Could this be a sign of the times? In the seventies (disco era) one of the very popular dance hits was "More, More, More..." whereas now a very popular dance hit is "One Night Only". Hmm...just wondering.

Herb Caen loved cute firm names and I am sure he would have liked this one. A plumbing company called "Happy Pipes". The slogan on their truck reads: "Are your pipes happy?" (My reply to no one in particular: I certainly hope so.)

It is a beautiful warm sunny day in San Francisco but it was marred by a denizen of the street who was standing near this apartment as I went to the grocery store. He was acting a little (?) crazy and tried to speak to me. I ignored him as I do all such people. When I came back from the grocery store he was standing across the street acting the same way. Suddenly I found him shouting something, I wasn't sure what, but then just as quickly he was at my door step shouting at me in a very belligerent tone, "Hey, I'm talking to you". He then proceeded to hit me up for money to eat. I told him no and good-bye but he would not accept that so finally I told him to "get out of here" in a loud voice. Then he said "you don't have to get angry". Ha...if he thought that was being angry, well, he aint' seen nothin' yet.

This is a prime example of why I have come to despise this city so much. I thought that Newsom was going to something about these aggressive panhandlers and why are they suddenly up here on Nob Hill??????????

It is disgusting and sometime I want to put my foot where the sun don't shine but then I might be accused of assault & battery and then I would have to be deloused in an effort to get the vermin off of me. Thanks to such people as Ronald Reagan and Chris Daly, these people are taking over the streets. We need a president who is not afraid to deal with these problems.

Oh, this is interesting.

Not too many years ago there was a swarm of minor earthquakes near or under Peavine Mountain. Reno sits on the southeastern flank of that mountain which is an extinct volvano. I had the chance to go to the top one time when I was a teenager and saw the remanants of the cone. Two sides have been worn down by the elements over the centuries but there is a bowl and it is full of volcanic rock (obsidian). From Reno, however, one only sees a peak, no cone, due to centuries of erosion. There were several other outcroppings of the same rock lower down the mountain but new housing developments have covered those areas. At the time seismologists at the U. of N.-Reno said there was nothing to this swarm of quakes. Hmm...now they don't seem to know what is going on. Is Peavine coming back to life? By the way, Mogul, which is mentioned in the news article is southwest of Reno but certainly close enough to have interconnected lava tubes to the mountain.

Is this another example of incompetent work by the SFPD which necessitates a visit by French police to solve a crime?

This story really pisses me off. It is bad enough that the Bush administration can't get along with the rest of the world but now they threaten economic sanctions against Thailand, supposedly a friend of the USA. Well they won't be much longer at this rate and how can American tourists explain that what Washington does, or how they do it, is not necessarily the way other people feel about things. Can't these Dodo birds in Washington ever do anything right. It is always threaten, threaten, threaten, attack, attack, attack. This really makes me sick.

Earthquakes in Illinois? Of course, they can happen most anywhere and in unlikely places too.

The saddest part of the the earthquakes in Illinois during the past few days is that some supersitious people are going to start saying we are in the "end times". That these are signs from God at that the end of the world is new". Well, HOGWASH. This is just dangerous place to live. Even Boston lies atop of a very dangerous fault which has been locked for years but which, when it snaps open, will devastate that city. Ironically that city relaxed some of its earthquakes standards on new building construction a few years ago because there had not been any earthquakes in a long time. How shortsighted can you get?

Is someone sending e-mail from your address? Are you protected from a botnet or zombie? How do you keep your computer safe on the Internet? Well, read on...

Ask Leo: If people are getting spam from me, does that mean I have a bot infection?

My favorite letter to the editor appears in today's SF Examiner. This is probably the best this week if not all month or all year and I will quote verbatim here.
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"The latest flap over Barack Obama's statement regarding "small-town bitterness" was a jaw-dropper for me. I was born in one of those small eastern Pennsylvania towns and spent the first 22 years of my life there.

First, let me state that he is 100% right.

The shocker for me was that this was obviously a "rookie mistake". Any savvy politician knows that you don't tell Americans the truth, you pander and tell them only what they want to hear. You don't get elected in this country by speaking the truth. Americans can't handle the truth."
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And ain't that the truth! This week's so-called debate was really pathetic as there was nothing of substance in the questions and answers. This only served to confuse people and make it easier for John McCain to be elected and as another letter writer pointed out today, "He (McCain) is a warrior, and a warrior needs a war to prove himself. That's not what we need as a president".

Stop the world I want to get off. Or, to make things really interesting, I would be willing to volunteer for the first manned flight to Mars.

Funny Japanese TV Show

FREE TIBET

It was a smart move by city officials to move the Olympic torch relay to another section of town. I know there are many people who don't agree but it was the only prudent choice given the volatility of protesters especially in this city where things can get out hand very quickly. Running the Olympic flame through many cities around the world should be terminated anyway as it really serves no purpose.

FREE TIBET

Are the protests against the Olympic torch in London and Paris an example of what could happen in San Francisco this week? Of course those cities are much larger than this little berg on the west coast of the USA however there are some militant groups in the area so one never knows.

And by the way, I believe that the IOC made a serious mistake in awarding the summer games to Beijing. They have a mess on their hands now but you ain't seen nothin' yet. Once in Beijing it will be even a bigger mess with air polution contributing to that mess.

See these shocking dresses on Russian stars from Pravda.

For a lighter moment there is this skit from The Golden Girls...

Here is a very powerful and moving speech, actually from a TV drama "Boston Legal", but even though this is a fictional summation to a fictional jury, these words should be heard by everyone who cares about this country and the direction it is headed.

Now I know that San Francisco and Berkeley are not the only two cities in California to pass crazy laws. Even Berkeley's attempt to drown rats in the sewer system sounds good, if it would work.

Software piracy is a problem and a controversial one when you consider the people who can't afford what we in the USA and other developed countries can afford but I agree with this article: Ask Leo: Why can't the poor just pirate software?

Glad to see that the (Rev.) Fred Phelps is getting his comeuppance as protesters picket his church for a change.

Then there were two letters to the editor of the Chronicle this morning with some commen sense advice. One involves those who ride bicycles. The letter writer said in part: "...I have some advice my mom used to say before I took off in those non-helmet days, "Watch out for pedestrians and cars. They have the right of way". To this day I take that advice and I haven't come close to getting hit.

Then a Vietnam war veteran wants to know why Sen. John McCain is a war hero. McCain was only doing his duty and got caught in the process. He survived and while in prison he was tortured and abused but he acted courageously and selflessly (as did the North Vietnamese during years of bombing) but that neither atones for his wrongdoing nor makes him a war hero.

To me the use of the word "hero" in recent years has been overused ad nauseam and I think this is a good case in point. Also, would he be considered a hero if he were not running for president? Would the other poor blokes who got caught up in Johnson's misadventures in southeast Asia also be called heros?