Mr. Otis

Why Worry?

2006-10-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from Garrison Keillor's opinion piece:

I got some insight week before last into who supports torture when I went down to Dallas to speak at Highland Park Methodist Church. It was spooky. I walked in, was met by two burly security men with walkie-talkies, and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes' church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics. I was there on a book tour for Homegrown Democrat, but they thought it better if I didn't mention it. So I tried to make light of it: I told the audience, "I don't need to talk politics. I have no need even to be interested in politics - I'm a citizen, I have plenty of money and my grandsons are at least 12 years away from being eligible for military service." And the audience applauded! Those were their sentiments exactly. We've got ours, and who cares?
The Methodists of Dallas can be fairly sure that none of them will be snatched off the streets, flown to Guantanamo, stripped naked, forced to stand for 48 hours in a freezing room with deafening noise, so why should they worry? It's only the Jews who are in danger, and the homosexuals and gypsies. The Christians are doing just fine. If you can't trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and not have to say why, then whom can you trust?

Please read all of it.

Emphasis mine ...

2006-09-08T14:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday

"I mean that a defeat in Iraq will embolden the enemy, and will provide the enemy more opportunity, to train, plan to attack us, that's what I mean. One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror," Mr. Bush said. "I believe it, but the American people have got to understand that a defeat in Iraq, in other words if this government there fails, the terrorists will be emboldened, the radicals will topple moderate governments. I truly believe that this is the ideological struggle of the 21st century. And the consequences for not achieving success are dire." CBS News story

Today

There's no evidence [that] Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida, according to a Senate report on prewar intelligence that Democrats say undercuts President George W. Bush's justification for invading Iraq. International Herald Tribune story

Wendell Berry Essay

2006-07-26T10:06:00.000-04:00

I found this little gem that you may enjoy ...

"We will discover that God found the world, as he made it, to be good; that he made it for his pleasure; and that he continues to love it and to find it worthy, despite its reduction and corruption by us. People who quote John 3:16 as an easy formula for getting to heaven neglect to see the great difficulty implied in the statement that the advent of Christ was made possible by God's love for the world--not God's love for Heaven or for the world as it might be, but for the world as it was and is. Belief in Christ is thus made dependent upon prior belief in the inherent goodness--the lovability--of the world."

keep reading...

Segway XT

2006-07-14T10:24:00.000-04:00

This is probably old news, but I find it amazing ...

"Engineered for cross-terrain, introducing the rugged Segway XT."

Good Idea

2006-07-10T09:26:00.000-04:00

"If you have to choose, as I do, which foods to spend more money on, try this rule of thumb: the higher up the food chain you eat, the more it matters whether the food was produced with ecological methods. Pesticides and other toxins concentrate as they move up the food chain. Thus I'm willing to spend more on nutritient-dense foods (meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs) than on fruit and vegetables. It's more important to eat 'clean' butter than 'clean' lettuce."

From "Can the Poor Afford Good Food", an essay by Nina Planck

On Yesterday (the 4th)

2006-07-05T11:49:00.000-04:00

Howard Zin via Kottke

One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail last year that God speaks through him.

We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.

Tell it like it is Jon ...

2006-06-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

"The lower strata of American society has had a free ride for too long. And, if you were to give them $7.25 an hour, you know it would just go, you know, up their nose and through their hose.… Kudos to Congress for taking a giant shit on the poorest in the country!"

View the video

Word of the Day

2006-06-22T15:41:00.000-04:00

Wikipedia on Sethianism

Bonus:
Sethian is also a Finnish progressive metal band.

2006-05-26T09:46:00.000-04:00

Recently reading ...
The New Agrarian
The Orion
Path to Freedom

Recently joined ...
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

2006-05-26T09:42:00.000-04:00

"A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance."

Wendell Berry

2006-04-20T07:22:00.000-04:00

When I read/hear about what our minds are capable of I feel like such a loser. Case in point: 'AJ' can remember the details about every day for the past 25 years; details like making cookies, having pink-eye, etc. and she doesn't use any memorization tricks. They're calling it 'hyperthymestic syndrome'.

While I'm not always crazy about mod architecture, I am very intrigued (and maybe a bit covetous) of the Zero Energy houses popping up.

I want one of these.

The Meatrix 2

2006-04-01T21:24:00.000-05:00

The Meatrix 2
If you haven't seen The Meatrix do that first.

Slippery Slope

2006-03-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

How many times have you heard this argument? You posit some theory you've been mulling about and someone chimes in "Yeah, but if you go there then you can go THERE and then the whole thing is a wash, so you can't go to that first place, or else ... yeah."

I think CS Lewis popularized the catch phrase "slippery slope" and far be it from me to disparage the man, especially since I can't remember how he used it, but it kinda sucks.

RLP has a much more intelligent analysis than "sucks" here.

Cities :: Food :: You?

2006-03-26T20:46:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you'll find this site as interesting as I have: The City Repair Project
You live somewhere ... contribute to it.

If you eat food, you should know a little bit about it's history ... good luck with that. Start here, go here, read here.

Two Items

2006-02-14T10:26:00.000-05:00

Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action
As American evangelical Christian leaders, we recognize both our opportunity and our responsibility to offer a biblically based moral witness that can help shape public policy in the most powerful nation on earth, and therefore contribute to the well-being of the entire world. Whether we will enter the public square and offer our witness there is no longer an open question. We are in that square, and we will not withdraw.

...

Iraq, by the numbers
From a short item inside the Times' business section Sunday: "No matter how one feels about this particular conflict, war always has winners and losers -- on both sides." Some "indisputable winners" so far? Defense contractors. Courtesy of the Times, here are six top defense contractors and the percentages by which their profits have increased since 2004: Boeing (37.4 percent), Lockheed Martin (44.2 percent), General Dynamics (19.1 percent) Northrop Grumman (29.2 percent), Raytheon (108.9 percent), and Halliburton (292.9 percent).

Pro Life

2006-01-18T07:53:00.000-05:00

“At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life,” said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. “We would resuscitate him,” then execute him.

Patriotism

2005-12-20T15:04:00.000-05:00

But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Chorus from John Prine's Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

2005-12-20T09:22:00.000-05:00

4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Double Standard

2005-12-07T10:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday during the cross examination of witnesses to torture during his regime, Saddam Hussein's lawyers asked if they had had their pictures taken during their torture and if dogs had been present - they said no.

