Headlines - Monday

 

 

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Mike Huckabee granted clemency to the suspect in quadruple cop killer case in Washington state. 

 

Lest you forget, he has a history of clemency gone wrong. Remember this previous Huckabee clemency? 

Huckabee basically helped secure the guy's release because the convict had raped a distant relative of Bill Clinton - and being a distant relative of Bill Clinton, the right-wing attack machine said the woman who was raped wasn't credible (even though the guy was convicted), and they demanded that the rapist be set free because, after all, he only raped a Clinton. Well, it seems that Governor Huckabee agreed. He set the rapist free, and then the guy molested and murdered another woman. But even better? Huckabee now denies that he had anything to do with the release of the rapist/murderer. Funny, then why did Huckabee meet with the parole board on behalf of the rapist/murderer?

More on the cop killer story. 

 

Republicans haven't campaigned on "law and order" for a long time. It's hard to do that when you are the party of Jack Abramoff and trumped-up wars. But I can see where, if one is safely ensconced in wingnut talk television, that it might be preferable to having to explain to those people who in 1988 responded to the Willie Horton ads just why TWO people you released from prison went on to commit more heinous crimes.

 

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The convergence of new and old media has some problems. Perhaps mixing a live "Tweet" and a static billboard is a bad idea?

 

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AFP:

 

Tiny magnetic discs just a millionth of a metre in diameter could be used to used to kill cancer cells, according to a study published on Sunday.

Laboratory tests found the so-called "nanodiscs", around 60 billionths of a metre thick, could be used to disrupt the membranes of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct.

The discs are made from an iron-nickel alloy, which move when subjected to a magnetic field, damaging the cancer cells, the report published in Nature Materials said

 

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Not news:

 

Donald Rumsfeld blamed for failing to kill cornered Osama bin Laden

 

Osama bin Laden was cornered and within reach of US troops in the Afghanistan mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001 when America's military leaders made the costly decision not to attack the terror leader with the massive force at their disposal, according to a US Senate report: 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6936645.ece

 

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The Family Behind Gay Genocide

 

Can we call them Nazis now?

The politically connected conservative religious group in Washington, DC, known as "The Family" made infamous in the United States recently by the sex scandal of one of its members, Senator Ensign, seemed creepy but also essentially harmless. Sort of a Religious Right version of The Addams Family. Good for a laugh, even if that laugh was a nervous one.

Well, today, I'm no longer willing to consider The Family, it's members and its agenda as quite so harmless, because it appears to be the driving force behind laws meant to execute homosexuals in Uganda:

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/11/30/74438/975

 

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Pie charts usually add up to 100, unless they're Fox pie charts.

 

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Oh the fiscal hypocrisy!

WASHINGTON - A day before he is scheduled to announce a new strategy in Afghanistan, President Obama is under increasing pressure to explain how his administration intends to pay the rising costs of military operations in Afghanistan, which average about $3.6 billion per month.

Both Republicans and Democrats pressed the issue yesterday, previewing the political minefield that Obama will face when he addresses the nation from West Point tomorrow. Key Republicans said they intend to support him on his expected plan to send more troops, but called on him to curb domestic spending on items they oppose.

You didn't see any of those "key Republicans" uttering a peep between 2000 and 2009 about the cost of the wars or fretting about how to pay for either the wars or the costs of caring for wounded veterans for the next 90 years. Nope, they were silent as church mice as George W. Bush became the first president to wholly fund two wars on the national credit cards. No special war taxes or excise taxes or even war bond drives. No calls to conserve resources, none of that "share the cost" shit from ol' Chimpy, it was "go shopping and have a good time, America, for the end of Days is coming anyway, so who cares about that long-term deficit shit."

But now, oh, see the GOP wail about the cost and how "it must be paid for" by cutting social services in the middle of a severe recession. The health care debate is not going to get put aside, as Sen. Lugar wants. Putting aside the health care debate means killing it, and that is what the Senators from the Health Insurance Industry party of Hoover want to do. 

