Blog On, Baby, Blog On

2009-05-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

2009-05-21T18:35:00.001-04:00

2009-05-10T11:12:00.002-04:00

A Good Dog Will Save Your Life

(I tried to post this on Alt...but after 7 attempts and it STILL sitting unpublished after more than twelve hours...well, fuck them)

Some days are harder than others...and today was a very hard day.

(trust me when I say I know Hard Days)

My old dog died.

My old dog who helped me though a hell of a lot of Hard Days.

==============================================================

She came into my life at a time when I had a lot of Sturm & Drang rocking my boat. She quite literally adopted me and attached herself to me. And I didn't mind a bit.

Any six week old dog that works as hard as she did to throw off her neglectful owners to come live with me deserves what she wants. I mean...a pup tiny enough to fit in the palm of my hand scales a fence, climbs a staircase and trundles throughout a house until she finds me and passes out exhausted next to my chair? Who the fuck am I to turn her away? That's determination and demands respect.

Many a night, when I pushed away sleep...she sat up with me and kept me level. Don't ever try and tell me dogs aren't intuitive and in tune with human emotions. I'll tell you to go shit in your hat. That dog provided a comforting presence...never asking for anything...just sitting there...peaceful, licking my hand...reminding me that the peace in a life interrupted by the violent and the tragic comes from the simple moments.

That's it, man. She gave me peace.

As we sat on our New Orleans porch and I sipped my beer and she crunched her ice cubes and the evening humidity enveloped us like velvet...she kept me grounded. At a time when I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to come all the way back home...that goddamned good dog gave me a peaceful focal point.
=================================================================

And now she's gone. 13 and a half years is s good run for a dog. I'd prefer they have 20 or more years...but that's above my pay grade.

She'd been sick off and on for over a month. And overnight it got bad. I had her in the car...driving to the vet...her laying in the passenger seat...me driving one-handed...my other hand on her chest monitoring her vitals...

...when she passed. I felt her heart flutter...and stop. She gave a final sigh, put her head down and that was that. I pulled over three blocks from the vet's office and closed her eyes and wrapped her blanket a little more tightly around her. Then I continued on.
=================================================================

That's all you can do...suck it up, ruck up, move out.

But I still feel like a mooring line has been broken.

2009-05-09T16:27:00.002-04:00

R.I.P. my friend

Kelly

Nov 13, 1995 - May 9, 2009

2009-04-23T18:27:00.001-04:00

Cleveland Rocks.....

2008-12-11T16:37:00.001-05:00

Marmoset There's Be Days Like This

2008-11-13T18:54:00.002-05:00

I just saw on the news that it's expected that in the year 2009 over 443,000 Americans will die from smoking related causes.

I gotta ask...why?

It's so beyond my ken why anyone born after 1970 or so would even start smoking.

There are easier, faster, less expensive and less painful ways to kill oneself.

2008-11-11T19:07:00.001-05:00

2008-11-10T19:07:00.001-05:00

I Wish I Could Sleep Like This

The kittens at 4 weeks.

2008-11-08T10:12:00.001-05:00

2008-10-20T12:19:00.006-04:00

Four of the five kittens now living in my house.

2008-10-19T10:38:00.004-04:00

That Ol' Plagiarism Thingie

Since maybe just three or four people from the other place read this blog I can post on the plagiarism without a ridiculous pissing contest ensuing. And believe me...my first thought was to bust them and make a big deal in a vindictive way because the perpetrator is an obnoxious ass.

There are two actually...they have a couple's profile but the male half also has his own. The offending blog is in the couple's name (look up Baby Girl in Grubby and VA daddy Dom 64). They showed up in the blogs about a week ago and immediately began being total trolls. They began telling people what and what not to post in blogs, attacking views belligerently, making personal attacks, making threats of violence, etc, etc, etc. You know the drill.

At first I thought they were the "agent provocateur" type of troll who only pretend to be dim and angry to stir up reactions...like Andy Kaufman used to do with his wrestling shtick. Their posts were just so...well, nearly illiterate. You really had to focus to make sense of what they were attempting to say. And they took any answer to their comments as a challenge and made threats. And then the racism started.

Yeah...both sides of the couple are proud and vocal racists. A typical comment went along the lines of Obama will never be elected because "it's called the White House!"

They were so ridiculous I was certain they couldn't be for real. They seemed to be forcing a severe stereotype...I was sure it had to be a character.

Now I'm not so sure.

========================

This is from their blog:

"There are 107 "Historically Black" colleges whose fundamental blackness must be preserved in the name of diversity, but all historically white colleges must be forcibly integrated, to resist being labeled racism."

And this:

"More & more the Obama campaign is using violence,vandalism and intimidation as its unofficial standard operating procedure. Violence and corruption seem to go hand-in-hand with african American politics. Stories of massive vote fraud by the liberal activists group ACORN have made the news this week,and now Obama's followers seem to be getting increasingly intolerant of free speech and in some cases violent as election day nears."

This first is just one section of several take from an article...

WHAT IS RACISM? by Thomas Jackson {Originally Published in American Renaissance, Vol 2, No. 8}

Which can be found in whole....on David Duke's website. Yeah, that David Duke...former Grand Wizard of the KKK. Did I mention that the male half of this couple has said on several blogs that he's writing in Duke for President this year?

The second bit of text is one of several paragraphs taken word for word and dropped into the middle of another of their blog posts...again no quotes, no citation, no different font or text color...none of the usual things that demonstrate that something is not your own writing....taken from an article on extremely right wing, anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, white supremacy site altermedia.info:

http://us.altermedia.info/news-of-interest-to-white-people/obama-campaign-using-violence-and-intimidation_3839.html

==============

And so on.

In none of these instances do they mention they are using outside sources. They just cut and paste and weave them into their own racist rants. Most of what they've written so far is plagiarized.

It's obvious as well. When they comment on blogs they really are hard to follow...and amusing in a way some insanely, aggressively maniacal people are. For example...this is typical of their commenting:

"Stay in yankee land loser,& BTW get a real tattoo. Racist,fail to see the problem there guy. Its the WHITE HOUSE & allways will be. Guess you & all the loudmouth Leftest assholes who NEVER serverved a day in your life are allways the ones who run your mouths. Go figure there KEYBOARD RAMBO,BTW My invitatation still stands in real time there sunshine KEYBOARD RAMBO.Barack Hussein Obama a black muslim name,BTW a muslim mole to infiltrate? Go watch CNN ya asshole loser."

It's becoming more difficult to find these choice nuggets since so many people are deleting and/or banning this couple. I guess that's why they started their own blog...to combat alt's "Leftest agenda." (sic) Which is funny because their earliest comments were telling people to stop posting about politics....and to stop censoring the right wing (I guess they knew they'd be so obnoxious as to get banned time and again? Because they made the accusations, obviously, before anyone banned them) while in their own blog they have it set to approve comments...which they don't and leave them hidden in pending.

When their own blog thoughts became coherent...my bullshit RADAR turned on. So I checked in Google...and sure enough...cut and paste idiocy.

So you can see why I wanted to but them...just out of spite for their sheer obnoxiousness.

But I have to admit....they are kinda fun to watch. I wouldn't think so if they were in any way in danger of making a valid and coherent albeit wrong-headed point. But they are just so confused (that's another thing...they can't seem to remember who've they tussled with and keep mixing people up...and belligerently insisting they have the right person...hilarious) and aggressive and vile and comically inept.

2008-09-28T12:03:00.001-04:00

Gah. I updated the template for this blog and it screwed up all my links and some other stuff. If you see that I am no longer linking to your blog...it wasn't me...it was the system, man.

I have to rebuild the list now.

2008-09-25T00:47:00.000-04:00

I Suppose I Should be Flattered

Out of idle curiosity I spent some time seeing who had been to my various blogs, how they found it (if not a regular or alt refugee), etc. I found one address who had been to my Desert Storm related blog multiple times...so I did some backtracking...and discovered they had found it via a google image search.

It's a teacher in another state who was making a web page on the history of Desert Shield/Storm for his grade school students.

And he used three of my photos on the page.

Which sort of baffles me...because almost all my pics are mundane and sort of dull. If you look around the web, the DS memorial or bio pages...the photos are so very, very similar. In fact, many are much more exciting, dramatic and demonstrative than my few surviving ones. He could have used any number of the thousands of the pics available online. But three of the five were plucked from my blog. Weird.

I guess it might be flattering...that some very young kids will be learning about a short, nasty and mostly eclipsed war and their visuals of it will include the image of my sad, filthy little sand filled tent.

2008-09-24T19:34:00.001-04:00

From the No Shit, Sherlock files:

Clay Aiken came out as gay. Access Hollywood TV celebrity-themed show goes into breathless histrionics.

Next week it will be announced that water is wet.

2008-09-18T04:03:00.007-04:00

I'd be Lying...

...if I said pictures like these....

didn't drive me absolutely insane with lust...

2008-09-18T04:03:00.002-04:00

In Literary News....

This has me bummed...

"US authors have been paying tribute to writer David Foster Wallace, who was found dead at his home in Claremont, California, on Friday night.

The 46-year-old hanged himself at his home, police said.

Wallace, best known for 1996 novel Infinite Jest, first gained praise for his offbeat humour with 1987 debut The Broom of the System.

In 1987, the New York Times said the then-24-year-old's Broom of the System was "a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok".

His biggest hit, Infinite Jest - set in an elite tennis academy and a drug rehabilitation centre - was praised by critics for its complex, dark wit and featured in many best-of lists.
Wallace, born in Ithaca, New York, also wrote short fiction, published in magazines including GQ, Esquire and Harper's.

Three collections of his short stories - Girl With Curious Hair, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men and Oblivion: Stories - were also published. "

===================

I was a big fan of his...even though at times some of his writing made me roll my eyes (sometimes he tried to hard to be different and his writing came off very mannered) I still appreciated his wit.

I find myself wondering if his suicide note had several pages of footnotes .

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

And this has me happy...

Children's author Eoin Colfer has been commissioned to write a sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series.

Mostly Harmless, the last Hitchhiker book, was written by its creator, the late Douglas Adams, 16 years ago.

Now Adams's widow, Jane Belson, has given her approval to bring back the hapless Arthur Dent in a new book entitled And Another Thing...

Eoin Colfer, 43, is best known for the best-selling Artemis Fowl novels.
He said he was "terrified" by the prospect of creating a new Hitchhiker book almost a quarter of a century after being introduced to what he described as a "slice of satirical genius" in his late teens.

2008-09-15T19:30:00.003-04:00

Visual Representation of The Bush Doctrine:

A Handy Learning Tool for Sarah Palin.

2008-09-15T06:39:00.002-04:00

Because I'd rather have two or three people I know will read and sign rather than 500 people read and do nothing....

From an IAVA mailing....

With your help, we're holding the presidential candidates accountable.
With 53 days left until the election, the stakes couldn't be higher for our country's 1.7 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. Thousands of Americans have signed IAVA's open letter, asking Senators Obama and McCain to pledge that they will make veterans' issues a top priority when they reach the White House.

Can you take a minute to add your name?

Over the past two weeks, IAVA took our message of putting veterans first on the road to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. IAVA is non-partisan and does not endorse political candidates, but we brought member veterans from across the country to tell convention delegates and guests about the most critical issues facing our country's newest generation of heroes.

IAVA will continue to work in Washington, DC and across the country on behalf of our newest generation of veterans. Can you help us out by adding your name to the petition to the candidates?

