That danged Biased Media is at it again, what with actually reporting something claiming Senator Frist is being investigated by the SEC for his miraculously timed sale of HCA stock a mere ten trading days before the stock took a nose dive because of a bad earnings report.
It's all bias, I tell you, just like Ann Coulter says.
Why Senator Bill has told them repeatedly that he didn't even know he had HCA stock in that blind trust. In January 2003, He told the liberally biased Associated Press,
"So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock."
See...the problem is not just the Press being Biased...It's the Facts, too!
Facts are Liberal...Can't be trusted!
It is a biased fact that Senator Bill was notified by his Trustee, just two weeks before he made that "truthful" statement about not owning any HCA stock, that in biased fact...he did.
Got told three times the year before, that he did....See how biased these danged facts are?
See...the way the Facts work, if you are a Republican, is that if a fact proves you're lying...well then it has to be biased.
Take this one for instance:
Senator Bill said, "It is illegal right now for me to know what the composition of those trusts are. So I have no idea."
Fact is, Senator Bill had just submitted his financial report to the senate indicating,
"Frist had a general knowledge of his trust holdings -- including HCA and several other health organizations."
Facts are liberal...Biased...Can't be trusted...When it comes down to who ya gonna believe, Senator Bill or the Facts....
And anyway, How would Senator Bill know about the bad earnings report in the first place, eh? I mean it's not like his Dad founded the company and his brother is a member of the Board of Directors...I mean who believes this stuff?
Facts are so biased...Can't be believed.
Just ask a Creationist! They have a ton of practice at this sort of thing. Facts cannot be trusted...
Biased.
Peace,
Steve
References for all these danged "Facts" can be found here:
Bias
Friday, September 30, 2005
WCJ Joke of the Day
Tom DeLay
No, that's not it. Tom Delay is a much hated person even within his own party. He's the picture of hypocrisy...corrupt and sociopathic, like most of the Republican leadership, now that I think about it. Consider the lunacy in this statement
"Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills." –Tom DeLay
...Moron!
But at least we're getting great jokes about Tom and Republicans in general, right now:
"Today a Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme. This is the most embarrassing thing to happen to the Republicans since... yesterday." --Jay Leno
"Tom DeLay said he had a new priority in life -- outlawing prison rape." --Jay Leno
"Cindy Sheehan, she is the mother who was demonstrating in Texas. She was arrested at the White House for sitting down, doing nothing, and refusing to move. You know, if that's the criteria, they should arrest all those White House energy advisers." --Jay Leno
"John Kerry said he was never clear about where John Roberts stood on the issues and for that reason he's not voting for him. That's the same reason Roberts didn’t vote for Kerry." --Jay Leno
And the WhitesCreek Journal Joke of the day:
"President Bush has asked the FBI to start an anti-obscenity task force to the fight the war against pornography. ... Bush said he's serious about this war on pornography. He said he will seek out and find all weapons of Mass...
-- turbation."
--Jay Leno
Lisa is in fine form:
www.allhatnocattle.net
Adam Felbers has a witty twist on all this...the comments are worthy, too:
www.felbers.net
Peace,
Steve
No, that's not it. Tom Delay is a much hated person even within his own party. He's the picture of hypocrisy...corrupt and sociopathic, like most of the Republican leadership, now that I think about it. Consider the lunacy in this statement
"Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills." –Tom DeLay
...Moron!
But at least we're getting great jokes about Tom and Republicans in general, right now:
"Today a Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme. This is the most embarrassing thing to happen to the Republicans since... yesterday." --Jay Leno
"Tom DeLay said he had a new priority in life -- outlawing prison rape." --Jay Leno
"Cindy Sheehan, she is the mother who was demonstrating in Texas. She was arrested at the White House for sitting down, doing nothing, and refusing to move. You know, if that's the criteria, they should arrest all those White House energy advisers." --Jay Leno
"John Kerry said he was never clear about where John Roberts stood on the issues and for that reason he's not voting for him. That's the same reason Roberts didn’t vote for Kerry." --Jay Leno
And the WhitesCreek Journal Joke of the day:
"President Bush has asked the FBI to start an anti-obscenity task force to the fight the war against pornography. ... Bush said he's serious about this war on pornography. He said he will seek out and find all weapons of Mass...
-- turbation."
--Jay Leno
Lisa is in fine form:
www.allhatnocattle.net
Adam Felbers has a witty twist on all this...the comments are worthy, too:
www.felbers.net
Peace,
Steve
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Fun with Geography...(and Laundered money)
Tom Delay has been rebuked three times by the House ethics panel, which is pretty tough considering it is controlled by Republicans, who are ethically challenged, by definition.
Tom also has become the first House Majority Leader in history to be indighted in office. Congratulations, Tom! An honor well deserved.
But it really is the red herring in all this.
Here is why the Tom Delay money laundering indictment is such a big deal.
Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing Congressional Districts so that a political party can take power when, otherwise, it could not win in a geographically sensible district.
Both parties do it, and it needs to stop. What it does is to make sure that a vote by one person means less than a vote by another. Say Republicans are a minority party in an area of Texas, which they are.
In two districts let's say Republicans account for 40% of voters compared to 60% for the Democrats. They would lose every Congressional election as a result of not being able to convince voters that their ideas were sound and deserving.
But here comes Tom Delay with his illegally obtained and laundered money, along with all sorts of other shenanigans, involving the FBI and shredded documents, and Texas Rangers ordered by the Republican Governor to arrest State Democrat Representatives (True, by the way) and then they rearrange the map so that the Districts look like a jigsaw puzzle and all the Democrats wind up in one district and the Republicans wind up in another.
Presto!...Instead of two Democratic districts, you have one Democrat and one Republican.
But the Republicans are the minority! How did they get a seat?
By juggling the geographical areas to make the other party's votes count less. It's just that simple. And it was done with illegally laundered money and who knows what all else.
Tom is now a hero to Karl Rove, who told him how to do this in the first place, and George Bush get's to push through all kinds of idiotic spending schemes that make Dick Cheney richer.
Just so you'll know, Here are the five Texas Congressmen who would were elected through Tom Delay's illegal scheme. If they had any honor, they would step down and ask for new districting and a new election...
But they won't!
Louie Gohmert (R-1st)
Ted Poe (R-2nd)
Michael McCaul (R-10th)
Mike Conaway (R-11th)
Kenny Marchant (R-24th)
Courage,
Steve
Oh yeah, Here's a map of Tennessee's Congressional distrcts which are nearly as goofy as Texas's, except they were done legally...so far as we know.
Here's a fun place you can go and see your own state's congressional districts. Aren't maps fun?
national atlas
Tom also has become the first House Majority Leader in history to be indighted in office. Congratulations, Tom! An honor well deserved.
But it really is the red herring in all this.
Here is why the Tom Delay money laundering indictment is such a big deal.
Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing Congressional Districts so that a political party can take power when, otherwise, it could not win in a geographically sensible district.
Both parties do it, and it needs to stop. What it does is to make sure that a vote by one person means less than a vote by another. Say Republicans are a minority party in an area of Texas, which they are.
In two districts let's say Republicans account for 40% of voters compared to 60% for the Democrats. They would lose every Congressional election as a result of not being able to convince voters that their ideas were sound and deserving.
But here comes Tom Delay with his illegally obtained and laundered money, along with all sorts of other shenanigans, involving the FBI and shredded documents, and Texas Rangers ordered by the Republican Governor to arrest State Democrat Representatives (True, by the way) and then they rearrange the map so that the Districts look like a jigsaw puzzle and all the Democrats wind up in one district and the Republicans wind up in another.
Presto!...Instead of two Democratic districts, you have one Democrat and one Republican.
But the Republicans are the minority! How did they get a seat?
By juggling the geographical areas to make the other party's votes count less. It's just that simple. And it was done with illegally laundered money and who knows what all else.
Tom is now a hero to Karl Rove, who told him how to do this in the first place, and George Bush get's to push through all kinds of idiotic spending schemes that make Dick Cheney richer.
Just so you'll know, Here are the five Texas Congressmen who would were elected through Tom Delay's illegal scheme. If they had any honor, they would step down and ask for new districting and a new election...
But they won't!
