Rising IQs Trigger Vegetarian Diets

The British Medical Journal has publised a report linking a child's rising IQ to the likelihood the child will become a vegetarian. Read all about it. They should have consulted me first. I could have saved them a bit of time.

Of course, I've known this for a long time. I strongly supported Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1980 when I was living on meat and potatoes. By 1982 as my IQ rose, I abandoned the Republican Party and began having cravings to move to England, which I did in 1983 for over a year.

By the mid-80s I was exploring vegetarian diets as a result of my switch to more liberal political beliefs. By 1991 after completely losing faith in the two-party system, that seemed to do the trick. I've been a vegetarian ever since.

The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.

Ahh, yes, that staggeringly ignorant segment of the population which would like to believe they have high IQs, but don't. The notorious 33% who think chicken and fish are vegetables. That's always good for a laugh.

Of course, the people with the absolute highest IQs will tell you, as I'm about to, that there is no such thing as a true vegetarian.

Tonight is our pizza night. As soon as I'm done with this post, I'll be measuring flour for the dough. txrad enjoys telling me about all the grasshopper and other bug parts that must be part of the milling process in turning wheat into flour. And he should know since he grew up on a farm where wheat was grown as a chief crop. What's a wheat field without flying critters of some sort?

So while most of you are voluntary carnivores, I count myself among the 4.5% who are involuntary carnivores. The 33.6% of you who call yourselves vegetarians while eating fish and chicken, well.. you're just dumb.

Another Food-Related Illness Outbreak

This one in Indiana.

INDIANAPOLIS - More than 300 people say they became ill, and at least three have been hospitalized, after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant last weekend, health officials said Friday.

The tainted food saga continues... spinach, Taco Bell's green onions, then green onions were OK but it was the lettuce, and now an Olive Garden.

Eating out is like Russian roulette. Health officials do not believe this is related to any prior E. coli outbreaks and appears to be confined to one restaurant.

Friday Pussy Blog

This photo released by the Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science shows the three kittens Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006, that were born in September to the world's first cloned cat. Two of the kittens take after their mother, while the third, left, has a gray coat like his father. (AP Photo/Texas A&M University, Larry Wadsworth)

Click the pic to link to the story.

Meanwhile, on a more personal note, here's a photo from Rebecca of Gus & Gabby (decided to include some "big dog" blogging today!) napping. I hope Rebecca doesn't mind -- I cropped the photo as much as I could to avoid overexposing the unmade bed... but then again, how do you make a bed with two kids relaxing on it?
Rebecca's comment accompanying the photo was: "I am really not in charge at my house."

As if that needed to be said!

We usually have a similar problem in this house. Tater Tot has already assumed his position on the bed this morning. You can also clearly see where his ”missing” toe should be on that outstretched foot.

Why a Global "War" on Terrorism Is a Bad Idea

These people just don't get it.

As President Bush weighs new strategies for Iraq, the Army's top general warned Thursday that his force "will break" without thousands more active duty troops and greater use of the reserves.

Noting the strain put on the force by operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the global war on terrorism, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker said he wants to grow his half-million-member Army beyond the 30,000 troops already added in recent years.

[...]

"Over the last five years, the sustained strategic demand ... is placing a strain on the Army's all-volunteer force," Schoomaker told the commission in a Capitol Hill hearing.

Well, there's always the draft option.

Seriously, his force "will break" regardless. Somebody needs to get the US military under control and get us the hell out of Iraq. They are on the verge of taking us into the abyss.

NJ Approves Civil Unions

But not "marriage." Wimps. Separate but equal is getting old really fast.

Stephen Goldstein, chairman of gay rights group Garden State Equality, said civil unions represent "tremendous progress." But he said he was disappointed legislators did not legalize gay marriage.

"I'm glad for the progress but not very satisfied," Goldstein said, adding he would continue fighting for same-sex marriage.

The measure passed the state Senate with a vote of 23-12 after the Assembly approved the measure 56-19 with five abstentions. Both houses are controlled by Democrats.

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign the measure into law within a matter of days.

One of my NJ buds summed up my feelings rather precisely:

Now, if only you could get it through your thick skull that civil unions are still bigoted and unequal for same-sex partners, then we can pop this keg.

Yah, that boy never minces words.

War Profiteers in Iraq

Radical Russ has a post up at Pam's and it's worth the short trip over there to read it.

Be sure to participate in the poll under the fold.

Mmmmmmmmm Chocolate!

There was a knock at the door. Within 5 minutes txrad and I were poking one of these into our pie truffle holes. They define the word "bliss." But where on earth did they come from?

John McCain Wants More Troops in Iraq

John McCain has apparently graduated recently from the George W. Bush School of Bewildering Ineptitude.

"The American people are disappointed and frustrated with the Iraq war, but they want us to succeed if there's any way to do that," McCain, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

The Arizona Republican said five to 10 more brigades of U.S. combat soldiers must be sent to Iraq. Brigades vary in size but generally include about 3,000 troops, meaning he was recommending 15,000 to 30,000 additional forces.

McCain, yesterday's recipient of my Asshole of the Day award, is clearly on a roll this week. Most American people, whether they like to admit it or not, have already realized this war probably won't be won. Many like myself, believe it can't be won in the way it has been framed by our incompetent presidential administration. Tossing another 15,000 to 30,000 young warm bodies into the fray will accomplish nothing more than providing more targets for the insurgents.

McCain even acknowledged that "only about 15 percent to 18 percent of Americans favor deploying more U.S. troops to Iraq." So, what the hell is he thinking? Is he wanting to throw all the chips on the table as a last bet that, however slim the odds of success are, would set him up as a hero going into the 2008 elections?

Farewell, Bajji

Thanks to ship traffic, overfishing and pollution, the bajji which has been around for some 20 million years has been declared extinct.

A rare, nearly blind white dolphin that survived for millions of years is effectively extinct, an international expedition declared Wednesday after ending a fruitless six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat.

[...]

"It's a tremendously sad day when any species goes extinct. It becomes more of a public tragedy to lose a large, charismatic species like the river dolphin," said Chris Williams, manager of river basin conservation for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington.

"The loss of a large animal like a river dolphin is often a harbinger for what's going on in the larger system as whole. It's not only the loss of a beautiful animal but an indication that the way its habitat is being managed, the way we're interacting with the natural environment of the river is deeply flawed ... if a species like this can't survive."

The same damaged habitat also threatens the Yangtze finless porpoise. It is believed less than 400 of those remain. I won't get my hopes up for their survival either.

Get Well Soon, Senator Johnson

Sorry. If you're looking for good news this morning you may have to wait awhile.

Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota is in critical condition after having brain surgery.

Johnson suffered from bleeding in the brain caused by a congenital malformation, the U.S. Capitol physician said, describing the surgery as successful. The condition, present at birth, causes tangled blood vessels.
"The senator is recovering without complication," the physician, Adm. John Eisold, said. "It is premature to determine whether further surgery will be required or to assess any long-term prognosis."

[...]

