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July 4th, 2008
 | 12:09 pm
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security....
--Thomas Jefferson, et alia.
The Constitution of the United States of America
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America....
Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, "We, the people." It is a very eloquent beginning. But when the document was completed on the seventeenth of September 1787 I was not included in that "We, the people." I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I have finally been included in "We, the people."...
My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
--Barbara Jordan, Congresswoman of Texas, July 25, 1974, serving on the House Judiciary Committee considering the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. (video link and full text)
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July 3rd, 2008
 | 12:03 pm - awake! awake! fear! fire! foes! awake! awake!
You think what you watch on YouTube is your own business, secure from government intervention? Think again. From the BBC:
Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.
The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.
Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a "set-back to privacy rights".
The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.
While the legal battle between the two firms is being contested in the US, it is thought the ruling will apply to YouTube users and their viewing habits everywhere.
Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, has alleged that YouTube is guilty of massive copyright infringement....
More coverage:
CNet News: Google has been ordered to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom. But Viacom will be guilty of contempt of court if it uses that data for anything other than specifically proving the prevalence of piracy on YouTube, a source close to Viacom told CNET News.com on Thursday...
Washington Post: Judge protects YouTube source code, throws users to wolves.
The Independent UK: The information to be passed to Viacom includes users' names and IP addresses. Viacom has requested the data in order to back up its claim that copyrighted material reproduced unlawfully is more popular on YouTube than lawful user-generated content available on the site. The judge also ordered that Google hand over copies of any videos which it has previously taken down....
Computerworld: ( much behind cut )
Other links from Washington Post ("Stanton said Viacom showed no evidence that the search algorithm 'can discriminate between infringing and non-infringing video'"); ZDnet(Google wins, users lose); CNet News (privacy at risk); Wired; and the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Quoting from the last link: ( behind the cut )
If you want to repost or link any of this publicly available information, don't waste time asking me. Just do it.
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 | 11:19 am - some days are easier than others
If you need to get an abortion and you're in South Dakota, be prepared for your doctor to lie to you -- no thanks to a new law that intrusively violates the doctor's freedom of speech and the doctor-patient relationship.
Slate: Keeping tabs on Obama's shift toward the center. Consider also that Obama's advisor Greg Craig is apparently passing his boss incorrect information on FISA, which has no expiration date and so doesn't need to be replaced by the bill that lets telecoms and lawbreaking elected officials off the hook.
Guardian UK: Destroying Hillary Clinton, part two.
Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens gets waterboarded (but he could put up a hand and have them stop, and nobody else can do that) and concludes: Yes, it's torture. Congratulations, Mr. Hitchens, on requiring personal experience to force you to conclude what any reasonably thoughtful and compassionate person would have understood from the moment the procedure was first described. More here.
Is military service required for a president? Does it alone qualify someone to be president? Gen. Wesley Clark said no, and the rightwing branches of the media were wrongly and ahistorically all over him. (Take a look at the list of past presidents: how many were not in the military? A lot.) In 2003, McCain said no, it wasn't required and didn't qualify someone to be president (yes, there are quotes.) Perhaps McCain can't remember what he said then, because when he's asked that question now he becomes very angry and can't answer it. Digby has more:
I actually think that Wes Clark completely threw McCain off with this. The Villagers are having their little hissy fit, but this has exposed that McCain believes in his own divine right to the Presidency based entirely on his suffering and his wounds (which he's ever so "reluctant" to talk about, he mentioned in the same interview. Yeah, right.) Clark touched a nerve here by questioning the assumption that McCain's biography can stand in for his judgment or policy prescriptions. He deflated McCain's entire rationale for his candidacy.
Karl Rove just wanted some kind of 'faith-based thing' to get political points with believers. That's how cynically the Administration treated the violation of the separation of church and state.
If you're going to repair computers in Texas, you will need a private investigator's license. No joke. Yep. Here's the law.
A new way of producing ethanol from sugar cane has water as a byproduct. Since other methods require water, this has a lot of promise.
Can we end hidden oil subsidies?
Collecting water with fog and dew collectors. Alice-through-the-looking-glass chess set with vanishing chessmen. Tardis sheds. Darning clothes as an art form.
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July 2nd, 2008
 | 09:02 pm
As you know, this IJ is concerned with at least two of the three things you're not supposed to talk about in public. (Not always the same two.) Today, let's take them in turn:
Religion:
Peter Marshall, Christian nationalist. Yes, that does mean what you think it means.
Americablog considers Obama's idea of expanding faith-based initiatives.
From Salon, the uneasy relationship of the 'Abrahamic Faith' ex-Muslim Christians and ... well, pretty much everyone else. Including, for example, Evangelicals who support Israel, and anyone 'born again' who claims by that to be Jewish.
Politics:
WarandPiece analyzes Seymour Hersh's article on the preparation for war in Iran. Yes, Iran.
Senator Obama: Please Vote No on Telecom Immunity. More on that here. And yes, I'm still uneasy about his pledge to send more government money --your tax money and mine -- to private religious charities.</a>
If you move out of the US and give up your citizenship -- expect the government to tax you on everything. Yes, everything. It's a capital gains tax without you having actually had any capital gains. The provisions for this were hidden in the bill on increased benefits for veterans.
Cindy McCain's fortune, both asset and liability -- but McCain couldn't run without it. But McCain's plans aren't without discord among his backers. And then there's his relationship with the International Republican Institute.
John Yoo, former Bush attorney, tries to go beyond defending waterboarding to defending the possibility of burying people alive. When did rationalizing torture become everyday? More on John Yoo's testimony here. The Village Voice spells it out in Judging the Torture Presidency.
It's still all about the oil, and Cheney's connections in the business with the no-bid contracts. While we're sorting it out, how about using less? Drive 5% less. Slow down. Inflate your tires. Those three steps would reduce U.S. oil consumption by 1.3 million barrels a day immediately, according to the Alliance to Save Energy, a conservation group running an efficiency campaign backed not only by environmental groups but also the auto and oil industries. That's nearly twice the estimated daily oil production that could come from drilling in the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to the government's Energy Information Administration. a roundup of state senate races.</a>
Government refuses to pay attention to soldiers' suicides.
Do we really need terrorism liaison officers?
Bush needs the proper memorialization. How about a sewage plant? It could go with Grover Norquist's flooded bathtubs.
The Bureau of Land Management has put a moratorium on applications for solar energy projects on public lands.
The BBC considers the third tower.
Be careful in Atlanta Airport. People may well be armed.
