Warrior Queens

The idea that women need to be protected and are somehow the weaker sex is so bizarre that once again only classical projection could explain it. Men, knowing they might well be the weaker ones but unable to accept the knowledge consciously, pin it outside themselves as if that will make it true. Some woman find themselves longing for the impossible to become possible in the form of an experiment whereby men could be tested for their ability to withstand childbirth.  They think they know what the results would be, given the alacrity with which so many men hop into bed on first getting the sniffles and begin moaning about their terrible illness. Absolutely nothing in actual experience points to any greater weakness on the part of females, but the idea has become so institutionalized that women, at least in the United States, are still prohibited from participating fully in some of the last activities to remain sacred solely to men: active combat and football.

     Not that women haven't tried, numerous times and on both counts. One of the more interesting attempts to me was actually conceived by a man, a British sergeant-major who had been wounded in the Sudan in 1898. He reasoned that mounted nurses would-be able to arrive faster on the scene than either the pedestrian stretcher-bearers or the horse-drawn ambulances. In London in1907 he began to put his plan into action, finding no small number of women enthusiastic to undertake training in first aid, riding (including some cavalry drill), signaling, and cap routine. They could be in the advance guard, so that if they themselves survived the attack, they would be ready to tend the wounded immediately. There equestrian training was overseen by The Blues, who discovered that many of "the girls" were already accomplished from many seasons on the hunt field. Despite their willingness and their skill, however, the women of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry were to find that their biggest battle would be fought against the men at home. One group of members having lunch in a Brighton restaurant were forced to sit at a screened-off table and to be escorted out a back entrance. Others found themselves booed in he streets, or even attacked by rock throwers who took them for suffragettes.

     They were thanked by being turned down for service in 1914.

 

     To me, one of the most admirable things about women is their fearlessness. It is something I always admire in anyone who displays it, and I have gotten pretty good at scenting out the real thing from the bluff, though nowhere near as good as any horse or dog. Many women don't have the need to pretend since they are made of the aforementioned perishables, they are not entirely untouchable.

For Terri

Than Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Kahlil Gibran -- The Prophet

The Gay Agenda

And for your viewing pleasure, this link to the Gay Agenda flash video was sent to me by a nice southern man who is a frequent reader of Blondesense. Don't watch it if you're a southern fundamentalist Christian because it makes fun of you and your feelings might be hurt... ah heck go ahead and watch it anyway.

May Terri Schiavo Rest in Peace with the Angels

Rant about Tom Delay here.

Tentative Whispers

The Fifteenth-Century Mystic Margery Kempe saw a man striking a horse, and as she stared the image dissolved. Its particles reformed and there before her was Christ being lashed, his blood flowing like tears.

     To blasphemously put her beloved Christ's face where before there was only a beast's  (only, certainly, the very least of his brethren)---this, as we have come to see, is rank sentimentality, woman's foolishness. We are supposed to be civilizing ourselves out of it, but here is one slight problem. That sentimentality, also known as compassion, is the one thing that has allowed human civilization to continue, for without it we would leave our children hungry in the streets and our babies tied to tables to learn (for science is civilization minus compassion) how long it takes them to expire from neglect. As the British critic Bridgid Brophy, who has the knack of seeing this clearly, has written: "Whenever people say "We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add, 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it."

     What other than some form of compassion, however admixed (always, always) with its opposite, can explain those women and children  who can do with a horse what no one else can do?

     Whippers, beaters, abusers, sadists, those whose compassion has suffered a fatal leak and left the bucket dry----all are found among the ranks of women who profess to love horses (just as women, those natural nurturers, actually kill children at a rate far greater than men do.) But here are just enough of the others----the deeply understanding, the quietly caring----among these women, too, coupled with too many stories of preternatural affection to be happenstance, that we must try again to comprehend the evidence.

     Maybe it is that the desire to be with horses and their warm breath and trusting natures is most basically the desire to feel love---profound, joyous, irreducible love----and especially that rare breed of it that one feels only for offspring. If in their dependent state domesticated horses are like children (and who are we to ignore the voices of those thousands of women who say they are?), then they must be triggering the finally inexplicable instincts that blind us to the particular shape of our charges----whether they are covered in brown hair or pink skin, or have our eyes or those of someone on another continent----and cause us to love them with a fierceness that is almost embarrassing. Because mothers do not choose to love their babies, as if they had considered the merits of their intelligence or beauty or potential and found them sufficient : they love them rather because biology has insisted they do, and what is in our cells goes deeper than what is in our minds. Why try to keep it secret that this love is so delicious that we crave it with as powerful a hunger as it is possible to feel without going mad.

     And maybe there is something else, too ( I assure you, there is always something else). I am attracted to horses, in particular, because they echo my own tentative whispers but do so in a bold ringing call; they speck with certainty of exactly those things we are most unsure of in ourselves. For the qualities that most define the equine species are the ones most suppressed currently in the human: raw sexuality, fear, open vulnerability and need, uncomplicated drive. They want only to live, which is to say to fulfill their biologically ordained needs (to feel safe, to commune with others of their kind, to move and play and create life). This reminds us of what we have forgotten about ourselves, and it is enough to make us want to cry. And enough, perhaps, to make tears stop.

     As if to show that it is all beyond the pithless ability of word to explain, the artists have taken up the flag. Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) had at least one great painting in her, animated by an intensity of sensuous feeling ("Oh, those suggestive hindquarters...." in the words of one of today's many painters working the suggestive area of horse art) as well as an intensity of moral feeling. The painter of the monumental Horse Fair once did rely on words to explain what she thought about the animal that gave her her best subject:

 

               The horse is, like man, the most beautiful and the most miserable of creatures, only, in the case of man, it is vice or property that makes him ugly. He is responsible for his own decadence, while the horse is only a slave that the Creator has given to man, who abuses it out of his ingratitude and his worldly and egoistic poverty, until he becomes lower than the animal itself.

 

 

Primer For Those Of You Who Want To Run For Public Office:

"I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version." -- Oliver North, 1994 candidate Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate

Interesting discussion happening

in the comments section of another post here at the blog. Join in the fun!

Adam and Eve, the creation story. What does it really mean for us?
Did God make us robots and then when Eve ate the forbidden fruit of knowlege and began to think for herself did God get mad at her and punish all mankind as it says in the bible?

What the apple mean? Why did God put the tree of knowledge right in the middle of the garden if he didn't want them to eat from it? Is God a big fat malicious tease? Or is it a metaphor for something else?

Perhaps early humans were having a bad hair day when they wrote this legend and wished that they didn't have to think so much. They felt the need to blame the burden of having free will on someone or something. Free will isn't easy to deal with, as we all know. We collide. Sometimes we do wish that God would stick his hand down out of the sky and stop bad people from doing bad stuff to others, but he doesn't. Damn that free will.

Before science, people believed that the earth was flat and that the sky was a rotating dome over the earth. Everything that happened to them which can now be explained as natural phenomena was attributed to God or the gods. It's very plain to see just by reading the bible. One minute people are slaughtering each other and the next minute God is sending a plague. Of course plague breaks out when there are dead bodies laying all over the place. They didn't know that back then. Even during the Black Plague in Europe, people weren't sure what caused it.

There are people alive today who take this all literally. They renounce science. They like to think of the bible as a rule book. Why? Well it probably goes back to earlier times, when it was just plain easier to blame everything on God rather than to think for one's self. But that's just my opinion.

Here are the comments

International Blog Comment Week

The Heretik says it's International Blog Comment Week. (Thanks to Rox, who says "Delurk Yourself")That means you have to shout out to bloggers on their comments. So give us a shout out at Blondesense. Give a shout out to many of the other fine bloggers on the blogroll. Shout at the Heretik too. Shout out to the All Spin Zone. There are many good posts there but one in particular struck me this morning. It seems that the powers that be who were hell bent on feeding one person are also hell bent on starving the poor. (A fine anti-christian tradition, I might add) I find it all so ironic since these same people are also rabid anti-abortionists who would force poor people to have babies, yet refuse to help feed them. And visit Crooks and Liars for a run down on all the wingnuts who have been booed and canned and vilified while you're shouting out. It's so refreshing to see that some people are not getting away with assholiness all the time.

STACKED

Yes that's the title of the new Fox TV show coming out this May. It stars Pamela Anderson as a woman who works at a bookstore. Once again, Fox comes up with good, solid, family values television for the masses.

Outcry

"FORT WORTH, Texas -- Each year, hundreds of students use the essay portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test to write about being abused, neglected or raped.

That's according to education officials, who say others write about being depressed, wanting to die or hurt themselves or others.

Such essays fall under the state's definition of an outcry, and school officials have a legal and ethical obligation to report the revelations to law-enforcement officials. Test graders who find such content label them an "outcry."

The information is sent to the Texas Education Agency, where student identification numbers are converted into names, and the essays faxed to district officials.

The law requires educators to notify the proper enforcement agency if a student discusses anything criminal, including child abuse, neglect and rape, or even the revelation that a child is bringing a weapon to school because he or she feels unsafe.

Texas labeled 688 essays "outcry" last year and 592 in 2003, a drop in the pool of more than a million essays.

The writing section of the three-year-old TAKS is designed to give students flexibility -- opening the door for personal essays.'''

And it isn't just grade school children who reveal being raped, abused, beaten, and depressed. College students do, too.

I wrote here not long ago that my students can't discuss a Supreme Court decision in class without discussing the protective orders that exist because of their actions against former girlfriends or the protective orders they have sought against former boyfriends.

Today one of my most promising students discussed the violence in her life. Can she live long enough to get through school, make her car payment, get her teaching certificate, see her children grown. Will this terrific woman live to our next class meeting?

I am not sure that what we teach in government class has any connection to the lives my students live. They really can't recognize the majesty of the U.S. Constitution when they are out on parole, or they are pregnant with a fatherless baby, or they are beaten regularly by men they fear, or they don't know who to call or if they should call the police on the neighbors who are abusing their children. One young woman asked me if she should leave her apartment when her boyfriend beat her, should she wait, sleep on it and call the next day? Should she leave the scene and go somewhere else to call?

As I am lecturing, droning on and on about the Texas Constitution of 1876 will they sit dissociatively, zoning out? How many times have a mistaken their blank stare for disinterest, when it may have been dissociative? They can't learn because they are living in an atmosphere that does not acknowledge that they can't study at home because it isn't safe, they don't have enough money to change their lives, and their problems are enormous.

NEW RULES

The culture of life applies to all life.
If you claim to be christian then act like it. Especially in public

No more hypocrisy. You cannot be selective about whose life you want to defend. All life is sacred in a culture of life.

The culture of life also covers lives of those who are not Americans. That includes the lives of innocent people being killed and tortured by American and coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The culture of life also includes the genocide in Darfur.

The culture of life means no wars. Only in the event that our country was literally invaded by another country should we resort to using combat and weapons.

The culture of life also includes birth mothers and children who are already born just as much, if not more so than embryos. This means that birth moms and already born children need healthcare, affordable housing, a living wage, decent schools and a life free from poverty. No one should be poor in a democracy. No one should be forced to be born and then live in abject poverty. It makes baby Jesus cry.

A culture of life does not tolerate the death penalty. Thou shall not kill. (If you are a christian, then you believe in divine justice.)

The culture of life includes proper education. Well educated people take better care of themselves and others. Consolidating school districts will see to it that those in poor communities have greater opportunities and a better chance to rise up from their poverty. Those who will rise out of poverty have less chance of becoming involved in criminal activities. Less criminals equals less jails and less tax money spent on judges, guards, etc.( Jesus would have wanted us to help those who live on the fringes of society plus we have the added bonus of being less likely to be mugged.)

The culture of life means feeding the poor. Poor kids should get free breakfast and lunch in the schools. Hungry kids can't learn. Hungry kids do not always seek to better themselves. Hungry kids may turn to a life of crime. Everyone pays for crime. A culture of life does not tolerate an obese nation where some people are going to bed hungry!

The culture of life also includes the after life. End tax cuts to the wealthy to save their souls. Their camels won't fit through the eye of the needle if we keep enabling them to amass more wealth. Baby Jesus cries every time a rich person takes another tax cut or finds another loop hole therefore not pulling his weight in society and furthering himself from everlasting life.

The culture of life means if you are going to pull out all the stops and drag out your Christ on the Cross statue then you had better know what it means to be christian or shut the hell up:

Matthew: 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

    37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

    40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

UPDATE: Copy The Beatitudes and hand them out to your christian friends as well. Sometimes they all need a little reminder.

WOMEN ARE THE DEVIL

The FBI had an opening for an assassin.

After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done there were three finalists.

Two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agent took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions. No matter what the circumstances.

Inside the room you will find you wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!

The man said, "You can't be serious, I could never shoot my wife."

The agent said, "Then you're not the man for the job."

Take your wife and go home.

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room.

All was quiet for about 5 minutes.

The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I just can't do it."

Finally, it was the woman's turn.

She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband.

She took the gun and went into the room.

Shots were heard.

Screaming, crashing, banging on the walls.

After a few minutes, all was quiet.

The door opened slowly and there stood the woman.

She wiped the sweat from her brow.

 

"This gun is loaded with blanks." She said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."

 

Moral:  Women are evil. Don't mess with them.

Maybe THIS Is Why The Main Stream Media Won't Go Near The Gannon/Guckert Story

In Other Words, They're Afraid Of Getting Their Asses Shot Off.

Let's start with the assumption that Hunter Thompson was working on a book detailing the "...homosexual pedophile underground which permeates the MSM, Washington, DC, & BOTH political parties, a la the Franklin Coverup scandal of the 80's& 90's". (LINK)

Now let's assume also that he was "suicided". "...the semi-automatic Smith &Wesson 645 found next to Thompson's body was in an unusual condition. There was a spent shell casing, but although there were six bullets left in the gun's clip, there was no bullet in the firing chamber, as there should have been under normal circumstances." (LINK)

Then there's this:
Suiciding' Reporters

"The "suicide" deaths of Hunter Thompson, Gary Webb and J.H. Hatfield show that reporters who expose the criminal activities of our political elite risk their lives. They are on the front line of freedom. When they are killed, it means very bad things are in store for us.

"In the latest issue of "World Currency Review," veteran British intelligence analyst Christopher Story warns us to expect a tyranny in America worse than Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia.

"Hunter Thompson was killed late last month. He was working on stories dealing with a homosexual callboy (or programmed sex slave?) ring in the Bush White House and the demolition of the World Trade Center." (LINK)

Finally, from Tomflocco.com:
Amber Alert on Capitol Hill

"Witness says abducted children--23 now dead--abused by 20-30 pedophile members of congress at child sex parties held at Embassy Row mansion where Secret Service-secured presidential limo was seen parked outside."


"Questions can also be raised as to whether Hunter Thompson’s death and the James Guckert-Jeff Gannon White House reporter scandal resulted in having Nelson taken out of circulation to intimidate or threaten him while also using the opportunity to search for criminal evidence--the kind which would place sitting and retired members of congress in severe legal jeopardy."

Read Flocco's entire article HERE.

Scared yet? Right now, I'm working on a list of mysterious deaths and "suicides". The list is going to stretch back at least 40 years.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't

A prime example and it couldn't have happened to a couple of better guys are the angry Terri Schiavo supporters who are sooooo pissed at jeb and george for not intervening to save Terri while the other angry people think that jeb and george overstepped their bounds by interfering with the judicial branch of the government and are pissed off too.

Who isn't mad at the bush brothers?

You give them a long enough rope and they were bound to hang themselves.

At the moment, the wingers are frantically trying to pull away from this mess. Don't let them. Read Paul Krugman today.

What we need - and we aren't seeing - is a firm stand by moderates against religious extremism. Some people ask, with justification, Where are the Democrats? But an even better question is, Where are the doctors fiercely defending their professional integrity? I think the American Medical Association disapproves of politicians who second-guess medical diagnoses based on video images - but the association's statement on the Schiavo case is so timid that it's hard to be sure.

And write letters. Keep this alive.

Does Bono Endorse Wolfowitz? Inquiring Minds Want to Know!

This is a very interesting development if it's true. It's from Newsmax so you have to take it with a grain of salt. The story says that Wolfowitz actually called Bono to get his take on solutions for reducing poverty and world hunger. Read it here.

As an aside, I found it rather amusing that there was an ad for a book called "The "Left Behind" Hoax... Are We Really Living in the "Last Days?" right there on Newsmax. I mean the Newsmax readers just revel in end times prophecy. Ironic isn't it? It's about time someone told these nuts to quit wasting their precious energies worrying about whether or not these are the end times.

My Momma Done Told Me

... all sorts of stuff and it's all coming back to me now. My daddy said a lot of things too that are coming back to me as well. Let's start with daddy.

Daddy liked to quote Shakespeare: "The Lady doth protest too much". He would say that when he knew that I was bending the truth by way of pleading my case a bit too much. "No daddy, I never ever kissed that boy. Ew. Yuk. Of course not. Oh my, yuk. I am not up to kissing yet, daddy." etc etc... By golly, he was right. A sure sign that someone has something to hide is when they keep pounding their agenda in your face.

Momma always told me that "A sure sign that your man is cheating on you is when he accuses you of cheating". By golly, she was right too. So often people with skeletons in their closets project their bones upon unsuspecting others. Case in point, that famous "liberal agenda" we are always hearing about from the conservatives... as if there is a liberal agenda. Liberal and agenda are oxymorons. And let's not forget the anti-homosexual agenda purveyed by the largest cabal of closeted and jealous homosexuals ever to run a country.

Now that I am a parent, I passed on some of my parents wisdom to my little one plus I added somethings. "Overcompensation is a sure sign of under compensation", "Boys who bully you are bullied at home", "Boys who have the biggest toys have the smallest peni". My Gawd, I sound like Stewart's mother on Mad TV... but my son knows me and my sick sense of humor. He also sees the grains of truth in my statements. In other words, don't trust the bullies and the braggarts. They feel bad about themselves.

My friend Billydoom likes to tell me sayings from the old country. Here's one I like, "If someone is bragging about his riches, give him some money". Yes, the braggers are usually broke. Secure people don't bother to talk about it, now do they?

Now let's think of all the things in the news and all the things that are not making the mainstream media which apply here.

Wake Up America!

Check it out:

DOES three make a trend? Kirgizstan has become the third post-Soviet republic in which disgruntled voters, unwilling to accept a fraudulent election, have taken matters into their own hands. On Thursday March 24th, Askar Akaev, president of the Central Asian republic for 15 years, was forced to flee the capital, Bishkek, after protesters took the government headquarters. A new government has been proclaimed, and now Kirgizstan’s “tulip revolution” joins Georgia’s “rose revolution” and Ukraine’s orange one. But Kirgizstan’s uprising has been more chaotic and violent than those other two, and unlike them it has no single leader. The future for the remote republic is clouded.

On Thursday, protests which had begun in the south of the country a few days earlier reached Bishkek, in the north. Demonstrators stormed the “White House”, the government headquarters, making their way past riot police who either melted away or joined the protesters. Mr Akaev was soon nowhere to be seen, and protestors and looters ransacked the building.

REPUBLICANS RIDE HONDA'S

By Bubba

I'm one of those old farts that you see in every town America, proudly astraddle the biggest Harley we can pay for, white beards flapping in the wind like the wings of an eagle. You might have to use your imagination a bit for that one. Bones creaking like the door hinges of a 55 chevy. Can we agree on that? But we always got our chest out, sometimes farther than our bellies. And we've always got that look in our eye. "This ain't no rice grinder son", it says.

Once in a while some kid on one of them japanese crotch rockets comes flying by me. I would tell him if he would slow down long enough, he just passed a whole car load of blondes flashing their boobs at him. Dumb ass kid. Now don't get me wrong I ain't so old I don't appreciate blondes flashing their tits, but who do you think is helping me pay for this American Thunder? Thats right, I got a good woman at home. She gave me three sons and put up with my bullshit for 23 years. I won't find no better than that, not in this life anyway. I know what you're thinking, "I've seen plenty of old farts riding them big old Hondas". I credit that to early stages of alzheimer's. They just forgot what's cool. Republicans . . .Why Harley? Cause it's American made. A legend of American craftsmanship. An icon of American values. Truth, Justice for all, liberty, and freedom. Which brings me to what this rant is really all about.

It's about my home and yours, America. As you might have guessed, I'm a tough old bird. But right now I've got tears in my eyes. Tears for Americas son's and daughter's off fighting and dying in a war built on a mountain of propaganda and bald-face lies. Tears for the many thousands who have died and lost loved one's as a result of America's military action in Iraq. An action that is unamerican and illegal. Why should one son die to defend a constitution that is being ripped to shreds here at home? With every social program under attack, what are they fighting for? Health care, child care, medicare, education, jobs, Veterans benefits. You name it folks, and if this satanic administration ain't cutting it, you don't need it. I've got one word for anybody who is still under the delusion that gwb is a christian . . . Liar! And a question . . . who did Jesus say was a liar and the father of lies? You can't lie for Jesus. You can't torture, piss on the Geneva Convention, and declare an illegal war for the good of America. Let America be the policeman of the world? But let her be a neighbor first.

