Bush finally admits the truth...again

While stumping for the continuation of the unPatriotic Act, President Bush told the truth about all his security measures. He said that people shouldn't be fooled by the "Illusion of security".

If the Patriot Act worked then would we not have real security instead of the illusion of Security? And if the Patriot Act provides only an illusion then why continue it? His speeches work well provided you do not actually listen to what he is saying.

Then the new CIA director comes to capital hill and says that our nation faces as many if not more threats from Al Queida as before. He also directly links the aciton in Iraq with an increased threat to the US. This directly contradicts the White House position that the action in Iraq has made the US safer. According to Director Goss we now face insurgancy-trainied jihadists that may come to the US to strike. So Iraq is on its way to democracy, maybe in twenty years, and the Jihadists are on their way here. Thanks GW!

Unlike many people I have no problem with how Bush talks. I have more trouble with what he, and his misanthrops are talking about. Whether he is talking about the continuation of freedom in America only if freedom happens abroad, or whether he is talking about the glory of turning over to private hands, the peoples power for governing their retirement, or speaking on the illusion of Security after creating the Department of Homeland Security, and the Intelligence Director of redundancy, one has to wonder if he really understands all the logical inconsistancies of his bullshit.

Still 51% of the sheeple eat it up. Of course this same crowd loves Survivor, and the Left Behind Series, and watches huge amounts of porn in hotels, and goes to church every Sunday, unless they are in a hotel watching Debbie Does Dallas part sxity nine. They will argue against evolution while eating steak from a genetically engineered cow, then give the leftovers to their genetically engineered tea-cup poodle. They will say that Quantem mechanics is nonsense and then watch Billy Graham on DVD. They will say that the world is going to end anyday now, while on their way to invest in more US bonds that wont mature for 20 years. The sheeple are like Bush in that they don't actually listen to what they are saying and how logically inconsistant they are. They will say they are pro life and then cheer as somebody gets executed. Many of them like to shoot things and cheer as we go blow people up, all while claiming they are a culture of life.

Bush is the perfect hypocrite for the perfect hypocrites.
Of course the leftwing, who claims to be the antidote for Bush and the Bushleague, is full of the same type of people. The left is as full of moral absolutists, and ethically challenged misanthrops as the right. Look at Ward Churchill and his stupid remarks about the dead of 911. Is he any different than that republican prick who said he was "outraged by the outrage" at Abu Gharaib? And then their are mentally challenged folks at Air America, Frankin not included, that spend as much time as they can pushing people to the right with stupid insults of Christians. They left sucks and if people are looking to them to counter Bush then they are doomed since the left and right are one in the same. If the left is so damn right where are they now? Where are the protests in WDC with millions of angry people? They are limp biscuits of canned rage just like Limpbutt and Michael Whiner (Savage).

We need some sanity and that is what a true progressive person can provide. Not ideologues that cannot bend even in the face of disaster, and retarded decision making. The progressive, unlike the convervative or the liberal, does not care what a policy leans toward. The progressive wants to craft policy based in reality and uses tools that work. If the tool looks liberal, they do not care, if the tool looks conservative, they do not care; they only care if it works. They are the ones who built this nation. The ultimate progressive document of this age is the Constitution. It does not suffer ideologues. That is why the left and right always bitch about it. That is why it works, it is a pragmatic document that makes the assumption that humans are not perfect and cannot be trusted with too much power. It also assumes mankind, though imperfect and pwoer-hungry, can be forced by accepted law, to govern himself and his baser instincts. Conservatives and Liberals both fail because they put too much faith in humanity. Conservatives put too much faith in money, and those that posess it. Corporations will enslave you if you let them. And liberals put too much faith in the kindness of strangers. Mankind will not just get along without the structure of law.

But we are still stuck with the hypocrite and his bushleague, and the hypocrites that oppose him. And while the hypocrites argue over the contents of their belly buttons, the world goes marrily onward. The EU is the worlds largest economy, and China is the largest consumer.

Hey liberals and conservative! Yes you! Grow up!

Reviewing The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, and did I mention it was done by M. Night Shyamalan?

And this movie is by M. Night Shyamalan, and M. Night Shyamalan was the man who wrote this story, and M. Night Shyamalan produced this movie, and M. Night Shyamalan directed this train wreck. Who the hell bequeathed to M. Night Shyamalan the status of Alfred Hitchcock of the 21st century? Just what has this dude done to merrit all top billing on the DVD. After all it is "M. Night Shyamalan's The Village" As a graphic designer I also find it curious that they icorporate "The Ring" graphic in the DVD jacket. I guess they want you to think that this movie was as scary and The Ring, lots of crappy films have that on their DVD jackets too. I saw The Ring and aside from two hairaising instances the film blew chunks.

This little movie takes you back to the good ol'days of the suspensin of disbelief. I figured that the "Elders" were bumping around in the dark to scare the town folk from seeing the real world. This M. Night Shyamalan better understand that the US may be full of trogs who love Bush but we aren't stupid enough not to figure this plot out pretty damn quick. Oh no I gave the twist away. I think M. Night Shyamalan should make a comedy. He seems to have the knack, it is just simmering beneath his preachy horror, psycho, blah-blah, movie making style.

Anyone who wants to be scared or surprised should not see this movie. However there is one redeeming feature to this film. M. Night Shyamalan might redeem himself if he were to say that this film is a metaphor for the modern USA. If he were to say that then I would think he kicks ass.

In this film, to protect the citizens, the government concocks a story that the woods are filled with murderous monsters, and then, when faced with the potential death of a citizen, sends a blind girl into the same forrest to get help. After she gets back the government votes to keep the lie alive so everyone in the village can live in a fantasy land. I think I read that in the 911 Commission report.

Alien vs Predator

I am sick of the pyramid getting such a downer of a bad rap in all these movies. And what is it about pyramids anyway? Oh yes I forgot, no human being would ever build something like that. Before I go into this movie proper, I need to say that I rented two movies tonigtht. AVP and The Village. I was glad that Sigorney Weaver was not in AVP. I then go and watch the Village and low-and-be-hold find out I rented Sigorney anyway.

AVP is better than Alien 3, the worst of the films. Not as good as Alien 2, about a tie with Alien 4, and not even in the same genre as Alien. A movies enjoyment factor hinges on what you expect and I expected a big stinking turd on a DVD. I found it very entertaining, as scary as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and almost 100% predictable. I actually think this movie is more intellectually honest than 3 and 4. There was no faked pretense about the bad guys. All the potential creepiness of walking around a frozen pyramid, 2000 feet under Antarctica, and swarming with two speices of killing machines, was rushed and blanded out with nonsense characters, and less than scare jack-in-the-box shots. The worst thing about the film was the 100% lack of character development. That is why, 3 hours after viewing the show, I cannot recall one name of any of the characters. Only Bishop.

The story was the worst type of hollywoodized clapt trap. The Predators come down and make like gods to the poor human shleps all so the humans can be used as incubators for the Aliens. This seems kinda out of character for the Predators. They live to hunt, their the NRA gone galactic. Why the hell would they waste time on all the duplicity and bureaucracy of native religions all of the Earth? It seems to me that they would be more likely to kill all the humans in a day or so, make a picknick out of it, then dump a can of aliens onto the earth and let them infest all the other animals. This plot was too much like the WWF. I was waiting for somebody to yell "hit him with the chair!"

Anyway I liked the movie and it had me chuckling and warmly smiling while useless non-characters got non-scarily, non-disgustingly wacked. And this movie wasn't even rated R. I bequeath unto AVP the ranking of 5.

Is the Bible the literal word of God? Yes.

When you join the church most demoninations want you to profess that the bible is the literal word of God. I have heard Christian pundits talk about the bible as the foundation of law, or the only word of God, etc. I wish to ask them this question:

When you ask me if the Bible is the literal word of God what Bible are you referring to?

The Hebrew Bible?
The Catholic Bible?
The Protestant Bible?

Each of these books are markedly different. The Hebrew bible does not contain any of the New Testement and is pretty much in chronological order. The Catholic Bible contains Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and I, II Machabees. The Protestant bible does not contain these books and is also a bit different in Daniel and Esther.

And what about the biblical stories in the Koran? The Koran, unlike the Hebrew Bible, contains the story of Jesus and even acknowledges his birth by the virgin Mary. The Koran also contains a bit more storyline about Jesus as a child.

We could really get all bent out of shape over differences in books. The truth, I think, is that all these books are part of the Story of mankind's awakening to his importance to this world. No other creature is like us, and no othe creature has the capability to destroy this world, or take life from this world and more it elsewhere. Some people read the ancient text to justify themselves to others or God. Some people read the text to poke holes in the inconsistancies, and there are many of them. I find the people who get the most out of such writings, are the people who read the text with an open mind, people who like to ask questions about the text, who do not blindly accept it the as the literal word of anyone. The Bible is the product of 3 thousand years of man walking with his God, sometimes humbly, sometimes imperiously.

To me the Bible does not need any suspension of disbelief. It is for me, and has been for others, a key to openning up a broader view of universe and myself in relation to it. It is a bit like the total-perspective vortex in Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, with a twist. In the story Zaphod goes into the vortex and comes out just fine. He says that it told him what he new all along that "I'm a really great guy!" Well the twist here is that the bible does reveal our importance to things, and at the same time shows us our utter insignificance too. The hairs on our head are each known to God, we carry an imortal bond to God, but we all will perish and return to dust; kings, beggars, rich, and poor, even prophets and Saviors are part of this cycle.

To me the litteral word of God is written accross the faces of all my friends, family, and the strangers I see on the street. It is in snow on Mt Hood, and in the ocean. It is everywhere and the Bible helps you unlock that knowledge. The Battle Hym of the Republic speaks of a firey gospel writ in burnished rows of steel, the rows of men with light glinting off muskets and bayonets. The word of God cannot be contained in a book or a million books. Newton, Einstine, and Plank were listeners to and prophets of the word of God. Mozart, Bernstein, and Bob Marely were prophets of God. Any man or woman that is not affraid to use their mortal mind and body to better the condition of the world, and thus have an eternal lasting impact on others, is a prophet.