The environment, and other things:
A gold rush in Ireland?
Man saves sedated 375-pound black bear from drowning.
Bobbing in poison soup -- a journey through the plastic flotsam of the oceans.
Solar water heaters in Hawaii. And the possibility of geothermal power from Alaskan volcanoes.
In the UK, avoiding commercial herbicides in veggie gardens.
Mining the tar sands and liquid coal just delays the change to better fuel sources.
Audiobook downloads without DRM.
Bank of America, enrolling you in 'credit protection' even if you don't want it.
Seven best electric scooters.
The great migration of stingrays.
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 | 10:40 am
It ain't over till it's over. Even though Hillary has dropped back -- this Vanity Fair view of her campaign does not pull punches -- the cost of the sexism raised by that campaign still goes on. And it's not just Republican sexism, but from Democrats as well. Reclusive Leftist has a lot to say about it: ( and will not take it any more )
Tennessee Guerilla Women has more: Some uninformed and delusional "progressives" prefer to believe that PUMAS are Republicans. "Progressives" started calling me a Republican the day I came out for the woman candidate. You know the one, the woman whom "progressives" like to call "Billary" and "the Hildebeast." The presidential candidate who is so racist and loathsome that she was hoping and praying for the assassination of her noble and heroic opponent. The woman who is so evil and so unclean that my former trusted "progressive" allies traveled here to this blog just to tell me that they "despise" and "hate" the "bitch," the "cunt."
When "progressives" like that call you a Republican, well, it's hard not to flat-out laugh in their deranged unprogressive misogynistic faces. But I recoil at the thought of ever getting that close to their faces.
And more from Tennessee Guerilla Womem: Please people, do not ever again talk to me about the vileness and deceitfulness of right-wing bloggers. I and countless other Hillary supporters experienced a radical paradigm shift during our defense of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Women have no political party, we have no respectful place in the larger progressive community. In the words of Janis:
[A]s far as women are concerned, there are two parties: those that hate us, and those that don’t. And the boundary line dividing those two parties doesn’t have a damned thing to do with the line dividing Democrat from Republican, or liberal from conservative.
And another Reclusive Leftist post on the history of the Democratic Party males' reluctance to treat women as equals. There's also PumaPAC, an unconnected political action committee (People United Means Action) that calls itself the voice of the people in the Democratic Party.
If you want more journalism and less personal testimony, read 'Destroying Hillary Clinton', from the Guardian UK.
Strictly based on the numbers, and on the political strategies I studied in grad school, if a party is to succeed it must unite behind a single candidate whose platform will cover interests as far around the spectrum as possible. I don't visualize American politics in the left-right unilateral that is commonly used, but I also don't think in terms of the Cartesian grid of libertarianism. Instead, I think in terms of irregularly shaped bowls or circles filled with something like tiny pebbles. Imagine that all the possible political positions are contained within a circle or oval, with the most popular ones (that have the most supporters) being toward the center and the least popular at various positions along the outside. The more closely aligned a candidate is with a specific set of views, the more weight the candidate has, and the more the candidate sinks into a certain section of the bowl-- and the more pebbles roll toward that direction. The pebbles are supporters. But the pebbles' movement isn't entirely governed by gravity; it's also affected by magnetism of various kinds because of various issues, and if the candidate makes mistakes one of two things will happen: the candidate's apparent weight will lessen (from lack of wisdom) and another candidate's magnetism will draw the pebbles away (thereby increasing an opponent's weight and decreasing the first candidate's actual weight.)
No matter how you look at it, it's going to be a very interesting convention.
Sen. Ted Kennedy is in Massachusetts being treated for brain cancer, but his office is working as hard as possible to lay the ground work for universal health care.
Generating power with a roller coaster.
More later. It's laundry day, and I can't type while running up and down stairs while dodging cats playing tag.
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June 30th, 2008
 | 10:38 am - quelquefois je pense trop (sometimes I think too much)
Yes, I am stubbornly continuing to plow ahead in French. The only way I know that I am making real progress is when I find that the form of the word in the wonderful online dictionary (www.wordreference.com, which covers English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian) is the one I was already thinking of. This doesn't mean I manage very well without it yet, though.
En avant, mes amis. There are news links waiting.
Seymour Hersh talks about Bush's current plan to escalate covert operations against Iran, with the intent to invade. This isn't buzz from the background; this is in the New Yorker. The background buzz I've heard is that Bush wants to invade before the election (and leave his successor with all the problems resulting from it) but that there are enough Russian military ships and other units around to deter actual invasion -- in other words, Bush wants it but the Pentagon is not happily going forward. However, Hersh says it's already happening.
Just in case you need them, here are reasons to vote against John McCain -- itemized, detailed and dated. Pass it on.
If you rely on credit cards, you may have a nasty surprise. Card companies are reducing borrowing limits; lower limits can lead to lower credit scores.
Congressman Conyers has subpoenaed the Department of Justice for transcipts of its documents in the inquiry about the Valerie Plame leak. These would be the copies of interviews that DOJ did outside the grand jury.
The New Adventures of Queen Victoria rewrites the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Iraq style. Julia Ward Howe would approve.
Village Voice: Scientology's crushing defeat, aka the tale of what Scientology paid $8 million to hide.
Beware of Antonin Scalia, supreme court justice and neoCon antiConstitution idealogue.
Who's connected to whom and how? Check out the NNDB mapper. Here, for instance is a map centered on Dick Cheney. It's a start.
Daily Kos reviews Netroots Rising: How a citizen army of bloggers and online activists is changing American politics.
This article on evangelism and politics interests me for two reasons: it says the 'evangelical vote' is splitting now because of an increased emphasis on environmentalism, and the article is from Colorado Springs, home territory of more Evangelical megachurches and corporations than I can count -- which means the author has a daily chance to observe evangelicalism locally as opposed to theoretically, from a distance. ( a sample )
Congress wants New Orleans to cough up money for the Army Corps of Engineers to fix the levees. Hello? Impoverished state that hasn't recovered from Katrina? Where are they going to get $1.1 billion?
Scientists are starting to look at short-term climate predictions.
A Republican judge declares 'Intelligent Design' to be creationism, unscientific, religious and a poor choice for schools. And yes, this too is in Louisiana. That state just isn't getting a break.
Are 'Terrorism Liaison Officers' in your city, looking for "suspicious activity"? And are your rights being respected when they do that? The official blurb about it is here, full of buzzwords designed to make you feel better while you lose your privacy.
What if the environment could speak for itself? Remaking gallon milk jugs.
