Ron Paul’s followers keep telling me that his policies make sense. Even amongst the accusations of racism they keep telling me that his policies make sense. Before today, I had no idea what Dr. Paul’s policies even might consist of, so in fairness I decided to look at what Dr. Paul proposes for US policy at home and abroad. My research materials consisted of Wikipedia and a Wifi connection at a cafe along with a measure of common sense.

Dr. Paul is an isolationist and believes that the USA has no business in other countries. He believes that the assassination of Obama Bin Ladin was incorrect and that the USA should have cooperated with the Pakistani government. The problem with this thesis is that the Pakistani government had been protecting Bin Ladin. Oops.

And then, negating that earlier policy, Dr. Paul argues that Israel should receive more aid from the USA. Huh?

Dr. Paul believes that illegal workers take a toll on welfare. So people who are working and supporting themselves and families at below minimum wage are mysteriously draining welfare.

Dr. Paul supports parallel currencies. This only makes sense if you also understand that he also wishes to go back to the gold standard. What this means is that money would be backed by actual gold and that trade would be limited to gold. Currency would actually be notes and corporations could mint their own currency. What this would mean internal to the USA is that wealth would be contingent on ownership of gold. Demutualized stock exchanges would need to close and reopen or would need to own gold themselves. International trade would become almost impossible. The ultimate outcome would be that those who own gold would become even richer.

As an aside how much gold do Andrew and David Koch own?

Dr. Paul is extremely anti-Medicare. He has shown this in that his own campaign manager died penniless of pneumonia and without health insurance. With friends like Ron Paul you die penniless of diseases that are curable.

I continued to read about Ron Paul’s policies and got sadder and more confused. I decided that if a man who wants simpler government is so very confusing and self contradictory then maybe I had better go to something much simpler like nuclear physics or game theory. Perhaps it is Ron Paul’s genius that he is so very confusing or maybe he’s just nuts? Then I gave up.

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It’s raining in Toronto right now. It’s cold and dreary and chilly, not exactly winter weather, but enough to make you crave a hot chocolate and to avoid going outside. It’s the exact opposite of the warm and sunny day in Santa Monica when I met Joe Bodolai and had lunch with him and he reminisced about his career in TV and film and expressed frustration over his life in LA.

I didn’t know Joe back in the day. He produced Comics and The Kids in The Hall. He wrote for Saturday Night Live. He produced the Gemini Awards show here in Canada and also wrote the first draft of Wayne’s World. He was prodigious and funny and generous. Without Joe, Toronto would not have the Blue jays. I didn’t know Joe then.

I met Joe Bodolai over Twitter. We were virtual friends for over a year and I didn’t know who he was but he was funny and encouraging and we chatted over Twitter and over Facebook. He was always engaging and interested and at more than one point he apologized that he couldn’t do anything for me. I honestly had no idea what he meant by that.

When I went down to Los Angeles last summer for a few months, Joe insisted on meeting up with me. We went for lunch, on a warm and sunny day, to a cafe in Santa Monica. They knew Joe there. They obviously appreciated the fact that he was a customer, but I don’t think they had any better idea of who Joe was than I did. Joe’s star had waned and Los Angeles is cruel to people who are not on the A list.

Over lunch, Joe was charming and funny and we shared stories about how good life was. That’s all you do in LA. Talk about how good your life is and about how shitty and yet wonderful everyone else. Or about how well you are doing and about wonderful and shitty everyone else is. Joe seemed to be in good spirits but how can you tell in LA where the dogs are carried around in baby strollers and a hangnail is a cause for a fund raiser?

Joe did complain about living in LA. The problem is, who doesn’t complain about living in LA? He did say that he felt that it was the worst thing that he had done in his life. That living in LA was a huge mistake. Again, because of the local hyperbole, who can tell how he really felt? I was told by several people that living in LA was a terrible mistake. Joe really meant it.

I can identify with Joe in the sense that I was a fellow Canadian in LA. Joe’s success in the industry far eclipsed mine and I am certain that he felt that returning to Canada as anything but a conquering hero would translate to failure. It’s not that he couldn’t return to Canada. It’s that he didn’t have anything in Canada to return to.

His Canadian success didn’t translate to LA. Joe was terribly frustrated by this but that did not deter him from helping and encouraging others. I know he was working on a web project when he died and that he was always encouraging to me. When we parted ways after lunch he again expressed regret that he couldn’t help me.

When I got the news this morning I was completely shocked. I still am very numb. 

We didn’t talk a lot after that meeting. Joe complained about health issues. He became more reclusive. Joe’s last blog post stated that he would be helping to serve Christmas dinner to the homeless. Then, with a bottle of gatorade and anti-freeze Joe Bodolai took his life.  

