I can see clearly now

Capital Punishment

How can people say that capital punishment doesn’t deter crime?  Well, I suppose it’s because we do have capital punishment but we DON’T USE IT, hence it’s not a real deterrent.  But trust me, take 50 death row inmates a day, kill them and continue for a month…it would become a deterrent, and quickly.

The prison system is out of control…inmates get college degrees, pump iron all day long, rape other inmates, congregate in the exercise yard, rape other inmates (this happens a lot), sell dope, take dope…what the hell, I thought they were in PRISON.  Doesn’t being in prison mean you’ve been convicted of a crime and you’re being punished?

It costs us a fortune to keep someone in prison…so if you’re on death row, you’ve pretty much exhausted several appeals, have been convicted of a serious crime(s), and most likely will be appealing until your last breath.  And that last breath may not come for years and years and may come as a result of old age the way our capital punishment system works.

I know there are a few (maybe even many) that are incarcerated unjustly…but given the numbers and the fact that most prisoners are repeat offenders…we must do something to get the message across that you can’t continue a lifestyle of disregard for others because you know that you won’t really be punished.  You will go to prison, but still most likely you won’t ever be rehabilitated.  I’m speaking of hardened criminals, repeat offenders…the scourge of the earth.  You don’t get on death row for a simple minor crime.  Enough is enough.

We have the death penalty and I think we should USE IT.  You start depleting the death row inmate numbers and crime will go down…and certainly those that have been executed won’t be committing any more crimes…that’s a deterrent.

And further…how about this…you get to die the same way your victim did - shot, stabbed, tortured, raped, mutilated, whatever.

New Years

Aunt Stella used to have the best New Year’s Eve parties…many many years ago, when I was a little girl.  They lived on Stillman Street, just around the corner from Aunt Toni and Uncle Joe.  It was a street much like Grandmom’s but every house had a front porch.  It seems to me that Aunt Stella’s house was smaller, only a 2 bedroom.  There was a black cat clock in the kitchen and the eyes and tail moved from side to side.

In the cellar she had a bar…so cool I thought.  The house would be packed, everyone dressed very nicely (people “dressed up” in those days), with lots of booze and music.  At 12 o’clock, everyone would go outside and join all the neighbors to dance the Mummers.  It was a wonderful time and Joan’s husband Donald was the best…Lord, he could dance.  I can see it like it was yesterday.

Thanks Mom

Thank your Mom, she chose life.

Bowflex

So I’m stretched out on my chair, feet up on the ottoman, under a blanket watching an infomercial for Bowflex and thinking I should get one of those!

I’m lying down, eating chips and drinking a soda, too lazy to even get up and change the channel…and I’m going to get a Bowflex!  Lord, they make it look so easy…they’re showing me a 50 year old woman with a tight middle…coming out of a pool in a bikini, looking hot.  She’s in a bikini…I don’t even wear shorts, she’s in a bikini.  Thank God for capris or my white legs would never see the sun.

Maybe I could put the Bowflex next to my Tony Little Gazelle that’s taking up space in the corner of my bedroom.

Imagine if they took all the money that people spend on exercise equipment that they never use and put it toward medical research.  We could probably cure cancer in a month.

Welcome to WalMart

I’m at the new Super WalMart in Gilroy the other day to buy plastic boxes with wheels and lids that slide under your bed for extra storage.  I find the boxes, but no lids.  I look up and down the aisle, go around the other side, no lids.

I see a man mopping and a woman talking to him, apparently both WalMart employees since he’s mopping and she’s wearing a red vest that on the back reads How Can I Help You.  I walk up to them and wait, and wait…they glance at me but continue talking.  I can’t understand what they’re saying because they’re speaking Spanish.  So I politely interrupt and ask the woman is she can help me.  She looks over and says, without batting an eye, No Speak English…dumbfounded, I compose myself and wave her over.  She doesn’t need to speak with me, just get me the lids I need.  I point out the boxes, indicate the label that shows the lids and she again says No Speak English.  The urge to grab her by the hair and drag her to the front of the store to find the Manager was overwhelming.  Someone needed to explain to me how you can hire someone who DOESN’T speak English…we’re in Gilroy, fucking California…not Tijuana.  But instead I just smiled and walked away. 

Apparently WalMart employees should be wearing red vests that read How Can I Help You if you speak Spanish…if you speak English, you’re fucked.

So, is it sex???

I was talking with a woman the other day, in her mid 20’s, and we were discussing some of her friends.  The topic of who’s dating who came up and in the course of the conversation this girl mentions that some of her friends are “Christian” and are saving themselves for marriage…so, no sex.  This conversation went round and round and then came back to her saying that one of the couples has oral sex…but not sex!!!  A contradiction in my book…so of course I asked how is it that you just said they’re not having sex but they do have oral sex…isn’t that the same thing???…and she said, “No, I don’t think so”.  You’d think maybe I could stop…but no, I had to say it…did you just say no, that oral sex isn’t sex?  Who the hell are you, Clinton?

She said that maybe it’s her generation…”we” don’t feel it’s sex.  I’m here to tell you, oral sex IS sex and I added that what could be more intimate than oral sex, certainly it’s more intimate than intercourse…and she agreed, but still said it is not sex.  I said, “Then you’d be wrong”.

Friends

 
If you wake up in a red room with no windows and doors,
DON’T panic..you’re just in my heart!!!

Parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary

It was March 1971, Alan was in Vietnam and it was my parent’s 25th wedding anniversary.  I wanted to give them a party, and I knew it would have to be a surprise…there was no way my Dad would be in a party mood.  His whole focus was the war and having Alan come home safely.  So, I planned a surprise party…about maybe 25 people at a great restaurant.  I told them I was taking them to dinner and they were totally caught off guard.  Although they had a great time, I knew the best gift I could have given them would have been to have their son home.  But since I couldn’t manage that…I did the next best thing…I surrounded them with family and friends who loved them.

Holding Her and Loving You

It’s the early 70’s, I think Stan might have been signing this…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leOnuULiEsw

Senior Menu

We’re driving back from Morro Bay, checking on the house construction.  We were to meet you guys for dinner, but it got too late and it would have been a big hassle so I called and said we’d connect the next week when we came back.  I was exhausted, it was a very long day.  I was actually too tired to even stop to eat, but some things are a necessity.  So we pulled into a Denny’s for dinner in Atascadero.  Anyway, I wasn’t very hungry so when I looked at the menu I saw there was a senior menu on the back cover.  I thought great, smaller portions.  So we both ordered from that menu.  When our food came, Stan said what the hell…it’s like a kids meal…his meat was the size of a cigarette pack  And then it hit me…I’m eating at a Denny’s…from the senior menu…just shoot me.