I hope that everyone (if there is anyone) reading can see the situation we are in as a nation. Our administration's syntactical gymnastics with 'torture' dwarf our former president's idiotic statement: "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." What should the international court do if Saddam's lawyers claim that he was just using 'interrogation techniques' in line with the standard being set by the US? We are no longer the moral watchdog for the world; we no longer represent justice and equality; the Greatest Generation handed the reigns to a corrupt, power hungry, compromised elite that will stop at nothing and stoop to anything to maintain it's status.

What should people of faith do? Pull a Dobson and cozy up the the powerful so long as the pay lip-service to your agendas? (while withdrawing funds from Wells Fargo for furthering a gay agenda) Withdraw into Bruderhof-like isolation? (which actually looks pretty cool) Or take a stand for a comprehensive pro-all-life, pro-peace, sustainable nation; while recognizing God's truth and our own limits of understanding?

Ideas?

2005-11-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

This is why I read RLP:

I also want you to remember that the pictures of God that are found in the Bible can never be anything more than simplistic, shadowy approximations of the real God. This is something about the Bible that you must understand. This collection of books bears the incredible burden of having to speak about God to all races, all ages, the illiterate as well as those with Ph.D.s, and to a vast number of cultures, some that date well before the age of science.

Bill Moyers on Environmental Journalism

2005-10-18T17:55:00.000-04:00

But this crowd never gives up. President Bush has turned the agencies charged with environmental protection over to people who don't believe in it. To run the Interior Department he chose a long-time defender of polluters who has opposed laws to safeguard wildlife, habitat, and public lands. To run the Forest Service he chose a timber industry lobbyist. To oversee our public lands he named a mining industry lobbyist who believes public lands are unconstitutional. To run the Superfund he chose a woman who made a living advising corporate polluters how to evade the Superfund. And in the White House office of environmental policy the President placed a lobbyist from the American Petroleum Institute whose mission was to make sure the government's scientific reports on global warming didn't contradict the party line and the interest of oil companies. Everywhere you look, the foxes own the chicken coop.

The whole thing ...

2005-09-28T11:52:00.000-04:00

"Field Trip"

... I'd show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I'd employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I'd take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I'd sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I'd tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven't been taught, and then I'd call them inferior.

I'd soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I'd paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I'd close the lid on that barrel of fools gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I'd grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine. ...

Eton Thomas

2005-09-26T17:08:00.000-04:00

US army plans to bulk-buy anthrax

The US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons. ... Although the Sterne strain is not thought to be harmful to humans and is used for vaccination, the contracts have caused major concern. ... Whatever use it is put to, however, the move could be seen as highly provocative by other nations, he says. "What would happen to the Biological Weapons Convention if other countries followed suit and built large biological production facilities at secretive military bases known for weapons testing?"

Profiteers/Mercenaries/Go-To Guys

2005-09-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

Guardian Unlimited "Hundreds of mercenaries have descended on New Orleans to guard the property of the city's millionaires from looters."

AlterNet "And then there are those who always seem to win when something awful happens., ... The usual suspects: Bechtel, Fluor, Halliburton."

Houston Chronicle "We're getting requests for all kinds of things," Nicastro [Secure Source, Inc.] said. "We've had one person who called to say, 'I've got my Lamborghini in the French Quarter, and I have to get it out.'" ... "The client told Nicastro he only cared about his cat and car."

PHX News "First came the phone calls -- 6,300 by last Wednesday to the Army Corps of Engineers alone, from contractors offering "'cure-all' technologies and services" for the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort. Then came the cash: more than $500 million a day is being spent already, much of it on Iraq-style no-bid contracts, since normal federal contracting rules were "largely suspended" in the days following Katrina's landfall."

2005-09-12T17:06:00.000-04:00

More great stuff from RLP

“Our lives are filled with much hardship. Winters are hard; Summers too. Only wealthy people may hear music, and most people cannot read. Just securing food and water takes hours out of our days. In my entire lifetime, I only managed to write a set of commentaries and an assortment of other works and treatises. With your many labor saving devices, your elevators and your canned soup, I imagine that people can accomplish so much more with their lives. I imagine your days are filled with prayer and creation and loveliness. It is a marvelous time in which you live, is it not? Are people fully educated and busily engaged with writing and art and music and philosophy and theology?”

I can’t think of a way to answer him, and Martin Luther is fading away. I have to speak quickly.

“No, most of us produce very little. We tend to consume a lot, though. We spend most of our time consuming and using things. And we work an awful lot so that we can pay for all the things we want to consume. A lot of us consume more than we can pay for, so we buy on credit. And then of course, we have work doubly hard to pay our creditors. That’s just the way it is.”

Martin Luther looks puzzled, and just before he fades away he says, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

He’s gone before I can reply, but I speak anyway.

“Yeah, we don’t really understand it either, Martin.”

It's the little things

2005-09-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

Energy Star

"If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), it would prevent enough pollution to equal removing one million cars from the road. CFLs provide high-quality light, smart technology, and design, requiring less energy while lasting longer than typical incandescent bulbs."

10 Reasons to Eat Local Food - I wish that I had heard of this earlier; it would have been fun to feel like a part of the challenge. The site is rich with information and offers great insight on the rewards and difficulties of eating locally.

2005-09-01T13:32:00.000-04:00

Life In The Bottom 80 Percent - NYT

"Income inequality is an economic and social ill, but the administration and the Congressional majority don't seem to recognize that. When Congress returns from its monthlong summer vacation next week, two of the leadership's top priorities include renewing the push to repeal the estate tax, which affects only the wealthiest of families, and extending the tax cuts for investment income, which flow largely to the richest Americans. At the other end of the spectrum, lawmakers have stubbornly refused to raise the minimum wage: $5.15 an hour since 1997. They will also be taking up proposals for deep budget cuts in programs that ameliorate income inequality, like Medicaid, food stamps and federal student loans."

2005-08-31T14:51:00.000-04:00

Virtual Markets in Motley Fool
Mad, mad world. Not only do people sell virtual weapons, they get killed over them; like, yeah.. in real life, dead over a virtual theft. Opens up a world of 'virtual law' to all the budding attorneys. I read an article on this brave new world somewhere, but I can't find it now.

Don't Agree - Kill 'em

2005-08-24T10:48:00.000-04:00

Re: Pat Robertson's rather un-Christlike suggestion to assinate the freely elected leader of Venezuela

The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate, just as it did when Janet Jackson's breast was exposed in the Super Bowl broadcast in 2004. "This is even more threatening to hemispheric stability than the flash of a breast on television during a ballgame," Mr. Jackson said.

More threatening indeed. Swami says no investigation, backlash fizzles out and people still watch 700 Club.