An alternative to your lawn mower, and you get good exercise, too.
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June 28th, 2008
 | 04:25 pm - menu: tossed link salad with editorial dressing
You want to change the world? Really change it? Use ideas, not one-click campaigns. The best lobbyists are often constituents who not only know their issues, but also maintain an ongoing direct relationship with their member of Congress, These citizens bring their experience, expertise and innovative thinking to the table. While they identify with a given nonprofit and its agenda, they also maintain their multifaceted humanness and interest in their community’s general well being. Additionally, timing is key. We need to begin our involvement at the pre-policy level, where there is maximum opportunity for change. Unfortunately, the majority of volunteer advocates speak out simply in favor of, or in opposition to issues and legislation, after the idea has been processed. This is a waste. Real influence comes from lending each of our varied strengths to the creative process. Excellent article.
The Real Network: Court overturns Bush Administration on Guantanamo, ordering a prisoner to be released, transferred or given a new hearing because there wasn't evidence he was an enemy combatant.
How about an inquest into Bush's high crimes? Or aren't enough people dead yet?
Obama is being remarkably dense about the FISA amnesty -- no, Barack, national security does NOT trump punishment for illegal searches into private citizens' information. More on FISA here. And here from Avedon.
Another actor aims for office -- Sonny Landham, villain of '48 Hours'. And yes, he's another reactionary rightwinger, from all appearances.
Speaking of right-wing, the Supreme Court has struck down the ban on guns in DC. Daily Kos thinks the decision itself is a nightmare of bad judicial thought, counter to the Constitutional principles it claims to defend. The Chicago Tribune looks at it in more detail. ( behind cut )
Stargate fans! For research on the Air Force -- Air Force History Index. Online. Searchable. Real. Also, the Archivist of the US has established the Controlled Unclassified Information Office. Also, if you want to check copyright on books, the US copyright renewal records are available for download.
Neil Gaiman on the new paranoia -- not taking anything on disk on your computer across the US border. ( and this is why )
In the oceans, the dead zones are growing, and the Mississippi flooding won't help.
Greening taxis in Arlington, Va.
In Florida, check the information on your SSN, state ID or driver's license numbers. Typos could keep you from voting.
McCain wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. He wants to get rid of birth control and family planning. Why would any woman vote for him? He also wants to privatize (get rid of) social security. Why? Because he thinks government shouldn't be running it. Never mind that it does work and has worked for decades. He's also promising to be more anti-gay in public.
Name a sewage treatment plant after Bush?
The war? It's about the oil. You knew that, right?
Wikileaks is offline.
The dust is returning in Oklahoma. And there's more than solar cookers in Kenya.
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June 25th, 2008
 | 05:24 pm - Odd Stargate thought
The more I watch the actors on Atlantis, the more Chuck, up in the control room, catches my eye. It took a while looking at him for me to figure out who he was reminding me of -- but look at his eyebrows, look at his hair. Look at the way he smiles. That's a younger version of Jack O'Neill there, as if Charlie O'Neill had not died before the movie that came before the first series. Has anyone written anything that links Chuck and Jack as family? Or am I just being nuts? I've had vague notions of writing something in which Chuck is Jack's nephew (yeah, I know, he's Canadian, it can be worked around since Minnesota isn't far from Canada...)
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 | 10:17 am
Pigs fly. Hell freezes. US Sugar sells its Florida holdings to the state, so that the Everglades can be restored. How did this happen? Let's start with the fact that neoCon Florida Governor Charlie Crist is also an environmentalist. But it's not all beach bunnies and alligators. There's a question of the debt involved. But it's a brave, brave thing to try to restore the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee onward, so that plants and natural systems can clean water and create a buffer zone against storms.
Here's a summary of recent Supreme Court action; see what's going on in the final decisions of the session. Slate offers a Users' Guide to the Supreme Court that's worth a look: The composition of the high court is one of the most important issues at stake in the November election. While the justices cannot bring down gas prices or bring home the troops, their decisions in the coming years will affect just about everything else: your rights regarding privacy, reproduction, speech and religion; how to count your vote and where your kids go to school; as well as your occupational and environmental protections. You name it, they'll decide it. Or they'll decide not to decide it (which may be even worse). And, from the Post, a closer look at the Court agreeing to look at whether the Navy should be testing sonar in ways that endanger marine mammals including whales and dolphins. I'm not sure how that will come out, considering that the Court said it won't stop the hundreds of miles of border fence between the US and Mexico despite the fence running through delicate environments.
Everyone knows that offshore drilling isn't going to cut gas prices, but John McCain wants you to feel good about the possibility of oil spills ruining beaches, killing wildlife and -- oh yeah -- further wiping out our vanishing populations of fish. More on this from Salon.
The Dalai Lama's little brother has some interesting things to say.
In China, the 'execution bus' is an organ harvester's dream.
All hope is not yet gone on the House's FISA bill that gives telecoms and Bush legal immunity from prosecution for spying on all of us. That bill still has to go through the Senate, and it's facing some stiff opposition. More from Daily Kos on the bill and its oversight provisions.
Sunfell (LJ) has good links on trimming credit and the bankruptcy act blowback.
RiseUP. And Traces of the Trade.
Who's taking photos, and why? Could it be a bus spotter?
How to make a Tardis cake.
Can we put farms back near houses and redefine how we feed ourselves?
A concrete washbasin shaped like a fossil ammonite. And bra power.
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 | 09:49 am - memebait
Another meme, from Caitirin. Think of this as getting-to-know-you:
Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done.
See if anybody else responds with "I've done that."
Ask your friends do this in their journals to see what unique things they've done.
Also, comment here with your three so that I can see just how frakkiing cool y'all are!
1. I have talked a dog out of biting me.
2. I have personally covered all election results for a county, from dogcatcher to senator, 69 races.
3. I worked as an extra in a Chris Rock movie.
How about you?
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 | 01:50 am
The 'Big Read' book meme, from ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dolimir. ( behind cut )
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June 24th, 2008
 | 05:12 pm - an interview
The interview meme, for The Network: ( Q and A behind cut )
And now, since I've done this, if you want, comment with your name and I'll ask you five questions you can answer in your journal. (If it's not InsaneJournal, please say where in your reply.)
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June 16th, 2008
 | 04:47 pm - because Lois Lane and Clark Kent aren't available...
Over the last few years I've linked a lot of articles by Jeff Sharlet, who wrote Killing the Buddha and who writes on The Revealer website (and other places) about the intersection of politics and religion in America.
