We venerate agitating waters;

We venerate showering winds.



We venerate the never-returning fire-priests

who have come from far 'Right-active' lands.

We venerate all the immortal progressives.

(Supplementary Song.6 = Yasna 42.6)

We venerate the good souls of the righteous

We venerate the thundering fifty-fountain clouds.

We venerate the dense seasonal [clouds],

which arise from the middle of the Longshore Sea.

We venerate the Longshore Sea.

(Supplementary Song.4 = Yasna 42.4)

Dear ACLU

Dear ACLU;

You guys did it to yourself and I'm not sorry.

Sober heads told you going after the "Karl Rove" Leak of Valerie Plame's name would come back and bite you in the Arse. By trying to pull out all sorts of facts which embarass the government would lead to this kind of backlash.

While we are seeing how the sausage of American media works because of your pursuit of political attacks and those of your ilk their will no longer be a free press examining the abuses of clandestine services that will come eventually. What George Bush is doing right now isn't an abuse but since the ability of the media to be a 4th branch that has the power to check the government you now lose the ability to know what a man or woman with far less ethics will do in that situation.

Some day a big Whistle Blower will find a way to drop his information out to the media and we will see true freedom in this country has been gutted because of your irresponsible hatred and pursuit of politics over civil liberties

"Our nation is strengthened, not weakened, by those whistleblowers who are courageous enough to speak out on violations of the law," Romero said.

Yes it is. So just as a pornographer like Larry Flint has to have his freedom of Speech a government officer so long as their isn't a serious loss of life needs the ability to leak information for partisan and bogus means because if they get caught under the gun of the prosecutors then so will a legitimate whistle blower

You guys have made this country a little bit worse by your irresponsible actions. What comes next is on your heads

Bill Safire's Office Pool 06 predictions

(H/t A blog for all)

Multiple choice answers based on these questions

#1 c) closer to 90,000 (troops this time next year in Iraq)
#2 a)Mike Pence (New Speaker of the house)
#3 c) James Mangold's "Walk the Line" (cashing in on Reese Witherspoon's performance) (Best picture Oscar winner)
#4 c) decide that federal funds can be denied to law schools that prohibit military recruitment on campus (four big cases infront of the Roberts court...though I think none of them will happen I think C is most likely)
#5 b) "Self-Made Man" by Norah Vincent, the new Steinem (sleeper nonfiction best seller)
#6 c) a media murder mystery by Russ Lewis (surprise in the world of fiction)
#7 b) Mahmoud Abbas naming jailed Marwan Barghouti his Fatah successor; (biggest effect on Israeli/Palestine conflict in 06.. out of the 4 I see this as most likely)
#8 b) the 36-page report by the Senate Intelligence Committee about the 2000 terrorist attack on the destroyer Cole, cleared for release by the C.I.A. but suppressed by the Senate.(least likely to be given any investigative journalism)
#9 c) finally reflect sustained 4 percent G.D.P. growth by Dow breaking through 12,000.(this is where I see the Stockmarket in 06)
#10 c) nationalist Iraqis and bridging Kurds will achieve a loose confederation and create a Muslim brand of democracy. (most likely outcome in Iraq)
#11 c) growth in economic inequality and need for pension protection; (what will have the most impact on voters... i see this as most likely of 4 barely likelys)
#12 a) Virginia Democrat Mark Warner against Massachusetts Republican Mitt Romney in the battle of centrist capitalists; (the dark horse line for the 08 election)
#13 a) Bill Richardson vs. Rudy Giuliani (most likely of 4 unlikely inside the box races)
#14 a) Truman ( whom Historians will compaire Bush to)

Here is Safire's answer Key...

My picks: 1 (d); 2 (a); 3 (b); 4 (all); 5 (c); 6 (a); 7 (all); 8 (both); 9 (c); 10 (c); 11 (none); 12 (d); 13 (b); 14 (a). By no means save this column.

when we get ready to open up the 07 blogging season we'll see who did better

Eeesh No respect

Many blogs larger then me which have me in a blog-roll/daily read list have gone with the Anchoress's list of 2006 predictions....

Yebus man what's a guy got to do to get a break

A new personal hero

I rarely get to call out to some one who I’d consider heroic and rarer still do I find some one younger then me I’d consider heroic. But Farris Hassan is a new personal Hero of mine. I am sure Farris and I may disagree on any number of issues but Farris decided to get Gonzo in some respects in his journalism and become part of his story. But not only did he become Gonzo he did something so Gonzo as to with very little money sneak into Iraq. ( and I agree with Michelle Malkin get this kid a blog). And Fox news has given this new generation of Gonzo Journalist a brief taste of fame.

There is a struggle in Iraq between good and evil, between those striving for freedom and liberty and those striving for death and destruction. You are aware of the heinous acts of the terrorists: Women and children massacred, innocent aid workers decapitated, indiscriminate murder. You are also aware of the heroic aspirations of the Iraqi people: liberty, democracy, security, normality. Those terrorists are not human but pure evil. For their goals to be thwarted, decent individuals must answer justice's call for help ... So I will.

This isn’t a reporter or member of the government elite hiding out in the green zone. This is a kid of Iraqi ancestry sneaking into the country and finding out the story from real people. Seeing the story with his own eyes and hearing it with his own ears.

I know going to Iraq will be incredibly risky. There are thousands of people there that desperately want my head. There are millions of people there that mildly prefer my demise merely because I am American. Nevertheless, I will go there to love and help my neighbor in distress, if that endangers my life, so be it ...
If I know what is needed and what is right, but do not act on my moral conscience, I would be a hypocrite. I must do what I say decent individuals should do. I want to live my days so that my nights are not full of regrets. Therefore, I must go.
I am sure I may find many things about Mr. Hassan I don’t agree with. But this young man took to his convictions and made his way into a war zone to try and do what he felt was the right thing to do. He heard the suffering of the Iraqi people in a real way and brought the story back unfiltered by any of the bogus partisan lenses we see it from in our society.
The kid is simply Heroic… and I am interested to see what he does for an encore.

Another Meme I caught

Another Meme…. I caught the Fever over at Tinkerty Tonk and the Only Cure is more Meme answering

1. Beatles, Stones or Beach Boys? Stones.2. Kant, Hegel, Marx? Kant.3. Cluedo, Monopoly, Scrabble? Monopoly4. Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford? Jack Nicholson 5. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart? Mozart6. Australia, Canada, New Zealand? Australia.7. Groucho, Chico, Harpo? Groucho.8. Morning, afternoon, evening? Afternoon9. Bridge, Canasta, Poker? Poker.10. Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Fargo--Lebowski11. Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau? Locke12. Cricket, football, rugby? Football13. Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte? Jane Austen.14. Parker, Gillespie, Monk? Monk15. Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham? Chelsea16. Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld? Cheers17. Henry Fonda, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart? Jimmy Stewart
18. France, Germany, Italy? Italy.19. Apple, orange, banana? Banana20. Statham, Tyson, Trueman? Statham
21. Rio Bravo, El Dorado, Rio Lobo? Rio Bravo.22. Katharine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman? Meryl Steep23. Chinese, Indian, Thai? Chinese24. Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi? Vivaldi.25. Oasis, Radiohead, Blur? Radiohead.26. Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, Yes Minister? Fawlty Towers.27. Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw? Ibsen.28. American football, baseball, basketball? American Football.29. FDR, JFK, Bill Clinton? JFK.30. Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky? Trotsky.31. Paris, Rome, New York? New York.32. Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Steinbeck? Hemingway.33. Blue, green, red? Blue.34. Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, West Side Story? West Side Story35. J.S. Mill, John Rawls, Robert Nozick? Rawls36. Armstrong, Ellington, Goodman? Ellington.37. Ireland, Scotland, Wales (at rugby)? Scotland.38. The Sopranos, 24, Six Feet Under? Sopranos.39. Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Saturday.40. Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear? Lear.41. Fried, boiled, scrambled (eggs)? Fried.42. Paths of Glory, Cross of Iron, Saving Private Ryan? Saving Private Ryan.43. England, Australia, West Indies (at cricket)? Australia.44. Chabrol, Godard, Truffaut? Godard.45. Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks? Bring it all back home
46. Trains, planes, automobiles? planes.47. North By Northwest, Psycho, Vertigo? Psycho48. Third, Fourth, Fifth (Beethoven Piano Concerto)?Fourth.49. Coffee, tea, chocolate? Tea.50. Cardiff, Edinburgh, Dublin? Edinburgh

Masonic Blogging at the end of 05

And now Children it is time for Larry to do a rant on the Subject of Freemasony. In particular the rather foolish idea that we should be more like European Freemasonry. I will say that European Freemasonry has many things I’d consider positive adaptation to some or all of the American Masonic Experience but the #1 thing to challenge this new clarion call by very knowledgeable Brothers out there in TV land is this simple line. AMERICA IS NOT EUROPE. What made Freemasonry work in the US did not make it work in Europe.

*cough* Ok let me go and add in a full disclosure segment here. Doing a more European model is usually code for “pay more money in dues” and this being my first year where I have to pay my dues late….I have m’self a tad of a problem in regards to paying more.

So here is the thing. In Europe Masonry was largely a model of “elitism”. Europe by and large has more of a system of people being born into privilege vs. the kind of upward social mobility that we have had in the US arguably since our inception. While Masonry has attracted men of the caliber as U.S President Teddy Roosevelt we also attracted men of the caliber of Teddy Roosevelt’s gardener who was the Worshipful Master of his home lodge one of the years he was President.  

While we will see some brothers throw the “adjusted for inflation” dollars argument at you that argument is rather bogus. As technology shifts some things become much less expensive, new things are created that is vastly more expensive, areas of property are changed and thus the value shoots up rapidly. Dollars are now fiat vs. semi-fiat or hard currency based…Comparing dollars 50 years ago isn’t realistic, nor is comparing dollars 100 years ago or more. Comparing the impact on the pocket of the man entering the door of the lodge is however a more realistic comparison. Will it make the average man who walks in the door have trouble paying his bills, feeding himself, having a family, paying his taxes, being able to gain property, etc. The focus should not be on the price of dues in inflation adjusted 1920 dollars but on having the same kind of impact on a man who knocks on the door of the lodge.

And while keeping that as a value marker I believe the lodge should be a more inviting place then the social mores of 1920 would have it be. So if the price out of the pocket of the man isn’t a good measure of the dues should be what is?

#1) paying to keep your lodge open and operational.
#2) paying to care for sick, elderly, or indigent brother masons or their kith and kin.
#3) paying to keep all the regalia and other features needed for the degrees of freemasonry.

I do not feel of course these three things should be the end all be all of what we do as masons, but I feel it should be the minimum yearly commitment. Now after that point if you want to set up and ensure endowments are running to provide those the needs are taken care of so the cost to the new and continuing brother is less so much the better.

If the Lodge sets yearly projects and gets the membership to pay for them in a yearly assessment again so much the better.

I think making dues more like “user fee” where you pay for the level of involvement in the fraternity you choose is better and makes the positives of Freemasonry far more universal.

Instead of trying to make Masonry more exclusivist and elite (following of the European model) I think we need to ask ourselves as American Freemasons some important questions.

#1 –What are we as a Fraternity doing right now at the Grand Lodge, Regional, District, and lodge level?-
#2-What would we like to do as a Masonic Community?-
#3-What does our Masonic family need us to do? (And by family I mean both individual brothers at a familial level, and our family of Masonic organizations)-
#4-What does our Masonic family want us to do?-
#5-How can we make an impact in the lives of every man who kneels at the Alter so that when he dies he wants the last honor a Lodge can give a man?-
#6-How are we failing in that regard today?-
#7-How can we make Freemasonry an institution that unites the families of our membership into a larger sense of community and community identity?-

I think if we can answer those 7 questions we will do more then we would by raising all the dues in the world, doing all sorts of table lodges, or having more and more lodges follow the European model.

Karl Rove...No longer Super Genius?!?!?!

If this WashPost Article is true it seems Karl Rove is off the rails and doesn't know what to do. However the folks claimed to be the source of salvation here -are- the people who brought us Harriet Miers so they may be a tad suspect and maybe (just maybe) producing a leak that is Self Serving.

(H/t Kausfiles)

That proved a galvanizing moment at the White House, according to a wide range of GOP strategists in and out of the administration. Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and White House strategic planning director Peter H. Wehner urged the president to dust off the 2004 election strategy and fight back, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. White House counselor Dan Bartlett and communications director Nicolle Wallace, however, counseled a more textured approach. The same-old Bush was not enough, they said; he needed to be more detailed about his strategy in Iraq and, most of all, more open in admitting mistakes -- something that does not come easily to Bush.

Although Rove raised concerns about giving critics too much ground, the younger-generation aides prevailed. Bush agreed to try the approach so long as he did not come off sounding too negative. Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University specialist on wartime public opinion who now works at the White House, helped draft a 35-page public plan for victory in Iraq, a paper principally designed to prove that Bush had one.

Yes if this is true our LORD AND MASTER Karl Rove was not the genius behind the Bush resurgence we all know and love right now which has brought the President to a near 50% approval raiting.

We'll see 10 years or so down the road if this is indeed the case.

Loud Howard does it again

Much as Rev. Al Sharpton has endorsed well the only thing to call a 372% intrest loan is Usury I had to wonder when would the next democrat doing a "for me, but not for thee" moment would be.

Gubernatorial records became an issue in presidential politics in 2004. Democrat
Howard Dean, who ran for president, came under criticism because he had some records in Vermont sealed when he left office as that state's governor in 2003. In November, the state Supreme Court ruled that Dean had acted legally.

I want you to save that little nugget first. 2007, after the 2006 elections would be the 4 year anniversary of when Howard Dean did that record sealing. Howard's sealing of records is quite simply one of the more offensive things in my mind a politician running for the highest office in this nation can do. But while Howard feels he should not be accountable for his actions, what does howard feel about the shoe on the foot of other people?

BOSTON - The
Democratic National Committee requested public records from state agencies on their dealings with Gov. Mitt Romney, who may run for president in 2008. His spokesman called it the work of a "dirty tricks attack squad."

The DNC is seeking similar records on at least 10 other potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, spokesman Luis Miranda said.

Now me I believe if you are a running for President I believe any records that don't control some one's life or death, or aren't classified should be open to the public eye.

I have absolutely no problem with what the DNC is doing. The problem I have is that in the 2004 election both Howard Dean and John Kerry hid, obfuscate, or obscured aspects of their own records. The republicans however presented all availible records that were asked for. This is -wrong-. The media which is austensiablly our public watchdog should be vigorously pursuing the Democrats for not making their records public.

The fact the Howard Dean lead DNC is seeking these records before any Governor or Senator can do the dispicable actions Governor Dean himself did in 2003 is also something that should get some serious national outrage.

The Romney people did however have something to say which i do -sort of- agree with

Daly's letters request that any fees be waived, but Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said fulfilling the requests wills cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for the Democratic National Committee to put its dirty tricks attack squad to work against Mitt Romney, so we'll bill them for it," Fehrnstrom said.

I think 4 years as governor means a heck of a long paper trail. I think if the Democrats or some other organization wants a massive (I.E all of them) number of copies they should have to pay

but paying for their sin of huberis and Hypocricy is something Howard Dean and the DNC never seem to have to do.

Comedy Central has no spine (with some spoilers)

South Park is a show that goes out and insults just about everyone. They are crude and offensive. Anyone not knowing this raise your hands... Ok good. But the Dogooders in the Catholic Leauge have applied pressure and Comedy Central buckled. Why by putting pressure on a board member.

B-S

The Catholic League also sought a personal condemnation from Viacom board member Joseph A. Califano Jr., who the group noted is a "practicing Catholic."

Califano was only too happy to oblige. After viewing the episode, he released a statement calling the episode an "appalling and disgusting portrayal of the Virgin Mary."

"It is particularly troubling to me as a Roman Catholic that the segment has run on the eve and day of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day for Roman Catholics," Califano said.

Califano also pledged to have Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston review the episode.

The timing on the Feast day of the Immaculate Conception.... probably really bad. But it was not a portrayal of the Virgin Mary. It was a plot decive. "Miracles" in the Church often bleed out of statues. The "Miracle" was a tool to show that A.A. and its use of religion. It was also a tool to point out the silliness of calling alcoholism a disease when their are more serious diseases (like cancer)

However to remove the miraculous plot device in a way that was -funny-

and I have to say I sure as heck can't think of another way to make a bleeding statue funny.

So screw you catholic leauge for ruining south park, and screw you comedy central for not understanding a joke.

More life advice from the internet

How Larry Bernard should improve for 2006: Make your dreams come true by applying for the dwindling reality shows – before it’s too late Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Do As I say proven again

(Hat tip to Bulldog Pundit on ABP)

Al Sharpton says he is the man of the poor, and we conservatives get attacked for saying "The policies he supports keep people poor"

Well now Al is doing more then keeping people poor through marxist ideologies

He is now supporting a Car Title loan company with his endorsment which charges 372% intrest. Al's only response

I don’t understand why it’s wrong for the little guy with no credit not to be able to get money.”

When it is a rate in which you pushed for the State of New York to ban then it does matter Al. It shows you only care about Al Sharpton.

A email i sent out on an issue I take seriously

Whenever some one complains about the Cosby's, or Ozzy and Harriet this stream of rantology comes to my head




I didn't have an ideal childhood, not like Tv depicts it with the
Cosby show ect. I was always dodging my father....if he was around
things sucked.



[Sets up soap box]

I am tired of people saying "My child wasn't ideal like tv shows" and I am tired of it for a simple reason. TV ISN'T REAL LIFE~! Even reality TV isn't real life. You know why we have the idiot box .... I'll tell you why. You have a hard day at work, you go to the TV and you watch the TV and you either see an ideal world where people make it work (or have a better life then you) or a world where people screw up worse then you and you can get some Schadenfreude out of it.

And while the Cosby kids had a pretty sweet life they also did very dramatic stupid things, of which the parents would help them solve and thus they learned a lesson....because that makes good tv and not a reality. Reality is parents and kids spending far more days doing nothing signifigant around the house...

Just as seeing people smoking on TV doesn't make me say "Well why isn't he coughing or getting cancer." because it is a TV SHOW. Its not "hey tv smoking has no consequences or responsibilities so I can do it to." Nope that is not the real answer either.

We venerate water-shedding mountains;

and we venerate water-holding lakes.

We venerate barley fields.



We venerate the two Protector-Fashioners.

We venerate the Wise Lord and Zarathushtra.

(Supplementary Song.2 = Yasna 42.2)

Ya know

I often find myself in a place where I know catholicism better then the churchy catholic types

but this is ridiculous

Officials at the Diocese of Linz say the German man claimed to have had 20 years of experience in the priesthood when he arrived in September and offered to help pastors in two towns, including one who was on a leave of absence. They say he initially was accepted because he had a firm grasp of church liturgy and the Bible. He since has returned to Germany.

Church officials say the fake priest doesn't appear to have committed any crime.

all i got to say is whomever you are fake german priest... I salut you

More things that confuse me

A movie based on Pacman

What?

Larry learns some new words (this may not be safe for work...)

** WARNING #1** The following may not be safe for work
**WARNING #2** The following may be very gross

Normally I don't go to bondage.com.... but I was looking for a definition of Oculotictus (Licking a partner’s eyeball) and I found a complete list of sexual terms that ..... well lets just say even I found weird

so let me share with you some of the pain I now have in my head

this is not the whole list just the ones that shocked/disturbed me

Agalmatophilia Arousal from statues or manikins
Amomaxiphilia Arousal from sex in a parked car
Amaurophilia Arousal from blindfolds or arousal from a blind sexual partner
Androminetophilia Arousal from female partners whom dress like males
Antholagnia Arousal from smelling flowers
Anthropophagy Arousal from consuming human flesh or blood
Archnephilia Arousal from spiders
Chezolagnia Masturbating while defecating
Coprplagnia Arousal from eating excrement
Dendrophilia Arousal from tree or fertility worship of them
Dysmorphophilia Arousal from deformed or physically imparted partners
Electrophilia Arousal from electrical stimulus
Eproctolagniac Arousal from flatulence
Emetophilia Arousal from vomit or vomiting
Flatuphilia Arousal from having partner pass gas
Galateism Sexual attraction to statues
Hierophilia Arousal from sacred objects
Homilophilia Arousal from giving or hearing sermons
Hybristophilia Arousal from being with someone that has committed a crime
Iantronudia Arousal from exposing oneself to a physician
Oculophilia Arousal from eyes
Oculotictus Licking a partner’s eyeball
Odontophilia Arousal from teeth
Psycholagny Arousal from psychic or mental stimulation
Siderodromophilia Arousal from trains
Taphephilia Arousal from being buried alive
Teledildonics Arousal from computer sex games
Zelophilia Arousal from being jealousy

and people made words for these

WOW

Has anyone else been getting a massive surge in spam

On Gmail?

The Ringer: Movie Review time

It's the Movie Review Sign time
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The Ringer was a pretty good film. While Johnny Knoxville did perhaps one of the most painful immitations of some one with a mental disability the people with mental disabilities saw right through it.

The folks who are in the mentally disabled sections of the special olympics are featured as they are and that makes this a pretty good movie

the Humor makes you doubt that if their is a heaven your soul will ever go to it.. and thats ok to.

While the movie does a semi-spielbergian type ending its done with all the charm you've come to expect from Johnny Knoxville and that makes it entertaining

good film

R.A.H on the War on Terror

The Fake MAO story got some cover elsewhere in the sphere of Blog but I found something cooler that I think should be shared. This came from the WSJ online best of the Web story on Ted Kennedy denying that it was relevant this story he quoted was fake. It puts some of the most ludicrous of the leftist rhetoric in proper perspective .

