One.  It's a double-wide in a mobile home park.  It's worth about $40,000. If I could sell it, less what we owe on it it's worth about $29,000.  Because we live in a mobile home park and don't own the property the home is sitting on, we can never see any equity unless and until we sell our home.

I know exactly how rich I am.  My wife and I make less than one thousand dollars a week between the two of us.  We struggle to pay the bills, and have very little in savings and retirement built up.  My wife works two jobs, one full time as a teller in a bank and another in the evening doing in-home care.  I'm on temporary disability with dismal prospects for returning to my normal occupation, truckdriving.  I cut and sell a little firewood on the side to keep the lights on.

I know exactly how many vehicles I own.  Three.  A 1992 Jeep, a 1992 one-ton pickup (for the firewood business), and a 2005 Chrysler mini-van (the wife's car).

Apparently to many people in this country, this part at least:

The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United states and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

I use the phrase "many people in this country" in a general sense, because I don't know everybody.  I know myself, however, and understand a few things.  One of the things I claim to understand is the bolded part of Article VI of the United States Constitution as quoted above.  It is plain to me.  The religious beliefs, emotions, and affiliations of any candidate to any office or appointment in this country are to have no official standing as a qualification to hold that office or appointment.

Presuming Barack Obama gains the Presidency, and at this point in time that's a reasonable presumption, the First Family will once again include young children:  two wonderful girls, aged ten and seven.  Think about what this means.

In a sense, the most vulnerable and innocent of Americans, our children, will have direct representatives with access to the Oval Office.

The President of the United States will have a daily pulse on the needs of children in America.  The President will be able to know firsthand what children in America are thinking.

The future of our country, our children, will be on the mind of our President day and night.

First allow me to apologize for this very short diary.  I realize its length is more appropriate for an open comment thread, but I am posting it as a diary instead in the hope that Werewolf Prophet will see it.

Yesterday I had the privilege of working my first shift as a volunteer for the Plumas-Sierra County Fair at the High Sierra Music Festival here in Quincy, CA.  Our volunteer group is known as the Friends of the Fair.

The primary mission of Friends of the Fair is to act as goodwill ambassadors during events held at the fairgrounds.  We are there to answer questions any guests may have, such as providing directions, what to do in the event of lost belongings, how to find medical assistance if necessary, and so forth.  We also have a secondary role.

The High Sierra Music festival, held over the Fourth of July weekend each year, sees a massive influx of visitors to Quincy and to the fairgrounds.  Friends of the Fair wants to make sure they have a good time and leave with fond memories.  Regretably, the local sheriff's department (Plumas County) seems to view the festival with a different attitude.  That's where the secondary role of Friends of the Fair comes into play.

The High Sierra Music Festival

will kick off in Quincy, California on Thursday, July 3, and run through Sunday, July 6.  It is

"...a world-class event, due in no small part to the caliber of our audience. We take great pride in knowing that our audience knows how to enjoy themselves while respecting their neighbors and the community.

On-site you'll find incredible music on five daytime stages and in five late night venues, a fun-filled Kidzone, quality art and crafts, delicious food and drinks, great microbrews, ice, an ATM machine, a General Store offering sundries and essentials, Yoga, Pliates and dance classes, and much more. Quincy, CA is a small town with a great natural foods co-op, and outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, rock climbing and swimming."

The music festival is held at the Plumas-Sierra County fairgrounds, the "cleanest and greenest" fairgrounds in all of California.

Update:  here's a Wikipedia link telling more about the festival.

(When I write at all).

For many, many years now I have been an aspiring author.  It all began back in high school in the late sixties when I took typing as an elective.  Much to my own surprise I excelled at typing, and this was such a boon to me because not only was my handwriting nearly illegible it was always the case that my hand would start cramping up after only a few paragraphs.  Typing, on the other hand (no pun intended), allowed me to write easily and at length.  In addition, I was naturally gifted with a good spelling and grammar ability, and thanks to my teachers this gift was developed and enhanced throughout my school years.  You'd have never have guessed it from my grades, though.  I was a lazy student, hated homework, and refused to do any more work than absolutely necessary to just get by and pass my classes.

