Friday, December 29, 2006

Words of Saint James.



"If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?"

From me: Our faith provides us a way to constantly renew our comitment to civil rights, and the upholding of the dignity of all the people. This is what, as people of Christ, we are called to do.

"Your gonna do what with that rope!?"


Well this goes to show all middle eastern dictators that about 20 years afer shaking the hands of US diplomats you end up getting strung up by your own people.

It would be really cool if this execution would stop all the warring but I don't think it will accomplish much more than ending the life of a scumbag. So long Saddam, we hardly knew ya. Though what we did know about you really made us think little of you. Now I know that the muslim clerics in your country are all asking God to take vengence upon you. However I, as a Christian, would ask God to have mercy on your soul.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Lets Ban Gay Marriage! And waste more time!



I urge the Democratic majority in both House and Senate to ignore the bigoted, homophobic, crack-heads, on the right an not pay any attention to that non-issue. We have a nation to nurture and wasting time on non-issues such as gay marriage would not only be...well...a waste of time, but also it would really piss off the ghosts of these guys. Their spirit is still with us and it gives us the courage to belive that we can govern ourselves with wisdom.

Of course we can argure about if it is wise to let gay people marry. But it would be a stupid argument. If a gay person wishes to marry somebody who am I to tell them no. Marriage is as tough a business as there is in the field of interpersonal relationships. So if two gay guys or gals want to try to make a go of it then heck yes I am all for it.

Now onto making a nation where workers don't have to worry about having their jobs leave for Peru!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Goodbye Ford


I liked Jerry Ford. He was the perfect President for years 1974-1976. What was America like back in those days?

Unemployment was whopping 8.5%
The Budget Deficit: A poultry 550 billion

He had the luck to be the President to actually see the end of the Vietnam War in all its ugly failure. He pardoned Nixon and I think he probably did the right thing. Most all the scumbags that hungout with Nixon ended up going to jail and Nixon was destroyed politically anyway so I think Ford didn't really keep America from getting much more justice out of Watergate.

He also was President during Apollo~Soyuz. This may not sound like much now but back then it was HUGE. Two nations with 10,000 nukes pointed at each other and sworn to kill each other, went up to space to shake hands.

I would certainly take him over the turdsandwich in the White House now. However lots of scummy people who ill advise Bush got their false starts with Ford such as Rummy and Chenny. What killed Ford politically was Regan. Regan's upstart neo-con push for the Presidency in 1976 killed off the tremendously centerist, and potentially progressive, Republican party. That failure in 1976 was to bring to fruition the assinine policies of the Shrub of today. Ford ended up being good freinds with Jimmy Çarter. Both men have taken a beating from the press and their parties, but in the long run both men may shine brighter than, Regan, Clinton or the Bushes.

So long Jerry Ford! Thanks for helping out while you could.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Mom in Iraq

It was touchingto hear about the mother who went to Iraq to see the place where her son died. And it was touching to her words about how the media only reports "the bomb of the day" but unfortunately she is seeing the conflict through eyes stained with tears from a lost son. As an American I thank her son for his service and am sorry that he died. And I wish that the people who brought this war on be sent to prison for murder. This is a war that never needed to happen. While those who sought to kill us and hurt our nation are still at large, we are stuck in Iraq between violent factions bent on killing each other. There are lots of good things happening in Iraq, just like there were lots of good things happening in the 1860's in the USA, but they did not change the fact that the nation was ripping itself apart.

The reasons for being in Iraq or not are, in the long run, academic anyway. There is a huge cost to this war. The balance sheet will determine when this war, for America, ends. Remember WWII? The balance sheet was just as responsible for the dropping of the atom bomb as any other reason. Remember Vietnam? What tipped the balance? Money.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Politically Incorrect Santa III

Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas!

Yes it is Christ's Birthday, again, and no it is not his actual birthday but a date that at least most of us can agree on and not shoot each other over. Not like that whole Easter thing. Anyway so it is the holidays again and time for me, Samta, to give you that ol' fire side chat. I know that FDR did it first but am one to take good ideas of others and run with it.

So here goes for 2006:

I was going to post a really nose-bleeder of a incorrect santa letter but I have had a Dickensian change of heart. You all live in won magnificently adorned and screwed up world. You live in the best and worst of times and have done so since he begining of your meteoric rise from monkey-ville, past Jericho with its problematic walls, and Rome with its good and bad emperors, and those miserable kings of soggy Europe, and the grand and ridiculous emperors of China, all the way to moon landings and asian wars a plenty. So I guess if you can still bother to come together and celebrate a 2000 year old event I outta respect that and not beat up on you all.

Merry Christmas

Santa

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Big Stories and hard issues of today



Should Miss Nevada be stripped of her title because of lewd photos? Should Miss USA keep her title? And what about Miss Teen USA? There is a lot of snow on the ground in Colorado, and its winter! Should we get to have a nativity scene in downtown USA? Well all these stories are good for something. What I am not sure. I guess they keep our little minds of other things like the brake out of civil war in the Palestinian Territories, or the chaos in Iraq.

Or the 60 million Americans that suffer from malnutrition and hunger. This photo is of an American Citizen. This child was born in the richest nation in the history of man. This is not an old photo from the 50's or 60's. This is from 1996 Alabama. We have all the money we need to stop this kind of terrorism. But instead we waste our money killing people on the other side of the globe. To live in hunger, with no job, and no home, and no way out, is terrorism.

Merry Christmas :)

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Good News! Freightliner to build new plant!



After the doom and gloom around Freightliner having to lay off 4000 workers due to poor sales, the company has anounced that a brand new sparkling plant will be built to add to its capacity to meet the growing demand for their great trucks. Unfortunately the 4000 workers who got layed off in the US would have to move to Mexico if they wanted to work in that new plant.

Are we (The United States of America) insane?

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

More Chair Straighting


Lets see if I get the analogy correct:

The RMS Titanic has struck an iceberg and is sinking. There are too few life boats. So the White Star line decides to fire the captain and hire a new guy. Captain Rumsfeld smiles and walks off the bridge. Captain Gates takes his place. Outside, underneath Captain Gates, the dark cold ocean is getting ever closer, the ship is sinking. The physics of water, and bouancy are relentlessly closing off options for the good captain. He decides to visit the ships interior, yep it is sinking. He goes to the bridge and sure enough things are looking bad. His staff decide that perhaps more people should bail water. But Gates is no fool. Bilge will work as long as electrical systems and the boilers are functioning, but the ship is displacing 47 thousand tons of water, there is a gash below the water line, the force of water rushing in must be tremendous. Worse than those awful statistics is the 20 life boats that are rated as holding 1179 people. There are 3,500 people on board.

I hate that the Titanic scenario is matching our situation in Iraq but it does. The situation is not in the control of Washington, it is way beyond that. No new people are going to save this ship. Whatever is going to happen in Iraq, probably bad, is going to happen regardlesss of the "decider" or his minions. Come up with plans, talk to people, launch a study group, but the problem is that the situation is terminal. All the potential happy endings were written out of the equation before the ship was built. The RMS Iraq is sinking precisely because it was designed the way it was.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Prozac Problems

I listened to some really freaked out people talk about how Prozac ruined their lives. I do not doubt that they have had bad experiences. However in my experience Prozac has been a huge help. It is not a panacea for all that is wrong with your life and there are loads of warnings from Eli Lilly about how it works.

First of all like any such drug, it can effect different people in different ways. One side effect of begining taking a regem of Prozac is that your symptoms of nervousness or anxiety can get worse. This, for me, lasted a couple weeks then went away. Prozac does not instantly level out your illness. It takes about a month for it to really start to work correctly. It is also vital to take the med as perscribed. Do not take more or less as you think you need it. It is not asprin, it alters the way your brain cells communicate with each other. Also you should not simply stop taking it. Follow the directions for the medication and your doctor. Also make sure that you stay under the care of a qualified mental health professional.

For those whol like to self medicate:
Prozac is not a narcotic. If you are feeling a little blue and somebody offers you a Prozac it will not act on you like taking Codine for a sprained ankle. It does not act on you like Ativan either. The best idea is just DO NOT SELF MEDICATE.

