Sunday, November 30, 2003

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm....




No offense dude, you haven't a chance. Just wait till Rove gets his evil claws into you. . .


good luck though, dude.

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

after vacation

After Thanksgiving vacation I'm going to have to talk about this David Neiwert post. I do owe you all a thesis update. Just a reminder, my undergraduate thesis is on modern-day fascism.


off thread topic...someone finally smacked that beeyatch down. beautiful.
Wow, crypto-fascists and barely fundamental fundamentalists getting along. Let's hope it lasts.



Speaking of getting along, have a happy Thanksgiving. And resist shopping this Friday. No, I'm not trying to sabotage the booming US economy. I'm trying to save your sanity. Besides, it's more fun to play in the fallen leaves with the kids and cousins, eat leftovers, and watch a lot of football (or ogle the football players if you're into that)---NOT wait in line with a bunch of really rude shoppers. Seriously people, seriously.
Excellent. The Economy decided to grow. Good.

Monday, November 24, 2003

world keeps on spinning or a rare post on Iraq

Fox News is reporting something much different than what the Washington Post reported yesterday about the alleged "Mogadishu Moment" that occured in Mosul, Iraq. Who's right in this case? The Post, relying on reports from the ground or CENTCOM, relying on the same reports?

Spin.

I don't know. I do know one thing, the attacks derided as "disorganized" by pundit after Beltway pundit and CENTCOM itself are not subsiding. Mosul, as I understood from Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, was a quiet city that was outside the trouble area surrounding Baghdad. Why the sudden attacks now?

I don't like this gang. I still hold to the belief that if we leave now, Iraq will disintergrate. But it's looking like staying the course will be a very bloody--and lonely---course for us to stay. I just don't know any more.

Yankee Doodle continues to lay it all out. Don't dare call him patriotic in his comments . . . he's served in the defense of this country.


(and yes, I continue to scour the lists of the dead to make sure I don't know anyone on it.)


Christmas will be trying for many.


And I think the worst is yet to come. 2004, I suspect, will be very bloody---in both Iraq and other places. The clouds are gathering folks. It's time you stopped watching MTV and caring about MJ (or whatever the favorite celebrity of the month is). I'm serious.

Sunday, November 23, 2003

shorter

The Shorter Kathleen Parker
I may be a fag hag and I may be tres chic, but don't let those queers enjoy what I enjoy. Their only purpose is to entertain me with their queerness.

Saturday, November 22, 2003

events in history

For me, and my generation, our defining event is and always will be September 11, 2001.

For my parents and their generation, their defining event when everything changed was November 22, 1963. Billmon writes about it.
every closet has its shadows

From our bud Don Fox, we see this horrifying story about our neighbor to the north. I had visions of Jim Crow reading this article. . .
football

Yes, I KNOW PENN STATE LOST AGAIN. PLEASE DON'T REMIND ME!

Pittsburgh won.

and Ohio State LOST! w00t! (Scoobie...ya bet badly on that one buddy.)
uh...........why?!!


(that's all i'll say about MJ and his touching of the kiddies...oops sorry...alleged touching of the kiddies.)
good

Pandagon has the smackdown best, and reasoned post, on marriage that I've read yet.

Again, there's no constitutional argument. Yes, the priest/reverend/rabbi/mullah/pastor/etc says "power invested in me" when he/she marries a couple but let's be real. His power is spritual ceremonial power. There are people who get married in courthouses by justices of the peace. What I'm trying to say is that it is the state that makes you married---that little piece of paper you wait in line for to get signed---at the courthouse. In most states you cannot be legally married without that little piece of paper, and most ministers/etc. cannot marry you until you have it.

In the state of Pennsylvania, until very recently, couples who never actually married but lived together, owned property together, had kids together for an extended period of time were (are?, not sure about this...) considered married for all intents and purposes. Of course, they had to be straight.

Now I don't think gay people want to subvert the entire society and make people marry people of the same sex. Remember, this is what Phyliss Schallfy (or however you spell her name) did when she defeated the ERA...the claims that all bathrooms would be unisex and pregnant women would be sent to the front were totally false, but her group put them out. What happened to the ERA? Gone. What I think gay people who want to make their monogomous relationships legal want is simply the things that my parents have--the right not to have to testify against their spouse...the right to inherit if their spouse dies, the right to provide for their spouse if they die through insurance, the right to adopt, the right to health insurance, the right to even visit their spouse during family visiting hours. I think that's all they want, since the overwhelming majority of Americans have this right. That's really all they want...not to liberate people so they can marry their cats or marry each other in groups or marry dead people, etc... That's not going to happen. Plus, it's left to the states to decide.

