Park Closings.....

Here is the list.

Keep in mind.....when the parks close, if you go there anyway.....you get arrested. They don't stop enforcement....just safety, maintenance and access.

A list of 220 California state parks - 6 in Marin - that could close

Associated Press

Posted: 05/28/2009 07:21:29 PM PDT

These are the 220 state parks, state beaches, state recreation areas, museums and state reserves that officials say would be closed under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts (parks in Marin are in bold):

1. Leo Carrillo State Park.

2. Los Angeles State Historic Park.

3. Los Encinos State Historic Park.

4. Malibu Creek State Park.

5. Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

6. Pio Pico State Historic Park.

7. Point Mugu State Park.

8. Rio de Los Angeles State Park.

9. Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach.

10. Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park.

11. Topanga State Park.

12. Verdugo Mountains.

13. Will Rogers State Historic Park.

14. California State Capitol Museum.

15. Governor's Mansion State Historic Park

16. Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park.

17. Railtown 1897 State Historic Park.

18. State Indian Museum State Historic Park.

19. Sutter's Fort State Historic Park.

20. Bethany Reservoir State Recreation Area.

21. Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

22. California Mining & Mineral Museum.

23. Caswell Memorial State Park.

24. Columbia State Historic Park.

25. George J. Hatfield State Recreation Area.

26. Great Valley Grasslands State Park.

27. Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park.

28. McConnell State Recreation Area.

29. Carpinteria State Beach.

30. Chumash

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Painted Cave State Historic Park.

31. El Capitan State Beach.

32. Emma Wood State Beach.

33. Gaviota State Park.

34. La Purisima Mission State Historic Park.

35. McGrath State Beach.

36. Point Sal State Beach.

37. Refugio State Beach.

38. San Buenaventura State Beach.

39. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

40. Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

41. Indio Hills Palms.

42. Palomar Mountain State Park.

43. Picacho State Recreation Area.

44. Salton Sea State Recreation Area.

45. Annadel State Park.

46. Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park.

47. Benicia Capitol State Historic Park.

48. Benicia State Recreation Area.

49. Bothe-Napa Valley State Park.

50. Candlestick Point State Recreation Area.

51. East Shore State Park State Shoreline.

52. Jack London State Historic Park.

53. John Marsh Home State Historic Park.

54. Mount Diablo State Park.

55. Petaluma Adobe State Historic Park.

56. Robert Louis Stevenson State Park.

57. Sonoma State Historic Park.

58. Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.

59. Brannan Island State Recreation Area.

60. Delta Meadows.

61. Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park.

62. Franks Tract State Recreation Area.

63. Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park

64. Stone Lake.

65. California Citrus State Historic Park.

66. Chino Hills State Park.

67. Mount San Jacinto State Park.

68. San Timoteo Canyon.

69. Wildwood Canyon.

70. Angel Island State Park.

71. China Camp State Park.

72. Mount Tamalpais State Park.

73. Olompali State Historic Park.

74. Samuel P. Taylor State Park.

75. Tomales Bay State Park.

76. Caspar Headlands State Beach.

77. Caspar Headlands State Natural Reserve.

78. Greenwood State Beach.

79. Hendy Woods State Park.

80. Jug Handle State Natural Reserve.

81. MacKerricher State Park.

82. Mailliard Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

83. Manchester State Park.

84. Mendocino Headlands State Park.

85. Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve.

86. Navarro River Redwoods State Park.

87. Point Cabrillo Light Station.

88. Russian Gulch State Park.

89. Schooner Gulch State Beach.

90. Van Damme State Park.

91. Westport-Union Landing State Beach.

92. Andrew Molera State Park.

93. Carmel River State Beach.

94. Fort Ord Dunes State Park.

95. Fremont Peak State Park.

96. Garrapata State Park.

97. Hatton Canyon.

98. Henry W. Coe State Park.

99. John Little State Natural Reserve.

100. Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

101. Marina State Beach.

102. Monterey State Beach.

103. Monterey State Historic Park.

104. Moss Landing State Beach.

105. Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

106. Point Lobos Ranch.

107. Point Lobos State Natural Reserve.

108. Point Sur State Historic Park.

109. Salinas River State Beach.

110. San Juan Bautista State Historic Park.

111. Zmudowski State Beach.

112. Admiral William Standley State Recreation Area.

113. Azalea State Natural Reserve.

114. Benbow Lake State Recreation Area.

115. Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.

