Tuesday, January 31, 2006

More fun with quiz time

Your Inner Child Is Angry

You're not an angry person.
But when you don't get your way, watch out.
Like a very manipulative kid, you will get what you want.
Even if it takes a little kicking and screaming.

I'm going to heaven......












After you die...
Heaven



After death, you will exist in heaven. Everything and everyone you love will constantly surround you for all of eternity. You lucky scoundrel.
















Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com


Thanks for the Quiz Rene

Thanks Cindy for Senate Blog

I first of all thank you for the fine fine company you put me in

Right-wing Ridicule A couple of rightwing blogs have shown nothing but contempt and ridicule for our efforts here. Especially, Gatewaypundit and The Junkyard Blog, Michelle Malkin, The Rubber Stamp, Cam Edwards, Satellite Heart, Queer Conservative , The Annoyed Army, Laughing at Lefty, BLUE GOLDFISH, Psycmeistr's Ice Palace, Inside Larry's Head, Environmental Republican, In America, Ernie, Leather Penguin, Elephants in Academia, Sweetness and Light and a rather unenthusiastic endorsement from the Instapundit. We must be doing something right!.


but let me go to your bogus point.

I do not agree with Cindy Sheehan or anything she believes in at all. I think the woman is a nut and a crank. I support her running for the Senate in California or New York for the following reasons

*) I like watching famous people go nuts and melt down on live tv....what can i say ;-) I just do.
*)I support diversity on the ballot. I believe access to the ballot should be as open as is economically feasible. I think if you can pay to print your name on every ballot in your race then that should be the benchmark. In this regard I think Cindy should run because it would encourage people to run for office
*) and finally i support diversity of ideas on the ballot. I may not support what Cindy has to say, I may think she is an utter nut.... but I think we as a country are better off if some one like cindy runs.

so I hope you read this post and correct your statement about me....

George Bush doesn't care about Black people

What's that Kayne?

Two days before the Aug. 29 storm, HHS was told by the state's health emergency preparedness director that the help was not needed, according to an e-mail released Monday by a Senate panel investigating the government's response to Katrina.

The state official, identified in the Aug. 27 e-mail as Dr. Roseanne Pratts, "responded no, that they do not require anything at this time and they would be in touch if and when they needed assistance," wrote HHS senior policy analyst Erin Fowler.


HUH... I thought it was all that evil George Bush's fault and that he didn't do anything to help the folks in the chocolate city?

The committee also released a Senate interview of Louisiana Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry, during which he told investigators "we have done nothing to fulfill this responsibility" of ensuring evacuation plans are in place for at-risk populations.

"We put no plans in place to do any of this," Bradberry said in the Dec. 21 interview, 12 pages of which were released by the Senate committee.


BDS in all its glory

my attempt at a mock SOTU addy

I didn’t plan to listen to the SOTU speech but on my way in however the opposite happened but let me get inside George W. Bush’s head and start off with my mock state of the Union address.

And as I heard the address my ability to produce anything more then a new Middle East foreign policy address and opening was sapped from my head.

President Bush your speech writers make baby jesus cry……..

On with the show…..

“Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, to our service men and women across the world, and my fellow Americans. The State of our Union is strong as we stand today at the cross roads of American History. At this fork in the road we must choose to continue what has been the sense of duty and destiny which has guided our country for almost 100 years, or do we reject what we must do to keep that greatness. Do we reject the greatness of this nation, or do we embrace it and grow stronger into this greatness.”

“Our parent’s generation stood at a similar crossroads, when they slew the evils of Fascism they had to choose to either fight the evils of communism, or allow it to grow. They had to choose investing in the nations of the world and expanding hope, freedom, and democracy or withdrawing within as we had done for many years.”

“They made the hard choices and transformed this nation and the world. As this administration is declining and entering its sunset I like others before me stand to lead the way to transform this nation and the world with this our generational conflict. As the generation of our parents often stumbled in fighting the great evil of their day, I to expect we may stumble, and falter, but we will not fail to make this nation and world a better place.”

“While we will make these changes in obvious ways through our defense and foreign policies abroad, we must transform this nation at home to give it the strength, agility, and flexibility to take the manifest greatness of our nation, and its strong destiny into a new decade, century, and beyond.”

“Our national defense both at home and abroad is the foundation of this change. As threats become more nebulous, and borders become more porous as they concern threats to this nation no transformation, indeed no national destiny could possibly occur. I hope and pray that the day will come that our swords can be bent into plowshares but this is not that day.”

“As threats from Non-State actors grow and dominate the fears of the American people we must strike at them. We must strike them in their home countries, in those nations that harbor them, or if those two efforts fail we must strike at them here in this country before their murderous designs take shape.”

“We must work to attack both overt and covert finances of these evil and rapacious men. We must do this with nations who like us see their evil and desire to stamp it out. We must hunt down shell corporations and foundations which hide the fuel of death which has created an ideology that dominates and destroys much of the world.”

“We must fight their dark ideology both at home and abroad. We must reach out to those mosques where hateful ideology is preached be they in Maryland, France, or Iran and challenge them. Challenge them on the validity of that hate from within the Muslim faith, and challenge them on the validity of that hate from our shared humanity.”

“We must present to them the case for freedom, not only the freedom to do things permitted by their faith but the freedom to do things forbidden by their faith. We must show why these things, even those things they and I may agree are perverse are the strengths which make this nation great.”

“We must encourage, cajole, and nourish the growth of the infrastructure and institutions of democracy and freedom in the Middle East. While this democracy must be peculiar to our sensibilities but it must be a democratic and free system build from within their culture and values.”

“But the threats in the Middle East do not just come from Non-State actors. And they may require greater sacrifice and struggle from this nation and the world. We wish to lead the nations of this world to do what must be done to give birth to freedom, liberty, and peace in the Middle East. But if forced we will act alone.”

“The government of Syria has many serious questions to answer about the events in Lebanon. While I am President of the United States they will be held accountable if they do not answer these vital questions. If they resist the legitimate inquiry into their destabilization of Lebanon the international community must be willing to do whatever it takes to bring this inquiry to a final resolution.”

“Real and serious questions have been raised by former officials of the Hussein regime in Iraq about the disposition of the Iraqi regime’s wealth and weapons into Syria. The Syrian government has worked with us to some degree but more can and should be done.”

“Syria has acted as an assistant and a proxy for the Iranian regime in supporting the culture of death and terror in Israel. For this they must be held accountable for by the community of nations.”

“The government of Iran with an ancient culture of tolerance, and great wealth has become enslaved by people who challenge the ancient and proud values and mores of the Iranian people. People who seek to use the strength of their nation to perpetuate violence and death on the region. This evil regimes actions alone should disgust all the free and decent people of the world, but they seek to go even further and gain the deterrent of atomic weapons.”

“We will not allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons. And we will take every reasonable action to stop it. We will work for peace, but prepare to strike if left with no other option.”

“The Iranian people deserve better. They deserve to stand tall with the very values they birthed into this world which we in this country take for granted every day. And they will some day soon.”

After class tonight

I plan to post the Larry State of the Union Address

you can decide if i do a better job then the President

Screw Europe and the foriegners to

Thanks to Dean for Giving me This beautiful window to Rant in.

My Major is International Studies, and in addition to dealing with –some- people who are UBERSNOBS about Europe and how ignorant the US is (I feel what Emily has to say) I also have to deal with ignorant foreign farkers in my classes some times to. (And some times ones be they teachers or students who find some oppressed usually East Asian foreigner spiritually superior)

The worst one I encountered was a Canadian. I was speaking about how Iran was claiming Canada was the world’s worst human rights abuser as part of their dispute over the disappearance and (I believe) death of a Iranian-Canadian journalist. I stated that in how I brought forward this slice of “current events” to the class and he had to go out and tell me how that wasn’t true.

