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America, your president is about to launch World War III
by The Canadian
| June 28, 2007 |
When the Roman Empire was collapsing, the Emperor decided to avert the Mobs' attention by holding a year's worth of fantastic games and slaughters in the Coliseum. Meanwhile the Barbarians were on the border. ... MORE ...
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The Canadian
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Technical question
by Sherri B.
| June 28, 2007 |
I'm not a techie but you've got bumper stickers and lots of people have MySpace. Is there some way to drop the picture into photobucket, get the code, and charge for it so they can put it on their MySpace? I don't know what the profit is but you can say get the sticker for 2 bucks and have it NOW. Then somehow mail them the code and hope they are honest and don't share without permission
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I don't even understand the question, that's how out of touch I am with whatever's new and exciting. What's a photobucket? Does MySpace offer some kind of sticker-making system now?
I appreciate the thought, but it sounds like something that takes time to learn or use, and we're out of time.
I'm not very proprietary, and the ideas expressed are much more important to me than three bucks for selling a sticker. So if anyone wants to copy our bumper stickers and run off ten or 10,000 copies, have at it, and we won't be asking for royalties or anything.
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It hurts our precious little egos
Ever wonder why fear-mongering seems to work so well
at the polls -- while appeals to reason often leave the electorate cold?| |
Excerpt: Westen's thesis is simple. "A dispassionate mind that makes decisions by weighing the evidence and reasoning to the most valid conclusions bears no relation to how the mind and brain actually work.
"That's true when it comes to choosing a significant other, buying a car, and choosing a president. Madison Avenue has known this for decades. Democrats haven't. Instead, their strategists start from an 18th-century vision of the mind as dispassionate, making decisions by rationally weighing evidence and balancing pros and cons. That assumption is a recipe for high-minded campaigning - and, often, electoral failure. But by recognizing the strides that neuroscience, psychology and, in particular, the science of decision making have made in recent years, Westen argues, politicians can tap into "the emotional brain" that guides most political decisions. |
This is why it is generally a bad idea to make any decision based on emotions. I try very hard not to. If I'm in a situation where I am having a very strong emotional reaction, I defray any decision until I have had a chance to meditate on it and do some research.
Humans are very lazy mentally and emotionally. We do not like doing the work necessary to make informed choices and we do not like the discomfort of finding out that our preconceived notions are totally wrong. It hurts our precious little egos.
We also do not like having to make choices that are inconvenient. So we spend nearly all out time reacting to life, rather than taking appropriate actions.
This may make us "feel good" in the short haul, but generally screws us up in the long run.
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Spot on, Chris. I try to never make decisions while I'm angry, and whenever I break that rule I regret it almost instantly.
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I must admit that this approach can have it's down sides, however. How many people would get married, for instance, if they looked at it from a purely pragmatic view?
* * *
Russia lays claim to the North Pole - and all its gas, oil, and diamonds| |
Excerpt: Russian leader Vladimir Putin has made an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic, giving himself claim to its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth. His audacious argument that an underwater Russian ridge is linked to the North Pole is likely to lead to an international outcry.
Comment: Is this really any more outrageous than Bush's edict that America controls all of outer space? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Hmmm, let's see. They want a frozen wasteland and America wants a stinking desert. That makes sense ... not.
Another booga booga!
by Kathy Fisher
| June 28, 2007 |
3000 lbs of Potasium Nitrate found at a house in Staten Island. And all
the speculations are being made. This guy was probably going to make
home fireworks. I was hoping he was planning on making bullets for a
revolution but no such luck Nevertheless Homeland Security is bragging
and touting how they save NY City from being blown to high hell!
* * *
These so called Libertarians make me puke with some of their views.
The case for open borders
by Hogeye Bill, Strike the Root
What is Ron Paul's stance on the Amnesty Immigration bill?
Rhetorical question, asked loudly
by Felicita L.
| June 28, 2007 |
Re I want to let the whole stinking world know that I HATE BUSH AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
DO YA THINK PHILLIPE'S ANGRY?
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Felicita L.
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Good news at last
Leaning Tower of Pisa is saved from collapse
At least there is something to cheer about. I take it Bush wasn't involved which proves the world can move without his involvement.
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Wig
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Easy one
Re What's the diff?Is there any fundamental difference between the CIA and the Mafia?
That's an easy one. You don't have to be Italian to work at the CIA.
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SirJ
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Quietly, without media scrutiny
Crossings used to bring aid into Gaza closed due to terror alerts| |
Excerpt: The reason for the closure are attempts by militants to carry out attacks against the facilities at the crossing, including shootings and mortar attacks. Israel said it hoped goods could be transferred via other crossings. |
And so quietly, without media scrutiny, Israel has closed a crossing used for humanitarian aid to Gaza. We are all supposed to believe that Hamas is doing whatever it can to starve its own people... and all
the other lies Israel dishes out..... "Warnings of terror alerts" -- the operative words
that give governments all the rights they want these days, no explanation needed... Israel
closed one crossing on this totally p.c. basis, and if all remains quiet on the media front,
will soon close the other. The media? Hey, "don't ask, don't tell"... When was the last
time any reporter or network said "we aren't allowed in, we report what we're told"?
