in undergraduate school (Stockton College, NJ) from a friend. He said one of my favorite teachers said each student ideally should have the “black bag” experience. What is this black bag experience? Well, it’s meant for a young college student to figuratively (not literally) enclose oneself apart from pretty much every sensory experience they have had, think of the world as totally new and completely mysterious, and to get curious and poke around in that black bag until one might be “beginning to see the light” (with thanks to Lou Reed).

So what relevance has the liberal arts experience in today’s education?

I experienced some intimidation when I was editor-in-chief of my college newspaper because I enjoyed covering faculty-administration disputes. I developed my own bent and I suppose I sided more with the faculty than with the administration. In my opinion, the faculty had better ideas for the college (for instance, my college might be ranked number one by US News insofar as public liberal arts colleges are concerned instead of number five, if the faculty had had their way). To say the least, the “man” of the college let me know that my views were not well-received by the administration. (They still gave me a B.A. I earned it.)

I’ll go back to the days preceding the current Iraq War: Was there a single war leader in the group of you-know-who (OK, I’ll say it — The Neo-Cons) that had any apparent sense of history, of wise war conduct, of the socio-economic-politico-cultural imperatives of the world, not to mention our own country? To me, it was haste, haste, haste. At the very least I wish our leaders would have waited another year before taking action in Iraq. We needed more intelligence. I said it then and I’m saying it now. You never know, we may have found reasons or a way to avoid the war.

How can I say this? I am a student of the liberal arts. General knowledge, History, Literature, world Philosophies, Theology, current news, even some math and Physics. I entered college as a patriotic American and I left as one. I maintain that I have a right to verbally dissent against that which I believe to be corrupt and wrong, even in this land and even with regard to this government of ours.

So what I am saying here is not necessarily to follow in my footsteps or go the way some “radicals” did (for example, the Drug War was my central issue for too long). I am suggesting the all-importance of a sound, well-rounded liberal arts education for every one both liberal and conservative and in-between. I’m not so perfectly enlightened, to say the least, but we as a citizenry must be learned enough to ask the important questions and demand honest answers. We must awake our leaders and inform them that it is “We the People” they are suppose to serve and not themselves solely. And we must make it so, not hysterically, but forthrightly and with clear, cool heads.

All these “specialists” we have in this land and who among them is offering any real help besides fixing a few machines? (OK, I value some of the machines and I’m grateful!)

But it’s disconnect, disconnect, disconnect…. We need strong general-knowledge thinkers to bring it together, and that comes with a wide spectrum of good liberal arts training. We need real diplomats to help our country’s problems: Ethical thinkers with imagination can only help matters.

I hope for it.

Further reading for today:

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.” – George Washington, from his Presidential Farewell Address (published in Philadelphia’s “American Daily Advertiser,” September 19, 1796; it was never given orally)

The day June 3rd, 2005 marked the 10th anniversary of my wife’s and my marriage. Love at first sight it was (in 1984 … freshman year at college) … the bond remains solid and I’ve always been happy with her. I married for love and never regretted it.

No, we did not go modern and get the diamonds for our present. We went traditional and purchased some aluminum. (Here’s a list of mod/trad anniversary gifts.) We kept it reasonably priced (out of necessity). We bought a couple pieces of aluminum -alloy Nambé. It’s become a fairly common wedding gift option, but still somehow rare enough to be special. The company states: “Nambé is an eight-metal, aluminum-based alloy created at Los Alamos National Labs in the 1940s. Nambé does not contain silver or lead and therefore does not tarnish. Because Nambé’s alloy is a trade secret, we cannot divulge the rest of the formula. The FDA has declared Nambé safe for cooking and serving.” Anyway, we bought the Spiral Wine Server, which I find is one of the most beautiful and useful objects that we’ve ever possessed. It REALLY does keep the wine chilled as long as needed. (Put it in the freezer. Just use some mitts when you grab and remove the thing from said freezer … extreme cold can destroy just as many skin cells as extreme heat, so I’ve heard.)

The Spiral Wine Server looks truly fab sitting on any table. I’m not sure who the Nambé people really are and how they got the alloy formula out of the Los Alamos lab, but I like what they do. It’s wonderful. And the artist’s name is on it.

I woke up anniversary day reminded of David Bowie’s song Heroes for some reason (I have his old BowieChanges greatest hit compilation which is excellent, but the newer one is likely more complete). It must be a take-it-one-day-at-a-time, make-it-through-the-next-24-hours kind of thing. It might be a transcend-the-difficulties-of-the-day thing, too.

Old OS still working amazingly well … the old Volvo, too
The good news (at last for us) is our blue-and-white 400 MHz PowerMac G3 and Powerbook Firewire (both circa 1999-2000) are still working excellent running OS 9 and talking to each like best friends (the simple Ethernet crossover connection trick works just fine). Sure, they’re old old and a bit tired, but my wife and I can still get done on these machines what is necessary for now and, knock on wood, I do not expect to upgrade until they just stop filling our need. The apps are all working amazingly well still and our needs are basically met. Obsolescence is on the horizon but it’s not here today, thankfully.

