This makes me very glad I'm not flying during the holidays. This is the scene from O'Hare in Chicago. One airport. One day. One moment. I'm sure it replayed many times in every airport.
God, we Americans have a lot of stuff!
And let's not forget a pair of security tips:
•Remember, food items are subject to screening. Pumpkin pie (which has a gel-like consistency) and fruitcakes (which are very dense) are allowed, but may require extra screening.
•Dress the part. You'll have to take off your shoes, coats and any bulky sweaters and sweatshirts before screening.
So what exactly does extra screening of a pumpkin pie entail?
And the second one should probably read: "UNdress the part."
This blog will never be any one's source for news or political commentary. I throw up (pun intended) news that yanks my chain, put in my two-cents worth, and move on. I mainly just try to have fun here and be more entertaining than anything else. And vent.
So I wanted to take a brief moment to thank ALL of the visitors who come here intentionally, or stumble across it, from time to time. It certainly wouldn't be quite as much fun -- nor would I take it quite so seriously if I was getting 10-15 visitors daily.
My SiteMeter took a rather nasty spill this year when I started working full-time out of the house. My visitor counts dwindled and finally settled in around 50 per day -- and that's not bad. After getting nominated for the Best of the Rest 8751+ in November, the number of visitors started to increase dramatically, the same as last year when this blog was nominated for Best New Blog. Only this year, there has not yet been a drop in daily visitors after the fact.
In the TTLB Ecosystem, I've been hovering near, and occasionally in, the Slithering Reptiles category, and then slipping back to the Crawly Amphibians. If nothing else, I prefer to be out of the water, and slithering rather than crawling. Unless I'm a crawling king snake. That's acceptable.
At the time I'm writing this, my ranking is #8845. Prior to and during the Weblog Awards, I was in the 10,500-12,000 range. So I'm proud of what I have done. And I'm proud that visitors still come here, for whatever reason. And my daily visitor counts have remained fairly steady at around 150. That's a huge jump from 50!
So, I just wanted to thank you all, and invite you to delurk and say hi. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Let 2008 rock out loud.
And now this slithering reptile would like to play some music. Jim, on his deathbed.
Interviewer: "So Frank, you have long hair. Does that make you a woman?" FZ: "You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?"
The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese.
Frank Zappa was born on this day in 1940. Thus endeth another celebration of Zappadan.
Huck is in Iowa busily reminding everyone about Christ. Here's a few jewels for your reading pleasure.
“I know this is probably a very controversial thing, but may I say to you, Merry Christmas!”
///
“What’s wrong with our country, what is wrong with our culture, is that you can’t say the name Jesus Christ without people going completely berserk.”
///
“Wait till all these aging hippies find out they’ll get free drugs for the rest of their lives.”
Imagine, if you will, what life in the USA might be like in 2012 after four years of a Huckabee administration. That's enough to get people going "completely berserk."
And Huck, I can't speak for all aging hippies, but unless you are planning to legalize the growing of marijuana, your humor doesn't mean much to me. I'm really not interested in free pharmaceuticals.
I cannot believe the West Memphis Three haven't been released after I read an article in the New York Times back on October 30, which essentially proved (to me at least) that all three of them were innocent. They were victims of satanic panic.
Bold emphasis mine:
Supporters of the defendants hope the legal filing will provide the defense with a breakthrough. Two of the men, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, are serving life in prison, while one, Damien W. Echols, is on death row. There was no physical evidence linking the teenagers, now known as the West Memphis 3, to the crime.
“This is the first time that the evidence has ever really been tested,” said Gerald Skahan, a member of the defense team. “The first trial was pretty much a witch hunt.”
Brent Davis, the local prosecutor, did not respond to requests for comment about the new evidence and the case, but in general prosecutors and investigators have continued to express confidence in their investigation.
The story the defendants’ supporters have presented — of three misfits whose fondness for heavy-metal music made them police targets — has won the men the support of celebrities like Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Marilyn Manson and the creators of “South Park.” Many learned of the case through an HBO documentary, “Paradise Lost,” and a sequel.
The prosecution hinged on a confession riddled with factual errors and a Satanic cult expert with a mail-order degree. Mr. Echols’s own lawyer called him “weird” and “not the all-American boy.”
If being "weird" and "not the all-American boy" is all it takes to wind up on death row, then I belong there myself.
Thankfully, this injustice continues to gather attention, and Natalie Maines is involved, which hopefully will not prompt another round of CD burnings for the Dixie Chicks.
These last several weeks have been very strange in terms of my employment. It's one thing to be fired or laid off suddenly -- been there, done that. But it's quite another to be told 5 or 6 weeks ahead of time that your last day is December 28. And it's different again to find out this week that because the office has decided to close the entire week for the holidays, my last day will now be.. tomorrow.
There really hasn't been much work this month. I've spent several days during these weeks "working" from home which basically entails simply keeping an eye on emails. On the days when I have gone in, I've only stayed 3 or 4 hours -- going in around 10:00 and leaving by 2:00.
While this sounds lovely, and it has been on some level, it's also been stressful because I'm still attached and yet in a state of limbo, and that's how I've felt since August when I suspected my services might no longer be needed at the end of the year due to the probable loss of an enormous account.
It's an odd feeling knowing that I will drive in tomorrow for the sole purpose of being discharged. On one level I'm sad and emotional about it. No longer seeing my co-workers or working on an account which has been the highlight of my advertising career is a tough reality to face.
On another level, I'm absolutely thrilled to exit limboland, have some untethered downtime in January, and plot the path for the future which, at this moment, is about as uncertain (and scary) as driving in thick fog.
So I guess my current state of mind would best be described as sad, excited, and cautiously optimistic with a light dusting of fear. What a combo.
Columbia University has decided to junk a 70-year-old atom smasher that is the nation’s oldest artifact of the nuclear era, ending weeks of internal debate and lobbying over its fate.
[...]
Covered by dust and graffiti, it weighs 30 tons and stands seven feet tall and 12 feet wide, its giant arms holding aloft a huge electromagnet that once helped guide subatomic particles and split atoms.
Actually, I'm sort of on the fence with this one. Many preservationists want to keep this historical "icon." Its contribution to the atom bomb, in my opinion, makes it about as deserving of presevation as the Berlin Wall.
“It’s an extremely important cultural icon,” David J. Brenner, a medical physicist at Columbia and the chairman of its radiation safety committee, said in an interview. “It represents one of Columbia’s biggest contributions to world history.”
On the other hand, I am open to persuasion. I do have a sentimental side.
Since dicks seem to be today's theme, it would have to be Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Thanks Petulant. That's as refreshing as a cold shower in December.
Putin, 55, whose party recently won a big victory in parliamentary elections, is riding high on an oil-fueled economic boom and soaring popularity from a no-nonsense approach that has restored national pride with a big military build-up and verbal attacks on the West reminiscent of the Cold War.