Let it also be known that it was just 40 years ago that blacks and whites could not marry each other in most states legally. Alabama still has the ban, although not enforced.

I just say leave people be, but I'm practically libertarian so what do I know...heh.

Perhaps more should be done to fix marriage. Half of them fail. And with birthrates falling in the US, I'd say more than a few do not produce children. If we have these "Defense of Marriage" acts, then something should be done to make it not fail so much. If it were an airplane, it would have been grounded and dismantled a long time ago. That's a horrid analogy, yes, but I think it works.
David Brooks is so weird. Interesting article though (never thought I'd be saying that David Brooks could write something that wasn't so syurpy sweet your teeth hurt. . . )

Friday, November 21, 2003

Ugh...


Given that many, many Americans work more than 40 hours a week (remember, we're the world's most productive nation), this is possibly the worst thing I've ever read. Ever.

Thursday, November 20, 2003

eminem is bling-blingin'

I think Eminem's lyrics say more about that shallow insipid bling-bling culture. It's not racist. There's this author named Omar Tyree who writes exactly about what Eminem is rapping about in the alleged lyrics. I saw Omar speak the other evening. . .



Silver Rights deconstructs Eminem from a different angle . . . Never thought I'd see colonialism related to rap music.
I often get these emails saying I can get paid for taking surveys. Only, you have to pay to get paid. This makes no sense to me. Why get paid to get paid?

I suspect a scam.

Anyone doing this? I'd do it if it didn't smell like a scam. I could use some extra bucks (so I can buy some basic insurance...for example...heh.)


I've also seen a lot of these home data entry things. . . but still I suspect a scam. In my area, there's also the "Knife Sellers." You don't actually have to sell the knives, but they pay you 17.50 (once was as high as 19.50) an hour. You need a drivers license though, and it sounds kind of shady to me. I don't know many people who have done it for more than a week.
Look what's #2 for Misreable Failure on google.

Heh.

Indeed.
try to figure out what i'm trying to say and you get a cookie


Oh ..., it wasn't mono. Thank god. It was likely (I say likely because I went to the University infirmary...too expensive to visit an actual doctor) a very severe sinus infection coupled with something else. The infirmary isn't equippted to find out what that something else is. All they really can do is give out Advil cold&sinus and hope you don't sue if you die of complications.

Hopefully the 100 degree-plus fever I ran for four days straight did no permanent damage, but it'll be awhile before I can afford to find out. Like I said, too expensive.


(kinda in response to this)
Yankee Doodle breaks it down in really stark terms. Really stark. It's now a daily read for me.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

this was unexpected

Massachusetts just struck down a gay marriage ban

Gotta say that was unexpected, and welcome. Maybe this will do more for that institution of marriage, which has a 50% failure rate, by the way.

I doubt this will go far, though. I'm cynical. And there are those who are hostile toward any sort of progressive change.

Like the state surpreme court of Massachusetts, I can't see any constitutional reason why certain people aren't allowed to marry and others are, although I understand the Christian reasons.

Sunday, November 16, 2003

civility

There's been much about people being uncivil lately. It's apparently destroying the country. Darn those liberals (never mind the Clinton years.)

Imagine it this way. This is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it works.

There's a fence with barbed wire on top of it. On the right side of the fence is..the Right. And they're screaming. On the left side of the fence is the Left, and they are screaming too. But that fence is seperating them so we're fine.

Don't worry about uncivil people. They've been around for ages. The fence with the barbed wire ensures they will be kept seperate.
I've had this odd illness for a week...off and on fever, aches and pains, headache, and fatigue like you wouldn't believe. Going to class is actually physically exhausting.



Turns out it may be mono. I'll find out for certain this week, but I so do not need mono right now. Needless to say, I'm not a happy camper.

Haven't had a sore throat or the rash that comes with mono...so we'll see. I'm hopeful.
The saddest thing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that there shouldn't be one at all. They're, genetically and ethnically, the same people.

(that's just one news story. There are plenty of other stories and studies to back this up. Thank goodness for those scientists doing the Human Genome Project...)

That being said (because noone in that region or the Charles Johnsons of the world will ever accept it, you know how religion is regarding genetics), the Palestinians need their equivilent to Martin Luther King, Jr. Someone to tell them that nonviolent peaceful resistance is the way. Otherwise the world is going to lose interest, more buses will get blown up, and then more Palestinians will get curfewed into their ghettos to grow up hating Israelis. And the cycle begins anew until everyone is dead.

Peace through genetics?



