About the South...
We're having a "Winter storm"...Yep, raining again!
Hey, no complaints... the weekend was glorious.
Saturday was too busy, though, what with putting on the high school alumni soccer game and then hitting Knoxtown for the "Hoedown" as they called it. The music was good but I thought a hoedown involved some high kicking and low stompin'? I only saw two girls dancing the whole time, and I think they were hearing some kind of different music in their heads from what I was listening to. For you folks from other places, down here we let folks dance, I don't care how big they are. If you feel it, wiggle and stomp to your heart's content. It's up to the rest of us to stay out of the way.
The tickets said it was the Del McCoury show at the Tennessee Theater Saturday night. It was definitely not a full house. We left before the end of McCoury's set, and felt bad about it. Our drive home is pretty long and Del's band was very tight but uncreative, unlike the first two groups. It was an evening of contrasts and Del sure had his fans.
I'm glad I saw and heard him but I came away wondering:
"How can you make a tune like Nashville Cats into something strict and boring, like Mrs. Walton did for third grade?"
Del said he'd never met Richard Thompson, and after hearing Del's version of Vincent 52...That might be for the best. I think this is what happens to your music when there aren't many black folk living in your home town,
AS for the first two thirds of the show, I'm a proud owner of new Steep Canyon Rangers and Old Crow Medicine Show CDs. Both bands had members busting and changing strings at warp speed, and if that doesn't tell you anything, you need to get out more.
The Rangers' new California fiddle player ran everywhere he went. Every tune seemed full of him, and gloriously so. He seems like half the band all by himself, in the same way Jerry Douglas overwhelms Union Station. Creative and interesting, though stuck within the Bluegrass limitations. Their best line:
"We didn't get into bluegrass for fame and fortune...and so far the plan is working perfectly."
The crowd went totally quiet during a wonderful break in harmonics on banjo. Very creative!
You can listen here:
www.steepcanyon.com
I think I explained Del McCoury, but then how do you explain Old Crow Medicine Show? The two live really close to each other in the Johnson City, TN area. Del even says he gets all his "medicine" from those guys. (His best line) But after listening for a while, I figure they keep the good stuff for themselves.
Crow seems like a jug band having a good time. Very loose and untidy, and Boy, can they sell a song!
Raunchy with a combination of traditional cocaine street blues, Dylan, and their own songs, absolutely my kinda music. Don't think the sound man ever caught up with them. (The stuff they did was actually anti drug, but then people also misunderstood the Reverend Gary Davis's 'You take Mary, and I'll take Sue'.)
Catch a few tunes here, but it's an act to be seen live for sure:
www.crowmedicine.com
The osprey nest crisis on the Clinch River bridge seems to be drawing some concern. We'll push as hard as we can to turn that into action. This seems like a really simple way for the Town of Kingston to get some good publicity, not that it needs any.
We are researching artificial nest sites. Any info you guys come up with is welcome. Lots of good stuff already.
Now...From our "Questions for George W. Bush" Department:
(You didn't think I was going to let this go without something political, did you?)
"Sir, You've spent more money you didn't have, than any other President in the history of the United States. Exactly when and how do you expect the taxpayers of America to pay it back?"
Peace,
Steve
Charlie has a good take on stilletto diplomacy:
The Scribble
Monday, February 28, 2005
Friday, February 25, 2005
I get mail
For those who don't know, there are two parts to this blog. One, of course is the WhitesCreek Journal at Blogspot. The other is almost the same, but has some pictures, jokes and additional links sometime. This is mainly because I am too stupid/lazy to figure out how to actually maintain a blogsite/website. My efforts at putting pictures on the blog are not working and I can't figure out why. The only problem with the email format is that with such a long list of recipients, it gets quarrantined by some spam filters. Sorry. Someone will eventually take pity on me and tell me what I need to do in very simple third grade sentences. In the meantime, we carry on.
What a literate group you guys are.
I get great stuff from you, only some of which is safe for public consumption, but keep it coming. Two posts of mine have generated the most comment, Religion and Birds...(Don't worry, Tyler, I'm going to have more on the "frog love" front as Lake Steve heats up, amphibianisticly speaking)
"Amphibianisticly"...Hmm...I think I just invented another word?? Can anybody tell me how to get the patent for "FundXtian"? It's so useful! The modern English language really needs it.
Anyway...
Osprey nest sites will be a priority in the next few weeks. I have thoughts on how to get a bunch of do gooders on this mission. Lots of you sent plans and info sites. Thanks! This might be one cause we can actually accomplish something positive on. I'll take a win even if it's small.
I was very surprised at the large number of comments I received regarding :
"When Religions Attack!"
Here's one that explains precisely why FundXtians hate public schools:
"---I couldn't agree with you more regarding the damage organized religion has done throughout the world and throughout the centuries. I was a brainwashed Southern Baptist growing up, but I got some education and got over it...it took a long time to admit it and even then I was halfway surprised when a thunderbolt didn't come down from the heavens and strike me dead. I feel more at peace with myself than ever before. Peace back at you, bro Steve!"...S
From the SKB comment board, this from Lobbygow:
All this talk about thankless jobs gives me an idea for a reality show - "Nickeled and Dimed"...or perhaps something more accurate like "Owned"
Anway, the show would pit corporate CEOs and members of the President's economic team against each other in a battle to feed a family of four for a month on a working stiff's earnings, and still have enough money to buy just one share of Microsoft or GE. Of course, they would be tossed an occasional curve ball, like a severely ill kid, or the theft of their car. Arnold Schwarzeneger would host, and each week the loser would be told he was an economic "girlie man."
I think it might give "American Idol" a run for its money.
I like it. I like it a lot.
Also from SKB, a link to Juan Thompson, son of Hunter S.
sandiegonews
So it seems at first glance, that Hunter S. Thompson took his own life for reasons of classic Greek philosopy. At the moment one achieves the highest pinacle in one's life, a public cheer is said to have been, "Die Now!" This was a wish that the person would die and through eternity in the afterlife, never know the lesser states of euphoria that so often follow in one's declining years.
Hunter S. Thompson, unlike his public persona, turns out to have been a kind, generous and doting father and grandfather.
He took his own life after spending a nice weekend with his son, Juan, and grandson, Will.
So "Die Now, Hunter!"
And the obituary from Giblets, stolen in its entirety:
HUNTER THOMPSON IS NOT DEAD.
Don't believe it. Giblets saw the Good Doctor with his own two eyes just a few hours ago, heading north in the White Whale. He said he was headed up to heaven to shoot God. "The great bastard's in season and it's long overdue," the Godfather of Gonzo said as he dusted off his elephant gun. "I have full reason to believe they will award me both the head and the tail. Expect me back by the apocalypse." Good hunting, Doctor Thompson. You'll be missed.
fafblog
Peace,
Steve
*****
What a literate group you guys are.
I get great stuff from you, only some of which is safe for public consumption, but keep it coming. Two posts of mine have generated the most comment, Religion and Birds...(Don't worry, Tyler, I'm going to have more on the "frog love" front as Lake Steve heats up, amphibianisticly speaking)
"Amphibianisticly"...Hmm...I think I just invented another word?? Can anybody tell me how to get the patent for "FundXtian"? It's so useful! The modern English language really needs it.
Anyway...
Osprey nest sites will be a priority in the next few weeks. I have thoughts on how to get a bunch of do gooders on this mission. Lots of you sent plans and info sites. Thanks! This might be one cause we can actually accomplish something positive on. I'll take a win even if it's small.
I was very surprised at the large number of comments I received regarding :
"When Religions Attack!"
Here's one that explains precisely why FundXtians hate public schools:
"---I couldn't agree with you more regarding the damage organized religion has done throughout the world and throughout the centuries. I was a brainwashed Southern Baptist growing up, but I got some education and got over it...it took a long time to admit it and even then I was halfway surprised when a thunderbolt didn't come down from the heavens and strike me dead. I feel more at peace with myself than ever before. Peace back at you, bro Steve!"...S
From the SKB comment board, this from Lobbygow:
All this talk about thankless jobs gives me an idea for a reality show - "Nickeled and Dimed"...or perhaps something more accurate like "Owned"
Anway, the show would pit corporate CEOs and members of the President's economic team against each other in a battle to feed a family of four for a month on a working stiff's earnings, and still have enough money to buy just one share of Microsoft or GE. Of course, they would be tossed an occasional curve ball, like a severely ill kid, or the theft of their car. Arnold Schwarzeneger would host, and each week the loser would be told he was an economic "girlie man."
I think it might give "American Idol" a run for its money.
I like it. I like it a lot.
Also from SKB, a link to Juan Thompson, son of Hunter S.
sandiegonews
So it seems at first glance, that Hunter S. Thompson took his own life for reasons of classic Greek philosopy. At the moment one achieves the highest pinacle in one's life, a public cheer is said to have been, "Die Now!" This was a wish that the person would die and through eternity in the afterlife, never know the lesser states of euphoria that so often follow in one's declining years.
Hunter S. Thompson, unlike his public persona, turns out to have been a kind, generous and doting father and grandfather.
He took his own life after spending a nice weekend with his son, Juan, and grandson, Will.
So "Die Now, Hunter!"
And the obituary from Giblets, stolen in its entirety:
HUNTER THOMPSON IS NOT DEAD.
Don't believe it. Giblets saw the Good Doctor with his own two eyes just a few hours ago, heading north in the White Whale. He said he was headed up to heaven to shoot God. "The great bastard's in season and it's long overdue," the Godfather of Gonzo said as he dusted off his elephant gun. "I have full reason to believe they will award me both the head and the tail. Expect me back by the apocalypse." Good hunting, Doctor Thompson. You'll be missed.
fafblog
Peace,
Steve
*****
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Strap it on!"
Well, before I get down to the fun business of ripping our President a new one, I am trying to think about how to get nest sites built for ospreys.
I know that several nests have been destroyed by maintenence workers recently and at least one will be destroyed when the old Hwy 70 bridge gets torn down in Kingston. All these birds need is a pole. They'll do the rest. Who do we contact, and what do we want to ask for? There should be some way for this to bring a lot of good publicity to Kingston and Roane County if we work it right.
Let me know what you think and pass along any resources you run across.
Now...
We have a coward for a President.
I have said this often but it appears the German Press agrees with me. With such obvious evidence of cowardice in the face of a simple question, where is the Free Press of the USA.
During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice. Was Bush afraid the event might focus on prickly questions about Iraq and Iran rather than the rosy future he's been touting in Europe this week?
Speigel
I have a couple of questions I would like someone to ask George, like:
How did he know Jeff Gannon's first name when he called on him at his press conference in the US?
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.):
"We have ... learned that the questions he posed at White House press briefings and the stories he filed for Talon News frequently mirrored Republican Party talking points, that Talon News is a news organization in name only and that it has apparently close connections to the Republican party," Durbin's letter states. "Given the unprecedented level of security in Washington since 9/11, it is troubling that that a non-journalist using a false name and working for a sham news organization could have gained regular access to the White House for such an extended period of time.
E and P
"Jeff Gannon ... He is a White House correspondent who has been lobbing softball questions at the president and his press secretary, turns out he is actually a paid escort for wealthy homosexuals. ... He actually had two jobs -- one obviously was sleazy and shameful and the other was a gay male prostitute. ... I think I know what Bush meant now when he said he has a mandate." --Bill Maher
OK, so...Let's come up with some Press Conference questions for President Bush:
1. Mr. President, Youhave often spoken of your mandate following the 2004 election. Have you ever had a Man Date with Jeff Gannon or Jim Guckert or any other gay male prostitute, and if so, Was it inside the Whitehouse and where was Laura at the time?
(See? Now that's how you ask a good right wing question!)
2. How the heck did you manage to let John Negroponte "lose" (yeah, sure) 9 billion dollars of Iraqi oil money and then be stupid enough to appoint him to a Cabinet level intelligence position? Isn't that a lot of cash to misplace? Isn't it maybe a really bad idea to let a guy who thinks "Death Squads" are a good way to get things done, have 9 Billion Freaking Dollars of "Off Budget" money to work with?
3. Don't you think, Mr. President, that after AARP supported your Medicar Drug Swindle, you really should think about not stabbing them in the back over Social Security? How do you think the nice old people at AARP feel about you screwing Grandmothers, you creep? (You folks do know about the viscious attack adds the Swift Boat folks have launched at our Grandmothers, right?)
4. Why is a threat against you, Mr. President, that was made two years ago suddenly front page news, when folks start asking about the connection between tapes of you saying you won't discriminate against gays while you publicly call for a Gay Mariage Ban, while privately Gay prostitutes are given credentials to get inside the Whitehouse? (I'm may be confused, but I think that's about right.)
5. I could go on and on but why don't you folks add your own in the comments? It'll be fun...
Is this any way to design a universe?
David Hollohan intelligently skewers Intelligent Design:
ID
Peace as always,
Steve
Strap on...as promised
I know that several nests have been destroyed by maintenence workers recently and at least one will be destroyed when the old Hwy 70 bridge gets torn down in Kingston. All these birds need is a pole. They'll do the rest. Who do we contact, and what do we want to ask for? There should be some way for this to bring a lot of good publicity to Kingston and Roane County if we work it right.
Let me know what you think and pass along any resources you run across.
Now...
We have a coward for a President.
I have said this often but it appears the German Press agrees with me. With such obvious evidence of cowardice in the face of a simple question, where is the Free Press of the USA.
During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice. Was Bush afraid the event might focus on prickly questions about Iraq and Iran rather than the rosy future he's been touting in Europe this week?
