Saturday, September 30, 2006

Fear of paedophiles 'a tragedy'



I think any kid would run in the other direction if he/she saw this face, regardless of whether she wants to offer them their favorite candy or something. It's just sad, but true. I remember an elderly lady down the street. Whenever she came outside to work in her yard, we kids nearly fainted from fright.

When I was growing up, I didn't much care for adults. I wanted to be around other kids. Now that I am an adult, I still remember how much I resented adults invading "KidWorld." I stay the hell away from kids and always have. To me it is practicing the Golden Rule. That is what I would want done unto me if I were they — for adults such as myself to stay the hell out of their way as they go about their idyllic childhoods.

the waitresses: i know what boys like



The singer looks a bit like a young Honey Wilder. I am sorry to hear she has passed away. The singer, not Honey.

MY SCROTUM FLEW TOURIST

"Here I Sit / Straining my pooper / Tryin' to give birth / To a Texas state trooper."

I found this moderately amusing, although the above scatological humor cannot BEGIN to compare with the animated Popeye vs Ecoli short I posted yesterday.

U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (P-Fla.) on Bill Clinton (1998)

http://www.sptimes.com/Worldandnation/91298/Congress_sees_through.html

Republicans were aghast at Clinton's behavior, with many saying it showed he had lied and abused his power.

"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction.

Green Zone Follies

Baghdad, 28 Sept 06: “I have been out of this area for a month, along with a number of others, on a PR project. Coming back here is like going back to Hell for breakfast. The insurgents occasionally drop mortar rounds inside the sacred Green Zone, killing people including diplomatic personnel and once, two colonels out for a squash game. No one can do anything about it so we keep it quiet. This whole project, bringing democracy and joy to poor rag head heathens has fallen completely apart. Morale in Iraq does not exist and self-mutilations, suicides and serious mental problems are so commonplace that no one even notices any more. The field equipment, trucks, howitzers, spotter aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles are all either in the shops or waiting in line. The sand here destroys everything eventually and Rumsfeld never bothers to replace anything. The food and medical services are very good but that’s about all. We spy on the GIs to be sure they aren’t sending out ‘negative’ messages to home and the various religious Iraqi people are slaughtering themselves, and us, at an accelerated rate. The Iraqi death tolls are enormous and our own are very bad and kept very quiet. Now, they tell me, Cheney wants the entire National Guard activated and shipped over here along with every reservist or discharged GI with former combat service. They have the orders drawn up there and we have copies. Engineers have been putting up miles of new barracks and the supply services are tipped to expect ‘significant very large shipments’ of food, clothes, shoes, helmets and so on. A quarter of a million men are supposed to be reactivated and sent over here before Christmas. A general officer said, in my office, that they were just waiting until after the elections in November. Bush and Cheney want a general draft but that won’t wash so instead, everyone and anyone that can move; comes over. Basically, the resistance has beaten us but of course no one can ever talk about that. They call it ‘defeatism’ and one can get into trouble for it. Soldiers who bitch get transferred to the west where the lifespan of a GI is somewhat limited.”

Friday, September 29, 2006

Scorpio Karma Profile

Scorpio is typically described in one word: intense. Deeply emotional and emotionally complex, Scorpio possesses an incredible charisma that attracts and stimulates others, who always want to know, Who is that behind the intriguing mystery? That's the great question: Who lives behind the sexy, alluring yet impregnable persona Scorpio portrays? The answer isn't an easy one to find. Most Scorpios like to keep their secrets, and perhaps they couldn't tell you even if they wanted to; their constantly rising and falling emotional responses often prove confusing at best. Their driving pursuit, however, is connection. It's what gives them their reputation for being amazing lovers and what makes them so intense in both romantic and platonic relationships. Behind that drive to connect, however, is a driving sense of insecurity. Scorpio is afraid that if it disconnects from others, the disconnection will be complete and irrevocable. This is the reason why Scorpio has developed such an elaborate system of maintaining engagement, complete with secrets and allusions, manipulations and occasional rages and that Scorpion's sting that can lash out whenever Scorpio gets its feelings hurt.

All this takes up a lot of time and energy, to say the least. Scorpio's Karmic task is to learn to relax and let go of its fear of abandonment and being alone. If Scorpio can learn that to disconnect isn't necessarily permanent, there would be less of a need for manipulative or vindictive behavior; of course, the only way to learn that lesson is to let go, which may be far easier said than done. Scorpio tends to be one of the most possessive, jealous and suspicious Signs of the Zodiac. Those born under its influence possess a heightened sense of secrets and are always trying to sniff out what's hidden. However, other Signs may be more forthright and direct, meaning everything is out in the open but Scorpios will try to find out the "real" truth anyway, perhaps even to the point of creating a secret or a lie where there isn't one. Scorpios must learn the value of trust and privacy. Allow friends and lovers to feel trusted and trustworthy; allow them to choose which parts of themselves to share and which to keep private.

One reason it may be hard to trust others is that we are afraid we can't trust ourselves to withstand being hurt or taken advantage of. When something like that happens to Scorpio, its Scorpionic instinct is to get revenge. Scorpio is not a malicious Sign, mind you; it simply has an incredibly complex emotional life and tends to be at the mercy of those emotions. Scorpio must learn to self-regulate more effectively, to resist the urge to lash out when hurt, to rise above pettiness and manipulation. Learn to forgive and forget, since holding on to anger and grudges improves nothing for anyone.

These lessons are difficult to learn, however. In our struggles toward personal freedom, it helps to get inspiration from others who have already mastered what we are trying to learn. Aquarius possesses the emotional self-sufficiency and calm demeanor that Scorpio may lack; it would be unhealthy to try to stifle emotions, but it is important to be able to control one's actions in response. Taurus, Scorpio's Opposite Sign in the Zodiac, can teach Scorpio about honesty and directness; Leo can teach Scorpio to be warm and openhearted toward loved ones, rather than suspicious or demanding.

Gonzales Cautions Judges on Interfering

http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/09/29/ap3055270.html

War is a state of mind. As long as the Chimpministration can get away with deluding a significant percentage of the population (as well as being able to blackmail all 535 members of Congress with all the info which has been gathered illegally by the FBI and other agencies over the years), we will be "at war" and the Chimperor will be the wartime dictator.

The Hungry Bear

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Free trade a myth, U.S. executive says

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/115951885668580.xml?bxbiz&coll=2

The problem is, Mr. Domestic Steelmaker, if the Chinese were NOT manipulating their currency, few in this country could any longer afford their products at China*Mart.

I have figured out what the * is for in Wal*Mart. It is a tribute to the Chinese flag.

Rush Limbaugh Online



Guest hosting for Rush next week while he vacations as a "sexual tourist" in the Dominican Republic once again, will be Dallas Cowboys wide receiver and fellow pain medication aficionado Terrell Owens.

T.O.'s latest "spin" on the incident the other night is as follows:
"Yeah, I put a bunch of pain pills in my mouth by accident the other night, but unlike Nicolette Sheridan in the part of the skit she did wid me that they DIDN'T show on Monday Night Football, I DIDN'T swallow."

Popeye vs Ecoli

What happened to the idealism of youth?



In light of yesterday's votes in the Senate and House, I have to ask the following: Where are the young people of today? Why aren't they out in the streets? It is their future which is being destroyed.