 

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Much to their credit, the NYTimes has run an article on the social safety net, specifically foodstamps, and some shocking things are revealed:

• 1 in 4 kids are being fed on some sort of assistance program — that's 25% for the math challenged.
• 1 in 8 adults are being fed by some sort of assistance program, and like tracking unemployment, that works out to be 12.5% of all Americans
• And of course, the interactive map shows that the Red States are the highest percentage of beneficiaries of these programs (ironically while their GOP representatives continue to work to dismantle the programs…)
• The Heritage Foundation thinks that giving starving people food is incentive for them to remain, unmarried and unproductive and on the dole. Good Xristians, them.
• And most shocking of all are the comments on the article, which fall pretty consistently into the social Darwinism category of, "let them starve." (At least as of this writing…)

The selfishness and pride of people who would deny help to those who need it, never cease to astonish me. 

The good news is that 

not everyone's doing poorly. In fact, the Masters of the Universe are back to their old free-spending ways, thanks to the massive government bailout funded by our tax dollars:

Conspicuous consumption is making a comeback on Wall Street. But no one wants to admit they're doing it.As traders and investment bankers near the finish line of what looks like a boom year for pay, some are spending money like the financial crisis never happened. From $15,000-a-week Caribbean getaways to art auctions to $200,000 platinum wristwatches that automatically adjust for leap years, signs of the good life are returning.

"What we're seeing in the last four to eight weeks is a fairly substantial uptick" in demand for extravagant purchases as Wall Street employees grow more confident that the market's steep rebound so far in 2009 will soon bring them fat bonuses, says David Arnold, senior vice president at Robb Report, a magazine targeted at the super-wealthy.

Isn't that heartwarming? We can be glad that someone's doing well, even if it's at our expense!

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…except that Hunter Thompson was a real writer, who wrote about real issues with real style. You write about hair extensions and tell us you are a bad ass because you once had a rub-on tattoo and your booze-heiress mom once went to a Harley-Davidson biker rally with other Malcolm Forbes marketing department-types.

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UK Iraq war inquiry: Blair was told Iraq war was illegal, decided on war in 2002: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/29/iraq-war-inquiry-blair/

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4,367 soldiers killed in Iraq, 928 in Afghanistan.

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The Pope has a solution to Catholicism's most pressing problems: bring back the Latin Mass.

40 years of the new Mass have brought chaos and banality into the most visible and outward sign of the church. Benedict XVI wants a return to order and meaning. So, it seems, does the next generation of Catholics.

And in other news, an Indonesian government minister is blaming the people's immorality for the disasters that have struck Indonesia.

More order, meaning, morality and obedience. It sounds like the solution to all mankind's problems.

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Consumer Reports' latest test of fresh, whole broilers bought in 22 states reveals that two-thirds of birds tested harbored salmonella and/or campylobacter, the leading bacterial causes of food-borne disease. The report reveals that organic "air-chilled" broilers were among the cleanest and that Perdue was found to be the cleanest of the brand-name chicken. Tyson and Foster Farms chickens were found to be the most contaminated. The report is available, free online (note, you have to click through the side bars to the left of the story) and in the January 2010 issue of the magazine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-starkman/two-thirds-of-chicken-tes_b_373515.html

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Even though a Bush-era request to conduct blanket searches of computer files was rebuked by judges, the Obama administration is now pushing to have the decision reversed, according to court documents filed the week of Thanksgiving. http://rawstory.com/2009/11/obama-reversal-computer-privacy-ruling/

Headlines - Sunday

Dear God, she's stupid. The woman on this video is exactly a Canadian comedienne in her conservative character costume. Shes from a show that ABC says is the Canadian equivalent of Jon Stewart. (You'll recall that the previous time the Canadians pretended they were French President Sarkozy phoning Palin during the campaign.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4DEuRMigtc&feature=player_embedded

 

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It was true 13 years ago

 

Lawrence Krauss wrote an opinion piece 13 years ago that contained this quote:

[T]he increasingly blatant nature of the nonsense uttered with impunity in public discourse is chilling. Our democratic society is imperiled as much by this as any other single threat, regardless of whether the origins of the nonsense are religious fanaticism, simple ignorance or personal gain.

It is even more true today. We have recently finished eight years of a presidency in which the chief executive was a religious fanatic who was a scientific know-nothing and whom took great pride in his ignorance. His political party may very well choose, as its candidate in 2012, a woman who, in comparison to George W. Bush, makes him look like a Carnegie-Mellon physicist.

When it comes to religion, people are entitled to believe whatever the hell they want, no argument. What they are not entitled to is their own facts. They are not entitled to cloak their religious beliefs with the the law. They are not entitled to ram their religious ideology down the throats of others.