Speigel
I have a couple of questions I would like someone to ask George, like:
How did he know Jeff Gannon's first name when he called on him at his press conference in the US?
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.):
"We have ... learned that the questions he posed at White House press briefings and the stories he filed for Talon News frequently mirrored Republican Party talking points, that Talon News is a news organization in name only and that it has apparently close connections to the Republican party," Durbin's letter states. "Given the unprecedented level of security in Washington since 9/11, it is troubling that that a non-journalist using a false name and working for a sham news organization could have gained regular access to the White House for such an extended period of time.
E and P
"Jeff Gannon ... He is a White House correspondent who has been lobbing softball questions at the president and his press secretary, turns out he is actually a paid escort for wealthy homosexuals. ... He actually had two jobs -- one obviously was sleazy and shameful and the other was a gay male prostitute. ... I think I know what Bush meant now when he said he has a mandate." --Bill Maher
OK, so...Let's come up with some Press Conference questions for President Bush:
1. Mr. President, Youhave often spoken of your mandate following the 2004 election. Have you ever had a Man Date with Jeff Gannon or Jim Guckert or any other gay male prostitute, and if so, Was it inside the Whitehouse and where was Laura at the time?
(See? Now that's how you ask a good right wing question!)
2. How the heck did you manage to let John Negroponte "lose" (yeah, sure) 9 billion dollars of Iraqi oil money and then be stupid enough to appoint him to a Cabinet level intelligence position? Isn't that a lot of cash to misplace? Isn't it maybe a really bad idea to let a guy who thinks "Death Squads" are a good way to get things done, have 9 Billion Freaking Dollars of "Off Budget" money to work with?
3. Don't you think, Mr. President, that after AARP supported your Medicar Drug Swindle, you really should think about not stabbing them in the back over Social Security? How do you think the nice old people at AARP feel about you screwing Grandmothers, you creep? (You folks do know about the viscious attack adds the Swift Boat folks have launched at our Grandmothers, right?)
4. Why is a threat against you, Mr. President, that was made two years ago suddenly front page news, when folks start asking about the connection between tapes of you saying you won't discriminate against gays while you publicly call for a Gay Mariage Ban, while privately Gay prostitutes are given credentials to get inside the Whitehouse? (I'm may be confused, but I think that's about right.)
5. I could go on and on but why don't you folks add your own in the comments? It'll be fun...
Is this any way to design a universe?
David Hollohan intelligently skewers Intelligent Design:
ID
Peace as always,
Steve
Strap on...as promised
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
When Religions Attack!
I have been chastised in the past for talking about things I consider to be the evil parts of Christianity in its modern form. Why one can't criticize one's own youthful religious indoctrination in an objective manner is something I don't understand (not that there really is such a thing as true Objectivity). Growing up, I came to realize that as soon as we were told not to question things...we'd better start questioning.
In my reading, I came across a statement by the Dalai Lama that called the Christian religion's proselytizing to children, "Evil".
Evil? How dare he!
At first I was shocked, but then, after thinking about it, I thought, "Well, Sure, now that you mention it."
Most adults have few defenses against propaganda, how can we expect children to critically think about things adults tell them? This is the thinking behind the Nazi Youth Corps.
I have had many moments of anguish deciding how to explain some religious imperative blurted at one of my children by a nonthoughtful adult. How do you explain to a wondering child, how an adult in a position of responsibility, can advocate some version of the Ten Commandments in your face, which says "thy shalt not bear false witness" and "Thou shalt not kill", and then tell huge lies and advocate war?
By attacking a person's ability to think critically when they are young and defenseless, they become incapable of deep thoughtful criticism later in life. As a result of this, I lay most of the world's troubles at the foot of organized religion. I will probably be burned at the stake for pointing it out.
Having the stupid mindless tragedy of the Vietnam War and incipient military service via the Draft as backdrops to my young daily life, I became very questioning. All I asked of my religion was honesty, which it could not deliver.
This led me to the inescapable conclusion, jumping to public afairs that Eisenhower was so rightly heroic in his warnings about the Military-Industrial complex, which is known technically as "Fascism" when enshrined as government....And then...
President Eisenhower's public heroism is dwarfed only by his ultimate cowardice in failing to name Organized Religion as Fascism's most bankrupt accomplice.
"God Bless America"
"One Nation, Under God"
(Sorry, It's not my place to order god to do anything...and the phrase "under god" actualy means "Under the currently most powerful religious organization". a travesty when compared to the original, "One Nation , Indivisible".)
Those statements are obviously wrong, judged by actual christian standards, and yet they ride around on the back of hundreds of thousands of cars next to the yellow ribbon "Support Our Troops" stickers which don't mean support our troops at all but rather, "Support George Bush's War".
Isn't it funny how a yellow ribbon can be corrupted?
Originally it came from a fictional short story published in Reader's Digest, about a convicted felon who had been released from prison after serving four years in jail (four years being the enlistment period for the Army. How ironic is that?). The yellow ribbon was tied around a tree in the yard to say it's ok to come home. Even though you are a convict and four years being about average for armed robbery or manslaughter or any one of several other viscious crimes against people, you can come home and all will be forgiven.
(Does anyone else see the irony in comparing our troops to a criminal?)
Well, I think it is ok to forgive, but we should never forget!
And we must always question!
Those in power will lie to us if we let them. They must always be questioned...No one gets a free pass!
In America, a Free Press is supposed to publicly question our government in performing its role in Constitutional America. When George W. Bush's Whitehouse operatives were found to be paying members of the press to "advocate" rather than question, it should have been marked as the greatest violation of Constitutional principles in American history.
Why can't the American people see this? Is it because they were so damaged in their thinking ability when they were young?
I think so!
This is why there will always be war between established religion and free public schools. This is why the separation of church and state is so damned important.
Believe what you will...
But know the truth!
Peace,
Steve
********
I've taken to reading PW on a regular basis.
"Born again -- the spiritual equivalent of declaring bankruptcy and no longer being responsible for your past actions."
PW
Robert sends this:
In keeping with our religious sensitivities & understanding that our computers can be attacked from unexpected sources - this is important news.
You have just received the Amish Virus. Since we do not have electricity or computers, you are on the honor system.
Please delete all of your files.
Thank you.
In my reading, I came across a statement by the Dalai Lama that called the Christian religion's proselytizing to children, "Evil".
Evil? How dare he!
At first I was shocked, but then, after thinking about it, I thought, "Well, Sure, now that you mention it."
Most adults have few defenses against propaganda, how can we expect children to critically think about things adults tell them? This is the thinking behind the Nazi Youth Corps.
I have had many moments of anguish deciding how to explain some religious imperative blurted at one of my children by a nonthoughtful adult. How do you explain to a wondering child, how an adult in a position of responsibility, can advocate some version of the Ten Commandments in your face, which says "thy shalt not bear false witness" and "Thou shalt not kill", and then tell huge lies and advocate war?
By attacking a person's ability to think critically when they are young and defenseless, they become incapable of deep thoughtful criticism later in life. As a result of this, I lay most of the world's troubles at the foot of organized religion. I will probably be burned at the stake for pointing it out.
Having the stupid mindless tragedy of the Vietnam War and incipient military service via the Draft as backdrops to my young daily life, I became very questioning. All I asked of my religion was honesty, which it could not deliver.
This led me to the inescapable conclusion, jumping to public afairs that Eisenhower was so rightly heroic in his warnings about the Military-Industrial complex, which is known technically as "Fascism" when enshrined as government....And then...
President Eisenhower's public heroism is dwarfed only by his ultimate cowardice in failing to name Organized Religion as Fascism's most bankrupt accomplice.
"God Bless America"
"One Nation, Under God"
(Sorry, It's not my place to order god to do anything...and the phrase "under god" actualy means "Under the currently most powerful religious organization". a travesty when compared to the original, "One Nation , Indivisible".)
Those statements are obviously wrong, judged by actual christian standards, and yet they ride around on the back of hundreds of thousands of cars next to the yellow ribbon "Support Our Troops" stickers which don't mean support our troops at all but rather, "Support George Bush's War".
Isn't it funny how a yellow ribbon can be corrupted?
Originally it came from a fictional short story published in Reader's Digest, about a convicted felon who had been released from prison after serving four years in jail (four years being the enlistment period for the Army. How ironic is that?). The yellow ribbon was tied around a tree in the yard to say it's ok to come home. Even though you are a convict and four years being about average for armed robbery or manslaughter or any one of several other viscious crimes against people, you can come home and all will be forgiven.
(Does anyone else see the irony in comparing our troops to a criminal?)
Well, I think it is ok to forgive, but we should never forget!
And we must always question!
Those in power will lie to us if we let them. They must always be questioned...No one gets a free pass!
In America, a Free Press is supposed to publicly question our government in performing its role in Constitutional America. When George W. Bush's Whitehouse operatives were found to be paying members of the press to "advocate" rather than question, it should have been marked as the greatest violation of Constitutional principles in American history.
Why can't the American people see this? Is it because they were so damaged in their thinking ability when they were young?
I think so!
This is why there will always be war between established religion and free public schools. This is why the separation of church and state is so damned important.
Believe what you will...
But know the truth!
Peace,
Steve
********
I've taken to reading PW on a regular basis.
"Born again -- the spiritual equivalent of declaring bankruptcy and no longer being responsible for your past actions."
PW
Robert sends this:
In keeping with our religious sensitivities & understanding that our computers can be attacked from unexpected sources - this is important news.
You have just received the Amish Virus. Since we do not have electricity or computers, you are on the honor system.
Please delete all of your files.
Thank you.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Wrongway birds
Well I noticed somthing different in the bird world, this weekend. Normally we have several bald eagles that roost somewhere up the creek. Early in the morning, they usually fly out to Watts Bar Lake to begin their work day. Because of the great backyard bird count this weekend I paid closer attention to something that caught my eye a few weeks back...We have an eagle going the wrong way!
There it is, morning after morning flying UP the creek.
Wassup widdat? Could it be this bird is one of the ones that roost on the lake and has taken to visiting a "close friend" up the creek?
I heard rumors from unreliable sources that there was a nest on the creek last year, but I was unable to locate it. Most "eagle" nests turn out to be Ospreys.
The boys and I were forced to carry kayaks up to the confluence of Piney Creek and White's Creek yesterday due to the heavy rainfall and resulting large crashing surfable waves in the creek. Shortly after we put in I was floating backwards watching my kids play in the whitewater when I noticed what could be a huge nest on top of the ridge. It's on my land so I will check on it and report back. If it is a nest, it will change my plans to build a pond on that tract of land this spring.
I'm fine with that.
*****
How does an editorial columnist from a red state come to an un-Red conclusion about George W. Bush, asking this question:
While stating the budget was in line with his commitment to cut the deficit in half by 2009, Bush failed to mention the three items that weren't in the budget. First, there is the cost the war in Iraq. Next up, we have the $1 trillion (at least) price tag to privatize Social Security. And lastly, there is the continuation of the tax cuts, which are set to expire, but that Bush said he wants to make permanent.
In other words, this budget isn't very truthful. In fact, deceptive is about the nicest description you can use for it.
This is a time when I wished someone would ask the obvious question of the president:
Are you really bad at math, or are you lying to us?
I think the obvious answer is: Yes!
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20050220/OPINION/102200026
"America: just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."
Hunter S. Thomson qoutes:
The Guardian
A very good, short, personal remembrance:
Rude Pundit
Bubba has a short comparison of two US presidents.
One:
Despite being crippled in his prime by polio, was elected four times by a grateful, adoring nation, leading to the 22nd Amendment limiting presidents to two terms.
The other one:
Despite being mentally crippled by years of substance abuse, was elected twice by a stupid, uninformed, God-loving, evil-hating, queer-fearing nation, leading to calls for repeal of the 22nd Amendment.
Go:
SKB
Quote of the day:
"I don't want any kid doing what I tried to do 30 years ago...And I mean that. It doesn't matter if it's LSD, cocaine, pot, any of those things..."
....George W. Bush heard on the Wead tapes
Peace,
Steve
There it is, morning after morning flying UP the creek.
Wassup widdat? Could it be this bird is one of the ones that roost on the lake and has taken to visiting a "close friend" up the creek?
I heard rumors from unreliable sources that there was a nest on the creek last year, but I was unable to locate it. Most "eagle" nests turn out to be Ospreys.
The boys and I were forced to carry kayaks up to the confluence of Piney Creek and White's Creek yesterday due to the heavy rainfall and resulting large crashing surfable waves in the creek. Shortly after we put in I was floating backwards watching my kids play in the whitewater when I noticed what could be a huge nest on top of the ridge. It's on my land so I will check on it and report back. If it is a nest, it will change my plans to build a pond on that tract of land this spring.
I'm fine with that.
*****
How does an editorial columnist from a red state come to an un-Red conclusion about George W. Bush, asking this question:
While stating the budget was in line with his commitment to cut the deficit in half by 2009, Bush failed to mention the three items that weren't in the budget. First, there is the cost the war in Iraq. Next up, we have the $1 trillion (at least) price tag to privatize Social Security. And lastly, there is the continuation of the tax cuts, which are set to expire, but that Bush said he wants to make permanent.
In other words, this budget isn't very truthful. In fact, deceptive is about the nicest description you can use for it.
This is a time when I wished someone would ask the obvious question of the president:
Are you really bad at math, or are you lying to us?
I think the obvious answer is: Yes!
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20050220/OPINION/102200026
"America: just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."