116. Fort Humboldt State Historic Park.

117. Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park.

118. Harry A. Merlo State Recreation Area.

119. Humboldt Lagoons State Park.

120. Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

121. Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

122. John B. Dewitt Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

123. Little River State Beach.

124. Patrick's Point State Park.

125. Pelican State Beach.

126. Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

127. Reynolds Wayside Campground.

128. Richardson Grove State Park.

129. Sinkyone Wilderness State Park.

130. Smithe Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

131. Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area.

132. Tolowa Dunes State Park.

133. Trinidad State Beach.

134. Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park.

135. Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.

136. Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park.

137. Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park.

138. Castle Crags State Park.

139. Colusa-Sacramento River State Recreation Area.

140. McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park.

141. Shasta State Historic Park.

142. Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park.

143. William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park.

144. Woodson Bridge State Recreation Area.

145. Pismo State Beach.

146. Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve.

147. Austin Creek State Recreation Area.

148. Fort Ross State Historic Park.

149. Kruse Rhododendron State Natural Reserve.

150. Salt Point State Park.

151. Sonoma Coast State Park.

152. Border Field State Park.

153. Carlsbad State Beach.

154. San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park.

155. Silver Strand State Beach.

156. Torrey Pines State Beach.

157. Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.

158. Estero Bluffs State Park.

159. Hearst San Simeon State Park.

160. Limekiln State Park.

161. Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve.

162. Monta–a de Oro State Park.

163. Morro Bay State Park.

164. Morro Strand State Beach.

165. William Randolph Hearst Memorial State Beach.

166. A–o Nuevo State Natural Reserve.

167. A–o Nuevo State Park.

168. Bean Hollow State Beach.

169. Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

170. Burleigh H. Murray Ranch.

171. Butano State Park.

172. Castle Rock State Park.

173. Castro Adobe (Rancho San Andres).

174. Gray Whale Cove State Beach.

175. Half Moon Bay State Beach.

176. Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

177. Lighthouse Field State Beach.

178. Manresa State Beach.

179. Montara State Beach.

180. Natural Bridges State Beach.

181. New Brighton State Beach.

182. Pescadero State Beach.

183. Point Montara Light Station.

184. Pomponio State Beach.

185. Portola Redwoods State Park.

186. San Gregorio State Beach.

187. Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park.

188. Seacliff State Beach.

189. Sunset State Beach.

190. The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.

191. Thornton State Beach.

192. Twin Lakes State Beach.

193. Wilder Ranch State Park.

194. Bodie State Historic Park.

195. Burton Creek State Park.

196. D.L. Bliss State Park.

197. Donner Memorial State Park.

198. Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point State Park.

199. Emerald Bay State Park.

200. Empire Mine State Historic Park.

201. Grover Hot Springs State Park.

202. Kings Beach State Recreation Area.

203. Lake Valley State Recreation Area.

204. Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park.

205. Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve.

206. Plumas-Eureka State Park.

207. South Yuba River State Park.

208. Tahoe State Recreation Area.

209. Ward Creek.

210. Washoe Meadows State Park.

211. Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

212. Antelope Valley Indian Museum.

213. Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park.

214. Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

215. Fort Tejon State Historic Park.

216. Providence Mountains State Recreation Area.

217. Red Rock Canyon State Park.

218. Saddleback Butte State Park.

219. Tomo-Kahni State Historic Park.

220. Tule Elk State Natural Reserve.

More Crosses.....

This is what part of 5,000 stakes for the crosses looks like. All 5,000 were painted by eight Marines and DJ in two days. On their days off.



And.....

From one of my soccer guys....an absolutely fearless goalkeeper.

That is silly.....all goalkeepers are absolutely fearless.

"Hey Michael hope all is well. Bless your work for monday and was wondering if I could help. Its the least I could do for all the lives lost that I feel personally for all them. I want to do something that well help me console this part of my heart. I was wondering I could come down Sunday so I could be up and ready Monday.

Marco"

Any questions?

Crosses.....

Here is an email from a Marine who is one of eight who have personally painted 5,000 42" wooden stakes white....with brushes..... for our Memorial Day project. They are also downloading all the data for the KIA (Killed In Action) for transfer to Avery labels to affix to the crosspieces for our crosses for Monday.