OS 9 feels sort of like our ’85 Volvo 240 DL burgundy-colored wagon.

Volvo had nearly perfected the design of the 240s by ’93 when they scrapped it. And ours is pretty good given the situation: excellent turning radius, perfect vision, great heat and defrost, and cassette player still works. And those Volvo 240s look good in the movies. The post 240-series Volvo models mostly don’t do it for me. These days I’d go for a Subaru Forester (or the best medium-sized American station wagon on the market with optimal field of vision, cargo space and fuel economy — just like my Volvo 240! Does an American competitor to the Subaru Forester or Volvo 240 wagon exist?)

So … OS X. Well, I feel like I’d need a lengthy, rigorous course in Unix and how Apple’s latest OS works with it. It seems the OS has its shortcomings and the Windows comparison has been made repeatedly. I’d want to be able to tweak it to simplify it. I’d want some tome like MacWorld Mac Secrets by David Pogue & Joseph Shorr (I was a beta-reader for the Mac Secrets 6th Edition!) covering everything about OS X. (David Pogue is the greatest how-to writer the Mac-platform user has ever known. Who else?)

It’s going to take time and funds and expensive software upgrades to go to OS X, but if I’m to stay with Apple computers this is my lot: I would have to do plenty of work to be my own tech support maven in OS X. One thing for sure is Apple’s new hardware designs are aesthetically sublime. I just hope they and the OS work as good as it looks.

I’ll never forget the greatness of the classic Mac OS, though. It has been a friend indeed. The Volvo is most praiseworthy, too.

More on the Liberal Arts
My little rant the other day and later discussion with Mr. David Every about the Liberal Arts was a good mind workout. And David made valid points. But really I only touched the surface of why a good liberal arts learning background is so crucial to fathoming current reality.

We need in our leadership many more linguists, general-knowledge thinkers, people who can string the vital issues of the day into a coherent and well-prioritized list, without so many silly prejudices and senseless, fruitless financial interests that are often so bad for the environment. Such good ethical leaders we may become or, if not, we may learn from them how to better use our resources for the improvement of the whole in America.

Our Think Tanks should be filled with more broad-minded people. There is no problem with “the specialist” for me really. I know they are absolutely necessary for certain jobs, but even some of them could be better served (and could better serve others) had they a strong foundation of Liberal Arts training. It just enables a thinker/worker to better link ideas together for constructive, creative development. It’s time to get serious about the Liberal Arts in American education in my not-so-humble opinion.

We do not need to get “mean” with it, I’m not saying that. We just need to get good and smart. I think all high schools should require proof of reading and writing FLUENCY in a second language before handing out a high school degree. History, Literature, writing, the natural sciences — they should must be pursued by students with vigor and full attention if we are to begin to solve our country’s problems. I took German language three years but never mastered it — I can blame myself but the laxness of our educational institutions did not help matters. Teachers must be inspired and inspiring if they are to be truly effective.

All students should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their ability. That’s the American way to me. I’m still in favor of Affirmative Action. But we must find a way to advance and not overlook those young people (and their excellent minds) who can reach greater heights of learning. We must not limit the advancement of the most capable.

As for me, these days I’ve been hitting the history books and learning many things about America that I missed in my youth, when I mostly avoided studying. Certainly, debate and dissent and the good contributions of people who “Think Different” have had a huge and important part in making this country what it is (that’s an understatement!). I pray this flourishes, grows … and tyranny will all but come to an end here (and perhaps elsewhere), I believe. And we Americans can truly become leaders and models of freedom again in the world. I have hope.

One last thing
This is the work of some real thinkers: The Einstein Manifesto. The “… Manifesto” is about thinkers of all stripes working together to inform the common (and not-so-common) man and woman about absolutely vital issues.

May it be so with our thinkers today, too.

No need to name names. She’s a company woman afterall. She was on CNN today between 2:00 PM and 2:30 PM EST — That’s all you need to know. That and she said a few things.

What if someone told you that aspirin is no cure for strep throat?

What if someone told you that talcum powder won’t cure athlete’s foot?

What if you were told donuts were a cure for diabetes? Geez… Will THEY ever get it? Will the madness ever stop?

Face it. America’s mainstream healthcare culture is rife with lies and misrepresentations when it comes to “natural” products. It’s a very tough nut to crack.

The announcer on the tube tells us today: Echinacea is no cure for the common cold. Okay, fair enough. I never thought so and was never told so.

Then, she adds, there’s no proof Echinacea lessens a cold’s symptoms. A recent study confirms its ineffectiveness, she says.

I don’t believe her and I don’t believe the study. These people deceive others as easy as, say, tying their own shoes?