For example, this article, The F-Word, on Christian fundamentalism affecting US politics.
Since Borders' Rewards had sent me a nice discount coupon, I went over to the local Borders today to pick up a copy of Sharlet's book, 'The Family', which documents his time underground in Ivanwald and other branches of the fundamentalist neoCon Right wing alliance with militant Christianty. (Here's an AlterNet revew of the book, which notes the Family's propensity for citing Hitler as a source of good ideas for government.) I checked the new books rack, and the new nonfiction and the special displays -- nothing.
I asked one of the clerks to find it for me. It took him about ten minutes on the computerized index. (I've worked at Borders; their index needs some work). He finally found it buried upstairs in General Religion.
I've been linking chapters of The Family here for weeks. I believe it's the most powerful book about the undercover successful connections between religion and power in this country. I believe that the more people who even look through it on the stand in the store, the more will be a bit enlightened about the religious influences on the current government. But the people who are going to learn the most from it aren't ones who are going to go looking in General Religion; hell, I'm reasonably tolerant of theology and I'm allergic to the General Religion section at Borders because whoever indexes it at the head office appears to be ignorant of theology in general and either the Library of Congress system or the Dewey Decimal system in particular. And that's not even taking into account the fact that most Borders' are understaffed, which means that many sections simply aren't shelved properly more than once a week or so.
When I said the book was misindexed, the clerk said he couldn't do anything about that; indexing is determined at the head office in Ann Arbor. (True.) But I told him what it was about, and he started reading it right there and said he would review it and give it a 'Borders Recommends' display, which would at least get it out from the shelf and onto the sales floor where the general nonreligious public will see it.
So, here's what I'm asking you to do: Go to your local large chain bookstore, Borders or other, and ask for the book: The Family, by Jeff Sharlet. See if you can persuade the clerk who is helping you to read and review the book for the store, and put it out where it will be seen by more people. If enough people do that, it may make a real difference. Consider it your good deed for the day, or your contribution toward a saner and more sensible government by spreading the truth in the hope of justice for the American way (to misquote Superman.)
Can we argue for a Second Amendment right to arm bears, particularly polar bears?
In China, part of the preparations for the Olympics is the deliberate slaughter of cats.
The Associated Press wants you, me and everyone to quit linking their stories because they don't think it's fair use. Quoting: What a brilliant move — try to drive away the very people who are luring others to your content. What is AP trying to do — blow up the blogging world? You might remember that AP went after Google, too, although Google = Samson, and other bloggers = Delilah, and Google and AP struck a deal and avoided a showdown of biblical proportion. This latest move by the AP is a potential threat to RSS, which comes in quite handy for news and business and sports junkies or any other kind of junkie except, you know, the real kind. It’s bullying, some say. Already, a blogger who says AP “leaches off original reporting” — has called on other bloggers to go crazy and post entire AP stories an an act of solidarity. This could get ugly. Buzzmachine suggests, in return, that in all fairness the AP should start linking to all its own sources for stories, to promote transparency and good ethics.
McCain's idea of birth control = none at all. Video. It figures, considering that one of McCain's supporters thinks 'rape is like the weather, as long as it's inevitable you should just lie back and enjoy it. Suggestion for Mr. Williams, author of that sentiment: Stop off at any of the maximum security prisons in Texas and offer yourself up for the taking, and see just how much you enjoy it.
Rick Warren, author of the 'Purpose Driven Life' books et al, is planning to send out 200,000 missionaries to spread his view of Christianity. Since Warren is also strongly homophobic and intolerant of gays and lesbians, this litttle evangelical spree of his is something to keep an eye on.
Photos here of the results of the earthquake (7.2, I think) in Japan.
More on the Midwest floods.
Would Australia's prime minister ban Botticelli? Probably.
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June 12th, 2008
 | 09:23 am
Rep. Kucinich's resolution to impeach Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors has gone to the House Judiciary Committee on a vote of 251-166.
The Post covers up Bush's messes and tries to sweep them under the rug. Kay Graham's son is way too close ideologically to his neoCon uncle the Senator for the comfort of anyone who wants honest newspaper coverage.
How progressive is your Congressperson? Find out here.
The BBC uncovers the $23 bilion scam of private military contractors profiteering in Iraq. Why wasn't this in the Post? A US gagging (sic) order is preventing discussion of the allegations. The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.
Families sue over Guantanamo suicides.
Vidders: is your work disappearing from YouTube?
I don't know enough about the contracts involved to be able to give this context. But I'm very wary of anything that will restrict Internet access to large commercial sites only. Check out this YouTube video, 2012: The Year The Internet Ends, and let me know if this is as scary as it feels.
Bush threatens to cut the pay of active-duty military personnel. He can't do this, can he?
Iowa farmland is now the newest Great Lake. This is not going to help food prices a bit, you realize. Expect your grain goods to cost more. Here are views of Vinton, Mason City -- hell, there are 53 counties in a state of emergency and the governor calls it unprecedented destruction, with nine rivers overflowing their banks. A total of 640 Iowa National Guardsmen have been mobilized in the flood fight. The number could soon grown to 1,500 to 1,700, said Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis, the Guard’s adjutant general. The soldiers and airmen are providing security, evacuating people, sandbagging, and providing water and other supplies. Only 640 for the whole state? Is that all that's left, all those who aren't in Iraq with the Guard's equipment (which will be abandoned there as too impractical to return to the states that paid for it.) And then there's the tornado that ripped through a Boy Scout camp, killing four and injuring 48. And where's FEMA? Where's Bush while Iowa drowns?
Is McCain sane any more? He really doesn't care when the troops come home. It's not his problem. He's also just making things up about Obama, purposeful misquotations to deceive. Has anyone checked his meds lately?
Why giving poor kids computers doesn't improve scholastic performance.
"We have to learn to love ourselves just the way we are, just the way we look. We have to do it as a means to survival."
British birds at risk.
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June 9th, 2008
| 10:32 pm - note the icon
Rep. Dennis Kucinich is on C-SPAN right now, speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives, and calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush for cause. He's been speaking for more than an hour, describing in detail each of the reasons why Bush should be charged, each of the laws that has been broken, and which parts of the Constitution he has violated. He is putting impeachment on the table, where it has not been until now. Kucinich introduced a resolution to impeach Cheney last year; the House has not acted on that.
It makes my heart warm to hear Kucinich putting out there in public the things I've been writing about for five years. The Tenth District of Ohio should be very proud of him.
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| 08:56 pm
Pakistan has been training Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. This is from the RAND corporation, a right-wing think tank, so take it as you will.