On Gezellig

2005-08-24T09:25:00.000-04:00

Should I Move To Amsterdam?
in Slate

(This is a side note, but I find it sad that eating while walking—or worse, eating while driving—is the great American pastime. The Dutch almost never do this, except maybe with an ice cream cone. Having been here for a while, I've now decided I'm firmly on the side of the Dutchies in this matter. The notion that you wouldn't take time to slow down, sit at a table, savor your food—and, better yet, break bread with a couple of friends—seems weird to me now. And please don't start in about lost productivity and the demands of ruthless capitalism. I maintain that you can make money and also make time for a half-decent lunch.)

Debt Relief? . . . Not Really

2005-08-12T16:24:00.000-04:00

Leaked documents indicate true intentions of the World Bank and G8.

Peter Hardstaff said: "The G8 are serial promise breakers and for the past twenty years they have used the debts of the poorest countries as a way to impose privatisation, free trade and deregulation on developing countries. Unless these debts are irreversibly lifted from developing countries we have no faith that rich countries will not use international institutions to impose damaging free market conditions in the future."

According to the World Bank the G8 has committed only to finance the first three years of the proposal: "full donor financing is key for viability of the proposal." Peter Hardstaff said: "These documents show not only that the debts won't necessarily be immediately cancelled in full, but that the G8 haven't even put up the money to fund their own decision. There is no firm commitment by the G8 to continue to meet the cost of the repayment for the rest of the life of the loans. They may have to divert money from other parts of the World Bank to meet their promises."

Bagelnomics

2005-08-09T15:11:00.000-04:00

The economics of bagels - Old stuff, but for those who haven't read it ... it is well worth it.

2005-08-09T11:33:00.000-04:00

[link via kottke]

Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture.
...
In 2004, as a share of our economy, we ranked second to last, after Italy, among developed countries in government foreign aid. Per capita we each provide fifteen cents a day in official development assistance to poor countries. And it’s not because we were giving to private charities for relief work instead. Such funding increases our average daily donation by just six pennies, to twenty-one cents. It’s also not because Americans were too busy taking care of their own; nearly 18 percent of American children lived in poverty (compared with, say, 8 percent in Sweden).

Read it here.

2005-08-05T07:25:00.000-04:00

Garrison Keillor on radio, politics and public broadcasting
...there's nobody so humorless as a devout atheist.

2005-07-25T07:50:00.000-04:00

Larry J. on Val P.
"I submit this statement to the Congress in an effort to correct a malicious and disingenuous smear campaign that has been executed against a friend and former colleague, Valerie (Plame) Wilson."

"Safe, Legal, and Never"

2005-07-21T10:39:00.000-04:00

Abortion is not a topic I like to broach, but I thought this older article in Slate deserves a read. To me it seems like a sensible benchmark from which people can debate - out with the rhetoric from both sides and in with solutions.

First some excerpts to rouse the curiosity, then the article:

Note the concluding words: faith, responsibility, family. This is the other side of Clinton's message: against the ugliness of state control, she wants to raise the banner of morality as well as freedom. Pro-choicers have tried this for 40 years, but they always run into a fatal objection: Abortion is so ugly that nobody who supports it can look moral. To earn real credibility, they'd have to admit it's bad. They often walk up to that line, but they always blink.

Not this time. Abortion is "a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," said Clinton. Then she went further: "There is no reason why government cannot do more to educate and inform and provide assistance so that the choice guaranteed under our constitution either does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances."
...
Once you embrace that truthÂthat the ideal number of abortions is zeroÂvoters open their ears. They listen when you point out, as Clinton did, that the abortion rate fell drastically during her husband's presidency but has risen in more states than it has fallen under George W. Bush. I'm sure these trends have more to do with economics than morals, but that's the point. Once we agree that the goal is zero, we can stop asking which party yaps more about fighting abortion and start asking which party gets results.

The article.

2005-07-20T10:20:00.000-04:00

"Europeans eat ice cream for $10bn a year and Americans spend $35bn on their pets each year"

The UN's Jan Egeland speaking about the food crisis in Niger.

2005-06-30T08:49:00.000-04:00

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. A revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists in the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America only to take profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: 'This is not just.'"

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Wisdom Literature

2005-06-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

Some verses from last Sunday's talk at Warehouse; relevant, I think, in light of increasing religious/political polarization:

Proverbs 10:4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
Proverbs 13:23 A poor man's field may produce abundant food, but injustice sweeps it away.
Proverbs 19:17 He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.
Proverbs 21:13 If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

Honor and Accountability in DC

2005-06-21T16:16:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former White House official and one-time oil industry lobbyist whose editing of government reports on climate change prompted criticism from environmentalists will join Exxon Mobil Corp., the oil company said Tuesday.
...
The White House made no mention of Cooney's plans to join Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company. Its executives have been among the most skeptical in the oil industry about the prospects of climate change because of a growing concentration of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. The leading greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

Full story...

You didn't get the memo?

2005-06-20T09:10:00.000-04:00

The Downing Street Memo seems to indicate that the "intelligence and facts" used to support the war in Iraq were being fixed around an existing policy, that policy being the removal of Saddam Hussien.

In respone to questioning about the memo spokesman Scott McClellan said Democrats were: "simply trying to rehash old debates that have already been addressed. And our focus is not on the past. It's on the future and working to make sure we succeed in Iraq."

Come on people, forget about the lies and the deceit that have resulted in thousands of deaths - that's no longer the issue; let's figure out how to get out of this now. Pull together, rally round, put the past behind us!

The Ethics of Aid

2005-06-15T07:35:00.000-04:00

When, if, you give money to someone who needs to eat do you tell them that they have to spend it at "Mickey's" or they can't have it? If you help to support someone in ministry do you tell them that they must fly "Delta" and if they won't, b/c "Air Trans" is cheaper, then do you take your support back? If you "adopt a child" do you insist that the agency clothe that child only with "GAP" apparel? Do these questions seem ridiculous?

I heard an interview on a recent broadcast of Here & Now with an official from, I think, Kenya speaking about aid to Africa in light of the recent pledges of $647 million from the US and a similar amount from the UK in addition to debt forgiveness from the G8. I light of all this good news the interviewee said something that struck me as wrong. It may well be that I don't have all my s*** straight, or that I don't understand the politics of charitable assistance, but when he said that previous gifts from the US required that these nations spend their aid monies with US companies, i.e. pharmaceuticals, it ticked me off. That sounds like government charity for US corporations and sadly it doesn't sound surprising. Why does our government feel like it is Ok to fill the pockets of our already bloated companies at the expense of those who can't afford to say no? It's a free market folks; free for the taking if you've got friends in high places.