Midnight at the Oasis - Maria Muldaur



Very creative video, but I agree with most of those commenting. This song was excellent! If we could only get our troops to romance the Arab women like this instead of wiping them out in raids, maybe there could be peace in that region.

My dream would be for all the soldiers and Marines to intermarry into the various Iraqi tribes and remain over there, since so many of them are or will be unfit to reintegrate into our society.

Love conquers all, not "shock and awe."

Company B - Fascinated



This song makes me feel so wiggy.

I believe this song came out sometime in the Eighties. Since then we have outsourced the manufacture of "love toys" to China, so they may not be as fascinating to these girls these days.

In other words, our "love toys" may not be able to "flip their wigs" anymore.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

United States Prepares To Drop ‘Net of Freedom’ Over America as Russia Begins Massive Air Force Exercise

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index951.htm
By SORCHA FAAL

In what Russian Intelligence Analysts are describing today in terms that
have been historically used for events such as the Germany’s Berlin Wall, and the former
Soviet Unions Iron Curtain,
the United States seems now intent on embarking upon a plan that will virtually
enslave their entire population that American Pentagon Officials are calling
the “Net of Freedom”.



Preparations within America show their plan is to not only construct 1,800
Observation Towers along their border with Mexico
, but also to being
construction of a further 900
Observation Towers along their Northern border with Canada
.   



As history has always shown when totalitarian nations enter the final phases geared towards the total
subjugation of their citizens, the United States Government is also instigating
a series of draconian documentation procedures for Americans, to include new
passport requirements
for all of their citizens entering both Mexico and
Canada, and a National ID card system, and which if not held by an American
citizen they will not be allowed to “board
an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take
advantage of nearly any government service.”



These reports further state that the state of fear gripping the Military
Leaders of the United States,
and which they are in turn instilling in their citizens, is not entirely
unjustified as even our Nation, Russia,
is embarking upon an ever increasing series of measures bringing us nearer to
direct conflict with the Americans and their Allies.



As an example of the ever increasing series of measures being taken by the
Worlds’ most powerful Nations against what they view as unprovoked and
unreasoned American aggression, President Putin has ordered the Air
Forces of the Russian Motherland to conduct a series of massive exercises
so
as to prepare for what many in the Kremlin believe will be a final
confrontation against the Western Powers.



The basis upon which this current Global Conflict can be understood can be
read as reported by the Asia Times News Service in their article titled “THE HUNGRY BEAR:
No more Mr. Nice Guy
”, and which says:



"East and
West are now irreversibly locked in a monumental struggle for control of the
globe's coveted strategic resources - this is the revived Great Game and its
players are rapidly approaching the moment of truth. The stakes for both sides
are colossal and both sides fully recognize that fact. However, neither side
likes to admit explicitly the existence of such a struggle that will define
which side achieves global ascendancy and which side faces the potential of an
energy-based economic checkmate.



The United
States prefers to strive for advantage in the Great Game while hiding behind
the veil of the ostensibly noble policy of spreading "freedom" and
"democracy" - yet it is active in such a policy primarily only in
countries that are either rich in strategic resources or are strategically
located as respects the export of such resources. By military invasion and
occupation, by encirclement through proliferation of its military bases, by the
spread of "colored" revolutions, by sponsoring oil and gas pipelines
that circumvent Russia and its partners, and by various diplomatic drives, the
West attempts to roll back Russian control over resources and to consolidate
its own.



Russia and the
East prefer to make advances in the Great Game while simultaneously and
fervently denying any interest whatever in locking up the bulk of the globe's
strategic resources and thereby winning the game - yet virtually every
diplomatic and economic move on the part of Russia and the East is obviously
targeted at and designed incrementally and insidiously to accomplish that very
goal, and rapid progress is being made toward that very end.



Are onlookers
supposed to conclude that Russia and the East are progressively and rapidly
achieving dominance over the globe's resources purely by random chance, through
no conscious effort or clever strategy on their part? How could that be the
case, especially when the West is actively and fervently working against Russia
and the East to try to prevent such an outcome, yet that very outcome is nearly
completed?



In the Great
Game the loser will forfeit virtually everything of value, or will be held
backward on its heels in a position where there is no escape from the threat of
such forced forfeiture. If Russia loses the game, then the West, sitting in de
facto control of massive reserves of oil and gas around the globe, will be
sufficiently able to control the global price and availability of oil to bring
the price down to a point where Russia's economy will begin to falter, or
worse.



Of course, a win
by the West at this late date in the Great Game would take much more than a
Hail Mary pass. [1] However, the West in general and the US in particular will
never willingly forfeit the game, even though the odds are massively against it
now. The game will be played out to its finish and the US will stop at nothing
to pull out a win, even at the last moment if possible.



By additional
military adventures and "colored" revolutions, threatening even
Russian and Chinese territorial integrity and economic stability themselves,
the West can fully be expected to strive to forestall its own forfeiture of the
game as it increasingly sees the clock running out on its energy security
fortunes. Considering the current occupant of the White House, no one should
make the mistake of assuming further US military adventures are not likely,
because as the clock runs out on the US, the likelihood of such adventures
increases radically.



Russia and the
East will thus be given no choice by the West but to resort to the full and
potent use of their growing energy leverage. For reasons far beyond President
Vladimir Putin's control, therefore, his promise to "play nice" with
energy is entirely an empty one."



Towards all of these events, however, lies the seminal shift within
the minds of the American people themselves that would allow such totalitarian
measures to be enacted against them in the first place, but does become
understandable when viewed in the light of how this entire society of human
beings has been manipulated for nearly one hundred years through the efforts of
a man named Edward
Bernays
, who was the cousin, of Sigmund Freud and the
founder of  what has become known in the
United States as Public
Relations
.



Even more intriguing when examining these issues are those events
surrounding Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays and their greatest enemy towards the
manipulation of the American people, Wilhelm Reich, and who after
presenting to the World in the early 1950’s a device he stated would protect
our Earth from UFO’s
was promptly jailed by the American Government, had all his works
and papers of a lifetime destroyed
, and died in a US Federal Prison in 1957.



A conclusion that can be rightly made of these American people today, and
based upon the known facts, is that the success of the United States
Government/Corporate Alliance to turn these human beings into nothing more than
consuming machines is now complete. 



From individuals of just a century ago, and who believed in their freedoms,
liberties and a society based upon the common good, the Americans of today are
nothing more today than ‘individual consumers’, and who have been reduced to
slaves to their government/corporate interests who provide them a never ending variety
of consumer goods these people not only do not need, but most insidiously are
designed for no other purpose than to keep these people believing that they
always need more.



Where the identity of human beings, in our ages past, had always been
defined by the strength of a society, today a new monster has arisen in the
World where these Western people, particularly the Americans, define their identity
based solely upon their individual wants and desires, and which their
government/corporate masters freely provide to them because if these people are
content in having their personal identity defined in what they consume they
care not for who rules them.



But unknown to these American people is that that which enables their
Military Leaders to control them also makes them their Rulers greatest
threat.  For the price of unlimited
consumerism, pandering to the individual against the need of the society as a
whole, is the disintegration of that entire society, and which the American
Empire is facing today, but cannot be fully accomplished prior to a Global War,
and which unknown to these slaves of consumerism has been the ages old goal of
their masters all along.