The US has pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council under charges of human rights violations; 56 House members call for an investigation of 'possible war crimes'. The US exit from the council is not being taken well.
Bush has had more and stronger ties to felon superlobbyist Jack Abramoff than were suspected. Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee releases its report on the Abramoff investigation.
Obama says he's partnering with Elizabeth Edwards on health care. Elizabeth has a few quesions for McCain: why are people like me left out of your health care proposal, Senator?
Taser Inc. loses first product liability suit. Will that change cops' propensity to use them on people?
Friday should be interesting. The House Judiciary Committee has officially requested former White House press secretary Scott McClellan to testify about obstruction of justice by Bush, Cheney and Libby. Looks like people *are* reading Scotty's book, and taking notes. And he will testify in public and under oath. And oh, by the way, Bush authorized the leak of Valerie Plame's identity, which is a felony. But then George III had less power than Bush.
Why is gas so cheap in Missouri?
Dan Rather slams corporate media. I've been wondering what Rather thinks of some of this; he is not disappointing me.
Lingro-- where to look for those odd words when you read another language online.
Al Gore helped airlift 270 diabetic patients out of Charity Hospital in New Orleans during the Katrina debacle -- why are we only learning about this now? Notably, nobody in the Bush Administration wanted him to do it. More details here. What was the Administration doing at that point? Consider how Karl Rove played politics while people drowned.
In true neoCon Republican style, the Bush Administration orders interrogators to destroy their notes in case someone thinks they're behaving improperly.
Will soldiers with PTSD get Purple Hearts? Maybe.
Some people online aren't fond of this article about John McCain's first wife, the one he divorced soon after his return from captivity in Vietnam in order to marry the model he's with now. Two things to note: it's a British article with a tabloid slant, which is more understood abroad than here, and it's worthwhile to know what kind of man McCain is when seen from a different viewpoint than what the US media shows. Granted, nobody outside a marriage actually knows what goes on inside it, but, even so, it does say something about McCain that the Republican-owned US media aren't touching.
The extinction of small, supposedly 'insignificant' species does matter -- to you and me. To everyone. We are all linked, more than we know.
Five ways to survive any disaster.
Legend of the crystal skulls.
Solar-assisted rickshaw.
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June 3rd, 2008
| 10:07 am - today's game is categories...
1. It's happening there; is it happening here?
Vladimir Putin's opponents vanish from the media -- by Putin's order. NYTimes article, today. ( the start of it... )
2. It used to happen there; now it's happening here. Why?
During the time of Jane Austen and Dickens, prisoners were sent to the Fleet, old ships that served as prisons. Now, the US is hiding terrorism suspects on prison ships. Isn't that one of those things we were supposed to be past, nowadays?
3. Faith and its practice, or the lack of it
Jeff Sharlet considers: Are we all gay Episcopalians now? And beyond belief -- reviewing Founding Faith, a book on the religious history of the Founding Fathers, which was not what the Religious Right or the neoCons would have you believe. And how that difference -- a freedom from a government-established and government-affiliated religion -- matters. ( a look at the past>
<blockquote>
) Also, another excerpt from Sharlet's book The Family, which examines from the inside the hidden religious structure at the heart of the current US government. ( Down the rabbit hole into Ivanwald... )
Bobby Jindal, the conservative son of Punjabi immigrants, now governor of Louisiana, also linked to the Religious Right in ways I find uncomfortable. What's the chance he might be tagged as VP for McCain?
Did Biblical scholars mislead people about the Gospel of Judas? Is it about the document or the translators or the people who hired them? And what if Judas really was the good guy?
How much do we have to care about?
4. Fuel prices are rising. Farmland is being used for bioenergy, which competes with food production. Where will the food come from?
For the first time in decades, US farmland is maxed out, with all of it in production. Are we falling behind because of commercialized seed companies' policies, or farming practices, or because there are so many people to feed? Or is it something else?
Bonus:
Top ten solutions to the world's biggest problems, from Reason.
ETA: Where did my icon go? It was there this morning.
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May 27th, 2008
| 01:47 pm
Obama v. McCain. An electoral race straight out of the West Wing, and for good reason.
McCain breaks with Bush and goes hard-line on North Korea disarmament.
Daily Kos: Ted Kennedy, the roar of a Democratic lion.
Did you know that Danny Strong, from Buffy, is the brain behind HBO's 'Recount'? And he did a good job on it. Roger Ebert has good words to say about this, especially about Laura Dern as Katherin Harris.
Karl Rove, stepping on his own toes in public.
Salon: Domestic spying under Bush -- warrantless wiretapping and much more. Who are you talking to? What are you saying? Can you be sure nobody else is listening? (No, you can't. Even in LJ.)
And in Britain, students were arrested for excessive diligence in researching Islamic extremism. The paper they were arrested for accessing was from a US Dept. of Justice server, publicly available.
A school movie wins the Palme d'Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival.
For once, the union representing the laborers wins... against Burger King.
Rape in the military -- up to one third of women soldiers have been harrassed. The entire episode of NOW is available streaming online here.
A kid finds a way to degrade plastic in his school science fair project. Now, can we apply that to the pile of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean that is the size of the continental US?
Social networks may be underestimated (so says the Post.)
Larry McMurtry reviews 'The Comanche Empire'.
Farewell, Sydney Pollack. And Roger Ebert says more.
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May 12th, 2008
| 11:51 am
What's been happening in Texas? The state of Texas is immunizing the FLDS kids. Apparently not many have been immunized against anything, so they're vulnerable to all the childhood diseases, including the ones that can kill. Complicating the court cases, the entire ranch is being considered one household According to state law, when deciding whether a child is in danger, a court may consider whether the household includes a person who has sexually abused another child.
One FLDS member wrote to Bush to protest the raid. However, a Canadian article said the letter concerned Canadian citizens caught in the raid who are being held against their will. And an angry letter from one FLDS mother was printed in the Salt Lake Tribune. And some families are going public with concerns about their children being scattered among several foster homes. Two women left the ranch to be near their children. And a Salt Lake Tribune editorial considers whether polygamous families that had not supported or been involved with abuse should have their children removed because of association with the FLDS.
Alternet questions how states should deal with polygamous groups. Utah and Arizona have ignored polygamy since a 1953 raid; that may change. Some in Utah are talking about decriminalizing polygamy.
The Texas Attorney General's office has been ordered to lead the prosecution on all cases in this investigation. Meanwhile, Warren Jeffs, the leader of the FLDS, has filed papers asking for a dismissal of the incest charges in the cases pending against him.