2005-06-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

You can find new music from obscure and not so obscure artists at Download.com; which I always used as more of a shareware/freeware source, but I have discovered is a great source of free, legal mp3's. The number of genres and sub-genres can be a bit daunting, so I use the "Other Suggestions from the Editors" box to navigate through the site. Mindboggling, the number of songs, mindboggling.

[mind-boggling adj : intellectually or emotionally overwhelming; "a mind-boggling display"; "a mind-boggling puzzle"]
What a cool word! Say it fast.

As If ...

2005-06-02T16:46:00.000-04:00

... I needed any more anti-corporate content on this blog. However, I just can't control myself. I found a great site with breakdowns on large corps and their transgressions against, well ... the world. Read this excerpt from BadCorp.com:

"Imagine for a moment an entity with no conscience, no soul, no morals, no remorse, and no fear of imprisonment but with all the rights of an individual, seemingly unlimited power and only one interest: making money at any cost. We would fear for our lives in the face of its ruthlessness. We would seek to protect ourselves from it and perhaps even to eradicate it if possible. Yet we live our lives largely oblivious to the thousands of such entities around us. We don’t blame them for the deaths of our friends even though their actions cause thousands of deaths. We ask them politely not to destroy the planet while they flagrantly ignore the toxicity of their waste and the devastating impact of their operations. We trust the government to exert control over them only to watch officials cower and become complicit."

Sacred Bench

2005-05-31T08:10:00.000-04:00

Some friends from Warehouse are headed out on an adventure through the "land of Scripture" and will be keeping in touch via their new blog, Sacred Bench. Tamara explains their mission with this:

What compels me to go is not simply to have a great adventure, or amass more experiences. It is to engage an opportunity to share the images and encounters with others who are unable to go—to hopefully bring back stories of the past choreographed with the present that may enlarge and enrich others’ view of God, themselves and the world.

2005-05-26T14:14:00.000-04:00

Good Jobs First "Faced with the unavailability or unaffordability of health coverage on the job, growing numbers of lower-income workers are turning to taxpayer-funded healthcare programs such as Medicaid and the State ChildrenÂs Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)."

Wal-Mart Wiggles Around Worker Health "If Wal-Mart doesn't want to provide decent health insurance for its workers, maybe the company should lobby for national health insurance."

Wake Up Wal-Mart - America's campaign to change Wal-Mart

Wally World Quick Facts

2005-05-26T10:02:00.000-04:00

from United Food and Commercial Workers Union:

* Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer. It is the largest corporation and private employer in the United States.
* Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in 25 states. They set the standard for wages and labor practices.
* Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million workers worldwide and over 1 million in the United States. More than half of Wal-Mart’s U.S. employees leave the company each year.
* Wal-Mart has more than 3,000 stores in the US and almost 1,300 International operations.
* The Walton family is worth about $102 billion.
* Wal-Mart topped the Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations ranked by sales for the fourth year in a row.
* Wal-Mart is the top U.S. seller of products ranging from dog food to diamonds with sales of $244.5 billion in the fiscal year ended January 2003 up from $220 billion in 2001.
* In 1970, the country's largest employer was General Motors, with 350,000 workers. Overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today, the country's largest employer is Wal-Mart, with over 1 million US workers. They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension, and inadequate health care.
* Wal-Mart was sued 4,851 times in 2000––or about once every 2 hours, every day of the year. Wal-Mart lawyers list about 9,400 open cases,” according to a report published in the August 14, 2001, USA Today newspaper.
* Wal-Mart plans to open only 15 to 20 of the traditional food-and-drug combo stores in 2003, down from previous projections of 20 to 25 outlets. It will open 210 supercenters, the high end of its previous development range for that format.

Pay particular attention to the second item, ruminate on the implications for social programs, prove to me that Wal-Mart's brand of free market capitalism (which is, I think a logical and expected direction for free market capitalism) is good for the people.

Sometimes I Think In My Car

2005-05-24T09:14:00.000-04:00

I had a bit of a realization the other day. I don't often realize much, so this is a big deal. I was leaving small group training at Warehouse, windows down, on a beautiful, cool evening, the kind of evening that makes you feel good for no real reason. And I was feeling good, but I think I have reasons. I have a beautiful family, great friends (though few and far away), an Ok job, a strong spiritual community and my vegetable garden is growing splendidly. As I was pulling out onto Wilkinson I realized these things, that I have great things going for me, but I didn't get to revel in it. Almost as soon as the 'good' began to dawn I felt like it was sure to end. I would get into an accident on my way home; God would sadly shake his head and release pestilence on me and my family. He didn't want to, it's just how it works. One cannot feel good about things for too long, a few seconds at most. I haven't experienced much tragedy, if any, in my life; peripherially I have seen plenty, but not personally. I think I expect it, tragedy that is, almost like a Yin/Yang, good things, bad things man. And somehow in the foggy unconsious of my mind I feel like God is directing this balance. When I talk about God I certainly don't espouse this view, my wife thinks I sound like a deist when I go off on one of my tangents about prayer and God's activity in the world. Intellectually I don't think God is in the 'balance' game, that fortune is paired with misfortune. Intellectually I have a hard time engaging with God, realizing his hand in my life, so how did I develop this subliminal fear and how do I vanquish it?

Swami says . . .

2005-05-20T11:24:00.000-04:00

Could Venezuela be the next target of US "liberation"? I certainly hope not, but given our dependance on their oil and our proclivity for defending the world against socialism (so long as they don't have nukes), it seems like a distinct possibility. The following quote from this CS Monitor article is what prompted these meanderings of my mind:

"Last month, Mr. Chávez changed the terms of contracts with 32 foreign companies operating here. In the next six months, they must form joint ventures with the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), and accept a 49 percent minority stake; turn over half their profits to the government; and pay back taxes that could total $2 billion."

By all indications the oil companies are complying with the terms, but I imagine that they are a bit chaffed and their annoyance will certainly reach the ears of the decision makers in our current administration.

As an aside, I am not advocating for Chávez, as I understand that as much as he claims to be a populist, the population of Venezuela has yet to see much of an improvement in the day to day, but I am afraid of more US intervention in a part of the world where we haven't shown much hesitation to intervene before.

Further reading: A Castro ally with oil cash vexes the US

2005-05-19T07:36:00.000-04:00

More Wally-World Fodder

...taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart stockholders and executives through the high levels of public assistance that are used by its employees compared with other retail workers. A number of studies and analyses have shown that taxpayer-funded government programs are picking up the tab resulting from Wal-Mart's low wages and insufficient health insurance coverage.

Congressional Tongue Lashing

"As a matter of fact, I met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns, and to give him maps the better to target those guns."