Hmmm. Who ever claimed Echinacea was a cure for the cold? I’ve been a proponent of this herb (and others) for quite some time and I’ve never heard such a thing.

What Echinacea does for many who believe it works is relieve cold and flu symptoms. It does not lessen the duration of a cold, nor does it prolong it, nor does it prevent it. (Zinc lozenges might be preventative if taken at the very onset of a cold.)

Taking Echinacea when you have a cold just makes you feel better. That’s all. It boosts peoples’ immume systems in a such way that some of us, when we’re on it, do not feel we have a cold at all. (That’s my anecdote based on long-term experience. I believe an honest scientific study would show similar results.)

But the test product must be of high-enough quality for the benefits to shine through. What was the quality of the plants used in the study?

(I don’t know for sure but something tells me these “scientists” had the results before the study was even conducted.)

Must we look to Europe for honest scientific studies? Is our science too politicized?

I only take Echinacea after a few days of a cold, and only if I need to appear in public. Echinacea helps greatly with appearances. My nose does not run so much, I do not sneeze so much and my energy level is just a little better.

Part of America continues to hate, view with suspicion, and put down anything natural, anything put here straight from the Creator. And we’re not a healthier nation because of it. We just have extremely wealthy pharmaceutical companies and too many people munching synthetic pills not knowing what they are ingesting. Where is this all leading to?

It’s been a while since I’ve last blogged, more than a year in fact, but I have noticed a disturbing trend as I tune in to various media: The shooting of police officers. It must stop.

Recently, the lovely Roaring Fork Valley, which includes, Aspen, Colorado, was plagued by a gun shooter and a police officer was seriously injured. As might be expected the shooter committed suicide just as he was to be caught. This story, I find particularly disturbing because of the laid-back nature of these communites in the Valley. For the most part, people are just so delightful and peaceful in this area of the country. Even in pastoral New Hampshire, police officers have been killed.

The point I’m trying make is: If you know someone with a gun who has emotional problems (I know something about emotional problems. ) or other serious problems, then ask them to please turn in their guns to the police or some other appropriate organization. The notion of an illegal alien with a gun shooting a police officer is also rather disturbing, since we don’t know who they are or from whence they came into the country.

But mostly, that’s not the problem. The problem is too many guns in the hands of people who don’t have the wherewithal to use them responsibly, and this is also reflected in the recent rash of school shootings.

Personally I haven’t shot a gun (well, maybe a BB-gun when I was 12), and I don’t intend to. I believe all problems can be worked out through effective communications and resolutions. Like William Penn and the Quakers in America and the Indians, they never (or very rarely) resorted to violence because they engaged in progressive discourse. The Puritans (my ancestors) were a different story. We should all be advancing these concepts today; that is, to engage in discourse until conflicts are resolved, because the other way is the path to destruction.

This topic has been on my mind for month’s. Fox Butterfield of The New York Times (Web site requires registration), who happens to be my third cousin (although I’ve never met him, I respect him) has written extensively on the subject of gun control and gun violence. His most recent article focuses on rural suicides via gun, but he has written extensively on the subject of gun control across the board. (See article: “State Sees Instant Results in Electronic Gun Checks.”

We need sensible gun control. We need to reach out to those people who own guns, tell them they are all blessed children of the Higher Power (should they choose to be), that they are loved, and then consider whether or not they are stable enough to own weapons, guns in particular. If not, then perhaps they should be subject to a review board before catastrophy happens.

I like cops. Cops may have saved my life (I’m not sure — I was sleep-walking unconcious after making a big mistake with my meds), but I’ve been treated well by the police, in general. We all need to be on guard to make sure that they too are protected as they work to protect us. Let’s watch out for the emotionally disturbed and check on them, especially if they are armed, and make sure they don’t commit a lethal act.

I will never own guns. But I have a can of Mace, as most journalists should have, so step back … please. (Hunter Thompson gave me the idea and after covering a riot I was glad to have it. … I’ve never used it, though.) You may knock on my door or ring my doorbell anytime before 9:00 PM and after 9:00 AM, but your intentions must be very good (i.e. no mischief please … You might just get peppered!)

Peace out to all of you.

Well, my wife and I voted early and often yesterday (just kidding, we voted only once). But a strange thing happened in the polling booth. As I pushed down on the electronic voting machine’s lever, I saw my choices appear in green and then suddenly disappear before I pushed the finished button. I thought I voted, but my x’s vanished after pushing them down. Hmm.

The last time I voted on these machines this did not happen: The green x’s, my choices, were highlighted in green until I was finished and then I pushed down on the finished button to complete my decisions. But we left the our local voting location and returned home. Well, my wife went home but I went to SuperFoodtown.

So I called my Dad early in the evening, he lives in the same county as me, and he told me the x’s remained until he pushed the finished button. So then I called me Mum, and she told me the same thing: The x’s stayed up on the polling booth’s interface until she was finished with her selections. Hmm (again).