Good Morning Sir,

Unfortunately the list is still not completed. i'm going to try to get excused from "Safety Training day" so that i can continue compiling the list. If I don't get permission to work on it during day, it will be done by the night. I believe we should be close to completed. I haven't heard the status from the others, but i know that 2008 and 2009 were still unassigned awaiting someone to finish their assigned year. I've been working diligently on 2004 and it seems to be the highest KIA count year. We are working around the clock and trying to get you this ASAP. Thank you for allowing us to be involved in such an honorable memorial service, sir.

Regards,
PFC Anish S. Parmar

Words fail me.

Many thanks to Jeff and Sam for sponsoring some of this work.

I can't find the little tool that allows me to insert fotos into the blog. I dropped off our 30th gallon of paint on Thursday at DLI. The kids have been handpainting every stake and stacking them next to the old barns by the Goodwill dropoff point off Pvt Bolio Road just above Fisherman's Wharf. They are stacked five or six deep to dry.....and completely surround all the surface areas of all the buildings in the area.

I was just returning from burying my buddy.....and spending a long, emotional, sleepless night with his family.......but seeing all of those stakes starting to morph into representations of actual souls of our lost young people is overwhelming.

We have two ex-Mayors of Carmel in our Monday inventory......and a poet/professor ACLU observer.....and a platoon of current Army volunteers led by a greivously wounded West Point grad who confers with Obama semi-weekly.....and we are walking the fine line between asking for help from our public and clinging to the shreds of secrecy that will allow us to pull this off......

Former Mayor Jean Grace tells me that Carmel Beach is 18 acres. Our project gives a square meter to each dead soul....a total of one and a quarter acres......less than ten percent. One would hope that the City of Carmel could give up 8 percent of its beach for eight hours one day out of the year to honor the sacrifice of our lost service folk.

But....you never know.

Stay tuned.

In Memoriam......

Trying to run a business......

I once was asked by Leadership Monterey to give a speak to young up-and-coming leaders about small business in Monterey. The program printed my subject matter for my talk as "How to Ruin a Small Business in Monterey." Hey, same speech.....

Trying to run a business and coordinate the return of Carmel Arlington on Memorial Day. We are now up to 5,000 crosses.....double three years ago. Doubling numbers in our world is always on a log scale......double is four times harder.

Also.....given the economic climate, folks are slow in paying for last year's sins in PartyWorld.....and Carmel Arlington ain't cheap. Last time I just said "Screw it!".....and paid for everything myself. Some sweet kind people chipped in and made it all survivable.

The crosses cost about a buck a piece. We can do all the work and run interference with the authorities....but we could really use some help. Maybe think about sponsoring a few crosses.

As much as posting things in this blog is akin to hiring one of those airplanes with a banner.....this project is a secret. We do not want to place the City of Carmel in the position of telling us "NO!"......when we don't actually need their permission to begin with.

So.....love to have help and support on Memorial Day. Stay tuned.

And, while flipping through the file and photos from last time around, and experiencing that wave of emotion......I get news that my oldest and best friend has been found dead of a heroin overdose.

Peter was no junkie.....he was a genius millionaire surgeon. Well, if you die with a needle in your arm, labels come with the program.

I met Peter in 1964 in Summit, New Jersey in high school. I was the new kid, again. Summit High was my tenth school, and my fifth in five years. I was the dork of all dorks, arriving in cosmopolitan New Jersey from Reno, Nevada. Somehow I fell in with Peter, and we became twins separated at birth.

His parents hated me; my parents hated him. Both sets of folks were sure that the other kid was responsible for all the wild and wacky stuff that their perfectly normal son got up to......and they were right.

I bailed Peter out of jail the first time in 1967, without telling his parents. They are still pissed. We were roommates at Cornell, over everyone's objections. We snuck over to Europe one summer, bought Nortons and drove all over the Continent......while pretending to be painting houses and taking summer school back in Ithaca. The next summer, same thing.....except ten of us drove to California and back.

The farmhouse we rented in Ithaca became a French restaurant, and after eviction we wound up as the first employees.......and the road to ruin was complete.

We worked in Europe in hotels and vineyards and wineries together, worked in restaurants back in New York together to pay for our European sins, all the while getting nowhere professionally and increasing the ire of our parents.