R.A.H circa 1953

I found in traveling around the world that a great many people . . ., apparently well educated and sophisticated, were convinced that the people of the United States were in the grip of terror and that free speech and free press no longer existed here. They believed that the United States was fomenting a third world war and would presently start it, with Armageddon consequences for everyone else, and that the government of the United States smashed without mercy anyone who dared to oppose even by oral protests this headlong rush toward disaster.
These people could "prove" their opinions by quoting any number of Americans and American newspapers and magazines. That they were able to quote such American sources proved just the opposite, namely that we do continue to enjoy free speech even to express arrant nonsense and unpopular opinion, escaped them completely.

Quotes like this make me feel better, and remember that the amount of stupidity hasn’t changed merely our recollection of it.

This day in 1922

Stan "The Man" Lee was born. The icon and father figure to all comic book geeks everywhere

Whooooooooooooooooooooo

The Owl Spirit You scored 60% Creativity, 64% Compassion, 56% Strength, and 68% Intelligence!

You are an Owl Spirit. You are very spiritual, and at wonder with the night. You think that the night is beautiful, and would prefer to be awake for it. You dream about flying, and your eyes are captivating. Owl spirits are very compassionate, and above all, creative. They are protectors of others. Don't forget my two other spiritual tests: Sitakaliism Test Paganism Test, my political test: The Liberal Test, and my Biology Test

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 23% on Creativity You scored higher than 95% on Compassion You scored higher than 62% on Strength You scored higher than 85% on Intelligence

Link: The Spirit Animal Test written by sitakali on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Wait...what?

Worship at our Church and get a house.......

weeeeeeeeeeeird

P-I on FISA

Well I just got egg on my face. I’ve often said “Why do we need the Patriot act when we have FISA courts?” and that FISA courts rarely refuse the government’s demands. Well turns out, the post-intelligencer has found evidence that it is not so much giving out warrants anymore. I do remember ( I’d need to lexis nexis for the old article) that they issued a rebuke of the Clinton Warrants but seems they were also not happy with the current POTUS and his uses of their powers.

But since 2001, the judges have modified 179 of the 5,645 requests for court-ordered surveillance by the Bush administration. A total of 173 of those court-ordered "substantive modifications" took place in 2003 and 2004 -- the most recent years for which public records are available.
The judges also rejected or deferred at least six requests for warrants during those two years -- the first outright rejection in the court's history.

But the meat of the Article is here
Faced with that standard, Bamford said, the Bush administration had difficulty obtaining FISA court-approved wiretaps on dozens of people within the United States who were communicating with targeted al-Qaida suspects inside the United States.

Ok… if I were to call Johnny Al-Qaeda on the phone I’d expect some Junior G men would come out and find out some stuff about me. I am just curious how the heck that wasn’t enough to get a FISA warrant if the people were speaking with the suspect and they did some suspect activity ( and in our current climate of laws who doesn’t)
This is interesting and I wonder what other classified information we will get leaked in all of this.

The Impeachment is History

It usually takes ten years for something to start to become History. Well the Ten year marker is rolling over on the whole Lewinsky Mess and that means to some degree the Clinton Impeachment is joining the ranks of human history.

How is it treated in the first histories? Well take a look.

The impeachment is portrayed in the context of his two-term tenure, a milestone event, but not one that overshadows how Clinton handled the economy, crime and health care.
The most commonly used texts give straightforward recaps of Clinton's toughest days, with some flavor of how it affected the nation. Absent are any the lurid details of his relationship with Monica Lewinksy that spiced up daily news reports and late-night talk shows as the scandal and impeachment played out in 1998 and early 1999.
It is still I think a bit early to really take this subject to the breast of the History text books and it seems I am not alone in that either.

"This is very difficult for everybody, because it's so fresh," said Gilbert Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, an independent research group that reviews history texts used in schools. "It's easier to nail down history like the transcontinental railroad. With Clinton, you're dealing with material that has by no means been settled."

I think we’ll probably have to wait another 4 years or so for the real histories of the Clinton years and some of their messes to get written. So that will make a 2008 election of Hillary Clinton more interesting if she some how does the impossible.

more religous theme'd fun from the email box

Expanding your spiritual experience is a long, slow process. Sometimes the process takes a quantum leap and one feels a noticeable, dramatic change. More often, the process moves slowly, with hardly an overwhelming moment. Only after a few months or years have passed will you be able to look back upon your experience and say, 'Yes, I have grown'.....
The birth of a soul does not come easily. The chick must fight to break out of its shell, the salmon must jump the rapids before it can spawn, the caterpillar must die before the butterfly can emerge.
After a transformation so momentous, you deserve a ritual. A ritual of tranformasion is one of religion's primary raisons d'être. Without such a ritual, the transformation itself is incomplete. The ritual declares to God, to your community and to yourself, that on many levels a change of status has occured.....You already know but the ritual insures that you know you know.
Rituals of transformation are programmed experiences, or psychodramas designed to facilitate the experience of transformation."

- William Blank (Torah, Tarot & Tantra)

It came from the Email Box (Jesus themed)

Some stuff to make ya think about Jesus

REFUTING MISSIONARIES

Hayyim ben Yehoshua



PART 1: THE MYTH OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS



Much concern has been expressed in the Jewish media regarding the activity of "Jews for Jesus" and other missionary organizations who go out of their way to convert Jews to Christianity. Unfortunately, many Jews are ill equipped to deal with Christian missionaries and their arguments. Hopefully this article will contribute to remedying this situation.

When countering Christian missionaries it is important to base one's arguments on correct facts. Arguments based on incorrect facts can easily backfire and end up strengthening the arguments of the missionaries.

It is rather unfortunate that many well-meaning Jewish Studies teachers have unwittingly aided missionaries by teaching Jewish pupils incorrect information about the origins of Christianity. I can recall being taught the following story about Jesus at the Jewish day school I attended:

"Jesus was a famous first century rabbi whose Hebrew name was Rabbi Yehoshua. His father was a carpenter named Joseph and his mother's name was Mary. Mary became pregnant before she married Joseph. Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem during a Roman census. Jesus grew up in Nazareth and became a learned rabbi. He traveled all over Israel preaching that people should love one another. Some people thought that he was the Messiah and he did not deny this, which made the other rabbis very angry. He caused so much controversy that the Roman governor Pontius Pilate had him crucified. He was buried in a tomb and later his body was found to be missing since it had probably been stolen by his disciples."

A few years after being taught this seemingly innocent story, I became interested in the origins of Christianity and decided to do some further reading on the "famous Rabbi Yehoshua." Much to my dismay, I discovered that there was no historical evidence of this Rabbi Yehoshua. The claim that Jesus was a rabbi named Yehoshua and the claim that his body was probably stolen both turned out to be pure conjecture. The rest of the story was nothing more than a watered down version of the story which Christians believe as part of the Christian religion but which is not supported by any legitimate historical source.

There was absolutely no historical evidence that Jesus, Joseph or Mary ever existed, let alone that Joseph was a carpenter or that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth.

Despite the lack of evidence for Jesus's existence many Jews have made the tragic mistake of assuming that the New Testament story is largely correct and have tried to refute Christianity by attempting to rationalize the various miracles that allegedly occurred during Jesus's life and after his death. Numerous books have been written which take this approach to Christianity. This approach however is hopelessly flawed and is in fact dangerous since it encourages belief in the New Testament.

When the Israelites were confronted with the worship of Baal they did not blindly accept the ancient West Semitic myths as history. When the Maccabees were confronted with Greek religion they did not blindly accept Greek mythology as history. Why do so many modern Jews blindly accept Christian mythology? The answer to this question seems to be that many Christians do not know themselves where the distinction between established history and Christian belief lies and they have passed their confusion on to the Jewish community. Browsing through the religion section of a local bookstore, I recently came across a book which claimed to be an objective biography of Jesus. It turned out to be nothing more than a summary of the usual New Testament story. It even included claims that Jesus's miracles had been witnessed but that rational explanations for them might exist. Many history books written by Christians take a similar approach. Some Christian authors will suggest that perhaps the miracles are not completely historical but they nevertheless follow the general New Testament story. The idea that there was a real historical Jesus has thus become entrenched in Christian society and Jews living in the Christian world have come to blindly accept this belief because they have never seen it seriously challenged.

Despite the widespread belief in Jesus the fact remains that there is no historical Jesus. In order to understand what is meant by an "historical Jesus," consider King Midas in Greek mythology. The story that King Midas turned everything he touched into gold is clearly nonsense, yet despite this we know that there was a real King Midas. Archaeologists have excavated his tomb and found his skeletal remains. The Greeks who told the story of Midas and his golden touch clearly intended people to identify him with the real Midas. So although the story of the golden touch is fictional, the story is about a person whose existence is known as a fact--the "historical Midas." In the case of Jesus, however, there is no single person whose existence is known as a fact and who is also intended to be the subject of the Jesus stories, i.e. there is no historical Jesus.

When confronted by a Christian missionary, one should immediately point out that the very existence of Jesus has not been proven. When missionaries argue they usually appeal to emotions rather than to reason and they will attempt to make you feel embarrassed about denying the historicity of Jesus. The usual response is something like "Isn't denying the existence of Jesus just as silly as denying the existence of Julius Caesar or Queen Elizabeth?" A popular variation of this response used especially against Jews is "Isn't denying the existence of Jesus like denying the Holocaust?" One should then point out that there are ample historical sources confirming the existence of Julius Caesar, Queen Elizabeth or whoever else is named, while there is no corresponding evidence for Jesus.

To be perfectly thorough you should take time to do some research on the historical personalities mentioned by the missionaries and present hard evidence of their existence. At the same time you should challenge the missionaries to provide similar evidence of Jesus's existence. You should point out that although the existence of Julius Caesar, or Queen Elizabeth, etc., is accepted worldwide, the same is not true of Jesus. In the Far East where the major religions are Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism and Confucianism, Jesus is considered to be just another character in Western religious mythology, on a par with Thor, Zeus and Osiris. Most Hindus do not believe in Jesus, but those who do consider him to be one of the many avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu. Muslims certainly believe in Jesus but they reject the New Testament story and consider him to be a prophet who announced the coming of Muhammed. They explicitly deny that he was ever crucified.

To sum up, there is no story of Jesus which is uniformly accepted worldwide. It is this fact which puts Jesus on a different level to established historical personalities. If the missionaries use the "Holocaust reply," you should point out that the Holocaust is well-documented and that there are numerous eyewitness reports. It should be pointed out that most of the people who deny the Holocaust have turned out to be antisemitic hate-mongers with fraudulent credentials. On the other hand, millions of honest people in Asia, who make up the majority of the world's population, have failed to be convinced by the Christian story of Jesus since there is no compelling evidence for its authenticity. The missionaries will insist that the story of Jesus is a well-established fact and will argue that there is "plenty of evidence supporting it." One should then insist on seeing this evidence and refuse to listen any further until they produce it.

If Jesus was not an historical person, where did the whole New Testament story come from in the first place? The Hebrew name for Christians has always been Notzrim. This name is derived from the Hebrew word neitzer, which means a shoot or sprout--an obvious Messianic symbol. There were already people called Notzrim at the time of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachyah (c. 100 B.C.E.). Although modern Christians claim that Christianity only started in the first century C.E., it is clear that the first century Christians in Israel considered themselves to be a continuation of the Notzri movement which had been in existence for about 150 years. One of the most notorious Notzrim was Yeishu ben Pandeira, also known as Yeishu ha-Notzri. Talmudic scholars have always maintained that the story of Jesus began with Yeishu. The Hebrew name for Jesus has always been Yeishu and the Hebrew for "Jesus the Nazarene" has always been "Yeishu ha-Notzri." (The name Yeishu is a shortened form of the name Yeishua, not Yehoshua.) It is important to note that Yeishu ha-Notzri is not an historical Jesus since modern Christianity denies any connection between Jesus and Yeishu and moreover, parts of the Jesus myth are based on other historical people besides Yeishu.

We know very little about Yeishu ha-Notzri. All modern works that mention him are based on information taken from the Tosefta and the Baraitas - writings made at the same time as the Mishna but not contained in it. Because the historical information concerning Yeishu is so damaging to Christianity, most Christian authors (and even some Jewish ones) have tried to discredit this information and have invented many ingenious arguments to explain it away. Many of their arguments are based on misunderstandings and misquotations of the Baraitas and in order to get an accurate picture of Yeishu one should ignore Christian authors and examine the Baraitas directly.

The skimpy information contained in the Baraitas is as follows: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachyah once repelled Yeishu with both hands. People believed that Yeishu was a sorcerer and they considered him to be a person who had led the Jews astray. As a result of charges brought against him (the details of which are not known, but which probably involved high treason) Yeishu was stoned and his body hung up on the eve of Passover. Before this he was paraded around for forty days with a herald going in front of him announcing that he would be stoned and calling for people to come forward to plead for him. Nothing was brought forward in his favor however. Yeishu had five disciples: Mattai, Naqai, Neitzer, Buni, and Todah.

In the Tosefta and the Baraitas, Yeishu's father is named Pandeira or Panteiri. These are Hebrew-Aramaic forms of a Greek name. In Hebrew the third consonant of the name is written either with a dalet or a tet. Comparison with other Greek words transliterated into Hebrew shows that the original Greek must have had a delta as its third consonant and so the only possibility for the father's Greek name is Panderos. Since Greek names were common among Jews during Hashmonean times it is not necessary to assume that he was Greek, as some authors have done.

The connection between Yeishu and Jesus is corroborated by the the fact that Mattai and Todah, the names of two of Yeishu's disciples, are the original Hebrew forms of Matthew and Thaddaeus, the names of two of Jesus's disciples in Christian mythology.

The early Christians were also aware of the name "ben Pandeira" for Jesus. The pagan philosopher Celsus, who was famous for his arguments against Christianity, claimed in 178 C.E. that he had heard from a Jew that Jesus's mother, Mary, had been divorced by her husband, a carpenter, after it had been proved that she was an adultress. She wandered about in shame and bore Jesus in secret. His real father was a soldier named Pantheras. According to the Christian writer Epiphanius (c. 320 - 403 C.E.), the Christian apologist Origen (c.185 - 254 C.E.) had claimed that "Panther" was the nickname for Jacob the father of Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus. It should be noted that Origen's claim is not based on any historical information. It is purely a conjecture aimed at explaining away the Pantheras story of Celsus. That story is also not historical. The claim that the name of Jesus's mother was Mary and the claim that her husband was a carpenter is taken directly from Christian belief. The claim that Jesus's real father was named Pantheras is based on an incorrect attempt at reconstructing the original form of Pandeira. This incorrect reconstruction was probably influenced by the fact that the name Pantheras was found among Roman soldiers.

Why did people believe that Jesus's mother was named Mary and her husband named Joseph? Why did non-Christians accuse Mary of being an adultress while Christians believed she was a virgin? To answer these questions one must examine some of the legends surrounding Yeishu. We cannot hope to obtain the absolute truth concerning the origins of the Jesus myth but we can show that reasonable alternatives exist to blindly accepting the New Testament.

The name Joseph for Jesus's stepfather is easy to explain. The Notzri movement was particularly popular with the Samaritan Jews. While the Pharisees were waiting for a Messiah who would be a descendant of David, the Samaritans wanted a Messiah who would restore the northern kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans emphasized their partial descent from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who were descended from the Joseph of the Torah. The Samaritans considered themselves to be "Bnei Yoseph" i.e. "sons of Joseph," and since they believed that Jesus had been their Messiah, they would have assumed that he was a "son of Joseph." The Greek speaking population, who had little knowledge of Hebrew and true Jewish traditions, could have easily misunderstood this term and assumed that Joseph was the actual name of Jesus's father. This conjecture is corroborated by the fact that according to the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph's father is named Jacob, just like the Torah Joseph. Later, other Christians, who followed the idea that the Messiah was to be descended from David, tried to trace Joseph back to David. They came up with two contradictory genealogies for him, one recorded in Matthew and the other in Luke. When the idea that Mary was a virgin developed, the mythical Joseph was relegated to the position of simply being her husband and the stepfather of Jesus.

To understand where the Mary story came from we have to turn to another historical character who contributed to the Jesus myth, namely ben Stada. All the information we have on ben Stada again comes from the Tosefta and the Baraitas. There is even less information about him than about Yeishu. Some people believed that he had brought spells out of Egypt in a cut in his flesh, others thought that he was a madman. He was a beguiler and was caught by the method of concealed witnesses. He was stoned in Lod.

In the Tosefta, ben Stada is called ben Sotera or ben Sitera. Sotera seems to be the Hebrew-Aramaic form of the Greek name Soteros. The forms "Sitera" and "Stada" seem have arisen as misreadings and spelling mistakes (yod replacing vav and dalet replacing reish).

Since there was so little information concerning ben Stada, many conjectures arose as to who he was. It is known from the Gemara that he was confused with Yeishu. This probably resulted from the fact that both were executed for treasonous teachings and were associated with sorcery. People who confused ben Stada with Yeishu had to explain why he was also called ben Pandeira. Since the name "Stada" resembles the Aramaic expression "stat da," meaning "she went astray" it was thought that "Stada" referred to the mother of Yeishu and that she was an adultress. Consequently, people began to think that Yeishu was the illegitimate son of Pandeira. These ideas are in fact mentioned in the Gemara and are probably much older. Since ben Stada lived in Roman times and the name Pandeira resembled the name Pantheras found among Roman soldiers, it was assumed that Pandeira had been a Roman soldier stationed in Israel. This certainly explains the story mentioned by Celsus.

The Tosefta mentions a famous case of a woman named Miriam bat Bilgah marrying a Roman soldier. The idea that Yeishu had been born to a Jewish woman who had had an affair with a Roman soldier probably resulted in Yeishu's mother being confused with this Miriam. The name "Miriam" is of course the original form of the name "Mary." It is in fact known from the Gemara that some of the people who confused Yeishu with ben Stada believed that Yeishu's mother was "Miriam the women's hairdresser."

The story that Mary (Miriam) the mother of Jesus was an adulteress was certainly not acceptable to the early Christians. The virgin birth story was probably invented to clear Mary's name. The early Christians did not suck this story out of their thumbs. Virgin birth stories were fairly common in pagan myths. The following mythological characters were all believed to have been born to divinely impregnated virgins: Romulus and Remus, Perseus, Zoroaster, Mithras, Osiris-Aion, Agdistis, Attis, Tammuz, Adonis, Korybas, Dionysus. The pagan belief in unions between gods and women, regardless of whether they were virgins or not, is even more common. Many characters in pagan mythology were believed to be sons of divine fathers and human females. The Christian belief that Jesus was the son of God born to a virgin, is typical of Greco-Roman superstition. The Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria (c. 30 B.C.E - 45 C.E.), warned against the widespread superstitious belief in unions between male gods and human females which returned women to a state of virginity.

The god Tammuz, worshipped by pagans in northern Israel, was said to have been born to the virgin Myrrha. The name "Myrrha" superficially resembles "Mary/Miriam" and it is possible that this particular virgin birth story influenced the Mary story more than the others. Like Jesus, Tammuz was always called Adon, meaning "Lord." (The character Adonis in Greek mythology is based on Tammuz.) As we will see later, the connection between Jesus and Tammuz goes much further than this.

The idea that Mary had been an adultress never completely disappeared in Christian mythology. Instead, the character of Mary was split into two: Mary the mother of Jesus, believed to be a virgin, and Mary Magdalene, believed to be a woman of ill repute. The idea that the character of Mary Magdalene is also derived from Miriam the mythical mother of Yeishu, is corroborated by the fact that the strange name "Magdalene" clearly resembles the Aramaic term "mgadla nshaya," meaning "womens' hairdresser." As mentioned before, there was a belief that Yeishu's mother was "Miriam the women's hairdresser." Because the Christians did not know what the name "Magdalene" meant, they later conjectured that it meant that she had come from a place called Magdala on the west of Lake Kinneret. The idea of the two Marys fitted in well with the pagan way of thinking. The image of Jesus being followed by the two Marys is strongly reminiscent of Dionysus being followed by Demeter and Persephone.

The Gemara contains an interesting legend concerning Yeishu which attempts to elucidate the Beraita which says that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachyah repelled Yeishu with both hands. The legend claims that when the Hashmonean king Yannai was killing the Pharisees, Rabbi Yehoshua and Yeishu fled to Egypt. When returning they came upon an inn. The Aramaic word "aksanya" means both "inn" or "innkeeper." Rabbi Yehoshua remarked how beautiful the "aksanya" was (meaning the inn). Yeishu (meaning the innkeeper) replied that her eyes were too narrow. Rabbi Yehoshua was very angry with Yeishu and excommunicated him. Yeishu asked many times for forgiveness but Rabbi Yehoshua would not forgive him. Once when Rabbi Yehoshua was reciting the Shema, Yeishu came up to him. He made a sign to him that he should wait. Yeishu misunderstood and thought that he was being rejected again. He mocked Rabbi Yehoshua by setting up a brick and worshipping it. Rabbi Yehoshua told him to repent but he refused to, saying that he had learned from him that anyone who sins and causes many to sin, is not given the opportunity to repent.

The above story, up to the events at the inn, closely resembles another legend in which the protagonist is not Rabbi Yehoshua but his disciple Yehuda ben Tabbai. In this legend, Yeishu is not named. One may thus question whether Yeishu really went to Egypt or not. It is possible that Yeishu was confused with some other disciple of either Rabbi Yehoshua or Rabbi Yehuda. The confusion might have resulted from the fact that Yeishu was confused with ben Stada who had returned from Egypt. On the other hand, Yeishu might have really fled to Egypt and returned, and this in turn could have contributed to the confusion between Yeishu and ben Stada. Whatever the case, the belief that Yeishu fled to Egypt to escape being killed by a cruel king, appears to be the origin of the Christian belief that Jesus and his family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod.