Hunter S. Thomson qoutes:
The Guardian
A very good, short, personal remembrance:
Rude Pundit
Bubba has a short comparison of two US presidents.
One:
Despite being crippled in his prime by polio, was elected four times by a grateful, adoring nation, leading to the 22nd Amendment limiting presidents to two terms.
The other one:
Despite being mentally crippled by years of substance abuse, was elected twice by a stupid, uninformed, God-loving, evil-hating, queer-fearing nation, leading to calls for repeal of the 22nd Amendment.
Go:
SKB
Quote of the day:
"I don't want any kid doing what I tried to do 30 years ago...And I mean that. It doesn't matter if it's LSD, cocaine, pot, any of those things..."
....George W. Bush heard on the Wead tapes
Peace,
Steve
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Quotes
Well, today's Sunday and I don't want to think all that much so I just put a few quotes together for you. The first is a mind boggling thing that tells me that "For this President, words have no meaning...They are just utterances." (Another quote, I guess)
"I want him to be able to have a chance to say he's done it for this reason or done that, so I can explain to him as best I can, in a friendly way, of course, that Western values are, you know, are based upon transparency and rule of law, the right for the people to express themselves, checks and balances in government."
...George W. Bush Regarding Russian President Putin
"...a gaffe occurs not when somebody lies, but when he says what he really thinks"...Michael Kinsley
"As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways." He added, "I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."...George W. Bush from secret recordings made by his "friend" Doug Wead, who has released the tapes.
"We never retract anything we do here because we never make things up on this program." Rush Limbaugh, who claimed that the Clintons were behind the Swift Boats for Truth.
"I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the 'Barberini Faun' is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?" -- Maureen Dowd
"Democratic senators...acted as if he were still playing his proper role, acting as a nonpartisan source of economic advice....
But Mr. Greenspan is no longer entitled to such deference. By repeatedly shilling for whatever the Bush administration wants, he has betrayed the trust placed in Fed chairmen, and deserves to be treated as just another partisan hack"...Paul Krugman
"Our position has been the same for a long time," said Bill Holbrook, spokesman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "The science of global climate change is uncertain."
"Ice is in decline everywhere on the planet, and especially in the Arctic, " said Ruth Curry, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "and there is large-scale drying throughout the Northern Hemisphere."
"It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to silence them," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero, after the Army's destruction of hundreds of photos documenting torture came to light.
"The War on Poverty is over...the Poor lost!"...President Ronald Reagan
"No group of Americans would be affected more by President Bush's Social Security plan than those earning the least." ...Jim VandeHel, Washington Post in an article titled, 'Poorest Face Most Risk'
"The EPA's secret, backroom deals with pesticide makers are clearly against the law, and they're a threat to our health," ... NRDC attorney Aaron Colangelo, noting that the Bush EPA changed the labeling requirements for Rat poison, resulting in the poisoning of 33,000 more children in 2004 than in 2001, when the regulations were changed.
Sigh...
Peace,
Steve
"I want him to be able to have a chance to say he's done it for this reason or done that, so I can explain to him as best I can, in a friendly way, of course, that Western values are, you know, are based upon transparency and rule of law, the right for the people to express themselves, checks and balances in government."
...George W. Bush Regarding Russian President Putin
"...a gaffe occurs not when somebody lies, but when he says what he really thinks"...Michael Kinsley
"As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways." He added, "I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."...George W. Bush from secret recordings made by his "friend" Doug Wead, who has released the tapes.
"We never retract anything we do here because we never make things up on this program." Rush Limbaugh, who claimed that the Clintons were behind the Swift Boats for Truth.
"I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the 'Barberini Faun' is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?" -- Maureen Dowd
"Democratic senators...acted as if he were still playing his proper role, acting as a nonpartisan source of economic advice....
But Mr. Greenspan is no longer entitled to such deference. By repeatedly shilling for whatever the Bush administration wants, he has betrayed the trust placed in Fed chairmen, and deserves to be treated as just another partisan hack"...Paul Krugman
"Our position has been the same for a long time," said Bill Holbrook, spokesman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "The science of global climate change is uncertain."
"Ice is in decline everywhere on the planet, and especially in the Arctic, " said Ruth Curry, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "and there is large-scale drying throughout the Northern Hemisphere."
"It's increasingly clear that members of the military were aware of the allegations of torture and that efforts were taken to erase evidence, to shut down investigations and to humiliate the detainees in an effort to silence them," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero, after the Army's destruction of hundreds of photos documenting torture came to light.
"The War on Poverty is over...the Poor lost!"...President Ronald Reagan
"No group of Americans would be affected more by President Bush's Social Security plan than those earning the least." ...Jim VandeHel, Washington Post in an article titled, 'Poorest Face Most Risk'
"The EPA's secret, backroom deals with pesticide makers are clearly against the law, and they're a threat to our health," ... NRDC attorney Aaron Colangelo, noting that the Bush EPA changed the labeling requirements for Rat poison, resulting in the poisoning of 33,000 more children in 2004 than in 2001, when the regulations were changed.
Sigh...
Peace,
Steve
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Pileated? What's Pileated?
Well, I ramble a bit today. But,what the heck, it's Saturday.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend. I have a slight advantage on all of you but look out there and see what you have. Here's my list so far:
Bald Eagle, Wood Duck, Crow, Hairy Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Goldfinch, Nuthatch, Titmaouse, Chickadee. Cardinal, Phoebe, Turkey Vulture, Turkey, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Heron, mourning dove, junco, and several Damfino's.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
Holy bleep!!! Gannon Gate has hit the mainstream media but strangely, only from the GOP apologist point of view. What has been stated that I've seen is something like,
"Poor Jeff Gannon...He was a male prostitute who has tried to get a real job as a reporter and the evil Democrats just won't let him be."
There is a reeking stink on this whole thing that disgusts me.
Jeff Gannon's real name seems to be Jim Guckert, and he was running a male prostitute web site and himself servicing customers. The question is how many of his customers are in the Bush Whitehouse?
Here's the deal:
Without the evangelical FundXtians added to their fascist coalition, the Neo-Conservatives (Bush, Rummy, Rove, Wolfowitz, etc.) have no power to win elections. They are severly compromised because while protraying public homophobia to appease the Evangelicals, a significant number of the GOP and Bush's inner circle are in fact gay. Therefore the hippocrisy!
Look, folks! A significant number of EVERYBODY's inner circle is in fact, gay. This is life. It's the way things are. But by allowing one fairly small group (Evangelicals are about 17% of America) to generate a fear of another group (Homosexuals are probably around 10% of Americans) It sets us up for two things:
First, Fear and hatred can be used to drive public opinion into places logic and reason would never permit. There are no WMD's in Iraq, Al Queda was never allied with Saddam in any way, and nothing homosexuals do with each other can possibly affect heterosexual marriages, but these fears drove our last presidential election into the abyss of Fascism.
Secondly, villifying gays does one thing above all others. Sex is pretty much an un-ressistable "Drive"...People will find each other and they will follow the directives of their biological programming. High ranking gay members of the Bush administration have now set themselves up for blackmail. This happened the last time Conservatives were in unopposed power in the fifties, though I suspect most people have little current awareness of Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, J. Edgar Hoover and the horrible abuses of power that resulted.
One must ask,
"Was blackmail involved in getting Jeff Gannon his Press Pass?"
"Was blackmail involved in allowing Gannon access to classified CIA materials?"
"Was Blackmail involved in Gannon's "scoop' and announcement of the attack on Iraq, four hours before the actual announcement from our government?"
"Was Blackmail involved in Gannon NOT being one of the reporters threatened with jail for not revealing the source of the CIA leak?"
(Gannon/Guckert himself appears to be the leak, the question is who was he servicing that gave him the documents?
Throughout the history of the world, high ranking government officials, Kings, Presidents, Secretaries of Defense, Justice, and State, have slept with the wrong wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends, and prostitutes of every conceivable kind. Evil in many forms, including scandals, have resulted in those societies only when they have been ruled by hippocrisy.
The problem with the right wing is a deep and corrupting stupidity born of selfishness and arrogance. It will lead to their destruction, eventually. The only question in return, is:
How witheringly destructive will their actions be to America before they fall?
I am having difficulty accepting all the information that is coming out, but...If the mainstream media ever grows testicles or ovaries, it will blow the Bush Whitehouse off the planet earth! Let us all watch and see just how deep is the corruption of a once Free Press.
Here's an excerpt from a good resource:
"Gannongate," which is only now being mentioned by the mainstream news media, threatens to expose a potentially damaging GOP pedophile and male prostitution ring dating back to the 1980s and the administration of George H. W. Bush....
One White House reporter expressed revulsion over the fact that it was Fleischer who took away press credential from the late long-time White House correspondent Sarah McClendon and handed them to Gannon....
Last year, a senior source on the Washington Times editorial staff (the same paper that broke the GOP pedophile scandal in 1989) linked White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to gay activities involving top Republican political strategists in Washington, DC....
http://onlinejournal.com/Media/021805Madsen/021805madsen.html
Peace,
steve
If you don't check Fafblog on a regular basis, you are so missing or at least running low on "funny". Take the Treason test:
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2005_02_13_fafblog_archive.html#110870213550100400
The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend. I have a slight advantage on all of you but look out there and see what you have. Here's my list so far:
Bald Eagle, Wood Duck, Crow, Hairy Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Goldfinch, Nuthatch, Titmaouse, Chickadee. Cardinal, Phoebe, Turkey Vulture, Turkey, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Heron, mourning dove, junco, and several Damfino's.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
Holy bleep!!! Gannon Gate has hit the mainstream media but strangely, only from the GOP apologist point of view. What has been stated that I've seen is something like,
"Poor Jeff Gannon...He was a male prostitute who has tried to get a real job as a reporter and the evil Democrats just won't let him be."
There is a reeking stink on this whole thing that disgusts me.
Jeff Gannon's real name seems to be Jim Guckert, and he was running a male prostitute web site and himself servicing customers. The question is how many of his customers are in the Bush Whitehouse?
Here's the deal:
Without the evangelical FundXtians added to their fascist coalition, the Neo-Conservatives (Bush, Rummy, Rove, Wolfowitz, etc.) have no power to win elections. They are severly compromised because while protraying public homophobia to appease the Evangelicals, a significant number of the GOP and Bush's inner circle are in fact gay. Therefore the hippocrisy!
Look, folks! A significant number of EVERYBODY's inner circle is in fact, gay. This is life. It's the way things are. But by allowing one fairly small group (Evangelicals are about 17% of America) to generate a fear of another group (Homosexuals are probably around 10% of Americans) It sets us up for two things:
First, Fear and hatred can be used to drive public opinion into places logic and reason would never permit. There are no WMD's in Iraq, Al Queda was never allied with Saddam in any way, and nothing homosexuals do with each other can possibly affect heterosexual marriages, but these fears drove our last presidential election into the abyss of Fascism.
Secondly, villifying gays does one thing above all others. Sex is pretty much an un-ressistable "Drive"...People will find each other and they will follow the directives of their biological programming. High ranking gay members of the Bush administration have now set themselves up for blackmail. This happened the last time Conservatives were in unopposed power in the fifties, though I suspect most people have little current awareness of Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, J. Edgar Hoover and the horrible abuses of power that resulted.
One must ask,
"Was blackmail involved in getting Jeff Gannon his Press Pass?"
"Was blackmail involved in allowing Gannon access to classified CIA materials?"
"Was Blackmail involved in Gannon's "scoop' and announcement of the attack on Iraq, four hours before the actual announcement from our government?"
"Was Blackmail involved in Gannon NOT being one of the reporters threatened with jail for not revealing the source of the CIA leak?"
(Gannon/Guckert himself appears to be the leak, the question is who was he servicing that gave him the documents?
Throughout the history of the world, high ranking government officials, Kings, Presidents, Secretaries of Defense, Justice, and State, have slept with the wrong wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends, and prostitutes of every conceivable kind. Evil in many forms, including scandals, have resulted in those societies only when they have been ruled by hippocrisy.
The problem with the right wing is a deep and corrupting stupidity born of selfishness and arrogance. It will lead to their destruction, eventually. The only question in return, is:
How witheringly destructive will their actions be to America before they fall?
I am having difficulty accepting all the information that is coming out, but...If the mainstream media ever grows testicles or ovaries, it will blow the Bush Whitehouse off the planet earth! Let us all watch and see just how deep is the corruption of a once Free Press.
Here's an excerpt from a good resource:
"Gannongate," which is only now being mentioned by the mainstream news media, threatens to expose a potentially damaging GOP pedophile and male prostitution ring dating back to the 1980s and the administration of George H. W. Bush....
One White House reporter expressed revulsion over the fact that it was Fleischer who took away press credential from the late long-time White House correspondent Sarah McClendon and handed them to Gannon....
Last year, a senior source on the Washington Times editorial staff (the same paper that broke the GOP pedophile scandal in 1989) linked White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to gay activities involving top Republican political strategists in Washington, DC....
http://onlinejournal.com/Media/021805Madsen/021805madsen.html
Peace,
steve
If you don't check Fafblog on a regular basis, you are so missing or at least running low on "funny". Take the Treason test:
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2005_02_13_fafblog_archive.html#110870213550100400
Friday, February 18, 2005
Poetry, punditry, and punniness
by Bob Dylan
Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'.
Like the stillness in the wind
'Fore the hurricane begins,
The hour when the ship comes in.
Oh the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking.
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking.
Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they'll be smiling.
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand,
The hour that the ship comes in.
And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken.
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean.
A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline.