Hungary took a step in the direction of marriage equality, and so did Uruguay.
Neither law is perfect, but far ahead of the United States as a whole. In Uruguay:
Under the new law, gay and straight couples will be eligible to form civil unions after living together for five years. They will have rights similar to those granted to married couples on such matters as inheritance, pensions and child custody.
And in Hungary:
Registered couples will have the same rights as married heterosexual couples in inheritance, taxation and other financial matters.
But they will not be allowed to adopt children, unlike married couples.
Again, not perfect, but moving in the right direction. Put in a slightly different context, it was actually a crime for txrad and I to have sex in our own home in Texas until Lawrence v. Texas was overturned less than five years ago.
In a vote that made for unusual alliances, the General Assembly passed, 104 to 54 with 29 abstentions, a nonbinding resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. Among the countries joining the United States in opposition to the European-led measure were Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Good company, America! Let's keep our human rights beacon shining brightly for the rest of the civillized world to see, because God knows, those other five countries are doing their part.
And let's disregard the fact that executions in the US are at a 13-year-low.
On Dec. 17, Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, a Democrat, signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in the state, a development the report said exemplified a trend of states shifting away from the death penalty. Legislatures in other states, including New Mexico, Montana and Nebraska, came close to abolishing it this year.
Meanwhile, 40 of 50 states had no executions this year, while 86 percent of executions occurred in the South, the report said. Texas had by far the most executions, with 26.
But I still have a reason to be a proud resident of Texas. I'm quite sure we'll keep knocking them off in order to remain numero uno.
Media CEOs and other highly paid suits can pop those champagne corks early this year. The vote was 3-to-2. (Who says one vote can't make a difference?)
Michael J. Copps, a Democratic commissioner who has led a nationwide effort against relaxing the media ownership rules, said the rule was nothing more than a big Christmas present to the largest conglomerates.
“In the final analysis,” Mr. Copps said, “the real winners today are businesses that are in many cases quite healthy, and the real losers are going to be all of us who depend on the news media to learn what’s happening in our communities and to keep an eye on local government.”
All the news they want you to hear or read. Great. Go ahead and start shaping the outcome of the 2008 presidential primaries while you're at it.
Chalk up one more group in Iraq who are who are facing tough times since the American-led invasion: gays and lesbians.
And while that probably isn't a big surprise, it certainly speaks volumes about our "progress" in building a safe, Democratic Iraq where freedom and equality rule.
Mohammed, 37, has been openly gay for much of his adult life. For him, this has meant growing his hair long and taking estrogen. In the past, he said, that held little danger. As is true throughout the Middle East, men have always been publicly affectionate here.
But, at least until recently, Mohammed and many of his gay friends went one step further, slipping into lovers’ houses late at night. And, until the American invasion, they said, Iraqi society had quietly accepted them.
But being openly gay is not an option in the new Iraq, where the rise of religious extremism has left Mohammed and his gay friends feeling especially vilified.
[...]
In 2005, Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for gay men and lesbians to be killed in the “worst, most severe way.”
He lifted it a year later, but neither that nor the recent ebb in violence has made Mohammed or his friends feel safe. They yearn to leave Iraq, but do not have the money or visas. They agreed to be interviewed on the condition that their last names not be used.
These extremists are an unpleasant lot, for sure.
His hand drifted to his newly shorn hair. He had lopped it off days earlier. There had been reports of extremists stopping long-haired men, shearing their hair and forcing them to eat it.
At least 400 people have been killed in Iraq since 2003 for being gay, according to an Iraqi gay rights group.
And some in the American military are not really helping matters with their adolescent condescending attitudes toward gays.
The American invasion was expected to usher in better times.
“We thought that with the presence of Americans, life would become paradise, that Iraq would be Westernized,” Mohammed said. “But unfortunately the way things were before was so much better than where we are now.”
One night shortly after Saddam Hussein fell, American soldiers burst into the apartment that Mohammed shared with his two brothers. They were looking for insurgents, but took one look at Mohammed, with his long hair and shapely body wrapped in a robe, and teased him, he said.
“What are you, a lady man?” he remembered them barking. “A boy? Or a girl?” They turned to one of Mohammed’s brothers, “Who is this?” they asked, “Your girlfriend?”
Being gay in Iraq now keeps them constantly on the move seeking safety. Not surprisingly, many of them want out of Iraq.
One of Mohammed’s friends, a 25-year-old law student named Rafi, said he was especially desperate to get out of Iraq. It is a sentiment shared by millions of Iraqis, but Rafi believes his future here is especially bleak. The influence from Iran is growing, he said. And in Iran, homosexuality is often punishable by death.
“I want to get out, but not just out of Iraq, out of the Middle East,” Rafi said, “to a country that has respect for human rights. And for us.”
Good luck. And if you are casting an eye on the United States, I'd wait until January 2009 -- at least.
Gov. Jon. S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment.
And as Quaker Dave said, "We did it here. Who’s next?" Aside from being one of my favorite albums ever, it's a fine question if ever I heard one.
Thank you Governor Corzine. Hopefully, having been close to death is not a prerequisite for opposing this absurd--and unconstitutional--punishment.
Gee, I love having "allies" in the world who believe victims of rape need to be punished for having a crime committed against them.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pardoned the victim of a gang-rape whose sentencing to 200 lashes caused an international outcry, a Saudi newspaper said on Monday.
[...]
The 19-year-old Shi'ite woman was abducted and raped along with a male companion by seven men last year in a case that has drawn criticism from around the world.
Ruling according to Saudi Arabia's strict reading of Islamic law, a court sentenced the woman to 90 lashes for being alone with an unrelated man and the rapists to prison terms of up to five years.
Christ. Let's keep up the support for such allies by buying their crude oil and shit.
What could a man who grew up on a farm in southeast Arkansas, and a man of Norwegian ancestry who grew up branding cattle (among other things) in western North Dakota possibly have in common with a woman who is a Croatian refugee and a man from Holland who is a software/mechanical engineer?
Read on. This may be of interest to no one but myself, by the way.
One of the aspects of life which fascinates me so much are the strange little twists and turns and the discoveries that perhaps none of us are really so very different. We all have our life experiences and when they entwine with those experiences of others, it's a joy, if nothing else.
I don't remember how I discovered Nicole's photo blog, or what endeared me to it. But I've had her on my blogroll for at least a year. Perhaps it was because she was living in Amsterdam, a city I love, and I enjoyed her photographs of her daily life, the street scenes, and the cafes. Plus I have a fascination with the Dutch culture and language.
