Said California Governor Jerry Brown... the erstwhile moonbeam.
"For the uninitiated, ‘Governor Moonbeam’ became Mr. Brown’s intractable sobriquet, dating back to his days as governor between 1975 and 1983...."
The nickname was coined by Mike Royko, the famed Chicago columnist, who in 1976 said that Mr. Brown appeared to be attracting “the moonbeam vote,” which in Chicago political parlance meant young, idealistic and nontraditional.
The term had a nice California feel, and Mr. Royko eventually began applying it when he wrote about the Golden State’s young, idealistic and nontraditional chief executive. He found endless amusement — and sometimes outright agita — in California’s oddities, calling the state “the world’s largest outdoor mental asylum.”
“If it babbles and its eyeballs are glazed,” he noted in April 1979, “it probably comes from California.”
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Voice of experience.
“If it babbles and its eyeballs are glazed,” he noted in April 1979, “it probably comes from California.”
How refreshing to recall there was once a time when leftie dingbats knew they were leftie dingbats and they could poke fun at themselves.
No more.
Jerry Brown is very conservative, so this statement is not surprising. He is also rumored to be a committed juicer, so it's not out of character to disparage alternative intoxicants.
I'm gonna fire up a doobie and play with the Old Dawgz in Woodstock tonight.
We're gonna play "Three Little Birds," and a new original, "Boogie Woogie All Night Long" tonight.
Don't worry. Be happy. Everything is gonna be all right.
I've got my straight shoulder to the wheel, professor!
That was Royko all right.
Royko was also one of a now almost extinct breed --- a Democrat who busted the chops of his fellow Democrats for what he saw as their abuses of power (Daley) or their New Age political goofiness (Brown).
Now, it's mostly acolytes of one or the other political party with bylines.
The advertising issue is a smokescreen. The state and fed can ban the ads, just like they did for tobacco products.
Heh. I said smokescreen.
Comedy Stage Open Mic Night Comic says:
So my Dad finds out he has glaucoma -- he's old, this shit happens -- and he's got -- get this -- a prescription for medical marijuana (laughter). My first thought: just how much weed can you bring home with that prescription? My second thought: Oh God, I'm going to see my Dad stoned. Don't get me wrong: I like weed, my friends like weed, I see what my friends look like on weed -- that should NOT be my Father (laughter). I mean, can't they just give him more old-man eye-drops or something? Now, I went to school occasionally, I can do the math: my Dad grew up in the seventies, he not doubt has been baked along the way (laughter) -- but now my Dad has medical marijuana and I'm downstairs in the basement and I can hear him put on a record upstairs. Yes, in addition to pot my Dad still plays vinyl and drinks PBRs -- he's so old-school he's hip again and doesn't even know it (laughter). So what record do I hear through the floorboards? Marvin Gaye (laughter). Oh, yes, Marvin Gaye: "Let's. Get. It. ON" (applause) Oh sweet Jesus, my Mom is going to have sex -- right now -- with a stoner! She's probably wearing a tie-dyed shirt this very moment, and nothing else -- I gotta get somewhere else, fast, it doesn't matter. I'll go to the bank and discuss my delinquent school loans rather than hear this. (applause)... Thank you, thank you, you're very kind...
So Brown will run in 2016.
Of course it should remain illegal. Everyone knows that one puff of the evil weed and next thing you know you're snorting LSD and shooting up crack.
That is why beer is better. Not only is beer completely safe, but nobody goes on to harder liquor after trying beer.
At least he dated Linda Ronstadt when she was hot.....so he's got that going for him.
So, only now -- because of pot -- Moonbeam is all worried about how many people are left pulling the cart rather than riding it?
There was a time when this post would have been Crack-bait (i.e. "cue the New Age rant")
Now its all racism, all the time.
Well, like Jerry Brown, I guess Crack has evolved.
I envision a cartoon with a vacant-eyed Moonbeam tsk tsking a dread-locked wannabe Haight-Ashbury type , both ensconced in a empty high-speed rail compartment to nowhere.
Below is one union guy working and the rest greasing the wheels with $$$, the Delta Smelt and La Raza.
Jerry Brown never seems to run out of things to be wrong about.
Jerry Brown is very conservative
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!
(wipes tears, catches breath)
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Oh. Just for the record ..
I have no problem decriminalizing, even legalizing, most drugs.
On one condition.
No welfare/foodstamps/medical, etc.
You get stoned and suffer any repercussions on your own dime.
