Saturday, December 31, 2005

Baby update

Well, Baby turned one year old a few weeks ago. Things have been crazy and I haven't had the time or the energy to post much. Anyhow, we had a little party for him and he had his first taste of cake and ice cream.

We are just overwhelmed with toys now. Between the gifts for his birthday and xmas...ugh. We were tempted to stop at Goodwill and unload half of his xmas presents on the way home from visiting grandparents and aunts and uncles on xmas.

Baby woke up with two new teeth on Christmas morning, so he now has eight teeth. I also noticed a big purple-blue spot on his lower gums right where his 12-month molar will come in. The poor kid had to be in pain but he was as pleasant as he always is. The next day he had a cough and some congestion. After he finished his breakfast he had a coughing fit and gagged himself until he vomited. Yuck.

He has been signing lots of new words and repeating words when I read to him. I took him to the shoe store a few weeks ago and as he was trying on shoes he was signing "more". I thought that he was hungry because sometimes he uses "more" when he wants to eat. Then we got home and I told him I was taking his shoes off and he did it again. I finally realized that he was trying to sign "shoes" which is very similar to "more". I was kind of surprised that he remembered the sign for shoes because it is not one that we used a lot.

Today he was sitting on the floor looking through his "Ten Little Rabbits" book and he turned the page and there was a picture something like this and he looked up at me and put his hand in front of his mouth and said "hushhhh". That is what we do when we read "Goodnight Moon" and we get to the old lady whispering hush. And she looks like the rabbits in the book he was looking at. Sometimes I am amazed watching his little brain work.

We go for his twelve month check up and shots in a few days.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Cops suck

We had to drop off the car at the garage this morning and it was fairly nice for a December day so instead of packing up Baby at 7:30am and taking two cars Baby's Mom said that she would take it and walk the mile and a half back home. She started back from the garage, which is just outside of town, and she heard dogs barking. She saw that there were three large dogs in a fenced yard running toward her. She stopped in fear and just then a truck pulled into the driveway of that house which was across the road from her. She continued on and a few minutes later a police car pulled up to her and the cop asked what she was doing, where she was going, etc. She asked what this was about and he said that they got a report of a suspicious person standing on the road watching that house. She then came home and told me about it and she was upset.

It turns out that the house with the dogs belongs to another cop. That explains why there was a car there within minutes. She also was wearing a big winter coat and an Elmer Fudd hat with ear flaps that connect under the chin. It is possible that she could have been mistaken for a teen aged boy instead of a woman with a PhD.

This is just another example of abuse of power--a very minor abuse unless you are the one being harassed. How long do you think it would take the police to send someone out if I reported a suspicious person in my neighborhood? And do they regularly stop people for looking suspicious?

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Impeach Bush

Even Barron's wants him impeached:

Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment.

It is important to be clear that an impeachment case, if it comes to that, would not be about wiretapping, or about a possible Constitutional right not to be wiretapped. It would be about the power of Congress to set wiretapping rules by law, and it is about the obligation of the president to follow the rules in the Acts that he and his predecessors signed into law.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

War on Xmas

I have been unable to blog for a few weeks. I don't want to miss out on the fake War on Christmas which is being promoted by Fox News and the American Family Association. Do these people have nothing better to do than start some kind of pseudo-controversy? If they want to boycott stores which use the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" that's fine, but let's not get carried away and pretend that there is a "War on Christmas" in the United States or that Christians are being persecuted.

I am all for a right-wing christian whacko boycott. But let's not be hypocrites. Why don't you persecuted christians boycott stores that do not "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.." Surely, those stores that choose to break one of God's commandments in order to make more money should not be patronized by Christians.

This country is really losing it. I don't really have anything to add to the discussion but I wanted to go on the record here and say how stupid this whole thing is.

Gia has an excellent response to the War on Christmas nonsense. Welcome back Gia! We have missed you.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Site of the Day



5 things you should know about Al Jazeera
  1. Al Jazeera was the first Arab station to ever broadcast interviews with Israeli officials.
  2. Al Jazeera has never broadcast a beheading.
  3. George W. Bush has recieved approximately 500 hours of airtime, while Bin Laden has received about 5 hours of airtime.
  4. Over 50 million people across the world watch Al Jazeera.
  5. The Al Jazeera websites are http://www.aljazeera.net (Arabic) and http://english.aljazeera.net (English). AlJazeera.com, AlJazeerah.info and all other variations have nothing to do with us.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

This Friday is Buy Nothing Day

Yes, it's that time of year again! Regular ConNiPtioNs readers will remember from the past three years that I've posted about it. I don't have time to say much about it this year, but click on the banner below for details.

[ ]


Also, checkout the Wal-Mart Takedown Center

Friday, November 18, 2005

The President cares about America's poor

The President of Venezuela that is. Hugo Chavez is sending cheap heating oil to two communities in the US.

From HoustonChronicle.com - AROUND THE REGION

Citgo to help poor on heating oil costs


Citgo Petroleum said Thursday it plans to distribute discounted heating oil to the U.S. poor to help them cope with expected record fuel costs this winter.

The Houston-based company, a subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA, said it will send up to 12 million gallons of cheaper heating oil to communities in Boston and the Bronx borough of New York City next week.

It is the second offer of energy assistance from Venezuela — whose leftist President Hugo Chavez is a harsh critic of President Bush — since hurricanes disrupted oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico this summer.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Baby's first Halloween

My sister invited us to bring the baby to the annual Halloween party at her church. So we quickly put together a costume for him. We dressed him in a red sleeper and put a red turtleneck over it. We glued a piece of white fabric over his tummy. Now he just needed something for his head. I ran into the Family Dollar store and found a red knit hat for $1 and a $1 red plastic crazy straw cup that was shaped sort of like a heart with a hole in the middle. I put the lid of the cup inside the hat and screwed the cup on the outside. Put the hat on his head and he was Po. And he looked pretty good for a $2 costume. In fact he won the prize for the cutest. The prize: coupons for Burger King french fries and a small Coke. I guess those coupons will go in the scrapbook. I know that people feed that crap to kids but I can't imagine encouraging it.

My mother and father were there too. Just as we were getting ready to leave my mother said she would hold the baby while I put on my coat. She had him for maybe ten seconds and I turned around to get him and she is wiping white icing from his mouth. He is ten months old and she is feeding him icing, and after she asked me earlier if he could have some and said no. So I took him back from her and said, " Nanny has lost her baby privileges." Grandparents!

Anyhow, we had fun. We felt like we were crashing the party since we do not go there, but it is the family church. I went there as a kid and my parents and sister and various cousins attend, so it is sort of like a family gathering.

We will have another family gathering today at the hospital. My father is getting his knee replaced today. He is probably in surgery right now. He is not in the best health and I'm a bit worried about him having any surgery but he could hardly walk on his knee. I hope this helps him.

Catching up on current events

There has been so much going on and I haven't had time to comment on any of it.

Dubya's approval ratings are at an all-time low.

