Army of...none

When I was 18 I wanted to join the Army. I went to the recruiting station and met all manner of colorful characters who blew smoke out their asses in red white and blue. They lied and were over the top about it. I still wanted to join because I was 18, not that bright and it looked "cool".

The soldiers don't get the equipment they need to do their jobs and the VA doesn't give them the medical help they need either. If you know a kid ready to sign up, have them watch this before they do. It might just cut through the romatic view of the army...

ACLU Poetry Slam

I'm not a fan of poetry and never have been, but these two pieces from the ACLU podcast that I really like...

InSecurity

Take America Back

powered by ODEO


powered by ODEO

Turn the other cheek, not this time...

Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Tom Delay and many others used the Christian right as a tool to support forced abortions and virtual slave labor in the US Marianas.

In "Capitol Crimes," Bill Moyers does a good job of detailing this lobbying scandal. The lobbyists used various Christian groups to keep US labor laws from being extended the our holdings in the Pacific. This allowed a sweatshop industry to be continue on the Marianas that is a blight on our nation. The interesting thing about the Bill Moyer's documentary is that many right wingers were willing to talk to Bill Moyers and his team. It speaks to an under current of anger with this attack on Democracy that I hope will bear fruit in the upcoming election.

Its time to start fitting many in Congress for orange jumpsuits. If the Democrats take the Congress in the next election, it is my hope they launch an ethics probe that goes after everyone who strayed, regardless of party. It is my expectation that the only change will be to whom the corporations right their checks.

This corruption is destroying our democracy and is on such a grand scale that apathy and cynicism are all that is left in its wake. If we cannot count on our leaders to do their job, then from the grass roots we must organize and remind them for whom they work and that they are not above the law.

Free Speesh has Limits

A man told the Vice President that his policies in Iraq were reprehensible, he was arrested. Where's the "Clear and Present Danger" in that. Read about his story here:

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

By Matthew Rothschild

Who Voted For Torture in the House

Here the list of who voter for the Torture bill. The breakdown by district is quite sad. Our founding father's would be pissed...

Torture Voting Breakdown

What is the Difference

Burn a village of people, up close and personal, and you are a war criminal.
Drop a cluster bomb and dismember hundreds and you're not.

Killing is still killing. Pain is still pain and those people are still dead or worse.

Aren't both situations crimes against humanity?

Gonna Parody ABC... think again

ABC just use the word clintonistas in a sentence in a news report. I'm not sure, but I think Stephen Colbert has copyrighted this word.

Now, 14 years later, little has changed, except this time the Clintonistas have aimed their fire not at Republicans but at ABC, for its two-part miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which is scheduled for broadcast Sunday and Monday evenings.

ABC must be taking a page from William Shatner's book, parody yourself before someone else does. If they think that this will protect them from Stewart and Colbert they're oh so wrong.

--
Sub Commander Kahn,
3rd Bridage, Massachusetts Clintonistas

Suckage-maximosus isn't the scientific name for the media, but I think it should be

While some really important things were going on we got to hear about JonBenet Ramsey, Tom Cruise and other things that just aren't that vital to my daily existence.

I saw this on Reddit.com, its an article about an article about 10 news stories that slipped through the cracks (well, through the gaping fissures actualy) this past year.

The 10 big stories the nation's major news media refused to cover last year by Sarah Phelan

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

If you have a chance to see this (on the web, on your TV via HBO, or at a friend's house) then it'd be well worth your time.

Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke"

A Greg Palast documentary about the evacuation plan and what happened around Katrina. This one made me pretty pissed.

Katrina and how our nation handled it, or failed to, speaks volumes of where we are as a country and its not pretty. If John Barry, the author of Rising Tide is correct, the last time something like this happened it resulted in the new deal era.

We have work to do and before we begin we need to look in that place that makes us all uncomfortable, sad and angry.


A Ray of Hope: There are people out their working to help rebuild in a pragmatic way that works hand in hand with the local commnuity. Take a look at Architecture for Humanity and what they are doing.


Links:

• Donation Links - Habitat For Humanity, Houston's Katrina Aid Program, United Way
• Legendary KO "George Bush Don't Like Black People"
• Bill Maher's parody

Get into the Driver Seat of your Life

• How is your life?
• Do you use your history or is it using you?

Men and women are meeting to discuss how to get in control of the one thing we can, ourselves. If you are interested you can checkout these web sites or visit our group. We are having an open circle to introduce folks to the work we do.