Attacks cost Iraq oil exports $16B

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060928/ap_on_go_ot/us_iraq_reconstruction

Attacks "shake their moneymaker."

New Woodward Book Details Multiple Bush Cover-Ups Over Iraq

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/28/woodward-book

Jesse Ventura questions 9/11

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Too much testosterone kills brain cells

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060927/hl_nm/testosterone_dc

Research such as this more and more confirms my belief that the human race is ultimately doomed. Those with too much testosterone rise to positions of power. Then, once they have achieved totalitarian control, they are so stupid and violent that tens of millions die as a result of their brain-damaged actions.

Another 'comma'

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6004&Itemid=21d=21

I can hear James Taylor singing comma, comma, comma, comma ... in the background.

I like the name "Multi-National Force" since this never-ending war is being waged largely on behalf of "Multi-National Corporations."

ESPN FAKED STADIUM CHEERS FOR BUSH SR.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/26/8550/57285

The Houston Texans need to hire ESPN to do this at all their home games as well, not for Bush Sr., but for the team! It is going to become more and more necessary as the season progresses.

Need to work on that salute, Herr George



I will say this, though. He has "shooting the 'bird'" down very well. See his reaction to my blog below.

'Bush exploded with anger'

According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

This Haaretz article is from a couple of years ago. If God really is demanding all these things and it's not just the "voices in his head" (which should be grounds for a team of men in their pretty white coats coming and taking him away under provisions of the 25th Amendment), I wish He would find someone's else's military to use for a while. Ours is extremely overextended at this point.

About the only thing left for "God" (in quotes, because I consider Bush's "God" to be his own psychopathic brain chemistry) to do is fire off all the nukes.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

George W. Bush responds to my blog

Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Texas

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/1047

Originally published at Smirking Chimp 1.0 on June 27, 2004

Not long ago I pulled my car up alongside a tiny wooden church in the woods, a stark white frame box my family built in 1840. And as always, an honest-to-god chill went through me, for the ancestral ghosts presumably hovering over the graves there. From the wide open front door the Pentecostal preacher's message echoed from within the plain wooden walls: "Thank you Gawd for giving us strawng leaders like President Bush during this crieeesis. Praise you Lord and guide him in this battle with Satan's Muslim armies." If I had chosen to go back down the road a mile or so to the sprawling new Bible Baptist church---complete with school facilities, professional sound system and in-house television production---I could have heard approximately the same exhortation. Usually offered at the end of a prayer for sons and daughters of members in the congregation serving in Iraq, it can be heard in any of the thousands upon thousands of praise temples across our republic.

After a lifetime of identity conflict, I have come to accept that, blood-wise, if not politically or spiritually, these are my people. And as a leftist it is very clear to me these days why urban liberals not only fail to understand these people, but do not even know they exist, other than as some general lump of ignorant, intolerant voters called "the religious right," or the "Christian Right," or "neocon Christians." But until progressives come to understand what these people read, hear, are told and deeply believe, we cannot understand American politics, much less be effective. Given fundamentalist Christianity's inherent cultural isolation, it is nearly impossible for most enlightened Americans to imagine, in honest human terms, what fundamentalist Americans believe, let alone understand why we should all care.

For liberals to examine the current fundamentalist phenomenon in America is accept some hard truths. For starters, we libs are even more embattled than most of us choose to believe. Any significant liberal and progressive support is limited to a few urban pockets on each coast and along the upper edge of the Midwestern tier states. Most of the rest of the nation, the much vaunted heartland, is the dominion of the conservative and charismatic Christian. Turf-wise, it's pretty much their country, which is to say it presently belongs to George W. Bush for some valid reasons. Remember: He did not have to steal the entire election, just a little piece of it in Florida. Evangelical born-again Christians of one stripe or another were then, and are now, 40% of the electorate, and they support Bush 3-1. And as long as their clergy and their worst instincts tell them to, they will keep on voting for him, or someone like him, regardless of what we view as his arrogant folly and sub-intelligence. Forget about changing their minds. These Christians do not read the same books we do, they do not get their information from anything remotely resembling reasonably balanced sources, and in fact, consider even CBS and NBC super-liberal networks of porn and the Devil's lies. Given how fundamentalists see the modern world, they may as well be living in Iraq or Syria, with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets. They believe in God, Rumsfeld's Holy War and their absolute duty as God's chosen nation to kick Muslim ass up one side and down the other. In other words, just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously nuts does not mean they are marginal.

Having been born into a Southern Pentecostal/Baptist family of many generations, and living in this fundamentalist social landscape means that I gaze into the maw of neocon Christianity daily. Hell, sometimes hourly. My brother is a fundamentalist preacher, as are a couple of my nephews, as were many of my ancestors going back to god-knows-when. My entire family is born-again; their lives are completely focused inside their own religious community, and on the time when Jesus returns to earth---Armageddon and The Rapture.

Only another liberal born into a fundamentalist clan can understand what a strange, sometimes downright hellish family circumstance it is---how such a family can love you deeply, yet despise everything you believe in, see you as a humanist instrument of Satan, and still be right there for you when your back goes out or a divorce shatters your life. As a socialist and a half-assed lefty activist, obviously I do not find much conversational fat to chew around the Thanksgiving table. Politically and spiritually, we may be said to be dire enemies. Love and loathing coexist side by side. There is talk, but no communication. In fact, there are times when it all has science fiction overtonestimes when it seems we are speaking to one another through an unearthly veil, wherein each party knows it is speaking to an alien. There is a sort of high eerie mental whine in the air. This is the sound of mutually incomprehensible worlds hurtling toward destiny, passing with great psychological friction, obvious to all, yet acknowledged by none. Between such times, I wait rather anxiously and strive for change, for relief from what feels like an increased stifling of personal liberty, beauty, art, and self-realization in America. They wait in spooky calmness for Jesus. They believe that, until Jesus does arrive, our "satanic humanist state and federal legal systems" should be replaced with pure "Biblical Law." This belief is called Christian Reconstructionism. Though it has always been around in some form, it began expanding rapidly about 1973, with the publication of R. J. Rushdoony's, Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1982).

Time out please In a nod toward fairness and tolerance---begging the question of whether liberals are required to tolerate the intolerant---I will say this: Fundamentalists are "good people." In daily life, they are warm-hearted and generous to a fault. They live with feet on the ground (albeit with eyes cast heavenward) and with genuine love and concern for their neighbors. After spending 30 years in progressive western cities such as Boulder, Colorado and Eugene, Oregon, I would have to say that conservative Christians actually do what liberals usually only talk about. They visit the sick and the elderly, give generously of their time and money to help those in need, and put unimaginable amounts of love and energy into their families, even as Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh blare in the background. Their good works extend internationally-were it not for American Christians, there would be little health care on the African continent and other similar places. OK, that's the best I can do in showing due respect for the extreme Christian Right. Now to get back to the Christian Reconstructionists...

Establishing a Savage Eden

Christian Reconstruction is blunt stuff, hard and unforgiving as a gravestone.

