Note to self, good ideas

Blue state-red state divorce? I'm all for it!

Hey Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and the rest of the Confederacy!

Ya'll want to secede from the US? I'm all for it! 'N' ya'll lucky Abe Lincoln ain't 'round ta kick ya in yer wide white confederate ass. Jus' sayin'.

Paul VanDevelder lays out terms for the divorce in this recent article posted at the LA Times. Check it out. He's not only spot on, he's hilarious.

Paul VanDevelder is a journalist, screenwriter and the author, most recently, of "Savages and Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America's Road to Empire through Indian Territory."

Charles River and Reno Vegans

An Infinite Number Of Monkeys

After all the Shakespeare, the book

of poems they type is the saddest

in history.

But before they can finish it,

they have to wait for that Someone

who is always

looking to look away. Only then

can they strike the million

keys that spell

humiliation and grief, which are

the great subjects of Monkey

Literature

and not, as some people still

believe, the banana

and the tire.

~Ronald Koertge

Photos from the protest yesterday organized by Reno Vegans at Charles River, the world's largest supplier of animals for experiments or, as they say on their website, "essential research products". Charles River carefully conceals information about dogs and monkeys but their use and cruelty is documented and ongoing.

Charles River Lab on Longley Lane in Reno, Nevada.

Are those chimneys from a crematorium? Any animal who manages to survive an in-house experiment at a Charles River lab is killed shortly afterwards. Photographs obtained from the USDA through the Freedom of Information Act in 2008 revealed cramped and barren conditions at this facility "with the potential to cause madness".

At this point, most of the group is out doing a walkabout.

Seems Charles River sent one of their goons to intimidate us. Unknowingly, I parked right next to him as he sat across the street doing a video of the whole event from the cab of his black truck.

He immediately turned his camera on me so I took out my camera and took several photos of the bastard. No surprise he was there. Billion dollar corporations like Charles River employ countless goons, including platoons of lawyers, to guard their gates.

The turnout was small, as these things generally are. There were two main elements, a group of young people in black wearing black bandanas over their faces and about an equal number of older people dressed in regular clothes.  But, whatever our difference, we all feel strongly about animal rights and are glad to protest multinational merchants of death like Charles River, aka the "General Motors of the laboratory animal industry".

"There are dogs in there too.
You do care, don't you?" ~ Martha

DITL + Charles River Labs protest

We're back. It's been a month since we took off to Portland to lend support after our 20 year-old granddaughter attempted suicide. I'm hoping that's behind us now. She has now moved back to her mom's in Grants Pass where she will continue counseling, get a job and chill for awhile.

This morning it's party time in the Bird Park. Remember, I've been gone for a month but never fear. Good old Seven showed up at 7:22 with a friend. Not only did she find the usual peanuts and puppy kibble, but the delicious pumpkin pie I'd put the freezer when we left, thinking we'd be back in a week. I'm sure it's fine but M. Lee won't touch it. So far, Seven only gave it a peck but she'll check it out later, after she's done stashing the peanuts.

And, yay, a couple of quail just showed up. Excellent. Now the Bird Park is officially open.

 

So today I'm going to Reno to participate in the Reno Vegans protest against the Charles River Labs. In case you haven't heard, Charles River Labs is a notorious contract animal testing business and the world's largest supplier of animals for lab experiments in the world. Although animal testing has been replaced by humane, more accurate methods, Charles River Labs continues to conduct  painful, live experiments on any animal for a price. These poor innocent beings needlessly suffer torturous lives full of pain, fear, suffering and misery. And any who manage to survive an experiment at Charles River Labs are killed shortly afterwards. This needs to end.
 
So, have a good day.

"I know of no achievement through vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil."
—Charles Mayo, Founder of the Mayo Clinic, c. 1930.

All in all

After a second, shorter stay in the psych ward my granddaughter is doing better and in a few days she's returning to So. Oregon to stay with her mom for awhile. After nearly a month in Portland this was our cue to exit. We're headed back to Nevada.

I am not comfortable writing about personal matters. That's why I'm doing it.

Autumn leaves

I laid down to rest when the sun was still illuminating the red curtains and I could see summer's last tomatoes on the vine just outside the window. It's dark now, no glowing color, no tomatoes. I have the hacking crud that's going around and can barely talk today. I feel better after a nap but still prefer to lay here than join the family in the front room.

I've lost track of exactly how long we've been in Portland. Since LA,whenever that was. We came here to support the family after our 20 year-old granddaughter attempted suicide. She's a great kid in a very dark place. I don't know if everyone has to stand at that cross-road at some point in their life. I did. Perhaps you did too. She's seems to be reclaiming herself. God, I hope she decides to stick around, see how the story turns out. I'd sure miss her.

I just got called to dinner...roasted veggies, french bread, brie, fire in the fireplace.

Loneliest whale in the world

The 52-Hertz Whale's song
is just higher than the lowest note on a tuba.

"This song is the only one of its kind detected anywhere. Because of this, the animal has been called loneliest whale in the world."  -Wikipedia

Chalkboard

This evening M. Lee mentioned that I am like a person writing on a chalkboard with one hand while erasing with the other. How true.

Election night

FANTASTIC that Barack won!

Ps. Fuck off, Karl Rove..

Happy Election Day

So much is going on. I haven't even had time to post a photo. I am surrounded by spinning worlds. We are still in Portland and it's raining. It's election day. If you haven't voted today be sure and VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA.

It's GLOBAL WARMING, stupid!

via Huffingtonpost

Happy Halloween

Remember kiddes, when your out and about tonight
Watch out for the Monster Bridge!

Diane Keaton at the Getty Villa

Diane Keaton got in the elevator at the Getty Villa the other day and after it began its descent to the parking garage she turned to me and said, "You have great hair".  I was on the phone but smiled and said "Thank you". "No. I mean it", she said. "You have really... great ... hair."  Trust me. She knows how to make a point. I told her I thought she looked great herself, all around, clothes, hair, hat, face... everything.

Earlier that afternoon I'd noticed her in the gallery, not because she was Diane Keaton, M. Lee's mom told me that later, but because she was someone over 40 who was simultaneously eccentric, youthful, hip, elegant and, most importantly, unpretentious.

She said something else, I don't remember exactly, but then I joked about how she had made my day because now I had a Diane Keaton story I could tell my friends. I regretted letting on that I knew who she was. It just wasn't the point.

LA outtakes for the last three days

Arrival

LA at night

We didn't leave Nevada until nearly four in the afternoon
on Sunday. We drove so we got into LA pretty late.
Minerva loved it but we were pretty rummy by the time we arrived.

Home for the next week. 

The Piccadilly is right in the middle of downtown but
was built in 1928 and embodies the charm of old Hollywood.
We have a top (7th) floor, two bedroom apartment.

His mom joined us from Oregon.

M. Lee found the place on AirBnB. It's way nicer and cheaper
than a motel would be, plus it's really interesting staying in a stranger's home.

Norton Simon Museum

The Mulberry Tree by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

Van Gogh did this painting shortly after entering the asylum near Arles.
Less than eight months after completing it, he committed suicide.

Venice Beach

The Green Doctors of Venice Beach

Whatever anyone thinks about the "morality of marijuana",
growing pot and selling pot legally in the US is not only good medicine
and a good business, it castrates the cartels by gutting their profits.