Since the early Christians believed that Jesus had lived in Roman times it is natural that they would have confused the evil king who wanted to kill Jesus with Herod, since there were no other suitable evil kings during the Roman period. Yeishu was an adult at the time that the rabbis fled from Yannai; why did the Christians believe that Jesus and his family had fled to Egypt when Jesus was an infant? Why did the Christians believe that Herod had ordered all baby boys born in Bethlehem to be killed, when there is no historical evidence of this? To answer these questions we again have to look at pagan mythology.

The theme of a divine or semi-divine child who is feared by an evil king is very common in pagan mythology. The usual story is that the evil king receives a prophecy that a certain child will be born who will usurp the throne. In some stories the child is born to a virgin and usually he is son of a god. The mother of the child tries to hide him. The king usually orders the slaying of all babies who might be the prophecied king. Examples of myths which follow this plot are the birth stories of Romulus and Remus, Perseus, Krishna, Zeus, and Oedipus. Although Torah literalists will not like to admit it, the story of Moses's birth also resembles these myths (some of which claim that the mother put the child in a basket and placed him in a river). There were probably several such stories circulating in the Levant which have been lost. The Christian myth of the slaughter of the innocents by Herod is simply a Christain version of this theme. The plot was so well known that one Midrashic scholar could not resist using it for an apocryphal account of Abraham's birth.

The early Christians believed that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. This belief is based on a misunderstanding of Micah 5.2 which simply names Bethlehem as the town where the Davidic lineage began. Since the early Christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah, they automatically believed that he was born in Bethlehem. But why did the Christians believe that he lived in Nazareth? The answer is quite simple. The early Greek speaking Christians did not know what the word "Nazarene" meant. The earliest Greek form of this word is "Nazoraios," which is derived from "Natzoriya," the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew "Notzri." (Recall that "Yeishu ha-Notzri" is the original Hebrew for "Jesus the Nazarene.") The early Christians conjectured that "Nazarene" meant a person from Nazareth and so it was assumed that Jesus lived in Nazareth. Even today, Christians blithely confuse the Hebrew words "Notzri" (Nazarene, Christian), "Natzrati" (Nazarethite) and "nazir" (nazarite), all of which have completely different meanings.

The information in the Talmud (which contains the Baraitas and the Gemara), concerning Yeishu and ben Stada, is so damaging to Christianity that Christians have always taken drastic measures against it. When the Christians first discovered the information they immediately tried to wipe it out by censoring the Talmud. The Basle edition of the Talmud (c. 1578 - 1580) had all the passages relating to Yeishu and ben Stada deleted by the Christians. Even today, editions of the Talmud used by Christian scholars lack these passages!

During the first few decades of this century, fierce academic battles raged between atheist and Christian scholars over the true origins of Christianity. The Christians were forced to face up to the Talmudic evidence. They could no longer ignore it and so they decided to attack it instead. They claimed that the Talmudic Yeishu was a distortion of the "historical Jesus." They claimed that the name "Pandeira" was simply a Hebrew attempt at pronouncing the Greek word for virgin--"parthenos." Although there is a superficial resemblence between the words, one should note that in order for "Pandeira" to be derived from "parthenos," the "n" and "r" have to be interchanged. However, the Jews did not suffer from any speech impediment which would cause this to happen! The Christian response is that possibly the Jews purposefully altered the word "parthenos" to either the name "Pantheras" (found in Celsus's story) or to "pantheros" meaning a panther, and "Pandeira" is derived from the deliberately altered word. This argument also fails since the third consonant of both the altered and unaltered "parthenos" is theta. This letter is always transliterated by the Hebrew letter tav, whose pronunciation during classical times most closely resembled that of the Greek letter. However, the name "Pandeira" is never spelled with a tav but with either a dalet or a tet which show that the original Greek form had a delta as its third consonant, not a theta. The Christian argument can also be turned on its head: maybe the Christians deliberately altered "Pantheras" to "parthenos" when they invented the virgin birth story. It should also be noted that the resemblence between "Pantheras" (or "pantheros") and "parthenos" is actually much less when written in Greek since in the original Greek spelling their second vowels are completely different.

The Christians also did not accept that Mary Magdalene was connected to Miriam the alleged mother of Yeishu in the Talmud. They argued that the name "Magdalene" does mean a person from Magdala and that the Jews invented "Miriam the women's hairdresser mgadla nshaya)" either to mock the Christians, or out of their own misunderstanding of the name "Magdalene." This argument is also false. Firstly, it ignores Greek grammar: the correct Greek for "of Magdala" is "Magdales" and the correct Greek for a person from Magdala is "Magdalaios." The original Greek root of "Magdalene" is "Magdalen-," with a conspicuous "n" showing that the word has nothing to do with Magdala. Secondly, Magdala only got its name after the Gospels were written. Before that it was called Magadan or Dalmanutha. (Although "Magadan" has an "n," it lacks an "l" and so it cannot be the derivation of "Magdalene.") In fact, the ruins of this area were renamed Magdala by the Christian community because they believed that Mary Magdalene had come from there.

The Christians also claimed that the word "Notzri" means a person from Nazareth. This is of course false since the original Hebrew for Nazareth is "Natzrat" and a person from Nazareth is a "Natzrati." The name "Notzri" lacks the letter tav from "Natzrat" as so it cannot be derived from it. The Christians argue that perhaps the Aramaic name for Nazareth was "Natzarah" or "Natzirah" (like the modern Arabic name) which explains the missing tav in "Notzri." This is also nonsense since the Aramaic word for a person from Nazareth would then be "Natzaratiya" or "Natziratiya" (with a tav since the feminine ending "-ah" would become "-at-" when the suffix "-iya" is added), and besides, the Aramaic form would not be used in Hebrew. The Christians also came up with various other arguments which can be dismissed since they confuse the Hebrew words "Notzri" and "nazir" or ignore the fact that "Notzri" is the earliest form of the word "Nazarene."

To sum up, all the Christian arguments were based on impossible phonetic changes and grammatical forms, and were consequently dismissed. Moreover, although the legends in the Gemara cannot be taken as fact, the evidence in the Baraitas and Tosefta concerning Yeishu can be traced back directly to Yehoshua ben Perachyah, Shimon ben Shetach and Yehuda ben Tabbai and their disciples who were contemporaries of Yeishu, while the evidence in the Baraitas and Tosefta concerning ben Stada can be traced to Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and his disciples who were ben Stada's contempories. Consequently the evidence can be regarded as historically accurate. Therefore modern Christians no longer attack the Talmud but instead deny any connection between Jesus and Yeishu or ben Stada. They dismiss the similarities as pure coincidence. However, one must still be aware of the false attacks on the Talmud since many Christian books still mention them and they can and do resurface from time to time.

Many parts of the Jesus story are not based on Yeishu or ben Stada. Most Christian denominations claim that Jesus was born on 25 December. Originally the eastern Christains believed that he was born on 6 January. The Armenian Christians still follow this early belief while most Christians consider it to be the date of the visit of the Magi. As pointed out already, Jesus was probably confused with Tammuz born of the virgin Myrrha. We know that in Roman times, the gods Tammuz, Aion and Osiris were identified. Osiris-Aion was said to be born of the virgin Isis on the 6 January and this explains the earlier date for Christmas. Isis was sometimes represented as a sacred cow and her temple as a stable which is probably the origin of the Christian belief that Jesus was born in a stable. Although some might find this claim to be farfetched, it is known as a fact that certain early Christian sects identified Jesus and Osiris in their writings. The date of 25 December for Christmas was originally the pagan birthday of the sun god, whose day of the week is still known as Sunday. The halo of light which is usually shown surrounding the face of Jesus and Christian saints, is another concept taken from the sun god.

The theme of temptation by a devil-like creature was also found in pagan mythology. In particular the story of Jesus's temptation by Satan resembles the temptation of Osiris by the devil-god Set in Egyptian mythology.

We have already hinted that there was also a connection between Jesus and the pagan god Dionysus. Like Dionysus, the infant Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger; like Dionysus, Jesus could turn water into wine; like Dionysus, Jesus rode on an ass and fed a multitude in the wilderness; like Dionysus, Jesus suffered and was mocked. Some early Christians claimed that Jesus had in fact been born, not in a stable, but in a cave--just like Dionysus.

Where did the story that Jesus was crucified come from? It appears to have resulted from a number of sources. Firstly there were three historical characters during the Roman period who people thought were Messiahs and who were crucified by the Romans, namely Yehuda of Galilee (6 C.E.), Theudas (44 C.E.), and Benjamin the Egyptian (60 C.E.). Since these three people were all thought to be the Messiah, they were naturally confused with Yeishu and ben Stada. Yehuda of Galilee had preached in Galilee and had collected many followers before being crucified by the Romans. The story of Jesus's ministry in Galilee appears to be based on the life of Yehuda of Galilee. This story and the belief that Jesus lived in Nazareth in Galilee, reinforced each other. The belief that some of Jesus's disciples were killed in c. 44 C.E. by Agrippa appears to be based the fate of Theudas's disciples. Since ben Stada had come from Egypt it is natural that he would have been confused with Benjamin the Egyptian. They were probably also contemporaries. Even some modern authors have suggested that they were the same person, although this is not possible since the stories of their deaths are completely different. In the New Testament book of Acts, which uses Josephus's book Jewish Antiquities (93 - 94 C.E.) as a reference, it is made clear that the author considered Jesus, Yehuda of Galilee, Theudas and Benjamin the Egyptian, to be four different people. However, by that time it was too late to undo the confusions which had already taken place before the New Testament was written, and the idea of Jesus's crucifixion had become an integral part of the myth.

Secondly, the idea arose that Jesus had been executed on the eve of Passover. This belief is apparently based on Yeishu's execution. Passover occurs at the time of the Vernal Equinox, an event considered important by astrologers during the Roman Empire. The astrologers thought of this time as the time of the crossing of two astrological celestial circles, and this event was symbolized by a cross. Thus there was a belief that Jesus had died on "the cross." The misunderstanding of this term by those who were not initiated into the astrological cults, was another factor contributing to the belief that Jesus was crucified. In one of the earliest Christian documents (the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) there is no mention of Jesus being crucified yet the sign of a cross in the sky is used to represent Jesus's coming. It should be noted that the center of astrological superstition in the Roman Empire was the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor - the place where the legendary missionary Paul came from. The idea that a special star had heralded the birth of Jesus, and that a solar eclipse occurred at his death, is typical of Tarsian astrological superstition.

The third factor contributing to the crucifixion story is again pagan mythology. The theme of a divine or semi-divine being sacrificed against a tree, pole or cross, and then being resurrected, is very common in pagan mythology. It was found in the mythologies of all western civilizations stretching from as far west as Ireland and as far east as India. In particular it is found in the mythologies of Osiris and Attis, both of whom were often identified with Tammuz. Osiris landed up with his arms stretched out on a tree like Jesus on the cross. This tree was sometimes shown as a pole with outstretched arms - the same shape as the Christian cross. In the worship of Serapis (a composite of Osiris and Apis) the cross was a religious symbol. Indeed, the Christian "Latin cross" symbol seems to be based directly on the cross symbol of Osiris and Serapis. The Romans never used this traditional Christian cross for crucifixions, they used crosses shaped either like an X or a T. The hieroglyph of a cross on a hill was associated with Osiris. This heiroglyph stood for the "Good One," in Greek "Chrestos," a name applied to Osiris and other pagan gods. The confusion of this name with "Christos" (Messiah, Christ) strengthened the confusion between Jesus and the pagan gods.

At the Vernal Equinox, pagans in northern Israel would celebrate the death and resurrection of the virgin-born Tammuz-Osiris. In Asia Minor (where the earliest Christian churches were established) a similar celebration was held for the virgin-born Attis. Attis was shown as dying against a tree, being buried in a cave and then being resurrected on the third day. We thus see where the Christian story of Jesus's resurrection comes from. In the worship of Baal, it was believed that Baal cheated Mavet (the god of death) at the time of the Vernal Equinox. He pretended to be dead but later appeared alive. He accomplished this ruse by giving his only son as a sacrifice.

The occurrence of Passover at the same time of year as the pagan "Easter" festivals is not coincidental. Many of the Pessach customs were designed as Jewish alternatives to pagan customs. The pagans believed that when their nature god (such as Tammuz, Osiris or Attis) died and was resurrected, his life went into the plants used by man as food. The matza made from the spring harvest was his new body and the wine from the grapes was his new blood. In Judaism, matza, was not used to represent the body of a god but the poor man's bread which the Jews ate before leaving Egypt. The pagans used the paschal sacrifice to represent the sacrifice of a god or his only son, but Judaism used it to represent the meal eaten before leaving Egypt. Instead of telling stories about Baal sacrificing his first born son to Mavet, the Jews told how mal'ach ha-mavet (the angel of death) slew the first born sons of the Egyptians. The pagans ate eggs to represent the resurrection and rebirth of their nature god, but the egg on the seder plate represents the rebirth of the Jewish people escaping captivity in Egypt. When the early Christians noticed the similarities between Pessach customs and pagan customs, they came full circle and converted the Pessach customs back to their old pagan interpretations. The seder became the last supper of Jesus, similar to the last supper of Osiris commemorated at the Vernal Equinox. The matza and wine once again became the body and blood of a false god, this time Jesus. Easter eggs are again eaten to commemorate the resurrection of a "god" and also the "rebirth" obtained by accepting his sacrifice on the cross.

The Last Supper myth is particularly interesting. As mentioned, the basic idea of last supper occurring at the Vernal Equinox comes from the story of the last supper of Osiris. In the Christian story, Jesus is present with twelve apostles. Where did the story of the twelve apostles come from? It appears that in its earliest version, the story was understood to be an allegory. The first time that twelve apostles are mentioned is in the document known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. This document apparently originated as a sectarian Jewish document written in the first century C.E., but it was adopted by Christians who altered it substantially and added Christian ideas to it. In the earliest versions it is clear that the "twelve apostles" are the twelve sons of Jacob representing the twelve tribes of Israel. The Christians later considered the "twelve apostles" to be allegorical disciples of Jesus.

In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was betrayed at his last supper by the evil god Set, whom the Greeks identified with Typhon. This seems to be the origin of the idea that Jesus's betrayer was present at his last supper. The idea that this betrayer was named "Judas" goes back to the time when the twelve apostles were still understood to be the sons of Jacob. The idea of Judas (Judah, Yehuda) betraying Jesus (the "son" of Joseph) is strongly reminiscent of the story of the Torah Joseph being betrayed by his brothers with Yehuda as the ringleader. This allegory would have been particulary appealing to the Samaritan Notzrim who considered themselves to be sons of Joseph betrayed by mainstream Jews (represented by Judas/Yehuda).

However, the story of the twelve apostles lost its original allegorical interpretation and the Christians began to think that the "twelve apostles" were twelve real people who followed Jesus. The Christians attempted to find names for these twelve apostles. Matthew and Thaddaeus were based on Mattai and Todah, two of Yeishu's disciples. One or both of the apostles named Jacobus (James) is possibly based on Jacob of Kfar Sekanya, an early Christian known to Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, but this is just a guess. As we have seen, the character of Judas is mostly based on the Judah of the Torah but there might also be a connection with Yeishu's contemporary, Yehuda ben Tabbai the disciple of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachyah. As already mentioned, the idea of the betrayer at the last supper is derived from the mythology of Osiris who was betrayed by Set-Typhon. Set-Typhon had red hair and this is probably the origin of the claim that Judas had red hair. This idea has led to the Christian stereotypical portrayal of Jews as having red hair, despite the fact that in reality, red hair is far more common among Aryans than among Jews.

Judas is often given the nickname "Iscariot." In some places where English New Testaments have "Iscariot," the Greek text actually has "apo Kariotou" which means "from Karyot." Karyot was the name of a town in Israel, probably the modern site known in Arabic as Karyatein. We thus see that the name Iscariot is derived from the Hebrew "ish Karyot" meaning "man from Karyot." This is in fact the accepted modern Christian understanding of the name. However, in the past, the Christians misunderstood this name and legends arose that Judas was from the town of Sychar, that he was a member of the extremist party known as the Sicarii and that he was from the tribe of Issacher. The most interesting misunderstanding of the name is its early confusion with the word scortea meaning a leather money bag. This led to the New Testament myth that Judas carried such a bag, which in turn led to the belief that he was the treasurer of the apostles.

The apostle Peter appears to be a largely fictitious character. According to Christian mythology, Jesus chose him to be the "keeper of the keys to the kingdom of heaven." This is clearly based on the Egyptian pagan deity, Petra, who was the door-keeper of heaven and the afterlife ruled over by Osiris. We must also doubt the story of Luke "the good healer" who was supposed to be a friend of Paul. The original Greek for "Luke" is "Lykos" which was another name for Apollo, the god of healing.

John the Baptist is largely based on an historical person who practiced ritual immersion in water as a physical symbol for repentance. He did not perform Christian style sacramental baptisms to cleanse people's souls - such an idea was totally foreign to Judaism. He was put to death by Herod Antipas, who feared that he was about to start a rebellion. John's name in Greek was "Ioannes" and in Latin "Johannes." Although these names were usually used for the Hebrew name Yochanan, it is unlikely that this was John's actual Hebrew name. "Ioannes" closely resembles "Oannes" the Greek name for the pagan god Ea. Oannes was the "God of the House of Water." Sacramental baptism for magically cleansing souls was a practice which apparently originated in the worship of Oannes. The most likely explanation of John's name and its connection with Oannes is that John probably bore the nickname "Oannes" since he practised baptism which he had adapted from the worship of Oannes. The name "Oannes" was later confused with "Ioannes." (In fact, the New Testament legend concerning John provides a clue that his real name might have been Zacharia.) It is known from Josephus's writings that the historical John rejected the pagan "soul-cleansing" interpretation of baptism. The Christians, however, returned to this original pagan interpretation.

The god Oannes was associated with the constellation Capricorn. Both Oannes and the constellation Capricorn were associated with water. (The constellation is supposed to depict a mythical sea-creature with the body of a fish and the foreparts of a goat.) We have already seen that Jesus was given the same birthday as the sun god (25 December), when the sun is in the constellation of Capricorn. The pagans thought of this period as one where the sun god is immersed in the waters of Oannes and emerges reborn. (The Winter Solstice, when days start getting longer, occurs near 25 December.) This astrological myth is apparently the origin of the story that Jesus was baptized by John. It probably started as an allegorical astrological story, but it appears that the god Oannes later became confused with the historical person nicknamed Oannes (John).

The belief that Jesus had met John contributed to the belief that Jesus's ministry and crucifixion occurred when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judaea. It should be noted that most dates for Jesus quoted by Christians are completely nonsense. Jesus was partly based on Yeishu and ben Stada who probably lived more than a century apart. He was also based on the three false Messiahs, Yehuda, Theudas and Benjamin, who were crucified by the Romans at various different times. Another fact that contributed to confused dating of Jesus was that Jacob of Kfar Sekanya and probably other Notzrim as well, used expressions like "thus was I taught by Yeishu ha-Notzri," even though he had not been taught by Yeishu in person. We know from the Gemara that Jacob's statement led Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus to incorrectly conclude that Jacob was a disciple of Yeishu. This suggests that there were rabbis who were unaware of the fact that Yeishu had lived in Hashmonean times. Even after Christians placed Jesus in the first century C.E., confusion continued among non-Christians. There was a contemporary of Rabbi Akiva named Pappus ben Yehuda who used to lock up his unfaithful wife. We know from the Gemara that some people who confused Yeishu and ben Stada confused the wife of Pappus with Miriam the unfaithful mother of Yeishu. This would place Yeishu more than two centuries after he actually lived!

The New Testament story confuses so many historical periods that there is no way of reconciling it with history. The traditional year of Jesus's birth is 1 C.E. Jesus was supposed to be not more than two years old when Herod ordered the slaughter of the innocents. However, Herod died before April 12, 4 B.C.E. This has led some Christians to redate the birth of Jesus in 6 - 4 B.C.E. However, Jesus was also supposed have been born during the census of Quirinius. This census took place after Archelaus was deposed in 6 C.E., ten years after Herod's death. Jesus was supposed to have been baptized by John soon after John had started baptizing and preaching in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias, i.e. 28-29 C.E., when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea i.e. 26-36 C.E. According to the New Testament, this also happened when Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene and Annas and Caiaphas were high priests. But Lysanias ruled Abilene from c. 40 B.C.E until he was executed in 36 B.C.E by Mark Antony, about 60 years before the date for Tiberias and about 30 years before the supposed birth of Jesus! Also, there were never two joint high priests, in particular, Annas was not a joint high priest with Caiaphas. Annas was removed from the office of high priest in 15 C.E after holding office for some nine years. Caiaphas only became high priest in c. 18 C.E, about three years after Annas. (He held this office for about eighteen years, so his dates are consistent with Tiberias and Pontius Pilate, but not with Annas or Lysanias.) Although the book of Acts presents Yehuda of Galilee, Theudas and Jesus as three different people, it incorrectly places Theudas (crucified 44 C.E.) before Yehuda who it correctly mentions as being crucified during the census (6 C.E.). Many of these chronological absurdities seem to be based on misreadings and misunderstandings of Josephus's book Jewish Antiquities, which was used as reference by the author of Luke and Acts.

The story of Jesus's trial is also highly suspicious. It clearly tries to placate the Romans while defaming the Jews. The historical Pontius Pilate was arrogant and despotic. He hated the Jews and never delegated any authority to them. However, in Christian mythology, he is portrayed as a concerned ruler who distanced himself from the accusations against Jesus and who was coerced into obeying the demands of the Jews. According to Christian mythology, every Passover, the Jews would ask Pilate to free any one criminal they chose. This is of course a blatant lie. Jews never had a custom of freeing guilty criminals at Passover or any other time of the year. According the myth, Pilate gave the Jews the choice of freeing Jesus the Christ or a murderer named Jesus Barabbas. The Jews are alleged to have enthusiastically chosen Jesus Barabbas. This story is a vicious antisemitic lie, one of many such lies found in the New Testament (largely written by antisemites). What is particularly disgusting about this rubbish story is that it is apparently a distortion of an earlier story which claimed that the Jews demanded that Jesus Christ be set free. The name "Barabbas" is simply the Greek form of the Aramaic "bar Abba" which means "son of the Father." Thus "Jesus Barabbas" originally meant "Jesus the son of the Father," in other words, the usual Christian Jesus. When the earlier story claimed that the Jews wanted Jesus Barabbas to be set free it was referring to the usual Jesus. Somebody distorted the story by claiming that Jesus Barabbas was a different person to Jesus Christ and this fooled the Roman and Greek Christians who did not know the meaning of the name "Barabbas."