George Galloway, antiwar member of the British House of Commons

2005-05-12T11:18:00.000-04:00

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Dr Martin Luther King - April 4th 1967

Fun with Numbers

2005-05-10T16:49:00.000-04:00

The Final Insult NYTimes

"Let's consider the Bush tax cuts and the Bush benefit cuts as a package. Who gains? Who loses?

Suppose you're a full-time Wal-Mart employee, earning $17,000 a year. You probably didn't get any tax cut. But Mr. Bush says, generously, that he won't cut your Social Security benefits.

Suppose you're earning $60,000 a year. On average, Mr. Bush cut taxes for workers like you by about $1,000 per year. But by 2045 the Bush Social Security plan would cut benefits for workers like you by about $6,500 per year. Not a very good deal.

Suppose, finally, that you're making $1 million a year. You received a tax cut worth about $50,000 per year. By 2045 the Bush plan would reduce benefits for people like you by about $9,400 per year. We have a winner!"

Upon Hearing Zinn

2005-05-02T17:38:00.000-04:00

I copied the following from an essay entitled "DOW Shall not Kill" written by Howard Zinn in 1967, when the use of napalm was in the "national conscious".

Then why do we become uneasy when students interfere with Dow Chemical? Occasionally, we read of housewives blocking off a busy inter section because children have been killed there as a result of a lack of traffic lights. These housewives thereby interfere with the freedom of automobiles and of pedestrians, in order to temporarily regulate, or even disrupt, traffic, on behalf of the lives of children-hoping this will lead to the permanent regulation of traffic by government. (Those are not the automobiles that killed the child, anymore than this Dow Chemical representative, or the student he is recruiting, is actually dropping the napalm bomb.)

Why do we so easily sympathize with actions like that, where perhaps one child was killed, and not with actions against Dow Chemical, where countless children have been victims? Is it possible that we sub consciously distinguish between the identifiable children down the street (who move us), and the faceless children of that remote Asian land (who do not)? It is possible also that the well-dressed, harassed representative of Dow Chemical is more human, therefore more an object of sympathy, to the well-dressed, harassed officials of the University (and to us), than the burning, bleeding, blurred faces of the Vietnamese?

That's just a blurb to arouse the curiosity. Read the entire essay here.

I heard Howard Zinn on Diane Rehm today. I'm sure he has been well branded as a leftist nut worthy of only a deaf ear and blind eye, but I'll be damned if he isn't dead on with his observations.

Fun-with-google

2005-05-02T15:30:00.000-04:00

Montage-a-google

Montage-a-google is a simple web-based app that uses Google's image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user.

Guess-the-google

Guess-the-google reverses this process by picking the keywords for you, the player must then guess what keyword made up the image - it's surprisingly addictive.

Got a 194 on my first try. Watch your spelling.

2005-04-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

Christian Politics
From the NYT

Dr. James Dobson, founder of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, whose political sister group was a sponsor of the event, defended Mr. DeLay and his attacks on the judiciary, calling the Supreme Court "unaccountable," "out of control," and a despotic oligarchy.

What! Why Dobson feels like he needs to defend a crook who wants to hamstring the senate ethics committee and attack Spongebob is beyond me. How can James be so confident? Where is the fear and trembling?

---

You call this an energy policy?
Our President has emphasized nuclear power in recent talks about 'energy'. He thinks it's a good idea to deregulate a bit, make it easier to throw up a reactor or two. What I fail to understand is how the administration can propose expanding nuclear energy production when there is no real answer to the waste problem. More plants, more waste, more problems. The guy didn't even mention alternative energy sources, though he did make a nod to fuel cells and hybrid vehicles. There is no way he will ever go up against the people who made him.

The End of Oil

2005-04-25T17:24:00.000-04:00

"About 944bn barrels of oil has so far been extracted, some 764bn remains extractable in known fields, or reserves, and a further 142bn of reserves are classed as 'yet-to-find', meaning what oil is expected to be discovered. If this is so, then the overall oil peak arrives next year," he says.

If he is correct, then global oil production can be expected to decline steadily at about 2-3% a year, the cost of everything from travel, heating, agriculture, trade, and anything made of plastic rises. And the scramble to control oil resources intensifies. As one US analyst said this week: "Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye."

Read it all.

Profitable = Conservation

2005-04-25T09:52:00.000-04:00

Ecofriendly Lumber (CSMonitor)

"I thought, at first, that forests should not be touched," says Mr. Carrera, regional coordinator for the forestry division of the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit based in New York, who grew up here. "We used to confiscate wood, put people in jail, haul them away - but the forest would still just keep getting smaller and smaller." Now, he realizes, "The only way to conserve here, it turns out, is to make it profitable."

I'm no die-hard capitalist, but I do believe that the promise of profits can positively impact the type of deforestation mentioned in the CSM article. It stands a better chance, I think, in the timber industry than in the coffee industry. Of course, in both cases corporate greed and wasteful, inefficient utilization have led us where we are. These resources and the people who extract/process them have been exploited for decades, if not centuries, so while it may be too little, too late, they do deserve a piece of the pie - maybe the whole thing.

I'm A Winner

2005-04-08T10:11:00.000-04:00

Foreign Policy Association Quiz:

"Ram in India, Seth in North Carolina, Patrick in Maryland, Ari in Lebanon and Denyjok in New York.
Your FPA World Maps were sent out TODAY!
Test your knowledge of this week's current events! From the Middle East to Africa, what do you know about the week's events?"

Notice the global competition. I am no joke people (person), no joke indeed.

Fw: Jesus Talks With A Gay Man

2005-04-04T15:37:00.000-04:00

I often don't get around to finding good posts as they are written, which is why the web is good for me. As long as the server is up, I can access stuff from last year as easy as stuff produced yesterday.

I was bouncing around over at the Internet Monk and followed his link to Ragamuffin Rambler's post Jesus Talks With A Gay Man. Definately worth the read. Similar in approach to the Gospels according to RLP.

Sustainable Future

2005-03-31T14:30:00.000-05:00

In light of this report yesterday from the UN, I offer this quote by a former Big Guy from Texas:

"If future generations are to remember us more with grattitude than sorrow, we must acheive more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it."
Lyndon B. Johnson

I'm not expecting any such nuggets from the current "Leader of the Free World".

Share the Wealth?