Now my wife and I were both concerned as to whether or not our votes were being tallied. So at about 10 minutes before the polls closed here in New Jersey, I returned to the polling place where the man who was there all day for about 12 hours (a real trooper!) told me “a computer expert” had checked the errors in the machine and that my wife and I need not worry, our votes were counted. “OK,” I said, and bid farewell, and offered my well wishes to all the poll workers there.

But, in fact, I really have no idea as to whether my vote counted or not. And at this point I just don’t care: New Jersey politics is just so corrupt and unreasonable that I have lost some faith in it and nationwide people are just so confused it seems like they voted based solely on emotion and not reason, but I digress. …

The people have spoken and their message was clear: “President George W. Bush, you better listen to us — You haven’t in six years. We’ve kicked your Republican Party’s majority the heck out of the House of Representatives and, pending a recount, we have kicked ‘em out of the Senate as well. We didn’t like the way you and your cohorts handled the 911 Commission’s questions, and we don’t like the path you’ve taken us down in the Iraq War. We wanted you to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but we didn’t much want to go to Iraq so hastily and lose more lives than were lost on Sept 11, 2001. We want you to change, Mr. President, and fast. What really happened to ‘compassionate conservatism?’”

Yes, the president enjoys considerable support in pockets of the country and yes, I voted for one Republican this year. I am a registered Republican because I like choices and the Republicans in New Jersey have offered such for their party’s primaries whereas the Democrats have offered very little. But the people said they wanted change big time. And they now have it. What does this mean? How well will the Democrats lead us and represent us in the Congress? Will there now be the kind of effective bi-partisan leadership that worked so well for our country during World War II? I hope so.

We need checks and balances. We need smart leadership that is responsive to the people at large and that considers many sides of the debate thoroughly before decisions are made. And we need to change the course in Iraq in order to save American life, the lives of our allies, and we better consider the lives of the Iraqi people more sensitively.

It’s not a black and white world, as the president and his most devout followers seem to think. There are many gray areas. Wise leadership considers the gray areas well enough to make intelligent decisions. In this realm, the partisanship of GWB’s leadership has not served us well.

Today, I am rather proud to be an American. And I do not mind the results one bit. We have needed checks and balances for some time now. And now, I am hoping for election reform. We need a paper trail badly, so as to have a chance for an unquestionable recount if necessary in close election races. And one party rule for too long seems to lead to ignorance and arrogance toward those who “think different.”

As I write this on my ancient Mac (see 2000 PowerBook G3 at apple-history.com) old as it may be, I realize how fortunate I am to be an American and to enjoy the wealth of resources that exist in the USA. I have faith that things will work out for the better, and my wife and I are in complete agreement. I am a lucky man.

Really, I never thought I’d need to do it. I had such a wonderful undergraduate experience at Stockton College of NJ, such a fine liberal arts education: a poetry professor, Stephen Dunn, who won a Pulitzer for his work, a physics professor, Yitzak Sharon, a Princeton Ph.D. who studied under Albert Einstein (Yitzak’s at Rutgers now), a sublime Indian U. professor of Shakespeare and medieval literature (Ken Tompkins), a Stanford professor of Eastern philosophy (Anne Birdwhistell), a Yale professor of Classical literature (Fred Mench), a Rutgers Cook College professor of dendrology (George Zimmermann) you name it, I thought I had it pretty darn good. A well-rounded liberal arts education it was, I was even editor-in-chief of the independent student newspaper (the Argo) and I didn’t think I needed any more learning, except what life itself would provide. (If a missed any of my better professors, then please forgive me. It’s been nearly 20 years.)

But in these days of super-competitiveness, and my own lack of it, I need more. I do, I do. At 40, I’ve decided I need to go back to school to “specialize.” Why? It’s kinda personal, but need the moolah for family reasons. You know, in sickness and in health, for better or worse. And my wife has MS and I’ve hardly been the provider, try as I might. (She makes more than me!) So I’m going for it. And you know what? I found out it’s not that hard. In fact, for me, it’s going to be fairly easy once I break through the bureaucracy and get to back to school work towards a master’s degree. Yes, getting a master’s degree these days doesn’t have to be so hard, but it requires patience … and it may require a temporary respite from the Mac platform (each!)

I’ve found out that more and more of America’s (and other country’s) finest colleges and universities are offering degrees totally online. That’s right. You don’t need to attend class at all (well, some schools want you there part time), but for the many you just sit back and read the course work, do the home work, and communicate with professors and classmates via Internet or tele/cellphone. Sure, all the same work that’s covered in the classroom is certainly covered, all the same textbooks are used, all the same tests given — It’s no super easy slide, but at least I don’t have to commute through two hours of diesel particulate matter to get to class. I can stay right here in my home in this old coastal town, where the air is fresh and the people (and the police) have class. I can do it totally online.

