I watched Bill speak tonight at the DNC, and I'm left asking the question "Can't we just let Bill run the show for awhile"?  The man can lead, and after watching the Bush/Kerry debacle meander along, I know what I want in my President: someone with cajones and a brain.  I don't give a damn about what Bill did with his willy while in the White House as it has no bearing on his ability to command.  I want Bush out badly, but the vision of Kerry in charge is less than inspiring relative to the mess at hand.  Whatever is to become of us...

Movie recommendation:  Matchstick Men with Nicholas Cage is a quirky little vehicle for one of America's most under-appreciated actors.  Intriguing plot with a spectacular twist at the end, and Nick does a splendid job of creating a character overun by his obsessive-compulsive disorder.  Grade-A

Has Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs to achieve his record six Tour de France victories?  Maybe, but whether he has or still does, I'm sure that most or possibly all of the top riders do as well.  We expect athletes to be perfect, and we yearn for the heros that sport can produce, providing us with a chance to daydream away the mundane and the bland.  We are in large part responsible for the scourge of drugs ravaging the sporting world, and how many of us would pass up a chance to be a hero and bask in the perpetual adulational of the adoring fan?  We fan the fire, and we are the ones who keep throwing logs on the pile.  We demand the spectacular, that records be broken, and better that they be smashed.  We don't ask our athletic superheros to do anymore than we can dream, and yet we pass serious judgement when they fail and expose their human fraility.  Having riden a bike thousands of miles myself, through heat, cold, rain, over mountains and into the teeth of ferocious winds, I applaude Lance and imagine how it must feel to be THE bicycle rider on the planet.  Drugs or not, what he has accomplished is simply grand...

Is anybody out there???  I get the feeling that my blog has become like the tree that falls in the forest, and no one is present to hear the noise...

I saw "Fahrenheit 911" today, and yes it was an op-ed piece, and yes Michael Moore did his very best to make G.W. look like a hairy baboon, and perhaps he succeeded. Whether you're conservative, liberal, or somewhere in the middle, the movie is worth seeing because inspite of the contextual maneuvering, there are many factual bits that can lead to only one conclusion; Bush and his cronies lied, are lying, and will probably continue to lie. We've been voraciously duped, and the cost has been thousands and thousands of lives lost, and hundreds of thousands of lives impacted at a deeper level than most of us can fathom. Anyone who believes that we are in Iraq for any reason other than greed and the insatiable quest for power is flat out lying to themselves at a very fundamental level! G.W. has fucked us hard, and it's time we Americans pulled our heads out of our asses and started standing up for what is right instead of being herded like so many sheep to slaughter. The truth is everywhere, but I worry that most Americans no longer have the balls to pursue the good fight, or even worse, they don't care enough to make a stand. This is not something that is going to dissolve if we simply ignore it, but is instead THE fight of this and future generations. If you believe in the concept of 'good' versus 'evil', the evidence is abundant that evil is alive and well, and it is in fact calling the shots. Get angry America, time is running out...

"You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it." -John Updike-

"It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what the other people are doing with the same set of facts." -Bill Vaughan-

"Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." -African proverb-

Spent too much of the day arguing the trivial aspects of life and the trappings of one's own limited perspective. Strange how we humans can become so easily dislodged from our place in this world by our own limits and desires. I've been going through a serious period of material acquisition and find myself to be no more or less happy than I was prior to the onslaught of this bi-product of modern living, but I do find myself considering where to put the stuff and how to safeguard it all on a regular basis as of late. It's just stuff, and in the end (either mine or the stuff's), it will still be just stuff. Perhaps I should just stuff it...

John Kerry seems to be coming alive with the addition of John Edwards to the ticket, but I still wonder if it's possible to flip the ticket at this point and have Edwards as the lead man??? In the end I wonder if it really matters who America's figure-head is, because I think the real driving forces of this country lay in the realm of BIG BUSINESS and corporate malfunction run amok. Does anyone who may read this really feel they have a "voice" anymore, especially when your voice speaks contrary to conventions embossed deeply into the DNA of the ruling class? I'll always vote because my conscience tells me that to complain I must first voice my political opinion, but it seems more and more futile the further down life's road I travel. How about we all undertake a human agenda instead, void of politics, capitalism, and the burning/blinding need to win! Our campaign slogan could be: GIVE PEACE A CHANCE...PRACTICE RADICAL EMPATHY...EVERYDAY!

A movie recommendation, even if you have no interest in ever becoming a surfer. "Step into Liquid" is an awesome visual spectacle, as well as an extremely soulful assessment of what surfing means to those of us who feel the "stoke", regardless of our level of ability. The film also has a 'heart' of great magnitude and may very well get you at a surprisingly deep level. If you watch it, let me know what you felt. My son Ray and I watched it Monday night and I'm taking him on his first surfing mission this Friday. In light of the not-so-distant disfunction of our father-son relationship this is a minor miracle, and causes a grin to crease my face even now...

Good night all. Strive to avoid confusion caused by appearance. Life is what we make it, but it is also what we don't make it. Follow your hearts, believe your dreams...