Louie Gohmert (R-1st)
Ted Poe (R-2nd)
Michael McCaul (R-10th)
Mike Conaway (R-11th)
Kenny Marchant (R-24th)
Courage,
Steve
Oh yeah, Here's a map of Tennessee's Congressional distrcts which are nearly as goofy as Texas's, except they were done legally...so far as we know.
Here's a fun place you can go and see your own state's congressional districts. Aren't maps fun?
national atlas
What? His daughter got away?
Tom Delay's eye tuck looked really good on TV yesterday, don't you think?
Tom is a servant of corruption at the highest levels in this country and this indightment is just the start of his legal troubles. The really nasty stuff is going to hit the fan and be splattered all over America before the flies finish eating, and that would be Tom's playing Steppin' Fetchit for Bob Abramoff. Abramoff is the big time lobbyist whose partners get blown away when they are no longer useful and know too much. They would get whacked if they grew a conscience, too, but that seems highly unlikely.
I mean why feel bad about the destruction of everything great about America, as long as you come out the other end with shitloads of cash and pieces of real estate deals in lots of golf courses? And not only that...Well...don't get me started on all of Tom's fake charities he wants you to send money to...
Anyway, there's some great humor errupting from all of Tom's self inflicted troubles. The world loves it when a real creep finally gets the house brought down on his testicles...tiny though they may be.
First a couple of Texans:
Juanita's sharp tongue, or rather fingernails since she typed it, I guess:
"... the joke in Austin is that men usually don't have as many lawyers as Tom currently does unless they've killed their wives, have some strange guy living in their pool house, and plan on making a break for it in a Bronco."
Juanita's
And from Charles Pugsley Fincher:
(You'll have to go there...I couldn't get the upload to work)
the scribble
(Word has it that Tom has a little history chasing lewinskies but we'll leave it alone...)
And from Wonkette, the news that Tom's replacement is of the same sexual persuation as Ken Melman, Republican National Committee Chairman:
The House Majority Affinity Whose Name We Dare Not Speak
"OK people, you can stop forwarding the hectic emails announcing that "interim" House Majority Leader David Drier is a little light in the loafers. Its Wonkette HQ policy to refrain from the outing of allegedly gay Republicans, on the simple grounds that being gay and Republican is more than sufficient punishment for anyone we might be moved to excoriate on grounds of hypocrisy. What's more, how shocking is it that someone who might have an affinity for the less fair sex could be the adjutant for a man who formerly made his living by encouraging adolescent boys to don skintight leotards and roll around in each other's sweaty grasp until one of them was spent, breathless, and achy? Next you'll be telling us that George W. Bush employs former oil company executives". -- HOLLY MARTINS
wonkette
It's all gonna be fun...except that it is so tragic that America could be in the hands of such corrupt people.
Courage,
Steve
Tom is a servant of corruption at the highest levels in this country and this indightment is just the start of his legal troubles. The really nasty stuff is going to hit the fan and be splattered all over America before the flies finish eating, and that would be Tom's playing Steppin' Fetchit for Bob Abramoff. Abramoff is the big time lobbyist whose partners get blown away when they are no longer useful and know too much. They would get whacked if they grew a conscience, too, but that seems highly unlikely.
I mean why feel bad about the destruction of everything great about America, as long as you come out the other end with shitloads of cash and pieces of real estate deals in lots of golf courses? And not only that...Well...don't get me started on all of Tom's fake charities he wants you to send money to...
Anyway, there's some great humor errupting from all of Tom's self inflicted troubles. The world loves it when a real creep finally gets the house brought down on his testicles...tiny though they may be.
First a couple of Texans:
Juanita's sharp tongue, or rather fingernails since she typed it, I guess:
"... the joke in Austin is that men usually don't have as many lawyers as Tom currently does unless they've killed their wives, have some strange guy living in their pool house, and plan on making a break for it in a Bronco."
Juanita's
And from Charles Pugsley Fincher:
(You'll have to go there...I couldn't get the upload to work)
the scribble
(Word has it that Tom has a little history chasing lewinskies but we'll leave it alone...)
And from Wonkette, the news that Tom's replacement is of the same sexual persuation as Ken Melman, Republican National Committee Chairman:
The House Majority Affinity Whose Name We Dare Not Speak
"OK people, you can stop forwarding the hectic emails announcing that "interim" House Majority Leader David Drier is a little light in the loafers. Its Wonkette HQ policy to refrain from the outing of allegedly gay Republicans, on the simple grounds that being gay and Republican is more than sufficient punishment for anyone we might be moved to excoriate on grounds of hypocrisy. What's more, how shocking is it that someone who might have an affinity for the less fair sex could be the adjutant for a man who formerly made his living by encouraging adolescent boys to don skintight leotards and roll around in each other's sweaty grasp until one of them was spent, breathless, and achy? Next you'll be telling us that George W. Bush employs former oil company executives". -- HOLLY MARTINS
wonkette
It's all gonna be fun...except that it is so tragic that America could be in the hands of such corrupt people.
Courage,
Steve
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Hey, Zach!
Got a lot of response to the Corridor K road boondoggle that Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp is backing. This is the road which would cut through two of the best mountain bike trail systems in Tennessee, with two monster bridges over the Ocoee River Olympic section, and which would cut through a wilderness area and Chilhowee park in Tennessee. It isn't quite as bad as the Interstate 3 proposal but it's close. Republicans seem hellbent on bankrupting America with spending every last dime they can put on America's credit card.
Zach didn't learn that this is a problem back when he was in the private sector...We had better get to him pretty fast because...Now...He's got OUR credit card!
While you are at it, make sure you let Zach know you aren't exactly happy with Interstate 3 or the Corrider K boondoggle. Ask him to go back and read that "Contract On America" thing he got into office touting.
Here's the very first item in the "Contract":
1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.
Courage,
Steve
Write to Zach Wamp:
Here's his web page contact sheet. Don't know how this works but I suspect you'll get a fundraising letter at some point. If Zach decides to represent ALL his constituents instead of just the Corporate interests and rich people, maybe he deserves support. Not happening so far...but it could.
Hey, Zach!
Zach didn't learn that this is a problem back when he was in the private sector...We had better get to him pretty fast because...Now...He's got OUR credit card!
While you are at it, make sure you let Zach know you aren't exactly happy with Interstate 3 or the Corrider K boondoggle. Ask him to go back and read that "Contract On America" thing he got into office touting.
Here's the very first item in the "Contract":
1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.
Courage,
Steve
Write to Zach Wamp:
Here's his web page contact sheet. Don't know how this works but I suspect you'll get a fundraising letter at some point. If Zach decides to represent ALL his constituents instead of just the Corporate interests and rich people, maybe he deserves support. Not happening so far...but it could.
Hey, Zach!
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Come on, Zach!
I have to think about just how badly the situation is sometimes. I try to be happy but, dang, it's hard to just whistle a happy tune through the stupidity.
In America, there are precious few places left that you can go to and not hear a car or truck. This is, after all, why our troops are being blown up in the Middle East.
There's always some group that thinks they can make money destroying what is left of the once great North American forests and natural areas. In Tennessee, there are two left. The remaining forests of the Cumberland Plateau, and the forests contained in and near the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Both are under serious attack from the short sighted forces of greed.
If you thought the Alaskan "Bridge to nowhere" at a cost of nearly three hundred million dollars was stupidly wasteful, you should check out the Corridor K debacle being pushed by Congressman Zach Wamp. It was being pushed hard by TN State Representative Chris Newton, but he had to resign from the Legislature after he plead guilty to corruption charges...
Uh Huh!
The K road could cost 2.3 Billion bucks. Tennessee would have to fund 20% of that or roughly $460,000,000.00!
That would be for 23 miles of road, from Ducktown to Benton, Tennessee. Zach wants the rafting companies on the Ocoee river to take up this cause. He says
“We don’t want Earth First! to determine this route. We don’t want a small minority to dictate for the overwhelming majority.”
Zach has been reading Karl Rove's handbook or something. Find some one to make into an "enemy", a boogeyman, and say they are against something and since they are the bad guys that means you should be for this thing, which in fact is absolutely stupid to begin with.
Zach proposes to tax the crap out of everybody in Tennessee in order to pay for a lousy 23 miles of road that would slice across one of our last remaining wilderness areas, cut through the Cherokee National Forest, and rip down Chilhowee mountain.