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck,
The hour that the ship comes in.
Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin'.
And the ship's wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'.
Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'.
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it's for real,
The hour when the ship comes in.
Then they'll raise their hands,
Sayin' we'll meet all your demands,
But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered.
And like Pharaoh's tribe,
They'll be drownded in the tide,
And like Goliath, they'll be conquered.
I listened to Paul Krugman talk about Bush's Social Security plan right after I had listened to a speaker from the CATO institute do the same. I was shocked that the CATO guy could get away with obvious lies in a National news forum like that.
He said , "...there are no real assets in the Social Security trust fund."
Krugman, when his turn came, went on and on, patiently explaining the mechanics of SS and the lunacy of the President's plan, nicely contradicting nearly everything the Cato guy had said. What he should have been doing is stating emphaticly that the guy was lying through his teeth!
"There are no real assets in the Social Security Trust fund! Congress spent the money! Social Security will be bancrupt in 15 years!"
All of these statements have also been stated repeatedly by President Bush and they are all lies! Fact is, the first time George W. Bush publicly stated that SS would go bust in ten years was in 1978, when he was running for the House of Representatives. Most Americans are aware that SS did not go bust in 1988 and that in fact, there are not and have not been, for the last ten years, Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq!
I would bet you dollars to corn flakes that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and that guy from the CATO intitute all have, in one form or another, exactly the same "real assets" as the Social Security Trust fund in their own portfolios! They are called United States Treasury Notes, and they are as real as a real asset gets in the financial world. They are guaranteed by the United States of America. Want to know who holds the most US Treasury Notes?
Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia buy more each day than all other purchasers combined.
What George W. Bush may be saying is that, sure you and I have paid billions of dollars in taxes into the trust fund but he intends to steal it. He isn't going to pay it back to America's retirees. If he were to say that to China, or Saudi Arabia, the economy of America would be instantly destroyed.
One can only ask if that is what President Bush actually wants?
I am starting to think this could be!
OK, Now...
Folks, Social Security is not an investment plan in the first place. it is actually called, "Old Age and Disability Insurance." This is a very different thing from what Bush is claiming it is. Only one third of SS payments go to retirement...One third goes to pay a poverty level wage to people who get disabled, and one third go to the spouses and minor children of workers who die prematurely. The tax deffered retirement plan is the 401k and the IRA. Got that?
Peace,
Steve
Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'.
Like the stillness in the wind
'Fore the hurricane begins,
The hour when the ship comes in.
Oh the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking.
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking.
Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they'll be smiling.
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand,
The hour that the ship comes in.
And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken.
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean.
A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline.
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck,
The hour that the ship comes in.
Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin'.
And the ship's wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'.
Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'.
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it's for real,
The hour when the ship comes in.
Then they'll raise their hands,
Sayin' we'll meet all your demands,
But we'll shout from the bow your days are numbered.
And like Pharaoh's tribe,
They'll be drownded in the tide,
And like Goliath, they'll be conquered.
I listened to Paul Krugman talk about Bush's Social Security plan right after I had listened to a speaker from the CATO institute do the same. I was shocked that the CATO guy could get away with obvious lies in a National news forum like that.
He said , "...there are no real assets in the Social Security trust fund."
Krugman, when his turn came, went on and on, patiently explaining the mechanics of SS and the lunacy of the President's plan, nicely contradicting nearly everything the Cato guy had said. What he should have been doing is stating emphaticly that the guy was lying through his teeth!
"There are no real assets in the Social Security Trust fund! Congress spent the money! Social Security will be bancrupt in 15 years!"
All of these statements have also been stated repeatedly by President Bush and they are all lies! Fact is, the first time George W. Bush publicly stated that SS would go bust in ten years was in 1978, when he was running for the House of Representatives. Most Americans are aware that SS did not go bust in 1988 and that in fact, there are not and have not been, for the last ten years, Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq!
I would bet you dollars to corn flakes that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and that guy from the CATO intitute all have, in one form or another, exactly the same "real assets" as the Social Security Trust fund in their own portfolios! They are called United States Treasury Notes, and they are as real as a real asset gets in the financial world. They are guaranteed by the United States of America. Want to know who holds the most US Treasury Notes?
Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia buy more each day than all other purchasers combined.
What George W. Bush may be saying is that, sure you and I have paid billions of dollars in taxes into the trust fund but he intends to steal it. He isn't going to pay it back to America's retirees. If he were to say that to China, or Saudi Arabia, the economy of America would be instantly destroyed.
One can only ask if that is what President Bush actually wants?
I am starting to think this could be!
OK, Now...
Folks, Social Security is not an investment plan in the first place. it is actually called, "Old Age and Disability Insurance." This is a very different thing from what Bush is claiming it is. Only one third of SS payments go to retirement...One third goes to pay a poverty level wage to people who get disabled, and one third go to the spouses and minor children of workers who die prematurely. The tax deffered retirement plan is the 401k and the IRA. Got that?
Peace,
Steve
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Burning Down the House
Well just the stairs, actually.
I am at the cabin in Long Creek listening to the best radio station...WNCW...88.7...which comes in so clearly here in South Carolina. I live in the woods anyway, but coming over here lets me try to sleep through the night in a different woods. I say "try to sleep" because the critters seem to think the walls of the cabin were made for them to chase each other around on.
Flying squirrels.
Running and squeaking, doing who knows what on my walls. It's like having a bunch of river guides over for a meal and sleepover. Nobody sleeps until dawn...that's all I'm going to say...Some folks make the noise...other folks try to not hear it. never works.
Something else was out there snuffling. We have bears but this was smaller. It's my own fault for throwing the leftovers from my supper off the deck. I know better.
I have a friend rebuilding lots of things here at the cabin that I was supposed to get finished 18 years ago, one of which is the stairway to the loft. He tore the old treacherous stairs out and put in a fairly reasonable and quite safe new stairway to heaven...upstairs to where folks don't sleep.
I'm trying to get doors and ceilings and sound proofing into strategic places. I like company but I need my sleep, too. In the process of fixing things, there are bits of wood piled up from the tearout and waste, so this morning I burned the old stairs to keep warm. It seemed only fitting...So many couples have gone up them to keep each other warm, I figured to honor the old stairs by letting them keep me warm one last time.
Alone in the woods with hot coffee and a warm cabin...A Romanian folk song following a bluegrass version of Pink Floyd...Gotta get moving, but for a little while, all is well with the world.
Peace,
Steve
Yesterday's news:
Offering few specifics on terror threats, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a House hearing that the government could reasonably predict attacks would come from terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other means.
And Bubba says:
"Yeah? No shit? If they are so good at predicting attacks, why didn't they do something to prevent 9/11? After they sent the FAA more than 50 intelligence briefings warning of suicide hijackings just prior to 9/11? Or after sending Bush a briefing entitled "bin-Laden determined to strike in U.S."?
These guys have no shame. And no real concern for the security of the United States. Which happens to be the number one responsibility assigned to the Commander in Chief and his posse by our Constitution."
Well written reasonable outrage here:
SKB
Prarie Weather has the story...I'm really liking this Steny Hoyer:
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2-ranking House Democrat, said Wednesday the decision "smacks of retribution because these staffers put the ethical integrity of this institution above the agenda of the Republican leadership."
PW
Here's a thoughtful read starting with a Budhist proverb:
"Look for the truth exactly on the spot where you stand."
...truths make their way, against all obstacles, and break down the credibility of the warmakers, juxtaposing what reality teaches against the rhetoric of inaugural addresses and White House briefings. The work of a movement is to enhance that learning, make clear the disconnect between the rhetoric of "liberty" and the photo of a bloodied little girl, weeping.
So this is exactly what lots of us have been trying to do...Change the minds of those people who stil have one.
Read and be heartened:
truthout
I am at the cabin in Long Creek listening to the best radio station...WNCW...88.7...which comes in so clearly here in South Carolina. I live in the woods anyway, but coming over here lets me try to sleep through the night in a different woods. I say "try to sleep" because the critters seem to think the walls of the cabin were made for them to chase each other around on.
Flying squirrels.
Running and squeaking, doing who knows what on my walls. It's like having a bunch of river guides over for a meal and sleepover. Nobody sleeps until dawn...that's all I'm going to say...Some folks make the noise...other folks try to not hear it. never works.
Something else was out there snuffling. We have bears but this was smaller. It's my own fault for throwing the leftovers from my supper off the deck. I know better.
I have a friend rebuilding lots of things here at the cabin that I was supposed to get finished 18 years ago, one of which is the stairway to the loft. He tore the old treacherous stairs out and put in a fairly reasonable and quite safe new stairway to heaven...upstairs to where folks don't sleep.
I'm trying to get doors and ceilings and sound proofing into strategic places. I like company but I need my sleep, too. In the process of fixing things, there are bits of wood piled up from the tearout and waste, so this morning I burned the old stairs to keep warm. It seemed only fitting...So many couples have gone up them to keep each other warm, I figured to honor the old stairs by letting them keep me warm one last time.
Alone in the woods with hot coffee and a warm cabin...A Romanian folk song following a bluegrass version of Pink Floyd...Gotta get moving, but for a little while, all is well with the world.
Peace,
Steve
Yesterday's news:
Offering few specifics on terror threats, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a House hearing that the government could reasonably predict attacks would come from terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and other means.
And Bubba says:
"Yeah? No shit? If they are so good at predicting attacks, why didn't they do something to prevent 9/11? After they sent the FAA more than 50 intelligence briefings warning of suicide hijackings just prior to 9/11? Or after sending Bush a briefing entitled "bin-Laden determined to strike in U.S."?
These guys have no shame. And no real concern for the security of the United States. Which happens to be the number one responsibility assigned to the Commander in Chief and his posse by our Constitution."
Well written reasonable outrage here:
SKB
Prarie Weather has the story...I'm really liking this Steny Hoyer:
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2-ranking House Democrat, said Wednesday the decision "smacks of retribution because these staffers put the ethical integrity of this institution above the agenda of the Republican leadership."
PW
Here's a thoughtful read starting with a Budhist proverb:
"Look for the truth exactly on the spot where you stand."
...truths make their way, against all obstacles, and break down the credibility of the warmakers, juxtaposing what reality teaches against the rhetoric of inaugural addresses and White House briefings. The work of a movement is to enhance that learning, make clear the disconnect between the rhetoric of "liberty" and the photo of a bloodied little girl, weeping.
So this is exactly what lots of us have been trying to do...Change the minds of those people who stil have one.
Read and be heartened:
truthout
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Why isn't this on the News?
The full weekend seems like the deal to me.
I don't have time to do this one justice but here goes:
Well, now that our President's boy hooker press plant has been outed...not for being gay but for being a shill...Jeff Gannon has withdrawn from the Whitehouse Press corp. But this didn't slow Scott McClellan down very long...Now he has some guy named "John" asking the same bogus planted question. Notice how this is framed:
Q You talked about sanctions against Iran if they don’t comply with dismantling their nuclear energy program. Sanctions, in the past, have proven to be a joke – that they didn’t work against Iraq…
Well gee, John, whoever you are, I actually believe that they did work...Didn't Saddam have WMD's in 1991? I mean Dick Cheney sold them to him and still has the receipt somewhere...And Now there are none...Why?
Here's United Nations weapons inspector, David Kay:
“Iraq’s large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new chemical weapon munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.”
David Kay is the Bush Administration's hand picked man, but see, Cheney and Rumsfeld made a mistake in his case...
They picked an honest man!
Had to fire him...Can't be trusted to lie when needed!
Think Progress has more:
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=245
So why does this matter? We don't care if White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan goes to gay bars(true, by the way) and pays gay male hookers for sex...That's his/their business.
We don't care if the Republican Party Chairman is gay(true, by the way)...That's his business.
So why do we care who Scott McClellan pays for sex?
I mean if President George W. Bush's Whitehouse Press Secretary wants to get a discount on Gannon's $200 an hour/$1200 a weekend rate by introducing him to George himself, why should I care?
Is it the Hipocrisy?
Is it the lying?
Is it the use of a supposedly "Free Press" event to frame a question so stupidly obvious that George doesn't have to say a word to create a false impression such as "Sanctions were a joke against Iraq..." when in truth, they brought Saddam to his knees with nothing in his arsenal much greater than squirrel rifles?
I quote the Rude Pundit:
"The reason Gannon/Guckert matters is because this administration has mainstreamed evil,
has made it a dull hum in the background. Oh, sure, sure, we were appalled, so goddamn outraged when Abu Ghraib happened, but now, even as story after story comes out that we, the American public, elected a government that thinks it's simply part of the post-9/11 game to abuse and torture suspects, we care less and less. And like a rickety old house with termites gnawing at its foundation, we are being undermined and won't know it until the whole thing comes crashing down around us. We are draining away law and ethics through the "extraordinary renditions" of "terror suspects," as well as our own torturing. Like city dwellers who can sleep through sirens, car alarms, and street construction, we just tune it all out. But it'll crash, finally. Then we'll think, oh, shit, should've killed those termites."
There's so much more, but be warned! His Rudeness writes in powerful language:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com
Gotta run...Peace, eh?
Steve
I don't have time to do this one justice but here goes:
Well, now that our President's boy hooker press plant has been outed...not for being gay but for being a shill...Jeff Gannon has withdrawn from the Whitehouse Press corp. But this didn't slow Scott McClellan down very long...Now he has some guy named "John" asking the same bogus planted question. Notice how this is framed:
Q You talked about sanctions against Iran if they don’t comply with dismantling their nuclear energy program. Sanctions, in the past, have proven to be a joke – that they didn’t work against Iraq…
Well gee, John, whoever you are, I actually believe that they did work...Didn't Saddam have WMD's in 1991? I mean Dick Cheney sold them to him and still has the receipt somewhere...And Now there are none...Why?