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E13
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Rented risks
by The Alchemist
| June 27, 2007 |
Hmmm...I did not get to read all the article, just the first page as I was
not going to "register" to read the rest, but I feel obliged to throw my two
cents in.
As a former professional truck driver (btw, REAL truck drivers do not refer
to themselves as "professionals") I can tell you that rule one is: YOU are
responsible for making sure that your vehicle is safe to operate. Not the
company, not the mechanics, not the manufacturer, but YOU.
Most Americans are terrible drivers. They give no more thought to driving
than they do to watching TV. They think nothing of barreling down the
highway in several tons of steel and glass, inches away from others, talking
on the phone, putting on makeup, reading a book (I've seen it), having sex,
whatever...
My advice is, do not tow if you can avoid it. Rent a straight truck. If you
must tow with a rented trailer, SLOW DOWN!!!. The best way to slow down on
a grade is to NOT LET THE VEHICLE GET UP TO SPEED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Now, maybe that trailer was defective, maybe not. I know that it could have
been in perfect working order and still been in a wreck if driven
improperly. Having seen way too many "accidents" in my time, there is no
way I would get on the highway with an unfamiliar vehicle/trailer without
giving it a test drive to see how it behaves under various conditions.
Perhaps U-Haul's greatest sin lies not with the equipment, but with its
marketing which implies that just anyone can just hop behind the wheel and
merrily tow away...
Bottom line people: Its YOUR ass -- take care of it.
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Very well-said and absolutely agreed. The driver is responsible for what he or she is driving, goes without saying and without dispute.
But it's always seemed to me that U-Haul should at least offer if not require a ten-minute ride-along lesson. Or if that's too much to ask of corporate capitalists, how about a little booklet -- eight pages would be enough -- left on the driver's seat, covering the most basic of the basics?
It's the stupidest part of the truck-rental experience. You walk in, flash some ID and sign some papers, and they hand keys to a truck to someone who's perhaps never driven anything bigger than a subcompact. As if someone who's been sunbathing on a rubber raft is automatically qualified to pilot a freighter. And a lot of Saturday sailors think it's the same thing ...
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Helen & Harry
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Psychotic dwarfs
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| June 27, 2007 |
Just a note to encourage readers to go see Sicko in the first two
days that it opens in your area. A high turnout will encourage
further distribution of this film and perhaps accelerate much needed
change in our health care system. Unfortunately, here in Missoula,
MT, Sicko will not be opening anywhere on the official release date.
So hopefully some people will go in my place in their home towns and
vote with their feet as I can not.
* * *
The Supreme Court has become the Supreme Cabal.
* * *
The Supreme Court of Ring Wraiths: Gosh! Tolkien was writing about today's USA. The Supremes are total
nazgul types, Ring Wraiths that surrendered their humanity for access
to power.
* * *
Face it. Our so called "leaders" are mere hand puppets animated by global organized crime.
* * *
I contend that anyone reading this exquisite series about Robert
Gates, and/or the books by John Perkins, who continues to
believe that the US is the actual "evil empire" is either mentally
retarded or soul dead. The good news is that, since depravity and
incompetence are demonstrably inseparable, this latest version of
evil empire is on the verge of self destruction. Choose to believe
that real humans will be able to pick up the pieces and make a better
world.
* * *
Re Taking up my mantra
Thanks for asking. Preschool is working out! At his last two
preschools he punched out some teachers. This school is remarkably
capable at handling preschoolers, who I have heard described as
"psychotic dwarfs," as a term of affection, of course.
Thor's main
problem, as first succinctly identified by the nurse at Head Start
here in Missoula, is that he is 4 going on 20. The speculation is
that he spent so much time socializing with 15-25 year old males
hanging out at his mothers various abodes that he is socialized to
the behaviors of that group, the testosterone crazed. He is quite
sweet most of the time.
Currently he is having me read "The Voyage
of the Basset," which is a beautifully illustrated take off on the
voyage of the Beagle, with a professor of mythical beasts standing in
for Darwin. The vocabulary is intimidating but he doesn't seem to
mind. If we were neighbors I would bring him around, probably to the
Laundromats because he loves laundromats.
My contention is that
little people are the glue that holds society together. You don't
have to birth them to be open to their moderating influence on
"adult" behavior. Adults do not raise children, children raise
adults, as any open minded person can observe.
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I like that outlook a lot: "Adults do not raise children, children raise adults." Kids are delightful in small doses, and I suspect I'd love your grandson Thor -- I've always liked an adolescent sense of humor, and never really outgrew my own.
But we're childless by choice. The idea of being responsible for morphing a helpless infant into a responsible adult sounds daunting and looks like a hell of a lot of work we'd rather not do. I don't know how anybody does a decent job of it, and my observation is that most parents don't.
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That is an important and little understood aspect of parenting in the US. It is indeed impossible to do a decent job of it. It is axiomatic in fact. Bruno Bettelhiem wrote one of those books that is worth the title even without reading the book called "The Good Enough Parent."
Our insanely competitive and materialistic society finds many parents, particularly amongst the financially fortunate, working hard at being perfect parents and screwing up their children to the max in the process. Children actually need real people, acting from real emotions and impulses, upon which to model themselves. They don't need some ideological crap from Redbook or Focus on the Family. All they really need is love, and increasingly they are not getting it, being provided instead with tokens and substitutions derived from mass marketing and class envy.