FINANCIAL TIP OF THE DAY

If you happen to own a business and you need a manager, you want somebody with a lot of experience so that you won't have to do the job for them or have to hire a couple of assistants to help out. Go find yourself a single mom with a houseful of kids. She can run your company without even thinking about it----what's one more thing to her? Why anybody would hire a married man to run a business is beyond me.

And in other news

Compiled by missouri mule and blondesense
Another fine service by the blondes at blondesenseblog.com

The bushistas claim once again to know more about science than the scientists. From WaPo

A classified report by nuclear experts assembled by the National Academy of Sciences has challenged the decision by federal regulators to allow commercial nuclear facilities to store large quantities of radioactive spent fuel in pools of water.

The report concluded that the government does not fully understand the risks that a terrorist attack could pose to the pools and ought to expedite the removal of the fuel to dry storage casks that are more resilient to attack. The Bush administration has long defended the safety of the pools, and the nuclear industry has warned that moving large amounts of fuel to dry storage would be unnecessary and very expensive.

Well praise Jesus and pass the plate. We truly have brought American style Democracy to Iraq. It just makes ya proud, don't it? Let freedom soar! From Newsweek:

By many accounts, Custer Battles was a nightmare contractor in Iraq. The company's two principals, Mike Battles and Scott Custer, overcharged occupation authorities by millions of dollars, according to a complaint from two former employees. The firm double-billed for salaries and repainted the Iraqi Airways forklifts they found at Baghdad airport—which Custer Battles was contracted to secure—then leased them back to the U.S. government, the complaint says. In the fall of 2004, Deputy General Counsel Steven Shaw of the Air Force asked that the firm be banned from future U.S. contracts, saying Custer Battles had also "created sham companies, whereby [it] fraudulently increased profits by inflating its claimed costs."
Yet when the two whistle-blowers sued Custer Battles on behalf of the U.S. government—under a U.S. law intended to punish war profiteering and fraud—the Bush administration declined to take part. "The government has not lifted a finger to get back the $50 million Custer Battles defrauded it of," says Alan Grayson, a lawyer for the two whistle-blowers, Pete Baldwin and Robert Isakson

Quick, make up some fairy tale about god and cash in on the new religion craze! From the WSJ:

A splashy drama called "Book of Daniel" is in development at NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., while Viacom Inc.'s CBS is building a supernatural thriller around a character described as "a brilliant physicist with strong religious beliefs." News Corp .'s Fox, meanwhile, has "Briar + Graves," which the producers describe as "The X-Files" goes to church.

It's the television industry's answer to the cash-generating power of biblical stories put through a pop-culture spin cycle. Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" was one of the top box-office hits last year, and Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" has sold 25 million copies. Meanwhile, author Tim LaHaye's biblical "Left Behind" novels have racked up sales of some $650 million.

Now this story just won't die. New proof that the FBI did indeed help the Saudi's including OBL's relatives get out of the US right after 9/11 without being scrutinized. A NY Times article courtesy of Michael Moore:

The F.B.I. records show, for instance, that prominent Saudi citizens left the United States on several flights that had not been previously disclosed in public accounts, including a chartered flight from Providence, R.I., on Sept. 14, 2001, that included at least one member of the Saudi royal family, and three flights from Las Vegas between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24, also carrying members of the Saudi royal family. The government began reopening airspace on Sept. 13, but many flights remained grounded for days afterward.

The three Las Vegas flights, with a total of more than 100 passengers, ferried members of the Saudi royal family and staff members who had been staying at Caesar's Palace and the Four Seasons hotels. The group had tried unsuccessfully to charter flights back to Saudi Arabia between Sept. 13 and Sept. 17 because they said they feared for their safety as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, the F.B.I. documents say.

STAMP OUT GOSSIP

My Best Friend's Mama's Sister's Hairdresser's Kuz'n Won't Like This a Bit...

A bunch of Hollywood celebrities have joined a new movement to ---- and it's almost too horrible to put the words on my beautiful screen----Stamp Out Gossip.

In these times of hyperpatriotism, this is bad news indeed. Gossip, here in the Don't Show Me State, like silly aprons and whining about our cable bill, is as American as it gets. Without it, we'd all wander around talking about the weather or, worse, one another's root canals or inflamed bunions.

Boring.

I'll tell you something else. Celebrities, most of whom are a bunch of Vicodin-addicted wife swappers, (that's what it said in the Star) have no business getting involved in causes. They just look silly. Just because one has great pipes (Babs Streisand) doesn't qualify one to do much of anything except lounge about the pool between bookings and ponder the wisdom of marrying a man who brags in public about shopping at Big Lots (Jim "Tan in a Bottle" Brolin)

It's very trendy to slam gossip these days, but let me be the first Brave American to stand up at the metaphorical water cooler, and say, "Hooey!"

Gossip is the very foundation upon which this great country was built. Who knows where we'd be if a certain G.W. hadn't sleep around in every little B&B on he eastern seaboard, wooden teeth soaking in a glass beside the bed?

Sure, gossip can be malicious and has been known to destroy lives and careers but, hey, nothing's perfect.

The Words Can Heal movement has been embraced by a bunch of politicians. I feel better already. And I'm certain Gary Condit--- y'all remember the adulterous poofy-haired louse---- must be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Of course, there's really no reason for us gossipmongers to fret. I remember a years back when Oprah (who, I heard, may really be a man) had a show in which she explored the evils of gossip and pledged her own self to just stop it. Fast forward to the next day's episode when she's asking Nicole Kidman if it's true that Tom Cruise has webbed feet. So what happened to the Cruise/Kidmans anyway? They say they just didn't have enough time to spend with each other because they both have such busy film careers. Like that's a bad thing? One wonders when they managed to see their two adopted children, but then one doesn't want to sound judgmental. Oh, sure one does.

Nicole had bragged, right before the breakup, that they were "well past the seven-year itch" and that their marriage was super-solid in it's eleventh year. Of course, it was solidified in the way most of our are; By trotting around our naughty bits for all the world to see in a perfectly ghastly Stanley Kubrick movie. The Cruise/Kidmans sued the tabloids for saying they needed a sex therapist to coach them on those steamy scenes in Eyes Wide Shut and won the suit. But remember what my aunt Sadavee always said; "A bit dog hollers." I don't know what it means either, but it somehow feels appropriate here.

The good gossip news is that this puts Tommy boy back in the game. Men love to hate Tom Cruise, rolling their eyes and calmly calling him a girly man. Of course, this always come from men who haven't budged from their BarcaLoungers since the Atlanta Olympics.

When they're not making headlines getting divorced and bed-hopping (see Zeta-Jones, Catherine), celebrities are always getting on silly bandwagon for this or that and I suspect this stop-gossip foolery will have to run it's course.

We have celebs to thank for a distressing recent trend called the Lesser Boyfriend. This got started with Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt. She is the radiant Oscar winner who is paid (notice I didn't say "earns") $25 million per movie. He is the also-ran who latched on to Julia and immediately quit his day job on Law and Order, where he displayed the emotional range of, say, Joe Friday.

Other celebs followed suit. J-Lo dumped Puffy Combs for an unknown backup dancer, for instance, before finally coming to her senses and discovering just what my mama always told me" it's just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor one.

The lesser boyfriend? Thanks a lot, sister chicks.

This is a trend we don't need but will no doubt trickle down and splatter all over us like so much seagull poop. I envision a nation of newly empowered men who seize this chance to become the professional wind beneath our wings. Just sit there and look soulful while she picks up the check. Nice work, if you can get it, right?

Wrong. The lesser boyfriend is a terrible idea for the Julias and the Jennifers but it's a horrendously bad idea for the Amber Dawns and Misti Raes out here in the real world, where soul boy's gonna throw it in your face that he gave up his dream of becoming a professional wrasler and comic-strip artist just for you.

Of course, being a gossipmonger of the lowest order, I fed like plankton on the Big Breakup, when Julia woke up and realized she wanted somebody who could do more than anticipate the exact moment when her eight-bucks a bottle water was getting dangerously low in the glass.

Naturally, Bratt got married, like, six months after Julia dumped him and I'm looking at his bride and thinking; "Hell-O! You have long reddish brown hair and sausage lips. Get a clue, rebound girl."

I know, I know, what's the point Mule. The point is, we can't kick gossip to the curb. Why? Because it's fun.

Taking a pledge to never gossip, a measure supported by this new movement, is just plain scary. The thought that I could never again speculate to all my friends and neighbors about why my mailman shaving his legs is as depressing as back fat.

That said, I do believe it's important to set the record straight if you find out you've spread misinformation. The mailman's a triathlete, it turns out, and shaves his legs to cut down on the wind resistance when he's cycling.

Yeah, I believe that.

From the Letters to the Editor of this a.m.s Iowa City Press-Citizen:

Y'all kin find out what some Iowans (no, not Ohio) think about indoor rain forests, drilling in Alaska for oil and THESE IDEAS:

Time to rename U.S. departments

It may be time to change the names of federal government departments to reflect the New America:

• Department of Defense to Department of Preventive Wars

• State Department to Department of World Compliance

• Treasury Department to Department of Debt Management

• Department of Education to Department of Tests and Standards

• Department of Commerce to Department of Corporate Liberation

• Department of Labor to Department of Corporate Servitude

Also, some title changes appear to be in order:

• Office of the Vice President to Office of Chief Puppeteer

• Chief of Staff to Under Chief Puppeteer

• National Security Adviser to Spin Doctor for Neoconservative Ideology

New agencies also may be needed:

• Global Warming Denial

• Geneva Conventions Reinterpretation

• United Nations Charter and International Law Obfuscation

• Protection of Friendly Dictators

• Global Corporate Exploitation

While we're at it, considerations should be given to amending the U.S. Constitution: "Nothing in this constitution shall be construed to grant equal protection under the law for immoral minorities."

Happy Easter and Birthdays in April

I learned some great lessons from you yesterday. I'll make a point not to go to church wearing my pj bottoms. I will not hide Easter eggs in automobile exhaust pipes. I will count all the Easter eggs before and after hiding them. I will do my best if I should ever be in a contest where you roll Easter eggs. Every Easter I will have Peeps on hand, unless of course Honey is expected to visit.

As of this past Friday night I have refused to return to the dark side of current events. Since it's sea turtle nesting season here and Mr. Pop is busy as hell, our lives are in the gentle spin cycle. For that reason, Friday night I was home alone. The news was all Schiavo, all the time. The news seemed to impose a heavy weight on anyone who watched. There were no instructions regarding where to carry this weight or how to get rid of it. After I got my shower and I was preparing for bed, I found myself in a funk. In desperation I turned the TV to the station that plays old sit-coms all the time. Murphy, my best canine friend, and I plopped down on the bed, let our brains take a break and laughed at the simple humor of days gone by. Okay, Murphy conked out and I did the laughing. It worked too. I could actually feel the stress and angst flow away into the night. Since that time I have limited how much of the news I'll watch. I take a quick peek into what's going on and then I have to shut it down. Nope, I will not carry the weight they hand out. I'm staying away from the dark side for a while because I need to do that. I need to pull away from all that is there and concentrate on the right now and right here. It's amazing how the brain will kick into another gear given the opportunity. The addiction to current events is somewhat difficult to cure, but I think that it's healthy to try.

Today, after the Easter Sunrise groups have left the beach, we're going over to the beach and walk in the surf. We'll look for shells, sea glass and if we're lucky we'll find a sea bean. Just us, the sunshine, and the Atlantic Ocean keeping one another company. Yeah, this is the same Atlantic Ocean that rushed right out of its boundaries and chomped up the beach along with landward surroundings last year. It wasn't the ocean's fault. The hurricanes of 2004 aggravated it until it fought back. There are still scars on the beach from the brutal attack, but much healing has occurred. The ocean and beach are ready to welcome back their friends, and I am very proud to be one of those friends.

I will not be on line for the next couple of days. The Easter Bunny dropped off a new computer and this old one will be going to the computer guru to have its files transferred to the new one. This comes at a perfect time for me because not being able to be on line will force/allow me to get some things accomplished here at home. I'll spend more time tending the plants, the house and my life. And, I will continue my venture away from the dark side of events. I'm so very tired of negativity and I so very much want to hunt, not for Easter eggs, but for the positive features of life. There has to be a balance. We all live X number of days and I've decided to try to add some sunshine to as many of those days as I can. Just like watching those old sit-coms, I'm stepping back to what makes me laugh and relax. I'm not selling out. I'm just closing the shop for a few days. Time for inventory you might say.

Birthdays in April

Before I close this post, I want to ask a favor. April is my birthday month and I want to share the fun. Is your birthday in April or is someone close to you having a birthday in April? If so, email me their name, first or first and last, or your pet name for that person and the date of their birthday. If you want to include something I can share about them, send that too. I want to wish each of these people a very happy birthday on their own special day. As soon as this post is on the screen I will post a comment with it and include my email address. If I have enough birthday candles, I might continue the birthday wishes into the coming months.

Gotta go now. I will miss you guys and I'll see you as soon as the new computer is fired up and ready to rock and roll. Until then, enjoy yourselves and please don't let the negatives consume you. You deserve so much better.

Until later,

patricia

Good Morning

This morning while we were eating the traditional Blonde family Easter breakfast of chocolate eggs while perusing the Newsday, we read this startling statement from a Vatican spokesman:

"The Vatican has to keep the appearance . . . that the pope is fully in command because everything in the Catholic Church depends on the active participation of one man. Everyone else's power derives from that one man. And if that one man is not actively doing something, then no one has the authority to do anything. Everything shuts down,"

Wow. Ponder that for a moment. I'll wait.

B-b-but who will translate God's wishes for the faithful?

President Bush comes to mind.
"Nooooooooooooooooo!" She cries, pushing away the newspaper, nervously playing with the foil egg wrappers, feeling the chocolate churning inside as a wave of nausea passes over her like an altar boy's dread when he finds himself alone in the sanctuary with the priest who touches him in bad places.

There was a picture of the back of the pope's head in Newsday too. The story opened with this:

It was a moving but also disturbing image: a meditative Pope John Paul II, shown only from the back or in profile, sitting alone in his private chapel Friday night.

Why, many viewers wondered, was the ailing, 84-year-old pontiff's face not shown during about 20 camera shots of him watching the Way of the Cross re-enactment across town?

Church watcher's and pundits conclusions were summed up in the article yet no one suggested that it might have been a stand-in Pope or a body double. The pope showed up at his window this morning to look out at the flock, yet was unable to speak. It appeared to be the real pope. Business as usual.

My girlfriend is visiting Italy for her 50th birthday in April. She wants to view the magnificent art at the Vatican. She will not be able to see the Sistine Chapel if the Pope passes away and they shut down Vatican City. She asks that we keep the Pope in our prayers that he may hang in there for a few more weeks. But of course, darling.

Science was just a bunch of theory anyway. Right?

This just made my day. made my day.


Okay, We Give Up
From the April 2005 Issue of Scientific American.
Who said scientists had no sense' of humor?

There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.

In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of socalled evolution has been hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it.

Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

Moreover, we shamefully mistreated the Intelligent Design (ID) theorists by lumping them in with creationists. Creationists believe that God designed all life, and that's a somewhat religious idea. But ID theorists think that at unspecified times some unnamed superpowerful entity designed life, or maybe just some species, or maybe just some of the stuff in cells. That's what makes ID a superior scientific theory: it doesn't get bogged down in details.

Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to present everybody's ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts. Nor should we succumb to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists understand their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do. Indeed, if politicians or special-interest groups say things that seem untrue or misleading, our duty as journalists is to quote them without comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be elitist and therefore wrong. In that spirit, we will end the practice of expressing our own views in this space: an editorial page is no place for opinions.

Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern. No more discussions of how policies affect science either so what if the budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools' Day.

Okay, We Give Up

MATT COLLINS
THE EDITORS editors@sciam.com
COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.

Has The Circus Left Town Yet?

Can the rest of us resume our lives and try not to feel so guilty about those that we "so callously" let die because we did not get the president, the governor, the congress, fake doctors and nurses in to testify that not enough was done to save the lives of our loved ones who have passed away? Is this supposed to be the new American thing now? Don't let anyone die under any circumstances? And if they do, at least know that you have inconvenienced millions of people enough to make their death worth it? Ridicule judges for only doing their jobs? Do they want us to block the parking lots of hospices across America and insist that each and every human life is sacred to such an extent that everyone will be kept on life support no matter what?

We are now officially playing God here in Murka. You don't even have to think anymore. The next thing you know, they'll be putting you in jail for not taking better care of yourself. You can bet your bippy that the next issue in congress will be to vote that there are no more judges.

How can I possibly visit the cemetary on easter? My mom, dad and brother are there. Should I be riddled with good old fashioned Catholic guilt? Did I let them all down by not getting congress involved in their health care? Was I a bad health care proxy for my parents? Is it a sin to sign a DNR? Am I going to hell? oh excuse me, this is hell. Or should I be mad that my country allowed them to die? They were denied their right to life! Maybe I should sue someone.

Lucky for dad, he died in time. Medicare said they would only pay for hospice for a certain length of time. If he didn't die soon enough, we'd have to take care of him by ourselves. We had been doing that with home hospice for 6 months. That information gave my mom an actual stroke, poor thing. Dad died, mom became partially incapacitated, well majorly incapacitated and legally blind from her stroke. I took care of her until she died in her sleep a year later. Now they want to make us all feel guilty?

Easter used to be the best holiday too. I'm Pissed Off Elizabeth today.

Easter Bunnies and Bonnets and Memories

Remember the feeling you had on Easter morning when you were a little kid? I remember one Easter in particular, my fifth one.

My mom always made my Easter dress. I would almost always have brand new shoes, a brand new little purse and if the money was good, I'd have a brand new Easter hat/bonnet too.

The Easter when I was five years old was one of the best. I had all the above stuff plus little white gloves, white socks with lace on them and brand new under pants with a little white lace on those too. Getting dressed for church was so exciting because everything was new. New, shiny, and oh so gorgeous to me. Man, I thought I was the queen of the world. My mom or dad took a picture of me that morning when I was all ready to leave for Sunday school. The Easter Bunny had left a big plush bunny for me. A great, wonderful, yellow plush bunny and he was mine. So there I stood on the sidewalk in Knoxville Tennessee holding the most magnificent bunny while clad in the most magnificent outfit. I was cruising at the top level that morning. What an Easter!

Funny the things you treasure as a kid. At Easter I treasured plush bunnies, and new clothes. I no longer have to wait until Easter to enjoy the fun of new clothes, but I do treasure plush bunnies today just as much as I did that Easter morning standing on the sidewalk in Knoxville Tennessee.

Okay now, it's your turn. Share an Easter memory with me and with all of us. Funny memories work, any kind of memory about a special Easter in your life.
Fill in the blank. It wouldn't be Easter without ________ ,

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

This seems to be introspective Friday. All over the usual fine sites on the net people are pouring out stuff from their thoughts like cleaning a closet. Let's get it all out there and see what we want to keep and what we want to toss in the trash. Some are tossing it all in the trash. I wonder what they plan to do next. I might try to do a little mental closet cleaning myself. Maybe I will, but I'm kind of tired.

Maybe we're all tired. Maybe we're all so damned tired from the freak show and emotions we've been exposed to this week. Maybe we're all feeling low because we have been reminded too often of our own mortality. People killing people and people being killed and one dead person trying to die for real. We have been told to write down how we want to die. That didn't lead us to a happy place, did it? We have been cluster-willing.

We have seen our government doing things that are so outrageous that we can barely comprehend the reality of the acts. Then there was, like I said, the freak show. The show should have been called, Lives Saved Here, even Dead Lives. When things become incomprehensible it's tough to function. Abnormal and insane events make it way difficult to keep a nice firm grip on reality. You feel your fingers slipping off a little more than ever before. You feel like you're in a maze and you're not even sure there is an exit, so you question if it's even worth going any farther. You know you will, but you question why you're doing it.

We are into a holiday weekend and no one is talking about it. No jokes about Peeps. No jokes about the Easter Bunny "coming". It's all gone and that's sad. We've been robbed. They took it all away this year, and I wonder how long it will be before we get it back. Maybe next year. But this year it's all messed up. The eggs can stay brown or white, who cares? For the first time in my life, I don't.

With part of my closet now cleared out, I've decided I'm too tired to fool with doing the rest. Looks to me like the deeper I go the more crap I find. Maybe I'll just toss it all back in there and leave it. WTF, I'll close the door and forget about it. Man, I sure do wish I could. It would be so much easier if we could all just close the door and forget about it, but let's not, because we can't afford to do that.


Another fine graphic from Earl.

The Will to Die

Why should any of us be required to defend our right to die by having a Living Will?

Who began this argument by assuming that all of us would want to continue to exist if we are in a persistent vegetative condition? I've asked this question before and I'll ask it again. Have you ever heard anyone say that they wanted to be kept on life support of any type for as long as they could? Maybe I'm off the beaten path here, but I have never heard anyone say that.