Democrats hold a fragile 51-49 margin in the new Senate that convenes Jan. 4. If Johnson leaves the Senate, the Republican governor of South Dakota could appoint a Republican — keeping the Senate in GOP hands with Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking power.

Hmmm.

Asshole of the Day Award

Speaking of awards, this might even qualify for Asshole of the Year award. What a way to stamp out free speech and dissent.

Asshole. If he didn't like blogs before, he's really going to hate them now.

Support Liberal Bloggers!

Here's an update on the 2006 Weblog Awards. Basically, if you haven't voted today, you have 3 more voting opportuntites between now and when the voting closes at midnight, December 15.

There are some very close races in which literally every vote counts.

In Best New Blog, Hang Right Politics is leading Lesbian Dad by a total of 11 votes. I was hoping to finish in 4th place, I had slid to 5th place this week, and now I'm in 6th place. I could use 70-80 votes tonight to safely put me back in 5th place. 4th place is pretty much out of the question since those have nearly double my vote total, or more.

Best of 3500 - 5000, Blue Gal is now ahead by 65 but please continue to vote for her. It's been very tight today and earlier today she was only ahead by a vote or two.

Best of the Rest of the Blogs 8751+, Property of a Lady is now in 3rd place (215 votes), behind LizaWasHere (346) and Dr. Melissa Clouthier (234). This had been a closer race as well, so please support Deborah and throw some votes her way so we can get her up from 3rd.

There are plenty of other categories which I obviously didn't list because I'm either not familiar with the blogs in the category (and the way this week is progressing it's unlikely I'll have time to acquaint myself with them) or they are blowouts already, such is the case with Pam's House Blend in Best LGBT Blog. Of course that's well deserved and I'm happy. Keep those votes coming, and I also support Republic of T in the same category.

Best Liberal Blog is another blowout. There are several great blogs in that category which makes it a fierce competition. I continue to encourge votes for Shakespeare's Sister, probably the most entertaining blog I've ever encountered.

Everyone is encouraged to leave comments with voting suggestions for any categories I didn't mention. And it'll be interesting to see, within a few hours from now, just how outdated these numbers are that I've posted already!

Tis the season to be jolly....

...fa la la la la la la fuck it

I should be in a better mood. It's 71 and sunny and it is mid-December. (It was 31 this morning but that's OK as long as the days are nice.) But I wish I didn't have to leave the house again until early January.

I can understand heavy traffic on the weekends during the time of ultimate excess consumerism but throughout the weekdays? Don't these people have jobs? I had a couple of errands to run today and decided to stop and grab lunch while I was out. I didn't get to the sandwich joint until 1:30 and usually have the place to myself by that time. The place was packed. I decided to eat outside to avoid the hustle & bustle. That proved to be a challenge. Having 3 or 4 hands would have been useful to keep my meal from blowing away, to fan away the bee wanting to get into my Coke, and to pull the long hippie hair out of my face.

My only real errand involved mailing some checks at the post office. That's always a fun place to go this time of year. After the dining experience and the p.o. I decided another errand was essential: the liquor store. I'll be jolly tonight for damn sure.

Nigeria: Ripe for a Revolution

Gays are not the only group under sttack in Nigeria. Africa's most populous nation also seems to be waging war against the poor in order to create an upscale image for the city of Abuja.

...these days the deepest cleavage in Nigerian society yawns wider here than it does almost anywhere else — the chasm between the tiny, rich and powerful elite and the vast, impoverished majority of the nation’s 130 million people.

“They don’t want to see the common man, the poor man,” said Comrade Daniel, a motorcycle taxi driver, standing in the rubble of his neighborhood. He lost first his home and then his livelihood to a recent campaign to rid this stately capital of the blemishes of poverty. “They only care for themselves,” he said.

Mr. Daniel and others who live on the unruly edge of this tidy city in the mossy hills of central Nigeria say that Abuja has declared war on its poorest citizens.

In the interest of cultivating an image as a world-class city, comparable to London, Paris, New York or Hong Kong, the government has been razing unauthorized and unsightly slums, clearing out street hawkers and banishing popular and cheap motorcycle taxis, all in the name of spiffing up the city.

[pause here and take a deep breath.]

Sixty percent of Nigeria's 130 million citizens live in poverty. Forget the idea of building a world-class city; it would not even be as authentic as the faux replicas of worldwide landmarks on the Las Vegas strip. Try building a world-class country, free of suppression and oppression, which strives to improve the lives of all citizens.

The master plan’s housing estates unfurl with the orderliness of a planned subdivision: town houses and apartments for the well heeled, tract homes and villas for the even better heeled. But there is little provision for the army of civil servants, whose low wages place the graceful homes of Abuja out of reach.

As for the maids, drivers, security guards and laborers without whom this city would cease to function — people like Mr. Daniel and his sister — there is no place for them at all. Many have moved farther still, commuting for hours from neighboring states to escape the bulldozers.

The government has said it plans to help resettle those displaced by the demolition, estimated to be in the tens of thousands, but those who have lost their homes say no one has offered them any compensation or a new place to live. And so they are left with the bitter knowledge that their capital has no place for them.

Tip for success: Use some of that oil revenue for something besides your own corrupt greed and illusions of grandeur.

Oil accounts for more than 95 percent of Nigeria's foreign earnings and 80 percent of total government revenue. But in Africa's most populous region of more than 130 million people, oil has manifested all the signs of a curse.

Little of the oil wealth is seen by the vast majority of the population who live on less than US$1 a day. Nigeria's financial crimes agency estimates that a total of US$380 billion has been stolen or wasted through corruption and mismanagement by a succession of military and civilian rulers.

What a disgrace. And with the United States importing a million barrels of oil per day from Nigeria, we are helping fuel the crisis and corruption.

Courtney Love Minds Her Manners in Court

For some reason this made me smile, if only to count the days before she gives someone a black eye.

Courtney Love sobbed with joy and thanked a judge on Monday in Los Angeles after he ended her probation and dismissed three misdemeanor cases against her (two drug-related charges and one for assault and battery), The Associated Press reported. Ms. Love, 42, the former frontwoman for the rock band Hole and the widow of the Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, told Judge Rand Rubin of Los Angeles Superior Court: “Thank you for not taking me into custody. Thank you for giving me an opportunity. You’ve been a good, fair judge. Sorry for crying.” The judge said, “You’ve shown to me you are interested in a much less destructive lifestyle.”

My advice would be to stay away from Pete Doherty as well.

Alien Orifice

Another entree in the Zappadan series. Blue Gal has a hilarious graphic up at her place. (Unless you're into Zappa, none of this will be funny, so you therefore have no idea what you're missing out on.)

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.
--Frank Zappa

Click the graphic for a humorous Zappa "Family Circus."

Speaking of Blue Gal, be sure to vote here for her blog in the Weblog Awards. She's currently running 2nd in a pretty tight 3-way race (unlike mine!) so every vote counts.

53 58 63 Dead in Baghdad Bombings Today

The number is likely to climb before I can get this post up.