What was the meaning of all the words of all the prophets of the Bible, and in our own times too? Reform your life, turn away of self indulgence, listen to those who went before you, love your neighbor as yourself, no one is unimportant, it is okay to love living, and sacrifice is also part of living to the fullest, in short to make the most of your time alive right now, for yourself and others.

Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven

I can't wait to see this epic film. We haven't had any crusader movies since the olden times. Now we have Scott and his epic. Looking at the characters to be played in this movie, things will be gim from the get-go and only get grimmer. Guy D Lusignan was a big prick. The Lusignans and the Angivens had a mutual hatred for each other and both families spent lots of time and cash waring in France.
Based on the characters alone I would say this film will end with the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin. Guy ended up ruling Cyprus.

Well shall see....

Ward Churchill is wrong

Professor Ward Churchill's asertions that the people in the WTC were "little Eichmannns" or that they were responsible for represssive American policies are just plain stupid. On September 11th 2001 I got a call from a frantic woman that I used to do business with. Her offices were located in the North Tower of the WTC. They had been destroyed. Luckily the people of her firm got out alive. And who were the little nazis that escaped? The workers of Helen Keller International. An organization that helps millions of deaf and blind people all over the world.

Churchill shows not only his utter lack of knowledge of current events, but a troubling lack of emotion toward the lives of thousands snuffed out while drinking coffee, or organizinig day care activities, or trying to decide whether to burn to death or fall 60 stories.

If there is an Adolf Eichmann comparison to be drawn it is Ward Churchill who comes to mind. He is no different than any other biggoted hate-mongers of this era.

Laudibly he has stood firm for Native American issues. The reality of oppression against African Americans, Jews, Indians, Muslims, etc, by this nation and all the rest of the nations of the world, does not give Churchill, or any Nazi, the right to judge a fellow human as less than human. By doing this Churchill is prepetuating that which he claims to loath. He is the professorial equivelant of Phil Sheridan who said that "the only good indian is a dean one." For clearly Churchill believes that those men and women, killed in the WTC, are better dead than alive.

Ward Churchill is a hypocrite and should be fired.

Review of Troy

From a technical standpoint it was very nicely done. From an acting standpoint I found nothing wrong with it. From an historical standpoint who the hell knows since it is mythology.

The Iliad is by far the most gore-encrusted poem I have ever read. It is to poetry what the Texas Chainsaw Masacare is to film. The movie Troy is pretty limp compared to the gizzly ancient poem. Homer goes into quite a bit of anatomical detail as to what happens when a spear or sword is plunged into somebody's head, or chest. And a hero's agony is colorfully illustrated by Homer in all his "intestine spilling, brain spattering, bone shattering, chest bursting" prose, with lots of animal sacrificing, and corpse burning too.

I missed the gods playing with the Acheans and the Trojans (uh I am not sure that came out right) Apollo, at one point takes the form of Hector. Then Athena gets her dad Zeus to help the greeks. The movie also has Aeneas as just a little kid helping Anchisese to escape. In the Illiad, Aeneas is a warrior and one of the most feared in Troy. Also the Trojan war lasted 9 long bloodsoaked years before the last battle at Troy. The movie sort of makes it look like Helen is taken to Troy and off they go to war then end.

On the whole I liked Troy better than the Iliad because it finished the story. The Illiad ends with Priam taking the body of Hector back to be burned in Troy. Thge poem begs the asking, "What about the fucking horse!?"

These stories are so amazing to me, because they are the Star Wars of the ancient world. Homer was writing The Iliad and The Odyssey around 800 BC. Vigil wrote the sequel, The Aeneid, 700 years later. Can you imagine how pissed you be to wait 700 years for the Return Of The Jedi?

I think that Brad Pitt played Achilles pretty much like how he is portrayed in the Iliad. The only draw back was that the film could not contain all the characters of the old story. The poem spans only the battle before the gates of Troy. The movie has bit before the battle.

I give it a 7 since I like Greek stuff. Go JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS!

Review of King Arthur

Argh! To get so much right and so much wrong in the same movie and the same instant in time is really amazing. This movie has a butt load of historical accuracy and inaccuracy.

1: Arthur was probably a Romano-British centurian just like in this movie. GOOD.

2: The Picts from Scotland were being very troublesom just like in the movie. GOOD

3: The British hired Angles and Saxons to help fight the Picts. The reason being that the Romans were pulling out because of the need for the troops in Europe to fight against the Ostrogoths and Visigoths who, in turn were being attacked and forced out by the Huns led by Attila. The movie totally ignores the known facts. BAD.

4: Knights from eastern Europe? Well maybe but who the hell really knows. I can buy into it since the Romans did stuff like that.

5: Hadrian's Wall? I think that by the time of Arthur in the 5th century the wall was pretty tumbledown and overrun with Picts. Picts were in control of everything north of the Humber river. The film ignores this BAD.

6: The location of the Battle of Badon Hill or Mons Badonicus is unknown. However Historia Britonum, composed around AD 820, has a second battle of Badon Hill happening in AD655. The battle was in the south of Britain. And was faught between King Aelle of Sussex and Celtic leader Ambrosius Aurilianus. Yet even this is dubious since by AD 650's Celts had been pushed into Wales and Strathclyde and Scotland. Anyhow Arthur, if he was trained in the Roman Army would have had to have lived before 500. Since the western Emprire fell in AD 476 and the last troops were yanked out of Britain in AD 446.

But I liked the movie anyway. It didn't stink as bad as I thought it wouild. I am not sure what the film maker had against religous types but I am used to it. During the time of this movie Rome was still a hodge podge of Christian and Pegan Roman values; Britian was even more of a caldron with native religions, thrown in for good blood sacrificial measure.

Star Wars III and The Life Aquatic

SW III: Let it not suck...Let it not suck...Let it not suck...(repeat ad infinitum)

The Life Aquatic:
This movie was really...uh...made. Bill Murry played this movie so low key that I felt like kicking him in the balls. Too much Prozac! Yet I still liked this movie and I am not really sure why. There were a few laughs, most of which were shown in the trailer. I found the movie slow and monotonous. I kept waiting for the plot to "happen". It did not. It ground on and on and on. Like a dental apointment that you thought was over until the dentist says "uh-oh" and you are stuck with another hour of drilling. It was like a blurry photo of a really beautiful image. I wanted the detail. I can't stand this movie. It is the demon seed of current cinema. It's like Mugwump fluid. It is like a tainted cheese that you eat, then vomit up, then go and eat it again. If I had to compare this movie to another movie I would say it is like Star Wars...being played on a 70mm projector...that is being dropped onto my head from the top of the Empire State building. No that isn't it eaither since 500 pounds of projection equipment, hitting me at 120 miles perhour, would be quick. Rather it is similar to the death of Beornulf of Merica as he was crushed to death in the streets of Norwich, stone by stone. Insanely I am giving this movie a 7.9 since I liked it though I have no idea why.

Bush and his personna

To the enlightened crowd Bush seems like a cowboy-idiot. To the people who voted for him he seems resolute and no-nonsense. I think the truth is somewhere in the ether.
He has crafted a perfect political personna. His enemies always underestimate him because he always comes across like a dolt.
Well folks if he and his "people" were stupid they would not be in power. And what does that say about the people who lost to this guy? The Bushies understand their base and they know how to play to it. The people in power in the Democratic Party seem to be disconnected with at least 20% of the population. They are solid with college educated people and urbad dwellers. Dem's talk the language. However they have totally lost the group that used to be a constituancy. There is no reason ranchers, hunters, and loggers need to vote for Republicans; they won't get any better deal from them. The truth is that the Democratic Party has banked "on the come"
What I mean by that is that they spent their money before they had it to spend. The big democratic successes, and yes their were plenty, were all due to the candidate knowing their people.
For instance. Is Montana a red state? Hell yes its a red state. But it has a new Democratic Governor. State votes for Bush but votes for a Democrat for the state house.
Our nation is the same nation that voted for Clinton twice. It is all in the message, and in not shying away from people just because they shoot deer and like the cut down trees.
This is America, the most heavily armed nation in history. This is not Sweden, nor will it ever be Sweden. It is a macho nation, a nation that does not like soccer, a nation who fights wars.
Patton is still right. Americans play to win all the time. Clinton, dispite his massive character flaw, was a winner. Americans like to win and they like a winner. Being a winner is more important that pretty much anything elese in American politics. FDR didn't win because he convinced people that his New Deal was the way to go. There was no New Deal in 1932. He just ranted at Hoover administration and sounded confident that we would pull through the depression. He sounded like a winner all the time. Even when our navy got sunk, and the Germans kicked England out of Europe, and the Phillipines fell to Japan, and all the Marines on Wake Island were killed, and the Nazis rulled all the land from Noway to the Sudan; FDR sounded confident of victory.
I am not equating Bush to FDR. But if people want to push Bush out and take the Congress back they better stop sounding like a professor and start talking like Patton.

Investing in the Stock Market with Bush

DJIA as of December 2000 11,497
DJIA as of December 2004 10,583

So if you had your retirement in an index fund pegged to the Dow Jones you would have lost 10% of your income since GW took office.

Lets try and broader index say the SP500

SP500 as of December 2000 1,517
sp500 as of December 2004 1,150

You would have lost 25% of your investment if your fund was indexed to the sp500

How about the fancy NSDAQ

NASDAQ as of December 2000 4,697
NASDAQ as of December 2004 2,000

Ouch! Your fund would have been down a whopping 58%

Lets invest in the Russel 2000 in December of 2000

Yippee! We would have made 5.7% on our doe! With inflation running at around 4% that is a whopping gigantic net gain of 1.7% over the last 4 years.

Finally we will use the very broad Russel 3000 Index. This fund comprises the movements of 3000 stocks, both large and small cap.

We would have made .92%. That is less than 1% over the last five years. We should have stuck it in the bank.

So GW and the turds that want to sell the snake oil of private accounts better add the following to any stupid proposal they are shoving at the gulable American middle. "Only invest what you can afford to lose." That is the standard advice ANY planner will tell you about dealing with stocks and bonds. There are NO gaurentees in the market. NONE.

How many social security checks shrunk when the WTC was attacked? NONE.