I mean think about it. We must defend our right to die so family members or the government won't force our other family members to bear the burden and expense of keeping our bodies alive long after our true life is gone. This is unreal. We are being told that if we don't have a Living Will we could very well be kept alive in some horrid condition. That's insane.

Yes, life is precious but we're all going to die one way or another. The fundamental idea of hanging on to what is basically a corpse is bizarre. To me it is comparable to having a loved one stuffed and kept like a deer head hanging on the wall. There is nothing there except the vessel of the person that once was.

When you visit nursing homes you see all sorts of people. Some are mentally spry but physically challenged. It's humane to help these people. But then there are others who are tied to the wheel chair and the face is blank. They appear to see nothing that happens in the hall or wherever they have been stationed for the day. Their mouth is agape and they wear a bib to catch the dripping saliva. The body, such as it is, is in the chair but the person is long gone. And, unless we have a living will, that could be us. Why? Well, they say no one wants to play god, and yes, that does include me. But wait just a second. Many people make these kind of decisions every day. If making life and death decisions is "playing god" then doctors do it every day when they remove a tumor or sew up a wound? No, they aren't playing god, they are doing what makes sense. And that's exactly what is missing from the right to live or die argument. There is no consideration for what makes sense. There is however an unhealthy selfishness on the part of a lot of human beings. Due to their selfishness, they are willing to keep even just the body of someone they love in a state of artificial life while at the same time turning a blind eye toward the indignity they are putting that person through. They keep them alive not because it is beneficial to their loved one, because it isn't. They keep them alive to avoid the pain of letting them go. They disregard the indignity of their act and instead hide from the pain the actual death would cause them to feel. That is selfish. True love is not selfish.

If anyone is "playing God", it may well be those who force life to continue even after death has occurred. When events that cause a human being to have no quality of life, rob them of their dignity and require them to be solely dependent on some type of artificial life system, the common sense assumption should be they would want to die unless their will states otherwise. So rather than require all of us to prove we would want to be allowed to die if we are in that condition, I believe those who would want to be kept alive should have to provide their own special Will of instructions. Why must we defend our right to die? Death is a part of life.

With the overwhelming requests for Living Will forms this past week, seems to me that most Americans are in agreement. They want to make sure they are not kept alive after they are basically dead. So again, why must we defend our right to die? Who is making the case against us?

If someone wants to be kept alive by artificial means as long as possible no matter how dire their physical and mental condition, require them to make their desires known and assume the rest of us have a will to die.

In the Handbasket to Hell, We Do Not Ride Alone

Since I get most of my inspiration for blog posts from the comments section here, as I have somehow caught Persistant Vegetative State Syndrome, PVSS, from paying attention to the MSM, mainstream media, I'd like to point you to Whiskey Bar, as per our very own Al Hill, commenter du jour, who likes to yell into the wind because it makes him feel better (same here, Al), where the erudite bartender, Billmon, explains his absense last year and the futility of blogging. It's a long but compelling read. I hear ya, Billmon!

Yes, progressive bloggers probably won't do anything major to change the world or influence the fascist media but I always say that we have each other to keep ourselves amused and sane while clutching each other's virtual hands and serving each other some snark and cocktails as we ride together, side by side, performing oral sex on each other, togther in the handbasket on its way to hell.

Somebody stop me. I'm going back to bed now.
Thank you for the graphic, Earl, you angel...

TGIF

By popular demand, Conspiracy Friday resumes.
Anything is possible at this point with these quacks running the country.

I have read many times that Cheney was at the control room running the show on 9/11 and supposedly ordering planes to be shot down, but I didn't know about Norman Mineta, whose testimony was stricken from the official 9/11 report.

This letter to Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta is long and there is a lot of subsequent reading to do. Was there a cover-up by our very own 9/11 Commission? Would anyone in our great nation deceive the people? Perish the thought. But keep reading. Stay informed. The truth is mixed up in there somewhere.

--------
More information
9/11 Commission Testimony -Norm Mineta
Ari Fleisher's press conference on 9/12/01 Very interesting
9/11 Timeline -Center for Cooperative Research - best timelines with articles to back it up. Page takes a while to load.
StandDown.net where was NORAD?
Memes.org dismantles NORAD press release
9/11 Timeline From the Wildnerness

We've Moved

But you really can't tell can you?
We are now at BlondesenseBlog.com

Oh wait, I have to find out how to get rid of that pesky banner.

In case you missed it

You can watch Jon Stewart's take on the media feeding tube frenzy right here at Crooks and Liars as well as United Left, featuring Jon Edwards on Fox and Friends.

We have Jon Edward's here at Fox. He is an expert on the afterlife. So Jon, what exactly is going on with Terri Schiavo's soul?
-----------

my country tisathee
sweet land of liverty
ah thee I sing
land where a father stide
land ah the pilgrim spride
from e-e-evry mountain slide
let freedom ring.

I hope I remembered the lyrics correctly.

Why I love Spring

Living as we do on a farm in Missouri, we don't normally have the kind of take-no-prisoners winters that people like my sister Klondike Kate, way up in Alaska gets. Or my ole rodeo pal, Lindy does in Canada. But on the other hand San Diego it ain't!

All winter long I get snippets of news that makes me relatively glad to be living where I do. -60º in Alaska, six feet of snow in Buffalo with a blizzard to come. We only had one ice storm this year and it only brought us to our knees for two days. All the same, it's still mighty chilly here in the Don't Show Me State.

Our ole stable hand, Jake Ring, who like most people born hereabout and brought up around horse farms, was pretty much as inured to cold as a ditch digger. He used to put on his long johns and insulated bib overalls on the day after Thanksgiving and didn't take them off for good until around Easter, and worked a solid eight to 12 hours a day outdoors whatever the weather, admittedly dressed like an Eskimo, his face the color of a beet, apart from the places that had turned blue. When it got down to -10, he might blow on his fingers and opine, "Might get a mite chilly tonight, think we should put the blanket's on the ponies?" But that was about it.

This may help to explain the desperation with which I start looking for signs of spring, however small and treacherous- after a winter of feeding the horses every morning dressed head to foot in layers of polar fleece and goose down, with icicles hanging from the horses mouth and nose. Lesson time, while we clutch the reins with fingers cramped and bloodless from the cold, searching, horse and rider alike, for places where ice hasn't make the ground a skating rink when we ride outside.

The sight of a bud on a tree, however premature, must have the same effect on us as the sight of shorebirds and the scent of land breezes did on a 16th-century sailor. We have learned over the years not to trust the melting of the snow, since freakier chit can replace it overnight as late as Easter, catching the country just as the road crews have run out of salt and sand and unlucky optimists have already removed their snow tires. Instead, we rely on the signs that don't lie, and just wait for them.

First there are the migrating birds that stop by our 1 acre lake, right out my back door- a good sign that Mother Nature is getting ready to relent. The vast numbers of little yellow and black birds and larger Red-Breast Robins who presumably been spending the winter in Florida or South America. We are not what you can call bird watchers, so we don't know their names, but my two-year-old grandson meets them with whoops of joy, and together he and I scatter birdseed in their honor. There are also some male wild turkeys doing their mating dace (at least we assume that it's about mating) on our lawn, stately shuffle for which they puff themselves up to huge size, none of which seems to impress the females much, and the Canadian Geese. I always ask them if they wintered with my ole pal Lindy, and they sometimes answer back. They too have stories to tell.

Above all, we watch the horses. During the winter they grow a thick coat, ranging from the very modest and sleek one of my dressage horse, Tango, to that of the Paint, Hula Girl. Skipper W. Spring, who resembles a bear, if you can imagine a bear with kind eyes and hooves. The horses can't read the calendar in the barn, but they don't need to: All of a sudden they start to shed, producing huge piles of hair with every brushing, as if their normal selves were re-emerging day by day. They move more briskly, too, and paw impatiently at he sheets of ice that still sometimes cover their paddocks in early spring. They realize it will very soon be green with delicious grass. The farrier, always a good judge of weather, thinks it will soon be time to take off their snowball pads (these prevent the buildup of snow in their hooves, which can leave a horse teetering around dangerously, like a woman in her first pair of Joan Crawford high heels) and forego the borium studs they wear on their shoes to prevent slipping on the ice.

In the barn and the tack room, preparations are in hand for a new season- checklists are used to make sure everything's ready for the new foals, the horse trailer is ready just in case we make it to a Team Penning. Or as we had to last spring, a late night trip to the University Vet Hospital when one of our mares almost died while delivering a huge foal.

Show boots that have not been worn since last fall are unzipped from boot bags and polished. Layer by layer the winter clothing comes off, to be carefully bundled and sent off for cleaning and repair.

Of course, we all know that there's going to be a period of what the Russians call "rasputitsa," the thick mud of the thaw, which can pull the horses' shoes off and lame them badly as they try to pull their feet out of it, but after which, all of a sudden, everything starts to turn green and the ground firms up enough for them to canter and jump again.

One morning we're riding out and hear the confused noise of the frogs- a sure sign that warm weather is coming, and the horses recognize it too.

They are putting on muscle again, their coats are beginning to resume a glossy sheen. Tango seems to be half the size he was in midwinter now that the thick coat is gone and in the morning their nostrils quiver eagerly, taking in the smell of new grass and scents long suppressed by the cold. They glance at the little birds perched on the fence rails of their paddocks with approval, and relish a mild day in the sun without their blankets and winter coats.

I am lucky enough to have an indoor riding arena, so the horses get a chance to trot and canter through the winter, but it isn't the same as being outdoors, for them or for us. Most of them don't mind the ring, but Skipper dislikes it deeply, which he signifies by an ill-tempered, grumpy attitude, rare for him, and a occasional sideway kick with which he apparently hopes to bring the whole barn down. Now as the ground begins to soften, Skipper cheers up considerably, no more exercising in the ring, and his step becomes light and springy again. Little flowers are beginning to push their way through the crust of snow. Skipper likes the feel of being outdoors, the stretch of a good, uphill gallop, and the sight of our resident pair of hawks, with whom he has a nodding relationship, as one aristocrat to another.

For the horses, as for us, every spring is a miracle, a kind of rebirth. But we won't be in Church come Sunday morning. For us, it's take off the storm windows, put up the screens; say goodbye to the sweaters and insulated boots and gloves and hello to summer clothing and sunblock and bring out the fly spray. With the horses, it's goodbye to slipping and sliding over rutted, hard ground. Goodbye to frozen paddocks and end-of-winter hay, hello to fresh green grass; goodbye to growing stiff in the cold, and hello again to the adventure of getting into the trailer and going off on a trail ride or to compete at big events, with lots of new horses to meet, and excitement in the air......

You can tell all that by the expression in their eyes, by the way they swing their heads to look at all the wonders around them after the monochrome dreariness of winter, by the occasional good-natured buck and the eagerness to get out onto the land and go, hooves thundering, nostrils snorting, ears flickering at every sound. Even Jake, old as he is (at 30 a horse is the equivalent of a 100-year-old human), seems to have dropped 10 years. I know how he feels.

Two new souls have now joined us since I began this post- A filly and a horse colt. Both decided to make their way into this world on the same night. I can see them both now from my office, with Mom's close by. The little filly is running circles around the little guy, and playing a mock game of tag. They weren't even here a week ago and now they both fly around like Smarty Jones on the way to the finish line. Haven't got around to naming them yet, so any suggestion? I'll consider them.

No I won't go to church on Sunday morning. I have my own, thank you very much.

Another quote of the week

"The case is full of great ironies. A large part of Terri's hospice costs are paid by Medicaid, a program that the administration and conservatives in Congress would sharply reduce. Some of her other expenses have been covered by the million-dollar proceeds of a malpractice suit - the kind of suit that President Bush has fought to scale back."

- NPR commentator Daniel Schorr.

Heh

I've never seen it, but there is a TV show called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". I heard of it when the company that remodeled my house last year proudly boasted that they do work for that particular television show. In today's Newsday there are pictures of a nice man and his kids who were lucky enough to have their "tiny 800-foot cottage" extremely made over because his young wife had died and he had 3 small boys to raise alone in that shoebox of a home because no one on Long Island is expected to have to live in such a tiny house in this day and age. I think my house is a tiny bit larger than that and somehow we have survived here for 24 years, thank Jaysus.

The article goes on about how great this is and there are pictures of women in the neighborhood there to check out Ty Pennington the host of the show who is supposedly cute, but I think he acts like a jerk on the Sears commercials, and it makes you filled with joy that this poor family finally has a whopping 2,400 sq. feet in which to sprawl across the former potato fields of Long Island where there is the largest incidence of breast cancer in the US. The home improvement company even threw in a fishing boat named after their deceased matriarch. Very touching.

Here's the catch. The house at 800 sq feet was taxed at $3,200/yr (how do you like them apples, those of you who live elsewhere and pay third of that for a big house with actual land? I pay twice that.) and now that the house has been improved, their taxes will skyrocket to $11,500/yr. yikes!

Will he have to sell the fishing boat to pay the taxes?
Would they have to sell the house and move to a place with cheaper taxes?
The realtor says that the house went from a value of $375,000 to $825,000.
Of course that assumes that someone would want to pay that much money for a house in a $400,000 neighborhood. I wouldn't. You always want to buy the worst house in a good neighborhood.

PS. The homeowner is a Suffolk County police officer. Nevermind. They are very well paid. Very. Probably not moving.

I am.

A Holy Thursday Reflection

"Right To Life" and "Christian" Protesters outside Woodside Hospice.

Hmmm. Is that Christ on the cross I see in the above photo?
Did not Jesus suffer and die on the cross so that we may have everlasting life?
...that we may not fear death anymore?
...that all our sins are forgiven?

Did Jesus not ride on a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday knowing full well that he would be arrested and then face his execution? Did he not know that scourging at the pillar was part of the deal?

Jesus didn't have to go to Jerusalem that warm sunny Sunday where he was welcomed by his followers who waved palms. He could have gone somewhere else and lived a nice long life, got married, had kids... Alas, he followed his Father's will even though at one point He told his Father that it would be okay if the cup of suffering would be taken away from him. He was human. It wasn't easy for his mother, Mary Magdalen and his disciples to see him suffer and die, but they had faith in what he had taught them. Their faith brought them through that terrible time. They prayed, they wept and mourned as any human beings would do when someone they loved was about to go home to the heavenly Father. They had hope.

So what is up with the faith and hope of today's Christians?
Would Jesus recognize them?

Maureen Dowd Scores A Run For the Home Team, and No Steroids are Involved

(NYTIMES LINK)

One more time, Ms Dowd nails it.
If you read only one editorial today, please read "DeLay, Deny and Demagogue"

Here's a taste of what you'll read:
"The president, who couldn't be dragged outdoors to talk about the more than a hundred thousand people who died in the horrific tsunami, was willing to be dragged out of bed to sign a bill about one woman his base had fixated on."

See? What did I tell you?

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

From the NY Times (LINK)

Remember yesterday when Jeb spoke of a new doctor who was now involved in the Schiavo case? This doctor, Dr. Cheshire, had determined that Schiavo had been "misdiagnosed". Well, here's how the doctor is described in the Times today.

"Dr. Cheshire is the director of a laboratory at the Mayo Clinic branch in Jacksonville that deals with unconscious reflexes like digestion, and the director of biotech ethics at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, a nonprofit group founded by "more than a dozen leading Christian bioethicists," in the words of its Web site."

I am so freakin' surprised that the fine doctor is a member of a "Christian" group. I'm sure you are as well.

(Okay, timeout while I put my pet snark back in her cage.)

If you watched Hardball with Chris Matthews last night you had to enjoy the hell out of that tape of DeLay that Chris played. Then we had Pat Robertson exploding all the hell over the place. He about did a Zell Miller. Of course after that you turned off the TV, because for the gazillionth time, the guy who wrote the book that the chick read to the Atlanta murderer was on. I refuse to even type the name of the book or the author's name because I'm so damned sick of hearing about all of this. Just like so many other things that are happening now, there's something about it that's all weird, sick and just plain stinks!

Those people gathered outside the building where Schiavo now resides remind me of a group of vultures. They are doing nothing more than using her to feed their need for attention. And they sure as hell are getting it, aren't they? They are doing all these choreographed stunts to draw attention to themselves, not to Schiavo. They are opportunistic. What possible good does it do for Schiavo if they get arrested? If they really believed in the power of prayer why wouldn't they be praying instead of walking around with Styrofoam cups of water when they know damned well they aren't going to be allowed inside the building?

If they think all their acts and stunts are going to work to recruit people to become Christians, I would imagine that they are having about as much luck with their recruitment as the US military is with theirs.

Army Expects Recruiting to Slump Further

If you have a son or daughter, a grandkid or anyone you love who is of recruitment age, you had better read this. See, they have this new idea. They are going to appeal to your patriotism in order to get you to push your kids to join up. Beware!
Also they are raising the maximum age for recruits in the Guard from 34 to 39 years old.

There is more. Read here.

The Things They Carried: Reflections on War Coverage


This is absolutely a report that the whole country should read. It's comments by reporters who have been to Iraq and what they thought of the way news got back to us. Don't begin to read it if you haven't got a few minutes, because once you start, you will read the entire piece.

We Are Number One! woo hoo!

From the article America Rules:

The World Health Organization has released a study that verifies the United States is the undisputed champion in mental illness*, dominating various pathologies ranging from anxiety to depression to poor impulse control. We easily vanquished underachieving Old Europe in post-traumatic stress syndrome, bipolar disorder, and bulimia nervosa. Additionally, our magnificent land trounced the supposedly productive Asian countries in both senility and agoraphobia, while coasting past Africa in pediatric hyperactivity. In fact, there would have been a gold medal sweep for America if Ukraine had not cheated by submitting doctored urine to edge us out in substance abuse.

The author goes on of course to pin most of the mental illness on right wingers. He isn't really that far off though because they are some of most enfranchised victims I have ever witnessed on earth. Give them everything they want and they are still paranoid and angry. Gosh, they act like there is a liberal agenda. (singing theme to the Twilight Zone)

The author doesn't think all wingers are nuts:

" Just because right wingers believe the greeting “Happy Holidays” constitutes a threat to their personal liberty does not necessarily mean that every single one of them is cracked."

No, of course not. They are just hyper-sensitive what with all the crazy liberals running the country into the ground and all.

I Know It's A Little Early For The 'Quote of the Week' But Here It Is Anyway:

"Time to face the unpleasant truth: President George W. Bush is a traitor to his country. So are the brain-dead puppets he controls with so much despotic ease."

If you want to read the rest of a fine essay by Doug Thompson, click here.

The Florida Bush

Jeb bush just announced that he has had a famed neurologist view the videos of Schiavo and look at her, but not examine her. This doctor says she has been misdiagnosed. Jeb seems to think this doctor's opinion should save the day.
I'll get more info as soon as I can. I can't remember all I heard because there was so much to take in at one time.

Why Does God Hate Caribou?

Drill for oil and screw Alaska's wildlife? Why, sure, all part of the imminent Rapture!
by Mark Morford Read it here.

Native Nazi?

Check this out. The native American, goth kid who shot 10 in Minnesota belonged to this bulletin board cached at google.

It's the Fear, Baby. The Fear.

Yesterday, after reading more about the shooting in Minnesota, I decided to watch Bowling for Columbine again. I also watched the extras on the DVD which included a speech Michael Moore gave to people in Denver a year after the movie was released. He mentioned how the cops were afraid to enter Columbine HS long after the shooting stopped while people were bleeding to death inside... How parents of missing children were tackled by the cops when they tried to enter the school long after the shooting stopped. Then the parents stopped trying to get into the school to find their kids out of fear of the cops tackling them. Moore didn't include these points in the movie because he didn't want to hurt the people of Littleton at that time. After just reading the alarming article that my colleague Patricia posted just below about people being allowed to shoot each other in self defense in Florida, the whole experience of yesterday's DVD watching came home to me like a giant wake up call.

Americans are more afraid of each other like no where else in an industrialized country. It's the fear, baby. That is why we are so fucked up and why we shoot each other more than any other people in an industrialized country anywhere... for nothing. It's bizarre. White men have been afraid since they first arrived here. Even now, with the neocons in power and the conservatives having a field day owning the media and our lives, they are still afraid. Nothing can stop the fear. You can hand them the world and they'd still be afraid.

They pass on this fear to at least half of the country. Their religion is based on fear. Their politics are based on fear. Their foreign policy is based on fear. The second amendment is based on fear. The opression of blacks and women is based on fear. The white man cannot abide the fact that perhaps they are not the master race or gender. (who needs to be the best all time but the mentally ill?) The whole world to them is one big battle of good vs evil. It became quite clear to many of us when bush started using words like "evil doers" and "infinite justice" after 9/11. That alarmed me more than the planes crashing into the towers. Hey, you can deal with terrorists. You can find out what's bugging them. It's usually some sort of gross injustice that can be solved. But what the hell is bugging the president of the supposed greatest country in the world? Guilt? Fear? What is he afraid of? Is he afraid of his power being ripped from his greedy, selfish claws?