Peter actually saved me from terminal Sixties Cliche-dom (stoned on Nepalese Temple hash, I was about to get on The Purple Bus to Katmandu) with a phone call to my crappy restaurant in Istanbul in 1974. He had bought a restaurant in Telluride and demanded my presence.

Peter saved me again two years later. I had somehow decided to become a lawyer and moved back to Cornell. On the night before the LSAT, well rested, properly fed and ready......the doorbell rang at 2am. Peter was in from Telluride with a huge load of old wines and young stimulants. I went directly to the test from a '49 Latour at 7am.....I actually aced the test (790 of 800) but the gods were clearly speaking: "GTFOH, Jones!" We were in Carmel within the month.

Meanwhile, one night in Telluride while cleaning spinach, Peter ingested some ergot mold. The ensuing days long hallucinations nearly took him out, but the town doc....just a lowly intern....walked Peter through the ordeal and lit a different fuse in my friend. The next day, he closed the restaurant and enrolled in pre-med. Six years later he was a doctor.

A urologist.....instantly in trouble with the local medical society for his billboard: "Bring your problem....big or small....to Doctor Peter, the Peter Doctor!"

It is a long boring story......Best man at my wedding, godfather to my kids......constant touchstone reminder that really ANYTHING is possible, just be bold, fearless and infinitely self-confident.

A wild, genius free-spirit found our world too tame. Peter was the Neal Cassady of medicine and restaurants, and in the end......met the same lonely fate.

I had not laid eyes on Peter in fifteen years.....but each phone call went for hours. There are certain friendships that time and distance have no jurisdiction over. We could resume a conversation from eighteen months previous without a beat.

It is only just now after hearing the news that Peter's crazy, manic mind is forever stilled.....that I can actually feel the silence in my own head. He was always there, goading, challenging, critical, supportive.......Part of me has died as well.

And the irony is not lost that in the midst of preparing to memorialize thousands of our best and brightest who were taken out of this life against their will.....that I have to deal with the memorial of someone who took himself off the board.

I just got a phone call from Will, who is driving himself DJ Skelton style to make the US Para-Olympic team despite the cerebal palsy that basically gives him a 50% race handicap from the get go. Hearing the echoes of that drive and dream in Will's voice both comforts......and amplifies the echo of all these wasted lives in front of me.

Mom's Day......

Catering and restaurant folks are always working on other people's holidays....so there can be some bitterness and irony involved in our attitudes on Major Holidays For White People.

Thanksgiving is a dreaded restaurant day, for example. It is The Day That Will Never End. Service goes on all day....and it is all brown food cooked the day before.

Our first Thanksgiving at Silver Jones we had just mastered our sound system and converted to the magic of CD's (as opposed to Musak). Unfortunately, my partner had absconded with all our CD's on a hot date with Shiksa #5....and we were left with Tracy Chapman. Only Tracy Chapman. Something about a fast car. And some screaming in the night or something.

Waterboarding is nothing. Spend fourteen hours listening only to Tracy Chapman....while standing around surving old, brown food. All of us on staff succeeded in making it through the day without killing each other.....just. Still, when we accidentally pass on the street...we quickly look away. We have seen the dark side of each other's souls.

New Year's is another one. Rookie Night. Only douche bags go out and party on Rookie Night....the kind of people who belong to Men's Groups, or have accounts with eHarmony. In Cachagua we are always open for dinner.....just to try to keep our fellow citizens in Cachagua and safe from arrest at the hands of the Sheriff. We put a brave face on things.....but we are just a Tracy Chapman CD away from either suicide or murder.

I could go on.

Mother's Day is a lower level holiday....but fraught with guilt. Mother's Day was actually started by Harriet Beecher Stowe....of Uncle Tom's Cabin fame.....and the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Gotta hand it to Harriet......she must have been a firebrand.

Mom's Day didn't really catch on until Hallmark and FTD got in on the act, though. Nowadays, Mother's Day is right behind Valentine's Day and Rookie Night in the restaurant hierarchy of meaningless holidays that bring out the dumbass white trash folk who are not normally to be found in restaurants.