Capital punishment, central to the Reconstructionist ideal, calls for the death penalty in a wide range of crimes, including abandonment of the faith, blasphemy, heresy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, striking a parent, and ''unchastity before marriage'' (but for women only.) Biblically correct methods of execution include stoning, the sword, hanging, and burning. Stoning is preferred, according to Gary North, the self-styled Reconstructionist economist, because stones are plentiful and cheap. Biblical Law would also eliminate labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Leading Reconstruction theologian David Chilton declares, "The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics" Incidentally, said Republic of Jesus would not only be a legal hell, but an ecological one as well---Reconstructionist doctrine calls for the scrapping of environmental protection of all kinds, because there will be no need for this planet earth once The Rapture occurs. You may not have heard of Rushdoony or Chilton or North, but taken either separately or together, they have directly and indirectly influenced far more contemporary American minds than Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn combined.

A moreover covert movement, although slightly more public of late, Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism have for decades exerted one hell of an influence through its scores of books, publications and classes taught in colleges and universities. Over the past 30 years their doctrine has permeated not only the religious right, but mainstream churches as well, via the charismatic movement. The radical Christian right's impact on politics and religion in this nation has been massive, with many mainstream churches pushed rightward by its pervasiveness without even knowing it. Clearly the Methodist church down the street from my house does not understand what it has become. Other mainstream churches with more progressive leadership, simply flinch and bow to the radicals at every turn. They have to, if they want to retain members these days. Further complicating matters is that leading Recoconstruction thinkers, along with their fellow travelers, the Dominionists, are all but invisible to non-fundamentalist America. (I will spare you the agony of the endless doctrinal hair-splitting that comes with making fundamentalist distinctions of any sort---I would not do that to a dog. But if you are disposed toward self-punishment, you can take it upon yourself to learn the differences between Dominionism, Pretribulationism, Midtribulationism, and Posttribulationism, Premillennialism, Millennialism I recommend the writings of the British author and scholar George Monbiot, who has put the entire maddening scheme of it all together---corporate implications, governmental and psychological meaning---in a couple of excellent books.)

Fundamentalists such as my family have no idea how thoroughly they have been orchestrated by agenda-driven Christian media and other innovations of the past few decades. They probably would not care now, even if they knew. Like most of their tribe (dare we say class, in a nation that so vehemently denies it has a class system?) they want to embrace some simple foundational truth that will rationalize all the conflict and confusion of a postmodern world. Some handbook that will neatly explain everything, make all their difficult decisions for them. And among these classic American citizens, prone toward religious zealotry since the Great Awakening of the 18th Century, what rock could appear more dependable upon which to cling than the infallible Holy Bible? From there it was a short step for Christian Dominionist leaders to conclude that such magnificent infallibility should be enforced upon all other people, in the same spirit as the Catholic Spanish Conquistadors or the Arab Muslim Moors before them. It's an old, old story, a brutal one mankind cannot seem to shake.

Christian Reconstruction and Dominionist strategists make clear in their writings that homeschooling and Christian academies have been and continue to create the Rightist Christian cadres of the future, enabling them to place ever-increasing numbers of believers in positions of governmental influence. The training of Christian cadres is far more sophisticated than the average liberal realizes. There now stretches a network of dozens of campuses across the nation, each with its strange cultish atmosphere of smiling Christian pod people, most of them clones of Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. But how many outsiders know the depth and specificity of political indoctrination in these schools? For example, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, a college exclusively for Christian homeschoolers, offers programs in strategic government intelligence, legal training and foreign policy, all with a strict, Bible-based "Christian worldview." Patrick Henry is so heavily funded by the Christian right it can offer classes below cost. In the Bush administration, seven percent of all internships are handed out to Patrick Henry students, along with many others distributed among similar religious rightist colleges. The Bush administration also recruits from the faculties of these schools, i.e. the appointments of right-wing Christian activist Kay Coles James, former dean of the Pat Robertson School of government, as director of the U.S. office of personnel. What better position than the personnel office from which to recruit more fundamentalists? Scratch any of these supposed academics and you will find a Christian zealot. I know because I have made the mistake of inviting a few of these folks to cocktail parties. One university department head told me he is moving to rural Mississippi where he can better recreate the lifestyle of the antebellum South, and its "Confederate Christian values." It gets real strange real quick.

Lest the these Christians be underestimated, remember that it was their strategists whose "stealth ideology" managed the takeover of the Republican Party in the early 1990s. That takeover now looks mild in light of today's neocon Christian implantations in the White House, the Pentagon and the Supreme Court and other federal entities. As much as liberals screech in protest, few understand the depth and breadth of the Rightist Christian takeover underway. They catch the scent but never behold the beast itself. Yesterday I heard a liberal Washington-based political pundit on NPR say the Radical Christian right's local and regional political action peak was a past fixture of the Reagan era. I laughed out loud (it was a bitter laugh) and wondered if he had ever driven 20 miles eastward on U.S. Route 50 into the suburbs of Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia. The fellow on NPR was a perfect example of the need for liberal pundits to get their heads out of their asses, get outside the city, quit cruising the Internet and meet some Americans who do not mirror their own humanist educations and backgrounds.

If they did, they would grasp the importance The Rapture has taken on in American national and international politics. Despite the media's shallow interpretation of The Rapture's significance, it is a hell of a lot more than just a couple hundred million Left Behind books sold. The most significant thing about the Left Behind series is that, although they are classified as "fiction," most fundamentalist readers I know accept the series as an absolute reality soon coming to a godless planet near you. It helps to understand that everything is literal in the Fundamentalist voter universe.

I'll Fly Away, Oh Lordy (But you won't.)

Yes, when The Rapture comes Christians with the right credentials will fly away. But you and I, dear reader, will probably be among those who suffer a thousand-year plague of boils. So stock up on antibiotics, because according to the "Rapture Index" it is damned near here. See for yourself at http://www.raptureready.com. Part gimmick, part fanatical obsession, the index is a compilation of such things as floods, interest rates, oil prices, global turmoil As I write this the index stands at 144, just one point below critical mass, when people like us will be smitten under a sky filled with deliriously happy naked flying Christians.

But to blow The Rapture off as amusing-if-scary fantasy is not being honest on my part. Cheap glibness has always been my vice, so I must say this: Personally, I've lived with The Rapture as the psychologically imprinted backdrop of my entire life. In fact, my own father believed in it until the day he died, and the last time I saw him alive we talked about The Rapture. And when he asked me, "Will you be saved?" Will you be there with me on Canaan's shore after The Rapture?" I was forced to feign belief in it to give a dying man inner solace. But that was the spiritual stuff of families, and living and dying, religion in its rightful place,the way it is supposed to be, personal and intimate---not political. Thus, until the advent of the of the new radical Christian influence, I'd certainly never heard The Rapture spoken about in the context of a Texan being selected by God to prepare its way.

Now however, this apocalyptic belief, yearning really, drives an American Christian polity in the service of a grave and unnerving agenda. The psuedo-scriptural has become an apocalyptic game plan for earthly political action: To wit, the messiah can only return to earth after an apocalypse in Israel called Armageddon, which the fundamentalists are promoting with all their power so that The Rapture can take place. The first requirement was establishment of the state of Israel. Done. The next is Israel's occupation of the Middle East as a return of its "Biblical lands," which in the radical Christian scheme of things, means more wars. These Christian conservatives believe peace cannot ever lead to The Rapture, and indeed impedes the 1,000 year Reign of Christ. So anyone promoting peace is an enemy, a tool of Satan, hence the fundamentalist support for any and all wars Middle Eastern, in which their own kids die a death often viewed by Christian parents as a holy martyrdom of its own kind. "He (or she) died protecting this country's Christian values." One hears it over and over from parents of those killed. The final scenario of the Rapture has the "saved" Christians settling onto a cloud after the long float upward, from whence they watch a Rambo Jesus wipe out the remnants of the human race. Then in a mop-up operation by God, the Jews are also annihilated, excepting a few who convert to Christianity. The Messiah returns to earth. End of story. Incidentally, the Muslim version, I was surprised to learn recently, is almost exactly the same, but with Muslims doing the cloud-sitting.