2005-03-21T09:41:00.000-05:00

"The rich are getting richer while the poor remain poor. If you doubt it, ponder these numbers from the US, a country widely considered meritocratic, where talent and hard work are thought to be enough to propel anyone through the ranks of the rich. In 1979, the top 1% of the US population earned, on average, 33.1 times as much as the lowest 20%. In 2000, this multiplier had grown to 88.5."
In the NewScientist via Kottke

So much for that anchor of conservative thought; what was it about bootstraps and pulling? I don't question that our economic system is good, its probably the best, but I am also convinced that it needs periodic correction, some sort of leveling. I don't want anything catastrophic, but the trickle down simply isn't trickling.

Wally World Settles Case

2005-03-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

"Wal-Mart Stores said today that it had agreed to pay $11 million to settle federal allegations that it had used illegal immigrants to clean its stores."
..
"Many of the immigrants, who were hired by janitorial contractors, worked seven days or nights a week without pay or injury compensation, said a New York lawyer, James L. Linsey. In many states they were locked into the stores all night, he said."

So you still want bargin prices? Always the bottom line. Always.

NYT article

Dialect Quiz

2005-03-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

Try it here. Make sure you look at the responses for each of the radio buttons; its revealing. I'm 68% Southern btw.

Google News

2005-03-10T07:57:00.000-05:00

These guys don't stop. It's not a new idea by a long stretch, but Google News now allows you to customize your news. It is, as always, a simple and straightforward process and much appreciated by yours truly. I no longer have to scroll through the sports and entertainment sections and I'm able to add a local news section for Charlotte happenings.

"The Hollow Men" (1925)

2005-03-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow”

-TS Eliot

2005-03-09T07:01:00.000-05:00

Zopa is a UK based facilitator of person-to-person borrowing and lending. No banks allowed. via Kottke

NYPL Digital Gallery

2005-03-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

"Free and open online access to hundreds of thousands of digital images..." Amazing both in scope and quality; from naturalist sketches to cartography to posters to magazine covers. The NYPL is an amazing resource.

2005-03-03T17:09:00.000-05:00

You're Thailand!

Calmer and more staunchly independent than almost all those around you, you have a long history of rising above adversity. Recent adversity has led to questions about your sexual promiscuity and the threat of disease, but you still manage to attract a number of tourists and admirers. And despite any setbacks, you can really cook a good meal whenever it's called for. Good enough to make people cry.

Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

2005-03-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

How much do you know about your coffee?

"The Department of Labor has shamefully abdicated its responsibility by acquiescing in Wal-Mart’s continuing violation of child labor laws and other worker protections. Even worse, the Department conspired with Wal-Mart to conceal this sweetheart deal from the public. The Department is there to enforce the law, not be muzzled by America’s largest employer."

Plasmonic Covers = Invisibility Shields

2005-02-23T08:17:00.000-05:00

Back in the good ole days writing your representatives must have been a pain in the ass; but the good ole days are gone and other people will write the letter, post it to an action site and email your representatives. It's too easy. That being said, go to this site and let your reps know that the genocide in Darfur has gone on too long. If you need motivation, look. Thanks for the reminder Bret!

Kottke wants you to help him blog full time. More power to him.

Google Maps

2005-02-22T16:42:00.000-05:00

Google's new offering is, as I've come to expect, better than the competition. Like gmail, maps seems to be heavily driven by javascript, which allows it to operate so quickly on the client side. The large display is a much more pleasant than mapquest's tiny window and I like the simple controls, though when the controls move from the right side to the top after a search it can be a bit disorienting.

How's that for a comeback post. I needed some time after the political season.

2004-10-01T08:10:00.000-04:00

"It's one thing to be certain, but you can be certain and you can be wrong."
John Kerry - 9/30/2004 Debate

Quotable George

2004-09-29T11:36:00.000-04:00

"In order to placate the critics and cynics about the intentions of the United States, we need to produce evidence. And I'm confident that our search will yield that which I strongly believe..."
-- George W. Bush, 30 July 2003 press conference.

The Yes Men

2004-09-28T11:04:00.000-04:00

I heard an interview with these guys yesterday on Fresh Air and had something of a driveway moment as NPR likes to call them. What they have done is astonishing, not so much in its audacity but in that their audiences didn't throw them out. You can and should read about them on their website, TheYesMen, but the skinny of it is that they posed as WTO executives/representatives at numerous functions to which they were invited via their spoof website gatt.org and took that opportunity to present the WTO as they see it (very unfavorable). Their audiences were not only not infuriated, they were accepting and congratulatory. They have a movie coming out . . . I think I'll go see it.

Parental Guidance

2004-09-16T13:01:00.000-04:00

Bush I, in a 1988 speech to Gulf War veterans:

"Had we gone into Baghdad -- we could have done it, you guys could have done it, you could have been there in 48 hours -- and then what? Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world? Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."

via Daily Kos

2004-09-07T14:52:00.000-04:00

Miami Herald article looks at Intelligence Matters by Sen. Graham.

How the Pentagon has failed US troops in the International Herald Tribune

2004-09-03T14:29:00.000-04:00

Back to the Future "What Bush would do if he were president . . . Except he already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised great things. They haven't happened. So, he's trying to go back in time. He wants you to see in him the potential you saw four years ago. He can't show you the things he promised, so he asks you to envision them. He asks you to be "optimistic." He asks you to have faith." William Saletan in Slate

Red Alert "It was billed as America's frontline defense against terrorism. But badly underfunded, crippled by special interests, and ignored by the White House, the Department of Homeland Security has been relegated to bureaucratic obscurity."

I refuse to refuse or admit that I do refuse

2004-09-01T14:02:00.000-04:00

I don't think that the "war on terrorism" can be won any more than a war on murder or theft could be won. It isn't a finite thing. Perhaps one could redefine "war" and "win" to acheive such a feat, and as our language tends to evolve that way . . ., who knows. It bothers me that our esteemed cantidates are now playing ping pong with such a phrase: "We will win the war on terrorism . . ." "One cannot win the war on terrorism . . ." "Oh yes we can win the war on terrorism" "That's what I meant, we can win the war on terrorism" and so forth and so on. I think it stems from a resistance/refusal to agree on anything on the part of the politicos. Somehow it has become wrong to agree, even if the other side is right; you have to set up camp opposite them. The same stubborn resistance comes into play when a politicain should admit a mistake; they will defend to the end a stupid/wrong/mistaken opinion they once held in order to avoid having it used as a tool against them in their next campaign.

Icons

2004-08-31T17:28:00.000-04:00

Because I like them.

The Anatomy of an Icon

Notes from the Road

2004-08-31T11:28:00.000-04:00

When I need a diversion from easment maps, grid ties, legal descriptions and the like, I often take a minute to read Notes from the Road. I think I may have found the site while looking for something, anything related to Belize. Erik writes beautifully, takes beautiful pictures and draws beautiful maps. Needless to say the website is beautiful and worth the visit. Expect history lessons, personal experiences and observations on humanity and nature.