When I lived in Denver in the late 80s, prior to moving to California, I had a job at a university bookstore. The university had a lot of students from Holland, and it seemed as if most of the employees in the bookstore were Dutch. Being a language buff, and having studied a bit of Dutch on my own, I began to make friends with many of my co-workers. While they spoke fluent English, they would often converse among themselves in their native language. I began refreshing myself on the language and while I was never able to speak more than a few sentences, I think my friends were impressed that an American was taking the effort, particularly since it wasn't necessary. I was better at reading and writing in Dutch.
After I moved to California, I kept in touch with a few of them for about a year, and I still have a postcard and a letter written to me in Dutch after a couple of them had returned to Holland.
This of course is not the reason I was fond of Nicole's blog because she didn't post in Dutch; it's just a small part of the connection. Perhaps it's my attraction to Virgos. Before I met txrad I knew the love of my life would be a Virgo. So I wasn't surprised that he was one. I tend to get along with most Virgos pretty well. And Nicole is a Virgo. Vincent, her partner, is also a Virgo. Virgos all around! And Vincent is a native of Holland and therefore speaks and writes Dutch. Rather fluently I would assume.
A few months back, Nicole announced that they would be immigrating to Australia. My first thought was that I'd really miss the pictures of life in Amsterdam. Later I was quite excited to learn that they were moving to Adelaide, one of two cities in Australia for which I have always had a strange fascination (the other being Perth) which is odd considering I know nothing about either place, and have never been to Australia. Oh well. Life is full of oddities. But I was certainly looking forward to pictures. (By the way, shortly after moving, Nicole and Vincent flew to Perth to visit friends, so I got to see some pictures there as well, and it did nothing to diminish my intrigue.)
Upon arriving in Australia, I noticed that Vincent had started up his own photo blog, and around the same time, I had been inspired to dedicate my Black Soap blog to personal issues and photography after having enjoyed Nicole's for so long. I began reading their blogs more regularly and leaving more comments, and vice-versa -- in short, getting to know them a bit better.
One interesting fact I learned is that Adelaide and Austin are sister cities. The coincidence is that txrad and I had been together 7 years when we moved to Austin, and Nicole and Vincent had been together 7 years when they moved to Adelaide. Ahhh, you've got to love the numerology! Seven is probably my favorite number.
Nicole also worked for an advertising agency in Amsterdam. I work for an advertising agency in Austin. Surprise! Another coincidence. Now that we are all blogging back and forth, I learned that Vincent has a map fetish. So do I. I also learned that Nicole likes to meander slower through the supermarket. So does txrad. I'd rather wait outside. So does Vincent. But let's get to the larger coincidence.
Carlos Vamos and Andy Salvanos are a couple of musicians. Carlos is a musician they knew from Amsterdam. Andy is a musician they recently saw performing on the street in Adelaide. Here's the coincidence directly from Nicole:
So we tell Andy how much he reminds us of Carlos and Andy actually knew who Carlos was! And then by freak coincidence Andy found my blog and wrote a message that Carlos flew in from Amsterdam and is playing here in Adelaide for about three weeks!
And this reminded me of a coincidence of my own involving street musicians. (Hey, I never said this post was going to be short!)
When I was living in Little Rock prior to moving to Denver, I lived in the central part of the city -- a bit more eclectic than the suburbs. One of my favorite sights was the guy who lived near me, and rode around on his bicycle carrying a guitar and wearing a sombrero. His name was Elton White.
He hooked up with another local eccentric named Betty White (coincidentally; she didn't take his name I guess!) and they married and started performing together. Fast forward a few years to Los Angeles after txrad and I had moved there from San Diego. I'd been gone from Little Rock for 2-3 years and had no idea Elton and Betty had moved on to some fame.
txrad and I were were walking down the street in our Hollywood neighborhood when we spotted a couple who would tend to catch your attention. It was Elton and Betty! I rushed up to them, introduced myself and txrad, and told them how I knew them from Little Rock. They had moved to LA to pursue fame and fortune and were performing regularly on Venice Beach.
They also were starting to attract some media attention as well. The fact that they briefly ran for political office while in Arkansas might have encouraged the attention. Elton ran for a seat in Congress. Betty ran against Bill Clinton in an Arkansas gubernatorial race. Her one and only issue was to lower the age of consent to 14. She lost, obviously.
I hadn't thought too much about Elton and Betty after we moved from LA 10 years ago. After reading Nicole's post, and realizing the vast wealth of knowledge on the internet I decided to take a look and see if I could get caught up on the dazzling duo. And I succeeded.
Betty White died in 2004. That makes me sad. BoingBoing actually had a post about them in May of this year. So did Honky-Tonk Dragon.
In the early 1980's, Betty was a more or less normal, married secretary in her late 50's/early 60's at a Little Rock law firm (allegedly working with Hillary Clinton) with a slight psychiatric problem for which she took medication. At some point, though, she stopped taking her medication and experienced a psychic and sexual renaissance of grandiose proportions: out with the husband and respectable job, in with the matching hot pink hair-do and spandex pants.
Elton, meanwhile, was a much younger (30 years younger, to be exact!) man renowned in Little Rock for his phenomenal basketball skills until the day he claims someone "put something in his drink." Elton met Betty in a homeless shelter, and it was love at first sight. The two were married and became notable Little Rock eccentrics, playing music all around town while sometimes delivering newspapers on the side.
Part of me wonders if Carlos Vamos or Andy Salvanos ever crossed paths with Elton and Betty. That would be too much of a coincidence. I'm just glad that Nicole's coincidence and subsequent post about it reminded me of my own, and that I am able to share a little more kona magical moments.
Rest in peace, Betty.
I'm happy I got to meet you once upon a time in Hollywood.
Hillary Clinton and John McCain received the highly-coveted endorsement of the Des Moines Register.
Meanwhile the Boston Globe has endorsed Barack Obama and McCain which is likely to wield some influence in the New Hampshire primary on January 8.
The Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest newspaper, endorsed the two candidates for the fast-approaching Iowa caucuses, calling them the best prepared and most tested of the White House contenders.
[...]
The Register's endorsement was especially bad news for Edwards, who won the newspaper's endorsement in the 2004 race, helping him make a late rush to finish second behind winner John Kerry, but the paper's editors said this was a different race and "we too seldom saw the 'positive, optimistic' campaign we found appealing in 2004."
txrad predicted months ago the Democratic ticket would be Clinton/Edwards. It's going to be very interesting to watch all this unfold as the voters make their decisions.
What is this? National Meme Week or something? Blueberry got me earlier this week, right before my busy spell, so I'm getting caught up (and already got my revenge, incidentally).
The 5 Little Known Things About Me Meme (ummm deja-vu) apparently begins with a haiku now -- that's a twist. Actually Blueberry ended hers with a haiku as well. I can't promise that, but we'll see. There's also 8 more things which brings the total to 13. So if I just do 2 more things right now, that's a total of 15 which is the equivalent of doing the 5 Things Meme 3 times, right?