If we are lucky as a nation, this period in American history will be remembered as just another very dark time we managed to get through. Otherwise, one shudders to think of the logical outcome. No wonder the left is depressed. Meanwhile, our best thinkers on the left ask us to consider our perpetual U.S. imperial war as a fascist, military/corporate war, and indeed it is that too. But tens of millions of hardworking, earnest American Christians see it as far more than that. They see a war against all that is un-Biblical, the goal of which is complete world conquest, or put in Christian terminology, "dominion." They will have no less than the "inevitable victory God has promised his new chosen people," according to the Recon masters of the covert kingdom. Screw the Jews, they blew their chance. If perpetual war is what it will take, then let it be perpetual. After all, perpetual war is exactly what the Bible promised. Like it or not, this is the reality (or prevailing unreality) with which we are faced. The 2004 elections, regardless of outcome, will not change that. Nor will it necessarily bring ever-tolerant liberals to openly acknowledge what is truly happening in this country, the thing that has been building for a long, long time---a holy war, a covert Christian jihad for control of America and the entire world. Millions of Americans are under the spell of an extraordinarily dangerous mass psychosis.

Pardon me, but religious tolerance be damned. Somebody had to say it.

Joe Bageant is a senior editor at the Primedia History Group and writes from Winchester, Virginia. He may be contacted at
bageantjb@netscape.net

_______

About author Joe Bageant is the author of a forthcoming book, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War, from Random House Crown about working class America, scheduled for spring 2007 release. A complete archive of his online work, along with the thoughts of many working Americans on the subject of class may be found at: http://www.joebageant.com. Feel free to contact him at: joebageant@joebageant.com. Copyright © 2006 by Joe Bageant.

Fascism anyone?

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/14_Characteristics_Fascism.html

It is ironic that the same people beating the drums about "Islamofascism" are the same ones instituting it here in the "homeland."

Monday, September 25, 2006

Mel Gibson in Texas, criticizes Iraq war

For Americans Killed in Iraq: A Period, Not a Comma

Army explores issue of living wills as more return from war in comas



Bush dismisses bloodshed in Iraq as just a comma

I think he meant to say "coma." And that's as opposed to his condition of being "brain dead." Coma victims still have a chance of regaining normal function.

U.S. Army extends Iraq duty for 4,000



I no longer feel sorry for these chumps. "They volunteered for it" as the saying goes. My motto which has served me well is "Never volunteer for ANYTHING!"

NO WIN

The President's Mouth

U.S. to relax air travel restrictions



My take on this: the phony terror alert did not have the desired effect in the polls. Also, the price of gas is being manipulated downward so rapidly to try to give "cover" to stealing the elections again that many travelers were saying "to hell with the airlines" and driving.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Living Colour - Cult of Personality



I feel so sorry for this black artist. He doesn't know how to rap. He has to sing the song just like a white guy.

Just kidding. Living Colour rocks!

There's only one juxtaposition I don't get. Stalin and Gandhi? What the hell did Gandhi ever do wrong?

I watched it again. I think I get it now. He also juxtaposes Mussolini and Kennedy. So he is saying, whether good, bad or indifferent, no one should get caught up with a particular leader. I agree. That's why I left the Southern Baptists. They adopted Bush as the fourth member of the newly-renamed Quadrinity.

VIDEO: Clinton Sets The Record Straight On Terrorism, Smacks Down Fox News

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/24/clinton-video/

This is entertaining and all, but misses the main point. Bin Laden works for Al CIAda. This is a "snipe hunt" as we used to say in Boy Scouts.

Dr. James Dobson

I was just reading the article below and noticed his reference to "pantywaist" comments.

What does that mean exactly? Is he saying that people who wear panties are not as forceful or articulate as they should be? What would one have to do with the other?

How about "pantyhose"? Can people in Dobson's world wear pantyhose and still comment appropriately?

Falwell Says Faithful Fear Clinton More Than Devil

The evangelical leader tells a conference that the New York senator will mobilize his base like no one else if she runs for president.
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer
September 24, 2006

WASHINGTON — Nothing will motivate conservative evangelical Christians to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election more than a Democratic nominee named Hillary Rodham Clinton — not even a run by the devil himself.

That was the sentiment expressed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the longtime evangelical icon and founder of the once-powerful Moral Majority, during private remarks Friday to church pastors and activists as part of the Values Voter Summit hosted this weekend by the country's leading Christian conservatives.

"I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate," Falwell said, according to the recording. "She has $300 million so far. But I hope she's the candidate. Because nothing will energize my [constituency] like Hillary Clinton."

Cheers and laughter filled the room as Falwell continued: "If Lucifer ran, he wouldn't."

At that moment in the recording, Falwell's voice is drowned out by hoots of approval. But two in attendance, including a Falwell staff member, confirmed that Falwell said that even Lucifer, the fallen angel synonymous with Satan in Christian theology, would not mobilize his followers as much as the New York senator and former first lady would.

One critic who has been observing the conference said Saturday that Falwell's words offered a rare glimpse into how religious conservative leaders were planning to inflame opposition to the Democrats with below-the-radar messages that are often more scorching than the ones showing up in public.

"He was calling Hillary Clinton a demonic figure and openly arguing that God is a Republican," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "It's hard to know whether people thought he was joking or serious, but once you start using religious imagery and invoking a politician in this way, it's not funny. A lot of people who listen to him do think that she's a dark force of evil in America."

Such controversy is nothing new for Falwell, who once described Islam's prophet Muhammad as a terrorist and said that abortion providers, feminists, gays and lesbians were to blame for the 9/11 attacks.

An aide to Falwell said Saturday that the Lucifer reference was an "off the cuff" comment and that Falwell "had no intentions of demonizing her."

Falwell's remarks about Clinton were part of a 40-minute address at a private breakfast that included assurances that God would preserve a Republican majority in Congress and that moderates such as former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani could not be allowed to win the GOP presidential nomination.

Falwell's estimation of Clinton's campaign war chest appeared to be hyperbole; she has raised about $47 million for her Senate account this cycle, according the Center for Responsive Politics. But she has raised millions more for other candidates, and many strategists believe that if she decides to run, Clinton will amass record-level contributions.

Falwell wasn't the only public figure to invoke Satan in reference to a political adversary last week. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez referred to President Bush as the devil before the United Nations General Assembly, speaking the day after Bush had stood at the same rostrum.

About two hours after Falwell's speech at the Values Voter Summit, James Dobson, founder of the influential group Focus on the Family, spoke publicly at the same conference. Dobson denounced what he said was a limp response by both political parties to Chavez's comment. Dobson, whose group was a sponsor of the weekend gathering, told the nearly 2,000 activists crammed into a hotel ballroom near downtown Washington that Chavez had "attacked our president viciously."

