11

OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, July 26, 2025

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Lori A. Harris

Michele Kidd

Stuart Tolchin 

Harvey Hyde

Audrey Swanson

Meghan Malooley

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Dinah Chong Watkins

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

STUART TOLCHIN

RICH JOHNSON

 

DO YOU LIKE YOU?

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


KEEP THINKING

 
If you can ask AI anything, what do you possibly need 
me for? Why are you taking the time to read my article. I 
can assure you that I have no special literary skill, or unique 
understanding of what is going on all around us. All right, 
if I have nothing unique or special to say, then why am I 
taking the trouble to write at all? Well, my friend, why does 
anybody do anything?

 I admit finding an answer is challenging. The often-repeated phrase by 
Rene Descartes “I think therefore I am” pops into my mind. I am curious 
to find out who I am and that continuing curiosity is absolutely vital. In 
fact, I think it is this curiosity which gives meaning to life. I don’t want some 
technological marvel to answer the question. It is the continuing search that 
is the answer.

 Are you still reading? Why? Perhaps it is your searching for something that 
will ring a bell within you in a way that is very personal to you. Maybe you 
too don’t want to be told the answer, you want to find it for yourself. Maybe 
you are content with who you are and ask no more of life. Many of us are very 
comfortable just doing what we are doing. We go on vacations and take risks 
to experience new feelings. I don’t drive fast cars, or mountain climb, or Bunji 
jump, or water ski, or do much of anything. My continual search is to just find 
out who I am and even perhaps why I am. Is there some overriding purpose 
to my life? Perhaps I may seem boring to you, but I am fascinating to myself. 

 Recently I became aware that the entity I call “I” is not a simple isolated 
unified creature. Walking by a tree that had its upper bark removed I saw that 
within that tree there was a continuing crisscrossing of information constantly 
moving within that tree. I have become aware that within myself there is not a 
simple source of consciousness, but rather there is a multitude of information 
and perceptions most of which are unnoticed. This is a very exciting thing to 
notice! I want to know more about it, about myself. Thinking is what I like to 
do best and writing these weekly columns assists me in thinking. What am 
I thinking about? I am thinking about me and how I can connect with the 
world; perhaps how I can connect with you my imaginary reader as I do not 
seem very capable or interested in just writing to myself.

 As far as I can tell we are all social beings. Many people I think see other 
people as competitors who they want to defeat. Highly motivated people, perhaps 
like Mr. Trump; have an insatiable need to achieve more. More power, 
more wealth, more status, more women, just plain more and there is never 
enough. It is easy for me to condemn such people, but the truth is these people 
organize the world for the rest of us. They create jobs and businesses and 
scientific advancements that benefit others while they seek mainly to benefit 
themselves. We are distracted by the news about their lives and even identify 
with them as a way of not noticing ourselves. Often, we are simply comfortable 
distant observers not caring much about much except the continuation of 
the routines within our lives that have brought us some satisfaction.

 Well, the times have changed, and it is now clear that we each must make 
some choices about how we live. We really must think about what we are doing 
and try to learn what is best for ourselves and the welfare of others that 
we care about. Is the United States doomed? Should we relocate, how do I 
prepare or is ignorance the best policy? Are there messages from animals or 
plants that warn us of things to come? Should we study our own heritage and 
get a better sense of what aptitudes we have and are not using?

 As I reach this point, I realize what an exciting time is now facing us. What 
will tomorrow bring and what else do I want to be doing? I am curious to 
know, and I hope you have the same feeling. We are not just observers; we are 
in the process of living and experiencing our own unique lives. Hooray for 
my writing and if you are still with me perhaps the writing may unleash your 
own curiosity about your life. 

 Keep thinking, I think that is the unique and most satisfying things humans 
can do. 

I don’t want to dwell on the preceding question for too long. 
But I do want to plant the seed. Not only is it the most important 
question you can ask yourself, it is also the most important 
question a parent can ask his or her children. I have 
seen studies that conclude up to 85% of Americans suffer 
from low self-esteem. If true, only 15% of us like ourselves. 