It can be lucrative. Bernardus charged around eighty bucks for their buffet this morning. Some sleazeball places on Cannery Row were down in the low forties: Sliced Baron of Beef, Sliced Tom Turkey, Waffle Station, Tortellini Salad.....complimentary glass of bulk process sparkling wine mixed with frozen concentrated OJ. Mmmm. Let me show you my love, mama!

Luckily, my mom has given up on me.

She does gracefully consent to come out to the Store for Brunch with Amanda's folks, though. And Callie comes with Jerry and Sally. And Jean-Louis with his wife.

Mostly though, Cachagua Store brunches are more MotherFucker's Day than Mother's Day.

We try to maintain a positive attitude....for the Mom's.

Meanwhile, people fail to understand about chefs....and waiters....and boundaries.

We love our jobs....in general. In specifics.....we do not love our jobs. If I have contracted to be ready to serve brunch at 9:30 am, I need to be walking in the door of the kitchen by 8:15....or 8:30. This means I need to leave my house at 7:50 or 8:10. This means I have to wake up at 6:50....or 7:10. Or even 7:12.

I work often times for movies and other film shoots....gnarly, high-strung, high-pressure jobs full of prima donnas where the rules change every five or ten minutes. Still, work rules require that meals be ready at certain specific times.....Breakfast call time at 7:15 means 7:15, not 7:16. This means lunch must be ready by 12:15, and not 12:16. Meal penalties can result in the entire crew being paid time and a half for an entire day if the caterer is late.

So....we deal not in hours but in minutes and parts of minutes. On a gorgeous Sunday morning.....the difference between sleeping until 7:12 as opposed to 7:10 can be huge.

When I arrive for Sunday brunch....I know I have one hour to: cut and roast 100 potatoes; lay out and roast three pans of bacon; melt two pounds of butter; separate eight eggs; carry out 25 plates for the oven rack; sautee mushrooms; cut kale, chard, parseley, basil and chervil from the garden and wash the leaves; find the three cheeses; get the egg poaching water set, make pancake mix and cut berries for it; find the ham, English muffins, maple syrup, OJ; find the meats and fishes we can use and get the ready; assemble my mis-en-place of pans, knives, spatulas, grills, spoons, ladles, salts, peppers, herbs, etc.; peel, chop and fry two big white onions; cut the now roasted potatoes in halves and get them in the pans with the onions.

Oh....and find the left-over roast chicken from last Monday and pull meat and skin for Xabi's breakfast.

I do this at a dead run.....because I have slept in those extra two minutes.

I am not even mentioning the waitress...who is also working at a dead run on her deal......

So....if you are a stoned-out hippy Trustifarian scumbag....and you take advantage of our not having actually locked the door that says: "Closed"......

And you walk through said door at 9:10 and ask for coffee and cigarettes from the Store that does not open until 10:00 am.....

You are fucking up our whole scene, our whole morning....and all of Mother's Day.

You are a douche bag....and you don't know it.

I would rather put cold steel to these people's throats and back them out the door into traffic....

Amanda goes for concilliation...and downs tools and gets the fucking hippy his cigarettes....the coffee is still dripping.

"Dude...you can't do this. We are trying to get set up. The Store opens in an hour."

"Let me help you, Man....."

"No....this job takes skills...we don't have time to even talk to you. Get the fuck out of here before I stab you."

"Wow, Man. Life would be so much better for you if you would just smile more........Why are you such an asshole?"

Yoga breathing.....back to The Center. It is Mother's Day......calm, calm, peace, love, tie-dye.....

Brunch starts.....People come in, sit down, give orders. We have one waitress, and one guy in the kitchen. The Garden Lady arrives, and walks directly into the kitchen....blowing past the waitress who is trying to save her life: "You can't go back there.....You really shouldn't go back there...."

"It's OK.....I know him......"

Apparently better than my wife.....the waitress.

"Oh, Michael.....Hi! I brought some blah blah blah....."

At this moment I have eight eggs in the poaching water....all put in at different times. I have three egg pans going in front of me....all the room I have. I am trying to keep my omelettes in their signature pale zone with no crust. I am sauteeing kale and chard I just picked from the garden....trying to keep the potatoes hot without burning them. I have six English muffins on the mini-grill, and eight pancakes on the big grill. I am slicing Corrallitos ham and trying to anticipate how many slices I will need: if they stay in the oven a minute too long I need twice as many slices. I have just noticed two new tables of people walk in whose orders I already know on sight....and I am trying to calculate how much hollandaise I have left and how many eggs in the poacher, and how much pancake mix is still left........and maybe if I can get to the first eggs in the eight o' clock position in the poacher before they overcook I can drop some new ones in at that position......and oh shit I am running out of hot plates.......