One question I haven't seen answered in the major media that this article covers: where do the FLDS get the money for that compound, the big temple, all their expenses? ( and you thought slavery was outlawed in these United States... ) Those boys who are unpaid for heavy labor may well be the ones who also are tossed out on the road, kicked out for the crime of growing old enough to want to be interested in some of the girls that the older men want.
Corrente looks at how the state can change the rules to stop some of this, among other things: ( what did I say about involuntary servitude? ) And more from this factual-but-sensationalist CBS7 news story: ( earning wives? ) A former FLDS member has filed a claim for the money found in the back of Warren Jeffs' car when he was arrested. And more on the FLDS and the money they get from the US government -- yes, your tax dollars at work. This last link has details on which communities have gotten money, average income levels, and more. Because polygamy is illegal, polygamous wives are treated as single mothers eligible for welfare.
Brooke Adams, who covers polygamy for the Salt Lake Tribune, has a blog. Worthwhile reading. Quoting from this post about boys who have been abandoned by their FLDS families: ( with $5 in his pocket in December... ) The house for Lost Boys is described at this website. Quoting from that site about the problems the boys face: ( usually at 13 to 17 years old )
Rep. Dean Heller of Nevada doesn't think people who don't speak English up to whatever standard he sets should get help when they go to vote. I think Rep. Dean Heller should take a long jump off a short pier into whatever desolate pool of water he can find and stay there a while, until he can tell the difference between language and citizenship.
Daily Kos: Bush wants more secrecy. What else does he have to hide?
The Republicans are disallowing registration drives by nonpartisan organizations at Veterans Administration facilities, in order to make it as difficult as possible for veterans wounded in service to vote. More on this in a letter from Sens. Diane Feinstein and John Kerry. Suggestion: If you know anyone who is a disabled veteran, why don't you talk to that person about voting registation and, if they aren't registered, you help them get to a place where they can register? The only way to get around some of this obstreperous bull is to make an end run ourselves.
The ultimate ethical free-range meat? What would Daniel Boone have to say about that? Or Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings? And planting nut trees for food security.
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April 28th, 2008
| 07:31 pm
My workshop for Baltimore Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions was accepted! I'm on the schedule! ( Read more... )
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April 25th, 2008
| 11:10 am
Let's get away from the endless discussion of last weekend's events and look at something a little closer to home: what are you going to eat?
This country has not had food rationing since World War II, but it may be returning according to RealNews. More here from the NY Sun. The Wall Street Journal wants you to put your spare money into stockpiling food. In Ohio, the statistics are getting scary -- what are they in other states?
It's not just here. Japan is almost out of butter. Haitians are eating dirt cookies. ( For hours the unpleasant taste of dirt lingered. )
And with the price of food rising, the Republicans don't want you to have fair pay laws. McCain opposed fair pay for women "because it would lead to more lawsuits. Uh-huh. I suppose if we're too hungry we won't sue?
Brent Jeffs, the nephew of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, testifies against him -- about mistreatment of the boys there, before they were thrown away. Which leads me to ask: among the children taken away from that compound, where were the boys? Any boys?
Remember the CIA sting that pulled an Al Qaeda member off the street in Italy? The Italians did not approve. And 26 Americans, mostly CIA employees, are on trial in Italy for this. I wonder what the Pentagon sock puppets would say to that.
I am not at all surprised that Bush has eliminated funding for the Reading Is Fundamental program, considering that the program was Laura Bush's project and she is living at the Mayflower Hotel instead of the White House. El Presidente is not above casual vindictiveness.
Speaking of control and conquer, more changes are considered for No Child Left Behind, aka put the public schools out of business in favor of private religious schools.
In Ireland, rural pubs are closing, and a way of life is changing.
In Russia, the Orthodox Church becomes semi-established again. And other churches are considered 'sects' and shut down. Welcome to religious freedom in Putin's Russia.
Comcast is throttling P2P traffic; will the FCC let them get away with it?
Remember Sen. "Wide Stance" Larry Craig? He has to pay for his attorneys himself now, and he's running very low on cash. No pay from the Senate since he was admonished.
The Supreme Court has metaphorically blasted a hole in the side of your house. Police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence even when done during an arrest that violates state law. And border agents can search laptops without cause.
You think we're leaving Iraq soon? Not likely. Your tax dollars paid for the world's largest embassy, the one the government swore they weren't building as a military base. A Washington Post commentator says "it's an investment, we could sell it as a hotel." Riiiiight.
Indiana 2nd District Republican candidate Tony Zirkle wished Adolph Hitler a happy birthday. Please don't let him do it from office.
Why is Helen Thomas, may all gods bless her, the only reporter asking about Bush's knowledge of the torture plans? Are there no other real reporters in the White House press corps? If it's that dead, it should be the corpse.
And, thanks to a right-wing judge (see the comment) we won't see Wesley Snipes for three years.
After a 65-year silence, the truth comes out about a military race riot in WWII.
Politicians are continuing to interfere with scientific decisions at the EPA.
Considering the last few days, I don't really want to know how productive someone can be who is playing with his pants.
Do your feet hurt? (I love the 'painted' shoes. That must have tickled.)
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April 23rd, 2008
 | 10:30 pm
GIP, just because.
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April 22nd, 2008
| 10:42 pm
GIP.
|
 | 01:31 pm
I decided to skim the Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) news today, in the hope of finding some context for thinking about the FLDS situation in Texas. News.google.com had some interesting things. Many of these links are from the Salt Lake Tribune, and so could be considered to have some authority in speaking of Mormonism.
The new LDS church president urged the "disenfranchised" to "return to the fold". Now, that might be ordinary stuff for the usual church leader, and I have no idea how welcoming the LDS might be in that situation, but it strikes me that even making the offer is something I don't hear from Benedict in Rome these days. (Benedict apparently thinks that the Catholic Church would be better off smaller, a view I find offensive for numerous reasons, not least that his refusal to allow women and married people to serve as priests means that many Catholics are forced to go without regular church services for long periods of time. But that's another discussion.) And, in another move that Benedict has yet to make, LDS officials are discussing attitudes toward homosexuality with gay Mormons, in an attempt to help young gay Mormons who are told to get over it or ordered to marry someone of the opposite sex as a 'solution' to their gayness.
Although mainstream modern-day Mormons disavow polygamy as part of their religion, that doesn't mean it's not still in the Mormon scriptures and part of what Mormons expect in the afterlife -- though there, again, men get multiple wives but women only get one husband. (One hopes that the women are allowed to make the choice.) The above link includes a brief history of polygamy in Mormonism.