Just my two cents worth regarding Prozac

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Climbing on Mt Hood


10,000 people a year attempt to summit Mount Hood. And a heck of a lot of them make it. So in climbing circles Hood is not very impressive. At least until you have been on it in a storm. I have been up on it in a storm and it sucks. Bad weather on Hood can be really bad, arctic bad, antarctic bad, himalayan bad. When you go from Portland to the summit in a single push, and that wis what most people do, you gain 11,000 feet of elevation. This is like climbing from base camp on Everest to the summit in a day. True almost half the climb is in a car on a highway, but the body is still effected. Another thing about Hood is that the upper section of the peak can stink to high heaven, litterally. Just when your wacked from slogging up snow slopes for five hours you get assaulted by sulfor dioxide from active fumerals.

Mountains and nature allow us to summit or not as they decide. If our desires and the cold, unfeeling, calculations of nature run against each other, nature always wins. Climbers are keenly aware of their smallness and fragility, the mountains and high places of the Earth make us aware. It is one reason why so many people go up to the hills. In the city it is all too easy to think ourselves important and in control, superior to the lower lifeforms of the wild. Mt Hood, and its rocky and ice-scared brothers and sisters, is a reminder that we are basically bacteria living on the skin of an apple.

Monday, December 11, 2006

The West and Middleast Working Together!



Who says that east and west has nothing in common? At least one pro-western group can work with the Iranians.

Today the Iranians are having a "conference" on whether or not the holocaust happened. As if it didn't happen unless the Iranians say it happened. They "liberally" say that if the evidence is there then they will agree that it happened. This is pathetic and I would really wish the world would rise up and shout these scumbags down. To allow this regime to gain the high ground is the best reason I can think of to impeach Bush. Thats right Bush. Bush's mishandling of the post 9-11 world has allowed this pimply little scumbag to claim leadership. Our heavey handed treatment in Iraq spearheaded Nenajad's rise to power in Iran. Our actions helped him solidify his own power base.

It is a pitty that even though both the Palestinians and the Jews have so much in common they cannot see each other. The conditions of Palestine are attrocious and it is made that way in no small part by Isreali actions as well as Hamas. But trying to say that the holocaust never happened is like Isreal saying that there is no problem in the occupied territories. Just because you say something is so doesn't make it so. Look at the mess in Iraq that was brought by believing dubious claims. The Iranians are going down the same bad path with their dunderheaded leadership.

I hope that the Iranian people, who have millenia of civilization to stand on, will not fall prey to this revisionist clap-trap.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Remember Pearl Harbor!?

I read a pathetic Neo-con diatribe about how Iraq is a failure because we used half measures. How we are too timid. What a load of crap. Watching a father cary his dead daughter out of his bombed house screaming "WHY WHY WHY" one wonders what, to a neo-con, would be full measures? They also brought up Pearl Harbor, like we forgot it or something. Well there is a big leasson in Pearl Harbor. Here it is:

The lesson is that Pearl Harbor shows the utter stupidity of premptive attacks. America did not attack Japan. Japan, wishing to teach America a lesson, and disaude it from getting in Japans way in the far east, launched a spectacularly successful series of strikes accross the Pacific, I guess the Neo Cons forgot about the Phillipines, Shanghi, etc, since they only bring up one of the multiple attacks. Anyway the Japanese, after all their initial success ended up getting creamed. They, like Bush, were little boys pushing stones down a hillside. Easily starting what quickly got out of their control.

The real enemy that hit us on 911 is still alive and doing fine. We have not really done much to the real enemy. Extremism, even in the good ol US is alive and well.

As long as we try to fight a war against terrorism we will never win! This is not being defeatist just smart. Fighting a war on terror is like fighting a war against mean people, or "bad guys" there will always be plenty of them to go around. We did not fight a war against facism in WWII. We faught against Germany and Japan. We had no problem allying ourselves with other totalitarians in WWII.

The biggest lesson of Pearl Harbor is "Let's not commit one!"

But this is all wasted on most of the knuckle walkers out there. To them the rules never seem to apply to them. Like Hitler and Tojo, or Stalin and Kruschev, the American Neo Con is blind to the reality of power. Power, real power, never comes out of a gun. Nations that base their greatness on force of arms are quickly vaporized.

All the Air Craft Carriers and tanks, fighter jets, and missles are a made possible by our power, they are not our power. Have we used them to get rid of Bin Laden? NO We have squandered the benifits of our power in Iraq. So our image is less than it was. That sin falls upon the heads of the American Neo Con. If the goal for the New American Century was to rid the world of American power then, I guess, they have done a good job. Like idiots who talked of new world orders, and thousand year reichs, and how they would burry this nation or that, the Neo Cons are only burrying themselves.

So what are we left with? Well throw the turd sandwiches out and get to work fashioning a pragmatic solution to this problem with the full understanding that there will be lots more problems coming, such is life i nthe big wide wonderful world.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Americans should really get to know Iraq



The image here is just a small section of Baghdad. This section is what is refered to as Sadr City. I noticed that Google Earth updated their imagery to 2006 images of the city. I wish they would give us the opportunity to layer the years. In so doing you could see the transformation of Baghdad from a city of parks, soccer fields, pools, golf courses, and jammed city streets, to a wasteland of bombed out buildings, acres of single-wide moble homes for contractors, and zig-zag paterned streets around the Green Zone. If you spent time flying over the city early on in Google Earth it wasn't a shining city by any means, but now it looks more and more like Mogadishu

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Jordan Fiasco



The stakes could not have been higher today for both Bush and Maliki. To grease the wheels of this high-stakes meeting, the Bush administrationi leaked a highly critical letter from Stephen Hadley about Maliki and his advisors. Then to help matters more, as if they needed more help, the meeting between King Abdullha, Bush, and Maliki got quickly cancelled. And for a final act of support, Sadr and his allies have threatened to pull out of the Iraqi government. With statesmanship like this why should we worry.

Can any of these guys ever to ANYTHING right? Can we not even have a simple meeting without tripping over our own feet? Oh yes and now I find out the my States Governor has spent 2 days in Iraq. Thats right folks, the Governor of Oregon has now spent more time in Iraq than our President.

Getting back to Hadley's memo, his decription of Maliki as being surrounded by people who limit the information he gets to make decisions, sounds earily familiar with another leader we know. The only good thing about the memo is that it shows that at least Hadlely sounds like he has his head on straight in viewing the problems. However the solutions he offers are straight out of some kind of crack-pipe.

Thankfully the illustrious Republicans now say that Bush will have a big announcement on how to go forward with Iraq. All I can say is "whatever"

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Bush continues his tough no-decision stance!

The little dear, known as the President of the United States, continues to be stuck on the highway of life looking into the oncoming headlights of an Iraqi civl war. He asked for NATO members to be more willing to take on hard missions in Afgahnistan and did not get much for it. The biggest casualty in the Iraq War is very probably Afgahnistan. The resurgence of the Taliban has only be possible thanks to the stupifying lack of rebuilding and money for that torn up nation.

Diplomacy is really too little too late. It is as if Bush smeared his own crap all over his bedroom walls, waited a few months, then decided to ask other people to help him clean it up. Why would people be willing to do that? Clean up your own crap Bush!

The Democrats need to start demanding action from the White House. Not pussyfooting around and trying to act like Republican-light. It is clear that Bush has no clue as to how to proceed with the war. He has been effectively canned by our enemy. We need a radical redirection and Bush, and I fear our new Congress, is not going to get us there. The US is bleeding power in fighting an unwinable, and ill defined war. Not only is Iraq wrong, so is the entire conceptual strategy of the war on terrorism. The leadership of our nation is monstrously pathetic in their non-intellectual approach to almost every major problem that we face. It really makes little difference whether you listen to republicans idiots or democratic idiots, the words are basically the same. "We will give you a slogan and then beilieve our own BS." Hitler would have kicked our ass if Bush and the leaders of today were in Washington.

If our current leadership continues to bleed power away like they are now, they should all be gotten rid of in a legally binding way. This is serious. I for one do not wish to live in a has-been nation. We have the intellect to do this, but the smart people are not in Washington. We don't need all the smart people, only a about 600 of them. Is that too much to ask?

Monday, November 27, 2006

Are we all taken care of?

Do you believe in an omnipotent God? If you do then don't start squaking about the big fight between God and the devil. That dog don't hunt. The only reason to put forth such crappola is a selling tool for the weakminded to get them to come to church. Scare them to church. This has worked quite well. However it is really not necessary. God has created everything and has it all under control. So stop worrying about raptures or end-times blah blah blah. Christ even opened the gates of hell to retrieve the damned, remember? I know there are lots of nasty things that happen to us, but really all the years of war, famine, and other such crap-going, is only a mere instant in eternity. So start rejoicing! If we all did that and there would be no more bad stuff. It is because we are waiting for something that has already happened that we languishing in pain.

