­­ Bumper sticker of the week: Us blondes aren't bumb.

­­ Quote of the week: The Call. ''The long line of myths, legends, poetry, and stories throughout the world tell us that it is at that moment of darkness that The Call comes. It arrives in various forms -- an itch, a fever, an offer, a ringing, an inspiration, an idea, words in a book that seem to have been written just for us.'' ''The Art of Pilgrimage,'' Phil Cousineau.

''Yet the Lord pleads with you still: Ask where the good road is, the Godly paths you used to walk in, in the days long ago. Travel there, and you will find rest for your souls.'' Jeremiah 6:16

­­ Cell phones, while useful for keeping in touch, are not what the world needs.

­­ What would you do if I sang out of tune?--

Capitalism is not the great invention it is made out to be. Placing the world in the hands of big business is like inviting Dr. Kevorkian to a senior citizens center. Risky.--

An industrialized country without universal health-care is a backward, regressive, uncompassionate wasteland of profiteers.--

Evangelists are capitalists turned religious.--

The choice of women to bear children cannot be regulated and/or legislated by overzealous men bent on controlling women. It has never worked in the past, and will not work now or in the future. To make abortion illegal will put coat hangers back in business. All the energy being wasted on the subject is a pitiful waste of time.--

You cannot put people to death in the hopes of showing them that killing is wrong. Violence begets violence. It always has, it always will.--

Right-wing Christian conservatism is wrong. It is based on the assumption that Christ was an idiot, which He was not.--

The new welfare system is based on the assumption that business will do right by folks who want to work for a decent paycheck rather than just being given money. It won't work. Bad assumption.

­­ Speaking of corporate welfare. Here are some of the local companies receiving tax abatements for being in an enterprise zone:--

Maytag Co. -- $467,700 (Each family in town should get a free washer and dryer)--

National Seal Co. -- $26,605 (No longer in business)--

Sirloin Stockade -- $23,224 (Eat a lot the next time you're there)--

United Facilities, Inc. -- $113,847 (That's a lot of cereal)--

Target -- $115,865 (No wonder they donate so much)--

Mcreal Estate LLC -- $35,354 (Never heard of them)

Between enterprise zones and TIF districts, millions are lost. I myself recently applied. I'm an enterprise zone just waiting to be TIFed. If your in business, this is something you just cannot not do.

­­ Seems I find myself on a low-fat, low cholesterol, high fiber diet. Most of what I've been eating lately tastes like compressed cardboard.

­­ I remember back in grade school having nuclear attack drills. We would get down on our knees and duck under the desks. This demonstrates the intelligence the teachers had. They must not have noticed what happened in Hiroshima. There wasn't much left. And we're ducking under desks. Oh brother.

A hernia! How in the heck can you get a hernia if you haven't done a hard days work in 20 years? So I go to the emergency room. They're worried about a blood clot after surgery. The doctor is female. No big deal. I drop my pants. She's giving me the infamous cough routine and asks me to relax. I tell her it's kind of hard to relax when a woman is poking around your crotch. She seems a little put off by my sexism. Don't feel bad, I tell her. I would be a lot more nervous if you were a man. The new millennium. It's not all it was made out to be.

­­ The only presidential candidate I ever actively campaigned against was Richard Nixon. That's all about to change.

­­ I understand Galesburg is for sale to the highest donor. Interesting. I'll beat Coke. I'm going $60,000. But I don't want the mall. It's too depressing.



Uploaded to The Zephyr Online August 30, 2000

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