Here's United Nations weapons inspector, David Kay:
“Iraq’s large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new chemical weapon munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.”
David Kay is the Bush Administration's hand picked man, but see, Cheney and Rumsfeld made a mistake in his case...
They picked an honest man!
Had to fire him...Can't be trusted to lie when needed!
Think Progress has more:
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=245
So why does this matter? We don't care if White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan goes to gay bars(true, by the way) and pays gay male hookers for sex...That's his/their business.
We don't care if the Republican Party Chairman is gay(true, by the way)...That's his business.
So why do we care who Scott McClellan pays for sex?
I mean if President George W. Bush's Whitehouse Press Secretary wants to get a discount on Gannon's $200 an hour/$1200 a weekend rate by introducing him to George himself, why should I care?
Is it the Hipocrisy?
Is it the lying?
Is it the use of a supposedly "Free Press" event to frame a question so stupidly obvious that George doesn't have to say a word to create a false impression such as "Sanctions were a joke against Iraq..." when in truth, they brought Saddam to his knees with nothing in his arsenal much greater than squirrel rifles?
I quote the Rude Pundit:
"The reason Gannon/Guckert matters is because this administration has mainstreamed evil,
has made it a dull hum in the background. Oh, sure, sure, we were appalled, so goddamn outraged when Abu Ghraib happened, but now, even as story after story comes out that we, the American public, elected a government that thinks it's simply part of the post-9/11 game to abuse and torture suspects, we care less and less. And like a rickety old house with termites gnawing at its foundation, we are being undermined and won't know it until the whole thing comes crashing down around us. We are draining away law and ethics through the "extraordinary renditions" of "terror suspects," as well as our own torturing. Like city dwellers who can sleep through sirens, car alarms, and street construction, we just tune it all out. But it'll crash, finally. Then we'll think, oh, shit, should've killed those termites."
There's so much more, but be warned! His Rudeness writes in powerful language:
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com
Gotta run...Peace, eh?
Steve
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Sensitive Material
I have to warn you about today's post. There really is "sensitive content"...I mean I'm a sensitive guy, right? So I should throw in some content now and then, right?
I am stunned that I still see Michael Jackson's trial on the evening news, when President of the United States George W. Bush has been caught publicly consorting with a gay hooker!
Let me give you the short version, although from the pix posted on the internet there's nothing "short" about the Whitehouse play toy.
The most cowardly and treasonous act of the Bush whitehouse was to attack an honest man by divulging that his longserving and professionally highly regarded wife was a CIA agent. This not only endagers her life but has compromised CIA operations and may have already led to the deaths of American agents over seas. This was done because among the lies Bush told in the run up to war in Iraq, was a big lie based on knowingly forged documents claiming that Saddam had purchased nuclear material from Niger. The man sent to Africa verify the documents was Joe Wilson and he reported back that they were false...Very inconvenient ,since Bush sent Colon Powell to the United Nations to claim that they were true. Joe Wilson, a true Patriot, went public with the truth, Bush was lying, Cheney was lying, Powell was Lying, etc...
To punish Wilson, Karl Rove had Wilson's wife attacked, her career and American Intelligence operations ruined, simply as an act of revenge. Well Treason should be enough but since it isn't, It is how this information became public that is interesting.
Jim Guckert is a male prostitute.
Suddenly, he gets a new name, Jeff Gannon, is set up as a reporter working for a suddenly created news agency, Talon News, and given Whitehouse press credentials. Jim Gannon shows up at a Bush Press Conference but is not on the prescripted call-on list Bush is supposed to use. President George W. Bush, in a rare unscripted moment, calls on...
"Jeff?"
George doesn't read his name off the list...He just calls on him...
"Jeff?"
Does Bush know this guy?
Newly minted Whitehouse correspondent, Jeff Gannon gushes over George and asks him a softball question that would almost appear planted to someone who wasn't familiar with this Whitehouse's high ethical standards.
Now comes the "High Treason" part...The brand spanking new...
(emphasis on spanking, ok I can't resist, here is the quote from Guckert/Gannon's web site:
"AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP"
I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS)
Where was I??? Oh Yeah, The Brand Spanking New White house correspondent is given access to classified CIA documents regarding Valerie Plame and "OUTS" her as a CIA agent, thereby screwing Joe Wilson for Karl Rove.
You've heard about all this on Fox News, right?
No?
Rupert Murdoch must be so Pissed! Here's the juiciest sex scandal since the Oval Office Lewinsky, and with high treason to boot, and
Rupert can't use it because he too is a Republican Whore!
We got pictures, and everything...well almost...the most sensitive material is fuzzed out:
You perverts didn't really want to see the "most sensitive material" Did you now?
http://americablog.blogspot.com/
And thoughtful commentary:
http://digby
And Now,
a guy whose name I'll bet you didn't even know kicks some Whitehouse butt...
(OK, skip the lewd commments about the Whitehouse butt being well lubed and visited before being kicked you perverts!)
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer:
"Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House's relationship with James Guckert, also known as "Jeff Gannon," and his access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame.
"This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between "Jeff Gannon" and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards. President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, called the disclosure of an undercover operative's identity treason.
http://www.dailykos.com/
Hoo Boy, I'll say!...An alliance of "Interests" ...This is way too good!
Peace,
Steve
I am stunned that I still see Michael Jackson's trial on the evening news, when President of the United States George W. Bush has been caught publicly consorting with a gay hooker!
Let me give you the short version, although from the pix posted on the internet there's nothing "short" about the Whitehouse play toy.
The most cowardly and treasonous act of the Bush whitehouse was to attack an honest man by divulging that his longserving and professionally highly regarded wife was a CIA agent. This not only endagers her life but has compromised CIA operations and may have already led to the deaths of American agents over seas. This was done because among the lies Bush told in the run up to war in Iraq, was a big lie based on knowingly forged documents claiming that Saddam had purchased nuclear material from Niger. The man sent to Africa verify the documents was Joe Wilson and he reported back that they were false...Very inconvenient ,since Bush sent Colon Powell to the United Nations to claim that they were true. Joe Wilson, a true Patriot, went public with the truth, Bush was lying, Cheney was lying, Powell was Lying, etc...
To punish Wilson, Karl Rove had Wilson's wife attacked, her career and American Intelligence operations ruined, simply as an act of revenge. Well Treason should be enough but since it isn't, It is how this information became public that is interesting.
Jim Guckert is a male prostitute.
Suddenly, he gets a new name, Jeff Gannon, is set up as a reporter working for a suddenly created news agency, Talon News, and given Whitehouse press credentials. Jim Gannon shows up at a Bush Press Conference but is not on the prescripted call-on list Bush is supposed to use. President George W. Bush, in a rare unscripted moment, calls on...
"Jeff?"
George doesn't read his name off the list...He just calls on him...
"Jeff?"
Does Bush know this guy?
Newly minted Whitehouse correspondent, Jeff Gannon gushes over George and asks him a softball question that would almost appear planted to someone who wasn't familiar with this Whitehouse's high ethical standards.
Now comes the "High Treason" part...The brand spanking new...
(emphasis on spanking, ok I can't resist, here is the quote from Guckert/Gannon's web site:
"AGGRESIVE, VERBAL, DOMINANT TOP"
I DON'T LEAVE MARKS....ONLY IMPRESSIONS)
Where was I??? Oh Yeah, The Brand Spanking New White house correspondent is given access to classified CIA documents regarding Valerie Plame and "OUTS" her as a CIA agent, thereby screwing Joe Wilson for Karl Rove.
You've heard about all this on Fox News, right?
No?
Rupert Murdoch must be so Pissed! Here's the juiciest sex scandal since the Oval Office Lewinsky, and with high treason to boot, and
Rupert can't use it because he too is a Republican Whore!
We got pictures, and everything...well almost...the most sensitive material is fuzzed out:
You perverts didn't really want to see the "most sensitive material" Did you now?
http://americablog.blogspot.com/
And thoughtful commentary:
http://digby
And Now,
a guy whose name I'll bet you didn't even know kicks some Whitehouse butt...
(OK, skip the lewd commments about the Whitehouse butt being well lubed and visited before being kicked you perverts!)
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer:
"Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House's relationship with James Guckert, also known as "Jeff Gannon," and his access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame.
"This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between "Jeff Gannon" and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards. President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, called the disclosure of an undercover operative's identity treason.
http://www.dailykos.com/
Hoo Boy, I'll say!...An alliance of "Interests" ...This is way too good!
Peace,
Steve
Monday, February 14, 2005
Good, Randy...Bad "Lincoln"
I had a big rant all typed out yesterday...there is so much to be outraged about...and then I just hit the delete key, went outside and refilled the hot tub. It's back up to temp this morning and I am headed out there for a hot soak in the rain...back in a bit, saving the world can wait a few minutes.
Our boy, Randy Button, has gone big time... After Howard Dean got elected head of the DNC. There was Randy, right on CBS, saying nice things about Howard being endorsed by the NRA eight times as Governor of Vermont.
Amazing stuff going on in Congress right now.
Wall Street has committed almost $400,000.00 to lobby each Senator and Congressman to Piratize Social Security, that's $200,000,000.00 total, for you Liberal Arts graduates. I'm sure they only have America's nice old people's best interests in their greedy little hearts.
You folks know how agitated I am about the Piratization of Social Security...Check out this speech from Joe Crowly, Dem from NY:
"Mr. Speaker, the House has become the 109th Congress on a bad note: We are considering a bill with almost no meaningful debate, and it proposes to represent a solution to a problem that simply does not exist, a problem the record shows does not exist. Does this action foretell what lies ahead in terms of the existence of bipartisanship throughout this Congress?"
Exactly what should be said about Social Security's non-existant problem! Only this wasn't about SS at all, this was about a bogus reform of the Congressional Gold Medal Enhancement Act. This is one of the wierder things Congress is spending its time on, and there is money involved from big donors going to the supporters of this turkey.
Make sense of this, will you:
MBNA Corp: $41,750
$41,750 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
Morgan Stanley: $16,000
$16,000 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
National Auto Dealers Assn: $10,000
$10,000 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals: $7,500
$7,500 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
DuPont Co: $7,000
$7,000 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
Here's the source...fun reading!
http://www.opensecrets.org/
So one of the few Democrat supporters of this gobbler is none other than my man in Washington, Lincoln Davis, who just made what must have been some agonizing personal choices this week.
After much soul searching he voted to commend the Palestinian people, the Ukraine, and the people of Iraq for conducting a free and fair, democratic and transparent presidential election...
Nothing I can find commending Americans for a free, fair, democratic and transparent presidential election...go figure?
And then Lincoln, ostensibly a Democrat, voted for this little jewel:
WASHINGTON -- February 10 -- The House of Representatives voted 243 to 179 today to reject an amendment that would have stripped section 102 from the "REAL ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418). The bill, as passed, would empower the Secretary of Homeland Security to
waive any federal laws, without limit,
in the course of building barriers along the nation's borders.
Are you scared yet? Does the phrase, "waive any Federal laws, without limit" bother you just a little bit?
Quick, name the man who Lincoln Davis just voted to give the legal power to have your children tortured, raped, and killed?...Nope, it's not Tom Ridge...It's Michael Certoff, who may become the only man in America who can violate all Federal Laws with impunity.
Hey Lincoln, Aren't you supposed to be on the "Checks and Balances" side of this Armageddon?
Why are you voting with the Republicans? For that matter,
why are the Republicans voting for this one?...
have we already suspended the Constitution completely and I missed it?
Anybody got a brain up there? Lincoln, For God's sake, read this stuff before you vote on it, Will you?
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0210-14.htm
Lincoln blesses the evil deed...Fafnir writes the satire:
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/
Courage, Folks, We have a long road ahead.
Steve
Our boy, Randy Button, has gone big time... After Howard Dean got elected head of the DNC. There was Randy, right on CBS, saying nice things about Howard being endorsed by the NRA eight times as Governor of Vermont.
Amazing stuff going on in Congress right now.
Wall Street has committed almost $400,000.00 to lobby each Senator and Congressman to Piratize Social Security, that's $200,000,000.00 total, for you Liberal Arts graduates. I'm sure they only have America's nice old people's best interests in their greedy little hearts.
You folks know how agitated I am about the Piratization of Social Security...Check out this speech from Joe Crowly, Dem from NY:
"Mr. Speaker, the House has become the 109th Congress on a bad note: We are considering a bill with almost no meaningful debate, and it proposes to represent a solution to a problem that simply does not exist, a problem the record shows does not exist. Does this action foretell what lies ahead in terms of the existence of bipartisanship throughout this Congress?"
Exactly what should be said about Social Security's non-existant problem! Only this wasn't about SS at all, this was about a bogus reform of the Congressional Gold Medal Enhancement Act. This is one of the wierder things Congress is spending its time on, and there is money involved from big donors going to the supporters of this turkey.
Make sense of this, will you:
MBNA Corp: $41,750
$41,750 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
Morgan Stanley: $16,000
$16,000 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
National Auto Dealers Assn: $10,000
$10,000 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals: $7,500
$7,500 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
DuPont Co: $7,000
$7,000 to Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
Here's the source...fun reading!
http://www.opensecrets.org/
So one of the few Democrat supporters of this gobbler is none other than my man in Washington, Lincoln Davis, who just made what must have been some agonizing personal choices this week.