This protester in Santa Barbara, California probably stays pretty busy updating his informative sign.

credit: AFP/File/Robyn Beck

The coordinated attack in Baghdad's Tayaran Square involved a suicide attacker who drove up to the day laborers pretending to want to hire them, then set off his explosives as they got into his minibus, Lt. Bilal Ali said. At virtually the same time — 7 a.m. — a bomb exploded in a car parked some 30 yards away.

Punk-a-billy Hank the 3rd is 34 today

Give me one more round cause we're all going straight to hell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANK III

Nigeria Set to Pass Harsh Laws Against Associating with Gays

If the House of Representatives in Nigeria votes as expected, a citizen there could serve 5 years in prison for the crime of reading my blog.

The legislation adds to the growing isolation of gays and lesbians in the African nation where sodomy is illegal. In northern Nigeria, which is under Islamic law, homosexuality can be punishable by death and in the rest of the country by long prison terms.

Earlier this year Nigeria made it illegal for same-sex couples to go abroad to marry. When they return they could be imprisoned for five years. Even attending a gay wedding could result in imprisonment.

And according to the AP report in the NY Times the law would include sharing a meal in a restaurant.

Just to remind you, in case you believe this has nothing to do with us over here (a common mentality these days), Nigeria, an OPEC member, is the 5th largest source of U.S. oil imports.

Every mile we drive helps support these atrocities. Feeling good about the world yet?

Many conservative blogs, unhappy with the anti-Bush rhetoric of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, have urged a boycott of Citgo, which is owned by the government of Venezuela. Seems to me there is a far greater evil at play on the African continent. I will continue to support Citgo under the circumstances.

Don't They Have Strip Clubs in Austin?

Yes, we do. I even know where a few are. Or maybe he can just buy himself a few magazines. They're sold all over the place. Let other photographers do the work for you. You just sit back and enjoy.

Someone needs to give this guy some pointers. No pun intended whatsoever. Or maybe just some therapy. How stupid do you have to be to claim the statewide championship title?

I found that story while searching for this one which I read about over at Texas Fred's, another contender in the Best New Blog category. Texas Fred is going to be discussing this, among other issues on his radio show tonight. God, how I'd love to eavesdrop on that one.

In case you are afraid to click the link, a 4-year-old boy, a pre-kindergartner, was suspended in Waco (of all places!) after hugging and "rubbing his face in the chest of a teacher."

What next, try him as a adult and throw him in the slammer? Sweet Jesus, I need a drink.

Kucinich Bashing Has Begun...

...on some of the right-wing blogs at least -- two of which are my competitors in the "Best New Blog" category. (I had to stop reading at two.) You'd think they'd have other things to be concerned about. But since they started it, I'll put in my 2-cents worth.

The liberal, anti-war Ohio congressman said he was inspired to run because he disagrees with the way some of his fellow Democrats are handling the war, including approval of a proposal to spend $160 billion more on the conflict.

I also disagree with spending another $160 billion on the conflict. I'm opposed to spending another $160 MILLION on the conflict. That's a pretty conservative opinion coming from a radical liberal.

Yo, right-wingers, listen up. All voices in the campaign have something to contribute. It's not ALWAYS about who wins, or who is likely to win. It's about what they have to say, what they can contribute, and perhaps influence.

Kucinich is not a "whackjob" because he is unlikely to win a single primary, or because he has been against the Iraq war from the beginning. And certainly not because he happens to be a vegan. (Oh, the horrors of that one in the eyes of the wingnuts!)

I voted for the guy in the 2004 primary and if there's not an equal or better option in 2008 (that certainly remains to be seen) I shall not hesitate to do so again.

In the meantime, you folks have fun with your Dennis bashing. Far be it from me to spoil your intellectual fun. Really.

Addendum: Some of the latest poll data would seem to indicate Kucinich's views on Iraq may not differ very much from a majority of Americans.

Also, one of the links I provided goes to yahoo reader comments on the Kucinich story. Now there's some entertainment!

Listen Up, Phat Girlz

Mo'Nique is 38 today, and quite a piece of work.

Prison Chaos in California

Not surprisingly, California is at the top of the heap when it comes to "festering" prison problems.

By nearly every measure, the California prison system is the most troubled in the nation. Overcrowding, inmate violence, recidivism, parole absconders and the prison medical system are among its many festering problems.

State lawmakers seem poised to finally tackle the problem for the first time since the 1970s. Governor Schwarzenegger has even declared a state of emergency in the ailing system. And the system has been described as a "powder keg" by James E. Tilton, secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Overcrowding is so severe that 16,000 inmates are assigned cots in hallways and gyms; last month, the state began asking for volunteers to be moved to prisons out of state.

The system’s medical program is in federal receivership and much of the rest of the system is under court monitoring. Cellblocks are teeming with violence. Seven of 10 inmates released from prison return, one of the highest rates in the country.

As I've indicated in a recent prior post, one of the causes of excessive incarceration rates is for relatively petty crimes and drugs, and particularly in the case of California, a system so rigid there is too little wiggle room when it comes to sentencing.

Like so many things in California, the scope of the prison problem stems largely from its size. The system houses 173,000 inmates — second-place Texas has 152,500 — and has an $8 billion budget.

Its population explosion is in large part an outgrowth of a general increase in the state’s population, its unusual sentencing structure and parole system, a legislature historically enamored with increasing penalties, and ballot measures like the three-strikes initiative.

And here's a clincher:

Further, most rehabilitation programs have been eliminated from the system in recent years, which some criminal justice experts believe has increased the rate of recidivism.

[...]

Under laws passed in the 1970s, ironclad sentences for crimes are set by the legislature, with little discretion left to judges. Looked at simply, people sentenced to prison for three years get out in three years, whether they have behaved, gone to school or stared at the wall.

Once out, prisoners are assigned to parole and can be sent back to prison for automatic sentences for technical or criminal violations.

States must not eschew their responsibility for rehabilitation efforts, nor should they rely on the one-size-fits-all metality of three-strikes-you're-out. These neglects, coupled with corruption and violence within the prison systems is a recipe for disaster resulting in outrageously overcrowded prisons with a war-zone atmosphere.

Let's hope California sets the standard for prison reform, starting with the concept of a sentencing commission.

...a consensus has been building over the last six months, with union officials, the governor, public policy experts and many members of the legislature agreeing that a sentencing commission is in order.

[...]

Used in many states, the commissions, armed with empirical data, establish sentencing grids, with the offense on one axis and the offender’s history on another, forming a narrow range of possible sentences.

These grids are presented to judges, who have discretion to go outside the range in light of extenuating circumstances. One of the system’s greatest advantages, its proponents suggest, is that it depoliticizes sentencing by taking it out of the hands of elected officials.

[...]

The best commissions, criminal justice experts agree, are those in which violent criminals spend more time behind bars than they did before the commission’s creation, and nonviolent offenders are placed in treatment programs, county jails or other alternatives.

Joan Petersilia, director of the new Center for Evidence-Based Corrections at the University of California, Irvine, and one of the state’s leading experts on prisons, summed up the situation succinctly:

“The way our current system works, all you have is sticks. But we want to give carrots, too. If in fact you can show us stable housing and drug treatment program for six months, you are off parole. The benefit of that is self-selection. Inmates who are low risk and who are motivated will do it, and then we reduce caseload size and let officers target very violent offenders.”

