UFO's. Oh my.

I missed the news earlier that it was brought up in the Dem debate last night that Dennis Kucinich was asked about seeing a UFO. The wingers are having a field day with that one because he questioned bush's mental health when his should be in question (they say.)
Tim Russert asked the question:

"Shirley MacLaine writes in her new book that you sighted a UFO over her home in Washington state," Russert said, "that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a triangular craft, silent and hovering, that you "felt a connection to your heart and heard directions in your mind."

Kucinich said yes, all of that was true. And he defended it as a solid policy position.

I would like to note that in other accounts of this story, he didn't say Yes, all of that was true. There are various versions of this out there. So take the news with a grain of salt.

More Americans have seen UFO's, Kucinich quipped, than approve of Bush's presidency. He deadpanned that he plans to open campaign offices in Roswell, New Mexico.

Moderator Tim Russert helpfully noted that 14 percent of Americans report having seen a UFO.

"Thank you," Kucinich said, nodding at the ackowledgment that he is not alone.

But the exchange led to a serious crush of questions for Kucinich in the post-debate spin room.

Reporters sought details: When exactly did Kucinich see this UFO?

"Twenty-five years ago," he said, sounding perturbed. "More than 25 years ago."

Oh you shouldn't hang out with Shirley if you have political aspirations. Her notions are as way out there as religious fanatics I know.

I would have to disagree with that UFO poll as most people don't report UFO's because others will think you are nuts. In fact, Kucinich's sighting only came to light when MacLaine released her new book.

A couple of years ago in December around 1am, this tremendous triangular metallic orange glowing thingy flew right over my home as I was walking up the driveway towards my house after checking out Orion. It was flying low and at least as big as a house. It traveled rather slowly and made no sound except for a low frequency hum. I made a mental note of it as I observed it so that I could draw it when I got inside the house. I saw that it was foreshortened as it traveled away from me which helped me conclude that it was not much higher than the trees.

I didn't call the cops (as it wasn't shooting death rays) but I went on my local astronomy yahoo group immediately to see if anyone saw it because everyone was out that night photographing the Orion Nebula. No one saw it and a few asked me if I had been taking drugs that evening. Since the thing was flying so low, it was unlikely than any of them saw it unless they were in the immediate area. I checked with 2 air traffic controllers I know who work a mile from me. Nope. Nothing on the radar. Oh well. Probably something 'stealth' I surmised. It didn't look completely unlike some of those crazy flying machines that the AF comes up with, but I have not found a match as of yet.

Anyway, I mentioned to my doctor what I saw and showed him the sketch which was more detailed than I could describe it in words then as well as now. I was very matter of fact. It was a creepy experience and it's silence was unsettling. A month later he asked me if I was still seeing 'flying spacemen'. I never suggested that it was an alien spacecraft or mentioned aliens.

So there you go. A perfect example of why people don't always report what they see- because others are quick to put words in your mouth that you had never uttered and quick to label you a quack when you experience something a bit out of the ordinary unless it's a religious vision that tells you to bomb another nation or tell the country that a hurricane is a specific punishment from god because of homosexuality and abortionists.

And another thing, I didn't see anyone in the media knocking those Republican candidates who proudly raised their hands when asked who didn't believe in evolution.

UPDATE: Thursday Nov 1: I should have posted my description of the eerie sighting ages ago. But then again, I was sick of people thinking I was batshit crazy.

Thanks to reader and commenter Patriot, I believe that I may have identified what I had seen that cold December night- A B-2 stealth bomber. Or something like that. The orange glow it took on in one of the pictures at wikipedia and the drawing of the underside of it sort of match my drawing although there were angular protrusions on the sides of it. Patriot mentioned that it flew silently at a low altitude. aha!

Since the air traffic controllers that are responsible for the whole NY metropolitan area work within a mile of my house and they didn't see anything, it definitely made me think of a stealth bomber which I had read about but hadn't seen pics of the underside.

Plan to Require Evolution To Be Taught in Florida Public Schools

Well thank God.

I had no idea that Floridians were denied proper life science classes. I'm floored.
Read the story here.

Highlights on the arguments from the story:

Jonathan Smith, a Lakeland resident and a representative of the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit group critical of intelligent design, helped write the new standards.

"It (new standards) closed the door on any ambiguity" about evolution, Smith said. "There isn't both sides. There is only one side as far as science is concerned." That side is evolution, he said.

But Mickey Carter, pastor at Landmark Baptist Church in Haines City, said the revisions will be a disservice to students.

He said there should be a balance between both intelligent design and evolution.

"We are denying freedom of ideas, speech and shutting down one side," Carter said. "The kids ought to be able to study both sides of it so we don't just turn out a bunch of rubber-stamped robots in the classroom."

Obviously Mr Carter didn't learn science and must have been looking in the mirror when he spoke of 'rubber-stamped robots.'

Well is waterboarding torture or not?

Politics be damned.
Either you think it's torture or you don't. Our nation's reputation worldwide is at stake.

Mukasey Calls Waterboarding ‘Hypothetical,’ Dodges Legal Question Of Whether It Is Torture

Senate Democrats say that if he doesn't say that waterboarding is illegal that we will not get the Attorney General nomination.
Let's see if the Dems live up to their threats.
Or cave.

Taking on Hillary

Sorry I missed the Democratic debate last night. It seems that some issues needed to be addressed and Clinton's Democratic rivals brought up a few things that have been on many people's minds. She does seem to change her opinion to suit her audience and it leaves me wondering what her stance on important issues are exactly. She's leading in the polls, so it's about time her flip flopping was addressed.

Obama, the Illinois senator, began immediately, saying Clinton has changed her positions on the North American Free Trade Agreement, torture policies and the Iraq war. Leadership, he said, does not mean "changing positions whenever it's politically convenient."

Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, was even sharper at times, saying Clinton "defends a broken system that's corrupt in Washington, D.C." He stood by his earlier claim that she has engaged in "doubletalk."

....


Clinton defended her Senate vote in favor of designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group. Obama, Edwards and others have said Bush could interpret the measure as congressional approval for a military attack.

Edwards caustically challenged Clinton's claim that she stands up to the Bush administration. "So the way to do that is to vote yes on a resolution that looks like it was written literally by the neocons?" he said.

"In my view, rushing to war — we should not be doing that — but we shouldn't be doing nothing," Clinton said. "And that means we should not let them acquire nuclear weapons, and the best way to prevent that is a full court press on the diplomatic front."

Clinton also was the main focus during a discussion of the Iraq war. Again, Edwards leveled the toughest charges against the New York senator.

"If you believe that combat missions should be continued in Iraq" without a timetable for withdrawal, Edwards said, "then Senator Clinton is your candidate." Edwards vowed to have all combat troops out of Iraq "in my first year in office."

Clinton replied forcefully, saying "I stand for ending the war in Iraq, bringing our troops home." She added, however, that "it is going to take time," and some troops must remain to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.

"I don't know how you pursue al-Qaida without engaging them in combat," she said.

Hmmm. She lost me.

Go Kucinich

He questioned Bush's mental health and quite frankly it's about freaking time that someone did it publicly.

"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

Then he got some heat for his comments and said:

"You cannot be a president of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich said. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."

Of scythes, pitchforks, and axe-handles:

From ALTERNET:

"Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of "ordering and authorizing" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.
"U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years."

Entire article at link.

What's Your Favorite Hymn or Gospel Song?

Have we done this one before?

Blondie says below that her favorite hymn is: "What do we want? Peace. When do we want it? Now." I'm pretty sure she's kidding (but then again, maybe not).

I'm not a religious person, and I've never cottoned to those protestant "Shall We Gather at the River" type hymns. Some of the Catholic hymns are alright, but most are just boring, boring, boring. But I do love a lot of black gospel music. Have you ever attended an African-American church in the south on a Sunday morning? If you haven't, you should definitely try it. You'll never think those folks on American Idiot are great singers again. Black gospel music comes from a place in the soul that's way down deep; it moves me. My personal favorite is "Oh Happy Day".

What's your favorite? Feel free to be as creative as you want (as if we could stop you!).

On The Evangelical Crackup

I'm not gloating after reading this article in the Sunday NY Times Magazine about the emergent theology rising from the ashes of the conservative evangelical movement.

I'm happy. Welcome back to humanity!

I secretly prayed that the millions of sheep would awaken and begin to think about what they were reading in the Gospels and compare it to what their so-called leaders were telling them to believe in. Religion is not a matter of what you are against but what you are for. Banning stuff you don't like doesn't change hearts and minds. Being negative all the time breeds more negativity. Mixing religion and politics gives you politics.

After all, if you consider yourself a Christian then you are supposed to ally with Jesus Christ whose main concern was social justice and looking out for one another. I haven't seen that in the Republican Party in years and years and years. All you get is more politics and elected officials who may have meant well at one time eventually succumbing to the party and not what is in the best interests of those who actually voted for them.

Young evangelicals are heeding Jesus' call for social justice, peace, love, ecology and human rights. What a better world it would be if more people stood for these positive things. Looking out for your earthly brothers and sisters makes you feel much better than constantly pointing out the sins of one another- and it makes others feel better about themselves too. How can it backfire if millions and millions of people participate?

What do we want?
PEACE!
When do we want it?
NOW!
-My favorite hymn

Same Sex Marriage - One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

Via Pandagon comes this little nugget from country & Western singing 'star' John Rich:

"I think if you legalize that, you've got to legalize some other things that are pretty unsavory. You can call me a radical, but how can you tell an aunt that she can't marry her nephew if they are really in love and sharing the bills? How can you tell them they can't get married, but something else that's unnatural can happen?"

Rich was voicing his opinion of gay marriage when he let this priceless little nugget drop from his mouth (probably with no stopover in his brain for vetting first). He equated same-sex marriage with incest, yet another example of hyperbole, the same type of stupid logical fallacy that ended up with Rick Santorum equating gay marriage with zoophilia.

Unlike homosexual relations, there are good reasons for incest being both illegal and taboo, starting with basic genetics. For those of you playing along at home, here goes:

Thanks to increased mobility, Americans practice exogamy - they tend to marry outside of their own geographical or familial group. This promotes genetic diversity and makes the resulting population more resistant to environmental pressures. On the other hand, endogamy (marrying exclusively within one's geographical or familial group) narrows that diversity, making the resulting population weaker.

Endogamy is also called inbreeding. The ancient Egyptian royal family practiced it, as did the Hapsburg Dynasty. Endogamous relations and marriages resulted in the famous 'Hapsburg chin' becoming so pronounced that King Charles II of Spain was unable to chew his own food (leaving aside the fact that he was prone to diseases and was insane and impotent). His death enabled Louis XIV of France to install his grandson on the throne of Spain, resulting in the Spanish Bourbon Dynasty. Upon such things the wheel of history turns.

To equate incest (which is illegal and taboo under our culture) with same-sex relations is absurd on its face. For starters, same-sex relations are no longer criminal, thanks to the US Supreme Court decision Lawrence v Texas; second, there is no danger of an inbred result from such a pairing. As the Comte de Sade (he's mistakenly referred to as a Marquis) pointed out, sodomy is a sterile act; there are no children produced.

Now to our country, and the delectable irony of John Rich's remarks. A standard joke is that inbreeding is rampant in Appalachia and certain parts of the rural Deep South - with the linkage of country music being their favorite musical genre. It's an unfair and obsolete joke, but still used nevertheless. Further, Mr. Rich (of the group 'Big & Rich') owed his career to contacts within the Nashville music scene, some of whom are gay and probably deeply resented Mr. Rich's statement.

So we have Mr. Rich backpedalling via his spokespersons, and he's most likely lost some of the goodwill he's accrued in The Business over the years.

What do you think?


(Cross-posted at My Two Cents.)

Shouting at the Devil: "FUCK YOU Capitalism!"

Now this is MY KIND OF RANT! (socialist that I am....)


by Jason Miller of Cyrano's Journal

Capitalism, capitalism. How do I loath thee? Let me count the ways….

NYSE Eliminates Trading Curbs Dating Back to 1987

LET's GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!

From Today's WTF File

The Supreme Court has decided to take up review of the fine levied against Exxon Mobil for the Valdez oil spill. Mind you, we are thirteen (!!!!!) years after the fact, and an appeals court has already cut the fine in half. Purportedly, the justices are going to decide whether it is an 8th Amendment violation (the ban on cruel and unusual punishment) in requiring The Big XX to pay any punitive damages at all.

With a market capitalization of a bit more than $520 billion, yearly sales of $375 billion, and yearly income of around $40 billion (or $10 billion a quarter), it's hard to see how the argument that the fine of $2.5 billion was excessive even passes the straight face test. But I'm sure the Roberts court will take the argument very, very seriously.

What are you going to be for halloween? (I hate halloween, btw)

I found my halloween mask!! I can just print it from my computer. kewl...

Coal in demand despite global warming

As China's appetite for coal is booming, American investors and businesses are cashing in.

American pension and mutual fund money is being invested in the Chinese coal industry, which is lucrative but in general has a poor record for pollution and worker safety.

The biggest Chinese coal company is China Shenhua Energy Co. of Beijing, which produces about 170 million tons of coal a year from 21 mines and builds power plants. While about 80 percent of the company's stock is owned by Shenhua Group in Beijing, the rest of its shareholders reads like a who's who of U.S. investors: Fidelity Investments, OppenheimerFunds, Merrill Lynch, even the Teachers Retirement System of Texas............, blah, blah
.............................blah, blah blah
...........................BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH:
Faced with increasing opposition from environmental groups, U.S. coal companies have begun pushing technology designed to reduce pollutants, including the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. They've also been working with electricity producer China Huaneng Group on FutureGen. The planned $1.5 billion (€1.05 billion) experimental coal-fired power plant would serve to test carbon capture and underground storage, among other things.

and how IS FutureGen coming along? I hope they've broke ground. Time's a running out -- better get going ---

FutureGen

(oh, looks like they're still talking. HEY! TX is in the running to host this project - well whattayaknow - Surprise, surprise, surprise .......said Gomer!)

Nice Website!!


Nice report from energy dot gov back in 2003!!!
(oh - I see an up-date in 2006!! - yeah!)

Oh my god, yessssssss!!!!!!!

As a frustrated amateur astronomer living in the severely light polluted suburbs of NYC, this would be paradise... alas it's too far for a weekend getaway.

Ga. astronomy village fills up quickly
SHARON, Ga. - The most important rule at this remote vacation spot is simple: no white light. Even a sliver of the pupil-contracting rays coming from the window of a cabin at Deerlick Astronomy Village could ruin a neighbor's view of the Milky Way. The 96-acre village in rural Taliaferro County in eastern Georgia is designed for amateur stargazers looking for total darkness and wide-open spaces to build weekend homes. (continued)

See also
Chiefland Astronomy Village (Florida)
Arizona Sky Village

An omen?

So uh, God's own baseball team was swept by the liberals from Boston.

The problem with anti-drug campaigns

I know that drug addiction is no laughing matter. It has killed several dear friends and my younger brother when he was just shy of his 21st birthday. I just wanted to get that out of the way before I proceed.

I remember when crack was the huge public menace in the 80's, although I didn't know anyone who used it (as coke was the designer drug for yuppies.) On the news one constantly heard of the fabulous euphoria that you felt if you smoked crack. They couldn't describe enough how great it made you feel. I often thought that the media was trying to actually lure new users.

One morning as hubby was driving to drop me off at the railroad station for my daily trek into New York City in 1980-something, the news guy on the radio was going on and about about the wonders of crack, I snarkily asked hubby if he wanted me to see if I could score some on my lunch hour in Battery Park since we were both disenchanted with our career choices and frustrated. Most people my age and in my line of work at the time were druggies who could afford the "good stuff." Many were burned out by the time they were 30. We were securities brokers and traders on Wall St. (Note: I vented my frustrations by playing in a punk band after work and drinking beer.)

These memories came flooding back after I read this post over at the Dilbert Blog: Why You Can’t Take Me Anywhere. Scott Adams recounts his evening at the local school where the local police were warning parents about the dangers of drugs, particularly meth. I don't know, maybe they ought to leave out all the descriptions of how good it makes you feel...