If you are interested please RSVP so we know how many chairs to setup.

Web Resources:

• Women Within
• Mankind Project

Time: Wednesday Sept 27 2006, 7pm-10pm

Place:
Unitarian Universalist Church of Grafton
3 Grafton Common, Grafton MA 01606

Take the Mass Pike to exit 11 (Millbury).
After the tolls, turn right onto rte 122 S.
Follow 122 S past Stop and Shop.
You will come to a light where 122 veers off to the
right. Here you want to go straight through the light
- you will be on rte 140 S now. Go up the hill - you
are now on Grafton Common - you want to turn left
here and find a place to park. The church is right
there. (There are two churches on the common - the UU
church is to the right of a small place called Cafe on
the Common. The other church doesn't have any other
buildings next to it)

If you are interested please RSVP with me at 508-958-2996.

Power Through Fear

Here is an excellent BBC documentary on the rise of fear as a weapon used by governments against their people.

• Part 1 (above)
  
• Part 2
• Part 3

It is time for us to recognize that the only fear we need to fear is fear itself. Let's shake off our bad dreams and get down to the job of solving real problems.

FYI, if after seeing this you think that 9/11 might not be what you thought it was, check out this documentary, it asks some very interesting questions and makes some good points.

There Aren't Enough Bullets

Israel seems to be pursuing a plan of trying to kill all of Hezbollah. This plan will not work and is morally flawed. How can unleashing violence create peace? Each member of Hezbollah is a person integrated into society. When they are killed, others step up to fill their place and many more will donate to the "cause." Every bullet fired, every shell spent only results in a larger and more powerful foe.

Violent organizations who have suicide bombers need two things to keep on going: money and new recruits. If you want to fight them put down the gun and start using your head. Figure out how those two vital resources move into the organization and then block those pathways.

Violence upon people, be it from a state or a small group, is a war on all civilization. We, the ones without the guns, need to find away to block those pathways and get those with the guns to stop. Accounting, legislation, engagement and talking will be our tools. One example of this is that the author of Freakonomics has been charged with looking into how to track terrorist organizations. If you can tell what kind of pattern is made by the money flowing into the organization you can find the cell or disrupt their cash flow. Another example is the group Combatants for Peace. If former combatants preach the message of peace and dialog they have great power to get others to rethink their own actions.

Destroying your enemy may work if your enemy is really small or you have the capacity to destroy his homeland utterly without any consequences. No one is really in that situation. Vigorous engagement and looking at the deeper causes to isolate the violent organization while cultivating moderation seems a better plan.

A More Inconvenient Truth

We feel that we must get this post out prior to the Wall Street Journal's exposure of the blog. Yes, it is true, this blog is written by the staff of a public relations firm on hire by the Christian Corporate Coalition for Family Values and Against Bad Things (CCFVABT, pronounce like it looks).

We, the members of the staff (from Frank who ran the focus groups to Mary who performed the market research and Bob our prooof reader) feel that it doesn't matter if that the blog didn't come from an actual disgruntled individual who has poor English skills. Its the message that counts.

We also support our friends in the DCI group who made the Al Gore spoof and hope that they are hiring. At the very least, take a look a Bob's resume, he's realy good.

One Good move on the Exxon DCI Fake UTube Video

Whitehouse Attacked by Mobious Strip

The President has been arguing that the domestic spying program was legal by virtue of the patriot act and justified by the attack on September 11, 2001. The problem is that the domestic spying program started some seven months prior to 9/11 according to Bloomberg news. Therefore, that which looked somewhat impeachable before now looks “wicked impeachable” (a legal term meaning very).

It seems clear that the President and the Whitehouse staff are trapped inside some kind of Mobius strip that crosses the time-space continuum (ask a star trek fan for details) or they could be all be suffering from an estranged relationship with the truth and have impacted colons.

Mr. Bush had better hope that his party keeps the legislature and doesn't decide to jettison his administration or many of them staffers will be doing time…

note: anyone how bought an enema and never sent it to Bill Oreilly as a holiday gift could perhaps send it to the Whitehouse as they do appear to be in dire need of them...

Beware eFax: Its like a disease

I joined eFax so I could send a fax to a representative for some issue. I really didn't need to service, so I tried to cancel it. This is when I found that there was no cancellation option on any of the forms.

After hunting through the help, I found that I could cancel the account via an IM chat with a sales person. I attempted to cancel several time and that sales person just wouldn't do it. I received many offers, but I just wanted to cancel.

