This headline reads from Saturday March 13, 2012 front page: "Pot backers' ballot effort in disarray."

Ya think? Do you honestly believe a bunch of pot-heads could properly organize? Don't be mad at the claim. Calm down and pass the bong.

The most eye-opening item was the discovery that in CA politics, you need $2 million dollars to properly put an initiative on the ballot. Because in esssence, it costs $2 million to hire professional petitioners to gather the necessary 700,000 signatures for an item to qualify.

That homeless-looking man standing in front of your local Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Kroger, Ralphs, Albertsons, CVS asking you for your signature to right some injustice in the world? He's not standing out in the cold to "go green" but to GET green. Money. He could care less about the cause, someone is just paying him to care.

I remember not too long ago, I had the privilege of engaging one of these signature-gatherers as I was leaving the grocery store. I ended up signing just 1 of the 5 because I fundamentally disagreed with the other 4. Something tells me I shouldn't have even signed the 1. As we parted ways, I asked him who has him out here doing all this. He empthatically replied, "Democrats!" There was a hint of resignment in his tone, as though he knows he's just one lapdog jumping through hoops in an endless labor of meaninglessness.

Presently, the multi-million dollar earning pot dispensaries aren't putting up significant amounts of money to support legalization because legalization means cutting into their lucrative business. Makes sense. Stifle the competition. What happened to the purity of the cause? As it turns out, once again, it's all about the green.

Backers of marijuana legalization have until April 20th to qualify for the ballot. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. 4-20. You can't make this stuff up. If they're even a few signatures short, mark my words, those pot-heads aren't going to file on time.

Now I'd be okay with marijuana "legalization" only under the following iron-clad conditions:

-an employer can fire you, without recourse, even if it's "medicinal," if you are a user of pot. It should be 100% within the employer's right to object to pot or a pot-user at his or her workplace.

-a landlord can evict you, without recourse, even if it's "medicinal" if you are a user of pot. Pot sweetly stinks up the joint. 100% Landlord's call.

-it is still illegal to be high on a public sidewalk, public park, or in public in general.

-it is illegal to light up in a public place, like a Starbucks. You can't even smoke in a bar or restaurant, be consistent with pot.

-add DUI-M, same as DUI

-apply the same standards with pot possesion as we do with guns and "gun free safe zones" as it relates to schools. Again be consistent.

-minimum age for growing/possession is 18.

If even the slightest objections to the above conditions, then I am wholesale against legalization. Period. Legalization means further proliferation and a loss of productivity among otherwise normal, sober citizens. Stop comparing its effects as "less harmful" to cigarettes or alcohol. If you can function as a regular user of pot, good for you. Have a cookie.

Or a brownie.

If you can keep your pot enjoyment to yourself without affecting my well-being, health, safety, then have at it!

Ah, Xanga, how I have missed you!

I am so glad that 2010 is behind me. The first half of 2010 was too similar to 2009. But something changed in the middle and I'm eternally grateful; the second half of 2010 was exceptional. And so I'm hoping the entire 2011 will be a lot like the second half of 2010, only better.

In high school, over morning announcements, members of the student council would always sign off with this little catch-phrase: "Make it a great day, or not, the choice is yours." Little did they know at the time that they were indoctrinating the entire student body to become little libertarians.

But truly, best effort and optimism is something I can control. That's all on me.

So in 2011, I will put in maximum effort in all my endeavors and keep shaking the tree until the coconuts fall.

I'll recycle a few resolutions from 2010 and re-attempt a few of the ones I failed at in 2010.

5,000 pull-ups, 300 flosses. Add to that, running a 5K every week.

Will this be the year where I finally finish reading every last corner of the bible? Yes. In addition to that, I'm doing the New Testament again. And a book (fiction or non-fiction) a month.

I'm losing hair and I'm not getting any younger. I wish I can have a redo of the last ten years.

But I realize I have something better. Lord willing, I've got the next ten years ahead of me. It's up to me to make it count, as I trust in God and keep an open heart, an open hand in following God's plans.

Auld Lang Syne. We've made it to the year of our Lord, two thousand and eleven. Oh, the the places [we'll] go.

"Radical" Islam must be so satisfying.

You can hate America. You can run around and burn the American flag. Even the tiniest slight against your religion is returned with random acts of violence against Americans abroad in Muslim countries. You can blame America for all your societal ills including your current state of poverty; after all, since wealth in the world is a zero-sum game and since it's America that's so wealthy, that's why you must be so poor. Someone draws up a political cartoon or comes up with an unflattering South Park bit and you can reply with death threats. You can carry out death threats. Maiming or beheading of the infidel is standard procedure. Someone in your own community commits a faux pas and you can deal with it right then and there. "Everyone, gather some rocks about the size of your fist. We've got a-stonin' to do!"

Doesn't that just make you want to howl in that guttural Howard Deanian way? YEAAAAAAAAAARGH!

Now before you start throwing around the "i" word, please inform me of any factual errors I've recounted. Almost everything I've stated comes from my casual gleaning of the news courtesy of our left-leaning lamestream media. I didn't have to scour Breitbart or some "right wing" site to gather these bites that have made their way into the news over the years. Unless you live under a rock, none of this should be "news" to you either.

So the question for the day, "is America cowardly for not supporting nor endorsing that yahoo who wants to exercise his First Amendment right by burning Korans?"

Before I answer that question with a question, I want you to consider the following.

When college students in Texas were solicited to trade their bibles for porn, where was the furor? Curious, I wonder what those porn-peddlers planned to do with all those bibles they collected? I bet they donated them all to their local Gideon's Society. Yep. I believe there was violence coming from the Vatican after that incident, with mass riots for days on end all throughout Europe.

Idiots burn the American flag, the bible, desecrate Jesus on the crucifix, burn images of current and past POTUS in effigy, both here and abroad, everyday. BFD. In fact, in exercising my First Amendment Right, just recently I tore up the cover to my copy of the latest Rolling Stones magazine because it was straight porn. My copy.

Going back to the original question, my answer isn't, "why should the Koran get special treatment?" No my response is, "why are we even having this discussion?" What does a man in Florida who desires to burn Korans have anything to do with Islamo-fascism? Isn't that like comparing lightning to the lightning bug? (But there's 'lightning' in both!" Are you about to tell me that Christian Dior is actually a priest of a small village parish in France?) Why have we taken that bait?

But clearly people are connecting the dots between the Koran, radical Islam and an arguably ignorant attempt to throw down the gauntlet against radical Islam.

My conclusion: people are being disingenuous in this discussion. Either the Koran does not endorse violence and terrorism in enlarging the scope of Islam... or it does. "Radical" Islam is either a bastardization of the "religion of peace," or it's actually Islam in its truest form and it's "moderate" Islam that's the counterfeit. As soon as people are led to draw a relationship between the Koran and the acts of terrorism such as a 9/11 or throwing acid in the faces of Afghan girls because they dared to attend school, we've already lost our calling card for "tolerance."

But it's not because Americans are intolerant. That's not the issue. It's in the hands of the so-called moderates who have failed to vociferously plead against the radicals. Their silence is deafening. And when one does speak out, it's all framed to merely mitigate potential radical violence, not come out against it. This passive position has forced our tolerance to be stolen away and obliterated by the enemy. It's no longer about tolerance vs. intolerance anymore. It's now about right vs. wrong, good vs. evil.

Americans can go about their lives relatively insulated from all the evils in the world and many can afford to simply give matters like these no mind. But appeasement does not lead to peace. Wake up, America.