I was in a good mood and decided not to tell him how much of a retard he was.

When you look at US cultural imports they consume it tends to be rather shallow (which is why Sheila got this started with such Google search terms as; Golden Globes Drew Barrymore's boobs, Drew Barrymore Boobs Golden Globes, Drew Barrymore's tits)

((Yes I had to Google whore….))

But I am going to leave It with Emily’s wonderful final dose of STFU for our euro-friends

Finally, here in Los Angeles - and I'm sure this is the same in other metropolitan areas - there are a number of ethnic enclaves where people that immigrate to the United States retreat immediately and spend the rest of their lives there. Many of them move to the United States with the intention of staying permanently and don't even bother to learn how to speak English. The lack of interest in travel and foreign culture is fucking universal and hardly unique to Americans. If you are unaware of this, YOU are the ignorant shitball, not US.

Everyone is an ignorant lout sometimes…. But to blame the other for being the Ignorant lout

That’s hardly multi-cultural now is it?

Vampire Canidate For Governor arrested

hehehe

(AP) Mora, Minn. A fringe candidate for governor who played up his satanic side -- and pledged public impalement for terrorists -- wound up behind bars Tuesday thanks to a sharp-eyed sheriff's dispatcher.


I rrrrrrrrrrrrrreally want to see what the cases are about

The Oscars aren't political....

Here is the list

1. Best Picture: "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," "Crash," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Munich."


Gay Cowboys(with pudding), Gay author,everyone is rascist, inaccurate historical movie, and inaccurate pro-palestinian historical movie

it does in some areas get a little better but whom they put up for best picture is pretty telling

Monday, January 30, 2006

PLEASE VOTE

Add my name to the right-wing horde who wants Mama Cindy to run....

not because I agree with her, nor because i want the republicans to win....

No I want her to run because it would be magnificent tv

go vote now

BWAHAHA

over at DUh a source of unhinged leftist they are having some technical difficulties



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huh is it that or is it they are tired of being exposed as unhinged kooks?

Fun things you find

When you google yourself

LARRY BERNARD PLEADS GUILTY IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT

Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Great Falls on July 7, 2005, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, LARRY BERNARD, a 21-year-old resident of the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, pled guilty to possession of marijuana. Sentencing is set for September 14, 2005, at 9:00 a.m.

In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would prove at trial that on August 6, 2004, a cooperating witness informed law enforcement that there was a large amount of marijuana at the residence of a person on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. A Rocky Boy's tribal search warrant was obtained and executed at the person's residence.

The owner's juvenile son and BERNARD and a female were inside the residence. A short time later, the owner and another person returned to the residence and were given a copy of the search warrant.


wow

Cry Havok

Over on Justice For All he pulls up some McCain-Lieberman hawk-fu

But two of our more principled senators, Republican John McCain and Democrat Joe Lieberman, have this month faced the Iranian Choice -- and both endorsed military action. McCain was most direct: "There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option," he said on "Face the Nation." "That is a nuclear-armed Iran."

Iran has the bomb all manner of things can change. For starters Iran has missiles that could strike targets in Russia and Iran could extend a nuclear umbrella to the Chechens. Is it any wonder the Russians are being Iran’s “Moderator”. Of course the Nuclear Umbrella could protect Hamas or Hezbollah from the consequences of their crimes. Not to mention protection to rouge states in the region like Syria.

Radical Islamic movement takes over Iraq after the US leaves if Iran has a nuclear umbrella…the world can’t intervene without risk of a missile strike. This was like the period in the 70s and 80s when the western powers decided to use nukes to supplement weaknesses in their conventional forces. This created a pause that allowed them to gain the strategic advantage and force the soviet’s finger on the nuclear toggle.

Dropping a bomb on Tel Aviv is far less potent then preventing the US or EU from stopping a Hamas led Palestinian Authority having an open hot war with Israel.

Iran with nukes has the potential of negating US hegemony in the region on things the US isn’t willing to go to the wall over.

Bush is playing nancy boy diplomatic games that aren’t working here because he knows ( and has since before the Iraq invasion) he doesn’t have the political cover to just go in there and blow stuff up like he has to.

I pray some one calls for the war with Iran that has been long in the making

a little health fisky

So I saw in my G-mail news filter this little Chestnut from Newsweek and I had to go roll it out.

Here's the paradox: A health care system that satisfies most of us as individuals may hurt us as a society. Let me offer myself as an example. All my doctors are in small practices. I like it that way. It seems to make for closer personal connections. But I'm always stunned by how many people they employ for nonmedical chores—appointments, recordkeeping, insurance collections. A bigger practice, though more impersonal, might be more efficient. Because insurance covers most of my medical bills, though, I don't have any stake in switching.

Here is the wonderful thing about this chestnut. He assumes these jobs are required by business need. Indeed nothing is often further from the truth. Medical records and Collections are dictated by policies set out by Medicare and Medicaid which were later adapted by insurance companies as a way to keep paying money. Yes Virginia many insurance companies wait years before they pay the money that is properly billed.

This here is really the heart of this article poor assumptions to meet a predictable( this is Newsweek) “solution”

The people who proclaim it rarely tell you the discomforting choices it might involve. Instead, they focus on a few specific shortcomings of our $1.9 trillion health-industrial complex and imply that, if we correct these often serious flaws, we'll have "fixed" the system or at least made a good start.

This gem is a wonderful start. It is so wonderful because it sets up what he wants you to believe already in advance.

You have unrealistic consumption, and thus are wrong.

Americans generally want their health care system to do three things: (1) provide needed care to all people, regardless of income; (2) maintain our freedom to pick doctors and their freedom to recommend the best care for us; and (3) control costs. The trouble is that these laudable goals aren't compatible.

SAYS WHO?

If we work with the current health care business model I fully agree that is correct. But if we are willing to be truly radical we can do all three. But there is too much at stake for that radical a change to the system to work. But his assumption is best by blaming the patient all the smarmy leftist ways to approach things.

Americans want more health care for less money, and when they don't get it, they indict drug companies, insurers, trial lawyers and bureaucrats. Although these familiar scapegoats may not be blameless, the real problem is us. We demand the impossible. The changes we truly need are political. We need to reconnect people with the public consequences of their private acts. We should curb the subsidization of private insurance. Medicare recipients, especially wealthier ones, should pay more of their bills.

Subsidization of private insurance is infinitely cheaper then a public funded mandate. I do agree with his second point there and that we blame others for the problems in the system rather then accepting we aren’t realistic about the system

But the fault isn’t us. The fault is we’ve build a shiaty system. And we need to correct that.

But let me go back to that first quote I used for the first sentence

Here's the paradox: A health care system that satisfies most of us as individuals may hurt us as a society.

This is a true statement, but it is not true that all systems which satisfy most individuals hurt a society

But this is Newsweek so of course they are going to take the cardigan sweater approach to things

Sweet Bippity

I am not a raging pro-fetus guy and I've always raised issues about the mental health concerns

but this is ludicrous.
In this study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Fergusson and his two collaborators found that girls 15 to 18 who had not gotten pregnant had a 31.2% chance of experiencing major depression. Those who became pregnant but did not have an abortion had a 35.7% chance. But those who had an abortion had an astonishing 78.6% chance.

For anxiety, the statistics were similar. No pregnancy: 37.9%; pregnancy, no abortion: 35.7%; abortion: 64.3%.

And for ideas of suicide, a horrific mark of mental illness, the figures should be enough to convince anyone who cares about young women to desire a ban on abortion for minors. No pregnancy: 23%; pregnancy, no abortion: 25%; abortion: 50%.