The Elections are A-O-K, how we got there is B-A-D

You would have to be a fool to not want the Iraqi elections to work out. Iraq has always been one of the more progressive countrys in the mideast, this dispite Sadam. It is does not have a history of religious fundamentalism, most of the jihadi's come from Saudi Arabia, or Syria.
The election is not really over yet since days will elapse before results are known, and we dont know exactly who is counting the ballots. Nobody who voted really knows who they are even electing. They voted for parties not people. I don't have a problem with that as long as the men in the smoke filled room, and there are lots of them in Iraq, are not trading votes the way they have been dividing up power.
The problem that Iraq is left with is that dispite the election, and the 8 million people who risk their lives to vote, and dispite all the flowery speaches about sucess, 3 more Marines got killed today in Iraq. 29 people died yesterday during the elections. And after the votes are counted the jihadi's, who are passionate belivers that God and His victory is on their side, will not simply go home.
Basically the mess that Iraq is will still be there. In April of 1971 Nixon was asked about when US troops would be out of Vietnam. He said that he wanted to make sure that the government of South Vietnam and a defense force capable of defending the country and that all US POW's were returned home.
I think that the continued presense of US forces present Iraq and the US with a perfect catch 22. Occupatin forces are the prime reason the isurgancy exists. To remove them, however, would be to created a force vacume and that could be filled with open rebellion.
However I find the continued lack of faith in the average Iraqi to be disturbing. I believe that the removal of US forces would not dump Iraq into civil war. It would cut the legs out from under the insurgent position. And to withdrawl after the vote count is done would be the perfect political time. Since victory could be claimed and the insurgents could not legitmatley claim that they chased the US out. It would be a master stroke both at home and abroad. It would go along way toward redeming Bush and the US in the eyes of the world.
But I do not think that this will happen. I think that we have no real intention about leaving Iraq and so this event will pass, like all the other events of the past two years, and things will go one sputtering in confusion and the madness will grow deeper.

Halo 2

Halo 2 was a nice bit of digitized blood-sport. However the ending was a bit too clifhanger for me. It would be like ending Star Wars with the X-wings taking off to attack the Death Star :

Wedge: Look at the size of that thing.

Roll end credits

I am sorry but having the big battle scene be killing the head brute is not epic enough for this epic game. There needed to be something more bigger, giganticer, hugerer, excitinger. and largester. I know the whole point to video games is not really entertainment but product sales and a good game not only generates sales of current product but also insures future sales. And a hook is a hook is a hook.

Another point is that there is so much doublcrossing going on that, as a soldier, I gave up on keeping sides straight. It quickly devolved down to "if you are infront of me I am going to kill you." And why arn't humans double crossing, two-faced, slimes, hell that is one of our defining characteristics! I think the next installment should be a rogue human element that starts to cause trouble for the ol Master Cheif. So we end up with bits of the Covenent and bits of Humans fighting against other Covenent and Humans.

Spunge Bob and James Dobson

For those of you who do not know Mr. Dobson consider yourself lucky. I find his lack of faith disturbing. He is one of those people who claims to be a Christian and at the time shows his utter lack of confidence and faith in Christ. Basically is is always running around like a chicken with his head cut off about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket. "EEEEK my faith in maker of the universe is so low that I fear EVERYTHING!!!!!!!"

Now he is claiming that Sponge Bob Square Pants is gay. I have news for Mr. Strange Dobson Scardypants. Sponge Bob is a cartoon. He does not actually live in your TV. The TV is only an electronic machine designed to convert electronic signals into light.

That being clarified "Sponge Bob Rocks!" He kicks Dobson's ass in both an ethical and spiritual sense. It is very telling when a cartoon character is more of a Christian than a real human being. I know that Dobson's prime beef with gay people and homosexuality in general is that he is one and simply can't sqaure-pants that with his lack-of-faith.

The difference between a true follower of Christ and a pretender is that the true believer stand firm in the storm, unaffraid and confident, leading by exampl, while the pretender runs around blaming everyone for his life accept himself.

Change not the Square Panted Bob!

Why Social Security should not be privatised

News Broadcast from 2030:

--Newsguy: The market took yet another tumble today after a poor jobs-report for the 3rd qaurter. Combined with investment loses in Florida and gulf coast relastate due to rising sea levels the market is down 15%. The CEO's of six of the firms who handle private retirement funds for the Federal government have petitioned Congress and the White House to bail them out, thus securing the retirement incomes of millions of Americans.

Investment CEO: With the market at current levels the only way we can gaurentee sollvency is the the Fed to help us out--

This is the future if we privatise Social Security. Privatising simply adds a whole new layer of unaccountable management ontop of the existing system. And sets up a system that where the investment firms will have little reason to fear bad investments since they know that they can always feed at the Federal (the tax payer) trough incase things go south.

Review of The Passion of the Christ

You'd have to be a cave man to not know the storyline of this film. Jesus, viewed by us Christians as God on earth and..well..the Christ, is finally gotten rid of by the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate; the end.

Now I have seen all sorts of renditinos of this story. There is The Greatest Story Ever Told, Ben Hur, Jesus Christ Super Star, The Last Temptaion of Christ, and on and on and on. Because these films are about the earthly life and death of a Diety to 1.5 billion people, they all have a bit of contraversy.

So here comes The Passion of the Christ. Jesus, dispite the scurging, has never looked better. This guy is prime beefcake. I had no problem with this films violence. To argue the film is bad because of he violence I would argue back then movies like The Killing Fields, or Platoon, or The Godfather, or Saving Private Ryan, are all poor films since there is a lot of violence.

What happened to Jesus and thousands of other Jews at the hands of Pilate was appauling. Pilate had a long term as governor and crucified loads of people. The only liberalism noted in the Roman army, was the liberal use of torture, dismemberment, and butchery; all ladeled out with Nazi-like efficiency.

This story is not about being historically accurate though it is, by far, the most accurate portrayal to date. Sorry but it is. The violence in this film is a metaphor for how mankind deals with truth. Some people have called this movie anti-jewish. Well that is plain silly since Jesus was a Jew. I didn't get any anti-semetic feelings from this film. It is nice little film that trys to get you to put yourself not in Jesus position but in the Roman position. It wants you to see yourself as the persecutor.

My pastor was disapoionted that it ended the way it did. He wanted what came after. And for Christians the resurection is the more important thing.

But so what. I think it took skill to crank out a movie, that dispite being spoken in Latin and Aramaic could gross as much as it did. It speaks to the power of the story, and the skill of the actors and filmaker. I am not going to argue whether Gibson is a crank. His brand of super-orthodoxy is silly. But I can't let his faith cloud how I felt at seeing the movie. I liked it. So I give it an 8.

Hubble Hub-bub

The decision to cut funding to resupply the Hubble is insane. The Hubble has been another in a string of non-manned space ventures that have proven to be worth every penny. Our current view of the universie inwhich we live, is based in no small part of observations made by the best telescope ever made. The hubble kicks the ass of pretty much all earth-based telescopes. Like the Voyager twins, the Pioneer boys, Viking I and II, Spirit and Oportunity, and finally the Cassini-Huygens mission, Hubble is leading the way to show the best way of doing early-exploration....But to hell with all that robot crap!

We want "boots on the ground"; sort of an Iraqi Freedom policy in space. I know that the costs are gigantic, the risks spectacular, the return on investment lowsy, and logistics of sending men to Mars nonsensically quixotic. But we are the country that bulldozed natives and dynamited our way through Panama to join oceans. We blew the crap out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just to show'm. We walked on the fucking moon! If we can kick Hitler's ass, then by god we can kick space's ass too. We can envision Buck Rogers, and light sabers, and Ewoks with rubber teeth. We built an actual model of a theoretical, conceptual, spacecraft that might be able to get us to Mars. Hell has anybody seen Mission to Mars? If we can make a movie we're halfway there!

That is the subtle approach to space exploration the Bush administration seems to be bent on. So here is a message to the big P about his tilting at the windmill of space.

STOP SPENDING MY HARD EARNED MONEY ON CRAP LIKE THIS YOU EMPTY-HEADED WIPER OF OTHER PEOPLES BOTTOMS!
GO BACK TO GETTING GI'S BLOWN UP IN IRAQ AND STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM SPACE. UNLESS YOU WANT TO LAUNCH YOURSELF UP THERE. THEN I'M ALL FOR IT!

What JPL should be doing is developing a robot to explore the White House to see if any intelligent life exists there; and if so what that life is based on. If the Hubble crashes to Earth because of that backwoods, Texas GI-kill'n, scumbag, I vote for "End Times". We can all look down and see how much Bush and his bunch of hypocrites can fuck up Hell. Of course hell, for Bush and his hypocrites, is ruled by the devil manifesting himself as the duel image of Bill and Hillary Clinton...forever.

Evolution

For those of you who feel like taking a bit of a plunge into the digital domain of high-tech genomic and evolutionary sciences please Google "Avida". This will take you to CalTech and there Digital Evolution Lab. They have developed software that spawns mini-programs, similar to computer viruses, that can be controled. They use these the same way others have used Bacteria and Viruses in the quest to determine if Evolution is everything it states that it is. What they have discovered is that Darwin was pretty much right on the money.

You can download the software free of charge and do your own genomic research. Of course it requires some information that I don't have. But I was able to take a single organism and see how many variations I got after 50,000 generations.

Read Discover Mag. Jan 2005 to learn more. Ironically the main source of bug detection and beta testing has been the Creationist community. They have been so bent on proving the program flawed that they have litteraly taken it apart. The problem for them is that, though they have found the odd bug or two, by and large the program seems to be solid. What makes the program rock is that you can, in a matter of hours, crank out genetic mutations and new spieces of of mini-programs over thousands of generations. Read the article to get a better picture of it.