And yes, I know the study in question was yanked due to political content.

and if you must know, it was this Nova program that got me interested in this.
hahaha....if only Blogger had this up months ago before my mom found my blog (and then passed the site along to all of our family friends. Not that I'm complaining. . . )

Saturday, November 15, 2003

this is upsetting
oops

Boy, those Forest Service people sure are mad.


Dozens of Forest Service employees in Utah and Montana were told last March they would be among the first victims of the Bush administration decision to bid out work by government employees to private contractors, who could do it cheaper.

A required analysis three months later showed it's going to cost the government $425,000 a year more for the same work that was being done by the 41 members of the Forest Service's Content Analysis Team in Salt Lake City and in Missoula, Mont.



And here I thought privitization would be so much cheaper. What a dumbass I was.
I'm watching this Robert Durst show on A&E and I'm beyond amazed that he got off. He hacked someone to death. Don't they execute people for that in Texas?
outsourcing sucks ass

this post is mildly xenophobic. warning you now... and I'm not an economist so I can't tell you how this effects the economy with facts. . . I just know what I know and what I've heard . . .

I've been reading about this lately and I believe it's absolute shit. Yep, I said it. Outsourcing is shit.

It's simple as to why: outsourcing costs Americans jobs. Simple as that. When you send white-collar and blue-collar jobs overseas because it's "cheaper," you cost an American their job.

I hope there's a major reaction against it soon, as this article suggests.
Apparently Diebold really really sucks.

Thank god we have lever machines in our county. They may be old, but at least they're mostly accurate.

Friday, November 14, 2003

Is Farscape coming back?


I am a sci-fi nutcase. I'm beyond excited about Battlestar Galactica coming up in a few weeks on SciFi. It's also almost Star Wars:Episode III time. Hopefully, they'll drop all that annoying Dawson's Creek-like crap that made Episode II suck.
Who's going to try Camel cheese with me? C'mon. . . . . . .
I am running another fever. I think it's time I went to the doctor...I never ever get sick and this is the third time this semester I've been ill.

Thank god for these Canadian over-the-counter drugs called '222's. Sweet painkillers....ahhhh.

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Thursday, November 13, 2003

tattoo

I'm debating on a tattoo.

Now a lot of guys my age tend to get tattoos in one of four places: around the bicep, between the shoulder blades, above those little dimples above your butt, or the calf. They also seem to all be the same tattoo design, as well.

I don't want to be like everyone else. But I do think I'd look good with a tattoo, somewhere. Here's where you all come in.

I'm going to design some stuff, and put it up on the blog. Then you'll vote on whether it's cool or not. I'll make four designs. The design that gets the most positive votes gets tattooed somewhere on my body (don't worry, it'll be a tame place.)
9/11 commission watch

ugh. . .


Relatives of people who perished in the Sept. 11 attacks say a federal commission accepted too many conditions in striking a deal with the White House over access to secret intelligence documents.


Ok. . . I didn't lose anyone. So why should I care? I care because I should as an American and as someone who is fairly patriotic. A terrible thing happened on 9/11 and I want to know why, who knew, and so on. I really don't understand the stonewalling by the White House. It really is important to investigate this so, I don't know, it doesn't happen again!

That's why this remains one of my hot buttons.



primary season

Holy fuck! Primary season starts soon!

I'm still holding on to my support for Clark. Increasingly, however, I'm starting to lose my ... I don't know...interest perhaps?

He has some excellent qualities. His main excellent quality is that he is a veteran, which this country hasn't had as a President since Bush Sr (the current guy's status during Vietnam notwithstanding...) I get the feeling, however, he's trying to make himself something he's not.

I'll have more on this later. I've just been thinking lately.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

is there a reverse atkins diet?

yea yea, i know. why would anyone want to gain weight... I could tell the long story but I'm not going to. heh
Thin-skinned beeyaches. That's really all they are. And, of course, I dare anyone to say this (bold) :
Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee chairman, wrote in a recent memo to party officials -- a move designed to shift attention toward Bush's broader foreign policy objectives rather than the accounts of bloodshed. Republicans hope to convince voters that Democrats are too indecisive and faint-hearted -- and perhaps unpatriotic -- to protect US interests, arguing that inaction during the Clinton years led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.


Do it and I'll break your teeth.
question

As Commentary Editor, I get to read a variety of diverse thought patterns and views as I lay out my section. One common thread among my conservative writers (who do get equal press...) is this meme of "frivioulous social programs." This confuses me, and I'm going to play dumb for a moment. Which social programs are "friviolous?" Why?
tip jar

Yes, I put a little tip jar up. My renewal for this blog is up soon, and if you can spare a couple pennies or two thanks. I know times are tough.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

paleoliberals

Whoo nelly...controversy. Big time.

