Do you like the look of this sweet little deer? Isn’t he cute, so pretty and sweet.

Wrong. This deer is a terrible danger to the ecosystem of coastal California and threatens the native elk and deer populations of our state. The Forest Service has a plan to eradicate these deer, which were imported illegally from Central Asia and India, before they can begin threatening the native plants and animals of coastal California, particularly in Marin County.

You’d think that any sane person would realize that killing 1,000 non-native animals that threaten an entire ecosystem of specifically adapted plants and animals would be the right decision. But we’re talking about Marin county here, and some people in Marin feel that these animals should be given a special exemption because they’re so “pretty.”

This kind of attitude represents the worst sort of feel-good environmentalism. An animal’s attractiveness shouldn’t decide its worth. Because this deer is pretty doesn’t mean it is worth more than native California oak or elk, both of which are being pushed to extinction by this imported pest.

Making decisions on the environment should be ruled by science and not emotion. Just like the awful scourge of eucalyptus trees in the bay area, trees which were the cause of the 1991 Oakland Hills fire and which have radically altered the ecoscape of this area, these deer are a nuisance and should be eliminated before they spread throughout the state.

I lived in Seattle from 1999-2004, where I worked and then attended the University of Washington. I love Seattle and had some of the best times of my life there. While I now live in San Francisco there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss someone or something about Seattle.

So when I heard that six kids had been murdered at an after-party which took place after a rave my skin crawled, I thought I must know one of these people, even tangentially. I used to attend all the big parties in Seattle with my friends Chris Giddens and Rob West, but usually only the larger parties at the Stadium Exhibition Center.

While I knew a lot of people in the scene the fact that I was a professional who traveled overseas all the time kept me from becoming a bonafide “candy kid.” But I loved those kids anyway, they always brought such joy and fun to parties. When I heard the rave had taken place at the Capitol Hill Arts Center I knew it was a small(er) event and that no one I knew really well was probably there. However the house at which the massacre took place was a place I’d been before, although most of the time when I was there I was so high I barely remembered my own name, much less the people I met.

Still, the terrible news we all heard over the weekend makes me so sad. All of the people who were killed were raver kids who adhered to the philosophy and creed of PLUR - Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. That was our motto when we partied and it was their motto as well.

You came to a party because you were surrounded by thousands of other people who wanted to chill, enjoy the music and spend time with others who felt the same way you did. You never had to worry about a fight, or someone treating you badly. In 6 years of attending raves, some with more than 15,000 people, I have NEVER seen someone use violence against another person. I’ve seen friendships made, drugs shared, massages given, but I’ve never seen one raver raise their hand against another.

Which is why hearing about that terrible night in Seattle makes me so sad. Those poor kids were peaceful people slaughtered by a non-raver, someone no one had ever met before and someone who should not have been at that house to begin with, but for the fact that he was invited by kids trying to make him feel welcome. In return for their trust he murdered six of them.

I hope these kids keep true to the PLUR philosophy and not allow this to turn them into someone like the monster who killed their friends. The dance music scene has gone through so much over the past 30 years and emerged stronger and more vibrant each time, and I know the same thing will happen now.

I’m getting mass hits from people looking for either Pro-Ana websites or Ana-Pride bloggers. I had no idea there was such an army out there composed of web-savvy self-starvers determined to locate and bond with others. But hey, I guess that’s the power of the Internet.

To re-cap, here is my original posting on where to find information on either pro-anorexia sites or those associated with anorexic pride, and no, Nicole Richie’s personal site is NOT among those listed.

I’m not sure if anyone else has experienced a problem like this but here it goes…

The last three months I have paid my credit card off entirely. I usually make large payments on my card (never minimum) and either pay 2/3 or the entire balance off every month.

While I was in New York in February I tried to use my card and it was declined, which was totally embarrassing. Luckily I had cash so I paid for my purchase and then when I returned to my hotel I called my credit card company.