I finally, got the person to cancel the account or so I think. I will receive no confirmation and if eFax changes continue to show up on my credit card bill my only defense will be "but, I had this awesome IM chat where they said they'd cancel it"

Avoid eFax....

Now that you have virtual reality what are you going to do?

"I'm Going to Disney World...."

Ok, virtual worlds let people experience cool things that would be hard to do in the real world. Well, now we have Virtual Disney Kingdom.


It's just like being there. I can wait in seemingly endless lines for hours (I use a controller with force feedback to get the full effect).


I hear that the Registry of Motor Vehicle is coming out with a virtual world as well. I can only hope the do a good job of the combat system....

Can you say "appropriation"? I thought you could..

Good news from the archives...

Fred Rogers Defends PBS in 1969

Round and Round Learnin' Nothin'

I just read Haliburton's press release about how it was awarded a contact from Homeland Security to build containment facilities. I have two concerns:

1. Why are we building what amounts to interment camps?

2. Why was Haliburton awarded a contract after they have been caught stealing from the government multiple times?

Didn't the Japanese interment camps during World War II teach us anything? The McCarthy era also started with laws against aliens and then transformed as an attack against the civil right of citizens. We have seen this before.

We need our legislators to:

• Choke off their funding
• Start investigations
• Block their legislation like that man who stopped the tanks heading towards Tienamen Square

If we cannot stop the administration from this foolishness our nation will enter into a time of troubles from which it may not emerge.

For Republicans: Take back your party from these extremists. When did the party of Lincoln become the party of Delay, Robertson and Bush? Is trashing the US Constitution really what the party stands for?

For Democracts: Tell your leaders to stop playing it safe, if you want to lead start leading from the back. Sitting back and waiting for November to sweep you into power is lunacy. You want to lead then act like it NOW.



-------------------------
Haliburton's Press Release

2006 Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 24, 2006

KBR AWARDED U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY CONTINGENCY SUPPORT PROJECT FOR EMERGENCY SUPPORT SERVICES

ARLINGTON, Virginia – KBR announced today that its Government and Infrastructure division has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency. KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL).

With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term, consisting of a one-year based period and four one-year options, the competitively awarded contract will be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005.

“We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract because it builds on our extremely strong track record in the arena of emergency operations support,” said Bruce Stanski, executive vice president, KBR Government and Infrastructure. “We look forward to continuing the good work we have been doing to support our customer whenever and wherever we are needed.”

The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.

The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts.

ICE was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

KBR is a global engineering, construction, technology and services company. Whether designing an LNG facility, serving as a defense industry contractor, or providing small capital construction, KBR delivers world-class service and performance. KBR employs more than 60,000 people in 43 countries around the world.

Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries. The company serves its customers with a broad range of products and services through its Energy Services Group and KBR. Visit the company's World Wide Web site at www.halliburton.com.

The Real cost of global climate change

My mom lives in Florida and I love her very much, but I'm kind of OK having my own place. If global warming raises the sea level by 14 meters, her home will underwater and she'll be moving in with me.

Please, let's stop global warming or I'll be in for much nagging, many broken appliances and therapy. For those of you who have relatives who retired in Arizona, take pitty on the costally screwed of our nation, and don't forget that this phrase may be your future too:
"get a hair cut, stop dressing like a schlub and make sure you wear a jacket!"

FYI,
Fossils fuels are good and bad. Their consumption produces green house gases and particulate matter that is thrown up into the atmosphere. This means that we have global dimming that masks the effects of global warming (in short, if we fix the pollution problem without fixing the carbon dioxide emissions problem we are in a world of trouble).

So, beware or uncle Fred will be moving in with you...

Fat Pipe, Always On, Stay Out of the Way

I use the net for my job, my political activity and my life. Let's not balkanize the internet into a bunch of incompatible corporate fiefdoms.

For our country to prosper socially and economically we need broadband penetration without restrictive policies of monopolies strangling the flow.

Fake News, I want a damn label

Want to see propaganda displayed in the news? It’s easy to find WPGH does it.

I think that the FCC should get off of its ass and do something about this problem. If the alleged news segment I'm watching was produced by an organization with an axe to grind (say the federal government) I want a banner on the bottom and the top of the screen.

We label cigarettes even though we all know they cause cancer. We label hot cups of coffee, bags of marbles and probably have signs up warning us not to run with scissors. If we label the obvious stuff, why not label the things that aren't.