"A parent asked why anyone would take meth, given all the downside risk and side effects. One of the policemen answered that meth releases 50 times more serotonin in the brain than an orgasm. Then they showed a before and after picture that looked a lot like this one.

"So I’m sitting there, doing the calculations in my head: Okay, that’s 4.5 years of meth use, once a day, 365 days in a year, 50 times more serotonin than an orgasm…that’s the equivalent of 80,000 orgasms.

"On the downside, your teeth rot out, your skin itches until you scratch it off, you vomit, have withdrawals, possibly burn down the neighborhood, and roll around in your own filth while your life becomes a living Hell. And there is the jail thing.

"Still, 80,000 orgasms…

"I wanted to raise my hand while the “before and after” pictures were up and ask, “Isn’t that what anyone would look like after 80,000 orgasms?”

"Or maybe, “So, on balance, you’re saying it’s totally worth it? Or am I doing the math wrong?”

Har.

Qien es mas mucho? Fred o Rudy?

I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from home
If you don't like me, Just leave me alone
I eat when I'm hungry I drink when I'm dry
If moonshine don't kill me, I'll live till I die
-The Moonshiner by the Clancy Brothers

So anyway, I couldn't get this song out of my head after reading the headlines at Huffington Post, "Thompson: I Prosecuted Most Of The Major Crimes In Middle Tennessee", I clicked on the link and found this fascinating story at the LA Times: Fred Thompson vs. the moonshiners

He was "attacking crime and public corruption," boasts a video played at his campaign events. During a candidate debate this month, Thompson said he spent those years "prosecuting most of the major federal crimes in middle Tennessee -- most of the major ones."

Out of his 88 cases he prosecuted in the U.S. attorney's office in Nashville, from 1969 to 1972, 27 of his cases involved moonshining. Many other cases according to the article were routine: gambling, mail theft and, in one instance, talking dirty on CB radio. While the article is rather disparaging of Thompson, I found it quite interesting nevertheless- his rise into Republican politics (which looked like no big deal actually,) and the liberal judge he was up against.

I also didn't know a whole lot about moonshining before reading it except from what I got from songs and Burt Reynolds movies- although I knew that we wouldn't have NASCAR today if it weren't for the "major criminals" in Tennessee. I'm not knocking what Thompson did for a living during those times but I really think that being in competition with Rudy Giuliani for the presidential nominee, he ought to play down his time fighting crime in central Tennessee because Rudy Giuliani clearly beats him in "coolness" by going after the mafia in New York.

Neither one of them quelled the crimes in their states. We still have the mafia in NY and moonshining faded because of the sharp rise in sugar in the 70's and the popularity of marijuana (musician's choice).

Check out the truth about Rudy at the Village Voice. His secret 9/11 testimony isn't supposed to be released until after the elections of 2008 but it's online. Mr Nine-Eleven didn't know sh*t. His speeches contradict the truth... like that's a big surprise.

For Jersey,

Not quite the YouTube flick.

From Our "Well, DUH" Desk ...

This neat little article comes to us from the BBC, as a teaser for a two-part series on the Iraq War and the United Kingdom's (specifically Tony Blair's) role in this whole sorry affair.

The article points out the woeful, even criminal, lack of postwar planning on the part of the United States. It seems that no one in the US government gave the idea of "Okay, what happens next?" any thought at all.

According to a textbook I own, Planning in the Public Sector, the State Department had done some planning, coming up with a fourteen-volume set of plans that covered all the aspects of postwar operations. However (I hate that word - it lands in a discussion with a thud like a mass of wet cement) postwar planning was handed over to the Defense Department, who essentially threw out what the State Department had put together and chose to 'wing it.'

So we ended up with incompetents (but good Party members) running things.

So we ended up with a worthless apparatchik named L. Paul Bremer as Viceroy.

So we ended up disbanding the Iraqi Army, throwing roughly 2 million men out into unemployment, giving them a grudge that they could use their military technology on.

So we ended up killing roughly 100,000 Iraqis and now there are 4 million Iraqis dispossessed and exiled.

So we ended up with 4100 coalition deaths, and a butcher's bill on borrowed money that our grandchildren will be hard-put to pay off.

Didn't anyone ever teach Dear Leader and his Cabinet the "Five Ps?"

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

This has turned out to be once of the worst Administrations this nation has ever had. Khrushchev said (I believe) that the United States would destroy itself from within, and it certainly looks like it from my vantage point, folks. And the worst thing is these rubes didn't fall through a portal from another dimension - they're the product of American schools, universities, business schools and were elected by people who should have known better.

I pray before Hecate and Ereshkigal that some day there will be a reckoning.


(This is cross-posted at My Two Cents.)

you have GOT to get up, GO OUTSIDE ....and take a look to the east!

I can't believe my eyes!!

BRB.....
read all about it!!!

6:15 am -- (i'm baaack)

here come some more pics!!!
(Liz - I'm having a blast -- I never knew how simple it was to load pics (I can finally show every one pictures of my cats oh noooo!!!! ) thanks for those great instructions - you're such a good teacher - I wish I knew how to make the music play on MOG (that music blog that I belong to) cause I have THE perfect song........

you know the one -
it's about jupiter aligning with mars

maybe it IS the dawning of the age of america (?)

I was just reading up on mars when I came in from the deck. I forgot that Mars was the god of war. He was considered to be the second most important Roman deity, Jupiter was the 'chief.'

and did you know where Jupiter lived??


His temple was on the Capitoline Hill.

(crap - blogger won't load the pics now. you can check out these scary dudes at the link)

A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT!! - Thousands protest

Thousands Protest Iraq War Across U.S.


Thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown on Saturday, chanting and carrying signs that read: "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs."

The protest was the largest in a series of war protests taking place in New York, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, organizers said.

No official head count was available. Organizers of the event estimated about 30,000 people participated in San Francisco. It appeared that more than 10,000 people attended the march.

In the shadow of the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a few hundred protesters ranging from grade school-aged children to senior citizens called on President Bush to end funding for the war and bring troops home.

A Marriage made in D.C.

In honor of:
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007



I"m not sure where they're registered...

Short Quiz:

This is a photograph of:
1)A tawny seductress
2)A brazen hussy
3)A sultry vixen
4)The woman who will probably be the next President of Argentina
5)All of the above

GOP Base Planning Session Transcript

(Theme music)

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of REPUBLICAN PLAYHOUSE, the only open theater for Real Americans. When we last saw our two red-blooded American heros, Clem and Ewalt, they were taking a break from the hard work of defending our fair country from their secret base in Ewalt's mother's basement . . .


SCENE: Suburban house, front porch, exterior – DAY

Clem: Know sumpin’, Ewalt?

Ewalt: What, Clem?

Clem: We’re in-TAYNSS-lee ignorant, ain’t we?

Ewalt: (laughs) Yeah, we sure are!

(Both laugh)

Ewalt: Clem?

Clem: Yeah, Ewalt?

Ewalt: What’s “ignorant” mean?

Clem: Dunno – but we’re IT!

(Both laugh)

Ewalt: (sighs) I’m bored.

Clem: You’re SMART ENOUGH to be bored, Ewalt?

Ewalt: Reckon so. Know what we oughta do? We oughta think up sumpin’ to piss off dem hippies, y’know?

Clem: Man, I hate them dirty hippies. They don’t talk like us.

Ewalt: Uh-huh.

Clem: And they ain’t got the everlastin’ love o’ Jeezus in they hearts like we do.

Ewalt: Uh-huh.

Clem: So what d’you think we should do?

Ewalt: Endorse that there OH-Bama fer Prez’dent.

Clem: OH-Bama?! Why, he ain’t no true Amurkan – he’s – he’s –

Ewalt: I know, Clem, but here’s the great part of it.

Clem: I’m listenin.’ Gimme a beer.

(Sound of beer opening)

Ewalt: See, OH-Bama might endanger that true Amurkan, Roo-dee Joo-lee-anni, so if’n we endorse him, none o’ the dirty hippies’ll vote fer him. See?

Clem: Ewalt?

Ewalt: Yeah, Clem?

Clem: We’re gonna need more beer. I’m startin’ to sober up, an’ you’re scaring me.

(Musical sting, with soap opera organ music over Narrator’s voiceover)

Narrator: Will Ewalt borrow his mom's car and get more beer before Clem sobers up? Are these two rubes as ignorant as they seem? Will their scheme to discredit Obama succeed, or will someone look up Giuliani’s skirts and spoil everything? Stay tuned to the next action-packed episode of . . . REPUBLICAN PLAYHOUSE!

(Country-style theme music to croon about the Flag and Baby Jeezus by.)

"Lengthy SWAT Standoff Over Foreclosure Ends in Suicide"

Houston Chronicle:
"A 12-hour standoff ended this morning with a north Houston man lobbing Molotov cocktails at Houston Police before taking his own life rather than vacate a home he'd lost to foreclosure."

Guess the "Compassionate Conservatives" slipped up on this one.

More Americans believe in ghosts than in their president

It's October.
Cue the ghost stories on the Discovery Channel.
Cue the latest AP/Ipsos poll.

Poll: American Belief in Ghosts, Spells, Superstition
By Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, Oct. 27 2007 08:54 AM ET

A third of Americans say they believe in ghosts, a pre-Halloween poll showed.

The same proportion, 34 percent, say they believe in unidentified flying objects, according to a poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos, and 23 percent say they have actually seen a ghost or believe they have been in one's presence.

Those most likely to have experienced that are single people, Catholics and those who never attend religious services. Three in 10 have awakened sensing a strange presence in the room.

Nearly half (48 percent) believe in extrasensory perception, a drop from the 66 percent who said they accept ESP in a similar question asked by Newsweek in 1996. Those with a higher education were found to be more likely to accept ESP - 51 percent of college graduates compared to 37 percent with a high school diploma or less.

Nineteen percent believe that spells or witchcraft exists. Urban dwellers, minorities and lower-earning people are more likely to believe in spells and witchcraft.

A 2006 Barna Group poll found that the supernatural world is more readily believed by teens. In the midst of the Harry Potter phenomenon, the Barna report revealed that 73 percent of America's youth have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity beyond media exposure or horoscope usage. Moreover, 30 percent of all teens claimed they had supernatural encounters. Evangelical teens (26 percent) were nearly three times less likely than the non-evangelicals (69 percent) to have engaged in witchcraft or psychic activities.

More than 10 percent of youth claimed they communicated with the dead.
Continued

I find it not surprising that Catholics are among believers. I grew up Catholic. We were expected to believe in fantastic happenings in accordance with our religion. Therefore other unexplained phenomena was easily chalked up to the supernatural and the spirit world. In fact, it's easy to engage in a conversation about a brush with the spirit world with most any Catholic (even Republican Catholics). I have dozens of stories.

speaking of fires

Mysterious, unexplained fires plagued residents of Sicily 3 years ago. Electrical appliances were bursting into flames. It seems that an explanation has finally been arrived at: ALIENS

Aliens caused Sicily fires, say officials

exerpt:

Dozens of experts including scientists, electrical engineers and military boffins, arrived in the village 60 miles east of Palermo to investigate the phenomenon.

Arson was quickly ruled out and at one stage an amazed scientist was interviewed after he described how he saw an unplugged electrical cable burst into flames.

Locals were quick to blame supernatural forces and at the time the Vatican’s chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth backed up their fears and said: "I’ve seen things like this before. Demons occupy a house and appear in electrical goods. Let’s not forget that Satan and his followers have immense powers."

Now in an interim leaked report published by several Italian newspapers it has emerged that the Civil Protection Department has concluded the most likely cause was "aliens".

The report was ordered by the Italian government and brought together dozens of experts including a NASA scientist. Their two year investigation has cost an estimated £1 million.

According to the report the fires were "caused by a high power electro magnetic emissions which were not man made and reached a power of between 12 and 15 gigawatts."

The report also detailed a possible UFO landing close to the village, citing "burnt imprints which have not been explained were found in a field."

So there you go. Proof of aliens.
Thank you.

BS is a full service blog keeping you abreast of all important world wide developments.

and a special hat tip to Peter of Lone Tree.

speaking of fascism...

I found this post over at DU and it correlates with the blueprint for fascism by Naomi Wolf (see my post below) and Naomi Wolf's 10 East Steps to Fascism: #1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. (That would be us. Seriously.)

Only six members of Congress voted against fascism. How the hell did they get this past us

On Tuesday Congress betrayed the American people. They passed H.R. 1955: The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 by a vote of 404-6. What is HR 1955? Well lets just look at the text:

• `SEC. 899A. DEFINITIONS.
• `For purposes of this subtitle:
• `(1) COMMISSION- The term `Commission' means the National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism established under section 899C.
• ←→
• `(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.
• (3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.
  

continued

Obligatory Friday Sex Post- 4 headed monster

NewScientist: Exhibitionist spiny anteater reveals bizarre penis

Excerpt: Four-headed phallus

Then Steve Johnston of the University of Queensland in Gatton, Australia, and his colleagues inherited a male spiny anteater that was not so shy. The creature had been ‘retired’ from a zoo as it produced an erection when being handled at public viewing sessions.

By filming this animal, the researchers have been able to describe the unique spiny anteater erection and ejaculation behaviour for the first time.

The spiny anteater's four-headed phallus had been puzzling scientists. "When we tried to collect semen by [electrically-stimulated ejaculation] before, not only did we not get a single drop, but the whole penis swelled up to a four-headed monster that wouldn't fit the female reproductive tract, which has only two branches," says Johnston.

Well thank god for science. I never would have guessed. And thank god they retired the little critter for being sexually aroused in public or we'd never know this.

hat tip to Paul A. via BoingBoing via New Scientist

See also Man arrested for having sex with his bicycle in a hotel room.

And now for something completely different...

Are you smarter than a C.I.A. Agent?

The truth will not set you free in the US

Today in the sinking democracy of the United States, academics, civil rights and social justice are notions deemed "anti-American" by the radicals who have taken control. Good people who hate the fascists and war pigs are deemed "dangerous" and bad people who hate good people are called "Christians." Pretty ironic. The truth is on the side of the "radical left" these days.

For example, FEMA held a fake news conference today. FEMA employees posed as reporters and asked softball questions. Shame shame. Sounds like the USSR.

But in good news, Rummy ran into some trouble in France today. He was slapped with a torture lawsuit. I heard it on the news on my way home from happy hour. I remained happy.

PS, I was wondering since the PTB have lumped everyone who doesn't agree with the dismantling of the US Constitution as the far left...how do we refer to actual far left radicals?

Error Message

I was wrong.

I'll admit it, and the admission depresses me.

Not enough to swallow the business end of my shotgun, but close.

Back in November 2006, I had hoped (Oh! Foolish Hope!) that the incoming Democratic majority would stand firm against the Dear Leader and his merry minions, bring some sanity back into the government and make some of these people accountable for the way they've messed up my country.

Well, here it is almost a year since the election, and I have to admit I was mistaken.

The Democratic Representatives and Senators have shown themselves to be just as, if not more, complaisant and willing to grant Bush whatever he wants.

The polls say it all, but all you have to do is watch the news (preferably out of the UK or Canada - you can't get much from any of the US press combines). We're in trouble, ladies and gentlemen.

We are fighting a war in Iraq for no good reason except for oil, a war that is fought on borrowed money and was started based on lies, bad intelligence, and the most targeted ad campaign since William Hearst started the Spanish-American War.

Our total war against terror has destroyed our moral standing in the world. We have become what we deplore.

We have watched as our government has fallen apart, one branch thinking that its authority trumps all others in the name of "defending the country,' and the other two branches perfectly willing to let this once-great Republic slide into the dustheap of history.

So, I was wrong.

The "Godalmighty, maybe the stupidshit isn't as stupid as I thought he was" quote of the week:

It's by Henry Paulson. In a REUTERS article about oil reaching $92/barrel, he says, "It's not a positive for the economy". Whuddja expect Henry? With the way your fellow gobbledongers in the administration have been running off at the mouth about what a threat Iran is to world peace and stability, I'm only surprised the price hasn't already passed $100, but I'll wait a few days.
Uh, it's not some sort of "fix", is it Henry? You know, boosh and shamey ranting and raving about attacking Iran, with no intention of actually doing it, just to drive the price up on oil and all energy products with Winter coming on?