Bush league all the way around

If Bush was trying to galvanize all those who think he is the biggest oppresor of liberty and freedom in the US, then he did a bang-up job. I would say to the the President, "Okay cowboy! The judgment you just passed on other leaders and nations is the judgement to be passed on you. And how you measure others will be how we shall measure you."
To me his speach was a joke, since his administration not only deals with the scum of the earth, it actively supports them. Saudi Arabia, over the years has been and is the largest backer of militant islam. So we invade Iraq and have the crown prince of Saudi Arabia over to the ranch for tea. We target the Taliban, who's only finger in our eye was not giving up Bin Laden, while actively supporting the dictatorship in Pakistan that not only bankrolled the Taliban, but also has built atomic weapons and threatened to use them on India.
Then the toad Chenny talks about Iran as a big threat. To who? Good God almighty our buddies in slime pose far more risks to the earth than Iran. Again I ask you, who has nukes, sold atomic technology to others, and actively supported terrorism? Pakistan that is who. Who has tens of billions of dollars of the most advanced militray hardware in the mideast? Saudi Arabia has all that. Militant Islam was initially spread by Wahabi's. Where did they come from? They were the cheif clerics that lived in the desert with Abdul Aziz Bin Saud, the founding king of Saudi Arabia, and father to the ailing king Fahad, father of the dude Bush likes to have over the ranch. The rulers of Saudi Arabia are inextricably linked to Wahabi Islam.
Getting back to Bush's speach. He made it pretty clear that the only way we can keep our freedom is that he says it is okay. That is 1984. You have an endless war against terrorists so you can justify the errosion of freedom.
Also his well crafted remark about "freedeom" regarding retirement is a swipe as Social Security. And we all know sooooo well how retirement worked before Social Security: well actually we don't since none of us were born then. How it worked was something like this. If you were rich you got old and died rich. If you were middle class you got old and had to live with your kids and died poor. If you were poor you starved.
Now for the hard part. If people are going to protest the man please do us all a favor, and A: Do it in DC or NYC, and B: do it for weeks and months on end. Protesting in America is done like a softball game, or b lock party. "Hey lets do a protest. Afterwords we can go to Starbucks and get a Latte!"
If we want to bring this regime down there has to be millions of people in the streets and it has to last for weeks or months at a time. And, get this, there has to be an actual plan that the protestors are espousing, not just a "we hate Bush" plan.

Boring ho-hum old news that the media is tired of...

Death toll in Tsunami is now passed 220,000. With 166,000 dead in Indonesia alone.
Lead international stories for CNN, Fox, ABC NBC CBS the BBC and Al Jezzera

CNN: Iraq car bombing kills 25
Fox: Violence Escalates in Iraq
CBS: Suadi Cleric Warns Pilgrams about violence
ABC: Car bombs rock iraq
NBC: Bombings in Iraq
BBC: US prepares of Inaguration
Aljezzera: California executes prisoner

Old news is news not worth hearing. And how many Americans are still missing? 2,500.

Ho well who cares. For some reason 2500 dead in New York is news for months and years ,while 220,000 die in Asia and "hurry up when is the Super Bowl?"

American Religion II

I find nothing in the actions of the current President or his party to be demonstratably Christian. Other than using the name of our Savior and his church as a weapon of political power. The reason the United States is so God fearing and devout is that our faith has not been corrupted by the state. Europeans, for centuries, have had to contend with states deriving their power from God and so there is enormous religious cyicism there. It seems we wish to follow them. If the goal of my fellow Christians is to destroy our bond with Christ Jesus there is no surer way than to petition the corrupted powers of the Earth to intervine on His behalf. As if our God were nothing but a idol needing protection. At the fall of Troy, Aenius had to rescue his gods from the fires. St Augustine, in City of God, points out the stupidity of worshiping gods that need to be saved by men. My God needs no such saving. He does the saving.

Gonzales Evasive and a silly-head

Listening to the confirmation hearings of the soon-to-be Attorney General, one would think that Mr. Gonzales is being confirmed as the Presidents lawyer instead of the peoples lawyer.
The Attorney General is the lawyer for the entire nation. He should not be the lap dog and lacky of a President. If the Administration is doing things that run afoul of the law it is the AG's job to stop them.
Too often this most important law enforcer is reduced to a political hack and an excuse maker. I also found Gonzales' answers to most of the serious questions to be non answers. This is hugely troubling when it concerns whether he thinks the President is above the law. According to Gonzales, the President is not above the law unless there is a really good reason. And who determines that? A weegee board, the bible, voices in Bushes head?
Lastly his refusal to comment on the legality or non-legality of the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib is indicative of his desire to remain a loyal lapdog as opposed to the naiton's law enforcer.
To confirm this man would be yet another black mark on a nation that seems bent on suicide. I don't want to live in a pretend democratic republic. I want to live in an actual democratic republic. There is only so much law you can strip away before a nation falls. Without justice a nation cannot exist.

Religion in America part 1

The results of the past election is not a shock to me. Nor are the reasons behind it a shock. I sent a letter to Air America, a network I like to listen to and mostly agree with...mostly. This letter was sent June 6th 2004. Too bad nobody listened.

Dear Randi,

You do the Democratic Party, my party, a disservice, to insult Evangelical Christians. My savior tells me to "go and make desciples of all the nations." This being said I think that Christians in this nation have not, and are not attempting to hijack a political party. It is the other way around. The Republican party apparatus seeks to use Christianity as a tool to attain more power. It uses faith the same way George III used it. As a means of control and as an exuse for terrible acts of cruelty. Unfortunately some who are weak in faith fall prey to the suductive, faustian bargain, that they are forging.

Thankfully our founders wished to keep government out of faith. To safegard their own faith and the faith of all the citizens, from the earthly corruption that predictably comes from the mingling of, as Augustine would say, the city of the Earth with the city of God. As a Christian I believe that each city, for now, is mutually exclusive. Only God can unify them and the hand of man will have no part in that.

It is a great falsehood to think that Christianity needs something as trival and fleeting as a civil government to survive and thrive. For even an Earthly superpower is as nothing compared with that which cast the foundations of existance.

I will vote Democratic because theirs is a more humane approach to nationhood. And is, because of that humanity, a stronger and more lasting solution to earthly problems. Yet I would never say that the Democratic party is on God's side. Saying that of either party is an insult to the Divine.

Please stop insluting Christians as if we are all a bunch of ignorant hicks. Everytime you do that you push more and more Christians into the hands of a party that has nothing to do with Christ or His teachings.

Spencer S. Hsu of the Washington Post has reported -

"D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects."

Well well. Who is surpised by this? This in a nutshell, is the clearest definition of a conservative Republican. You see my fellow Americans Democrats will tax you and then try to give you your moneys worth. They may succeed or they may fail. Republicans will tax you and then do nothing for you. Here our illustriously kind leader is demanding that a city where one in 5 people live in poverty, has to foot the bill for his inaguration. Should the poor people fee proud that money that was earmarked for fire departments and emergency responders is now going to keep and buch of Bush loyalists safe?

Bush is a disgrace and should be impeached. He is the leader of nothing but a failed presidency. The sooner the loser goes the better. Someone tell me where to mail my egg so it can get thrown at his stupid limo,

HaberBlog Begins

Well this is an inauspicious non-event. A Blob! er...Blog! Well I have to thank my bro Mike for all this.

Thank you Mike for putting all my insane emial pontifications into one hell-hole.

Correction

In my refutation of the concept of Offa Rex being a muslim I incorrectly stated the coin said "there is but one God and Alla is his prophet" Of course the actual inscription is" There is one God Alla and Mohammed is His prophet" This is due to me writing at 1:30 in the morning.

Offa Rex was not a muslim!!!!!!!

Every once in a blue moon I Google Offa Rex. My favorite 8th Century King.

And the vast majority of pages are regarding the totally stupid concept that Offa became a muslim. I know I have sent email responses out before regarding this hog wash but I get urked everytime I read something that is so totally bogus and crap filled.

So here is my yearly refutation of this nonsense.

Pro: The coins of King Offa are high quality and have very nice arabic script on them saying that there is but one God and Alla is his prophet.

Refutation: Nobody in 8th Century Anglo-Saxon England knew what the hell Arabic script was. If Offa was going to pofess his faith in Islam why use arabic? Only spain and the eastern Mediterranian would know what it meant.

Pro: Offa being Christian is a big conspiracy

Refutation: I agree. The facts have conspired to refute the claim. Offa Rex was so jealous of power in ecclesiastical affairs in England that he had his own bishop elevated by the Pope to the level of Archbishp. And durring the latter days of his 40 year reign there were 3 archbishoprics in England.

After his death in AD 796 the see of Lichfield reverted back to a bishopric.
Offa also endowed numerous abbys and monasteries. He and his wife presided over several ecclesiastical synods. He was on very good terms with the Pope and received legates from Rome in AD 787.

Pro: Then why the arabic script?

Refutation: Because the finest mints in the world were run by Arabs in Spain and the near east. Arabian coins found there way all over Europe. Nobody much cared what was on them. Money was money. Minting coinage took time, skill, and had to be tightly controled. Kings owned mints not kingdoms.

Even Henry II in the 12th century carried the royal mint with him wherever he went. These coins came into Offa's England and he had the center restruck with "Offa Rex" in the center. That was enough verbage and people knew what that meant. Again why would the center of the coin by struck in Latin and the edges be in Arabic?

Finally there are 8th century Arabian coins that match Offa's penny exactly accept for the name of a Caliphate in the center. This name was flattened out and rehammered with Offa Rex.

Offa Rex Totius Anglorum Patrio (Offa King of all the English Fatherland) was a ruthless, pragmatic, and highly successful petty king. Islam was detested in Christendom and Offa would not have risen to his hight had he professed to be an Infidel.

Another incident...

I think I have spoke before of my belief that the Universe is not a random thing. Over the years things have occurred who's odds are so huge that they should not happen. Today another event occurred and I have my Mom to back me up.

We had gone to lunch today and during the lunch I noticed my Mom's glasses on the table. Later that day we went to Fred Meyers and after shopping, as I was exiting the store, it occurred to me to ask my Mom if she had remembered to pick up her glasses off the resturant table.

As we walked to her car we stopped and she looked through her coat pockets. Then I glanced down and fifteen feet away were a pair of reading glasses on the side walk. I went over an picked them up. They were very pair of glasses she was looking for.

If I had not thought to ask her about the whereabouts of her glasses we would not have stopped to look for them in her coat and I would not have had time to look in the direction of where the glasses actually were.

Clearly the script writers are pretty good, but from time to time the reality of our situation comes through.

Inaguration speeches

I read five speeches to compare and contrast. The first was Lincoln's 1st inagural address. The second was his second. The third and fourth were Clinton's and the last was Bush's 1st inagural.