I want a label because I want to know two things: a) that my local station finds it too difficult to produce the news, b) who it is that is telling me that an ipod will lead to my child’s slow decline into a life of dirty movies and poor morals. If my local station finds news just too hard, then we should lighten its load by pulling its spectrum license and giving it to someone who will perform this task. It’s our bandwidth and if broadcasters want to use it to make money, they can provide a community service.

Side note: if an ipod help my kid get access to porn, how did the porn get on to the ipod, by magic? No, the little devil downloaded it on my computer first. All an ipod would do is to enable the child to consume it alone (and I'm ok not walking in on that consumption thank you very much).

So, if you are annoyed by this, put down the ipod, place both hands on the keyboard and take action via the free press organization's action center

Happy Holidays to Bill O'Reilly

On November 9 Bill had a burst of schizophrenia which led to the most delicious moment of

hypocrisy that I have seen in a while.

First Bill said:

"I don't believe most people who aren't Christian are offended by the words 'Merry Christmas.' I think those people are nuts."

A few minutes later his guest, Philip Nulman, stated that phrases like "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" don't offend Christians. Bill retorted:

"Yes it does. It absolutely does, And I know that for a fact."

If people who are annoyed by the two words "Merry Christmas" are "nuts," then people freaking out over "Happy Holidays" must be in need of a nice lithium eggnog as well. Perhaps Bill is one of them.

To thank Bill for the smile he brought to our faces and let him know just what we think he is full of, I recommend that we all send him a nice "Holiday" present.

Order Your holiday gift at LeatherPost.com today (if you provide a nice note to the vendor in the special instructions field asking for a gift wrap and gift card with your text they can help you out).

Bill's Address:

Bill O'Reilly

Fox News - The O'Reilly Factor

1211 Avenue Of The Americas Lbby 1

New York, NY 10036-8705

phone: (212) 301-3000

Suggested Message:

Dear Bill,

Season's greetings and Happy Holidays to you. I hope this gift will help you to get over the fact that I didn't wish you a Merry Christmas and will help you to be more honest in the future.

Yours,

Your Name Here

Order your gift today, it is the best way to stay in the holiday spirit.

p.s. you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find an online store that will gift wrap an enema. You'd think it was an unusual gift or something....

Would the god fearing people please simmer down?

In Denmark the newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a cartoon, which contained an image of the prophet Mohammed. According to Islam, this is an act of blasphemy. I have read that governments of several Islamic nations have demanded that the Danish government punish the newspaper. Some people have questioned the value of democracy if such a thing can happen.

Related Article: Cartoons have Muslims threatening newspaper

First, is the violation of god's law a place where man should be involved. Man enforces man's law, shouldn't god do so for its? For men to take it into their hands to coerce others to follow god's law seems like a blasphemy of its own. Is god an all-being or not? To be all-powerful must mean that god can do what it needs on its own without our help.

Second, the essence of a free society is that I am free to express my beliefs in so far as they do not impact upon the freedoms or property of others. I can go out purchase symbols from various religions and burn them on my lawn. Members of those faiths are free to comment upon my behavior, but they are not free to kill or imprison me. (The same goes for symbols from governments as well).

Attacking my ideas is ok, attacking my person is not.

We Don't Need No Stinkin Pensions

Corporations have not been putting appropriate funds into pension plans. Now, as the baby boomers come due to retire we have a problem coming and its going to be huge. The executives made them selves look good and got their bonuses (pronounced bone-us) by effectively stealing from the pension fund. The government, which insures these pensions, has no regulatory agency with teeth to prevent this from happening. So, soon its going to be the S&L crisis all over again.

"We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."
Leona Helmsley, criminal...

Let me a see a show of hands, who is tired of paying the rich with tax dollars that would be better spent rebuilding our infrastructure, teaching our children, providing research for new technologies, defending our nation or caring for the needy? When the executives steal, they eventually steal from us, the tax payers. Ah, and let us not forget that the richest American now have the least tax burden. When millions of working people suddenly discover they have been screwed by these firm, let us hope that they organize into a political movement so that we can start to roll back the time of two Americas.


- Human Toll of a Pension Default
- Is There a US Pension Crisis?
- Pension Pains

Tired of Grabbing Ankle for George W. Bush

What follows is an open letter that I sent to my elected officials.... Perhaps you might want to contact yours and send them a similar message?

