the rix mix

2005 was a terrible year for the world & for the United States.

The Earth shook, stormed, & flooded. There'a nothing we can do to prevent it, but there's much, much more we can do to make ourselves safer.

Our national government is in terrible condition, & we know why. I'm coming around to the view that George W. Bush is the worst president we've ever had. I don't want to believe it; Let that one go to Buchanan, giving up Federal armories to treasonous slavers. A few presidents have been dangerous because they were incompetent, & a few because of what they believed. George W. Bush is dangerous for both reasons. & he ran for election twice, lost twice, & is still president. But no matter what, a minimum of 30% of Americans are idiots, always were idiots, & always will be idiots. No matter what questions the pollsters ask, that 30% is there. This probably applies to the entire human race. 2005 comes to a gloomy end.


I've had worse years than 2005. But I haven't had a good year since 1995.

My girlfriend left me early in 1996. She was an artist; she got married about a year later, but I haven't seen or heard anything since then about her or her art. The civil service job I started late in '95 turned out awful, then I was laid off in the Clinton welfare reforms. Neither was acceptable. My mother died that year, a miserable end to her decades of alcoholism. I started therapy in '96, it seemed to be helping, then my therapist announced he was emigrating to Israel. There were some good times over the next decade, a few hopes. There were no new "relationships" of consequence. Until 1996, I'd rarely been alone for 30 years.

It's Bill Watterson's fault. We mark a sad anniversary today. At the end of 1995 Watterson gave up Calvin & Hobbes, one of the most intelligent, funniest, lovable, & best drawn comic strips of all time, & by far the best daily strip of its time. Calvin & Hobbes sold a copy of the Star-Ledger to me 7 days a week. Sunday's color C&H was often a frame busting work of art, & Watterson had waged a hard, bitter fight to win an open field for his beautiful creations. He was a giant among mainstream comic artists. There were a few other strips with integrity, but none with the genius. The single panel The Far Side had ended a year earlier. After C&H passed into history, none of the other strips I read while the comics pages were open held my loyalty. No doubt about it, my life went into decline when Calvin & Hobbes ceased publication.