(Shit! There I go again with another conspiracy theory. Maybe Joizeygoil made me do it with her Blackwater Post down below.)

BlondeSense Action Alert

Does your Democartic representative or senator suffer from that horrible medical condition commonly known as Bushicus Cavinicus? If so, give 'em a hearty dose of Spineocrat.

Don't wait! Send them some today!

The world may depend on it.

H/T to the ever lovely chicago dyke of correntewire.

War For Fun And Profit

David Brookswas the Long Island guy who made so much money selling crappy flak jackets for our troops that he threw an $8 million dollar bat mitzvah for his underdeprived daughter, complete with rock stars and celebrities, but that the only thing the news had to say about it at the time was that it was excessive... nothing about the fact that he was a dirty filthy war profiteer.

Why did the feds crack down on him now? Not because he looted the government, but because he looted the company and his investors. sheesh. Well yeah, that's serious, but more investigation turns up information that our troops were screwed over... but nevermind, that isn't in the story.

The story is that he lived a very lavish lifestyle and charged it to his company which really charged it to his country, thank you very much.

Sure he's a criminal but the real criminals are Bush and Cheney. When will they be charged?

No, Seriously. We have to wake up America.

We are running out of time. I think we ought to read Naomi Wolf's "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" and "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism"

Time is running out for our democracy. The revolution had better happen soon. We are much further along than most Americans realize. In fact, I have met learned people who say that they don't fear the government's intrusion into our lives because they believe that they have done nothing wrong. Tell that to the Long Island woman who died in the Phoenix airport. Oh, if only we could dig up innocent people who suffered under Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet... We can read all the history books, but there isn't time. So let's listen to Naomi Wolf.

There is a blueprint for a dictatorship. It's time tested and it's happening. A quick read is Naomi Wolf's Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps

And you can watch this video of a talk by Naomi Wolf author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot" given October 11, 2007 at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus... Nothing else is really all that important in the grand scheme of things. I took notes as I was watching it, which are below.



These are my quicky notes on the video (excuse the lack of sentence structure as I was typing as she spoke):

There is a blueprint of 10 steps every would-be dictator puts in place whether left or right. The history of Mussolini, Germany in the early 30's, etc.

Our founders knew in their bones that an American despot could easily arise and oppress the citizens. They wrote out of fear and knew what tyranny was and set a system of checks and balances- it was a radical but they knew that if power went unchecked, it was human nature for despots to rise.

Invoke a terrifying internal and external threat. Hyped threat- Stalin talked about sleeper cells described as capitalist agents who were dressed like Soviet citizens waiting for the moment to rise up and strike. It's as if the Bush admin followed this playbook.
Goebbels embedded journalists. Goebbels staged book burnings. Remember the Dixie Chicks?
Pinochet told Chileans about insurgents and used faked documents, plan Z, to blow up their democracy. Much like the US produced fake documents- yellow cake uranium.

Secret prisons. Military tribunal- No due process. Lenin was the innovator- confino. Eventually turn the abuse against its own citizens. History proves it.

The State uses terror against an individual group to push to end democracy. In early Germany, the anarchists and communists were the target group. Then there is a blurring of the line- always the journalists, labor leaders, educators, activists are next... Starts out little and then grows. People accepted it at the time. Most Americans don't even realize that the president claims that he can deem you an enemy combatant and nothing will protect you. He can deem any one of any party, of any persuasion an enemy combatant. Innocence will not protect you. You will be put in a brig and kept there indefinitely- up to 3 years. Prolonged isolation makes you insane.

Democracy closes down in a series of tipping points, not a smooth steady progressive line. At the end, it goes fast though where a democracy can no longer heal democracy.
The first time the state made it legal to torture people was a tipping point.
When the kid was tasered in the University of Florida, it was a tipping point. The university reported to the Board of regents, which reported to the state legislature and ultimately to the governor.

Goebbels pioneered the use of state legislature top put pressure on state universities and academic institutions. Ms Wolf says that the day she reads in the NY Times that someone whom she identifies with is declared an enemy combatant is the day she will stop talking because she will be too scared. That's how society closes down and it will happen really clearly. That's why we should worry about secret prisons.

Create a para-military force. You can't close down a democracy without one. They can be used to intimidate the citizens. Italy was a democracy when Mussolini sent black shirts out to scare civilians and make them drink laxatives and then Hitler copied it by sending out brown shirts to make citizens drink gross liquids. In Portland last summer, the TSA forced travelers to drink baby formula and breast milk after the liquid scare on planes. They weren't a majority party in Germany when this happened.

The founders knew the dangers of a para military force and that's why there is a Second Amendment. King George's men were roaming around the colonies bullying people, breaking into their homes and taking their stuff. In our country, Blackwater, which has close ties to the administration was patrolling the streets of NOLA after hurricane Katrina. They got a billion dollar contract to work IN AMERICA recently. A new law says that the president can declare state of emergency on his own say so and a new law says that the president, by federalizing the national guard can declare martial law and send national guard troops from say Alabama to another state to enact curfew over the objections of the governors of the states and not tell congress about it until after the facts. This is exactly what the founders were worried about.

Create surveillance apparatus against ordinary citizens. You don't even need to surveill everyone if everyone thinks they are being surveilled. The US is driven by profit motive, not ideology motive as in Germany and Italy. When Berlin wall fell, the defense industry (third of US economy) was losing its global enemy so it had to invent a new one- terrorists. Weapons manufacturers who used to make cold war weapons shifted their manufacturing to what's called security industrial complex technologies. Surveillance and security is a multibillion dollar industry. While other countries like Spain and England don't consider terrorism a global war, the American profiteers have to ensure their profits by creating an enemy which is us-- That we're in need of surveillance.

Naomi Wolf, for a year and a half, every time she flew, got an 'SSS' on her boarding pass. High risk, security threat. She got extra searches by the TSA and was told she was on the list. Richard Murphy, a Princeton U constitutional scholar, the leader of Code Pink, Greenpeace, ACLU, a decorated war hero's family is on the list... the level of surveillance is so high that they know what you read, who you sit next to, where you're going... Ms Wolf said she found a letter from Homeland Security in her suitcase when she arrived at her destination. (May I add that DHS did something similar to my luggage when I traveled to Texas in the spring. If I suddenly shut up, you'll know why.)

Arbitrarily detain and release citizens who are involved in totally non terrorist groups, like environmentalists and anti-war groups. They infiltrate citizens groups and then citizens lose trust. They target individuals like artists, journalists, celebrities. Words like Treason are thrown about. In a strong democracy, treason isn't such a big deal, but when you read about Stalin in 1937, an editor of a paper like the NY Times was actually charged with treason and executed. In a closing society, there is much talk of terrorists and traitors. When a law was passed in the US recently to expand the definition of a terrorist, 6 months later animal rights activists were deemed terrorists.

Regular people become terrorists. You know from history that the first people to be tried under a military commissions act that the first people to be tried were white, English speaking. The last time the espionage act was used was in the run up to WWI and critics, journalists, activists, people fighting against child labor were rounded up, without warrants, mass arrests happened and people were beaten. The arrests happened when people talked about the constitution. Journalists today are being held in abusive prisons and detained in Iraq. The arrests quieted dissent.

People who criticize are viewed as traitors and treasonous.

The government will Subvert the rule of law- martial law. Leading up to elections during an unstable time, you're likely to see acts of provocation, hyped threats, protests will be upset by agents provocateur who will spark violence which will give an excuse for a crackdown

If you know the blueprint, when something happens you can almost predict what is next. Wolf was reading Goebbels when she predicted that the US attorneys in the scandal were from swing states. It turns out that the emails that the WH will not turn over to Congress will show that they were planning to fire ALL of the US attorneys all at once in a mass purge. Night of the Long Knives. Had this plan not been outed, and the attorneys had been fired, the end of our democracy would be that much closer. This is because US attorneys prosecute voting rights violations.

A closed society and even a violent dictatorship can give the appearance of a civil society. There are still elections. But they are corrupted. Men dressed like you and me were harassing vote counters in Florida. There's still a judiciary but they are not free to adjudicate freely. Academics and newspapers still exist, but they don't act freely.

What can we do?
History shows that the window is closing on democracy and if the people rise up in time, they can push back on this tyranny in the US. We have no time to waste in America to insist on the rule of law. We can't do this legislatively alone. The violence is escalating now. The state department is protecting Blackwater in Iraq. There are increasing taser and pepper spray incidents. Women like the one at the Phoenix airport are being shown in eerily good quality video are being dragged away... these keep popping up on AOL. National Socialists did the same thing.

We need to ratchet up our efforts even as they ratchet up their efforts to squash grassroots activists.

History dictates that a national uprising is incredibly urgent at this time in America. But it will take more than that.. impeachment isn't enough... we need to prosecute.

If we all take on the patriot's task and have a revolution from within, we can can restore liberty. The founders did not intend us to delegate responsibility of holding to the constitution to a special class of people like pundits, lawyers, politicians. It was meant for ordinary Americans to assume the patriots task and lead the fight to restore democracy. It's our job to channel the founders faith in us and to stand up in order to give our children and grandchildren freedom. We must stand up now.

There are also more videos at this youtube link. I hope you'll take the time to watch at least some of it or ask your friends to check it out.

Thanks Patriots.

What Would Jesus Do?

Do you have questions in your life and need guidance? Are you spiritually troubled and don't know where to turn for answers? I think I can help.

For only $20.00 (plus shipping and handling), you can have a hotline to the Big Guy himself with your very own Answer Me Jesus. Prepare yourself for divine guidance to questions such as:

Should I take that new job? (Answer: Let me ask my dad.)

Will the Red Sox win the World Series? (Answer: I died for this?)

Is George Bush actually the Spawn of Satan? (Answer: Yes, my child.)

Also, do you feel left out of all those divinely-inspired eBay items, kitchen cabinets, trees, etc. depicting (variously) Jesus and the Virgin Mary? Then feel free to join in the fun, and potentially rake in the dollars, with your very own Holy Toast Bread Stamp.

Finally, since Blondesense is non-sectarian and entirely non-judgmental about religion, we do not want any of our non-Christian readers to feel left out and bereft of spiritual guidance. Such readers should feel free to avail themselves of the Answer Me Buddha for the same low price.

All together now: Hallelujah!

H/T to my very good friend Kathleen.

Blackwater to California: Hire us to put out your fires (by Rick Jacobs)

First, a little background from NPR - Blackwater's San Diego-Area Plan Spurs Protest:

Blackwater USA wants to build a 200-acre training facility in San Diego's backcountry, but growing controversy over the private security contractors' behavior in Iraq may hurt the proposal's prospects for approval.

Bitter divisions are emerging in the small, unincorporated community of Potrero, 45 miles east of San Diego.

I had no idea that this community had been working for months to stop Blackwater from building a mercenary training facility in Potrero.

Oct. 24th Rick Jacobs writes this piece in the California Majority Report:

Beyond the damage and destruction to life and property, the timing of this wildfire could not be much worse. This fire exploded just as the people of Potrero were preparing for a recall election on December 11 to kick out the planning group members who approved Blackwater's base. With ballots scheduled to be mailed in early November to less than 600 registered voters in this historic vote-by-mail recall, Potrero residents were preparing for an intense campaign over the next six weeks.


And now, Oct. 25th, he writes this piece (title of post) for huffpo:

We couldn't make this stuff up. Brian Bonfiglio, vice president of Blackwater West, "I see a tactical operation center for East County fires," said Bonfiglio, noting that Blackwater's proposal includes water tanks capable of holding 35,000 gallons. "Can you imagine how much of a benefit it would be if we were operational now?"......

Fires of historic proportion break out all over southern California, including an as yet to be contained fire in Potrero, hundreds of yards from where Blackwater wants to open its 824 acre base including eleven live fire ranges.
Continue reading....

Is anybody thinking what I am thinking?

I don't like what I am thinking.

Am I reading too much between the lines here?

This Weeks "Fool on the Hill"

One of the requisites for becoming a Democratic member of Congress is that they have to undergo a Ballectomy. You see, we can’t have any (Democratic) men in Congress with more testosterone or balls than Nancy.

Since Rep. Stark was to be censured for having the audacity to bitch about the assholes on the Right and thus offend, by using the obsolete First Amendment for whatever reason American Gladiator Malibu (Nancy Pelosi), she (it) was downright pissed that us Democrats would say naughty things, bad things about the Right. So he agreed to apologize to the poor offended Republicans who can’t take criticism (if they can’t take it from the Democrats, how can the possibly stand up to Al Qaeda?).

With apologies, or not, to Keith, I present this weeks

Fool on the Hill

From:

Down with tyranny

REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITES FAIL IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO FORCE CONGRESS TO CONDEMN PETE STARK

In another blatant maneuver to get the nation's eye off the ball, Republican obstructionists in the House forced a vote on condemning California Congressman Pete Stark. Aside from being a colossal waste of Congress' time, this blatant show of Republican partisan hypocrisy was an opportunity for Americans to see the minority party at its sickest and most pathetic. Not a single Republican voted for the motion to table this embarrassing resolution. The motion to table (kill) John Boehner's attempt to bring further disrepute to Congress passed 196-173.

You might be interested in knowing that 5 Democrats voted with the Republicans on condemning Rep Stark and another 8-- mostly reflexive reactionaries-- voted "Present," refusing to come to Stark's defense. You can probably guess the names of the disgraceful 13 Democrats. But just in case... the 5 who voted-- as they so often do-- with the GOP:

Jason Altmire (PA), still not kicked off the DCCC Front Line list
Chris Carney (PA), still not kicked off the DCCC Front Line list
Joe Donnelly (IN), still not kicked off the DCCC Front Line list
Brad Ellsworth (IN), still not kicked off the DCCC Front Line list
Heath Shuler (NC), still not kicked off the DCCC Front Line list

The 5 worst freshmen, none of whom have earned support from Democrats for re-election, these are the guys who consistently support the Bush Regime agenda inside the Democratic caucus. The 8 who insultingly voted "present," are 6 Bush-Dems and two progressives (Dave Loebsack of Iowa and Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri) who probably had their own crazy reasons for their bizarre votes, although in the context of their entire records should just get a role of the eyes and a pass on this. The other 6 are:

Dan Boren (OK)
Lincoln Davis (TN)
Baron Hill (IN)
Tim Mahoney (FL), still not kicked off the DCCC Front Line list
Charlie Melancon (LA)
Dennis Moore (KS)

After the censure resolution was defeated, Congressman Stark made a dignified apology to those who were offended by his remarks and asked the House to get back to the serious business of getting S-CHIP approved (Thanks to TPM for the clip.)

A Firedoglake reader called Stark's office to complain about the apology. "The person answering the phone told me that Stark had no choice; Stark was told before the vote was taken that should he not apologize, the vote to censure would pass. According to his office, that is the only reason he apologized." Anyone want to guess who forced one of the best congressmen in America to humiliate himself and put himself on a level with someone like Mean Jean Schmidt? Was in Rahm? Hoyer? Madam Off the Table?

Father Tyme

Future Shock

BBC News: Human species 'may split in two
Humanity may split into an elite and an underclass, says Dr Curry

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures. (continued)

Dr Curry predicts that "humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years." Men will have bigger penises and women's breasts will be pert. We will be coffee colored as well. In 10,000 years, humans will look like domesticated animals due to reliance on technology.

Who will you be when you reincarnate?

Love and Hate. Why I am Rooting for the Red Sox

How dare I root for Boston in the World Series?
Why not? It's a northeastern team. Don't we usually root for the team closest to us in proximity? I said usually. That's why I am a Mets fan primarily.

But we HATE the Red Sox because we're New Yorkers!
Hogwash. Why should I root for the Rockies when no one in the northeast could even name a Rockie before the playoffs? And would the die-hard Yankees fans root for the Mets if they were in the series?

Poo on the New Yorkers who shun me for rooting for the Red Sox. And if the Rockies win, then good for them... but I guess I am not such a rabid sports fan.

