West Coast Weather Report

Can we just go to

Defcon: Drought

right now or do we have to wait too long, till it's beyond fixing, till the greenhouse gasses are destroying the reality we've been told we deserve?

The way this Winter is going we are going to be way below our snowpack/reservoir reserves and I do believe it will be a hot summer, jacking the Valley into their life of air conditioning; electricity will get very expensive.

Then the fires will ravage the extremely dry landscape and states of emergency will be declared from Chico to San Diego. There isn't any money now, there won't be any then.

I'm just saying. We're already in a drought situation here in California.

I guess I'll wag the dog and brew another batch.

eaarth

Hanzo Is Going For It!!

Dear Friends & Family,
From June 5-11, Hans will be bicycling in AIDS/LifeCycle. It's a 7 day, 545 mile bike ride from SF to LA to make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV & AIDS.
His first goal is to raise $3000, he is asking for your donations to help achieve this. $3000 may seem a lofty goal but if we all pitch in a little we can make it happen and hopefully surpass this goal.

If You've got an extra Lincoln or Hamilton or Jackson send over his way. Click on Your favorite picture of Hans or the banner below to see his progress and kick in a few duckets.

In the United States...

• Since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981, 1.7 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than 617,025 have died of AIDS-related causes.
• 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV/AIDS, representing a slight increase over time as people are living longer with HIV disease and new infections remain relatively stable.
• An estimated 21% of people living with HIV are undiagnosed.
• Every 9 1/2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is infected with HIV.
• Gay and bisexual men accounted for 53% of new HIV infections in 2006, and are the only group for which new infections are on the rise.
• African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. Blacks accounted for 45% of new HIV infections in 2006 and 47% of those living with the disease, yet they make up only 12% of the U.S. population. Latinos account for 17% of new infections yet comprise 15% of the U.S. population, while whites represent 35% of new infections and account for 66% of the total population.
• The AIDS diagnosis rate for African-Americans is more than 9 times that of whites, and the HIV rate is 7 times greater among blacks than whites. Survival after an AIDS diagnosis is lower for blacks than any other racial/ethnic group.
• Young adults and teens between 13 and 29 represent 34% of new HIV infections, the largest share of any age group. Black teens are disproportionately affected, representing 68% of reported AIDS cases among 13 to 19-year-olds in 2007.
• Women now account for 27% of HIV infections, with 280,000 women living with HIV and AIDS. Black women accounted for two thirds (64%) of new AIDS diagnoses among women in 2009; Latinas represented 18% and white women, 15%.
• 71% of all AIDS cases reported since the beginning of the epidemic are concentrated in 10 states or territories. While the District of Columbia has the highest AIDS case rate (119.8 per 100,000 in 2009), the states of New York (17.7%), California (14.2%) and Florida (10.7%) have the most cumulative AIDS cases.

In the World...

• Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 60 million people have contracted HIV and 25 million have died of AIDS-related causes.
• An estimated 33.3 million people are living with HIV/AIDS.
• In 2009, an estimated 2.6 million people were newly infected with HIV.

That's not enough? Shit, make it about Health Care, make it about being a Responsible World Citizen, just make a small donation. Make a $6 donation and think of it as buying Hans a beer. Do it and I'll buy You a beer next time I see you.

AIDS has directly affected my life.
And it sucks.

It's Friday!

This is the yeast from one of the oldest stout producing breweries in the world. It produces a slight hint of diacetyl, balanced by a light fruitiness and slight dry crispness. Great for Irish ales, stouts, porters, browns, reds and a very interesting pale ale.

Attenuation: 69-74%
Flocculation: Medium to High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-68°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium-High

Happy Species Day!

2010
2009
2008

The Meaning of Civilization

So we evict the mentally ill, have a brain frying meth epidemic, and give a gun to anyone who can hold one.

“I hate violence. I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence.” Sarah Palin [via B. Cesca's]

Public Enemy: By The Time I Get To Arizona by Oedipus

Trees Cause More Pollution Than Automobiles Do. - R. Reagan, 1981

Society changes like a nuclear winter breeze, mutating without constraint. Our elected officials are now blocking the legislative process based on Party Principal and not because of any substantial disagreement.

And yet here We are, reaching across the aisle for "the environment". Shultzy likened Arnold to Ronnie in his introduction and everybody loved everybody. Arnold even said "Hasta la vista, Baby" in his speech.

George Shultz comparing Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan while speaking to Environmentalists.

Do you think there were different agendas in the room?

Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006

Reagan, Shultz, the Govenator, it all takes me back.