Both the Chilhowee Mountain bike trails and the Ocoee Olympic Center Mountain bike trails would be seriously impacted, possibly destroyed. Two interstatelike bridges would impact the Ocoee River crossing over stretches that are heavily rafted.
Mountain Bikers, Paddlers, and hikers are not the only ones who ought to be howling about this one. Every taxpayer in Tenneesee should write Zach Wamp a letter asking, no, TELLING him to think about this one. Tell him the Corridor K road isn't quite as stupid as the Interstate 3 proposal, but danged close!
And as for everybody else in America...Are you gonna let Tennessee piss away roughly 2 Billion dollars of your money just to so people can get from Murphy North Carolina to Benton Tennessee?
After all...Benton Tennessee is the Home of the Famous RedNeck Games...Loved by...well I won't say who, but you know!
Courage,
Steve
Here's the
Issues/corridor_k
stop-corridor-k
And for you Pastafarians out there, be sure and read the letters from all the PHD's in support of the Church of FSM:
Oh Great and Powerful FSM
In America, there are precious few places left that you can go to and not hear a car or truck. This is, after all, why our troops are being blown up in the Middle East.
There's always some group that thinks they can make money destroying what is left of the once great North American forests and natural areas. In Tennessee, there are two left. The remaining forests of the Cumberland Plateau, and the forests contained in and near the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Both are under serious attack from the short sighted forces of greed.
If you thought the Alaskan "Bridge to nowhere" at a cost of nearly three hundred million dollars was stupidly wasteful, you should check out the Corridor K debacle being pushed by Congressman Zach Wamp. It was being pushed hard by TN State Representative Chris Newton, but he had to resign from the Legislature after he plead guilty to corruption charges...
Uh Huh!
The K road could cost 2.3 Billion bucks. Tennessee would have to fund 20% of that or roughly $460,000,000.00!
That would be for 23 miles of road, from Ducktown to Benton, Tennessee. Zach wants the rafting companies on the Ocoee river to take up this cause. He says
“We don’t want Earth First! to determine this route. We don’t want a small minority to dictate for the overwhelming majority.”
Zach has been reading Karl Rove's handbook or something. Find some one to make into an "enemy", a boogeyman, and say they are against something and since they are the bad guys that means you should be for this thing, which in fact is absolutely stupid to begin with.
Zach proposes to tax the crap out of everybody in Tennessee in order to pay for a lousy 23 miles of road that would slice across one of our last remaining wilderness areas, cut through the Cherokee National Forest, and rip down Chilhowee mountain.
Both the Chilhowee Mountain bike trails and the Ocoee Olympic Center Mountain bike trails would be seriously impacted, possibly destroyed. Two interstatelike bridges would impact the Ocoee River crossing over stretches that are heavily rafted.
Mountain Bikers, Paddlers, and hikers are not the only ones who ought to be howling about this one. Every taxpayer in Tenneesee should write Zach Wamp a letter asking, no, TELLING him to think about this one. Tell him the Corridor K road isn't quite as stupid as the Interstate 3 proposal, but danged close!
And as for everybody else in America...Are you gonna let Tennessee piss away roughly 2 Billion dollars of your money just to so people can get from Murphy North Carolina to Benton Tennessee?
After all...Benton Tennessee is the Home of the Famous RedNeck Games...Loved by...well I won't say who, but you know!
Courage,
Steve
Here's the
Issues/corridor_k
stop-corridor-k
And for you Pastafarians out there, be sure and read the letters from all the PHD's in support of the Church of FSM:
Oh Great and Powerful FSM
Monday, September 26, 2005
Instant Message
Stevescarb: morning
good rain, eh?
IMer YEs, and cooler! Hooray!
Rain is good
Stevescarb: do anything fun this weekend
IMer I couldn't believe how dry it was when I planted the rain lilies
Went hiking in N.C.
Up near Hot Springs
Stevescarb: I ate Thai food twice
must run today
: pants too tight
IMer At least it has veggies
Where the Thai?
Stevescarb: Creenville Sc
G
IMer got it
That place must really have changed since I interviewed for a job there in, oh, 1988
Was a nasty little mill town
Maybe not nasty
Stevescarb: It's really nice now
IMer I know. People speak of it in glopwing terms
Stevescarb: downtown has come a long way
IMer glowing
Stevescarb: glopwing seems good too
IMer Must get down there
Stevescarb: Annie got to see Joseph
Stevescarb: Happy wife
IMer Very good!
IMer The newspaper at the time was fukk of protectionist-type people
Stevescarb: I understand fukk
IMer Damn
IMer No caffeine yet
Stevescarb: Textiles went away and now they are just rabidly right wing
Stevescarb: much better?
Stevescarb: got a good counter insurgency going from the left
IMer My friend who has turned right wingy on me was in town, but we made excuses not to have Sunday brunch
Stevescarb: hard aintit?
IMer I can't understand how people with a brain can be that way. And she's in social services
Teaches them, head of her department at college
I attribute it to greed and fear
They can make you stupid
Stevescarb: Ok, here is why that is....The same human mechanism that fuels racism is at work. It is complex and simple at the same time.
IMer I'm listening
Stevescarb: Those driving the right know that these people are simply first order thinkers and that it requires second order to realize they are lying
Stevescarb: Intelligence is not just "smart"...it is meditation and the "On further review" part of thinking
Stevescarb: This is what is being killed by the Jody McClouds of this world
IMer Yeah, any time we do talk about something, instead of addressing my point, she diverts... such a classic right-wing thing
Stevescarb: That's why you can say horrible things about someone and get them to stick even when they aren't true
IMer Limbaughesque even
Indeed
Stevescarb: of course
Stevescarb: that's wher the Ditto head term comes from...repeat without thinking
Stevescarb: It takes a personal courage to overcome and the majority of people are simply chickenshits
IMer yes. I hear her quoting Fox ... but damn -- I just thought she was smarter than that
Stevescarb: Smart and intelligent aren't the same
Stevescarb: it is like short term and long term planning
Stevescarb: one gets you through the night...one gets you through life...one gets you a good wife/partner/etc....one gets you an STD
Stevescarb: America has the mental equivalent of an STD in its right wing
IMer Yup. It's just that this side of her has just emerged in the last four-five years and has gotten much worse. I guess it was always there
IMer She and I have been friends since college. I just never saw that in her before -- except maybe once
Stevescarb: It all changed when they destroyed the fairness doctrine in the media...When it went from one person, one vote...to one dollar, one vote...That screwed us
IMer Those have happened
IMer Money is back to being power
Stevescarb: Freedom of speech was never intended to be on the basis of how much air time you could buy
Stevescarb: If that doesn't get changed...we won't survive as a nation
IMer I agree.
So folks...Do you agree?
What cha gonna do about it?
Got Courage?
Steve
good rain, eh?
IMer YEs, and cooler! Hooray!
Rain is good
Stevescarb: do anything fun this weekend
IMer I couldn't believe how dry it was when I planted the rain lilies
Went hiking in N.C.
Up near Hot Springs
Stevescarb: I ate Thai food twice
must run today
: pants too tight
IMer At least it has veggies
Where the Thai?
Stevescarb: Creenville Sc
G
IMer got it
That place must really have changed since I interviewed for a job there in, oh, 1988
Was a nasty little mill town
Maybe not nasty
Stevescarb: It's really nice now
IMer I know. People speak of it in glopwing terms
Stevescarb: downtown has come a long way
IMer glowing
Stevescarb: glopwing seems good too
IMer Must get down there
Stevescarb: Annie got to see Joseph
Stevescarb: Happy wife
IMer Very good!
IMer The newspaper at the time was fukk of protectionist-type people
Stevescarb: I understand fukk
IMer Damn
IMer No caffeine yet
Stevescarb: Textiles went away and now they are just rabidly right wing
Stevescarb: much better?
Stevescarb: got a good counter insurgency going from the left
IMer My friend who has turned right wingy on me was in town, but we made excuses not to have Sunday brunch
Stevescarb: hard aintit?
IMer I can't understand how people with a brain can be that way. And she's in social services
Teaches them, head of her department at college
I attribute it to greed and fear
They can make you stupid
Stevescarb: Ok, here is why that is....The same human mechanism that fuels racism is at work. It is complex and simple at the same time.