He does with his experiences what I wish I could do with mine. I have seen so much that I have promptly forgotten. No pictures, no stories, scant memory. I am far better off for having travelled as much as I have; I only wish I had foresight to record it in some way. Websites/logs offer the chance to record thought and experience rather painlessly, but as with a traditional journal or camera, I rarely make the effort. Fortunately for me, others do.

Kick-aas

2004-07-28T14:30:00.000-04:00

Read under "We believe . . .", "The article that started Kick-AAS."

Muscular Mutation

2004-06-25T11:24:00.000-04:00

While browsing Google News this morning I found this story, A Very Muscular Baby Offers Hope Against Diseases, in the NYT. It makes me think of X-Men. When I was a young lad viewing my bony frame in the mirror I'm sure that I would have been quite jealous of this little guy. Not any more, of course, seeing as I'm so incredibly muscular in my old age. What happens when the military decides they want to use this handy little mutation to bulk up its future troops? Perhaps that is far fetched, but if parents are willing to select their child's eye color through genetic tinkering, surely some sport crazed dad would be more than willing to give his kid the 'advantage' of freaky muscles. We won't hear about this however as only the positive medical possibilities will be talked about.

2004-06-18T08:37:00.000-04:00

the revolution

inequality.org

socialclass.org

VCRs and television sets are cheap, but higher education, health care, public transportation, drugs, housing and cars have risen faster in price than typical family incomes.

But while our country spends one billion dollars a week for war, we can't find money to provide our vets shelter and a warm meal?

"People's capitalism" is a myth.

WPost Article on Torture and our Justice Dept.

2004-06-10T16:42:00.000-04:00

A Plunge From the Moral Highground

Google's Weakness, Good Laughs

2004-06-07T15:48:00.000-04:00

The concerted efforts of Google bombers may well limit the usability of the search engine, but these people sure are creative; ie. Miserable Failure

NT Wright Interview

2004-06-04T11:36:00.000-04:00

Good ole Sammy directed readers to this interview of NT Wright. Read it along with this from RLP for dinner conversation. The interivew focuses in on two pertinant issues, that of homosexuality and the church and that of giving/witholding communion to/from those (John Kerry) with views that are askew the church's position. I like NT's response and that he sees our (western world) mistreatment of the "developing" world as a much bigger issue. Sorta missing the mountain for the molehill analogy.

Let's turn to the current debate in the American Catholic church about denying communion to public officials who take positions contrary to church teaching. Can scripture help us?
It is difficult, because the main issue in 1 Corinthians 11, or so it seems, is the rich and the poor. People who have enough money and food are going ahead and having a great meal, and Christians who don't are left out, left on the side. Paul is pretty severe about that. If I were simply to pick up 1 Corinthians 11 and ask, "What does this suggest about Eucharistic fellowship?", the biggest issue that shouts straight back at me is that the rich, white, Western world, which keeps the "two-thirds world" in grinding poverty and unpayable debt, stands condemned every time it receives the Eucharist because its brothers and sisters in the two-third world are growing the wrong sort of crops, are paying compound interest they can't afford, and are being left on the side. I really would want to go very hard on that. If you want to start with scripture, that is the moral issue that comes straight out of 1 Corinthians 11. Until one addresses that sort of question, more local questions about "the church teaches x, but this person says y, therefore should they be allowed to receive the Eucharist?" … what's the point of even putting that one on the table until we've started to address the big ones?

And this . . .

What really sticks in my throat is that while all this is going on, the American government, along with my own government and several others, talk about bringing freedom and justice to the world, when we are doing the precise opposite. Use of imperial rhetoric to cover up our own consistent greed … if we have any Christian moral courage, this is what we ought to be talking about. Face it, we are in a world where two-thirds of the people are poor and crying for justice. One-third of the people are rich and wanting more sex. I want to say, what is wrong with this picture? This cannot be the way the Creator-God intended the cosmos to work.

I read this; I'm outraged at our gluttony and excessiveness; I'm lazy and don't act to change things.

MulletJunky

2004-05-26T14:44:00.000-04:00

MulletJunky.com
Via a link from RLP no less. One cannot fully appreciate this site until one has sported a mullet upon one's self. I have, if only for a few hours at a Halloween party in Amsterdam, and I do appreciate this site's dedication to the hunt.

Rumors

2004-05-26T07:42:00.000-04:00

In the Washington Post, this blurb:

Kerry said he has worked to fix the problem with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who many Democrats are talking up as a possible running mate for Kerry. The two senators proposed incentives to automakers to produce alternative-fuel vehicles and tax breaks to consumers who buy them.

Which continues a rumor that Sen Joseph Biden started some months ago; that rumor being that McCain is a potential running mate for Kerry. While I highly doubt that this would happen, I would appreciate the show of unity between parties and the willingness of both men to take risks. It would also get McCain closer to where I had hoped he would end up four years ago.

My Political Compass

2004-05-21T16:34:00.000-04:00

Economic Left/Right: -3.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.08

These numbers put me in what the author(s) define is the Libertarian Left, which throws me in with quite a few folks I've never heard of, no suprise, but does include: Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Paine, Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), George Orwell, Michael Moore, Ivan Illich and Al Franken. Interesting company and I suspect that their numbers are a bit higher than mine.

Find yours.

Real Live Preacher and Archive Nuggets

2004-05-21T15:09:00.000-04:00

Some time ago Eric Meyer wrote that perhaps the web community made a 'mistake' when in the infancy of weblogging (or journaling if you hate that other word) the posts were displayed in reverse chronological order, earliest appearing first. His reasoning being that you don't get the whole picture when you start at the end of the story; that you don't know what has led up tho the current post, what the writer might have said about the same subject weeks ago. He's right, but who wants to see the same old content every time you load a page. He's right, but it just wouldn't work. What should happen is that when you find a weblog/journal that you enjoy, do make sure that you dive into those archives and see what you've missed. I don't do it that often, seeing as it is fairly time consuming, but I've just begun reading Real Live Preacher's early posts and it is well worth it.

If you haven't read RLP's The Preacher's Story, I recommend it, along with just about everything else he types.

Good Day

Private Contracts and Free Speech

2004-05-18T07:46:00.000-04:00

About private contracts for government work in Mother Jones;
A word about "Free Speech Zones" in American Conservative Magazine

Two stories on Abu Ghraib

2004-05-17T21:08:00.000-04:00

More on Abu Ghraib from Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker; and still more from Newsweek.