The FTAA went down in flames. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel, and Bolivian populist Evo Morales stole the show by leading a peaceful People's Summit of over 450,000 people in Arghentina. Chavez declared, "The FTAA does not exist; let's create a fair trade." But he warned that FTAA supporters will try again to revive it.

Bush continues to "restore honor and integrity" to the Oval Office. Secret prisons.

Bush is now even refusing to listen to his own God (speaking through Bush's own United Methodist Church) and withdraw from Iraq. God told him to invade, now God is telling him to stop the unjust war.

And, of course, the quote of the week that exemplifies the Bush administration:

"Please roll up the sleeves on your shirt -- all shirts. Even the President rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this crisis and on TV you just need to look more hard-working ... ROLL UP THE SLEEVES."

-- Sharon Worthy, in email to FEMA Director Michael Brown during the Katrina disaster

There was a lot more that I missed in the past few weeks, but that's all I have time for right now.

Quotes for Veterans Day

“I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. If nations were to go to war for every degree of injury, there would never be peace on earth.”
-- Thomas Jefferson


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in a final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed—those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending its money alone—it is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953


"War is as much a punishment to the punisher as it is to the sufferer."
-- Thomas Jefferson


"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
-- Mahatma Gandhi, "Non-Violence in Peace and War"


"War is delightful to those who have not experienced it."
-- Erasmus


"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a 2 million dollar missile at a 10 dollar empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."
-- George W. Bush, Newsweek, September 24, 2001


"How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an enemy."
-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche


Baby update

It doesn't seem possible but Baby will be a year old in a few weeks. This year has gone by so fast.

He has one more physical therapy appointment for his CMT. There has been a great improvement. When we started PT he had about 50% range of motion on one side of his neck and now it is almost 100%. We do stretching exercises three times a day with him. I wish that I would have pushed the doctor to send us to PT earlier. He waited three months after I first asked about it, so now Baby's head is flat in one spot.

We are still signing. He uses several signs--more, milk, eat, book, shoes, hat, all gone. And he understands more but does not make them. He has even started to put some signs together like more milk or more eat. He says a few words--dada, mama, bye-bye, bubble, pap pap.

He is also walking pretty well for an eleven month old. He hasn't quite mastered the stopping part. He usually just keeps going until I stop him or he falls over. I have lost about five pounds in the last month or so. I think it is from chasing him and carrying him up and down the stairs about five or six times a day.

He is still a really good sleeper. He almost always takes two naps during the day and the sleeps from about 8:30 until 7am. We are afraid that if we have another baby we won't be able to handle it because he has been so good and relatively easy to take care of.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Roman Catholics have the "obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer"

So says The Vatican.

What's this? An order from upon high for Roman Catholics to believe Science? Did you hear that Mrs Proctor?

Earlier this year she stated, "Just like with evolution, people of faith TEND to be inclined to disbelieve it and dismiss the 'science' that is used as evidence (although it's a theory)." And then in February she said, "I believe in the creationism movement and frankly think all Christians should unless science can PROVE otherwise, which (it) has not been able to do." Like any good hypocrite she will no doubt use science if it supports her beliefs and dismiss whatever she disagrees with.


Newsday.com: Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science

Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science


By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer

November 4, 2005, 10:12 AM EST

VATICAN CITY -- A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the "mutual prejudice" between religion and science that has long bedeviled the Roman Catholic Church and is part of the evolution debate in the United States.

The Vatican project was inspired by Pope John Paul II's 1992 declaration that the church's 17th-century denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Galileo was condemned for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

"The permanent lesson that the Galileo case represents pushes us to keep alive the dialogue between the various disciplines, and in particular between theology and the natural sciences, if we want to prevent similar episodes from repeating themselves in the future," Poupard said.



By the way, we are still waiting for the results of Dumbgirl's investigation of Global Warming. I can't wait to find out what she has uncovered.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Memories

I heard a piece on NPR's All Things Considered tonight called Grandmother: A Story of Aging, Decline and Love by Jake Warga. It brought back memories for me of a similar situation.

The woman who lived in the house next to ours for my entire childhood was like a grandmother to me. She was a registered nurse who retired when I was about five years old. She was the youngest daughter of Irish immigrants and lived almost her entire life in that house. I would visit her almost every day. Sometimes we would have lunch together, or I would help her make cookies, or just do household errands for her. My job was to take out the trash each day. In return I was treated to her delicious homemade pies, cakes, and cookies. Not a bad deal.

As the years went by, I was old enough to drive and her vision was failing due to cataracts, I became her chauffeur. We would run to the farmers' market or we would load gallon jugs into the trunk of her 1971 Chevy Malibu and go to a spring than ran out the side of a mountain through a metal pipe. We filled the jugs with water and put them back in the trunk. When we returned home I would carry them to the house and place them under the cellar steps.

Each visit I was also treated to stories. Some of the stories I had heard dozens of times, but once in a while she would tell me about something I had never heard before. About being in New York for nursing school during The Depression. About registering to vote as a Republican by mistake and never telling her father and never switching parties because she didn't want to be a "turncoat" like Ronald Reagan.

By the time I started college she was in her late 70s and starting to have mini-strokes. My visits became less frequent because I was two hours away, but my parents still lived next door and they checked in on her often. Then she broke her hip. That was the beginning of the end. Up until that point she was very active. She attended mass every day, she cooked dinner for her friend nearly every day, and she often went out to eat. After the broken hip she needed a home health aid and soon she needed full-time nursing care and ended up entering a nursing home.

Each time a visited she was a little more out of it. At first she knew who I was and would talk about sports and current events. But gradually she started to forget my name. She still knew who I was but could not remember my name. Then maybe a few months later she would call me by her brother's name. Her brother died in WWII. Then she would ask me to do something because she wanted the place to look nice when Mary (her sister who died 30 years before) came to visit later that day.

Eventually when I went to visit we would just sit there silently. She was almost completely deaf for most of her adult life but she could read lips. In her mid-80s her cataracts were back and she could not see to read lips, so she was trapped in a silent fuzzy world full of strangers.

As Mr Warga points out in his NPR piece, his grandmother has been slowly fading away and is now all but gone. That is how I felt with each visit. Her body was still there, the person that I had known for the past 25 years was already gone.

A few months after my last visit she passed away in the nursing home. I returned for the funeral. My brother and I were pallbearers. It was sad to see that very few people attended the funeral. She had out-lived most of her friends, and all of her family. She never married and had no children. There were just a few neighbors and the old ladies who attend all of the funeral masses.

After the mass we travelled to the cemetary. To the gravesite that she showed me dozens of times as we tended the graves of her parents, grandparents, and siblings. "There's Mom and Pop, I'll be down here on the end next to Mary," she'd say.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Baby Update

It was an exciting day here, Baby took his first steps. I didn't think that it would be exciting, but it was. I have been encouraging him to walk for a few weeks but he usually will just stand there for a second and then dive towards me. Today he stood there and then took about three steps before he toppled over. So this is first-time parent excitement at its best.