Well, it's not like there wouldn't be. Andrew Hagen does paint a fairly wide and somewhat vague brush over a large segment of people. I think that is what the reaction is to. However, any generalization of any group is going to be painted in wide, vague, and broad brushes and you have to realize that.

Perhaps Andrew's definition has some merit. EJ Dionne writes that the Democrats are today's conservatives. I don't necessary agree with all of Andrew's thesis, but the one overridding theme he suggests is that Paleoliberals are out of touch, and I've always believed that conservatives are out of touch.



veterans day

while the public respects their military, politicians and burecrats obviously don't. I stand by that.


What they don't?

Oh yeah?

Why this, then. So not cool. So. Not. Cool.
veterans day

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free!

Monday, November 10, 2003

matrix


everyone seems to hate it. should I go see it anyway?
I can't wait till "The Day After Tomorrow" comes out, so I can pick it apart. It looks like an Ice Age started by a single storm, which of course, did not happen. Looks like LA and New York City get laid waste as usual. Disaster movies are entertaining, even more so when they're scientifically accurate. I'm thinking Deep Impact from a few years back. . . Armageddon, that other asteroid movie, was the most retarded piece of cinema I've ever seen.
hot button issue

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. This is SO not cool.


The Bush administration is seeking to block a group of American troops who were tortured in Iraqi prisons during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 from collecting any of the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Iraqi assets they won last summer in a federal court ruling against the government of Saddam Hussein.


The way veterans (and active duty dudes too) are treated in America makes me fucking sick.
When do we get to salt the North Korean earth so that nothing will ever grow there again? North Korea having the bomb really does worry me. I'm not being shrill.
Rhetorical Questions

What are American Values?

and

Am I a Paleoliberal (as defined by Andrew Hagen)
(I don't think I am...but most people resist the labels that others place upon them, this I acknowledge. I think I may be too cynical to fall into this category, but I dunno. What do you think?)



dallas
I'm not going to write off the entire state of Texas, but I don't think I'll be visiting Dallas again. It's too expensive, and I'm a total cheapskate. The only thing that was cheap was unleaded gas. $1.39 a gallon is impressive for a major metro area.

I did like all the open space surrounding downtown along the Trinity River. Not enough cities have that greenbelt area within them.

Wednesday, November 5, 2003

hiatus

I'm off to Dallas for a conference. See ya Sunday.
pakistan watch

This is just the opening post on what will become a regular series. I'm not going to say much now, but I will say this : despite my dislike for Mushariff, we (as in the US) really need to prop him up. If he falls, the fundamentalists win and then it's bye bye Bombay and New Delhi.
blog praise

Andrew Hagen is all over recent Al-Quaida warnings. I suggest you go read him, then surf through the articles he links to, and then decide if you would like to up your own personal caution level.

I should not have read this the night before I fly out to Dallas for a conference.

And, Andrew has an awesome site up, and has had it up for some time. I suggest everyone go take a look. Particuarly this article on anti-Germanism. And, take a look at his stand on himself. He's decidedly hawkish on some issues (like Iran, which I'm dovish on...if you read me enough you know I'm hawkish on one ally - Pakistan- and one evil country- North Korea). I like guys who "don't tow the party line." That's why he's on the blogroll.

And for what it's worth, I really wish lefty-types would stop beating up on Tacitius. His site is one of the more interesting reads in the blogosphere.
pennsylvania votes

Democrats did fairly well in Pennsylvania today. It really is no surprise that John Street will be mayor for 4 more years. If Katz had gotten Bush to stump for him, it would have been different. But, believe it or not, Bush is quite the fan of Mayor Street. . . he and the mayor see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, including faith-based intiatives.

It is unnerving although somewhat good that a third-party candidate for County Commissioner in Lancaster County came fairly close to taking the third seat, usually held open for the minority party (in this case the Democrats). Not the Green Party....the Constitution Party. Says a lot about Lancaster County, I think. (The Constitution Party people don't want a convention center downtown. They've been known to say "would the other commissioners let their wives walk downtown alone at night?" There is all kinds of context in that statement....never mind the fact that the Democratic seat on the County Commissioner board will likely be held by a woman, Molly Henderson. My guy lost.

The Green Party picked up a couple small local seats in Lancaster County, including the 1st and 5th Constable for Lancaster City (although held by only one person) and at least one township auditor seat.