Let's face it, only a few people are really creative and generate the big new ideas, regardless of their use of drugs. (Steve Jobs' LSD habit, why he indulged in Marijuana, and his 1975 arrest)
Lots of people have jobs where showing up is the job, although maybe the Gov. does hint at why so many customer service people etc., are so incompetent and operate in zombie mode.
I am delighted that we are headed to a time when a significant piece of our population will be legally stoned. It will be that much easier for the sober to get rich.
On one condition. No welfare/foodstamps/medical, etc. You get stoned and suffer any repercussions on your own dime.
Having an iron-clad "if you're taking charity, you can't spend money on anything you enjoy" policy is somewhat defensible. Drink a beer, rent a DVD, smoke a joint -- that's it, you lose your food stamps and Medicaid.
But singling out currently-illegal drugs for that treatment is imbecilic.
California used to be the land of opportunity 30 years ago. Now it is a stagnant state with immense poverty. The SEIU is doing well however.
"The official rate released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September determined that California had some 6.2 million poor people when using a three-year average that ended in 2012. However, the bureau's alternate or supplemental poverty measure, which takes into account more factors like cost of living and public benefits, found the Golden State had nearly 9 million people living in poverty in the same period.
While more than a dozen states had a larger share of poor people than California did under the official rate, the alternate rate put California at the top of the list, followed by the District of Columbia. Under the official rate, California was tied for 14th place, with Louisiana topping the list, followed by Mississippi."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/california-highest-rate-of-poverty_n_4233292.html
EDH and Illuminazi:
Got news for you. California and the Left Coast is the engine that pulls the world economy. However, we honestly don't mind you back there in the cart pretending to pull. Just stay out there in flyover country enjoying Fox news and the high fructose corn syrup IV drip.
Hi Darleen:
Check it out, Jerry is super square. He is a famous penny pincher and has done more to control spending since Deukmejian was governor. He lives a simple, somewhat monastic life influenced by his 3-years in a Jesuit seminary.
Also, his Dad was the best Governor this state ever had, building the worlds most economically productive integrated water system and the finest public university system in the world.
Howard said...
"EDH and Illuminazi:
Got news for you. California and the Left Coast is the engine that pulls the world economy."
The pain in California is not something which I celebrate. 30 years ago California was truly the Golden State where people who needed a new start would go. It is not doing as well now though there are obviously still some areas in which the economy is still strong. One bright note - the smog in Southern California is much better now. Clean air adds many points to the quality of life.
I seem to remember someone in high school American History class saying America was successful because its national drug is coffee.
I seem to remember someone in high school American History class saying America was successful because its national drug is coffee.
We r going to find out in a generation or so.
I remember when Cali was the 4th largest economy in the world. Now it has the most poverty in the country and has fallen to 8th?
Howard says
"Check it out, Jerry is super square. He is a famous penny pincher and has done more to control spending since Deukmejian was governor."
Ha. $50 billion dollars to ship hipsters from Fresno to Bakersfield. Now, that's pinching the old penny.
Sigh. In my many years of pot smoking (35 or so) the number of people I have run into that don't smoke pot due to its illegality are very few in number. One example: my friend who is a pharmacy tech. I can understand not wanting to indulge in an illegal drug when your job is to be around prescription drugs all day. The vast majority of those who do not smoke just don't like it.
Making it legal will not result in a huge uptick of weed smokers.
Not only the stint as a Jesuit growing up in an accomplished family, but Jerry Brown grew up in the conventional San Francisco Irish social whirl (Irish Cultural Center, St. Ignatius High, Building Trades Council) that usually led to community leadership. He was groomed for politics, and it shows.
Too bad he's obsessed with that Bakersfield-to-Corcoran bullet train white elephant. And he's letting the Central Valley die of thirst (figuratively).
Forgot to add, given the loons running the Democrat supermajority in Sacramento, it's remarkable what Giv. Brown's done to control the budget.
Too bad he gave away the store in the first place, granting California state workers the right to unionize back in the '70s
Big Mike said...
That was Royko all right.
He was a mean drunk.
Betamax, that was a fantastic. Have you ever done standup?
Even Jerry Brown figured out (by experience most likely that pot is an intoxicant.) Why can't the rest of you dopers fess up?
I tell my son that if he stays off dope he will have a big advantage over his dopey peers in the job market.
Now we have a Moonbeam Nation. I remember the days when it seemed like a good thing to have responsible adults in charge. And most adults were responsible adults. Those who weren't were an exception and pitied.
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