After much soul searching he voted to commend the Palestinian people, the Ukraine, and the people of Iraq for conducting a free and fair, democratic and transparent presidential election...
Nothing I can find commending Americans for a free, fair, democratic and transparent presidential election...go figure?
And then Lincoln, ostensibly a Democrat, voted for this little jewel:
WASHINGTON -- February 10 -- The House of Representatives voted 243 to 179 today to reject an amendment that would have stripped section 102 from the "REAL ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418). The bill, as passed, would empower the Secretary of Homeland Security to
waive any federal laws, without limit,
in the course of building barriers along the nation's borders.
Are you scared yet? Does the phrase, "waive any Federal laws, without limit" bother you just a little bit?
Quick, name the man who Lincoln Davis just voted to give the legal power to have your children tortured, raped, and killed?...Nope, it's not Tom Ridge...It's Michael Certoff, who may become the only man in America who can violate all Federal Laws with impunity.
Hey Lincoln, Aren't you supposed to be on the "Checks and Balances" side of this Armageddon?
Why are you voting with the Republicans? For that matter,
why are the Republicans voting for this one?...
have we already suspended the Constitution completely and I missed it?
Anybody got a brain up there? Lincoln, For God's sake, read this stuff before you vote on it, Will you?
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0210-14.htm
Lincoln blesses the evil deed...Fafnir writes the satire:
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/
Courage, Folks, We have a long road ahead.
Steve
Friday, February 11, 2005
Birds Nest
Yesterday, here in the gorge, was notable for the frogs chirping away down at Lake Steve while we had a near white out from snow. Ah, spring in the South...winds gusting to 25 knots, snow piling up on the hot tub cover, and amphibians looking for love, all at the same time.
Our Creek flows out into Watts Bar Lake, one of the first TVA reservoirs built in the forties to provide power to the Oak Ridge atomic bomb project, is now home to the largest concentration of osprey nests in the country. The article I read said there were over a hundred nests. I think this is low. Ospreys have built nests on everything tall that sits anywhere near the water.
One prominent nest site is on top of the Highway 70 bridge over the Clinch/Emory river. This is an old steel beast that is way too narrow and bears the scars of vehicle encounters in hundreds of places. No doubt it needs to go, and a new one is springing up right beside it, but what will the ospreys do for a nest site when they tear it down and sell it for scrap? I love to check on the chicks progress as I drive under the steel beams the huge nest is built upon. It has to be five or six feet across. I have watched the birds haul huge sticks up into the air to add to the nest each year.
Officials claim the ospreys will be fine and will just find a new place to build their nest but I question this. There are already nests built on top of the light poles at the baseball field and the football field and just about everywhere else there's anything tall. If you tear down the old structure, how much expense can there be in just adding a new post somewhere on the new bridge for the birds to work with?
Maybe that should be an action item! How much can it cost? Are there light poles planned for the bridge anyway that could be modified? Those of us near Kingston, TN should have a mission for the Ospreys.
Humans can't eat the fish in the lake safely but the birds seem to do allright. It's the least we could do.
******
Why have to Australian papers picked up on the smoking gun, ok smoking arsenal, that has just been released from the 9-11 commission, while the American News Services seem to be stuck on the Michael Jackson trial? Kos has the whole story titled:
CONDI LIED :: CONDI LIED :: CONDI LIED
The memo has just been declassified that proves Condi, "I honor the truth!" Rice told several whoppers. I used to think the Bushistas let 9-11 happen, then I just wrote it off to magnificently executed incompetence. Now I'm not so sure:
http://Kos on Condi
Commander Rapid thinks humans are even stupider than he thought. They only have to get three things right:
Eat, Survive, Reproduce!
Two out of three is not good enough, and he fears that human survival chances are pretty slim. He is heartened, however, by the recent rumblings of the normally suicidal FundXtians as they have started talking about something called "Creation Care". The Commander doesn't care what superstitions these idiots adhere to as long as they will try to stop trying to end the world so they can go to whereever it is they think they will go.
The Commander thinks they will join him in the afterlife, washed where the water will flow somewhere downstream. It is the highest aspiration of a 1954 Studebaker, after all...a return to its primordial elements to start all over as something different this time. The Commander knows that a 1954 Studebaker is the highest achievement possible on this plane of existance and fully expects to be a worm next time.
Peace,
Steve
Our Creek flows out into Watts Bar Lake, one of the first TVA reservoirs built in the forties to provide power to the Oak Ridge atomic bomb project, is now home to the largest concentration of osprey nests in the country. The article I read said there were over a hundred nests. I think this is low. Ospreys have built nests on everything tall that sits anywhere near the water.
One prominent nest site is on top of the Highway 70 bridge over the Clinch/Emory river. This is an old steel beast that is way too narrow and bears the scars of vehicle encounters in hundreds of places. No doubt it needs to go, and a new one is springing up right beside it, but what will the ospreys do for a nest site when they tear it down and sell it for scrap? I love to check on the chicks progress as I drive under the steel beams the huge nest is built upon. It has to be five or six feet across. I have watched the birds haul huge sticks up into the air to add to the nest each year.
Officials claim the ospreys will be fine and will just find a new place to build their nest but I question this. There are already nests built on top of the light poles at the baseball field and the football field and just about everywhere else there's anything tall. If you tear down the old structure, how much expense can there be in just adding a new post somewhere on the new bridge for the birds to work with?
Maybe that should be an action item! How much can it cost? Are there light poles planned for the bridge anyway that could be modified? Those of us near Kingston, TN should have a mission for the Ospreys.
Humans can't eat the fish in the lake safely but the birds seem to do allright. It's the least we could do.
******
Why have to Australian papers picked up on the smoking gun, ok smoking arsenal, that has just been released from the 9-11 commission, while the American News Services seem to be stuck on the Michael Jackson trial? Kos has the whole story titled:
CONDI LIED :: CONDI LIED :: CONDI LIED
The memo has just been declassified that proves Condi, "I honor the truth!" Rice told several whoppers. I used to think the Bushistas let 9-11 happen, then I just wrote it off to magnificently executed incompetence. Now I'm not so sure:
http://Kos on Condi
Commander Rapid thinks humans are even stupider than he thought. They only have to get three things right:
Eat, Survive, Reproduce!
Two out of three is not good enough, and he fears that human survival chances are pretty slim. He is heartened, however, by the recent rumblings of the normally suicidal FundXtians as they have started talking about something called "Creation Care". The Commander doesn't care what superstitions these idiots adhere to as long as they will try to stop trying to end the world so they can go to whereever it is they think they will go.
The Commander thinks they will join him in the afterlife, washed where the water will flow somewhere downstream. It is the highest aspiration of a 1954 Studebaker, after all...a return to its primordial elements to start all over as something different this time. The Commander knows that a 1954 Studebaker is the highest achievement possible on this plane of existance and fully expects to be a worm next time.
Peace,
Steve
Thursday, February 10, 2005
When Big O's Collide
Go outside and listen to the frogs! That's an order...Anytime the weather gets up to fity five or so, thye start talking trash to each other in nearly any place that's wet. It can be a puddle or a true wetland, they don't care. A frog gotta do what a frog gotta do! I suggest a nice glass of Pinot Noir and a comfy chair, like the ones they sell for 7 bucks at the big boxes. Talk about a nice interlude...And don't think you have to come all the way out here to get close to amphibians, although you're welcome, They are all over the place if you listen for them. Thing is you do have to slow down and listen for them.
The frogs have time, do you?
Of course right now it is snowing so they are temporarily hiding, waiting until the Tiki lamp gets lit. Soon we will have toad song again!
Be ready!
*****
Come with me now, as I take you back in time. I have a time machine, you know! Well, actualy we all do, but you can only look...you can't touch anything. That's just as well, and before you get to thinking I'm having a little something extra in my morning coffee you should know that our time machine is just a good old telescope. What we are going to do today is look into the sky at a bit of light that is just geting here from 180,000 years ago.
So, more than 180,000 years ago, a binary star pair got too close to the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Binary pairs can be thought of as two big balls on a gravitational string. They swing around each other in co-orbit. These two got tugged into near space around the black hole that keeps the Milky Way Galaxy working and, as they spun closer and closer, they were whipped intop faster and faster spin around each other until the string broke. One star flew into a death spiral around the black hole and the other star was whipsawed completely out of our galaxy...180,000 years ago.
We don't actually know what is happening right now because a telescope will only look back in time, not the other way. But now you can read the actual news story and understand how hard it is to write science news in today's climate of studied ignorance. We have religions built on a creation that is only 6000 years old, so none of this can be true, right? And one of them is our President?
Space Story
I've been enjoying this little fued between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olberman. I take no sides in this spat except to note that O'Reilly, being an assinine lying pervert and even worse, an assinine lying conservative, tends to be assinine and lie a lot. Other than that I'm neutral. Let the chips fall where they may...Loofahs and falafels, too!
"I won the national punting title for my division as a senior." O'Reilly concludes that "I guess you could say the end zone was the beginning of the no-spin zone."
Olberman thinks this "ain't necessarily so!" Well, OK, what he really said was, "He's Lying!"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200502080004
Adam, Adam, Adam....You have finally come around to realizing what true friendship realll is. Condi loves our European brethren. I believe there was this one comment though, from the Minister when he said, "The European Community is the world's largest Democracy, thank you very much..." implying that the U.S. did not need to explain democracy, but rather practice it! But hey, we're all friends here, right?
Go read Fanaticl Apathy. The last few posts are more than satirically piercing.
Fanatical Apathy
Giblets and Fafnir, rock in a satirical parallel universe, where:
A partisan hack gets planted in the White House press corps and the verdict of the mainstream press is that this is AWESOME! Let there be an end to all objective news coverage! Let a thousand Foxes bloom!
Uh??? Wait a minute...That's no parallel Universe!
OK, this is the funniest and best writing in the Blogosphere. And there's some great stuff out there. You have to read this one just a bit to get into the swing:
fafblog
Peace out!
Steve
The frogs have time, do you?
Of course right now it is snowing so they are temporarily hiding, waiting until the Tiki lamp gets lit. Soon we will have toad song again!
Be ready!
*****
Come with me now, as I take you back in time. I have a time machine, you know! Well, actualy we all do, but you can only look...you can't touch anything. That's just as well, and before you get to thinking I'm having a little something extra in my morning coffee you should know that our time machine is just a good old telescope. What we are going to do today is look into the sky at a bit of light that is just geting here from 180,000 years ago.
So, more than 180,000 years ago, a binary star pair got too close to the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Binary pairs can be thought of as two big balls on a gravitational string. They swing around each other in co-orbit. These two got tugged into near space around the black hole that keeps the Milky Way Galaxy working and, as they spun closer and closer, they were whipped intop faster and faster spin around each other until the string broke. One star flew into a death spiral around the black hole and the other star was whipsawed completely out of our galaxy...180,000 years ago.
We don't actually know what is happening right now because a telescope will only look back in time, not the other way. But now you can read the actual news story and understand how hard it is to write science news in today's climate of studied ignorance. We have religions built on a creation that is only 6000 years old, so none of this can be true, right? And one of them is our President?
Space Story
I've been enjoying this little fued between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olberman. I take no sides in this spat except to note that O'Reilly, being an assinine lying pervert and even worse, an assinine lying conservative, tends to be assinine and lie a lot. Other than that I'm neutral. Let the chips fall where they may...Loofahs and falafels, too!
"I won the national punting title for my division as a senior." O'Reilly concludes that "I guess you could say the end zone was the beginning of the no-spin zone."
Olberman thinks this "ain't necessarily so!" Well, OK, what he really said was, "He's Lying!"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200502080004
Adam, Adam, Adam....You have finally come around to realizing what true friendship realll is. Condi loves our European brethren. I believe there was this one comment though, from the Minister when he said, "The European Community is the world's largest Democracy, thank you very much..." implying that the U.S. did not need to explain democracy, but rather practice it! But hey, we're all friends here, right?
Go read Fanaticl Apathy. The last few posts are more than satirically piercing.
Fanatical Apathy
Giblets and Fafnir, rock in a satirical parallel universe, where:
A partisan hack gets planted in the White House press corps and the verdict of the mainstream press is that this is AWESOME! Let there be an end to all objective news coverage! Let a thousand Foxes bloom!
Uh??? Wait a minute...That's no parallel Universe!
OK, this is the funniest and best writing in the Blogosphere. And there's some great stuff out there. You have to read this one just a bit to get into the swing:
fafblog
Peace out!
Steve
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Muddled
Not much time this morning but I tought I would share one thing with you, and that is President George W. Bush explaining his Social Security plan. Now before you accuse me of satire or something let me assure you that these are the President's words and not mine. I took them from the official Whitehouse web site:
Yes, ma'am.
Q -- really understand how is it the new plan is going to fix that problem?
THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.
Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
Okay, better? I'll keep working on it
Satire takes work but irony writes itself! Here is the whole thing if you have the stomach to read it.
Bush Speaks
Now, can you actually believe we elected this moron? I want to be kind, but I just can't.
Courage,
Steve
Yes, ma'am.
Q -- really understand how is it the new plan is going to fix that problem?
THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.
Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
Okay, better? I'll keep working on it
Satire takes work but irony writes itself! Here is the whole thing if you have the stomach to read it.
Bush Speaks
Now, can you actually believe we elected this moron? I want to be kind, but I just can't.
Courage,
Steve
Friday, February 04, 2005
Fargo 42
OH joy! Sun's out...