Sure, I'm scared but not scared of the same things as my fellow Americans. I'm afraid of their fear and where it will lead. Will this turn into another Rwanda? Darfur? They cannot look at themselves. They must always blame someone else. This country is a giant mental case in need of a giant dose of prozak or a good smack across the face as my mother would say.

We have no more guns, violent movies, violent games, broken homes, unemployment, poverty, minorities, violent history, or less prayer than any other industrialized nation yet we kill each other in such numbers that it's absolutely embarrassing. We are no worse in any of those areas!

Last night I watched an HBO film about the genocide in Rwanda in '94: Sometimes in April. I had no idea. God help us. White European men originally pitted people against each other for no good reason. Then the roles reversed. It was evil. How did they arouse such fear? Radio. Can you imagine? They scared the hell out of people and caused them to kill their neighbors for being of a different tribe. They couldn't even tell by looking at each other who was from what tribe. They had to show an ID card. Then they would shoot their neighbor in cold blood. These were not jungle people as we may have pictured it 11 years ago. It looked like any American suburb in Rwanda, yet they were so afraid of their neighbor that not even the fact that they belonged to the same catholic parish could not contain their hatred.

I can't get the man I met in Arizona out of my mind. The one who was proudly packing a pistol and told me "Welcome to the real America" after he found out that we were from New York, where we are not allowed to pack heat.

Welcome, indeed.

Watch 'Bowling For Columbine' again if you can and see if you can catch 'Sometimes in April' on HBO.

A Must Must Read

G.D. Frogsdong wrote a most disturbing yet compelling piece today about the stench in DC. What a masterful writer he is. Here's a morsel:

"I don't know what drove me on. The stronger that hellish odor, the more stubborn I became. When I reached the Capitol steps, Barney Frank came running out of the building. I grabbed him by the arm before he could get away, "What is it?" I yelled at him, frantic. "What the hell is that smell?"

He tore himself from my grasp and staggered down the stairs. "I couldn't take it anymore. I tried, I really tried," he hollered back, "Kucinich is the last Democrat who could take it, but he won't last long. Let me go! I have to go! I can't take it anymore!"

He lurched off down the street. I noticed the tears in his suit then, as if some clawed creature had ripped at him suddenly, four long tears down the back of his jacket.

I was scared, there's no doubt of that."

Don't Give Me That Look!

PB Post (Link)
Gun bill could mean Shoot first, ask later.

"Florida could wind up back in the Wild West, with people shooting first and asking questions later under a proposal that could pass the Senate today, critics of the bill warned."

Yes sirree, we here in Florida are all for preserving life and we'll shoot you to prove it.

Sounds like pretty soon we can shoot at you and if you don't get out of the way of our bullet before it gets to you, too bad. Guess which association is behind and pushing this bullets flying circle-fuck?

"Tell people to be very, very careful out there. ... Don't shrug the wrong way, don't give people the wrong look because it could be considered as threatening."

Ah well, that's going to be difficult. My facial expressions tell you exactly what I'm thinking. Sounds like it's burka time for me.

DeLay In Play

"High Court Orders Tom DeLay's Feeding Tube Removed" (Link)
(calm down, calm down, it's satire)

Is Tom DeLay Guilty? Who Cares! (Link)
(calm down, more jokey stuff)

And then from Daniel Ruth of the Tampa Tribune.
Tom DeLay Awards Badge Of Honor (Link)
(Get fired up and enjoy!)
You're going to love this! Here's an appetizer from Mr. Ruth's piece. Quoting Delay:
"I don't have a lot of respect for a man who has treated a woman this way," preened the poster child for Ethics Committee investigations. "What kind of man is he?"
Mr. Ruth's take: "Well, for starters, not having the `respect' of some cheesy, opportunistic demagogue who makes Tammany Hall look like the College of Cardinals is really a badge of honor for Michael Schiavo."

Talk Amongst Yourselves

What's on your mind?
Open Thread

I Can't Guarantee The Accuracy Of The Following Story:

But if it didn't happen, maybe it will.
It seems that Bush, Rove, and Gannon/Guckert were all gaily giggling, and splashing and playing around in a hot tub together when Bush noticed some sticky white gooey stuff floating on the surface of the water. Turning to the other two, he announced angrily, "All right, which one of you sons-a-bitches farted"?

You will never believe who created this cool design for his cafe press store.
You won't so I'll tell you.

Our very own contrary commenter, Paul N. has this graphic and another rather un-Republicanlike Social Security bumper sticker at his retrocynic cafe press shop.
Way to go, Paul.

Ya think it can't get much worse.

Ha! Check out this editorial.

A Cheney candidacy in 2008? The Washington Times

"President Bush famously rewards loyalty and competent service. There is one more promotion logical for him to make in his second term: engineering the 2008 GOP presidential nomination for Dick Cheney.

Such a move is not, of course, within the president's plenary authority. Others will surely want the nomination."

and

"But many of the boomers have kept themselves in decent shape, and all of them have benefited from tremendous advances in medical care and in health-consciousness. Mr. Cheney's their older brother. And he will have had the benefit of eight years of better than the best health care money can buy. He'll be fit to run if he wants to.

Who knows? But it does look like the stars are coming into alignment."

Viva Lost Wages

Bush and the Republicans continue to say that Democrats should submit their ideas about how to change Social Security. Okay, I have an idea. How about we allow people to go to Las Vegas and play the tables with their money. Just as with Wall Street, some people amass a lot of money in Vegas. Most don't, but that's where my plan shines.

I mean, sure it's a gamble in Vegas, but so is Wall Street. In Vegas you get free food and cocktails while you are losing your ass. That isn't going to happen on Wall Street. Plus heck, you can see shows and all in Vegas. No shows on Wall Street, not one single, long-stemmed showgirl either.

Let's ask kids, would you rather mail your money to Wall Street, lose your ass and watch your money sail out the door to thieving CEO crooks or would you rather visit Vegas, eat and drink plus see a show, lose your ass and watch your money sail out the door to casino crooks? Ha! No screwin' contest.

Bush's idea of private accounts promises you nothing. My idea of gambling accounts at least promises you some fun. With either plan you'll probably get screwed, but with my plan, it might not hurt as much. The cocktails might numb the pain.

The Unmitigated Gall of The Bush Administration!

(I sounded like my parents there for a minute...)
Did you see this?

The Bush administration "would have preferred a different ruling," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters in Albuquerque, N.M., where the president was visiting a senior center.

"We hope that they would be able to have relief through the appeals process," McClellan said.

And if they don't? Then what? Oh I can't wait to read the transcripts from bushie's visit to the senior center in Albuquerque. And hey, isn't he supposed to be selling social security? What's he doing in a senior center? I guess we'll soon find out.

Wiley Enters; Delay Exits

by Pissed Off Patricia

Coyote Behavior (Link)
"One of the most adaptable animals in the world, the coyote can change its breeding habits, diet and social dynamics to survive in a wide variety of habitats. Alone, in pairs or in packs, coyotes maintain their territories by marking them with urine."

Last week Tom Delay needed to rehabilitate his reputation. Just like in cartoons, he had run right off the cliff and was frozen in time as he realized what he had done and what was about to happen to him. Quickly he called the Acme Company and ordered a kit. This kit arrived and it contained Terri Schiavo's body along with a pair of gloves. In his haste, Delay failed to notice the condition of the gloves. Delay was able to hook Schiavo's body over the edge of the cliff. Then he put on the gloves so he could hold onto Schiavo's body to pull himself up. But, just like all Acme kits seen in cartoons, this one backfired on Delay. The gloves that came with the kit were slippery. As soon as Delay put on the gloves and grasped onto Schiavo's body, he discovered the slippery gloves were making it impossible for him to hold onto her body for very long. He realized that he was rapidly slipping and was going to fall. He realized that he was going to fall at least 70% of the way down to the bottom and at that point he would have a 30% chance of grabbing the hand of an evangelical to stop his fall. It was about this time that someone yelled to him, "It serves you right. No human being should ever use a woman who is in a permanent vegetative state solely for his own personal gains." Tom looked up to see who had made that statement. Above him he saw a man dressed in a black judicial robe. Above this man's head was a cartoon bubble. Inside the bubble were the words, "Beep, Beep!"

Who said this?

"The continuing trauma repercussions caused by the deplorable terrorist attacks of 9/11 has knocked our system of checks and balances askew. The words "national security" are being used, unwisely, as a catch-all to justify the ever greater accumulation of power in the executive branch."

I doubt you can guess, but give it a shot. I'll tell you later today unless you guess it first.

So Was It Moral?

I received more than a few requests as to what the Catholic Church teaches about life support. Since I studied moral theology about 15 years ago, a lot has changed actually. Just last year in March 2004, Pope John Paul issued outlines of care of persons in "Persistent Vegetative State". No matter what, he decried, a man will always be a man and never a vegetable, thus feeding and hydrating someone via tubes is no longer considered extraordinary measures as it had been thought for about the last 4 or 500 years. Read about it here if you wish.

Keep in mind, that there are no strict guidelines in moral theology. Nothing is black and white. I believe that the Pope knows that too. Moral theologians involved with a patient, take it on a case by case basis and the question of burden is an important one. Many moral theologians are priests with MD's and JD's as well.

I found this article that is based on the old moral theology, Hugh Finn's Right To Die written in 1998 by John Paris, a Jesuit priest and professor of bio-ethics at Boston College. His view and take on Hugh Finn's case was similar to what we studied in the seminary in that no one is obliged to use extraordinary measures to keep a person alive unless there is reasonable hope that the person will be brought back to health. Excerpt:

"If there is no benefit--physical or spiritual--to be gained from delaying death, traditional Catholic moral theology on the use of artificial means to prolong life would support the Virginia Supreme Court's ruling in the Finn case: Remove the medically supplied measures to sustain bodily existence, and allow the lethal pathology incurred in the tragic automobile accident to progress to its natural end."

I still don't know that much about the Schiavo case and wouldn't dare make a judgement on what should be done with her although I do feel at this point it's rather cruel to kill her by way of starvation and dehydration because I am a wuss and a parent. If her existence isn't a burden to her parents, then perhaps Michael should give them authority over her life. I don't know really. I wish I didn't know these things as I've mentioned before. As a spouse who wanted to get on with my life, I would think differently I'm sure.

Here's another article with a different take worth reading, if you are so inclined, called Flying in the Face of Catholicism. The author cites the Florida Bishops who for lack of better interpretation, I would say are old school moral theologians. This writer claims that the Florida Bishops absolutely did not even consider Pope John Paul's new guidelines for persons in a persistant vegetative state. Interesting stuff. You decide.

The judges decided on the case and the feeding tubes will not be reinserted into Theresa Schiavo. She will be allowed to die. They went along with law that Bush signed when he was governor of Texas before he flip flopped over the weekend and turned into a faux compassionate person for political gain.

This will continue to be a hotly debated issue and is going to have great repercussions especially in cases where patients don't have medical benefits and are allowed to die even when there is a chance of recovery. I think it will be good though. It should bring some of the hypocrisy of the GOP'ers out to the forefront and I doubt the mainstream media will be able to cover it up. I'd actually like to see our country embrace a culture of life for real.

Maybe we should all sign up for the draft board. Just a thought.

Talking Points

Here are a couple of the talking points regarding Terri Schiavo's life that were intercepted by ABC News and purportedly written by Senator Frothy Mix's office:

• This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.
• This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida - has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats.

It's perfectly clear. This isn't about the woman. It's because these dirtbags are worried about the elections of 2006. They got the brain dead vote in the last election but they know darn well that they delivered nothing they promised. They didn't want all the anti-war protests to make the news over the weekend either. What to do ? What to do? They're pretending to care about a poor brain dead woman in order to perk up the brain dead voters/base.

I don't know what I think about this story. I wish I didn't have to know about it. It's a private thing. I can't make judgement based on a video of the poor woman. Who am I to judge anyway? I had to sign a DNR for my dad and I don't even want to think about it. I'm sure it's terribly hard to deal with this if it's your child. Your beautiful child. I don't know what I'd do. At this point, starving Terri to death seems cruel. Keeping her alive seems cruel. I have no answers but the politicians can all go rot in hell for all I care. the bastards.

Anthrax Killer Still Free Years Later

Got this email from astute commenter and blog reader, Lalock of Minnesota today:

Here's a preface and exerpt from Bartcop...

Excerpt From Anthrax Killer Still Free Years Later:

"The anthrax false alarm this week served as a reminder that federal authorities George Bush's Justice Department still hasn't caught whoever was the Republicans who were responsible for the all-too-real attacks the attacks on Democrats in 2001 that left five people dead. No arrests have been made and no charges filed in the case and the FBI says they see no recent activity.

"Debra Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, disputed that. She said 30 FBI agents and 15 postal inspectors are assigned to the anthrax probe, and subpoenas have been issued.

"The investigation remains intensely active," Weierman lied. "
.........

Bartcop Responds:
"Horseshit!
"They don't want to put a fellow Republican in jail when he's doing such a good job of scaring the already-scared Democrats into submission.

"Remember:
Bush & Cheney started eating CIPRO BEFORE the anthrax attacks. They knew it was coming, the sons of bitches. "
.........
Lalock puts in 2 cents:
You know, I've been saying this all along...that the guy who did this is a fundy GOP nut-job. Notice how he targeted "pro choice" Dems?

Plus, they only make weapons-grade anthrax in about three places in the country...how hard can it be to catch this guy? The answer is, they don't want him caught because the Repubs would have to admit, "Yes, the types of people that would go so berserk over a woman's right to choose that they would try to murder a liberal are members of OUR PARTY. Read more...

It's nice to be reminded of things I almost forgot about. It certainly was very fishy back in the old anthrax days. Remember it was on the news 24/7 right after 9/11? Yeah, they wanted to keep you scared so we wouldn't think about the lies behind 9/11. Thanks for the heads up Lalock, king of the mole people.

Add Iceland To Your (Probably Short) List Of Civilized Countries If You're Looking For Another Place To Live

"REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- Iceland, the country where Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship a generation ago, granted citizenship to the 62-year-old recluse Monday - a boost to Fischer's efforts to fight deportation from Japan to the United States."
That's the lead sentence of THIS article from the AP. I hope it pisses off the AP to print this story. Pisses them off as much as the story makes me feel good. Iceland, though? Ain't that kinda chilly? 'Course, living in a country which obviously has a progressive government and society, unlike some I could mention, might make up for a cold climate. Gotta get hold of my Green Party buddy Jose Tirado who lives up that way to find out the straight poop on the weather in Iceland.

Petey Sez:

Guess I gotta help these blondes out with their headlines...
"BRAIN DEAD PRESIDENT RUSHES TO SAVE LIFE Of
BRAIN DEAD WOMAN IN FLORIDA"
The straight poop on the subject can be found below.

And Now a Word from Liberal and Proud

Liberal and Proud is one of the many astute commenters who post here at the blog. Today he sums up a lot of points being made about the government's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. Of course it all boils down to the hypocrisy of those who purport to have our best interests in mind. Thanks L&P for your commentary:

Since the Congress in its infinite wisdom has decided to politicize what must be a personal decision decided by family and physician and unfortunately if need by the judicial system, I will stick solely with the politics and hypocritical political posturing conducted over the last several days.

"Conservatives" came to power in this government over the last twenty years, by running campaigns based on states' rights, individual rights, the need to "get government off the backs of the people", and that oft repeated and misused word...freedom.

What this same "conservative" Congress is now saying is that it has the power AND the right to interfere DIRECTLY into individual lifes. They have screamed for days about "preserving life". A cheap easy mantra when no regard is given to the the issues, situations and impact of mindless spouting. They scream about "due process". Well, the Ms. Schiavo's situation has been proceeding through the State court system for YEARS. Doctors have provided repeated diagnoses on her condition and her chance for recovery. Suddenly, all the court decisions don't matter. Suddenly, the power of the states for self determination and their right to oversee and adjudicate STATE issues, doesn't matter. Suddenly, the rights of those "recognized BY LAW" as being responsible for making patient decisions due to the patients incapacitation DON'T MATTER.

It is all HYPOCRISY of the highest form EVER EXHIBITED BY THIS CONGRESS. Not an easy trick when you look over some of the legislation of the last four years.

We know the reasons why. I don't need to repeat them. Suffice it to say that AGAIN...whether we are talking about the rights of MAJORITY to determine what they wish to see on TV or read in books, whether we are talking about "government sanctioned" religious images in the public square, and now whether we are talking about PERSONAL issues of life and death...it is a SMALL group in this country that determine the agenda and elicit action on the part of the government. It is a small group that are allowed to determine what MORALLY we should be seeing, reading, hearing, speaking and now how we should be living AND DYING.

This country is in VERY deep trouble. The rights of the PEOPLE are in very deep trouble. The rights to a person having SELF DETERMINATION are in very deep trouble.

Most of all, it is the PRESIDENT who is the final protector of the PEOPLE. He has a responsibility...not to ONE PERSON...but to ALL people. He has a resposibility to RISE ABOVE politics.

It is a dangerous time. What is next? Will someone soon make the argument that some "votes" should carry more weight than others?

Power still resides with the people ultimately. We need to remember that, and use our power and ownership in the government to obtain the government that the nation NEEDS. A government that serves EVERYONE.

A Must Listen

by Pissed Off Patricia

Just in case you missed the real thing last night, go over to Crooks and Liars (link). They have a link to what was said last night by Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Finally, facts bubbled up, but not high enough I guess. To quote C&L, "She talks about how doctors have rendered an opinion through a video tape."

The Power of Nightmares

Information Clearinghouse sent a link to a BBC series that you can watch online and/or read the transcript. The Power of Nightmares It's alarming and yet kind of explains what you have been thinking all along about the American Dream... that it is a myth. It's been fabricated. Things are not, nor were they ever as they seemed. But we already figured that out.

One part in particular, about the Leo Strauss philosophy drove home the very message that today's neocons and wingnuts are trying to send to America rather agressively: Be afraid.

"It was for politicians to assert powerful and inspiring myths that everyone could believe in. They might not be true, but they were necessary illusions. One of these was religion; the other was the myth of the nation. And in America, that was the idea that the country had a unique destiny to battle the forces of evil throughout the world. This myth was epitomized, Strauss told his students, in his favorite television program: Gunsmoke.

Strauss was a great fan of American television. Gunsmoke was his great favorite, and he would hurry home from the seminar, which would end at, you know, 5:30 or so, and have a quick dinner so he could be at his seat before the television set when Gunsmoke came on. And he felt that this was good, this show. This had a salutary effect on the American public, because it showed the conflict between good and evil in a way that would be immediately intelligible to everyone."

Humming the theme to the Twilight Zone yet? This stuff works. Look how Americans are digging Ahnold of all people. He's a cartoon character. An action figure. How about bushie himself. He can't even ride a horse and probably can't shoot a gun and probably never even flew a fighter plane. It's all myth, yet Americans view him as a gottdamm good guy in the wild west. American's want their action figures.

Watch this series or read it. There is so much more.

Bitchin' Big Time

by pissed off patricia

Don't panic. Don't run out today and get a living will unless you feel that your plug-pulling day might coincide with the anniversary of the beginning of a failing war. If indeed your plug-pulling day should coincide with the anniversary of the US invasion of a country based on lies, a day when Washington would rather change the subject the focus to anything but the war, then yeah, get that will. But, don't expect anyone to respect your wishes, because baby, we might need you for distraction. We might need to screw with your, all but dead body, in some fashion. We might need to show your picture when you are at your worst if it fulfills our needs. We don't give a damn how you look if it meets our needs. We might have to donate your life, liberty and privacy for the cause. We might need to keep you alive to make this country appear to be compassionate. And if you're white and female you will surely fit the need.
Now I ask, has anyone ever heard someone say, "If I'm in a vegetative state I don't care what they have to do, just keep me alive as long as possible?" Neither have I.

Regarding the Schiavo case, bush said, "In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."

Whose life? The lives of the 1500 plus soldiers who came home with a flag on their casket? The lives of thousands who have died in Iraq because that was their home? Maybe he means the hundreds who starve to death or the god knows how many who die every day in the US because they cannot afford health care. Maybe he means just Terri Schiavo, because she so fits his need today.

According to the Guardian (click) "Tonight we have given Terri Schiavo all we could - a chance to live," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "After four days of words, the best of them uttered in prayer, Congress has acted and a life may have been saved." If prayer was the answer, why were any further measures necessary? Why not just have a pray-athon.

"If you don't want a decision to be made politically, why in the world do you ask 535 politicians to make it? Does anyone think that this decision will be made without consideration of electoral support or party or ideology? Of course not," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass." Barney knows what's up.

Republican supporters said the "Palm Sunday Compromise" seeks to protect the rights of a disabled person. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said, "The law would not affect state assisted suicide laws nor serve as a precedent for future legislation." Bullshit! Laws tend to serve as precedents. But Frist knows that they probably will find something else to distract the attention of the world and America before the third anniversary of our invasion of Iraq.