Yes, I know it is an easy question to ask. Tough question to answer. So just 
sit and dwell on the question for now. 

As I have stated (incessantly) my purpose in writing my columns is to enlighten 
and hopefully entertain you. My secret agenda is to pass along a few 
nuggets of lightness you can share to entertain and lighten the load of your 
friends. (There is a payoff. Lightening someone’s load can be addictive.)

Enough of that for now. But remember, I’m gonna keep my eye on you all. 
And since music plays such an important role in most of our lives, I think 
profound song titles might be in order. We may find some we want sung at 
our weddings. Maybe some resonate perfectly for a funeral. Let’s take a look:

“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (Joe DiPietro)

“You’re the Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly” (Conway Twitty)

“She Never Told Me She Was a Mime” (Weird Al)

“If the Phone Don’t Ring, It’s Me” (Jimmy Buffett)

“Thank God and Greyhound (She’s Gone)” (Roy Clark)

“Did I Shave My Legs For This” (Deana Carter)

“Too Much Month at the End of the Money” (Billy Hall)

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (Sly and the Family Stone) 

“I’m So Miserable Without You, It’s Just Like Having You Around” (Billy 
Walker)

“If You Don’t Believe I Love You, Just Ask My Wife” (Gary P. Nunn)

“I Bought the Shoes That Just Walked Out on Me” (Wynn Stewart)

“Drop Kick Me, Jesus (Through the Goal Post of Life)” Bobby Bare

“How Come Your Dog Don’t Bite Nobody But Me?” (Web Pierce, Mel Tillis)

“Mama Get the Hammer (There’s a Fly on Papa’s Head)” (Homer & Jethro)

“You Take the Medicine…I’ll Take the Nurse” (William Penix)

“I’d Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me (Than a Frontal Lobotomy) 

 (Randy Hanzlick)

 “I’ve Been Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart” (Johnny Cash) 

“You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd” (Roger Miller)

“You Can’t Have Your Kate and Edith Too” (The Statler Brothers)

“Girl’s Just Want to Have Lunch” (Weird Al) of course!

“Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over” (Devil Wears Prada)

“Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” (Frank Zappa)

“Nothing’s Gonna Change My Clothes” (They Might Be Giants)

“I’ve Got All This Ringing in my Ears and None on My Fingers” 

 (Fall Out Boy)

Finally, big companies spend millions developing clever slogans that help 
them position themselves in the marketplace. Here are a few of the real 
humdingers of failed slogans just in case you are looking for inspiration lol:

“It’s not for everyone…and that’s okay”

“Good enough…sometimes”

“You’ve seen worse”

“Making average look acceptable”

I think I will share the rest of these “motivational” quotes next week. Have 
a grea

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not be 
reproduced without the 
express written consent of 
the publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper become 
the property of the Mountain 
Views News and may 
be published in part or 
whole. 

Opinions and views expressed 
by the writers 
printed in this paper do 
not necessarily express 
the views and opinions 
of the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by Grace 
Lorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right to 
refuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 

Mountain Views News

80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327

Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024

Phone: 626-355-2737

Fax: 626-609-3285

email: 

mtnviewsnews@aol.com

A member of 
the

California 
Newspaper 
Publishers 
Association


HOWARD Hays As I See It

CHRISTINE FLOWERS


AI IS A 21ST CENTURY ‘INVASION OF 
THE BODY SNATCHERS’

My favorite horror movie is the original “Invasion of the Body 
Snatchers,” closely followed by the 1978 remake with Donald 
Sutherland.

 The reason I still sleep with the lights on after watching 
them is the idea that we can live among facsimiles of reality, 
when it’s all fabrication. Inauthenticity isn’t necessarily bad.

In fact, it’s how we mate, campaign for votes, and become social media influencers. 
There is nothing more anathema to intimate relationships these days than having 
your original lips.

 But now that artificial intelligence has entered the chat, I’m worried. It’s 
not just the sense that I’m being fooled. It’s the dangers that exist in allowing this 
Trojan horse of illusion into our daily lives.