Can we really hate something unless we cared about it in the first place?
Discuss

Cue al Qaeda

You can't turn on the TV without seeing the horrific tragedy taking place in California. Men fighting against nature doing what it does is no easy task and there is no mercy. Fire is probably the most scary thing. You can't hide. You can't climb up a tree or on your roof. You have to run and even when you think you might be safe, a fire tornado could happen and all bets are off.

I saw this story on Countdown last night, but I just love Buzzflash's account of it:

"This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda." This is called demagoguery. It is the stuff that lynch mobs are made of. But if FOX is right -- which it isn't -- then Bush failed at fighting them over there so that they wouldn't attack us over here. If so, then just bring the troops back, because they are needed in California. 10/25

The stupid idiots at Fox and Fiends pointed to a 2003 FBI memo that didn't even mention California as a target... but hey let's just make this event scarier, why don't we? Actually to make it scarier, all they had to do was mention that it may have been home grown arson.

The LA Times has a lot of stories about the situation.

Anyway, I am rooting for the Bush administration and hope that they won't fuck up whatever they need to do for the people of California. Please. Not another Katrina.

George Carlin with Keith Olbermann

Here's the link from onegoodmove

h/t toj-walkblog

WWSD (What Would Santa Do) - The Race to the North Pole

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need

That's what I think Santa would say.

I don't know where to begin here folks. I'm all over the place trying to get a grasp on this morning's headline in my e-mail:
Coast Guard Plans to Set Up Arctic Base

and now, all of a sudden, I can't get that Door's tune When the Music's Over out of my head --

What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down

anywho.....

I'm pretty sure that setting up an Artic base has something to do with that flag the Russians placed on the sea bed under the North Pole back in June:Kremlin lays claim to huge chunk of oil-rich North Pole
and.....
The President's Statement on Advancing U.S. Interests in the World's Oceans back in May

It has to do with the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST)

The United States has signed the treaty, but the Senate has not ratified it. Mr. Bush wants it ratified.

What do you think?

Here are some links that I found while searching this topic:


The Law of the Sea Convention: The Case for Senate Action (from Brookings Institute)

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
(A historical perspective) (from UN.org)

Who owns the north pole (from the Socialist Courier)

Who owns the north pole (from the new scientist)

Bush wants Law of the Sea approved, but some conservatives balk (from msnbc)

Nations Dispute 'Arctic Sovereignty' (from NPR)

Seward's Folly (The Alaska Purchase - from wiki)

I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground
We want the world and we want it...
We want the world and we want it...
Now
Now?
Now!

So when the music's over
When the music's over, yeah
When the music's over
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights
Turn out the lights

Well the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end!


crossposted at BigBrassBlog

On Friendship

Thank you to Father Tyme for the humorous comments in the thread below. And in a similar vein, I would like to offer the following:

A friend will help you move . . .

A really good friend will help you move the body.

Discuss.

UN Chief: Violence Against Women Surges - The Council also demanded that women be included in decision-making positions at every level of peacemaking

Just when I was giving up on the United Nations. Let's hope it's not just all talk and wishful thinking.
This is EXACTLY what the UN is good for.

Can you imagine this really being put into action???? What a wonderful world this would be.


From AP writer EDITH M. LEDERER:


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. secretary-general warned that violence against women has reached "hideous" levels in some countries trying to recover from conflict, and the U.N. Security Council demanded an end to impunity for rape and other sexual abuse.

The council expressed deep concern Tuesday that despite its repeated demands for an immediate end to violence against women caught in armed conflicts, "rape and other forms of sexual abuse, as well as all other forms of violence, ... remain pervasive, and in some situations have become systematic, and have reached appalling levels of atrocity."

"The council stresses the need to end impunity for such acts as part of a comprehensive approach to seeking peace, justice, truth and national reconciliation," it said.

The council statement was read at the end of a day-long open meeting on implementation of a resolution adopted in 2000 that called for the prosecution of crimes against women and increased protection of women and girls during war. It also demanded that women be included in decision-making positions at every level of peacemaking and peacebuilding.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "violence against women has reached hideous and pandemic proportions in some societies attempting to recover from conflict." He did not name any countries.

"Together, all of us need to strengthen our collective and individual response to it," Ban said. "This is essential if we are to reverse the damage done by conflict, and to build more inclusive, accountable and cohesive socieites, underpinned by viable democratic institutions."

U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno stressed the U.N.'s "zero tolerance" for sexual exploitation and abuse by its more than 80,000 peacekeeping troops.

"While rape is used as a weapon of war in situations such as ... Congo and Darfur, addressing this war crime requires going beyond political compromise, power and resource sharing agreements," he said. "Instead, combating rape and other forms of sexual violence calls for concerted, robust and ongoing action on the part of both national actors and also the international community at every level of engagement."

Assistant Secretary-General Rachel Mayanja, the secretary-general's special adviser on gender issues, urged all governments, parliaments, international organizations and civic groups to join a worldwide campaign on violence against women and girls that Ban will launch later this year.

"Impunity for perpetrators and insufficient response to the needs of survivors are morally reprehensible and unacceptable," she said. "Sexual violence in conflict, particularly rape, should be named for what it is: not a private act or the unfortunate misbehavior of a renegade soldier, but aggression, torture, war crime and genocide."


crossposted at BigBrassBlog

gee, I never thought of it that way

If so many American women didn't abort their babies since 1973, we wouldn't have Mexicans coming here to pick fruit. The unwanted kids would have gladly taken those jobs. hmmm

Mike Huckabee before a summit of "values" voters:
"Sometimes we talk about why we're importing so many people in our workforce," the former Arkansas governor said. "It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973."

He forgot to mention that they would have gladly fought in the wars too.

Sharp Drop Seen in US Deaths in Iraq

Here is the AP story written by Steven R. Hurst

Forgive me Mr. Hurst, but this is one poorly written article, IMHO.

Maybe it's just me?

A writer I am not, but I do read a lot and this was very difficult to follow.

Maybe I've just been reading too much.

SHOWDOWN WITH IRAN -- Tonight on Frontline (PBS)

As the United States and Iran are locked in a battle for power and influence across the Middle East -- with the fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon looming in the background -- FRONTLINE gains unprecedented access to the Iranian hard-liners shaping government policy. In Showdown with Iran, airing Tuesday, October 23, 2007, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE examines how U.S. efforts to install democracy in Iraq have served to strengthen Iran's position as an emerging power in the Middle East.

"You will not find a single instance in which a country has inflicted harm on us and we have left it without a response," deputy head of Iran's National Security Council Mohammad Jafari tells FRONTLINE in his first television interview. "So if the United States makes such a mistake, they should know that we will definitely respond. And we don't make threats."

Read the rest of the press release here...


crossposted at BigBrassBlog

Cheney's Law -- Frontline (PBS)

For three decades Vice President Dick Cheney conducted a secretive, behind-closed-doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power. Finally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy -- without congressional approval or judicial review.

Continue reading....

or

watch the full program online

I missed the program last week. Did anyone catch it? I just learned about today from a friend who cannot stop thinking about it. She said it was the most frightening thing she ever saw.


crossposted at BigBrassBlog

Too many criminals? Build more prisons! Buy more beds!

Let's hear it for the war on drugs- it's created a multi multi multi billion dollar industry.

Prison Crisis: Will California Spend More on Jails Than Universities?
Excerpt:
"There's no strategy behind the incarceration," says attorney Sara Norman of the Bay Area-based prisoner-rights group, the Prison Law Office. Her colleague Don Specter goes further. The state, he says, is all-too-quick to incarcerate, but is "unwilling to pay for the humane treatment" of those it locks up for years and even decades at a stretch.

While more and more dollars are being devoted to corrections, the amount of money available per inmate for programming (such as education, drug treatment, vocational training, mental health care and so on) has declined as a percentage of the total cost of incarceration. In June, the state senate subcommittee in charge of overseeing the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's budget reported that a mere 5 percent of the $43,000 California spends on each inmate each year currently goes toward rehabilitation programs.

To understand what has gone wrong, one has to go back more than 30 years and examine a generation's worth of flawed criminal justice policy-making at both the state and federal levels. It's what freelance journalist and one-time editor of the Boulder Weekly Joel Dyer once pungently termed a "perpetual prisoner machine."

I thought the whole article was pretty informative and eye opening. What struck me after reading it was this pervasive attitude that many Americans have of a disposable society- you don't like something, then get rid of it- kill it, put it away. Out of sight, out of mind.

The war on terror works that way. Rather than do something to help fight socio-political injustice in the world that causes many to feel so helpless that they resort to violence in order to get attention, world powers (especially ours) find it profitable to just go and bomb the shit out of the so called "bad guys." How will we know when we've won the war on terror? When we've killed all the terrorists and scared the shit out of everyone else? That seems unlikely.

The war on drugs, the war on crime, and the war on everything we deem socially unacceptable is being solved by locking up those who violate the laws. It doesn't seem to dawn on anyone that with some creative thinking, there may be ways for the PTB to make money in preventing many citizens from ending up in jail in the first place. Oh I don't know... maybe if there was a good and fairly honest educational system in this country and if jobs paid a living wage at the very least, perhaps half the people who are now incarcerated wouldn't be. How will we win the war on drugs? When there are more prisons than schools?

What is with this gated community and more prisons mentality? It's so anti-social. Pretty soon we'll all be locked up one way or another.

The rich and powerful are getting away with murder. Once they have disenfranchised all of those living on the fringes of society now, who do you think will be left on the fringe? Does anyone in their right mind think that disenfranchisement will stop?

This whole disposable mindset effects everyone in every social class in America. We have disposable products, disposable values and disposable income- we use and abuse. We create landfills with items and scraps that could probably lift a third world country out of poverty. It's really not that shocking to learn the gory details at what goes on in our prison system when you think about how we live and what we throw away.

Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere Increasing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just days after the Nobel prize was awarded for global warming work, an alarming new study finds that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing faster than expected.

Carbon dioxide emissions were 35 percent higher in 2006 than in 1990, a much faster growth rate than anticipated, researchers led by Josep G. Canadell, of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Increased industrial use of fossil fuels coupled with a decline in the gas absorbed by the oceans and land were listed as causes of the increase.

"In addition to the growth of global population and wealth, we now know that significant contributions to the growth of atmospheric CO2 arise from the slowdown" of nature's ability to take the chemical out of the air, said Canadell, director of the Global Carbon Project at the research organization.

The changes "characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected and sooner-than-expected climate forcing," the researchers report.

Holy Sheepshit, Batman

Hard on the heels (in relative time) of the revelation by the US Air Force that it briefly - yeah, 36 godsdamned hours - lost track of six nuclear weapons, comes this little story out of the US Navy:

Nuclear sub crew faked inspection records

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six Navy personnel on board the nuclear-powered submarine USS Hampton have been punished for forging inspection records for the cooling system of the ship's nuclear reactor, Navy officials said Monday.

The misconduct was discovered on September 17 but was made public after completion of an initial investigation.

One officer and five enlisted personnel received a "non-judicial punishment" after other Navy personnel discovered their actions, Navy officials said.

The crew neither maintained inspection records nor conducted the required inspection of the chemical levels associated with the cooling system, the Navy officials said. The crew then went back and falsified existing records to make it appear the work had been done, the officials added.

"There is not, and never was, any danger to the crew or the public," the Navy said in a statement.

A fact-finding investigation is under way, and further action against Navy crew members is possible, a navy official said.

In all, the $900 million vessel's crew is composed of 13 officers and 116 enlisted personnel.

It is not clear if the disciplined personnel were still on board the vessel. The Hampton remains in port in San Diego.

***

Falsifying records is an old story, no matter if the business you're in is running a Kinko's or the largest and supposedly best-trained military machine on the planet. But there's a huge, staggeringly fucking huge difference between a copier and a nuclear reactor.

A copier is less inclined to give you that healthy glow in the dark if it malfunctions. For the Navy to say that there was no danger to the public or to the crew is a lie. Pure and simple.

Reactor safety is a major problem, as it runs at high temperature and pressure. The fissile material can't blow up, but it can really ruin your whole day if anything bad happens. Skipping safety inspections and then writing false reports can lead to that something bad happening.

You might see a number of people lose their rank and jobs; it's probably a lead-pipe cinch that the captain of the boat will lose his command over this.

Off topic, but relevent

So how is the autumn going in your neck of the woods?
I hear that the colors aren't as glorious as usual in New England, that Malibu is on fire and Georgia is dry as a bone.

If your neighborhood isn't aflame, what kind of fall decorating are you up to?

Makes you wonder

if there will ever be peace when the most incompetent people are running things.

Turns out that Valerie Plame's job was to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Did Darth Cheney know that? And if so, would that ruin his plans to invade Iran?

Rumsfeld in a hissy fit back in 2004 forced the state department to rush to Blackwater for military security... and the hilarity ensues.

Seven army national guard brigades with 18,000 troops were alerted Friday to prepare for deployment to Iraq as replacement forces beginning next August, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Why even bother being in the reserves or the national guard nowadays? You may as well enlist in the Army or work for mercenaries because you know that you will land in Iraq eventually and your home, your family, your life, your values and everything you work for now will be compromised. And so much for guarding the home front:

The DHS warns that IED's are a rising threat to America.
"But lawmakers and first responders say the Bush administration has been slow to devise a strategy for countering the weapons and has not provided adequate money and training for a concerted national effort.”

Why are the American soldiers fighting women and children?

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Residents of Sadr City were ambushed by US troops that killed 13 civilians, wounding 52 according to locals. What did some have to say?

"Why are the American soldiers fighting women and children?"

"I have seen the dead children. We are a peaceful people. We are just sitting in our homes. We don't want anything to do with the Americans. Just leave us alone."

The US Military reported that they killed 49 in Sadr City. They were supposedly targeting a "militia chief responsible for an extensive Iranian-backed kidnapping ring." They didn't find him in the early morning surprise raid but left him a message. A witness described the aftermath as "a bombed-out primary school, several destroyed shops and 18 burned cars. U.S. gunfire prevented firefighting vehicles from reaching the area."


The violence is worsening in the northern Kurdish region near Turkey. This looks like it could escalate. Kurdish rebels stormed the Turkish border and killed 17 troops there. The Turks are shelling villages along the Iraq border. "Now Turkey is taking Saddam Hussein's place," a resident said. "We were displaced from our village for 10 years, but we have rebuilt our homes and rehabilitated our farms. Now where should we go?

source Washington Post

WHEW! That's a relief!

The headline at REUTERS reads: "Gold falls 1.5 percent on profit-taking".

Uh, extracting some of the Blondesense intuleckshooul powers learnt to me real good by my beloved sisters here at the blog, I take this opertoonatee to ask, "Duz this meen that whin a stock or cummodatee goes UP, da process shood be referred to as 'loss-taking'?"

Hey, all youse econumists out dere, da Your-a-peein' and Azhun stocks look like de're headed into the shitter too, with Jakarta's markets setting the day's record by falling 4.31%. Kin anybody fix me up wid one o' dem Jakarta babes dat's enjoyin some of this "profit-taking"?

Post-Vacation Roundup

Earlier this month, I decided to go on my annual vacation. I had a superfluity of bile that was making me both melancholy and choleric, and rather than purging and bleeding myself I figured that some time away from The Work and The House would do me good.

Did I go back to Germany? No. The weak dollar and the strong euro made that an almost instant decision. I decided to stay a bit closer to home.

For my first week of vacation I repainted my home office, then assembled various pieces of equipment and went camping at Lake Kissimmee State Park. It was cool in the evenings and hot in the afternoons, and rather humid (to the point that I never needed to light a campfire or use my primus stove to cook). While I saw the tracks of various deer, I didn't see any; instead I saw squirrels ands rabbits and could hear wild pigs rooting around after dark.

Still, the silence, broken only by the wind in the trees, was wonderful.

The second week was also the week of my birthday and I chose to stay for four days and three nights at a resort hotel on St. Petersburg Beach, having my needs catered to and relaxing in the sun beside the pool. I went out on my birthday to the Seminole Casino to do some gambling (something I've never done before). After losing $10 on the slot machines, I called a halt.

I also had a massage in the hotel's spa.