Lastly, the claim that the resurrected Jesus appeared to his disciples is also based on pagan superstition. In Roman mythology, the virgin born Romulus appeared to his friend on the road before he was taken up to heaven. (The theme of being taken up to heaven is found in scores of pagan myths and legends and even in Jewish stories.) It was claimed that Apollonius of Tyana had also appeared to his disciples after having been resurrected. It is interesting to note that the historical Apollonius was born more or less at the same time as the mythical Jesus was supposed to have been born. In legends people claimed that he had performed many miracles which were identical to those also ascribed to Jesus, such as exorcisms of demons and the raising to life of a dead girl.

When confronted with Christian missionaries one should point out as much information as possible about the origins of Christianity and the Jesus myth. You will almost never succeed in convincing them that Christianity is a false religion. You will not be able to prove beyond all doubt that the story of Jesus arose in the way we have claimed it has, since most of the evidence is circumstantial. Indeed we cannot be certain about the precise origin of many particular points in the story of Jesus. This does not matter. What is important is that you yourself realize that logical alternatives exist to blind belief in Christian myths and that reasonable doubt can be cast on the New Testament narrative.



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Kyoto Protocol...nothing to see here

It's all the US's fault

really

well no, not really (Independent Online)

Although the US is portrayed as the ecological villain for refusing to sign up to the agreement, 10 out of the 15 European Union signatories - including Ireland, Italy and Spain - will miss their targets without urgent action, the Institute for Public Policy Research found.

France, Greece and Germany are given "amber warnings" and will only achieve the objectives if planned policies are successfully carried out.

but of course.....this is not what the envirowhackjobs are concerned about. Yes some how we can force the global temperature up...wait for it... yep we can't cool it off.

Tony Grayling, the institute's associate director, said the world was near the point of no return on climate change. "We have little time left to start reducing global greenhouse gas emissions before irreparable damage is done.

unreasonable goals and fearmongering

good times

Prediction 2006

Prediction 2006     

Much as I just showed I made some predictions round this time last year and it didn’t work out so good for me. But prediction is a skill, and a skill one can develop and refine with time so without further Aideu

LARRY PREDICTS 2006

First let’s show the Returning predictions. These were held over from 2005 predictions, or partial credit ones that need some events in 2006 to flesh them out more. Also included will be the “Jury is still out” questions where I’m not sure a clear resolution will occur before December 31st, 2005

#1 I will have a Regular lady in my life

I have a strong prospect that well if everything goes as I plan it to will work out by the end of 06. But even if that fails I predict I’ll be dating some one

#2 Howard Stern will not make Sirus the next big thing afterall.

I didn’t realize the Stern run up would take as long as it did in my predictions for 2005, now that the Run up is over I predict by this time in 2006 Stern won’t redefine Radio into the satellite age.

#3 Michael Moore's next documentary (Sicko) will actually have very few fraudlent techniques used, softening his critics up for his next ( more political) Work

Held over till Sicko actually is in theaters

#4 Colts win the Superbowl

I was not as much of a football fan then as now… I thought the Superbowl teams would be set up by now.

I not so smart on that angle but I predict Tony Dungy will see the Superbowl and will win.

#5 The Gaza disengagement will Kill Ariel Sharon politically and Labor and Likud will both lose out in the new elections to a new party formed to "reform" the nation of Israel.

These are two partials from Partial Credit predictions. I predict Kadmia will have plurality but not a sufficient Plurality to form a government. I predict with his health, the role he and Shimon Peres have played in essentially mortally wounding the political parties they were Icons from neither of those men can form a Unity government at the helm. I predict Kadima will lead the next government of Israel, but that Sharon will be retired from Israeli politics as will Peres. The founding generation of Israel will finally fade from the political stage.

#6 The catholic church will stop the hemoraging over kiddy sex scandals

I think the scandals will start decreasing after late 05 early 06 and start to go into a long term decline as the churches various attempts to oust the criminals will finally bear some fruit.

Now I am going to bring back some of my failed 2005 predictions because I think they may either be “prime” to happen or they are just pretty good.

#7. I will be at least 10 pounds lighter then my current weight as of 12-31-05

#8. I will end my 6 year cold streak on sexual intercourse
**truth is I think it is technically approaching 7 years now**


#9. Don Rumsfield will resign as soon as he has a face saving moment to resign, and the ability to spin it that he resigned on his time table.

Basically I think 2005 was to hot for Rummy to politically leave. I think he will have some health reasons that will help him decide to make a political choice for physical reasons.

#10. Another Major Media scandal will break. This time it will hit an Organization at such a level it will be Dead to the audience

#11. a backlash will occur against all the Uber PC moves by the FCC.. things will go back to some semblance of normalicy in 2006

#12. A Major "Gay" celebrity will reveal he really isn't gay. that he claimed to be gay for marketing his career

#13. Bush will break out his first Veto

Ok that’s the 13 returning players…… and on for NEW PREDICTIONS FOR 2006

#14. The Liberal Party will some how retain power in the next elections in Canada. While most likely as a tactic bashing the United States will play a large role the Liberal party will continue to play regional advantage. However the Liberal party will still hold a minority government, albeit a smaller one.

#15. Due to the poor performance and some serious flops in major races Stephen Harper will get dumped as party leader and some one in a mold of George W. Bush or Bill Clinton will introduce a “Third Way” type of political reform to the core of the Conservative Party agenda.

#16. Several small city government or small municipal agencies will threaten to write off their pension programs all together. Some States will talk about merging the liability with their cities but the collapse of these small municipal pension and health funds in areas where population and tax base are declining will be a major issue in the election of 2006.

#17. Two other major non-vested pension funds will go belly up in 2006. Many labor unions will take public a debate on “saving jobs” or “protecting retirees”. Debate will be formed on the government assuming these fund debts for defense contracting firms.

#18. I will get financially solvent and be caught up on all dues and private friends loans that I owe,

#19. The Iraqi Bill of Rights will be passed in the new Parliament

#20. A compromise will occur to allow a de-baathification of the Sunni Candidates elected in the Parliamentary elections.

#21. A Second assassination attempt will occur against the Iranian President. He will claim the Madhi personally reached his hand into his body to save him from the assassin’s strike.

#22. Bashir Assad will not be President of Syria, and probably not be a resident of Syria by 12-31-06

#23. During the height of the 2006 election Bill Richardson will launch a bold border proposal that will be highly federalist, working with county and city officials along the border, and completely forgotten once the election is finished.

#24. By the end of 2006 the Iranian government’s nuclear program will finally come up for a vote before the UN Security Council; But to attack the nation who destroyed iran’s nuclear program. The US and Great Britain will both veto the measure leading to major calls for Security Council reform.

#25. Kofi Annan will resign before the end of 2006 and retire to a nation which will agree not to deport he nor his son Kojo to prosecutors in the United States.

#26. In order to form a coalition government KADIMA leader Ariel Sharon will have to step out as the candidate for PM and allow Ehud Olmert to be awarded the position as a compromise candidate.

#27. We still won’t have Osama Bin Laden captured. But we will capture or Kill his #2 man.

#28. The national Average for Low grade (87 octane) gas will be no less then 1.89 and no more then 2.09. It will be far closer to the 1.89 then the 2.09.

#29. The price per barrel of light sweet crude in New York will be 10 dollars a Barrel less before the Winter Fuel Season . Oil Prices will be on average 1-5 dollars a barrel cheaper then the same time in 2005.

#30. The Republicans will gain no more then 2 net seats, and do no worse then a Push. If a candidate other then Katherine Harris is nominated Bill Nelson join a growing list of State wide Democratic office holders shut out in the south.

#31. The Change in the US house seats will be no more then 5 seats in either direction. The republicans will maintain control.

#32. The Republicans will maintain their dominance over Florida Politics till 2008 but the wins in 2006 will be rather anemic and suggest an opening for State Democrats will be possible.

#33. My friend Mark will lose his race for County Commission

#34. Trent Lott will have the inside track and take over his old office as Majority leader, with the cheers of many of those in the world of blog who called for his ouster.

#35. After the elections of 2006 a “Dump Dean” Movement will get serious legs which will lead to Howard Dean running for President in 2007

#36. This time next year (12-31-06) I will be making plans to relocate to the swamp in DC by 06-07

#37. Dick Cheney will resign from office for health reasons by the end of 2006

#38. Movie Producer, legendary coke fiend, and massive freak Robert Evans will die quietly in his sleep in the second half of 2006

#39. The Yankees will not make it to the World Series in 06, and will in fact be shut out of the playoffs outright.

#40. No massive natural disasters like the Tsunami or Hurricane Katrina will occur in 2006. While some natural disasters will occur they will be more on the normal scale.

#41. Karl Rove will not be indicted in 2006

#42. Saddam Hussein will attempt Suicide before a guilty verdict occurs in his trial.

#43. The Patriot act will get a second Temporary extension until after the 2006 elections. The Democrats will get this compromise under the gun of a filibuster.

#44. Bill Frist will attempt to pull the gun on the Constitutional option and will fail, making him a lame duck majority leader. This will occur over the Alito nomination when it makes it to the senate floor.

#45. The movie Box office will only lose 3% in 2006, this will be seen as a “victory” by the industry even though it is a 3% loss vs. 2005 film recipts

#46. A major academic fraud in a hard (I.E non social Science) will occur in a type of fraud that parallels Stephen Glass and the kind of frauds perpetrated in the major media. This Fraud will lead to every major scientific organization leading to protocols which make partisan, political, or financial tribalism a thing of the past… or at least that’s what they hope. But the Protocols won’t go into effect until 2009.

#47. A major Chinese manufacturing firm will be caught violating US and European intellectual property which will lead to the start of a trade cold war with China.

#48. The Neo-Marxist/Neo-Communist forces in Central and South America will lose an election in 2006 and lead to a recoiling of the people from their movements.

#49. The redistricting reform Amendment in Florida will pass

#50. the USF bulls will go into double digit wins for football.

(Haptanghaiti: Song 7.5 = Yasna 41.5)

Your praisers and thought-provokers, Lord

Wise, we consider ourselves and we yearn;

and we approach [You], for You gave us people,

the reward for the consciences, Wise Lord.

2005 prediction Recap and review

Well that wasn’t very good

I made some 2005 predictions and now on to the how that worked out
My goal with this and my 2006 Predictions is to get myself into a refined Predictor.

#1.I will be at least 10 pounds lighter then my current weight as of 12-31-04
Prediction: UTTER failure. I am half way there but I haven’t really shifted a whole bunch
#2. I will end my 5 year cold streak on sexual intercourse
Prediction: ABJECT failure
#3. I will be enrolled in the University of South Florida and attending classes full time
Prediction: Accurate…WOOHOO
#4. I will (g-d willing) have a regular lady friend
Prediction: Jury is still out…
#5. The "second term curse" event against george bush will come out some time during the later part of 2005. It will ( most likely) have to do with the Iraq war, but it could be a smoking gun on the "Draft Dodger" Charge.
Prediction: Failure… but not for lack of trying
#6. Senators Allen, Frist, Mccain, Hagel, and etc. Who are jockeying for the Presidential void being left by the lack of a clear successor for Bush will make the President's agenda slow down to a halt in the senate. -Intelligence reform, immigration reform, Tax reform, Social Security reform, etc will all be held hostage by a lack of a clear heir.
Prediction: I am claiming victory here.
#7. While Violence in Iraq won't decrease much, they will pull off an election and a government with some sunni parties and the Shia unity ticket will form a National Unity styled government. This will be the "End of the Bad News" Period in Iraq. Unless you work for the main stream media
Prediction: Dead on
#8. Iran will continue to Shake down europe for Nuclear Black mail. But they will slow down their atomic bomb research enough that the US and Israel aren't forced to blow their stuff up.
Under Jury Review
#9. Osama will still be "At-Large"
Prediction: Total victory
#10. Kim Jung Il will be removed from office. A Military coup will oust him in an effort to actually get their country into the 14th century.
Prediction: Utter failure…. Man what the heck was I thinking
#11. Democrats will not do well in the wacky "2005" elections. A Washington Statesque scenario will go down in NJ. I don't predict the world will change radically by the election night in 2005, but the democrats won't be doing as well as they did in 1997 or 1993.
Wow that was a good call until I saw how utterly horrendous the Republicans in those weird year elections did…..thanks a lot guys
#12. I will be functionally literate in Arabic
I am more literate in Arabic then fantasia barino is in English… I call success
#13. Powell will have a book that is Kissinger/Macnamaraesque about his DepState Tenture.
I missed on this one.
#14. Afghanistan will continue to have progress and no one will bother to report it
Success here to
#15. Rudy and Hillary will have some advance slash and burn work done on them to keep them out of the 08 race.
I call partial credit here though I am sending this to the judges
#16. CBS will Stall the release of the rathergate report until (A) they name a replacement and (b) its time to run the "Dan Rather retrospective" stories. the report will be highly sanitized and No one with a major name in the Scandal (Rather, Moonvies, Mapes) will get more then a slap on the wrist
Was right on MOST of this (sorry Ms. Mapes)
#17. Don Rumsfield will resign as soon as he has a face saving moment to resign, and the ability to spin it that he resigned on his time table.
FAILURE
#18. Bill O'Reilly will have more "Sex Scandals" come out of the works. and some form of Scandal Buzz will start around Sean Hannity.
No Sean O’Hannity perversion
No more Bill Sex Scandals
Nertz
#19. Michael Jackson's trial will not start until late in 2005, if not early in 2006. He will start to auction off the beatles catalog to pay for his mounting legal fee's and Sir. Paul gets his revenge
Wrong all around though my end result ended up coming true it seems
#20. Another Major Media scandal will break. This time it will hit an Organization at such a level it will be Dead to the audience.
Partial Credit: Many broke but no one cared.
#21. Blogs will become trendy and hip.. 2005 will be the year blogs both become mainstream and jump the shark amongst Nerds.
While blogging is not yet trendy nor hip, it is now jumped the shark fully with nerds so partial credit
#22. Howard Stern will not make Sirus the next big thing afterall.
Jury is still out, hold over till 2006
#23. Bush will pick a safe replacement for the Chief Justice's seat.
Hi John Roberts –for the win-
#24. Alberto Will be the Ashcroft of confirmation hearings. Allot of Democrat sound and fury, and a largely bi-partisan vote of support.
Bipartisan…not so much. Sound and fury very much
#25. Michael Moore's next documentary (Sicko) will actually have very few fraudlent techniques used, softening his critics up for his next ( more political) Work
Held over for 2006
#26. The first federal court will award damages in a "Mcdonald's made me fat" lawsuit. It will be overturned but the harbinger of doom comes over fast food
THANK GOD I was wrong
#27. The First challenge to FDMA will come up. the Mormon church will get a hedge position ready just in case government makes gay marriage legal
Failed
#28. Pro-Wrestling will go even lower, until HHH gets caught cheating on his wife and is promptly fired by Vince. 2006 will be a come back year for the WWE
Failed..utterly failed
#29. Colts win the Superbowl.. Dungy showing no love to the eagles
Colts winning/Going…held over till 06 no love to the eagles…FAILED
#30. Hockey won't have their labor problems resolved
Failed
#31. Two airlines will go belly up, serious talk of Nationalizing the airline industry will come up.
Failed.
#32. The Passion of The Christ and F9-11 will both get next to no oscar nominations.
Aha… Victory is mine
#33. "Lame Duck President" articles will become the cause celeb amongst the main stream media
Got this won
#34. a backlash will occur against all the Uber PC moves by the FCC.. things will go back to some semblance of normalicy in 2006
Failed
#35. A Major "Gay" celebrity will reveal he really isn't gay. that he claimed to be gay for marketing his career
Failed
#36. Bush will break out his first Veto
SADLY I failed here
#37. Iranian civil disobedience will still get no media coverage
Success
#38. Bush will begin to ignore more and more the crack down on demonstrators and christians in china.. the base will stay civil until the 06 elections. But the seeds for a "outsider" republican in 08 will be laid in in 05
I call his token finger wagging in china the first half of this as a success. The second half is held over till 2006
#39. Kofi Annan will attempt to scuttle the Investigation of the Oil-For-food scandal and get caught. He will resign in disgrace. Both the US and China backed canidates will lose out to a as yet unknown dark horse reformer
FAILED
#40. Tommy Lee will be diagnosed as HIV positive
Failed
#41. Pope John paul will some how live 365 more days
Failed…
#42. Abbas wins the Palestinian elections, with Jimmy Carter's seal of approval but widespread voter intimidation and fraud recognized by every other observer. This will begin a civil war in the Palestinian Authority
Failed
#43. The Gaza disengagement will Kill Ariel Sharon politically, and force him to call for elections after it is completed
Partial Victory… He is dead to Likud, and if his attempt to be “the third way” doesn’t work in 06 then it is total victory
#44. Labor and Likud will both lose out in the new elections to a new party formed to "reform" the nation of Israel
Partial Credit: If Sharon pulls it off full credit here
#45. the death toll when all is said and done from the Tsunami's, plauges, and destruction of the nations effected will reach 1 million
Failed
#46. In either Germany or Canada a Pro-American party will win control of the government
-PARTIAL CREDIT- She almost won and is holding on by hand holding the Anti-American party

Weirdness of weirdness I was both absolutely wrong and absolutely right
#47. The RNC Chairman will be (falsely) outed as gay
No false outing… or real outing. Just lots of rumors about it. Failure time
#48. Howard Dean will not become DNC chair
Loudly failed
#49. The catholic church will stop the hemoraging over kiddy sex scandals
Held over till 06
#50. And people will still complain that christmas is to commercialized like they have since the 19th century
Another win
So
Full credit:10
Partial Credit:8
Held over/Sent to the judges: 10
Failure: 22

Not bad, but not real good either

50 more predictions will go onto the chart for Predict 06…. But who will win? Who will lose?

Okcupid Illuminati

The Quiet One Congratulations! You scored 89!

It is said "Watch out for the quiet ones." There can be no statement more true. For good or ill, the quiet ones have the shaped the world into what it is we see today. The world leaders may control the countries, but your understanding of the world surpasses all of them. While the quiet ones usually lack the charisma to lead nations, you have the ability to lead leaders.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 97% on wipoints

Link: The world influence Test written by sunkaer on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Meme of 4 Vs. Larry

I see a meme and why the heck not.

Even though I am not tagged I am going to do it anyway… what are you going to try and do stop me?

(Hear that Commisar, and Hat tip to  Barry Campbell for his meme of 4 responses)

Cause I know Meme Fu~!

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Medical Records File Clerk, S.A.T Proctor, Grocery store clerk (I.E grocery bagger), 3rd shift gas station attendant

Four movies you could watch over and over: Serenity, Kill Bill (Vol.1+Vol.2), The Usual Suspects, Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Four places you’ve lived: Alta IL., Sarasota FL., Tampa FL, Peoria IL.

Four TV shows you love to watch: L&O SVU, The Boondocks, Drawn Together, Family Guy

Four websites you visit daily: Drudge report, Misfile, Ankle Biting Pundits, OKCupid

Four of your favorite foods: Jasmine Rice, Lamb, Pumpkin Pie, Strawberries

Four places you’d rather be: In the arms of the woman I love, behind the desk of power deep in the bowels of Foggybottom or Langley, behind the oriental chair thanks to the vote of my brothers, in the bed of the woman I love

(Hey… all of these ARE places)

Four albums you can’t live without: “Albums” what are these things? I have the soundtrack for Cowboy Bebop, a mix CD of all my favorite songs from various anime programs, a mix CD of my favorite songs from my favorite AMVs, and a Mix CD with some choice songs from SoD, Metallica(pre-sell out days), Drowning pool, some various bits of techno, and quotes from Full Metal Jacket

I shall tag my friend Ken Kerns, Ace from Ace Of Spades, Radio Vixen, and Kitty Myers of Kitty Litter fame.

WOOT

OKCUPID 4 U

Protobadass 65% Badass: 51% Ass-kickery, 71% Skill, 70% Sense.

You're so close to total badassery! All that's lacking is lethal force. You're probably a pretty rocking person, up to most situations and cool-headed in any extremity. Call me when the End Times come; it's the least you could do. If you liked my test, rate it. Real badasses leave ratings.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 22% on Ass-kickery You scored higher than 38% on Badassery You scored higher than 50% on Skills You scored higher than 83% on Sense

Link: The Badass Test written by fnordite on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

(Haptanghaiti: Song 7.4 = Yasna 41.4)

May we earn, may we gain, Wise Lord,

a long life by Your grace!

May we be active and strong through You!

Support us long and clearly ,

0 Most Beneficent of the living!

Another farce in outsourcing

Outsourcing of US IT work, and Insourcing of foriegn IT workers by US companies. According to this article by the World Tribune much of that is bunk.

EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM
Friday, December 23, 2005

China's rapid economic expansion has allowed Beijing to fund a recruitment drive targeting some of the best and brightest IT graduates from U.S. universities, according to Chinese sources.

In turn, this brain trust is being used by China both as a control on its own Internet revolution and as a potential resource for North Korea' cyberwar program.

South Korea’s defense ministry said North Korean hackers are targeting the most tightly-guarded systems of that country's main foes to extract intelligence information and to spread viruses capable of wiping out material or, at least, slowing down computers.