This link considers current Mormon policy and considers it important to note that there are multiple versions of Mormonism, and multiple understandings of Mormon teachings.
At least one reader of the Salt Lake Tribune thinks there's too much being written about the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints. He'd rather hear more about the Pope.
There's other fallout from the raid on the YFZ Ranch, such as non-FLDS Mormons being harrassed in public. And mainstream LDS officials seem to be baffled by requests from a judge that they oversee 'prayer services' between FLDS nursing mothers and their children , though it appears to me to be a maneuver to allow the women to retain partial custody of the children. Personally, I'm not confused by the concept that having someone who is of a similar religion be involved in oversight in this case might be less traumatic for the children involved than having armed sheriff's deputies or Child Protective Services be supervising -- but there is a definite purpose to having supervision because it's entirely possible that the women could be there to try to convince some of the older children to lie to the investigators. Meanwhile, the LDS are trying very very hard to draw a line in the sand that says, "We're not like those people, even though we have the same scriptures and our grandparents and great-grandparents followed those writings in a similar way to the people who've been arrested, and by the way we're not child molesters or monsters." Well, yes. But also, not so different, despite the excommunications, which do make the situation a bit tricky.
No criminal charges have been filed yet, but DNA samples are being taken from everyone. One Nevada man, who used to be part of the group, drove 1,200 miles to take the test. But the DNA samples are necessary: over the past few weeks, sect members have offered different names and ages. Also, the children refer to all of their fathers' wives as their "mothers," and all men in the community as "uncles." More on DNA testing and law enforcement here.
Meanwhile the FLDS have opened websites to try to gain sympathy for their side.
This article from Arizona, an interview with Colorado City historian Benjamin Bistline, compares the Texas raid to the 1953 raid at Short Creek, Arizona, and finds definite differences. ( Bistline was there... )
Perhaps some Texas officials are wishing they hadn't gone quite so easy on requirements for the FLDS kids to get an education, as more contact with the outside might have opened up this situation a while back. The ACLU is keeping an eye on the rights of the mothers and children, also.
Warren Jeffs' control over those women and children was so complete that he dictated what they were allowed to wear -- not only the long dresses but full-time long underwear under them, even in Texas summers -- and how they did their hair. And they are still following that. Haircutting is punishment. But all this happened since 1953; it wasn't a continuous fashion from the 19th Century. Now five years removed from polygamy, Jessop turned her dresses into quilt blocks and found the nerve to cut her hair. "It took me about six weeks before I got out of the long underwear, and started dressing in pants," she says. She looks at those clothes now "like a uniform," she says, "used to control people. If you can control what somebody can wear, it does impact how they think."
Control? Definitely an issue. Check out this photo of the FLDS compound. Change that temple in there to a blockhouse and it could be Attica Prison. The walls are that high.
The thing to remember, when it comes right down to details, is that this situation in Texas isn't about religion. It's about child abuse, rape, molestation, beatings and virtual imprisonment. It's about women being beaten down and given no voice of their own, no choices, no life. And the women who are complaining about their children being taken away are also the ones who didn't object to their pubescent daughters being married to middle-aged men, or beaten by those men, or to their sons being thrown out without money, education or support for the crime of being fifteen years old and male.
For more history, detail and research, here are links to a series from the Phoenix New TImes, in which reporter John Dougherty spent months investigating the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, including this group in the Warren Jeffs' compound.
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April 21st, 2008
| 01:15 pm - something that helps me keep going
Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
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| 10:24 am
My latest LJ post is here: http://twistedchick.livejournal.com/1611755.html. I'm not duplicating it here; you'll have to go there to read it. But do go, if you tend to read my news compilations, because there's a long and important religion-in-politics piece linked that you might want to see. It makes sense of a lot of supposedly religious rhetoric that is thrown around these days in the public arena.
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April 19th, 2008
| 10:28 am
I read synecdochic's post about network architecture and InsaneJournal viability on LiveJournal, but when I tried to go back to my flist, LJ was no longer working. Interesting bit of timing, that. It was just for a moment, and it came back, but it did make me laugh.
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April 18th, 2008
| 10:17 am - state of the chick update
Last weekend I completed the course for Reiki Master and Teacher certification. I've been a Reiki practitioner for several years, but have mostly worked privately and as a volunteer with cancer patients. Now I get to look for a portable, light-weight massage table I can afford; up to now I've been doing Reiki in places that already had massage tables, or for clients sitting in chairs, which can work fairly well. If anyone is interested in more information on this, let me know.
I've been working on finally learning French, after playing at it not very well for a long time. Yesterday I finished the French 101 course at LiveMocha.com, which was a lot of fun. The vocabulary at the beginning of the 102 course isn't bad -- dates, time terminology -- but the sentence structure is becoming more complex. My accent is still a bit flaky, though, with a bit of Canadian French in there. But understandable, I'm told. LiveMocha has written and spoken sections to the lessons, and those are posted for more experienced speakers to comment on.
On the other side of things, I've discovered that my allergies may be affected by eating things with plain white flour -- like the nice flour tortillas I pop into the toaster for a snack. I got through about two hours of yard word with no problem from the pollen, then had a tortilla and my nose closed up. So... no more Mexican food, or at least no toasted tortillas until after pollen season. Corn tortillas don't give me this problem, but they don't toast quite as well.
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April 16th, 2008
| 01:38 pm
IJ! You're back! I've missed you!
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April 14th, 2008
| 07:56 pm
GIP!
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April 11th, 2008
| 05:10 pm - today.
Phone rings, early morning. A friend's brother,
newly dead, shattering life. Who to call?
What to arrange? Meeting's cancelled; another
will be scheduled later. Informing all
the rest of us on email. Send a few
inadequate words to my friend. Now, talking
to his housemate -- no, nothing left to do
till he asks. Yes, it was sudden. Walking,
remembering a musty airport lounge,
repetitive muzak, storm-delayed planes,
evasive relatives on phones, the sound
of breaking ice, trees down in the lanes,
fallen branches glittering in the dawn,
and the words meeting me there: she is gone.
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April 10th, 2008
 | 10:27 pm
Yet another GIP, experimenting with layering color gradients like watercolors.