He is 9 months and three weeks now. He has five teeth and he's working on number six. That probably explains his relative crankiness lately. And he has decided that instead of an afternoon nap he prefers to jump up and down in his crib until his legs give out.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

I'm an idiot

I was fooling around with some files and I did something wrong so our old pal Blogger is back until I figure out what I did to my Movabletype installation. I may have to remove everything and install from scratch.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Baby steps

George "I'm a War president" Bush made history yesterday with the following statement:

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

-- George W. Bush, September 13, 2005


This may be the only time that he has even hinted at making a mistake. I won't count his attempt to dodge the question during a presidential debate when he answered, "Now, you ask what mistakes -- I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them." And while he said yesterday, "I take responsibility," look at the words that precede it. First he tries to spread the blame to "all levels of government," and then he qualifies his statement by adding, "to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right."


I wonder what Bush's inquiry into "what went right and what didn't go right", headed by Bush himself, will find. I bet anything that falls into the "what didn't go right" category will be things that the state and local governments did or didn't do. Maybe he will admit that the appointment of Michael Brown to head FEMA was one of those mistakes that he hinted at during the debate.



But I applaud the War President for taking responsibility. In the years to come he will have to take responsibility for many more things. When he and Rummy are sitting before the War Crimes Tribunal they will have to answer charges of genocide that they directed in Fallujah. They bombed the city and cut off power and supplies, the US bombed hospitals and mosques, they allowed women and children to leave the city-- but not men--and then gave orders to shoot and kill men whether they were armed or not. That sounds like genocide to me--even if the United States did it.



Will the War President take responsibility for violating the Article 147 of Geneva Convention(IV)(among others).


Art. 147. Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.


Anyhow, I'm proud of you Georgie. You still have to work on it, but you are are making baby steps.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Friday, March 18, 2005

Reality Check

It has been two years since Bush invaded Iraq with the Shock & AweTM Show so it is time for a reality check.



File under: , ,

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Only Christians

In her latest post Dumbgirl posits that it is only Christians who change the world for the better. She goes on to ask:
"I'd love to see a long list of non-Christians who have changed the world for the better."
-- Amy "Dumbgirl" Proctor

Someone mentioned Gandhi and she admitted that he was a non-christian who changed the world for the better. I know that she would not allow me to comment there so here is a brief list of some other non-christians who have changed the world for the better:

  • Thomas Jefferson
  • Tenzin Gyatso
  • Margaret Sanger
  • Shirin Ebadi
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Pythagoras
  • Bill Gates
  • Steve Wozniak
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Elie Wiesel
  • Voltaire
  • Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa
  • Ani DiFranco
  • Socrates
  • Plato
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Eddie Vedder
  • Aristotle
  • Euclid
  • Confucius
  • Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
  • Lao Tzu
  • John Adams
  • John Quincy Adams
  • Richard Leakey
  • David Hume
  • Wangari Maathai
  • Vandana Shiva
  • Aung San Suu Kyi
  • Bertrand Russell
  • ...


A statement like that is just stupid. Is she that wrapped up in christianity to see beyond it? Is she unaware that there are non-western cultures? At least sixty-seven percent of the world's population is non-christian.


File under:

Monday, March 14, 2005

Attention people of "faith"

You must be coming here because you long for my message...

Message #1


My message today is that you should follow the lead of the United Church of Christ. Instead of saying who isn't good enough to be a christian they welcome anyone who is interested. Instead of pointing at the people who are suffering because they are poor or sick the UCC's Justice and Peace Action Center acts as an advocate for those without a voice. Instead of praying that those in need find God and comfort it out through its Neighbors in Need program.

There are others that do similar things, but this is the one with which I am most familiar. In fact, I would guess that the hate-spewing bigots that call themselves christians are a small minority. They are just the most noticeable.

I call on those of you who call yourselves "Christians", to work within your congregation or parish to move in this direction; to work for those who need help. And do so without asking for anything in return; no strings. No need for the recipients to convert or attend church services or to personally accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Do what is right and good things will follow.

Message #2


Also, more news on fake news. Please see this frontpage story from yesterday's New York Times:
Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News
By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN
Published: March 13, 2005




File under: ,

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Dumbgirl is hot

In her post entitled "Democracy & Freedom Are On the March!!" Dumbgirl regurgitated some Bush Administration propaganda about the United States making the world safe for democracy or something. One of her followers commented about the report in The Lancet that found 100,000 Iraqi civilians died because of American intervention in Iraq. I tried to correct her mistaken interpretation of the study; Dumbgirl promptly deleted my comment and banned my ip.

I tried again with another comment on the topic of Dumbgirl accepting public assistance in the past and her belief that she should not have her tax dollars used to pay for abortions.
All women should receive free pre-natal care, free births, and receive a stipend to care for the baby once it is born and free health care for children.

Amy, do (you) approve of your tax dollars going to pay for breast augmentations and liposuction for military people?
see: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?040726ta_talk_schaler
Abortion maybe abhorrent to you but breast augmentation and liposuction are abhorrent to me. Why should I pay for military women to have bigger boobs?

March 9, 2005 | Rob


Dumbgirl responded:
Rob,

I will address you once, then never again.

As for the military breast augmentations, keep in mind that they are not all for vanity reasons. Medical care in the military has in the past covered masectamies (sic) for removal of the breast due to cancer and tumors, but not an implant to recover the form. If you think that these "boob jobs" are sickening, that's on you, but for the military to cosmetically replace the breast taken through surgery is very humane. As for doing it for vanity purposes, I am opposed to this. It is unnecessary and frivolous. However, being the anti-conservative that you are I'd think you'd 1) like seeing "bigger boobs" and 2) believed in bigger (pardon the pun) government.

So because I am liberal, or as she says "anti-conservative", that means that I like seeing "bigger boobs"? Actually I think big plastic breasts are as disgusting as abortions, but I am not going to try to pass laws or amend the Constitution to stop women from doing either.

And I'm for "bigger government"? Bigger than Dubya's government and his record budget deficit? I'm for a big government in the right places. If by big government she means keeping people out of poverty or making sure that people get health care and stuff like that, then okay, I'm for big government. If she means filling up the prisons with non-violent drug offenders and building a missile defense system, then no.

She goes on:
Finally, I can only assume you bypass my IP bans because you need to hear what I have to say. I am being sincere when I suggest you have a longing inside for the message of Jesus, since you beat down my internet door to come in and hear it. True, you attempt to discredit it, but I believe this is your attempt to quite your conscience and justify your own views to yourself. This is typically what people in need of saving do: if they know they need saving, they accept. If they don't want to change their lifestyle or their minds, they make it their life's work to make the truth wrong (which cannot be done) This really has little to do with me (unless you just think I'm hot) and everything to do with you.


Oh yeah, I think she's hot. Uh huh. Middle-aged, Catholic mothers of four are my thing.

I am not "longing for the message of Jesus" either. I know what it is and I agree with it. She is the one who discredits the message of Jesus more than I do. Would Jesus volunteer to work for George Bush and jump out of a plane to shoot at Muslims to secure a supply of oil? Or would Jesus be one of the millions of people protesting Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq?