Niether Clinton nor Bush hold a candle to the logical consistancy, wordsmithing, and shear dramaticism of Lincoln. They are both posers.

Inerestingly GW's first speech comes across as far more critical of Americas lack of progress on civil rights and economic fairness than does Clintons. Both Clinton's speeches were really upbeat.

What strikes me is that both Lincoln and Clinton, use continuously positively reinforced imagery in their phrases. Bush, though using triumphant phraseology tends to end each segment of his speech with a dark ambiguity that borders on the bizzare. Particularly his closing where he says:

"Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.

This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.

God bless you all, and God bless America."

I highlighted in red the bizzare parts. I have never really thought of America as a storm or a whirlwind. Though we are acting like it in Iraq.

Compare that to the closing of Clinton’s 1st:

“And so, my fellow Americans, at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin with energy and hope, with faith and discipline, and let us work until our work is done. The scripture says, "And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not.

From this joyful mountaintop of celebration, we hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets. We have changed the guard. And now, each in our way, and with God's help, we must answer the call.

Thank you and God bless you all.”

And Lincoln’s

“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Of course Lincoln new what was about to happen. His was a far weightier speech. It had to be. It was a last plea to preserve the Union. But even there, in the last scentance, of the last desparete cry to avoid war, he uses this awsome imagery of the:

“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

I am curious to hear GW’s next address. Lincoln’s first was four times as long as his second. And another thing that is really striking is that in the span between those speeches Lincoln was able to fight to near victory and nation destroying civil war. What has GW been able to do in 4 years?

Lastly Lincoln did not ask God to bless the US at the end of either of his speeches. Though both his speeches are filled with biblical phrasing and gospel imagery, way more than Clinton’s or Bush’s. Actually Bush’s speech is the least biblical in tone.

Politically Incorrect Santa 2004

Ha Ha Ha, or Ho Ho Ho..something like that.

Well it is X-mass time again. So who's been naughty and who's been nice?
Well lets look into my bag and see what we have for all the little brats, er, kids this year...

I normally do not want my list to get published, too much chance of getting sued. But seeing as it is the holidays I will relent.

Johnny K. - Well he was a pretty good boy this year. He could have been a cranky boy and maybe even got his parents to get him that Presidential Action Playset. But instead he decided to put the family first. Okay I will give him lots of money, a really cool wife, great kids, and I won't stick him with that poor quality Iraqi Freedom playset. Lots of boys want that playset but the soldiers arms and legs break off all the time.

Georgy B - Well Georgy has been a bad boy since he got everything he wanted this year but was really ungrateful. So he gets the Iraqi Freedom Playset.
He can play with it with that loser neighbor boy Donny Rumsfeld.
This year there are thousands of little boys wanting Lee Press-on limbs and I have had the elves stock up on that item. Along with the GI Joe tripple amputee inaction figure with wheel-chair grip.

For the youth of Portland I have a special item. She's protestor Barbie complete with ti-dye t-shirt, peace sign, and is able to cry real tears when you sprey her with pepper mace. Her arms turn black and blue when Ken the Overeaction Policeman beats her with a club. If your lucky I'll give you Ken the Overeaction policeman. He comes in full riot gear and APC with water canon and enough pepper mace to bring down an adult grizzly.

For those lucky sadists I have the GI Joe Abu Grhaib torture center. It comes with anatomically correct prisoners to abuse. 9volt batteries not included.

For kids who like dolls that do nothing we have either the Senator doll or the Representative Doll. Both are in the Congressional Apathy playset.

Actually this isn't much of a playset since these types of things require imagination and anyone who would want one of these lacks that component.

Lastly we have the Christian hypocrite doll with bible-thumping action.
This doll is built so that at night its face falls off revealing the dark powers of satan.

What will be in your stocking? Well I can't say. Coal is looking pretty good to me. Hell with the price of gas, a lump of coal could get me through the winter without having to rely on the government. Oh yeah they cut that program too.. Fuckers

Santa

Star Wars Battlefronts

A galactic version of capture the flag.

Still this is a kick ass cool game that is totally fun to play. In the beginning I didn't realize you could change your spawn points based on what command post you controled. So I kept respawning at this one post that Vader was trying to capture and he killed me four times in a row. I felt honored. I was also kind of pissed off so the the next time I respawned as one of those bugheaded rebels with a rocket launcher and hunted down the dark lord of the syth and gave him what for. However it was still unerving when he finally figured out who was shooting him. I was running around with the breathing right behind me. Then some really nice guy tossed a grenade at ol Darth and blowed him up.

The only thing I find hard to swollow is a Star Destroyer inside the atmosphere. Can you jump in it and fly it around like you can an speederbike?

Sims 2: The Empire Strikes Back

I had a brain storm of an Idea. Use the Sims2 engine and combine it with Star Wars battlefronts. This would be the ultimate of ultimates. It would be the closest thing to playing with Star Wars figures, actually it would be even better. You could have the battlefronts mode where you are in the midst of total war and then when the battle is over you go back to the rebel stronghold and hang out with your friends and family doing rebel stuff, or go back to the deathstar and do Stormstropper stuff. You have a war and peace game.

Help!

I am going insane!

It is the company party for clients and the studio has been tricked out in a Christmas theme.
The drinks are flowing, the finger food is being fingered. People are offering polite laughter to stupid stories.

AND THE CD PLAYER IS ONLY PLAYING ONE SONG OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. "HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS!"
I FEEL LIKE BILL MURRY IN A DRASTICALLY TRUNCATED GROUNDHOG DAY.

Help! Anyone! Help!!!!!!!

Dream a little dream

I know that dreams are your frontal lobes trying to make sense of the limbicsystem organising memory at night. However I draw the line at some of thestuff my brain comes up with. And just where does it go to grab therequired props for the dream?

Example: I dream that I live in a border town in Kentucky in 1862 and it isat night. The town is attacked by home-gard from the south. They are burning the town and shooting people. I am running to a barn to let thesmall union garrison know about what is going on. A rebel comes at me and Iknock him off his horse by swinging a 2x4 at him.

When I enter the barn I find the garrison in dress blues singing while theyawait their picture to be taken. They are in their off time a choir.

Another dream has me wandering along the Oregon trail with other pioneers.I am profoundly worried that we may be coming to the Oregon country too lateand will come into a war zone. The term "54-40 or fight" is being repeatedby many of the pioneers. There is another bunch who is traveling with us. They are trappers and speak only in trade jargon.

This puts me on the trail prior to 1846 since the border dispute that nearlybrought England and the US to war in Oregon was taking place in the 1840's.The 54-40 or fight was actually a campaign slogan and was ment to instill inthe US a desire to go to war with England over Oregon.

I know my brain is full of shit like this and so when it is asleep andtrying to process memory it grabs all sorts of historical crapola to makesense of what my emotional centers are up to. I can't really complain toomuch. When I have these types of dreams they are totally real to me. Theyhave so much stuff and people in them and historically accurate, as far asmy brain in concerned. I am shocked to wake up.

Mumbo Jumbo

It would really be great if the demolished-rats (democrats) would get their highminded heads out of the clouds and come to terms with the reality that the republicans are better campaigners. That is the fact. I am so sick and tired of all the whinney-wine-wines gong on about vote counts, and ballot boxes. Holy crap that's been going on since the beginning. How do they think Kennedy got to be President. It would be great if it all just came down to cheating. But that is not the case. Bill Clinton won this same bunch of people, twice. Why? Because he was smart? Because he had vision?

Well for the tiny minority of thinkers in this country that was true. But for the most part I think he won because...well look at him compared to Bush Senior or Dole. He just had the right stuff.
It is stupid to think that if only the American people really knew about Bush they would vote for somebody else. Guess what, the people did know about Bush, the sucky war, the problematic non-logic of this dumbass, but they voted for him anyway.

Progressives, me included better, remember that they live in the most conservative of all western democracies. We have 'always" been that way. In no small part that is because our democratic roots go to rural America. We arn't rural anymore, but our country was founded as an agrarian society.

Our peasentry was pretty much used to total freedom from the get-go.
Unlike European democracies that came out of butting heads with Monarchs that actually lived in the country trying for democracy; we had few restrictions. In Europe things didn't work out too well until after WWII.

We had a 150 year head start. European democracy is urban based and so is more inclusive of different peoples and ideas. This was not, and is not, a strong point in American democracy.
Jefferson was very worried about how America would end up when it too was more urban than rural. He was not sure that American style democracy would work in such an environment. And he was the quintessential rural democrat.

His version, that is to say our version of democracy, is still one of "live and let live..oh yes and don't bother me." On the surface this sounds the same as in Europe. The main difference, I think, is that American democracy, with few exceptions, has an inbread disdain for "governmental fiddling".

What will bring down the Bush types is their fiddling. Americans don't like Big Government. That is why it is such a powerful election phrase. That is actually one thing both the left and right can agree on.

It is paradoxical that while progressives strive for limited government intrusion in our lives, they also strive for big government solutions to social problems. It is also paradoxical that conservatives loath big government solutions while allowing increased governmental intrusion.
Jefferson was soooo right. When most people were releatively self sufficient, democracy worked well. However we have constructed a society like a gigantic pyramid scheme. Each one of us is dependent on the other.

This should be a good thing. But I think it presents a danger in that people are dragged kicking and screaming along while governmental solutions are applied with broad strokes. In so doing, even if the solution is come to through dmeocratic means, vast portions of the country are effected by governing decisions much the same way peasents are effected by edicts from kings. So they feel disaffected. And who gets the vote of the disaffected?

Guys like FDR, Clinton, and...gulp...Bush. Most Americans, right, left, or inbetween, feel diseaffected pretty much all of the time. "Washington" is always going to be viewed as a tyrant but many people. We need it's meddling and hate it's meddling. I am not sure how all this is going to work out.

I do think that populism and pragmatism rules as far as winning elections.

Tell them what they want to hear and let philosphers argue abut the truth.

Resignation Central

As per usual a flurry of resignations has come upon the Bush White House.
This is how the resignation process works for real....

The people resigning are basically being fired. Oh they could chose to "stay on" but the rule is, and has always been, that a new term is a great way to undramatically fire all the people you don't get along with. Presidents have used this in the Past. It is also used to remove people who you may wish to use latter for another purpose.