"And there has hardly been a statement of defense out of members of Congress about that," Dobson said. "There's been [only] a few pantywaist comments."

Neither Falwell nor Dobson responded to interview requests.

One conference official, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, said Saturday that he believed Falwell intended his comment to be a "humorous remark."

Asked if he was comfortable with the connotation, Perkins deferred questions to Falwell.

"I can only be responsible for what I say," Perkins said, adding that he disagreed with Falwell that a Clinton candidacy would be good for conservatives. "I think it would be a little too risky. Anything could happen, and that's just one step closer to her actually being elected."

Falwell's remarks about Clinton were not the only indication this weekend that the evangelical movement was focused on the senator from New York.

One meeting on the agenda featured three analysts from the conservative Heritage Foundation for a discussion of health policy titled "The Future of Health Care: HillaryCare or Values-Driven Health Care?" The title was referring to Clinton's 1993 efforts to draft a national health plan that conservatives continue to deride as a form of big-government socialism.

But Falwell's speech captured the spirit of much of the weekend, which was devoted to revving up the GOP base for November and beyond, and included appearances from several prospective Republican presidential candidates — Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sens. George Allen of Virginia and Sam Brownback of Kansas.

At the breakfast, Falwell made it clear that he thought the 2008 nominee must be a true conservative.

"It can't be a Giuliani and it cannot be a [New York Gov. George E.] Pataki," he said. "It cannot be a pro-choice. It cannot be a person on the wrong side of the social issues. We've got to have somebody worth fighting for because we will be energized if Hillary is the standard-bearer."

Falwell predicted that this year's midterm elections would go in the GOP's favor, despite polls showing Democrats in position to make gains.

"I think we're going to keep the House and the Senate," he said. "I think the Lord will take care of that."


peter.wallsten@latimes.com

"Attendees also were assured during the prayer breakfast that God would preserve a Republican majority in Congress."

God is a computer hacker?

Kathleen Parker: Girls, going wild is not a victory for feminism

To most adults, the name Joe Francis probably doesn't mean much. But to their teen- and college-age daughters, it means fun and fame. Sorta.

Mr. Francis is the voyeur-provocateur who has turned a frat boy's fantasy into a multimillion-dollar bonanza with his Girls Gone Wild videos. He and his camera crews scour the haunts of the young and silly – from Spring Break to Mardi Gras – and cajole usually very drunk girls into baring their breasts. And other parts.

Sex sells, you may have heard. But wherever there's sex, booze and videotape, there's bound to be trouble – and Mr. Francis has plenty of it. He recently pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the sexual exploitation of minors, for which he will pay $2.1 million in fines.

Somehow, I don't think this is what our feminist foremothers had in mind when they set about to liberate women from the patriarchy. Nothing much has changed when women are reduced to sex objects in exchange for T-shirts and trinkets, while men walk away with the cash.

Boys smart, girls dumb. Way to go, gals.

Girls Gone Wild has sparked lots of debate through the years about the appropriateness of men preying on drunken "women" of barely legal age. One argument goes that the women are responsible for their decision to get drunk and strip. The other goes that their drunkenness negates their consent.

The urge to say that these people all deserve each other – and good riddance – is hard to suppress. But what really gives here? Why are these people behaving this way?

Mr. Francis was in many ways inevitable. If you stuffed a computer with data extracted from the zeitgeist – equal parts celebrity, narcissism, reality TV, porn, moral relativity – the computer would spit out "Joe Francis."

Equally predictable, perhaps, were exhibitionist young women who have been marinated in a celebrity culture and seasoned with raunch. When asked why they do Joe's bidding, many say they want to be famous. They want to be "known." But known for what?

Doesn't matter. Paris Hilton has perfected the genre of being famous for being famous.

Meanwhile, the message to girls the past 20 years or so has been that they can be and do anything they please. Being a stripper or a porn star is just another option among many. In some feminist circles, porn is seen as the ultimate feminist expression – profiting from men's desire, rather than merely being objectified by it.

Girls going wild, nevertheless, has created a feminist conundrum. If men are profiting from women demeaning themselves, are the women still in charge?

This is not the first generation to awaken with a hangover and a "Say it ain't so." But it is the first to awaken with video footage of the night before – and for all time. For this and future generations, there's no such thing as a memory hole for youthful transgression.

It is worth remembering, meantime, that no matter how sophisticated our technology, human nature remains essentially unchanged. Girls may go wild of their own accord, but boys will still think of them as fools.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel.


Her e-mail address is kparker@parker.com.

My comments:

I'd estimate that close to 25 percent of people from, say, the ages of 18 to 40 or so are probably pictured on the Internet by now in a compromising position, whether they know it or not. The younger a human is (especially females), the more the exhibitionist tendencies come out, especially if alcohol is involved. In defense of Paris Hilton, she DID NOT KNOW she was being videoed, which is why I say MANY thousands of (mostly) women are unaware that they are on the web.

West, Saudi Arabia unable to confirm bin Laden death



Emmanuel "al-Goldstein" of Al CIAda is NOT DEAD. Quit saying that! We will tell you when it's all right to call him dead. Right now we still need him as a bogeyman. That will be true until further notice, at least until about the year 2030.

I am not of the "West," whatever that means. I am "East" (Texan) and I can tell you it is fairly likely this so-called "estranged" member of a Saudi Arabian family with close personal and business ties to the Bush Crime Family died more than four years ago of kidney failure.

Fox News Sunday, Interview With President Bill Clinton

http://thinkprogress.org/clinton-interview

Turtle Woman's Auto Writing

Monday, 4:00 AM
September 20, 2006

Go now. The time to journey is upon you. Those who need to change locations need to do it now. The Vanguard feels there is no place to go and thus will remain where they are. In Truth, they are right, for they are where they need to be to assist others who journey and are displaced.

As the times and energy keep notching up, many have simply given up, no longer able to bear the load of this transition. It is like having been in labor for 30 years. Lord deliver us from this burden.

Danger draws very near and those of dark intent try to keep everyone off balance. It will take a world wide shake up to bring those most determined to stay set in their ways to wake up to their higher senses.

Boom, shake, radiate! There is no place to go, yet many must move. Caused by both the Mother and man. Boom, shake, radiate. Many must move. What a fraud will be committed. Not who you think. Not who you are told. Look deep to find the Truth. It's manipulation through fear for selfish ends and possible gains for the few of lesser light.

What is wrong? What is wrong? Anger, frustration, holding one's breath for another big shoe to drop. It's a very big shoe indeed. Was it like this when we were children? No. Life is now lived waiting for the news of the next great tragedy. This is a success of the dark ones to keep the masses in a state of anxiety and fear. Don't buy into it. Free yourself from this nasty play they have written. Stand up, for the real power lies within each of you, not the few who have usurped false power. The greedy dark few can rule over the many only if you let them.

Many can't bear any more bad news, yet they have the horrific planned. Many cracking up and can no longer maintain in the daily barrage of so much tragedy from so many quarters. It's only started and the plans are much worse. Take back control of the play and put it on a higher playing field. You have the power to change many of those in power in a couple of months. Don't wring your hands... act on all levels and through all avenues available to you, physical and metaphysical. So many cracking up and more to come. Can't bear the load. Heavy, heavy load. Make it Light and make it light by turning it over to Creator. Let Creator take control over that which burdens you.

