On the same program that he castigated bankers, Norm Goldman proceeded to tackle the legalize pot issue. Back in the Seventies there was a novel, titled "Acapulco Gold," that hypostasized what American culture would be like when (not "if") marijuana became legal.
Wouldn't it be odd if Washington's
repressive attitude forced the NRA and the legalize pot advocates to agree to a
mutual assistance/defense treaty and seek refuge as a coalition group in a
third part such as the Pirate Party?
Maybe after the bankers repent and ask forgiveness and the gun control issue is settled once and for all, maybe then the lobbyists representing America's pharmaceutical companies will permit the politicians to address the legalize pot issue but in Thirteen the chances for that happening fall below the "slim and none" level down to the Australian category labeled "not bloody well likely, mate!"
In our efforts to select a photo to accompany this column,
we remembered an image we acquired while doing some fact checking for a
possible trend spotting story about snapshot collecting. It showed a woman on a ship and carried the
cryptic caption "Spring 1942." In the
Spring of that year, the world was in turmoil but someone was making an effort
to improve their lot in life. Aren't all
journeys manifestations of optimism?
Couldn't that woman be a metaphor for the USA at the start of 2013?
Maybe in an effort to achieve "fair and balanced" news coverage, CBS will hire a pundit to criticize the efforts of mainstream media in the USA? They could feature a televised version of the media criticism made popular by A. J. Liebling. Maybe not. Maybe we could get a job at the American Studies Center at the University of Sydney helping them understand contemporary culture in the USA? Maybe not. Maybe now that Wolfman Jack has gone to the great sound booth in the sky, XERF needs a replacement announcer on the night side? Maybe not.
All three of our writing heroes, Hemingway, Kerouac, and
Hunter S. Thompson, seemed to find the obligations accompanying fame very
disagreeable so maybe we can reconfigure
the old F. Scott Fitzgerald wisdom to read "Living well (in obscurity)
is the best revenge."? If you don't
believe us, then ask author William Kotzwinkle if there is any truth in that
amended quote.
Isn't it amazing that the political commentators are making the assertion that the congressional representatives and the Senators are feeling pressure for the members of the 112th Congress to reach a fiscal cliff agreement now because of concerns about possible resentment for not getting a bipartisan plan to avoid the cliff, playing a role in their reelection as members of the 113th Congress. Isn't there an old political adage that states that American voters have a short memory?
Winston Churchill may have predicted the fiscal cliff political stalemate when
he said: "We
conferred endlessly and futilely and arrived at the place from whence we began.
Then we did what we knew we had to do in the first place, and we failed as we
knew we would."
Now the disk jockey will play "As Time goes by," "the Alabama song," and the Eagles song about James Dean. We have to go post a link to this column on Facebook. Have a "good night and good luck" type of new year.
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