A love of numbers konagod speaks in riddles only for humor
1. In an effort to conserve laundry detergent and water, I've started wearing the same clothes over and over again, day after day, but not always several days in a row. I give them a chance to air out. If I'm going out on errands or eating out, I will often put on something clean, and then take it off as soon as I'm home and put on yesterday's clothes again. I could be wrong but I doubt anyone would notice, particularly since I rarely go out in public wearing the same shirt two days in a row. And even when I do, it's not like I'm going to the same places and seeing the same people, so who would know? And unless I stink (and I don't), then there's not a problem. This really does cut way back on the laundry duties.
2. As much as I love to drink and partake of God's herb, preferably simultaneously, I generally only do them at night. I know people who wake up in the morning and smoke a big doobie. I've known people who wake up, have a beer, or sit around drinking beers all afternoon watching football. The only time I ever have a drink in the morning is when I'm in Vegas, and I'll have a bloody mary, but only if I'm just planning to sit on my ass and gamble. And I haven't been to Vegas in probably 6 or 7 years. The only time I drink around noon is when we go to Curras Grill for lunch and I'll have a margarita. But I haven't been there in months. The only exception to this was a few weeks ago when I went out to lunch with one of my co-workers and I had two beers -- and I think that was the day we found out we were losing our jobs at the end of this month.
OK, since I'm on a roll now, I'll see if I can pinch off 3 more just to complete this meme fair and square.
3. This is something I just told the Minstrel Boy recently. I grew up in the Mississippi Delta in southeast Arkansas. Before I was born, my parents lived for a brief time across the river in Clarksdale, Mississippi: World Capital of the Blues and location of the famous Crossroads intersection of Highway 61 and 49. And yet, I never knew of the Blues genre until well after I'd started exploring rock & roll and got my boner for Led Zeppelin. I thought their shit was innovative and original. I thought that sound was British! I don't think I'd ever heard of Robert Johnson until I was in my 20s at least, and to the best of my knowledge, I never actually heard his music until this decade, unless the pot has rotted my brain. I'm serious. To this day I don't know why my father didn't teach me a little about music history, given how interested in music I was. Oh, I guess he did when he'd describe what I was listening to as "nigger music" -- only I didn't get the reference since most of the bands I was listening to were white hippies.
4. If I were asked to name the greatest technological achievement during my life, I'd have to say the personal computer. Cell phones are nice but I could honestly live without those. And GPS, why the hell do I need to be told where I am and where I'm supposed to go from some electronic gadget? We have maps for that purpose. Nintendo? Blah.
When I was starting grade school, computers were the stuff of science fiction. Enormously big scary things making funky noises and with weird lights (well, some things haven't changed, and size is relative) -- straight out of Lost in Space. I remember the first real personal computer I ever had in my house -- it was around 1976 and my dad, always having a love for the latest toys, bought one at Radio Shack. Yes, this is the same dad who got me a touch-tone phone for my bedroom around 1972-ish, and also got me a basic calculator (adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides, and that's it) for Christmas around that same time, and paid $50 for it.
This computer required a cassette player to upload software. The sounds on the cassette were not unlike two fax machines trying to copulate. And if you could see these games or other programs today after waiting 20+ minutes to upload them, you'd shit yourself laughing.
The fact that I only had to wait about 15-17 years from that moment until I was checking weather online, buying plane tickets, and doing all my banking, is quite frankly, amazing to me. Not to mention the free porn.
5. And speaking of technology and fax machines in particular, I bought my first fax machine very early in 1991. For those of you who don't remember, this was when fax machines were still sort of faddish for individuals to own. When someone would yell out in public, "I'll fax you," that was enough to turn some heads. I'm not kidding. Oh, so very coooool....
I had just hooked up with txrad a few months earlier in San Diego. I had moved to Los Angeles with a friend so I could find a job, and then txrad could move up. This was right before I got into the advertising field. Apparently, I didn't want to be inconvenienced by having to go someplace and pay them to fax my resume to various companies. So, despite being unemployed and living on credit, I paid $399 for a thermal paper fax machine. Horrid little thing that was. But I got a job in advertising. So I guess it paid for itself. (My, my, how we justify our irrational behavior!)
And as this meme began, so shall it end:
Cassette tape squealing as it uploads the data like impregnating
Tagged: anyone who hasn't done a 5 or 8 or 13 things meme before. You know who you are. And you haven't lived until you've tried it.
Toast tagged me for this one. And any thoughts in italics were left intact from Toast's meme because they apply to me. This is one of the better memes to cross my path in a long time.
I Never... give up on anything - stop wondering what's next in life - can keep a New Year's resolution - enjoy watching animal documentaries when the animals are stalking and killing other animals - stop thinking about sex - throw up after drinking too much - could have a relationship with an evangelical Republican - can untangle wires, string, or chains without saying "fuck" - intentionally kill anything - can take a cat to the vet without stressing out.
I Rarely... remember eating dinner the previous night if I drank too much - remember what I might have commented on a blog the previous night if I drank too much - remember what I might have posted on my own blog the previous night if I drank too much - have a truly evil thought - enjoy a cold cloudy day - wake up feeling REALLY hung-over - read the instructions - get ill with a fever - trust a weather forecast - leave town - attend funerals - floss - have a genuine out-loud laugh - eat sweets - have indigestion - answer the phone when it rings - stay up past 11:00 PM - sleep past 6:30 AM.
I Cry... when a cat dies - during certain films - listening to certain music - thinking about what the fucking Taliban did to the Buddha statues.
I Am Not Always...Sober enough to function - a joy to be around - able to shut my brain off - in the mood to talk to people - pleasant to be around when out in holiday shopping-related traffic.
I Lose...My mind whenever anything goes wrong with my computer - small things I rarely use - at gambling - at strip poker, on purpose - according to txrad when we argue about anything.
I'm Confused... by the 20% of Americans who think Bush is doing a great job - by Democrats who can't grow a pair - when trying to comprehend infinity - for at least 3 days after switching to or from daylight savings time.
I Miss... having high-quality, high potency pot - the Wheatberry restaurant in Little Rock - being young - flying pre-9/11 - living at the end of the road - Samantha and Jezebel - my grandmother - my farm house - my Celestion SL-600 loudspeakers - every opportunity.
I Need...A politician I can believe in - to stop procrastinating - a job - $200,000 - a garden in the ground - to not have a mortgage - the Dish Network HD package - stability in my life - a haircut - bifocals - to take a bunch of stuff to a charity - thicker skin - patience.
I Should... become fluent in Spanish - floss - call a lawyer - sue someone - move - adjust my lifestyle to enable us to live on $30,000 a year or less - exercise - drink less - stop sucking on cancer sticks - either watch the friggin' Netflix films I have or send them back and cancel it - tell American Express to go fuck themselves.