The most telling aspect of the resignations thus far is that has not included any of the Bush circle of importance. The people getting to leave all, either are not in his inner circle, or do not agree whole hartedly with his vision...what ever that happens to be.

On the Warfront: Hurray! Falluja is a gigantic dangerous mess! We are now "in control" of the city. 38 more soldiers had to get wasted and whole city blocks got to be pulverised, but hey we are on the road to democracy. The Suni faction of the interim government has pulled out of the government in protest. But hey were are working toward a democratic state...er...I guess.
The good news is that Oregon has only got to spend 2.1 billion on the war in Iraq. Compare that to the suckers in Washington State who have spent 14 billion, or California who has got to spend 22 billion. Man-o-man I am glad that we are all awash in sooooooo much cash we can spend that kinda doe in Iraq. When I see the new Boring Middle School built quite recently in 1947, I know that we have money to burn.

Here is some interesting moral values info:

State with the highest divorce rate: Texas State with the lowest divorce rate: Massachussetts The top ten states with the best healthcare are all blue states The bottom ten states with the worst healthcare are all red states The top ten states to get a good education are all blue states The bottom ten....yup uncle George's stomping...er..I mean swaggering ground.

So for family values you pretty much want to live in a state that voted for Kerry. Like Oregon!

Questions...stupid ones..but I ask them anyway

10 more GI's get to come home in boxes. 10 more families in the US get to not have fathers, sons, brothers, etc. anymore. Still more get to come home with one less arm or leg. Lots of Iraqi's get to be blown up by JDAMs and cut in half with machine gun fire. Our side says it's ready for a fight.

There side says the same. Inbetween little kids and old women get slaughtered. Buildings burn, bombs explode, people on fire scream out their last few seconds of life. Nursing mothers get crushed to death with their suckling babes when their homes collapse. Soldiers listen to heavy metal rock while they let loose with their 50's. Jihadi's chant "God is great" as they fire their AK's off down the road, killing their own neighbors while trying to kill our guys. Massive doeses of morphine are given to men about to die after being disembowled by an exploding RPG. And so on and so on and so on.

Now I am not the swiftest man alive. But where, in all this, is morality?

Oh yes, I forgot, this is a war. And war is "all hell" There is no morality in war. There is no goodness in war. There is no ethics in war. There is nothing Godly in war. There is no good war. There is only tragedy. War is nothing but murder brought to an epic scale. And Iraq is such a tiny little war.

Imagine all the blood from all the wounds at the little creek of Antietam in Maryland, where, on September 17th 1862, 23,000 men were killed in a single day. Or Cold Harbor in 1864 where 5,000 men died in 20 minutes. For that matter Grants push south from May 14th 1864 to September of that same year claimed 150,000 union casulties.

We are less able to stomach the horror that is war. This is a good thing. It is amazing how much slaughter we have born.

Darn

I was really hoping that Huston would pull it off so we could have a Bostonvs Huston world series. A Texas team vs a Massachusetts team. It would haveadded a degree of poetry to this mean season. Everyone at work was rootingfor a Boston Texas series. The winner sends their man to the White House.Now what will it say if the Cardinals beat Boston? A co-worker just saidthat if the Cardinals win then Nader goes to Washington

Facism 101

Q: Daddy what is fascism?

A: Well my lad a long long time ago in an Empire far far away, in Rome, there was a symbol that people used to denote the power of the state. It was the Fasci. A bundle of sticks strapped around a battle axe. Ironically enough there is a Fasci on the backside of the US Dime. Around the torch of liberty are a bundle of sticks.

Q: Why a bundle of sticks daddy?

A: Well you see the symbol illustrates that a bundle of sticks bound together is much stronger than a single stick.

Q: That doesn't sound bad.

A: Well it isn't bad. The idea anyway. However the symbol on our dime bares little association with what we today call Fascism. Fascism today revolves around the notion that a single party must control the reigns of government.
The must control the media, education, and though allowing capitalism and private property ownership, strictly control who gets to own the means of production by adherence to party doctrine.

Q: You said a mouthful Daddy. How can you tell if you live in a Fascist state?

A: The first sign is single party domination of the national government. A single rigid ideology. Secondly you will observe that rigid ideology taking hold of most media outlets to control the flow of information.

Q: What else?

A: Usually the single party will use fear and scapegoating as a means to scare the population into A) relingishing freedom and B) blaming the problems associated with the coming tyranny on the outcasts.

Q: Who are the outcasts?

A: Well outcasts in a Fascist state are anyone who does not adhere to doctrine. Sometimes labeled terrorists by the state. Others are people who the general population has long distrusted. The NAZI had a whole lot of scapegoats. Socialists, communists, labor organizers, liberals, intellectuals, homosexuals, and of course people who were not "pure" in the eyes of the state; namely the Jews.

Q: Gee dad I was listening to a rightwing radio man say that all the liberals should be put into concentratioin camps until the war on terror is over. I heard that it is okay for the government to cross check the books I take out of our library and read my emial. And that a national TV network is ordering the broadcast of a TV program designed to spread lies and misinformation. I also heard that the president of the Diebold company, the one who makes the electronic voting machines, says he will deliver a victory to the current government. And we are constantly being told that we are in danger.

A: Well my lad if it smells like fascism, and looks like fascism, it probably is fascism.

Q: We would never be NAZI's dad.

A: Of course not my boy. A very smart man, who happened to have fled Germany, named Albert Einstein, said long ago, that if Fascism were ever to come to America it would be called Americanism.

Q: But Dad isn't it okay to love your country?

A: Absolutely. Not only should we love our nation but we should practice that love by making sure we never relingquish our freedom or give in to hatred and fear. You see our freedom, and all that flows from that, is our strength.

Q: What happens to nations who follow a fascist ideology?

A: Well they usually bankrupt themselves by going to war all the time. They become more and more isolated from the world. Finally they either end up being bombed to bits or collapse into revolution and anarchy, or both.

Q: What do we do Daddy?

A: For a start, try not voting for fascists. You see most fascists come to power by way of election, thought usually a corupted one.

Q: Why would anyone want to vote for a dictator?

A: If the fascists have done their job well, then enough people will be too scared to vote for anyone but the fascists. By voting for the fascists, who tend to use force and militarism first, the public is lulled into the wrong belief that they are safe. But as soon as they think that the state instills more fear in them so they are again willing to give up more of their freedom.
Until there is no freedom. And people are scared, not of terrorism, but to speak out against the state. People begin to be arrested for simply carrying a sign in the wrong location. Like the women who were arrested yesterday for wearing a t-shirt that said "protect our liberty".
Would you honestly cast a vote for a man or party that would arrest a woman for wearing t-shirt that sais "protect our liberty"?
Q: That sounds bad dad. What does God say about that?

A: Well Jesus said "There will be many false prophets who come and profess in My name. They will apear as sheep, but are really wolves on the prowel.

You will know them by their deeds."

Our Leaders Words

Our leader speaks:

"After the renewed refusal of my peace offer, it became clear that this war-against all reasons of common, sense and necessity-must be fought to its end. You know me, my old Party companions: you know I have always been an enemy of half measures or weak decisions. If the Providence has so willed that the people cannot be spared this fight, then I can only be grateful that it entrusted me with the leadership in this historic struggle which, for the next 500 or 1,000 years, will be described as decisive. The people and their soldiers are working and fighting today, not only for the present, but for the coming, nay the most distant, generations. A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator."

Well he would be our leader if we happened to find ourselves living in Germany the day Hitler declared war on the USA. To read Hitler is earily similar to reading Bush.

The above paragraph is from Hitlers declaration of war on the US.

Debate Rehash

Listening to it on radio only I have developed this version of what I heard....

Kerry: Proposal...Attack Attack Attack

W: Whinney response...excuses....confusion over no applause

Kerry: Proposal...Attack Attack Attack

W: Whinney response...excuses...unsubstantiated rumor...confusion over no applause

Kerry: Bemused smack-down of unsubstantiated rumor...Proposal...Attack Attack Attack

W: Gumbling bewilderment over why his lies are not working...excuses....half truths

Kerry: Bemused smack-down of W's bewilderment...Attack Attack Attack
and so on...

Patton would be a Kerry supporter. Kerry is on the money now. Attack!

My advice to Kerry from now on-
"I do not want to get any communications saying we are holding our position. Let Bush do that. We are advancing constantly. The only thing we are going to hold onto is the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose, and were going to kick him in the ass. We're going to kick the hell out of him all the time and we're goning to go through him like crap through "

Cheny vs Edwards debate outtakes

As we all know there is a built in delay in audio and video so that producers can remove unwanted stuff that may prove problematic for the sensor.........

Moderator: I would like to welcome you to this, the one and only, debate between the Vice Presidential Candidates. On my left is Vice President Dick Cheny and to my right Senator John Edwards. The first question goes to you Mr. Cheny...

Cheny: Thats "Mr. Vice President" to you ...fucker.

Edwards: It's kinda clear why we use the term "vice" in his title..huh..

Cheny: Fuck off.

Moderator: Well lets begin...

Edwards interupts: So how was it in the scene where Luke finally takes your mask off?

Cheny: fuck a broom stick you cracker

Edwards: There you go again insulting me. But Darth...I mean Dick...I am from South Carolina not Georgia.

Cheny; Fuck off

Moderator: This is getting a little rediculous.(begings to choke)

Cheny: I find you lack of patience disturbing

Edwards: Cheny release him

Cheny: As you wish

Moderator: falls to the floor gasping

Edwards stands and from within his quintessential dark blue politicians suit he draws his light saber

Cheny adjusts his pacemaker for active duty increasing his breathing.

Chenny: You've learned much young one..but you are not a Vice President yet.

Edwards: Your right and I'm full of surprises. So explain why your administration has cut funding to the Litoral services while expanding research into force projection battle systems akin to those underconsideration during the cold war. The diachotomy of reduction in coastal protection, and rapid response, while relying on an outdated gross force projection scheme seems at odds with most force commanders. what do you say to that?

Cheny : Fuck off

Edwards: How can you claim to critisize Kerry for cutting weapons systems when you advocated cutting the exact same systems?