Senate: 202-224-3121 http://www.senate.gov
House: 202-224-3121 http://www.house.gov

Dear Elected Official,

The budget continues to be a sweepstakes for the top %1 while the rest of us get screwed. We are cutting monies for research and development that could fill the pipe and create whole new industries or lead us toward energy independences so an CEO can have a HUMMER. It was better when the President was getting one of those and our fiscal policy wasn't so insane. The NEO cons must be stopped before they destroy our middle class and then our democracy. We don't live in a stratified society like Brazil yet, let's keep it that way.

I ask you to stand up and say no. I ask you to stand in front of the tank just like man outside of Tianamen Square. If you do, I'll be there beside you, and so will many other Americans. We do not want two Americas. We want a land of freedom and opportunity. Let us being to roll back the insanity and stupidity of the past five years.

Cartoon Violence

UNICEF used the cute, cuddly and annoying smurfs to raise money and awareness regarding the effects of war on children. The rational was that violence upon cartoon characters is more effective than real pictures of the devastation done to people.

In the nation, there was an article about how a porn site is now carrying explicit war footage shot by soldiers in Iraq. The visitors to the site enjoy the carnage which according to the article is quite graphic. So, cartoon children suffering is controversial and real children blown apart is titillating pornography.

Smurfs Bombed In UNICEF Ads
The Porn of War

Reading Is Dangerous

We are just hours away from the release of the sixth installment of the "Harry Potter" series. This book may seem harmless to you, but every time your child turns a page she is in grave danger. Potter is a what is known as a gateway book. This prince will surely lead your child to move on to hard books by Tolkien or Barbara Kingsolver (your child may refer to these by their street names: "Ice T" and "Special K"). "My child doesn't have a problem,” you say; will you still say that when her room is filled with books and she has hocked your television to feed that habit. She's got a monkey on her back, and its not Curious George.

According to a recent study, by the American Association of Broadcasters, states that 65% of all children who read just one Harry Potter book become addicted to short fiction within a year. Page after page, novella after story, they wind up endless seeking to get high on reading. Never satisfied for long they hang around bookstores or spend hours trolling the dusty shelves of the library looking for a fix.

Reading is Fundamental, it is fundamentally dangerous. Treatment is available, but it all has to start with you being the parent saying, "No, you'll watch television and by god you will like it!"

Brought to you by the Partnership for a Thought Free America

No one ever regretted that they had but one life to give for KBR

What follows is an open letter that I have sent to a gaggle of Senators and my rep in the house. If you find the subject matter shocking, I urge that you visit the Frontline site and then contact your elected officials. It is our government and we have the power to shape how it will behave. That is what democracy is all about.

I just saw an episode of FRONTLINE on the use of contractors in Iraq. I heard Marine Col. John Toolan, the Marine commander in charge of an area of Iraq that included Fallujah, explain how the deaths of four contractors forced him to move from a rebuilding effort that could have won hearts and minds to policy of full onslaught and massive retaliation. It was clear that the Colonel saw this as a missed opportunity in our attempt to bring stability to Iraq. In addition, the attack on the four contractors in Fallujah and upon the KBR convoys led to many contractors leaving Iraq. This resulted in a logistical nightmare, which limited our troops effectiveness and put them in harm'’s way due to shortages and supply chain problems. It matters not whether we invasion was a good idea or a bad idea, it happened and we can only go forward at this point. As Colon Powell stated, we broke the pottery and now we have to fix it.

Corporations make money; that is what they do and that is all they do. It is not a good thing or a bad thing, merely a fact like gravity or the next sunrise. Asking a corporation to serve our national interests in terms of sacrificing profits does not work. Forcing a corporation to do so through a well-enforced regulatory regime provides some success, but it is far from perfect. What has happened in Iraq is to give contracting firms free reign and it has resulted and will continue to result in our soldiers' efforts being squandered. We cannot let this continue.

Wars cost money and wars cost lives, it is not possible for us to fight one on the cheap and win. The shielding of the American people from the true costs of this war through the use of contractors and other slight-of-hand methods may win an election, but it will result in all of us being less safe. We cannot win this thing if we are outsourcing key military tasks. I call on you to raise your voice and start to fix this problem. All outsource conducted by the Pentagon must stop. We need to have military roles fulfilled by military personnel. If this means that my taxes will go up, so be it. I'’d rather have that money going to hard working soldiers than a well-paid executive of KBR any day of the week. Also, we all know that taxes will have to go up anyway because wars cost money and nation building is not cheap.

Please do something to help support the troops by getting the contractors out of there. We need well-trained professional soldiers, not fly-by-night organizations that are arming bouncers and setting them loose. Stop the contracting firms before they get more of our soldiers killed and fowl up more of our policies and efforts.