When they use their ideology as the basis for policy decisions, then they endanger us all. I have very little doubt that George Bush's famed indifference to the fate of the planet had much to do with his apparent religious belief that the end of days is very near. We wasted almost a decade of effort to mitigate climate change because that ignorant bag of spooge was putrefying in the Oval Office. Thanks to the delays foisted upon us by Bush's ignorance (and Cheney's greed), the effort will be harder and more costly.

Palin seems to be cut of the same cloth, a despoiler of the world because she thinks it will end soon.

 

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Somehow, the anti-science crowd in the US can't recognize that there is a problem. Ignorance is bliss for the teabaggers.

University of Manitoba researcher David Barber said experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding, but the thick, multiyear frozen sheets have been replaced by thin ice that cannot support the weight of a polar bear.

"Polar bears are being restricted to a small fringe of where this multiyear sea ice is. As we went further and further north, we saw less and less polar bears because this ice wasn't even strong enough for the polar bears to stand on," said Barber, who returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea in September.

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From conservative economist Greg Mankiw:

Put simply, the healthcare reform bill would make the United States more like western Europe. That may mean more security about healthcare, but it also means that future generations of Americans will likely spend more time enjoying leisure.

Yeah, wouldn't want that to happen.

 

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Digby on the banksters:

... The idea that in a country of 300 million people the only ones who are qualified to run these big failed and nearly failed banks and insurance companies are the same people who screwed them up is a sad comment on the state of American capitalism ...

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I guess he's just one of those right-wing revolutionaries so beloved by Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck

 

Via David Neiwert, just another good old American Glenn Beckian patriot:

Following a pipe bomb explosion Monday night, police and federal law enforcement officials are trying to figure why a Center Avenue man turned his apartment into a bomb factory.

Police said no charges have been filed against Mark Campano, 56. Police found 30 completed pipe bombs in his apartment along with components to make more, plus 17 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Campano is in an Akron hospital with injuries received when one of the bombs exploded.

As police and federal authorities puzzle over Campano's past and what he planned to do with the bombs, a former neighbor said Campano often railed against the government.

Barbara Vachon lived next door to Campano at the Center Park Place Apartments for several years and said he was a big reason she moved.

"He was always trying to get me and another neighbor to listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos," said Vachon. "I would never watch them. He was some kind of radical, and he didn't believe in the government."

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The Dinner Crashers: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/11/dinner-crashers.html

 

D R I F T G L A S S sees a great parallel between this incident (and the outrage) vs. years of an univited intruder at Chimpy's Whitehouse and the absolute stoney silence.

 

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At least he wasn't yelling "Allahu Akbar"

 

For if he was, you'd have heard a lot more about this creep who was building pipe bombs in Ohio.

A former neighbor said Campano had a stream of creepy visitors to his apartment and often railed against the government.

So, let's recap what we've learned: Anti-government Wingnut builds pipe bombs and the national reaction is "meh." But oh, if he had been a Muslim, care to bet how many hours of coverage Fox News would be dedicating to it?

 

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Plunderers of the poor

 

Remind me, please, why it was so necessary to bail out AIG at 100 cents on the dollar and to allow them to hand out huge-ass bonuses to the crews of those financial pirates. I am not really seeing a reason as to why we shouldn't have instituted a financial version of the Terror:

Middlesboro and Clinton are two tiny, impoverished towns in southern Kentucky with a combined population of 12,000. In 2008, Middlesboro's per capita income was $13,189 a year, only a few hundred dollars more than the average worker earned in third-world Mexico. That is if they were lucky to even get a job. Real unemployment hovers somewhere around 30%, and the state is so broke that half the people eligible for unemployment benefits can't receive them. Life may be tough and most people live in poverty, but that doesn't mean they can't be made a little poorer. That's the lesson locals learned after bailed-out insurance villain AIG took over their water utility and instantly raised rates to squeeze an extra $1 million in profits out of its new customers, forcing some to consider choosing between running water and food.

I know, "capitalism" and "free market" and so on. But there is no such thing as a free market in the supply of water and sewage services. Those utilities around the nation (and, for that matter, our roads) were built by public companies with public money. To now allow a bunch of vampiric pirates, such as AIG, to fatten themselves on the bones of those least able to pay is beyond immoral.

 

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More from the people who think they are the moral authority

 

Damning, indeed.