The Human Events article this came from went even deeper still

In its December 2005 report, the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion, appointed by Gov. Mike Rounds (R.), cited an expert as saying that “the literature on the psychological effects of abortion conducted over the last several decades indicates that a minimum of 10-20% of women experience adverse, prolonged, post-abortion reactions. This translates into at least 130,000 to 260,000 new cases of serious mental health problems each year in the U.S.”


based on the review of journal articles and the New Zeeland study some one needs to get a comprehensive study done here

It came from the Email box (communist front group edition)

Protesters Plan to 'Drown Out' Bush's Speech

(CNSNews.Com) - Anti-Bush protesters plan to hold a noisy demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol Tuesday night, when President Bush delivers his State of the Union speech to Congress. During a protest demanding that "Bush step down," liberal activists, headlined by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, will try to drown out Bush's address with drums, violins, pot-and-pan banging, car horns, church bells, and raised voices, according to a press release. "People will use flashlights to shine the light on Bush's lies," protest organizers said. The demonstration, which supposedly will attract thousands of people, is being organized by The World Can't Wait, a national organization launched in November to spread the word that "Bush lied, Bush spied, Bush must step down." Representatives from Veterans for Peace, the Hip-Hop Caucus, Interfaith Alliance, Progressive Democrats of America also will take part. Protesters who gather near the Capitol on Tuesday night say that, "after years of an unjust war raging in Iraq, widespread use of torture, massive spying and total neglect of the people of New Orleans, it is time to force President Bush to step down.""


"The World Can't Wait" is a front for the Revolutionary Communist Party of America.

We should know people by who they associate with and Progressive Democrats and Veterans for Peace -try- to be more main stream there.... but well they come out with a communist (supporters of North Korea and Slobo last time i checked) party and a protest lead by a woman who makes virulent anti-jewish sentiment and gets snuggly with evil leaders around the world that hate America

Enviromentalism is just for dirty hippies

I jaunted over to Dean’s world this on my sick day and saw a cross over to “The Radical Centrist” and saw two people missing the point entirely.

The assumption is Conservation and Environmentalism are entirely the same thing. And well they simply aren’t. Some times the philosophies of environmentalism and conservation are opposed to each other entirely.

From what the Radical Centrist quoted

For another, it's about creating a good business climate--companies don't want to move to a region that's got bad air and the health problems that go with it

This is entirely different then the philosophy of environmentalism –today- which isn’t people centered but is instead environment centered. This is why clean air and clean water laws have such wide spread support today. This is entirely different then the Kyoto protocol to limit carbon because of the impact it has (say the environmentalists) to global warming. One thing is questionable, the other thing is quantifiable. I can come up with clear scientific results to show that the dirty air and dirty water in a given area is a health risk. Not only can’t I show you that the Kyoto protocols will reduce global warming, even its supporters say it won’t. These two things may seem to be the same, but are not.

Hunting groups in this country work harder at establishing nature preserves and funding private clean ups then –most- environmental groups…why, because without those preserves and clean areas the value of hunting is gone (on a level of a person) but environmentalism doesn’t embrace hunters because they view killing an animal as wrong (non-human centered)

Dean focuses more on the politics so I am going to focus on one of these things is not like the other

Drudge with the flashy flashy

Matt Drudge with what should be the Captain Obvious moment of the day

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are privately bristling over Howard Dean’s management of the Democratic National Committee and have made those sentiments clear after new fundraising numbers showed he has spent nearly all the committee’s cash and has little left to support their efforts to gain seats this cycle, ROLL CALL reports.


Little money coming in + large scale spending to grow "the base" = HEY WHERE'S THE MONEY

shocking notion. also more shocking is the fac t traditionally the DNC has run deficits and paid the loans off with fundraiser money....

republicans have well banked money and used it for operations

guess which one is winning more elections.

Congressional leaders were furious last week when they learned the DNC has just $5.5 million in the bank, compared to the Republican National Committee’s $34 million.


hmmmm HELLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOO

Constantly getting but kicked in fundraising McFly...hello

“A lot of people are scratching their heads as to what’s going on,” said one senior Democratic aide.


as have we in the right-o-center blog world as to why you guys haven't fired him

after a underwhelming showing in the 06 elections i predict a firing of howard dean and...Howard Dean 2008

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeaaaaarh

I saw this on Polipundit

This is frankly exceptionally choice.

Remember this will all comes from a DNC press release....

Democratic National Committee Chairman
Howard Dean today outlined the Democratic Party's strong, positive agenda of reform on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The following are excerpts of Dean's interview with Wallace:


So the new Ideas....?

On the State of the Union:

I think most Americans think the state of the Union is in pretty difficult shape right now. We do need some new ideas on the economy. The Democrats have put forward a jobs plan that has to do with energy independence. We do need a healthcare system that works for everybody. And, frankly, I think we need a little better work on defense. We're worried about the troops not being taken care of properly in
Iraq.


this is it.... but whats in the rest of the PR?

Why what do you think....BASH BUSH FEST


think the President is going to have a lot of explaining to do....
So, you know, we all want the President to succeed, but the President hasn't succeeded. I think that's because he has a lack of vision and, frankly, he hasn't been truthful to the American people and people, frankly, just don't believe him anymore, and that's a real problem for him.(on the President's lack of Credibility).....
We need a President that will lead the nation but a President that will follow the law. The law says that if the President thinks Al Qaeda is an imminent threat and he wants to spy on them, he can do that immediately, but he's got to get a warrant after the fact......
We are asking the President to follow the law when he does so. No one should be above the law. Not even the President of the United States......
Look, I think the President should release the information about when Jack Abramoff was at the White House.....
We need to know who Jack Abramoff met with in the White House and did he meet with the President in the White House? .....


Oh and when he wasn't bashing the President he was bashing the Republicans in general

so when a PR claims he is out selling new ideas how many do they focus on

0

Welcome to the Perpetual Minority project of Howard Dean

Sunday, January 29, 2006

More fun with OK cupid

Individualism
You scored 76% individualism, 32% fatalism, 32% hierarchy, and 20% egalitarianism!
You strongly adhere to the culture of Individualism. Individualists believe that everyone should be given a fair chance, but people should be allowed to succeed or fail based on their merit. Competition -- in the marketplace, in elections, or elsewhere -- is your forte. Individualists think nature is resilient, like a ball at the bottom of a cup, and therefore competitors can be given free rein to exploit it.



My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 45% on individualism
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 38% on fatalism
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 37% on hierarchy
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 9% on egalitarianism
Link: The Scientific Cultural Theory Test written by Stentor on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

It's In the Koran

It is (Thanks GayOrbit: and Sully)

((wonder if Sully will get some strife from his corperate overlords)

People who deserve to be beaten

Some times when you read the internet some good old fashion rage boils up and leads to an old school kind of internet rant. Today's ball of Rage comes to us thanks to Dr. Helen.

I'm just saying the old Grandma image is no longer applicable. "Grandma" is my mother's mother, with her white braid wrapped around her head, smelling of Black Jack gum as she knitted our Christmas sweaters, one blue arm growing out of her purse as if she had somebody in there.


Take a good long look at this bit of vanity *IF* a unfettered "Gray Bomb" scenario happens this flavor is going to become very old hat. Thanks to our technology no one will want to fill a nice societal role because it takes away from their vibrant identity.

let me set up the one-two punch of shallowness to come. Because i think it shows an utter contempt for others that needs to be appreciated

One recent Saturday morning my daughter, Morgan, and her husband, Trevor, were feverishly trying to pull their new apartment together with Ryan underfoot and the baby wailing. "Can you watch the babies while we work?" Morgan called to ask, as Trevor hammered in the background. She lives three blocks away from me in San Francisco.


So a Saturday, not even an entire Saturday she would just go three blocks and pick up the Grand Kids....seems simple enough right? Seems like a very basic human thing to do right? but the response is telling and well frankly a little bit shocking.