Many don't know who they are any more. Do you know who you are? You are a Light Being of the Creator. You are a Golden Light Bearer of Christ Light. White light does not carry the Power of Christ. Blue Light carries the Power of Peace. White light carries everything, including all those of dark intent. Know this for the Truth it is from Creator and do not buy into the white light misinformation which leaves the door open to deception and dark empowerment.

A load of sorrow, disaster, perversion, destruction. Life will become bleak with it. No. No. It has all gone so insane. So many simply stuck in the mire of it. It has become pointless to many. How did it come to this? Weren't we on the right track? What happened? No point. No point. So close and now so far away. A coup by the dark ones. Why not a coup by the Light ones in return? It's our turn. Turn on the Light! The real Light! The Christ Light! It's GOLDEN!

Do not let the turn of events to come deter you. Mass suffering on an even bigger scale. Oh Lord, Mercy! One more big horror. Shall we break from it? No. How much pain and suffering can we witness before we break from it? As much as it takes to before the stubborn ones finally wake up or perish. How much cruelty must we bear witness to? As much as it takes before we say "Enough!" and stand ourselves in our full radiant glory at the same time [see Light Grid Activation, which is still not complete].

Hope is so thin. Sorrow is so deep. Hollowness is inside. Can't bear any more. Joy has been promised... it is so long coming. Where is the deliverance? Where is the relief? Deaf and dumb leaders refuse to listen. Deaf and dumb leaders refuse to see. Murder, murder. Kill it all. Everything. Earth, people, animals, plants, air, water. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid men. No value. Greed. Hate. Evil. Selfish, clueless, stupid men. So many suffer at the decisions of so few. Beauty, life, love is being strangled to death because of the evil actions of the power-monger few. How long must all suffer for the greed of the few. Justice.

Nothing left to give. Dry inside. Freaky weather as the Mother can't cope with all her destruction. Soon starvation. Many forced to move and no place to go. Evil men. Harm us all. Shock! Shock! Oh! Oh! Many see with hindsight. No good. Too late. Evil men with evil agenda's. Wither the life of all they touch. False men, false leaders of hard hearts and big greed. Smug and arrogant. Something good has died. Lost is the value of decency. All tainted in mire. Stuck in the wallow of filth. Many screaming. Lost souls. Desperate cries from so many from so many quarters. Given up hope. So many in great need. There is nothing outside of ourselves. The Titanic is sinking and all of mankind is on board.

Another major disaster and our hearts break from it. No more! No more! We shatter from it into tiny little pieces which are scattered asunder by the four winds. The load is too great. Break! Break! A planet of the criminally insane. Darkness so great it's all around. It makes the candle feeble and almost snuffs out the Light. The Light in danger of being extinguished on this level completely. Tribe of the 12 x 12 stand up Now!

Lord have Mercy! Creator send Grace! Help! Help! Come now! Come now! We ask for Divine Intervention, according to Free Will and for the Highest Good! Golden Christ Light heal and make whole again. Open the door for positive change for the betterment of all on all levels of existence, in every aspect, in all ways, NOW! here, now, and forever more. . . and we thank you God Now!

Blessings.

All My Relations in Love and Light,
Turtle Woman, Oma

Copyright material 2006. Do not change, add, or delete in any way, manner or form.

The advantage of being a Turtle Woman is that she can now go back into her shell.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Note to warmongering reptilian Republichristians

A friend's plight spurs 5-year-old to start her own produce-growing business

Friday, September 22, 2006

The March to War: Iran Preparing for US Air Attacks

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=N20060921&articleId=3299

The Job

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1148409368

I did NOT have sex"shoe"al relations with that woman!

Thanks to Chavez, sales of Chomsky book jump

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-chomsky22sep22%2C0%2C6827400.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

Ex-Halliburton Worker Calls for Probe

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=AP&Date=20060922&ID=6046646

Former Halliburton CEO "Darth" Cheney can provide you with a probe. He's reportedly a very kinky guy.

US businesses ranked by employee size:

TOP SIX EMPLOYERS

1. Manpower, Inc--2,027,100
2. Wal-Mart--1,700,000
3. Printing and Communications Media, Inc.--757,149
4. Kelly Services, Inc.--708,400
5. Labor Ready, Inc.--602,900
6. McDonald's Corp.--438,000

Source: Dun & Bradstreet Business Rankings, 2006.

Poison Ivy
Not so much palaces of learning as bastions of privilege and hypocrisy



"Texas A&M has got rid of legacy preferences."

I found this line hilariously funny for some reason.

My eyebrows


An anonymous blog commentator asked last night if I "do" my eyebrows. No, my eyebrows are as God bestowed them upon me. Here they are when I was not quite 16 years old. They haven't changed much over the years.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

The Reverend Freak

http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-09-21/news/feature.html

¡Ask a Mexican!

http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-09-21/news/askamexican.html

I am so proud of myself for having figured out how to make the "upside down exclamation point."

This man has no cartilage in his knees



Shouldn't this guy be on Medicare by now? He looks as if he escaped from a nursing home.

According to the story, he is only 42 years old. Yikes!

Billionaire Scion Tom Friedman

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=C0EB620B-E0C3-F084-DFE28A740D37E6E2

Good point



The Chimperor is bad, but the Dickster is the Dark Side of the Force.

Into Pyramid’s Shadow: At War with Ourselves

Can we exorcise our evolutionary demons and make extinct our linear dominance hierarchical pyramid, or are we condemned to live divided, stratified and segregated by class and caste? In our answers to these and many other questions lies our destiny, as well as the future of our children. To them we will bequeath either the ruins of a failed society, or the blueprints of a new civilization.

My money's on "ruins of a failed society." Human tragedy is constant throughout history. If we knew of and had to feel ourselves all the tragedy occurring at this moment to our fellow human beings, it would be too much for each of us individually to bear. This planet, for whatever reason, is eternally benighted. Short of making this a religious discussion, the 'good news' is that even the most long-lived among us will be here only for a relatively brief time.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Become Republican

http://www.thefrown.com/frowners/becomerepublican.swf

President Hugo Chavez' address to UN General Assembly

Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.

Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet.

The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," "I will just leave it as a recommendation.

It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.

The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." "And it smells of sulfur still today.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.

An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe."

As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.

The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything.

They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons.

What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy.

What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?

The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, "Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom."

Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.

The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up.

I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations.

Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.

The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace."

That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.

But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.

It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?

He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire. How cynical can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut with millimetric precision?

This is crossfire? He's thinking of a western, when people would shoot from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire.

This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal, the empire and Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what happened. And now we hear, "We're suffering because we see homes destroyed.'

The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples -- to the peoples of the world. He came to say -- I brought some documents with me, because this morning I was reading some statements, and I see that he talked to the people of Afghanistan, the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran. And he addressed all these peoples directly.

And you can wonder, just as the president of the United States addresses those peoples of the world, what would those peoples of the world tell him if they were given the floor? What would they have to say?

And I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the oppressed people think. They would say, "Yankee imperialist, go home." I think that is what those people would say if they were given the microphone and if they could speak with one voice to the American imperialists.

And that is why, Madam President, my colleagues, my friends, last year we came here to this same hall as we have been doing for the past eight years, and we said something that has now been confirmed -- fully, fully confirmed.