They told me that since I made a “large” payment they were putting a 10 business day hold on the card. Add in two weekends and that is a 14 day hold during which I couldn’t use the card. I was shocked and explained to the women that I always made these kinds of payments directly from my checking account via an ACH method and had never had a hold put on the card before. She told me I needed to “send something from the bank stating the payment was a direct payment and not a check.”

She also told me if I wanted payments to credit immediately to my account I needed to go to a Western Union location and make a payment that way, with an additional charge of $10.00 per every $100 I sent. I tried to explain to her the difference between an automated ACH payment and a check but gave up and decided to forget about it.

Then this month I paid my card off again and again they’ve placed another 14 day hold on the card. This time I became furious and called the bank and told them they needed to remove the hold as they were violating the Electronic Fund Transfer Act of 1977 by holding electronic fund transfers for 5 days longer than the law mandates. Furthermore requiring cardholders to make payments at an additional expense to them through a non-banking service like Western Union is illegal.

The twat I spoke with was a total dumb bitch who made me really angry. So this week I’ve filed complaints against the bank with the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC, the Better Business Bureau and the California Department of Consumer Affairs. What they’re doing is penalizing customers who pay their accounts off every month and doing so is not legal, nor is requiring them to use outside sources to pay their accounts. I’m more than willing to work out something with the bank but when they give me no option there is going to be hell to pay.

Murderous and cowardly Charles Taylor has been captured while trying to sneak across the border into Chad. Nigeria stood up to the plate and did what was necessary. I’m sure the people of West Africa are breathing easier today.

How the fuck is it a “satisfactory” outcome that the Afghani man who converted to Christianity has had to leave Afghanistan for asylum in Italy? This is the face that Islam likes to show to the world? That to keep one’s life you if you leave Islam you’re required to leave your country for political asylum 3,000 miles away?

Is it any surprise that Americans have far worse views of Islam than they did immediately after September 11? It’s not because of “biased or islamophobic reporting” as some suggest. No, it’s because of suicide bombers, rioters, murderers and actions like this which make us realize that much of Islam is fundamentally incompatible with western values

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is the worst kind of African dictator. Strutting around in a white safari suit with an entourage composed of dashiki-wearing wives and sub-machine gun toting ‘bodyguards,’ he represents the worst nightmares of West African and in particular, of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean people.

Last week we cheered when we first heard the news that Taylor’s arrest and extradition had been requested by Liberia’s new president. Finally it seemed like justice may be served to the thousands of lives destroyed by Taylor’s horrific war crimes, that perhaps there would be restitution made to the Liberian treasury, looted by Taylor and probably deposited in accounts in Switzerland and Monaco.

Today we find that Taylor has mysteriously ‘disappeared’ from his Nigerian guesthouse. In the days that elapsed between the extradition request from Liberia’s president and now, Nigeria failed utterly by not watching Taylor like a hawk, and this scandal has occurred on the eve of the visit of Nigeria’s president to the White House.

President Bush has been outspoken on the need for Charles Taylor to face justice for his war crimes. And with the Nigerian president visiting the White House he should either cancel the meeting with the visiting president or express very clearly that there will be severe consequences if Taylor is not caught and immediately extradited to Sierra Leone. The last thing the world, and West Africa in particular, needs right now is another escaped warlord roaming around and causing death and destruction everywhere he alights.

Taylor must be caught immediately and if he’s not there should be hell to pay for those that have helped him escape. It doesn’t matter if he’s dead or alive, but he must never again be allowed to sow destruction in Africa or any other place on this earth.

The case of former Taliban spokesman Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi attending Yale is a strange one. Yes, he was at one time the spokesman for the Taliban but he’s not any longer, and furthermore he has spoken very movingly and clearly about how he became disillusioned with the Taliban and radical Islam. He’s been cleared by the US and Afghan governments of any involvement in any Taliban atrocities and he’s chosen to come to the United States and attend university in order to learn more about the West and to be able to help Afghanistan reconstruct itself when he returns to his country after graduation.