International Day of Peace

What an incredible lobby at the Natural History Museum in London. A Colossal Cathedral with Charles giving the sermon.

CeaseFire

Next Page

We'll Never Forget

Today's Photo

Title: It's The Law
In El Cerrito, CA - since 1993.

Rest Easy Howard

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. ” - Fredrick Douglass

Obit

"(Laughs, concrete curdles)"

More Mark Morford

Everything is Fine and Fucked, every second - all day. Deserves got nothing to do with it, it's more about... Perspective.

Sarah Palin Parking Lot

I have seen Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) a few times, Hell, I lived it at Cal Expo, Sac.

Neil Diamond Parking Lot was entertaining.
Harry Potter Parking Lot was pushing it.

The Scariest Parking Lot of all:

Quantitative Measurements or Mmmmm... Pop

When markets are rising, those who encourage people to indulge their fantasies of overnight wealth will be far more popular, and thus more employable, than those who warn them of the inevitable outcome of pursuing such fantasies; when markets are plunging, and the reverse might be true, nobody’s hiring. Apply the same logic to the fate of industrial society and the results are much the same; those who promote policies that allow people to get rich and live extravagantly today can count on an enthusiastic response, even if those same policies condemn industrial society to a death spiral in the decades ahead. The Archdruid Report

Remind you of anybody?

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

this all happened before, it will all happen again

Something Terrible Is Happening

The Choice

Lee Stranahan
Bob Cesca

Pan Am Flight 103

Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas—was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Eleven people in Lockerbie, south Scotland, were killed as large sections of the plane fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270. In 2001, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan man, was convicted of involvement in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The 259 victims on the aircraft came from 21 countries.

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total
Argentina	3	0	3
Belgium	1	0	1
Bolivia	1	0	1
Canada	3	0	3
France	2	1	3
Germany	3	1	4
Hungary	4	0	4
India	3	0	3
Ireland	3	0	3
Israel	1	0	1
Italy	2	0	2
Jamaica	1	0	1
Japan	1	0	1
Philippines	1	0	1
South Africa	1	0	1
Spain	0	1	1
Sweden	2	1	3
Switzerland	1	0	1
Trinidad and Tobago	1	0	1
United Kingdom	40	1	41
United States	169	11	180
Total	243	16	259

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" - Howard Zinn

Crazy Old Surfer.

He is dauntless, original, unconventional, and unconstrained.
It seems he's been doing his homework, and he's got an interesting interpretation.
He's in the Cabinent.

Round And Round

The Ghetto Bird has been circling for hours. It took a break, probably had to refuel. Shit is right around the corner. According to the North Oakland community organization;

The word I have from Berkeley PD officers @ 55th/Dover, and KCBS radio news, is the following:

There was a shooting with an assault weapon in Berkeley c. 6:30 pm. At least one person dead; shot 10 times. Three suspects fled into Oakland. Suspects' car went into on-coming traffic. Large multi-car crash (4 cars) at MLK/56th and/or Aileen.

If you're right Erica, 2 dead at the scene.

At least one suspect fled. Police fear that suspect still has the assault weapon.

OPD and Berkeley PD have blocked off most streets between Dover and MLK.

The Compound is on lockdown.

"the Bush Administration, the most nefarious, right-wing hellbeast of anti-choice social conservativism to soil the White House in five generations"

Mark Morford is a columnist for SF Gate/SF Chron. This was originally published 5/13/9 here.

The Last Hotbutton
What do Judy Blume, bleating bishops, and the Supreme Court have in common?

And then came the swell tale of sweet Judy Blume, she of tender, coming-of-age "Are you there, God?" 'tween lit fame, sending out a letter on behalf of Planned Parenthood that dared to suggest that Mother's Day might be a terrific time to make a donation, and wouldn't it be nice to help women in need on this most charming of maternal-themed days, so sayeth the woman who taught you about masturbation and hormones and unbearable teen angst when you were 12 and bepimpled and tingling in the most interesting of places?

Can you guess what happened next? Of course you can.

Yes, the desperate anti-choice groups got a hold of Blume's letter and went appropriately apoplectic, accusing her of besmirching our most beloved of soft-focus Hallmark holidays by endorsing a group that "kills babies" and eats live kittens for breakfast and oh yes also helps women get informed and take charge of their own health and sexuality lest they accidentally get pregnant and give birth to uptight right-wing zealots who never have sex.

