Sunday suds.

Cheney gets a heart.

I believe it's the first one he's had...

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The Bulletin insists it's moderate.

I would have thought it was conservative and proud of it.

It points to its position on pro-choice.

Picking a single position on the other side is a time-honored tactic. Hatfield was conservative, but a peacenik; Packwood was a conservative, but for women's rights (ironic, considering his demise.)

It's a way to both satisfy your base, and also try to appeal to moderates. But as far as I can tell, it's mostly lipservice.

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Have mostly taken the month off from writing. Some snippets from my treks into the high desert.

I want to come back to my manuscript of "I'm Only Human" fresh, because I think I probably have a lot of work to do.

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Found a recreation area only 7 miles from my house, about a 10 minute drive. Mayfield Pond.

Problem is -- it's a mess.

It allows motorized vehicles, and they have thrashed the landscape. Deep, ruddy ruts, careening through the landscape. Lots of trash. Lots of shell casings. Not terribly attractive.

Reminded me of China Hat Butte -- blown the smithereens tree-trunks. Feels more like the inside of a industrial warehouse than it does nature.

You'd think the gun and off-road vehicle people would want to take more pride.

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Whitney Houston had more varied and types of drugs in her than I take in a year.

And cocaine.

I know this is naive, but why the hell do people try meth and cocaine and heroin the first time?

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Speaking of drugs, I also just watched the documentary about Ken Kesey's magic bus trip.

There is an uncomfortable moment toward the end where Kesey talks about using the same energy to run a farm that he used to write (uncomfortable to me, because that's the same exact excuse -- running a store -- that I used.) That and he dismisses the importance of novels, saying there are too many of them. (Again, a thing I have told myself.)

Then he says, something like: "Either that or I really did burn myself out using drugs," and he laughs but there is just a tinge of -- it might be true.

Well, my glory days were before I started writing, so I can't use that excuse.

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