Look, I'd love to nip over and whisper secrets into 1-month-old Maggie's ears, or to dress 2-year-old Ryan in the black leather jacket I bought her recently and take her to look for late blackberries in Golden Gate Park on my bike (with its deluxe new kid seat). But I have a job. I'm a reporter, I have two books to write, a husband who wants to go to France, and I just bought an investment property in Portland, Oregon. I love my grandchildren, but being a grandmother got added to my to-do list.


You see her way to assert she is a good Grandmother is "I'd love to help and....hey look at all these things i bought to show how good a grand mother i am." worse she doesn't even present a reason why she couldn't take maybe as little as 2 hours out of her day to help. I imagine she probably cared this little for her own children, and was so thing centered with them. So she must have truely been desperate to try and call granny shopping bags for help.

The truth is, I can't be the kind of grandmother my own grandmother was -- available and self-sacrificing, always arriving in her red VW with her overnight bag to help Mom. I wasn't a stay-at-home mom, and I can't be a stay-at-home-grandma either.


Was anyone asking you to? no...no one was. While a little self sacrifice was asked for you weren't even willing to do that.

As I pondered this, Morgan was waiting for my answer. "I can't, sweetie. I'm working," I told her. "Okay, Mom, we'll manage," she said, with that briskness she uses to cover up disappointment. I put the phone down, realizing I'm going to have to live with that guilty feeling. You may think I'm being churlish, but at least I'm not alone.


you should feel guilty you took a situation that would be only a minor inconvience and couldn't be bothered?

But another friend of hers is even worse

Having just quit after 12 years as a family court judge, my friend Susan Baker is now trying to set the limits for her own grandmothering. But the end of her legal career merely signals the beginning of another, as an author. She feels bad that, because of a long-planned book signing and a scheduled day on the bench, she couldn't drop everything for a week when her oldest daughter, Susan, had another baby last November. "I felt really guilty about that," Baker told me. But her new career is important to her. "I love those little kids and I do want to have a relationship with them," she said. "But I'm not willing to give up my writing or my traveling. I'll be the best grandmother I can from a distance."


How shallow and pathetic is this woman?

Dr. Helen sums up why this is horriffic here.......

As extended families become less influential in children's lives, I can't help but think this must affect their ability to learn about the closeness of human interactions.


yep going from a generation raised by women to a generation born with no family and people who show family just isn't important.

I'll just let Dr. Helen close this one out with this blurb.

this the guilt parents feel about not spending enough time with kids themselves and the never ending material goods being lavished on the little darlings and it's no wonder kids can be confused and unclear about the importance of human interactions. Extended family also gives kids examples of how other people behave outside of the daycare, school or their immediate family. Grandparents don't have to go overboard but perhaps not adding the grandkids to the to-do list but rather to the I-would-love-to see-them list would be a start

okcupid geekerie

BISHOP!!!
Holy crap! You are:
With the power to absorb and redirect energy, you are practically invulnerable to anyone who isn't physically stronger than you. Bishop is pretty kick ass, unfortunately he will only exist in a world where Professor X has been assassinated. So go fuck something up!



My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 39% on Mutations
Link: The Which X-Man Are You Test written by alexium on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Momma Sheehan Speaks

And a US Senator acts....

This is just frightening

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced that she will vote no on cloture regarding the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

“Based on a very long and thoughtful analysis of the record and transcript, which I tried to indicate in my floor statement yesterday, I’ve decided that I will vote no on cloture.”


Momma Sheehan threatened to to run against Senator Feinstein and the certainty of the cloture motion is growing less certain......This means the Senate is getting closer to a Nuclear option.

If the Democrats think they can win on that they are simply crazy.

also shocking all the major politics of this filibuster is happening outside the countries borders....

(h/t Sweetness & light)

Friday, January 27, 2006

Another 101 moment of Zen

A Parable

Buddha told a parable in a sutra:

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted

Another Reason not to put money in China.

I always say to folks that big companies putting monney down in China are making a rather poor choice. Now here is yet another reason why (which impacts the new Google.Cn)

Google's inability to succeed in China instead resides in it not being a Chinese company.

Even with the hype surrounding Google's hire of the former Microsoft (MSFT) executive, Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, and other top grabs from Chinese companies like 1pai, Google's fundamental stumbling block in China comes from its failure to adapt to being a true Chinese Internet company.

Yahoo (YHOO) tried many times to adapt. As far back as 1998 (or Web 0.98 Beta) when its then-VP, Heather Killen, made high-profile visits to China, the Western Internet company tried to sit at the Chinese banquet table. But Yahoo finally gave up last year when it bought a billion dollar stake in China's Alibaba.com and then gave Alibaba the rights to run Yahoo! China. There was not even a whimper from the company as its Chinese portal was torn down and replaced with a simple search engine. Sohu (SOHU), Sina (SINA), and Netease (NTES) had finally beaten the foreign interloper.

Lycos tried too. It bought firms like Myrice.com. Netscape tried, via AOL. MSN has also been bobbling along with a few victories here and a few setbacks there--nothing much to be proud of.

All of these companies have one thing in common: they entered China to win, but left only remnants of their power after a few years' struggle. Chinese history is filled with tales of foreigners coming to the Middle Kingdom with money, but leaving the country poor, confused and embarrassed. Ask Chris Patten.


A lot of folks on the net have made a a big deal about Lycos/Microsoft/Et. al selling out to the big red dragon for a Profit margin. But now we see they didn't sell out but rather they sold the right to use their name to the folks in China running the internet. For Google to beat the odds they have to Out-Chinese legitimate Chinese companies.

But here comes the horns of the dilema for google. Their are instances of Big Red Yuan's corperations using intellectual property illicitly. So can google sell the right to their shingle the way these other corperations have? I don't see how Google can do that without creating their own nemisis down the road.

But in China, rival Internet companies have developed a symbiotic relationship. Sohu, Sina, and Netease all provide pretty much the same services and they all developed along the same faddish tracks: first, a portal with free email; second, news and community; third, wireless/SMS/MMS content; and now, online gaming. There is always talk of one of these three buying the other, but not much happens. Late arrivals like the carpetbagging Tom.com can even get a slice of the Internet pie.


In short Google is going to try to bring their old wheel into a market where people more or less implimented their own wheel along the same model.

And everyone else that has tried to bust in has gotten shut down. So just how much is Google willing to risk for very little gain?

Be wary of that Red Dragon

They are so so Kapitalist (thanks to Mickey Kaus for the hook up)

China's National Development and Reform Committee has just ordered 144 domestic automakers to cease production-- part of an effort by the state to bridle excess capacity (said to be some two million units/year).....Of those companies affected, 124 will be prohibited from manufacturing any automobile-related output whatsoever.


You know what wild and crazy capitalists might do. they might take the excess units of production and sell them. But I mean folks keep telling me China is such a booming economic capitalist power.

maybe because the cars are garbage and full of stolen stuff?
The glove box wouldn’t close. Corroding engine. Need to pass standard safety and emissions tests. Then there's all those patent infringements that Chinese businesses committed on foreign companies (seemingly ignored by their government.) One reaction? "Business has to be interpreted in terms of laws around the world,” stated Kevin Wale, Australian president of the GM China Group.


But why let a little thing like that ruin your "capitalism"

Disney is SATAN

If you lived in Central Florida you would know this already. But they are making a sequal to BAMBI. One of the classics of American cinema that really had no need for a sequal.....disney is doing it anyway.

words from the Disney site whick make my eyes bleed

The eagerly awaited next chapter of Bambi's unforgetable story continues for a whole new generation in a film that is sure to delight your entire family


Bambi is apperently Deer Royalty.....and being raised by a single father (awww)
also wasn't Bambi a girl?
Thumper has annoying little siblings

It is only avalible for 70 days of stink

"That's cute but retarded"

(Headline title from a situation with my roommate and not meant as an insult to anyone except John Kerry)
((Correction made. Al Gore was stupid at sundance. Claim he was stupid at Davos Stricken))

In the world of politics their are stupid ideas. Such as hiring the Buffalo Bills of Presidential campaign managers. If you are a Democrat canidate for president shutting minorities out of high positions in your campaign till the national convention. Reminding people over and over again that you served in Vietnam. Filibustering of the Alito Nomination falls into that category. Wait all those mistakes were done by John Kerry. So yes Virginia some times their are no stupid ideas just stupid people.