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That makes mountains of sense, and it's a perfect fit for several dysfunctional families I've known and been part of. Whenever you talk about kids, Doc, lots of uncommon good sense gets compressed into very few words.
And thanks for not telling me how much I'm missing by not having kids. It's always amazing to me, how many people know better than me about whether I should have kids.
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Helen & Harry
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Poodle poop and window smudges
by Cassandra
| June 27, 2007 |
The first headline I saw this am was Bush denying that Blair is his 'poodle'.
It's probably just me [and people like you] but whenever I see that anyone in this administration has said anything I take it to meant the opposite. If they told me that right now the sky is blue with sunshine and fluffy little white clouds I'd check the windows for paint.
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Cassandra
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Doomed but not down
by UselessEater
| June 27, 2007 |
I'd like to have this fellow's aplomb, the savoir faire but I think I'm at heart a whiner and moaner.
I picture myself brain-damaged, incontinent and bitching incoherently at hallucinations.
Death Row inmate wants a joke to be his final statement
Humanity's maker
Re GI Joe Bush Jr.
Sure, let humanity's maker judge him, but let us take note of the fundamental differences... I agree with Charles as well, beware and keep climbing towards the truth... too many signs to disregard, so simply seek to understand them, and follow your mind-heart (intuition).
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Skye D.
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What's the diff?
CIA & Mafia worked together to try to kill Fidel Castro| |
Excerpt: It was certainly a marriage of convenience. After Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled a friendly government in 1959, the CIA was desperate to eliminate him. So the agency sought out a partner equally worried about Castro -- the Mafia, which had lucrative investments in Cuban casinos.
The plot, described in detail in CIA documents released yesterday, involved six poison pills, a bungled wiretapping and CIA operatives working with two mob bosses on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. |
Is there any fundamental difference between the CIA and the Mafia?
Giving hope
They’re killing us slowly from the inside out! One of the things that helps me feel better is when I can buy locally grown organic food -- what gives y’all Hope?
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One of the few things that gives me hope is hearing from people who give hope, really and sincerely.
Organic food is a pretty small subset of what we eat, because it's usually (and inexplicably) more expensive than pesticide-soaked food, but we do pretty good with locally-grown veggies, available at nearby once-weekly farmers' markets.
We're also members of Share Wisconsin, a low-priced local food buying co-op that offers a once-monthly package of pre-selected groceries at a somewhat lower price than grocery-stores. Not a bad deal, and there are similar groups in other areas, but you have to look around a little.
And we're big fans of free entertainment -- concerts by generally unknown bands who make their money selling CDs we can't afford to buy, or college screenings of old movies for free...
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Helen & Harry
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Republicans coming to their senses?
by JR Mooneyham
| June 27, 2007 |
Here experts echo my own opinion about sending signals to unknown parties in the galaxy. Namely, it could be dangerous.
Meet the neighbors: Is the search for aliens such a good idea?
* * *
A GOP plan to oust Cheney [and strengthen their 2008 GOP presidential candidate of choice]... LINK
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Nah, this is horse manure. Republican posturing, that's all, and I'll wager you know it.
Republicans are liars, and this is no less a lie than the annual reports that Bush is seriously considering closing Guantanamo, or the Republicans who were eager to scold Alberto Gonzales in public, but wouldn't even vote for a lily-livered non-binding "no confidence" resolution.
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Helen & Harry
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Breast Picture
by CactusPat
| June 27, 2007 |
Jeez, hope no one in the US press gets any bright ideas like this one...
Mother's milk for the Kaczynskis
Because you helped
Getting up-close look, treatment in Baqouba | |
Excerpt: "The boys looked at a reporter, pleadingly. It was evident that there was no way they would be able to get the bag of rice to the other side of the street. The reporter walked over and picked up one end and motioned for them to grab the other; they hefted it over to the curb on the other side of the street. An Iraqi sergeant sitting on a Humvee, called out, ?Hey mistah!? and gave a thumbs-up.
Back on the other side, an interpreter named Ed said, "There is a saying, 'God will build you a paradise in Heaven.'"
"What do you mean?" the reporter asked.
"Because you helped," he said. |
Ahhh, imbedded journalists. Tempted to LOL but the propaganda is too sad.
* * *
'Korea model' Iraq may be sign of permanent US deployment in Kurd areas| |
Excerpt: Recent remarks by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush that Washington favors a long-term military commitment to Iraq in the sense of the "Korea model" may signal a willingness to keep a permanent force in the war-torn country's Kurdish-controlled north which borders Turkey. And if that happens, such a U.S. deployment will be very much favored by Iraqi Kurdish leaders, who see a permanent American military presence and bases in their region as a deterrent against what they view as "Turkish threats." |
Does anyone know what the Hell is really the scheme?
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I'm not sure I understand the question, as the answer seems rather obvious. America owns Iraq. Period. The chaos is good for the oil and war businesses, and that's all that matters to decision-makers, so chaos is all you can count on.
But c'mon, you knew that.
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Helen & Harry
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Confirmation bias
Re Not a NaziHumans, I think, have a natural tendency to believe any information that reinforces what
we already believe, and to dismiss information that challenges what we already believe. We
do try to avoid that pitfall, and people who don't make that effort end up believing tall
tales about the Rosicrucians who killed JFK ...