 

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The problem isn’t that Herman Cain’s rectum is distended by the Koch brothers’ fists. The problem isn’t even that he is an ignorant small business owner. The problem is that he is so arrogant that he doesn’t see the other two issues as a problem. Yes, Herman, we know that when David and Charles Koch yell for you, that you say “Yes Massah!” They aren’t your friends, Herman, they’re your puppeteers. (As an aside, I’m not talking about race here because Newt the Pus Bag and Mitt the Pushover are at least as bad). I’m calling you on this one Herman because you are PROUD to have sold out.

Yes, Mitt’s daddy was a Nixon strategist. And yes, Newt is so corrupt and evil that he leaves a trail of slime wherever he goes. Bachman isn’t evil, just crazy and stupid and Perry isn’t for sale because he’s a paranoid schizophrenic who believes in imaginary friends. Huntsman needs personality lessons. Santorum? Google “santorum”. But you, Herman, are PROUD to be the Koch Brothers’ bum boy. Tha saddest part about you running, Herman, is that you think that you may actually have a chance, that Dave and Chuck might actually buy you an election. We know that’s not so Herman. You’re doomed and your fear mongering days are numbered. 

Twitter: IAmJoelWest

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I get email fro Cain and Romney in my spam. Here Cain calls Romney
names:
CAIN FOR PRESIDENT
2360 Corporate Drive, Suite 400 
Henderson, Nevada 89074-7722 
800-362-2723 

Dear Fellow American,
If you support Herman Cain for President, prepare to be outraged.

Crass political manipulation by Mitt Romney and his supporters in
Florida threatens to undermine Herman Cain’s chances of winning that
critical early primary state. It’s all about the money. With his liberal fat cat Wall Street
supporters, Mitt Romney has it in spades. He raised $19 million in the last quarter.

Herman Cain raised just $2.8 million in the last quarter. But, his daily
fund raising receipts were growing rapidly near the end of the quarter. Mitt Romney has another serious problem- about 75 percent of Republican
voters do not want him as the nominee of the party.

For over a year, every voter survey has shown Romney’s support at
between 20% and 25% of Republicans. Nothing more, nothing less. The surveys also show that the vast majority of Mitt Romney’s support
comes from two groups—the moderate/liberal wing of the Republican
Party, and those who say that they DON’T identify with the”tea party”
movement.

Herman Cain’s support comes from the heart and soul of the party-Ronald
Reagan conservatives, and”tea party” Republicans. The truth is that Mitt Romney is out of step with most Republicans.
Since Mr. Romney ran for, and lost, the Republican Presidential
nomination four years ago, we have witnessed the rise of the”tea party”
movement. This time, Romney is running as a conservative, but that was
not always so.

In past campaigns for Governor of Massachusetts and U. S. Senator,
Romney has been FOR gun control, FOR abortion, FOR socialized medicine,
FOR same-sex marriage, and FOR amnesty for illegal aliens. He says, NOW,
that he has changed his views on all of those issues. But can we trust
Mitt Romney to support Reagan Republican principles? Most Republicans say no.

Despite the ups and downs of the other candidates, Mitt Romney has
failed to rise above the level of support that he had a year ago. When Donald Trump flirted with running for President, he shot up in the
polls past Romney. When Trump dropped out, his support went to the other
candidates or the undecided category- NOT to Mitt Romney. When Michele Bachmann entered the race, she skyrocketed to first place,
and she won the Iowa straw poll.

When Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the race, much of Michele
Bachmann’s support shifted to Perry, NOT to Romney, and Rick Perry took
the lead in the polls. Then, Rick Perry’s poll numbers tumbled into the basement after two
disastrous debate performances, but Romney’s level of support DID NOT
change. He failed to pick up any trace of Perry’s former supporters.

Finally, Chris Christie and Sarah Palin both announced that they were
not running for President, and their supporters, along with most of
Perry’s, stampeded over to the Herman Cain campaign. Clearly, Republicans are looking for someone other than Mitt Romney to
be the standard bearer of the party.

Herman Cain now leads Mitt Romney in the polls nationwide, and in four
of the first five states that will be choosing delegates in January and
early February, 2012. Mitt Romney, and his advisers, recognized that their candidate’s
inability to go above 25 percent support was a serious vulnerability for
their campaign. Romney’s campaign team knew that the one advantage that they had was
money. But that wouldn’t last forever if another candidate caught fire
with the voters. A surge in support would eventually mean a surge in
contributions.