Get Information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/
Contact your Senator: http://www.senate.gov
Contact your Representative: http://www.house.gov

Evolution and Religion, where is the overlap?

I do not understand the ruckus about how evolution threatens faith (or visa verse). Evolution is based on the following axioms:

• Organisms have offspring.
• Offspring share some traits from the parents and differ from one and other.
• Some differences help the offspring to have more of their own offspring.
• Over generations some traits spread throughout a population while others do not.

Religion seems to operate on these axioms:

• Some entity, that is usually called god, created the universe and all that is in it.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
• You are here for a reason.

The first set of axioms means that if I mate a dachshund and a Great Dane, I may wind up a Great Dane mother with a bunch of very short puppies who will produce very short prodgeny of their own. I can test this first set. I can test it by making high yield varieties of wheat and corn. I can test it by accidentally making drug resistant bacteria if I misuse antibiotics. I can test it by looking over the history in the fossil record since humans domesticated animals, and I can test it much further back. As for the second set, it I cannot test. I can choose to believe in god or not, but I cannot prove it one way or the other. This seems to be prime reason why the belief in god is a matter of faith.

When I look at natural selection and evolution I see a mountain range of evidence both in the historical record and in the lab and field today. What I do not see is any information about the existence or lack of a god. Because god is not described by the system cannot be taken to mean that god doesn't exist or is uninvolved. If I study how a faucet works by the washer being squeezed into place to stop the water flow, I may not talk about the municipal water authority. There may be one and it may deliver water to that faucet. There may not be one and the faucet may be attached to a bucket full of rain water. Its outside of my focus.

Science tends to be pragmatic and focus on what can be proved even if it may take some effort. When science leaves god out of it, it is not an attack, it is recognition that science isn't the right tool to explore this aspect of the human experience. Evolution describes a mechanism nothing more. If there is randomness or a god behind it, it is outside of the realm to which the natural selection is focused.

Given this situation, why and how could science threaten faith? It would seems akin to addition or subtraction threatening faith?

Operation Close Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart is a massive store that is changing America.

• workers encouraged to use public assistance a company policy
• workers forced to clock out and continue working
• workers locked in the stores
• jobs exported to China

Communities have been largely unsuccessful at stopping Wal-Mart in the courts. The problem was that they choice to fight against corporate giant. Why not have Wal-Mart fight itself? Wal-Mart fears unions so much that when a union was close to being formed in its store in conquer, Quebec the corporate giant closed the store. Wal-Mart claims that the closure had to do with the economics of the store and not the union vote. Could Wal-Mart executives be lying? Lets conduct and experiment to find out.

Hypothesis:

Wal-Mart is a big piece of antibiotic laden low priced poultry when it comes to unions.

Experiment:

1. Apply for a position at Wal-Mart
2. Get a spiffy smock
3. Agitate your co-workers and try to start a union

Results:
If you get close to a union vote and Wal-Mart closes the store, the hypothesis is valid. You will have succeeded in chasing Wal-Mart away from your community. If you get fired, the hypothesis might still be valid and now you can sue.

Let's make that little yellow smiley face run away to somewhere else....

It’s not to late to speculate

Bill O’Reilly is a man who understands truth and fairness. He is a man who knows what integrity is all about. He uses his keen understanding to avoid all of these things. More importantly, he is a man whose every public word is written down where I can find it…

So, if Bill were to be hypocritical or inaccurate (in my language we call this lying) Bill would get “busted.” I’d just like to thank Bill for being a lazy lying sanctimonious blow hard, it makes me smile when I think about it.

- Were he not lazy, he wouldn’t make big mistakes (a.k.a. lies).

- Were he not a sanctimonious, they wouldn’t be funny

- Were he not a blow hard, we hear about them

This is why I blog.

On June 9, Bill O’Reilly mentioned:
"As you may know, we do not speculate here on 'The Factor.' We have no idea what happened to Natalee or why she left the bar with some Aruban men. I've heard some irresponsible media speculate about that, and it makes me angry."

Grrr. It make me angry too. Rampant speculation and opinion expressed as fact is a real problem in today's media. News seems to have very little to do with fact these days. Here are a few particularly annoying examples:

Bill O’Reily 6/6/05 regarding Natalee Holloway:
"Looks like she's dead because the five people, two arrested, three interviewed, are all shady characters."