I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches, like Abel's yesterday, or President Mullah's . Yes, it's good for that.

And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.

But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.

Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss it.

The first is expansion, and Mullah talked about this yesterday right here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given access as new permanent members. That's step one.

Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.

Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.

Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.

Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.

Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic pretensions.

Madam, Venezuela a few years ago decided to wage this battle within the United Nations by recognizing the United Nations, as members of it that we are, and lending it our voice, our thinking.

Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet.

This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.

Let's see. Well, there's been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council.

The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.

And I would like to thank all the countries that have kindly announced their support for Venezuela, even though the ballot is a secret one and there's no need to announce things.

But since the imperium has attacked, openly, they strengthened the convictions of many countries. And their support strengthens us.

Mercosur, as a bloc, has expressed its support, our brothers in Mercosur. Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a full member of Mercosur.

And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab League has voiced its support. And I am immensely grateful to the Arab world, to our Arab brothers, our Caribbean brothers, the African Union. Almost all of Africa has expressed its support for Venezuela and countries such as Russia or China and many others.

I thank you all warmly on behalf of Venezuela, on behalf of our people, and on behalf of the truth, because Venezuela, with a seat on the Security Council, will be expressing not only Venezuela's thoughts, but it will also be the voice of all the peoples of the world, and we will defend dignity and truth.

Over and above all of this, Madam President, I think there are reasons to be optimistic. A poet would have said "helplessly optimistic," because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning.

As Silvio Rodriguez says, the era is giving birth to a heart. There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?

What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.

We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.

Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.

President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier.

And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.

And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner.

And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.

And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to.

And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace.

Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.

But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.

We mentioned Cuba. Yes, we were just there a few days ago. We just came from there happily.

And there you see another era born. The Summit of the 15, the Summit of the Nonaligned, adopted a historic resolution. This is the outcome document. Don't worry, I'm not going to read it.

But you have a whole set of resolutions here that were adopted after open debate in a transparent matter -- more than 50 heads of state. Havana was the capital of the south for a few weeks, and we have now launched, once again, the group of the nonaligned with new momentum.

And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions, my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.

And as you know, Fidel Castro is the president of the nonaligned for the next three years, and we can trust him to lead the charge very efficiently.

Unfortunately they thought, "Oh, Fidel was going to die." But they're going to be disappointed because he didn't. And he's not only alive, he's back in his green fatigues, and he's now presiding the nonaligned.

So, my dear colleagues, Madam President, a new, strong movement has been born, a movement of the south. We are men and women of the south.

With this document, with these ideas, with these criticisms, I'm now closing my file. I'm taking the book with me. And, don't forget, I'm recommending it very warmly and very humbly to all of you.

We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations.

And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.

You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.

May God bless us all. Good day to you.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC is either so stupid or so deliberately obtuse (more likely that he has just suggested that Chavez was accusing Bush of flatulence with the "sulfur" references. And here all this time I thought the Roman Catholic Church believed in the existence of hell and drummed the concept into its parishioners from an early age. You can't make stuff like this up!


But people do make up similar stuff such as this hilarious piece from the Landover Baptist Church.

Dobbs: Voting machines put U.S. democracy at risk

Dog Water, Tastes Like Chicken
Premium, meat-flavored bottled water for pets:
silly trifle, or hot sign of the apocalypse?


Bottled water, "doggy-style"

'Bush Is The Devil'



Hugo! You're stealing my lines. I demand a royalty payment or at least some shares in CITGO.

"Earth to Bo ... Earth to Bo ... come in, Bo"



The chickens are coming home to roost ... right on top of your fiberglass head. That ain't rain, Bo. That's chicken$h!t. Now we know why you wear the silly hat.

Here's an even spookier one I found that I took while driving through "Bo country" at night in 2002:



As Karen Carpenter used to sing before she refused to eat that ham sandwich Mama Cass choked to death on, "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft"

Never forget


what the Israel 'Defense Farce' did on its 'summer vacation' in Lebanon.

Kinky on 'The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch'



Kinky gives Jewboys a bad name.

Bush Legacy

Scientists shocked as Arctic polar route emerges

Positive Quote of the Day:

What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?

--Adam Smith (1723-1790)


Today I can say I am three-for-three, thanks be to God. As the Old Milwaukee commercial used to say, "It doesn't get any better than this!"

Had that really been true, I might have been saved from an alcoholic youth. What fermented crap OM is. I think even maggots have been known to gag on it.

Truths For Living

The more generous we are, the more joyous we become.
The more cooperative we are, the more valuable we become.
The more enthusiastic we are, the more productive we become.
The more serving we are, the more prosperous we become.
The more outgoing we are, the more helpful we become.
The more curious we are, the more creative we become.
The more patient we are, the more understanding we become.
The more persistent we are, the more successful we become.

~ William Arthur Ward, U.S. college administrator, 1921-1994

JFK "doodled" the numbers "9-11" and the word "conspiracy"

President Kennedy, known for separating his life into compartments, would enclose words and numbers inside circles and boxes. Events long after his death give one doodle an unintended chill: A small circle with the numbers "9-11" contained within. Just to the lower left on the page, the word "conspiracy" is underlined.

You can't make up stuff like this. Until now, JFK had more been known for whom he "diddled" rather than what he "doodled."

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Bush Thinks You’re Stupid: Streets of Baghdad Edition

http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1447#more-1447

Jesus Camp : Kids Worshipping to a George Bush Picture



Pastor Becky Fischer, I started to say, is a "few fries short of a Happy Meal" to think this is casting her "movement" in a positive light.

However, I think in actuality, all the fast-food restaurants in North Dakota are OUT of fries because she has wolfed down every last one of them.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Inside the Oval Office

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=12696&R=EDF62A8E8

Bush gives a "heads up" near the end. "Interesting" that gas prices are coming down. What he doesn't tell you is that this is the convenient explanation the talking heads will give for why the public suddenly changed their minds by the millions. In reality, it will have been another classic stolen "black box voting" election.

Weird Al - "White and Nerdy"

Scorpio



I am extremely upset at being called an extremist!

Police stop Willie Nelson's tour bus on I-10, find marijuana and mushrooms

http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060918/NEWS03/60918007

Free Willie! Oh wait. They didn't lock him up to begin with. Never mind.

Lowered Oil and Gas Prices: Stage Three of the Bush October Surprise

The current lower prices represent a service from the NIME merchants and brokers to the Bush administration in return for the huge wealth they have accumulated during the Bush terms in office.

I think this is a plausible theory. However, I think it is being done more to give "cover" to the theft of the November election by touchscreens and central tabulators whose operation is controlled by private proprietary software owned by GOP-linked companies.

There is NO WAY this gang of corporate criminals will ever leave office short of a revolution. The last honest federal election was in 1998. Maybe. It might even have been before that. But I think that one WAS honest because the GOP was predicted to make huge gains because of the "blue dress" and instead lost a few seats.

What if they gave a War?

We must set aside the petty differences that keep us apart and seek common ground to defeat our common enemy--corporate Plutocracy.

The Plutocrats are going to be harder to defeat than ever now that their planet has been demoted to an asteroid.

The title of this piece reminds me of another line like this:
"What if they gave an orgy and nobody came?"

Forgive me. It's Monday.