And finally this from CNN (click), "Courts in Florida have received expert testimony from prominent neurosurgeons and neurologists throughout the country," said Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla. "The evidence provided by a standard of clear and convincing evidence is that it is Mrs. Schiavo's wish that she not be allowed to continue in a persistent vegetative state"

"If this bill passes, this Congress is saying that the court system of Florida will lose its long history of jurisdiction in this matter and others like it, and the jurisdiction of the federal court will be substituted," Wexler said."

And so it was.

In the words of George Carlin, "I feel betrayed by three things: religion, my nation and my species."

Hypocrisy Alert

"We should investigate every avenue before we take the life of a living human being."
-Tom Fucking DeLayLie

There is another medical problem going on here in Florida besides the Schiavo case, but you have probably not heard about this one.

From the Palm Beach Post today
Click here

Malformed baby's parents wait on tests
"There is intense interest on the part of farmworker advocates and state investigators in exploring whether the births of the three Immokalee babies might be linked to pesticides."

and

"Herrera said she worked for the first part of her pregnancy in the fields, then continued to wash her husband's and brother's clothes when they came home from work.

She and her husband live in the same labor camp as the other two sets of parents who recently gave birth to malformed babies after working in the same fields. Jesus Navarrete was born Feb. 4 with Pierre Robin syndrome; his malformed jaw causes his tongue to fall back into his throat.

A second baby was born Feb. 6 with a missing nose and ear and without visible sexual organs. The infant was named Jorge, but later doctors told the parents their child was actually a girl, and so they named her Violeta. She died three days later.

Herrera and her husband don't know what to make of the three births, or, certainly, their future with their baby boy who has no arms or legs.

For now, they are coping only on a daily basis, shuttling between their Immokalee labor camp — where the father must keep working to make the weekly rent — and the brightly colored halls of Miami Children's."

Please, please read this story. While Congress plays badminton with Terri Schiavo's body, there are malformed babies being born and no one is all that upset about this situation. Would bush fly back to Washington today to sign a bill requiring a congressional investigation looking into why this baby and other babies of poor migrant workers are being born without arms and legs. I seriously doubt it. Why aren't the moral Christians in Florida raising hell about this?

Quote for the Week:

"While there are a few brave Congresspeople (and 1 brave Senator), the Democratic Senators and Congresspeople who certified the 2004 election results are immoral and useless traitors to democracy, pure and simple. They and the "liberal" censoring wing of the fascist mainstream media deserve as much criticism as the Republicans, as they misdirect the progressive forces that could do something through the Greens." --
Austin Murphy

Spin That Media

It's the anniversary of the stupid war, bush's approval rating is sinking, Americans are feeling insecure about the pretzelnit's social security non-plan for reform so baby bush had to bring his mommy along to assure people that her baby wasn't trying to hurt them and congress is wasting my time investigating steroid use among some baseball players as if nothing more important is happening on earth...

It's time to play "Spin the Media" a/k/a "It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid"
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered worldwide to protest the damn war that is killing hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq thanks to the bushistas, but what is heading the news this weekend? Certainly not the anti-war protests. That's unamerican. We are a pro-life country, right? Yeah right. We have to save a vegetative woman from going home to see Jesus. For a so-called "christian country", I find it rather odd that we are so opposed to letting nature/god take its course in extreme matters such as Terri Schiavo.

Bush is changing his plans this weekend to rush to sign emergency legislation that might save Terry Schiavo's life if he can get federal judges to rule on this case. This from a man who had no problem signing a law to allow hospitals to pull life support from patients whose bennies had run out, were probably less sick than Schiavo and of course were of the brown skinned persuasion. This from the culture of life man who signed more execution orders than any other governor. This from the man who started a goddamned war in Iraq dragging young men and women from America to fight for his whimsy, get killed or mutilated and then shaft them.

This should be a wake up call for all Americans to get a Living Will today or tomorrow. You never know if you or your loved ones could be dragged into the national spotlight while comatose and used for political gain by pigs in congress against your wishes. Write it down. Make it legal.

"Unplug and do not resuscitate me if I become a vegetable and there is no hope for recovery. Do not waste your life standing around my hospitable bed if it's unlikely I will ever regain consciousness or I would be an awake vegetable. Help someone else who is alive and well but poor. Help someone else who is expected to recover from illness but can't afford the medical care. Do it in my memory if it will make you feel better. Keep congress and the president out of this. If you put my picture in a newspaper, I will haunt you. This is just my body. It's not my soul. Go and live your life. I'll meet you on the other side eventually and we'll talk."

HOW COOL IS THIS?

Big Brass Blog!

Yep, Shakespeare's Sister has started a joint effort with fellow blogrrl Pam of Pam's House Blend. A group blog----- pulling together some of the best "unknown" bloggers, and they are dedicating themselves to delivering a powerful, progressive message through a variety of voices. Now isn't that what it's all about? It's still under construction but skip on over and check it out! Democracy at it best. Guess what? It's going include some fun too! Heehaw

SUVs, managed care are necessities

"ROYSE CITY - A woman who couldn't afford to bury her ex-husband last month drew criticism from neighbors and questions from police after she stored his embalmed body in the back of a sport utility vehicle in the family's driveway for two days."

Her neighbors were very upset with the woman, but I am unaware if any of these righteous folks loaned or donated any money to help her with her problem.

People, he was dead. He didn't know where he was, nor did he care. Funerals and various arrangements are for the living, not the dead. Why were people so worried about him. He was embalmed. His ex-wife was alive and dealing with a corpse she couldn't afford to bury.

Which brings me to Terry Schiavo.

She is in a vegetative state. She does not have any notion of where she is or that she is alive. There is a ridiculous assertion floating in the blogosphere that she said, "I want to live" when the tube was removed. Why did she pick that moment to speak? Was everything fine until then? This is nonsense.

Congressional lawyers appealed [Judge] Greer's decision before the Florida Supreme Court, which rejected it. Later Friday, the House Committee on Government Reform made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted, but that application was denied.

House and Senate Republican leaders vowed to work through the weekend on new legislation to keep Schiavo alive.

House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay called removing the feeding tube "an act of barbarism" and said it was a moral obligation to protect her from the "fate premeditated by the Florida courts."

But Michael Schiavo, who said he spent Friday with his wife and planned to go back to her side on Saturday, said members of Congress were "stepping into my personal life and they're getting in the middle of something they know nothing about."

"It's sad what this government's doing. And if they do it to me they'll do it to everybody in this country. If they don't like the decisions, they're going to step right in."

Tom DeLay and the Bush Boys are using this woman's body to score points with the right to lifers. Have any of those people stepped up to pay for Schiavo's continuing care, change her diapers, wipe her face?

There are thousands of families in this same predicament that Congress isn't helping. Why this particular case? This particular woman? Is Congress really interested in doing this on a case by case basis? This isn't part of their constitutional authority, it isn't in Article I. They know they don't have the authority to do any of this, but the right to lifers don't know it and think that the Gawdly GOP has come to save us from death and give us eternal life support.

In Houston, there are recent cases rather similar to this in which the GOP has no interest. An African-American infant was born with a defect that prevented his lungs from growing. He required a respirator. Texas Children's Hospital told the mother of the boy that he was terminal and they were ceasing care. Pulling the plug. No doubt his Medicaid had been depleted and paying health care consumers had the hospital's attention. Everyone went to the courthouse.

In Texas the law is once a hospital says that they will cease care, the family has ten days to find another facility before the hospital ceases care. In 1999 then Governor Bush signed a law which allowed hospitals to withdraw life support from patients, over the objections of the family, if they consider the treatment to be nonbeneficial. No one stepped up, the care was terminated and the infant died.

Another situation has arisen, where a family got the word that the hospital decided to terminate care and a care facility was found to take the patient.

These matters should not be decided by hospitals or the courts. And certainly not Congress. People should have so called "living wills" or directives that simply state, "I don't want to live with the aid of artificial devices such as feeding tubes and respirators." Grief counselors should be provided for families to help them end their suffering and doubt. When it is a malformed infant, doctors and psychologist should tell the parents the truth, we cannot afford, you cannot afford to keep this infant on life support. It isn't going to live without that support. You must go on with your life. We must go on making money from children we can save.

Forwarded E-mail From Patricia of Lone Tree's Sister-In-Law:

Government Announcement

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The government today announced that it is changing its emblem from an eagle to a condom because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.


Damn, it just doesn't get more accurate than that!

LETTER WRITING TIME:

City To Offer Asylum To Writers
"For nearly four decades, the University of Iowa's International Writing Program has helped provide refuge for authors fleeing persecution in their native lands.

"That distinction will become official when Mayor Ernie Lehman proclaims Iowa City as the fifth city to join the North American Network of Cities of Asylum. Lehman will make the proclamation during Tuesday's City Council meeting.

"The university and the International Writing Program has always provided a safe haven for writers," said writing program director Christopher Merrill. "It highlights one of the important missions of the writing program, which we like to think (that) we are a beacon of hope for writers everywhere."

"Based in Las Vegas, the asylum network provides safe havens for writers who are under threat of death, torture or imprisonment in the native countries. Iowa City will join Las Vegas, Ithaca, N.Y., Santa Fe, N.M., and Pittsburgh as network host cities.

That's the headline and lead sentences of this article
in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. I invite my readers to read the article which has a link at the bottom for feedback. I've already composed and sent my own letter which says that as long as Jose Padilla remains imprisoned without charges (for 2 years and 286 days as of today) then the "asylum program" is not worth shit.

What Does This Mean?

Yesterday I had to fill a prescription for some antibiotics.
1 pill, once a day for 5 days.

My co-pay was $30! I asked the nice man at the counter if he was sure that this was right? He said that indeed it was what CIGNA wanted me to pay for these 5 pills. I asked him if he could check to see if I had purchased these pills without insurance if they would cost more than $6 each. He kindly obliged and returned to me with this amount written on my receipt: $100.99. I thanked him and decided that CIGNA would not be receiving one of my irate phone calls.

That's $20.20 per pill! HFS!

So if you don't have a lot of money and don't have health coverage, you don't get cured of chronic ear infections? You have to just endure being dizzy? How are you supposed to go to work or drive the car when you can barely remain vertical for more than a half hour at a time? Do they have crappier drugs for poor people that take longer to cure ear infections? And what about lost wages while waiting for the crappier, slower working drugs to kick in? If you do nothing and let the chronic ear infections play themselves out, you will suffer from some hearing loss. That could cost you a job. And what the hell is in these $20 pills? Gold? I wonder how much they cost in Canada?

I told my girlfriend about this travesty as we walked back to her car. We agreed that we are inexorably tied to our spouses for life if only for their HMO's and that there was no way we could drive off into the sunset and say fuck it all unless we choose the land of ice and snow, Canada. How will we do it when we're on Medicare? We're fucked.

Sunshine Week Survey

Sunshine Week Survey Finds Public Concerned About Secrecy;
Access to Govt. Info Cited as 'Crucial" by Nearly Seven in Ten

"A new survey conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs on behalf of Sunshine Week shows that seven out of 10 Americans are concerned about government secrecy, and more than half think there's not enough access to government records.

Undertaken in conjunction with Sunshine Week, March 13-19, a nationwide, multi-media initiative to spark public dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information, the survey repeated several questions asked in a 2000 poll, providing a benchmark in public attitudes on these issues.

The response on the secrecy question was virtually unchanged from the earlier survey, suggesting that Americans remain troubled by government secrecy even in the face of their heightened national security concerns following 9/11.

In the new survey, 35 per cent said they were "very concerned" about government secrecy; the same percentage said they were "somewhat concerned." In the 2000 poll, 38 percent of respondents said they were "very concerned," and 34 percent were "somewhat concerned."

Significantly, more people (68 percent) in the new survey said they felt public access to government records is "crucial to the functioning of good government." In the 2000 poll, 60 percent answered similarly."

Please go read the rest. If you aren't familiar with Sunshine Week, you really should check out, not just the rest of this article, but the entire website.

De-Evolution of Americans

With media de-regulation came propaganda instead of journalism, came greedy, power hungry megalomaniacs, came more drugs, came worse schools and worse teachers, came the dumbing down of Americans who vote for those who want them to stay dumb so the dumb will vote for them en masse, came "They hate us for our freedoms", came religious fanatics as news commentators, came even dumber Americans who don't understand science or even religion for that matter, came America going back, back, in time to the days of when the earth was thought to be flat, came science as an offensive concept in the 21st fucking century.

"To the honor students, I say congratulations, and to you C students, I say you, too, can be president." -George Bush speaking to Yale graduates and lowering the bar.

I am deeply offended that dumbness has displaced progress. Doesn't my opinion count? What happned to when people expected the president to be smarter than most people?

The fight over evolution has reached the big, big screen.

New York Times

"Several Imax theaters, including some in science museums, are refusing to show movies that mention the subject - or the Big Bang or the geology of the earth - fearing protests from people who object to films that contradict biblical descriptions of the origin of Earth and its creatures."

and

"Hyman Field, who as a science foundation official had a role in the financing of "Volcanoes," said he understood that theaters must be responsive to their audiences. But Dr. Field he said he was "furious" that a science museum would decide not to show a scientifically accurate documentary like "Volcanoes" because it mentioned evolution."

With a financial, educational, insurance, health care, traffic, infrastructure disaster that is Texas, the Texas Legislature has decided to address the real problems of life in Texas: Sexy Cheerleaders.

"AUSTIN - The Friday night lights in Texas could soon be without bumpin' and grindin' cheerleaders.

Legislation filed by Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, would put an end to 'sexually suggestive' performances at athletic events and other extracurricular competitions.

'It's just too sexually oriented, you know, the way they're shaking their behinds and going on, breaking it down,'said Edwards, a 26-year veteran of the Texas House. 'And then we say to them, 'Don't get involved in sex unless it's marriage or love, it's dangerous out there,' and yet the teachers and directors are helping them go through those kind of gyrations.'

Under Edwards' bill, if a school district knowingly permits such a performance, funds from the state would be reduced in an amount to be determined by the education commissioner."

Where has this public service giant been in the past 26 years? I graduated from a Texas high school 25 years ago and they were a bumping and a grinding then. Does Edwards not know that a high kick over the heads of these small town Rockettes is sexually suggestive? Their uniforms which they are allowed to wear on game days don't meet the dress code for the rest of the student body.

But this nonsense got more coverage than the education bill that passed.

Which brings me to why we are having congressional hearings on steroids in baseball. Steroids are illegal now. Arrest the players that use them. Don't have that baseball giant, all-American hero, Mark McGuire crying before Congress saying like he is in the midst of a McCarthyesque witch hunt that he will not name names of teammates and friends.

I am so touched. Why in the wide, wide world of fouled American politics, with Social Security lies, the budget deficit issue, the police action in Iraq, nukes in Korea, Iran, and perhaps coming to a dirty bomb in a town near you, are we having hearings on criminal behavior by overpaid, over exposed, millionaire whiners in Congress. Unless stupidity loves company, I can't see why.

The disconnect between Washington and the rest of us, between celebrity and the rest of us, between Austin and our schools is disorienting and deliberate. The unnatural forms of these pampered men, in clothes most Americans could never afford, shocked me. They look so small on the field and they looked so silly pointing fingers in the faces of Congress members who compelled the ball players' testimony. Ted Williams didn't look like that. Hell, Pete Rose didn't look like that. I don't believe that these guys' bodies, which look like the Govenator's body, got that way through clean weight lifting and a good breakfast cereal.

My Hors Are Moning

It may be true--and we certainly believe that it is---that everything in the world happens or does not happen as a result of blow jobs, given or withheld. But there is something else at work here, too, at the very core of it all----an unseen but nonetheless irresistible force of nature that controls virtually everything, at least not his planet, and thanks to NASA, somewhat beyond. I am speaking of hormones. Hormones-----specifically OURS----are the boss of everything. Somebody somewhere gets pissed off and launches something that incinerates somebody else somewhere else, but why is he being such a butthead? Because he didn't get the blow job he felt entitled to, or worse, because somebody else got the blow job he felt he was entitled to. But why did he not get his rightful blow job? My bet is on hormones.

We all like to think that all our actions and reactions are totally rational and appropriate to each and every situation. In fact, we bear hot resentment towards any male-type who presumes to diagnose our slight hormonal trough or surge. And if we do happen to be in a hormone-induced state, nothing makes us madder than to have a man suggest it. We can say that about ourselves if we feel like it, but woe be unto the man who tries to blame our reaction to his bad behavior on our little estrogen, plus or minus. The words "towering rage" were first used to describe just such a situation.

Witness these hormonal events: A woman, who shall remain nameless, call her friend and makes the report that, not only does she not love her husband, she no longer even like him. "Yesterday I was looking out the window and he was walking across the yard, when all of a sudden---he fell in a hole! One second he was there, the next he just dropped out of sight! I started laughing and I could not stop!" She laughed so hard, she fell down and just lay there, in a heap, cackling and whooping till the tears ran down her face and she had big black puddles of melted mascara all over her cheeks. Presently she heaved herself up by the window ledge and peered out. By this time, he was dragging himself out of the hole and she realized he had hurt himself in some manner. "I started laughing all over again! I never laughed so hard in all my life. I thought to myself, 'Just stay in that hole, you old fart!' and I laughed some more!' Eventually she calmed herself down, and he managed to haul his carcass in from the yard. She glanced up as he entered, and he said to her, "You will never believe what just happened to me." She, with a completely straight face, replied, "Oh?" What was that?"

Home, home on the range, where the scum and the diplomat's play..

Bush invites Israeli PM to ranch

"Ariel Sharon has been invited to the US president's Texas ranch on 11 April, the White House says."

Web to have 'terror watch' team

"A hi-tech team that will monitor terrorist and criminal use of the net is being created by five European nations."

Oh, I see. Can't do a damn thing about the 7 Billion lost to virus and worms, but the they can tackle this, no problem.

Biggest Corruption Scandal In History?

A report issued Wednesday said Iraq could become 'the biggest corruption scandal in history.'

Saving Private Dyin'

Everyone who knows me knows that if I should ever be in the same shape that Teri Schiavo is in now, they had damned well better pull the plug. They also know if anyone should keep me alive in that condition, when I do finally die I am coming back to make their life a living hell. Same with a casket, funeral and burial. No embalming, no casket, no viewing, no funeral. I want my body cremated and after that, I don't give a tinker's damn what they do with the ashes.


Now we have the state and federal government making decisions in a case that is none of their business. This whole situation is private and should be treated as such. The government voices are going out of their way to "save Teri's life". Her life is too far gone to save, and I deeply doubt they give a damn about her or her life. This is politics for their base. This is saying, see how compassionate your Republican government can be.


They kind of forget to mention while they are "saving" this woman's life, they are sending lives to be taken everyday in Iraq and they don't appear to sweat that one bit. Seems their primary concern is saving people who haven't been born and saving people who, for all means and purposes, are no longer alive. So if you have been born and you aren't in a vegetative state, how much do they care about your life? From what I have seen during this administration's run, not very much.

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

The old legend of news was, "If it bleeds, it leads". Not any more. Today if it entertains, it leads. Plus, if you can tie religion into the story, it's headline news.

I'm betting that you know the trial results for Scott Peterson and Robert Blake. I'm betting you know that Michael Jackson is on trial. And, I'm definitely betting that you know about the furor over baseball players using steroids.

Do you know how many soldiers were wounded or killed in Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday?

See what I mean? News reporters report what the majority is currently interested in, and right now that interest is in entertainment. People are just plain nosy. The public seems to want to be voyeurs and peep into the window of someone else. I guess they like to watch people being taken down in America, but apparently they don't give a damn about "our troops" and how many of them are being taken down now in Afghanistan and Iraq. I doubt that half of those sporting their little "support our troops" car magnets even realize that we are today still fighting a war in Afghanistan.

They may be aware that there was an election in Iraq, but do they question why we made the voters, in a land so dangerous that they placed their lives at risk just to get to voting places, dip their finger in purple ink after they voted. Why not just pin a target on all who voted? So, they took a life risking chance going to vote, and those that managed to survive that are sent back onto the streets marked for all the world and their enemies to see. Until that ink wore off, these people probably stayed inside quite a bit. Does anyone question anything anymore? Oh yeah, they do question what Michael Jackson did.

The so-called moral majority are like bees at a hive about any event where they feel they can appear morally superior. They fight to save the life of a woman who basically has no life. They jump in on the Atlanta murderer's capture because there was a bible involved and a book written by a so-called minister. Anywhere they can, they slap a religious theme on an event and they believe that will make them holy. Bullshit! Anyone who condones what the US has done in Iraq is not moral and they sure as hell aren't holy!

So, while the citizens of the US keep a vigilant eye toward watching day by day who's on trial, who's on steroids, and which religious group is condemning what today, the soldiers that they support die on, and off the news.