I Love... txrad - technology - blogging - architecture - art - music - photography - tequila - good beer - Tater Tot - all my cats - organizing things - minimalism - marijuana - instant karma - maps - orgasms - sexual fantasies - being warm - when Republicans get caught with their pants down - Indian food - Mexican food - Italian food - most liberals - cheese - pickles - New Mexico - mountains - the sound of the ocean - cacti.
For the record, folks; I never took a shit on stage and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973.
Tater Tot wasted no time getting in the box last week when I was cleaning the office. He even got one of his fuzzy ball toys and put it in the box. The boy is smart.
He's no stranger to boxes though. He always enjoyed sitting on our stack of recycled papers.
He still prefers an empty box so he can appear to be all cute and shit.
Samantha was pretty creative. If there was no box handy, she'd just use anything resembling a box. A basket works.
This was probably the last picture I took of Samantha before she died in July. The day before our house was flooded, txrad installed a new light fixture in the kitchen, and Samantha, frail and sick as she was, had to check out the box. It's a cat dream to have a box that large.
For days after Samantha died, Sissy was exhibiting some strange mourning symptoms, and that included sleeping in the litter box where Samantha used to poop days earlier. Thankfully, she's recovered.
Happy Friday. I'll probably be doing a lot of catch-up blogging this weekend since the past two days have been a blitzkrieg of work. Just in case anyone wants to stop by and see what I'm ranting about.
I thought I'd have a lot of spare time today for blogging. As you can see, I am trying to do three things at once. On the left I'm doing my real job, in the middle is where I'm doing this post, and on the right I'm unsuccessfully trying to figure out how to activate the Bluetooth feature so I can upload photos from the friggin' cell phone.
Does this make me look busy and important, or just pretentious?
I want one of these. It's $449 and I don't care; I want one. If you want to know why I want one, go read about today's incident and the title of this post will make more sense.
It's a quartz infrared portable heater and this model heats 1,000 square feet. I'm curious to know if anyone reading this blog has one and what you think about it. They are marketing these pretty heavily. I've seen full-page ads in the NY Times and I got something in the mail as well.
I don't like being cold, so if anyone has any objections you'd better hurry up and state them!
Had you attended the Led Zeppelin concert in London, what song would you have wanted to hear most that wasn't played, and what is your favorite of the ones which were played?
The set for Monday’s Led Zeppelin reunion:
“Good Times Bad Times” “Ramble On” “Black Dog” “In My Time of Dying” “For Your Life” “Trampled Under Foot” “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” “No Quarter” “Since I’ve Been Loving You” “Dazed and Confused” “Stairway to Heaven” “The Song Remains the Same” “Misty Mountain Hop” “Kashmir”
Encore:
“Whole Lotta Love” “Rock and Roll”
Well, for starters, I'd want my $10,000 back (if I'd been a fool to pay that much) because they didn't play but one friggin' song from my favorite album:
And "Kashmir" ranks right up there with "Stairway to Heaven" as one of the most overplayed Zeppelin tracks ever. But of course they had to include those for that reason. "Since I've Been Loving You" from III, was a good choice, and "Black Dog" was a fave of mine as a teen.
But this concert would have been woefully incomplete for me without at least a taste of "Out on the Tiles" or "Gallows Pole."
By the way, the New York Times article mentioned an interesting bit of trivia: This was the first time they had ever played "For Your Life" in concert. That track was from the Presence LP.
I'm not sure why a 15-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of petty theft would be held in jail for 26 days. That seems excessive to me. Or why they would have put her in a jail with men. Or why they would allow her to be raped and tortured continuously while being held, basically treated like a sex toy for their pleasure.
The police in the jail did more than turn their backs on the violence. They shaved her head with a knife to make her look more like a boy, investigators said, and now are blaming her for lying about her age.
Because if she did lie about her age and was 19, shall we say, then the rape and torture resulting from her being put in a jail with men in the first place would have been more justifiable? I'm just curious.
Ana Júlia Carepa, the governor of Para, has been scrambling to clean up the mess since the situation became public late last month. Ms. Carepa pressed Raimundo Benassuly, the state police chief, to resign the day after he said publicly that the girl had lied about her age because she had a “mental deficiency.” The police have said that the girl had claimed she was 19, not 15, during several run-ins with the law.
Ms. Soares said that officials, including the judge in the case, a woman, did not press the girl for documentation proving she was an adult, even though she is under five feet tall and weighs about 80 pounds. “When I first saw her I thought she was 12, not 15,” Ms. Soares said.
For Ms. Carepa, the girl’s age is beside the point. “If she is 15, 20, 50, 80 years old or almost 100, it doesn’t matter,” she told journalists in Rio last month. “A woman cannot be in a cell with men.”
What has been particularly disheartening to federal human rights officials in the case of the 15-year-old girl is how many people had the chance to protect her. Ms. Soares, the lawyer, said the police, the judge and a public defender who had visited the jail all knew the teenager was in an all-male setting.
“Several officials were aware of what was happening, and at worst they were complicit in it,” Ms. Soares said. “It’s a very serious situation.”
This is just mind-boggling.
If the above link doesn't open, here's an alternative link to the story.
Quaker Dave has the latest Darfur outrage, and there's plenty to be outraged about, if only we could get motivated. Perhaps some visual aids might help.
Take a look at this movie trailer for The Devil Came on Horseback, directed by Ex-Marine Brian Steidle.
Are all the nations who could help really so busy with other problems that the Darfur crisis has to ride at the back of the humanitarian bus? I don't think so.
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
At least 45 are dead in Algeria today, the 11th of December, after two car bombs exploded in Algiers.
On April 11, a suicide bomb killed 33 people in Algiers. Responsibility for that attack was claimed by GSPC, also known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
That the bombing today occurred on the 11th of the month may be significant, several counter-terrorism officials noted. The attack in April also occurred on the 11th. Both bring to mind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid. After the April bombing, some terrorism experts suggested that the attacks added to the accumulating symbolism of that day of the month.
We might want to consider eliminating the 11th of every month and instead have a 10th of every month lasting 48 hours. Having two 10ths is better than an 11th anyway, right? It's like having another 20th. Or is it more like having only one-fifth?
A lot of dicks in the world get greased and pulled for political gain. Russia is a shining example.
A day after President Vladimir V. Putin endorsed a loyal protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Mr. Medvedev went before the nation today and declared that he in turn would name Mr. Putin as his prime minister.
The announcement appeared to bring to a close questions about how Mr. Putin intends to wield influence over Russia after his term ends next year. Mr. Putin is barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive term, but he had indicated in recent months that he had no intention of giving up his power when he steps down in the spring.
Mr. Medvedev has no background in the state security services and virtually no power base in the Kremlin, and he is seen here as a relatively weak figure beholden to Mr. Putin. With Mr. Putin as prime minister, it would appear that little will change in who controls Russia.