Polonium 210

I heard on NPR how Po210 is tough to get a hold of and how only people at a nuclear facility could concoct it. This is obsurd to anyone familiar with this substance. It is the main substance in a product called the Static Master Brush. This is a anti-static brush widely used in the graphic arts and photography. You can by a brush for less than $30 over the web. What follows is a copy of text from the manufacturer:

"Some additional words about safety:
We must not lose sight of the fact that Po210 is highly toxic, emits alpha particles and is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Fortunately, the matrix in which it is encased, renders probability of exposure extremely small unless the matrix is damaged by abration or grinding so as to generate dust particles that may be inhaled.

This product is generally recognized as being safe because the potential for exposure is extremely low. Obviously, we can not keep someone from trying to cut this product open and perhaps metallographicall polishing it. So there are limits to what we can guarantee. When all factors are considered, we truly believe this product to be safe if used as instructed. 1" Wide Brush by Staticmaster®"

I forwarded this not only to NPR but also Scotland Yard Drug Directorate.

Remember Occam's Razor?

HO Scale Trains on G&G Railroad



This is a photo of a 4-8-4 Northern locomotive. This, and a 4-6-6-6 challenger, is what hauls big loads on our main line. We also have EMD SW-7 switcher and an old 0-4-0 switcher for branchline service. This is not a prototypical railroad. It is total fantasy. Keep you posted as it progresses.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Happy Turkey Day



Hey! What the? Who put this photo of Turkey here for Turkey day?

Monday, November 20, 2006

HO Scale Trains


My dad, God rest his soul, while dying of cancer created the beginings of a large HO scale 1:87th train layout in his basement. That was back in 1998. After many years of sitting unfinished my daughter Trudy decided to start back up on finishing it. She was about 1 year old when last she saw anyone working on it. Here it is today with the detritus of American consumerism around it; the boxes of used stuff, the old computer, etc. More photos to come as we progress!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Abizaid Disappointing



To here General Abizaid talk the only concern we have is Iraq. It is taking place in a bubble. He spoke as if the situation was all part of the plan of "campaign" as he put it. His assertion that we have to "embed" our forces into the new Iraqi security forces seems like a rehash of the old policy of: train the Iraqis to fight the war we pushed them into.

I would argue with Mr. Levin that we gave the Iraqis really NO opportunity to advance a democracy because we NEVER gave them a stable nation in which to build such a state. Our war-on-the-cheap has led directly to the current situation. Now the political will is no longer there to take the costs of finishing the job we started for ourselves. It is pretty piss poor to blame the Iraqi's since we are the ones who started this ball rolling not them.

The problems of controlling the civil war in Iraq are now so monumental that I can see no way to accomplish that goal. Unless massive troop deployments were to occur. This is not likely to happen. Again I would say that Carl Levin et al need to ask the question is the situation winnable, or solvable? What will it cost to solve it? And do we want to spend what it will cost? Of the answer to either the first of last question is no then the troops need to be withdrawn right now. Despite the catastrophe that would happen, since it already seems to have happened.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Get To Work!

The Democrats, a party traditionally held together with duct tape and bailing wire, with a few rubber bands for good measure, is now going to be in the drivers seat. My advice to my party is to keep together, but not at the expense of credibility. We need leaders who are unassailable from an ethical point of view. Thus if a member of either Senate or House is problematic they should not be in positions of leadership. Murtha seems to have some trouble. I like what he says and I think is a good egg. However he does not have to be majority leader. At this time personalities like Murtha need to play a background roll as rabel rouser, this is not condusive to majority leader. They position needs to be more cohesive and less bomb-thrower. A Murtha leadership will only lead to more squabbling and accomplish nothing that Murtha wants.

Remember "We Hate Bush" is not a policy.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Syd Mead

I think I have pigeon hold Mr Mead. He is the artist that has created Leisure Suit Chic. His designs, for the most part, glorify suburband futurism with all its consumerism. But unlike some artist who try to show how silly total consumerism is, Syd Mean goes out of his way to lionize it. His worlds are total make-overs. His cities are glorious only from a distance. On the streets the place is a total mess, totally non-people freindly. Ug. If his stuff didn't look so damn cool, even now, I would not think much of it. But it is cool and he is a favorite artist.

Veterans Day

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Rumsfeld and his pathetic former boss

Today Donald Rumsfeld resigned. A day after the President's party took a beating at the polls. Only a fewdays after the president said that Rumsfeld was the right man for the job. As an American I am sickened by Bush. What did it take to get the President to sack Rumsfeld? 2800+ dead soldiers? No 10,000+ wounded soldiers? No. Millions of shell shocked, brutalized and torn up Iraqis? No it took his party losing an election.

The resignation of Rumsfeld is the Bush administration at its clearest. Bush does not care one bit about our brothers and sisters off at war. If Bush was a real man and leader he would have sacked Rumsfeld a year ago. But not Bush. The Presidents loyalty to our troops is only surpassed by his loyalty to his party, his friends, and himself. I continue to be stunned by and ashamed of the behavior of our President.

If Rumsfeld's handling of the war was a problem before election day why did the President keep him around? Obviously he felt that Rummy could hlep him garner votes for his faithful. Then when Rumsfeld proved otherwise he was cut loose. But what are the soldiers supposed to think about that? Their needs for victory were secondary to Republican electioneering? And why the big wait on the new plan from Baker? If the situation on the ground is deteriorating is it not mandatory for the President, the commander of the army, to do what it takes to lead our soldiers? Over and over againt our soldiers have had to wait, fight, kill, die and get wounded, because their commander is too busy with his parties politics to really waste time on his "comma"

Bush is disgusting. The Democrats should impeach him and send him to Iraq as a private looking for IED's. That would be just. But they won't do that. They will not waste time on him. They will consider him as one considers the dead, already gone. Unfortunately for our soldiers he is not gone. He is there, and they are stuck in Iraq because of him.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Blame Bush..and conservative hypocrites


Republicans should real do some soul searching. You should dump the conservatives in your leadership and get wit hthe program.

Alright alright lets stop back slapping and get to work. I know we are still counting votes but the world waits for no one. The turd has now been cut in half and the Democrats now have to have the guts to deal with it. Remember ANTI-BUSH is not a policy. We have a war to win, or at least stop. We also have a lot of economic oversite to deal with. We have a budget to get back into balance. Remember the dolts we are replacing. Unless we can do better we may get swept out in 2008. So let us not have that happen. Dump the Delay style political mumbo-jumbo and get back to basics. Lets work for the good of the people.

Good Luck Democrats! God bless you and may He grant you fair wind on your quest to make America better. Let you all stay true to the best interests of America.

More Philosophy on Good and Evil

You will have to bare with me. I was thinking last night on the subject. So here I go again. My argument, that has been developing for a while now, is that good and evil is a human construction not an actual thing. The reason I say this is that each act considered good or evil is only that way because of the viewpoint of the entity saying an act is good or evil.

The only way to really know for certain that an act is good or evil is to understand it within the total confines of causality. Unless you know 100% of the causality of the universe you cannot say for certain if an act is good or evil. All you are able to do is say that given a set of local circumstances, from a particular viewpoint, at the certain moment, an act is good or evil.

This would mean that only a God that had total awareness of all causality could possibly know good and evil.

This does not mean that I am saying that everything is permissible or even desireable. What I am saying that using the term good or evil is not sufficient to explain the necessity of actions. My example right now is the War on Terror. The President uses the term good and evil a lot. This is not good enough and has not really worked in keeping us on task.

The reason for this, I think, is that subconsiously we know how shallow the terms are. We need a more indepth reason to sacrifice in a war. There are real reasons that religious extremism should be faught against. But good and evil are not reasons they are viewpoints.

A better argument would be to start at the beginning. The meaning of life is to create more life. Within that outter sphere is an inner sphere of human hirarchy, all human societies rely on some form of hirarchy into order to exist. We cannot exist outside either of those two outer spheres. Then it is a matter of determining what form of hirarchy is most benificial. It is demonstratable that extremist hirarchies do not last long. The devolve into chaos then reorganize. This is not condusive to the expansion of the spieces. Nor is it condusive to mental expansion. This is very important since I would posit that human intellectual expansionism is most important to spieces survival, and indeed life survival of all life on Earth.