My room was very nice (bedroom, sitting room, kitchenette) and one could stand at the balcony railing and watch and listen to the sound of the Gulf of Mexico.

Waves breaking on shore. Ahhh.

The total cost of the vacation was roughly a quarter of my trip to Germany last year, and the whole two weeks have had a most profound effect on my humours.

***

Now that I've returned, time to see what's been going on.

The Turks gave the green light for their army to invade Iraq and try to put the kibosh on the PKK, but they're willing to give the US a chance to do it. Unfortunately, we rely on the good will of the Kurds (the only real success story in Iraq), and we also rely on the good will of the Turks (because we apparently get about 70% of our supplies through Turkey). A Gordian knot that I'm afraid Bush is intellectually ill-equipped to handle.

South Africa's military was testing a new robotic antiaircraft gun (an auto-firing cannon that could even reload itself) when something, as usual, Went Wrong. Several people died before the cannon ran out of ammunition and could be approached safely to shut it down.

The Florida Legislature ("Bending Voters Over Since 1821!") has found itself at loggerheads over this property tax mess, and a complete resolution will obviously take longer than the so-called 'special session' scheduled for it. Neat idea - stay in session until the work gets done, and stop wasting time with 'special sessions.' Jerks.

Forced out of retirement

(I'm supposed to go the city to a bead show now. But I feel like getting this out of my system first.)

It took 4 vodka on the rocks, a beer and a lot of prodding by my co-blogger and friend, Billydoom to get me off the barstool and up to the mic... thank you sir.

I have to admit it and I am always amazed when it happens- I played. I slayed. I got into my zone and stayed there... passionately... you know how when you just cease to think and let nature take its course. I hardly ever have that anymore, especially when I am in front of a bunch of people and not safely tucked away behind my keyboard. I have the confidence of a pea in real life. I like to blend in with crowd even though I have a lot to say, in case you didn't notice.

So it's not like I ever get dressed up or wear makeup to Runyon's Roadside Grill's outdoor tiki bar. I frequent the place and my feeling is that if I am not overly dressed enough to appeal to some people, then fuck'em. On the other hand, when I am feeling "sensitive" I sometimes get this sense of isolation... and then I tell myself, "You asked for it, bimbo." I should probably wear something nicer and put on a little blush when I go out because I have to work my fabulous personality that much harder if I don't want to be lonely. I should definitely put a comb in my bag but I keep forgetting. And did I mention that drinking sometimes makes me sweat bullets? Not to mention that I should probably pick up a guitar at home and/or listen to the music I like to play... but I don't. Long story. (Manic depressive, Aquarius, Year of the Goat, and so forth.)

It's not like it's a total shock that I am going to be asked to perform a few songs when my friend Russ is playing there either. Sometimes I do perform, and sometimes I decline depending on my mood and alcohol content. You would THINK that I would wear something other than what most women would wear to clean their bathrooms... just in case. But noooooooo. I often wonder what the hell is wrong with me.

Then there is this woman who is so fucking cute, that I could puke. I'll just call her Santa Maria. She's goes to Runyon's with her husband pretty often. She's petite and adorable and garners attention just by being there. She doesn't have a lot of money to spend on herself, but she looks fabulous anyway. And everyone needs to hug and kiss her hello. (Girls like her were my arch enemies growing up going to a mostly Italian Catholic elementary school where the boys adored the tiny, hot headed, dark haired Italian girls. I was already 5'9 by 7th grade and while half Italian, I was laid back, fair skinned, blonde/green, flat chested and lanky. I was too tall for the tiny Italian boys and sat out all the slow dances. Even the one or two tallish boys preferred the Italian girls. I swore off Italians for the rest of my life.) To add insult to injury, Santa Maria is about the nicest, warmest person you could ever meet. She simply makes you feel good when you talk to her. We are friends and go there together now- she lives on my block. I am hanging with the cool lady now. So all the people who act like I am invisible even though we've been introduced can bite me.

Maybe something inside of me tells me that I need to make a statement once in a while and that just because I am not adorably tiny, I have a wide array of talents and interests- probably more than most people, yet it's something I don't normally brag about- I just prefer to demonstrate it to anyone who is willing to pay attention, that is- if I feel like it. Oh I don't know. I have a lot of "issues."

So where was I? Oh yes. The zone. I played and sang and wasn't paying attention to myself at all. I didn't even think of how positively crappy I must have looked (until it was over). At the end of each song though, the crowd literally roared. Holy shit. I made a new fan too. He came up to me several times afterwards to fawn all over me. Wow. Who knew?

Will I go back to being a performing musician at my age? We'll see. I'm kind of into beading though and that's where I'm going now. Aquarius, you know.

Okay. Enough about me. What about you?

When the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak

Men after my own heart
Oh you just have to love these guys.

ImprovEverywhere.com (they cause scenes) recruited over 100 men to shop in Abercrombie and Fitch on 5th Avenue in NYC. They were instructed to take their shirts off while in the store. And they did. The hilarity ensued. Lots of pictures at the post. I'm glad they brought brought stealth cameras.

You would think that since A&B folks are so into shirtless males, (they have a real live one welcoming visitors into the store on 5th and plenty of beef cake sculptures and larger than life photos on the walls) that they would welcome such a show of "support." But no. Some shirtless men were sent marching even after trying to purchase some shirts.

hat tip oddjob

Blackwater - Coming to a Police Department near you!

Blackwater Training US Police - Wayne Madsen Report, October 15, 2007


On October 14, the Washington Post ran a story, which included photographs from Blackwater's Moyock training center. However, what was most intriguing was a photograph of a police and military patch board at Blackwater's headquarters that indicated the police agencies that have sent their officers to Moyock for training.

Blackwater is secretive about its non-federal, as well as its foreign clients, which the Post pointed out includes Jordan, Azerbaijan, and Burkina Faso, but a WMR inspection of the photograph of the police agencies has yielded the following list of agencies that have used Blackwater for training:

(see link for the list)

The training and potential political indoctrination of police officers by the extreme right-wing and proto-fascist Blackwater, coupled with the politicization of the Justice Department and U.S. courts, has the potential for the streets of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and Washington, DC, as well as Chillicothe, Harvey Cedars, and Elmira to turn as bloody as the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah.

Don't take the brown acid, man.

Senate quashes $1 million grant for Woodstock museum
politics politics politics

You would think after reading this story about all the campaign contributions and payola, that those who want it ought to just freaking build it already with their own money. They can obviously afford it.

Can the Energizer Bunny Swim?

From the AFP:

"A prototype wave energy converter has begun harnessing electricity from Atlantic waves off the west coast of Ireland, the Wavebob company said on Tuesday.
"A "Wavebob" floating buoy device that automatically adjusts to the size of the waves to maximise the amount of power it produces is undergoing trials off Spiddal, County Galway.
"This is a giant leap forward for renewable energy production in Ireland," said Wavebob chief executive Andrew Parish.
"As an island in the middle of the energetic Atlantic Ocean, Ireland can be to wave-energy what Saudi Arabia is to oil....At full scale, each Wavebob device will be capable of producing in excess of a megawatt -- enough electricity for 1,000 homes."

Some folks think that all that melting of fresh water from Greenland and the Arctic into the Atlantic is gonna blow the Gulf Stream to hell and gone, which might trigger a mini-ice age for the Northern hemisphere. Here's an interesting website for Gulf Stream watchers: Current velocities of the Gulf Stream.
And from the editors at Signs-of-the-Times comes this frightening little ditty: "Wake The World Up Campaign.
I will leave it readers to speculate as to whether or not this knowledge and technology will be suppressed by the big oil companies.
Thanks and a tip of the hat to Kevin at Cryptogon.

Comcast Blocks Some Internet Traffic

Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.


Here we go!

I'm pretty sure he was kidding

Wednesday in the White House:
Reporter: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ...

Bush: I've been planning that myself.

Cue the people who don't see that he was trying to be ironic (in his own little sick way.) Please, I love you, don't lose sleep over this. Worry about it next year if need be.

We have to keep our collective sense of humor and not read too much into every ridiculous word he utters unless there is a lot of supporting evidence. Mr 24% Approval Rating knows that the gig is up. That doesn't mean that he won't continue to ravage our country and others in the meantime, however.

It doesn't matter if ten 9/11's happen in the next year, despite what the talking heads tell you, the country is NOT going to rally around the Rethuglicans. And they know it (except for Rudy supporters). The GOP former heavy weights are stepping down in droves. The 24% are mostly the delusional folks who hold tight to the premise that Saddam had something to do with 9/11 and/or really rich, stupid, white men (and a few women). The evangelicals have finally gotten it through their narrow little minds that the GOP only pays them lip service in order to get votes.

After 7 years of nonsense in DC, I can tell when Bushie is putting us on. His warped sense of humor, which could have been amusing if he didn't f*ck up everything he ever did and he wasn't the leader of the free world with his finger on the nukular button, is at work here. He knows that his off the cuff comments freak people out. He thinks it's funny. He enjoys sparking outrage. He shouldn't be the president, much like the president of Iran- another one who likes to spout nonsense out of his butt. Let's save our outrage for things that we can work on- things we can change.

This whole hoo-hah over Putin expressing his feeling that he should stay in power in Russia by invoking FDR can be found here at the WaPo. It is also worthwhile to note that Pooty-Poot enjoys a higher approval rating than Bushie-bush.

Other than that, there are so many depressing news stories, that I would just start crying if I tried to comment on all of them. But you may. In the comments.

Musical Interlude: Down By the River- CSNY

My god, I forgot how cute they were.
I selected this song because I still perform it.

Stop media conglomerates in the name of democracy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.

Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next two months — a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for some executives of media conglomerates.
...

The deregulatory proposal is likely to put the agency once again at the center of a debate between the media companies, which view the restrictions as anachronistic, and civil rights, labor, religious and other groups that maintain the government has let media conglomerates grow too large.

Contact the FCC here

Voter Suppression

It's very simple to contact your Senators to tell them that you oppose Hans von Spakovsky's nomination to the FEC right here at colorofchange.org

A long history of undermining our vote

During his first term, Bush installed von Spakovsky in the Justice Department's (DOJ) voting rights section, which enforces the Voting Rights Act. There, von Spakovsky undermined the DOJ's historic mission of protecting minority voting rights, and actually transformed the department into a tool to suppress the vote.

When long-term, career employees at the Justice Department unanimously recommended rejecting Tom Delay's infamous Texas redistricting plan because it discriminated against minority voters, von Spakovsky led the charge to overrule these voting rights experts, and approved the plan. The Supreme Court later ruled that the plan violated the Voting Rights Act. Similarly, von Spakovsky overruled career attorneys to approve a discriminatory Georgia voter ID law---a law that even the Republican governor said would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Georgians. Again, the law was later struck down by the courts, with the ruling judge likening it to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.

Von Spakovsky's career in suppression didn't start at the DOJ. In 1997, he set the stage for Florida's 2000 voter purge when he wrote an article that called for purging felons from voter rolls. Serving on the board of the "Voter Integrity Project" (VIP) he quickly put his ideas into action -- VIP met with the company that designed Florida's purge to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters, most of whom were Black. During the recount, von Spakovsky was in Florida as a volunteer for the Bush/Cheney campaign.

Hat tip to Terrible

Fool On The Hill

Brought to you by Father Tyme

On worshipping god and elvis

"SORBO, Italy (Reuters) - Romanian-born Antonio Petrescu (website) believes you can worship God and Elvis at the same time: as a Catholic priest and Elvis Presley impersonator, he finds his spiritual inspiration in the late rock legend."
...

"Petrescu feels his responsibility as a priest is to "walk this Earth in love for Jesus Christ," a task in which he is inspired by Elvis's "search for spirituality in his own life.""


Elvis sang of love. Jesus spoke of love. Jesus is God. So there ya go!

Is he crazy?

“But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.”

Bush was probably referring to Pooty Poot when he said "people." If you watch his press conference and take it all in context, he's not really advocating for WWIII, but all that anyone (the media) got out of his statement, which was ad libbed, was "WWIII and Iran" in the same statement. The war president has really got to give it a rest.

See Reuters

Great News

Really.
We may be once again reading real investigative journalism in newspapers and magazines thanks to actual wealthy people who give a shit about social justice. Details here

Blackwater Likely to Be Out of Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — A State Department review of private security guards for diplomats in Iraq is unlikely to recommend firing Blackwater USA over the deaths of 17 Iraqis last month, but the company probably is on the way out of that job, U.S. officials said.

Blackwater's work escorting U.S. diplomats outside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad expires in May, one official said Wednesday, and other officials told The Associated Press they expect the North Carolina company will not continue to work for the embassy after that.

It is likely that Blackwater does not compete to keep the job, one official said. Blackwater probably will not be fired outright or even "eased out," the official added, but there is a mutual feeling that the Sept. 16 shooting deaths mean the company cannot continue in its current role.

They gave admiring appraisals of Blackwater's work overall, noting that no diplomats have died while riding in Blackwater's heavily armed convoys.

here's the rest of the story

Just HOW FUCKING STUPID do they think the American people are?????

(never mind -- it's pretty obvious)

let them have light for god's sake and shut up

Since the US "liberated" Iraq and promised to rebuild, but hasn't, Iraq has contracted with Iranian and Chinese companies to build power plants and turn on the power. Naturally this "concerns" the "U.S." (neocons.) But I wonder how many billions of our tax dollars would have gone to one of our contractors to rebuild the infrastructure half-assedly. The Iraqi's are paying for this one. Details here.

(Following Article Is NOT a Joke):

"Cheney and Obama are distant cousins: Mrs. Cheney"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There's no sign of a family reunion planned, but U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are distant cousins.

So says the vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, who said she discovered that her husband of 43 years is eighth cousins with the senator from Illinois.

Full article HERE.

Halfway through October already?

Check out the Makeblog Halloween archives.

Oh so rude

The Rude Pundit wouldn't f*ck Ann Coulter, Sam I am.
Not safe for work.

Picture this

I'm sitting at my desk reading the news shortly after dawn (7:30) on this cool October morning.

Outside my east facing window against the blue morning sky, a bright red male cardinal sits atop a pyracantha laden with red-orange berries. He pecks away at the berries and sings for me- "chip"-"chip"-"chip". Staccato.

Lovely.

I wonder how things are in Baghdad.

General Sanchez, who must be reading liberal blogs, called Iraq,"a nightmare with no end in sight."

He said that the troops are in danger: "While the politicians espouse a rhetoric designed to preserve their reputations and their political power, our soldiers die."

And he criticized the war mongers: "Too often, our politicians have been distracted and they have chosen loyalty to their political parties above loyalty to the Constitution because of their lust for power."

The war monger party, who "support" our troops as long as they keep their mouths shut and kill and be killed as they're told, fired back at Sanchez.

Now back to the birdie.

We Are Forty One! Yeah!

For a country so darn obsessed with being "pro-life" and hell bent on shoving family values down our throats, you would think that we'd fare much better in maternal death (dying during or just after pregnancy) statistics among industrialized countries. But we suck. The US has a sharply higher maternal death rate than most European countries, even poor ones.

In the US, one in 4,800 women die from pregnancy or childbirth complications.

Do you think that the so-called "pro-lifers" who also ally with the GOP that would sooner cut their balls off than properly insure Americans could make sense of this?

Imagine this: One out of 47,600 women in Ireland die during or just after childbirth.
In Bosnia, only 1 in 29,000 women die during pregnancy and childbirth.

The average risk in the top 10 European countries where good quality health care is provided, fewer than one in 16,400 will die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

At the other end of the scale are ten countries where high fertility and shattered health care systems raise women's lifetime risk so that more than one in every 15 women will die of pregnancy-related causes," it said.

The report, published in the Lancet medical journal, places the United States 41st among 171 countries.

It appears that "minorites" in the US are what drags the statistics down and is probably why white Americans are complacent.

According to the U.S. National center for Health Statistics, about 6 million U.S. women get pregnant every year. Four million children are born, about 1 million pregnancies end in miscarriages and another 1 million in induced abortion.

The major direct causes of U.S. pregnancy-related deaths are blood clots, hemorrhage, complications of medical conditions, and eclampsia and pre-eclampsia, which are marked by dangerously high blood pressure.