There is a term for the phenomenon you described. It is called "confirmation bias" and is a well established principle in psychology.
Thanks for your web page. I enjoy it.
All the best,
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Thanks for your kind words, and for the nudge -- I just spent ten minutes getting a quick Google-based briefing on the subject. It explains a lot about Republicans (she said, confirming her own bias) ... |
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Helen & Harry
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Overlords of Amerisrael
by Mr. Chuckles
| June 26, 2007 |
Re A real Ubermensch would nuke Panama
Taking out Panama would blow everyone's minds. Why not, then, also nuclear winter? Halt the warming, eliminate the pestilence of non-caucasians, and rearrange the land masses too? Oh boy, don't give Cheney any ideas!
Speaking of the Overlords of Amerisrael not protecting their vassals, 1/3 of Americans appear to believe in LIHOP (let it happen on purpose) 9/11.
And in other nooze, the AMA is now waging war on retail walk-in medical centers at places like Wal-Mart and Walgreen. They want laws! Who gives a fuck that massive over-regulation of healthcare is one reason why it is totally unaffordable. Another is spending 95% of healthcare moneys on the very old people who require long months of intensive care so that they can live on an extra few months -- with zero enjoyment of the added time...
We happily spend $1 million on a geezer who is going to die ANYWAY but might last another month or three, unhappily, in a semi-vegetative state... I mean, shit, c'mon... no wonder Kevorkian became the government's Public Enemy Number One, he was hurting the profits of Big Hospital!
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Mr. Chuckles
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Beware of Blair
Blair set to be named Mideast Envoy
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Excerpt: Several officials said Monday in Washington that discussions about naming the outgoing British prime minister to the post had been completed and the issue was on the agenda of the Quartet - the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations. |
Are they going to laugh him out of town?
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Presumably the Anti-Christ had other commitments. |
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Helen & Harry
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Logic, consistency, and syntax
by Cassandra
| June 26, 2007 |
Re George Bush is a Christian
I have to admit, I wondered from the logic, consistency, and syntax if
Paris Hilton had somehow started sending emails from jail under an
alias. Then I realized that the ranks of Bush believers don't really
need that vacuous spokesmodel to sound like Kim, and wished there were
too few to call them 'ranks'.
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Cassandra
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It's in Psalms, people
by Lamargo P.
| June 26, 2007 |
Re George Bush is not a Christian
I love it!! Just went thru a whole bunch of articles and will share this one with in regards to your illustrious president, Psalms 10:2. Priceless and I await seeing him get his!
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Lamargo P.
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More important?
U.S. warns of difficulty holding on to Iraq territory gains
Paris Hilton's prison release is more important??? Or newsworthy?????
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Wig
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Taking up my mantra
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| June 26, 2007 |
More common sense assessments are surfacing. This sounds just about right to me. Of course it ignores the role that mutual aid groups forming in the coming disaster will play in reformatting our economy from a globalized imperial predatory one to a much poorer but happier self sufficient one. People in the Localization (http:// www.cloudforest.org/Economic_Localization) movement are the vanguard of this.
Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler | |
Excerpt: I get lots of letters from people in various corners of the nation who are hysterically disturbed by the continuing spectacle of suburban development. But instead of joining in their hand-wringing, I reply by stating my serene conviction that we are at the end of the cycle -- and by that I mean the grand meta-cycle of the suburban project as a whole. It's over. Whatever you see out there now is pretty much what we're going to be stuck with. The remaining things under construction are the last twitchings of a dying organism.
It is not an accident that the housing bubble coincided with the phenomenon of Peak Oil. ... |
* * * Robert Parry just wrote a piece for consortiumnews.com called "Bush's Mafia whacks the Republic" that I liked very much. Of course I love hearing someone recognized taking up my mantra of the last few decades. To say that a criminal cabal has taken over the US and has its sights on the entire world is neither a over simplification nor a side issue. It is the issue who's recognition by the world's population will allow any possible escape from doom.
Bush's Mafia whacks the Republic
by Robert Parry, Consortium News| |
Excerpt: The bigger picture - the stark and grim image of what had transpired over the past half dozen years in the name of the American people - was that the United States could no longer claim to be a nation of laws and liberties. It had become a country governed by a criminal mob deploying an unsavory collection of capos, consiglieres and hit men. |
* * * Today's show on KPFA's "Against the Grain" was a barn burner. They interview Michael Lebowitz, author of the new book "Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century" on the topic "A Humanist Socialism" which explores Lebowitz's long association with political reform in Venezuela. There is another way and they are finding it there.
The show can be heard at the KPFA's archives at kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=20918.
Warning: KPFA is shutting down its internet broadcasting tomorrow, Tuesday, June 26th as a protest against the terroristic royalty rates that internet broadcasting will shortly be required to pay for playing music. Terroristic because they can only be understood as an attempt to crush internet broadcasting with astronomic, unpayable rates that will be enforced by ruinous legal challenges. So try it sometimes after that, but before internet broadcasting (the only kind of reasonable radio have access to here in Montana) is effectively shut down.