IMer I'm listening
Stevescarb: Those driving the right know that these people are simply first order thinkers and that it requires second order to realize they are lying
Stevescarb: Intelligence is not just "smart"...it is meditation and the "On further review" part of thinking
Stevescarb: This is what is being killed by the Jody McClouds of this world
IMer Yeah, any time we do talk about something, instead of addressing my point, she diverts... such a classic right-wing thing
Stevescarb: That's why you can say horrible things about someone and get them to stick even when they aren't true
IMer Limbaughesque even
Indeed
Stevescarb: of course
Stevescarb: that's wher the Ditto head term comes from...repeat without thinking
Stevescarb: It takes a personal courage to overcome and the majority of people are simply chickenshits
IMer yes. I hear her quoting Fox ... but damn -- I just thought she was smarter than that
Stevescarb: Smart and intelligent aren't the same
Stevescarb: it is like short term and long term planning
Stevescarb: one gets you through the night...one gets you through life...one gets you a good wife/partner/etc....one gets you an STD
Stevescarb: America has the mental equivalent of an STD in its right wing
IMer Yup. It's just that this side of her has just emerged in the last four-five years and has gotten much worse. I guess it was always there
IMer She and I have been friends since college. I just never saw that in her before -- except maybe once
Stevescarb: It all changed when they destroyed the fairness doctrine in the media...When it went from one person, one vote...to one dollar, one vote...That screwed us
IMer Those have happened
IMer Money is back to being power
Stevescarb: Freedom of speech was never intended to be on the basis of how much air time you could buy
Stevescarb: If that doesn't get changed...we won't survive as a nation
IMer I agree.
So folks...Do you agree?
What cha gonna do about it?
Got Courage?
Steve
Among the Cloud Monsters
The most beautiful time in the Gorge is probably right after the rain stops. The mist can't decide which way to go and plays peekaboo with the trees and the cliffs on the far side.
The photos don't do justice...you'll just have to come out and drink coffee with me and look out through the windows.
What's left of the most recent hurricane is passing through with much needed moisture. There are crazy people out there who burn things. In fifteen years here, there have been several forest fires and not one is has been natural.
There are two times of the year that fires get started: Fall, as leaves beging to drop, and Spring, right before they come out again. These are the dry times. This is a good time for rain but I will hope to see it again in a few weeks, when the new fuel lying on the ground will be a temptation for the crazy people. It only takes one, you know...
...Particularly if he gets elected.
Didn't think it could happen in America, did we?
Courage,
Steve
ps: Speaking of photos, even though I said they don't do justice(mine anyway), PW would like to see more... I'll try. I spent the weekend shooting soccer games. I'm good at that...The cloud Monsters are too sneaky to show up well, so far. Perhaps I should hold up a mirror to see if they really exist?
The photos don't do justice...you'll just have to come out and drink coffee with me and look out through the windows.
What's left of the most recent hurricane is passing through with much needed moisture. There are crazy people out there who burn things. In fifteen years here, there have been several forest fires and not one is has been natural.
There are two times of the year that fires get started: Fall, as leaves beging to drop, and Spring, right before they come out again. These are the dry times. This is a good time for rain but I will hope to see it again in a few weeks, when the new fuel lying on the ground will be a temptation for the crazy people. It only takes one, you know...
...Particularly if he gets elected.
Didn't think it could happen in America, did we?
Courage,
Steve
ps: Speaking of photos, even though I said they don't do justice(mine anyway), PW would like to see more... I'll try. I spent the weekend shooting soccer games. I'm good at that...The cloud Monsters are too sneaky to show up well, so far. Perhaps I should hold up a mirror to see if they really exist?
Friday, September 23, 2005
Night Song
Quiet has its own sound.
Here I am, far away from highways or other human disturbances and the night is extremely noisy. The last of the Katydids and some other little invertebrate beasts of the night are rattling their exoskeletons to the base line of the nights music. Not much happening in the midrange but the tweeters are working up a frenzy on the edge of my high pitch hearing range.
Soon the cold will come and change the song of the night. I think I'll try to get in one more swim in the hot part of the day before that happens.
Peace,
Steve
Here I am, far away from highways or other human disturbances and the night is extremely noisy. The last of the Katydids and some other little invertebrate beasts of the night are rattling their exoskeletons to the base line of the nights music. Not much happening in the midrange but the tweeters are working up a frenzy on the edge of my high pitch hearing range.
Soon the cold will come and change the song of the night. I think I'll try to get in one more swim in the hot part of the day before that happens.
Peace,
Steve
Thursday, September 22, 2005
WHY NOT?
From Facing South:
Community Labor United -- an excellent group of grassroots activists in Louisiana and Mississippi and their allies -- have released a new dispatch about their work to ensure Gulf reconstruction serves ordinary people, not the developers, contractors and other powerful interests seeking to impose their agenda on the region.
Provide funds for all displaced families to be reunited;
Allocate the $50 billion for reconstruction to the victims of the hurricane in the form of a Victims Compensation Fund;
Accept representation on all boards that are making decisions on spending public dollars for relief and reconstruction;
Place displaced workers and residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in public works jobs, offering union wages;
Publicly account for and show the entire reconstruction process.
More here from Facing South:
facingsouth
Community Labor United -- an excellent group of grassroots activists in Louisiana and Mississippi and their allies -- have released a new dispatch about their work to ensure Gulf reconstruction serves ordinary people, not the developers, contractors and other powerful interests seeking to impose their agenda on the region.
Provide funds for all displaced families to be reunited;
Allocate the $50 billion for reconstruction to the victims of the hurricane in the form of a Victims Compensation Fund;
Accept representation on all boards that are making decisions on spending public dollars for relief and reconstruction;
Place displaced workers and residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in public works jobs, offering union wages;
Publicly account for and show the entire reconstruction process.
More here from Facing South:
facingsouth
Those were the days, my friends...
Well, what happens when you have a guy with a history of bad decisions making decisions?
You get, "What kind of decisions, Class?"
Bad decisions come from somewhere dark and ignorant. it takes a thoughtfull mind to see clearly and head us in the right direction. As we have seen with the botched Iraq war and the botched rescue and relief effort after hurricane Katrina, bad decisions cost lives...innocent lives.
Whitehouse Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, designed the Homeland Security Department, Largest Beaurocracy in the history of planet Earth. he let George Bush make a couple of key decisions, specifically: Abolish FEMA as a stand alone Cabinet level agency and make it part of HSD...do something similar to the National Guard and the Coast Guard.
Both decisions turn out to be monumentally disasterous in the plainest sense of that word.
So how does a person become dark and ignorant? It is a personal choice! It is the choice of saying "I don't want to know!" It is a closing of the mind to uncomfortable knowlege, however liberating. It is a constant source of amazement to me, that so many people desire ignorance. Don't read and don't hear. if something sneaks through that osmotic membrane of the mind that normally filters out uncomfortable knowlege, it gets destroyed by a conscious decision to ignore...because it contradicts something already decided upon.
Conservatives must be reeling with new knowlege in the face of the collapse of their myth...They simply cannot run a government. From what I've seen, Conservatives can't even run a little league baseball team, let alone a corporation.
Predatory morality may get you rich, but it won't get you happy.
*****
Consider the following with a grain or three of salt:
Under the heading:
"Now we know why he took so long to act on Katrina!"
The National Enquirer becomes the largest paper to state that George Bush's drinking problem has resurfaced. Yeah, I know, it is the Enquirer. But the same folks who read it are the ones who voted Bush and the other Neo-cons into office:
Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink...
A Washington source said: "The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him — but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months.
Another source said: "A family member told me they fear George is 'falling apart.' The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper." Bush's history of drinking dates back to his youth. Speaking of his time as a young man in the National Guard, he has said: "One thing I remember, and I'm most proud of, is my drinking and partying. Those were the days my friends. Those were the good old days!"
N.E.
Courage!
Steve
You get, "What kind of decisions, Class?"
Bad decisions come from somewhere dark and ignorant. it takes a thoughtfull mind to see clearly and head us in the right direction. As we have seen with the botched Iraq war and the botched rescue and relief effort after hurricane Katrina, bad decisions cost lives...innocent lives.