"Take another step and I will cut your throat where you stand, you stupid bitch!".....which comes out as "I am busy."

"Huh.....He is such an asshole......So angry. Maybe he should smile more....."

Yeah. Happy Mother's Day.

And....I can't wait to walk into your office unannounced in themiddle of your work day in the middle of your most stressful moment....

Oh. That's right. That will never happen.

Because, just like the fucking hippy.......YOU DON"T HAVE A JOB!

Ok. I feel better now.

Meanwhile......my Mom is calmly sitting at her table, patiently waiting for her order that came in first....and has been pushed to the back because she is family and will understand.....and watching her son barely not stab the Garden Lady.....and ignoring the mad bashing of spoons on stainless and mad cursing when Garden Lady's interruption causes the eight o'clock eggs to overcook.....and the thirty second interruption spiraling into ten minutes for everyone, and a half-hour for Mom......

"You know.....Brunch at The Cachagua Store is sometimes slow......"

Good....Don't come.

And....

Happy Mother's Day.

Mom....I love your calm in the face of chaos. And I love that you know every bad thing about me....and more that I refuse to acknowledge.....and you still smile when you see me.

Sometimes, anyway.

Happy Mother's Day.

Your summer vacation in paradise.....

Too much information......

All of us are inundated with emails, links, posts from who knows where...every minute of the day.

Last month I got fooled by some whack-job paranoid bitching about a food bill he had not actually read. When I actually spent a day reading the bill.....I was embarrassed for my lack of due diligence.

Today, I wasted a half-hour responding to some fuck-head who claimed that HR 1388 was new Obama legislation setting aside $20 million to move Hamas militants to the U.S. from Gaza in Palestine....and how this ties into Obama's Muslim agenda.

This time I actually read the bill....which turns out to be Ted Kennedy's National Service Initiative......kids should do community service.

"Hate to pop this clown's bubble.....but this is all bullshit. There is no mention in the bill of anything to do with Palestine or Hamas. Imagine actually reading the material? What a concept. The bill is the Serve America act....making some kind of volunteer service mandatory for young people.

It is possible that there are funds budgeted for helping people who DO manage to extract themselves from all the various Middle East shitholes. Right now, we do not even take Iraqi's.....even translators targeted by insurgents, or families of translators already killed by insurgents......much less Palestinians.

By the way....one of my prettiest and brightest Stanford students is a Palestinian. She did marine biology, and now is a lawyer out of UC Davis. She volunteered in the summers working in the refugee camps teaching the kids dance. Her dad was on a Hamas hit list, so he emigrated (he has plenty of money and lives in Marin County). Carina is a VICTIM of Hamas, who is trying to fix things. Her family was rich, so they did not need our help. There are a lot of poor people on our side in Palestine that need our help.

Saying that just because someone lived in Gaza they are a Hamas terrorist is ignorant, bigoted bullshit unbecoming anyone who should pretend to call themselves Americans. This Watson guy is a fucking douchebag.....he needs to be stuffed in a bottle and floated out on the Japanese current with the rest of the trash and litter. There is way too much hate the world already to be wasting time and energy inventing it and instigating more.

Meanwhile, I will forward to you some info on the new, hi-tech munitions the Israeli's used against Gaza.....DIME munitions. Dense Inert Metal Explosives....If there was money in HR 1388 it would not be for actual Hamas radicals....but for refugees on our side, or wounded or blown up people from Gaza. Actually it would only be for relatives of blown up people since there are no survivors from DIME munitions. The wounds inflicted are considered untreatable....and anyway if you survive the initial blast, you are dead from leukemia within a month.

After reading about the effects of the new weaponry and how it was deployed, you might have a different outlook on this subject. Obama is cleaning up a pretty terrible humanitarian and PR mess our munitions people and the Israelis created. At the time this came out in 2006, I was amazed no one seemed to give a shit.....the Bushies and the MSM hushed everything up.