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The stupid royalty rule will help kill the recording industry, albeit a little slower than it's killing internet radio. Which reminds me, I haven't bought corporate-controlled music in years, and never will again.
The on-line broadcasts I listen to are all much, much more word-oriented than music-oriented, but I like the solution practiced by the fine Canadian public radio newscast "As It Happens." Where radio listeners hear music between the news items, for on-line listeners the sound simply goes silent for half a minute.
Sorry to be brief lately. Way behind on paying work ... |
It is a wonder that you accomplish so much.
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I work 40 hours a week at two laundromats, 20/20, but it's mostly after closing work so it's quiet and
low stress. Plus low-pay piecework writing for an on-line pub, leaves me about 40 hours a week to
work on our website, and ten minutes for lunch ...
How's the grandkid? |
I haul, you haul, we all haul for U-Haul
Driving with rented risks| |
Excerpt: Nearly four years ago, Sternberg was a high-spirited 19-year-old bound for veterinary school in Denver. She rented a U-Haul trailer to move her belongings, hitched it to her Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road with her two dogs and a friend.
That evening, as the Land Cruiser descended a hill in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, the trailer began to swing from side to side, pushing the SUV as if trying to muscle it off the road.
"I knew something bad was going to happen," recalled Corina Maya Hollander, who was taking a turn behind the wheel. "We both knew."
The Land Cruiser flipped and bounced along Interstate 25. The trailer broke free and careened off the road. Hollander crawled from the wreckage, her head throbbing. |
Not just trailers. I do not know how many of their trucks I or people I know have rented that were in really poor shape. Some even looking like they may fall apart any time. Do not rent anything from them.
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If you're moving from Point A to Point B and you've got no car, or more stuff than will fit in your car, you're probably going to have to rent a truck. We've moved to San Francisco, to Kansas City, and to Madison in rented U-Haul trucks, and had OK experiences. I'd recommend giving any rental vehicle a quick test drive after signing the papers but before loading it up -- take it around the block and preferably on the freeway for a mile or two, and if it doesn't handle right, take it right back.
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Helen & Harry
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He only wanted revenge
Re George Bush is a Christian
Kim, oh please Bush only claims to be Christian so that Christians will stand behind him...it is more of a political declaration than any declaration of faith. It is like the wolf putting on the sheep skin so the sheep will just stand there when he jumps out to bite them. He has divided this nation so badly and he cares nothing about the poor, he did not lead this country into seeking Justice at 911 he only wanted revenge which is not supposed to be Christian, and that lead to his own arrogant agenda and his greed for oil just crazy....that is not judging him, that is reading his actions loud and clear.
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J.S.B.
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Misleading or biased
by JR Mooneyham
| June 26, 2007 |
I consider the article title at least a bit misleading, or biased, compared to the actual content. Of course, maybe the editors haven't had time yet to revise the original piece to match the title. They do that sometimes.
Health care in Cuba more complicated than on SiCKO| |
Excerpt: Cuba looks after 11 million with the same budget and produces better health care in terms of life expectancy, infant mortality and vaccination rates than we do ...
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Cuba's NATIONAL health care budget is no bigger than the budget of Beaumont Hospital in Dublin! (according to the article) Cuba also has managed to take such good care of its people DESPITE U.S. sanctions that prevent it from getting certain medicines, thereby forcing Cuba to develop their own (and therefore unnecessarily ADD to their healthcare costs).
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Looks like debunkery is at least part of the intent here. I'll be surprised if we don't see several articles and commentaries in mainstream media telling us how wrong Michael Moore is, how much a mistake it would be to have Americans have easy access to health care like virtually every other civilized nation. |
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Helen & Harry
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A real Ubermensch would nuke Panama
by Siskiyousis
| June 26, 2007 |
Re Gaza evolving into Dosadi, Americans devolving into lumps
Very intriguing leaps.
Watching a documentary of the formation of the continents the other day, it occurred to me that a Real Ubermensch would nuke Panama and change the ocean currents back a few millions years and thus alter the warming climate we are beginning to experience.
Not that it matters now anyway, with the acceleration of the meltwater under the only remaining glaciated continent, also Greenland and Alaska.
But it might be an interesting experiment.
GI Joe Bush Jr.
by Charles Q.
| June 26, 2007 |
Re George Bush is a Christian
Kim: You've gotta be kidding. How is it possible for you to ACTUALLY KNOW whether that mentally deficient gasbag is really a Christian? Have you been either to Bush's ranch in Crawford or at the White House while GIJoeBushJr was in residence? Have you ever witnessed that hypocrite actually get down on his knees and pray to his supreme being? Have you ever seen him personally help anyone who needed a hand? Where was his avowed Christianity when he ignored the plight of Katrina victims? Where was his avowed Christianity when he intentionally withheld money from the Palestinians causing them die from lack of water and food? Where was his avowed Christianity when he authorized weapons shipments to Palestinian Fatah to be used against the Hamas? Where was his avowed Christianity at when he stuck his nose in the internal affairs foreign nations such as Lebanon and Syria et al? Where was his avowed Christianity when he lied to the public about the reasons for making war on Iraq and Afghanistan? Where was his Christianity at when he disregarded the Constitutional laws of this nation? How could an avowed Christian not know that Jesus wasn't a philosopher?