Well, I’m a Blue-stater, a northern Union man and a tenuous Republican who votes Democratic mostly, with a staunchly Republican family going back to the Civil War (actually back to the mid-17th century) who has switched sides (for the most part) and I intend to “go” to school in the Northeast because even though though I’m kinda a rebel and sort of a Dem. (confusing enough?) I might just get strung up if I try and attend graduation ceremonies in the Red-state South. No, I love the South, and Auburn is on my list of schools, as they have a fine online MBA program and I’d be remiss not to seriously consider it (although going there involves a bit too much on campus residency and travel). I’ve also considered the University of Florida, but it requires substantial residency which I am not will to do. So it’s off to the great Northeast. (Sorry to the Midwest, West, South, et al, but those places are merely lovely vacation spots for me. I’m a Jersey Yankee. I must live near New York and/or New England.)

OK. First, I’d like to try Columbia University. It has an eMBA program and it’s ranked numbers two in the world by the Financial Times of London. Not too shabby. Am I an executive? Am I executive material? Well, I’ve held executive positions before even if I feel a few pegs lower now. But I think I could make it at Columbia if given the chance. I’d have to make a two hour or so commute to the upper, upper West Side of Manhattan every other Friday and Saturday, but that’s very possible from where I live. I am descended from some Ivy Leaguers, Cornell to be exact, but the question is: Am I as smart as them? The thing is, I’ve contacted Columbia, but received no response.

Who’s contacted me? Well. I’ve gotten the hard sell from two universities: Boston University and Eastern University, also in Boston. While these weren’t my first two choices, the callers were very convincing. First, a fellow from Eastern called and told me he could certainly "get me in" the MBA program. He also told me that the program was completely online and I would never have to go to Boston except for graduation if I so wanted. Sounded good to me. Sounded too good to me. (BTW Canadian area code on the caller ID. Hmm.) The woman representing BU had me convinced the that a Master’s Degree of Science in Computer Information Systems was the way to go, but I just don’t think it’s right for me. I’m a writer, aren’t I?

Well, I’ll spill my guts. The three schools that most fascinate me are Syracuse University, Stevens Institute of Technology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Syracuse has sent me a huge brochure covering there Master’s Degree of Science in Information Management Management. I’ve spoken with the director of enrollment yesterday and she sounded just wonderful. Apparently, this is the number one program in the country of its kind (how many there are I don’t know) and they very much welcome liberal arts-types such as myself, with a broad base of experience (I’ve worked a jackhammer, OK?) Anyhow, she was very kind and inviting. There is one on-campus week at the beginning of the two-year program. The rest of the two years will be at my glorious home in Jersey and then back up to Syracuse for graduation.

OK, Stevens, Institute of Technology. It’s a small, elite school in Hoboken, New Jersey and not very well known in the West or the South but considered almost Ivy League here on the East Coast. It has an amazing rural feel for a campus right on the Hudson overlooking Manhattan and a very fine reputation as a technical school. Prime real estate, to be sure. The tennis courts are located right on the river, and I have to admit about 17 years ago my friend and I used to sneak on and use the courts because the students were apparently too busy studying to play. The courts were ALWAYS empty and the good folks at Stevens were kind enough to let us slide. (An aside: Happy Birthday Mike!) Besides, we looked like we could be students. Anyway, Stevens offers an MBA in Technology that is completely online. I believe this will be very hard, as the school will be out to prove its mettle against bricks-and-mortar programs. But I’ll attend in-person seminars if/when I can in Hoboken. I’ll try my best and certainly attend graduation.

Lastly, (besides Penn State which scares the frickin crap out of me – What happened to the Quakers? Sorry, I’m not an automaton.)… alright, Lastly is Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It’s in the heart of good old Massachusetts, where my ancestors first arrived in America (sometimes I wish I had an Ellis Island story but, alas, it’s the Mayflower, 1620, a land grant about 1638, and lord knows what else…. Well, Worcester Polytechnic Institute has an excellent reputation, it’s the third oldest technical school in the country and it’s about on a par with Stevens. I would be honored to be accepted to either of these colleges, and Syracuse, too. And if Columbia wants me, then they know where to find me.

This is just an old story.

So I waited so long that I disappointed virtually all of my Mac friends who had once respected my mild-mannered Mac wisdom. But enough was enough. It had nothing to do with what other people thought. It had to more to with “planned obsolescence” and lack of a prioritizing sense to upgrade. Yes, I ran Mac OS 8.5-9.0.5 from 1999-2007 and I knew it very well. I had two Macs and they really worked very well. A 1999 Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White) and a 2000 PowerBook G3 (Firewire) (Go to Apple History to see) both at 400 mHz, 128 RAM, an Ethernet crossover cable for networking, Zip drive, all the required software from Dreamweaver 2,3,4 to Firewire to Photoshop, Office 2001, Netscape 7.02 — the system worked pretty good really. And I was so determined to make the set-up last 10 years, lots of money spent, I was so convinced that I could eke out the last of the great ol’ OSes, so I thought, without dabbling with OS X until I absolutely had to. Well, I have to now. I got a black MacBook.