Some Republicans poked fun at Kerry; the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee who may make another White House bid; for allowing others to announce the filibuster plan earlier in the day while he was attending an economic conference in Davos, Switzerland.


Yes faster then you can say "Christmas in Cambodia" John Kerry in an almost Zen like fashion makes a political move that tells you everthing you need to know about John Kerry. the same Davos where Eason Jordan basically put the final nail in his career a few years ago John Kerry announces his move to filibuster Sam Alito.

Worse it is a world economic forum. So not only does John Kerry associate himself with some real lunacy, he also runs counter to the very PRINCIPLE of the meeting.

metaphysically that move is almost a metaphor for his entire campaign.

It also shows that, much like his 2004 campaign JOHN KERRY is not a team player.

Party sources said Reid and others worry a filibuster will distract voters from issues that Democratic leaders think are more promising. They include President Bush's controversial domestic-surveillance program and the indictments of a top White House official and congressional leader.


While I don't think those issues are as hot as Harry Reid does he is dead on right. IF this is filibustered and IF cloture isn't possible then it is Nuclear option time. And everything the democrats have been building up to becomes "last weeks" news this week.

Democrats: I am offically putting John Kerry as the "second best" outcome for us in your nominating process. Hillary is first. Either of those two canidates will give us another 4 years with very little work

John Kerry: You need a nanny. You need some one to slap your hand and say "NO!" when you are about to do something really stupid.I am sure from the swelling you are about to get a ginormous mickey mouse hand but it is a small price to pay

Media figures say the darndest things

Aaron Brown rolled out some lovely little blurbs here

"Truth no longer matters in the context of politics and, sadly, in the context of cable news,"....
"Cable didn't search for the truth, but engaged in mock debates pitting those making the charges against Murtha's defenders," .....
"You'd think that it's no more complex than good vs. evil," .....
"It's not enough to say you want serious news. You have to watch it. It isn't enough to say you want serious debate. You have to engage in it."....


Aaron i liked your show but DUDE get off your high horse. We have back to the days of the dominance of broadcast news Stories broadcast by the likes of Dan Rather that were ridiculously untrue but because he controled the gates of media in his day no one looked into it. The media has never EVER been intrested in truth, they've been intrested in what sells their product.

You say this while you worked for a network which hid brutal attorcities to get the right to broadcast from a repressive dictatorship.

Physician heal thyself.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

For those people who ask where are the WMD's in Iraq

Here is an object lesson from WWII


Nazis' secret base found
Revealed ... the Nazis’ untouched secret bunker
By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor
A WARTIME bunker used by Nazis to bombard Allied troops during the D-Day landings has been unearthed untouched — after 60 years.


yes a Nazi Bunker missing for 60 years...and not a small bunker
The bunker sprawls over 20 acres and is thought to be the hidden German battery that decimated US soldiers at Omaha Beach, seven miles away.

The encampment contains 40 buildings — including a field hospital.

Some of the offices contain army papers — as well as radio equipment.


so things get lost in time of war people

Let me tell you a story boys and girls......

During the nineteen hundred and nineties uncle Larry was a "Militia Sympathizer". Not so much in the dressing up in fatigues/hating minorities and conspiracies of jew bankers sense... but in some of their more mainstream issues of American politics. Back in those times their was a quote I and many other folk of that libertarian stripe used to remember well.

"Those who would give up Liberty, to purchase a little Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Turns out now that quote was actually wrong. And that sage wisdom from Brother Franklin was far less sage then I thought.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Here is the problem. The political culture is begining to say all manner of things are not "essential" liberty. Owning guns to some is not an essential liberty. Controling your property and not having governments seize it is being treated like it is not an essential liberty. If you try to qualify the liberty then your never going to get it right.

And the only lasting safety is the safety we generate ourselves

but thanks sphere of blog for showing me I was misquoting one of my favorite historical personages

Marvel Comics #@)*#&*@&#*@&#@*&#


Why do you keep trying to ruin Spider Man.....WHY~! I think the worst part are the freako arms you've given him. I can forgive the red and gold colors but those arms are so so so so SOOOOO stupid. But then again the entire new Spider-Man storyline visavis his being in the new avengers suxxors anyway.

Thanks to Fark for this one.

Firefly Season II eeeeerrrr wait a minute

Decided to go plug over to Whedonesque a Josh Whedon fan site and found some important info.

Firefly Season 2???? I have received an e-mail via my own website from a Mr. Ace Underhill of Cine Support Intl (http://www.cine-support.com/index.html) directing me to the linked site. (NOTE: Please treat claims made by the people behind the linked url with a great deal of caution. Nothing is official, by any means, and there is much of this that doesn't add up.)

[ edited by herb on 2006-01-23 18:24 ]

He claims that his production company are going through 'official channels' to obtain licencing from Fox to produce and sell a second series of Firefly to cable channels. He wants as many people as possible to register so they can take figures to advertising and cable companies. Thought I'd see what y'all thought about this.

Cider | Firefly&Serenity | 17:12 CET | 113 comments total | tags


and some one on the site lays out the skinny of his inquiry with the person behind the Firefly season II site.

Yes, I have contacted Joss' management. I have not received a reply from Joss personally yet, but now is not the time for him to be bothered with this. The obstacle lies with Fox, not with Joss. Once the rights are cleared, everything will fall into place. If Joss declines to be involved once the rights are secured, I will abandon the project.


I remain unconvinced that without even a nod or wink from Joss that this could go ahead.

Fox exec: So you want the rights to Firefly then, what does Joss Whedon think of this?
Seeker of Firefly rights: Now is not the time for him to be bothered with this.
Fox exec: Uhuh.

Note that that was my attempt at satire.

And for all I know, this could be the umpteenth production company that has tried to get the property rights for Firefly. I really can not see this happening in any shape or fashion.

Simon | January 23, 19:09 CET


and here is a blurb about it from Slashdot

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday January 25, @05:47PM
from the anything-to-bring-it-back dept.
Sci-Fi Television
ovanklot writes "It seems that Brilliant Screen Entertainment is looking to see if there is an audience for a second season of the science fiction show FireFly. From the article: 'It's possible that subscribers may choose one of three playback options; monthly DVD deliveries, TV On-Demand using your cable or satellite provider, or computer viewing via Streaming Download.'" They are asking folks to fill out a short survey to gather demographics for support in their efforts to get Fox to release the show to them. The site also stresses that they want neither money nor confidential personal information.


Probably should have looked at the details a bit more before I posted....My bad. What this is then from what i've looked at is a Fan trying to liberate the rights fox is sitting on for more "Firefly" TV content. Some of the folks don't trust the guy because of his previous buisness ventures...i don't see that as inordienently relevant.

Not sure if he can pull this off but I still support it.... until I find out he is less legit

This is intresting....

A new study from the folks at RAND

The study, by RAND's National Defense Research Institute, found that 72 percent of the troops surveyed made more while on war duty in 2002 or 2003 than they did in their civilian jobs in 2001. More than half made at least $10,000 more.

On average, the reservists made $850 more per month while on duty than in their civilian jobs, the report found.

It went on to say, however, that there is still a sizable number - 28 percent - of the reservists who lost money, including some who saw their earnings drop by more than 10 percent.


and lets show off some of the nuts and bolts of this study (based largely off of social security data)

-The average civilian pay was $39,300, compared with $56,400 while on combat duty.