 The fear comes from making it increasingly difficult to identify the truth. 
As a former teacher, the understanding that we will never again be able to completely 
trust the work product of ambitious high school seniors is chilling.

 When I used to grade papers, I prided myself on knowing when one of my 
little charges had done a cut and paste job.

 Now, I’m not sure I’d be able to discern the real from the Memorex, and if 
you don’t get that reference you’re too young to be up this late reading.

 I know that there have always been cheating scandals, and I myself sneaked 
a few peeks at Cliff Notes in my halcyon academic days, but this is a whole new 
level of dissimulation.

 But that’s not the only concern I have with AI. The other day, I asked Chat 
GPT to write something in my own style about the pope, and the result was so 
similar to words I’d actually put to paper in the past that I reflexively deleted it.

Chilling. Here was a technology that had made me irrelevant.

There are some progressives who might love that, particularly after I read what 
Chat GPT had to say about me when I asked it for a description of “Christine 
Flowers, columnist.”

 But I come from that last generation of people who put physical words to 
physical paper, and who actually had to work to erase her mistakes.

 Now, we don’t even need to press the back key on the word processor. We 
can eliminate the mistakes before they even occur, by simply giving the job over to 
our friend the chatbot.

It reminds me in a sinister way of the new genetic technologies that allow parents 
to design children without illness, without brown eyes, without receding chins and 
unathletic builds.

 And don’t get me started on the pathetic people who have AI boyfriends 
and girlfriends, which are nothing more than the virtual equivalent of blow up 
dolls.

A lot of folks would say that I protest too much, and that I’m ignoring the great 
benefits of the new technologies.

That’s a fair point. But I seriously think that we are going to lose much more by giving 
ourselves over to this alien sort of technology than we will ever gain.

The other day, I asked Meta, another form of artificial intelligence, to give me some 
versions of myself.

I uploaded a photo, and watched as the program spat out a hundred versions of 
Christine, in different outfits, against different backgrounds, with different levels 
of wrinkles and gray hair.

In some I looked like Gidget, in others like my mother, in one like my grandmother. 
I was thinner than I now am, and in some cases taller.

I actually liked my doppelgangers, including the ones that really did make me look 
like Sarah Palin.

The one with the third arm was a little weird, but whatever.

But then I noticed the eyes. In almost all of them, the pupils were either too big, or 
the whites had disappeared.And the expression was, and I can’t think of another 
word to describe it, anesthetized.

The fake me was a prettier physical version, but rather empty looking.

And that’s what scared me so much about “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

The appearance of reality was merely the shadow of what we are when our distinct 
characters and personalities are gone.

And I don’t know about you, but give me a flawed, mistake-prone, wrinkled, but 
human, being over an idealized avatar anyday.

“You know when a gross guy at the bar is checking you out? It’s 
that feeling.” – Samantha Holvey, 2006 Miss North Carolina entrant 
for Miss USA, on pageant owner Donald Trump

1997 Miss Utah, Temple 
McDowell, complained 
of Trump’s forced kissing. 
Miss Arizona of 
2001, Tasha Dixon, shared the complaint 
of Trump simply walking into dressing 
rooms as they were changing. Miss New 
Hampshire 2000, Bridget Sullivan, called it 
“really shocking. We were all naked. He’d 
hug you just a little low on your back.” 
Dixon says she went public after hearing 
Trump brag about those backstage visits to 
Howard Stern.

 

Writer E. Jean Carroll won verdicts against 
Trump for defamation and a sexual assault 
in a department store dressing room. The 
judge explained that outside the narrower 
definition in New York law, Trump was 
indeed guilty of “rape”, according to “the 
meaning of that word as it often is used in 
everyday life and of the evidence of what 
actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and 
Mr. Trump". 

 

Journalist Natashya Stoynoff testified at 
that trial how Trump forced himself on 
her when she was at Mar-a-Lago to interview 
him and Melania, who was pregnant 
with Barron. Stoynoff said she felt compelled 
to testify after hearing Trump, during 
his debate with Hillary Clinton, deny 
ever having forcibly kissed anyone.