Something else happened. I got accepted to Boston University’s Metropolitan College. And I’m not going for an MBA but a master of science in Computer Information Systems. The computer requirements excluded my old Mac set-up and, much to my sadness, I had to let it go. Like an old typewriter that’s just worn out, it’s a sentimental thing. I imagine some sort of worn out typewriter from the ’40s partially covered in damp paper outside with droplets of rain in a tin garbage can. But short of “pimping out” my old system beyond recognition I decided to let it go with Firewire hard drive for posterity and leave it at that. Yes, I did’t have to go through all that transition “stuff” — at least not much — and I can still get to all my old files. And the image of the trusty “typewriter” will fade with time.

Besides, creating Java code using Eclipse on Mac OS X uses (or will use) enough of my mind. I understand the Mac platform is being preferred by many high-level Java programmers.

But woe, I lag behind the Mac OS X world. Thank God for The Missing Manual series, David Pogue’s Mac OS X — Tiger edition specifically. It’s getting me up to speed. The book may be two years old, but it works.

OK, so what’s good about Mac OS X 10.4.10? Everything so far. It has a lot of what I consider the greatest all-platform OS hits accumulated over the years, and most Mac stuff is back although sometimes it’s under a different look. The Finder takes some of what was sort of good about Windows and just makes it much more elegant. I’m not so worried anymore. Mac OS X is a complete success. Yes, there’re some things I can’t do as I did in OS 9, but just about everything has a different way of doing it. I’ve thought I might lose functionality, but I’ve clearly gained it.

So I’m letting go of my old computer and giving it to my Mom for E-mail purposes, but not until all the back-up stuff happens. I must keep these little machine beasties around until I get them properly transferred to Firewire boxes. When I get my old Classic files properly placed in a Firewire box, then I’ll gladly let ‘em go. I’m so satisfied with Mac OS X, and the “extras” …

the not-free ones include the Microsoft Office 2004 programs, Adobe Creative Suite 3, maybe iWork (?). They all work good so far. For starters, along with Eclipse, it’s all I need. I don’t see the benefits for me of the .mac thing right now, but perhaps someone might argue different.

And I’m even looking forward to the iPhone. Who isn’t? I’m quite content with my little ol’ Motorola cell (it’s getting older but it really looks like a Star Trek unit, still quite cool and well made) so this won’t happen for some time. It’s what I’ve wanted only I’m waiting for a sort of iChat feature. The iPhone is being hyped as I write all over mainstream morning news. I just heard the word “overdrive” on NBC. Good, the more feedback the better, so I hope for great initial sales.

The iPhone is what I’ve been looking for, but I just don’t need it right now. OK I want it, but isn’t it much better to experience the digital world from your own work station, your own “cockpit.” (Sorry, I had to pick IKEA for reasonably priced workstations.) I just think that right now I’d get worse headaches looking at all that digital stuff on that little iPhone screen (I know, it’s bigger screen than most!) The iPhone’s time has come, no doubt, and I might just spend the milk money on one of those gadgets a couple “revs” from now. Afterall, this quasi-Luddite is still blown away by the iPod.

I’m not sure if Apple has actually won yet, but it’s a pretty good run.

The Rev. Wright scandal has been played and played ad nauseum. It has started most news and “infotainment” shows and, as I write, Joe from MSNBC
“Morning Joe” has said that Obama’s statement yesterday, clearly and completely condemning Rev. Writght’s comments, “was not enough.” Obama has been gracious through all this and, for the most part, he has weathered the storm quite well. And quite a storm it has been.

But perhaps most disturbing is the “kid gloves” with which the media has lately been treating Sen. Clinton. Her pastor problems seem to me to be worse or as bad as Obama’s. Namely, her longterm relationship with Doug Coe. I see that Obama and McCain have also participated in some prayer groups with Coe, but Obama is new to the Senate scene and I believe he can be forgiven for this mistake or lack of knowledge about Coe.

Please read the linked article by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell called “NBC News Exclusive: Political ties to a secretive religious group.” It’s one of the few times the media has approached some difficult truths about Sen. Clinton. Coe’s views are extremely dangerous. I suppose that it’s easier for me to forgive a ’60s radical from a black church with some seriously warped views, but this guy Coe’s theology is REALLY off the charts. He’s not only a lay minister and prayer leader, but also a big business maven. And the Clintons have been with Doug Coe since the early ’90s.

The main thing is that major media has totally given Sen. Clinton a pass on Doug Coe while reviling Obama day in and day out for Rev. Wright. It can make a person cynical about the major media. It’s not my big issue right now, but I won’t be brainwashed or told what to think by the major media. And I’m so pleased with Obama for handling this with such calmness and grace. The continued obsession with Rev. Wright and his racism, when we’ve come so far as a society, has not helped much of anything.