This seems to be the method du jour for maintaining control.
The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions.
-- Frank Zappa, interview, Playboy, May 2, 1993
I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone's teeth get cleaner?
-- Frank Zappa, Senate Hearing on "Porn Rock", 1985, in response to Tipper Gore's allegations that music incites people towards deviant behavior, or influences their behavior in general.
This is what disturbs me most about Christianity, and I'm not referring to the real Christ-like Christians who are probably as few in number as they were 2,000 years ago. I'm referring to the ones who are more obsessed with who I like kissing on the lips than they are with relevant Christ-y things like, oh I don't know... poverty.... starvation.... wars.
From the Sunday New York Times comes this story of an Episcopal diocese in Fresno voting to cut ties with the Episcopal Church, and the issue is a gay one, of course.
Traditionalists at home and abroad assert that the Bible describes homosexuality as an abomination, and they consider the Episcopal Church’s ordination of Bishop Robinson as the latest and most galling proof of its rejection of biblical authority.
Well, now that they brought up abominations, aren't all abominations a bad thing? Someone needs to tell the congregation to check their clothing labels. They might be going to hell in a handbasket.
From Leviticus 19:19--
Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
From Leviticus 11:10--
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you.
That should take care of any plans to dine at Red Lobster after church.
Oh, so now 100% literal interpretation of the Bible isn't so pleasing, is it?
Even if you don't celebrate the holidays, or exchange gifts. Specifically, give this book:
This is by far the best book I've read this century. Granted, I'm the most unavid reader you've probably ever known. I've only read one other book this century and that one just squeaked through the gate in 2001: George Carlin's Napalm and Silly Putty.
A big shout out to Minstrel Boy for setting me up with this highly entertaining read. Since the book is basically all about wars and atrocities and the occasional genocide, it would have been uncomfortable reading were it not for the frequent humor of Bob Harris. On a couple of occasions I laughed aloud and it takes a lot to get me to that point. (Carlin can do it pretty easily.)
So, I highly recommend this book. If I could afford it, I'd buy a copy for everyone I know -- especially the Republicans. (Actually, I probably could afford to buy a copy for all the Republicans I know.)
I've had a Sunday morning poke from The Cunning Runt's pleasure stick. Another tasty meme. Yum. I, Splotchy started it. Each tagged person needs to add to the story and then tag others. Them's the rules and I don't make 'em.
---------------------
I woke up hungry. I pulled my bedroom curtain to the side and looked out on a hazy morning. I dragged myself into the kitchen, in search of something to eat. I reached for a jar of applesauce sitting next to the sink, and found it very cold to the touch. I opened the jar and realized it was frozen. (Splotchy)
I was used to the house being quite cold in the mornings, as the night log usually burns out around one AM when I am dreaming cozily under my covers, not normally waking to put a new one on until morning. I was surprised because on the rare occasions that it actually had reached sub-freezing temperatures in the house, I had awakened in the night to restart the fire. I would have been worried about the pipes before P-Day, but there hadn’t been running water in two years and that was one of the few advantages to being dependent on rainwater, no pipes. (Freida Bee)
The nightmares began during the following spring. The apple trees came to life in my dreams. At first the trees spoke and I thought they were amusing. That changed when the messages arrived. Lately, their anger was directed at me. (mathman6293)
I turned and stared out the kitchen window, past the frosty-lidded cistern to the orchard beyond. My trees, my beautiful fruit trees, stood leafless and dark. I wished with all my heart that this was just a normal winter thing, but it wasn’t.
“Why are you blaming me, guys? You know I love you. You watched me go out and vote that last time, in the ice-storm. It’s not like I didn’t try!”
I turned with a sigh and went to the phone to give Zaius a call. Perhaps The Good Doctor had made some incremental progress on his Long-Shot-Theory. (TCR)
Unfortunately, the phone was dead. Not from the inclement frigid weather, but because I didn't pay the phone bill and my service was shut off. "Oh well, I'll use the cell phone," I said aloud to no one but myself. As fate would have it, the cell phone battery was completely drained. I never even heard the thing chirping during the night to remind me to charge it. Being somewhat annoyed by all this, I went back to the kitchen, grabbed an ice pick and began chipping away at the rock-solid apple sauce when suddenly there was a very loud knock on my door which startled me. (kona)
--------------------- tagged: Phydeaux - Maurinsky - Bitty -- all randomly selected I assure you. :-) And one of the folks who I was going to tag had already been tagged and had the post up, so this meme is spreading fast.
I'm already riddled with anxiety and depression on a personal level about my immediate future, but I still like to torture myself with the $50 monthly subscription to the New York Times which virtually guarantees I will slather on another few layers of apprehension.
The economies of many big oil-exporting countries are growing so fast that their need for energy within their borders is crimping how much they can sell abroad, adding new strains to the global oil market.
Experts say the sharp growth, if it continues, means several of the world’s most important suppliers may need to start importing oil within a decade to power all the new cars, houses and businesses they are buying and creating with their oil wealth.
Indonesia has already made this flip. By some projections, the same thing could happen within five years to Mexico, the No. 2 source of foreign oil for the United States, and soon after that to Iran, the world’s fourth-largest exporter.
The article goes on to state that some of the governments are subsidizing gasoline for their citizens -- as low as 7-cents per gallon which obviously promotes needless consumption.
So rock on, America. Drive those Suburbans and Tahoes to as many stores as possible this holiday season because we need to burn it up while we got it. They're certainly doing it in Mexico City.
Last Saturday, November 24th, some son of a bitch walked out the back door of the Continental Club in Austin with a black face Fender Super Reverb with brown grill cloth. This was the house amp. I'm offering two hundred dollars to anyone with reliable information leading to the arrest and conviction of said son of a bitch. Be it known, the amp once belonged to Charlie Sexton, a fact that may add to the amp's value, but may also add some stress to the thief, because Charlie has a photographic memory and can conjure up minute details like serial numbers and other things that could lead to positive identification. -- JM
Good luck. Because there's nothing I'd like better than to see said son of a bitch get caught.
John Lennon was killed on this day in 1980 by some fucking asshole with a gun.
Chapman called out, "Mr. Lennon!" As Lennon turned around, Chapman dropped into a "combat stance" and shot at Lennon five times with hollow point bullets from a Charter Arms .38 revolver. One shot missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. Two shots struck Lennon in the left side of his back and two more in his left shoulder. All four wounds caused serious internal damage, and at least one of them fatally pierced Lennon's aorta.
Rest in Peace, John. Or come on back, soon. You probably already have and we just don't fucking know it. We're not too smart down here on this planet. We need some help. And if you are black next time around, all the better. And female, go for it.
You gotta fall on your knees before you fall in the wrong direction.