Care
A few days ago I watched a movie that explained the connection of wealth and poverty. I was aware that one does not exists with out the other but this was a hard look at those dynamics.
The wealthy are not the lone culprits. Whether we have lots or have little , we have some. We ALL need to share what we have for the betterment of the rest. A small amount from each individual will mount up.
Reading about movie stars, celebrities, sports personalities or players, politicians and corporate giants does not interest me much. What their weddings were like or their excessive drug uses and sexual escapades interests me even less. Living my life through other's has never felt like an option to me. Reality TV, dancing with the stars , American idol . All this empty watching as one person or another gets picked apart for their failings or encouraged because they did well. It's so childish. I am astonished people watch these programs. These and more like them are dumb-ing down America participants. When someone asks if I saw this show or that one I look like a deer caught in the headlights.
I look for the bits of news that tell us the stories of great and not so great people doing great acts for other's. These articles or programs are worthy of my time. Sometimes it is a celebrity using their position to accomplish great acts. Sometimes it's the Joe 'average guy donating a portion of his profits or time to a cause.
Many of us who don't drive $60k cars or live in elaborate expensive homes , we'd like to blame the wealthy for all the woes and poverty in this world . "They have so much money they could give a lot and make lots of changes ." said by a friend of mine. Although the statement is somewhat true it does not admonish us from contributing. We can not leave the worlds problems on the shoulders of the wealthy. It is a weight that must be carried and cared for by us all.
Give to your chosen cause...please.
Peace on this planet ~
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Gina Dee
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Christian equation
by Roseann D.
| June 26, 2007 |
Re George Bush is a Christian
George Bush and Cheney equals Anti-Christ-ian.
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Roseann D.
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Maybe
by Nicole P.
| June 26, 2007 |
Re George Bush is a Christian
Christian? He needs to learn humility. Then maybe I might consider him as such.
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Nicole P.
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Voting systems
by Kovacs D.
| June 26, 2007 |
Re Exit polling as intimidation
A lot of months ago we had a little argument. You told me that exit polls are mainly good because they make cheating harder. I told you they are mainly bad because they give twisted information (non-mainstream voters more tend to lie or stay silent).
We didn't agree but it doesn't seem to be a big problem. But that discussion came to my mind recently. I found that on Wikipedia there is abundant and interesting information about voting methods, and some people even made in which the mailing list is the most important thing.
One of the mailing list members is Warren D. Smith, a mathematician with his own list of works.
Most of the things I spoke about so far are about voting methods. This covers the question: how to decide by voting if there are more than 2 alternatives?
But some of Smith's works are on voting security. Among others papers number 80 is about voting with cryptography to possibly ensure the two seemingly contradicting aims: voter privacy (no one should know how Alice voted, even if Alice wants them to know) and verifiability (how can Alice verify that her vote was counted as she intended?)
It so mathematical it scares me to death. But paper number 99 does the same with mainly paper, not computers. In case you are too busy to read these couple of easy to read pages, I try to give you the essence:
In three ballot method, the voter makes three ballots. Two "yes" and one "no" votes make a "yes"; one "yes" and two "no" votes make a "no", other combinations are not allowed. All the ballots have an identification number, and the voter gets a copy (full with the identification number) of one of the three ballots; which one, it's her/his decision and secret.
The votes with their ID numbers are publicized, so anyone can count them. The voting authority cannot delete any of them, because they cannot know whether somebody holds its copy. At the same time, this copy is not enough to tell anyone, how the voter voted.
Vote-antivote is a similar method but makes possible other than simple yes/no votes. And twin is the simple idea of every voter getting a copy but not her/his own, but somebody else's ballot.
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I didn't think we disagreed, really, all those months ago. I saw your point, thought it was valid.
For today's topic I'd say heavy math makes my head hurt, but any system of voting needs security, and cheating is clearly a problem, so I wouldn't rule out any security system that seems easy to check but difficult to crack.
I don't want to spend too much time on the nitty-gritty of election security systems, as that's far from my expertise, but at least here in America, election fraud has always been a relatively minor problem until the advent of these bizarre, super-secret, proprietary software (meaning: un-auditable) systems.
I'm a fan of simplicity. The old-fashioned way, people with pencils counting ballots by hand, has a long record of working pretty well, especially when common sense safeguards are in place.
My understanding is that Canada counts ballots by hand, even in nationwide elections.
In America, the typical system for re-counting ballots in honest elections is to have a representative of the Democratic Party and a representative of the Republican Party -- and independent observers would be a good idea too -- right there in the room as the ballots are counted, looking at each ballot as it's tallied. Makes it hard to cheat.
Nothing against the mathematicians who devise elaborate systems for double-checking every ballot. More power to 'em. But counting votes doesn't have to be rocket science. |
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Helen & Harry
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Gog and Maygog
by Lovebug H.
| June 26, 2007 |
Re George Bush is a Christian
Offered without comment:
Bush, Blair Excommunicated: Church Of The Nativity| |
Excerpt: The spokesman for the Orthodox Church in the Holy Land, archimandrite Attallah Hanna declared that George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Tony Blair, and Jack Straw have all been deprived from ever again visiting the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. The Church of Nativity lies on the spot where it is believed Jesus was born, and is one of the world's most important churches. |
Bush Senior and Bush Junior's Freemason Names are Gog and Maygog, So yes they do appear in the bible.