Correcting the problems in California, as in the rest of the nation, will be a huge challenge requiring some detailed self-examination, but it must be done. Too many lives have been destroyed already which could have been salvaged with the application of simple logic and compassion rather than all-too-common knee-jerk politically-inspired reactions.

Prior posts in the series:
Bribing Prisoners for Jesus
US: A Nation of Prisoners
Mama’s New House

I Guess I Am

From Shakespeare’s Sister, another very evil wench.


How evil are you?

Bribing Prisoners for Jesus

As a footnote to the last post regarding prisons, check out the article in the New York Times regarding American religious organizations benefiting from "an increasingly accommodating government."

The cells in Unit E had real wooden doors and doorknobs, with locks. More books and computers were available, and inmates were kept busy with classes, chores, music practice and discussions. There were occasional movies and events with live bands and real-world food, like pizza or sandwiches from Subway. Best of all, there were opportunities to see loved ones in an environment quieter and more intimate than the typical visiting rooms.

But the only way an inmate could qualify for this kinder mutation of prison life was to enter an intensely religious rehabilitation program and satisfy the evangelical Christians running it that he was making acceptable spiritual progress. The program — which grew from a project started in 1997 at a Texas prison with the support of George W. Bush, who was governor at the time — says on its Web site that it seeks “to ‘cure’ prisoners by identifying sin as the root of their problems” and showing inmates “how God can heal them permanently, if they turn from their sinful past.”

That's interesting. It didn't seem to help Karla Faye Tucker when the arrogant pseudo-Christian prick bastard denied her clemency. Once on death row I guess there's no turning back and no repenting allowed. But I digress.

For Robert W. Pratt, chief judge of the federal courts in the Southern District of Iowa, this all added up to an unconstitutional use of taxpayer money for religious indoctrination, as he ruled in June in a lawsuit challenging the arrangement.

The article goes on to state that since 2000, more than a dozen other programs have been cited for similar unconstitutional use of taxpayer money to promote religion. But that hasn't stopped the progress of the programs.

...the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest prison management company, with 65 facilities and 71,000 inmates under its control, is substantially expanding its religion-based curriculum and now has 22 institutions offering residential programs similar to the one in Iowa. And the federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs at least five multifaith programs at its facilities, is preparing to seek bids for a single-faith prison program as well.

And there is no significant penalty imposed on these groups -- usually they are barred from future financing and not required to repay monies used in the past for these unconstitutional activities.

Just a quick reminder:

Bill of Rights

Amendment I: Freedom of speech, religion, press, petition and assembly.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

US: A Nation of Prisoners

More news which casts the United States in an unflattering light is the prison situation. Prisons are popping up like dandelions in the spring. These statistics are absolutely embarrassing:

According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London, more people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000.

It wasn't so long ago the United States was consistently in concert with Western European nations in a broad range of positive criteria. Increasingly we find ourselves lumped in with such non-luminaries as China, Russia, even Iran.

The U.S. incarceration rate is 737 per 100,000 people .... followed by 611 in Russia and 547 for St. Kitts and Nevis. In contrast, the incarceration rates in many Western industrial nations range around 100 per 100,000 people.

Reports such as this should be throwing up red flags in the minds of all thinking Americans, and I still cling to the belief that is at least 51% of us. Unfortunately, in our fear-based society this news will most likely be shrugged off or perhaps even praised, without so much as casual examination.

"The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens," said Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports alternatives in the war on drugs.

Never mind the number of non-violent offenders, many of whom are locked away for drug charges, being given ridiculously long prison sentences.

Ryan King, a policy analyst at The Sentencing Project, a group advocating sentencing reform, said:

Drug offenders account for about 2 million of the 7 million in prison, on probation or parole, adding that other countries often stress treatment instead of incarceration.

Bingo!
The criminal justice system in the US is abysmal and getting worse.

"If these were public schools or publicly traded corporations, we'd shut them down," said Alexander Busansky, executive director of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, established by a private think tank in New York. Rather, the commission said, Americans view prisons with detachment or futility, growing interested when a riot makes the news and then looking away, "hoping the troubles inside the walls will not affect us."

Here are some highlights from the report mentioned in the link, titled "Confronting Confinement," by the National Prison Commission:

*Violence remains a serious problem in prisons and jails, with gang assaults, rapes, riots and, in Florida, beatings by "goon squads" of officers.

*High rates of disease in prison, coupled with inadequate funding for healthcare, endanger inmates, staff and the public, with staph infections, tuberculosis, hepatitis C and AIDS among the biggest threats.

*The rising use of high-security segregation units is counterproductive, often causing violence inside prisons and contributing to recidivism.

In California, the Office of the Inspector General acts as a watchdog, investigating reports of abuse, assaults and fatalities. But the media are limited in their access to the state's 33 prisons, and legislative efforts to overturn such restrictions have been vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his predecessor, Gray Davis.

All 20 members supported the report's findings, concluding that "we should be astonished by the size of the prisoner population, troubled by the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans and Latinos, and saddened by the waste of human potential."

Not only are we not astonished, the vast majority of Americans have no idea, nor do many of them have any interest in understanding this problem.

Another growing facet of this is the issue of privately-run prisons. As with any business, they are in it to make a profit. To make a profit, they need a steady supply of customers. How perfect that their customer base just happens to be delivered to them in large numbers.

Read the article at The Drug Policy Alliance site called A New Slavery.

Who is Profiting?

In the United States, prison architects and contractors, corrections personnel, policy makers and academics, and the thousands of corporate vendors who peddle their wares at the annual trade-show of the American Corrections Association - hawking everything from toothbrushes and socks to barbed-wire fences and shackles. And multi-national corporations that win tax subsidies, incentives and abatements from local governments -- robbing the public coffers and depriving communities of the kind of quality education, roads, health care and infrastructure that provide genuine incentives for legitimate business. The sale of tax-exempt bonds to underwrite prison construction is now estimated at $2.3 billion annually.(5)

Last year, the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation - which manages or owns 37 prisons in the U.S., 18 in the U.K and Australia and has one under contract in South Africa -- tried to convert a former slave plantation in North Carolina into a maximum security prison to warehouse mostly Black prisoners from the nation's capital. Promising investors to keep the prison cells filled these corporations dispatch "bed-brokers" in search of prisoners - evoking images of 19th century bounty-hunters capturing runaway slaves and forcibly returning them to the cotton fields.

I do not understand why this infuriating situation continues to fly under the radar.

Geo Group, Inc., located in Boca Raton, Florida, is a company that specializes in privatizing prisons. Recently, Geo Group, Inc. was awarded a $20 million contract just two months after giving a $10,000 contribution to Governor Schwarzenegger's Recovery Team. Not only have they given large sums of money to Schwarzenegger and his campaign, they also hired lobbying firms and consultants with close connections to the Schwarzenegger Administration.