"People in need of saving"? Saved from what? I need to be saved from over-zealous christians who think that they know what is best for their neighbors and the rest of the world.

Actually I'm on my own little anti-witnessing campaign. Every week I have christian pamphlets left in my door. On my radio, where I once picked up local community radio stations, I get a satellite feed from Tennessee or somewhere with christian preachers. In the public or university library when I check out a book there is a pretty good chance that there is a Chick tract in it. I guess it is okay for christians to come univited into everyone else's lives.

I am just trying to do my part to provide an alternative to "all Bush, all Jesus, all the time". If I comment and she deletes it then at least I know that she read it.

I am sick of the holier-than-thou attitudes of these people.

I am also sick of Rick Santorum's weaselly face. He will lose in 2006.

And now the baby is crying so I may have to come back and edit later.


File under: ,

Friday, March 04, 2005

Quote of the Day

"[W]hat ever happened to turn the other cheek" and garbage like that. Guess what? That only works for so long and the time has come for us to stand up to what we know is evil and wrong. Bottom line is MAJORITY RULES and, well, I think you are sweating because we might just have a majority.
--Alice, Christian wife and mother


That's one Christian housewife who is mad as hell and she's not going to take it any more.

File under: ,

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Where have I heard this before?

Of course you can't believe anything this guy says because he's a member of the , but this all sounds familiar:
Neocon Amorality

By Robert Parry
March 3, 2005

For a government that wraps its actions in moral absolutes about good versus evil, while deriding liberal relativism, the Bush administration may rank as the most committed in modern American history to an ends-justify-the-means ethos.
[more]


File under:

On Religion

And other stuff

Much of my mother's side of the family belongs to the United Church of Christ (UCC). I was raised in the UCC--Sunday School, confirmation, youth group, etc. My problem was that I never believed in God so as soon as I graduated from high school I stopped going to church. Looking back on it now I see that God was a very small part of the experience. The focus of the local church was (and is) community, except for the 45 minutes on Sunday morning that were set aside for God talk. I still support the UCC--financially and otherwise. My niece and nephew also go to that church so I've been back for baptisms and children's programs.

My dad's family is Roman Catholic. My son is (or will be) Catholic. Not because I agree with the Church on a lot of things, but because I think that every person should get a good religious education. There is a fine line between education and indoctrination, so I will have a lot work to do. His mother is a practicing Catholic. As a child she attended the Methodist vacation bible school and did other things with protestant churches and she is pretty open to other religions. We discussed other options like joining the Unitarian Universalist congregation, but because of her experience and because she regularly attends mass it just makes sense to take him along. I think that my job will be to help him see that there is no one true religion and to help him get a background in comparative religion.

My personal, face-to-face contact with fundamentalist christians has been very limited. They've invited me to Wednesday night Bible study, I've been handed cassette tapes of 'christian rock', but I also I worked a summer job with a few girls from a nearby bible college. The college girls were very nice normal people. They were intelligent and witty and I enjoyed talking to them.

I also had another job that took me into people's homes to work with their children. (I know, people let a liberal atheist in their homes with their children!) It is a real eye-opener to go into the homes of strangers. And I've seen everything; from the homes where the children have their own suites with a bedroom, bathroom, and playroom with full entertainment center to the hot, smelly 40 year old trailer with cockroaches scurrying about. The children, however, were pretty much the same. Infants like to be held and talked to, toddlers want someone to play with them, and the 4 to 8 year olds ask question after question. Of course, each has her own personality but the differences are not due to income or ethnicity or anything like that. I loved that job. Well, I loved the part of it that involved the kids.

Anyhow, for some reason I visited a lot of fundamentalist Christian home schoolers. I always felt bad for those kids. First, because they were getting a really poor 'education' but also because they were generally lacking social skills and the one thing that they were learning was hate. They were being taught that anyone who disagrees with the their parents is worthless and going to hell. I don't know, it's hard for me to decide if it is worse that these children get a poor education from their mothers or for them to be in public school with their parents trying to get the curriculum changed to include 'Creation Science' and a morning prayer. I always wonder what the school prayer people would think if their kids were forced to say or attend Muslim prayers at school. Would they still be in favor of school prayer?

File under:

The word of the day is...




File under:

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Quote of the Day

"The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold petitioner as an enemy combatant."
-- Judge Henry Floyd


Jose Padilla, who has been detained for almost three years as an "enemy combatant", must be charged or released within 45 days. Judge Floyd, a Bush appointee, went on to write that to rule otherwise would "be to engage in judicial activism." And we all know what Dubya thinks of "activist judges".

Craniopagus Parasiticus

I am interested to know what my anti-abortion, pro-life, pro-war christian friends think about this (see below) They probably have to check with Karl Rove or Jerry Falwell to see what they should think.

Op to remove baby's second head


Doctors have operated successfully to remove a second head from a 10-month-old baby.

Manar Maged was originally one of conjoined identical twins, but her sister failed to develop in the womb.

As a result she was born with a second head attached to her own - a condition known as craniopagus parasiticus.

Manar, who was otherwise healthy, underwent a 13-hour operation at Benha Children's Hospital, Cairo, on Saturday. She is reported to be stable.

Doctors said the second head was capable of smiling and blinking - but not of independent life.

[more]

Although that second head is not capable of living on its own it is technically alive. Is it wrong to remove (kill) that beautiful little face?

Monday, February 28, 2005

Dubya is no FDR

Gia recently posted about The New 20 Commandments; that reminded me of FDR's Second Bill of Rights.

    Second Bill of Rights
    Every American is entitled to:
  • The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

  • The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

  • The right of farmers to raise and sell their products at a return which will give them and their families a decent living;

  • The right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
  • The right of every family to a decent home;

  • The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

  • The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, and sickness, and accident and unemployment;

  • The right to a good education.


George W. Bush doesn't even deserve to be metioned in the same sentence as FDR, but look at the difference in the two. FDR spoke about protecting the rights of people. Bush does everything in his power to protect corporations.

I was just listening to FDR's 1936 acceptance speech at the DNC in which he said this:
Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales.

On which scale will Mr. Bush's sins be weighed?

After the United States was attacked in 1941 FDR addressed the American people and said:
On the road ahead there lies hard work -- gruelling work -- day and night, every hour and every minute.

I was about to add that ahead there lies sacrifice for all of us.

But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does not consider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one's best to our nation, when the nation is fighting for its existence and its future life.

It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army or the Navy of the United States. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage earner, the farmer or the shopkeeper, the trainmen or the doctor, to pay more taxes, to buy more bonds, to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder at the task for which he is best fitted. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice to do without many things to which we are accustomed if the national defense calls for doing without it.

After the United States was attacked in 2001 George Bush told the American people to go shopping. We must keep corporate revenue flowing.

Dubya Quote of the Day

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
-- Governor George "Dubya" Bush to Doug Wead in 1998 or 1999

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Random thoughts on a Sunday

  • More people voted against George "Dubya" Bush in 2004 (57,695,898) and in 2000 (54,916,568) than voted for Reagan in 1984 (54,451,521).

  • 51% is not a Decisive Victory or a Mandate!