Yesterday, Senators Obama and McCain put political bickering aside and came together in remembrance of September 11, 2001. Just as patriotism rose above partisanship then, we can unite now to honor our nation's veterans.

Together we can move beyond political rhetoric and work to ensure that no matter who our next President is, veterans' issues remain part of the national dialogue. Be sure to forward this email to your friends and family.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Paul Rieckhoff
Iraq Veteran
Executive DirectorIraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

P.S. The presidential candidates aren't the only politicians we're holding accountable. In the next few weeks, IAVA Action will be releasing our 2008 Congressional Report Card, grading members of Congress on their votes on key veterans legislation. As soon as it's posted, we'll let you know how to check your lawmakers' scores.

2008-07-10T19:33:00.003-04:00

A Case of The Crazies

It's kind of good that the hardcore, far right fringe, uber conservative crowd at alt tend to congregate in just 3 or 4 blogs. Their insular nature makes it easier to keep an eye on them. And laugh at them...and occasionally shake your head in wonder that people really think this way...

These come from the same woman (taken from the blog of alt's resident Zionist and poll taker):

I would go with other, since half of America wants handouts, free money taken from others, what they can do, own and even eat controlled by the Government, and what others can do, own and even eat controlled by the Government as well. They want the current far left type leaders who are not unlike Hitler or Stalin in social and economic policies. The other half of America still has some idea of freedom, though to different degrees, ranging from those of us who want small Government, to those who like Shrub and McCain and are borderline being like theier fellow Liberals who want the above. It is kind of sad to see so many sell their freedom so cheap for Socialist Progressive Politically Correct shackles made to look like handouts. The dream is still here for some of us though, so Happy 4th of July and God Bless America and all the other Nations that are free because of the USA.

and...

Ok, from the point of view of someone who spent time laerning how criminals deliver BS, I am under the opinion that this was a setup and Jackson nt only knew he was being taped, but was in on duping idiots on the Right as well as Left. First off, Obama has been loosing ground with Whites due to his close friends' and Wife's anti-White views. How does he and his people (his press people) get the Whites to stop seeing him for a possible anti-White Racist? Stage an event where a prominent Black figure, calls him anti-Black and shows anger towrd Obama for not just being a Pro-Black leader. Now, the media plays up Jessie as wrong and Jessie says sorry. Let's face it, he has no credibility outside the Black Racist community anymore anyway, so it does not hurt him to play the part of angry Black in order to make Obama not appear to be the same type of Racist, Jessie is.

I'm not saying Obama is Racist, though he certainly looks it from the company he keeps. I actually think he is a Liberal Elitist and a Marxist instead (or to a greater degree), who looks down on the White Working class, not due to Race, but because he sees them as dumb sheep stupid enough to believe in a God and to hold the idea that they should stand up on their own, rather than as Government held todlers.

Still, Jackson's words ring hollow to me and I firmly believe that this was a staged event to draw idiots into seeing Obama as somehow not tied to Black Racist, such as his former Church, Wife and frienmds/advisors. In the short term it appaers to be working, as so many on the Right and in the Middle seem to now think Obama is not still tied to those he called friends who are Racist. From the start I have said that my problem with Obama and even Hillary have nothing to do with Race or Sex, and instead have to do with both being damn near Commies in their ideology.

Too many have made Race a pro or negative thing in this campaign as a smoke screen to delay the average American from hearing the extreme views of Obama. It is a good tactic and one I think the Liberals will use against any who bring up Obama's voting record, or his policies should he be elected. They will call you a racist if you disagree, even if you have facts showing how his leftist views and actions are not good for the Nation. It worked for Commies elsewhere, it will here too. Jessie is just another example of how it can.

============================

2008-07-03T18:41:00.001-04:00

The Fake News is More Accurate than the Real News

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

2008-07-03T05:49:00.001-04:00

God Bless 'Merica
and the freedoms we have that allows us these moments of silliness.

2008-07-03T05:38:00.000-04:00

Olbermann for President

2008-07-03T05:37:00.000-04:00

2008-06-26T18:31:00.001-04:00

From the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America mailing list...

I'd like to introduce you to three incredible Americans.

Melissa Stockwell, Scott Winkler and Carlos Leon served in Iraq and suffered serious injuries. Since then, they have overcome incredible obstacles to earn the right to represent the US at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China. IAVA will be sponsoring their journey from now until the games begin in September. We are hoping to raise $20,000 to help Melissa, Scott and Carlos pursue their dreams of gold.

Can you make a tax-deductible contribution to help us reach our goal? Take a minute to watch a short video about their incredible journeys.

Melissa Stockwell was the first female amputee from the Iraq war. Less than a year after losing her leg, she ran the New York City Marathon. She had never swum competitively before losing her leg, and recently became the first Iraq war veteran to qualify for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Carlos Leon managed to survive an entire year in Iraq as a Marine in the Sunni triangle, only to tragically break his neck in a swimming accident just weeks after returning home. After attending a Paralympic Military Sports Camp, Leon discovered a hidden talent and passion for throwing the discus. Carlos is headed to Beijing as the best in the world in the discus.

Scott Winkler was unloading an ammunition truck near Tikrit while under fire when he fell and became paralyzed from the chest down. He was introduced to sports during a Paralympic Sports Clinic. At the clinic, he tried throwing the shot put for the first time, and less than a year later he broke the world record. He is expected to dominate his field in Beijing.

Together these athletes carry the hopes and dreams of 30,000 other injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. They are role models for turning adversity into opportunity.

Can you donate today to help us reach our goal of $20,000 to help them get to the games? Your contribution will help Melissa, Scott and Carlos cover the expenses they'll incur over the next few months of training.

Along the road, Melissa, Carlos and Scott will be updating us on their progress. You can follow their journeys at www.iava.org/warrior-champions.

We're honored to be helping these three veterans represent our country at the Paralympics. Can you help them get to Beijing?

Thanks for your generous support.

Sincerely,
Paul Rieckhoff
Iraq Veteran
Executive Director
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

2008-06-20T17:43:00.000-04:00

BREAKING NEWS

The White House and Congress have reached an agreement on the new GI Bill. The bill will now be included in the Emergency Supplemental Funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House of Representatives gave their overwhelming stamp of approval to the plan on Thursday afternoon with a vote of 416-12. Once the Senate passes the updated version of the bill, it will go to the President's desk for his signature.

Last week, Paul told you about the final hurdles facing the new GI Bill. The President was threatening to veto it, and a small group of representatives in the House was planning to stall the bill on a technicality. But people like you have shown extraordinary support for this bill over the past several weeks. By keeping the pressure on the President, you truly made a difference.
In fact, on the Senate floor yesterday, Vietnam veteran and Senator Jim Webb mentioned your impact when he said, "I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans' service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House."

Our hard work in fighting for the new GI Bill continues to pay off. The White House and members of Congress put aside their differences to come together and show real support for our troops. This fight will be remembered as a great example of Washington choosing patriotism over partisanship.

This development comes at an especially fitting time, since we're only a few days away from the 64th anniversary of the original GI Bill being signed into law.
We are about to make history ourselves. While we wait for the President's signature, I'd like you to know how inspiring your support has been throughout this fight.

Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,
Patrick Campbell
Iraq Veteran
Legislative Director
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

2008-06-18T17:14:00.000-04:00

Don't Let Him Get Away with This One

I want to give you a quick update on where things stand in our fight for a new GI Bill.

The bill has passed with strong bipartisan majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it has the support of every major veterans organization. Congress has promised to send a final version of the bill to the President's desk by the 4th of July. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, he has threatened to veto it.

We need to make sure he signs it.

Please take a minute to add your name to the petition at www.GIBill2008.org, urging President Bush to sign the new GI Bill into law.

If the President signs the bill into law, our newest generation of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will finally receive World War II-style educational benefits. With one signature, President Bush can ensure a new generation of leaders gets the bright futures they have earned.

Please add your name to the list of Americans who want the President to sign the new GI Bill.

Let's renew our promise to our veterans and provide them with the opportunity to attend college on the new GI Bill. Spread the word to your family and friends by forwarding this message and asking them to add their name to the petition at www.GIBill2008.org.
Thank you for making your voice heard.

Sincerely,

Paul Rieckhoff

Iraq VeteranExecutive DirectorIraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

2008-06-06T16:46:00.001-04:00

Just Another Reason Why I Love The Daily Show...

Sometimes...it takes a "fool" to bring about the only useful statements in the king's court.

2008-06-05T18:48:00.000-04:00

Repairing the Damage, Before Roe

By WALDO L. FIELDING, M.D.
Published: June 3, 2008
With the Supreme Court becoming more conservative, many people who support women’s right to choose an abortion fear that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that gave them that right, is in danger of being swept aside.

When such fears arise, we often hear about the pre-Roe “bad old days.” Yet there are few physicians today who can relate to them from personal experience. I can.
I am a retired gynecologist, in my mid-80s. My early formal training in my specialty was spent in New York City, from 1948 to 1953, in two of the city’s large municipal hospitals.
There I saw and treated almost every complication of illegal abortion that one could conjure, done either by the patient herself or by an abortionist — often unknowing, unskilled and probably uncaring. Yet the patient never told us who did the work, or where and under what conditions it was performed. She was in dire need of our help to complete the process or, as frequently was the case, to correct what damage might have been done.

The patient also did not explain why she had attempted the abortion, and we did not ask. This was a decision she made for herself, and the reasons were hers alone. Yet this much was clear: The woman had put herself at total risk, and literally did not know whether she would live or die.

This, too, was clear: Her desperate need to terminate a pregnancy was the driving force behind the selection of any method available.

The familiar symbol of illegal abortion is the infamous “coat hanger” — which may be the symbol, but is in no way a myth. In my years in New York, several women arrived with a hanger still in place. Whoever put it in — perhaps the patient herself — found it trapped in the cervix and could not remove it.

We did not have ultrasound, CT scans or any of the now accepted radiology techniques. The woman was placed under anesthesia, and as we removed the metal piece we held our breath, because we could not tell whether the hanger had gone through the uterus into the abdominal cavity. Fortunately, in the cases I saw, it had not.
However, not simply coat hangers were used.

Almost any implement you can imagine had been and was used to start an abortion — darning needles, crochet hooks, cut-glass salt shakers, soda bottles, sometimes intact, sometimes with the top broken off.

Another method that I did not encounter, but heard about from colleagues in other hospitals, was a soap solution forced through the cervical canal with a syringe. This could cause almost immediate death if a bubble in the solution entered a blood vessel and was transported to the heart.

The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.

It is important to remember that Roe v. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days.

What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens — and freeing their doctors to treat them as such.

Waldo L. Fielding was an obstetrician and gynecologist in Boston for 38 years. He is the author of “Pregnancy: The Best State of the Union” (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1971).

2008-05-28T21:02:00.002-04:00

Xenophobia and Donuts

Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachael Ray ad

By Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan
Globe Staff / May 28, 2008

Does Dunkin' Donuts really think its customers could mistake Rachael Ray for a terrorist sympathizer? The Canton-based company has abruptly canceled an ad in which the domestic diva wears a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men. Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin' Donuts boycott.

"The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad," Malkin yowls in her syndicated column. "Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."

The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin' Donuts decided it'd be easier just to yank the ad. Said the suits in a statement: "In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial."

For her part, Malkin was pleased with Dunkin's response: "It's refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists."

2008-05-28T18:50:00.000-04:00

This is how I feel somedays...