LONDON — The Roman Catholic Church and the police in Ireland systematically colluded in covering up decades of child sex abuse by priests in Dublin, according to a scathing report released Thursday.

The cover-ups spanned the tenures of four Dublin archbishops and continued through to the mid-1990s and beyond, even after the church was beginning to admit to its failings and had professed that it was confronting abuse by its priests.

But rather than helping the victims, the church was concerned only with "the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets," said the 700-page report, prepared by a group appointed by the Irish government and called the Commission of Investigation Into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.

In a statement, the current archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, acknowledged the "revolting story" of abuses that the report detailed, saying, "No words of apology will ever be sufficient." He added, "The report highlights devastating failings of the past."

"Of the past," my ass. It went on for decades and the reach back may only be ended because the victims of the far past are all dead. It only became "of the past" because the scandal finally broke in this country and it slowly became unfashionable around most of the Western world to continue to cover up for those saintly kiddie rapers.

And yet, these same frock-wearing child-rapers and their high-ranking protectors think that they have the moral authority to pass judgment on people, to deny the validity of their existences and to devalue their relationships?

Bullshit.

 

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Some months back when the bad-haired GOP sex-lizard and notorious Appalachian trail hiking, amateur castanet playing Lothario, South Carolina Governor Mark "Kiss Me South of the Border" Sanford was caught coming back from a tryst in Argentina with his Firecracker lady and soulmate, one of the notable props of the GOP was missing: the stand-by-your-man Wife.

Not Jenny Sanford. She was not going to be anyone's victim.

And so today the NYTimes published what is in essence her new brand: she has trademarked her name, she has a website, her book is due out in 2010, she has a press tour planned; she is rumored to be running for office, and of course, she has endorsed a GOP candidate to replace her skeeze of a husband, who is now battling ethics charges and a possible impeachment.

Mrs. Sanford, we salute you and wish you well on the next leg of your journey, and I hope that other women who have been wronged look to your example of how to bounce back. You are indeed a class act.

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Everything about the woman is fake

Therefore, it is proven that her big "bus roadshow" is just a fake. Sarah Palin is in fact being carried around with her family on a luxury plane.

Also, on Wednesday, Sarah Palin excitedly announced on Twitter that she was going to be running a 5K Turkey Trot charity race in Washington state on Thanksgiving day. Large crowds of people turned out to catch Palin at the race, hoping to get the chance to meet the former Alaska governor. Palin, however, quit the race early to avoid many of her fans:

Palin had announced on Twitter that she would be running the 5k race organized by the Benton-Franklin Chapter of the Red Cross.

She didn't finish the race, opting to leave the course early to avoid more crowds at the end. About 40 minutes into the run, word started trickling out to people gathered at the finish line that she was gone.

Wonkette also points out that Palin said she wasn't going to be making a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving because it was "too much work."

Todd Palin says he's quit having sex with his wife. "I was always in it for the long run, but she started quitting way before we reached the finish line."

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In recent days, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has indicated that she may be open to a conservative presidential dream ticket in 2012: Palin-Beck (or Beck-Palin). "I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I'm not there yet," Palin told Newsmax. "But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He's a hoot." Fox and Friends plugged the idea yesterday morning and asked Palin whether she would run with Beck. She kept the door open, saying, "I don't know. We'll see, we'll see."

But just a few hours later on his radio show, Beck shot down the idea, saying he was "absolutely" ruling out a Palin-Beck ticket. He explained that if he had the number two job, Palin would always be "yapping" like they were in "the kitchen":

BECK: I don't think things are hoots. I don't. I don't think it's a hoot. I would never use the word hoot, and I respectfully ask that every time my name is brought up she would stop using the word "hoot." [...]

No, no I'm just saying — Beck-Palin, I'll consider. But Palin-Beck — can you imagine, can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She'd be yapping or something, and I'd say, "I'm sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I'm not in the kitchen."

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Dubai is about to default on 60-odd billion dollars in debt, whoops. Asian and European markets are collapsing, and the U.S. markets might be doing the same thing today. So much for "Do Buy." Bloomberg 

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November 28, 2009 - Passing the 500 Milestone

Yesterday, as I posted my most recent blog entry, I passed a milestone. It was my 500th blog entry.

It’s hard to believe. In the 4 years or so since I’ve been writing this blog, chronicling my experience as a cancer survivor, I’ve somehow found that much to say.