  • Bill Clinton has been out of office for more than four years yet Republicans are still bashing him.

  • Some people claim to "follow the evidence", but even after almost two years of US occupation and NO evidence of WMD (the reason Dubya gave to the American people for starting a war) they still support the war and the man who has sent more than 1,500 American servicemen and women to their deaths.

  • There is no Social Security Crisis.

  • Why has Bush not been impeached for lying to Congress?

  • Dubya does not care about the Iraqi people, all he cares about are US economic and strategic interests in the region.

  • Congratulations to Dubya and Rummy on their recent awards.

Friday, February 25, 2005

Bush quote of the day

"[I]n America or anywhere else, the sign of a healthy and vibrant society is one in where there's an active press corps. Obviously, there has got to be constraints."
-- George "Dubya" Bush, 24 February 2005


Constraints? What kind of constraints?

Whoever, when the United States is at war,...shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States...shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.
from US Sedition Act

Moving up the charts

I am number 281 on the






...and I'm not even christian

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Oh, Irony...

"We must always remind Russia, however, that our alliance stands for a free press, a vital opposition, the sharing of power and the rule of law."
-- George "Dubya" Bush, 21 Februaray 2005


Does anyone else see any irony in that statement? The Bush Administration has been trying to be more like the Putin Government yet Bush went before the world and admonished him. Does Bush support a free press at home? Vital opposition? Sharing of power? Ha. And the rule of law has been flaunted by this administration over and over.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Talk amongst yourselves

I'll be gone for a few days. The baby is going in the hospital for surgery so I'll be there until Wednesday or Thursday. His aunt is still there recovering from her stroke so we will get to spend some time with her as well.

Idlers, gossips, & busybodies

Is it Christian to make fun of someone for the way they look?

The gang of happy housewives on another blog is discussing an email allegedly received by one of them. The email apparently came from one 'k.d. van der bosch' who claimed to be a Bush supporter but it is fairly obvious that she is not.

I have my own theory about the email, but let's explore the response by the Christian women. First is by the resident Catholic fundamentalist:
It's odd that this anon poster would choose the initials "K.D." rather like, K.D. Lang? I have come to believe that certain female pursuers of Donna's (& mine) are perhaps lesbian or are at least exploring their lesbian tendancies. This would explain the inordinate amount of time they spend pursuing other women and reviling their Christianity, which is opposed to homosexual "activities", shall we say. Perhaps desire for Donna and frustration at the futility of that pursuit is driving them nuts?

Just a theory.

Posted by: Amy *******

Just as one would expect she is focused on the person's sexuality. A lifetime of sexual repression leads her to speculate that they have a lesbian stalker/sexual predator that they are dealing with. She immediately associates the 'k.d.' part with a celebrity who happens to be a lesbian. It's funny that she did not connect the 'van der Bosch' to the Jesuit hagiographer.

Then they go on to discuss a certain person's appearance. They emailed each other a picture of the alleged lesbian stalker of the middle aged-mother of three and even more middle-aged mother of four. The mother of three suggested that if a person is ugly on the inside she is probably ugly on the outside.

Then another of the mothers chimed in with this:
How ugly is that photo? Good grief, I mean at least fix yourself up a bit before plastering it all over the net. Some people have no self respect. Someone needs to introduce the subject of that photo to Max....Max Factor! Use a bit of makeup.

Posted by: Alice

These women are supposedly Christian mothers in their mid-30s but they behave like middle school girls with a secret. Do THEY have a secret crush on someone? Or maybe they are jealous of the popular girl. Whatever the case, I don't think that behavior is very Christlike.

Someone passed along photo ** edit** (due to a harassment complaint to flickr by D***a I have had to make the photo 'friends only', if you really want to see it...) that one of these women posted of herself. I guess she was too embarrassed to show her face on this one, but we've seen her face many times.

Friday, February 18, 2005

More torture, more lying

By naming John Negroponte as his nominee for the position Director of National Intelligence, Bush continued his practice of promoting torturers and war criminals. As ambassador to Hondurus (de facto pro-consul) during the Reagan Administration Negroponte, at the very least, knew about the death squads, known as Battalion 3-16, and lied to Congress about it. He also oversaw the construction of the torture facility known as the El Aguacate air base. In 2001 a mass grave containing 185 corpses was unearthed at the air base.


In other torture news...
Iraqi prison death linked to torture

Friday, February 18, 2005
By Seth Hettena, The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture -- suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
[more]

Thursday, February 17, 2005

I really am a cry baby

I'm not a big fan of Broadway musicals, I can sit through them and there are a few that I actually enjoyed. But today I was working on putting a DVD together for a friend's wedding and I did a slideshow to Jill Sobule's version of Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof). I was weeping. Literally. I've heard other versions like the hideous Robert Goulet rendition and of course the high school spring musical versions and they had no effect. I even played this thing several times and cried every time. Am I a big cry baby? Is it because I have a child now? Or is it just the way that Sobule sings the song?

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Is it spring yet?

It was a beautiful day today--for February 15th, that is. As I write this it is 54°F outside. It was even warm enough to take the baby for a walk. We walked around the neighborhood and he seemed to enjoy the new smells and bright sunshine while I tried to navigate around the sidewalks where tree roots have pushed through.

Also on a day like today I start to think about baseball. Spring traing is beginning in a few days and the Phillies home opener is on April 4 against the Washington Nationals. I don't know if I will get to a Phillies game this year but there is a Class A Short Season team nearby and it is fun to go to those games. My son will be six or seven months old by the time that their season starts so we may take him to a game or two. I took my nephew to a AAA game when he was about four years old. He sat there and ate a soft pretzel and some chicken fingers and he watched the birds but I don't think that he knew there was a game going on. After the game they let the kids run the bases so I took him down onto the field to see if he wanted to do that. He made about three trips around before he wore himself out.

My dad and I went to opening day in Philly last year. It was cold and wet and the Phillies lost, but we had a good time. This year the Phils have a new manager and sa few new players; it could be their year. I think that every year.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Dean and the DNC

Standing up for our beliefs, organizing, and transforming our party into a grassroots organization that can win in all 50 states: That's how we will rebuild the Democratic Party.
-- Governor Howard Dean, DNC Chairman


This week as it became apparent that Governor Howard Dean would head the Democratic National Committee the talking heads went on the morning shows and the cable news shows trying to play down Dean's apparent progressiveness. They explained that in Vermont he governed as a moderate. Why? Democrats need to stop apologizing and start organizing.

We need an alternative to the GOP. We need a party that stands for something. We need to stop apologizing for being progressives and liberals. Liberal is not a dirty word. I think that Dean knows this. As he likes to say, he represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.

So, it appears that we have taken control of the party back from the conservatives. No more GOP-lite. I hope.


Dean chosen to lead U.S. Democratic Party
Sat Feb 12, 2005 02:49 PM ET

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Howard Dean, whose high-flying presidential bid collapsed in disarray one year ago, won the post of Democratic chairman on Saturday and promised an aggressive drive to mobilize voters and rebuild the party "from the grass roots up."