-83 percent made more on duty than at their civilian jobs.

-66 percent saw their pay increase more than $10,000 while on duty.

-7 percent lost more than $10,000 while on duty.


This is one of those cases which proves antecdote and less effective studies aren't always reliable.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Attn: Browncoats

Season II is On like DOnkey Kong.

The Firefly Season 2 Project:
Captain Mal and the crew of Serenity need your help to stay flying.

We are looking to push the envelope of episodic television by offering Season Two of Firefly in a groundbreaking new format. Each episode (or the entire season) would be made available for purchase in Standard or Hi-Definition.

It's possible that subscribers may choose one of three playback options; monthly DVD deliveries, TV On-Demand using your cable or satellite provider, or computer viewing via Streaming Download.

It's also possible that a box set of DVD's would be available at the end of the season.

In order for our plan to be successful, we need to take stock of the browncoat recruits that support our cause. It will only take a minute, is strictly confidential, and each profile will take us one step closer to victory!


Booya~!

Book of Daniel

I thought the controversy would keep it alive...ruining television.

Thank GOD I was wrong.

"The Book of Daniel" drew an audience of 6.9 million on its first night. By its fourth airing, the number had dipped to 5.8 million viewers.


and sadly here is the biggest warm squishy feel from it

The show's creator and executive producer, Jack Kenny, has said his goal was to depict how "humor and grace" help a flawed man struggle with his faith and family. He said the writers never meant to mock religion or Jesus.


They did intend to mock religous people. and you could see that from the show.

but it got canceled and the friends reunion talk was a horrible rumor.

So I won't be getting my death ray out of mothballs.

Some adult thoughts on Google......

Lots of folks in the world of the online are all hot to trot about google and their capitulation ( the latest company to do so) to the PRC. Some folks put a value judgement on their fighting the US government here, and kissing up to the PRC goons there.

Let me first lay out my opinions. I think Google like a whole lot of the US companies are making a huge mistake in the way they expand into china. And I think aiding repressive governments in the way they do would if a more purely marxist revolt ever happens leads to much more serious long term problems. (Dean over on Dean's world outlines some of why i think people are being foolish for investing in china.)

I am also against the Federal government taking the info from google. Not so much for issues of privacy (which I'll be getting into in a moment) but because I think they way the federal government did it was utterly retarded. I think they should have pulled something like Clinton did when he pushed the TV industry into the television raitings system. But i increasingly do-not- believe the Bush administration wants to be successful but that they want to look like they are fighting to "protect our children" from "Immoral content."

Oh yes... and Gmail is my primary email service, google my default search engine, and google owns blogger.

But if you care about privacy google should scare the pants off you. Your home, your searches (especially if you have an ident with google)...basically any data about you on the internet is avalible with a little work for the finding. Google is the death of your privacy, which is why they have to -act- like they care about your privacy rights against the government. Their buisness model is to take any flowing electronic data relating to you and putting it at the fingertips of anyone with an internet connection.

And rapidly I am begining to think that simply put nothing is going to put a stop to that. So what is important in a world where our modern (or pre-modern... because I refuse to say we are living in the post modern world because that doesn't make sense *#)&(# ) Concept of privacy is essentially no more?.... And I think some issues like financial data and health care data will be much more restricted but will still be out there....

Transperency. And by that I mean people will soon have a right to know who is looking at their information. ( something i'd say akin to the once a year free credit check service) and who has paid for their information. The right to protest untrue information and have it flagged accordingly (thank you wikipedia). It is this sense o f transperency which people are sensing they have a right to in a world of much greater informational access (Look at hipaa and the new rules to protect financial data). This is why Google's support of the government of China is so offensive to our sensibilities even if we have not the capacity to frame it as such yet.

Google is the major gatemaster of information. and if Google-Tv (or Google-Vision) comes to fruition this will become an even greater problem.

Do no evil matters more then just a way to mock google for their hypocricy and false airs of moral superiority. If they don't see the evil their actions are creating to the world not yet born ( that they are largely responsible for giving birth to) then that means they will likely not understand it when the evil fruit becomes manifest.

However on Fark.com some one did put a logical spin on what google did. So I can still be irritated but see something important in their choices.

I don't know how accurate it is...but it does point to the chess like nature of what google is doing....

2006-01-25 02:29:38 AM Donald Hogan Mark II

this is all about data gathering from google's standpoint. google was ready to stand firm and do no evil and not comply with china and be the hero of the internet, freedom and the american way. then the chinese goverment showed google that their hackers can utterly block google's crawlers. it would be one thing for there to be no google in china, another thing for no one in the world to be able to search chinese pages with google. also, since statistical techniques are proving to be the best way to do translation with computers, google needs the chinese web data for development of translation programs. in the not too distant future we will be able to view pages from all over the world and have them automatically translated into our native language. (and translated well, not that babelfish crap, which is not statistical translation btw) having access to massive amounts of chinese language data will be very important between now and then. that's why google made this deal, not because they need chinese ad money.



If this is true its a really complex world google is in. So we have to be adult and pragmatic about it. We need to hold google accountable and show we aren't happy. But we need to keep it reasonable and respectable at this point in time.

I'm all about saying bring down the walls...but here the complexities don't seem to lend themselves to it.

WoooHooo

I'm a Lamborghini Murcielago!



You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

More Bad news for the Hildabeast

Matt Drudge is on the case

CNNGALLUP found that 51 percent say they definitely won't vote for Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2008, another 32 percent might consider it, and only 16 percent vow to back her. That means committed anti-Hillary voters outnumber pro-Hillary voters by 3-1. The poll suggests she can forget about crossover votes - 90 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives say there's no way they'd back her.


both the first and last half are telling

Republican registrations have been rasing while the potential electorate seems to shift her way.I don't see 2008 as feasible for her and while she might shift the 51% "no way" down to a 45% that still means that anyone running against her has a 45%-51% cushion built in.

Thats going to make it impossible for the Democrats to win, or to even reach out because anything which alienates a decent sized sector of their base will lead to a huge loss.

while the republicans if she is the nominee will have a much easier time reaching out because of her very strong and very hard negatives

Well now this isn't strange at all



Michael Jackson is a strange man. First Michael's use of crossdressing as a way to hide his identity in Bahrain is pretty weird....even for him. He however is also getting close now the longer his kids live in Bahrain to making -them- really screwed up in how they view their gender roles.

He was wearing an abaya, a robe with long sleeves, under which his pants, white shirt and men's shoes could be seen, and his head and face were wrapped in a black veil. He had black gloves on his hands.

The veil, abaya and gloves were of a style typically worn by conservative Bahraini women, though Jackson appeared to be wearing them to hide his identity.


Can he GET weirder?

L.A.Slimes on supporting the troops

I think its time for an olde school blog snarky response.

L.A Times and Joel Stein kick this off.


Joel Stein:
Warriors and wusses
I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.


Right here is great. He starts right off with the offensive statement. And then implies the people who have the "I support our troops" bumper stickers on are shallow. I mean this is so professional journalism.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.


again what is great is the fact most recruits don't go onto the combat line. but lets not stop there.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.


Whats great about this again people who buy those things are shallow. And of course doesn't focus on the fact most of those items give out money to CHARITIES which support the troops and their families.

Again what a wonderful way to position yourself there Joel.

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.


again here its great implying people who don't support the war but are shallow and say "I support the troops" are even more shallow.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.


we have the 50.7% isn't a mandate, but a lower percentage and less overall votes for Bill Clinton was

good times there. We also have another insult of people who support the troops. And oh yeah Bush is stupid. Here we have all the anti Bush derangment sentiments you can one here in a single package.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."


again "people who buy ribbons are shallow" and of course the body armor canard which gets chucked out with the More Body Armor=more likely to be dead

good good times there.

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.