Correctional Properties Trust, a spin-off of Geo Group, named former State Finance Director Donna Arduin to their board of directors. If that isn't bad enough, according to a recent article in the Palm Beach post, Geo Group overcharged the State of Florida by $5 million.

Not surprisingly, this has been very much on the radar in the financial sector...
3 prison stocks poised to break out.

In what might be a revealing commentary on our country's state of affairs, the nation's private prison companies look like solid investments for the next several years.

Sorry, I'm all for making a profit in the market, but not on the backs of the incarcerated. It seems rather... criminal.


Related post: Incarceration of women.

23 Car Questions Meme

Found this via the Chemist. Turns out it was created by Toast and is quite fun.

1. Favorite Car?
I can only have one? I have a car fetish so this won’t be easy. I’d have to say that sexy 1966 Lotus Elan featured in the Avengers series back in the 60s that Emma Peel would take flying down those narrow roads in the English countryside.

I also am very fond of Aston Martin's from the 50s and 60s.

2. Favorite Car you've ever owned?
It’s a tie between a 1978 BMW 530i and the 2003 330i which I currently have. They’re just fun to drive and built like a brick shithouse. I had a 1964 MG once that was a total piece of shit but it was fun to drive, and was the only convertible I’ve ever owned.

3. Car you would be embarrassed to be seen driving?
Hummer.

4. Next car you plan to buy?
Both cars are paid off and I am in no financial condition (or hurry) to buy another one. However, I would find a pickup very useful sometimes.

5. Next car you would buy for daily use if money were no object?
Probably a Maserati Spyder.


6. What bumper stickers or other decorations, if any, do you have on your car?
None. I’m holding out for some kind of digital sticker that allows you to change the message with a Bluetooth link from the laptop or cell phone. There’s always something I’d like to say to people who tailgate and it varies.

7. Average annual miles you put on your primary vehicle?
About 7,500. There are advantages to working from home.

8. Describe your driving style.
Mostly cautious and conservative in busy areas. I try coasting to red lights to save fuel. Someone usually feels they have to zip around me – you know, it’s important to get to that red light as fast as possible. Having a MPG indicator on the dash is useful and I love being able to pull 50-60 mpg over downhill stretches.

9. Average highway cruising speed.


Actually my average cruising speed is around 77 but if I can do more I will on a long trip.

10. Fastest you've ever driven?
About 110 MPH and just for a few seconds. I'm comfortable up to about 90, anything above that makes me nervous, and anything over 100 makes me very nervous. It would be fun under controlled conditions.

11. Do you race people at stop lights?
I have on occasion if someone has been tailgating and then moves to the other lane at the light thinking I’m going to drag my butt when the light turns green. Depends on my mood. Most of the time I just amuse myself by wondering how long it’ll be before they plow into somebody.

12. Will you cross a solid yellow or double yellow to pass someone?
Only if I’m sure it’s safe and it happens to be a piece of farm equipment going 15 mph or something. Not if it is someone driving 50 in a 55 zone.

13. Do you tailgate or flash your high-beams at people in front of you?
No.

14. Worst accident you've ever been in?
None that would qualify. However I was hit by a car pulling into a street when I was riding a bicycle. That was not pleasant. I wasn’t seriously hurt but was basically bedridden for a couple of days due to extreme soreness.

15. About how many speeding tickets have you gotten?
Probably around 3 or 4 but none in the past 3 years, and only one in the past 15 -20 that I can recall.

16. Ever gotten a DUI/DWI?
No. I did drive home from a club in the 80s after tripping on acid. That, my friends, is not something I’d recommend.

17. What kind of car repairs and/or maintenance can you do?
Ha! I can put air in the tires and change them; I can check the oil. I have replaced a headlamp once. I’m much better at breaking things.

18. Have you ever modified a car you own from stock?
If I didn’t answer this question in the answer above, then read it again.

19. What do you listen to while driving?
KGSR mostly. On long road trips I’ll take along a bunch of CDs for those nether regions of the US with only boring cookie-cutter radio stations, although some of those can be entertaining at times.

20. Favorite driving song?
Really depends on where I am. I like the music to be a part of the environment. When I’m in the Delta I like the blues. If I’m driving through fields of corn, I like John Cougar Mellencamp.

21. Do you use an air freshener in your car, and if so, what scent?
Never.

22. Messy or clean?
Aside from dust, very clean. I can’t stand clutter in a car. One of my biggest pet peeves is that grime that builds up on the inside of the windshield which makes it impossible to see when the sunlight hits it in the late afternoon. It makes me go ballistic.

23. When you and the spouse/significant other go out together, who drives?
Usually me.

Bonus Question, not part of the orginal meme, but I can't help myself:

24. Which car do you consider to be so ugly it makes you cringe when you see one?


Scion xB - just put a wire handle across the top and it could be Chinese takeout.

Politics Down Under

Now THIS is funny!

Two-Faced Romney Steps In It.. Again

In 1994, Mitt Romney, in a letter sent to the Log Cabin Republicans, claimed he would be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Edward Kennedy. What a joke that turned out to be. The man is obsessed with restricting rather than promoting.

Pam had a go at him already.

But let's give him credit for something. Anyone who can put me in a position of agreement with Tony Perkins has really done a number.

“This is quite disturbing,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who had praised Mr. Romney as a champion of traditional values at the group’s conference in late September. “This type of information is going to create a lot of problems for Governor Romney. He is going to have a hard time overcoming this.”

Say farewell to your political ambitions.

"The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces.”
--Maureen Murphy

A Whole Lotta Dying Goin' On

Anyone responsible for creating THAT look deserves some post mortem recognition.

Van Smith, who was admiringly called both an artist and a terrorist for the costumes and makeup he designed for the films of John Waters, died on Tuesday at his home in Marianna, Fla. He was 61.

[...]

An early exponent of the trash aesthetic, Mr. Smith was widely credited with having created the public face — once seen, not soon forgotten — of Divine, the seventh-of-a-ton transvestite star of Mr. Waters’s early movies. Mr. Smith designed the costumes for all of Mr. Waters’s films, and the makeup for the first six of them.

Also making exits this week:

Jay McShann, jazz pianist, bandleader and vocalist, was 90.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, when Kansas City was a hotbed of jazz activity, Mr. McShann was in the thick of the action. Along with his fellow pianist and bandleader Count Basie, the singer Joe Turner and many others, he helped establish what came to be known as the Kansas City sound: a brand of jazz rooted in the blues, driven by riffs and marked by a powerful but relaxed rhythmic pulse.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, UN ambassador in the Reagan administration, was 80.

She was the only woman, and the only Democrat, in President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council. No woman had ever been so close to the center of presidential power without actually residing in the White House.

The Grammy Scam

While we are on the subject of awards and voting for best blogs..

All they do is give out awards.. Greatest Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler.
--Woody Allen

What's with the Grammys snubbing Bob Dylan?

I mean, honestly. I usually agree with most of the awards. Rick Rubin has been a guru of mine from early on.

But Bob deserved more.

Friday Pussy Blog

Tater Tot and Samantha having some quiet time together.