Cheny: Go fuck yourself

Edwards: The administrations blind adherence to a weak dollar policy, lack of concern with outsourcing, and seeming cavelier attitude toward debt expansion seems completely incoherrent.

Cheny: Look I, and much of America, are sick and tired of using the F word all the time so why don't you just shut up and let us do whatever the Fuck we want?
Edwards: Because your a big fat scumbag whose gonna get the wedgy of his life as soon as this debate is over.

Moderator: gulp

Cheny: Well now son you show your ignorance again. You can't wedgy a man who is not wearing any underwear.

Edwards: Did you help your wife write the lesbian porno novel?

Cheny: Who says "she" wrote it?

Edwards: You mean.....

Cheny: No one ever told you who really wrote that novel.

Edwards: They told me enough. They told be Lynn wrote it.

Cheny: No, I am the author of the lesbian porno novel.

Edwards: No. Thats not ture...thats impossible.

Moderator: (takes pistol and kills himself while the entire nation ignores him)

One last message from o'l Santa

It's been centuries since I set down the guidelines for presents and shit.
So here goes:

1. Be nice and you get a present
2. Be naughty and you get diddly and I don't mean Bo.
3. Now if you are nice but start blathering around about how physically impossible it is for me to deliver all this shit to people then you get nothing. It's my business how I get my fat ass down a fucking chimmeny. And I'm a magic man! Space-time don't mean squat to a Saint! Speed limits and weigh limitation of sleighs are for you mortal ass-munches to live with.
4. Cookies count. If you have been naughty, I'm not talking about getting into an ilegal war, but if you have been middle-of-the-road evil, you can buy your way out of it with decent cookies. And I don't want to see a piddlly plate of chips-ahoy. If you give me cheap cookies then I want a whole bag. Skim milk is for fags too. I am one fat bastard so I need the 4% whole-milk or even better a thick cup of Baily's Irish Cream. No Eggnog though, not unless you want Santa to spew all over your holiday décor. The smell of stale vomit is not generally condusive to holiday cheer.
5. One thing that has started to crop up is the use of digital video. Now I couldn't give less of a rip if you and your wife, or boy-toy, or dog want to get freaky in front of your camera. But I draw the line at using the DV camcorder to try and shoot me. Anyone trys to video tape me and I will wake them up and kick their ass. You ain't had a beating until a 300 pound imortal Saint wakes you up by beating you to a bloody pulp.
6. Ask for the right gift. Elves are pretty good at most toys but this technoligical revolution has really sucked for most of them. They want to built a dolly and they get an order for 10 million video game console and games. Do you have any idea how hard it is to train an elf to build a fucking X-box. So humor me and save elf lives by asking for wooden pull toys or a plush lion doll. If you want a computer or formula-1 race car the ndo us all a favor and go buy it yourself.

I hope not to see any of you later.

Santa!

Uncle George

Once upon a time there lived a family in a modest little house in the Middletown America. One day their uncle George came to visit. He was a kindly man. He was soft spoken, hard to understand at times due to a speech impediment, everyone liked him. He would visit and watch "the game" with pop, while chomping on Pretzels. Once he almost choked to death, but Pop saved him.

This day uncle George came with a big smile. In his back pocket was a giant wad of money. He looked at mom and pop, and the two kids and gave each one a brand new $50 bill.

"Wow" they all said. "Thanks uncle George. So what is the occasion?"

Uncle George winked and said "I have a whole bunch of stuff to do, with a whole bunch of my friends. But I thought I would stop by and show you how much I appreciate you'all."

Looking at the giant wad of cash, pop asked "So George what are you going to do with all that money?"

George stuffed it further down in his pocket and retorted, "Well its actually none of your damn business. But if you must know...."

Pop felt terrible about the inappropriate questions and apologized.
Uncle George said "Think nothing of it. I hope you'all enjoy your 50's. I'm off."

Two days later.....

Mom stormed into the kitchen in a panic. "Pop did you take out a home equity loan?"

Pop scratched his head, "No. Why?"

"Well somebody did. Now we owe an extra $100,000 to the bank. It'll take years to pay it off." Mom was irate.

Just then Uncle George walked in smiling. He had a fancy new suit, a fancy new car. He saw mom and pop all upset and asked what the problem was.

"Somebody borrowed all the equity out of our home. They just took the money. Who would do such a thing?" asked mom.

"Well actually it was....er....me. You see I had a whole lot to do and you'all had that money and well I just took it." George continued to smile.

------------

What would you do to Uncle George?

Well that is what George W Bush has done to you. He has hocked your social security to China, and given you a 50 or two to keep you from understanding that your have been swindled. He has given your money to his friends. It will take the rest of our lives to pay China back for all the debt he has saddled us with.

If he was my uncle I would have him arrested and sent to Prison. That is after I had beat him unconscious.

Bush Leadership!

Grand rhetoric is in short supply in the White House. Nation suffers from embargo on meaningful phrases. Scientists are urgently needed to discover new reserves of rhetoric now that our supply is dangerously low.

When asked by Bob Woodward about how he thinks posterity will judge his fighting the war on terrorism, our great leader President Bush responded "Who cares we'll all be dead."

1933 FDR "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

1960 Kennedy "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

2004 Bush "Who Cares We'll All Be Dead."

FEAR

Bush team uses old "cut their pay to gain their vote" strategy.

In keeping with Bush Administration guidelines on stupid people acting stupidly. Their new overtime policy comes into play at exactly the wrong time effecting the wrong people. Like their previous drug discount system, it's 364 pages of legalize is both confusing and fear inducing.

confidential Whitehouse source - "Our efforts to scare the b'jeezus out of the old folks worked so well that we are confident of further fear induction to those workers currently most likely to vote republican."

When asked if they worry about upwardly mobile people now facing pay reductions directly caused by the Bush Administration. Our sources say, "Currently the Presidents advisor on Federal Emergency Action Response "FEAR" is very busy thinking up new ways for the Administration to terrorize, scare, and generally annoy the American electorate. Our confidence in FEAR has never been higher."

The President was asked if he felt he had a mandate to do these kind of things. He responded by saying "Mandate? That sounds like someth'n a New Jersey governor would do. I have been happily married to my wife who has been, and continues to be the same woman. Not that homer sexuals will rot in hell though they probably will."

The Bush 04 team has more "ideas" in the pipeline before November.

1. Put on scary masks to scare children as they go back to school.
2. Admit that they don't have a clue about what will happen in Iraq.
3. Invade Iran with boyscout troops.
4. Repeal assault weapons ban so Presidential assassins get only the best weapons.
5. "Reform" the Social Security Administration by bombing it with JDAMs.
6. "Reform" the Constitution by using really big eraser.
7. Thank Vetrans by proclaiming September 1st Patton Day and then slapping all returning vets in the face.
8. Build gigantic wedgeshaped battle cruisers to "explore" Mars and make the solar system safe for democracy.
9. Open gates of Hell so all Imps and Deamons can have a "fair" chance at communicating their point of view.
10. Give God ultimatum on the whole "Rapture" business. Expert from Bush speech - "He must comply with our request for Rapture or we will enRapture Him."

In our next segment: Cheny! Zombi from beyond the grave? Or fat rich bastard that is totally clueless as to his utter unlikeability?

40

I am hovering near 40. The emotional portion of my brain wants my higher brain to be concerned about this. The higher brain is currently looking at the matter with bemusement and mild indifference. The totallity of me is in the middle. I still cling like most people to the illusion that I have at least half my life left. This is an illusion since there are now, and always have been, thousands of chances to get killed off. The longer you live on earth the greater the risk of you doing something stupid, running into someone stupid, or coming down with something stupid, and dying from it.

I go with Donna to estate sales. It is like you are part of the decay of the person that is dead, or in a nursing home. You are the scavenger picking through this persons life. The ski boots that were in style in 1972, the Johnny Cash albums whose jackets are weather beaten but whose disks are pristine, the furniture, jewelry, clothing, ect. The most poignent and saddest things are boxes of old photos. They are sold by the box. The photo's that seem to be worth selling are black and white. I have a BW photo of a man, probably from the 40's, that has been colorized. He is smiling and looking at the top of his game. He looks, in the photo, to be about my age now.

At some point all the stuff we have will go this way. Some will be passed down. Maybe. But most, after a generation, will lose meaning and my picture will be in a box for sale at some estate sale. The stuff we have now becomes an after image of us; the last things above ground that say we were here. One by one the artifacts lose context. When that context is gone the item is just another disconnected curiosity.

I have listened to people talk about midlife crisis. And told myself and others that this is not goning to be me. But I think there is some internal, animal response in all of us. It is the response that wills us into a vainglorious attempt to leave a mark, something solid, something that will last. It is a vainglory since we seek the impossible. We look out on the pyramids and think "well at least that guy left a mark...whoever he was" Even the pyramids were built at the command of shadows almost totally forgotten. In time the buildings themselves will disapear. My kids and any they have will be the things that say I was here. Everything else will go. In a thousand years there will be some dude writing stuff like this; he will not know me, or even have my name, but his existance will not have been possible without me.

So what is the point of all that? I have no idea. Just some thoughts.

Tales from Wyeast

I have a story to tell you. It relates to the old building I used to work in. You may be aware of a portion of this story.

I work nights for Ivey Imaging. About six months ago Ivey bought Wyeast color. In the dead of winter we moved out of our old building to the Studio facility in Milwaukie. The old building sat on the hillside below Pill Hill. Once a month I would be given a roster with film and chemistry inventory listed. This was my cue that inventory would have to be taken.

Wyeast, in its heyday, used a prodigious amount of film, paper, and chemistry. It was the largest photolab in the pacific northwest. With the advent of digital technology, less and less film was used. The 3rd floor, the floor where all the processing went on, was shut down in 1999. Wyest numbered its floors in reverse; first floor was sales and admin, second was production, and the basement was floor 3.

Before Wyeast had taken posession of the building it was the property of the Red Cross. Floor 3 contained massive freezer rooms where all of Oregon's blood supply was kept. The freezers were perfect for storing film. The freezers were climate controled behind thick airlock doors.

Taking inventory always gave me the creeps. You go down in the elevator and when the doors opened you were greeted with total darkness. You had to walk down a short corridor and turn the lights on. Even then only a few were swtiched on.