HOW DARE YOU. I have enough friends I can count on both hands, good friends who I have no desire to see put in the ground. I have a couple of friends I might have to carry into the cold cold ground if they die over there and you say thats not a sacrifice? how dare you. What about the women who send off their husbands and sons.

this shallow and sorry statement is the only thing in here i find really offensive, much of the rest I just find sad.

I understand the guilt. We know we're sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

After we've decided that we made a mistake, we don't want to blame the soldiers who were ordered to fight. Or even our representatives, who were deceived by false intelligence. And certainly not ourselves, who failed to object to a war we barely understood.


"You are stupid if you supported the war so it isn't your fault."

He would however have had a perfect ten if he worked into this paragraph "BushitlerMchimpyburton lied because he WANTED your sons to die."

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives.


Soldiers: Since you don't mutiny it's your fault.

also he didn't get the Memo Jack Abramoff is not relevant to anyone

I am sure I sent it with a TPS cover sheet.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.


You are fighting in Iraq well your stupid and got tricked.

you aren't sacrificing enough for our moral system ergo your war values are wrong

such smarminess

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.


Again: Its your fault if your in the military

And sometimes, for reasons I don't understand, you get to just hang out in Germany.


I am with ya there though.

I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn't so much as served on jury duty for his country. But it's really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I'm listed in the phone book.


"Only stupid non rich people go into the military...but they could beat me up."

a tad bit of self depricating humor to deflect the hatred of troops in this bit.

I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.


You are evil for fighting in CHimpy Mchitlerburton's war. But you'll be crazy for doing it so we'll pay for it

so smarmy

Seriously, the traffic is insufferable.


Much like reading your article

Love;
Obnoxious guy blogging

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

We reckon it was pirates

hmmmmm No CSI: Paris in out future

The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h. A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.

Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail. A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.


Hey maybe some one might have asked a forensic anthropologist there

the title is a quote from the French police officer which sounds incredibly funny to me

Hmmm whats this now?

Democrats and Andrew Sullivan seem to say the US is torturing people.... Well turns out Not so much. Now the Us is giving them over to countries who do torture (something we've been doing since the 20th century i might add)

But Swiss senator Dick Marty said there was no formal evidence so far of the existence of clandestine detention centers in Romania or Poland as alleged by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture," Marty said in a report presented to the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog investigating the alleged secret prisons.

The report said more than 100 terror suspects may have been transferred to countries where they faced torture or ill treatment in recent years.


So the big "scandal du jour" was a farce

wonder if anyone is going to dial that back?

CBS news surprises me

They sum up the Democrats problem in 2006 pretty clearly here

The Republican soundbite hasn't changed since September, 2001; the Democrats have a new mantra with every news cycle. The Republicans have more dollars than the Democrats. Those are facts. My advice to Democrats is simple: face the facts.


That is some good insight right there

Monday, January 23, 2006

More amusing moments of Irony

Newsmax is there

Now, in what must be a painful irony for Stern, Sirius executives are developing an internal document that will set boundaries for his show.

Stern’s new show is also being broadcast with a time-delay that facilitates censoring, the New York Post reports.

It’s not clear if Stern knew he would be subject to guidelines regarding indecency when he signed on with Sirius, according to the Post.


gee Howard... ya didn't think they'd come after you on Satelite huh

Xm+Sirus is a waste of money and soon will no longer be the land of "free" Radio because people like stern made that their Raison D'etre

good job their

Dear Ford Motor Company

I see here you guys are going to cut some more jobs.

If cutting Job's was the key to getting the American auto industry humming then the Big Three would be unstoppable juggernauts.

The Problem is you haven't for a while made cars people want to buy.

Maybe you should spend more time fixing -that- problem

A good point on Palestinian Terror

Out of Canada? First Harper becoming a new PM, now this.... the mind boggles.

Yet in this ritualized reporting, journalists once again missed the real story, which is much messier, confusing, harder to photograph and difficult to report. The real headlines should inform readers that the Palestinian Authority is disintegrating, Palestinian political culture is imploding, Palestinians are turning on one another. While the struggle among suicide bombers, Israeli soldiers, and the civilians caught in the crossfire has a clear script, the multi-dimensional civil war among rival Palestinian factions has no clear story line.

Imagine the reaction had Israeli mobs murdered two Egyptian soldiers on the Gaza border, murdered Yasser Arafat's cousin in his own home, or trashed the house of the Palestinian interior minister. Try to envision what would happen if there existed a group of Israeli terrorists with a long track record of bloody attacks, ideologically committed to negating Palestinian rights and addicted to anti-Islamic rhetoric, running for the Israeli parliament, let alone poised to win a serious share of the vote.

Headlines would blare. CNN, BBC, and CBC would file special reports with fancy graphics. The United Nations, the European Union, and most of the nations around the world would condemn Israel for its anti-Palestinian brutality. Jews themselves would wring their hands, pound their hearts, and slap their foreheads worrying about what their people had wrought.

Instead, the power of Hamas, despite its lethal ideology, is growing in the Palestinian territories. People barely remember that Palestinian gunmen in Gaza shot and killed 65-year-old Moussa Arafat after storming his home in September, and a sustained internet search did not uncover the names of the two Egyptian soldiers killed and the 30 others wounded when hundreds of Palestinians mobbed the Rafah crossing, egged on by about 30 armed men from the supposedly mainstream al-Aksa Brigade.

According to Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly On Line, some Egyptians did mutter about the double standard. Abbas El-Tarabily, editor-in-chief of the opposition daily Al-Wafd wrote that, "if the two Egyptian victims had been killed by the Israelis, strikes would have taken place across Egypt and the whole issue might have been taken up with the UN Security Council."


Is Canada becoming cool?

Phin has RINO sightings up

Take a look kids

T.V Networks are evil

I hated friends.... i HATED friends. I never watched it in originals but the reruns of friends on Channel 44 down here have made tv just before the "prime time" almost unwatchable.....

but they were over or so I thought

In a secret meeting before Christmas, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry reportedly agreed a $5 million apiece deal with NBC bosses in Los Angeles.

Scriptwriters have already started penning lines for the four double episodes, which are due to air next year.


But who is to blame? Jennifer Aniston. She was the loan hold out which makes me wonder after losing Brad if this isn't some attempt at self destruction

......sigh......

stuff from 101 zen stories yet again

If You Love, Love Openly

Twenty monks and one nun, who was named Eshun, were practicing meditation with a certain Zen master.

Eshun was very pretty even though her head was shaved and her dress plain. Several monks secretly fell in love with her. One of them wrote her a love letter, insisting upon a private meeting.

Eshun did not reply. The following day the master gave a lecture to the group, and when it was over, Eshun arose. Addressing the one who had written her, she said: "If you really love me so much, come and embrace me now."

Michael Moore with the unintentional Irony Moment

In the end of the Canadian election cycle Michael Moore jumps in. First of all Michael with your run-in during the 2004 and 2000 elections as past history MAYBE this isn't a good thing for you to do. But here is where it get un-intentionally Ironic.

"A man running the nation to the south of you is hoping you can lend him a hand by picking Stephen Harper, because he's a man who shares his world view. Do you want to help George Bush by turning Canada into his latest conquest?" Moore asked.

"Far be it from me, as an American, to suggest what you should do," he added. "I hope you don't feel this appeal of mine is too intrusive, but I just couldn't sit by, as your friend, and say nothing."


Ok the Liberal Party has been running adds saying that Stephen Harper is to much like.....AMERICANS...... and its not been working. In fact its been utterly well failing.

so you a foriegner come in and make this comments after Canadian politicians have done so... doesn't that seem like something and Ignorant American will do?

You are now unintentionally a punchline in one of your own jokes

Sunday, January 22, 2006

My Buddy Ken Kerns is predicting the Canuk Election

Over here on his blog. I pretty much agree with him 100% here. Where i disagree..