So only societies that have dispearsed power, limited government, and diametrically opposed forces can allow humans to think freely. Free thought flows into scientific, social, and philosophical progress and that is good since it allows humanity to better coexist with its neighbors and live on the Earth without destroying it. Extremism, of any kind, puts out of bounds certain thought so that potential answers to important questions are never brought to fruition. As messy as western liberal democracy is, it is the best hirarchy that has yet been developed to advance the spieces. That is a reason to fight against religious extremists.

Monday, November 06, 2006

My Two Cents Worth on Oregon Vote 2006

1: Vote by mail, though convinient, is crap.

It is crap for the following reasons. It requires you to spend money to get to vote. A 32 cent poll tax. It is also NOT vote by mail up until election day. In Oregon a post mark does not count. If you mail your vote and some dufas miss handles your ballot and it does not get to the elections office by 8pm of elections day you have NOT voted. It doesn't matter if your ballot is post marked a week before the election. So drop it off in a ballot box. Don't mail the damn thing in. It also saves you having to pay the poll tax.

#43 Parental Notification: NO

I am sorry but there are lots or parents out there who are not much more mentally mature than their teenaged offspring and are no better at decision making. If a teen seeks an abortion that requires a level of forethought that is beyond the norm. The number of teens stupid enough to ruin their lives with kids when they are 15 is much higher than the number who seek out an abortion. This is basically not a problem so lets not solve the non problem.

#40, #45, #46 #48: NO

No reason to ammend our Constitution. It has done fine since 1859.

#44: NO

Sorry. I would love to vote for this but until we really totally rethink our whole healthcare nightmare I do not want to joepardize what we already have.

#47: NO

We need 100% public financing of elections but until this happens it would be silly to pass this. All it would do would be to further limit the power of people to advocate for change.

#39: YES

This could cut both ways but it should be the law anyway. It just makes sense.

This has been my two cents worth. As for the people on the ballot. Vote for those people you feel least likely to screw you over.

Sadam found guilty! Duh. Who else is guilty?


"As a result of the openings created by Rumsfeld's diplomatic triumphs, U.S. companies were recruited and encouraged, both covertly and overtly, to ship poisonous chemicals and biological agents to Iraq, by the administrations of both Reagan and George Bush Sr.. Care packages to Saddam included sample strains of anthrax and bubonic plague, and components which would be used to develop nerve poisons like sarin gas and ricin." -

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Support the Troops!


For people who like to say how Iraq is only going badly because the news media concentrates on only the bad things here is what the American people of 1861-1865 go to look at on a daily basis. Not in some other nation but in their own backyards, farms, and church grounds. The difference is that in the Civil War there was a reason to fight. Iraq is a war without a purpose, at least not one that doesn't change with the polls Bush claims not to watch.

In 1863 there were massive demonstrations and draft riots in New York. Mainly because the rich and powerful could simply buy their way out of it. They would hire people called proxies that would go and fight instead of themselves. The common people thought this disgusting, as did many soldiers who had returned from the carnage.

Bush and his family are cut from the cloth of those who send people to war but who do not go themselves. Kerry did not have to see combat either. With his connections he could have easily gotten out of it. No he sought it out. Like many many Americans in the 1860's who could have easily hired proxies he too went forth.

What has Bush and his Bushleage done? Northing.

Boehner needs to appologize!!!!!

BOEHNER: Wolf, I understand that, but let's not blame what's happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.

BLITZER: But he's in charge of the military.

BOEHNER: But the fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president. We've seen this run up in violence as we get closer to the election, as we get closer to Ramadan, same thing we've seen over the last couple of years.

Me: So Mr Boehner is now saying basically don't blame Rumsfeld for Iraq. Blame the military. So he is blaming the troops on the ground and their commanders instead of those planning (haha) the war.

Just when I get pissed off I read this and think...He is a pretty good talker, just not a joker.

John Kerry -

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

I love political dumbasses...NOT



As a member of the big groupt that wants to rest the controls of the ship of state from the hands of those seeking to run us into yet another ice berg, I am flumexed over the stupidity of those claiming the mantel of leadership (so called) in the Democratic Party. Don't make jokes about Iraq. Let the republicans do that. Iraq is not worthy of making jokes about. It is a sick and twisted mess and the soldiers there are stuck. My advice to Kerry is to shut the hell up and get out of our way.

Politicians are just plain stupid. It is as if DC sucks the grey matter out of their heads. Bush is brain dead, Kerry seems brain dead. Bill Frist is brain dead, Dennis Hastert is gigantic and brain dead. I think we should remove the feeding tubes from all the pathetic SOB's in DC and let them all go to the maker they all claim to want to serve. Though what God will do with these losers is anybody's guess.

Politicians make me wanna puke. A bunch of self righteous turd sandwiches. Meanwhile 103 brave soldiers get to go home in sacks. That equals about 1,339 wounded this month. So by all means lets just all use the war for scapgoating and political crappola and not try to solve this shit.

I want the Dems to win for many other reasons that Iraq. But mostly because I want some oversite on this out of control shit pile that is the Bush League's White House. I guess the morons in charge, or who want to be in charge, think they can go around and spew whatever the crowd of the moment will let them get away with.

I would like to believe in someone. But I find I cannot really do that. I do not want someone pure. All I want is someone who is smart enough to know what to say and when to say it. Someone who is tough enough not to take crap unless taking it will help US out. Some other advice to both parties is be careful of what you are shovling because you will invariable have to step in it yourself. We need something better. Not someone. Vote party not personality. Vote your agenda. Vote for America, for you brothers and sisters, your kids. But don't think these dolts are going to save your. We need to guide them in their fumblings in Washington.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Al Queada is trying to swing the election!

I rarely agree with VP Cheney but he is right that our enemies are trying to swing our election. They are attempting to help Bush scare voters into reelecting Bush's party to Congress. Our enemies realise that a Republican defeat would be a very serious problem for them so they have gone out of there way to be even more violent than usual.

I don't actually believe this shit. The average Iraqi insurgent couldn't give a rats ass what party is in charge of the US. Nor does Osama BL really care either. If the republicans win does any sane human really think he will think "oh no! They are really gonna get me now!" or the reverese if the Dem's win? This is retarded.

The only thing more retarded is the argument that a vote for Democrats is a vote to impeach Bush. What is that kind of argument saying about Bush? Nothing good. I doubt the Democrats will waste time on impeaching Bush. He is already so lame that impeachment would be rather redundant.

Now onto other news:

I WANT US TO WIN THE WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get this into your empty heads you no-talent conservative hicks!
As a committed liberal I want to kick the ass of our real enemy six ways from sunday and stick his (OBLs) head on a stick. We need to ratchet up things against our real enemies and stop fucking around in Iraq. Every American GI that is getting killed in the FUBAR that is Iraq is dying only because Bush can't figure out what to do. All this horseshit from Republicans about Democrats or liberals not wanting to fight is just that. We just want to rip the stupid blinders off the morons in DC and point them toward the right target. The deer in the headlights need to get out of the way!

In total confirmation of my assertion that Bushco has given aid and comfort to our enemy the pentagon now ackowledges that 14,000 weapons that we gave to our iranian backed Iraqi buddies are missing. Wow knock me over with a feather.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Don't buy the snake oil!

If Americans are willing to buy crap coming from Bush et al about how tough things are in Iraq, but we only have to adapt and overcome, blah blah blah, then they need their heads examined. It is a VERY DANGROUS thing to have a President have an election outcome get him to act in a war of his making. The more this SOB acts the more he makes me sick. First he gets us into a war that we didn't need to have, then he BS's his way around trying to tell us its all going to be gravey, then when thi9ngs go shitty he acts like an idiot saying his "stay the coursse" crap. Now, after reading the polls, something he says he never does (yeah right), he is changing his tune. Well talk is cheap you pathetic texas Cow-hearder, and your talk is cheaper than a Rolex Watch your can buy from a Time Square street vendor and just as reliable. If Americans are so fucking stupid as to buy his shit then we deserved to lose, and we will lose since Bush and company can't win for trying, other than elections.

