A Card that Invites Questions

As most of you know....I read a fair number of newspapers. I don't brag about this much in public. But this allows me to come across little stories that make you stop and ponder.

This week...from the Flint Journal...15 April, they reported that a local guy called up the cops. He'd lost his billfold.

Apparently, there were some critical documents in that billfold. There was the ID....which is always very important. There was the social security card....fairly important. And then, there was his medical marijuana card.

This billfold was apparently lost as he was pumping gas into his car over on Fenton Road in Flint.

I sat there a while....and kept wondering why you'd want to admit to the cops that you had a medical marijuana card. Course, I am from Bama, and I'd normally be thinking that this would trigger some cop to ask three or four extra questions that it'd be better not to answer.

So I sat pondering. How many folks are driving around today with a medical marijuana card? Fifty thousand? A million? I don't know.

Not being in the business of buying medical marijuana...I'm kinda wondering how you'd use it. Does it work like the Sam's Club card? Do you get a discount like at Costco? Is there a picture on it? Do you have certain brands of marijuana that are noted on the card as OK? Does the card work across state lines? If you flashed the card as a ID for cops....would it bring on added questions?

These are the questions that I ponder. Here's the other thing....which triggers a question now...is there a guy driving around Flint now....with this stolen medical marijuana card and using it to get his requirements?

Oh, and if you were wondering about the picture....yeah, I did some research. This California card cost $99. Some doctor examines you and pronounces you in need of medical marijuana. Pretty nifty.

Fake the Fake of the Fake on the Fake

Out in Sacramento this week, some story popped up with a fake tea party player. I won't publish his name, kinda feeling sorry for the guy.

He apparently got talked into this by some "friends".

Several folks have begun noticing folks at these tea party meetings and demonstrations that don't fit. They've even gone to the extent of confronting them and identifying them. Then the cops get involved....and kinda help the guy to escape from trouble. Sadly, you end up with your picture being taken.

Fakers? I'm trying not to laugh over this. When all the various liberal demonstrations came in the 1960s....the right-wing guys were never stupid enough to become a fake player in the groups.

The same thing came in the last five years with the anti-war crowd....there just weren't any fakers within their cause.

So it's interesting in a way to watch this fake business start up now.

The problem I see is a personal one. You show up as a faker and play out your role. At some point, CNN captures your face and sign. It gets into the press. You show back up at the environmentalist front, the far-left-liberal front, or whatever game you are playing....and Barney says he questions your "faith" or "loyalty".

You try to explain your falseness and they start to wonder if you are being false now.

This is a bad game to start. It's like trying to talk big at the Baptist church that you condemn all drinkers....then show up at the neighbors to get completely drunk on Saturday night....then show back up at church the next day to condemn all drinkers again.

My Kind of Guy for Supreme Court Nominee

We are still in the waiting column for the name of the next Supreme Court nominee. I pondered over this. We ought to hear about the guy within the next couple of days, and it'll start a fairly 'hot' debate.

Frankly, I'd like see some totally unknown guy...maybe some farmer in southern Mississippi who took two years of law before getting kicked out of Ole Miss. This guy ought to be a member of the local square dancers association.

It'd be nice if he voted on both sides of the street. It'd be fairly nice if he knew something about carburetors and the interstate system.

If he could name only two US senators and four representatives...that'd be awful damn fine.

You'd prefer this guy have a sense of humor....be a practicing Baptist guy who drinks all day Saturday but always attends Sunday services, and had dug a septic tank or two in his life.

The key factor to this guy...is that he'd shock the four guys on the left and the four guys on the right...by abstaining from comments...and then launching into both that this wasn't a national question and ought to be answered at the state level. After a year or two...the eight folks on the court would begin to chill out...go fly-fishing a week out of every month....and stop taking ninety percent of the cases that they currently handle.

Life might actually become simple...with folks actually forgetting the names of all of the Supreme Court judges.

The Rhetoric Machine on Turbo

Yesterday...former President Bill Clinton spoke up over problems with angry anti-government rhetoric.

He used it in connection with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

The quote? "The words we use really do matter."

He did his best to say he didn't want to restrict anything folks said but whatever you did say....might be taken the wrong way or interpreted in a very negative fashion.

I have generally the same belief. The problem here is that folks got used to this attitude during the last four years of Bush...and saw a "broken-dam" effect played out in Washington and with the media. Anti-government rhetoric is now a generally accepted thing in society.

Over the past six months...I've watched CNN tone back it's rhetoric and attempt to play the middle ground. I'll be honest...it can be seen...although you still get forty-plus hours a week of soft to moderate rhetoric on CNN.

The rest are still playing out their poker game with the cards they've been dealt over the past decade (Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Time, Newsweek, etc).

How many nuts exist between the far left and far right? I'd be guessing easily 300,000 in America. You have the militia guys....you have the animal rights folks...you have the anti-logger guys....you have the far right Christian groups....and you have anti-capitalists. All work to incite folks and work their crowds to a frenzied moment.

Yes, shockingly enough....I'm actually in agreement with Bill Clinton. But the truth is....little can come out of this agreement. Tomorrow will be a new day....with fresh rhetoric.

Would you like to cease this rhetoric and put things on a new path? It's simple...tell your representatives and senators that they get 100 days a year in DC to accomplish what they need....and then they have to return home (and actually reside in their state). It's that simple. Without the soap opera for Fox or CNN or ABC to cover...they start to cover pony shows, gas station explosions, and fancy parties in Hollywood. Imagine Rush Limbaugh having to discuss parking problems in Miami. Imagine Keith Olbermann discussing the price of salted peanuts in Arkansas as a major topic.

But that would spoil our entertainment....wouldn't it?