Whitehouse Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, designed the Homeland Security Department, Largest Beaurocracy in the history of planet Earth. he let George Bush make a couple of key decisions, specifically: Abolish FEMA as a stand alone Cabinet level agency and make it part of HSD...do something similar to the National Guard and the Coast Guard.
Both decisions turn out to be monumentally disasterous in the plainest sense of that word.
So how does a person become dark and ignorant? It is a personal choice! It is the choice of saying "I don't want to know!" It is a closing of the mind to uncomfortable knowlege, however liberating. It is a constant source of amazement to me, that so many people desire ignorance. Don't read and don't hear. if something sneaks through that osmotic membrane of the mind that normally filters out uncomfortable knowlege, it gets destroyed by a conscious decision to ignore...because it contradicts something already decided upon.
Conservatives must be reeling with new knowlege in the face of the collapse of their myth...They simply cannot run a government. From what I've seen, Conservatives can't even run a little league baseball team, let alone a corporation.
Predatory morality may get you rich, but it won't get you happy.
*****
Consider the following with a grain or three of salt:
Under the heading:
"Now we know why he took so long to act on Katrina!"
The National Enquirer becomes the largest paper to state that George Bush's drinking problem has resurfaced. Yeah, I know, it is the Enquirer. But the same folks who read it are the ones who voted Bush and the other Neo-cons into office:
Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink...
A Washington source said: "The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him — but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months.
Another source said: "A family member told me they fear George is 'falling apart.' The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper." Bush's history of drinking dates back to his youth. Speaking of his time as a young man in the National Guard, he has said: "One thing I remember, and I'm most proud of, is my drinking and partying. Those were the days my friends. Those were the good old days!"
N.E.
Courage!
Steve
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
THE STUFF OF FICTION
Went to a debate at the local Community college.
It was supposedly between an ACLU representative and a conservative lawyer and the burning question was whether the word meanings of the Constitution have changed or remained constant, or something like that.
The ACLU guy was young, idealistic, and way out of his league. The Conservative Lawyer had expensive looking hair, and was apparently unbounded by the inconveniences of fact.
Before the thing started I had no clue as to which side each lawyer would be on. I read the Constitution as pretty solid for the most part, but I do think you have to remember the day and time it was written and understand the intent, not the wordage of the founders of our great, but deteriorating, nation.
The Con lawyer was big on saying things like the Liberal court is going to force homosexual marriage on us and has outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance...neither of which is true...quite the opposite, in fact. Courts are merely saying that homosexuals must be allowed the exact same privileges as any other citizen and that no agent of the Federal government is allowed to "force" anyone, particularly a child, from swearing a pledge under some god of the state.
...And...Shotgun weddings being pretty much impossible to set up in these kinds of situations, no one will be forced to marry a homosexual,.
The ACLU guy was big on facts, the Conservative guy was big on fear...Neither one made any kind of a case, whatsoever, for his side of the argument, but the members of the audience who had the pre-existing condition of conservative leanings came away even more afraid of being forced to actually coexist with a gay person and thinking that the Bill of Rights probably never should have been passed in the first place.
Those with leftish tendencies came away realizing that the Bill of Rights is hanging by a thread under a conservative government, that there is no "Right to privacy", and since the Constitution never mentions the word "Democracy", that is the reason Geroge Bush could be elected President by the Supreme Court.
I don't know if I have made it clear that it is the "Conservative" side that thinks words can't change meanings.
I did not ask a question when the opportunity arose, but I wanted to. I wanted to ask about the darling of the conservative movement, the Second amendment. Here it is:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The day that was ratified, the word "Arms" meant essentially muzzle loading guns, big and small. If the Conservative position is correct, how can that word "Arms", be taken today to refer to 50 caliber repeating firearms capable of shooting down a jet aircraft? Wouldn't that be the Liberal interpretation?
I guess I just don't understand.
Courage,
Steve
*****
In reading about the 2nd amendment I ran across this statement:
"Perhaps in the 1780's, the rise of a tyrant to a leadership position in the U.S. was a cause for concern. Today, the voters are much too sophisticated to elect a leader whose stated aims would be to suppress freedom or declare martial law. For the leader whose unstated aim it was to seize the nation, the task would be more than daunting - it would be next to impossible. The size and scope of the conspiracy needed, the cooperation of patriots who would see right through such a plan -- it is unfathomable, the stuff of fiction."
Really?
Here's a good discussion for you:
2nd Amendment
Got this in the mail bag...Could that be PW?
It was supposedly between an ACLU representative and a conservative lawyer and the burning question was whether the word meanings of the Constitution have changed or remained constant, or something like that.
The ACLU guy was young, idealistic, and way out of his league. The Conservative Lawyer had expensive looking hair, and was apparently unbounded by the inconveniences of fact.
Before the thing started I had no clue as to which side each lawyer would be on. I read the Constitution as pretty solid for the most part, but I do think you have to remember the day and time it was written and understand the intent, not the wordage of the founders of our great, but deteriorating, nation.
The Con lawyer was big on saying things like the Liberal court is going to force homosexual marriage on us and has outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance...neither of which is true...quite the opposite, in fact. Courts are merely saying that homosexuals must be allowed the exact same privileges as any other citizen and that no agent of the Federal government is allowed to "force" anyone, particularly a child, from swearing a pledge under some god of the state.
...And...Shotgun weddings being pretty much impossible to set up in these kinds of situations, no one will be forced to marry a homosexual,.
The ACLU guy was big on facts, the Conservative guy was big on fear...Neither one made any kind of a case, whatsoever, for his side of the argument, but the members of the audience who had the pre-existing condition of conservative leanings came away even more afraid of being forced to actually coexist with a gay person and thinking that the Bill of Rights probably never should have been passed in the first place.
Those with leftish tendencies came away realizing that the Bill of Rights is hanging by a thread under a conservative government, that there is no "Right to privacy", and since the Constitution never mentions the word "Democracy", that is the reason Geroge Bush could be elected President by the Supreme Court.
I don't know if I have made it clear that it is the "Conservative" side that thinks words can't change meanings.
I did not ask a question when the opportunity arose, but I wanted to. I wanted to ask about the darling of the conservative movement, the Second amendment. Here it is:
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The day that was ratified, the word "Arms" meant essentially muzzle loading guns, big and small. If the Conservative position is correct, how can that word "Arms", be taken today to refer to 50 caliber repeating firearms capable of shooting down a jet aircraft? Wouldn't that be the Liberal interpretation?
I guess I just don't understand.
Courage,
Steve
*****
In reading about the 2nd amendment I ran across this statement:
"Perhaps in the 1780's, the rise of a tyrant to a leadership position in the U.S. was a cause for concern. Today, the voters are much too sophisticated to elect a leader whose stated aims would be to suppress freedom or declare martial law. For the leader whose unstated aim it was to seize the nation, the task would be more than daunting - it would be next to impossible. The size and scope of the conspiracy needed, the cooperation of patriots who would see right through such a plan -- it is unfathomable, the stuff of fiction."
Really?
Here's a good discussion for you:
2nd Amendment
Got this in the mail bag...Could that be PW?
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Hopping Sermon
"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity" Albert Einstein
John sent his thoughts about Buddhism:
Steve:
As much as I like the Dalai Lama and his philosophy, anyone who understands Buddhism will hold off on calling it a “religion,” at least one comparable to the theistic religions. Science explains the workings of the perceived universe, and has always been welcomed by Buddhists, who would perhaps say they are more concerned, spiritually, with the not-perceived universe. The major difference between Buddhists and believers in theistic religions, in my view, is that Buddhism concerns itself with the individual and his/her achieving happiness amid the exigencies of daily existence. “God” is irrelevant to this world view. Theists see man’s purpose as service to God, individual happiness being a secondary benefit, even something that can be dispensed with altogether in favor of paradise in the next life. It seems to me that Buddhism offers a far more practical approach to dealing with the very real issues of human pain and suffering, our own or that of others, than do the theistic religions. Interestingly, Buddhism and the theistic religions express the same basic ethical rule: do not do to others that which you would not want done to yourself.
My two cents,
John
Interesting, John.
I don't quibble with those who call Buddhism a religion any more than I quibble with those who do. I sort of think that this is beside the point I was trying to make about how "religions" tend to lie, claiming "truth" where no facts exist.