The place was a maze or huge processing machines, drying racks, and chemical containers. It smelled of fix and developer. Businesses are here to make money and when a portion of business is shut down it usually just sits there. The 3rd floor was no different. I always felt a bit like the Omega Man wandering around down there. Desks still had paper work on them, albeit from 1999.

The freezers were dark and humming away. Once you were inside you turned on the lights and it looked bright and happy. Though the creepiness factor was always there since one wall was lined with glass doors, much like a supermarkets freezer isle. Beyond them was more dark building.

Inventory usually took several hours. Before 1999 it could take days. I would sit on a rolling chair and take the tally.

The building around me would make all the noises old building make. But every once in a while you could here doors open, or even feet. I would tell myself that it was all going on on the 2nd floor. Once I even heard a sink turn on and off. Then there was the time a bank of lights all sparked at once and then shut off. Even on the 2nd floor I would turn on all the light, and crank the radio, to cover the bumps in the night.

I would not even bother to relate this stuff to you, but I came across an article in the Oregonian today that made things more clear and disturbing. You see the building inquestion was built in 1961 on property purchased from the City by the Red Cross. This city property contained cemetery #4. One of the oldest graveyards in the city. The story in the paper says that a title search done by the owners and neighborhood association, has determined that the city made no attempt at removal of the bodies. A specialist in pioneer cemeteries was called in and, using his euipment, found coffins 5 feet beneath the surface. Currently there are 120 coffins under and around the current structure. The only things the city moved were the headstones.

Epilogue: I guess this is not new to the City. According to Mr. Doering, the specialist. There are bodys under all sorts of developments. There are coffins under the sidewalk at SE 32nd and Main. Coffin removal was not really enforced by the City until the mid sixties.

Party Politically Broadcast

What follows is a party politically broadcast on behalf of the "really pissed off Americans that are sick of the giant trud Bush" party. Look here. I don't like the sounds of all these bonsentration bamps. I am not sure what sign I may have to so on my coat. Help me out on this. The nazis had the jews use the star of David. I think we should be forced to wear those big foam stadium fan-hands. But instead of the foam hand in a prepetual index-finer extention I think the middle finger should be extended. Sing this to America the Beautiful Oh mornful rightwing radio lies Spreading waves of searing pain For purple bruises and broken bones Our nations rep is slain! Amerika Amerika Bush has greatly shit on thee And on they hood his boot has stood and crushed our liberty!

Reasons to vote for Kerry:

• All the people who really know John Kerry are voting for John Kerry.
• All the people who really know George Bush are vorting for John Kerry.
• John Kerry's old staff stand by him and defend him.
• Bush's old staff write tell-all books about him denegrating him.
• Kerry was a rich kid who could have been a playboy and decided to volenteer for service.
• Bush was a rich kid who dodged his service, made excuses as to why he couldn't show up, and lived off his dad's money.
• Terrisa H Kerry spent her youth protesting apartide in South Africa.
• Laura Bush ran a stop light and killed her ex-boyfreind (who was riding in another car?!?!?)
• Kerry willingly put his life on the line for people he did not know.
• Bush willing put the lives of people he did not know on the line.
• Bush talks about being a Christian but does not practice his beliefs.
• Kerry does not talk about being a Christian but does practice his beliefs.
• Bush has no freinds oversees, no close contacts, no buddys.
• Kerry has numerous connections to people in power in other nations.

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

My brain is now in the process of unscrewing the top of my head in hopes of flying to another planet not ruled by morons.

1) Bush is retarded. I can now honestly say that I do not wish retarded people to be the President. Not that retarded people have no place in society. I am destined to have retarded people as a President. My class of 1983 was governed by a retarded person (I am not kidding) However he did not have access to thermonuclear weapons.

Mr. Bush! Yes you. Call Rider and get the moving vans reserved. You and your bunch of empty headed, arch criminals need to get the fuck out of dodge. Sorry you will have to read this because I do not have time to draw you and your gang of mouth breathing, Vogons a picture book to follow. Just try not to accidently kill 40,000 people when you pack. You dumbass. However you nutballs have managed to make Reagan look smart. And you have been able to elevate that French sllimeball Chirac to the status of world leader. You guys really.........suck!

2) Kerry is not retarded but is promising a healthcare system that only retarded people would wish on themselves, or Hitler, or maybe even Bush.
Mr. Kerry! Yes you! YOU CANNOT HAVE A NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM THAT CONTINUES TO UTILIZE INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!!!!!!!!! Stop smoking crack! The only system that will work is a NATIONALIZED SYSTEM!!!!!!! You pay taxes and it goes to pay doctors. Government commands doctors and hospitals to charge "X" for a procedure, pegged to inflation. Why "reform" healthcare so I can send tax money to Blue Cross and it's 100million dollar a year CEO? Get a grip you putz. And get us the hell out of Iraq!

3) Ralph Nadar is infact the largest egomaniac in this race. His total lack of belief in the American people is made manifest in his utter disregard for anyone in America other than himself.

Hey Ralph! If you want people who believe in progressive programs such as the ones you helped implement to actually start running things; stop running for President moron! Duh! If you were honsetly trying to change things you would stop masturbating for the Presidency and work to get your people into School boards, county treasurer positions, city council seats, and state legislatures. Then eventually, with an actual political structure based on people who actually are known to the electorate, you might seek out Senate seats or House seats, and maybe even a governors seat. This takes time and you will be either dead or too damn old to run. To a true progressive this would be okay. To you however this won't do because you see yourself as a Presdient. Get laid and chill out!

4) Osama Bin Laden is the only guy who shows any patience, planning, or an ability to get to know his enemy. And this is the rub of the matter. He spends 100,000 bucks and inflict a half billion dollars worth of damage and only 13 of his followers have to die. Bush spends 165 billion to hurt Bin Laden and his freinds and ends up killing 900+ GI's wounding some 8000 more. Who is winning the war? It's the same as that skinny wrinkled geazer HoChi Minn and his pajama wearing VC.

All I want is some normal person who has his/her head on his/her shoulders and not up some corporations bung cave; or up their own.

Cat story

I take the garbage down the driveway to the curb at 2am. The moon, 3/4 full, baths the fields and casts stark shadows. The leaves of the apple trees reflect moonshine from them in a slight breeze. It is utterly silent, bugs are asleep, frogs are fucked out and asleep in the ooze. If I make enough noise various dogs and coyote's will bark and or howl at me. Tonight I do not make enough noise, or maybe the dogs are too damn tired after a long hard day of sleeping, digging up old toys, and deciding where to take a dump.

The can I take down contains a very nasty brew. We missed last weeks pick up, or they missed us. Either way the contents of this container have stewed under multiple 100 degree days. It contains two rats, ten or more field mice. lilly white maggots coat the inside of the lid of the container. They are drinking on the condensation caused by all the fermenting yuck. I have, because I am not a cave man, stealthily used a bunggy cord to keep the lid on. I do this so that I do not have to smell it and so that all the large animals big enough to take down a garbage can, don't have an evening feast on said yuck.

The latter has happened in the past I cannot convey to you my attitude slide, upon seeing all that decomposing, slime covered, maggot infested, crap spread all over the street. I most closely resemble Samuel L Jackson cleaning up the car in Pulp Fiction. I'm the Guns of the Navarone.
Anyway tonight I set the can at ease and turn to go up the driveway when I see her. Shelia the expatriate cat. Sitting sprawled out on the driveway meeting with Blanche another of our cats. Blanche looks up and wanders off as if to say "well you too have catching up to do I will leave you alone."

I have not seen Shelia in weeks. She just vanished. In our area coyote come in and snack on cats and small dogs all the time. They are just part of the food chain. So when I see her and determine that she is alive and well I am happy, call to her, and scoop her up.

Shelia always enjoyed the top honors at the house. She slept on our bed, got to be inside whenever she wanted. She had hopped into our minivan at the grade school when she was very small. She was the "Queen". Then she grew up and learned to hunt like all the others. She would go out for no more than a day at a time. Then two weeks ago she vanished. She normally would make quite a noise at our door to get in at night; now nothing. She would come if she heard food being poured into the dish: now nothing.

Now her she was. As I walk up the driveway I talk to her in the typical baby talk crap that humans use. At the top of the driveway Shelia looks deep into my eyes with her own deep yellow eyes and hisses like the Queen Alien at me. Being not too sentimental about all the cats we have, I drop her at once.

In the house I tell Donna that the Queen is home and she goes out to get the cat. In a minute or to Shelia is in the house. She paces the floor like a lioness. She spits and hisses like a totally wild animal. However she is also evidently conflicted. When Donna holds her she spits and hisses then goes to cleaning Donna's hand with her tounge. After a bit of cleaning there is another bit of hissing and the cat is up running around trying to get out.

We decide to sit down and watch TV, which is in possible at 2am since there is almost nothing on. The cat paces infront of us both hissing, groweling, showing no fear. Finally we let her out.

The queens has gone native. All those lovey dovey cats and dogs are always only a few days from being wild. Shelia can get all she needs from her surroundings. She doesn't need us. And the longer she is away the less she see herself as a kitten. I have heard that most house pets are always in either the kitten mode or the puppy mode. They never really grow up. Well this cat is grown up.

She is acting toward us now the same way Blanche, the other cat, and her duaghter Alba act toward each other. If they come close they will growl, spit, and swipe. Then go to cleaning each other abit. Then right back to hissing. They are parting too. The difference with them is that they both see us as parents. To us they both still act like kittens. Shelia is moving beyond that.

On the porch Sophia, Blanch and Alba are eating an evening meal at the food bowl. They see Shelia and make room for her. She goes to feed then growls at them. They all move away. She eats by herself. Then goes down the stairs and is gone in the night. This is very easy since she is almost totally black.

On the rail sit Cupcake, a totally inappropirately named famele cat and Whisky, an appropriately named male cat. They have been here since before we got here. They are fat on rabbits. They watch Shelia go. Then they go to. "The humans on the other side of the road have mowed their field. No place for the rodents to hide! Lets eat!"
Alba the baby and Sophia, her grandma, curl up on a mat and go to sleep. Blanche goes down to the street too "Maybe I can get the bunggy cord off.!