Early on, the blog was all about giving a blow-by-blow account of my medical treatments. Later, as I went into, then out of, remission, then entered the extended period of watchful waiting I’m presently in, I’ve had less to share about my medical condition. That’s a good thing, because no news is good news. I’ve naturally moved over into commenting on some other topics I now look on differently because I’m a cancer survivor – particularly the healthcare-funding debate in this country, and general survivorship issues.

I’d like to thank you, my readers, for hanging in there with me through all this. I plan to continue posting here as long as folks are finding the blog helpful to their own life journeys. Please do use the “Comments” feature to let me know what you’re thinking about my postings. I’m still getting 50-60 visitors a day, so I figure I must still be addressing some real needs.

Grace and peace and life abundant to all.

Carl

November 27, 2009 - Thanksgiving Flu

“Flu-like symp- toms.” That’s what I’ve got – as is only appro- priate, since what I’ve got does, in fact, seem to be the flu.

I was down and out all day yesterday, Thanksgiving Day. We had a houseful of friends and relatives, but I remained sequestered upstairs, in our bedroom, tracing with my shuffling feet a well-beaten path to the bathroom.

I’d thought I might don a breathing mask and venture downstairs briefly to greet our guests (the mask would have been for their protection, not mine). I didn’t feel up to even that.

“Flu-like symptoms” is how doctors often describe the side-effects of chemotherapy. I realize, now, how apropos that is. The queasiness, the weakness, the muscle aches – it’s all come back to me. It’s like I was right in the middle of chemo again (except for the hair loss, of course, and the metallic taste in the back of my mouth).

Since concluding my chemo in May of 2006, I’ve been pretty healthy. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid the flu for quite a number of years. This year, I got an H1N1 vaccination (the lymphoma qualifies me for the high-risk group), but I procrastinated on getting the seasonal flu vaccination. By the time I got serious about it, the vaccine was no longer available. Maybe what I’ve got now is the seasonal flu, or maybe it’s H1N1 despite the vaccination, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s the flu, and that’s all I need to know.

I suppose that, in describing chemo side-effects as similar to flu symptoms, the doctors are trying to put patients at ease. Most everyone’s had the flu at one time or another, and most everyone gets over it. I’d quite forgotten, though, how nasty the flu can be.

I’m on about Day 3 at the moment, so I’m sure I’ll be feeling better in another couple days. It’s been a little blast from the past, taking me back to my chemo days, and that’s just a little unnerving.

This, too, shall pass.

WDI Sister Program in Slovenia off to Strong Start

Over 80 debaters, teachers and trainers from 25 countries (Singapore, Afghanistan, USA, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Italy, Finland, Serbia, France, Croatia, Germany, Thailand, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Venezuela, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Scotland, Hong Kong, Moldova, Montenegro, England, Wales and perhaps more) are having quite a time in Ormoz, Slovenia at the Seventh International Debate Academy Slovenia, a week long intensive training program that concludes with a tournament in Ljubljana.

Each day has a lecture, that is followed by exercises for everyone, divided into beginner, intermediate and advanced groups. Lectures for the advanced cover basic areas for debating, such as International Relations (Anne Valkering), Ecology (Alfred Snider), Economics (Rhydian Morgan), Law and Justice (Chris Langone) and Principle and Philosophy (Stephen Boyle). For intermediate and beginners, there is a more mundane sequence: public speaking, proposition strategy, opposition strategy, second team strategy and points of information.


Each day there are a series of electives in the afternoon that students can choose from.
Sunday:

• Style, Chris Langone
• Note taking, Alfred Snider
• Argument building, Gavin Illsley
• 13 Minutes Prep, Loke Wing Fatt
• Motion Analysis, Jens Fischer
• Debating Secessionist Movements, Maja Nenadovic
• Whip Speeches, Isa Loewe
• Basic Reasoning, Chris Langone
• How to NOT Get Last When you Don't Know Shit, Anne Valkering
• 12 Ways to Refute an Argument, Jens Fischer

Monday:

• Making Your Arguments More Important, Alfred Snider
• Persuasion Techniques, Chris Langone
• Debating Humanitarian Intervention, Isa Loewe
• Making GOOD Slippery Slope Arguments, Gavin Illsley
• Fundraising, Anne Valkering
• Rules of the WUDC Format, Loke Wing Fatt
• Preparation for Tournaments, Bojana Skrt
• Debating Turkey & the EU, Stephen Boyle
• Better Team Work, Maja Nenadovic
• Principles of International Law, Jens Fischer