 

For model Kristin Anderson, it was at 
a Manhattan nightclub where Trump 
groped under her clothes. She called it 
“very random, very nonchalant on his 
part” – and that she and her friends were 
“very grossed out and weirded out” by it. 
She decided to go public after that “Access 
Hollywood” tape came out.

 

Two dozen women came forward to warn 
of the serial predator who’s now president. 
Another is makeup entrepreneur Jill 
Harth. Partnered with promoter George 
Houraney, they went to Trump in 1992 
seeking sponsorship for a “Calendar Girls” 
beauty pageant.

 

From their first meeting, Trump was making 
moves on Harth. The three of them 
agreed to get together at Mar-a-Lago, with 
Trump suggesting they bring some pageant 
contestants along - Harth telling Vanity 
Fair that Trump “wants to see the quality 
of the girls”. They expected some sort 
of event, but the only other guest there was 
Trump’s friend from “just down the road”, 
Jeffrey Epstein.

 

Following Epstein’s indictment, Houraney 
recalled to the NY Times, “I said, ‘Who’s 
coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ 
It was him and Epstein. I said, ‘Donald, 
this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. 
You’re telling me it’s you and Epstein?’” 
Jill Harth later charged Trump with having 
sexually assaulted her that night in his 
daughter Ivanka’s bedroom. She dropped 
the charges once Trump settled with Houraney, 
who’d sued him for breach of contract 
over that pageant sponsorship deal.

 Trump and Epstein hung out together for 
fifteen years. Former Sports Illustrated 
model Stacey Williams, dating Epstein at 
the time, told The Guardian of Epstein 
taking her to visit Trump at Trump Tower, 
where the two men just continued smiling 
and chatting as Trump groped her. 
She later recalled “this horrible pit in my 
stomach that it was somehow orchestrated.” 
Last week, Williams told CNN that 
Trump was Epstein’s “bro”, “his wingman” 
– that they “were very close and were up 
to no good.”

 

On MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell reminded 
that Trump was calling Epstein 
“a terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be 
with” during the time Epstein was raping 
children.

 

Among that “Phase One” batch of evidence 
released last February was an index 
of what wasn’t included: 40 computers, 26 
storage drives, 70 CDs, 300 gigs of data 
and logbooks of visitors to Epstein’s compounds 
in the Virgin Islands.

 

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) reminds that 
the Treasury Department holds records 
on $1.5 billion of Epstein transactions 
that financial institutions flagged as suspicious. 
He said they’ve found that “several 
ultra-wealthy Wall Street financiers . . . 
paid Jeffrey Epstein hundreds of millions 
of dollars . . . There's a clear paper trail 
here between Epstein and these guys, and 
DOJ needs to follow the money.” Release 
of these records had been blocked by Senate 
Republicans.

 

Instead, we have Attorney General Pam 
Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI 
Deputy Director Dan Bognino insisting 
there’s nothing more to see. And then 
1,000 FBI agents are urgently dispatched 
to scour 300,000 pages of Epstein records 
to flag any mention of Donald Trump.

 

We have Deputy AG Todd Blanche (who 
defended Trump in the Stormy Daniels affair) 
off to visit Epstein associate Ghislaine 
Maxwell, now serving twenty years in federal 
prison on conviction of five counts of 
sex trafficking - two of them involving minors. 
It’s unclear what the purpose of this 
visit is, but it’s no doubt clear to Maxwell 
that how much, if any, of the remainder of 
her sentence she serves is at the discretion 
of Donald Trump.

 

In the meantime, they are indeed releasing 
files: on the MLK assassination (over the 
objection of the King family), still more 
on Hillary Clinton’s emails and whatever 
it is they somehow just know will result in 
treason charges against Barack Obama.

 

But disavowing promises they’d made regarding 
transparency on the Epstein matter 
only assures that this won’t go away. 
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) 
thinks by sending Congress home early 
for August recess, the issue will be gone by 
the time they return in September. We’ll 
see.


Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperous 
community of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard the 
values of the exceptional 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com