Ignore the North Korea part for a moment. China which pays much less for IT workers is flying IT grads into china and being competative with IT firms here in the US which pay massive amounts more in money.

I wonder how many IT workers who couldn't get a job in the US because American IT companies are importing folks from INDIA are now signing off on job offers from the Big Red Yuan

One Hong Kong-based specialist said China has a budget for hiring the best IT graduates from U.S. universities to monitor and control Internet news reporting, and useage within its own borders as well as for a national security resource. "They've got the money, and they are spending it," he said.

I really would like to see more about who is getting hired, and if the Americans are willing to go to China to be the executioners of the freedoms of the chinesse people do we have an American people who will stand up any more.

BDS hits Fark

I Like Fark, Fark is a good website but when Fark commented on this article I read the ensuing traffic in their bulletin board section it made me angry.

To find out why this made me angry I need to take you back to my friend Drew’s wedding. Drew’s brother works for a Auto Insurance company which handles corporate fleet insurance. At Drew’s bachelor party I brought this news item up for discussion (Hey it was an English Styled pub no less… it fit) and his brother told me a story. And as I’ve come to learn more about how things work I have come to believe much more passionately now that this is entirely the truth.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go. So far, Washington state and Oregon have received fat federal checks to figure out how to levy these "mileage-based road user fees."
Now electronic tracking and taxing may be coming to a DMV near you. The Office of Transportation Policy Studies, part of the Federal Highway Administration, is about to announce another round of grants totaling some $11 million. A spokeswoman on Friday said the office is "shooting for the end of the year" for the announcement, and more money is expected for GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking efforts.
In principle, the idea of what bureaucrats like to call "value pricing" for cars makes sound economic sense.

When I tell him this he says with a smile it isn’t for the government at all. While the government is going to benefit from knowing what roads get used and how fast people drive on those roads, he said with a smile, it’s for the insurance companies and the car companies. He told me his company and several others when this technology became hot researched the idea. The Insurance companies would break down your data and personalize your rate based on how you drive and where you drive (as new cars have other computers that could be linked into this networked system which is far more then GPS.

The problem he said was the infrastructure. It would cost them far more then it is worth to build it. It wouldn’t give them the gain they needed to justify the cost.

Ahhhh… but why pay for a technology when you can make the government pay for it?
This is why people should be angry; this is why people should be seething about the use of E-Tracking technology. Not that their GPS being free and uninhibited information isn’t bad enough. But that the government is intruding for your life on behalf of the Insurance and car companies so they can get all this data, all this researched material for FREE.
We should be angry that this has been in the mix under more then one white house as politicians of both parties got lubricated to feed the car insurance and car companies again from the public purse.
Do not have BDS…. Have a brain and realize there are much more important reasons to be angry.

Personal Blogging for good (not evil)

I’ve been down in the dumps for personal issues which I blogged some about. But my road tripping and moments away from things have helped me form a little chamber of reflection on things.

My little songbird will be getting a more detailed and in-depth version of this. I feel with the blogging as therapy model this is good stuff to toss out.

So a fight started, and the fight started because I acted out of fear. Here however is the catch that a long car ride taught me. It wasn’t the fear I thought was on my back that was monkeying me at all. The irony of this is the fact my dear song bird’s coping strategy was best described as taking a little cooling off point and talking. There are some problems with how she did it and what went from there…. But I’ll get into that more with her.

The thing was I was afraid to do what she normally did in these sort of situations largely because I’ve been rightly against it when she did it and it lead to some bad. But as some one who has drank booze for medicinal pain relief in the past I should know some times a thing which can be an unhealthy practice or behavior can be healthy when used a different way.

So I was afraid, and I really thought it was because I was afraid of losing her. It made sense that’s what was troubling me, but emotions are a lot like water sometimes and what you see on the surface may be truth or it may be a mask for something deeper in the ocean

(please not if my metaphor fails in natured hey I was trying to sound cool and enlightened with it not accurate to nature)

And how the fear struck her she was struck by the fear I did not see… and I did not see the fear cause I had financial anxieties, I had family I was dreading seeing, and I had a situation with gamers I really didn’t want to be with coming up. The tension, and anxiety I was in helped to blind me some what to how I was feeling and what was leading me down the primrose path to the slaughterhouse.

I thought I was afraid of losing her, but as the incident filtered into my mind in my drive I came to realize that was not it at all. I lost her once, though not by my own choice in the matter. And while losing her by my choice a rather dreadful concept wouldn’t be much different if I did it for the right reasons. But I said it to her when we both took this turn down the road again…. When we broke up I was mad at her most because she burned the bridges and made it impossible to stay friends.

The problem was trust, but sadly not that I didn’t trust her. If it were something like that then it would most certainly be an easy problem to solve…(well relatively speaking) but the problem was more that I was afraid I’d have to not trust her again. I don’t use the word Trust lightly. On two hands I can count the number of people I trust with my own sense of the word, and on one hand those people who still have earned by trust. But she was getting returned to that most inner council by me. Something no one has ever done before.

The more I become desirous of her, the more I feel those old parts of my mind turn on and flutter from the very sound of her voice I come to realize that the way things ended between us was harmful to me in ways I never realized.  But this little funk I’ve been in by the hands of these events has given me a sight at a problem I did not fully understand….

I’m not taking back what the fear motivated me to do because fear, even an irrational fear is a tool to be used to help you grow and develop as a person. I understand to that I can’t let the fear take control of things like it did last time. I can’t let miscommunications grow and fester and build into new wounds.

This first real drag out fight shows me both how far I’ve come with her and how far I need to go with her. I hope tonight I can talk to her about all this, but If not we can work on it tomorrow maybe or hopefully with some good news from her down the week to help with it.

I love this lady a great deal and I love her patients with me when it is most needed.

Happy Man-God birthday

Hey everyone its time for some Holiday Binge Posting….

Doesn’t that sound great? Having a slightly longer trip then I planned and a slightly more not able to be on the internet and round the net folks has been productive and refreshing. I might take more Net-Holiday’s in the future if they’d all be this good.

More postity on the way…..

I enjoy when plans get changed.....

Talked to my Mother and it seems I am not going down tonight to see my Grandparents. I really hope I don't spend two nights there because the sleeper sofa grandma has is rather painful.

its a bloody death trap...

Your morning OKCUPID

You scored 76 strength, 76 determination, 73 self-confidence, and 75 teamwork!

If your percentage is below 25% - well your not American, and you really just don't care about this country, there's no way in hell i'd want to be in a foxhole with you. If your percentages were between 25-50% well i'd be scared to be in a foxhole with you too, i feel sorry your Drill Instructor, and your supervisors. If you scored between 50-75% you'd do well in the military, you'd be the 4 yr and out type of person, which is totally cool, I'd feel a little bit better to be in a foxhole with you!! Good Job. If you scored between 75-100% I'd be proud to serve with you, If you already are in the military, your a great contribution to Your perspective branch, if your not in already, I'd feel a lot safer in a foxhole with you guarding my back! Great Job!!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 44% on strength You scored higher than 46% on determination You scored higher than 39% on self-confidence You scored higher than 37% on teamwork

Link: The Could You Be Military Test written by james19fl on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

self blogging time

Some more personal blogging from me isn’t that fun folks? My fight with my potential future Missus is slowly trying to heal and resolve itself. I am not sure I am comfortable yet going into much of the detail about what happened.

The problem with it resolving itself slowly is that it feels kind of soft and sore like a lingering bruise. I just really forgot how we fought and how good she and I both are at making the other feel awful.

I am sure pretty soon some good news will be on the horizon on that front.

The war on the MSM continues

It continues in all places CHINA

Thanks to Anti's persistent writings on his blog (http://mranti.blogneo.com/) the activities of the Shanghai serial cat mutilator got into China's mainstream media, and this was far from a unique example.

Some years after their American counterpart Matt Drudge shook up the US media in the Monica Lewinsky affair, Chinese bloggers are starting to have an impact on their country's conventional print and broadcast media, all tightly controlled by the Communist Party's propaganda department.

I think this is a very strong sign on the future of the Media. If in a place like China repression can't blow the blogger buisness model away that is pretty darned huge.

and This quote from a Media blogger in China is pretty descriptive to me about the differences between blogging and reporting.

"Sometimes it's more comfortable to use the blog to express opinions because there are so many controls on the conventional media," Wang said. "It's a different mental status when I write the blog from when I write for the magazine. I feel more free," he said. "My editor sometimes asks me to write something in my blogging style, but I can't."

I will be south of the Tampa H.Q. for the next few days

I'm going to head down to Sarasota this afternoon/tonight and will be spending tommorrow to early sunday in Ft. Myers with my mom and my grandparents.

I'll be posting Irregularly after I leave tampa today

Democracy Marches on in Europe

Yes folks in the same Europe that said they would force countries who disagreed with the EU constitution until they got it right we now have a new step in the march for Democracy in europe.

(Thanks Brussels Journal)

The Council of Europe (CoE), an organisation of 46 European countries, has criticised the Danish government for invoking the “freedom of the press” in its refusal to take action against “insulting” cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The CoE Committee of Ministers discussed the case during a meeting in Strassburg last week. In a statement the Committee said that “a seam of intolerance” is noted in certain Danish media – a reference to the Danish cartoon case.

Yes.. Freedom of the press is bad when it allows Intolerance. Freedom is strongly defended in europe.

The CoE’s Committee of Ministers asked Copenhagen to “increase its efforts in protecting the rights of especially Muslim immigrants living in Denmark.” According to the Committee “a seam of intolerance within Danish society is noted, inter alia, in the political arena as well as in certain media.” The CoE added that it is also concerned that “[Danish] legislation, such as the reform of the Aliens Act, and policy, such as the Government’s policy towards integration, may contribute to a climate of hostility towards different ethnic and religious groups.”

Yes thats right folks you have a right not to face offense. Especially when you want to give Immigration reforms in the country

What kind of message is the CoE send?

Thankfully however the P.M of Denmark went forward.

Their criticism, however, did not impress Rasmussen. The letter by the former ambassadors was “very misguided and sad,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman Troels Lund Poulsen said yesterday. “They are willing to compromise freedom of expression by taking a moral stand. The Muslim ambassadors wanted a dialogue with Rasmussen in order to stop the drawings. It doesn’t serve any purpose to enter into a dialogue with people who want to stop the democratic process. Rasmussen did the only right thing,” Poulsen said.

A-F!n-Men

Wow.....Dangerous Hottie

Now hear is a Weapon of hottiness and She's Osama's niece

(Credit: Sydney Morning Herald/Reuters)

Yummy stem cells

I said and modified only once my position that Stem Cells is a great idea but the technology isn't there.

Well a South Korean scientist seemed to have made the science happen......SEEMED

The panel said Friday it found that "the laboratory data for 11 stem cell lines that were reported in the 2005 paper were all data made using two stem cell lines in total."

To create fake DNA results purporting to show a match, Hwang's team split cells from one patient into two test tubes for the analysis - rather than actually match cloned cells to a patient's original cells, the university said.

"Based on these facts, the data in the 2005 Science paper cannot be some error from a simple mistake, but cannot be but seen as a deliberate fabrication to make it look like 11 stem-cell lines using results from just two," the panel said.

I have to wonder if the politicizing of the science lead to this

Tales in bad web design

When tragedy strikes occassionally black humor helps

NFL.COM with the awful webpage construction of the day.

Really Sad News in Tampa

The Son of Fmr. Buc's coach and still Tampa resident Tony Dungy died. While the death is under investigation.

Tony Dungy is one of those people who is always nice, always out there trying to do the right thing. He's some one who made a lot of people in this area (myself included) Love the Bucaneers organization. It is horrible that this has happened to his family

Still more from OKCUPID

You scored 70% historiographical worthiness!

This was out of a possible 185 points. So, now you can decide just how much of a history buff you really are? Thanks and don't forget to rate my test.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on historiography

Link: The Ultimate History Buff Test written by bubb1e_gir1 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

And now for something a little Awkward

I got to have my first fight as I have worked to get second chance with my dear song Bird. I'd like to go into some of the details a bit more but I don't think that would be fair or right to the lady.

We left not really angry but not really happy so I feel awkward as all get out about whats happening right now.

The lady and I fought a lot before and I forgot just how difficult a arguer she could be.

So I get to be a bit on edge about things till we talk and see how all the pieces have fallen and what places they have fallen into.

I love the lady and hope this all works out.... and I hate with a passion deep in my soul the problems of being seperated by a continent and unable to touch, here, see, and smell she is all right and this all worked out.

So I'll be posting some more later

Haptanghaiti: Song 6.3 = Yasna 40.3

Grant it to persons, Lord,

[who are] righteous, right-seeking,

helpful, long-settled

to promote the zealous Fellowship

of ours and our supporters.

(Haptanghaiti: Song 6.3 = Yasna 40.3)

OK Cupid relationship fu

A Secure Love You scored 5 Infatuation, 85 Love, and 13 Friendship!

You got a nearly perfect score in Love, which means that this relationship is built as solid as a rock. You have the core pilars to stand on - commitment, compromise, and communication - down pat. There isn't anything that can beat you two, as long as you keep working at it. You have likely been together for a while, or the time you have been together has been very intense. Your infatuation score was kind of low, so there may not be a whole lot of lightning and angels singing, but you are mature enough to know those things aren't necessary for an enduring relationship. Don't sweat the lack of magic - you don't need it. It only lasts a short while anyway. What you have is very hard to find - never let it go. Thanks for taking my test and if you like it, don't forget to rate it! If you are motivated to rate my test a 3 or lower PLEASE write me and tell me why... This is a new test and I need to work out the kinks. I can't do that without feedback!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 26% on Infatuation You scored higher than 71% on Love You scored higher than 31% on Friendship

Link: The Will Your Relationship Last Test written by unpretentious2 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Go F**** Yourselves

Dick Cheney Spoke, and said to “small government Conservatives” Go F### yourselves. Dick Cheney coming back to defend the latest “We want a strong executive” move of the White House has put to words what has been behind multiple actions of this administration, especially those that cause serious harm to the Administration: “Executive Branch trumps all.” (Ap with the skinny)

"I believe in a strong, robust executive authority and I think that the world we live in demands it. And to some extent, that we have an obligation as the administration to pass on the offices we hold to our successors in as good of shape as we found them," he said.

Dick… Dick… Dick.

Lets first of all talk about the fact you interpret the powers of office at a 90* angle from your predecessors you are the #2 guy for a party that believes to much government power is a –bad- thing. These folks have done more to humble the President’s agenda then kissing up to weak kneed senators who buckle later has.

"Watergate and a lot of the things around Watergate and Vietnam both during the '70s served, I think, to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area," Cheney said. But he also said the administration has been able to restore some of "the legitimate authority of the presidency."

Dick…Dick…Dick Nixon was the last time the Paleocon –If you can call Nixon that- (I need to kick myself for using that term) Agenda has one. Ike would be more at home in the Rockefeller wing and Dick Nixon was picked for in 68 because he was between the “Right” and “Left”. Conservatism… the party’s right wing has been the horse that brung the party to the Dance since the 80s and why because Dick Nixon screwed up. Barry Goldwater held the torch and burned down the den of inequity of Dick Nixon and handed it off to Reagan to take the more serious values of the Republican Party into perpetuity and helped to Change the Democratic Party (look at Bill Clinton).

But Dick has a thesis, and I think I want to address that some.

"You know, it's not an accident that we haven't been hit in four years," Cheney said. "I think there's a temptation for people to sit around and say, 'Well, gee that was just a one-of affair, they didn't really mean it.' "
"The bottom line is we've been very active and very aggressively defending the nation and using the tools at our disposal to do that," he said.

Before I go into this a bit…. I need some full disclosure and acceptance of Humility on my part.
I do not have access to daily national security and intelligence briefs. What I am going to say is based off my reading of news and various books on the subjects of; International terrorism, Al-Qaeda, Islamism, and a smattering of economic theory.
No attacks means we’ve stopped the attacks doesn’t work with logic. Every one who has looked at Al-Qaeda and its organizational model from the folks who’ve gotten arrested and the patterns of those who have gone out to do attacks that not every Al-Qaeda’s cell is set to do a real attack that kills real Americans. While those at the bottom of the pyramid may not know this those at the top do. They do fake attacks and plan fake attacks to confuse their enemy and some times to plant sources of false intelligence. These dummy attacks are often designed to judge the reaction of the US and other national government’s response.
Now…sorry for any Aussie, Brit, or other national out there who might be offended the next two statements is going to be highly US-Centered and say this country has a great deal of importance. Dick and I would agree with that.
Every Attack directed at “US” targets has been bigger, better, and different. Every attack has been designed to slap the face of the US government in new and different ways.
They did the following; helping with the attack on the US Marines in Somalia, attacking the World Trade center in not only a conventional way, but in a way not that different from what happened in Oklahoma City, Attacking US embassies in a more militaristic fashion, attacking a US Military vessel, then weaponizing Passenger planes to do what they failed to do with the World Trade Center attack. Each successful attack has been not only different, but moving up the chain. Each target becoming bigger and more symbolic.
And also the US has a lot better targets available on the War on Terror. Not just the US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all points in Dar Al Islam but in other more significant ways. The strike in Spain turned a major ally into a major opposing force, which lead to the strike in Great Britain. Strikes have also been made against Australian targets outside of Australia as well seeking to do the same thing. When these other targets are easier to strike at, and have more impact then a “more of the same” attack in the US they will do so. Especially when that attack will cost less in vital resources then a strike in the heart of the US.
When Al-Qaeda tries to attack again it will be an order of magnitude different then previous attacks, and it will be something no one has imagined. That is their M.O in striking at the US. There is nothing in the publicly available evidence to suggest Al-Qaeda is different then this which challenges Dick’s big assertion. And without the threat of daily death from Al-Qaeda Dick’s logic for vastly expanded executive powers fails utteryly.
Sorry Dick, but the President should have fired you in 04 and put Rice into your job. Or heck, Even Powell would have worked.
Dick just isn’t an effective point man anymore.

"He's Touching Me"

In what may be the second dumbest political Scandal of all time. Bill "I thought I was drafted to play major leauge ball" Richardson now has "Not Touching me" gate

See here the slow newsday in New Mexico

“She says she has a great working relationship with the governor,” he said. “They’ve been allies for 20 years.” The controversy, Cervini said, won’t affect that relationship. The article, headlined “Hands-On Governor,” quotes Denish describing Richardson touching her at public events. It also notes how the governor has greeted people with bear hugs or head butts — or in the case of a DeVargas Middle School student in 2003, a headlock. For his part, Richardson said he’s just being playful. “I tease Diane. I touch guys. It’s my way of lessening tension,” Richardson said in the story.

“He pokes me,” Denish said when confronted about photos taken of Richardson and her at an appearance in Bernalillo in late October. “He pinches my neck. He touches my hip, my thigh, sort of the side of my leg.”

Denish told The Journal, “I try not to put myself in that situation, trying not to stand or sit next to him.”

First thing.... Greating with a headlock or a headbutt seems....odd.

But on to the meat of things the Governor does more touching of a female co-worker then I'd feel safe doing....But he did work in the Clinton White House so maybe he has a different set of standards about that sort of thing.

Is this the -BEST- the blood sucking muckrackers in New Mexico can do?

Loud Howard: Culture of Corruption Edition

We all know one thing prevents a culture of Corruption and that is openness, and allowing people to be held accountable. Loud Howard and the Democrats have pushed that point a whole lot. But when the time came to show how much Howard Dean earns their was a distinct lack of transparency

(Washington Post)

Howard Dean, Mehlman's counterpart at the Democratic National Committee, is paid $4,392 biweekly, which adds up to a yearly salary of approximately $114,000. A DNC spokesman said Dean's yearly salary is significantly higher than the public figure, which is his pay after withholdings. Unlike the RNC, the Democrats would not release Dean's exact salary and would say only that it is commensurate with what the senior staff at the committee earns.

"There are lots of things [Dean] could do in the private sector where he could make a whole lot more money than he does now," the spokesman said.

Dear Tool at the DNC:

That is not the point. The point is that if you are campaigning on "Democrats are the Honest party" when Ken Melhman will show how much he earns and you won't it continues to show the Democrats as the "Say one thing and do another" party it shows that they are afraid to admit that Howard Dean is something he admits to himself "A Rich White guy"


And I hate to Say it but in this debate Terry Mac -IF what he says is true- Is perhaps the only stand up guy in all this

Terence R. McAuliffe, who headed the DNC from 2001 through early this year, never accepted a salary -- the only chairman of either national party to do so, he maintains.

McAuliffe explains his decision with an anecdote. The DNC staff would often bring returned direct-mail pitches to the chairman's office with "crumpled-up dollar bills" from senior citizens giving what they could, he recalls. "I wasn't going to have these old ladies paying my salary," McAuliffe adds. Left unsaid is that he came to the DNC post already a multimillionaire; he made stacks of cash in the early 1990s as one of the chief fundraisers for President Bill Clinton, among others.

Left unsaid by WashPost hackery -MOST- people who can come to head a National Party org have so much wealth they never ever ever have to worry about their finances.An exception is the current RNC chair ( though in Reality once Ken walks away from the chairman's post he has boatloads of cash waiting for him)

Dean is a trust fund kid and a former Doctor, yet they try to cut him as more populist then Terry Mac.

And why does Howard Dean a child of Trust fund privilege, a former Doctor then Former governor with a wife who is a doctor

the most ludicrous reason imaginable..... which we love Howard for

Even so, a DNC spokesman said that Dean's decision to draw a salary is the result of his having two children in college. "He is still someone who needs to provide for his family," the aide said. "No one has said anything, and I don't think he was concerned anyone would."

So from the Ethos of Terry Mac, Howard Dean will take crumpled up dollar bills from little old ladies to pay his kids college while he rests on comfortable wealth few Americans will ever reach

good job showing honest government Howard

USA TODAY Edition: One of these things is not like the other

Everyone remember that fun game from the Street of Sesame a game called one of these things is not like the other....