"Today will be the beginning of the re-emergence of the Democratic Party," the former Vermont governor told Democratic National Committee members after he was elected party chairman by acclamation.

"We are going to recognize that our strength lies at the grass roots," Dean said. "Democrats will have to match or exceed the Republicans' ability to motivate voters."

Dean promised to plunge immediately into the effort to broaden the party's appeal in all 50 states and lead Democrats back from a bruising election in November, when they lost the White House and more seats in both houses of Congress.

[more]

Thursday, February 10, 2005

More propaganda and hypocrisy

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Return to politics

Below are a couple of today's news stories that I found interesting.
Rove finally given title in US government
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington


09 February 2005

George Bush yesterday made official what has been long been an acknowledged fact of Washington life - the involvement of his top strategist Karl Rove not just in politics but in almost every aspect of administration strategy.

Henceforth the senior adviser often referred to as "Bush's Brain" will have the formal title of deputy chief of staff, a post that will involve him in policymaking across the board, from domestic issues to foreign affairs.

[more]


Ex-GOP adviser sentenced in phone jamming

By ANDREW WOLFE, Telegraph Staff

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005

CONCORD (NH) - A Republican telemarketer will serve five months in federal prison for arranging to sandbag Democratic voter drives in Nashua and several other New Hampshire cities on Election Day in 2002, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Three Republicans have been charged in the scheme with conspiring to make harassing phone calls. Allen Raymond, 37, was the first to plead guilty and be sentenced.

Raymond?s lawyer, John Durkin of Dover, said the former head of the state Republican Party, Chuck McGee, concocted the phone-jam scheme along with James Tobin, the former New England campaign director for President Bush.

[more]


It is kind of scary to know that Rove will have official policymaking status now. Does that mean that there is some kind of accountability that goes along with his new title? No? I didn't think so. So basically he will be doing the same thing--devising schemes to sell the neo-con agenda to the public--only now he's a government employee.

The second story is just another example of GOP hypocrisy. They are the party of family values, morality, the party of Jesus, but they have to resort to illegal means of trying to "win" elections.

I've also started my anti-U.S. indoctrination of my son. This morning the baby and I enjoyed a speech by Noam Chomsky that he gave at the Lannan Foundation a couple of weeks ago. The baby listened intently to the whole speech. The audio of Chomsky's speech is here (Real Audio - Chomsky's speech begins at 18:20)


Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Life, death and baseball

The baby is two months old now and today was shot day. He was very happy through the whole appointment. Then the doctor left and sent the nurse in. The baby was on the exam table smiling at the nurse as she readied the syringes. She gave him the first shot and it took a second to register but then he screamed. By the third shot he was bright red and screaming and shaking. Within a minute he was calm again and he even smiled and cooed on the way home. We'll see how the next few days go.

I can't complain, he is a very content baby. He is now sleeping through the night (9:30pm until 6:30am) so I've been getting some rest lately. He has to have an operation in a couple weeks so I'm a bit worried about that. I know that doctors are doing these operations on kids every day but it is a little scary to think of him going under the knife.

My sister-in-law who has a week old baby and a two year old had a stroke and is in intensive care. They were not sure if she was going to make it but she seems to have stabilized and is now showing signs of improvement. I kept thinking of her kids. How terrible it would be to grow up without a mother.

We also had sort of a family reunion. Not under the best circumstances but it was nice to see everyone. My father's brother died so my aunts and uncles and some cousins were all in town for the funeral. I had not seen my one cousin since she spent the summer with us in 1976. My uncle from New Jersey was there, I hadn't seen him since I ran into him on campus during my junior year of college.

It was nice to hear some of the same old stories from a different perspective. My dad always tells us the story about how he was so poor growing up that the family dog hung himself. Well, my uncle told the same story. He said that they kept the dog on a long rope attached to the clothesline and one day the dog got into a tree and the rope got wrapped around a branch and then it jumped to its death.

Then there were the baseball stories. My uncle who died was a very good ball player for the local team in the 1940s and 50s. In fact, three of the four brothers played baseball and my grandfather was a local celebrity in the 1920s and 30s because of his baseball talents. My dad was the only brother who did not play organized baseball. He was sick for most of his childhood so he did not play but he always loved the game. My grandfather and my uncle were both catchers and my brother played catcher on the high school team.

My playing days ended after Little League. I could hit but my eyesight was already at 20/800 by then and there were no plastic or lightweight lenses back then. After Little League my playing was limited to games with the neighborhood kids. One game I was pitching and I caught a line drive in the sternum from about 40 feet. I had purple stitch marks on my chest for a week.

Anyhow, that's what has been going on in my life. Political ranting will resume with my next post.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Cry Babies

International Federation of Cry Babies for Justice

from Mary

State of the Union



Members of Congress saluting Bush





Members of the Reichstag saluting Hitler


Key points from the SOTU speech
  1. Cut Social Security benefits

  2. Protect corporations from lawsuits

  3. Put Lady Bush in charge of The War on Gangs

  4. Freedom

Thursday, February 03, 2005

The Arcade Fire

I was up feeding the baby the other night and turned on the television. I flipped over to NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien just in time for the musical act. I am so happy that I did. The act was The Arcade Fire. This was my favorite group since the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, and like the Tractenburgs they need to be seen to be appreciated.

You've gotta love any band that has a girl out front playing an accordian. This is the best use of an accordion since Nirvana showed up at their Unplugged gig with one. They also had two violins and a percussion section. It was really quite a show visually as well as musically.

There are three streaming audio files here. They played the first one (Neighborhood #2) on Late Night.

I have to get the CD now.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

This is madness

From the very beginning of this country's history we have used a technique to marginalize foreign (and some not so foreign) leaders with whom we disagree. From King George III to Napoleon to Saddam Husssein, all have been deemed mad.

I watched a rerun of a television program called No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed. I believe the episode was titled "The Tyranny of Reason". In it they discussed the (at the time) imminent US invasion of Iraq and the idea that Saddam was mad or pre-modern therefore we could not use diplomacy to deal with him so we were left with no option except force.

Below is a list of some of the leaders whom we have deemed "mad":


This isn't really unique to the United States, many European monarchs were rumored to be mad, even back to Roman times there were "mad" rulers--Caligula, Claudius, Nero, etc. And in America, even Lincoln's opponents called him mad.

This would be an interesting dissertation topic.

The funny thing is that it works every time. Americans are willing to believe that an unstable madman has taken over some country and is a threat to the world and we must act to stop him.

"But," you say, "Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba for 45 years. Why haven't we overthrown him?" Well, we tried. This version of the bearded madman is 90 miles away from us and has klled tens of thousands of his own people, yet we go half way around the world to "bring democracy" and "liberate" the people of Iraq.

If George W. Bush were leader of some distant country what would we say about him?

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Alberto Gonzales is Not Fit to be Attorney General

STOP
TERROR
STOP
TORTURE
STOP
GONZALES
 
 

Call your Senators NOW!


Freedom goes too far

...according to high schoolers.