Heart of The Matter

Joe Mattingly really is the only man I ever really loved. Oh, I have been in love, deeply so, with some others---even married some. But I never loved anybody the way I loved Joe Mattingly. I was only sixteen when I met him. He was eighteen and he had the blackest hair and the bluest eyes. His eyes were the color---well, in Missouri, around October every year for about two or three days the humidity will drop and the air will get very, very clear and the sky turns this amazing shade of blue---it is deep yet bright, and it makes my heart feel funny to look at it for very long. Also about that time of year, the leaves on the maple trees turn a vivid yellow, and when you look at those leaves against that sky, it makes the sky seem even bluer, and that's the exact color of Joe Mattingly's eyes. When we were grown and I hadn't seen him for twenty years, every October of those twenty year's I would see Mattingly's eyes in that sky. My love for him was different because I was so very young. It was overpowering and it was totally without guile or reservation. I had never been in love like that and so it never occurred to me not to trust it and him completely. Since I had no frame of reference for the heartbreak, I had no armor. To this very day, out of my entire fife---including the birth of my precious children---the very happiest moments of my existence was when Joe Mattingly told me he loved me. There's a hymn that says "and suddenly there were thousands and thousands of angels'---that's the way it felt. Because it was the one moment---totally free of fear--or pure, unadulterated joy. It is my treasure. But, by and by, he did break my heart, and though I have certainly loved others, the knowledge that love can hurt so much, tempers and restrains just ever so slightly.

I loved Mattingly then, still love Mattingly, will go to my grave loving Mattingly----he just tickles me. That's all I can say. He just tickles me slap to death-----his turn of phrase, his laugh, just him. He loves to be in the woods. He was telling me one time about trying to teach his new dog to hunt and the dog was real smart and doing great for a while, but now it seems all the dog will hunt is armadillos. How in the hell did that come about, I wanted to know. Well, he guessed it was really his fault. The dog had run up on one and chased it down and he (the dog), and so now he (the dog) thinks they are on another armadillo hunt. So basically the dog is useless for hunting now? I asked. "Well, yeah," he said, "except one good thing about it is, if you get lost in the woods, the first thing you want to do is find an armadillo."

Well, I had never read this particular tidbit in any hunting/hiking/camping material about what to do when you get lost in the woods. I've never known anybody to advise finding an armadillo for any worthy cause. Most folks here don't even believe there's such a thing as a live armadillo anymore; it does seem like we'd run out of 'em sooner or later, as many as we run over. So I pressed him urgently to find out why it is, when you are lost in the woods, you must find an armadillo---and by the way, how lucky he was to have a trained armadillo hunting dog. Mattingly was so happy and proud to contribute to my outdoor education. "You want to find an armadillo and follow it," he said. "cuz that sumbitch is heading straight for a road."

Anyway, Mattingly broke my heart, and we didn't see each other for twenty years, but what I did do as soon as I could form a thought in my head after we broke up was the only thing a girl could do, under the circumstances, I started dating his best friend Frank Frogdong. I went out with Frank for several years and then we broke up and then life just got away from all of us until the next thing we knew, it was twenty years later. So there we were twenty years later and who did I run into but Frank and he told me Mattingly was lawyering in a small town Kansas, where everybody in town adores him, and that he'd built a house out in the woods on a little pond and he hunts all the time.

So what did I do but pick up the phone and call his office. He answered the phone and I didn't say hello or anything, just, "Well, I thought since it's been practically twenty years to the day since you ripped my heart our and stomped the fucker flat, you might have the decency to come to town once in a while and take me to lunch." He didn't even ask who it was, just said, "How about Friday?" And I, of course, said Friday would be just fine, thank you. So he came and took me to lunch and proceed to tell me that he had loved me his entire life and that his one regret----the only thing he would change if he could---was losing me. I said if I had written him a scrip and paid him to read it, he couldn't have done any better, and I felt all that, too, but that since we did find ourselves married to other people at the moment, perhaps it would be best if we didn't date. But we stayed in touch and had lunch from time to time and he would come to the house if he was in town on business and we would call Frogdong to come go out with us here we'd go---me, Long Suffering, and my two old boyfriends-----out on the town. Whenever I would introduce them to anybody, they would announce that they were my two oldest boyfriends and they had both been in love with me for thirty years, and then they would argue back and forth over which one of them loved me the most and, more important, which one I loved the most. Oh, it was entirely satisfactory, let me tell you.

This is Rich!

New teen Bible which discusses sex in a forthright manner for today's kids is slammed by the oh so very righteous at World Net Daily.

An example is given of how the teen bible works in a segment called Am I Gay?:

Says Trish: "All my friends are wondering if this guy or that guy likes them. I don't like any guys right now. Instead, I wonder if I have a crush on Sierra. She's one of my best friends."

Trish goes on to explain that her uncle tried to rape her when she was 12 and that ever since, "I haven't wanted any guy to touch me – not even my dad."

The follow-up warning to Trish's story directs the reader to read Romans 1:24-32, in which Paul condemns homosexual behavior.

Now if I were writing this annotated bible, I wouldn't have pointed this child who was nearly raped by her uncle to St Paul's admonishment of homosexuals in order to make her feel even worse. I'd point her to the story of Lot who offered his daughters to the rapists at his door shortly before the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. His daughters later got him drunk and got knocked up with his children. Lot was very righteous you know. Watch it at Brick Testament.

Then I would point the girl to my other favorite passages in the bible which show the great compassion of the righteous for the rape victims. Not. Dt Chapter 22. To get the full effect, please view these passages illustrated at the Brick Testament. If a man rapes or has sex with an engaged woman in a city, then they both must be killed. If he rapes a woman in the country, then only the man must be killed, if he rapes a woman who is not engaged in the country, then he must pay her dad money and marry her! Hey thanks Dad!

There is so much sex in the regular bible that I couldn't possibly list it all here without having to take a shower after smoking a cigarette. Heck, we used to look up the dirty parts when we were kids. But the very righteous christians don't see it that way and feel that a contemporary bible that still makes no sense of the sick shit that passed for sex 5,000 years ago is just plain wrong!

"I find this 'Bible' comparable to filthy graffiti smeared across the Word of God. Instead of edifying young girls and encouraging them to godliness it actually violates their purity by its very text."

"Having seven daughters myself, I am deeply grieved that parents would encourage their young daughters to read such graphic narratives. I would not give this 'Bible' to my 20-year-old virgin daughter to read – much less a 13-year-old. Why should she have images of oral sex, lesbianism and rape in her mind?"

The best thing to do, say some, is to just take your kids out of the world completely and home school them with all their brothers and sisters, so that they won't have to deal with things like sex. Jest don't let yer young'ns get a hold of them parts of the bahble that talk about brotherly and sisterly love, ya hear?

Demand Propaganda-Free News

When you watch TV commercials, they are required to be fair and not to mislead the consumers. There are all sorts of agencies out there who watch out for us consumers. After all, big corporations are in business to make money at any cost. They want to sell product and sometimes a tiny white lie makes all the difference in the world. When it comes to government, we used to have the media as the watchdog. Now that the media is the government's lap dog, our neighbors, family and friends are hoodwinked daily by fake news, misleading statements, a re-interpretation of history (as in "FDR wanted us to eventually privatize Social Security) and we are left here trying to arm ourselves with information to fight the lies and help those who have drunk of the Koolaid to come down from their "America is the greatest country in the world" high and face reality. It's not an easy job but someone has to do it.

How long will it take for all Americans to wake up and demand from their government what they demand from advertisers? George Bush has no intention of stopping his agencies from distributing propaganda. What will it take? Perhaps signing a petition over at Free Press might help? Give it a try. Couldn't hurt.

Speaking of mass media...

Most people get their news from the television. What's on TV of late? Oh Michael Jackson and baseball players on steroids mostly. No wonder Americans are dumbasses. What was once considered journalism is now info-tainment. "the people want this fluff" "we have to give the people what they want" claim the media moguls. Hog wash. Then don't call it news.

While driving in my car listening to Air America, of course, there was a discussion going on about steroid use in baseball. It's an interesting issue when you listen to both sides. I don't have all the facts as of yet, but here's the gist of the story: Baseball players have been called before congress to testify about their steroid use. Now with all the crap going on in this country that is screwing us in the ass without our consent, congress is spending its time on this stuff. I'd rather that they work on restoring fairness in the news, but that's a pipe dream of mine.

The problem with steroid use is not so much that we care that baseball players are poisoning themselves with steroids (cause I certainly don't care what multimillionaires who play ball ingest), it's that they are role models for some of our kids and they aren't playing with honesty and integrity. One argument is that it's impossible for a regular person to be as athletic and as buff as steroid using athletes and they are setting themselves up as impossible role models much like bulemic/anorexic/drug addicted super models who are impossibly thin. Yes, this sucks big time, but does this warrant news coverage all day long and congressional hearings? You tell me.

Another part of this issue is that the government has subpoenaed medical records of these athletes. Are they allowed to do that? Yes corporations do drug testing on their employees, but does the government have the right to meddle into our medical records? Some say, yes it's ok because baseball players are role models and that they are cheating honest athletes who wouldn't take steroids from positions on major league teams.

Shouldn't the major league be dealing with this? Why can't the major league just test the players and eject them if they show that they are using steroids? Some say that the major league isn't punishing the athletes harshly enough and that's why it's gone before congress. I would like to know why Ken Lay hasn't gone before congress on behalf of all the Enron employees and the Californians who suffered rolling blackouts. Personally, and this is just my opinion, I have a big problem with the salaries that are paid to athletes, models, spokespeople, etc. That is what makes these people into role models. Money. Sure there is some talent involved in handling a ball well, but the way we glorify those who "make it" in sports is ridiculous.

So is all this hoopla about major league baseball and steroid use worth all the news coverage and congressional hearings?

Courageous Patriot Of The Year Award Is Given To Sgt. Camilo Mejia

"To those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong, and that without knowing it, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body, the fear of losing myself to my daughter, to the people who love me, to the man I used to be, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me." -- Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who served one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. He was released from prison Feb. 15, 2005.

Put down that glass of green beer for just a moment.

I ask you to do that before you read this, because there is a good chance that you will throw it at your computer screen later. You'll either do that or you'll begin to drink directly from the pitcher.

Secret US plans for Iraq's oil
by Greg Palast

(thanks Michael for the email)

Drill This

Something that really bugs me about America, the so-called "christian" nation, is the complete and utter disregard for anyone but oneself. As long as there isn't a draft, no one really gives a shit about the war, DU, or the troops. The word sacrifice is anathema to most Americans who revel in driving larger than life vehicles, paying top dollar for fuel, never thinking about how many lives are sacrificed for their gluttonous appetites for gasoline. Why on earth do people need to drive these horrendous vehicles and don't they understand that they are ruining the roads as well? There are weight limits on residential streets which are regularly broken by the resident's own Ford Land Destroyers. Whose big idea was it to give a tax break to SUV owners? Is this country insane? Why yes it is. And those of us who actually give a shit and try to limit our use of fossil fuels - we just make it easier on the gluttons to drag out their ravenous consumption even longer. I feel like a jerk for even giving a shit.

Can you imagine how much cheaper it would be if Americans tried to save oil rather than having to drill up the damn planet looking for more to satisfy the here and now? American's have turned into a collective mental case but it doesn't matter what I say because it's always "La la la la, I can't hear you".

Happy St. Patrick's, oops, St. Patricia's Day!

by Saint Pissed off Patricia

I'm sure it was supposed to be St. Patricia's Day. Someone just made a grievous typo way back in history.

Kiss me, I'm Irish!  Really, half of me is Irish and that's the kissing and hugging and drinking half. 

Wear green today.  Drink green beer.  Eat corned beef and cabbage.  Just please god, don't play Irish music.

Hang onto anything that's green.  Green things, like trees and money, are in danger due to the bush administration.  Apparently our government is out to destroy all things green.  They are destroying our financial system and our environment.  Why does our government hate green things?  Is the abolition of green beer next on their agenda?  You never know, drink up!

Would you pay to see two liberal, bitchin' women tag-team wrestle a couple of conservative Christian, tight-assed women?  If the liberal women wore kick-ass boots and war paint while the conservative women wore ruffled aprons and make-up, would you attend the event?  Well, based on yesterday's comments, there are some gentlemen over at Jesus' General who think it's a pretty good idea. Thank you Ms. Anntichrist S. Coulter, for agreeing to be my partner in this endeavor.

Sometimes you have to get silly to avoid going insane.  You gotta laugh and have fun whenever you can, because who knows what tomorrow may bring.  Step outside yourself and let your imagination run free.  It's okay to break a few rules as long as no one gets hurt in any way.  As they used to say, "get down with your bad self" once in awhile.  What better day to do it than today?  Just for today let the good times roll.  Give your anger and frustration a break. You deserve it.  Just for today, if you can, don't let one freakin' thing get you down.  Don't give into the temptation. Don't let the bastards get you down.  It's St. Patricia's Day, and since I am indeed a saint, I declare today to be a day of fun with no intrusion of anger.  Now go, have fun, and we'll resume our bitchin' and pissin' tomorrow.

 

Oh Wolfie

Based on what we know about Wolfowitz, do we feel comfie knowing that he may fill this job? (from BBC News)

What does the World Bank president do?

Think of him as a company chief executive.
He is responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation, overseeing the bank's six regions and managing global operations.

As top dog, the president ensures the smooth running of the World Bank, making sure that everyone in the organisation knows the direction it is headed.

The president also liaises with world leaders, looking at ways of cutting poverty and improving conditions, but is forbidden by the bank's charter from taking a political stance.

As well as operational responsibilities, a bank president has a key role as a representative of the world's poorest people.

Through lobbying and speeches, the president is able to draw attention to the problems faced by developing nations such as unfair trade conditions and crippling debt repayments.

A president is responsible for the strategy and flavour of the World Bank.

Is the World Bank universally loved?

Far from it.

Campaigners have complained that the low-interest loans and long-term agreements hurt rather than help developing countries.

They add that by making nations dependent on aid, countries such as the US are able to exert extra political pressure in the international arena.

A Must Read!

Please go over and visit Mentis Fugit
His Tuesday post will make your head spin. Seems our troops have a problem identifying the troops of "the willing".

The Bulletin for Environmental Activists

And this from NRDC's EARTH ACTION (earthaction@nrdcaction.org)

1. ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Yesterday we sent an emergency alert asking you to urge your senators to vote to remove language from the budget resolution that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. You swamped the Senate with almost 30,000 messages in just a few hours, but we are heartbroken to have to report that, just a few hours ago, the effort to remove the Arctic drilling provision failed by a vote of 49-51.

The following is a statement by NRDC's legislative director Karen Wayland: "Drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won't make a dent in gas prices at the pump or break our dependence on Middle East oil. This was really a vote for Big Oil, not for the solid majority of Americans who oppose turning America's last great wilderness into a vast, polluted oil field. President Bush and his Senate allies resorted to a sneaky budget maneuver to get their way. Now, Congress is one step closer to trading away an irreplaceable national treasure for a few drops of oil that we wouldn't see for a decade or more. If the oil industry can drill in the Arctic Refuge, then no place, no matter how pristine, will be safe. But there is still have a lot of political tundra to cross before this fight is over. We'll keep battling them every step of the way."

Although this is a hugely discouraging loss for all of us, as Karen notes, the battle is far from over. We'll be in touch very soon to let you know the next time we need you to raise your voice in defense of this national treasure (thankfully, Congress is about to recess for the next two weeks, so we all have time to catch our breaths as we prepare for the next round). Thanks to each and every one of you for your continued help and support in this fight.

This from TvNewsLIES.org newsletter today

"This is a horrifying piece of news. The AP set a standard for reporting events without bias or opinion. Now the AP has joined the rest of the media in their effort to manipulate public opinion. This is truly a horrifying notion and it is a devastating day for journalism. The link to this article can be found on the news page under Media. Here is a excerpt:

AP to Offer Two Leads for Some Stories - "The concept is simple: On major spot stories -- especially when events happen early in the day -- we will provide you with two versions to choose between," the AP said in an advisory to members. "One will be the traditional 'straight lead' that leads with the main facts of what took place. The other will be the 'optional,' an alternative approach that attempts to draw in the reader through imagery, narrative devices, perspective or other creative means."

An example of the differing leads:

Traditional: MOSUL, Iraq (AP) A suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners Thursday, splattering blood and body parts over rows of overturned white plastic chairs. The attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 100, came as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.

Optional: MOSUL, Iraq (AP) Yet again, almost as if scripted, a day of hope for a new, democratic Iraq turned into a day of tears as a bloody insurgent attack undercut a political step forward."

Welcome to Pissville! Today I'm the mayor.

The Senate voted to allow drilling in ANWR. It has already passed in the House three times so it's a go.
Beautiful, wild, pristine land in Alaska will be the scene of a rape of the environmental wilderness.
The fucking hogs who demand Hummers and SUV's should hang their greedy heads in shame. Our country will, for the sake of oil, destroy something beautiful.

ANWR got packaged into the budget bill with a wink and a nod. How lucky for those assholes who supported this bill that today oil prices rose yet again. This drilling fiasco won't stop in Alaska, count on it.

A Yale cheerleader who drilled for oil in Texas and came up empty, moves on now and tries again. Who will gain from the passing of this bill? The companies who receive the drilling contracts, and who might that be?

I suggest a day of mourning for what is about to die in Alaska.

Beware or Boo?

by pissed off patricia

We're all very aware that this administration is the most secretive administration we have seen in our lifetime. We hear over and over that documents are classified so that our enemies won't know our secret plans, whatever that means. Today in the New York Times, we read that a list of possible catastrophic scenarios were prepared at bush's request. "President Bush requested the list of priorities 15 months ago to address a widespread criticism of Homeland Security from members of Congress and antiterrorism experts that it was wasting money by spreading it out instead of focusing on areas or targets at greatest risk." This document was supposedly leaked to the public. One of these scenarios was an anthrax attack. Here's what they said - "The anthrax attack involves terrorists filling a truck with an aerosolized version of anthrax and driving through five cities over two weeks spraying it into the air. Public health officials, the report predicts, would probably not know of the initial attack until a day or two after it started. By the time it was over, an estimated 350,000 people would be exposed, and about 13,200 would die, the report predicts."

Okay, remember the post offices in the Washington area that were reported to have tested positive for anthrax yesterday? Well, this morning we read in the NY Times what really happened. " Health officials believe that a mix-up of samples in a Defense Department contractor's laboratory was behind an anthrax scare Monday and Tuesday that rattled the stock market, set the White House on alert, shut three post offices in the Washington area and led to more than 800 people being offered antibiotics.

A senior military official said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday night that "quality control problems" at the contractor's laboratory appeared to have caused the bioterrorism false alarm."

The Defense Department official declined to identify the contractor, which does routine anthrax testing on air filters from the Pentagon shipping facility. Another government official said it was a private laboratory in Richmond, Va."

At the end of this same article, "The episode provided a test for the emergency response and communications systems set up after the 2001 anthrax letter attacks"

So was this incompetence at the private laboratory a plan to test the emergency response system, or what? Is it all just a mystical coincidence that the worst-case scenario list was "leaked out" at the same time a false anthrax alert was issued? I don't think we have to worry about our enemies discovering our secret plans because looks to me like we have none worth pursuing. We need not worry about our enemies. We need to worry about our "friends". So are we wiser or more frightened? Which is more disconcerting, our enemies or our own government with their secrets, incompetence and deception?

QUOTE OF THE DAY (Short and not-so-sweet):

"A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy."
--Benjamin Disraeli

HGTV Catches On

This is a bathroom in a gas station in southern California. It's almost as nice as mine. heh. It scared a young girl. Her mom had to escort her to the lav.

Check it out if you live near there and report back.
From the LA Times. One Lavish Lavatory. More pictures there.

They are photoshopping our culture

Remember the 4 Beatles crossing Abbey Road on the album cover? Paul was barefoot signifying that Paul was indeed the walrus (dead)? Oh those were the days. Remember playing that album backwards? I couldn't figure out how to do it, but the DJ's on WNEW 102.7FM in NYC did it for us. Nothing like a good rock conspiracy. But I digress...

A new poster being released of that famous picture of the Fab 4 has been photoshopped! They removed the cigarette from Paul's hand! I mean, come on. Is photoshop becoming the hand of Satan? How am I supposed to convince my kid that back in the day, everyone smoked. It was legal. It was legal to drink and drive and to smoke and drink and drive simultaneously. And the reason most of us grown ups are addicted to cigarettes is because it was legal and no one said it was bad for you and everyone did it and even Johnny Carson smoked on the air. sigh. Oh just photoshop out our history, why don't they...

UPDATE: I did a little research because the past is so foggy. I mean this was a looong time ago when the living was easy, fish were jumping, everyone was high... 1969...but I digress... Paul was barefoot on Abbey Road and eventually that was a "clue" that he was dead even though he wasn't. In The Beatles song "Glass Onion," Lennon sang, "The Walrus was Paul." Lennon was fooling around though. At the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever" in the wacky music, you can hear, "I buried Paul." I thought it was I am the Walrus but I was wrong. Sorry. Anyway, supposedly Lennon is really saying, "cranberry sauce". The Magical Mystery Tour Album was the one where the conspiracy theories started. Have fun!

Will the Pain Ever End?

This morning, bush will nominate Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. The show really does go on.
(more later)

Coalition of the Willing?