"Do you really think we can win this war on terror? For example, in the next four years?" Lauer asked Bush.

"I have never said we can win it in four years," the president responded.

So Lauer put the question to Bush more broadly. "No, I'm just saying, can we win it? Do you say that?" he asked Bush.

"I don't. I don't think we can win it," the president answered. "But I think you can create conditions so that ... those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world, let's put it that way."

Now, the War on Terror is -like the Cold War- a war against a destructive Ideology....

Now here is the thing the Writer for USATODAY compaired it to

That's why the White House responded so harshly when
Democratic National Committee Chairman
Howard Dean said earlier this month, "The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong." And it's the reason this administration's initial reaction to Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record)'s characterization of the Iraq war as "a flawed policy wrapped in illusion" was so shrill.

Funny he avoids saying Howard Dean said We could not win the War in IRAQ and compaired the War in Iraq to Vietnam

The War In Iraq may be a part of the larger War on Terror but saying that Winning the War on Terror, in a conventional sense, won't happen vs Winning the War in Iraq which is happening right now does not in any way shape or form mean the same thing.

In fact the only thing similar is the President went on to say he viewed the War in Iraq as winnable, and Howard Dean said he viewed the War on Terror as winable.

So then differing reactions are appropriate

One thing is a very nebulous War like the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty

and the other is a very meat and potatoes war

But this may be a concept to difficult for people who write for USA today

Mexico...we have a problem

Dear The Government of Mexico:

You have for some time benifited from the fact our border situation allows all sorts of folks to flood into the United States. go visit hospitals in Arizona/New Mexico/And Texas and the stories of illegal aliens is bad. Almost as bad are stories out of the Hospitals in Florida and California.

You want to keep the regime going but some money quotes I found in this article kinda sorta show what you are wanting to do. You see by pretty much coming out and saying you want unrestrained illegal immigation will ensure it will never happen.

In a radio interview, Luis Ernesto Derbez said U.S. legislators who approved the bill were turning a blind eye to the contributions millions of migrants from Mexico and elsewhere make to America's economy and culture.

the use of Migrant is a nice bit of an Orwellian touch there.

Fox has for years called for an immigration agreement with Washington granting some form of legal status to Mexicans who sneak into U.S. territory in search of work.

if that is a policy matter of the Mexican government, how can we expect them to respect us?

and since we put money to help with border enforcement for Mexico's southern border in CAFTA we know Mexico doesn't view that as a policy for themselves.

So Mexican government please remember this. We 'Mericans don't like folks who have a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do attitude

try another approach

What could possibly go wrong.

"Hamas" is a charitable and relief organization Marxists and far end leftists say as their justification for being Anti-Israel and supporting that vile terrorist group.

so why is the US having to spend as much money as Hamas spends on 20 Suicide bomber's families?

By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – While the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for a halt in funding to the Palestinians if Hamas wins upcoming parliamentary elections, the U.S. government is currently in the process of funding a Gaza town run by Hamas.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, in conjunction with the Islamic Development Bank, reportedly contributed $392,000 for construction of roads and public facilities in Bani Suhaila, a Gaza village outside the populated Palestinian city of Khan Yunis.

Its simple because Hamas thinks they can now get guilty leftists politico's round the world to fund caring for their people while they fund killing the jews.

Another brilliant idea from the foggy minds and foggy bottom

WTF? Hollywood?

Yes folks.... what goes better then another "George Bush is an Idiot" theme... why one that combines it with an "American Idol is stupid" theme

I can agree with the later but not the former.

American Dreamz Trailer is here

after watching it I have two words

"Direct to video" (Hat tip The Journal of Left of Center Thinking)

and from the Cold War files.....

I am often amazed their ever was a Cold War with the Soviet Union, or the fact any rational person accepted that Communism might be a good idea. The historical evidence was already pretty steep that Communism was a bad Idea before World War II when Stalin took over huge hunks of europe.

But it seems that further evidence exists as to the truely foolish nature of the conflict.

Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors
CHRIS STEPHEN AND ALLAN HALL

THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.

Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior

Now first of all here we see some art immitating life, as The Planet of The Apes was writen about Monkey-Men to symbolize communists it is rather fitting that the communists wanted to go ahead and make some monkey men. But I hope things like this really put out of the minds of anyone that communists actually had a altruistic vision for human life. People were with this order by Stalin no better then an animal.

The quote from Comrade Stalin makes that more clear

According to Moscow newspapers, Stalin told the scientist: "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat."

When people point out men like Stalin and Mao were evil..... things like this are just another form of evidence to the true evil of international communism.

And Now I am out of the hole with the plastic companies

So I don't have to worry now till February

Woot :-)

Went into my Sitemeter and found a new blog

BitsBlog linked to my Howard Dean story and made a post off of it.

And I think it breaks down like this. I think some one with the beliefs and politics of Dean could be more effective but Howard Dean isn't effective

Well Eric as I normally do with surprise Linkers I add you to my Massive link list

No M.A.D.D in Mexico City

People drink and get snoggered every New Years/Christmas. In the United States the solution is to up the police and bust some perps.

How do they do it in Mexico?

Public safety officials in Mexico City last week announced that they would suspend the capital’s drunk driving vigilance program for the nights of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

and for any Libertarians out there the end result isn't impressive. More accidents total (almost double their daily number) but less then the average number of Traffic Fatalities

RINO SIGHTINGS: KESHER TALK

Kesher Talk is sponsoring this Week's Rino Sightings... and I got two posts in it....

Go me :-)

Money in my bank acount from School

I don't know if this is my Federal money or my Scholarship money but I can -pay- rent this next month

thank the good and wise lord

Bloggers everywhere were shocked to see this

UCLA does the most "scientific" test to prove the existance of Media Bias.

The Methodology was to take those things we can identify as most "Liberal" in American politics and then view the number of positive media stories about them. Then repeat with "conservative" under the same methodology.

This here was some pretty good social science and here is the money

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."

"Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left," said co‑author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public policy scholar.

We in the world of Blog just have something to say

"DuH"

The Catholic Church may redefine Honesty

Been buisy this morning so we're kicking out a late start for monday posting with this gem from the Holy Roman Catholic Church

Attorneys for victims in Oregon told Perris on Friday they wanted to ask Levada whether he would rely on the so-called doctrine of "mental reservation" when answering questions at the deposition.

The Catholic church teaches it is a sin to tell a lie, but the doctrine of mental reservation allows for circumstances when it may be better to avoid the truth in order to serve a higher purpose.

Kelly Clark, an attorney for several victims, argued the questions could put Levada in the position of deciding whether his answers must be balanced between federal law and his moral obligations under church doctrine.

If the Archbishop takes this route we have a serious problem here. And with an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god.... I got to think that trumps things because they are swearing to god.

Anyone out there know how the church views this?

Sharon has a stroke

Arik Sharon according to legend was told by the Lubbavitcher Rebbi that if he became Prime Minister Israel would be dominated by blood.

It has been said any Prime Minister who gives up an inch of Israeli land gets pushed out of office and never returns

and into that we get this bit of news from the Jerusalem Post.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem after suffering a mild stroke on Sunday evening.

Deputy director of the hospital, Prof. Yuval Weiss related in a press conference that the prime minister remained conscious continuously since his arrival at 7:50 p.m. That announcement contradicted earlier rumors, according to which, Sharon lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and had to be brought in on a stretcher. Other sources revealed that the prime minister walked into the trauma room on his own.

Weiss added that Sharon's condition improved during his hospitalization. The hospital official noted that the prime minister did not require any invasive procedures. He was sent to the internal medicine department and although he was to remain in Hadassah overnight, he was expected to be released in the morning.

The prime minister was taken directly to the VIP section of the hospital's trauma room, probably because of its higher security precautions. Meanwhile, Hadassah was closed off to civilian entry by special police forces. The senior medical staff of the hospital was called in to treat him. Neurologists on staff were already looking after the prime minister.

Ehud Olmert who is I think a member of Kadima will have to put the first election in Israeli history dominated by the post-zionist generation.......

and I think if thats the hand of god in this situation Israel will be better off

OKCUPID tells me where I need to live

errr ummmm Ok

Farm or Ranch You scored 13 out of 40 on urban-rural and 20 out of 40 land intensity.

People know you as: The Milkmaid Quote: "You get to not mind the cow smell." Your score indicates that you prefer a rural atmosphere to an urban one and low land intensity. You’re no hermit though; you like other people and, once you start talking to them, other people like you. As far as you’re concerned there is no difference between living in a city and living in a suburb, not that you would want to do either because you’re probably a bit scared of cities in the first place. Examples of places you should live: Amish country, PA; Kansas All Categories Secluded Hideaway / Farm or Ranch / Small Town / Little City / Suburb / Streetcar Suburb / Rowhouse 'Hood / Downtown Loft

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 7% on urban-rural You scored higher than 24% on land intensity

Link: The Where Should You Live Test written by TwelveFloorsUp on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Loud Howard Sunday

Its Sunday and our good friend Loud Howard has gone out and put out a new full court press in the “We have a plan for the country” tour the Democrats are trying to do.”

"In the spirit of all the holidays that Americans celebrate at this time of year and the values we share, I want to talk about what Democrats believe what will make our American community stronger," the former Vermont governor said.
Here is the first problem here; it is obvious that Loud Howard is trying to trick people with values by mentioning things like the spirit of the holidays. However instead of talking about what the Democrats believe, they are talking about what the Democrats believe can make this country stronger.

Here is the problem with that strategy… If the audience doesn’t trust –you- or believe you have a good agenda for the country selling them on an Agenda you have fails to establish trust. Also the problem with that strategy is when (as you see bellow) you basically say “It is the stuff we always believed in” that takes away from the “We don’t think you’re fly over country anymore honest.” Attitude Dean and the party needs to radiate.
In his remarks, which made multiple references to the holiday season, Dean touched on issues ranging from job creation and improved public education to a strong national defense and universal health care.

Again here is the problem. The reason the values card has worked for the Republicans nationally, and various Democrats locally is because they work first on saying “Hey man I’m one of you.” Howard Dean is like the guy at the party who is name dropping, only he is name dropping Jesus.
"With a Democratic majority we will pass those bills so that we can stop the scandals that are going on in Washington throughout the government," he said.
Hmmmm…. Well maybe instead of whining you use the skills you have to derail Presidential action items to pass bills with pliable Republicans…. Oh wait that’s right that would mean you legitimately care, and aren’t just in this to make political hay. You can stop anything you want in the Senate dead; you can stop things on a good day in the house. The fact that you say “We’ll do this all if you elect us” shows again the Democrats trying to make 2006 their 1994 don’t get the fact before 1994 the Republicans got legislation passed. They made things happen.
"In the spirit of the Christmas season, we also think it's wrong to cut things like funding for crutches and school lunches for poor children," he said.
Here is another reason why the Dean strategy will win. The more he tries to paint the Republicans as Simon Lagree the more it shows the negativity of the Democratic party position in the election. You don’t win elections by saying the other guy is evil, you win elections by saying you are good.

Unlike the White House and Democratic Leadership......

House Republicans Know what their voters want, and plan to give it to us....

he House legislation, billed as a border protection, anti-terrorism and illegal immigration control act, includes such measures as enlisting military and local law enforcement help in stopping illegal entrants and requiring employers to verify the legal status of their workers. It authorizes the building of a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But it put off consideration of a guest worker program, which
President Bush and many in Congress say must be part of a lasting solution to the illegal immigrant crisis.

The vote was 239-182, with opposition coming from Democrats and some Republicans upset by the exclusion of the guest worker issue and other Republicans wanting tougher border control measures.

All I have to say is doing this and not doing the Horriffic "Amensty that isn't Amnesty and most certainly like Reagan's not amnesty amnesty" the better.

But Don't worry Bill "Mini-Me" Frist has plans to carry water for the President

The issue next moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., says he will bring up immigration legislation in February that will provide a framework for guest worker ideas.

I wonder if the White House is paying attention to the fact the leader they hand picked to replace Trent Lott is screwing up their agenda 7 ways to sunday?

Death by OKcupid

32 Funeral Attendees You lived to 82, scored 53% in family size, and scored 49% in friends

You have a medium size family. The larger your family, the more people that exist to possibly come to your funeral. Instead of having a large group of friends, you prefer to have a few close friends that you can really trust. While this can often be a very wise choice, it does decrease the number of people that are likely to attend your funeral. You died at an average age. So you didn't spend 10 years living in a nursing home, but who wants that anyway? Everyone that could attended your funeral, but some family members had already passed away. Still there were many tears shed in your behalf. This is the same category that the author of the test placed in. Woah is us. YOUR FUNERAL STATISTICS 27 more people came to your funeral than to Howard Hughes's funeral. 25 more people came to your funeral than to Thomas Paine's funeral. 21 more people came to your funeral than to Karl Marx's funeral. 2 more people came to your funeral than to Oliver Sipple's,the man who saved President Ford from being assassinated. The exact same number of people came to your funeral as to the author of this test's. 368 less people came to your funeral than to Tiny Tim's. 968 less people came to your funeral than to Sir Fish's, a whale that beached itself in Vietnam in 2003. 49,968 less people came to your funeral than to Martin Luther King Jr.'s. Positive feedback is always appreciated. Thanks!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 65% on Age at Death You scored higher than 50% on Family You scored higher than 20% on Friends

Link: The Welcome to your FUNERAL Test written by kafkahateszeppo on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Huzzah

My Religion Term paper grade is one of the few not posted yet

I say Huzzah

John Kerry: Unintentional Humor

John Kerry Reinvents humor yet again

If Democrats take back the House in 2006, there would be a "solid case" to bring articles of impeachment against Bush for "misleading" the country about prewar intelligence, the National Journal's Hotline quoted Kerry as saying.

Kerry spoke Wednesday night at a holiday party for those who worked on his losing 2004 presidential campaign. He gave a short speech at a Washington bar.

Oh John you slay me

Oh right right Is this a Joke well John Kerry's spokesman seems to think so

Kerry's communications director David Wade later said his boss was joking, but Republicans are not laughing.

And what did he use as his justification for Impeachment? Why the intelligence the President used to go to War in Iraq that he never read.

More attack add fodder for the GOP

A nice WTF moment.....

Ok a buddy from my religion class has his research paper grade up, the course average is up

but where the frook is my grade?

Obligatory NSA spying post

And now we of course get to the latest “controversy” in the War on President Bush. I’d call it the war on terror but this isn’t really the war causing the controversy.

A lot of people are uppity about the fact the NSA has monitored the telephone conversations of about 30 people. This is not the thing you should be worried about, because for years the NSA has been monitoring every single phone call in the world that is transmitted over the air/via satellites. For many years longer then President Bush has been President.

In the past calls of US civilians have been picked up when they are with persons who are overseas and do bad things. Normally the NSA will then go hand over this information to the FBI, Intelligence courts, and other folks and let them run with the ball. What’s happening here is the White House in the spirit of the patriot act is telling them to just save those calls and monitor them as opposed to dumping them like 90% of the phone calls the NSA records.

Just as we’ve spied on British citizens for the British government they have spied on us as well.

Now the fun part of this story and what I believe to be the most blog worthy is that Bush told congressional leaders (thanks Al-Press)

Without identifying specific lawmakers, Bush said congressional leaders have been briefed more than a dozen times on the program's activities.

The most logical suspects are the “Gang of 8” leadership in the house and senate, and leadership of house and senate intelligence committees

However since I am not an Al-Press reporter I didn’t get to make the basic phone call on the subject….

But then again why ask questions that take away from the theme of the story “Bushitlermchaliburton attacks Civil liberties again”

Blog Blending with a side of children

I really like some times when I get up read two blogs that are normally unrelated and get fed into two streams which actually go together like swirl ice cream. Today is one of those times, and it brought me far from the two blogs which started this little journey.

Dr. Helen kicked it off by talking about Family conflict, especially as it tied into the holiday season.

“However, why not make the family friction into a learning experience for you and the kids?”
This reminds me of something my mother did which gets a bit into the point she mentions on another blog which I will get to in a moment. It brings me back to my mother “exposing” me to gay people. I actually vaguely remember I came to understand what they were at this point…but she didn’t just pick average gay people to expose me to so I could learn about gay people. Mom decided to expose me to people so gay they made Elton John look straight. I’m still not all to sure what her logic for doing that was.

Now on DADvocate he presents the case much more negatively then Dr. Helen.

In a few minutes, my sister stated she needed to leave. Giving polite goodbyes to all she and her friend left. It was then that I realized, or thought, that she was offended by my children's comments and perhaps mine. However, I was also offended that during a family lunch that my 12 year old son and 9 year old daughter were confronted about the morality of homosexuality….During the roughest times of my life I received minimal support from my liberal siblings and parents. I visit my parents as regularly as possible because they are essentially good (although politically and socially misguided) people, in their 80's and deserve to live out the last years of their lives feeling loved.After enduring many moments of tolerating my family's liberal moments, I don't look forward to gatherings, holidays, etc. because relaxation and enjoyment are too often interrupted by the politics of the moment or the cause celebre. Last Thanksgiving it was the mythical "sexist moment," this year it is "gayness," I can't predict what next year holds. Maybe all this is what Jesus was referring to when he said, "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

I have to go with Dr. Helen’s view however and also conversely my mom’s as well ( and my mom is a huge Liberal to)

However, in the raising of children, perhaps it is best to expose them to different groups of thought and help them to sort out why Aunt Becky or Uncle Tom is the way he or she is and to learn to understand their differences. This does not mean buying into whatever asinine thing the relatives want to say, but rather using it as a springboard to help children understand and broaden their perspectives on how people behave. And who knows? Aunt Becky with her liberal views may be the one who pushes little Johnny into a great career in the army or little Debbie into advocating for male rights after her son is forced by feminists to be medicated for his masculine behavior. Or on the other hand, Uncle Tom's racist views may lead another child to examine his own prejudices and decide to become more aware of his own racist attitudes in daily life.

The key is a dialogue and setting the standards you believe in on the subject you are exposing your children to.

Now over on Less Idiots I clicked on a link for Shameless plugs which brought me to Hiddenson’s construct and Plus memories. With a seasonal subject which also goes to the heart of the rearing of children “Do you tell Children about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny.” And I have to say like many of the folks here I am hugely torn. On the one hand I think kids believing in childish things like a bunny that drops eggs and a big fat man that leaves presents is good…. But at the same point in time I also see the point that kids who believe the presents come from parents and family members who love them very much is also a biggie to.

This also gets into one of the things I hate about college….professors using the bully pulpit to shape ideas in one and only one direction.

So ok my idea about children and their rearing/programming….

It needs to be as open and honest a dialogue as the kids are able to wrap their minds around. I won’t tell kids there is a real Santa Claus out there on a sleigh but I will tell them that Santa is a representation of both the Joy in giving presents, and the joy in receiving presents. (what do you think the milk and cookies are for huh ;-) ). And this will be more warped as I don’t expect any children I have to be Christian in any way shape or form.

I’ll be pro-active like my mother was when my kids are of the age to be exposed and think about more advanced socio-political concepts. I’m going to let the kids know what I think, I’m going to let them know why I find the other point of view to be wrong…. But I am also going to stress more importantly what matters in this world is the love and connection we have as a family.

If a friend/family member/non parental authority figure goes out and exposes kids and sells them a propaganda version of a political worldview I will raise cain. I will tell the person that you should ask me next time you try that. And then I go talk to my kid and try to get some good deprogramming skills built into the kid.

If a spouse does this… that’s going to be time for one of those in the bedroom discussions about child rearing issues. I can reasonably expect I am going to marry a spouse who on some big ticket issues doesn’t agree with me… if that’s the case then that to is a teachable moment for the kids.

And capping it all off with a lesson my mother taught me: Don’t believe everything you read, maybe believe half of what you hear, and remember you have a mind so figure it out.

Cindy Sheehan is sick in the head

Cindy Sheehan…..

The woman is a Necrophiliac in a non-sexual way… or that’s what I thought. I thought of her like the old folk tale of the woman jumping into the mans tomb. You can tell that fact when you look at her showing off her son. She doesn’t show pictures of him as a child, or pictures of them together…. Just him in his uniform, not Casey the son but Casey the dead political symbol, it is a dehumanization which is repugnant in and of itself but I truly believed she cared for her son. I really did. This fact really forced down a very small fraction of the bile her making tens of thousands a pop in speeches because of her dead son and the media circus she used him to create. She could use Casey to make herself wealthy, but not give him the final marker he deserves.

But now I find out she hasn’t bought a grave stone for her son. She has set up memorials to Casey wherever she is drawing attention to herself, but to the one place on this earth today where people who knew him and loved him could give attention and honor to Casey no memorial exists. Cindy gets a monument to the movement she made to enrich herself off of Casey’s death but Casey has no monument that is his alone.

She used the money his death gave her from the government to pay off fines with the I.R.S she brought on herself by a tax protest….She’s making money off of books and speaking fees because of his death… and she has become an undeserved celebrity.

Her family says she is to busy to be with them in their time of grief but is instead circulating with a political class that is using her as their symbol.

Her narcissism towards her own son’s life and death is truly repugnant.

The links are from Angry in the Great White North and Sweetness & Light. They are pretty good blogs showcasing the type of sick human being Cindy Sheehan is.

And those American political figures who have embraced this woman and given her credibility… You have a lot to answer for.

War on Smokers

((Disclaimer: I’m a non smoker… been around smokers all my life.))

I love to laugh at folks who say “Oh they will never try to make smoking illegal in our homes.”

As the assault on Smoker’s rights to slowly kill themselves is trying to force all smoking out of the work place, legal discrimination of hiring in smokers this lovely fascistic –we know how to handle your body better then you do- attitude is now coming into peoples homes.