Bill O’Reilly 6/6/05 regarding Natalee Holloway:
"But to me, I mean, a woman like this, 18 years old, we know her background, doesn't have sex with three guys she doesn't know. I mean, that doesn't happen."

Bill O’Reilly 4/29/05 regarding the runaway bride:
"It's got to be a crime. A woman like that with a long history of responsibility. She had a steady job.... She just wouldn't bolt and not tell anybody."

Damn, it seems like Bill O’Reilly really could stop the irresponsible media. He could stop talking. Yeah, that’d probably help.

Profiles in Courage

I would like to commend Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace for admitting that they do not know how to read. It takes a real man to expose that kind of weakness and to face it head on. To you two, I say bravo and I wish you luck getting hooked on phonics.

Back Story:

The two men where holding a press conference and recieved this question:

Human rights groups continue to criticize what they've described as systematic abuses in the interrogation process... And I wonder if you would just respond to the suggestion that there is a systematic problem rather than the kinds of individual abuses we've heard of before.

Their answers were as follows:

SEC. RUMSFELD: I don't believe there's been a single one of the investigations that have been conducted, which has got to be six, seven, eight or nine --

GEN. PACE: Ten major reviews and 300 individual investigations of one kind of another.

SEC. RUMSFELD: And have you seen one that characterized it as systematic or systemic?

GEN. PACE: No, sir.

SEC. RUMSFELD: I haven't, either.

For them to have not seen any report that described the Abugrabe and Gunatanamo abuses as "systemic" must mean that they actually do not know how to read. I say this because the report by General Antonio Taguba states:

Article 15-16 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade, 5(S):

(S) That between October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility (BCCF), numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees. This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force (372nd Military Police Company, 320th Military Police Battalion, 800th MP Brigade), in Tier (section) 1-A of the Abu Ghraib Prison (BCCF). The allegations of abuse were substantiated by detailed witness statements (ANNEX 26) and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.

I hope that in expressing their adult literacy issue that Don and Peter are able to helped by First Lady Laura Bush's literacy program. If I am wrong and it is in the area pf morality where they are deficient, then perhaps there is an adult honesty program that can help them.

WalMart carries Klantastic (now with extra whitening power)

According to Customer Service at Walmart:
"Our pharmacists may decline to fill a prescription based on personal convictions. However, they must find another pharmacist, either at Wal-Mart or another pharmacy, who can assist you by filling your prescription."

Hmmm. So, if I'm the Grand Dragon of the Illinois Klu Klux Klan (it could happen; they could move jews to the Okkk list and I could sustain a head injury) and a black man comes up and wants his prescription filled. My personal convictions regarding racial superiority and all that crap could lead me to decide to not serve the black man. He must now wait at the back of the bus for someone willing to serve him. This looks like a policy that supports separate but equal service. A little breach of basic civil rights seems to be Ok for Walmart.

Way to go Walmart!
You bring us all together (in bankruptcy by using our tax dollars to export our jobs to China. Hell, we'd have just wasted them something stupid like education and training anyway) and then you pull us apart by making it Ok for us to discriminate against each other. Its like an anti-American hoki-poki, perhaps that's what its all about.

If I weren't already boycotting the store for the job exportation thing, the locking in of workers, the deliberate use of welfare as part of the employee compensation package, the destruction of community businesses and the forcing of employees to clock out and continue working then I'd start boycotting Walmart for this one.

If Walmart annoys you, boycott them. You can probably get the same stuff at Target (which isn't great, but it ain't Walmart either). If you do boycott them, please be sure to let them know at help@walmart.com

The End of Days is brought to you by our sponser...

I recently saw a television commercial for a new show called "Revelations." I gather it is another in a long line of books and programs about the end of days. I wonder which advertiser is chomping at the bit to have their ad shown just after Americans see the Beast. My money is on depends or Volvo. Both help people deal with fear.

Americans seem preoccupied with the Armageddon. We have TV shows depicting biblical and secular ends with Satan, Meteors, Super Volcanoes and Aliens providing the final blow. We have cult groups and religious sects eagerly awaiting the end of days. Some of these groups are trying to hasten our approach to this supposedly inevitable end. Certain sects seek to derail the Arab/Israeli peace process because they claim that the book of Revelations indicates that the Jews will control all of biblical Israel prior to the end. For the secular folks, this lust for the apocalypse expresses itself in doom and gloom predictions regarding the environment, global political instability or tales of freakish acts. The talk goes beyond identifying a problem and seeking remedies, there seems to be a twisted hope that these nightmares will come to pass.