Tuesday:

• Democratization, Maja Nenadovic
• Debating Law, Chris Langone
• Opposition One, Gavin Illsley
• Policy, Value & Analysis Motions, Anne Valkering
• Tabulating Competions & Using Tab Software, Jens Fischer
• International Criminal Court, Isa Loewe
• If English is NOT Your First Language, Bojana Skrt
• Debating Ecology, Alfred Snider
• Governments & Economics, Stephen Boyle

There have been some teacher and trainer sessions:

• Organizing a Debate Team, Bojana Skrt
• Training and Coaching, Loke Wing Fatt & Bojana Skrt
• Tournament Hosting and Organizing, Anne Valkering

There have been two public debates:

Student-Faculty Demonstration Debate, Saturday Night

• Faculty: Loke Wing Fatt & Gavin Illsley, Isa Loewe & Anne Valkering
• Students: Anna England Kerr & Crt Podlogar, Filip Dobranic & Maja Cimerman
• Motion: This House supports mandatory vaccinations.
• Critics: Jens Fischer & Chris Langone

World Schools Demonstration Debate, Monday Night

• Proposition: Slovenia National Team
• Opposition: Romanian National Team
• Motion: This House would deny the right to strike to workers in essential area.
• Critic: Gavin Illsley

Practice debate motions will move from easier to more difficult, prep time starts at 30 minutes and will be cut down to 15. Here are the motions for Sunday & Monday.

• This House would not negotiate with pirates.
• This House would not eat meat
• This House would pay a wage to stay at home parents
• Thisd House would legalize soft drugs.

We have had two awesome parties that lasted late into the night and had music, dancing and much frivolity.

• Sunday night - country exhibition
• Monday night - kitsch party (strange clothing, cross-dressing, unusual make up)

Our Faculty includes:

• Stephen Boyle, Ireland, Irish Times Champion, twice breaking at WUDC, now University of Vermont
• Loke Wing Fatt, Singapore, SAID, the debating monk
• Jens Fischer, Germany, President European Debating Council
• Gavin Illsley, Scotland, communication consultant
  
• Chris Langone, USA, lawyer & Cornell University
• Isa Loewe, Germany/France, European ESL Champion
• Rhydian Morgan, Wales, Stylus Communications
• Maja Nenadovic, Hungary, University of Amsterdam
• Bojana Skrt, Slovenia, ZIP
• Thepparith Senamngern, Thailand, WUDC Convener Bangkok 2008
  
• Alfred Snider, USA, University of Vermont, World Debate Institute
• Anne Valkering, Netherlands, WUDC ESL Champion 2008, Bonaparte University

At the end of the week we will be moving to Ljubljana, where a dozen or so more teams will join us for a tournament at the Faculty of Public Administration.

More news coming in a day or so.

I miss blogging sooooo much!

I was really hoping we would have the money for the expensive internet dish by now so that I could return to the world of blogging. I have so much to talk about and no place to vent...um...er...I mean post LOL!

In a lot of ways I love NOT having the internet, it makes life really slow, calm, and I don't get ouchy strained red eyes anymore from too much screen time but I soooooo miss my friends and blogging. I don't know how much longer I can stand it.

Okay, current thoughts.....

-Read "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith and feel revolutionized!

-I really am BIG. I swear it must be twins. Why do I get so huge? LOL I would love to have the baby NOW but I also think it would be awesome to go on the 13th, St. Lucia day, or the 6th, St. Nicholas day.

-I took a spiritual break for a few months, growing a baby is a spiritual stadium concert just in and of itself, and now I'm back attending the Episcopal church. It's not perfect but it's what I can live with and I love the people. Why are there no Mormon Pagans near me? Why aren't there more in general? LOL

-In homeschool we are LOVING the Rowan series by Emily Rodda. HIGHLY reccomended!

I miss blogging sooooo much!

I was really hoping we would have the money for the expensive internet dish by now so that I could return to the world of blogging. I have so much to talk about and no place to vent...um...er...I mean post LOL!

In a lot of ways I love NOT having the internet, it makes life really slow, calm, and I don't get ouchy strained red eyes anymore from too much screen time but I soooooo miss my friends and blogging. I don't know how much longer I can stand it.