Yep, no smoking in your homes folks. The Mooninite Washington Times has the story.

 Their efforts so far have contributed to regulations in three states -- Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont -- forbidding foster parents from smoking around children. Parental smoking also has become a critical point in some child-custody cases, including ones in Virginia and Maryland.

Smoke and lose your kids. Let’s not talk about the bogus science that justified the whole second hand smoke malarkey. Let’s put aside the whole bogus statistics that they try to use to justify second hand smoke as being that deadly.

They are coming after people through their children. This is a new form of demonstrable evil on the part of the Anti-Smoking Nazi’s.

Mr. Banzhaf, also a professor of public interest law at George Washington University, said most complaints are made by nonsmoking ex-spouses, although some are filed by neighbors, relatives and physicians.

Just think piss off some one and they can say “She smokes” to the anti-smoking secret police and you lose your kids. I am a big believer in building a community where everyone is together, to me a neighborhood where everyone is spying on everyone is the exact opposite.

And now for the ludicrous nugget of “Justification”

   She said children have a "more protective status" and that laws should protect children from secondhand smoke just as they are protected from parents and guardians who drink excessively or use drugs.

So how exactly is second hand smoke, which while not being healthy for you is no where near as bad as seeing mommy or daddy drunk, having to see mommy or daddy in a violent mood from drugs or drink…. How can any rational person put them together in the same pod?

And, what government entity in all this seems to have a sensible approach? The District of Columbia of all places.
"People who smoke are not barred from becoming foster parents," she said. "However, we are careful about children who have certain medical conditions. We would not, for example, place a child who has asthma in the home of a smoking foster parent. We are careful about those issues."

Well…. DUH!

Government when it gets big just keeps trying to invade things like a virus. And if you let big government take over and control every aspect of a citizens life like it is with these smokers you end up with the kind of government that will invade every aspect of your life.

We need to keep big government in check or we’ll have a government that tells us when we can go to the bathroom

Haptanghaiti: Song 5.4 = Yasna 39.4

Just as You, Lord

Wise, thought, spoke,

performed and practiced good,

so we offer You, so we announce;

so we, through these, venerate You,

so we bow,

so we implore,

You, Wise Lord!

(Haptanghaiti: Song 5.4 = Yasna 39.4)

Marginally talented musician trashes America

Surely the Guardian wouldn't be talking about it... Not the Al-Guardian....

She is a happier person than she was, but she doesn't think America's changed at all when it comes to race relations. "The blacker you are, the worse it is for you. If you're mixed, you've got a shot. If you cater to what white America wants you to do and how they want you to look, you can survive. But if you want to be yourself, and try to do things that fit you, and your skin, nobody cares about that. At the end of the day, white America dominates and rules. And it's racist."

Hmmmmmm Clarence Thomas Vs. Thurgood Marshall

In fact most of the conservative Blacks I know are Amistad dark people, and the lighter folks like Jesse Jackson are out to steal some more money. In fact Malcolm X was a quadroon

but.... Martin was pretty dark

so maybe by making sweeping generalizations -you- are being racisist to

Just maybe?

Now, what is better is the Guardian proves to me that yet again Europeans are ignorant as Americans

She was very active in the Hurricane Katrina benefits; the tragedy struck a particular chord, since it happened not that far from where her grandmother used to have her to stay, in Savannah, Georgia. "All I can remember is her going, 'Put some clothes on! You all put some clothes on!'

Yes Savannah is not far from New Orleans........

RIGHT

But anyway we see a Marginally talented America entertainer going off to another country, trashing America to sell records

which suck

not google whoring honest

I love two types of Radio Talk Radio and Metalish Radio… but I was reading Gay Orbit attack some one over Anal Sex and my love of talk radio kicked in… And I get into putting up a defense for good blogger and media figure Mickey Kaus as well….

So Anal Sex and Talk Radio with blogging… three things I like. So let me start off first with the Comment Mickey Kaus got blasted for

According to Kaus, people have an aversion to anal sex because it is - and I quote - unsanitary. After an in-depth discussion with his guest about the “genetic nature of homophobia,” Kaus decided to call out the “elephant in the room.” This elephant is, according to Kaus, the downright “dirtiness” of anal sex. He even asked his guest (rhetorically, I might add) “when has anal sex ever been sanitary”?

First of the entire unsanitary component I think while an aspect, doesn’t explain the nature of homophobia at all (and of course Homophobia isn’t a phobia either… but that’s a whole other argument) I was listening to Lionel and Dr. Drew on two separate occasions and I think I can make a much better biological “why there is an aversion to male homosexuality” with a chaser of Why everyone likes lesbians better. (And no I am not mentioning Anal Sex and Lesbians just to improve my Google ranking)

Dr. Drew was talking about a study he was in that did MRI’s of the brain as men looked at porn. He said that exposure to the male genitals in an aroused position triggered areas of the aggression and anger center of your brain in heterosexual males. Now what do animals do some times with other animals to assert dominance… yep male on male sexual dominance. And how about when two males are in a fight over a female.…yep more genital exposure here.
Dr. Drew didn’t go with this sexual theory… he left it hanging but it does a great deal to explain being “Prison gay” and then being “relatively” straight.

Lionel then went on to propose in an unrelated radio show that sexual desire/sense of sexual attraction in women may have a biological component based on the need to have a food related intimacy with your mother.

So the needs of biological survival (attacking the incurring male, and the survival of the female) are tied into human perceptions of homosexuality… and I think those urges have a lot more to do with feelings about homosexuality then sanity sex.

still more okcupidity

The Donator You scored 75 Giving, 76 Respectful, and 17 Selfish!

You, like the Push Me Pull Me, give, and have a basic respect for people, but you expect things. You expect that tax write-off, you expect that lunch in return. You are savvy and smart. You know what you want and you know how to get it. You know what others want, and you can usually give it. All you need to do is cut down on the expectations, cut down on the vanity. Materials and shallow beauty are not what make the world go 'round. Love, honesty, respect for all, and purity are the things you need to encompass, not money, cars, and the finer things in life!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 33% on Giving You scored higher than 33% on Respectful You scored higher than 33% on Selfish

Link: The How's Your Karma Test written by Mookie1010 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

2006 election watch

All sorts of folks are saying "The Democrats are going to win in 2006 big"

and I keep telling these people they are being silly. Well it seems that once again folks...Including apparently big time insiders in D.C aren't as smart as me.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday that Democrats should not seek a unified position on an exit strategy in Iraq, calling the war a matter of individual conscience and saying differing positions within the caucus are a source of strength for the party.

Terminating operations in Iraq right now with the folks who vote Democrat is approaching ice-cream levels of popularity. For the party to win the house and the senate in 2006 this means they need to nationalize the election much as the republicans did in 1994. The war in Iraq had a serious position to help the Democrats get their folks out and get them voting.

What this means however is the Democratic leaders realize they can't nationalize a dove position and win....Despite what Howard Dean says. But here we have an even bigger reason, a metaphysical reason this shows the Democrats have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

Her comments ruling out a caucus position appeared to put Pelosi at odds with some other party officials. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean recently said Democrats were beginning to coalesce around a strategy that would pull out all troops over the next two years. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on the day Murtha offered his plan, "As for Iraq policy, at the right time, we'll have a position."

Emphasis mine. Their is a war going on, with American men and women dying in a hot land in Arabia. Billions of dollars are being spent hand over fist. If this isn't a right time in the eyes of party leaders to have an Iraq policy of some sort then it is clear they will probably never have a policy

but the Washington Post ends this article with some yummy Irony

"Not only did we take him down on that, but we took down a lot of his credibility as being somebody who cared about 'people like me,' " she said.

This from a woman who not only employs scab laborers to work on her farm, then recieves almost in a callous mocking way an award from the United Farm Workers union this shows the Irony of politics in this country. The elite in terms of just about everything are the folks who run this country, yet the protest some form of commonality to them and attack the other for being the guy who is out to screw 'people like me'

And also, the House Democrats amongst others ruined the President's credibility but did so by not offering a credible policy or a credible idea of their own to a giant elephant in all our living rooms.

So once again 2006 won't be the end of Republican control of Washington and the Democrats only have themselves to blame....

A mini intro since I may be getting some guests here soon

And as I continue to shake my fist at the gods my life just continues to get more and more interesting….I’ve gone a while not posting about certain things here while blogging so I think I am going to go off into more details on that.

(mainly my little songbird has sent some folks my way and I want to get a post more about me on here)

I am dancing a bit in a circle when it is coming to the affairs of the heart…. Or is it a spiral? It’s hard to tell some days to be truthful. And don’t worry my songbird this is a good statement. She and I have gone further with our emotions and our feelings then we ever have before. We haven’t made any forward momentum yet but the feeling of things now it doesn’t bother me that we’ve not moved forward yet.

I’m not sure why we are still using pseudonyms for each other at the moment either… but it’s what she needs to do at this point and I can understand it.

All sorts of folks tell me I should be cautious bringing some one back into my heart but … when you have a almost total form of love and you have a chance not only to get it back, but to have it better I’m not sure what else to say but that I had to try.

I babble some times here about religion and spirituality issues to… throw out tons of stuff from Okcupid.

I’m not sure what else to say about myself right now… I’ll be trying to talk more about me here soon.

the #1 Baby Momma

When I first saw “The Superficial” On Ankle Biting Pundits I knew it was a great site, and full of much that was humorous. Now I get to flesh out one of their posts into a Inside Larry’s Head moment.

Now let me start off by saying I don’t like American Idol…. I had a very brief moment of caring about American Idol when it looked like that long haired guy was going to win. I’d also like to state I despise reality TV and would hate it more if I didn’t have cable and don’t consider the “Winners” real celebrities (unless it’s a reality show about celebrities lives melting down).

So one of the most loathsome in my mind reality show stars has just went down a notch in the hierarchy of decent human beings

Yes that would be fantasia. I didn’t like her singing (thank you Simpsons for forcing that on me), I didn’t like the look of her in the whole “this is some one the media elites think I should care about” way…. And I really didn’t like what she stood for.

Fantasia was all about the Baby momma’s… Fantasia was out to get them some more respect in society. As we later learned she was illiterate, which makes her desire to get respect for others who made poor life choices even more awful. She wants to lend strength to those who went out, had sex and then got pregnant and chose instead of forming a family unit for the child chose to start the child’s life off dysfunctional with a relationship with a part time dad with partial money who may like a bee have that relationship with two or three other women in the ‘hood.

Women who have made this mistake need to be told they should be strong and improve their life…instead of giving it up for the baby mommas

So how has this woman taken this world and made it a little worse? This barely celebrity has gotten out of Jury duty because “it took to long”… and you may ask why did the Judge let this stupidity pass… well The Judge is a fan

Keller said he was among the court employees who had their picture snapped with the celebrity juror.
"She's just really nice, down to earth," he said. "Not at all what you'd expect."

A down to earth person would have asked to be excused –before- the trial started due to her obligations. A down to earth person would have said “Let me try and reschedule”

She is acting all Whitney Houston when…wait, at the rate Whitney Houston is going that’s actual a goal she can achieve.

Unintentional Humor of the NYT Select

As seen on Mickey Kaus

OP-ED COLUMNIST W. Won't Read This
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: December 14, 2005

....To continue reading this article, you must be a subscriber to TimesSelect.

Nothing like making an article for-pay on your site and then say someone won't be reading it.

Cause I've not read any MoDo since she went to times select

Auspicous start to the day

I pretty much fell where I stood last night. And it looks like I rolled over and broke my glasses.

Well, Thank god the day I bought my glasses they had that two for one sale.

anyone else ever done such a thing?

Loud Howard does it yet again

I think all Center-Right bloggers should start every morning with this simple declaration “Thank god for Howard Dean”

Let’s show why I am thanking god for Loud Howard today.


"Governor Ehrlich promised Marylanders that he would end the politics of division and personal attacks," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a press release yesterday. "Instead of honoring this promise, he has hired Bo Harmon, who launched one of the most virulent and offensive political attacks against former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran and triple amputee who served his country valiantly in Vietnam."

Emphasis added to point out the John Kerryism of this attack.

Max Cleland didn’t lose because of the infamous Osama commercial we’ve all heard about. Put that out of your mind for a moment while I tell you something shocking. Georgia is becoming a reliably Republican state. And during the time the voters became more and more members of tribe GOP Max Cleland carried water for the party leadership of the DNC.

Max Cleland as he was drifting more center-left the state of Georgia was drifting more center-right. This is not how a candidate remains in office. The fact Howard Dean has to stress this infamous commercial shows they didn’t learn their lesson in 72 in 80, 84, 88, or most recently 04. While Dirty Tricks can tip the ball into the hoop you still have to make the jump shot. Lee Atwater didn’t steal the election nor did Diebold. In the contest of ideas people found your ideas lacking. Period.

Dirty campaign acts may sit in the belly like a bad bowl of meat, they rarely do anyone in. And when they do its because some one is unwilling to change with his times.

Sadly MAX gets into the mix

Cleland said he was "disappointed" in Ehrlich's choice. "Four years ago, Mr. Harmon ran the nastiest campaign I have ever seen in 35 years of politics, against me, attacking my patriotism and my integrity," he said.

Max you have done far more damage to your own patriotism and integrity. The man who fought like a beast for the suffering vets in the V.A system that you were earned you the respect of this nation as a patriot. The fact you can’t let go of an election you lost shows a lack of character and integrity which justifies the distorted claims you make about these commercials as absolute truth.

No where in that commercial did it say “Max Cleland isn’t patriotic” it questioned your political choices for our national defense. Just as it is patriotic to question the conduct of a war and even the justification of a war, so to is it patriotic to question those who always sound the call of less military and less national defense. You should be ashamed for using your war wounds and your medals to some how place your conduct and opinion beyond approach or challenge. That is so un-American it sickens me to think a man who conducts him self in such a manner was ever an elected official.

In their attack on the governor of Maryland we see the very worst of the Democratic Party. The “we know better, you are too stupid to know what to do” elitist attitude… Every party has their slime-mongering advertisers but to some how say you are the pure white lamb is so insulting it proves once again your party doesn’t deserve the offices of trust, profit, or honor in this republic.

I love finding things on sitemeter

Yes some one has apperently came here, and came to one of my more recent posts via some one sending them the info in Gmail....

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiintresting

Tookie Christ

What do Davids Medienkritik and Get Religion have in common today?

Both are talking about the Religious angle on the Tookie Williams Execution. And what fascinates me much as I said you can find a religious justification to execute Tookie… the forces of Secularization and de-religionizing of American society are misquoting Religion widely to get there.

First from David’s site some ignorant German Tool.

Thou shalt not kill?  The violent American society that has surrounded the war against terror in the aura of a holy war has by and large suspended the Fifth Commandment. 

Ok there Manfred lets start off with something

Killing is not forbidden in the 5th commandment at all. The Fifth Commandment in the original Hebrew prohibits murder. Homicide can be sinful as can killing some one in war, but war is never murder to the original Hebrew ethics and not all homicides are murder (and if you need proof of that Carlos Mencia has a whole routine on it..)

Now I am not going to go with how Manfred is promoting lies about what happened in New Orleans (I guess only the fictional biblical prohibition on killing, and not on baring false witness matters to Manfred)

Now over at Get Religion we get to see Jamie Foxx tossing out the fake religiousity

“The first thing you learn from the Bible is about forgiveness,” actor Jamie Foxx told CNN in criticizing Schwarzenegger’s decision. Foxx portrayed Williams in “Redemption,” a made-for-television movie.

Ummm Jamie, I don’t know about you but back when I was in the Christian children mill the first thing they taught us was about Jesus being born in a manger….

Secondly, what exactly can you forgive of a man who does not –ask- for forgiveness…indeed does not admit he did anything wrong? How can you forgive?

Some tool  however in the state legislature made it worse however

“It would be refreshing to see the state articulate the values of grace, mercy and redemption,” Leno said. “Unfortunately, the governor has missed an opportunity to do just that.”

Ok…. Let us start from top to bottom about why this statement is idiotic
IF you believe in grace in the Christian sense of the word (and no Jewish concept really exists for grace) then you know Grace is granted by –god- in particular by god through the sacrifice of Christ.
So, is this man implying that the state of California is in some way shape or form Jesus?

Next we go take a look at mercy and redemption: these two factors went hand in hand. Tookie Williams never made a real effort to atone and seek Redemption.

And the Govinator pretty much agreed with me there in a way that goes not just to his Catholic teachings, but to the teachings I’d guess of Assemblyman Leno

“Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption,” Schwarzenegger said. “In this case, the one thing that would be the clearest indication of complete remorse and full redemption is the one thing Williams will not do.”

Or in 12 step terms “the first step is to admit you have a problem”

The problem here is people who want to embrace religion without realizing in the old saying of Rush Limbaugh “Words mean things”

Religion has a meaning, and you can’t pick at the body of religion to find a way to call people hypocrites because you just show your ignorance and bias

Don King

I looked at the Drudge Report and…. I have to be in Favor of Don King.

Murderer Don King.
Horrible Bigot Don King.
The Man who may have single handedly ruined Boxing Don King.

And yet Don King “Gets” what’s going on in American politics. And that makes me Weep.

(Wolf Blitzer): You love George Bush?

DON KING; I love George Walker Bush because I think he's a revolutionary. He's a president that comes in with conclusiveness. What they're doing in tomorrow in Iraq is a demonstration of that for the vote for democracy. The fundamental process of democracy is freedom of speech, law and order, being able to have freedom, working with people and working and governing yourselves. George Bush is that. He included in...

BLITZER: Do you have any regrets supporting him? Take a look at that picture when you and I were there at the diner last year. Do you have any regrets supporting him as enthusiastically as you did?KING: No, I don't. In fact, I want to support him more now because it seems like everybody is punching him. You know what I mean? But he's fighting back, and he's throwing great combinations. And I think he's the guy that is really a revolutionary president.I think he's a president that cares about the people he represents, but doesn't compromise himself to the extent that he acquiesce and accommodate. He goes out there and says like it is, and tries to make things better. Inclusiveness, education, is fighting for that.These are the things that many guys that don't fight for -- George Walker Bush is a tremendous advocate to America, a great president for the great American people, and he's decisive. He's doesn't equivocate.

Don F!ng King gets that George Bush’s entire Presidency is centered around what George Believes America stands for, and what’s in the best interest of America.

And Don King is a man who got educated in the school of Ultra Hard Knocks

What does that say about the political and media elite of the left?

A tool comments on King Kong

Now then Some people are saying King Kong is Rascist... and I call these people tools.

Thanks to Ace I found this tool here.

So when King Kong unfolded and the 1930s New York crowd scenes were almost devoid of black faces, rather than the 15 per cent you would have expected, and when the first black actors had small non-speaking parts - dancers and the only major black character was the strong caring second officer to the ship's captain - the good and dutiful slave stereotype - I was squirming in my seat. If I had not been at a premier with my transfixed son I would have been out of the door soon after the wide eyed, homicidal, half dressed, blacker than black natives of Skull Island started cavorting one hour in.

Peter Jackson's movie is like the 20s/30s King Kong but with a modern film studio budget.

He was trying to be very true to the work he was re-making........

and yet some one has to assume a racial animus to this.

Could it be that Jackson had that 1930sish movie feel in his mind and was trying to recreate the awe and beauty of those films which were made back in a far less Racially enlightened time when -gasp- very few Black faces were on the screen?

Dave over at Garfield Ridge puts it into even better perspective

With respect to the natives on Skull Island, they are indeed very black-skinned (Jackson cast Melanesian islanders). They're definitely a stereotype. . . of crazed, cannibalistic, headhunting islanders. Is that stereotype accurate? Most certainly not. Then again, neither is a 25-foot-tall ape, or an island that time (and evolution) forgot.

Dave next thing your going to tell is is that Movies aren't always about real things.....

Its just a movie people.... a good movie

Haptanghaiti: Song 5.2 = Yasna 39.2

Also we venerate the souls of

the helpful law-abiding.

And we venerate the souls of the righteous,

born in whatever land,

both men and women,

whose good consciences

are growing, have grown or shall grow.

(Haptanghaiti: Song 5.2 = Yasna 39.2)

Second Interviews suck

Why am I saying this? Because whenever I have since moving up to Tampa taken a second interview I have found the experience to be like Columbo meets Jackie Chan's grandfather on Jackie Chan adventures

...."One more thing"

So this gig I was looking forward to at FedEx turns out I get to waste most of next week without getting paid for the gig doing pre-orientations and orientations before hiring....

Yark~!

I was eating my early lunch

And I watched bits of the "Prebutal"

Who told Democrats that Pre-butting the President's speech was a good idea that would make them seem credible?

That man should be fired and I should have his job.

The Democrats should Rebut the president with a Rebuttal and "Pre-Butt" the president with a perception of "We are credible"

Things to do if you are on a movie set

And Hayden "Look George I'm Emoting" Christensen is around

HAYDEN Christensen does not suffer hecklers gladly. The actor, currently shooting "Awake" with Jessica Alba, was leaving his trailer to do a scene inside Bellevue Hospital the other day when a fan approached. But instead of asking Christensen for an autograph, the fan yelled, "You ruined the 'Star Wars' movies!" Our set-side source says the annoyed Anakin Skywalker "chased the guy down the street and scared him away." A spokeswoman for the Weinstein Co., which is producing "Awake," declined comment.

Me I wouldn't run. I'd run towards him... make fun of his acting in other movies and hope he lays a hand on me

and let the $$$ begin

Song 5.1 = Yasna 39.1

Thus we venerate

the soul and fashioner of the living world;

also our souls and those of the domestic animals

which make us live;

and of those who are Yours;

and those who belong to these.

(Haptanghaiti: Song 5.1 = Yasna 39.1)

More ancient egypt okcupidity

Amun Indeed, you are 75% erudite, 79% sensual, 50% martial, and 45% saturnine.