3) The majority/minority status of a Harper government will hinge on the scale of the Conservative breakthrough in rural Quebec and Toronto.


I think this election is about how awful-incompetent the Liberal party Is and... I'd be surprised if Harper pulls off a majority government.

Weird things that happened when I was driving to Sarasota

On my way down I-75 a car was passing me. And in the words of Jerry Seinfeld they were driving "Low and Slow". Guy got just far enough for me to be in his blind spot and started to merge. I then applied my hand judicously to Mr. Horn. Some F-Bombs and possibly some C-S words may have been dropped. I was hazy as I thought some old timer was going to knock me dead into a ditch on the side of the road.

Who watched this whole scene? a Florida Highway Patrol Officer...Isn't improper passing like that a ticketable offense?

I like Barry over at enrevanche

Though we disagree on outsourcing some one ( I think Barry's perspective is skewed a bit due to his job and all that... but heck I could be wrong.) However I really like it when his knowledge on an issue and what I always suspected but could never sink my teeth into come to a crossroads. Here he shows a selection from a buisness week article. Seems Outsources are now taking the Scrouge McDuck principle "Work Smarter, not Harder."

Many executives are discovering offshoring is really about corporate growth, making better use of skilled U.S. staff, and even job creation in the U.S., not just cheap wages abroad. True, the labor savings from global sourcing can still be substantial. But it's peanuts compared to the enormous gains in efficiency, productivity, quality, and revenues that can be achieved by fully leveraging offshore talent.


The labor savings are peanuts in the big picture and always have been. But making companies do buisness -better- thats the key.

What the Deuce?

Ummmm...What?

What this unlicensed, underground restaurant does have is a pit bull named Shinobi, a cramped kitchen with appliances in various states of disrepair and a gregarious host named Jeremy Townsend who, in his untucked shirt and jeans, will dance with his guests, jam on his harmonica and invite patrons for a post-dessert nightcap at a nearby bar.

Townsend is not alone in looking for new ways to captivate a public who, having made Zagat a household name, are finding its food savvy turn into ennui.

Culinary speakeasies like Ghetto Gourmet are popping up in cities in the Bay Area and beyond, across the country and around the world.


So people who go to trendy restaurants are now...Going to underground restaurants ran by many of the same people....

can some one explain this to me?

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Heading back to the realm of Tampa

Got some stuff to blog about when I hit my homestead north of here.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Watching 20/20 on Self Made man

Watching her talking about Male and Female sexuality. Its very intresting having her talk about datying women. They show this woman in a pick up situation with the very clear "god get this loser away from me" face on. and how the woman does a complete 180 when she gets let in on the secret and apologises for the Brush off and trying to trick him out of hitting on her.

Its intresting that she would respect Nora and not Ned.

Her talk about how the dates were rarely fun as she had to spend so much time proving herself for women.

I do think she is off base with strip clubs but this wasn't an uber focused study and didn't talk about how a lot of men don't like strippers.
Also intrestingly her saying women really didn't want a "Woman in a man's body".

definately would like to get my paws on this book.

When federal studies go wrong

Prison Rape a myth? Some one got the federal government to run a study which makes that claim.

He said inmates who cry rape are usually lying and looking for a transfer, money or publicity.

``Inmates say it may happen, but the conditions under which it happens are rare,'' Fleisher said. ``It is unlikely all the stars are going to align properly for this to happen, particularly in prisons today. You're going to get caught.''

The two-year study, commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department for $939,233, has come under withering attack from other experts. The department has not endorsed the study, saying Fleisher has yet to turn over his data for closer examination.


He said women who cry rape are usually lying and looking for a transfer, money or publicity.

Yeah that claim would be pretty bogus... but when homosexuality comes into play for some reason not only does the ludicrousness of that staement not come into play nor does some of the following basic questions:

Are they lying? Which is better to know you got some prison man-lovin willingly or you got some prison man-loving cause it was forced on you. Because in prison when matters are set up around dominance and respect Rape would be a death sentance in prison. Also is it better to be a willing partner or an unwilling one?

Cindy Struckman-Johnson, professor of psychology at the University of South Dakota and one of nine commission members, said Fleisher's 155-page study is not in scientific form. She said there is no literature review, no raw data, and no in-depth explanation of his subjects or research methods.

Fleisher said he spent more than 700 hours interviewing 564 randomly chosen inmates at dozens of institutions across the country. He said he never met anyone who claimed to be a victim of sexual violence.

He said his findings were no surprise to him, though he admitted his conclusion ``flies in the face of what everyone believes.''


Not in scientific form, not reviewed, and didn't meet with anyone who claimed to be victimized. and it cost the Federal government nearly a million dollars.

But here folks comes the money shot....

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Justice Department official familiar with the findings said that the department is trying to determine whether the conclusions are supported by the data, but that Fleisher has not shown his evidence to anyone.


I am hoping he gets strung up for federal fraud charges.

Dear Hildabeast;

Dear Mdme. Clinton;

Some of us might have noticed you were making some rather disparaging comments about the President's policies towards the nation of Iran. When you do that you want to make sure little embarassing things like this aren't in your campaign finance file. This is especially more embarassing as the gov'ment thanks to the pressure of folks like yourself cares again about who sends money and where it goes.

Wealthy businessmen Hassan Nemazee and Faraj Aalaei are associated with the American Iranian Council, a pro-regime anti-sanctions group. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Namazee has contributed $4,000 to Clinton's reelection while Aalaei has given $1,000.

The press describes their lobby this way "the American-Iranian Council [AIC], a pro-regime lobbying group trying to get Congress and the Bush administration to lift the trade embargo on Iran." (Insight, 3/25/04)

Hillary Clinton is also raising money from Gati Kashani, another figure linked with the Mullahs.


But a Republican challenger is indeed using this for the political hay its worth.

John Spencer, the former Yonkers Mayor and Vietnam combat veteran who will challenge Senator Clinton in November, made the following statement. "Senator Clinton voted against the very munitions necessary to avoid a nuclear confrontation with Iran while at the same time accepting money from supporters of the Iranian Mullahs. Senator Clinton lacks the credibility to keep New York safe and she should return this tainted money."


More reasons why the woman won't be running for President

For those folks who fear the Red Dragon

You should look at this. Much like Japan having the prime minister declaring Americans "Fat and Lazy" while their labor ministry spoke of the American worker as handily more efficent then the Japanese workers their is an issue on "face" in oriental culture.

Wen's warning underscored rising concerns over lagging economic growth in rural China, home to at least two of every three Chinese. Stagnating rural incomes have created an underclass of impoverished farmers lacking affordable access to basic public services such as health care and education.

One of the greatest threats to stability stems from seizures of farmland for property development and other construction projects, Wen said the text of a speech carried in major state-run newspapers.

Disputes over compensation for land seizures have provoked thousands of protests among farmers outraged over the loss of what they view as their most fundamental asset. Incomes in rural areas average about $300 a year, compared with urban incomes of $1,000.


So 2/3rds of the Chinese people are having their land seized and an inability to get any basic goods and services.....

This wouldn'tbe anything like oooooh the revolution Mao started to overthrow the government in China.

But the most serious aspect of this is it may impact China's ability to feed its people.

Wen warned that such problems threaten China's ability to feed its 1.3 billion people, despite bumper harvests that raised grain production to an estimated record 484 million tons last year.

Production this year could suffer from unstable grain prices, unpredictable climate and shrinking arable land, Wen warned. He called for keeping grain prices steady, while curbing "excessive" increases in the prices of farming materials, such as fuel, fertilizer and seeds.


A Nation that loses its ability to feed its people reasonably is a nation one should worry about. When it consumes resources rapidly beyond their ability to control it... this is problematic.

China has a potential time bomb of their own in the near future.