--Ruthie Foster
Is Nietzsche dead as well?
Let's take a moment of silence to deep breathe, and rejoice. For the 2nd coming.
Sorry Bunny, there's no Logjammin' here. This is a family blog.
The Slut Sprawl is reserved for our furry overlords. And dearly departed Samantha was the champion of the pose. It was actually difficult to get a picture of her when she wasn't sprawling.
Sissy can certainly claim the #2 spot, because she does it rather frequently, and very well. I like to rub her on the "soft and curlies" until she bites me.
I still miss my Jezebel. While she's not officially in the Slut Sprawl pose here, she did do it a few times. I just don't think I was ever lucky enough to get a picture. But hey, nice pink cleavage qualifies! And she was proud of that too!
And we can't leave any of the boys out. Again, not a Slut Sprawl per se, but he does like to roll around on his back for a belly rub with legs in the air, just like his daddy. And I can never resist giving those silver pubes a tug.
I can always count on Rebecca in Dallas to make some contribution. And the Slut Sprawl is definitely not limited to felines. Gabby certainly has a knack for it.
Well, thus concludes another most excellent Friday Pussy Blog. Almost. We need an encore.
It's basically 80 degrees warmer here than northern Minnesota.
But notice the wild difference just between Dallas and Little Rock (or Oklahoma City). That cold front can just hover there or keep moving east as far as I'm concerned. After a cloudy morning it's a BEAUTIFUL day in central Texas.
What's interesting is that it is 72 in my hometown in southeast Arkansas which is only 100 miles from Little Rock.
It was a good day for me to stay home from the office which is always frigid due to excessive use of air conditioning. I won't miss that when I'm gone.
It was the blackest night! There was no moon in sight! (you know the stars aint shinin cause the skys too tight) I heard the scary wind! I seen some ugly trees! There was a werewolf honkin, long the side of me!
Im mean n Im bad, (yknow I aint no sissy) Got a big-titty girly by the name of chrissy Talkin about her n my bike n me... n this ride up the mountain of mystery, (mystery)
All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.
Ever since 9/11 I get a tad anxious whenever there's a incident in America involving the loss of human life, whether it's 9 people or 3,000.
The last great days of flying for me were when I lived in Los Angeles. Being able to hop out of the car, zip through the terminal and security to get on a flight for Vegas in about 15-20 minutes is a fond memory which will probably never be repeated.
The pleasurable air travel experience has been eclipsed with lengthy security procedures, intense searches, and absurd restrictions on what can and cannot be carried aboard an aircraft.
I can't help but wonder, in the wake of the Omaha mall shooting, when airport-style security procedures are put in place in order to go shopping. I am also curious to see what other bloggers are saying about the incident, on both ends of the political spectrum, and they are apparently saying quite a bit.
Malls are not my favorite place to shop by any stretch of the imagination. Consolidation in the retailing industry, coupled with a few corporations who own most of the malls in America, have completely eradicated anything resembling a unique shopping experience. By and large, the mall near us has most of the same stores and the same merchandise as the malls in San Antonio, Atlanta, Seattle, Memphis, and Pittsburgh. If you've seen one you've probably seen them all.
I do occasionally visit a mall here in Austin. And I'm usually ready to leave after about 10-15 minutes. These privately-owned replacements for America's public downtowns are an eyesore in comparison.
Needless to say, it wouldn't take much to wean me completely off the mall. A heavy presence of armed guards is not exactly what I like to see while shopping, nor is a wait at the entrance involving metal detectors and pat-downs likely to encourage me to go for a stroll and behave like a good American consumer.
It will be a sad day for this country if we feel like we need to live in a police state in order to have security, but I won't be a bit surprised if that's not the direction in which we are heading.
Here's what some other bloggers are advocating. Many on the right are pushing for malls to allow citizens to bring their concealed weapons into the malls for protection.
...mass shootings like this have been stopped by armed citizens on more than one occasion.
[...]
In what universe is herding hundreds or thousands of unarmed people into a building and then putting a sign up advertising the fact that no one inside can protect themselves not going to attract lunatics who want to kill as many people as possible? In what universe is this a good idea?
Somehow the image of dozens if not hundreds of shoppers in a mall packing heat gives me the willies. And what if a gunman does go on a rampage for whatever reason. The electronics store is sold out of Wii. A store clerk goes down. A shootout ensues involving 3 or 4 other shoppers OK Coral style.
If these shoppers are professional marksmen and can hit a moving target and prevent additional shootings, I suppose that's a good thing. But given that we have no way of measuring that, the odds are far more likely we're going to have a wild & crazy free-for-all at the mall.
The police reacted very quickly in Omaha--six minutes, but you can kill a lot of people in six minutes. Its notable that the similar incident in Salt Lake City earlier this year features the actions of an armed, off-duty police officer who undoubtedly saved many lives by simply pinning down Suleiman Talovic. I'm not much of a gun enthusiast, but I'm beginning to think it may a civic duty to go to the mall armed.
In that case, I suppose my malling days would come to an abrupt end. I'm not that desperate for Tommy Hilfiger shit, and I can browse the Abercrombie & Fitch models on the internet, thank you very much.
The civic value of law-abiding citizens bearing arms isn’t in “we need somebody there to return fire”, although that certainly is a bonus if the situation drags out for a while. It’s in deterrence. Because somebody in such a place just might be carrying, and they just might be right next to you when you pull your rifle out of your duffel bag, or whichever method you’ve decided to use in your sick, deranged, criminal mind. And then your “blaze of glory” will suddenly turn into a hollowpoint unceremoniously planted between your beady, piggy eyes before you even get a chance to take aim.
Remember: Most of those notorious nutcases want to be noticed, they long for their deaths to “mean something.” If there’s one thing they don’t want, it’s to be executed on the spot by a law-abiding, gun-toting civilian like the common criminals that they are.
Gee, now the mall is REALLY sounding like a fun, safe and relaxing place to hang out for an afternoon! I could go on and on with the linky links but you get the picture.
In my search for solutions to reduce or eliminate these tragic events, I'm finding overwhelming support for gun-toting citizens, and not much else.
But this Reuters story suggests the Omaha mall shooting is unlikely to have any impact on gun laws in the US.
A Pennsylvania state representative who last month helped defeat a proposal to limit hand gun purchases to one per person per month said he would support tougher sentencing laws for people who acquire and use illegal guns, but that law-abiding citizens should not have their rights infringed.
"I received thousands of e-mails with some of these gun control measures. Once again, it's the right to bear arms and many of our citizens don't want that right taken away," said Ron Marsico, chairman of the state House Judiciary Committee and a Republican.
Besides, he said, no law may have prevented the Omaha tragedy.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, disagrees. He said European countries have enacted effective gun control laws and that U.S. politicians are cowed by the gun lobby as exemplified by the National Rifle Association.