Upshot: Blume reportedly received a flood of hate mail, verbal attacks, even death threats. Planned Parenthood, smart enough to know a hunk of invaluable PR when they see it, did the right thing by leveraging news of the harassment and reportedly received a flood of donations in response. Thanks, zealots!

It was all trifling and forgettable on its own, were it not for other recent, related developments in the same righteous vein, most notably a cute flurry of conservative Catholic outrage over the fact that Notre Dame University has invited President Obama to deliver this year's commencement address.

Obama, apparently, accepted. And then Angry Catholic God (ACG) spewed coffee through His nose.

It's true. From what I can glean, upon hearing the news, ACG made a quick collect call to numerous conservative archdiocese around the nation and woke up a very tired army of old, peevish white men who also never have sex but who fantasize more about vaginas than any gaggle of humans on the planet, and told them to rally the faithful and launch a protest against Obama's speech, clearly not realizing that most Catholics love this president and no one really cares what conservative cardinals or bishops have to say. About anything. Ever.

No matter. See, the president is pro-choice. He is also pro stem-cell research. He is also thoughtful and deeply intelligent and far, far wiser and more supportive of women and women's rights that his lug-nut misogynist predecessor, and he has a fantastically smart, outspoken, pro-choice wife to show for it. This makes him a tremendous threat to grumpy male church leaders everywhere who, as a general rule, wouldn't know a vulva from a rototiller.

But wait, there's more. Perhaps you've heard that the GOP is preparing to fight like feral cats against Obama's nomination for the Supreme Court? Perhaps you've heard that they are ready to fight regardless of who the nominee might be, because s/he will doubtlessly be -- you guessed it -- pro-choice, pro-women, or (even worse) might actually be a woman? The horror.

As a warm-up, the Republicans have already reaffirmed their inept misogyny by bogging down the nomination of Kathleen Sebelius because, of course, Sebelius dares to be both intelligent and pro-choice, and heaven forefend we have a Secretary of Health and Human Services who A) actually understands female sexuality as it functions in this millennium, and B) is a woman.

Perhaps you are seeing a pattern. Perhaps you notice that maybe, at long last, we as a nasty divisive political culture have landed on the very last of the wedge issues, the final hot button in America, the last tepid little arrow in the GOP's limp quiver.

Could it be true? Because it appears the Right, having run out of ideas and leadership and viable agenda items of any kind, have now (re)turned to abortion as their last-gasp issue to prod and provoke and enflame what remains of their exhausted, burned-out flock.

It's not difficult to see why. After all, a huge chunk of the eastern seaboard has now hopped the glory train to all-consuming Hell and legalized gay marriage. That once all-powerful wedge issue is done and cooked. Even social conservatives admit it's now just a matter of time before gays nationwide are allowed to be just as unhappy and imminently divorced as everyone else. Glory be.

How about the War on Drugs? Not so much. Hell, even the Republican governator of the largest and most economically powerful state in the union admits he fired up and says legalizing pot is now a viable discussion topic. The hypocrisy and demonization regarding the world's safest natural inebriate might finally be nearing its end. It seems potential tax revenue trumps pseudo-moralizing every time. What a surprise.

Immigration still has some spark as a wedge issue, but mostly in committee and mostly among the border states, and everyone pretty much agrees it's low on the priority list these days, considering. Gun control? Ditto. Despite the inbred paranoid nutballs buying more ammo and going on murderous rampages, even Obama is steering pretty clear, except to renew the assault weapons ban.

So at the moment, abortion it is. The right appears to be kicking it around, seeing if there's any fire left and if they can get anyone to care beyond a few die-hard misogynists, bishops and Newt Gingrich.

Can we make an easy prediction right now? Can we just state the obvious? The effort will fail. It's already failed. In fact, it failed a number of years ago.

Put it this way: If the Bush Administration, the most nefarious, right-wing hellbeast of anti-choice social conservativism to soil the White House in five generations, with its Republican congress and front-loaded Supreme Court and Ted Haggard and Jerry Falwell fluffing the president on a weekly basis, if that vile, ultraconservative crew couldn't inflict permanent damage on Roe v. Wade and crush women's rights forever, it simply cannot and will not be done. Not now, not ever.

Here is your final evidence, ultimate proof of the forgone nature of the Right's pitiable abortion battle. The anti-choice groups have already announced they have given up on this liberal baby-killing president, and are looking to the future, to their very last hope, to the one person who might be able to overturn Roe once and for all and put women back in their place.

Yes, they are kneeling and praying for a Sarah Palin presidential victory in 2012. Hell, even Judy Blume is laughing at that one.

Thank LR#4. Heal fast.