Disclaimer: This blonde, who has no adam's apple, has human- not lizard skin, who was born a female with real blonde hair and is also a smart ass to the nth degree, has no desire to disparage her fellow Americans no matter what life path they choose and understands perfectly, that sometimes we hit dead ends and have no other choice or are misinformed so much (willingly or unwittingly) that we end up on the wrong path in life, this blonde included. With that in mind, I continue on to my post...

WTF is this Coalition of the Willing anyway? Are we kidding? This is pathetic. Our biggest ally Great Britain has a whopping what, 8,800 troops over in Iraq to our 150,000? How fucking pathetic is this? No wonder young people aren't enlisting anymore. duh.

These are the numbers as of yesterday:

HOW THE NUMBERS ADD UP
STAYING : US 150,000 (military personnel); Britain 8,850; South Korea 3,600; Italy 3,000; Australia 900 (up to 1,350 by April); Romania 800, up to 900; Japan 600; Denmark 500; Bulgaria 380; El Salvador 380; Georgia 300, up to 800; Mongolia 180; Azerbaijan 150; Latvia 120; Lithuania 100; Slovakia 100; Czech Republic 90; Albania 70; Estonia 50; Tonga 40; Kazakhstan 30; Macedonia 30; Moldova 25
GOING: Netherlands 1,500; Ukraine (1,650 leaving by October); Poland 1,700 (reducing by half)
GONE: Spain 1,300; Thailand 460; Hungary 300; Honduras 370; Dominican Republic 300; Nicaragua 115; Portugal 127; New Zealand 60; Philippines 50; Norway 10

Don't Forget Poland!

...Over the weekend, the first 150 Ukrainian troops packed up and headed home, with the remaining 1,500 to follow over the next six months.

The move leaves the Poles, the lead force in the area, badly exposed and they, too, have signalled that they are halving the size of their 1,700-strong force and changing the mission.

Jerzy Szmajdzinski, the Polish Defence Minister, said last week that Polish forces increasingly would concentrate on training Iraqi troops, with the aim of handing over security to them. But there are fears that this approach may be premature as the insurgency continues to make the country ungovernable.

It has been announced in today's NY Times that Italy wants out, and we wonder why.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday that he aimed to begin withdrawing Italy's 3,000 troops from Iraq by September, in a signal that the domestic cost of loyalty to the United States over the war was growing too high.

These numbers are totally unacceptable. While I am sure that I would thank the brave 40 soldiers sacrificing their lives from Tonga, for instance. WTF!?!?! A couple of soldiers from some countries constitutes a coalition of the willing? Give me a break, jake. The USA is the only country firmly committed to this clusterfuck, if you ask me. Numbers speak louder than words.

And in the, This strikes me as funny, department

NBC to air show on End of Days

"Inspired by the New Testament's Book of Revelation, the show is about a Harvard professor, played by Bill Pullman, who teams with a nun to try to stop what they believe is the beginning of Armageddon."

and

"For instance, the first episode includes an intense scene in which a hospitalized girl speaks in tongues, traditionally a touchstone for charismatic Christians."

Bernie Rambo Kerik Even More Sleazy Than You Thought

I heard Rachel Maddow ranting about this earlier today. Bernie Kerik wrote 11 sentences in a book published by one of his lovers, Judith "Bill Clinton's a disgusting adulterer, blah blah blah" Regan, titled "In the Line of Duty". All the revenue from the book was supposed to go to a benefit fund for New York Police & Fire Widows' & Children. It seems that old Bernie has received $75,954.52 in royalties so far on sales of the book. For 11 sentences! Can you imagine? Anyway, he's supposed to give it back. What a sleaze ball.

Bernie, it was revealed, had been having an affair with 2 women while hogging up the apartment that was reserved for 9/11 rescue workers overlooking Ground Zero while his wife was home pregnant. He wouldn't have been good for this administration anyway, since he fools around with women and as we know, the power elite frown on extra marital sex with yukky women. Notice that we haven't heard from Rudy since the Bernie scandal broke? feh.

Wouldn't It Be Cool

If this stuff was proven to be true?
Photographer for White House child sex ring arrested after Thompson suicide

After all there are a lot of articles about this floating around. This is the most recent one.
It kind of explains all that hoo ha about President Clinton having sex with a yukky woman.

Bitchin

by pissed off patricia

Police Focus on Religion in Milwaukee Shootings
NY Times
"All of a sudden we heard bang like a firecracker, but it was so loud and then again and again," the woman continued. "My husband pushed me down to the floor, my son. We all went to the floor, everybody.

"Right after this we're having a potluck and then an entertainment show this evening," she added. "I think it's all on hold."

My pet snark has something to say about this. Why even consider putting it all on hold? Don't put the fun on hold. Nah, just mop up the blood, drag out the corpses and on with the show and the chow. Why let that food go to waste? Hell, the Rapture could happen any minute so let's party down before we float up. Nah, step over the dead and dish out the grub. You know what they say, "the show must go on".

Because I know you need to smile.

Swift Yacht Vets for Bush

Hey, Stop Ignoring Us. We're in the axis of evil too!
N. Korea says it's going to make more nukes.

Excess Fuel Billing by Halliburton in Iraq Is Put at $108 Million

"Excess billing for postwar fuel imports to Iraq by the Halliburton Company totaled more than $108 million, according to a report by Pentagon auditors that was completed last fall but has never been officially released to the public or to Congress.

In one case, according to the report, the company claimed that it had paid more than $27 million to transport liquefied petroleum gas it had purchased in Kuwait for just $82,000 - a fee the auditors tartly dismissed as "illogical."

The fuels report, by the Defense Contract Audit Agency, was one of nine audits involving a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown & Root, that were completed in October 2004, in the month before the American presidential elections. But the administration has kept all of them confidential despite repeated requests from both Republican and Democratic members of Congress."

There's more....

The more laundry we see the dirtier it is! Screw ups are rewarded in all fields. What could we have done with $108 million right here in the US?

News To Make You Sick

Before I get to the sickening news... You know that the government produces fake news segments and our complicit media airs this propaganda, right? You understand that the Soviet people knew that they were being fed propaganda all along but most Americans think that when they are watching the news that they are actually watching "news". You understand that news reporting which was once considered truth is now labeled "liberal" bias and a "liberal agenda". We all know people who actually believe this drivel. It works! My posts are an example of real liberal bias.

Bush is going around the country acting in staged events with hand picked participants to sell his most evil and devastating new plan to rape and pillage Social Security in the name of faux compassionate conservatism. He must have some sort of spell on his GOPers who are complicit with his diabolical plan. Many of you have Republican congresspeople. It's up to you to write letters and make phone calls. Tell your neighbors to do so at once. Don't fool around with this.

How is this happening to us? Well the bush crime family has a plan (Chicago Tribune).

"forcing the media to report the facts about President Bush's common-sense conservative agenda."

Bush calls the strategy "going around the filter" of national media.

"The national media has the opportunity to ask the president questions very regularly," said White House Communications Director Nicolle Devenish.

The `local' strategy

...It includes the coordinated campaign of a White House office headed by Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, the Republican Party, and groups such as Progress for America (PFA) and the Coalition for the Modernization and Protection of America's Social Security (CoMPASS).
...

"The story for most Americans, it's not about the national press," Max explained in an interview. "It's what they read in their local paper. It's not Dan Rather. It's Jim and Joe at 5."

The group placed an opinion piece supporting Bush's plan by J.C. Watts Jr., former congressman from Oklahoma and one-time star college football quarterback, in the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader.

"When I played football for the University of Oklahoma, our coaches always told us the same thing before big games: Let's leave it all out on the field," Watts wrote. "Watching the Social Security reform debate unfold, I have been reminded of my coaches' wisdom."

I urge you to read the complete article about the covert propaganda used by the GOP to further their agenda to destroy Social Security and discredit the Democrats who see through the lies. This is a disaster in the making.

Also read todays article in the Washington Post Administration Rejects Ruling On PR Videos. It seems that the bushistas believe that no one but no one has any power over them. That they can produce covert propaganda at will because, well they are the leaders. Can you say fascist dictatorship? I knew you could. Don't even bother watching TV news anymore.

Thanks to Information Clearing House for this.

The Independent

UN finds evidence of official cover-up in Hariri assassination

"President George Bush is expected to announce on Wednesday that Syrian - and perhaps Lebanese - military intelligence officers were involved in Mr Hariri's death; the bombing killed 18 other civilians."

WHO SAID IT?

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty; we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."...

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia

During the past three days there were two terrible shootings here in the US. According to the woman that the Atlanta shooter took hostage, the shooter was religious. The other shooting, as we all know, occurred at a church service when one of the church members opened fire on his fellow parishioners.

I would like to know how many murderers consider themselves religious. I would also like to know how many atheists have committed murder.

The Spam Mail Files: Purchasing Your Viagra & Cialis Online Is Easy

The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love. If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. 24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid. Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo. In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher. When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks. The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it's their fault. A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. Luck is the residue of design. When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. Memory is a child walking along a seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories. There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users? All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. A narcissist is someone better looking than you are. When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks. If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love. What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. I think 'Hail to the Chief' has a nice ring to it. Don't be so humble - you are not that great. The man who says I told you so is making an excuse for not expressing his position clearly in the first place. No elected body is the country, we are the country. You and me. Us. It can only stay that way as long as we care to keep it so. Drinking provides a beautiful excuse to pursue the one activity that truly gives me pleasure -- hooking up with fat, hairy girls. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. Autumn is the time when seasons merge because of bare necessity. The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. I have often regretted my speech, never my silence. Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories. I think 'Hail to the Chief' has a nice ring to it. Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer. Maybe this world is another planet's Hell. All right, Brain, I don't like you and you don't like me -- so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer. Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. The quality of the moment is more important than the number of our days. Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being. Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. Love is the immortal flow of energy that nourishes, extends and preserves. Its eternal goal is life. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered. The quality of the moment is more important than the number of our days. Everything has been figured out, except how to live. Love is the immortal flow of energy that nourishes, extends and preserves. Its eternal goal is life. Give me a museum and I'll fill it. It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. The full use of your powers along lines of excellence. All right, Brain, I don't like you and you don't like me -- so let's just do this and I'll get back to killing you with beer. Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon. If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. I've had a wonderful time, but this wasn't it. The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly and without expectation. We don't love to be loved; we love to love. When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. It's kind of fun to do the impossible. No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact. What do you take me for, an idiot? It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed. If a man does his best, what else is there?

The reason this email caught my eye is because it had a rather sexy picture in it. Then the copy caught my eye. That is what you see above. It's hilarious. -blondesense

An old Arab lived close to New York City for more than 40 years. He would have loved to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is alone, old and weak. His son is in college in Paris, so the old man sends him an e-mail. He explains the problem:

"Beloved son,
I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure, if only you were here, you would help and dig up the garden for me. I love you,
Your Father"

The following day, the old man receives a response e-mail from his son:

"Beloved Father,
Please don't touch the garden. It's there that I have hidden 'the THING'.
I love you, too,
Ahmed"

At 4pm the US Army, The Marines, the FBI, the CIA and the Rangers visit the house of the old man, take the whole garden apart, search every inch, but can't find anything. Disappointed they leave the house.

A day later, the old man receives another e-mail from his son.

"Beloved Father,
I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes.
That's all I could do for you from here.
I love you,
Ahmed."

Are the 10 Commandments the Basis for Our Laws? Part VI

Previous Parts: Part I .::. Part II .::. Part III .::. Part IV .::. Part V

We've been covering Moses in Exodus and his instructions from God with a capital G in the previous parts. Now we're up to Exodus Chapters 21 -23 which include how to treat your slaves and more reasons to kill others for their sins.

In Exodus Chapter 24, God calls Moses up to the mountain again because he has more instructions on offerings, tabernacles and priestly robes. By Chapter 29, we have intense instructions on sacrificing animals. God says that if we will make such "burnt offerings," he will bless us for it. This God is very very particular and long winded.

In Chapter 28, God tells Moses this about Aaron:

1 "From among the Israelites have your brother Aaron, together with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, brought to you, that they may be my priests. 2 For the glorious adornment of your brother Aaron you shall have sacred vestments made.

In Chapters 29 and 30, God gives strict instruction on priestly vestments, rituals and altars for Moses, Aaron, et al. At the end of 31, Moses gets the actual 10 commandments:

"When the LORD had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the commandments, the stone tablets inscribed by God's own finger."

By Chapter 32 Moses' people are getting restless. Aaron, who was God's man a few chapters ago, told the people to melt their jewelry and make a golden calf and then dance naked around it. God tells Moses to get down there fast because God is furious with the people for what they are doing. Moses comes down from the mountain:

19 As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain. 20 Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink.

Aaron lies to Moses and says that when they melted their jewelry that the calf just popped out and that the people wanted to dance naked. Then Moses told the people to go and slay others. They slayed 3000 that day. It's all very confusing because Moses told them to go and slay their kinsmen so they'd be blesssed and then he tells them they are in trouble for it. The next day, Moses goes to see God who was still mad and God sends a plague just in case Moses' people missed some.

I just love Chapter 33. Is this an episode from Star Trek or what?

The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up in your company even for a moment, I would exterminate you. Take off your ornaments, therefore; I will then see what I am to do with you." 6 So, from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites laid aside their ornaments. 7 The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. 9 As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses. 10 On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents.

Exodus 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses , Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

AND HERE ARE THE SECOND GROUP OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
These replacement commandments are decidely different than the other ones. Did God change his mind?

Exodus 34
14 You shall not worship any other god, for the LORD is 'the Jealous One'; a jealous God is he. 15 Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of that land; else, when they render their wanton worship to their gods and sacrifice to them, one of them may invite you and you may partake of his sacrifice. 16 Neither shall you take their daughters as wives for your sons; otherwise, when their daughters render their wanton worship to their gods, they will make your sons do the same.
17 "You shall not make for yourselves molten gods.
18 "You shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the prescribed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 "To me belongs every first-born male that opens the womb among all your livestock, whether in the herd or in the flock. 20 The firstling of an ass you shall redeem with one of the flock; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. The first-born among your sons you shall redeem. "No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 "For six days you may work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; on that day you must rest even during the seasons of plowing and harvesting.
22 "You shall keep the feast of Weeks with the first of the wheat harvest; likewise, the feast at the fruit harvest at the close of the year.
23 Three times a year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.
24 Since I will drive out the nations before you to give you a large territory, there will be no one to covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD, your God.
25 "You shall not offer me the blood of sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the sacrifice of the Passover feast be kept overnight for the next day.
26 "The choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD, your God. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."
27 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." 28 So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Stay tuned...

Getting Long in the Tooth

The thing I dislike about birthdays is that, ever since I turned fifty, the life insurance ghouls send me "birthday greetings every year.

     You know that real cheery "Congratulations!" I only have to read as far as the third  paragraph to discover that, amazingly enough, I can still qualify for life insurance.

     There's something depressing about the fact that I have to remind Long Suffering that my birthday's coming up at least two months in advance, yet someone I don't even know, sitting at a computer  in a insurance office headquarters, is all to glad to send me birthday greetings, right on time.

      I am told, in this "birthday card," that I can----oh, joy!---take out life insurance on myself. In their very own words, "Give yourself and your family a birthday present that won't break, go out of style, or wear out."

     Well, who the hell cares about them? Isn't this my birthday? Isn't this a time when we should be thinking about me? I'm thinking good books, nice-smelling lotions, a few CD's, maybe a day off. If my husband gives me burial insurance for my birthday, I can assure you he'll need it a hell of a lot sooner than I will.

      The insurance "birthday message" continues" "When you die, this protection will go a long way toward meeting the debts you leave behind."

      When you die?!?

      Excuse me, Mr. Frank Anderson, president of Big Franks Life, but when your wife has a birthday, I'll bet you're loads of fun. Here's poor Mrs. Anderson, all dressed up and just praying you'll take her out to dinner at one of those Japanese restaurants where the table chef only knows enough English to call everybody "Joe" (even the women) but can catch a tossed lemon on the tines of a fork held behind his back. And here's you, cheerfully telling her, "Dear, when you die........."

     This most recent birthday message, in which I'm led to believe that Big Franks Life's entire staff has been laying awake at night worried slam to death about my poor bereaved survivors, informs me that a "Birthday Life" policy can pay for my entire funeral.

     Now, there's a picker-upper! It's almost as wonderful as discovering ear hair.

    Birthdays should be indulgent and splendid. A day where you vow to not answer a single question beginning with "Honey, where's my....? Sure, Long Suffering will go to work wearing his swim trunks for underwear, but that's not my problem.

     Birthdays are the time to shop in the Juniors department because you can't stand being a Signature Woman. Lane Giant, or Big Fat Hag Woman. ( My definition of total frustration? Cher in Talbot's. Think about it.)

     It's a day to use bath products without the first name "Mister" or a cap shaped like Tigger.

     Insurance companies in general are irritating entities, which leads me to share with you a letter I wrote, which you might want to adapt for your own use.

 

  Dear Mr. and Ms Insurance Person:

 

     I realize that you are, by the very nature of your job, a Very Busy Individual and you probably just want to grab some lunch and watch All My Restless Children in the break room before spending the afternoon rejecting more claims, so I'll keep this brief.

     Mr. or Ms. Insurance Person, I would just like to say that, unlike most of the disenchanted American public, I hold you and your ilk in the highest regard. How frustrating it must be to sit, day after thankless day, reading claims detailing so-called "illnesses" and "accidents" and having to deny payment for the selfsame reason a dog licks his naughties---because you can.

     Sure, eventually you will probably pay some, if not all, of the claim, but what's the fun in doing so in a timely manner? You know for a fact that , more often than not, we'll just give up and pay the bill out of sheer exhaustion. Like trying to find a pump that doesn't have the thingy broken off or a fat-free salad dressing that doesn't taste like joint compound, some things will just never be within human grasp.

     Yes, you are right when you say, "duh, that treatment stuff cost money, buddy-roo" but, and I mean this in the most respectful way possible, isn't that why we're paying premiums? Isn't that why we call it insurance?

     I apologize. I'm on a rant here, but ever since you decided that I no longer needed my anti-anxiety medication, things have been a bet tense. Even you must admit that it's a tad peculiar that the only medications on your "approved" list anymore are corn pads and snakebite kits.

     Truly, not many folks appreciate your diligence. While the untrained observer might think you're being cruel to demand, "prior approval" before you pay for an emergency-room visit, I believe that if you've got time to get yourself a burst appendix, you've certainly got time to call your company's handy toll-free number and ask, between spasms of debilitating pain, if it would be okay to have some life-saving surgery.

     Take your time; we'll wait.

     What's that? If we want to hear the options menu again, we must press 2? No, we don't want to hear the menu again. We just want to talk to that nice, be sweatered man in your commercials who is playing in piles of leaves with his kids and saying how much he values his clients. Put him on the line.

     Uh-oh. You say we're not covered because there was a "preexisting condition" that led to the appendix problem, that weren't we warned back in Miss Bartlett's third-grade that we should not eat peanut shell because on day they would all collect in our appendix and cause it to burst.

      And didn't we continue to eat peanuts, and therefore, minute bits of shell, at ballparks and moviehouses across the land, thumbing our collective noses at our appendix, which was, at that very second, a ticking time bomb swelling to the size of an enraged calzone? You're right. It's all our fault. Forget we mentioned it. And have a nice day. Oh, and thanks for the birthday card.

 

 

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

Click here, scroll to find your state, click and get a list of dates and cities where anti-war rallies and parades will be held in the month of March.
And once again, beware the right-wing agitators.

Speaking Of Things Counterpunch:

As Blondie has stated in her post below, there's this advice from Stan Goff for those of us (including me) who oftimes become discouraged by the seeming might of the "military-industrial-congressional" complex:

"There is also the internet, where more dissident voices are available, including many well-crafted analyses that give the lie to administration bullshit. Soldiers are on the net."

He goes on to describe how we are having an effect with blogs and comments and alternative news sources. He has details too, about a planned anti-war protest later this month at Fort Bragg, included chartered bus routes, etc. Don't know if I can make it but if you go to this or any demonstration, be on the watch for "planted agitators" from the "other side" who try to provoke violence for media purposes. Catch Stan's article here and while you're at it Noam Chomsky has an article in this weekend's issue. Noam is one of our more learned and literate members of the species.
And by the way, "military-industrial-congressional-complex" is what Eisenhower originally intended to say in his farewell speech, but he was warned off of using the complete phrase. Guess they didn't want him to piss off everybody on his way out.

Seeya on the ramparts.

America: Happy Fantasy Land

I read an article in Counterpunch by Dave Lindorff Happy Fantasies as the World. He had just returned from a trip to Disney World with its "sterile and contrived alternate universe" and compared it to the US news media trying to do the same thing with our world illusion. It's a good article worth reading. As much as I enjoyed Epcot Center because I love animatronics and science, I was creeped out by "the future". I remember telling the husband, "I've seen the future and I'm not going there." He agreed.