"There is the mythology advanced by the gun lobby of the Wild West and the individual frontiersman single-handedly holding off the British and the Indians and the bears simultaneously," said Helmke.
"They've got politicians nervous about anything that's even got the word gun in it."
I've said many times, having a restrictive gun law may be the best the moderates and liberals can offer up, and if it actually works, fine and dandy. But we're dealing with mentally unstable people who obviously do not take the law into consideration when planning and carrying out these assaults.
I wish there were some easy and sensible solutions. But such is life. And humans are not the most peaceful species on the planet, unfortunately. But I will say this, if such violence as this continues and the end result is the demise of the shopping mall and the decentralization of shopping, I would shed no tears. It won't stop murderous carnage from taking place; that will just shift elsewhere, but having one less blight on the American landscape is a step in the right direction.
German federal and state interior ministers declared the Church of Scientology unconstitutional on Friday, opening the door for a possible ban on the organization.
[...]
Germany does not recognize Scientology as a religion. seeing it as a cult masquerading as a church to make money. Scientologists reject this view.
I haven't had time to check and see if anyone has begun the festival of Zappadan which runs from the day he died (December 4th) until his birthday (December 21st), but I'm ready to kick off my Zelebration.
In the fight between you and the world, back the world.
A gunman killed nine, including himself, during a shooting spree today. More from KETV Omaha.
That certainly measures up to my definition of a terrorist. And no amount of securing our borders will protect us from these homegrown lunatics. And coincidentally, Dubya was in town.
President George W. Bush had been in Omaha earlier on Wednesday, but the president's flight lifted off about an hour before the shooting reports came in.
KETV reported that, according to the suicide note left by the gunman, he wanted to "go out in style."
There was also a grenade found at this same mall last week. Yee haa. Enjoy your shopping! I'd be keeping my happy ass at home.
Since I didn't go to work today (worked at home from 7:30 AM until 3:00 PM) I missed out on my morning dose of NPR, so I was browsing their site.
Poor Amy Winehouse. Thank God there are no photographers hanging around my house waiting on me to emerge. Who knows what they might see if they caught me in one of my shining moments.
The 24-year-old singer was photographed outside her London home early Sunday barefoot and wearing jeans, a red bra and a pained expression. Her dark hair appeared loose and natural, in contrast to her trademark beehive hairdo.
Her publicist, Tracey Miller, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Winehouse, stirred from sleep at 6 a.m. by "a lot of noise," had stepped "outside her flat to investigate and was met by photographers."
"She was startled," Miller said.
Who wouldn't be? Those parasitic photographers are just rude.
Ford Motor Co. will meet the tougher federal fuel economy regulations Congress wants to impose by 2020 without having to abandon any of its lower-mileage truck or sport utility vehicle lines, Chief Executive Alan Mulally promised on Monday.
As I said, this bill, as "historic" as it may be, is but a very tiny step over a long period of time. And apparently, even this small step may not escape getting Bushwhacked.
Environmental groups and many lawmakers hailed the deal as historic. But the White House is bothered that the bill lacks strong incentives to boost use of renewable motor fuels like ethanol and would require electric utilities to generate more power from renewable sources like solar energy and wind.
"In fact, it appears Congress may intend to produce a bill the President cannot sign," Allan Hubbard, the top White House economic advisor, warned on Monday in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It's not that he "cannot" sign it; it's that he won't sign it. This is baffling. Solar and wind require no resources such as farmland, equipment for harvesting, fertilizers, and... {ahem}.. fuel to power the equipment to harvest and then convert crops to fuel.
And never mind how the large scale production of crops for ethanol rather than food might impact prices in our food supply, and not just corn. With farmers potentially shifting away from other food crops, the ripple effects could be enormous.
I've had this song stuck in my head, off and on, for weeks now.
I still remember when I bought the English Settlement vinyl LP in England back in the early 1980s. It was a two-disc set, and later I was surprised to see the American release was a scaled-down one-disc version. I used to hate how the American record labels had to fuck with things to appease the American palette.
Later, in the age of CDs, it was released with the full original collection of songs.
For starters, because the auto industry has until 2020 to reach that goal. Granted, that's less than 13 years from now (scary thought), but some automakers are already producing vehicles which meet or exceed that goal.
The proposal, which would require automakers to achieve 35 miles per gallon on average, is similar to a measure that was passed in the summer by the Senate but was bitterly opposed by the auto companies, who argued they did not have the technology or the financial resources to reach that goal.
Tough shit. I'm pretty damn tired of listening to Detroit whine about what they can and cannot do, while the rest of the world seems to have far less resistance to improving efficiency. I have about as much compassion for Detroit as I do for someone living in an abusive relationship who has the ways and the means to get out, but chooses not to.
European auto companies, for example, must average 40 miles per gallon and China requires a 35 m.p.g. standard. Automobiles sold in those countries are generally smaller and less powerful than the most popular models in the United States, however.
In Europe, of course, it might have something to do with the fact that prices at the pump are about twice as high as in the US. And I cannot predict fuel prices 13 years down the road, but are we going to be better off if we're still driving vehicles powered by non-renewable fuels, getting 35 mpg, and paying perhaps $6 a gallon? Or $8? Who knows. But given the growing thirst for fuel in the developing world, and at home, it probably won't be $3.29 -- I'd stake my reputation on that.
Unless automakers can come up with the technology for vastly improved efficiency, far more than 40%, then Americans must adjust their vehicular appetites, and move away from the popularity of muscle cars, trucks, and SUVs. And about the only thing which will force a change of that magnitude is higher prices at the pump.
Removing all federal subsidies would be a good start. We'd start to see more realistic fuel prices immediately. This would have to include some form of tax relief to lower income families, and tax breaks for people who purchase the most efficient vehicles, until such time as we can phase in vehicles powered by alternative means.
Unfortunately, the compromises in this legislation still protect the oil industry.
The compromise should ensure passage in the House, although the Senate may insist on changes. It does not appear to include provisions, like $16 billion in new taxes on the oil industry, that drew a veto threat from President Bush.
The latest version of the measure, if it becomes law, will force wrenching changes on the American car companies, from design studios to new-car showrooms to executive suites. Automakers now have to achieve 27.5 miles per gallon on cars, a figure that has not changed since 1984, and 22.2 miles per gallon for light trucks, including minivans, sport utility vehicles and pickups. Under the compromise, the companies will retain the distinction between the classes of vehicles, but must still meet a combined 35 m.p.g. fleetwide standard.
This legislation is a bit like showing up at a New Year's Eve party at 4:00 AM on January 1st. Given that the standards for cars have not changed since 1984, this bill should have passed in 1997, not 2007, and we'd still be three years away from having to achieve it.
Put me down as one who feels these new standards are going to be rendered moot, long before 2020.