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 | 05:13 pm
GIP #2 -- and 'low' refers to this being a bottom-whorl spindle. (The odd thing next to the spindle is a hank of fiber; I am still trying to find some way to give the fiber texture without it looking like corrugated cardboard.) This is the kind of spindle that settler women used when they were walking across the prarie with the wagon trains, more than a century ago. Top-whorl spindles, as in the other icon, spin faster and can create warp threads for weaving or strong cord for other uses; bottom-whorl spindles go slower, but if they're properly balanced each spin can last longer. Historically, I'm told, women in this country used this kind of spindle for spinning wool into knitting yarn, if they didn't have spinning wheels. I have one large bottom-whorl spindle and a couple of smaller adaptable ones where the whorl can be moved; the rest are top-whorl. I like the speed and the convenience. I also like not having it bang into my ankles. But it's good for spinning heavier or springier wool with a lot of crimp in it, so that when it's not under tension it will fluff back out and be light and warm when it's knitted up.
And that's more than I've ever written about a GIP.
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 | 05:13 pm
GIP! An experiment in stacking effects.
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April 8th, 2008
| 05:52 pm
GIP!
(first try at creating a drop spindle from various shapes. Still would like more texture on the fiber.)
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April 5th, 2008
| 08:52 pm
From MoveOn.org:
10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5
6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6
7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10
John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be.
( Details behind cut, sorry, you'll have to cut and paste the urls. )
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 | 11:08 am
Right now I'm sitting here catching up on reading and TV, and spinning bombyx silk on a small drop spindle (.7 oz) that looks like a rounded step pyramid -- add another layer to the one at the bottom of this page, for example. It's an experimental shape, and it spins long and well. If you don't know anything about drop spindles, this page may give you a little sense of some of the variety. More here. (No, I don't have one of each, though that would be great.)
The silk looks a lot like this but with more purples in it, which is reasonable since it's from last year's dye lot. This is two ounces of silk; it's the size of a very large cruller, and it will spin into anywhere from 500 to more than 1,000 yards of singles, depending on thickness. Singles are what's plied into two-ply or three-ply yarn; when I want something stronger than that, such as a drive band for my old spinning wheel, I continue to ply it into a cable. The current drive band on that wheel is 12-ply silk, not that it's useful at the moment because the wheel itself needs repair. But silk is good for a drive band as it sticks to the wood but slips a little, and is longwearing.
There are two ways to deal with the thickness of the silk top (top is fiber that has been prepared so that as much as possible of the fiber runs together lengthwise, so it can be spun tightly and very strongly). One is to pull off a section and stretch it as it is, without dividing it up, so that there are long sections of each color to work with; the other is to split it into thinner lengths and then pull it out, which gives me shorter sections of color but is much more manageable.
When I can't add more fiber without the spindle falling from its own weight, I three-ply it Navajo-style onto another spindle, a heavier one (probably 1.3 oz or so) that spins more slowly. Navajo plying is a lot like making a crochet chain with my fingers and then twisting it; the result is a very strong silk yarn. It's a lot easier to do this from one spindle to the other than to have two cops (wrapped bundles from a spindle) in hand and two-ply them, as that always gets tangled. I hate dealing with tangled silk; it sticks to everything and it snarls like hair with gum in it.
I think I need a spinning icon for playing with drop spindles and pretty fibers.
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April 4th, 2008
 | 10:24 pm
Hearts and flowers, GIP.
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April 3rd, 2008
| 07:52 pm
The moon's a harsh mistress, GIP.
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| 01:49 pm
Your data, not secure -- again.
The International Olympic Committee has told China not to censor journalists' access to the Internet. And Reporters Sans Frontieres wants a boycott of the games because of human rights violations.
If you live near the Mexican border, you are in a land without law -- they've been waived in order to put up the fence Bush says is needed (so that we will look like Berlin.) How very ... Kremlin. More here on Chertoff's doublespeak and the reality of the DMZ that's being built. That's not just a simple fence; notice the distance between the walls. And, considering the trigger-happiness of the Bushites, it's probably more like a HMZ (heavily militarized zone).
And speaking of laws, the Administration argued that the military aren't bound by 'civilian' law, which makes all that torture legal. Interesting how none of those who are waiving these laws are in the least affected by them. As an example, compare the Nuremberg Trials to what happens at Guantanamo; at least the Nazis had a fair trial.
Dobson disses McCain.
Making Light: Deep value.
Elizabeth Edwards vs. McCain on health care. Guess who wins. Full details here: Senator, why are people like me left out of your health care proposals?
The NY Times ignores antiwar protests, including the one on Feb. 15, 2003, which included 30 million people around the world.
Why food costs more, everywhere.
I don't know who these people are, who have the courage to bring truth out of North Korea. I wish I could do more to honor them than to point to this story but that's all that's safe, for now. If it's safe at all.
Diesel trees grow oil. Really. Why hasn't someone done more with this?
Do what you will, but speak out always. Now is the appointed time.
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April 2nd, 2008
 | 09:40 pm
GIP, aka 'meditation in olive drab'.
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April 1st, 2008
| 12:38 pm - I wish these were jokes...
Does John McCain understand which end of a condom to put on? Or what it's for? Or is he senile and confused?
The Bush intelligence hydra, many-headed and vicious.
Stop-loss, the movie.
Fresh fruit from all over the world is in grocery stores -- but a lot of it was grown with pesticides that are killing songbirds. Not some anonymous birds you never heard of, but the ones that were supposed to migrate back to where you live and eat your insects this summer.
Even if they offered, I would not be a paid blogger for the US military (or anyone else's military.) How about you?
The television actor's union has severed ties with SAG. Another strike? Possible.
The governor of Alaska doesn't care about science, the environment, or even the views of his own state -- he just wants to kill wolves and bears -- by plane.
I see people online talking about food and clean water and work and dignity and much more as privileges, when they are rights. They are, in fact, among the many rights listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by the General Assembly of the United Nations -- including the US -- in 1948. They aren't options, they aren't for some and not for others, they are for everyone, despite the current stupid Administration's willful disregard of many of them, including Articles 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26 and 28.
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March 31st, 2008
| 05:56 pm
Today's GIP is an abstract. I'm playing with the distortion potential of the program, trying a few things, layering them together. Nothing in this picture is untweaked.
Also, in some real-life tweaking, I'm dyeing my old coffee-stained white cotton sweater ... with coffee. Thirty cups of coffee made in the old ten-cup family stainless-steel drip pot (which generally lives in storage because I don't go through a pot a day any more.) So far it's gone from a coffee-spotted white to roughly the color of a cardboard box, which is fine. Of course, this shows up the bit of white paint on one sleeve that was invisible -- but I can live with that.
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