A funny thing that Lindorff didn't mention is that corporate media also brings us 'Reality TV'. Now I haven't watched it and I am no expert, but from what I can glean from the commercials and from what my son tells me about shows on MTV, we have a really sick society if in fact, reality TV is real and people are that nasty to each other. What happened to our christian country anyway? It's one thing to be outlandish enough to want to be on a reality show and ask like an asshole for all the world to see for big bucks, but what's up with people who want to watch this crap? Watching it makes the corporations richer and the networks richer.

Remember the talk show phenomenon several years back? Remember all those freakazoids airing their dirty trashy laundry? Reality TV is making being a freak even more of a reality! I'm wondering when it will seep into my world? After all, the whitewashed news the corporate networks have been spewing for years has seeped into the fabric of society, my society, and I actually have to defend my opinion that this war sucks ass. So when will I have to defend my "not too risky" lifestyle? "waddaya mean you wouldn't lay in a pile of maggots for money?"

Corporate media made lousy music the norm and turned icky people into pop stars. Where's the real substance in music when I turn on the radio? I have to find a college station to find anything worth listening to and to hear new releases from artists that don't fit the corporate playlist mold. You can't even blow anyone to get a good artist on the radio anymore.

Speaking of reality. I've probably written about this before, but growing up, we were not allowed to watch the Donna Reed Show or Father Knows Best because my mom claimed that it was a bunch of garbage and no one lived like that. Eventually by the late 60's, the music reflected the times and no one was afraid to play it on the radio. We saw protests on TV back in the day and we knew what was going on in Vietnam a lot more than Americans know about Iraq and Afghanistan. Once the war was over and Nixon was shamed, America went back to la la land. The shit was hitting the fan in the middle east but you couldn't tell by looking at Americans. La la la la, I can't hear you.

America is messing up yet another generation in a different way. They get to listen to crappy contrived formula music (unless they are privy to underground music, and thank gore for the internet), that it's ok to be a complete jerk on television and call it reality, that we're a christian country at war with evil infidels and most of all, these kids get to grow up in fear. The worst part of their fear is that they are fearing stuff that isn't even true. They fear what the corporations want them to fear. I'm seeing the future and I don't want to go there.

I've always maintained that the difference between the Soviets and the Americans was that the Soviets knew that they were being fed propaganda...

9/11 Open Thread

We hit a nerve. 9/11 thread continued below. Read the comments in the thread 2 posts below to see what everyone is saying.

I read somewhere that those who most loudly disparage "conspiracy theory" are most often the ones with the least knowledge of the actual evidence being presented.

Read The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to 9/11

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis -- Dante Alighieri

Friday Conspiracy Blogging

Yeah, I just invented it.

Since 9/11 I have been reading all sorts of theories on what happened to the twin towers and to WTC 7 which magically collapsed. Another thing that has been weird are all the stories about the pentagon crash not actually being a commercial jet. It is true that the pentagon lawn looked amazingly perfect right after the crash. Must have been one great pilot. But then they say that the terrorist pilots sucked at flying. Weird. Well it is strange that the footage of the "plane" hitting the pentagon has never been released. The gas station across the street from the pentagon had it captured and the FBI confiscated it. There is a clip on the internet from the pentagon parking lot showing a blurred object hitting the pentagon but it is blocked by a parking meter. The pentagon said that is the only footage they have and there are frames missing, of course. I am supposed to believe that the pentagon has no other cameras on the property. It still is rather strange that a commercial jet hit the pentagon and left a little hole and then the whole plane disintegrated, vaporized and went kaput even though they got DNA from the passengers.

Well I don't know what happened but I am inclined to not believe a word of the official story because it's just ridiculous and insults my intelligence. Found this article today and I think you should read it if you are interested in 9/11. I know that the readers here don't buy the lie that there were a bunch of terrorists who organized and plan from a cave in Afghanistan who hated our freedoms There is tons of stuff about these 9/11 anamolies all over the place on the web. I don't know how to sort it out. I have been accused of many things every time I even ask someone to look at information that looks somewhat credible as an explanation. I don't know what to believe. I'm curious as to how many of you have been following this.

Come With Me and Meet Someone Special

by pissed off patricia

Some days when you read the news it's just too much. Do we write about the government deciding that it's fine to outsource torture? Do we write about the bankruptcy bill? Do we write about a suicide bomber killing over forty people in Iraq?

No, no, no, not today, it's just too much. So instead I'm going down memory lane and I hope you'll go with me.

I want to introduce to you the most wonderful woman in my life. I called her, "Sweetum", and she was my grandmother. She was beautiful in every single way. She came from a wealthy background and was the essence of a deep south, southern lady. She finished high school and attended finishing school. She became an adult with all any southern woman needed at that time. She married a man that I never knew because he died one month before I was born. That would have been about this time of year. Like I said, I never knew him, but from what I have been told I sure would have loved him. They told me he had an Irish accent and he named me. So see, he was thinking about me before I was born. I've always wanted to believe he would have loved me.

Sweetum lived with us off and on for about thirteen years. Man, could she put a smile on my face. My own parents were always competing for the title of most dysfunctional family in the US. I'm positive that Sweetum didn't approve, but she didn't let me know that and she never interfered with the family disaster, at least not to my knowledge. When Sweetum was there, I felt safe. She spent her time teaching me to recite little nursery rhymes and poems. She would always clap for me if I could remember every line of the lesson. She would say, "Darlin', I'm so proud of you." Not a phrase I heard from my parents. Plus, the way she said darlin' was so soft and sweet and southern. But you know what the best part was? She always had a deck of Old Maid cards in her dress pocket and she always had time to play that game with me. That's my favorite memory of her. She always had time just for me! And amazingly, I always won the game.

Once she went to the World's Fair and she brought me a little silver tea set. Of course it wasn't real silver, but to me it was glorious. We would have tea parties. She would refer to me as Miss and I would refer to her as Mrs. Just us girls, one of us older and one of us pretending to be older, having tea like two grown ladies. She taught me all about tea parties. She taught me manners and she tried her best to teach me grace. Some things she accomplished, but with others there was just so much that she could do.

As the years went by Sweetum became an old person. She got some strange ideas. Once she saw me drinking 7-Up from a bottle and she took it away from me because she swore it was beer. She was so adamant that I was frightened. Partly afraid it might really be beer but mostly afraid she wasn't the wise and sensible person I had always known.

The last time I saw Sweetum she was in a hospital bed and when I hugged and kissed her, she said, "And who are you?" I tried to tell her but her mental capacity was too damaged. Yeah, you bet I walked out of that room crying and I cried for a long time. I cried like a person with a broken heart. I knew Sweetum was gone from me forever. She died within months of that last visit and again I cried off and on for weeks. I still do.

I have a picture of her that was taken when she graduated from finishing school and I also have some of her books. I keep a framed copy of her picture in my living room on the table beside the table lamp. Each morning as I go into the living room and turn on that lamp, I blow a kiss to her and touch her picture. I hope her lovely spirit knows that I love her. I'm not a believer in the afterlife, but I am a believer in memories and these are my memories of the only woman who I ever loved deeply and with all my heart. These are my memories of Sweetum. Thank you for walking down the lane with me today. Thank you too Sweetum for teaching me that little girls are worth loving. I often wonder where I would be now if you hadn't been in my life then.

32 RULES FOR BEING A GOOD REPUBLICAN

I didn't write this. I don't know who did. I am a bad Republican.

1. You have to believe that the nation's 8-year prosperity was due to the work of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, but that today's gas prices, the fifteen year high in unemployment, the unprecedented federal deficits (largest in history), the increasing inflation, lack of jobs, increased poverty, increased insurance costs, and all the deaths in Iraq are all Bill Clinton's fault.

2. You have to despise government programs, but expect Social Security checks on time.

3. You have to have faith that a tax break for the wealthy that takes away child credits for the poor is going to make poor people go away so that we are all rich.

4. You have to believe that government should stay out of peoples' lives, yet you want government to regulate same-sex marriages, gays in the work place and government ending or not ending pregnancies, what you can watch on TV or listen to on radio and CD’s or read in magazines, what you can use the flag for, being molested by untrained clerical security people in airports, being photographed and taped in public places, and what official language should be spoken by you.

5. You have to believe that pollution is okay, so long as it makes a profit. It is even better if it's in another state. Better still if it is another country.

6. You have to sponsor prayer in public schools, as long as you don't pray to Allah or Buddha. (But Scientology and “Mooneys” are fine as long as they are big donors, and despite the rest of the world’s opinion, Reagan confirmed they are not “cults.”)

7. You have to believe that only your own teenagers are still virgins.

8. You have to believe that a woman cannot be trusted with decisions about herself, but that large multi-national corporations should have no regulations or interference.

9. You love Jesus and Jesus loves you and you're absolutely positive that Jesus shares your hatred of AIDS victims, homosexuals, labor unions, aliens and Hillary Clinton. (P.S., he must also agree with you on supporting the death penalty, despite what it says he said in the Bible.)

10. You have to believe that society is color-blind and growing up black in America doesn't diminish your opportunities, but you still wouldn't ever vote for Allan Keyes (but Jesse Helms, Lippy Dole and Strom Thurmond are really OK).

11. You have to believe that it was wise to allow Ken Starr to spend more than $100 million in tax dollars to attack Clinto. Presidents have never been unfaithful to their wives.

12. You have to declare that a waiting period for purchasing a handgun is bad because quick access to a new firearm is an important concern for all Americans, including children, terrorists and felons.

13. You have to believe it is wise to keep condoms out of schools because, of course, if teenagers don't have condoms they won't have sex.

14. You have to believe that the ACLU is bad for defending the Constitution, while the NRA is good for defending the Constitution.

15. You have to believe the AIDS virus is not important enough to deserve federal funding proportionate to the resulting death rate and that the public doesn't need to be educated about it, because if we just ignore it, it will go away.

16. You have to believe that biology teachers are corrupting the morals of 6th graders if they teach them the basics of human sexuality, but the Old Testament, which is full of sex and violence, is good reading at any age.

17. You have to believe that Chinese communist missiles and war mongers have killed more Americans than handguns, alcohol, and tobacco combined, and therefore we must spend most of our tax dollars in a space weapons system against them.

18. You have to excuse George Jr. for his years of cocaine abuse, alcoholism, marital infidelities, aborting his pregnant girlfriend Robin Lowman, and spousal abuse, but Clinton should have been impeached for having oral sex in the White House.

19. You have to believe that even though governments have supported the arts for 6000 years and that most of the great works of Renaissance art were paid for by governments, our government should shun any such support. After all, the rich can afford to buy their own and the poor don't need any.

20. You have to believe that the lumber from the last one percent of old growth U.S. forests is well worth the destruction of those forests and the extinction of the several species of plants and animals therein, so the owners can make their profit.

21. You have to believe that we should forgive and pray for Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, Henry Hyde, Trent Lott, Arlen Spector, and Bob Livingston for their many and continued marital infidelities, but that that bastard, Bill Clinton and his wife, should never, ever be forgiven.

22. You firmly believe that International Treaties only count if we like them today.

23. You know it is all right to disseminate and print all the falsehoods and lies possible about the Clintons, but to talk about Dubyah’s record of years of alcoholism and cocaine abuse, D.U.I.’s, spousal abuse, the Bush twins’ arrests for illegal use of alcohol, Jena’s posing for nudie calendars, or Neil Bush’s felonies for illegal loans and bankrupting Silverado S & L, or Jeb Bush’s marital problems, infidelities and his daughter’s cocaine addiction are personal, private and off limits for the press.

24. You have to still believe that George was really telling the truth about Weapons of Mass Destruction.

25. You have to believe that we really could have gotten Bush’s business partner, Osama bin Laden if it hadn’t been for that bastard, Bill Clinton.

26. You have to believe the fact that Prescott Bush (George’s father) should not ever have been indicted for trading with the Nazi’s during WWII, despite the fact he never gave up his German bank which helped finance Hitler (whom he called, “a good Christian who supported law and order”), and continued to run it after the war with the help of Averill Harriman (another Nazi financier.)

27. You should believe that it doesn’t really make any difference that George H.W.Bush was the one who armed Osama during the 80’s and early 90’s, and gave nerve gas and other banned chemicals to Sadaam in the 90’s because “they were on our side.”

28. You have to believe that George W. Bush REALLY won the election in 2000, in spite of the 600,000 plus vote plurality for Al Gore, and the unprecedented interference of the U. S. Supreme Court in appointing Bush the president, 5 to 4.

29. You have to believe no matter how corrupt the Bush family is, the Kennedy family is worse.

30. You have to believe that no mater how often and how big the lies are that the Bush administration tells, that if they repeat them often enough, loudly enough and call anybody who points them out “traitors” and “anarchists” that they will make them fact.

31. You have to believe in changing the rules to insulate Tom DeLay from any loss of privilege and power while he is convicted of a variety of felonies.

32. You have to believe that if George surrounds himself with incompetent ass kissing “yes” men and fawning females that he can make better decisions.

33. And last, that the tax break gave rich Republicans so much money that they bought George a second term despite the facts, and he will be long, long gone before we really have to pay the deficits back.

snippets

Berlusconi contradicts US friendly-fire account

The Guardian- "Mr Berlusconi's version of events contradicts the initial statement from American forces, which said they fired on a speeding car, killing Mr Calipari and wounding Ms Sgrena and another agent, only after it failed to stop at a checkpoint.

In his first substantial address since Friday's shooting, Mr Berlusconi said the idea that Mr Calipari was killed by friendly fire was "painful" to accept. But he said he was assured the US was committed to getting to the bottom of the shooting.

"The US has no intention of evading the truth. I'm sure that in a very short time every aspect of this will be clarified," he said." Is he kidding? Wait, he's just trying to be nice so Italy doesn't suddenly have a terrorist attack.

Troops Who Fired On Hostage Were Protecting U.S. Ambassador

NBC News- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops who mistakenly killed an Italian intelligence agent last week on the road to Baghdad's airport were part of extra security provided by the U.S. Army to protect U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, a U.S. official said Thursday. Are they kidding me? Why didn't they say so last week?
...
There was no immediate comment in Rome by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office or the Foreign Ministry. "

US troops get training to avoid friendly-fire attacks on British

UK Times- AMERICAN soldiers in Iraq are being given “anti-fratricide” training to reduce the number of friendly fire attacks against British and other coalition troops, The Times has learnt.

Military hopefuls called anti-social:

Toronto Star- People interested in a career with the Canadian Forces tend to be "lacking in life goals and feel alienated from society and its values," says the document, co-authored by three senior officers.

"They are attracted to violence more than the average member of Canadian society and accept violence as a legitimate means of getting what they want."

Well it's a darn good thing that the Canada isn't fighting the war on freedom. That's all I can say. We don't need people with a propensity for violence in our coalition. whew.

More News

From a CNN.com Breaking News email.
"At least 26 killed in a suicide bombing at a funeral for a university professor in Mosul, Iraq."
 
When the hell will it stop? 

Bitchin'

by pissed off patricia
 
Good Morning
I have had two cups of coffee, two English muffins, and I'm ready to rock and roll.
 
The sweet Heretik asked last night if I ever sleep.  So I feel I owe him an honest answer.  Yes, I do sleep. 
 
My brain seems to have kicked in and lined up my to-do list even before I wake up in the morning.  I don't know if this is a female thing or what, but I fall asleep thinking and I wake up thinking.  I sometimes ask Mr. Pop what he's thinking about and he will say, "nothing".  How can that be?  How do you shut your brain down and just not think?  I want to learn to do that.
 
Last night I watched Dan Rather bid adieu to his audience and his chair as CBS anchor man.  It was an okay last show but I was praying to whichever goddess rules the media that he would end his last show with something fine and dignified, but alas his last word was, "courage".  Dan you could have done so much better.  You should have said, the bastards tricked me, I fucked up and now you, America and the world,  are seeing what happens if you say anything but the freakin' praiseful bullshit that this administration demands of the media.  Oh man, Dan if you had said that there would have been a cheer heard around the whole damned world.  What the hell, so what if CBS went into a tail spin?  At least it would have been the honest truth, and talk about making lemonade out of lemons, it would have been the sweetest lemonade ever. 
 
Tonight Bob Schieffer will be sitting in the news chair for CBS and I caution you not to watch the show because you will fall asleep within the first five minutes.  Dan was like hot pepper to Schieffer's milk and bread.  CBS doesn't want to stir up any more trouble so they will play everything super safe. 
 
And finally, thank goodness we are looking into steroid use by professional athletes.  That rates really high on my list of personal concerns.  It rates just above giving a shit about.......wait, it doesn't rate above anything.  What the hell is it all about?  Is it to follow up on bush's State of the Union address last year when he mumbled something about the use of steroids?  Would that he were as concerned about the lives of our soldiers and their families as he is about what adult men put into their bodies.  I wish that was all that we had to worry about today, I sure do.

-----
Blogger has been slow today so this post is late.

And in NY News...

March sure came in like a lion and dropped a bomb of a freak storm on my area the other day. One day it was 60º and the previous snow melted instantaneously. The next day when folks were driving to work it was sunny and 50º. In a short time, the temps plummeted to the 20's and the wind picked up. Suddenly it was snowing sideways by mid-day. Wind gusts were in the 55 mph zone. The plows can't do their thing when the traffic is high so the snow got tamped down hard by the cars. You'd try to shovel and the wind just blew the snow back. Rush hour was a nightmare. I just read that there were 600 accidents on Long Island. It was icy as hell. (1000 accidents on the NJ TPKE) You'd step on the brakes and keep on going. The temps have hovered in the 20's since then so everything is a sheet of ice here with spring only days away and daylight savings time nearing. At least it's light out at 6PM. The Darwin Award goes to a man who was found frozen to death next to his car. He fell in the storm trying to get into his car. He was drunk and called 911. He couldn't seem to tell them where he was and he didn't want his wife to know that he had been drinking. He was found in the parkinglot of a bar only a half mile from his house. RIP.

Newsday has a good page about the War Toll.
Did you know that the states with the most soldiers killed are California Texas Pennsylvania New York and Florida?
18-year-olds killed: 15
Soldiers age 50 or older killed: 12
There are soldiers over 50 there? And how nice, 18 year old kids who are barely grown up are in Iraq. This is fucked up. My dad used to say that the world leaders who start this shit ought to go and duke it out in an arena. I concur.

Speaking of New Yorkers... "A New York Army National Guard unit was involved in the friendly fire shooting of a freed Italian journalist and her rescuer Friday at a Baghdad checkpoint that sparked an outcry in Italy and a high-level investigation by the U.S. military. Sources said the soldiers guarding that checkpoint were assigned to New York's 42nd Infantry Division. One of that division's units, the Manhattan-based 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, is the unit responsible for the airport road where the journalist was shot, according to a retired Army officer with contacts in Iraq."

So while the war rages on and mother nature zaps us, what's on the news? Why it's Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson and the continuing fake story of why Dan Rather stepped down.

------------

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.": Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President - Source: November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy

You can do better

Campusprogress.org had a contest to name Adam's-Apple Coulter's new book. The winning entry was pretty good:

“Roosevelt: Wheelchair-riding, America-hating terrorist”

The rule for the title was: a single word, followed by an explanatory subtitle. Just like it's other book titles.
You can check out the other entries here. They are somewhat amusing.

Dubya is so Hilarious

DUBYA: Andrew Biggs is with us. He is the Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy of the Social Security Administration, Washington, D.C. In other words, he is an expert on the subject. Andrew, step forth. Let the people of Arkansas -- no, sit forth -- let the people of Arkansas --
DR. BIGGS: Thanks very much.
DUBYA: Tell them whether or not we got a problem or not, from your perspective.
DR. BIGGS: Put simply, we do, in fact, have a problem.
DUBYA: By the way, this guy -- PhD. See, I was a C student. He's a PhD, so he's probably got a little more credibility. I do think it's interesting and should be heartening for all C students out there, notice who's the President and who's the advisor. All right, Andrew, get going. Andrew's got a good sense of humor.
--Little Rock, Arkansas, Feb. 4, 2005


WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: I don't really understand. How is it the new [Social Security] plan is going to fix that problem?
DUBYA: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
-- Dubya explains the virtues of his Social Security plan, Tampa, Florida, Feb. 4, 2005

To give you an example, in 2027, the system will be $200 billion short. In other words, they collect X amount of payroll taxes, but because baby boomers like me are living longer and have been promised greater benefits, we're $200 billion short that year -- that year. And the next year is bigger than $200 billion. In 3037, it's like $300 billion. And finally in 2037, it's $300 billion.
-- Dubya goes long range, extending Social Security projections over 1000 years, Tampa, Florida, Feb. 4, 2005

From dubyaspeak.com

Senators Question Rumsfeld About Soldiers' Need for First-Aid Equipment

"The letter from Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., obtained by ABC News, refers to a report in Sunday's edition of The Baltimore Sun that there has been a delay in getting new first-aid kits containing tourniquets to the troops.
"A number of our bravest military personnel have reportedly bled to death on the battlefield, and the experts have determined that putting a tourniquet in the hands of every soldier is a vital life-saving measure," the letter states. "Holding up the fielding of a life-saving medical kit simply to optimize its carrying pouch suggests a mindset oblivious to the wartime needs of our soldiers."

There's more, follow the link and be prepared to cuss up a blue streak.