Most Theistic religions have a body of historical myth, usually a mix of oral history and supernatural occurances, used to justify the particular religion's claim to be the one "True" belief system. When science, and its stringent method of determining the validity of any claim, contadicts religion, Religion tends to attack science. Buddhism is an exception to this disgusting practice.
There is no science whatsoever behind the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, for instance, though Buddhist texts speak of reincarnation as a known entity and weasels by saying that science cannot disprove it, so far. The "knowing" of the unknowable makes it a religion to me.
Reincarnation, in my thinking, falls into the same category as heaven and hell in more familiar mythologies...The reward, if you act as the religion suggests, and the boogeyman, that'll get you if you don't.
Interestingly, Buddist philosophy accepts my personal inability to accept the supernatural part of Buddism...Something no other major religion would tolerate.
As a continuing service to my poor suffering readers, here is a quickie on Buddhism from a web site I visit often. There are good resources in abundant supply at the home page, but I've given you the short cut to today's topic.
Be sure to think about the Five Precepts:
www.religioustolerance.org
Peace,
Steve
And now this:
Consider the story of the two octogenarians on a park bench. One asks the other: "Do you believe in heaven?"
"Well, Joe," replies Harry, "I've never really thought much about it."
"Maybe we ought to start thinking about it," says Joe. "One of us is going to go first. Let's agree that the one who is left behind will come to this park bench every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., and the one who has departed will find a way of getting a message to him at that time about heaven and all those other things that are beyond our understanding."
Harry agrees.
One month later, Joe dies peacefully in his sleep. Every week for several months, Harry takes up his station at the park bench at 11:00 a.m.
Then one Wednesday, at the appointed hour, he hears a voice, as though from afar.
"Harry, Harry, can you hear me?" the voice says. "It's Joe."
"Joe! Oh my gosh! Quick... heaven... what is it like?"
"You wouldn't believe it, Harry, about the only thing you do up here is make love. They wake you up at seven in the morning and you make love until noon. After lunch and a nap, you're at it again right through until dinner time."
"Good gosh, Joe, heaven sounds incredible!"
"I'm not in Heaven, Harry...I'm a rabbit in Montana!"
John sent his thoughts about Buddhism:
Steve:
As much as I like the Dalai Lama and his philosophy, anyone who understands Buddhism will hold off on calling it a “religion,” at least one comparable to the theistic religions. Science explains the workings of the perceived universe, and has always been welcomed by Buddhists, who would perhaps say they are more concerned, spiritually, with the not-perceived universe. The major difference between Buddhists and believers in theistic religions, in my view, is that Buddhism concerns itself with the individual and his/her achieving happiness amid the exigencies of daily existence. “God” is irrelevant to this world view. Theists see man’s purpose as service to God, individual happiness being a secondary benefit, even something that can be dispensed with altogether in favor of paradise in the next life. It seems to me that Buddhism offers a far more practical approach to dealing with the very real issues of human pain and suffering, our own or that of others, than do the theistic religions. Interestingly, Buddhism and the theistic religions express the same basic ethical rule: do not do to others that which you would not want done to yourself.
My two cents,
John
Interesting, John.
I don't quibble with those who call Buddhism a religion any more than I quibble with those who do. I sort of think that this is beside the point I was trying to make about how "religions" tend to lie, claiming "truth" where no facts exist.
Most Theistic religions have a body of historical myth, usually a mix of oral history and supernatural occurances, used to justify the particular religion's claim to be the one "True" belief system. When science, and its stringent method of determining the validity of any claim, contadicts religion, Religion tends to attack science. Buddhism is an exception to this disgusting practice.
There is no science whatsoever behind the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, for instance, though Buddhist texts speak of reincarnation as a known entity and weasels by saying that science cannot disprove it, so far. The "knowing" of the unknowable makes it a religion to me.
Reincarnation, in my thinking, falls into the same category as heaven and hell in more familiar mythologies...The reward, if you act as the religion suggests, and the boogeyman, that'll get you if you don't.
Interestingly, Buddist philosophy accepts my personal inability to accept the supernatural part of Buddism...Something no other major religion would tolerate.
As a continuing service to my poor suffering readers, here is a quickie on Buddhism from a web site I visit often. There are good resources in abundant supply at the home page, but I've given you the short cut to today's topic.
Be sure to think about the Five Precepts:
www.religioustolerance.org
Peace,
Steve
And now this:
Consider the story of the two octogenarians on a park bench. One asks the other: "Do you believe in heaven?"
"Well, Joe," replies Harry, "I've never really thought much about it."
"Maybe we ought to start thinking about it," says Joe. "One of us is going to go first. Let's agree that the one who is left behind will come to this park bench every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., and the one who has departed will find a way of getting a message to him at that time about heaven and all those other things that are beyond our understanding."
Harry agrees.
One month later, Joe dies peacefully in his sleep. Every week for several months, Harry takes up his station at the park bench at 11:00 a.m.
Then one Wednesday, at the appointed hour, he hears a voice, as though from afar.
"Harry, Harry, can you hear me?" the voice says. "It's Joe."
"Joe! Oh my gosh! Quick... heaven... what is it like?"
"You wouldn't believe it, Harry, about the only thing you do up here is make love. They wake you up at seven in the morning and you make love until noon. After lunch and a nap, you're at it again right through until dinner time."
"Good gosh, Joe, heaven sounds incredible!"
"I'm not in Heaven, Harry...I'm a rabbit in Montana!"
Monday, September 19, 2005
Nuts and Bark
The plight of the trees touched a spot in several of you. Here is the page of the American Chestnut Foundation. Check out the picture of the tree from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park Library!
Chestnut Foundation
Wow! There's a book out that reflects the thinking of...
... a compassionate and clearheaded account by a religious leader who not only respects science but, for the most part, embraces it.
"If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in (religion) to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims," he writes.
No one who wants to understand the world "can ignore the basic insights of theories as key as evolution, relativity and quantum mechanics."
Imperfect, of course, but this religious leader who embraces science...is the Dalai Llama.
nytimes
Today starts the NYTIMES great experiment...We'll all be watching.
Peace,
Steve
Chestnut Foundation
Wow! There's a book out that reflects the thinking of...
... a compassionate and clearheaded account by a religious leader who not only respects science but, for the most part, embraces it.
"If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in (religion) to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims," he writes.
No one who wants to understand the world "can ignore the basic insights of theories as key as evolution, relativity and quantum mechanics."
Imperfect, of course, but this religious leader who embraces science...is the Dalai Llama.
nytimes
Today starts the NYTIMES great experiment...We'll all be watching.
Peace,
Steve
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Berry Ramble
Dogwood berries seem to be covering the big tree shading the front deck. They are as red as I've ever seen them. Southeasterners know dogwood trees make red berries in the Fall, so why is this a big deal? Most Southeasterners also know about dogwood blight, one on the many many diseases killing signature trees in the South.
Killing off our Southern legacy is a time honored tradition.
Chestnuts were the first to go. Chestnut wood is amazing stuff. Beautiful, hard, resistant to rot and insects...not to fungus though. Chestnut wood was so good, that some lumbermen were disappointed that it didn't grow back fast enough after they cut it all down. They wanted "more"...someone always does. As the American Chestnut was timbered into scarcity, the Chinese Chestnut was brought into America to make up for it. Riding along on the Chinese tree was a fungus that spread to every American Chestnut tree...they mostly all died.
Rumor has it that there are a few blight resistant trees out there, but so far, an American Chestnut recovery is a distant goal.
Reality is that the dominant tree of the Great Smoky Mountains is gone. A testament to the carelessness and shortsightedness of greed. I have seen a picture of an American Chestnut tree that was fifteen feet in diameter. Now, we usually see the sprouts on the old surviving roots and that's all. The bark cracks open and they die after a while.
The spruce trees in the Smokies had a big die off because of an insect brought here by nurserymen. And the wooly adelgid is in the process of killing all the hemlocks. Oak trees have their own killing fungus known as "Sudden Oak Death" disease. And the asian tiger beetle is destroying American hardwoods in some areas and spreading.
Now the dogwood is dying.