The death rate among U.S. black women was nearly four times the rate found among non-Hispanic white women -- 34.7 deaths per 100,000 live births for blacks versus 9.3 per 100,000 live births for whites, the report said.

As someone who grew up with "America is the greatest nation in the world," being shoved down my throat, when I dared to ask questions, I grow increasingly disenchanted as I look back and wonder how many lies my parents told me.

Forget the Elephant ...

This is the new symbol of the Republican Party. The Norway Lemming (Lemmus lemmus). Cute little bugger, isn't he?

According to myth, lemmings commit mass suicide by leaping off cliffs one after another into the sea or to a similar horrible fate. Kind of like the Republican members of the House and Senate, if you think about it.

Look at it this way: They've stuck like gum to Their Dear and God-Anointed Leader for so long they are fearful of breaking with him too publicly and risk losing their seats; on the other hand they're just as fearful of clinging to Bush too closely and risking being unseated by a Democratic challenger.

SCHIP's an example. Bush's veto was wrong, pure and simple, and made with so little fanfare he might just as well have climbed into Cheney's man-sized office safe to do the dirty deed. The Democratic leadership wants to override the veto (of course).

Bush has offered one of his famous olive branches, saying he's willing to "compromise" (for which read "Democrats, bend over and let me fuck you again").

All of which puts the GOP in both Houses in a quandary. Their leadership right now is urging them to close ranks and continue marching off the cliff like the good little lemmings they are, while their advisers are saying to override the veto so they can get the votes they need to stay in Washington.

Looks like an easy choice to me, since Bush isn't running for re-election.

Et tu NYC?

Rather than use locally harvested wood or recycled plastic that looks like wood, the NYC Parks department has opted for wood from the pristine Amazon Rainforest- the lungs of the natural world-- wood that is illegally logged to boot. Not only that, for every exotic, 'desirable' tree harvested in the rainforest, 28 other trees are felled and thrown away because the exotic trees only grow one or two per acre.

In fact, for "New York City's 10 miles of boardwalk alone, over 110,500 acres (130 square miles) of old growth Amazon rainforest were logged." There are a lot of park benches and boardwalks in NYC. New York City is one of America's biggest destroyers of the Amazon Rainforest! For what? New Yorkers don't care what kind of wood they plant their non-transfatty asses on in a park. Does it matter to beach goers that the very best wood on earth is under their feet? Must exotic woods be used as railroad track ties in the ickiest subways in America? Why not use recycled plastic "wood-like product" for these outdoor venues? A splinter free environment is not a bad thing even if you don't give a hoot about ecology.

Most American cities have banned the use of tropical hardwood for their municipal projects. So what is up with the NYC Parks Department and Mayor Michael "Mr Green" Bloomberg?

Much more information at the link.

Shame. Shame.
Time to write some letters.

My Two Cents on Al Gore

I think Mr. Gore ought to continue doing what he's doing currently instead of running for POTUS. If he really wanted to be president however, he shouldn't even have to run again. He should just be installed because he did win the 2000 election (even though it's unlikely that THAT would ever happen).

What bugged me in 2000 and bugs me now is that he chose LIEberman to be his running mate. He could have had an undisputable victory in 2000 without the LIEberman ball and chain. Perhaps more people would have voted in that election. Was it really his idea to choose LIEberman or was he instructed to do so by the PTB? I don't believe that LIEberman would have been another Cheney if they had been installed... but still... what was that all about?

Well that's just my opinion and of course, I may be wrong and will change it.

The "Will of Christ" is really quite political

Take my civil liberties, please.

The SBC, Southern Baptist Convention, 16 million of the finest Americans Jesus can buy are being groomed to be the lean mean fighting machine in order to convince the rest of us that we need "christian" laws in this country-- laws "opposing legal abortion, gay rights, hate-crimes laws and stem-cell research and supporting "court-stripping" legislation and other efforts to make it harder to pursue church-state separation claims in federal court."

Oh goodie. Not only that, the leaders of the SBC are going to try to train their sheep to shut down the congressional switchboard with an overload of calls when an "important" issue comes to light.

Way to get the rest of the American population to think you're a bunch of nutjobs.

Jesus in the Gospels said something about opposing hate crimes, didn't he? Oh wait, no. Nevermind.

What's court stripping? Probably not as sexy as it sounds.

Select a Candidate 2008

From Minnisota Public Radio:

By answering a series of questions about major issues, you can quickly learn which candidates are most closely aligned with your views. You'll be able to learn more about each candidate, hear his/her positions on many issues, and find out how your results compare with those of others who take the survey.




Here's the survey - it only takes a few minutes

Right Brained? Left Brained?

Have fun with this.

National Schizophrenia

Dahr Jamail writes in Iraq on My Mind- Thousands of Stories to Tell -- And No One to Listen:

The morning I receive the latest news from M, I crawl back into bed and lie staring at the ceiling, wondering what will become of H's wife and young children, if he is truly dead. Barring a miracle, I assume that will turn out to be the case.

Later, I go for a walk. It's California sunny and the air is pleasantly cool on my skin. I'm aware -- as I often am -- that I never even consider looking over my shoulder here. I'm also aware that those I pass on my walk don't know that they aren't even considering looking over their shoulders.

The American Heritage Dictionary's second definition of schizophrenia is:

• A situation or condition that results from the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic qualities, identities, or activities: the national schizophrenia that results from carrying out an unpopular war [italics theirs].

That's what I'm experiencing -- a national schizophrenia that results from our government carrying out an unpopular war. It's what I continue to experience with never lessening sharpness two years after my last trip to Iraq. The hardest thing, in the California sun with that cool breeze on my face, is to know that two realities in two grimly linked countries coexist, and most people in my own country are barely conscious of this.

In Iraq, of course, there is nothing disparate, no disjuncture, only a constant, relentless grinding and suffering, a pervasive condition of tragic hopelessness and despair with no end in sight.

Mark Karlin, Executive Editor of BUZZFLASH interviews Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman Has a Conscience, Which Makes Him Contemptible to Republicans Who View Caring About the Needy as a Sign of Weakness

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

... you can't have gross economic inequality and still have a functional democracy. You can't really have a society with broad equality without having a political democracy. So it is all about having basically a shared society.

-- Paul Krugman, Economist, Columnist, Author of The Conscience of a Liberal



(more topics from Paul Krugman at Buzzflash)

Where do rich, single men hang out in NY anyway?

Woman seeks rich husband, banker says "crappy" deal
exerpt:

The anonymous 25-year-old woman recently posted an ad on the free online New York community Web site Craigslist, appealing for advice on how to find a wealthy husband.

"I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all," the woman, who described herself as "spectacularly beautiful" and "superficial," wrote.

"I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. $250,000 won't get me to Central Park West," she said, asking questions like "where do rich single men hang out?"

The mystery banker, who said he fit the bill, offered the woman an analysis of her predicament, describing it as "plain and simple a crappy business deal."

"Your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity ... in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!" the banker wrote.

"So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset," he said. "Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!"

"It doesn't make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease," he said.

Ouch! what a slap in the face! (but then again she asked for it)
I watched the movie, The Secret yesterday and this lady ought to watch it.

Go Al!

Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize!

News You Can Use?

As the worm turns: Mezcal no longer rotgut, but fine brandy?
Mezcal reincarnated as micro-distilleries flourish in Mexico.

Death special: How does it feel to die?
Hmm. Not quite as romantic as you would have thought.

Scientists explain chocolate cravings
The study was delayed because it took a year for the researchers to find 11 men who don't eat chocolate.

Entrepreneur seeks condom size variety
"When given a choice, he said many men prefer condoms smaller than the standard minimum 6.3 inches long, with more than half ordering those less than 5.12 inches."

God wants me to make fun of these people

Biblical Homemaking 101- a curriculum for women

From the LA Times:

FORT WORTH, TEXAS -- Equal but different.

You hear that a lot on the lush green campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

God values men and women equally, any student here will tell you. It's just that he's given them different responsibilities in life: Men make decisions. Women make dinner.

This fall, the internationally known seminary -- a century-old training ground for Southern Baptists -- began reinforcing those traditional gender roles with college classes in homemaking. The academic program, open only to women, includes lectures on laundering stubborn stains and a lab in baking chocolate-chip cookies.

Philosophical courses such as "Biblical Model for the Home and Family" teach that God expects wives to graciously submit to their husbands' leadership. A model house, to be completed by next fall, will allow women to get credit toward bachelor's degrees by learning how to set tables, sew buttons and sustain lively dinnertime conversation.

It all sounds wonderful to sophomore Emily Felts, 19, who signed up as soon as she arrived on campus this fall.

Several relatives have told Felts that she's selling herself short. They want her to become a lawyer, and she agrees she'd make a good one. But that's not what she wants to do with her life.

More to the point, it's not what she believes God wants of her.

"My created purpose as a woman is to be a helper," Felts said firmly. "This is a college education that I can use." Read the rest

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Marines: Leave the Iraq debacle to the Army

The Marines have decided that they would like to remove their troops from Iraq and go to Afghanistan. Interesting.

My fault? What else is new?

This article in the NY Times: Picky Eaters? They Get It From You

Oh now it's the parent's genes that determine a picky eater. Like I don't have enough guilt. Oh wait... I got my genes from my parents. Since I was adopted and don't know them, and they don't know me, I can place the blame for the years of agony in the kitchen and the supermarket on them. Being a parent of a picky eater was no picnic. To this day, I cringe towards dinner time. I'm worn out. I have surrendered.

Not Dealing With Reality -- a social commentary by Rob Sheffield

From Rolling Stone's 2007 Hot Issue

America's Latest National Pastime: 'Not Dealing With Reality'

(thanks for posting this meowblogger)


crossposted at BigBrassBlog

Ice Caps Melting Fast

From Alternet: "Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple?"

"The talk of sea level rise should not be in centuries, it should be decades or perhaps even single years. And coastal regions like New York and Florida are in the front line for devastation.

"It is hard to shock journalists and at the same time leave them in awe of the power of nature. A group returning from a helicopter trip flying over, then landing on, the Greenland ice cap at the time of maximum ice melt last month were shaken. One shrugged and said:"It is too late already."

"What they were all talking about was the moulins, not one moulin but hundreds, possibly thousands. "Moulin" is a word I had only just become familiar with. It is the name for a giant hole in a glacier through which millions of gallons of melt water cascade through to the rock below. The water has the effect of lubricating the glaciers so they move at three times the rate that they did previously.
"Some of these moulins in Greenland are so big that they run on the scale of Niagra Falls. The scientists who accompanied these journalists on the trip were almost as alarmed. That is pretty significant because they are world experts on ice and Greenland in particular. We were visiting Ilulissat, Greenland, once a stronghold of Innuit hunters but now with so little ice that the dog sleds are in danger of falling through even in the depth of winter. But it is not the lack of sea ice that worries scientists and should be of serious concern to the inhabitants of coastal zones across the world. Cities like New York and states like Florida are in the front line.

"Scientists know this already, but just to give you some idea of the problem, the Greenland ice cap is melting at such a fast rate it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break up.

"Scientists say the acceleration of melting and subsequent speeding up of giant glaciers could be catastrophic in terms of sea level rise and make previous predictions published this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) far too low. The glacier at Ilulissat, which it is believed spawned the iceberg which sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago."

Full Article
(Thanks Miss Mule)

Do you believe in the war on terror?

It seems that it took a whole think tank in London to come up with the same ideas that most people have already figured out (except for the bushistas who really don't want it to end because of the profitability).

They conclude that the war on terror is fueling al Qaeda.

LONDON (Reuters) - Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the "war on terror" is failing and instead fueling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday.

A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a "fundamental re-think is required" if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.

"If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut," said Paul Rogers, the report's author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England.

"Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level."

He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a "disastrous mistake" which had helped establish a "most valued jihadist combat training zone" for al Qaeda supporters.

The report -- Alternatives to the War on Terror -- recommended the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq coupled with intensive diplomatic engagement in the region, including with Iran and Syria.

In Afghanistan, Rogers also called for an immediate scaling down of military activities, an injection of more civil aid and negotiations with militia groups aimed at bringing them into the political process.

If such measures were adopted it would still take "at least 10 years to make up for the mistakes made since 9/11."

"Failure to make the necessary changes could result in the war on terror lasting decades," the report added.

Rogers also warned of a drift toward conflict with Iran.

"Going to war with Iran", he said, "will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region. Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs."

The sky is falling. Again.

Dana Perino implied that it's just a coincidence that the DHS report concerning al Qaeda's plan to install operatives in the US (because they want to kill you and me) and the looming FISA debate in Congress happened on the same day. Details at Raw Story.

Seriously. How much of this Chicken Little nonsense does teh White House think will fly over our heads?

It's more likely that you or I will die from eating a tainted hamburger or a salad than a terrorist attack. We really ought to put our priorities in order. Don't ya think?

Fucking Brilliant or Brilliant Fucking?

Why We Curse -What the F***? by Steven Pinker is an interesting read in The New Republic.
The sources of curses or oaths come from religion and sexuality. Just why does effluvia have such an emotional charge when it's an inescapable part of life? Sex and sex organs are too. Linguists and biologists have their theories worth considering. It's all in the article.

Is There A God Spot?

Scientific American has a great article on scientific research being done to determine what happens in the human brain during a mystical experience. Some call it "neurotheology." Religious feelings and epilepsy have long been studied but there is more. Scientists are particularly interested in brain activity of people who experience peace, serenity and a sense of union with all things in the world. It is hoped that the parts of the brain which are activated during deeply spiritual experiences can be replicated by scientists because of all the benefits of meditation.

(oh gosh, i know what many of you are thinking and I am thinking too... but the article is quite interesting. -Liz)

All You Need Is Love

John Lennon would have been 67 yesterday had he not been gunned down in cold blood at 40 in 1980- right before the obvious decline of American democracy as we knew it. He made our generation think and question political and religious authority.

Do you think we'd be where we are today if Lennon were still alive?

The Stupid ... it BURNS ...

Presumably (if you listen to the Administration and its paid mouthpieces) Our Dear Leader, George W Bush, is dead set on protecting us poor defenseless American peoples from those rascally and dangerous Moo-zlim Terrists.

Is there any way we can find someone to protect us from the Bush Administration?

It seems that several private firms have been listening in on Intenet and other traffic between terrorist and extremist websites, and have been feeding that data to the Government on the sly. Now I applaud that; it's good to get the jump on people on the quiet - SO LONG AS IT REMAINS QUIET.

What happened was that one of these websites (called, appropriately, SITE) managed to get its hands on the latest Osama video and a translation about two days before it came out. The company emailed the link to two aides in the White House, with a request to please please for the love of all that's holy keep it quiet.

Five hours later it was on Fox News, the propaganda wing of the White House and the Republican Party.

Comedian Ron White opined that "You can't fix stupid." I tend to agree with that, along with Robert Heinlein's dictum that stupidity is the only true sin against nature. The last thing the Bush Regime needs to do is show the American people once again that it and its merry minions are so stupid (How stupid are they?) that they can't be trusted with a box of burned-out matches.

Now, since The Stupid is all over Fox and the rest of the Right Wing Blowhardatron like fleas on a stray dog, I can expect about a week of people "defending the Administration's brave decision to release this information" while excoriating SITE for wanting to keep it to themselves and thereby endanger us.

I have a question now: We are arguably the second most heavily-armed civilian population on this planet (probably behind Israel) - How are we in danger, and from whom?

Do You Believe Any of This War With Iran Crap?

What a pile of you know what.

Petraeus says Iran's envoy in Iraq is Quds Force member
blah blah blah Let's nuke 'em.

The media is just eating it up. I saw bush on the news spewing more stuff about the dangers of Iran. And his mouthpiece Petraeus. After the Iraq war debacle and so many newspeople regretting their complicity in the governmental propaganda they fed to the unsuspecting American people 3 years ago while sitting back and allowing a sovereign nation to be completely destroyed with virtually no compelling evidence that could be proven, how do they think they can get away with it once again? Just how freaking stupid do they think we are?

Well apparently some of us are and I really don't know what it will take to convince those who are eating up this latest bullshit otherwise.