VOTE DEMOCRAT AND THEN HOLD THE DEMOCRATS FEET TO THE FIRE OF TRUTH! DON'T LET THEM SQUIRL OUT OF DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Review of The Departed

I figured that with a title like The Departed nobody was going to live. I will not give away the ending (s) of the cast. Solid acting and a pretty solid story all the way around. The only draw back to this little flick was the lousy cinematography. The shots seemed to be lined up by Mr. Bill and Sluggo. The editing was ho-hum and the music sucked. The sound was great and the characters were great, however the girl playing the shrink was totally lame. Not that she did not do her part well, it is just that a shrink helping cops would probably see "the signs" of trouble and would not get involved with such psycho nut cases. She seemed pretty weak. Nicholson was great as usual. He has not lost his creepiness factor. No real surprises in the film. No "ah'ha!" moments. But was plenty violent without the violence seeming gratuitous. Gets a 8

Review of Flags of Our Fathers

It is a very sad film. Sad in that a lot of money was wasted on very stupendous battle scenes and other cgi recreations of 1940's America. The story was a gripping one, personalities a plenty, and had a lot of worthiness to it. However it was a jumbled mess that told a story poorly and I left the theatre thinking to myself. "Yep war is pretty shitty." Eastwood did the best he could with the script. However he should have told the story in a different way. It was a jumbled mess about a pretty simple set of circumstances. Guys go to war, have to take an island, some die, others live. One group raises a flag then another group does. The second bunch look better, its just a better photo. The government uses the photo to sell war bonds. The men know the truth. The end. Gets a 6.5

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Rama~Tet



Those pesky nay sayers trying to compare Iraq with Vietnam. You'd never here Bush do that! Oh...I guess he did. Then he said that the Democrats are all over the page on Iraq. I would say thank God somebody is trying to figure out what to do. Bush's deer-in-the-headlights approach is certainly not a winning strategy.

I was discussing this terrible problem with a freind over a drink, both of us lamenting the war, when I was asked what would constitue a good reason for going to war. I said I would only go to war if the survival of the United States depended on it. If the reason was given was anything longer than that it was probably not worth it. I would also say that any war is not worth fighting if a draft would be looked down on. I would fight for my country to keep us going. But not for some Iraq-like farce.

One other thing bothers me too. As a student of history I do not recall any Union troops being stop-lossed back into combat during the Civil War nor in WWI or WWII. How our worthless president can send these men back to hell because he can't figure out what to do, and still sleep at night is beyond me.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Frontline was great



If you missed this very well produced Frontline episode please think about watching it online at

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/

From the mouths off Paul Brimmer, general Jay Garner, and a host of others responsible for post war Iraq we are led down a very sad rabbit whole in the Alice and Wonderland that was the White House and their misguided effort to recreate Iraq. This program should be mandatory viewing for all people wanting to topple nations then rebuild them as a case study in what NOT to do. My hats off the Frontline for such a great program.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

How they see us


Every once in a while you get a glimpse of how they see us. Corrupt, hedonistic, selfish, lewd, imoral. We are not all this way. Freedom gives us the ability to do many things including being all of the above. It also forces us to make choices. In tyranny, whether religious or secular, people do not have choice. Freedom from authority forces upon us the mantel of the decider. We are all the decider. We annoint our own leaders and then unannoint them as we see fit.

There are, I think, many people who do not like this. They want the annointing to come from above or from something else that has more purity of puropse, or clarity of conscience. This is impossible but they seek it nonethless like Galhad seeking the grail. Forever do they throw up one figure after another to lead them only to find the leader only human. At least the free people of the Earth understand the structure of humanity, make and agree upon laws, and strive to accept responsibility for our own sucess and failure.

We have the capacity for loathsome behavior. But whereas those that believe in tyranny seek to push the blame for holocausts and death to God's shoulders, the free peoples of the earth accept that it is mankind who makes wars and concludes peace. We have been given the free will to either live or die. To kill or not to kill. To build or to destroy. Only the free people understand this responsibility. Only the free understand that the future is in our hands and that we are not puppets nor are we pawns in some war between the good God and the bad god whom we can blame when things do not go our way: ah it was God's will...or...the devil made him do it.

So who are they? The people who do not understand freedom. Or who do undertand it's implications, and have rejected it in favor of being pawns in a game out of their control. Freedom is a very adult thing. Many see it and then recoil, unwilling to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. Seeking the security of childhood where they are told where to go, what to belive, and who to follow. These people are children, seeing the complexity of the universe and rejecting it. They see no point in saving the Earth. It is too hard for them to comprehend such large acts. They throw up their hands and say it is all in some unwritten plan, or buried in ancient books whos authors simply cannot come out and tell them what to do. Bin Laden, seeking to destroy the evil, as he sees it in the world, and Robertson, asking if certain leaders should be killed, are the same. Instead of rolling up their sleeves and pragmatically seeking peaceful coexistance they shrink back into the womb of absolutism, claiming that they speak and act on Gods behalf.

What if the truth actually revolves around our own intellect, granted to us by millions of years of evolution, set up by God. Our own minds and will have made our human world. And to understand the history of mankind is to see a constant struggle between those who wish to broaden the human horizon and better the human condition, and those that seek to retrograde back into the womb. History teaches that the womb seekers always fail.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Clarification of what DPRK has done

North Korea evidently does not have a thermonuclear weapon. They have an atomic bomb. There are large differences. The weapons currently in the US arsenal need a bomb the size of the one dropped on Hroshima just as a fuse to set them off. A fission bomb works by detonating TNT around fisiable material. The fissionable atoms break and realease its engery. A thermonuclear bomb uses an atom bomb to cause its nuclear material to fuse. This creates enormous heat hence the term thermo. The fusion bombs we have are basically small Suns that we can start. They are thousands of times more destructive than the DPRK's little bomb. They are overkill made flesh. This is not to diminish the problem caused by the DPRK testing their fire cracker. If you can build an atom bomb you are not too far from building a super-bomb.

DPRK's Bomb estimated at: 15,000 tons of TNT

Us bombs: 100,000,000 tons of TNT or about 7,500 times more powerful than the DPRK's bomb

Birthdates



We all live on such a razor thin margin of existance. That life will continue for any of us for more that a nano second is in no way certain. I could pop off to death right now for all I know. A very nice man I know died a couple of days ago, doctors were able to bring him back to life and he will go home from the hospital tommorrow. My daughter and I were having a deep conversation of the problems of living forever on Earth. She came to the conclusion that the only way she would want to live forever is that if all her family and freinds could too. She figured that it would be pretty sad to hang around while all her family and freinds dopped one after the other. She also said, at the end, she could still make new freinds.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Benito ~ Limbaugh NO YOUR ENEMY NO YOUR FASCIST

HIV Epidemic not credible

Good news! Aids is not a problem in Africa or Asia. All the statistical analysis has been shown to be not credible. By who? By that paragon of science GW Bush. This is of course nonsense. The statistics he doesn't like are usually the ones that show his war to be going badly. He hates the truth, can't stand the pesky thing. So he simply says that the analysis showing over 1/2 million war dead in Iraq is not credible. He does not back up his assertion with any coroberating data whatsoever. We are just supposed to trust him. Him? Trust Bush? Well all I can say is that his little "comma" is turning into an exclaimation point. The wreakless brutality of the Bushleague is matched in scope only by their utterly dilusional belief in their own views. Their mindless adherence to the two-headed pig that is their war policy. They give aid and comfort to our enemies and will win nothing but the mantel of failure. Yet it is not their blood and guts that get blasted out in their stumbling and lurching to loss. It is the soldier, the child screaming in the streets, the families wailing over their dead fathers only to be blown up by the coffin.

Who's Fault is DPRK's Bomb?



This guy is to blame. It would be nice to blame Clinton or Bush, but this guy had way more to do with the bomb than either of those other two guys. To my knowledge neither Clinton or Bush was in the decision making process in the North Korean bomb making program. North Koreans planned their bomb, north Koreans built their bomb, and north Koreans exploded their bomb. So blame North Korea.

Now it is up to Bush and company to keep us safe. I know this really sounds bad, and it probably is. Bushco is as pathetic a bunch of losers as can be imagined, but hey they are all we have....for now...

Monday, October 09, 2006

Nuke Test In Korea

The situation with North Korea and Iran has been made inevitable by a lack of coherent post cold-war nuclear policy by the US and Russia. Instead of joining forces to help other nations see the futility of such weaponry both nations have drifted without direction, caught up in their own internal problems and unwinable wars. The lack of world leadership by the two most powerful nations has hurt our chances as a spieces to survive.