2008-04-18T18:33:00.001-04:00

A Cartoonish Life of Quiet Desperation

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

2008-04-16T18:22:00.001-04:00

Sacrifice

KIA Soldier Took Wife's Place in Iraq
April 16, 2008Richmond Times - Dispatch

A Virginia National Guardsman who re-enlisted so his wife, also a member of the National Guard, wouldn't have to go back to Iraq was killed April 16 when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.

Staff Sgt. Jesse Ault of Dublin in Pulaski County was 28. He was serving with E Company in the 429th Brigade Support Battalion out of Roanoke.

A native of Wheeling, W.Va., who grew up in Middlebourne, W.Va., Ault joined the U.S. Army while still in high school and joined the National Guard after moving to Virginia.

Yesterday, his wife, Betsy Ault, said she and her husband were dating in 2004 when their unit was deployed to Balad, Iraq. They returned to Virginia and married, she said, and her husband was "100 percent family," relishing time spent playing with her son, Nathan, 10, and their toddler, Adam, 1. He was so devoted to the family, she said, that he decided to take her place after her unit was told it was being sent to Iraq.

"Jesse separated from the Guard after the deployment [to Iraq], but I was still serving when my unit was alerted early 2007," she said. "Jesse loved our family so much and saw how important it was for me to stay with my sons, he joined the National Guard again to take my place on the deployment.

"The day he landed in Kuwait, I found out we were pregnant. He was allowed emergency leave to come home to see the birth of our daughter, Rachel." Rachel is now 4 months old.
Mrs. Ault is still a member of the Guard but is in the process of being discharged, according to Guard Maj. Alfred Puryear.

Ault was killed just three days after another Virginia National Guardsman, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah McNeal of Norfolk, was killed near Baghdad.

"There should be no doubt that the Virginia National Guard has an important role in the global war on terrorism," said Maj. Gen. Robert B. Newman Jr., adjutant general of Virginia, in a written statement yesterday. "Now more than ever, we all need to strengthen our resolve and continue to stand behind our men and women serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Mrs. Ault said her husband "was a loving and dedicated father and husband and a brave and loyal soldier."

"Jesse loved all things University of West Virginia and Jeff Gordon," she added. "He cheered for the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Braves. He liked fishing and golf and loved to ride sleds down the hill with Nathan."

2008-04-15T19:39:00.000-04:00

Check it Out

Dear IAVA Supporter,

Thanks to your continued support, the new GI Bill has made some amazing progress in Congress in the last 48 hours. The Bill now has over 50 co-sponsors in the Senate and 188 in the House of Representatives. We are working hard to get it passed this year so our troops can start getting the benefits they deserve as soon as possible.

Today, IAVA ran ads in newspapers across the country, targeting influential Congressmen- both Democrats and Republicans- who haven't yet signed on. We've also launched a new website that will make it even easier for you to get involved in supporting the new GI Bill, at www.GIBill2008.org

At www.GIBill2008.org, you can get the latest updates on the progress of the Bill, see if your representatives have signed on and visit the Action Center. With a single click, you can submit a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper, write your Senator or Congressman and tell your friends that you support the new GI Bill.

Forward this email on to your friends and let them know just how easy it is to support the new GI Bill. Be sure to check back at www.GIBill2008.org for updates.
Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Paul Rieckhoff
Iraq Veteran
Executive Director

2008-04-10T05:07:00.002-04:00

Tales of Douchebaggery #2

Scenes from a Courthouse

I had the pleasure of sitting on a jury pool two weeks ago. Now..in the 21 years since I turned 18 I have been called to jury duty five times. This past time was the first since 2002. I was still under the impression that people were supposed to dress up somewhat. I can recall my earliest jury summons notices stating that jurors should dress appropriately for a serious civic duty.

I can remember wearing a suit to my first two times...and most of the men wearing at least shirts and ties. The people in "street" wear were so few that they stood out.

Oh lordy how the times have changed in a small span of time.

I was only one of two men in a suit this latest time. A few were in business casual...sweaters and such...but most were in jeans and t-shirts...or worse. A few of the younger kids looked like they were on call as extras in a 50 Cent video....complete with ballcaps, shades and and way too fucking much bling. The women were even worse. One lady was in pajama bottoms.

I thought it was odd and sad that the defendants in the halls were dressed better than the prospective jurors.

Anyway...the real douchebaggery comes not from the slovenly dress of my fellow jurors (and my crotchety complaining about it)...but from their behavior.

I really, really, really hope I never have to face a jury. Because these people sure ain't my peers.

I say a conservative estimate of the percentage of people who slept in the jury pool room was 40%...slept through the head judge's speech....the intro of a visiting Japanese judicial official (Japan is adding the jury system to it's legal system)...the instructional video...the talk from the bailiff...etc, etc, etc. The snoring was so loud at times people were laughing. People couldn't stay off their cell phones even when explicitly told to...and at least three dummies took off their shoes (one with some serious foot stink) and used chairs as footrests so they could recline and sleep. At least two people got into arguments with the court officers...one shouting...when they were told they couldn't bring food back into the room.

Ach. Maybe the Japanese legal official will go home and declare the jury system is not a good idea. Then again...the Japanese are better behaved as a people.

2008-04-10T04:40:00.002-04:00

Tales of Douchebaggery #1

The first in a series of recountings of douchebag behavior. This one comes from the restaurant world...where many will come from.

My Russian manages a restaurant and is rich with these tales. We are both convinced people are socially devolving...becoming more rude, self-centered and stupid.

A tale of Two Douchebags.

Last week...two women came into Russian's restaurant...loaded down with shopping bags. And when the server came to their table...they demanded to know what they could get for free. They became so rude that the young, female server was reduced to tears and went to get Russian for help. They two ladies wound up getting bread and water. And demanded refills.

Yep...these two went into a business establishment...in the business of selling food...and demanded to be given something for free. And sat for 90 minutes...during the busy lunch rush taking up a booth that could have been filled with paying customers.

Oh yes, they also complained about the service on their way out. And didn't leave a tip.

==================

I can't even get into the mindset of a person who goes into a business and demands freebies. Aggressively demands freebies. And expects the staff to be happy about it and to cater to them.

2008-04-05T22:42:00.001-04:00

My Latest Obsession

Lemur Kingdom.

It's like Meerkat Manor but better...because it's about lemurs. And lemurs rule.

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/lemur-kingdom/lemur-kingdom.html

2008-04-01T05:15:00.001-04:00

Urge Surge

Just when I think I can get by just fine without the whole BDSM thingie in my life...

Someone on Alt has to go and write something so painfully sexy that my lust and my trousers swell in equal amounts.

Damn them.

2008-04-01T03:15:00.002-04:00

Attention Lurking Visitors

Yes you...and you...and even you. All the people from Alt to whom I gave the addy of this blog. There are a half dozen or so of you (I know you visit because I track the locations of visitors) who don't have blogs here but come visit.

I'm all about the interactivity. So I'd like to ask you to become interactive here. I appreciate that you take the time to read what I write...but how about a little acknowledgement? Make a profile here and give me your thoughts.

Stop lurking! No wallflowers here, folks.

Thanks.

2008-03-31T17:22:00.002-04:00

More Meltdown

I can't seem to catch a break...electronics-wise. Last Sunday my entire desktop computer went DOA and I had to go into recovery mode...and wound up losing tons of precious info.

This Sunday...my barely-more-than-a-year-old LCD flatscreen monitor stops working.

What the fuck?

My theory is that defects are designed into the newer electronics. Technology is so rapidly advancing that the producers want us to keep up...so products are made to fail within a certain time frame. Since repair costs are sometimes equal to just buying an upgrade...well..you see where I'm going with that. My old, older technology monitor lasted 7 years without a single glitch. In fact, dad and brother are still using it...and it works just fine. But my new tech model....kaput after 14 months!

Gah.

2008-03-25T06:32:00.003-04:00

Not a Word Strong Enough

One of the brood of neglected cats died Sunday night. I found him Monday morning...in the one place where he found comfort, compassion and care in his short life....under my back porch in the little village I built for them. He hadn't been doing well...but I brought some of the others back from the brink of starvation...so I thought he'd bounce back.

I'm fucking spitting mad at my neighbors. Fucking trash.

Fucking useless city animal agencies. After I found the body...with another of the cats pressed up against the frail corpse...mewling...I called Animal Control in a rage saying that I'd called 6 times already...only to be told "We don't handle cat issues." What the fuck? Animal Control...cats are still animals...right? Why didn't someone tell me this the first six times I called rather than say they'd follow up (which they never did)? And the people at ASPCA Law Enforcement...and the Animal Rescue League Code Enforcement...same deal. The people I spoke with were almost trying to talk me out of filing a complaint. I persisted and each said they'd send an agent to check the cat's body and go over and speak to the owners.

No one showed up. Fucking useless cunts.

So this morning I have to go bury that cat. I would have done so yesterday but the ASPCA officer told me to leave the cat so they could examine it. Well fuck them.

2008-03-25T05:57:00.002-04:00

Computer Crashes Suck

That's all. They just suck...especially when you can't get the machine to reboot and have to do a complete recovery.

I lost so much stuff.

2008-03-20T05:45:00.003-04:00

Big Dick

VP Cheney gave a rare non-Fox News interview the other day. The interviewer from ABC stated that more than 2/3 of the American people now say the price in blood and treasure (my words, not the interviewer's or those of the poll---the actual word choice was "cost") of the war in Iraq was not worth it.

Cheney's quick...and reflexive reply was "So?" Like a petulant boy.

That's so typical of the arrogance of this man. Of this administration.

And how did Cheney spend his day on the 5th anniversary of the start of this war of theirs? Fishing from the deck of a yacht owned by a wealthy sheik. Dicky knows who butters his bread. It's right in character though...he had "other priorities" when our kids were being ripped to shreds in Vietnam as well.

I'm surprised he didn't spend it wearing a toga and dancing on the south lawn of the White House while playing a fiddle. Scumbag.

==================

And our fine Prez-o-dent? He used family influence to get into the TX Air National Guard to escape the draft...and I think he's feeling regret over that.

Not regret over having missed the bugs and heat and danger...but the ability to reminisce.

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."
"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

Envious. Yeah...sure. You had your chance but you chose to duck & cover along with three quarters of the Dallas Cowboys players and other assorted rich kids and connected folks. Douchebag.

2008-03-19T04:50:00.001-04:00

40 Years On, My Lai Massacre Recalled

Associated Press
March 17, 2008MY LAI, Vietnam -

Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai on Saturday, March 14, and found hope at the site of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War.

On the 40th anniversary of the massacre of up to 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers, the former helicopter gunner was reunited with a young man he rescued from rampaging U.S. Soldiers.

On March 16, 1968, Colburn found 8-year-old Do Ba clinging to his mother's corpse in a ditch full of blood and the bodies of more than 100 people who had been mowed down. Nearly all the victims were unarmed women, children and elderly.

"Today I see Do Ba with a wife and a baby," said Colburn, a member of a three-man Army helicopter crew that landed in the midst of the massacre and intervened to stop the killing. "He's transformed himself from being a broken, lonely man. Now he's complete. He's a perfect example of the human spirit, of the will to survive."

Colburn, 58, now runs a medical supplies business north of Atlanta. He, Ba and hundreds of others are gathering this weekend to remember the My Lai massacre, a grim milestone that shocked Americans and undermined support for the war, which ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to communist troops.

Buddhist monks in saffron robes led the mourners in prayer Saturday outside a museum that has been erected to remember the dead. An official memorial program will be held on Sunday.
Among those coming to pray was Ha Thi Quy, 83, a My Lai survivor who suffers from anger and depression four decades after the slaughter. Soldiers from the Army's Charlie Company shot her in the leg and killed her mother, her 16-year-old daughter and her 6-year-old son.