Sorry for the light posting today. Workload was horrendous and it was a strange day anyway. Lots of new visitors checking out the blog thanks to the Weblog awards, but hardly any comments.

Speaking of the awards, the site seem to have been down awhile. Guess they are overwhelmed. Keep trying to get in there and vote. Last time I looked, konagod was in 4th place. Don't make me get pissier than I already am!

Disapproval for Bush Climbs

According to the latest AP Poll, the Shrublet's disapproval rating stands at 71% regarding his handling of Iraq. The poll also indicated a skepticism that a victory in Iraq is possible.

The latest AP-Ipsos poll, taken as a bipartisan commission was releasing its recommendations for a new course in Iraq, found that just 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of Iraq, down from his previous low of 31 percent in November.

Still, it is mind-boggling to conceive that one in four Americans continues to approve the failed war effort which has produced casualties and chaos, not to mention an undeserved financial windfall for a few.

This is from an editorial today in the St. Petersburg Times:

Whether President Bush realizes it or not, the Baker-Hamilton report, a blistering indictment of virtually every aspect of his Iraq policy, provides him with bipartisan political cover for what may well be his last, best chance to change course. Will he seize the opportunity or hunker down in denial? With young Americans dying every day in Iraq, this is no time for the president to let his stubborn streak take charge.

[...]

The way things are going, events - and not policymakers and study groups - may ultimately determine the outcome in Iraq. And it's likely to be an ugly one.

What hasn't been reported much is the exodus of Iraqis to nearby countries which is creating a new set of problems in a region with more than enough already.

As they leave Iraq at a rate of nearly 3,000 a day, the refugees are threatening the social and economic fabric of both Jordan and Syria. In Jordan, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are trying to blend into a country of only 6 million inhabitants, including about 1.5 million registered Palestinian refugees. The governments classify most of the Iraqis as visitors, not refugees.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in a report released last month that more than 1.6 million Iraqis have left since March 2003, nearly 7 percent of the population. Jordanian security officials say more than 750,000 are in and around Amman, a city of 2.5 million. Syrian officials estimate that up to one million have gone to the suburbs of Damascus, a city of three million. An additional 150,000 have landed in Cairo. Every month, 100,000 more join them in Syria and Jordan, the report said.

In a report released this week, Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group, put the total at close to two million and called their flight “the fastest-growing humanitarian crisis in the world.”

I shudder to think of the global impact resulting from the Bush Administration's insanely obsessive war effort. Without a doubt, reverberations will be felt for years if not decades.

Sinead O'Connor is 40

Vote for Pedro konagod!

Voting has begun for the 2006 Weblog Awards!!!
Vote Tonight, Vote Tomorrow, Vote Daily for the Next 10 Days.


Click the link below to go vote. You may vote once daily.

28th Carnival of Feminists

Shit like this is why I can't get any work done. God I love blogs.

Via Angry Black Bitch, I found this at Diary of a Freak Magnet. I swear, it's enough to keep you up reading all night. Nice work, Ginger!

A New President Wouldn't Be a Bad Idea Either

Shrublet acknowledged Thursday that the United States needs a new approach in Iraq and promised to unveil details in an upcoming speech.

I can hardly wait.

Bush was asked whether he thought the study group suggested that he did not appreciate the extent of the violence in Iraq.

"It's bad in Iraq. That help?" retorted Bush.

"You know, in all due respect, I've been saying it a lot," Bush continued. "I understand how tough it is and have been telling the American people how tough it is. And they know how tough it is."

There's a word I'm looking for... it's on the tip of my tongue...ahh.. it's BULLSHIT.
Yeah, that's it.

Doesn't he have brush to clear on the ranch or something?

Tis the Season of... ZAPPADAN!

"Yeah, I tell them to change the channel if they see some guy in a brown suit with a telephone number at the bottom of the screen asking for money. "
-- Frank Zappa, Senate Hearing on "Porn Rock", 1985, after being asked by Tipper Gore if there was anything on TV he didn't allow his kids to watch.

I'm a bit late stepping up to the plate on this but it's been a rather crazy week with my work and the Weblog Award situation threw me for an unexpected loop.

Blame this on BlueGal.

December 4 through 21 shall henceforth be known as Zappadan: the days of the year between death and birth, that ethereal time when there was no Frank, so we must celebrate him to keep his spirit safe until his birthday again.

Gay and Lesbian Partnerships OK'd in Padua, Italy

Padua is the first city in Italy to grant official recognition to gay and lesbian couples. From 365gay (warning -- the link features a photo of two guys kissing! Eewwwww!)

The city council in Padua, in northern Italy, has voted to create a domestic partner registry for same-sex and unmarried opposite-sex couples. The leftist coalition-dominated council voted 26-7 in favor of the motion, making the city the first in Italy to give any official recognition to gay and lesbian couples.

The registry has little legal authority, only covering areas in which the city has jurisdiction. Still, it was hailed by LGBT rights supporters as a significant victory, and assailed by conservatives as an affront to the "sanctity of marriage".

But of course the conservatives will haul out that garbage again.

Uncle Fester is not amused.

The Vatican issued an immediate denouncement. The official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano accused the council of allowing "a parallel family" structure and reminded those who voted for it of the Church's position on same-sex unions.

Yeah, we don't really need to be reminded, but thanks anyway.

Meanwhile, a panel of conservative rabbis gave the OK for same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination of gays within Conservative Judaism.

Though stopping short of endorsing same-sex marriage, the rabbis wanted to allow commitment ceremonies "because in Jewish sexual ethics, promiscuity is not acceptable either by heterosexuals or by homosexuals, and we do in fact have both a Jewish and a social and a medical need to try to confirm those unions," said Rabbi Elliot Dorff of Los Angeles, one of the authors of the change.

I've never participated in any commitment ceremony with txrad although we've been together more than 16 years. Does that still make us promiscuous? Just curious.

Another Black Eye for Islam

So much for freedom of religion for residents of Bulo Burto, Somalia. This was a small blurb in the New York Times today and here it is in its entirety:

Residents of Bulo Burto who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an Islamic courts official said. The edict, which takes effect on Saturday, also orders the closing of shops and tea houses in the town, 124 miles northeast of the capital, during prayer time. Violators “will definitely be beheaded according to Islamic law,” said Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, chairman of the town’s Islamic court.

So, you'll pray whether you like it or not. Empty meaningless prayers will help you keep your head on.

Veggie Musical Chairs

Gee. Now that it's safe (one would assume) to eat spinach again, now we have to be concerned about all our little green onions. At least txrad and I still have some in the garden.

After Taco Bell traced a growing E. coli outbreak to green onions at its restaurants yesterday morning, government investigators began an intensive search to identify the source of the contamination. The total number of cases in three Northeastern states swelled to 99, implicating several additional restaurants and a second food distributor, who said the onions came from a California farm.

It's a damn shame when a nation can't trust the food supply.

Little People: Short in Stature, Big in Everything Else

When I was growing up I never had exposure to little people other than what I might see at a circus or a carnival sideshow. They tended to be grouped together with anyone else who was considered a freak: people with extra body parts, or parts in the wrong places, the extraordinarily obese, or any abnormality that might elicit some oohs, ahhs, or yucks from an audience willing to part with some loose change for some grotesque "entertainment."