The solution to Korea is certainly not further sanctions. The country is already to most isolated nation on earth. Using medieval siege tatctics against Korea will do nothing to combat the threat of them selling technology to our real enemies. Only full on engagement will help matters. For those who think that war is the answer I would ask what we are going to fight that war with? GI Joe figures? Forceful engagement is the only way forward. All the big-stick approach does is allow Korea to react. It gives them no way forward other than bluster. By handing down ultimatums we hand the regime in Pyongyang more power. It gives them a legitimate way to explain away why they do what they do.

Civility, and carrots, a desire to negotiate gives us legitimacy and would put the DPRK in a weaker position. I am really at a loss as to explain the logic behind the current administrations policies. Other than to assume they mean to harm the US and deminish our role in the world.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Spet Oct Poll Crunch 2006



I have not done a Poll Crunch since the summer. So to rectify the situation here is the Presidents standing as of today. Much has been in the media about a "bump" for Bush. I see no real evidence of this as the poll-crunch plainly illustrates.

Approve: 36.5%
Disapprove: 58.5%
Duh: 5%

This has one of the lowest "Duh" ratings of any poll cruch. Very few undecided people in these polls. These number are derivedd from 7 national polls taken between 9-01-06 and 10-06-06. The spread on the Approval side ranges from a low of 33% to a high of 45%. The most recent polling from CNN/Wall Street Journal/ and NBC has him at 39%. This is down from a high of 42% two weeks ago.

Most positive poll: LA Times/Bloomberg of 9/16 has him at 45%
Least positive poll: Newsweek at 33%

My bellweather poll is the FOX/Opinion Dynamics poll and it places him at: 42% on 9/26

To anybody from the Clintonian school of politics this would be a disaster. To the bushleague they couldn't care less. They do not care how unpop[ular Bush is. All they want is enough of the true-believers to come out to vote to swing things their way. I am not sure if this calculation is going to come out in their favor this time.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Warriors One and All



I was watching Trinity Broadcasting Network. There was a nice Christian guy talking about how fun paintball was for everyone from Christian youth groups to Young Republicans. But there was a danger too. According to the church guy Jihadists are using paintball games to practice their jihadist ways. Behind the church-guy were a bunch of white Christian guys in white t-shirts and face masks shooting at each other with paint guns. I found this a little blindly hypocritical.

Here you have a bunch of religious fundamentalists practising shooting at each other with paintballs. How is this different? Oh yes, these are "our" fundamentalists. But it gets better and far more murky...

I am very much of an anti-war person. As far as fighting wars that we don't actually have to fight. I am all for getting the SOB's that want to attack us. That is cool. But Iraq is not the way to go about it. Anyway here is the murky part. After watching this hypocracy on the church channel I take my computer over to my brothers house and hook into a LAN game of Battlefield 2. Here we spend hours battling muslim armies and chinese armies killing as many of the badguys as we can.

The point is that these games are popular for all sorts of people. So is paintball. There are probably just as many liberal paintballers as righties. The desire to fight is part of the human condition. It is always lurking beneath our superfical civility. All little boys, big boys, and many girls, like playing WAR. There are some who question the ethics of people who like games like paintball or BF2. Does this predispose people to violence? Probably. My testosterone goes up when playing such games.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Major General Batiste


"We certainly had the troops necessary to win the fight to take down Saddam Hussein, but we in no way considered the hard work to win the peace. There was 10 years of good, deliberate war planning by U.S. Central Command that was essentially ignored."

"We went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the peace after we took down the regime. We also served under a secretary of Defense who didn't understand leadership, who was abusive, who was arrogant, who didn't build a strong team."

Thursday, September 21, 2006

We are so F#$%'d and so are the poor Iraqi's

The Washington Post reported today on the Iraq Study Group and its recomendations about what we should be doing in Iraq: (It isn't good, not even a little bit, not even a tiny weeny bit)

Go to :http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901341.html
If you want to read the whole article

The synopsis goes something like this:

James Baker and Lee Hamilton represent the Iraq Study Group. A bunch of old politicians who want to help the US in its war in Iraq. They havebeen working diligently since March 15th of this year. So today that had a press conference

Q: Can the war in Iraq be won?

A: We're not going to make any assessments today about what we think the status of the situation is in Iraq

Q: Could they at least explain their definitions of success and failure in Iraq?

A: Baker -We're not going to get into that today
A: Hamilton -We've made no judgment of any kind at this point about any aspect of policy with regard to Iraq

Q: When will you report?

A: After the midterm elections

Q: Shouldn't the urgency be propelled by developments in Iraq rather than the calendar here?

A: We think it's more important, frankly, to make sure whatever we bring forward is taken, to the extent that we can take it, out of domestic politics

Q: How much were you able to leave the Green Zone while you were in Baghdad?

A: It was recommended to us that it would probably be something that we ought not to do but they were willing for us to do it if we insisted

Q: ..do you think Iraq is still winnable in any substantive sense, or is the issue for your panel now minimizing the scale of U.S. loss and the suffering the U.S. may have going forward?

A: Secretary Baker and I simply are not able at this point even to give you a good idea of where the study group exists with regard to recommendations

Q: Can you at least explain certain definitions?

A: That's the very question that Mr. Hamilton just said we're not going to get into

At the end of this total farce Lee Hamilton said, "The people of Iraq have the right to expect immediate action,"

Washingtons Swamp gass has killed off all the brain cells of our leaders. We are so F'd

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

"Hey you! Yes you. Stop screwing around."



All of you are saved. I did this. You should really stop making life hell for yourselves and love each other. What gives? What will it take for you to catch a clue? A big miracle? Well you are a living miracle. You developed from hydrocarbons over billions of years on a little dirt clod in the midst of empty space to become self aware. You have the ability to change and have a moral compass should you chose to pay attention to it. For My sake mankind, get with the program. Remember you can be in Heaven or hell. Currently you are in the later. Though only by your own wishes. I am still confident that you will be with me. Not because you are particularly swift but since I am God and can pretty much save everybody I want to and I chose to save you.

Have a nice day

God

Monday, September 11, 2006

September 11, 2006



Our response to 9/11 has been to make matters much much worse. Negotiating with terrorists, putting them in power, selling them f-16's, inviting them to your house fo dinner, and letting them have billions of taxpayer dollars is no way to defeat them. All of this Bush has allowed. How in the hell can we trust this incompitent President to lead us to awywhere but disaster?

Prince Abdula of Saudi Arabia - gives lots of money to terorrists and like to visit Bush
We sold f-16's to Pakistan, a country that is admitting it gives safe haven to Taliban
We helped DAWA (hezbulha creator) and SCIRI (created by Iran) to get into power in Iraq
We have given billions into the hands of people in Iraq who simply take the money and vanish.

The best way to start to win this war is to fire the morons who are trying to prosecute it.

The Bush league is the problem.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Yellow Jackets

Today a 3rd grader at my daughters school decided he had had enough of the honets coming in and out of a little hole in the ground. So he took a pine cone and shoved it in the hole. This accomplished the following as related by KGW NEWS :

Eighteen youths and two adults were stung by wasps at an elementary school in Boring on Friday morning. The Boring Fire Department responded to a two-alarm medical call to Naas Elementary School, located just north of Highway 212. A group of 1st through 3rd graders were out at recess when the attack took place. Some children were stung multiple times. Two adults were stung while coming to the aid of the children.

-By FRANK MUNGEAM, kgw.com Staff

Okay here is another news line. See if you can figure out the parrelells? Come on..school is back in session:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirteen people, including a U.S. soldier, were killed over a 24-hour period in scattered attacks across Iraq, and 14 bodies showing signs of torture were found around the capital. A roadside bomb exploded Friday in central Baghdad, killing three people, including a mother and child, and wounding six, three of them police officers, Iraqi emergency police said. The attack appeared to target a police commander's convoy, a police official said. The American soldier died when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb while traveling south of Baghdad.

The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq stands at 2,660 since the 2003 invasion. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The evil doer terrorilists are like Attila



And now a word from President Attila the Hun:

As of today AD 446 things look great. We are on our way to a new Hun Century. Our way of life is spreading like wildfire, and just about as destructively. So we can look forward to a new mellenium of Hun prosperity. No one will get in our way now. The world is our oyster. We can pretty much do whatever we want. I am sure that our continued greatness will go on and on....