Corrections go first in my world.
Regarding our local newspaper regime, I wrote "editor" when I meant "Publisher". Our Editor is , by all accounts a reasonable and thoughtful person, and I abase myself for such a grievous mistake. Sorry TL! My Bad!
There is also a difference that I did not make clear as far as individuals and the collective conscience of official entities. Our School Board, County Commission, and most committees actually have creative thoughtful people within their members...It is just that good ideas seldom get through the filter of personalities when it comes time to act.
There! Sorry for the confusion.
Wouldn't you know it? I have to fly out of town and the weather looks like it will be spectacular here after three days of gloom. I should be back just in time for the next Tennessee winter funk. The eagles went screaming by at first light. They must be hungry after sitting around in the wet for so long. The light was so deep red that the Black and white looked like blood red and black on the adult birds. Maybe that is a good metaphor for America's symbol right now?
Yesterday, President of only some of the people, George W. Bush, gave a speech in Fargo, regarding his plan for Piratizing Social Security. He lied of course, saying once again that it is headed for bancruptcy. It is not!...But that is not the outrage of the moment. No, I am outraged by something bigger than Bush's lie of the day.
The President gave a speech as a sitting president, sworn into office to uphold the constitution. I believe the constitution would be the highest law of the land and within its paragraphs is a phrase that guarantees Americans the right of free assembly. If your President makes a public appearance in the service of the office to which he is elected, the public has a right to attend. President Bush barred 42 people from his sight and sound. These 42 people were not criminals, convicted felons, or disturbers of the public peace in any way shape or form, no, what they were Dean for America Democrats! One is a respected City Councilman of the town in which the President was speaking, and has every right to attend any public event in her own town.
These people have become known as the Fargo 42 and symbolize what is wrong with Bush America but not in the way you might at first think.
Bush did not want anyone there who actually knew the arithmetic behind his pathetic plan to destroy Social security and that is the reason for barring those people, but there's more...
I have given this some thought and I believe it is part of an overall pattern that clues us in to the depths of the sickness affecting the Presidency. George Bush os so fraglie that he erupts in anger when he is not surronded by suckups!
He stormed out of a press conference when he was asked a question that had not been preapproved, shouting, "Keep those Mother F------s away from me!"
He keeps himself isolated from any protest. Did you see the inaugural parade with its dogs and machine guns and armoured vehicles surrounding the President? He and Laura got out and walked a few feet so that photos could be taken but they jumped back into their armoured car and sped away when a few protesters shouted at them.
President Bush has never, not once, allowed himself to be questioned publicly in this country without haveing reviewed and approved the questions beforehand.
Not once has anyone been allowed to publicly question his outrageously false numbers on Social Security...because he is lying! And he is insecure, and he is very very afraid of the truth.
This is from Democracy Radio:
"News of the Bush blacklist of dozens of citizens from a Fargo, North Dakota speech is as frightening as it has become routine for this Administration. To blacklist a local citizen because he produces a radio program at odds with the political agenda of the White House is dangerous for Democracy.
This Administration cannot promote freedom and liberty abroad while banning our most fundamental freedoms here at home. The pattern of stifling those voices that do not represent conservative orthodoxy has chilling implications for our Democracy.
Consider these recent cases:
A man is arrested and charged for holding a small “No War” sign at the January Inaugural.
The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq is ejected, arrested and charged while attending a rally for Laura Bush in September.
Across the country, citizens are removed from public sidewalks because “the President had requested a federal protection zone."
The greatness of this country lies in our constitutionally-protected freedoms and liberties. To attempt to ban those freedoms here at home hurts every American."
Peace,
Steve
Check out the Scribble today. The link is over there ---->
Corrections go first in my world.
Regarding our local newspaper regime, I wrote "editor" when I meant "Publisher". Our Editor is , by all accounts a reasonable and thoughtful person, and I abase myself for such a grievous mistake. Sorry TL! My Bad!
There is also a difference that I did not make clear as far as individuals and the collective conscience of official entities. Our School Board, County Commission, and most committees actually have creative thoughtful people within their members...It is just that good ideas seldom get through the filter of personalities when it comes time to act.
There! Sorry for the confusion.
Wouldn't you know it? I have to fly out of town and the weather looks like it will be spectacular here after three days of gloom. I should be back just in time for the next Tennessee winter funk. The eagles went screaming by at first light. They must be hungry after sitting around in the wet for so long. The light was so deep red that the Black and white looked like blood red and black on the adult birds. Maybe that is a good metaphor for America's symbol right now?
Yesterday, President of only some of the people, George W. Bush, gave a speech in Fargo, regarding his plan for Piratizing Social Security. He lied of course, saying once again that it is headed for bancruptcy. It is not!...But that is not the outrage of the moment. No, I am outraged by something bigger than Bush's lie of the day.
The President gave a speech as a sitting president, sworn into office to uphold the constitution. I believe the constitution would be the highest law of the land and within its paragraphs is a phrase that guarantees Americans the right of free assembly. If your President makes a public appearance in the service of the office to which he is elected, the public has a right to attend. President Bush barred 42 people from his sight and sound. These 42 people were not criminals, convicted felons, or disturbers of the public peace in any way shape or form, no, what they were Dean for America Democrats! One is a respected City Councilman of the town in which the President was speaking, and has every right to attend any public event in her own town.
These people have become known as the Fargo 42 and symbolize what is wrong with Bush America but not in the way you might at first think.
Bush did not want anyone there who actually knew the arithmetic behind his pathetic plan to destroy Social security and that is the reason for barring those people, but there's more...
I have given this some thought and I believe it is part of an overall pattern that clues us in to the depths of the sickness affecting the Presidency. George Bush os so fraglie that he erupts in anger when he is not surronded by suckups!
He stormed out of a press conference when he was asked a question that had not been preapproved, shouting, "Keep those Mother F------s away from me!"
He keeps himself isolated from any protest. Did you see the inaugural parade with its dogs and machine guns and armoured vehicles surrounding the President? He and Laura got out and walked a few feet so that photos could be taken but they jumped back into their armoured car and sped away when a few protesters shouted at them.
President Bush has never, not once, allowed himself to be questioned publicly in this country without haveing reviewed and approved the questions beforehand.
Not once has anyone been allowed to publicly question his outrageously false numbers on Social Security...because he is lying! And he is insecure, and he is very very afraid of the truth.
This is from Democracy Radio:
"News of the Bush blacklist of dozens of citizens from a Fargo, North Dakota speech is as frightening as it has become routine for this Administration. To blacklist a local citizen because he produces a radio program at odds with the political agenda of the White House is dangerous for Democracy.
This Administration cannot promote freedom and liberty abroad while banning our most fundamental freedoms here at home. The pattern of stifling those voices that do not represent conservative orthodoxy has chilling implications for our Democracy.
Consider these recent cases:
A man is arrested and charged for holding a small “No War” sign at the January Inaugural.
The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq is ejected, arrested and charged while attending a rally for Laura Bush in September.
Across the country, citizens are removed from public sidewalks because “the President had requested a federal protection zone."
The greatness of this country lies in our constitutionally-protected freedoms and liberties. To attempt to ban those freedoms here at home hurts every American."
Peace,
Steve
Check out the Scribble today. The link is over there ---->
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Morons of the Oxy variety
Roane County Tennessee has its very own little newspaper, and, like all little newspapers, the personality of the paper reflects that of its editor. After studying our new Publisher I have to ask this question:
"Since the Earth is obviously flat, if you move too far in one direction, say..to the right...won't you eventually fall off the edge and get eaten by sea monsters?"
The best writing in small town papers is often in the letters section. Well maybe not the best but often the most interesting. This is often the forum for personal vendettas against the School Board, the Mayor, the Sheriff, and anybody anywhere in the whole county that has anything resembling an idea.
(Please do not read in this that I am accusing the Mayor, Sheriff, School Board, etc., of ever having an idea...No that was not my intent. People having ideas would be quite separated from any position of authority in any small town based community)
There is a column written by the ex editor of one of our old papers that got absorbed into what's left, and though what's left is definitely not "left", the Old Curmudgeon is a bit to the left of Genghis Khan who was a bit of a Liberal according to a new column humorously entitled, "Conservative Thinking". Conservative Thinking is supposedly a group written column taken from letters to the editor ranting about something the Old Cur has written.
See? Fair and balanced...The Old Cur and Conservative Thinking.
There is a serious problem with titling a column Conservative Thinking and that would involve finding anything to print. One would assume that to get into such a column, a letter would have to involve something conservative and some actual thinking to go along with it, but so far this has eluded our editor. He has been unable to find a brain wave on the Conservative side so he has let people put their names on Republican talking points and publish it as original "Thinking".
President Bush's attempt to piratize Social Security has ripped a hole in the breast plate of conservatives, letting all the world see the rot within. One nice man tried to demonstrate conservative thinking, using the President's numbers to show why piratizing Social Security is such a good idea. The problem for the President is that trusting folks like this one might actually look at their own calculations and say, "Hey...this isn't right... It won't work...He's lying!"
See, right there in our newspaper right in the Conservative Thinking Column, this nice man does the Presidential numbers for us using a 10 percent annual return for his piratized account, even though the actual rate of return for the stock market is actually less than half that figure and that figure actually won't work either.
See! He didn't think!
If he had used the actual historical rate of return for the stock market since George W. Bush has been in office he would have had to use a negative number for his calculations and he would have lost money big time...which now that I think about it, everybody pretty much did lose money big time.
So there we have it. The term, "conservative thinking" now joins such illustrious others as jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, and business ethics in the land of Oxy Morons.
Watch out for sea monsters.
Peace,
Steve
"Since the Earth is obviously flat, if you move too far in one direction, say..to the right...won't you eventually fall off the edge and get eaten by sea monsters?"
The best writing in small town papers is often in the letters section. Well maybe not the best but often the most interesting. This is often the forum for personal vendettas against the School Board, the Mayor, the Sheriff, and anybody anywhere in the whole county that has anything resembling an idea.
(Please do not read in this that I am accusing the Mayor, Sheriff, School Board, etc., of ever having an idea...No that was not my intent. People having ideas would be quite separated from any position of authority in any small town based community)
There is a column written by the ex editor of one of our old papers that got absorbed into what's left, and though what's left is definitely not "left", the Old Curmudgeon is a bit to the left of Genghis Khan who was a bit of a Liberal according to a new column humorously entitled, "Conservative Thinking". Conservative Thinking is supposedly a group written column taken from letters to the editor ranting about something the Old Cur has written.
See? Fair and balanced...The Old Cur and Conservative Thinking.
There is a serious problem with titling a column Conservative Thinking and that would involve finding anything to print. One would assume that to get into such a column, a letter would have to involve something conservative and some actual thinking to go along with it, but so far this has eluded our editor. He has been unable to find a brain wave on the Conservative side so he has let people put their names on Republican talking points and publish it as original "Thinking".
President Bush's attempt to piratize Social Security has ripped a hole in the breast plate of conservatives, letting all the world see the rot within. One nice man tried to demonstrate conservative thinking, using the President's numbers to show why piratizing Social Security is such a good idea. The problem for the President is that trusting folks like this one might actually look at their own calculations and say, "Hey...this isn't right... It won't work...He's lying!"
See, right there in our newspaper right in the Conservative Thinking Column, this nice man does the Presidential numbers for us using a 10 percent annual return for his piratized account, even though the actual rate of return for the stock market is actually less than half that figure and that figure actually won't work either.
See! He didn't think!
If he had used the actual historical rate of return for the stock market since George W. Bush has been in office he would have had to use a negative number for his calculations and he would have lost money big time...which now that I think about it, everybody pretty much did lose money big time.
So there we have it. The term, "conservative thinking" now joins such illustrious others as jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, and business ethics in the land of Oxy Morons.
Watch out for sea monsters.
Peace,
Steve
Morons of the Oxy variety
Roane County Tennessee has its very own little newspaper, and, like all little newspapers, the personality of the paper reflects that of its editor. After studying our new editor I have to ask this question:
"Since the Earth is obviously flat, if you move too far in one direction, say..to the right...won't you eventually fall off the edge and get eaten by sea monsters?"
The best writing in small town papers is often in the letters section. Well maybe not the best but often the most interesting. This is often the forum for personal vendettas against the School Board, the Mayor, the Sheriff, and anybody anywhere in the whole county that has anything resembling an idea.
(Please do not read in this that I am accusing the Mayor, Sheriff, School Board, etc., of ever having an idea...No that was not my intent. People having ideas would be quite separated from any position of authority in any small town based community)
There is a column written by the ex editor of one of our old papers that got absorbed into what's left, and though what's left is definitely not "left", the Old Curmudgeon is a bit to the left of Genghis Khan who was a bit of a Liberal according to a new column humorously entitled, "Conservative Thinking". Conservative Thinking is supposedly a group written column taken from letters to the editor ranting about something the Old Cur has written.
See? Fair and balanced...The Old Cur and Conservative Thinking.
There is a serious problem with titling a column Conservative Thinking and that would involve finding anything to print. One would assume that to get into such a column, a letter would have to involve something conservative and some actual thinking to go along with it, but so far this has eluded our editor. He has been unable to find a brain wave on the Conservative side so he has let people put their names on Republican talking points and publish it as original "Thinking".
President Bush's attempt to piratize Social Security has ripped a hole in the breast plate of conservatives, letting all the world see the rot within. One nice man tried to demonstrate conservative thinking, using the President's numbers to show why piratizing Social Security is such a good idea. The problem for the President is that trusting folks like this one might actually look at their own calculations and say, "Hey...this isn't right... It won't work...He's lying!"