It is a slow process. I have been working on the one next to my deck, which has the double whammy of the fungus and the house being too close. Dogwoods require acidity and concrete foundations are not good for that. So far, adding acidity to the soil and fertilizing with tree stakes seems to be helping. This year, three is strong enough to produce lots of berries, even though the leaves are smaller than they should be. I enjoy dogwood trees and their fall colors, starting with the berries... then the leaves turn fall colorful, and then, for a while before the birds eat them, there are just the berries left on a bare tree.
For now, the dogwood tree looks like it will make it another year, holding up the suet feeder and the hummingbird bottle. If it ever dies, I plan to make something out of the wood. It's the least I could do.
Peace,
Steve
Killing off our Southern legacy is a time honored tradition.
Chestnuts were the first to go. Chestnut wood is amazing stuff. Beautiful, hard, resistant to rot and insects...not to fungus though. Chestnut wood was so good, that some lumbermen were disappointed that it didn't grow back fast enough after they cut it all down. They wanted "more"...someone always does. As the American Chestnut was timbered into scarcity, the Chinese Chestnut was brought into America to make up for it. Riding along on the Chinese tree was a fungus that spread to every American Chestnut tree...they mostly all died.
Rumor has it that there are a few blight resistant trees out there, but so far, an American Chestnut recovery is a distant goal.
Reality is that the dominant tree of the Great Smoky Mountains is gone. A testament to the carelessness and shortsightedness of greed. I have seen a picture of an American Chestnut tree that was fifteen feet in diameter. Now, we usually see the sprouts on the old surviving roots and that's all. The bark cracks open and they die after a while.
The spruce trees in the Smokies had a big die off because of an insect brought here by nurserymen. And the wooly adelgid is in the process of killing all the hemlocks. Oak trees have their own killing fungus known as "Sudden Oak Death" disease. And the asian tiger beetle is destroying American hardwoods in some areas and spreading.
Now the dogwood is dying.
It is a slow process. I have been working on the one next to my deck, which has the double whammy of the fungus and the house being too close. Dogwoods require acidity and concrete foundations are not good for that. So far, adding acidity to the soil and fertilizing with tree stakes seems to be helping. This year, three is strong enough to produce lots of berries, even though the leaves are smaller than they should be. I enjoy dogwood trees and their fall colors, starting with the berries... then the leaves turn fall colorful, and then, for a while before the birds eat them, there are just the berries left on a bare tree.
For now, the dogwood tree looks like it will make it another year, holding up the suet feeder and the hummingbird bottle. If it ever dies, I plan to make something out of the wood. It's the least I could do.
Peace,
Steve
Friday, September 16, 2005
Inherit the (Broken) Wind
I saw a slap at the ACLU hand painted (misspelled words and all) on the side of an old pickup truck this week. I forgive the spelling, as I, myself, have difficulties in that department. it is the very idea that the ACLU is something bad. What the sign said was actually not true. The sign had words to the effect that the ACLU "hates God."
I've never met anyone who actually "hates God" although I know several who aren't real fond of religion. Me, for one. I personally think Jesus had a really good thing going, until Paul came along and screwed things up. I didn't come up with that myself...I got it from reading Thomas Jefferson. Remember him? He was one of the guys who wrote the Constitution.
The ACLU does one thing and one thing only...It brings to light variences between government actions and the Constitution of the United States of America. The ACLU sues the government in the government's own courts to force the government to obey the very laws the government is supposed to enforce.
Making our government follow the rules seems like a good thing to me. Any time the ACLU wins, it is because the government decided the ACLU was right as far as the Constitution is concerned.
A famous ACLU case was the Scopes Trial in Dayton, TN, 80 years ago. The fine folks in Dayton have a "Re-enactment" of the trial every year to celebrate this stunt cooked up by two members of the local Chamber of Commerce, a druggist and an engineer. We engineers are always causing trouble, and in ways we can't possibly imagine at the time. The re-enactment is advertised as being historically accurate but it isn't. The giant sign they hang on the courthouse is claimed to be a replica of one that was actually hung there during the original trial.
It isn't.
The original sign was maybe twelve inches wide. Scopes attorney, Clarence Darrow, asked the judge to have it removed. When the Judge balked, Darrow asked if he could put one up there, too! Alarmed at the possibilities, the Judge ordered the bible sign removed from public property. This seemed to be entirely reasonable to all concerned, and should be the precedent used today, where matters of religious tracts on public property are concerned. Post the ten commandments if you want to as long as equal billing is given to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his Great Noodly Appendage!
AS I am wont to do early in the morning before dawn, I looked up the transcript of the Scopes trial, mainly because the "Historical re-enactment" leaves out a few things that were actually said by William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as Darrow had called Bryan as a witness for the defense and Bryan answered Darrow's questions. Bryan continually called Darrow an Agnostic, Atheist, and unbeliever...Darrow simply called Bryan a Fool.
Bryan seems, in this quote, to be stating that facts shouldn't be considered in determining whether evolution is true. This is essentially the same position today's creationists take:
The Witness(Bryan)--It seems to me it would be too exacting to confine the defense to the facts; if they are not allowed to get away from the facts, what have they to deal with?
Another exchange:
Darrow--What do you think?
Bryan--I do not think about things I don't think about.
Darrow--Do you think about things you do think about?
Bryan--Well, sometimes.
And the part of the re-enactment that is left out is the where Darrow gets Bryan to admit that the bible cannot be taken literally on point after point and yet Bryan contradicts himself, saying he does not think the Creation involved six twenty four hour days but if someone wants to believe that, he thinks it's ok...
Q(Darrow)--You think those were not literal days?
A(Bryan)--I do not think they were twenty-four-hour days. Q--What do you think about it?
A--That is my opinion--I do not know that my opinion is better on that subject than those who think it does.
Q--You do not think that ?
A--No. But I think it would be just as easy for the kind of God we believe in to make the earth in six days as in six years or in 6,000,000 years or in 600,000,000 years. I do not think it important whether we believe one or the other.
Darrow--I object to your statement. I am exempting you on your fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes.
The most eloquent statement is actually from another Defense attorney, not Clarence Darrow:
Malone--Your honor on this very subject, I would like to say that I would have asked Mr. Bryan--and I consider myself as good a Christian as he is--every question that Mr. Darrow has asked him for the purpose of bring out whether or not there is to be taken in this court a literal interpretation of the Bible, or whether, obviously, as these questions indicate, if a general and literal construction cannot be put upon the parts of the Bible which have been covered by Mr. Darrow's questions. I hope for the last time no further attempt will be made by counsel on the other side of the case, or Mr. Bryan, to say the defense is concerned at all with Mr. Darrow's particular religious views or lack of religious views. We are here as lawyers with the same right to our views. I have the same right to mine as a Christian as Mr. Bryan has to his...
Today, we face the very same question...Are we to be free of forced religious practice and instruction, or are we to be subjected to forced preaching by those in power?...Told, for instance, that we will believe in 24 hour days of creation and no other possibility...
Fascinating reading. Day 7, in particular...Go:
scopes
Courage,
Steve
I found this jewel from Gordon in my email. If you can't read it in the humorous and satirical intent firmly in your mind, then skip it. Taken in the spirit it's intended, you might laugh as much as I did:
I just got online. I'm in the Brown Hills of California, Ukhaa Tolgod in Mongolian.
Actually, I'm in Oakland, working with the "Save the Bay" folks. They take kids out in canoes to see the wetlands, and replace invasive plants with native species. They also occasionally take adults out in kayaks. They want some safety and rescue training, so Paul and I are here on a sort of exchange program.
I sat down tonight to check email, and found a few from you. All good stuff.
I particularly enjoyed the story about the Gobi.
The cartoons were great too, but the biblical stuff about building on sand was just weird. Paying for these folks to build in beautiful but fragile and dangerous locations doesn't make any sense to me. And surely Trent Lott can't access any federal money to rebuild.
But what I've been thinking about lately is the gunk that we are pumping out into the Gulf after washing out the pit of New Orleans. It is disgusting, and not for the first time I am ashamed to be a human, and particularly a human from the US. I hate to agree with Dennis Hastert on anything, but he is right. We should not spend a federal dime on rebuilding NO. I'm told that after the dot-com crash lots of brand new fancy office buildings, miles of 'em, are now abandoned just south of here. Move all those evacuees here. The climate is much better, and they can all work in the fields. The influx of culture would be a lot of fun to watch. And they can all wait here for the next big quake.