AD 453: Attila is dead, his empire dies with him. The Huns settle down in eastern Europe though many go back eatward. So much for the New Hun Century.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Enough of lackluster non-leadership

The situation: global jihadist movement, that has the suicidal desire to inflict carnage on western nations, is at war with America.

This should be something that right and left can agree on.

Current Reaction: US needs to hit the enemy hard and where it counts. Unlike wars of the past that required massive engagements with land armies, navys, and massive air power, this war will only be won by winning small "quiet" battles. The right has a problem with law enforcement measures but this is really the only way these groups are stopped. In order to do this correctly civil liberties need to be realistic. We cannot stop jihadists without surveillance, and that has to be a series of nets going from broad nets to smaller nets. Filteration. Liberals hate this. So our war fighting capability is hamstrung by the right and left. The unfortunates caught taking up the slack is the foot soldier. The soldier, who may indeed by needed for small quite fights, is now over extended. Meanwhile the national threats still exist that would actually require large armed reponse. The Tiwan straight is still a potential flash point as is North Korea and even a neo-dictatorship in Russia. Large force deterance is at an all time low now since large potential national adversaries see us as bogged down in Iraq.

Path forward: Disengagement in Iraq is important for the afore mentioned reasons. However quick withdral is impossible and dangerous. An Afghanistan in the middle of the middle east is not a good thing. Even a totalitarian regime in Iraq would, in the short run, be better than anarchy. The best way to avoid this is to partner with neighboring states but this is problematice since they are dictatorships and theocracies. A large Egyptian/Turkish/Jordanian force would be more help. Such a force needs to be assembled under the auspices of the UN.

Intel gathering needs to be explained to the US citizen so they understand the scope, neccessity, and limits of what the government has to do. They also need to be given an end-game view so they know how the war is progressing. It must be unbiased and non-partisan. The American people are highly resilient and would be very willing to help their government if they thought they could trust it. Liberal and Conservative voices, and actions, have done nothing but destroy the citizens view of their national government.

More to come

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Be Happy Anyway



Enough of the downer diatribes. In about 40 minutes it will be a happy new day. Kids will play, lovers will love, friends will laugh at rude noises, and the creative spirit will thrive anew. Life is good.

More Information on Fascism from Benito, Hitler and Michael Savage

"Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision -- the alternative of life or death...."

Michael Savage on what should be done to the Iraqi prisoners:

"And I think there should be no mercy shown to these sub-humans. I believe that a thousand of them should be killed tomorrow."

Hitler's Conversation with Josef Hell, 1922

"If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz-as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew!" (quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler. London: Book Club Associates, 1977, p.116)

Michael Savage again:

"And so unless the RDDB (Liberal) is reined in somehow or taken out of power, we’re going to die as a nation. I swear to God that’s what people are saying to me. And these are intelligent people, wealthy people. They are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, “Oh, there’s a billion of them.” I said, “So, kill 100 million of them, then there’ll be 900 million of them.” I mean, would you rather die — would you rather us die than them? I mean, what is it going to take for you people to wake up? Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you’re going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later.

Benito:

"the nineteenth century was the century of Socialism, of Liberalism, and of Democracy, it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy: political doctrines pass, but humanity remains, and it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority...a century of Fascism."

Hitler Interview in the New York Staatszeitung, 1933.

"Why does the world shed crocodile’s tears over the richly merited fate of a small Jewish minority? … I ask Roosevelt, I ask the American people: Are you prepared to receive in your midst these well-poisoners of the German people and the universal spirit of Christianity? We would willingly give everyone of them a free steamer-ticket and a thousand-mark note for travelling expenses, if we could get rid of them."

MichaeL Savage again:

"That's next isn't it? From these verminous Brooklyn College lawyers, isn't it? Go down South and have a tee-hee over the goyim. Laugh at the goyim. Go down there and take away the crosses and they can't touch you, huh Mr. Cohen? Mr. Cohen, and you wonder where anti-Semitism comes from. Let me strip the mask off it for you today, because if you think I'm going to mince words you are mistaken. It comes from situations like this, when you have a New York Jew like Cohen going down South into the heartland of Christianity and stealing the religious symbol from Christians."


Scott Gregg:

When Der Furher says we ist der Master Race Zieg Hile (fart noise) Hile (fart noise) in the furhers face3.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Islamo Fascism ~ American Fascism

"Fascism, which was not afraid to call itself reactionary... does not hesitate to call itself illiberal and anti-liberal."
-Benito Mussolini

If you read Mussolini's entire description of the modern Fascist state he would fit RIGHT in with the likes of Michael Savage or Rush Limbaugh and would be a player in the Bush Administration.

The jihadits movement in Islam could be considred fascist in that the religion is the State and all should be subserviant to it. And that any desire for accomodation are peace with people not of there thinking is considered a sign of weakness and should not be tolerated.

Currently the problem facing the world is that we have two fascist regimes duking it out.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Reasons to prosecute the Bush league of lackluster gentlemen

After being attacked on September 11th 2001:

The Bush league thought it best to shoot the whole wad in Iraq trying to make a democracy out of a nation that was only held together by the tyranny of Sadam.

This put us at odds with allies, bolstered the jihadist message to the arab street, weekend us militarily, set up a series of unreachable goals, killed 2500 and counting soldiers, removed a controling factor in the region allowing Iran to gain theocratic hegemony, gave a reason to justify Iran's nuclear program, killed 100,000+ civilians allowing their millions of releatives to hate us more, made us look like liars and torturers, and gave aid and comfort to our enemies by allowing them to claim that the US can no longer speak with a moral voice. They have not yet found or killed Bin Laden, nor destroyed the Taliban, have allowed the heroine trade to burgeon in Afgahnistan thus funding the Taliban, and reduced the power of America, by showing us to be no more than a industrialized bully.

At home they ignored federal law and spied on US citizens then lied about it. Wasted resources on non existant threats and still not brought anyone to justice over the Anthrax letters. They have handed out billions of tax payer dollars to corporations and cronies while witholding money to cities such as New York for anti terror measures. They have continued to allow thousands to suffer in Lousianna and Mississippi after Katrina. And on and on and on

Bush et al needs to be imprisoned as the traitor he is. He is not just a bad President. He has actively undermined the law, killed thousands of American service personel, and squandered hundreds of billions of dollars. HE MUST GO!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Buildings of Mercia

As the TV series Amazing Stories premiered on September 29th 1985 I was building the Inn for my town near Oakham. It is strange that this TV series is the only thing that totally pegs one event of Mercian history.

The myth of the spiritless Europe

A great conservative myth is that Europe is godless. Many europeans have seen the weaker side of churches for centuries. They have lived the theocracy and found it wanting. However most still consider themselves faithful to God, if not to a church. Do you seek to live in the city of God or the city of the earth? As grand as St. Peters is, it has more in common with an outhouse than the throne of God. What we see as magnificent should not be confused with the true nature of God.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Making people happy

I feel it is my duty to try and make people happy.
This does not work. Not even momentarily.
I feel it is my duty to shield people from troubling news.
This does not work. Not even momentarily.
I feel it is my duty to put on a good face when I feel like puking.
This does not work. Not even momentarily.
Well I am being true to myself since it is myslef that feels the duty
to make people happy even though that will not work even for a moment.
I know, even while attempting to make people happy, that it is folly.
All of life is folly since all of us reach the same end sooner or later.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Why We are Losing the War

As long as we think we can use the Pentagon, CIA, et al to fight our war we are going to lose. Terrorism is not something that can be defeated by force of arms. Not now, not ever. As long as we go down this road, we play into the hands of terrorists. All we need to do is look at other nations that have tried to "out tough" terrorists to see the disaster. If our goal is the Gazafication of the world than we are well on our way.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

France and World Wars

Okay so the joke goes that it isn't a World War until France surrenders. Ha ha? What a load of crap.

1: World War One, the Great War, was won under the overall command of the French. Here is what France was willing to pay in order to defeat Germany;

World War I cost France 1,357,800 dead, 4,266,000 wounded (of whom 1.5 million were permanently maimed) and 537,000 made prisoner or missing -- exactly 73% of the 8,410,000 men mobilized, according to William Shirer in The Collapse of the Third Republic. Some context: France had 40 million citizens at the start of the war; six in ten men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight died or were permanently maimed.