See, right there in our newspaper right in the Conservative Thinking Column, this nice man does the Presidential numbers for us using a 10 percent annual return for his piratized account, even though the actual rate of return for the stock market is actually less than half that figure and that figure actually won't work either.
See! He didn't think!
If he had used the actual historical rate of return for the stock market since George W. Bush has been in office he would have had to use a negative number for his calculations and he would have lost money big time...which now that I think about it, everybody pretty much did lose money big time.
So there we have it. The term, "conservative thinking" now joins such illustrious others as jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, and business ethics in the land of Oxy Morons.
Watch out for sea monsters.
Peace,
Steve
"Since the Earth is obviously flat, if you move too far in one direction, say..to the right...won't you eventually fall off the edge and get eaten by sea monsters?"
The best writing in small town papers is often in the letters section. Well maybe not the best but often the most interesting. This is often the forum for personal vendettas against the School Board, the Mayor, the Sheriff, and anybody anywhere in the whole county that has anything resembling an idea.
(Please do not read in this that I am accusing the Mayor, Sheriff, School Board, etc., of ever having an idea...No that was not my intent. People having ideas would be quite separated from any position of authority in any small town based community)
There is a column written by the ex editor of one of our old papers that got absorbed into what's left, and though what's left is definitely not "left", the Old Curmudgeon is a bit to the left of Genghis Khan who was a bit of a Liberal according to a new column humorously entitled, "Conservative Thinking". Conservative Thinking is supposedly a group written column taken from letters to the editor ranting about something the Old Cur has written.
See? Fair and balanced...The Old Cur and Conservative Thinking.
There is a serious problem with titling a column Conservative Thinking and that would involve finding anything to print. One would assume that to get into such a column, a letter would have to involve something conservative and some actual thinking to go along with it, but so far this has eluded our editor. He has been unable to find a brain wave on the Conservative side so he has let people put their names on Republican talking points and publish it as original "Thinking".
President Bush's attempt to piratize Social Security has ripped a hole in the breast plate of conservatives, letting all the world see the rot within. One nice man tried to demonstrate conservative thinking, using the President's numbers to show why piratizing Social Security is such a good idea. The problem for the President is that trusting folks like this one might actually look at their own calculations and say, "Hey...this isn't right... It won't work...He's lying!"
See, right there in our newspaper right in the Conservative Thinking Column, this nice man does the Presidential numbers for us using a 10 percent annual return for his piratized account, even though the actual rate of return for the stock market is actually less than half that figure and that figure actually won't work either.
See! He didn't think!
If he had used the actual historical rate of return for the stock market since George W. Bush has been in office he would have had to use a negative number for his calculations and he would have lost money big time...which now that I think about it, everybody pretty much did lose money big time.
So there we have it. The term, "conservative thinking" now joins such illustrious others as jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, and business ethics in the land of Oxy Morons.
Watch out for sea monsters.
Peace,
Steve
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Groundhog day
Well, well, well...I read that some stupid rodent in Pa has decreed that we will have six more weeks of winter, but I don't think so because we haven't even had the first six weeks of winter where I live. If you want to know anything about the weather here in the South, everyone knows you don't ask a groundhog anyway. Why ask anything important of a big rat that's afraid of its shadow? I would sooner trust a possum.
With that in mind, I went up the road to talk to Possum. His momma named him Dwayne but everyone calls him Possum and he is at least as smart as any overgrown rat...well almost, anyway. Here's my report:
"Hey, Possum. How's it goin'?"
"Pret' good, 'Bout Chu?"
"Oh, mighty good, mighty good...How 'bout this weather?"
"Don't know...might rain."
"Yep...Might...Well see ya, Possum."
"See ya, Steve."
So there you have it. Straight from the Possum, and you know what? It's raining.
Groundhog Day is a progeny of Candlemas, which I think is the day Mary became clean again after being unclean because she gave birth to a male child. As I understand it, she would still be unclean for forty more days if she had given birth to a maid child, which used to mean a black baby when I was a child but nowadays I think it means a Hispanic baby or something like that.
(Now don't go all PC on me, you know its true...and I'm just trying to be funny. Anyway, the South has changed a great deal so that today only about 60% of us are foam at the mouth bigots, and we don't call them bigots anymore. We call them Republicans.)
So! Where was I....
Some folks say Candlemas should be celebrated on February 15 which would screw up the Xmas and New year holiday season if you count back 40 days, but since it really ought to be celebrated somewhere around August, I don't see how it matters much. I can just see everyone gathering around a groundhog hole to see if there's going to be six more weeks of summer. This wouldn't work with a possum by the way, because possums aren't stupid enough to come out in the daytime in August. They save all their energy so they can come out in the relative cool of the night and fling themselves in front of cars.
So there you have it...I think we can all now see that groundhog day has changed over the years until it has become what it is today...In the United States of America, this very day, a big rat will come out of its hole and appear before Congress and give what is called the State of the Union Address, which will have about as much of a relationship with the truth as Puxatawny Phil has with meteorology.
I'd rather trust a possum.
Peace,
Steve
Mr. Fincher has a good take on groundhog day but you'll have to go there yourself. I'm probably in enough trouble with the PC folks.
http://www.theillustrateddailyscribble.com/
"Voter turnout was lowest among Iraq's Sunni minority. Saddam Hussein was Sunni, and many in the group resent the loss of power. They feel alienated by the current political climate and are unwilling to accept the election results, and may react with violence. They're just like Democrats, except they might actually do something." -- Jon Stewart
With that in mind, I went up the road to talk to Possum. His momma named him Dwayne but everyone calls him Possum and he is at least as smart as any overgrown rat...well almost, anyway. Here's my report:
"Hey, Possum. How's it goin'?"
"Pret' good, 'Bout Chu?"
"Oh, mighty good, mighty good...How 'bout this weather?"
"Don't know...might rain."
"Yep...Might...Well see ya, Possum."
"See ya, Steve."
So there you have it. Straight from the Possum, and you know what? It's raining.
Groundhog Day is a progeny of Candlemas, which I think is the day Mary became clean again after being unclean because she gave birth to a male child. As I understand it, she would still be unclean for forty more days if she had given birth to a maid child, which used to mean a black baby when I was a child but nowadays I think it means a Hispanic baby or something like that.
(Now don't go all PC on me, you know its true...and I'm just trying to be funny. Anyway, the South has changed a great deal so that today only about 60% of us are foam at the mouth bigots, and we don't call them bigots anymore. We call them Republicans.)
So! Where was I....
Some folks say Candlemas should be celebrated on February 15 which would screw up the Xmas and New year holiday season if you count back 40 days, but since it really ought to be celebrated somewhere around August, I don't see how it matters much. I can just see everyone gathering around a groundhog hole to see if there's going to be six more weeks of summer. This wouldn't work with a possum by the way, because possums aren't stupid enough to come out in the daytime in August. They save all their energy so they can come out in the relative cool of the night and fling themselves in front of cars.
So there you have it...I think we can all now see that groundhog day has changed over the years until it has become what it is today...In the United States of America, this very day, a big rat will come out of its hole and appear before Congress and give what is called the State of the Union Address, which will have about as much of a relationship with the truth as Puxatawny Phil has with meteorology.
I'd rather trust a possum.
Peace,
Steve
Mr. Fincher has a good take on groundhog day but you'll have to go there yourself. I'm probably in enough trouble with the PC folks.
http://www.theillustrateddailyscribble.com/
"Voter turnout was lowest among Iraq's Sunni minority. Saddam Hussein was Sunni, and many in the group resent the loss of power. They feel alienated by the current political climate and are unwilling to accept the election results, and may react with violence. They're just like Democrats, except they might actually do something." -- Jon Stewart
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
If elected, I will not serve
Gee thanks, all you folks who offered to campaign for me if I would run for State Senator against the not so closeted Republican we have in office now. Here is a short list of why I will not do so, but thanks anyway.
1. I am employable in the private sector.
Just because I don't want a job doesn't mean I can't get one...Really. (I used to say the same thing about girl friends many years ago before I suckered my dear wife into the chains of matrimony and could quit worrying about why I didn't have a girlfriend.)
2. I have a tendency to say things like, "Oh, Bullshit!" instead of things like, "Oh, that's a good point. We'll have to give that some thought."
3. I don't believe that Jesus wants us to kill Iraqi women and children. See, I am not much of anything, much less, a Baptist. To be elected around here you have to go to a lot of churches and just sit there smiling while preachers say nasty things about the people sitting in other churches saying nasty things about people sitting in other churches. The last church I tried to attend had a good friend of mine as the preacher. He learned fairly quickly to not ask me what I thought about the sermon as we shook hands in the doorway out of there. "Don, that sermon made as much sense as anything else I've heard you say, " I came around to saying and my wife would look very relieved that I hadn't said, "Oh, Bullshit, Don."
4. I'm an honest guy, or nearly so anyway. Nobody I know has anything I want bad enough to steal it from them, and there actually lots of things I won't do for money. This is a major character flaw for a politician. It is nearly as big of a handicap as the inability to lie with a straight face and say things like, "America... will spread... Freedom."
5. I can't lie with a straight face and say things like, "America...will spread...Freedom!"
6. But the number one reason I could not be a State Senator is that I seem to have some kind of sense of things being either "Right" or "Wrong". Right and wrong don't have anything to do with what goes on in Nashville, or anywhere else politicians gather up to act in nefarious ways. You are supposed to be for or against things based on whose idea it was and how it plays in the focus groups. I mean when the representative from Crossville stands up and says his district needs to destroy the environmental regulations that prevent them from dumping poisonous chemicals and sewage into the river that flows right through our towns down here, I would not say something like, "Well, as long as it creates jobs, it's a good thing."
Nope! I would probably say, "Oh, Bullshit!"
Peace,
Steve
*****
I had a message on my answer machine last night from a guy who said he was the Preacher in a "Free Will Baptist" church and wanted to buy a piece of land from me to build a new church on. I don't think so, but "Free will" and "Baptist" don't seem to go together very well. What am I missing here?
*****
Economist Dean Baker drives a stake through the heart of the blood suckers that want to steal Social Security. In order for the privatization scheme to work out like they claim it will, several things have to happen and they claim this in their faceless propaganda. Mr. Baker says step forward, Mr. NeoCon Economist and tell us who you are that makes these claims!
Stock price to earnings rations will have to go from today's already inflated average of 20 to 70 by the year 2050 and all the way to 100 by the year 2060 in order for the private accounts to yield 6.5 percent return over 75 years. Mr. Baker says name yourself, whoever you are.
We will see if any Republican economist steps forward. The bet is that no one will because to do so will simply destroy their professional credibilty.
krugman
1. I am employable in the private sector.
Just because I don't want a job doesn't mean I can't get one...Really. (I used to say the same thing about girl friends many years ago before I suckered my dear wife into the chains of matrimony and could quit worrying about why I didn't have a girlfriend.)
2. I have a tendency to say things like, "Oh, Bullshit!" instead of things like, "Oh, that's a good point. We'll have to give that some thought."
3. I don't believe that Jesus wants us to kill Iraqi women and children. See, I am not much of anything, much less, a Baptist. To be elected around here you have to go to a lot of churches and just sit there smiling while preachers say nasty things about the people sitting in other churches saying nasty things about people sitting in other churches. The last church I tried to attend had a good friend of mine as the preacher. He learned fairly quickly to not ask me what I thought about the sermon as we shook hands in the doorway out of there. "Don, that sermon made as much sense as anything else I've heard you say, " I came around to saying and my wife would look very relieved that I hadn't said, "Oh, Bullshit, Don."
4. I'm an honest guy, or nearly so anyway. Nobody I know has anything I want bad enough to steal it from them, and there actually lots of things I won't do for money. This is a major character flaw for a politician. It is nearly as big of a handicap as the inability to lie with a straight face and say things like, "America... will spread... Freedom."
5. I can't lie with a straight face and say things like, "America...will spread...Freedom!"
6. But the number one reason I could not be a State Senator is that I seem to have some kind of sense of things being either "Right" or "Wrong". Right and wrong don't have anything to do with what goes on in Nashville, or anywhere else politicians gather up to act in nefarious ways. You are supposed to be for or against things based on whose idea it was and how it plays in the focus groups. I mean when the representative from Crossville stands up and says his district needs to destroy the environmental regulations that prevent them from dumping poisonous chemicals and sewage into the river that flows right through our towns down here, I would not say something like, "Well, as long as it creates jobs, it's a good thing."
Nope! I would probably say, "Oh, Bullshit!"
Peace,
Steve
*****
I had a message on my answer machine last night from a guy who said he was the Preacher in a "Free Will Baptist" church and wanted to buy a piece of land from me to build a new church on. I don't think so, but "Free will" and "Baptist" don't seem to go together very well. What am I missing here?
*****
Economist Dean Baker drives a stake through the heart of the blood suckers that want to steal Social Security. In order for the privatization scheme to work out like they claim it will, several things have to happen and they claim this in their faceless propaganda. Mr. Baker says step forward, Mr. NeoCon Economist and tell us who you are that makes these claims!
Stock price to earnings rations will have to go from today's already inflated average of 20 to 70 by the year 2050 and all the way to 100 by the year 2060 in order for the private accounts to yield 6.5 percent return over 75 years. Mr. Baker says name yourself, whoever you are.
We will see if any Republican economist steps forward. The bet is that no one will because to do so will simply destroy their professional credibilty.
krugman
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)