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Lovebug H.
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Where am I?
by Marty Overbey
| June 26, 2007 |
Re Life ruined by cops
Thank you for your comments. Yes, it could have been a lot worse. I could be
in prison looking at a ten year sentence. I am glad you will publish my
comments. Would you please email me when you do so and let me know what part of
your web site that it's in so I can find it?
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Marty Overbey
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Darkness rather than light
Re George Bush is a Christian
Know what is in a man's heart by what is in his deeds... Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
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Jane C.
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Things I hate
by Lynne Raisley
| June 26, 2007 |
These things I despise: hatred of other people, lambasting those who are not liberal, forgetting to follow that which is good and true and oh yes pointing out the sins of others while not looking in the mirror to see who is the greatest hypocrite. This website and all others like it make me sick to my stomach. There is no reasoning with you. "Come let us reason together says the Lord" That is what it's all about. And this website is not worth a nickle.
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Ah, and you're so very, very reasonable and open to discussion ... |
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Helen & Harry
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Pebbles and snowballs
by JR Mooneyham
| June 25, 2007 |
Keep in mind America DID manage to not only prevent the Republicans from
tightening their hold on Congress in the last election, but actually ROLLED
IT BACK some -- enough to actually get an itty-bitty skin-of-the-teeth
majority even in the Senate! Granted, it's not enough to do nearly what we'd
like to, but it's considerably better than the Congress being even MORE
rubber-stamp than it was before!
And this happened DESPITE the Republicans having virtually uncontested
control over the mass media, and turning all sorts of dirty tricks in the
campaigns. AND controlling all three branches of US government at the time,
to boot!
You and me threw some pebbles in that fight. And we ended up being on the
winning side. We the underdogs struck a blow against all odds there, and we
drew blood!
Don't you know Bush/Cheney would love it if we stopped with our
pebble-throwing now? Virtually everything they do is aimed at disheartening
us pebble-throwers. Trying to convince us we don't have a chance, and never
did. It's standard war-footing propaganda.
The joke on them is I personally grew up poor, eventually realized I was a
snowball in hell, and figured all I could do was hold out as long and
fiercely as I could against the inferno -- while maybe delivering some
comfort and aid to other snowballs like myself along the way. So if I ever
draw blood from such creatures, it's like a time-traveling, warp-speed,
live-forever, walk-on-water miracle! A prize I could barely imagine winning,
and never dare to expect.
They're on top of us all. Not just you and me. Not just Americans in
general. But over every human being on the planet. They're SUPPOSED to win.
The universe is tilted to favor evil, too. So anyone on top AND evil is
supposed to win even MORE often than those merely on top of the world.
But they didn't win the last election.
Some of our pebbles from months or years ago have now been anointed with
their blood.
And you never know: the pebbles we throw next week might end up even
bloodier.
Snowballs rule!
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Hey! I've read your note twice and felt a bit better each time. I'll keep it handy and read it again after breakfast. That's a shot in the arm of something illegal, and it's appreciated. |
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Helen & Harry
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Ahead of the curve again
Interesting in light of all this is that Cheney has been exposed as a Crank. Literally. A crack-pot with deranged ideas that could never work. Ever. And not evil but actually, in fact, insane -- so much so that he claims that the Vice President is not part of the Executive Branch of government... and he probably eats his own feces :-)
Unfortunately for the rest of us, the President can't find his ass with both hands, wouldn't know shit from Shinola and swallowed the crack-pot Cheney's schemes hook, line and stinker. Just how stupid do you have to be to proclaim yourself the Jesus President who loves life while ignorantly running an organization that is torturing innocent people, sodomizing women prisoners in front of cameras, and flying all over the world assassinating anyone they feel might be guilty of something?
What the FUCK?
Bush's Mafia whacks the Republic
by Robert Parry, Consortium Times
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Excerpt: ... So, the general who had violated the omerta code of silence was banished from Bush's Mafia.
Hersh wrote that the sensitivity over Taguba's report went beyond its graphic account of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqis detained at Abu Ghraib; it also brought unwanted attention to a wider pattern of criminal acts committed with the approval of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"The administration feared that the publicity would expose more secret operations and practices," including a special military task forces or Special Access Programs set up to roam the world and assassinate suspected terrorists, Hersh wrote.
Hersh quoted a recently retired CIA officer as saying the task-force teams "had full authority to whack -- to go in and conduct 'executive action,'" a phrase meaning assassination.
"It was surrealistic what these guys were doing," the ex-officer told Hersh. "They were running around the world without clearing their operations with the ambassador or the [CIA] chief of station." [New Yorker, June 25, 2007, edition]
In other words, President Bush not only had arrogated to himself the right to snatch people off the street and lock them up indefinitely without trial but he had dispatched assassins around the world to eliminate alleged "bad guys."
The bigger picture -- the stark and grim image of what had transpired over the past half dozen years in the name of the American people -- was that the United States could no longer claim to be a nation of laws and liberties. It had become a country governed by a criminal mob deploying an unsavory collection of capos, consiglieres and hit men.