A third of American high school students think that the First Amendment goes "too far" and over half think that newspapers should get government approval to print stories.

From BBC:

US teens 'reject' key freedoms

Two-thirds believed it was illegal to burn the flag
A significant number of US high-school students regard their constitutional right to freedom of speech as excessive, according to a new survey.


Over a third of the 100,000 students questioned felt the First Amendment went "too far" in guaranteeing freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.

Only half felt newspapers should be allowed to publish stories that did not have the government's approval.

The US government has committed itself to spreading "freedom" abroad.

[read more]


God bless America!

Response to comments

I had to respond here in a new post because of the limited space in the comments.

In my comments to a previous post I stated:
I also have a problem with a policy that encourages soldiers to not follow the rules of war. A policy that encourages them to torture prisoners and that looks the other way when they murder civilians

Mr Glacked is referring to that when he asks:
Glacked () @ 02/01/2005 09:52:
Rob, just what 'policy' are you talking about? One of my closest friends is at Abu Grab right now working on prosecuting the soldiers who did this. He hasn't mentioned anything about a policy... or are you just making that up? Don't let the illegal actions of the few overshadow the honorable actions of the many. Then again, I guess soldiers doing the right thing doesn't help your cause...


Policy is defined as "a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc." or "a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc." If it is US policy to look the other way when soldiers commit acts of torture it does not need to be prionted in a handbook or printed on a poster next to the "Employees must wash hands after using restroom" sign.

All well-trained soldiers are taught to follow the orders of superiors. If their orders are simply to "soften up" the prisoners for interrogation and they do that by going beyond what is internationally accepted as legal treatment of prisoners yet they get an attaboy, well, I would argue that that is policy. And those "attaboys" work their way up the chain of command with nobody stepping in and questioning the torture.

Of course your friend is prosecuting soldiers at the lowest level and the government's official stand is that they are "a few bad apples." When this is all over we will see Rumsfeld and the military commanders facing charges of war crimes. I have no doubt about that.

Then there is the case of two American soldiers who were convicted of murdering an Iraqi woman who was working for the Americans. They shot her in the head. One soldier was sentenced to 3 years in prison and the other 18 months. Is that justice? A child will grow up without a mother and these guys will be safe behind bars for a few years and then go home to their families.

Glacked () @ 02/01/2005 09:58:
Rob, just who do you think you are? I've never done one thing in your name - has anyone? We serve(d) our country - if you'd be kind enough to give me YOUR percent of the county's population, I'd be happy to give you your due. Should take less than one second of my day...


Everything that you do as a member of the United States military is done in my name--and Gia's name and your mother's name and the name of every other American citizen. It is the American people who pay you and decide to send you to war through their representatives in Congress. Although in this war Congress told the president that he could do it if the evidence (of WMD) was there--only later did they find out that the president lied to them. Every time that you put on the uniform of the US military you represent the the people of the United States (including me). When uniformed American soldiers killed an innocent civilian they did that in the name of the American people and in my name. When the US military supposedly "liberates" a country they do that in my name.

You military types are always telling us how you are out there defending our freedom. You tell us that we are only free because of you. You took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution"; it is the Constituion which protects us. As the Declaration of Independence states: all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". That means that we are born with such rights. They are not granted to us by the government or by the almighty US military.

As much as I disagree with the current war of agression in Iraq, I recognize that a military is necessary. I respect any person who willingly puts on a uniform and goes in harm's way to defend his country. That does not mean that I agree with how the governmant uses the military on every occasion.

Monday, January 31, 2005

Quote du jour

Hey look! Morons! Children, gather round: we're seeing a moron's rare forays outside of its home turf. If we're very quiet, maybe they'll eat out of our hands!
-- jasmine

Bush advertorials

Another conservative columnist was exposed for taking money from the Bush Administration to promote one of its programs. This time it is Michael McManus, whose column "Ethics & Religion" appears in 50 newspapers.

This guy writes a column about ethics and he did not disclose that he was being paid to promote the program that he was lauding in his column.

see: Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till at Salon.com

That bring the total to three so far.


  • Michael McManus $10,000
  • Maggie Gallagher $41,500
  • Armstrong Williams $241,000
  • 50.8% of the electorate duped into voting for a second term...Priceless


Apparently the Bush Administration knows how bad their programs are so they have to pay people in the media to promote them. They also paid a PR firm more than double what the Clinton Administration spent on PR in its second term.

Who will be next in this scandal? And has anyone in the Bush Administration lost his job because of this?

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Iraqi Elections

I just want to interrupt the GOP's self-congratulations to remind everyone that voter turnout in Cuba's last election was 95%. And, as Mr. Zakaria points out "Elections Are Not Democracy." Let's see what happens in the next few months. I hope that Iraqis take control of their country and ask the Americans to leave.


Elections Are Not Democracy
The United States has essentially stopped trying to build a democratic order in Iraq, and is simply trying to gain stability and legitimacy


By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek

Feb. 7 issue - By the time you read this, you will know how the elections in Iraq have gone. No matter what the violence, the elections are an important step forward, for Iraq and for the Middle East. But it is also true, alas, that no matter how the voting turns out, the prospects for genuine democracy in Iraq are increasingly grim. Unless there is a major change in course, Iraq is on track to become another corrupt, oil-rich quasi-democracy, like Russia and Nigeria.

In April 2003, around the time Baghdad fell, I published a book that described the path to liberal democracy. In it, I pointed out that there had been elections in several countries around the world?most prominently Russia?that put governments in place that then abused their authority and undermined basic human rights. I called such regimes illiberal democracies. In NEWSWEEK that month, I outlined the three conditions Iraq had to fulfill to avoid this fate. It is currently doing badly at all three.

[more]

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Goons

In the past few days we have seen how much of a uniter George "Dubya" Bush has been. The supporters of the Bush Administration's with-us-or-against-us policies and rhetoric have shown their true colors here and other places. They made false allegations of harassment, they have themselves harassed others who disagree, and they've even go so far as to say that they wanted to visit me and do me physical harm.

These paratrooper goons think that I am behind some plot bombard dumbgirl's blog with nonsense posts filled with foul language. Why? Because that paranoid attention whore that we all know told them so. So I got a ton of hits from their forum and the another forum of one the members. The results of those hits is in the comments of my posts below. But on their forum they posted stuff like this:
rlbgfish173
'Nam Vet
Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:48 pm Post subject:
Kids, being I am from the old school paying someone a visit ment going there not sending e-mail to this fag, so where does he live?

Jumper208
Creator of this Mess!
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:24 am Post subject:
donna wrote:
He lives on the east coast, PA, I believe.
It appears he's in Harrisburg. Hell sticky, that's only a few miles from us!

gixxer
US Paratrooper
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:31 am Post subject:
This dude is a chump!!! A serious grade "A" O2 thief....Reminds me of some of the jackass kids I attend college with, too much time on
their hands and no value of service to one's country.


Jumper208
Creator of this Mess!
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:40 am Post subject:
I still have his email, and yahoo messenger, so I can still play with him!


These guys remind me of middle school bullies who pick on the kids in the lower grades.