To maintain their money advantage, they devised a strategy to shorten
the amount of time available for fund raising before the voting began in
the early states. Unfortunately for Herman Cain, the plan worked.

Romney supporters in Florida succeeded in moving the date of the primary
election from March 6, 2012, to January 31, 2012. This set off a chain reaction among the other early voting states,
because they were determined to maintain their influential early
positions on the calendar. As a result, Iowa, New Hampshire, and South
Carolina will all select their delegates in January, before the Florida
Primary takes place on January 31, 2012.

The entire early primary and caucus schedule was advanced by over a
month because of the change in the Florida Primary date. This gives Mitt Romney a significant advantage, because Herman now has
36 fewer days to raise the money necessary fund a statewide media
campaign in Florida.

Florida is, by far, the largest, and most important, state in the early
voting, so it is a must win for both Romney, and for Herman Cain. Florida’s population is over 18,000,000 people. It is not possible to
run a statewide campaign without television and radio advertising. A
media budget of $5 million, or more, will be necessary to advertise
statewide for the final three weeks of the campaign. It comes down to this. If Herman Cain wins the Florida primary, he will
be well on his way to winning the nomination.

Herman Cain clearly has the momentum in Florida. Not only did Herman trounce Romney in the recent straw poll of
Republicans held at the Florida GOP convention in Orlando, he has now
come out on top in two consecutive surveys done by two different polling
groups. The American Research Group poll of Florida Republicans showed
Herman 6 points ahead of Romney, and the NBC/Marist Poll shows Herman
leading Romney by 1%.

The question is: Will Herman Cain lose because the rules were changed in
the middle of the game? Will Romney’s overwhelming money advantage be
the deciding factor? We don’t have to let it happen. There is enough time to rally behind
Herman Cain, and to help him create a winning campaign in Florida.

In consultation with experienced political pros in Florida, ones who
helped elect Marco Rubio to the U. S. Senate last year, we have mapped
out a strategy to help Herman Cain win the Florida primary. A statewide media campaign must start on January 10, 2012, and run for
three weeks, straight until election day on January 31st—that’s less
than three months away.

Our first order of business is to produce three television ads and three
radio ads to promote Herman, and to contrast him with Mitt Romney. Each
ad will run for one week, and each will be seen and heard by most voters
a minimum of three times; your help is needed NOW!

The cost for producing the three television ads and three radio ads will
be $39,000.

The ads will be of the highest quality, and will use some of the most
creative minds in the advertising field to craft a successful message to
Florida Republican voters. The sooner that we can have the ad campaign produced, the better. It
will help enormously in raising the funds necessary for a full scale
media campaign to have the TV and radio campaign ads to show Herman Cain
supporters from around the country exactly what we intend to do in
Florida to help him win.

Herman Cain cannot win Florida without our help. If he doesn’t win
Florida, chances are that he will not win the nomination. It’s that
simple, and it’s that important. Please join with us, and help make history. CLICK HERE to help fund this
first vital phase of our special”Florida Project” for Herman Cain.
Please send your maximum contribution today, and help us get this
important campaign underway.

Sincerely

Charles Benninghoff, Project Manager
Draft Herman Cain PAC
2360 Corporate Cirlce, Suite 400 
Henderson, Nevada 89074-7722 
xxx-xxx-xxxx not the real address.com

P.S. A contribution of at least $20.12 will get us started on the way to
success. If you can afford $50, $100, or more, please pitch in and help
produce the ads that will help Herman Cain win the Florida Primary. The
maximum donation is $2,500 per person or $5,000 per couple. Helping
Herman Cain win the Florida primary on January 31st is the single most
effective step that you can take to help him win it all.

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I was staying in the guest house belonging to a Facebook friend who lives in Bel Air. She congratulated me on my weight loss and stated that ‘I don’t do anything and yet I keep the shape I’m in.’ The next night her personal trainer came over. I prefer the charitable approach - maybe she doesn’t know she has a personal trainer who works out with her three times a week. Joel West
joel@joelwest.com
http://www.joelwest.com
Twitter: IAmJoelWest

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As you may know, I am extremely progressive. I am not just “Liberal”, I am way out there, spinning out in Left field.
And then today, for 2 hours, I was in a completely different universe. Words had different meanings. People were nice and kind and polite, but there was little to no communication going on. I spent 2 hours with conservatives. I kept my temper. I bit my tongue so many times I think my ability to taste sweet is gone. I continued to hold my temper. And then I left.

I am still trying to come to terms with the idea that there are nice, polite giving people out there who would happily send troops out and completely destroy the entire “Occupy” movement. These are the people who listen to Fox news and believe what they see and hear. They think that Bill O’Reilly is a sane man who is trying to help people and that Sean Fucking Hannity makes sense. They like Ann Coulter and see creeping Sharia Law where ever they go. These people are terrified.