In this view, George W. Bush was no longer President of a Republic but Godfather of the world's most intimidating crime syndicate. But that was a reality that the U.S. news media could not afford to acknowledge in real time, though it might become the unavoidable conclusion of future historians. |
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Zebra
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Gaza evolving into Dosadi, Americans devolving into lumps
by Mr. Chuckles
| June 25, 2007 |
I am re-reading The Dosadi Experiment by Frank Herbert, 1977. One of the great sci-fi novels of all time!
Many(!) people are now commenting upon the remarkable similarities between the Gaza Strip and Herbert's planet "Dosadi". The parallels are obvious. Impossible to ignore. (Though of course, Israelis are not frog-like aliens called "Gowachin" :-)
Herbert has a number of ideas about how to deal with corrupt governments, in addition to his ideas about evolution in societies.
In the novel the experiment became so dangerous that a government troubleshooter from "BuSab", (Bureau of Sabotage) was sent to Dosadi to see what could be done. The experimenters had become afraid of their creation. As in Gaza, the inhabitants' main weapon is a high birth rate combined with NO WAY OUT -- their only salvation is to become smarter, stronger, more ruthless. In a mere 20 generations the people of Dosadi became a danger to the galaxy ...
I bet that only a few generations of the horrific, genocidal, racist policies of Amerisrael will produce true Nietzschen Supermen (Übermensch) in Gaza (and Iraq).
Meanwhile, back in the Lower 48 states, Caucasian Americans seem to be devolving. Couch-ridden, book-burning, superstitious, ignorant, science-hating rubes. Unfortunately for them, their "leaders" are no longer protecting them -- they have become dispensable and are woefully unprepared for global competition. Few would survive an hour in Gaza or Iraq. Many may not survive the holocausts to be unleashed by their ruthless Overlords -- the Bushes, Clintons, Cheneys, Liebermans, etc. Consider this email a "heads up", or fair notice. I strongly urge you to put down the TV remote, get up off the couch, and go out there and engage! Haha.
Hating the troops
by Angry Annie
| June 25, 2007 |
Troops' one-month breaks blocked| |
Excerpt: US commanders in Iraq are rejecting a recommendation by Army mental health experts that troops receive a one-month break for every three months in a combat zone, despite unprecedented levels of continuous fighting and worsening risks of mental stress.
Instead, commanders are trying to give troops two to three days inside heavily fortified bases after about eight days in the field, said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief aide to the ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno.
"We would never get the job done of securing (of Baghdad) if we went out for three months and came back" for one, Anderson said. |
There's this Republican administration, supporting the troops again, by sending them to die for nothing, making sure they're as un-safe and miserable as possible while dying for nothing, making sure they have no R&R, and of course, denying them medical care if they're lucky enough to live through it all. Have they started charging the families for military funerals and burials yet? If not, count on it. I mean, nobody ever really spit on the troops after Vietnam, that's all myth and lie, but spitting on the troops is, metaphorically, the Republicans' standard policy. I don't think even the enemy, the Vietcong or the Iraqi insurgency, hate American troops as much as Republicans hate American troops.
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Angry Annie
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Happy deaths
Yes, President Cheney is about to launch World War III, and with the media in full treason mode and a new breed of jellyfish controlling the Democratic Party, there's really nothing we can do to prevent it. Hundreds of thousands will die, perhaps millions. And along with the deconstruction of every principle that could potentially make America great, the intentional dismantling of the American middle class, and the fecesization of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the ground we stand upon, yes, it's enough to be a bit depressing. But Helen, here's a little something to brighten your blue spirits -- happy deaths.
In the past two weeks, four former members of Congress have died. Former Ohio Congressman Donald D. Clancy of Parkinson's, Former Tennessee Congressman Robin Beard from brain cancer, Former Michigan Congressman Guy Vander Jagt from pancreatic cancer, and Former Missouri Congressman William Hungate from hematoma. So put on a happy face!
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Death is not something to be made light of, Randy ... well, unless it's the death of politicians.
Of all four, only Hungate's stirs my memory in the slightest. Basically, I know nothing of these men except that they were in Congress. And that's enough.
I always figure there are a few good guy politicians, and a few real slimeballs, and a vast majority in Congress who go along with the gravy train and add nothing to government except to enable it with "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" votes. The good guys and bad guys you'll hear about in the news, but beyond their own districts the quiet collaborators in Congress keep their names out of the headlines. So if these four names trigger no memories for me, chances are they were quiet collaborators ... in which case I've got no time in my busy day to mourn their deaths.
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Helen & Harry
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Yup
by Sherri B.
| June 25, 2007 |
Re Nukes
Too true and all very scary.
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Sherri B.
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George Bush is a Christian
Re George Bush is not a Christian: The Bible tells me so
First of all George Bush is a Christian. In fact you do not know his heart. only God knows the heart of man.
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Ah, but you say you know he's a Christian, so it's actually God and you (not necessarily in that order) who know George Bush's heart.
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The Constitution and the law Bush is not behind that. I think that by him being the President he does not make the decisions. By the way how could you say the bible tells me so. George Bush name is not in the bible. Who are we to judge? The bible speaks about judging too? You can judge about when a person is wrong.
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Dear stranger, if you're lucky your God doesn't exist, and if you're really lucky your God might forgive your ridonculous foolishness come Judgment Day ... but I certainly hope not.
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