Since my parents recognized how good I was becoming at typing, they actually bought a used typewriter from my high school's discard inventory.  As essays became more and more often required in the upper grades, this was all the more advantageous for me, and without our family typewriter I wonder if I would have ever been able to graduate high school on time with the rest of my class (1972).

I refer to Bob Johnson's excellent diary: I am really pissed that this other guy mocked this other guy's rant about the other guy's commentary .

I offer this brief diary only because I wish to see calmer feelings prevail here and fewer people "pissed off".  If you will bear with me for a few moments, you should come to the conclusion that this is simply because although I believe you think I know what you think I am saying, I am not certain you will understand that what I am saying is not specifically what I mean.  Allow me to explain:

There's probably a few of you here that are not going to like this.  I daresay there's probably a few of you here that are going to ask, what the ****, Forrest?  We thought you were a wholly secular person, so why in the world would you ever begin your diary with the word "repent"?  Well, if you will engage me, I have an explanation.  Please try to follow.

The following diary is adapted from a guest editorial by me, under my real name (Forrest R. Prince), that was published in the Fresno Bee on February 25, 2000.  At that time I was writing in opposition to Proposition 22, a California ballot initiative that defined marriage in California as only valid when between a man and a woman.

In light of yesterday's decision by the California Supreme Court holding California's opposite-sex-only marriage laws to be unconstitutional, I have edited my original piece to generalize Proposition 22 as any anti-gay-marriage law.

Via the New York Times the California State Supreme Court has found laws prohibiting same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional:

The California Supreme Court, striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Join me below the fold for why I support same-sex marriage (and why I am deeply opposed to anti-gay marriage laws).

alcohol for at least five days, beginning April 29.

This won't be that difficult, as I'm flying out to visit my mother for five days beginning April 29, and I'm going to be in her home and in a state that frowns upon substance use.

But why am I doing this?  For me, and my health?  Well, yes of course, but I have an ulterior motive.

Via the New York Times

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a "strangelet" that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called "strange matter." Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Is this true?  Could the LHC produce a "black hole" in the laboratory that could unexpectedly grow big enough to swallow the entire earth and everything in it?  Like mainly, us?

Probably not.  In fact, almost certainly not.

This is going to be very brief.  A typo appeared in a diary title today, and that diary made it to the recommended list before enough people noticed the glaring implication of the title.  This is unfortunate, and I want to believe unintentional on the diarist's part.

People, check your own work carefully before posting.  Please!  And for the sake of the community here, and your own good name, do not post and run.

Now let us move on to some productive discussion.

Thanks.

Years ago I used to go to church.  I used to believe in the god idea.  I don't anymore and almost certainly never will again.

I used to participate in the easter-egg and basket thing, even as an adult.  I've helped to make an easter basket many times for my son when he was much younger, and have hidden eggs over at my friend's house for his daughters and their friends to run and find.  I don't do those things any more.

I used to believe in freedom of religion.  I still do.  I very much believe in freedom of religion, for me, for you, for everyone.  What freedom of religion means to you is your business.  What follows is what it means to me.

Full disclaimer:  I am male, married, and do not cheat on my wife.

My current marriage is my second, and I never cheated on my first wife.  In between my first and second marriage I had one girlfriend, and I didn't cheat on her.  I take fidelity to my partner very seriously, and expect the same of her.

Before my first marriage, however, I availed myself of the services of a prostitute, twice, legally, in a Nevada brothel.  I paid a professional sex worker for sex, and enjoyed myself.  Whether the prostitute enjoyed herself I cannot say.  She acted as if she did, and I'm fairly certain she enjoyed my money at least.  We committed no crime, so as a customer, a "john", I'm confident I left no victim behind.  So what's wrong with prostitution?