Amun was a mysterious God indeed. His very name basically means "what is hidden", "what is not seen", "what cannot be seen", and though even his form was said to be �unknown�, he was depicted as a man with the head of a uraeus (cobra), or a man seated on a throne and holding in one hand the sceptre, and in the other the ankh. All secrets aside, what we do know is that Amun was the Egyptian King of the Gods, not unlike his counterparts Zeus (Greek mythology) and Odin (Norse mythology). With his ruling might over the Gods, Amun soon became associated with the Pharaohs. Being responsible for the creation of the world, it is not surprising that he was also the God of fertility, reproduction, and sexual power, and thus also the God of agriculture. With the combined powers of regeneration and royalty, Amun became linked to the sun and the great God Ra, becoming known as Amun-Ra, which pretty much consolidated his status as Supreme God. In spite of Amun's political ascension, he also enjoyed popularity among the common people of Egypt, who came to call him the vizier of the poor, the protector of the weak, and an upholder of justice. The Fifteen Gods These are the 15 categories of this test. If you score above average in � �all or none of the four variables: Dagda. � Erudite: Thoth. � Sensual: Frey. � Martial: Mars. � Saturnine: Mictlantecuhtli. � Erudite & Sensual: Amun. � Erudite & Martial: Odin. � Erudite & Saturnine: Anubis. � Sensual & Martial: Zeus. � Sensual & Saturnine: Cernunnos. � Martial & Saturnine: Loki. � Erudite, Sensual & Martial: Lug. � Erudite, Sensual & Saturnine: Coyote. � Erudite, Martial & Saturnine: Hades. � Sensual, Martial & Saturnine: Pan.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 35% on erudite You scored higher than 52% on sensual You scored higher than 26% on martial You scored higher than 23% on saturnine

Link: The Mythological God Test written by Nitsuki on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Energy Policy Postin

Now to take Shameless advantage of the Washingtonpost.com and their use of Technorati tags I am going to mock further the position of the DNC. (Thank yee ABP of BDP flavoring)

So let me first take a little statement of opinion here. I fully support more nuclear, more wind, more coal gasification, more etc… if it diversifies our energy usage –I- be for it. However the key to the plan is how stupid the democrats are about it.
Let’s start of first with guy who thinks he is running for President “Fast” Eddie Rendell.

Rendell cited Brazil, which has slashed its dependence on crude by making fuel from sugar cane and by producing cars that run on gasoline or ethanol. "If Brazil can do it, so can we," he Rendell.

First problem:
Where do you think the plants from Biomass come from? What do you think fuels the tractors and what not that harvest them?

Would it be oil?

How about the petroleum additives in fertilizers and other farm aids?

Oil again… wow~!

So Biomass/Ethanol fuel when placed in that large a usage depends on more use of oil based fuels.

Second Problem:
Short of advancing Hydrogen Fuel cells the “solutions” in the plan only lead to ……. That’s right, MORE usage of oil.

Now A more diverse energy plan –Can- Work but… here comes the problem the plan doesn’t give money to fluffy groups to force money into the Democratic party pressure groups like farmers.

Tax incentives to anyone who puts a Solar Panel on their home to aid in water heating or uses some of the new advanced industrial techniques for water heating which use less water.

Tax and regulatory Incentives to convert every power plant over to Nuclear.

Incentives to build coal gasification plants.

Tax and regulatory incentives to build new fuel refineries

Etc.


But these ideas benefit capitalists who don’t deliver votes for the Democrats.

So, once again politics trumps policy and political tribalism trumps what’s best for America.

Worldnetdaily blogging II

And now for the second dosage of Worldnetdaily fun.

Here is why I think the Democrats are cruising for a Losin in the elections.

"Democrats overwhelmingly say Iraq is the most important issue. Seventy-one percent of Howard Dean's party hold that view while only 15 percent name immigration as more important," said Rasmussen.
By comparison, "Republicans are evenly divided – 42 percent say immigration is a more important issue while 41 percent name Iraq."
And of those who say they are not affiliated with either major party, 47 percent named Iraq the most important, while 30 percent said immigration.
A majority – 58 percent – think the United States should build a barrier the length of its border with Mexico, but support dwindles when the term "barrier" is replaced by "wall."

While yee old GOP isn’t doing much better then the Democrats on the front of controlling the border the democrats are taking the far left turn as a national issue on the Border. The same holds true with hottie of “Washington Insiders” John McCain.
If the Republican campaigns break hard with the president, or even just a soft break with the president the voters will follow.

Jebus Wins....Flawed Victory

The Courts have a war on Jebus huh?

The Christian right folks over at worldnetdaily are patting themselves on the back when this court ruling actually strikes a blow –against- the believers and not –for- the believers.

"Jews for Jesus is pleased to put this frivolous lawsuit behind it and move forward," said Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel for Liberty Counsel, which represented Jews for Jesus. "The lawsuit was a theological attack wrapped in a legal pleading against Jews for Jesus as a Christian organization, because of its outreach to the Jewish community.

So, what’s the nuts and bolts of this lawsuit?

Jews for Jesus claimed this woman went out and accepted Jesus Christ as her lord and savior.

But as WND reported, Circuit Court Judge Catherine Bruns agreed in May 2004 to a motion by Liberty Counsel to dismiss the case, which argued it was not defamatory to call someone a Christian. A defamatory statement, the group said, must be highly offensive to a reasonable person.
Simply calling someone a Christian in America is not highly offensive to a reasonable person, nor should it be, Liberty Counsel stated.
So… any one out there in blog view land who is a member of say the Baptist church let me ask you a question. If the local Church of Satan published you in the membership rolls would you find that offensive? How about Atheist international? How about the local wiccan association? How about the Unitarian Universalist church?
If you believe that you have a special religious identity with god and your friends and family all believe it, then saying you have gone 180* from that identity can indeed be defamatory.

How much of a tort it is… well, that is debatable.
But in utterly disrespecting this woman’s religious beliefs it will be harder for Christians in the future. It will be harder for anyone to defend their religious beliefs.
But heck the Christian right is to short sighted to see it why should I point this out to them?

Sexy Nuance Post

I find Nuance so sexy, which is why we all know that the Democratic position is so sexy…. Why talk about the substance of the Iraq war when you could in a sexy deep throaty voice “Say things that don’t mean anything at all.”

Some bit-o-Delaware news shows just how Sexy Democratic nuance can be.

The Delaware Democrat spent the week after Thanksgiving with a congressional delegation on a trip to the Middle East and Iraq and returned to a growing political uproar. While President Bush assured reporters "the war is winnable," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean claimed that the idea the war can be won is "just plain wrong."
"I wish more of my colleagues, and folks like Howard Dean, would try going to Iraq to see the situation there for themselves," Carper told The News Journal.

First of all how Sexy is this. We compare Howard Dean saying the idea that the war can be won is just plain wrong to President Bush saying “The war is winnable” with some one saying you should go to Iraq. So you see while this –seems- to moderate itself from Howard Dean’s position what Senator Carper’s words here are doing is making him a authority above reproach. Now the Deleware News Journal here just happens to make him out to be more sensible then Howard Dean or George Bush… but I know you want me to sex you up with the Nuance don’t you….
Carper will take to the Senate floor Wednesday to discuss his observations in more depth. Anyone who has visited Iraq and talked to the people there, he said, "is not going to come back thinking this thing is going to be won militarily. It's not."

So Senator Carper, let me ask you what does “Won Militarily” mean to you? Does it mean that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney will in a black mass raise Audie Murphey, General Patton, and John Wayne from the dead and send them to beat down all the Anti-US forces in Iraq with the power of Jingoistic-Zombies?
Do you mean will we have Zarqawi come to Camp David and sign an armistice?
Or, does it mean the US military will arrests/incapacitate the Anti-US/Anti-Iraqi forces and allow a political solution to work?
All three of those things require the military to take good honest American boots and put them to the buttocks of bad guys… but one of those things mention “Oh yeah we kind of have to build an Iraqi society so we will stop having hineys to kick.”
By using Nuance they can look like they support the soldiers, when they don’t.
But to use Nuance in that sexy way they have to sell the war in an entirely un-nuanced way which isn’t sexy at all.

A response to a pro-tookie emailer in a spiritual group

You know some Buddhists and Hindu's support capital Punishment?
Under the system of Judaic ethics Capital Punishment for a just reason is lawful and ethical.

It is only the Christian faith that has taught that killing is wrong in this fashion.... Not that it is a bad thing but you want to look at a multi-path judgement on the spirituality of his killing lets be honest.

they believe sometimes the actions done in a single lifetime are to much for a soul to undo in a single lifetime.

Tookie Williams created a system which has lead to suffering of every urban community in the United States.

He birthed a system which not only advocated murder, but often advocated the murder of innocent people as an initiatory rite system

More often then not the people killed in those barbaric rites were teachers and those who made a real difference to the community.

That Karma was on Tookie William's soul. But in Prison up until it became clear that the executioner would finally come to him he continued to perpetuate murders, and a system of evil.

Tookie Williams could have used his influence to bring peace to untold thousands of families who lost loved ones to the system of evil he created. He did not.

He could have told where the bodies of people missing, and presumed dead, on his order were. He did not.

He could have ended the crips as a system which perpetuated evil and murder in this country. He did not.

He perpetuated a system that brought drugs into the community and sold them to small children.

Tookie Williams committed acts of demonstrable evil, He continued to commit those acts until such time as it was clear that he would finally face the consequences for those actions.

and even then he said a book that barely sold a thousand copies was worth the lives of 4 people he was convicted of killing, and the untold other murders he committed that he was never tried for.

He said the (at the most) 200 kids who heard his antigang message some how made up for not only brutally murdering people, but bragging and laughing about it.

In the end Tookie's attempt to cling to life shows the very deep Karma to which some followers of the Buddah would see as a justification for Capital Punishment.

I tend to be a gadfly here because people here assume only political option is of spiritual value. I pointed out that in two spiritual systems which form the foundation of "New Age" spirituality you could very easily find spiritual justification in the Death at the hands of the state of Tookie Williams.

People overstate the case for the good he has done because he is a cause celeb among a certain political spectrum. His "good" is vastly overstated and his coldness to the suffering not only of the victims of his own crimes, but to the victims of the Crips gang as a whole. The only fair thing is to address the reality.

Tookie Williams was a man who did a great deal of evil in this world. A man who didn't make anything resembling an attempt to mitigate or make up for his evil. But he became a cause celeb and in a culture that is more and more celebrity obsessed the truth of his case is ignored because of his fame.

His victims deserve better
the victims of the Crips gang deserve better
and any honest spiritual value judgement about Tookie Williams deserves better.

Tookie Williams lawyer tried to pursue clemancy and pursue appeals for Tookie Williams.Had he just sought clemancy it might have worked, Had he just sought an appeal it might have worked but both wouldn't

that in the end sums up the life of Tookie Williams. Trying to play every angle and failing to reach a goal of good and just living
--

**Snickers**

The Regretful Ex You scored 70 D, 35 J, 34 T, and 12 A!

You genuinely know how to have a relationship. You care about her and chances are she cares about you, too. Things might not have worked out this time around but at least you have a strong friendship to show for it. You will be remembered as the ex she should have married.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 46% on D You scored higher than 0% on J You scored higher than 60% on T You scored higher than 33% on A

Link: The What Kind of Ex are You? Test written by silvergabetha on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Song 4.5 = Yasna 38.5

Waters, you clouds,

you mothers, you cows,

supporters of the righteous poor, ladies of all,

we have declared the best, the sublimest.

O good ones, through your powerful favor

in distress;

pelters, envelopes,

lively mothers.

(Haptanghaiti: Song 4.5 = Yasna 38.5)

If you know RTP or AGS this makes sense

Otherwise this makes no sense

Somewhat pro-Mike You scored 54 percent like Mike!

Rah Rah. You'll be pulling the lever for the Adams ticket, but that won't keep you from wishing LNOG! was on the ballot instead.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on mikeishness

Link: The Should You Vote For Mike? Test written by texasyojimbo on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Good

The fishing expedition against Rush will have to end

"The state cannot ask the doctors its questions posed to the court during the hearing," Black said in a statement. "We've said from the start that there was no doctor shopping, but Mr. Limbaugh should not have to give up his right to doctor-patient confidentiality to prove his innocence."

The ruling, though, rejected Black's argument that physicians and patients enjoy a legal privilege comparable to that between attorney and client, where the parties cannot be forced to disclose confidential information.

The law provides for medical confidentiality, the judge wrote, but that does not extend to the courtroom if "that information is shown to be relevant to the prosecution of a crime."

If their is a crime charge him... If not apologize

What the Deuce?

Having Snoop Dogg talking utter ghetto speak in some vague attempt to influence a pee wee football team by ghettoizing movie quotes

That is horrible.

All I have to say “Go Saints”

The Paris Intifada in Australia

Well... sort of. First on Sunday "Alcohol Enhanced" Australians went out and pushed at gangs and hooligans of middle eastern/arab descent over an attack on a lifeguard. Locals getting drunk and taking the law into their own hands.

and what response did this get

SYDNEY (AP) — Violence spilled into a second night Monday as scores of youths drove through predominantly white suburbs of Sydney, smashing windows of cars, homes and stores and raising fears of spreading racial unrest.

Yes it gets worse

Young men of Arab descent struck back in several Sydney suburbs Sunday, fighting with police for hours and smashing dozens of cars with sticks and bats, police said. They said 31 people were injured, including a white man who was allegedly stabbed in the back, and 16 arrested.

That has ironic yumminess.

Also we see black skimask wearing hordes to.

Yes so lets see if this calms down or if we see a Paris redux

SpongeBob republicans

Hollywood sucks right, that’s what conservatives say right? But not everyone who says Hollywood sucks just because it’s in the bible (somewhere in the back) or even because of the argument over culture

Hollywood sucks because it is no longer entertaining.

But some trends on the right show it isn’t just about what Jebus would watch on tv. You heard Tony Snow singing the praises of Spongebob, You hear Sean Hannity talking up (but acknowledging the vulgarity), Dennis Prager talking about his love for Family guy… and well “South Park Conservatives” You have Christian-Conservatives admit 9/10ths of Christian-Entertainment is mind numbingly bad…. So there is a depth to what’s going down with in American entertainment and how political culture tries to warp it.

I've made the Gay cowboys eating pudding joke.....

But I found this pMSNBC article.... And I Just have to share

(Hat tip KJel.org)

AP: Cartman once described independent movies as “gay cowboys eating pudding.” Now we have “Brokeback Mountain,” an upcoming movie by Ang Lee about gay cowboys.

Stone: If they have pudding in that movie, I’m going to lose my mind.

Parker: No, if there’s pudding eating in there, we’re going to sue.

AP: Are you guys prophets?

Stone: No, but Cartman is. [Laughs] We went to Sundance a lot in the mid-to-late ’90s, and you could just tell it was going toward gay cowboydom.

Matt and Trey are awesome.......

Gay cowboys eating pudding II

Gay cowboys eating pudding and exploring their sexuality, who would think after Matt and Trey, made that a punch line that some one would make it into a movie? And Ann Althouse is on the case as Hollyweird tries to hide what they wrought on the Movie going audience. Some Gay voices in the blogospheroid have some negative thoughts about Hollyweird’s avoidance syndrome but truth be told… Hollywood just doesn’t get how to make good movies. When they make good movies they don’t try to do it right next time, they try do dumb the films down to some mad libs styled formulae without realizing making art isn’t formula… it is well ART

I was told I should actually see the movie before casting judgement on it… I say Pish~! Look at who is on the Marquis. Ang lee; Ruined his strong reputation in Hollywood with “The Hulk” Heath Ledger and Jake Gylinhardnametospellorpronounce also have been billed as the “next big thing” only to fizzle. All three of these men are using the gay angle to pump people into theaters, and to show how they are “edgy” and thus put a hot injection into their career. Heath and Jake are piss poor actors, on a good day, so their being involved in this gambit with Ang is a trifecta. Much as people wouldn’t admit until I pointed out how it was unbiblical that The Passion was, that it simply was a very very very bad movie…… people –especially liberal or gay people- will likewise irrationally defend this movie. Because this movie rather ham handedly plays into the identity politics that dominate American culture today.

They included Ms. “Princess Diaries/Ella Enchanted” to try to drag the romance oriented women into the film. And the other female lead has made some of her career bones on trying to sell politics through films.

This film was meant to play people, meant to play on the folks who feel they need to be progressive and like gay films because gays have gotten such a hard shift in life. The film critics have been rolling out more and more lubricated reviews over the years to try to get people in to the declining state of the American cinema because they like the Music Industry just don’t get it.

People are ditching movies because movies have become soulless abominations. Anything that lifts the spirit or challenges the cultural voices of the time (not necessarily the cultural attitudes)… we see films that are so similar it numbs the palate. Films that break out like “The Incredibles” do so by challenging the mold of what’s expected. As the movie exercise often costs as much as the DVD we don’t want to see warmed up tripe or titillation like saying Sh** on television. We want something good.

This is just looking at how the movie is set up. We have critics who are pliable because they know if people don’t watch movies (especially artistic oscar drek movies) they won’t have a job. A studio willing to use homosexuals to reboot three careers… and maybe make some money off it to.

You can make a love story that happens to be about homosexuals. A great movie was done on that subject (albeit throwing in some transgendered issues to). The point is you show the depths of other kinds of love ( not friendship, but the other kinds of love that the greeks told us about… except man/boy love which is just gross) and then you put on the intimate love. You seduce the audience as the characters do their dance of seduction. Instead this film is about sexual politics, and the politics surrounding homosexuality. They take what is a great warm fuzzy idea and sell people on it, then callously sell other angles to try to distract from the fact this movie is simply a terrible film.

The critics talk about the “uncomfortable kissing” scene… uncomfortable intimate scenes…. If Hollywood put those scenes together with the same way they uncomfortably try to show the human spirit in entertainment…. As an absurd simplification it just shows that Hollywood sucks

Watch old DVD’s…. and don’t see films unless they are films no one thinks can succeed like Serenity… because those films actually have a shot at being good.

Davinci Code II

I saw this on Fark (and now that I found out where the image came from, I can post it I think)

This artwork by Boris Vallejo is awesome

And it just goes to show another thing the secret church conspiracy tries to hide from you

With Family like these, who needs enemies

I like Harold Ford. I thought if anyone could take the State of Tennessee back into the Democratic column it’s this “I was Barak Obama before Barak Obama” member of the US house. However I think his family is going to screw the pooch for him.

Election records of a September special election that put Ophelia Ford in a state Senate seat show that someone may have used the name of a man who had been dead for six weeks to vote.
Ford, a Democrat, beat Republican challenger Terry Roland by 13 votes in a race in which 8,750 ballots were cast. The election was to replace Ford's brother John Ford, who resigned in May after being indicted on bribery charges.

I am sorry but this is the key especially with some one who is part of a political Clan to push him out of the running.
Sorry Harold, better luck next time.

I don't care about Tookie Williams

Am I alone in not caring about Tookie Williams? I mean governments have given clemency for lame reasons before. I think we should stop caring about celebrities and political causes they care about unless we ya know… bought into them already

Syrian government R Smart

Ahhh the Syrian government. You get in trouble for the “alleged” car bombing execution of a anti-Syria former PM. You get in Major trouble with the UN. Now the same week new evidence comes out in a report suggesting you did it… an Anti-Syria journalist in Lebanon gets blowed up…

You see Arafat was a smart dictator. He let Palestinian mobs do what they wanted unless it would get him in a lot of trouble. Which is why the folks cheering the attacks on 9-11 all got thrown in Palestinian jails for a few days… And it is a Sad day when the leader of a much better dictatorship doesn’t get that.

And sadly the claims of a front group in their claims of responsibility expose Syria’s hand.

A previously unknown group called "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant" claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement faxed to Reuters, saying the same fate awaited other opponents of "Arabism" in Lebanon.

Pan-Arabism is a philosophy of the Baathists in iraq, the Baathist’s in Syria, and the Nasserites in Egypt…..

This is clearly a good thing for you to have happen. Way to blow it Syria

This part makes it even worse for Syria

Tueni, a fierce critic of Syria's policies in Lebanon who was elected to parliament this year, said in August he believed he was on a hit list for assassination. He had spent much of his time since then in Paris, but returned to Beirut late on Sunday.

Some one who believes he is on a hit list for Assassinations should be treated with the same threat by the Syrian government that Don Corleone said in his call to end the reprisals in the Godfather movies

Basher is not a good dictator. .

Job search progress report

On the job front today I put in approximately 4 applications ( of which 3 were online) and I put in one offline Application with the big FedEx plant down the road from me.

Tomorrow I will focus more in the area around campus.

To much Airport Security

Recently I posted about some one in the world of Media taking something I’ve thought and said often and rolling it out for all today…

Well today over at Dean’s World one of Dean’s Minions Dave Price has posted something I tell people over and over again.

Al-Qaeda when going against a fairly complex counter-terrorist target like well… “The US government” tries a lot of different things to get the Job done. As we see pointed out in this news article the Al-Qaeda folks know they can’t hijack another plane to crash it into a building.

Let me go to the money quote I have from Dave

As with all crime, ordinary non-law-enforcement Americans are at some levels an integral part of our defense against terrorism. That's just a reality. Which is one reason why I always thought taking away all small sharp objects from passengers wasn't a great idea. While we obviously wouldn't want people carrying guns and knives onto planes, assuming the vast majority of people on any flight are good American citizens, I think disarming them completely is a strategic mistake.

People used to think Hijackers will keep you alive if you play along.

They now know that’s not the case any more.

You might see a shoe bomber, but what you are more likely to see is something that will cause a new level of mass casualty attack.

The first suicide bombing in America would be stunning but not worth the effort and resources.

They want to kick the flavor of international terror up a notch. So focus less on trying to defeat tactics they won’t use and try to figure out “What would I do if I were Osama”