Tues | Jun 19 King Harbor Hospital appears on the chopping block amid all types of evidence of incompetence, malfeasance and neglect. Still, the flash point that started the hospital’s death march was the case of Edith Isabel Rodriguez, who, after collapsing on King Harbor’s emergency room floor and vomiting blood, was simply ignored by hospital staff. Nurses looked the other way, janitors cleaned up around her. Police had to be called to take her away, whereupon she went into cardiac arrest and died. It has always been chilling to me how easily people will give up their humanity. I’ve come to believe that there are really good people in the world and really bad people and each will always be that way. Then there’s the vast majority in the middle who are just looking for cues on how to act, which can make them capable of great kindness or unfathomable cruelty. I don’t know if you can administrate that. Wait, yes, I do, you can.

Wed | Jun 20 Be good.

Thurs | Jun 21 A lot of area high schools are holding their graduations today and with so many people giving these young kids advice, I figure I might as well do the same, so here it goes: Kids, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Unless, of course, it sounds really good and you really want it to be true, then by all means go for it. Go for it with all energy and verve, paying no attention to naysayers or “Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted” signs. This country was built on stupid ideas—see: democracy, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Stupid ideas and mob money. Congratulations!

Fri | Jun 22 KOCE will remain a public television station after it worked out a deal with a religious broadcaster that was attempting to buy it. The deal means that Orange County will keep its public television station. It also means that I’ll still have a place to talk while wearing makeup and not be made to feel odd or “overdressed.” I do a bit of punditry on the channel, so I’m happy, but the reason KOCE was vulnerable is a much larger issue, which is I don’t think the folks at PBS—I’m including KCET—know what the hell they are doing. Its audience is getting older and smaller, what with all the requisite dying associated with the former. How has PBS addressed this issue? Near constant pledge drives, wherein they tell us how exceptional and different and cutting-edge PBS shows are and, to prove it give us a never-ending loop of quasi-informercials pushing financial planning, new age healing and piano lessons. Yes, all that and doo-wop, doo-wop, doo-wop. Who is telling the folks at PBS that the way to reach younger viewers is doo-wop concerts and how long ago did they leave King Harbor?

Sat | Jun 23 A sex survey released by the Centers for Disease Control says that 29 percent of American men say they have had at least 15 sex partners compared to only nine percent of American women. The survey’s results regarding women are already being criticized as flawed and its methodology called into question since it does not give home phone numbers or addresses for these women.

Sun | Jun 24 When does football start?

Mon | Jun 25 Well, we’re just a day away from the special election that will determine who will fill the congressional seat of the late Juanita Millender-McDonald and it appears the two front runners are not only women, but women of color—assemblywomen Laura Richardson and Jenny Oropeza. How different. How refreshing. How’s about Richardson sending out a political mailer accusing Oropeza of shirking her duties as a legislator when she missed votes in the Assembly, surmising that Oropeza “chose her own interests over our kids by missing 137 days.” Oropeza’s interest? She was receiving chemotherapy for liver cancer. For her part, Oropeza has taken nearly half a million dollars in campaign contributions from Indian tribes with gambling interests. All of this, along with the accusations of fraud and calls for federal investigations, has utterly enchanted local voters who are expected to come out in droves tomorrow—if droves is the technical term for 10 percent. You know, I was on KOCE the other day, and we were talking about the case of Orange County supervisor Janet Nguyen, who defeated Trung Nguyen by seven to 10 votes, depending on whose numbers you’re going by. The fact that two Vietnamese candidates were the two top vote getters for a major county seat was pointed at with great fanfare and hailed as an infusion new blood into the political system. And then almost immediately came cries of corruption and filing of lawsuits and the whole thing got dragged down into the muck we call democracy in this country. You see, young graduates, the American body politic is so ravaged with corruption and dreck that it instantly infects any “new blood” introduced into it. I don’t know how that will help any choose a candidate in this election, except to say I could never vote for a candidate desperate or low enough to pull that cancer mailer crap.