Lancaster County, of course, remains overwhelmingly Republican. So, if you're a Republican and want to see how a mostly one-party place works, by all means move to Lancaster County, PA. They'd be happy to have you.

In addition, one of the special ballot questions (there were five) passed. It involved Child testimony in court cases. I did vote yes, although I have a feeling it may be thrown out because of the accused's right to confront ones accusers.
I never like ballot questions because I'm never prepared for them. I really need to do my homework pre-election...just for the ballot questions. I usually know which candidates I want.

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

confused

Wasn't that 7.2% GDP 3Q growth supposed to end stuff like job cuts and everything?

Oh wait, that's right. It didn't.

Sorry for the sarcasm...
voting

At the time I'm writing this, polls are still open. So go out and vote already.
go

If there's anything you do today (other than do your civic duty and vote), go read this excellent post by Digby on Dean and the Confederate flag.

And I have to admit . . . Dean is not the far-lefter that certain members of the party like to make him out to be. Kucinich is the far-lefter. Dean is a character all his own.

I do, very much still, like Wesley Clark and he has my support.
cbs

Wimps.
election day

DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE TODAY.

Monday, November 3, 2003

This is neat.

This is good.

This is bad.
added to the blogroll

Please welcome Orwellian Times to the blogroll.
The Sun is cranky this week.

There are some who are saying that the recent warm spell in the Eastern third of the country is due to last week's solar flares.
smile

Baby Kos is born. Congratulations. It's a boy, too!
Ominous


The Government is quietly, but actively, looking for draft board members. This is the first time since Reagan was in office this was used.
somewhat light posting this week

I am attending a conference Wednesday-Sunday in Dallas, TX. It's a Collegiate Media Convention. Posting after Tuesday evening should drop off until I return.

Sunday, November 2, 2003

non-zinger

Jesus is smiling, no matter what Fred Phelps says. Remember, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

He also said love thy neighbor as thyself.
repeat of the zinger to end all zingers


Somewhere in Hell, Stalin is smiling upon the members of a certain party who are quite adept, much like he was, at revising history.


my thoughts on CBS

way to be pussies, pussies.
news from one of our allies

Oh, lovely.
wtf is this shit?

Just go read Julia.


This is really annoying, and anti-democratic.
grad school watch

I'm going for Geography now. I'm leaning more toward the Doctorate.

1. Penn State.
2. Rutgers


And still looking.
grownups

CNN has a cool article (for a change) on just when someone becomes a "grown-up."

I'm 22. I really don't feel like a grown-up. I technically still live at home (for some reason, dorms are considered home. eh.) My "job" is full-time student and whatever part-time work through the University I can get.

My parents did manage to drill into me that I won't be moving back home when I graduate. I also think my mile-long independent streak will ensure that I won't be moving back home.
dean and the confederate flag

Howard Dean, presidential candidate, has some interesting thoughts on this symbol that pissed off the other Democratic candidates, particuarly this:

Then, in an interview with the Des Moines Register, Dean mentioned the Confederate flag. "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," he told the Register. "We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross section of Democrats."


Now Dean is quite the state's rightist. And I think he makes a good point: There ARE Democrats who have the confederate flag on their pickup trucks down south. There are Republicans with the flag on their trucks. There are Greens with the ...etc. etc. etc. I wish they didn't though.

At least he's honest about it. Dean's honesty on issues is good; I do enjoy it even though I'm a Clark man myself.

Now it is a divisive symbol. I don't like the Confederate flag one bit. Despite some who I've encountered here in Pennsylvania who say it represents something else (including one very strange pot-smoking tree-hugging Republican wrestler dude....real nice guy but very odd thought process. and he's a history major...) I think it's representitive of a history that is divisive and morally wrong. I think Dean's probably heard the same arguments that I have. There may be those who aren't bigots who see this flag as something else even though I don't really buy that. I don't understand how one can be patriotic while flying the flag of states that succeeded from the US and caused a war.

While Dean may be being honest, I think he shouldn't have mentioned this at all. He can keep his NRA support...I certainly do think the NRA has some points (when they're not being total lunatics). But I think now, he should distance himself from this, and I also think the other 7 candidates should let this go.
breaking news


oh my god.


Please don't let me know anyone on that helicopter . . . .

Saturday, November 1, 2003

DAMNIT!


Penn State lost again. SO FUCKING CLOSE TOO!!!!! ARGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is further proof that God hates Pennsylvania, and the world is out to get me. Grrr!

(Millersville also lost.)
zinger to end all zingers

Stalin would be proud.

Nah, I'm thinkin' Goebbels. (Yea I done gone and done it. Godwin's Law has been violated. I await the Thought Police.)