Case in point: A very conservative friend of mine who is a public school art teacher and makes over $100,000 year after 30 years on the job will be retiring next June with a 60% pension for the rest of his life. It's a pretty cushy job and retirement package considering he works exactly 180 days a year and 6 hour days. Gee I wonder who fought for that deal? Conservatives?

He told me that he's been reading about the regime in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and how it was right to take him out. He didn't say what he was reading but managed to mention that Fox News was the only true conservative news channel. His son fought in Iraq and he's proud to say so because Hussein was so evil and killed so many people. I certainly hope that someday, troops from some other country don't bash my door down and kill us in cold blood because of bush and cheney.

It doesn't matter what information or facts I present or what evidence I can prove that the war on Iraq was unnecessary. I get no answer when I ask why Hussein couldn't be taken out without blowing up the f*cking country. If this is the way the US citizens believe that foreign policy should be handled, then they shouldn't be surprised when terrorists arrive in our country.

The point my friend wants to make to me is that, while wrong on just about everything, President Bush stuck with his plan and didn't change his mind. Apparently some people think that this is a good character trait. Even well educated people who aren't even rich enough to be conservative think so. Facts be damned.

Once again. My head reels.

I have a modest proposal. Why not get our troops out of the middle east and just bomb the hell out of the whole place once and for all?

What is it with the GOP and boys?

A 12 year old boy delivered the Democratic radio address a few weeks ago and claimed that if it weren't for SCHIP, he might not be here today because he wouldn't have received the necessary care after a severe car accident.

Someone dared to put a human face rather than a corporate one on an issue facing America. God forbid that one extra cent is spent on a person rather than a war profiteering corporation.

The Wingnuts condemned the boy and the SCHIP program almost immediately after slamming Democrats. A massive smear campaign has been launched against the boy and his family. Right wing bloggers have harassed the family. This is one of the many reasons that I hate wingnuts. The details are at Think Progress.

It makes my brain hurt

According to folklore, Eve was duped by a talking snake into eating from the tree of knowledge, then urged her male companion to do the same, while pissing off the creator so much that he sent them out into the world, on their own, to fend for themselves. The rest is history.

Good heavens, I went to 15 consecutive years of Catholic schools which were quite conservative at the time, with more rules and crazy dogma than you could shake a stick at, but we weren't expected to take Genesis literally.

Our human ancestors were once blissfully ignorant (adam and eve) and then came the missing link (talking snake) whereby they evolved into thinking human beings (expelled from the garden of eden). Case closed. Nice metaphor.

Then along came fundamentalist "christians" who made old time Catholics look like commie liberals. They defied all reason and historic/scientific study. They insisted that their delicate sensibilities not be harmed by modernity-- even in public. They believe in their first amendment rights, but not anyone else's. The fact that this is a pluralistic society means nothing to them. I doubt that they even know what that means or understand how many people fought to keep it this way in America. Snake handlers ought to tread lightly in the 21st century.

What the h*ll is this nonsense with college students flipping out over a professor of Western Civilization in a PUBLIC community college in Iowa who would dare to say that the story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted? They took legal action against him and he was fired. This story is backwards. It should be the other way around.

Professor Bitterman stated:

"I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job."

Why bother to attend an institution of higher learning if you think you already know everything? People who believe in talking snakes ought to go to private schools or just STFU.

I Love A Man in Uniform

NOT.

I discovered something recently. I can still weep.

What the hell is is with these fake bootcamps for kids? I'd seen them on talk shows where stupid parents would parade their stupid kids before the cameras crying that they didn't know what to do with their stupid kids... and then the talk show host would save the day and bring out some para-military goon to take the kid away to faux boot camp.

They killed a kid in Florida. The defense argued that Anderson died of ''exertional sickle cell collapse'' while jogging at the boot camp. The Tampa medical examiner said "he did find the signs of sickle cells that Siebert found in Anderson's organs, but he concluded the ''sickling'' did not kill the teen. ''All of that sickling can be explained by lack of oxygen after he was brain dead'' in the hospital, he said. The guards suffocated him by putting their hands over the boys mouth.

Here's the snuff film on youtube.

Watch what you eat!

Not just Topps Meat Co., which is going belly up, but Sam's Club is pulling burger off their shelves also.

"Sam's Club is pulling frozen hamburgers made by agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. from its stores shelves across the United States as Minnesota health officials investigate four cases of E. coli associated with the burgers."

REUTERS

WTF is with the FDA? Oh, that's right, it's a U.S. Government organization, the U.S. Government being a group which seems devoted to the cause of stamping out all life on earth.

Bring in the Anthropologists

Liz - I see a bright future for your son. We need more kids with degrees in Anthropology. They will fix everything. I know yours will!! I hope the Army's recent enlistment of Anthropologists in the war zones is truly sincere and in no way political (a recently authorized $40 mill isn't really that much is it?).

I read a book review in the WSJ yesterday sitting in the dentist's office. I can't link it because it requires a membership.

It's all about how our colleges and universities have lost touch with the teaching of humanities.

Here is one from yalelaw.edu

After stepping down as Dean of Yale Law School in 2004, Sterling Professor of Law Anthony T. Kronman returned to full time teaching, dividing his time between the Law School and Yale College, where he teaches in Directed Studies, a year long program for freshmen. His experiences teaching led Professor Kronman to questions about the philosophical underpinnings of undergraduate education and inspired the subject of his new book, Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life (Yale University Press, 2007).
The question of what living is for, Professor Kronman argues, is the most important question a person can ask. Yet under the influence of the modern research ideal, our colleges and universities have expelled this question from their classrooms, judging it unfit for organized study. In this eloquent and carefully considered book, Professor Kronman explores why this has happened and calls for the restoration of life’s most important question to an honored place in higher education.

In particular, teachers of the humanities—who once felt a special responsibility to guide their students in exploring the question of what living is for—have lost confidence in their authority to do so. And they have lost sight of the question itself in the blinding fog of political correctness that has dominated their disciplines for the past forty years.

Yet Professor Kronman sees a readiness for change—a longing among teachers as well as students to engage questions of ultimate meaning. He urges a revival of the humanities’ lost tradition of studying the meaning of life through the careful but critical reading of great works of literary and philosophical imagination.

and....

read some opinions from prawfsblawg:

In the Yale alumni magazine, there's a short essay adapted from the book, called "Against political correctness: a liberal's cri de coeur." (Kronman, it should be emphasized, writes and worries as a liberal and a "secular humanist."). Kronman writes:

[W]hen a presumptive commitment to the values of political liberalism begins to constrain the exploration of the personal question of life's meaning -- when the expectation that everyone shares these values comes to place implicit limits on the alternatives that may be considered and how seriously they are to be taken -- the enterprise itself loses much of its power and poignancy for the students involved and their teachers lose their authority to lead it. . .

Today's idea of diversity is so limited that one might with justification call it a sham diversity, whose real goal is the promotion of a moral and spiritual uniformity instead. It has no room for the soldier who values honor above equality, the poet who believes that beauty is more important than justice, or the thinker who regards with disinterest or contempt the concerns of political life. . . .

and one of their readers - frank - writes:

"Kronman urges us to broaden our horizons, to make room in the educational process for considering the “soldier who values honor above equality, the poet who believes that beauty is more important than justice, or the thinker who regards with disinterest or contempt the concerns of political life.”

But at least when it comes to “beauty over justice,” I think our society provides ample illustration of that value. The new celebristocracy provides ready-made models of that good life. National honor appears to be doing pretty well, too--it seems to be the main justification for ongoing involvement in Iraq. And the “thinker[s] who regard[] with disinterest or contempt the concerns of political life” are exactly the people he’s ostensibly criticizing. . . .those who ignore the lessons of, say, Nussbaum on the importance of humanistic learning to citizenship, or Benn Michaels on inequality, or Perry on the centrality of concepts of human flourishing to coherent social criticism.

In any event, I think Kronman is a deeply wise man whose book The Lost Lawyer is a classic work of jurisprudence. I just wish this first excerpt weren’t grounded in the “culture wars” . . . the problem’s a lot bigger than that, as Bill Readings has noted in The University in Ruins. The bottom-line imperative is a much bigger threat to the humanities than an underpaid adjunct who’d rather have her students read Junot Diaz than Faulkner.

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

Sorry about all that copy and pasting. When I went on line this morning to look up this book, somehow I got over to the NYTimes for this related headline:
Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones

I

n this isolated Taliban stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, American paratroopers are fielding what they consider a crucial new weapon in counterinsurgency operations here: a soft-spoken civilian anthropologist named Tracy.

Tracy, who asked that her surname not be used for security reasons, is a member of the first Human Terrain Team, an experimental Pentagon program that assigns anthropologists and other social scientists to American combat units in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her team’s ability to understand subtle points of tribal relations — in one case spotting a land dispute that allowed the Taliban to bully parts of a major tribe — has won the praise of officers who say they are seeing concrete results.


Yet criticism is emerging in academia. Citing the past misuse of social sciences in counterinsurgency campaigns, including in Vietnam and Latin America, some denounce the program as “mercenary anthropology” that exploits social science for political gain. Opponents fear that, whatever their intention, the scholars who work with the military could inadvertently cause all anthropologists to be viewed as intelligence gatherers for the American military.

Hugh Gusterson, an anthropology professor at George Mason University, and 10 other anthropologists are circulating an online pledge calling for anthropologists to boycott the teams, particularly in Iraq.

blogwired.com has a link to the full pledge.

Excerpt:

US military and intelligence agencies and military contractors have identified “cultural knowledge,” “ethnographic intelligence,” and “human terrain mapping” as essential to US-led military intervention in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. Consequently, these agencies have mounted a drive to recruit professional anthropologists as employees and consultants. While often presented by its proponents as work that builds a more secure world, protects US soldiers on the battlefield, or promotes cross-cultural understanding, at base it contributes instead to a brutal war of occupation which has entailed massive casualties. By so doing, such work breaches relations of openness and trust with the people anthropologists work with around the world and, directly or indirectly, enables the occupation of one country by another. In addition, much of this work is covert. Anthropological support for such an enterprise is at odds with the humane ideals of our discipline as well as professional standards.

I think I want to become an anthropologist. At this point, it doesn't even really matter how the job market is. Maybe I'll take a few courses.

We could all do with some old fashioned instruction in the humanities. What a wonderful world that might be?

I hope Professor Kronman writes about this "new weapon in counterinsurgency" that some of his colleagues are calling "mercenary anthropology". I wonder what he thinks.

Crossposted at BigBrassBlog

UPDATE: Anthropologists would like other anthropologists to sign a
"Pledge of Non-participation in Counter-insurgency " More here.

So True

Does the president even know what "socialized" medicine is? Nah.
We are talking about the cruelty of corporate profiteering of insurers off the backs of American citizens. No one is asking the government to take over the whole medical system. Good heavens no.

Come to think of it, do Americans know what socialism is? I suspect that they think it's another word for "communism."

What do you make of Chris Matthews?

Is he torn? Or just so into playing the game that he has lost his humanity much like most of his guests?

Chris Matthews (MSNBC) is a strange television character. I find it difficult to watch his show, Hardball, or watch his commentaries on MSNBC after a debate or press conference because it seems like he was watching something completely different. I suspect that he is more into the game than the humanity.

Jon Stewart trashed his book, "Life's A Campaign," because it seemed to be devoid of any values or conscience. The book is about treating life as a strategy in order to get ahead according to Matthews. Stewart questioned the cost of this. Matthews repeatedly used the Clinton's as an example of how they rose to the top. I am surprised that Karl Rove wasn't mentioned. Jon Stewart compared Matthew's book to "The Prince". I would have to read "Life's a Campaign," to get the full picture.

This particular story in the Examiner is what prompted me to even write about Matthews, "Matthews says Bush administration has "finally been caught in their criminality." While Matthews didn't exactly explain the specific criminality at last night's event, I would assume from the context that the bush administration's meddling with the corporate media is what he was talking about. But maybe not. He says that the bushistas won't silence him. We'll see.

Chris Matthews had barely finished praising his colleagues at the 10th anniversary party for his “Hardball” show Thursday night in Washington, D.C. when his remarks turned political and pointed, even suggesting that the Bush administration had "finally been caught in their criminality."

In front of an audience that included such notables as Alan Greenspan, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, Matthews began his remarks by declaring that he wanted to "make some news" and he certainly didn't disappoint. After praising the drafters of the First Amendment for allowing him to make a living, he outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations.

The Clinton camp, he said, never put pressure on his bosses to silence him.

“Not so this crowd,” he added, explaining that Bush White House officials -- especially those from Vice President Cheney's office -- called MSNBC brass to complain about the content of his show and attempted to influence its editorial content. "They will not silence me!" Matthews declared.

"They've finally been caught in their criminality," Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred. He then drew an obvious Bush-Nixon parallel by saying, “Spiro Agnew was not an American hero."

Matthews left the throng of Washington A-listers with a parting shot at Cheney: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

What? Matthews just noticed that he was shilling for a corrupt administration? I wonder if he was referring to "Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations" which has barely been talked about in the corporate media. Read also, "War Criminal" at Andrew Sullivan.

Recording Industry vs The People

I am going to COPY and SHARE Ray Beckerman's comment on the Jury Verdict in Virgin v. Thomas

Ray hosts the blog Recording Industry vs The People:

A verdict of $222,000.00, for infringement of 24 song files worth a total of $23.76?

In a case where there was zero evidence of the defendant having transferred any of those files?.

It is one of the most irrational things I have ever seen in my life in the law.

If the Judge doesn't set aside the verdict sua sponte, I expect there to be motion practice to set aside the verdict, based on its obvious unconstitutionality and numerous other reasons, and if that fails I expect there to be a successful appeal.

It is an outrage, and I hope it is a wakeup call to the world that we all need to start supporting the defendants in these cases, and the attorneys who are sacrificing so much to represent them. And the support cannot be with words, it must be with check books. And it cannot be next year, it must be now.

All the business people who make a living from the vibrancy, democracy, and freedom of expression which is the internet, need to get behind the RIAA's victims; if they do not, the world in which they hope to thrive and prosper will disappear rapidly.

The RIAA ghouls smelled blood in Duluth, and I guess they were right.

But it isn't over.

-R.B.


THANK YOU RAY!! (We should to do what he says.)

I wish all recording artists would just sell their music directly via their websites or myspace. Rent a recording studio, cut the CD. Sell them on your site. WE WILL FIND YOU - don't worry. WE ARE ALL CONNECTED NOW (for the time being anyway). Do you really need these monkey men who call themselves the RIAA to get you noticed?

When I go to hypem.com (I am a 50 year old music addict who works overtime trying to feed her kids good tunes), I get directed to hundreds of songs that I can "sample".
And, if they can't accommodate you at the moment because of the millions of other music addicts like myself visiting there daily, you will get THE most lol message ever!!!!!

Hypem directs you to the music bloggers who are "sampling" the song. If I like the artist, all of these blogs direct me to itunes/amazon/or wherever, to buy their music. I can't afford to pay 15 dollars for the entire album and won't if I only like a song or 2. At least I can (most of the time) buy the song for a buck at itunes.... and BLESS ME FATHER FOR I HAVE SINNED (it's been 3 minutes since my last download)....if I can't get the tune there, being the addict that I am, I must resort to other means!!! So There!! I've done what all the big boys do - confessed my sins. I won't ever do it again. My computer spoke!! I should be safe from the RIAA goons right?
Since we live in "Clear Channel Airspace" and all they let the radio stations play is RAP CRAP, I don't allow the kids to listen to the radio, but OF course they do - no way around that. They agree that most of the music sucks. (I'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy.) They would not know this if I didn't provide them with music that I have "shared" with other music addicts. It's one of the hardest jobs and takes up a lot of my time -- what's a mother to do??! It's worth my time. I'll do anything for my children!!!

I think the fact that Brittney is the best that this country can give us as a music goddess, says it all about the RIAA!! I heard some of the networks interrupted regular broadcasting the other day to let us know the fate of her spawns.

Can't these artists let us buy music directly from their own site? Can't they record a CD without signing over their life to a recording industry guy in a suit? They can't possibly be getting the cut they SHOULD BE getting from CD sales.