Her husband later died of injuries from the massacre and another son had to have an arm and a leg amputated after suffering gunshot wounds that day.

Quy only survived because she was shielded beneath a pile of dead bodies.

"The American government should stop waging wars like they waged in Vietnam," Quy said. "My children were innocent, but those American Soldiers killed them."

Seymour Hersh, the journalist who exposed the massacre, said he sees parallels between My Lai and a more recent story that he has he reported on, the 2005 images of torture from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But he says the public furor unleashed by My Lai was far greater.

"It's stunning how much impact My Lai had and how little impact Abu Ghraib had," Hersh said by telephone from Washington. "We'll have to leave it to historians to figure out why."
On that morning 40 years ago, Colburn flew over My Lai on a reconnaissance mission with pilot Hugh Thompson and crew chief Glenn Andreotta. After several runs over the area, they realized that unarmed civilians were being slaughtered by U.S. troops on the ground.

The members of Charlie Company were a "search and destroy" mission, trying to track down elusive Vietcong guerrillas, whose tactics had depleted the company's ranks.

The company's Soldiers began shooting in My Lai that day even though they hadn't come under attack. It quickly escalated into an orgy of killing.

Thompson landed the helicopter between the villagers and the marauding troops. While Colburn and Andreotta covered him, Thompson persuaded the members of Charlie Company to stop shooting.

The angry and frustrated troops had found themselves in a bewildering war where it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, said Stanley Karnow, an American historian who wrote "Vietnam: A History."

Their actions shocked the American public, who had preferred to think of U.S. troops as heroes making the world safe for democracy, Karnow said.
Colburn and Andreotta, who died later in the war, found Do Ba after the shooting stopped.
"He was still clinging to his mother," Colburn said.

Ba's aunt raised him in My Lai. When he turned 18, he moved to the former Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, where he is married with a 14-month-old daughter and works at an electronics factory.

He and Colburn were first reunited at the 2001 dedication of a new school in the village. At that time, Ba was single, haunted by memories of My Lai and eager to start a family.

So much has changed since the day they first met, Ba said. The United States and Vietnam, former enemies, have become allies and developed a booming trade relationship.

"I'm glad the United States and Vietnam have become friends," Ba said. "But I still feel hatred for the Soldiers who killed my mother, my brother and my sister."

2008-03-16T10:32:00.002-04:00

From The Onion...

Funny where it sticks pins in the puffery of novelist's egos...yet sad because so much concerning Retard America's lack of interest in reading is true. And I think I'll drop a few thoughts later on reading...or, more accurately, the death of reading.

Novelists Strike Fails To Affect Nation Whatsoever
March 15, 2008

LOS ANGELES—The Novelists Guild of America strike, now entering its fourth month, has had no impact on the nation at all, sources reported Tuesday.
The strike, which scholars say could be the longest since 1951, when American novelists may or may not have voluntarily committed to a six-month work stoppage, has brought an immediate halt to all new novels, novellas, and novelettes from coast to coast, affecting no one.

Nor has America's economy seen any adverse effects whatsoever, as consumers easily adjust to the sudden cessation of any bold new sprawling works of fiction or taut psychological character studies.

"There's a novelists strike?" Ames, IA consumer Carl Hailes said. "That's terrible. When is it scheduled to begin?"

The strike kicked off last fall when the NGA announced it had hit a roadblock in negotiations with the Alliance of Printed Fiction and Literature Producers, failing to resolve certain key issues concerning online distribution, digital media rights, and readers just not getting what writers were trying to do with a number of important allegorical devices.

After a press conference at the Massachusetts home of NGA president John Updike—who called the strike an attempt by novelists "to give both the sublime and mundane alike their beautiful due"—members of the guild began picketing their studies, desks, and libraries and refusing to work on any further novels until the APFLP and the American reading public agreed to their demands.

So far, sources say, no one has attempted to cross the picket lines, most of which are located in private homes. However, unconfirmed reports indicate that at least one novelist may be breaking the strike by writing under the pseudonym "Richard Bachman."

"We must, as a people, achieve a resolution to this strike soon," novelist David Foster Wallace said at a rally Monday at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, where he is a professor. "The thought of this country being deprived of its only source of book-length fiction is enough to give one the howling fantods."

"I thank you both for coming," he added.

While the strike has been joined by an estimated 250,000 novelists—225,000 of whom have reportedly stopped in the middle of their first novel—it has done no damage to any measurable sector of the economy, including bookstore chains, newspapers, magazines, all major media, overseas markets, independent film studios, major film studios, actors, editors, animators, carpenters, those in finance or banking, the day-to-day lives of average Americans, or anything else anyone can think of as of press time.

A report published last week by the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication found that the strike has thus far had an economic impact of approximately 0.00 to 0.01 percent. In addition, consumer habits remain unaffected, with 0 percent of those polled saying their reading habits had changed "significantly," 0 percent saying they had changed "somewhat," and an additional 0 saying they had changed "slightly." A significant number of respondents reported no reading habits.

Although some initially worried that the strike could affect Hollywood by limiting material for television or film adaptation, fears were quelled when studio executives announced in January that they would continue optioning comic books and graphic novels.

The publishing industry itself, which many believed to be most vulnerable, has nonetheless managed to weather the crisis. Publishers have reissued new editions of early, pre-union novelists—such as Robert Louis Stevenson and Jane Austen, both of whom have previously established successful track records—and have seen no no change in monthly sales.
Some members of the public attempted to express concern over the prospect of the strike going on much longer.

"If this situation is not brought to a halt soon, it could have serious ramifications for, you know, literary culture, I guess," said Kyle Farmer, a Phoenix-area real estate consultant and avid golfer. "It would be tragic if we had to go a whole year without a new novel from Kurt Vonnegut or Norman Mailer," he added, unaware that both authors died in 2007.

No high-profile, red-carpet, star-studded telecasts of the PEN/Faulkner Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Awards, or the Man Booker Prize Awards were affected by the strike, since no such telecasts have ever existed.

2008-03-13T06:16:00.001-04:00

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

WASHINGTON — Fewer people know how many U.S. troops have died in the war in Iraq, even as public attention to the conflict has gradually diminished, a poll showed Wednesday.
Only 28 percent correctly said that about 4,000 Americans have died in the war, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

That's down from last August, when 54 percent gave the accurate casualty figure, which was about 3,500 dead at the time. In previous Pew surveys dating to 2004, about half have correctly given the rough figure for the approximate number of deaths at the time.

In the new poll, around a third said about 3,000 U.S. troops have died while about one in 10 said 2,000 deaths. Fewer overestimated the number of casualties: about a quarter put the figure close to 5,000.

Exit polls of voters in presidential primaries and many national surveys have shown the economy has displaced the war in recent weeks as the public's choice as the nation's top problem.
Iraq was the most avidly followed news story for most of the first half of 2007, but it has not been the most closely watched story in any week since mid-October, according to a Pew survey of people's interest in the news. The portion of news stories on the war has dropped in recent months as well, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonpartisan group that evaluates news coverage.

The Pew poll was conducted from Feb. 28-March 2 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

2008-03-13T05:22:00.002-04:00

Hey Big Spender

I think I know what I'm going to do with my stimulus package money from Dubya ( received the letter today letting me know that kiss in the mail will be coming soon).

I'm going to put it towards and hour with Eliot Spitzer's prostitute. (Have you seen her picture? Smoking hot)

I just have to know what a $4,000 piece of pussy feels like.

Or maybe I'll send it as a donation to Ralph Nader's campaign.

Perhaps I'll donate it to IAVA. They are getting results.

2008-03-11T19:54:00.002-04:00

Update on the Hooverville Cats

Well...all the cats have survived the worst of winter. And we had a really bad winter. In fact, the ones I was sure were not going to make it are thriving. The scrawniest of them have fattened up and are active...no more listlessness. I still feed them twice a day every day and have added some more boxes for shelters.

And some of them have taken to my dog. She merely tolerates their presence. The gray cat (the poor, sad, severely inbred one) is in love with my dog...follows her around the yard and stands up to hold on and rub her face all over Kelly. Kelly responds my grunting and trotting away...with an adoring cat following close behind. My poor pooch. She's dismayed over the utter lack of terror she's able to strike into this legion of felines.

The city animal control still hasn't done a goddamned thing. No surprise there. It took more than a dozen calls from me over several months to get them to send out someone to do something about the dog these trashy neighbors had a few years ago...a dog they left outside, just like the cats, in all weather, 24/7...but without even mobility. They kept it chained by the neck to the porch railing.

With the really bad weather this past weekend (torrential, prolonged rain and very high winds) I let some of the more skittish of the cats hang out in my basement for the night. And one of the friendlier ones got to come in and sleep on my couch while my Russian and I watched movies. The cat curled up behind my head on the back of the couch and purred until she fell asleep. I may have to adopt her as my own if I can't find someone else to do it...and if I can get Kelly to stay calm around her. The dog still gets upset if the cats come inside.

2008-03-11T19:49:00.004-04:00

I Guess There are Worse Hobbies

Man Creates Radio Station For Cats Only

PHOENIX -- When you leave for work in the morning, do you ever worry your pets will get bored while you’re away?

A Valley man has dedicated a good portion of the past seven years to make sure his cats stay entertained.

Nohl Rosen of catgalaxymedia.com has created an online radio station for cats only.
He said the idea came to him seven years ago when he felt his cat Isis seemed bored. He put in a CD to see if Isis would be entertained. “The music started, Isis laid down, relaxed, and Cat Galaxy was born," said Rosen.

Rosen’s studio is based out of his home. He broadcasts to cats every morning and night for two hours each.
He makes sure nothing gets on the air that has not been cat-approved.
“We have to throw away the human way of thinking that everything is meant for humans. Cats, I think, know what they want to hear," said Rosen.

The station has daily features such as Meow Mixing Monday, Tuesday Night Cat Club, Wednesday Night Cat Attack, Thursday Night Purr Party, and Friday Night Feline Frenzy.
If you are one of the three million people who have visited his Web site over that past seven years, you may have noticed that Rosen has been off the air for the past couple of months.
"We lost our assistant station manager just after New Year's this year," said Rosen, referring to his cat, Jade, who passed away. "So, it was a big loss, it hit us hard and we are just now getting back into the groove again," said Rosen.

He and the rest of his cat staff said they are ready to move on.

Cat Galaxy is celebrating its seventh season. Rosen said he doesn’t make any money and he is just doing it because he loves it.

======================

I don't know about you....but I find it disconcerting that cats have a radio station. Everyone knows that cats are constantly planning and scheming and plotting the downfall of man. This radio station will allow them to organize and pass messages.

2008-03-03T19:00:00.002-05:00

Mute Button

I believe this: If one is going to boast that they do not watch TV, then they can't do it while spending long periods of time on a website boasting such nuggets of wisdom such as "I sucked 39 black cocks!" and "What's your favorite Rush song?"

Seriously, I just get annoyed when I see someone boasting online (specifically someone you know spends a lot of time blogging) that they do not watch any television in an attempt to make themselves seem intellectually superior.

If you are going to brag about how little television you watch...then you'd better be out saving the world with all that free time. Or, at the least, building a better you.

You'd better be:
Performing volunteer work
Reading books
Taking classes
Exercising
Spending time with family

doing something constructive for yourself or your environment...something enriching, something useful.

Not fingerfucking around on the interwebs. That's just another way to piss away the days. It's replacing one simple leisure activity with another.

