Aaargh

It’s 87 right now in the San Fernando Valley of L.A. Just over the smallish Santa Monica Mountains from here, near the ocean, they’ve been complaining about the nonstop overcast weather. But not here.

Here in the Valley, summer still refuses to go away. After several months of nonstop clear skies and no clouds, I am TIRED OF WONDERFUL WEATHER. While 87 is considerably cooler than the 100 degree heat common in August and September (”But it’s a dry heat”, yeah right, so is Hell), I ask for weather that precludes me wearing shorts, sandals, and t-shirts continually.

Yes, I know for those of you who live where weather has actual variation, my attitude is just one more lunacy from that wacky state that elected Arnold. Nor do I have any desire to be scraping the ice off my windshield in Michigan in February (been there, done that, thanks). However this has been a long seriously hot summer and now it’s time for it to go away.

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L.A. Times discovers meth

I’m always bemused by these types of articles, wherein major media discovers that people are, omigod, using methamphetamines, as if it’s something new. It’s not. There were lots of speed freaks in the 60’s (I was one of  them), and speed never did go away.

Meth is a nasty highly addictive drug that makes people twitchy, paranoid, and maybe even violent. More than maybe any other drug, it wreaks havoc on your body, rotting teeth and things like that. There aren’t many old speed freaks, they either quit using it (like me) or die young.

Maybe it’s because speed has a reputation of being used by white, mostly rural, working class people that it flies under the radar of the urban-looking media. Actually, as this article points out in a somewhat startled tone, it’s used by all sorts and classes of people. Again, this should come as no surprise.

And oh yeah, meth will screw up your life faster than any drug except maybe crack. Stay away from it.

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Sierra glaciers in rapid retreat

At the same time, ice slabs at Mt. Shasta have grown. A warming trend is responsible for both developments, researchers say.

A new survey of glaciers in the Sierra Nevada shows the thick slabs of ice that have frosted many of the state’s high peaks for the last thousand years are dramatically shrinking and, in some cases, disappearing altogether.

“I would never point the finger and say this is all human-induced warming,” Stephenson said. “But maybe we are speeding it up now.”

Less glaciers means less water is available, precisely what California does not need.

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This is getting to be routine news

Baghdad coalition hotel base bombed.

At least six people die as a suspected suicide car bomber targets a Baghdad hotel used by coalition and Iraqi officials.

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Southern California grocery clerks on strike

Leaders of the grocery workers union in Southern California called on thousands of its members to walk off their jobs late Saturday, launching the region’s first supermarket strike in 25 years.

It’s been amusing watching TV news anchors who make millions a year tsk-tsk at the extravagant $17 an hour some grocery clerks make. That’s $34,000 a year, hardly a princely income. Yet reporters seem to always take the side of management in strikes. Why is this?

NPR was particularly silly, saying how the strike would be “inconvenient”. Goodness the strike might mean those reporters won’t be able to purchase their favorite brie in a timely manner, and that would be tragic indeed. As for the workers who are striking against wage freezes, less overtime, and more medical expenses, well, they barely registered on NPR.

MTA strike likely in L.A.

With time running out in a court-ordered cooling-off period, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the union representing its mechanics remain far apart in contract negotiations, and the union is threatening to shut down most Los Angeles County bus and train service as early as next week.

Two major strikes may happen simultaneously in Los Angeles. Sounds like workers aren’t happy at all. It’ll be instructive to see what our new Governor does as these strikes make national headlines.

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Infinite Matrix on Arnold

The Infinite Matrix, a SF/art site asked authors, editors, etc. about Arnold winning in Cali.

William Gibson
I forget whether, in the Virtual Light books, Arnold is president of the US or merely Governor of SoCal, but, hey, it looks like I’ve gone and been prescient again. I hate it when that happens.

Harlan Ellison
What do I actually think about all this foofaraw? To quote Thomas Jefferson, who was rewording le Comte de Maistre: “People get pretty much the kind of government they deserve.”

Karen Joy Fowler
Once again we writers learn that realism is an inadequate tool for any depiction of the real world.

Ellen Klages
He’s still smarter than the President.

Rudy Rucker, Jr.
The last time California had an uberactor, some kick-ass punk rock came out of San Francisco! Yeah Haw!

Cory Doctorow
The American future is not only increasingly weird, it’s also increasingly parochial. The idea of a non-American tomorrow is growing so inconceivable to the inward-looking country that it is only a matter of time until this country’s tomorrow fractures off into its own parallel universe.

Nisi Shawl
What will we do next, elect a cartoon character?

Len Wein
Arnold is in office.
The Cubs and the Red Sox are both in the playoffs.
Exactly how many signs of the Apocolypse does that count as?

Jay Kinney
Clearly, if science fiction had never existed, Arnold would never have been elected. He achieved his greatest success portraying a cyborg from the future, and starred in a Philip K Dick-based movie, Total Recall, whose title prefigured the recall election. Maybe science fiction’s next task should be to imagine a future without science fiction.

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