But I’m confident that all will be well by mid-November.

If this is fiction to you, then it is fiction to you. Perhaps it is safer to think of it as such. This story begins about 17 years ago.

There is a man who worked for a counterculture magazine in a very big city. He had made friends with some of the biggest figures in the counterculture world and ended up writing for an anti-Drug War magazine. It was there he criticized the major Drug Warriors in the USA and the most powerful Federal agencies fighting mostly peaceful drug users. He was there at the magazine for a few years, made few to no enemies with his co-workers. But he still kept insisting that the Drug War must be stopped so that medicines outside of the day’s orthodox pharmacopoeia might be used to helped chronically ill people and that peaceful, non-violent drug offenders may be free from the nation’s worst prisons. (Per capita, the USA has more people in prison than any other nation, then and now.) At that time, he also thought it was OK for people to grow and smoke pot for whatever reason they wanted, so long as they didn’t hurt anyone — "The American way," he thought. He also thought the criminalization of drugs had made matters worse overall and created more addicts and criminals.

BTW this person was using Mac Classics networked throughout his office to communicate his ideas and for production at this magazine.

He had something of a falling out with his editor-in-chief, who seemed to feel threatened by the man’s writing and editorial skill. The editor-in-chief very much wanted to keep his status as number one at the magazine, and he did so through questionable means. He began a campaign to drive the man out of the magazine and, after a few months of wielding corrupt power, the plan succeeded.

Before he left the big city, the man got a flu and went to see his doctor. Instead of his usual doctor being there, someone who looked liked the late Professor Irwin Corey was there instead. The man was given no notice of this and he even observed a man who looked highly covert leaving the doctor’s office while he entered. While there, the doctor checked out the man’s swollen glands. The man felt a sharp and painful "something" when the doctor pressed hard on the left side of the man’s neck where the carotid artery is, and he wondered what was happening to him. Upon returning home, the man looked at his neck and, indeed, there was a small blood mark at the site of the pain. The man wondered if something had been injected or pushed into him. Was there something there that could monitor his thoughts? Mind control? (The carotid artery runs to the switching centers of the brain.)

Returning to his home state, he found that his family, old friends and his new church welcomed him. In his late twenties he was baptized and accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. But there were certain other entities at work that did not want the man to live anywhere in peace. One night as he approached a friend’s home, the man saw a pop. pop, pop of lights coming from the brushes at the edge of a field and then he felt a sudden rush of pain throughout his whole body. No, the man was not shot with bullets, but with some sort of mysterious microscopic particles. Metals perhaps? In any case the man for years felt impossible pain when helicopters and certain planes flew by. He also had his food tainted at restaurants numerous times (he often felt depressed or confused after eating out at diners and such).
But he lived with this strange but often severe pain that confused his mind and made him suspicious of people that he didn’t know before working at the counterculture magazine. He still had the church and his old friends, but a whole lot of people "coming out of the woodwork" seemed to hate him and attack him with awful words, high-tech pain-delivering gadgets, and so on.

But the man pushed on. He was confirmed in his church, married a year after the "attacks" started and tried his best to keep a good job. After a difficult stint hand-coding in an office that made handheld electronic books, he decided to return to one of his first loves: horticulture. After all, the man had worked for a real, traditional Japanese landscaper in high school and knew how to garden like a pro. He relished the idea of a simpler life. He began contracting for landscape architects and other worthy horticultural pros. The man met with some success here. Work was consistent and the pay pretty fair.

Still, the man fell off the path and began to use cannabis at times to relieve his pain. He was advised to see psychiatrists, but the drugs they prescribed just disturbed his mind as much as the perceived harassment.

The landscaping jobs only lasted a few years. After having been in an office for so long, the man found it hard to adjust to outdoor labor. His back suffered. He returned to school, a large university, to learn Web site design and then went to work at some large corporations and also back to work as a journalist.

Then the migraines first started. The man could not tolerate this intense pain and eventually began to see a neurologist for the headaches. To boot, his wife developed Multiple Sclerosis and this made life even harder. But he (and she!) worked through the challenge and served his wife as best he could. Managing the medicines was a different story. Prescribed narcotics, psychiatric drugs and whatnot caused him than to feel just paralyzed, and he couldn’t do much of anything. He went on disability and has been hospitalized four times in the past four years.

Now he’s seeking help from the faithful and a 12-step program. He doesn’t mind much that he’s not the "Hep Cat" he once thought he was, only now that he can now live in truth, drug-free, and begin to get on with his life. His wife, his church and family all love him. And while he thinks past offenses by the covert agents against his person should be looked at, to stop this kind of abuse and torture from happening to others, and that certain people should be ordered to explain their actions, the man is not holding his breath. His focus is on his own personal recovery. Day be day.