2008-02-29T15:27:00.002-05:00

Thanks a lot, Soo Chee!

Because of your misheard lyrics post....I've had this song stuck in my head for days.

Days!

Out in the street!
Out in the playground!
On the dark side of town!

2008-02-25T19:50:00.000-05:00

TAKE THAT, BITCH!

I think we've all had an encounter or three just like this.

2008-02-25T19:45:00.002-05:00

This is one happy freakin' dog.

2008-02-24T20:10:00.000-05:00

Springsteen, Young join anti-war soundtrack
Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:30pm EST

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Pearl Jam have contributed tunes to the anti-war soundtrack for a documentary about a U.S. soldier paralyzed in Iraq.

The 30-song, two-disc album "Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran" will be released March 18 via Warner Music's Sire Records label. All proceeds from the sale of the album will benefit Iraq Veterans Against the War.

"Body of War" focuses on Tomas Young, an Army soldier paralyzed upon arriving in Iraq. It will open on March 13 in Austin, Texas, and expand nationally in subsequent months. Talk show veteran Phil Donahue directed the film with Elaine Spiro.

The album was put together by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who composed the first single, "No War," specifically for the film. Pearl Jam's live version of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" also graces the soundtrack.

Springsteen contributed "Devils & Dust," and Neil Young "The Restless Consumer." Other tracks include "Yo George" from Tori Amos, "Son of a Bush" from Public Enemy, and "Bushonomics" from Talib Kweli & Cornel West.

2008-02-23T08:18:00.002-05:00

An Oldie and Moldy....

Originally posted at the other place on 12/13/05.

The Vengeful Dog Walker: A Short Play in Two Acts

I am sometimes petty. And from time to time I can be vindictive.

I was looking at satellite photos of New Orleans tonight and was checking out the post flood condition of the neighborhood where I lived some years ago when I was reminded of my sometime vindictive nature...

Dramatis Personae: Me, My dogs Jake and Kelly, Redneck Asshole

Act I
Redneck asshole lived just around the corner from me. He was fanatical about the care and appearance of his lawn. One day, while walking my dogs past his house, my puppy Kelly happened to wander about 6 inches onto the lawn of Redneck Asshole to sniff at something. Redneck Asshole happened to be on his front porch and exploded into an apoplectic rage complete with red face and near incoherent screaming. Even though I apologized and scooped up Kelly before she could perchance evacuate onto the pristine grass...the rage continued with the threat to kill me and my dogs with his shotgun.

I said nothing more.

Act II
I let six weeks pass.I bought a plastic spray bottle of Round-Up Grass and Weed Killer.I began walking my dogs late at night while wearing a sweatshirt with one of those pouches in the front for your hands. Except instead of my hands...I concealed the grass killer inside.

As I walked past the abode of Redneck Asshole each night I would casually spray the poisons from inside their hiding place and onto the lawn of our villain.I did this every night for 10 days. I surreptitiously examined the damage. I spied Redneck Asshole working to repair the huge swaths of brown, dead grass that slashed through his prized lawn like saber scars.

Over the next few days he had to reseed, resod, whatever the hell a person does to bring an immaculate lawn to fruition. I drank in his obvious anger like sweet nectar.I let two months pass and I did it again. And again. And again.

At least five times each year for the next three years.Jake and Kelly were also complicit. Since I worked nights I would feed them a huge dinner in mid afternoon...ensuring they'd be percolating all night and eager to use their vast leavings to further sully the lawn of Redneck Asshole.

Looking back, I'm a little embarrassed by my behavior...my inability to let go a simple verbal transgression. Had I not moved after three years I probably would have continued.I feel no guilt though. None. In fact, I still laugh about watching this guy worry over his ruined lawn.

I wonder how many character defects this post points to?

2008-02-23T08:06:00.000-05:00

I would like to thank the following women for easing my transition into puberty. Each of them helped serve as an anchor...and a focal point during a confusing time.

Wonder Woman
Catwoman (Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt. Lee Meriwether not so much)
Jamie Sommers, The Bionic Woman
Batgirl...because even good girls wear leather

2008-02-23T01:42:00.002-05:00

SAT Question

Carson Daly is to television as:

1) Bologna is to sandwiches

2) Beige is to colors

3) Jay Leno is to comedy

4) Missionary position is to sex

5) All of the above and then some

2008-02-21T04:49:00.003-05:00

Bueller....Bueller....Creationists....

Ben Stein Wins Intelligent Design Money
by Gary Stix

Ben Stein Wins Intelligent Design Money
Feb 15, 2008
Ben Stein was the goofball host of the cable show “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” A Christian University in southern California has just announced that it is honoring Stein for his upcoming movie that makes the case for taking intelligent design seriously. The press release, issued today, declares: “Ben Stein Wins Money from Intelligent Design Community.”

Stein is scheduled to receive from Biola University the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth, named after a well-known creationist. “The award,” according to the release,” recognizes Johnson’s pivotal role in advancing our understanding of design in the universe by opening up informed dissent to Darwinian and materialistic theories of evolution.”

The release does not mention how much Ben Stein won, but it does cite Stein’s upcoming movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed:” “In his new movie “Expelled,” Stein wonders whether humans were designed by an intelligent being or whether we were simply the result of an ancient natural accident. In his search for an answer, he discovers an elitist scientific establishment that punishes the scientific proponents of Intelligent Design because they reject some of the claims of Darwin’s theory of evolution. ‘Big science in this area of biology has lost its way,’ says Stein. ‘Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it’s anti-science.’  “In light of Stein’s contribution to the pursuit of liberty and truth, particularly as it relates to the field of Intelligent Design, he is being honored with the 2008 Johnson Award.
...

...

Perhaps more egregious than the movie is Stein’s contention in his writing that "Darwinism, perhaps mixed with Imperialism, gave us Social Darwinism, a form of racism so vicious that it countenanced the Holocaust against the Jews and mass murder of many other groups in the name of speeding along the evolutionary process."

===============================

I like Stein's droll sense of humor...and I was hoping this was some form of joke. But it appears not. Stein has taken up the banner of junk science for the cause of conservative ideology.

2008-02-17T11:03:00.007-05:00

the previous posts wouldn't take pictures for some reason...so here are some pics of the little hobo cats I'm caring for...(so you can see why I want to look after their welfare)

My dog doesn't know what to make of them. She's not aggressive towards them at all...more like she thinks they are mobile squeaky toys. She's stepped on a few of them while trying to play with them.

And yeah...on a few of the sub-zero nights...I let them crash in my pad. Most slept on a blanket I put in the back hall...but the gray one helped herself to my bed.

2008-02-16T22:43:00.006-05:00

I May be About to Do Something Unethical

I've mentioned my trasherrific neighbors before...the screaming matches at all hours...the wading pool stuffed with adults and beer cans.

Now there's a new situation...one in which I'm considering some direct involvement. They have a history of getting animals then neglecting them. They used to keep a dog chained by the neck to their back porch...no food, no shelter...in all weather and the poor thing would howl and cry and bark all night every night. Finally...enough neighbors called the police on noise complaints that the cops made the city Animal Officers do something about it.

Well...last year these fine people decided it would be a good idea to get a couple of cats. They didn't have them fixed and let them roam freely in their yard. Those cats had a litter...a few months later some of the growing kittens had their own litters...there are now three generations of increasingly inbred cats running around.

They are kept outside to fend for themselves. No shelter...in all weather...and we've had a brutal winter this year. These people "own" the cats...but the herd of them are spreading out to include the yards of all the surrounding houses as their territory. And a few found their way under my back porch. They were burrowing into some old leaves as a rudimentary shelter and insulation from the cold. They were lethargic and emaciated and, I was pretty sure, on the verge of dying.

So...I've started a sort of Hooverville...and a soup kitchen. I bought a few cat shelters (the kind that normally are used an indoor playpens) and lined them with old clothes to at least provide protection from the elements...and I've been supplying them with food and water every day. It's like a little camp set up under my porch. Now almost the whole herd comes over to eat, drink and sleep. And they are no longer on the edge of death...even the skin & bones kitten I was sure was going to die is looking good. The cats spend their days in their own yard and their nights under my porch.

OK. So I have called Animal Control on these people...twice. I reported it as a case of animal neglect. They said they would send out an investigator. This was two months ago. I've sent follow up mails to the agency...none have been answered...hooray for city workers. I can't even call the police to have them force action...I checked. I called the local precinct and spoke to the officer who handles Quality of Life issues. He told me to call animal Control again. Sigh.

What I'm thinking of doing that is so unethical...is stealing the cats and finding homes for them. I already have a few people interested in taking one. Their owners obviously don't care about them...but they aren't exactly the kind of folks you can approach with something like this. One of them already screamed at me when she saw me tossing snacks to the cats over the fence. She got hyper-defensive..."What, you think I can't look after my pets?!?!" To which I succinctly replied "Fuck off." Yeah...we are on that kind of terms (I'm certain they know it's me who has called the cops on them in the past).

If they even notice that some of the cats are missing...they'll probably think they just ran away...or died. If they even care.

I hate to have to do it this way. I mean...it's stealing.

What do you think? Is this an Ends justifying the Means situation?

Christ...I just don't understand some people. Why get an animal if you are only going to make its existence miserable?

Here are some pics of the cats:

2008-02-14T03:18:00.001-05:00

I Love When Someone Makes My Point for Me.

See previous post...

Yet another person who got angry with me because they were convinced something I put in my blog was ALL ABOUT THEM...fired off an angry mail, etc, etc, etc.

(Should a membership there come with a free tinfoil hat to keep out the radio waves?)

Yet another woman who wrote a long series of posts about being betrayed by a man.....only to write a few days later about wanting to get together with another...complete with clucking hen choir.

Same woman writes goodbye post because she can no longer be on Alt after SUCH A BETRAYAL...only to decide she's going to stay after all! Oh the love! Oh the cycle of self-destructive behavior!

Sigh...it's getting so that you can barely avoid the crazies.

2008-02-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

The Lady Doth Protest Way Too Fucking Much

At what point does having a helpful opinion to offer cross over into being judgmental?

And should you just let a person you see as a tragedy-in-waiting just crash and burn?

I ask because...

It's almost a stereotype to be found on BDSM websites...profiles, blogs, etc. Every female submissive has to loudly proclaim how stong they are. To the point where they OVERSTATE the point about how wonderfully strong they are (with the type of strength rarely defined).

But...

What happens when you know a person who claims this strength is really a basket case? Someome who paints a picture of themself that's not quite accurate...and you've seen their other, less stable face.

There have been at least eight instances of this for me. I've received e-mails from some women regarding things in my blog...things that to the other 99.999999% of my readers were benign.

I've received extremely angry letters...some to the point of incoherency. I honestly don't know what they were trying to say.

But my point here is...some of these women are houses of cards emotionally. Some slight trigger tripped them...something they saw written in my blog, something they most likely read into what I was saying...and sent them off the deep end.

Is someone this emotionally fragile ready for a BDSM relationship? What happens when they physically engage?

I received one letter (several really) from this women on alt...I wish I had saved it. It was the longest e-mail I've ever read. All in one letter she went from wanting to do me harm...to begging for my forgiveness and everything in between, It read like textbook Bi-Polar Disorder. I was disturbed...but I also felt sorry for her. She was obviously unstable. So, in one of her own posts in which she was complaining about some potential dom who broke off contact (he probably figured out she needed psychatric help) ...so I gently suggested that maybe she take some time off and reasses her needs, etc, etc.