Actually being falsely accused of something and then being harassed by these guys brought back a forgotten memory that has been tucked away in my brain for many years. I went to an elementary school that consolidated the neighborhood schools in town but the schools in the outlying townships stayed open and the kids from those schools joined us in 6th grade. This school also had no walls between classrooms and we sat at round tables instead of those little individual desks. Well, at the start of 6th grade I sat at a table with three other people and two of them were friends from another school. From day one those two, a boy and a girl, did things to get me in trouble. The teacher would come over and yell at me because they threw something or made a loud noise. They also threatened to beat me up after school.

Up until that point I loved school. But that year I did not even want to go. My grades even suffered that year. I had always gotten all As but that year I got lower grades in a class or two. I was so shy that I could not even approach the teacher to tell him what was happening.

I hadn't thought about that period of my life for many years. I guess I would not be the person I am today if I had not gone through that.
"Everything Is For The Best In This, The Best Of All Possible Worlds."
-- Dr. Pangloss in Candide by Voltaire

So, back to the goons. They don't know me. I doubt that they read any of the posts on this site. Yet they come her and call me a traitor, a "goddamned fucknut", a "sorry ass peice(sic) of shit liberal", a "FUCKING PUSSY", etc. Why? Because they don't agree with my politics.

A while back a guy named Jake used to visit this blog. He was a former military guy who was 100% behind Bush. He'd come here and comment on my posts and I'd comment on his site. We disagreed yet we were civil and read what each other had to say. This was back before the war. I haven't come across many so-called conservatives since then who are willing to participate in a conversation. I usually get "you don't support the war therefore you hate the military and you hate America so go live in France."

So much for being a uniter.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Quote du jour

What is the goal toward which we are heading? The peaceful enjoyment of liberty and equality; the reign of that eternal justice whose laws have been inscribed, not in marble and stone, but in the hearts of all men, even in that of the slave who forgets them and in that of the tyrant who denies them.
-- Robespierre, "On Political Morality", 5 February 1794


That is Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robspierre trying to justify "The Terror".

[W]e have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.
George "Dubya" Bush, Second Inaugural Address


Hmmmmm...*scartches chin*

That is George Walker Bush trying to justify...

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Welcome Paratroopers!

Ms. Donna is now whining on yet another message board about being harassed by me. Okay, not exactly, now I am supposedly harassing DumbGirl. Nonetheless, she used the same old tactic that we've seen many times before. She has a new group of people willing to believe her stories.
see:
http://www.usparatroopers.org/nuke1/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2758

click on images to enlarge:



It's funny, she falsely accuses me of something and then recruits a bunch of people to do the very thing that she claims I did. At least Amy is above that. Amy only left one comment where she vented through an alias because she honestly thought that I was harassing her. No big deal.

Anyhow, all of you military types are welcome to comment here but please read the posts before commenting.

Thank you.

Evangelical Christian

...does The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
watch the video


"...religion does not have a monopoly on morality."
--Jim Wallis

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Dubya: a modernday (albeit dumber) Robespierre?

    President Bush's second inaugural speech is Jacobin to the core. It stands outside the American tradition. Declaring American values to be universalist principles, Bush promised to use American power to spread democracy and to end tyranny everywhere on earth.
    -- Paul Craig Roberts


Isn't it treason to compare Dubya to anything French? Not yet.

Jacobin to the Core

by Paul Craig Roberts


After listening to his inaugural speech, anyone who thinks President Bush and his handlers are sane needs to visit a psychiatrist. The hubris-filled megalomaniac in the Oval Office has promised the world war without end.

Bush's crazy talk has even upset rah-rah Republicans. One Republican called Bush's speech "God-drenched." It has begun to dawn on the formerly Grand Old Party that a bloodless coup has occurred and Republicans have lost their party to Jacobins, who cloak themselves under the term "neoconservatives."

What is a Jacobin? Jacobins ushered in the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. The Jacobins saw themselves as virtuous champions of universalist principles that required them to impose "liberty, equality, fraternity" not merely on France by a reign of terror, but also on the rest of Europe by force of arms.

Unlike America's Founding Fathers, who exhorted their countrymen to cultivate their own garden, Jacobins were not content with revolutionizing France. They were driven to revolutionize the world

President Bush's second inaugural speech is Jacobin to the core. It stands outside the American tradition. Declaring American values to be universalist principles, Bush promised to use American power to spread democracy and to end tyranny everywhere on earth. As one of Bush's neocon puppetmasters, Robert Kagan, approvingly wrote in the Washington Post on Jan. 23, "The goal of American foreign policy is now to spread democracy, for its own sake, for reasons that transcend specific threats. In short, Bush has unmoored his foreign policy from the war on terrorism."

[more]


There's more good stuff there, go read the rest.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Scenes from today's anti-abortion march in DC

There were religious fanatics who want their religion to be the law of the land.

Sorry lady, evangelicals don't even consider you catholics as christians.

You lost--32 years ago--get over it.


Pro-life president?


A nod and a wink to DumbGirl et al.

My friend went to catholic school from 1st through 12th grades (and is a practicing catholic today), she told me that the nun who ran the school's Pro-Life Club would hand out a sign up sheet with two choices on it:
    Do you want to join the Pro-Life Club?
  1. Yes, because I believe that human life is sacred.
  2. No, because I believe in killing babies.

They also got extra credit if they signed up to go on the bus trip to DC for the march.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

More on the inauguration

From Greg Palast:
Oaf of Office
by Greg Palast


Watching John Kerry lip-synch the oath of office, I couldn't help wondering, 'what if.'

Here on stage in Washington was the winner-class warmed and protected by cashmere and tax cuts against the strange, nipple-chilling cold. Hell had frozen over.

Our President said, "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation." Well, no, it isn't.

Our President said, "We will widen retirement savings and health insurance." No, he won't.

Our President said, "America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains." Yes, he will.

Our President said, "And our country must abandon all the habits of racism." Oh, sure.

He doesn't believe a single word he's saying. And all over America, everyone knows he's lying and America is truly relieved.

America doesn't want to give up the habit of racism. Karl Rove doesn't. Jeb Bush doesn't. If not for challenging hundreds of thousands of voters in Black precincts of Ohio and other swing states, if not for purging thousands more from voter rolls for the crime of voting while Black, you wouldn't be president now, would you, Mr. President?

You won't "pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains," unless they are chained by your buck-buddies in Saudi Arabia.

You'll "support democratic movements" so long as the citizens of Venezuela don't get carried away and decide that democracy means they can choose a leader you don't like.

[more]


Lisa Rein has video of the Daily Show coverage of the inauguration speech here.
I liked this part:
Dubya: "When you stand for your liberty, we will stand for you."
Jon Stewart: "offer not valid in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and all of Africa."

And he could have added quite a few more. When Bush said that I thought about the Palestinians in the occupied territories. After all, the Bush Administration claims that it was only enforcing a UN resolution when it decided to invade Iraq. Israel is in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 yet the US government continues to supply Israel with military aid and weapons. Why is Bush not enforcing those UN resolutions?