2: World War 2, before France was forced to surrender to the Nazis 250,000 soldiers had been killed and another 350,000 wounded. France also lost a quater of a million civilians during the war. And the Free French force took part in the D-Day invasion to retake France. While under occupation the French resistance worked tirelessly to undermine the Nazi's.

And lastly the US should be the last nation on Earth to make jokes at France's expense since it would not exist if it had not been for French involvment in the American War for Indepedance.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Who created Hezbullah?

The Dawa party created Hezbullah.

Who is the Dawa party and where are they now?

al'Dawa are our chief allies in Iraq, They are running Iraq right now. Well they are not in total control, they share power with the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Who are they? They were the Shiite gorillas backed by Iran, who are still backed by Iran.

Who detested Hezbullah and tried to destroy Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq?

Sadam Husain.

Who removed a major impediment to the islamic jihadist movement in the middle east?

The United States of America.

Oops!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Europe Part 3



Ah Venice! This was another spectacular day. Warm, pleasent, and full of fun. Then I learned a little history of the two pillars at the waters edge, the two you cannot see in this photo since I am between them. It was tradition to have the condemed executed between them for hundreds of years. So any actual venitian citizen even today, tends not to walk between them because it is bad luck. Anyhow I tried to eleviate the bad luck by tossing a coin into the fountain in the Doges Palace. The palace people made 2 Euros out of my superstition. There was a lot of money in that fountain.

Trying to put Lebanon back 20 years Hmmmm?

Well 20 years ago Lebanon was a bombed out nation, full of extemists that were out of control and overun with Syrian and Iranian agents helping fund terrorist attacks agains Isreal and other wessterners. Remember all those hostages? So how exactly is this going to make Isreal more secure?

Clearly Isreal is not stupid. Their motives are not about simply getting two soldiers back. Their gross overeaction is their version of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombs were meant as a display for Russia not Japan. This display is meant for Iran not Lebanon. If this is what Isreal would do to Lebanon over two soldiers imagine Iran if they attacked Isreal.

Unfortunately all this is doing is creating a whole lot more enemies for the Isreal and, by default, the US. So where is all this going? Probably to hell. I am really glad I am too damn old to get drafted. Unfortunately for my less antiquated breathren they may get to be slaughtered. I'd go too but it certainly not be to defend the turd sandwiches that wrought this upon us. It would only be to help out my friends (locals)

How many of the leaders of the world that brought about WWI are well liked or lionized? Not many if any. Keiser - ousted and exiled. Austro Hungarian Empire - evaporated. Russian Czar and his empire - killed off and evaporated. Haig - not thought well of even though he was only the general not the king. Only the American President Wilson, who helped stop the stupid war, is remembered fondly.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Honda C70 Passport


This ad just spews early seventies American crapola. Yes you too can be an urbane, cosmopolitan, father who cares. With your smoking jacket, silver flask of Cutty Sark, bril cream, and trophy wife you can spin around town and be the man of your dreams. Live the life of the scooter-generation, be cynical with hipsters in "mod" cafe's, live the trite life and come home on your little honda and park it next to your Buick Roadmaster or Mustang Mach 1.

Yes I am now a member of the "bought a 23 year old motorbike" crowd. It is 70cc's so I have to get an f'ing motocycle endorsement on my license. It's title is in the ether of history. And it can easily pop up on its back wheel if I shift into 2nd or 3rd before my speed has built up.

60 million of these zip around the developing world. Because America is a big fat country with people needing big fat machines, this never sold that well. It may be back soon with the silly gas prices we are paying. I was reading one report that if I use high octane gas I might get 120mpg on this scooter. That would be really nice. Of course I have to get over the whole "Don't know what the hell I am doing" phase in driving this thing. There is a goodly adrenaline rush when you are actually going fast. This is to Mikes Vespa what a barbie jeep is to my Scion but what the heck. If I hate this thing I should be able to sell it for what I paid for it.

So I will be putting around on this thing. If you see a silver and grey blur go by under a guy who knows little, then that is probably me.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A sad state

Is there no comon sense left in the world? It seems we are spinning toward 1914 all over again with wreckless abandon. As if we want it to happen, tempting fate, asking for trouble, seeking out only the most stupid solutions to problems. I have faith that humanity will survive this but I really wonder if this current civilization will. There may be 1000 years of peace after all thism but it will not be biblical in nature, it will be silent because of the lack of humanity left to make noise. But nobody cares, nobody even reads this. We all dance on the cliff edge as if imortal and unconcerned with posterity, believing that we won't fall because the laws of nature do not apply to us. Is anybody out there who has the time to give a damn? Hello?!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Europe Part 2



Windsor Castle

Europe is full of very old things. 900 year old this and 3000 year old that. You can't walk two steps in Rome without tripping over a downed block from Caligula's house, or Trajan's groccery store. Windsor, in a manner of speaking, is a new building. It is only 900 years old. Well bits of it are, like the motte under the big round tower. However eventhough Europe is really old, its very well maintained. Its roadways are superior to anything I have seen in Oregon. European ability to keep using and recycling buildings has kept it looking picturesque and quite open. Most of what I saw in Europe was open fields, vast forrests, and big mountain ranges. There was typical suburban sprawl around Paris, London, and Rome but not like LA. Each city is much denser. Geneva seems to me to be very close to Portland in size and appearence, or vice versa.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Europe Part 1


Well I am back from a 16 day trip to Europe. In the forthcoming entries I will attempt to tell the tale. For now let me begin by letting you know how Europe treated me. If my encounters with people from other nationalities is an accurate crossampling of European behavior I would have to list the friendliest countries in the following order:

1) France - What can I say the French were great. All the stereotypes about french behavior, as far as I was concerned, have been debunked.

2) Italy - They were pretty good too. Everyone in Italy uses hand jestures so that all conversations look like arguments. However if you talk to people they are kind, helpful, and very easy going. They have a saying "If you have the urge to work, don't worry, it will pass."

3) Switzerland - They were not rude or hauty, nor were they very jocular, but they were quite accurate and clean.

4) United Kingdom - Everyone in England was great accept the staff at Gatwick airport. It was like being in a vast Monty Python skit where you were the straightman. Civil servants in England are so simliar to the way they are portrayed in Python that it is creepy. The airport itself is also a stinking, dilapidated, dump. Once we got away from the airport things improved and everyone else was kind and helpful.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

What Karl doesn't seem to "Get"



In his beating of the GOP drums about how Democrats are unwilling to stick it out in the tough fight in Iraq, Rove avoids the elephant AGAIN. While he was talking up his talking points the pentagon was doing what? Talking about not sending about 5,000 reinforcements scheduled to go to Iraq. Sounds sort of like a withdrawl. Of course they do not say that. They only say that the troops heading out will not be replaced. Rove is like the mayor of Amity trying to convince the people to leave the beaches open while the shark gulps people down whole. His snake oil isn't working too good regarding this stinking turd.

This is not World War II, American freedom is NOT on the line, there is no massive industrialized powers waging war and killing tens of millions of people. The only power that seems to be even close to doing that is us. It is a false argument that Rove is making. Bush and Rove are far closer to Hitler and Himmler than Roosevelt and Churchill. Roosevelt and Churchill did not seek out a premptive war on Hitler. Hitler launched a preemptive war on them. 911 was a conspiracy and attack perpetrated by jihadists in this country and nominally sanctioned by Bin Laden. Iraq has done NOTHING but make matters worse for us. Like the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the insane invasion of Russia the invasion of Iraq was a very bad move.

Our soldiers are only dying, killing, murdering, getting wounded, and sweating in Iraq for the sake of our pride and because Rove et al have NO CLUE how to get out of this giant mess and still look good. And that is a rotten reason to keep our troops there. This is not the Battle of the Bulge, or Okinawa. Our response to 911 has been to marginalize our power, give aid enormous propaganda victories to our enemies, and destabilize and already unstable region of the world. This is a mess started by GW Bush and company. There was no ligitimate reason to invade Iraq. All the reasons I supported this war turned out to be BS. And now we are suffering the consequences. So for prides sake we are butchering our soldiery so we can go to bed and be proud to be Americans. What a load of crap. The cowards are the ones who keep our men and women in harms way while they fiddle.

At least Murtha has the guts to tell it like it is.