A $20 million apology would be cheap. One twentieth of one banker's bonus for one year. Unfortunately even that token gesture of humanity is a right-wing fantasy.

Yeah.....so picture actual journalism. It is hard work. You actually have to talk to people, follow leads, fact-check everything. I have a project in mind.....but it would take two years, and I have weddings to do in the meantime, and bills to pay.

Here is some of my basic research. You can take it to the bank:

The Army spends around a half-million dollars training each graduate from our Army, Navy and Air Force academies. In exchange, the soldiers, sailors and airmen and women promise a full five-year committment to the military.

Once upon a time......everybody stayed in until they died, which was usually of old age and alcoholism.

The Class of 2003? After five years, five thousand dead, stop-loss, multiple battlefield tours, etc........

Thirty-one per cent have stayed on.....and more are leaving all the time.

These are our best and brightest.....the crew that for two hundred plus years have gone on to become generals and admirals and run our armed forces. The West Point classes of the 1840's gave us most of our Civil War generals......and a crazy number of Presidents, Senators, etc.

That is no longer the case.

So.....who is filling the ranks left open by the departure of our actual trained and educated officers? Answer.....whoever signs up.

A newly minted officer leaves West Point as a lieutenant. With good service, and minimal fuckups this guy or gal becomes a captain in four or five years. Majors have to wait for ten or twelve years.

The whole good service and fuckup thing? Out the window in the face of 69% attrition rates. Enlistment standards are way down, and officer qualifications have followed them. At this point, even drug dealing will not get you fired from our New Volunteer Army. Just don't grab someone's dick in the shower, and you can do whatever you want.

There is a 99% promotion rate from captain to major these days.

Are you kidding?

The Army and restaurants fish in the same pool of available employees. We don't get the bankers and doctors and lawyers. Anyone who would do either job is missing some important neuro-transmitters.....not there are not great, creative chefs.....and brilliant military folk.

Still......if I promoted 99% of all the fuckups that ever worked for me......there would be mad chaos in the world of food. Ten per cent is more like it.......thirty per cent at a push.

When I first moved to California from New York City I burned through waitresses and cooks like petrol at a NASCAR race. Eventually....tired of working by myself.....I embraced the California work ethic: If someone shows up some time on the day they were appointed....this wonderful. If they show up most of the time, and are often sober.....you never fire them. If they show up most of the time and often sober for a year.....you make them a manager. If they last two years....you make them a partner.

This is in a business that pours liquid into glasses and makes cold things hot....and hot things cold. There is rarely gunfire.

To discover that our military is in worse shape than our restaurants is sobering. Because our restaurants suck.

There is a core of smart, brave, loyal soldiers and sailors that are bucking this trend....but no one is listening. If we don't get a clue......old Nick the Greek, the alcoholic tobacco stained waiter who always forgets your name......will be directing military operations and strategy.

You think I am exaggerating?

Three stories from today: 1) a triple amputee (West Point grad)....no arms, one leg...still in service was called back up to active duty last month.....for a third tour in Iraq. He protested a little, but as a good soldier buckled down, took his kids out of school, put his house on the market....and prepared to go back into battle at the Army's command. Turns out, they don't have a mechanism for recognising wounds suffered in battle. 2) An officer (West Point grad '98) who was blown up in Iraq and lost both eyes was just notified that he would not be eligible for promotion from Captain to Major because he had completed the physical training.....the Ranger course or whatever is required. The guy is fucking blind, functioning as a staff officer at a high level despite his wounds.....but not the guy you want with you on a ropes course, and won't be great at spotting IED's in Mosul. 3) A third guy, also blown up in Iraq also gets orders cut for Iraq. This guy is also missing some important body parts, some vision, etc......but more important, is a highly trained security and intelligence officer that is working at planning staff level.

No matter. Nick the Greek needs some waiters for Sunday Brunch.....so stick 'em in there. It is either these guys or the dishwashers. And, just like the restaurant business.....in ten years, the dishwashers will be in charge.

Lots of people.....including me.....screamed and shouted and waved their arms about the impending housing crisis, and no one listened.

The impending disintegration of the quality of our military is scarier to me than a bunch of Mary Kaye salesladies defaulting on their McMansions in Las Palmas.

I would tell you more.....but I have to get ready for a dinner party tomorrow.