Could is be that we look forward to Jesus, the space rock, the terrorists, global warming or the aliens ending life as we know so we don't have to face something far more difficult than these phantoms? If the world is not going to end, then we must remedy all the problems in our
lives. Osama is not going to blow up my house, so my mortgage will still be due. The beast will not come and therefore, each day of my life I will wake up and be faced with the chore or the opportunity to begin to repair the damage done to me and by me. I will have to take
responsibility for my actions and for those done in my name. I will need to face my fears and accept my limits. That is scarier than comic book apocalyptic climaxes and so enthrall us. Perhaps it is also more empowering. I can't beat Satan, but I'm pretty sure I can learn to
live more fully and to treat others as I would like to be treated.

Top 10 Reasons Why Michael Bolton Would Make a Better Ambassador to the UN

1. Doesn't have a silly mustache
2. Never Claimed the that UN doesn't exist
3. Is much more "fabulicious"
4. likes to collaborate with others, while John is advocates a go-it-alone foreign policy.
5. Never referred to by Jessie Helms as "the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon"
6. Sold 52 million albums and singles worldwide (more global appeal than Johnny)
7. Kenny G will be made Secretary General, sax solos for Peace.
8. awarded the Martin Luther King Award by the Congress of Racial Equality.
9. Never accused of bullying analysts in an attempt to obtain "intelligence" of Cuba's biological weapons program.*
10. Will be so busy with diplomacy that he will not have time to produce more music.

Irony

King James Bible - Exodus 20:4
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

Funny, a 5,300-pound granite monument sure looks like an idol to me....

If the meek shall inherit the earth, the mighty need protection

Big government in towns like Scottsburg, Indiana (population 14,066) are in danger of bringing down small struggling businesses like Verizon and Qwest, companies who are just trying to get $29.99 a month per customer. These small town fat cats have decided that they can offer internet access to their citizens at a fraction of the cost of what these hard working telecom companies charge.

In the case of Scottsburg, the government "claims" that the big telecom firms wouldn't provide internet service because it wasn't economically viable and that local businesses were suffering. These communists decided that the town had the right to offer municipal wireless internet service to the community. An unparalleled intrusion in the lives of we-the-people never before seen in my America*.
( *except for municipal water, sewer, sanitation, and garbage collection)

In Philadelphia, the town decided to offer low cost internet service to close the technology gap faced by the working poor and to provide more economic development to the city. We all know that not tacking on an additional 500% for glutinous profits makes this welfare and welfare should go to large corporation who buy (I mean contribute to the campaigns of) politicians, not to the people who vote for them.

Verizon and Quest aren't taking this lying down. They are fighting for your right to not have the the right to vote. In state legislatures across the country Goliath is urging that the politicians help it prevent David from getting his hands on any rocks. The argument is pretty persuasive, it goes something like this: "We gave you {insert a number with many zeros after it here} for you last campaign. Small towns are cutting into our market. If you can't help us, we can give somebody else this nice big check."

So, to protect you from the dangers of democracy, your state legislature may be considering a bill to make it illegal for you to have your town set up a municipal internet service. Lets face it, giving citizens the right to vote on how their money is spent is like giving a child a loaded gun, a bad idea.

Just stop and think, if telecom giants can't continue to over charge for their services, how will they continue to pay the 7 digit salaries of their executives? How will they continue to export jobs to other countries? Limos and private jets cost money folks, these companies need your help.

For just $1000 a legislator, you can make a difference. You can help keep the corporate jets flying and help under-inebriated directors get to their three martini lunches. If you don't help, we could be faces with a world of low cost reliable internet service, a future to nightmarish to contemplate.

A regular guy's attempt to have a movement

I often come across things which I find absurd, funny and troubling (usually, all at the same time). As these things happen, it seems to me that the entire country shrugs it's shoulders and says "so."

• Our elected official on both sides of the aisle serve those who write checks instead of those who cast ballots.
• Our funds destined to go to Iraq never make it there.
• Our soldier's must write home to their mothers asking not for cookies, but for body armor because the Pentagon didn't see fit to provide it.

I have a hard time saying "so" to any of that. I have longed for a place where I could, like my hero Howard Beale, shout that "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore." Well, this little corner of the internet is my space for doing just that.

I hope you will like what I have to contribute. I can assure you that even if you do not find my rantings to be humorous and thought provoking, that you will at least find them to be rife with gramatical mistakes.