Okay, current thoughts.....

-Read "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith and feel revolutionized!

-I really am BIG. I swear it must be twins. Why do I get so huge? LOL I would love to have the baby NOW but I also think it would be awesome to go on the 13th, St. Lucia day, or the 6th, St. Nicholas day.

-I took a spiritual break for a few months, growing a baby is a spiritual stadium concert just in and of itself, and now I'm back attending the Episcopal church. It's not perfect but it's what I can live with and I love the people. Why are there no Mormon Pagans near me? Why aren't there more in general? LOL

-In homeschool we are LOVING the Rowan series by Emily Rodda. HIGHLY reccomended!

Headlines - Sunday

I'm gone for a week. Have a great Thanksgiving!

 

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Iraq election commission: January vote 'impossible': http://news.antiwar.com/2009/11/20/iraq-election-commission-january-vote-impossible/ 

 

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Shouldn't the owner (the US government) do something about this?

For Citibank credit card holders, there is one way to escape the bank's rate hikes currently under way: Meet a monthly spending requirement.

Those who meet the spending minimum — in some cases $750 a month — will be able to get a rebate on their total financing charges for that month. The rebate could cover some or all of the interest rate hike. Customers also need to make payments on time to qualify for the rebate

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The Christian Taliban issue their manifesto

Yes, the evangelicals and the Catholics have decided to put aside their differences in order to form a better union to persecute their common enemy: gays, women who have sex, and those who don't want Christianity shoved in their faces at every turn. And they have issued their manifesto for taking over this land from the heathen who they feel have usurped its rightful role as Jesustan.

Tristero has more. I'm too revolted to even comment.

 

 

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Senate votes to allow itself to discuss health care for several more months!

 

First in a series of inevitable victories, or the dems' last hurrah? "On a perfectly partisan, 60-39 vote, the Senate agreed last night to debate and amend a far-reaching health care bill. That debate will get started in earnest after Congress returns from next week's Thanksgiving recess. Democrats and Republicans expect to offer hundreds of amendments (each of which will be held to a 60 vote threshold) and debate for several weeks before holding yet another procedural supermajority vote--to end debate. If that gets 60 votes, then there will be an up-or-down vote on passage of the bill. If the bill passes it will likely undergo yet more changes in conference with House negotiators. The "conference report" that emerges from that process can't be amended, but can be filibustered in the Senate, so will likely require 60 votes for passage. Only after both chambers have passed the conference report can the bill be sent to President Obama for a signature."

 

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Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu finally called their own bluff and announced at the last minute that they would, controversially, vote to allow the Senate to debate a piece of legislation it has spent most of this year crafting, to help provide affordable medical care to people. What heroes. Their procedural votes for their own party's major bill cost the nation hundreds of millions of dollars in pork handouts. That's how Serious About The Deficits they are.

It sure will be funny when they strip out the public option and Republicans still call this a "government takeover of health care" and Blanche Lincoln still loses and everyone still dies:

"Let me be perfectly clear," Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said on the floor of the Senate. "I am opposed to a new government administered health care plan as a part of comprehensive health insurance reform, and I will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by Leader Reid as it is written…. I've already alerted the Leader and I'm promising my colleagues that I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration as long as a government-run public option is included."

Maybe they can get that Cao guy to vote for it again, in the Senate.

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A proposed government-run health insurance program, among the most divisive issues in the health care debate, would cover less than 1.5% of the population, new estimates show.

 

 

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Twelve creative bathtubs.

 

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The latest from the 20-percenters.

Anyone who believes that this woman [Palin] could not perform the duties of President adequately must have some kind of mental illness, which is likely liberalism.

Turns out there's a whole lotta crazy liburls in this country.

Fewer than three in 10 Americans think Sarah Palin's qualified to be president, according to a new national poll - the least of any of the five potential candidates included in the survey.

They make this so easy.

 

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The KKK gathered at Ole Miss today to protest the University chancellor's decision to remove "From Dixie with Love" from the school band's song list. The song had drawn controversy because some fans chanted "the South will rise again" when it was played at Ole Miss football games.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/21/kkk-rally-at-ole-miss-kla_n_366475.html

 

Colorado Railroad Musuem

Images shot with K-x and a FA77mm Limited lens. ISO 200. I shot in RAW and used CS4 to convert to jpegs for posting here on Blogger. Double click on thumbnails to see a larger image.