In some circles, a midget is the term used for a proportionate dwarf. However, the term has fallen into disfavor and is considered offensive by most people of short stature. The term dates back to 1865, the height of the "freak show" era, and was generally applied only to short-statured persons who were displayed for public amusement, which is why it is considered so unacceptable today.

By the time I was in my teens, having traveled around the country with my parents, I'd occasionally have a sighting of a little person out in the real world. Like most folks at the time, we called them midgets. My adolescent instinct was to think of them as freaks. Although it was not something I dwelled on for more than a few minutes, I would wonder what their horribly pathetic lives must be like. I lumped them in with the retarded and others with deformities.

I am ashamed to admit that I never altered my opinion very much as I moved into adulthood. Chalk it up to being misinformed and a lack of interest in exploring the issue on my own. I honestly didn't want to know much about it. Life can be miserable at times for anyone, and I didn't want to imagine or explore the lives of people I deemed horrible.

"Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable."
--Woody Allen


So, here I am in my mid-40s and finally having a truthful awakening.

txrad is somewhat more intellectually curious about certain things than I am. He finds programs to watch on tv and I'm often reluctant to watch because I don't find the theme or subject matter appealing. I'll usually come around to his side eventually. Such was the case with Iron Chef America -- a program I initially had zero interest in watching, and now it's one of my weekly addictions.

Recently he started watching a program on The Learning Channel called Little People Big World. The first time he had the show on, I figured that was a good time for me to go read blogs or do something I wanted to do. The last thing I wanted to watch was a reality show about midgets little people. It just seemed depressingly gross.

Several weeks ago he had the show on again and in the midst of my huffing and puffing to express my displeasure, he said to me, "I think you'll enjoy this. Watch it."

So I did. Within about 10 minutes I was not only watching it, I was hooked. And not in the weird freakshow sense. I sat through a marathon viewing of several episodes. This is probably the best series I've seen in a long time -- and if you want to categorize it as a reality program, then it's probably my all-time favorite since I'm not that gung-ho about the genre. If that seems like I'm diminishing the program, I'm not. This clearly would be in my top-10 favorite programs of the past decade or two.

For starters, it immediately gave my preconceived belief system a case of whiplash. How on earth could I have been so ignorant all my life? Little people are not freaks, nor are they miserable. Well, maybe when they are having to undergo multiple surgeries to correct various complications, but generally they are as happy with their lives as the rest of us.

Meet the Roloffs.

They are a remarkable family, and the program does an incredible job of illustrating just how normal they are compared to the rest of society. Some of them are just shorter than average. Amy Roloff, the wife and mother of four, is sublime. She reminds me of Cheryl Hines -- in both appearance and personality.

If you haven't seen this series, I give it my highest recommendation. I am thankful to have one more horrendously ugly stereotype blown away.

Matt Roloff and his family are actively involved in the Little People of America, a nonprofit organization that provides support and information to people of short stature and their families.

Learn more about Dwarfism.

Dwarfism
* is a condition characterized by short stature. Technically, that means an adult height of 4 feet 10 inches or under, according to the advocacy group Little People of America (LPA).

*can be caused by any one of more than 200 conditions, most of which are genetic. The most common type, accounting for 70% of all cases of short stature, is called achondroplasia.

*can and most often does occur in families where both parents are of average height. In fact, 85% of children with achondroplasia are born to average-size parents.

Dwarfism isn't:

*an intellectual disability. A person who has dwarfism is typically of normal intelligence.

*a disease that requires a "cure." Most people with the condition can live long, fulfilling lives.

*a reason to assume someone is incapable. Little people go to school, go to work, marry, and raise children, just like their average-size peers.

Diplomacy: What a Novel Idea!

Diplomacy seems to have fallen off the radar during the Shrublet Administration so it'll be interesting to see how the Cowboy-in-Chief will respond to the latest recommendation: try diplomacy.

President Bush received the report in an early morning meeting at the White House with commission members. He pledged to treat each proposal seriously and act in a "timely fashion."

He was flanked by the commission's co-chairmen, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton in a remarkable scene — a president praising the work of a group that had just concluded his policy had led to chaos.

The report painted a grim picture of Iraq nearly four years after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein. It urged Bush to embrace steps he has thus far rejected, including a call to involve Syria and Iran in negotiations over Iraq's future.

It warned that if the situation continues to deteriorate, there is a risk of a "slide toward chaos (that) could trigger the collapse of Iraq's government and a humanitarian catastrophe."

Gee, I thought we were already there.

REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ)

2006 Weblog Award Finalists

The 2006 Weblog Award finalists have been announced. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to be included in the finalists for Best New Blog. Your support is so appreciated!

Others I'm excited about include:

BEST LIBERAL BLOG
Shakespeare’s Sister
Pandagon

BEST LGBT BLOG
Pam’s House Blend
Republic of T

BEST OF THE TOP 3501 - 5000 BLOGS
Blue Gal

BEST OF THE REST OF THE BLOGS (8751+)
Property of a Lady

BIG congrats to all!

Iran Blocks YouTube Access

I guess Iranians won't get to enjoy my Margaret Cho post.

Internet users who tried to call up the YouTube site on Tuesday were met with the message, "On the basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran laws, access to this website is not authorized" — which appears on the numerous opposition and pornographic Web sites that the government blocks.

Yep, that probably answers my question about DudeTube and XTube access as well.
Iran will not be on my short list of retirement locales.

Gates' Gift for Understatement

Robert Gates, the White House choice to be the next defense secretary, conceded Tuesday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and warned that if that country is not stabilized in the next year or two it could lead to a "regional conflagration."

Conflagration. Sure would like to hear the Shrublet mangle that word. My God, here's another one:

"What we are now doing is not satisfactory," Gates said.

Not satisfactory? That's how my first grade teacher would mark report cards. That's not exactly the term I'd use to describe civil war mayhem in which hundreds of thousands have been murdered. Whatever.

Margaret Cho is 38 today

This is probably not for the faint of heart. You have been forewarned.

Moondance

Well, its a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
neath the cover of october skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow
And Im trying to please to the calling
Of your heart-strings that play soft and low
And all the nights magic seems to whisper and hush
And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush

Bathing in Crude Oil

I might have to create a new label for this post. Maybe "weird?" I'll give it some thought.

Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

He undresses, hangs his trousers and sweatshirt on a peg, pulls off socks and underwear and folds a wad of brown paper towels. He will need them later. Then he steps into a mess of what looks, smells and flows like used engine oil. “It’s wonderful,” he says, up to his neck in oil in a sort of human lube job.

The petroleum spas of Naftalan in central Azerbaijan, one of the little-known but once popular vacation spots of the Soviet Union, are making an unlikely return in a country so awash in oil these days that people are swimming in it.

Hello!? Anyone ever heard of carcinogens?

They and doctors here say it relieves joint pain, cures psoriasis, calms nerves and beautifies skin — never mind that Western experts say it may cause cancer.

[...]