The support that Bush and his administration receive from the "christian community" continues to amaze me. Individuals trust this gov't and it's actions b/c its leader loudly proclaims Christ. People are so excited that they "won" when Bush ascended the throne that they are allowing him to piss all over the Geneva conventions, the Middle East, Europe and us. It comes from this competetive mentality that christian conservatives have towards all things "liberal", or not in their own agenda. I need to dig for more stories about how our own rights have suffered to add to my list, ie. protest zones, project lantern, restricted access . . . I feel like a freakin conspiracy theorist. I'm a goob :-)

Keeping Tabs

2004-05-12T13:23:00.000-04:00

I've decided to keep a list of the things that bother me about our current administration. It'll start small and grow from there I am sure. The desire to do so stems from what I hear on the radio as I ride to and from work, specifically what I hear on Fresh Air from NPR. Everyday I am shocked at the potential wrongdoings and shady dealings in Washington and as soon as I hear them they begin to leak out of my feeble brain leaving me with nothing but an ill feeling and no support.

Regarding uranium shipments from Niger to Iraq and the White House leak that exposed Mr. Wilson's wife, a CIA agent: What I did not find in Africa by Joseph C. Wilson 4th, Valerie Plame in Disinfopedia

Guantanamo Bay prisoners: Revelations

Abu Ghraib prison: Chain of Command by Seymour M. Hersh

Geneva Convention: How Bush kicked the [expletive] out of the Geneva Conventions in The Globe and Mail, White House Briefing

Zeldman Redesign

2004-05-04T11:34:00.000-04:00

He hasn't been prolific with his posting of late, but I love the redesign. I thought it reminded me of a Richard Buckner album cover, but I looked it up - I was wrong. My reading of Zeldman is one of those odd weblog/site phenomenons. I don't know the guy and I'm not a designer, but I enjoy reading how things are going with him. I've been reading for a few years now and it is fun to hear of him getting married and now expecting a child. I've never contacted him, nor do I expect to. It's just odd that I'm interested.

See Zeldman.com

Music in Ads

2004-04-28T09:58:00.000-04:00

I first heard Tom Waits on Austin City Limits; I believe it was a "best of" broadcast. He sang "On The Nickel" and I thought his voice was the coolest thing ever. I caught his name, but never commited to buying his music, nor did I hear of him again until college. While on a field research weekend in south Mississippi my ecology professor pulled out his guitar and sang "Big Black Mariah" and "Rain Dogs" among others. When we returned to Oxford I headed straightaway to Uncle Buck's Records (now sadly defunct) and picked up "Rain Dogs." I liked the album, still do, though I don't listen to it much anymore. Mr. Waits has the reputation of being "underground", real to the music; I'm no music critic, nor do I know much about the industry, but as a gut feeling I'd say that he is real, that he stands for and sings about what matters to him. I found a link today that mentioned a letter to the editor penned by said artist, so I followed it to this article in The Nation by John Densmore of The Doors (Wait's letter is in reaction to Densmore's article). I'm impressed. I don't know a thing about Densmore, didn't even know he was in The Doors, but I like what he has to say. I don't know what I'd do in his position, but I hope I'd have his scruples (if scruples means what I think it means).

Rasterbate an image

2004-04-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I know the title is . . . um, but it's not mine. Go to http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/ to create posters from some of the more creative digital photos you have on your hard drive. I haven't actually printed one, cause I'm at work and that just wouldn't be right. I can't print when I get home either seeing as I'm out of black ink, but that's beside the point (where and why did that little phrase originate?). I can't describe it. It's neat - go do it.

Little Snippets

2004-04-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

From NetFuture #156

In North America, the use of antidepressants and other drugs affecting the central nervous system grew 17 percent last year alone. Pre-schoolers are now the fastest-growing group of children receiving antidepressants. Americans take so many drugs that "some researchers ... are worried about the effects on the environment. What does it mean if the sewers run rich with Zoloft?" But that's another item.

From The Daily Mississippian

"I've been booed before," Eli Manning said later to ESPN. "I can take it."

And The Realest Real from Kottke.org

More chewing

2004-04-12T11:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday on the ride to Greenville my wife realted a disturbing story. Our neighbor is a psych grad student and one of her professor specializes in sexual addictions. This neighbor's prof reckons that the question he/she? is most often asked is: How can I protect my child from being sexually molested?

The shocking answer (or maybe not): never allow your child to be alone with a male! This doesn't pertain to the father, but it does apply to realtives. It sounds unduly harsh, but the stat is that 99% of sexual abuse is perpetrated by 'males'. So, if you want to protect your child from abuse the best thing you can do is follow that profs' advice, sadly it makes good sense to me.

I'm the father of a little girl, and thinking about this scares the hell out of me.

Currently: chewing

2004-04-12T10:59:00.000-04:00

I have a few things to think about before I respond to my friend Sammy's comment on my 'how to read the bible' post of a couple days ago. I think I agree with him, but to be quite honest I'm never very sure of what I think. I'm at my mother-in-law's for the easter weekend + monday and have had the opportunity to watch cable tv, which we don't have, specifically some of the 'Jesus' shows that every obscure and not-so-obscure channel seems to be airing. I get confused. Their 'experts' are studied people, or so I am led to believe, and they have knowledge of biblical history and theology that I can never hope to possess (but I probably know more about blacksmithing - score one for me). They can toss out some hair-brained theory about Jesus or the bible or whatever-the-heck and I feel like I have to be able to debunk it, but I don't know enough to do that. I realize that things can be so far out there as to be immune to debunking, but my lack of knowledge irritates me. I want to be able to take a long draw on my Gandalf-esque pipe, lean back in my extraordinarily comfortable leather chair, release a comprehensive rebuttal and then smile wearily at the lack of effort as the camera pans out to show my dimly lit library . . . sorry, a guy can dream can't he. In summary, I feel like I can be tossed about by every new theory, unable to extract myself from the sticky rumors, 'facts' and conclusions that these 'learned' folk spew, and that is frustrating. I don't know where it is, but I know the bible warns about being shaken and stirred by false doctrine; something like that - further evidence of my lack of biblical knowledge.

Our Fearless (-ly arrogant) President

2004-04-09T14:54:00.000-04:00

From the Charlotte Observer:

"President Bush has a well-known aversion to ringing cell phones. Now you can apparently add the tinkling of silverware to the list. Supporters attending a $2,000 a plate fundraiser in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this month were treated to seared beef tenderloins with golden tomatoes and other mouthwatering items - but nothing to eat them with.

An explanation could be found in fine print at the bottom of the menu - "At the request of the White House, silverware will not accompany the table settings" so the clanking of utensils wouldn't disrupt the president's speech."