Here's the low down from blog.wired:

DULUTH, Minnesota -- Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement in the nation's first file-sharing case to go before a jury.

Twelve jurors here said the Minnesota woman must pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs that were the subject of the lawsuit, amounting to $222,000 in penalties.

They could have dinged her for up to $3.6 million in damages, or awarded as little as $18,000. She was found liable for infringing songs from bands such as Journey, Green Day, Aerosmith and others.

"This is what can happen if you don't settle," RIAA attorney Richard Gabriel told reporters outside the courthouse. "I think we have sent a message we are willing to go to trial."

Still, it's unlikely the RIAA's courtroom victory will translate into a financial windfall or stop piracy, which the industry claims costs it billions in lost sales. Despite the thousands of lawsuits -- the majority of them settling while others have been dismissed or are pending -- the RIAA's litigation war on internet piracy has neither dented illegal, peer-to-peer file sharing or put much fear in the hearts of music swappers.

The case, however, did set legal precedents favoring the industry.

In proving liability, the industry did not have to demonstrate that the defendant's computer had a file-sharing program installed at the time that they inspected her hard drive. And the RIAA did not have to show that the defendant was at the keyboard when RIAA investigators accessed Thomas' share folder.

Also, the judge in the case ruled that jurors may find copyright infringement liability against somebody solely for sharing files on the internet. The RIAA did not have to prove that others downloaded the files. That was a big bone of contention that U.S. District Judge Michael Davis settled in favor of the industry.



Here is ABC's coverage of this story -- LOTS AND LOTS of lawyers talking out of both sides of their mouths -- I can't follow those conversations -- maybe you guys can.



crossposted at
BigBrassBlog

Self-Hating

No, NOT me. Don't get your hopes up.

In the previous 597 posts on this blog, I may have mentioned the name Ann Coulter at some point, probably in a less than complimentary fashion. She said something recently, however, that attracted my attention almost instantly. Here it is, in a nutshell:

She wishes that women be no longer allowed to vote.

The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution granted the franchise to all women of voting age in this country, almost doubling the pool of eligible voters (recall that the original framework of the Constitution only granted the vote to white male property owners; it gradually extended that right to others). It took a lot of work by the suffragette movement, and some cooperation from others, to gain this right.

This egregious right-wing "commentator" (first off, are we SURE she's female?) wants to deny herself the right to vote, just to guarantee that the Democrats can't get anyone elected because, to her odd point of view, the Democrats attract more votes from women than they do from men.

Well, let's think about that a moment, Ann my dear.

Taking your hypothesis as true, do you think more women don't vote for Republican candidates because the basic creed of the Republican base is a return to women as subservient brood mares with no control over their bodies? Or is it because the GOP has no regard for issues such as children's health care? Or is it because some women might be afraid that their children will be rounded up, impressed into the military and sent off to fight even more unnecessary wars based on fraud?

Need I remind you, Ann, that you represent yourself as a woman? Here's a taste of what you'd expect if your wishes came true:

"Bitch, get your skinny ass in the kitchen and fetch me a beer, then bend over the coffee table so I can get you pregnant. Work? Your work involves cleaning the skidmarks out of my underwear for no pay or benefits. You want pay? Fine, I'll just slap you across the face five or six times, then break a chair over your head. Now, get in that kitchen."

How's that for a dose of the patriarchy, GOP style, Ann?

Ann, Ann, Ann ... I've seen this level of self-hatred before, recently in the words of a state official in Kansas - a woman, like you purport yourself to be. The problem, I think, is that you have attached yourself like a lamprey to an authoritarian ideology that so blinds you that it causes you to make statements that are so wildly divorced from reality as to be almost funny.

Not funny ha-ha, funny peculiar.

My best advice to you, Dear Ann, is to seek the advice of a psychiatrist and maybe get on some antidepressants before your behavior changes from simple self-hatred to self-destruction. Oh, and put on a few pounds, will ya? You remind me of a scarecrow.


(Cross-posted at My Two Cents.)

Proof that it's a man

Mr A. Coulter: "If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president"

What'd I tell ya?

Question of the day

Do you believe in evil?

Winning the War on Aging?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said on Thursday they had found more ways to activate the body's own anti-aging defenses -- perhaps with a pill that could fight multiple diseases at once.

Their study, published in the journal Cell, helps explain why animals fed very low-calorie diets live longer, but it also offers new ways to try to replicate the effects of these diets using a pill instead of hunger, the researchers said.

"What we are talking about is potentially having one pill that prevents and even cures many diseases at once," said David Sinclair, a pathologist at Harvard Medical School who helped lead the research.

Enzymes controlled by sirtuin genes called SIRT3 and SIRT4 help preserve mitochondria which are what keeps us healthy and youthful. As we age, mitochondria lose their impact. Fasting raises levels of another protein called NAD which activates SIRT3 and SIRT4.

"Theoretically, we can envision a small molecule (pill) that can increase levels of NAD, or SIRT3 and SIRT4 directly, in the mitochondria. Such a molecule could be used for many age-related diseases," he added.

The fountain of youth in a pill? Fabulous. In the meantime, I will have to look into this fasting concept.

Secessionists?

Members of the left wing Middlebury Institute (New England) and the right wing League of the South will come together on common ground in Tennessee for a two-day Secessionist Convention. The common belief between the groups is that the Federal Government is too imposing.

"Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.

That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.

"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.

Read the story by the AP at yahoo.

If states were to secede, would you be willing to relocate?
I would. In a heartbeat. I'm quite fed up with unchristian "christian" values and the impending police states of America.

October 4, 1957 - A Defining Moment (Updated)

Beep …beep … beep …

The Soviet Union knew that the United States was trying to put a mechanism into Earth orbit that year, and the United States knew that the Soviet Union knew it. The Premier of the USSR, Nikita S. Khrushchev, ordered his chief rocket designers and other engineers and scientists to do something that would get the Soviets into space first.

It didn’t have to be very elaborate; not like the half-ton science lab already on the drawing boards. Just something simple to start with. The launch vehicle, the R-7 IRBM, was already built and had passed its firing tests.

Beep … beep … beep …

The finished product was the size of a beach ball, weighing 184 pounds. The Soviet Union’s chief rocket designer, Sergei Korolev, oversaw its installation in the missile and final preparations began.

From a spot on Kazakhstan’s Kyzyl Desert, a spot that would later be called Tyura Tam, the R-7 erupted and rose aloft on a tower of flames, carrying the satellite into low orbit. Its simple radio transmitter broadcast only one thing – a beep, in A-flat.

Beep … beep … beep …

The Eisenhower Administration had known that the Soviets were doing something, so they weren’t really surprised. Hardliners on both sides of the political divide and ordinary Americans, on the other hand, were shocked and panicked; Russia, so recently hammered to its knees by Stalin and the Nazi invasions of the Great Patriotic War, had beaten us into space.

Recriminations followed. People thumped their chests and bloviated from bully pulpits about the Red Menace, Missile Gaps and the necessity of Getting Up There Fast. That last took a while, as our missiles had an unfortunate tendency to fail spectacularly. Our first satellite was a paltry thing compared to the size of the Soviet satellite, but it could do a few more things.

Beep … beep … beep …

The Soviet effort (called Sputnik, or companion) triggered the space race between the superpowers, and soon other nations were joining the party. The advances in science triggered by the efforts gave rise to a lot of the technology we enjoy today (smaller, faster and more powerful computers; lightweight materials technology, etc.) and culminated less than twelve years later with human beings setting foot on Earth’s Moon.

Another reaction to Sputnik was the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which changed educational priorities to math and science. After all, scientists were required if we hoped to beat the Soviets to the Moon and measure up to President Kennedy’s words to “do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Sputnik didn’t last long, falling to Earth less than a year after launch, but by then the Soviets had launched the first living things into space (among them, a mongrel dog named Laika).

Beep … beep … beep …

Sputnik’s launch was a defining moment in human history. When will the next Sputnik Moment come, and from where?

Beep … beep … beep …


(cross-posted over at My Two Cents)

1943 Guide to Hiring Women --

The following is an excerpt from the July 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine. It was written for male supervisors of women in the work force during WWII

Here are the 11 "tips" on getting more efficiency out of women employees:


1.Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2.When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It's always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3.General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4.Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in operator's uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy."


I can't help but wonder if the employers who have received my resume this past year are still using some of these tips --especially #2! Maybe I should remove the part about devoting the past 18 years to raising a family -- a dead give away that I am middle aged? Maybe not - I do have my year of college graduation listed. Out of the dozens of places I have applied, I have not received even one phone call to come in and interview. It must be that long span when I wasn't working full-time and just stayed home and made bonbons all day!

YOU CAN BET YOUR ASS I'm cantankerous and fussy - I've earned it!!





h/t j-walkblog

"No Kidding" Moment of the Day

From the Huffington Post:

Senator Kennedy: This President's Priorities Aren't The Same As Mainstream America's

Lab mix-up leads to double mastectomy

This story was on the cover of Newsday this morning. It freaked me out.

When she heard the diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma, Darrie Eason had but one thought: Please don't let me die.

Four months and a double mastectomy later, doctors told Eason that her tissue sample had been mislabeled, and that she never had cancer.

"I didn't know what to believe," said Eason, a 35-year-old single mother from Long Beach. "They told me I had cancer and now they're telling me I didn't. I didn't know if the next day they were going to call me and say, 'Sorry, we made a mistake, you really do have cancer.'"

Still no sex toys in Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)- The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge to Alabama's ban on the sale of sex toys, ending a nine-year legal battle and sending a warning to store owners to clean off their shelves.

Darn and I would have been interested in Long Dong Silver's opinion.

Bush vetoes SCHIP bill

He said he would do it and he did.

Further madness includes Dana Perino's assertion on behalf of President Bush that since this bill would be funded by cigarette taxes and that poor people smoke, it would be a burden on the poor to pay for a "middle class entitlement."

Governor Eliot Spitzer explains why he is suing the bush administration.

Housing's Toll Rises

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG warned that they suffered significant loan-related losses in the third quarter, becoming the latest and biggest banks to reveal huge ill effects from the spike in mortgage defaults and freeze-up in the credit markets.

Shares in both companies rose, though, and the Dow Jones industrial average jumped to a record above 14,000 as investors who sold off the financial sector this summer bet that the worst is over for the banks.

I bet that The President's Working Group on Financial Markets aka the PPT (plunge protection team) is going to be working hard today!

I'm not EVEN going to try to figure this one out.

Don't EVEN get me started.

My forehead already hurts from repeated blows to it via my computer desk while reading this morning's headlines. I have to be careful. It's a glass top table.

I'm sure Citigroup has its very own PPT

Carry on soldiers.

Nothing we can do quite yet --wake me up when these bloggers are ready! I wonder what happened to them? It's been a few weeks now. I'm getting worried.

Ouch!


Crossposted atBigBrassBlog

My fascist country

A petite teenage girl was beaten by a beefy school security guard for dropping cake in California. He broke her wrist by twisting her arm and slamming her head against a table. He called her "nappy head." She was arrested for littering and battery. A boy who caught the incident on his cell phone was also beaten and arrested as was his sister who went to his defense. The mother of the girl, a school employee was also arrested for complaining about her daughter's attack.
hat tip feministing

According to the LA Times today, "The mothers of students involved in a recent altercation with a security guard at Palmdale's Knight High School are demanding that the guard be fired and their children not be expelled from the school."

WTF?

spoofing Craig's arrest for a good cause

Clarence Thomas Should Just STFU

Everyone hold a pity party for Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Ready? Eins, zwei, drei ...

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Okay. You can stop now.

According to his new book, Thomas was less than thrilled by the news that he'd been confirmed as a Justice under the first Bush (that's George HW, the current dweeb's father) Administration. Bush tried to defend his choice of a patently unworthy nominee (who was tapped to fill the spot left by the retired Thurgood Marshall) by saying that we needed another African-American on the Court.

So Thomas was apparently a token, just a sop the GOP tossed to the dreaded liberals to keep them happy. Token he may have been, but his ideology was just slightly to the left of Robert Bork and his penchant for sexual harassment almost cost him the seat. I recall watching the confirmation hearings and wondering why he didn't just quit.

What is unfortunate is that, until he either dies or retires, we're stuck with him; him, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and John Roberts. Besides, what the hell is he complaining about? He's yet another living embodiment of the Peter Principle, and has reached the highest point his incompetence can take him.

He should just Shut The Fuck Up.


(Cross-posted over at My Two Cents.)

NYPD: Pleased To Meet You

Just as every cop is a criminal,
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails, Just call me Lucifer,
cause I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me, Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game...
-Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil

Are you in a reading mood today? If you are, you may want to learn more about police state that is NYC. It all began during the lead up to the RNC in NYC in 2004. Oh no, the policifying of NY had nothing to do with the terrorists of 9/11 coming back to wreak havoc on the city...

Read about the mini military industrial complex that is the Big Apple in
NYC, the NYPD, the RNC, and Me Fortress Big Apple, 2007 By Nick Turse at Tom Distpatch.

Nick Turse was one of the "anarchists" who was falsely arrested during the RNC and told that he could be shot for carrying an audio recording device on his person in NY. He describes accurately the "Homeland-Security State-let." But who exactly are the criminals and spies lurking in NY? Why it's those very people that are paid by its citizens to "keep them safe." The NYPD are "ground troops" in the war on terra. The terrorists are you and you are being watched.

Getting over your fear of flying

In order to fly these days, you must first empty your mind and surrender yourself to a higher power (the TSA) before you even step foot into the airport terminal. You've gotten a ride to the airport 2 hours early and avoided long term parking, so you're calm. You have already eaten at home.

Try not to bring anything on your trip except your wallet with your ID, a credit card, a debit card and your boarding pass. You may bring an iPod if you're flight is long. Keep everything in your pants pocket. Do not wear a coat or jacket unless absolutely necessary. Wear modest clothing and flip flops. Do not carry a bag unless you must because of its fashion statement. Buy what you need when you get to your destination or mail your belongings to your destination beforehand. You will ship your stuff home before taking your return flight.

Embrace your sheepiness. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Allow yourself to become one with the herd. Follow orders and barking by the TSA employees without giving it a rational thought. Thinking will only slow you down and cause you break into an unsightly sweat which may land you in a holding tank answering questions for which you have no answers.

Once on the plane, go directly to your seat. Say hello to your seat mates, put on your seatbelt, and your headphones, then close your eyes pretending to sleep. If you get tired of pretending to sleep, intently read the magazine in the pocket of the seat in front of you. At your destination, do not even attempt to stand until the sheep in the seats in front of you are up and actually moving towards the exit. Pretend to know exactly where you are going. Look determined and follow the signs to the rental car area or terminal exit to catch a ride.

It's really quite simple to fly if you clear your mind of all reasoning and rationality. Tell yourself that you will not think about it until you have returned home- you may have to do that several times, but it's totally worth it.

Violence surges in Afghanistan -- Boy hanged for having US money....

It was a warning to other villagers not to use dollars.

Taliban insurgents hanged a teenager in southern Afghanistan because he had American money in his pocket, stuffing five US$1 bills into his mouth

The 15-year-old boy was hanged from a tree Sunday in Helmand province, the most violent province in the country and the world's No. 1 poppy-growing region.

"The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars," said Wali Mohammad, the district police chief in Sangin.

Dollars are commonly used in Afghanistan alongside the afghani, the local currency, though dollars are more commonly seen in larger cities where international organizations are found.

on Sunday Karzai said he would be willing to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and factional warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami, in exchange for peace.

On Sunday, Karzai's spokesman, said there was "serious debate" among some Taliban fighters about laying down arms.

But the Taliban said international troops must leave the country before any talks are held.

"Negotiations with Karzai have no worth in the presence of American forces," said Haroon Zarghun, a Hezb-i-Islami spokesman.

"Karzai has, in fact, no authority in the presence of American troops. Talks would be waste of time in such a situation," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "If the United States announces to leave Afghanistan, then we will be ready to hold talks."

(there must be loads of dollars floating around those poppy fields - how will they recover from losing such a big customer??)