Each bath uses about a barrel of crude, which is recycled into a communal tank for future bathers, given the cost of oil these days. Mr. Mirzeyev also uses paper towels to wipe bathers clean, a long, hard process that involves several showers.

I have a hunch this will never catch on in Santa Monica. Personally, I'll just stick with the occasional mud and clay bath.

Cassandra Wilson is 51 today

I love this woman. Cassandra, come on down to Austin soon. You've been on my "must see" list for years.

Her CD Blue Light Til Dawn is probably forever locked into my all-time top 10.

What Does Your Birthday Mean?

Via Bklyn Diva’s Playhouse.

Your Birthdate: April 22

You tend to be understated and under appreciated. You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way. People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little. Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Blogspotting

Quaker Dave has embarked on a new project with a blog dedicated to issues in Darfur. The blog is Daily Darfur and this is a noble effort. This dire situation is barely a blip on the media radar thanks to the civil war in Iraq and the perception, real or imagined, that Americans cannot handle but one crisis at a time.

I am a Book Snob... Apparently

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Book Snob You like to think you're one of the literati, but actually you're just a snob who can read. You read mostly for the social credit you can get out of it.
Literate Good Citizen
Dedicated Reader
Fad Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

The Minstrel Boy had this on his blog. I wasn't even going to take this quiz because I hardly ever read books. The last one I read was a biography about Janis Joplin which I read about 3 years ago. There are three books I keep handy at all times:
a thesaurus (and why the hell don't I use it more often?), a dictionary, and the World Almanac & Book of Facts. The almanac is one book I consider absolutely essential for my sanity -- I've been buying it annually since I was in my mid-teens. Actually, until I moved away from home at 18, it was always one of my Christmas presents from my parents which I demanded. It usually goes on sale right after Thanksgiving and it was torture for me to wait a month until I could open my favorite present.

The best thing about being an adult now is not having to wait on that silly tradition. I have my 2007 edition already.

Give Me Some of that Santa's Butt

The puritanical Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement is being rather ridiculous in banning the sale of this brew.

In a complaint filed in federal court, Shelton Brothers accuses the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement of censorship for denying applications for labels for Santa's Butt Winter Porter and two other beers it wants to sell in Maine.

[...]

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, contends the state's action violates the First Amendment by censoring artistic expression.

But the state says it's within its rights. The label with Santa might appeal to children, said Maine State Police Lt. Patrick Fleming. The other two labels are considered inappropriate because they show bare-breasted women.

Ah, excuse me. Who gives a shit if it "appeals" to children? I'm sure there are plenty of books, both fictional and non-fictional, with cover illustrations that might appeal to children, but that's as far as it goes... unless of course it's a children's book. There are all kinds of things out there that appeal to children but children can't have them. Children can't buy beer!. However, beer is probably better for children than all the crap most parents allow them to have, not to mention the prescribed drugs such a Ritalin, but I digress.

The label for the English-made Santa's Butt Winter Porter features a rear view of a beer-drinking Santa Claus sitting atop a barrel. The beer's name refers not only to Santa's ample backside, but also to the barrel. In England, brewers once used a large barrel called a "butt" to store beer.

Maine also denied label applications for Les Sans Culottes, a French ale, and Rose de Gambrinus, a Belgian fruit beer.

Les Sans Culottes' label is illustrated with detail from Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty Leading the People," which hangs in the Louvre and once appeared on the 100-franc bill. Rose de Gambrinus shows a bare-breasted woman in a watercolor painting commissioned by the brewery.

Here is "Liberty Leading the People" for those of you unfamiliar with it. Shocking, isn't it?

Good grief. This is absurd. It's highly doubtful this seasonal brew would be advertised, much less in media aimed at children a la Joe Cool Camel. Come on, Maine. Don't tread on the rights of adults to enjoy the season.

A Bigger Focus on Gender Identity in Children

A boy, 5, left, who identifies as a girl, plays with a friend in Northern California. He began emulating girls shortly after turning 3. Photo: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

This is so refreshing to see. I encourage comments from the trans community on this -- especially if you are willing to share early childhood experiences. I would guess very few adults who have grappled with gender issues ever received this kind of support as children. It will be fascinating to observe how such open acceptance and support might improve the lives of people who otherwise may spend decades grappling with their gender and the disapproving societal garbage surrounding it.

Children as young as 5 who display predispositions to dress like the opposite sex are being supported by a growing number of young parents, educators and mental health professionals.

Doctors, some of them from the top pediatric hospitals, have begun to advise families to let these children be “who they are” to foster a sense of security and self-esteem. They are motivated, in part, by the high incidence of depression, suicidal feelings and self-mutilation that has been common in past generations of transgender children. Legal trends suggest that schools are now required to respect parents’ decisions.

Personally I think this is great. The early years are critical for a child to begin developing confidence and self-esteem and there is absolutely nothing wrong in supporting them. I do not understand why our society can be so accepting of little boys being boys, and little girls being girls, but so overwhelmingly convinced that crossing any lines or breaking any barriers is such an unnatural negative.

Cassandra Reese, a first-grade teacher outside Boston, recalled that fellow teachers were unnerved when a young boy showed up in a skirt. “They said, ‘This is not normal,’ and, ‘It’s the parents’ fault,’ ” Ms. Reese said. “They didn’t see children as sophisticated enough to verbalize their feelings.”

[...]

At the Park Day School in Oakland, teachers are taught a gender-neutral vocabulary and are urged to line up students by sneaker color rather than by gender. “We are careful not to create a situation where students are being boxed in,” said Tom Little, the school’s director. “We allow them to move back and forth until something feels right.”

For families, it can be a long, emotional adjustment. Shortly after her son’s third birthday, Pam B. and her husband, Joel, began a parental journey for which there was no map. It started when their son, J., began wearing oversized T-shirts and wrapping a towel around his head to emulate long, flowing hair. Then came his mothers’ silky undershirts. Half a year into preschool, J. started becoming agitated when asked to wear boys’ clothing.

En route to a mall with her son, Ms. B. had an epiphany: “It just clicked in me. I said, ‘You really want to wear a dress, don’t you?’ ”

Excellent thinking outside the usual rigid confines. It should be that simple.

Friday Pussy Blog

I haven't had nearly as much time for blogging this week as I'd like. In my work, there's four times per year when I'm exceptionally busy for a span of 2-3 weeks and this is the last one for 2006. Next week might be just as busy and then it should slow down towards the holidays.

I can always make time for the pussy blog! We had a cold morning with a low of 24 but the afternoon is nice and sunny with temps in the mid-50s. Puurfect for cat napping -- except for Sweet Pea who always wants to know what I'm doing in the kitchen.



Clockwise from top left:
Samantha stretching; Sweet Pea looking in the kitchen window; Sissy in her favorite napping chair, and Tater Tot yawning between naps. I didn't get Tiger in this group but you can bet he's in the garage napping on one of the old office chairs. Now I'm ready for a nap too!

World AIDS Day --- December 1, 2006

Double Birthday Tribute

Allen Stuart Konigsberg is 71 today.
Bette Midler is 61.