Mobile can take over as the port. I guess everyone could just move over to Mobile anyway. It floods too, but drains by itself. And it also has a Mardi Gras. So nothing need be lost.
Except New Orleans.
And it just isn't worth the trouble.
Gordon
I read Al Jazeera for a different view of things, and surprisingly, I often find reasonable ideas well said. This one for instance, even though I do not agree with it, we should consider the possibility:
... the administration must also confront the possibility that a US drawdown of troops - tentatively planned to begin next spring - could further embolden the insurgents and throw Iraq into civil war.
"Drawdown" is a patronising term for withdrawal and surrender.
With enormous sadness I conclude, withdrawal under a false pretext may be more disastrous than going to war under a false pretext.
The Bush option has been a policy of failure. Columnist Sterling Newberry writes: "What is clear is that the American presence is no longer contributing to a secure Iraq, and that the various attempts by the American occupation to train or put in place a security force - there have been five separate failed programs to do so - are completely ineffective. American forces are not even able to control the road system in fighting the rebellion.”
english.aljazeera.net
I've never met anyone who actually "hates God" although I know several who aren't real fond of religion. Me, for one. I personally think Jesus had a really good thing going, until Paul came along and screwed things up. I didn't come up with that myself...I got it from reading Thomas Jefferson. Remember him? He was one of the guys who wrote the Constitution.
The ACLU does one thing and one thing only...It brings to light variences between government actions and the Constitution of the United States of America. The ACLU sues the government in the government's own courts to force the government to obey the very laws the government is supposed to enforce.
Making our government follow the rules seems like a good thing to me. Any time the ACLU wins, it is because the government decided the ACLU was right as far as the Constitution is concerned.
A famous ACLU case was the Scopes Trial in Dayton, TN, 80 years ago. The fine folks in Dayton have a "Re-enactment" of the trial every year to celebrate this stunt cooked up by two members of the local Chamber of Commerce, a druggist and an engineer. We engineers are always causing trouble, and in ways we can't possibly imagine at the time. The re-enactment is advertised as being historically accurate but it isn't. The giant sign they hang on the courthouse is claimed to be a replica of one that was actually hung there during the original trial.
It isn't.
The original sign was maybe twelve inches wide. Scopes attorney, Clarence Darrow, asked the judge to have it removed. When the Judge balked, Darrow asked if he could put one up there, too! Alarmed at the possibilities, the Judge ordered the bible sign removed from public property. This seemed to be entirely reasonable to all concerned, and should be the precedent used today, where matters of religious tracts on public property are concerned. Post the ten commandments if you want to as long as equal billing is given to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his Great Noodly Appendage!
AS I am wont to do early in the morning before dawn, I looked up the transcript of the Scopes trial, mainly because the "Historical re-enactment" leaves out a few things that were actually said by William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as Darrow had called Bryan as a witness for the defense and Bryan answered Darrow's questions. Bryan continually called Darrow an Agnostic, Atheist, and unbeliever...Darrow simply called Bryan a Fool.
Bryan seems, in this quote, to be stating that facts shouldn't be considered in determining whether evolution is true. This is essentially the same position today's creationists take:
The Witness(Bryan)--It seems to me it would be too exacting to confine the defense to the facts; if they are not allowed to get away from the facts, what have they to deal with?
Another exchange:
Darrow--What do you think?
Bryan--I do not think about things I don't think about.
Darrow--Do you think about things you do think about?
Bryan--Well, sometimes.
And the part of the re-enactment that is left out is the where Darrow gets Bryan to admit that the bible cannot be taken literally on point after point and yet Bryan contradicts himself, saying he does not think the Creation involved six twenty four hour days but if someone wants to believe that, he thinks it's ok...
Q(Darrow)--You think those were not literal days?
A(Bryan)--I do not think they were twenty-four-hour days. Q--What do you think about it?
A--That is my opinion--I do not know that my opinion is better on that subject than those who think it does.
Q--You do not think that ?
A--No. But I think it would be just as easy for the kind of God we believe in to make the earth in six days as in six years or in 6,000,000 years or in 600,000,000 years. I do not think it important whether we believe one or the other.
Darrow--I object to your statement. I am exempting you on your fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes.
The most eloquent statement is actually from another Defense attorney, not Clarence Darrow:
Malone--Your honor on this very subject, I would like to say that I would have asked Mr. Bryan--and I consider myself as good a Christian as he is--every question that Mr. Darrow has asked him for the purpose of bring out whether or not there is to be taken in this court a literal interpretation of the Bible, or whether, obviously, as these questions indicate, if a general and literal construction cannot be put upon the parts of the Bible which have been covered by Mr. Darrow's questions. I hope for the last time no further attempt will be made by counsel on the other side of the case, or Mr. Bryan, to say the defense is concerned at all with Mr. Darrow's particular religious views or lack of religious views. We are here as lawyers with the same right to our views. I have the same right to mine as a Christian as Mr. Bryan has to his...
Today, we face the very same question...Are we to be free of forced religious practice and instruction, or are we to be subjected to forced preaching by those in power?...Told, for instance, that we will believe in 24 hour days of creation and no other possibility...
Fascinating reading. Day 7, in particular...Go:
scopes
Courage,
Steve
I found this jewel from Gordon in my email. If you can't read it in the humorous and satirical intent firmly in your mind, then skip it. Taken in the spirit it's intended, you might laugh as much as I did:
I just got online. I'm in the Brown Hills of California, Ukhaa Tolgod in Mongolian.
Actually, I'm in Oakland, working with the "Save the Bay" folks. They take kids out in canoes to see the wetlands, and replace invasive plants with native species. They also occasionally take adults out in kayaks. They want some safety and rescue training, so Paul and I are here on a sort of exchange program.
I sat down tonight to check email, and found a few from you. All good stuff.
I particularly enjoyed the story about the Gobi.
The cartoons were great too, but the biblical stuff about building on sand was just weird. Paying for these folks to build in beautiful but fragile and dangerous locations doesn't make any sense to me. And surely Trent Lott can't access any federal money to rebuild.
But what I've been thinking about lately is the gunk that we are pumping out into the Gulf after washing out the pit of New Orleans. It is disgusting, and not for the first time I am ashamed to be a human, and particularly a human from the US. I hate to agree with Dennis Hastert on anything, but he is right. We should not spend a federal dime on rebuilding NO. I'm told that after the dot-com crash lots of brand new fancy office buildings, miles of 'em, are now abandoned just south of here. Move all those evacuees here. The climate is much better, and they can all work in the fields. The influx of culture would be a lot of fun to watch. And they can all wait here for the next big quake.
Mobile can take over as the port. I guess everyone could just move over to Mobile anyway. It floods too, but drains by itself. And it also has a Mardi Gras. So nothing need be lost.
Except New Orleans.
And it just isn't worth the trouble.
Gordon
I read Al Jazeera for a different view of things, and surprisingly, I often find reasonable ideas well said. This one for instance, even though I do not agree with it, we should consider the possibility:
... the administration must also confront the possibility that a US drawdown of troops - tentatively planned to begin next spring - could further embolden the insurgents and throw Iraq into civil war.
"Drawdown" is a patronising term for withdrawal and surrender.
With enormous sadness I conclude, withdrawal under a false pretext may be more disastrous than going to war under a false pretext.
The Bush option has been a policy of failure. Columnist Sterling Newberry writes: "What is clear is that the American presence is no longer contributing to a secure Iraq, and that the various attempts by the American occupation to train or put in place a security force - there have been five separate failed programs to do so - are completely ineffective. American forces are not even able to control the road system in fighting the rebellion.”
english.aljazeera.net
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Damn the Hospitals!
Facing South has it:
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.
The most intriguing bit: the order came from none other than VP Dick Cheney, who -- in what may be one of the quickest actions taken by the White House -- sprung into action to get the energy pipeline going
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/09/cheney-takes-charge-for-pipeline.asp
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.
The most intriguing bit: the order came from none other than VP Dick Cheney, who -- in what may be one of the quickest actions taken by the White House -- sprung into action to get the energy pipeline going
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/09/cheney-takes-charge-for-pipeline.asp
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