The most important thing for this man is love. The man has it from many sources. He’s lucky.

OK, I admit it. I’ve grown to love my MacBook (mid-2007, see http://www.apple-history.com/ for the black MacBook). It does everything I want it to do quite well, but the the learning curve has been much steeper than I remember it being with the circa 2000 PowerBook G3 (FireWire) (again, see http://www.apple-history.com/ ) running Mac OS 8.5 through OS 9. It’s been discussed over and over again, I know, but I think Mac OS X has surprised me with how smooth it runs, its speed, and how well the programs work, especially those writing programs, such as MS Word and TextEdit.

What do I miss? Well, I probably should have gone with the MacBook Pro, but I wanted to save money. The larger screen of the MacBook Pro (15.4/17") would have been better for Web site design than the 13.3" screen of the MacBook. But then, even though I have Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium, I just have not been designing very many Web sites. Mostly, I have been writing. As for the writing, the 13.3" MacBook is perfect and "good to go."

I suppose I miss how the Dreamweaver 4/Fireworks 4 Suite worked so well in Mac OS 9 on my 14.1" Powerbook G3 (Firewire). It’s a superb suite of programs and the machine was great for Web site development. But I’m planning on getting into the new Adobe CS3 and using CSS for building sites. I just haven’t done it yet. People I know who use it professionally say it’s quite good. I will master it eventually.

I bought MS Office Mac 2004 last year and I think it’s better than MS Office 2001, except for the lack of a later version of Internet Explorer. (OK, I admit, I also miss the clamshell package) I’ve come to adore Firefox. It’s such a great browser — the only thing I miss about IE is that little left side bar "thingy" that captured Web pages for future viewing. That was a great feature. Also, the plus and minus signs atop Explorer were really convenient to expand or reduce browser text. I’ve learned how to deal with these issues in Firefox, but it’s just not quite as user-friendly or convenient.

All-in-all, I no longer feel like a Luddite. I have all the recent plug-ins for multi-media viewing, I can actually see videos clearly and with good sound. iTunes works fantastically with my iPod. I can open practically any file thrown at me. (I refused to install Windows Media Player, though. It’s not nearly as good as QuickTime and I like to keep MS products to a minimum on my machine.)

So I’m giving the MacBook 4.5 out of 5 stars and Mac OS X 10.4.11 a generous 5 out of 5 stars. As I acquire and learn more new programs, I’ll report back and let you all know how things are going. Certainly, when I buy Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard I will report on it.

Thankfully, the Mac is still a Mac. And they’re the best machines available.

I got an E-mail from BusinessWeek this morning titled, "An iPhone for $199" and, of course, I was very interested. Times are financially tight for my wife and me right now and the $499 or $399 iPhones were just too expensive. And the question was always: Do we really need them? I’m now paying half the monthly rate for two cell phones that AT&T charges for one iPhone. The iPhones are still something of a luxury and the utility for me isn’t quite clear. Paying $50 per month for two cell phones while AT&T is charging $90 per iPhone is something a budget-minded person should think about.

One big question my wife and I have is about the coverage in the NYC area. We drool as we see Verizon users chatting away as we go through the train tunnels under the Hudson River to and from NYC from New Jersey. We don’t get that with our service, which seems to be most popular in Europe (at least judging from European soccer game ads). We can call each other from certain train stations, but those Verizon users seem to talk everywhere without a hitch. I’m not sure why this is. Does anyone know how well the iPhone coverage works in the NYC area? Please tell me!

But my wife and I really want iPhones, these fairly complete little computers that fit in your breast pocket. It’s a phone, of course, it sounds great, the video screen size is impressive and, well, I really do not know everything it does except one can send and receive E-mail, browse the Internet, get stock market info, and lots more. The popularity of the thing is driving third-party developers to create new apps — that can only mean the iPhone is going to get smarter and more useful.

OK, I may sell my 1985 Volvo 240 DL Wagon (Burgundy) to fund this tech-maniacal iPhone scheme of mine. Should I? Want the Volvo? It’s more than reasonably priced and it’ll run forever. I’ll give you a good deal … OK?

It’s true. I’m descended from about 10 prominent Dutch families who were big in the New Amsterdam settlement in the early 17th century. When the the English started pushing their way into what would become New York City, they made fun of the fleeing Dutch and loudly called them “John Cheese” derisively. John Cheese translated into Dutch means “Jan Kees.” And so the name took off to describe more native-like New Yorkers who were not so singularly British. Even at that time the city was more of a melting pot than one might think. By the Civil War American Northerners and Union soldiers were known as “yankees.” Now? A superior baseball team and Yankee magazine are nice tributes: The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series. It’s just a bit of history for the curious. So I am a John Cheese, I am a Jan Kees, and I’ve been a Yankees fan as long as I’ve been conscious.