So where’s the problem?

Little Green Footballs, a site I love and read on a daily basis, has taken up this issue and has been on a relentless campaign of criticism since the news first appeared that Hashemi was attending Yale. I respect Little Green Footballs and consider it an excellent resource on Islamic fascism and radicalism, but on this issue it’s dead wrong. If we cannot accept that people can change their views, become more moderate and strive to learn more about our way of life then we’re doomed in this battle. People like Hashemi are exactly the kind of people we should be bringing to our universities, to learn and see what being an American is about.

The war against Islamic fascism is fought not just militarily but also culturally and socially. I consider Yale’s decision to enroll Hashemi to be the right one and it’s my hope he continues his studies at the University and returns to Afghanistan a better and more knowledgeable person. I have faith this will happen, and I can’t understand how pressuring Yale to expel him and then have him thrown out of the United States is going to do our cause any good at all.

I just love it when people from out-of-state move to California, get a rent-controlled apartment, live here one or two years to gain residency, then attend one of our fabulous universities and decide that they, not me or any other Californian, now knows the answer to all of California’s problems.

It usually begins with two words: Proposition 13. Most of these new Californians can’t afford to buy a house here… let me clarify that, most of them can’t afford to buy a house in the fabulous very “California-esque” places they wish to live, mainly San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Notice you never hear them complain about housing prices in Stockton or Modesto or Calexico, no they want to live in a house one mile from the ocean and if they can’t, well dammit they should have that right! Therefore they tend to blame Proposition 13, a measure passed in 1978 by California voters which restricted annual property taxes to not more than 1.25% of a home’s total value.

These newbies moan and bitch and complain about housing prices and unaffordability in California and their solution is as follows: raise property taxes on those that can afford to own houses. I’ve yet to see a detailed analysis of how punishing current California home owners is going to benefit everyone else who can’t afford to buy a home, but I have a feeling their solution is based around a typical sixties-based program of government-built “affordable housing” and they expect everyone who has managed on their own until now to help everyone else that couldn’t.

These Newbies and non-property owners also like to complain about other propositions that were passed before they arrived in our state and graced us with the knowledge of how wayward and misdirected we have been. Proposition 209 is usually another target of their wrath.

Prop 209 ended misdirected affirmative action programs in the UC system and the state hiring system. Yet according to most of these newbies unless the poor darkies or Hispanics get some extra help, well then they’re just not going to be able to make it to the top. This kind of stale rhetoric has been proven time and time again to be incorrect. Affirmative action works best when it’s based on family income levels and not on skin color, but in their world that holds anyone successful as not only responsible but also guilty of the plight of the less fortunate, their stand makes sense.

The list of the newbie complaints goes on and on: the recall of Gray Davis (a Republican coup!), Arnold’s election (another coup), Gavin Newsom’s election (a Democratic coup!), Proposition 227 (racist!).

We should change the voting laws in this state to require residency longer than 2 years and to limit those than can vote on measures raising property tax to those that actually own property, and we should limit enrollment in our universities, universities that are paid for with property tax funds from my property in San Francisco, to those residents who can prove residency of longer than 5 years.

I love this story. Here in California people are being cited for smoking outside bars and in Texas they’re being arrested for drinking inside bars. Soon you’ll not be able to drink, smoke, eat bad food, have sex in any position other than missionary and then only heterosexual. Nor will you be allowed to drink too much tea or coffee, buy sugar, use a cell phone, take an Ambien or watch television that isn’t approved by the Christian Coalition.

I’ve been warning for some time that attempts by the Left to keep people from smoking would boomerang on them and I’ve been proven right. Lifestyle choices is a slippery slope and one man’s pleasure is another man’s sin. Once you start that ball rolling there’s no telling where or when it’s going to end.