Hoo boy. That led to another e-mail about how I had "devastated" her...and a coterie of clucking hens on that blog post laid into me...bleating about how I was so judgmental and so on.

So I said "Fuck it." You can't help those who can't realize they require it...and have a support group of (strangers) overly protective pals.

I do feel sorry for whatever men hook up with these basket cases though. I'll probably wind up posting their stories in my News of the Weird selections.

It's not just me, right? You all see the Tragedies in Denial as well...right?

2008-01-23T20:18:00.000-05:00

The Yawn that Roared

(CNN) -- Former Sen. Fred Thompson on Tuesday ended his run for the presidency, coming off the heels of a disappointing third-place finish in South Carolina's GOP primary and heading into the showdown state of Florida next week.

=======================

Wasn't Thompson supposed to be the next Ronald Reagan? A "real conservative" who was going to energize the party? All that "will he or won't he?" run stuff seems a little silly in retrospect. All that buildup and the only payoff was repeated clips of The Hunt for Red October. Media pundits must get paid by the word (or cubic foot of hot gas).

He swept in like a lazy old man and left like a sleepwalker.

2008-01-22T04:20:00.000-05:00

He Had A Dream

I wonder about this past weekend.

I wonder how many kids shot down other kids in the cities...on or near a street named Martin Luther King, Jr Boulevard.

2008-01-21T16:04:00.000-05:00

At The Movies

A few films I've seen recently...

1) The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

A foreign language film from Spain produced by Guillermo del Toro. It's about a woman (and family) who buys the orphanage in which she grew up to re-open it as a school for handicapped children. Strange things begin to happen...her sickly child begins to talk to unseen people...things go bump in the night...a strange woman appears and a series of murders years before is slowly revealed.

It's basically a ghost story but with much deeper subtexts of love and loss. And it works on both levels. There's a minimum of gore (only one scene really) and at least a half dozen moments that will make you jump. But there's a general overall creepy feel to the movie that makes the story more disturbing than at first glance...particularly as more and more plot points are revealed.

If you saw and enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone...you'll definitely enjoy this one. The same themes of human cruelty and bittersweet loss pervade it.

2) Sunshine

A sci fi film by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) about an international group of astronauts and scientists (Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh) on a mission to re-ignite our dying sun by firing a massive fission bomb into its core.

Sounds like standard sci fi fare, right? It differs though in visual style. Boyle has a distinctive look that sets this film apart. It's possibly one of the finest looking films of the genre since 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The story has the genre standards of mission failure and how the crew adapts to survive and save themselves and continue their mission in the face of almost hopeless odds. Where it takes a twist or two is when they seek out another spaceship that had the same mission as theirs but disappeared. They detect a slight signal from it and proceed to try and salvage some parts so they can complete their own job. Things get a little creepy then.

The story also interjects the aspect of the crew's mental states...when they know that some of them will die...and how it hits each of them. Some react in a resigned way, some heroic...some almost have mental collapse...some angry...and at least one decides that perhaps they shouldn't succeed at all...that maybe it's god's will they are going against.

If you like above average sci fi with an emphasis on the human rather than the technological...you'll like this film.

===========================

2008-01-15T11:37:00.000-05:00

I find that my patience for that other blogging site is wearing thin. I keep trying to make the best of what it is...because, you know, it is what it is. (or something) But it's becoming increasingly more difficult to avoid the vast annoyances.

And that's too bad. Because I really like some of my acquaintances from there. And I love seeing them riff on my silliness. There are some truly funny people there who take some black humor and just run with it.

And then there are the gems. Those are the people who have sent me private messages about certain posts...offering help, etc. I had someone from there send me a huge package of photography materials when I was first encouraging my brother to take it up as a hobby for both our benefit. This person sent rolls and rolls of film, frames, photo albums. I almost cried with gratitude. They didn't have to do that. And wouldn't take no for an answer. Someone else offered to send me several old cameras they no longer used. Yet another person offered to perform fund raising for my work so my Iraq vet won't have to move out for lack of money.

They didn't have to do that...they are just a few people who care.

Unfortunately, they are vastly unnumbered by the scuzzy assholes, the preeners, the attention whores, etc...who seem to multiply exponentially. It's nearly impossible to cruise the blogs now without major annoyance.

At best...I guess I can beat a tactical retreat into my own blog and only read those who come to me.

I'm just tired of the silly attempts at manipulation. Particularly of the ranking lists...that long standing bone of contention for some and Holy Grail for others.

For fuck's sake...I hate going through the daily lists of new bloggers looking for interesting new posts (and possibly people who haven't been tainted) only to find that a certain few bloggers have been there before me...leaving little messages not related to the posts but rather to get the attention of people who can provide them with an increase in their unique comment counts. It's always the same two people. Always the same two messages no matter what the blogger has written an an intro. "Hi, nice blog! ~wink~" or "Hi, welcome to the blogs!"

Alt really should dump that whole ranking system. Maybe it would relieve my sore eyes of of cruising past boring blogs designed as nothing more than comment catchers. Christ...some of them sound like five year old children. "Why is the sky blue? Why is grass green? What's your favorite heavy metal song?"

Maybe if they dampened the child-like bloggers...the rest of the adults would act like...grown ups?

==============================

I'm feeling so beaten down over there that I can't even raise the energy to call someone on plagiarism. I became suspicious when someone had a few things in their blog that seemed too polished...and sure enough...found they had been lifted whole from a web site. I couldn't be bothered to bring up ethics when weighed against the shit that would be raised...because the person was a popular, front page face. And we've all seen the shit caused by slavish devotion to personality even in the face of evidence there, right?

==============================

That site is what it is. A blogging section on a hook up site. Maybe I created too large of a series of expectations for it. No, that's not exactly correct. When I first joined...I learned a lot. The earliest group of people spent a lot of time writing great pieces. Then came the rankings system...thrust upon a population overrepresented by fragile egos and over sized egos...and the rest is history.

It just gnaws at me that a lot of great writers who put out fantastic, emotional, enlightening posts...get overlooked...no, more than that...shunted aside in the stampede every time some Pretty Young Thing arrives on the blog scene and cyberly shakes her tits. The herds of horndogs are usually comprised of all the same dumb fuckers. Sigh...but at it's heart it is a dating site...and I got to expect that most of the population (being male) will flock to where they believe the pussy is.

I guess I'm just disappointed that only a small percentage of the population can rise above that.

====================================

Whatchagonnado?

2008-01-12T10:05:00.001-05:00

Steven Seagal: Lord of the Cheese

2008-01-05T11:04:00.000-05:00

It's a Sad State of Affairs....

when Geraldo Rivera starts making sense.

I was kinda hoping when Billo's bellowing commenced he wouldn't be able to turn it off...and his head would go like that guy in the movie Scanners.

It's ain't exactly the Lincoln-Douglas debates...but it's entertaining in a guilty pleasure sort of way.

2008-01-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

More Video Difficulties

Allegedly...one can load video directly from their computer to these posts. In reality...it does not work for me. I figured out the YouTube thingie (thanks to Trinity) but I'm still baffled by the inability to load my own film clips.

You see...I received a digital camcorder for x-mas and have been making short film bits. I was hoping I could also use this as a visual diary...maybe show some parts of Boston, etc.

I don't know...the goddamned clips just won't show up after I load them into the post.

2007-12-21T17:55:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all...

2007-12-19T06:08:00.000-05:00

Dear Fellow Alters and Ex Alters:

Could you do me a favor? If you are linked to me and use any permutation of my handle there in the link...could you please change the name to something else?

I checked my site meter for the first time in a long time today...and discovered that in this month alone I've had a dozen different visitors lead to my blog here via a google search on my alt handle. It's probably sandard members wanting to take a look at my profile and finding this blog because the same handle is listed on some blogs here as a link name.

Thanks.

(p.s. I'll do the same if you like since some of my links use your alt handles. I also had two google searches that lead to my blog here that were searching for some of your alt handles)

2007-12-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

Future Serial Killers of America, Unite!

Mike Huckabee's kid...what a winner:

"...one of his sons was involved in the hanging of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. The incident led to the dismissal of David Huckabee, then 17, from his job as a counselor at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Ark. It also prompted the local prosecuting attorney— bombarded with complaints generated by a national animal-rights group—to write a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether David and another teenager had violated state animal-cruelty laws. The state police never granted the request, and no charges were ever filed."

Hoo boy.

Oh Mike, Mike Mike....as personable as ye may be...you are looking more and more like a sociopath and/or poorly informed, willfully ignorant, back-country rube. You do not believe in evolution...want Christianity to be brought into all public life...once said that AIDS patients should be quarantined like plague victims (a good ten years after the contagion mechanism was identified).

And now it's revealed you gave birth to a future serial/spree killer. Good job, Mike. Pray for him. See how much that does for you.

Mike Huckabee: My least favorite Republican of the day.

2007-12-11T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Top Seven Rejected Toys of 2007

The Ted Kennedy's Liver Beanbag Chair.
Made from genuine donkey hides and utilizing a unique stuffing system comprised of hot air and pork. May be used as a flotation device.

The Ann Coulter Home Genetics Testing Kit.
Now you can finally determine beyond a doubt if your seXXy lover is truly seXY. Comes complete with mouth swabs, depilatory and mock turtleneck. Appropriate for all ages and indeterminate genders.

The Bill O'Reilly Brand Falafel Flavored Loofah.
Whether you are sexually harassing subordinates or just kicking back being a douchebag, now comes the perfect tool for clumsy self pleasure. Perfect for the dirty, old man in your life. Costs: an undisclosed amount, your dignity.

The Pastor Ted Haggard Game of Non-Gay Life.
Now you too can live the life of a powerful and influential man teetering on the precipice! It's the classic battle of good v. evil! "Yay, Tommy! You have rolled a 144 and have won acceptance into Pray the Gay Away Camp! Sit out three turns and be welcomed into the cleansing light of Jesus!" "Oh no, Jimmy! You rolled triple sixes! You're condemned to a life of cock sucking and meth abuse!"Warning: May cause hypocrisy. Appropriate for: no one.

The Mike Huckabee AIDS Patient Concentration Camp Play Set.
Warning: May leave an oily taste in the mouth and cause uncomfortable shifting and back-peddling. Made in China, sired in ignorance.

The Lil' Hillary Future Shrew Costume Extravaganza Dress Up Playset.
Comes with seven pantsuits, a nutcracker, a mask with faces on both sides and a velvet pouch for your playmate's "jewels." Warning: may cause insane cackling and voice changes to sound more "southern negro."

The Willard Mitt Romney Pander Bear.
Cozy up your cuddly constituent! Comes with magical underpants and two mates. Costs: next to nothing because it's made by illegal immigrants.

2007-12-10T18:04:00.000-05:00

Rudy Can Fail

I just love Rudy Ghouliani's new TV ad...the one wherein he lisps on about how the only way to deal with terrorists is to stand up to them. Really? As opposed to...what? Laying down in defeat? The inference is deafening.

And the ad goes on with Rudy managing to again to link his name to Ronald Reagan's (this time around every republican candidate not only has to puff up and display their Christ credentials...but also compete to see who is most Reagan-like. Call it Bushie blowback). Rudy recalls misty-eyed how those savage Iranians, quaking with stark terror, released the embassy hostages within an hour of Reagan taking the oath of office. As if somehow...by the simple act of being elected...a republican dealt ISLAMOFASCISTS a serious defeat!