They aren’t bad people. They are just as angry as the people on the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have been hosed by the same banks and they are paying the same bank mortgages and they can barely keep their heads above water. So, what’s the difference? These people are invested in the status quo. They see their life style eroding and they don’t know what to do about it. They are trying to hang on. They are terrified. Instead of yielding to the ebb and flow of life, instead of bending in the wind they stand fast.

These people are not 1%ers. These are the people the 1% rely on. They are the bourgeois. The “petty bourgeois”, the ones who are trying to get their kids into a decent college and see their savings stolen by the banks. The ones who have had their retirement savings value dwindle because of those selfsame banks. And they don’t know what to do. They’ve gone into shock. They are in terrible, terrible, terrible debilitating chronic pain. And they have found an anodyne. Religion is a pain killer. Marx first said that, and he was absolutely correct. And for the shock victims, it works. These people are told by their religions that the they are correct for feeling pain. That it isn’t their fault. That they are not wrong, the world is wrong. And that if it still hurts after taking some religion that they need to take more religion. And they do. It becomes an addiction. It becomes a cycle: world provides shocks and pain, religion provides anesthetic. More pain, more anesthetic. It becomes a dependency.

These are not bad people. They live good lives. They want good for all. They are being led by the 1%. They don’t need our hate. They need our compassion. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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I’ll be turning 50 tonight and I am both happy and sad. Happy because at one point in my life I never thought I would make it past 35 and sad because all my friends and the people I love are elsewhere. Still, I am in Los Angeles and it’s over 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside (for the rest of the world, that’s about 38 degrees Celsius). And I guess that’s part of what has me down. America (The United States of) is such a wonderful place in so very many ways. It has so many wonderful natural resources, so much richness and density, so many different layers. The rich are rich. They have the absolute best technology. And yet, everywhere I go, such stupidity and insanity, such absolute disregard for self and for the future, such absolute disregard for others and such willful ignorance that it is enough to make me weep in despair.

I love you Americans and yet everywhere I go in Los Angeles there are 4 constants: Tattoo parlors, psychic life coaches, dog grooming salons and iPhone/iPad repair places. The tattoo places and dog grooming salons provide services for people. The psychic life coaches are, I presume, a necessity of life, somehow, as there are so many of them and they seem to make a living. What really gets me is the iPhone repair places. The cell phone is a basic need in LA. It is the umbilical cord, the key, the way that people keep in touch. If you don’t have a cell phone you may as well be dead in Los Angeles because you will be spending at least 50 percent of your time in meetings, commuting, doing chores or being away and the cell phone is the only way that people will be able to keep in touch. And yet, with the need for reliable technology most “hip” Americans trust a semi-reliable, extremely fragile, piece of mostly plastic which seems to break at harsh look. They spend 90% of their time either showing off that they have the latest one (they call this “using an app”) or complaining that theirs is garbage or lusting after one.

Are there other phones that do as good a job? Is there something unique about this technology? If it’s so good, why do so many shops offer “iPhone and iPad repair”? Are Americans really that clumsy? Or ignorant? Yes, No, Americans ARE that clumsy. I am not denigrating America. I love sitting outside in the, now, 39 degree Autumn and I love the fact that there is so much plenty. It’s just that American clumsiness depresses after a while. It becomes heavy, like the St. Bernard that thinks he’s a toy poodle. It’s nice that you’re friendly America. And yes, you are loving and caring and loyal and you will protect my house but you chewed up my slippers and destroyed my couch. And when I point these facts out America, you get snippy and surly. We know you didn’t mean to dig up the Rose bushes, America, and your intention was positive. We know you didn’t mean to poop on the sidewalk in front of our house but there’s nobody to scoop what you pooped. And we know you meant well. We do. But America, the world has leash laws and there’s nobody to take you for a walk.

Despite all this, in fact partly because of it, I love you America. I’m living in you, with you. I see the rich, the wealthy, the powerful. The absolute riches here are incredible. I see what your corporations are doing to the citizens. It’s like watching a girl who cuts herself, who puts out cigarettes on her arm, the whore who loves her pimps and knows he loves her because he hits her. America, you don’t need the Koch brothers to pimp you. You are worthy of being loved.

It’s not that you’re not pretty America. Some parts of you are downright beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous. It’s just that you have let parts of yourself go. The Appalachians. The Love Canal. The Los Angeles Freeway System. Gross. Is it too late for an intervention?

(To Be Continued)
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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