I'm positive the Iranians were living in fear of a craggy, Grecian-formulaic old man and ex B movie actor and capitulated immediately rather than face his elderly wrath. That makes much more sense than the notion that they held the hostages to the final minutes of Carter's time in office as a way to humiliate the peanut farmer. Or that the invasion of the country by Iraq might have made them more receptive to dealing with the USA. I'm impressed with Rudy's ability to not only rewrite history...but to sell the people what they think they want to buy.

Yesterday Senator Mitch McConnell was my least favorite Republican of the Day...today it's the ever ethical Rudy Ghoulani.

2007-12-09T19:57:00.000-05:00

“Unfortunately, most of our friends on the other aisle are having a hard time admitting things are getting better; some days I almost think the critics of this war don't want us to win. Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers."

---Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

I guess The Senator thinks it is OK to have sent these kids to their deaths because they signed up for the service.

Senator, you are wrong, dead wrong. When your nation's young men and women take a sacred oath to defend their country and volunteer to live a sometimes harsh and unpleasant life and do and live through unpleasant things...you, as a national leader, made damned sure you only send them into harm's way to make that ultimate sacrifice as a last resort. You don't support their use in a bankrupt foreign excursion over and over while voting against veteran's benefits expansions. And you sure as shit don't toss out casual statements trying to shine that turd and downplay the deaths of these kids. It's callous and cruel. And wrong.

Maybe if the good senator had not gone the draft deferment for law school route during the height of Vietnam and gone another way...he'd have an inkling of what purposeful sacrifice means. Instead he has the typical mindset of the conservative chickenhawk.

Up yours, senator.

2007-12-05T19:50:00.000-05:00

Far be it from me (well, not really) to look down on other people's fetishes....because heaven knows...I've got some that would make people blanche, scratch their heads and perhaps even shudder.

But that doesn't mean I can't be befuddled by some...or find them a bit...icky. Or comical.

Check this out:

http://www.blimpboyadventures.com/index.html

2007-12-05T18:20:00.000-05:00

Rock Chicks Kick Ass

2007-11-29T19:34:00.000-05:00

It's a Wonderful Life Without Rupert Murdoch

...a funny little piece with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry making social commentary by riffing on a classic film...

2007-11-28T05:29:00.000-05:00

DAMN IT, JIM! I'M A DOCTOR, NOT A VETERINARIAN!!

I would hate to be around when the kitties experience pon farr.....

2007-11-23T04:52:00.000-05:00

Court: Blogspot Blogger May Remain Anonymous

lawsuit intended to unmask the blogger known as “Orthomom” has failed, preserving a closely guarded secret of the online world.

Former Lawrence School Board trustee Pamela Greenbaum, once a frequent target of commenters on the site, filed suit against Google, which hosts the Orthomom blog, seeking the blogger’s name. Her intent, she said, was to file a lawsuit directly against the writer of the blog, who she claimed had called Greenbaum a bigot and anti-semite.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman disagreed, writing in an eight page decision dated October 23, 2007, that, “The relief sought by Greenbaum, on the eve of a school board election, would have a chilling effect on protected political speech.” The judge also found that a commenter on the blog, not the blogger, had used the term bigot which, in any event, the judge found, was protected speech.

Some bloggers say that Google stood up for the privacy of their users this time, as opposed to another recent case in India that made news. The blogger called Orthomom herself sees things a bit differently, writing a piece on the court ruling in the Jewish Star (my emphasis):
If it hadn’t been for a tip from a concerned reader, the case quietly filed against Google by Pamela Greenbaum to have me unmasked might have been over before it started. One day I’m happily blogging along between carpool runs, the next I’m looking for a good First Amendment lawyer. And it was a good thing I managed to procure once, as I soon found out that Google, Inc. was not prepared to do much in the way of defending me against the false and frivolous claims presented by Ms. Greenbaum and her attorney.

Orthomom adds that the US Supreme Court had ruled before that anonymous free speech must be protected. “It is crucial to the free exchange of ideas, whithout any fear of reprisals or retribution for holding opinions that are potentially unpopular,” she says.

2007-11-14T06:31:00.000-05:00

I know why the caged Sushi sings....

A while back Soo Chee made a comment (I think it was on alt) about how she's amazed (and not in a good way) that she has a blog in a place where the topics of interest are so sparse....and used an amusing example.

I feel ya. I'm finding it more and more difficult to post anything there. The only thing keeping me there is the fact that I like a lot of people who post ...although that number is shrinking quickly.

When I signed on earlier...the first post title I saw was about someone detailing the 24th black dick they sucked. Sigh. Maybe some people would find an OCD afflicted black cock fetishist interesting....not me.

The lack of quailty bloggers is uninspiring...and a lot of posts just suck the life from me.

So Mr Black Cock Fetishst...rock on with your bad self. Thank you for degrading the quality of the place with your unflushed toilet of a blog.

Maybe I'll go find some video footage of Sleestaks for the sushinator.

2007-11-13T04:40:00.000-05:00

I've opened up another blog here....one for just my pictures. I figured i'd create a space to collect my photos in one spot.

http://wickedcoolpictures.blogspot.com/

2007-11-12T15:20:00.000-05:00

Janeane OWNS this bitch!

Gotta love Fox News...even their morning coffee chat shows are vitriolic conservative circle jerks. The only network where the fluffy morning crew beats the war drums. I'll bet they regret this interview. I'll also wager the irascible whatever-his-name-is has never retracted his statements.

2007-11-10T02:38:00.000-05:00

An Obscene and Vulgar Clown.

The president visits with wounded soldiers and Marines...and still can't wipe away his smirk.

2007-11-10T01:43:00.000-05:00

You Can't Stop the Music (or break the spirit)

2007-11-06T04:30:00.000-05:00

I wish I had written this.

it's from Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on his show last night. Every once in a while he delivers long editorial speeches that are really something.

SPECIAL COMMENT
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
MSNBC
updated 9:42 p.m. ET, Mon., Nov. 5, 2007

It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.
All the petulancy, all the childish threats, all the blank-stare stupidity; all the invocations of World War III, all the sophistic questions about which terrorist attacks we wanted him not to stop, all the phony secrets; all the claims of executive privilege, all the stumbling tap-dancing of his nominees, all the verbal flatulence of his apologists...

All of it is now, after one revelation last week, transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the refocusing of our entire nation, toward keeping this mock president and this unstable vice president and this departed wildly self-overrating attorney general, and the others, from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country.

"Waterboarding is torture," Daniel Levin was to write. Daniel Levin was no theorist and no protester. He was no troublemaking politician. He was no table-pounding commentator. Daniel Levin was an astonishingly patriotic American and a brave man.

Brave not just with words or with stances, even in a dark time when that kind of bravery can usually be scared or bought off.

Charged, as you heard in the story from ABC News last Friday, with assessing the relative legality of the various nightmares in the Pandora's box that is the Orwell-worthy euphemism "Enhanced Interrogation," Mr. Levin decided that the simplest, and the most honest, way to evaluate them ... was to have them enacted upon himself.

Daniel Levin took himself to a military base and let himself be waterboarded.
Mr. Bush, ever done anything that personally courageous?
Perhaps when you've gone to Walter Reed and teared up over the maimed servicemen? And then gone back to the White House and determined that there would be more maimed servicemen?

Has it been that kind of personal courage, Mr. Bush, when you've spoken of American victims and the triumph of freedom and the sacrifice of your own popularity for the sake of our safety? And then permitted others to fire or discredit or destroy anybody who disagreed with you, whether they were your own generals, or Max Cleland, or Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, or Daniel Levin?

Daniel Levin should have a statue in his honor in Washington right now.
Instead, he was forced out as acting assistant attorney general nearly three years ago because he had the guts to do what George Bush couldn't do in a million years: actually put himself at risk for the sake of his country, for the sake of what is right.

And they waterboarded him. And he wrote that even though he knew those doing it meant him no harm, and he knew they would rescue him at the instant of the slightest distress, and he knew he would not die — still, with all that reassurance, he could not stop the terror screaming from inside of him, could not quell the horror, could not convince that which is at the core of each of us, the entity who exists behind all the embellishments we strap to ourselves, like purpose and name and family and love, he could not convince his being that he wasn't drowning.

Waterboarding, he said, is torture. Legally, it is torture! Practically, it is torture! Ethically, it is torture! And he wrote it down.
Wrote it down somewhere, where it could be contrasted with the words of this country's 43rd president: "The United States of America ... does not torture."
Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush.
Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush.

Waterboarding had already been used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a couple of other men none of us really care about except for the one detail you'd forgotten — that there are rules. And even if we just make up these rules, this country observes them anyway, because we're Americans and we're better than that.

We're better than you.

And the man your Justice Department selected to decide whether or not waterboarding was torture had decided, and not in some phony academic fashion, nor while wearing the Walter Mitty poseur attire of flight suit and helmet.
He had put his money, Mr. Bush, where your mouth was.

So, your sleazy sycophantic henchman Mr. Gonzales had him append an asterisk suggesting his black-and-white answer wasn't black-and-white, that there might have been a quasi-legal way of torturing people, maybe with an absolute time limit and a physician entitled to stop it, maybe, if your administration had ever bothered to set any rules or any guidelines.
And then when your people realized that even that was too dangerous, Daniel Levin was branded "too independent" and "someone who could (not) be counted on."

In other words, Mr. Bush, somebody you couldn't count on to lie for you.

So, Levin was fired.
Because if it ever got out what he'd concluded, and the lengths to which he went to validate that conclusion, anybody who had sanctioned waterboarding and who-knows-what-else on anybody, you yourself, you would have been screwed.
And screwed you are.
It can't be coincidence that the story of Daniel Levin should emerge from the black hole of this secret society of a presidency just at the conclusion of the unhappy saga of the newest attorney general nominee.
Another patriot somewhere listened as Judge Mukasey mumbled like he'd never heard of waterboarding and refused to answer in words … that which Daniel Levin answered on a waterboard somewhere in Maryland or Virginia three years ago.
And this someone also heard George Bush say, "The United States of America does not torture," and realized either he was lying or this wasn't the United States of America anymore, and either way, he needed to do something about it.
Not in the way Levin needed to do something about it, but in a brave way nonetheless.

We have U.S. senators who need to do something about it, too.
Chairman Leahy of the Judiciary Committee has seen this for what it is and said "enough."

Sen. Schumer has seen it, reportedly, as some kind of puzzle piece in the New York political patronage system, and he has failed.
What Sen. Feinstein has seen, to justify joining Schumer in rubber-stamping Mukasey, I cannot guess.

It is obvious that both those senators should look to the meaning of the story of Daniel Levin and recant their support for Mukasey's confirmation.

And they should look into their own committee's history and recall that in 1973, their predecessors were able to wring even from Richard Nixon a guarantee of a special prosecutor (ultimately a special prosecutor of Richard Nixon!), in exchange for their approval of his new attorney general, Elliott Richardson.
If they could get that out of Nixon, before you confirm the president's latest human echo on Tuesday, you had better be able to get a "yes" or a "no" out of Michael Mukasey.

Ideally you should lock this government down financially until a special prosecutor is appointed, or 50 of them, but I'm not holding my breath. The "yes" or the "no" on waterboarding will have to suffice.

Because, remember, if you can't get it, or you won't with the time between tonight and the next presidential election likely to be the longest year of our lives, you are leaving this country, and all of us, to the waterboards, symbolic and otherwise, of George W. Bush.

Ultimately, Mr. Bush, the real question isn't who approved the waterboarding of this fiend Khalid Sheik Mohammed and two others.
It is: Why were they waterboarded?

Study after study for generation after generation has confirmed that torture gets people to talk, torture gets people to plead, torture gets people to break, but torture does not get them to tell the truth.
Of course, Mr. Bush, this isn't a problem if you don't care if the terrorist plots they tell you about are the truth or just something to stop the tormentors from drowning them.

If, say, a president simply needed a constant supply of terrorist threats to keep a country scared.

If, say, he needed phony plots to play hero during, and to boast about interrupting, and to use to distract people from the threat he didn't interrupt.
If, say, he realized that even terrorized people still need good ghost stories before they will let a president pillage the Constitution,
Well, Mr. Bush, who better to dream them up for you than an actual terrorist?
He'll tell you everything he ever fantasized doing in his most horrific of daydreams, his equivalent of the day you "flew" onto the deck of the Lincoln to explain you'd won in Iraq.
Now if that's what this is all about, you tortured not because you're so stupid you think torture produces confession but you tortured because you're smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction — well, then, you're going to need all the lawyers you can find … because that crime wouldn't just mean impeachment, would it?
That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison.

Thus the master tumblers turn, and the lock yields, and the hidden explanations can all be perceived, in their exact proportions, in their exact progressions.

Daniel Levin's eminently practical, eminently logical, eminently patriotic way of testing the legality of waterboarding has to vanish, and him with it.
Thus Alberto Gonzales has to use that brain that sounds like an old car trying to start on a freezing morning to undo eight centuries of the forward march of law and government.

Thus Dick Cheney has to ridiculously assert that confirming we do or do not use any particular interrogation technique would somehow help the terrorists.
Thus Michael Mukasey, on the eve of the vote that will make him the high priest of the law of this land, cannot and must not answer a question, nor even hint that he has thought about a question, which merely concerns the theoretical definition of waterboarding as torture.

Because, Mr. Bush, in the seven years of your nightmare presidency, this whole string of events has been transformed.

From its beginning as the most neglectful protection ever of the lives and safety of the American people ... into the most efficient and cynical exploitation of tragedy for political gain in this country's history ... and, then, to the giddying prospect that you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism would be nearly invisible.

But at last this frightful plan is ending with an unexpected crash, the shocking reality that no matter how thoroughly you might try to extinguish them, Mr. Bush, how thoroughly you tried to brand disagreement as disloyalty, Mr. Bush, there are still people like Daniel Levin who believe in the United States of America as true freedom, where we are better, not because of schemes and wars, but because of dreams and morals.

And ultimately these men, these patriots, will defeat you and they will return this country to its righteous standards, and to its rightful owners, the people.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

2007-10-25T05:06:00.001-04:00

Remember When Dennis Miller Was Still Funny?

Before he became a hateful, rabid right-wing tool and could only find work on Fox News shows and talk radio....

2007-10-23T04:10:00.001-04:00

Always Trust Your Government

2007-10-22T17:58:00.000-04:00

The Old Sneezeguard

Don'tcha just hate when someone tries to lay out orthodoxy?

Do you hate it when people ascribe motives when they couldn't possibly know your motivation?

"I AGREE. PEOPLE WHO COME HERE TO CREATE CONFLICT OR TO LOOK FOR A CHANCE TO "ONE UP" SOMEONE MUST BE SUCH TOTAL FAILURES IN LIFE THAT HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO.

IF IT IS NOT ABOUT THE LIFESTYLE I AM UNLIKELY TO READ IT. THAT INCLUDES THE MAJORITY OF BLOG POSTS, ESPECIALLY IF IT IS ABOUT POLITICS. SOME OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BLOGS HAVE LITTLE TO DO WITH THE LIFESTYLE. IT SEEMS MANY COME HERE PRIMARILY TO GET A FREE BLOG THAT ALLOWS X RATED TOPICS OR TO GET LAID. VANILLA PEOPLE PREDOMINATE, NOT THOSE WHO ACTUALLY LIVE AN ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE.

AFTER CHECKING FOR MAIL, MY GROUPS AND MY WATCHED BLOGS, I SKIM DOWN THE LIST OF RECENT POST AND SOMETIMES I FIND ONE OR TWO THAT LOOK INTERESTING, BUT MORE OFTEN I FIND NOTHING."

How amazingly boring.

2007-10-21T19:22:00.000-04:00

Gone Baby Gone

Went to see it last night. It was very, very well done. I had a few issues with it...but they were due to my being a fan of the series of novels from which the characters were drawn, not the film itself.

The author of the book, Dennis Lehane, grew up in my neighborhood and sets most of his books here...in a neighborhood pretty much ignored by other movies filmed here. (The Departed had two scenes filmed here though) I love the books...there's the neighborhood connection...I watched them film of of this movie. A few scenes were filmed, quite literally, around the corner from my house.

So I had high expectations. Ben Affleck being a first time director taking on this material...had me a little wary. But he really pulled it all together. Very impressive work by the actors and by Affleck the Director.

A few of the performances are outstanding...most notably Ed Harris as a BPD detective on the missing child case. He's fucking intense.

2007-10-19T18:49:00.001-04:00

BRRRRRIIIINNNNGGGGGGGG!

Yip yip yip yip
IS it any wonder Generation X grew up to be ill in the head?

2007-10-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

Video No Go

Anyone else having a problem getting videos to load? I've never done it before...but I think I'm doing it correctly...but the fuckers just will not load onto this site for me.

2007-10-18T05:22:00.000-04:00

Ennui

I'm finding that blogging at the other place is becoming less and less...interesting...or something.

I was looking at my Watched Blogs list just now. About a year ago it numbered 76 members. It's down to 21 now.

I took a tally of the front page bloggers. Excluding my own...there are 15 members there. I read just 5 of them....and not all of them regularly.

(related tangent: further looks determined that only 3 of those 15 people come to my blog...so apparently they find me as boring as I find most of them. I wonder if there's an unspoken, unacknowledged kind of competition amongst a lot of the Front Pagers? A quiet enmity that keeps them away from those who would surpass them in rankings? I know a few have open hostility in this regard. The apply Sun Tzu's teaching to blogging. Me? I just don't see the interest in a lot of them. How many times can the same blogger ask the same questions? And I already receive plenty of e-mail forwards from friends...I don't need to read them in blogs as well.)

======================

I'm not sure what it is that's causing this...fatigue?...lack of interest? Maybe familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe it's the fact that so many of the people I read and enjoyed have left after becoming fed up with alt's service, the proliferation of scumbags and whackos...or both. I do know that the really great writers who've moved on from there...are rarely replaced by writers of the same caliber.

Maybe it's the repetition. Just the other day the topic of submission being a gift was being tossed back and forth. And my only thought on the subject was "Sweet Jebus, not THIS again!" No one has anything new to say on it...it's the same tired, old retread viewpoints. You can only watch so many reruns of Gilligan's Island.

Oh well.....it's a "whatever" kind of issue. I do miss a lot of people there though.

2007-10-15T15:54:00.000-04:00

Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

ROME, Oct. 11 — A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.

Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortion accounts for 13 percent of women’s deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, and there are 31 abortions for every 100 live births, the study said.

The results of the study, a collaboration between scientists from the World Health Organization in Geneva and the Guttmacher Institute in New York, a reproductive rights group, are being published Friday in the journal Lancet.

“We now have a global picture of induced abortion in the world, covering both countries where it is legal and countries where laws are very restrictive,” Dr. Paul Van Look, director of the W.H.O. Department of Reproductive Health and Research, said in a telephone interview. “What we see is that the law does not influence a woman’s decision to have an abortion. If there’s an unplanned pregnancy, it does not matter if the law is restrictive or liberal.”

But the legal status of abortion did greatly affect the dangers involved, the researchers said. “Generally, where abortion is legal it will be provided in a safe manner,” Dr. Van Look said. “And the opposite is also true: where it is illegal, it is likely to be unsafe, performed under unsafe conditions by poorly trained providers.”

The data also suggested that the best way to reduce abortion rates was not to make abortion illegal but to make contraception more widely available, said Sharon Camp, chief executive of the Guttmacher Institute.

In Eastern Europe, where contraceptive choices have broadened since the fall of Communism, the study found that abortion rates have decreased by 50 percent, although they are still relatively high compared with those in Western Europe. “In the past we didn’t have this kind of data to draw on,” Ms. Camp said. “Contraception is often the missing element” where abortion rates are high, she said.

Anti-abortion groups criticized the research, saying that the scientists had jumped to conclusions from imperfect tallies, often estimates of abortion rates in countries where the procedure was illegal. “These numbers are not definitive and very susceptible to interpretation according to the agenda of the people who are organizing the data,” said Randall K. O’Bannon, director of education and research at the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund in Washington.

He said that the major reason women die in the developing world is that hospitals and health systems lack good doctors and medicines. “They have equated the word ‘safe’ with ‘legal’ and ‘unsafe’ with ‘illegal,’ which gives you the illusion that to deal with serious medical system problems you just make abortion legal,” he said.

The study indicated that about 20 million abortions that would be considered unsafe are performed each year and that 67,000 women die as a result of complications from those abortions, most in countries where abortion is illegal.

The researchers used national data for 2003 from countries where abortion was legal and therefore tallied. W.H.O. scientists estimated abortion rates from countries where it was outlawed, using data on hospital admissions for abortion complications, interviews with local family planning experts and surveys of women in those countries.

The wealth of information that comes out of the study provides some striking lessons, the researchers said. In Uganda, where abortion is illegal and sex education programs focus only on abstinence, the estimated abortion rate was 54 per 1,000 women in 2003, more than twice the rate in the United States, 21 per 1,000 in that year. The lowest rate, 12 per 1,000, was in Western Europe, with legal abortion and widely available contraception.

The Bush administration’s multibillion-dollar campaign against H.I.V./AIDS in Africa has directed money to programs that promote abstinence before marriage, and to condoms only as a last resort. It has prohibited the use of American money to support overseas family planning groups that provide abortions or promote abortion as a method of family planning.

Worldwide, the annual number of abortions appeared to have declined between 1995, the last year such a broad study was conducted, and 2003, from an estimated 46 million to 42 million, the study concluded. The 1995 study, by the Guttmacher Institute, had far less data on countries where abortion was illegal.

Some countries, like South Africa, have undergone substantial transitions in abortion laws in that time. The procedure was made legal in South Africa in 1996, leading to a 90 percent decrease in mortality among women who had abortions, some studies have found.
Abortion is illegal in most of Africa, though. It is the second-leading cause of death among women admitted to hospitals in Ethiopia, its Health Ministry has said. It is the cause of 13 percent of maternal deaths at hospitals in Nigeria, recent studies have found.

===================================

2007-10-12T05:46:00.000-04:00

NEWS FLASH

5:01 am today I'm drinking coffee and watching the Nobel Peace Prize announcement.

Al Gore wins it.

Congrats, Mr. Gore.

5:03 am: nutty right-wingers everywhere start gnashing their teeth and foaming at the mouth.

2007-10-12T04:08:00.000-04:00

It's True

http//www.blackpeopleloveus.com/index.html

2007-10-06T13:49:00.000-04:00

ONE STOP SHOPPING

2007-10-03T05:57:00.000-04:00

Swallow Your Head

I really hate when people boast that they don't watch television or, worse, do not own one.

If you do this...please...stop. Nobody cares.

2007-09-25T20:00:00.000-04:00

LEMUR MADNESS
needs no explanation

2007-09-25T19:52:00.000-04:00

The Savage Beasts of Maine

From York Wild Kingdom....a lounging (and large scrotumed) kangaroo...a baby alligator....a platoon of pot-bellied pigs...and a very friendly llama. I think his name was Ralph (the Wonder Llama).