Friday, June 29, 2007

Air travel


I will presumably spend a lot of time in planes in the next couple of years. It gives me lots of time in the in between space. I can feel the contours of my mind easier and think I can see where I am and maybe sometimes glimpse where I might be going. It is precious time, but it is also time that I am utterly separated from those things that humanize me. It was a beautiful flight tonight, an almost full moon welcomed me home. And it is home and it is so much more than I hoped.


Daily Kos: The USS Enterprise headed for Iran, Is the administration planning to use it

Daily Kos: The USS Enterprise headed for Iran, Is the administration planning to use it: "That is an amazing amount of firepower. That is in reality about 300 planes and 1700 Tomahawk and Asroc missiles. To put that in perspective, during the first Gulf War the US used a total of 286 Tomahawks in that engagement. If joined by a fourth Carrier force those totals will jump to 400 planes and around 2200 Tomahawk and Asroc missiles.

For those of you who may not quite understand just how much power that is, that battle group is capable of causing more destruction than was caused in every war in the last century. Not just American wars, but all of the worlds wars in the last century.

So why would the U.S. put so much Naval power in the region? I am not sure what our intentions are. You might say with Iran thumbing their nose at the U.S. and the U.N. there is the possibility of a naval blockade of Iran. There is a distinct possibility of a blockade. However, the two carrier groups in the region could do so with out a problem. Could it just be saber rattling to intimidate Iran? I believe anyone who knows the military potential of two carrier groups would know that two is intimidating enough, but three and, according to promises made by Dick Cheney and reported to the FreeMarket News, a fourth still to come."

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

ABC News: Murder a Top Killer of Pregnant Women

ABC News: Murder a Top Killer of Pregnant Women: "According to a number of studies, homicide is one of the leading causes of death for pregnant women in the United States. Studies in Maryland, New York and Chicago determined that about 20 percent of women who die during pregnancy are murder victims."

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Scotsman.com Business - Latest News - Roundtable CEOs' pay rose 10.6 percent

Scotsman.com Business - Latest News - Roundtable CEOs' pay rose 10.6 percent: "Members of the influential Business Roundtable, which opposes Congressional attempts to reform executive pay, saw 2006 pay rise by an average of 10.6 percent, or nearly three times that of a typical U.S. white collar worker, according to a report released on Tuesday"

Monday, June 18, 2007

Read the whole thing, hand to Republicans

What Every American Should Know About Iraq - CommonDreams.org: "Right after 9/11, according to Clarke, “The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, ‘I want you to find whether Iraq did this.’ Now he never said, ‘Make it up.’ But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this. I said, ‘Mr. President. We’ve done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There’s no connection.’ He came back at me and said, ‘Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there’s a connection’. And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report. It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, ‘Will you sign this report?’ They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, ‘Wrong answer. … Do it again’.”"

Study: People Literally Feel Pain of Others | LiveScience

Study: People Literally Feel Pain of Others | LiveScience: "One mirror-touch synaesthete, Alice, said 'I have never been able to understand how people can enjoy looking at bloodthirsty films, or laugh at the painful misfortunes of others when I can not only not look but also feel it.'"

cranky

I am sick again this morning. I feel like I have been sick with something or other this entire year and I am officially cranky. that's all.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Stupid People

I'm a subservient wife and love it: "Like many of the book's other disciples, Skye now has 'no idea' how much money she and her husband have. 'I have handed all of our financial matters over to Frank. He is the breadwinner. I am the homemaker,' she says. 'He has all the power. He buys what we need and gives me pocket money.'

And she swears the arrangement works wonderfully. 'I've never been happier!'

Frank says that now his wife has handed over control of everything in their life to him, she is much more feminine and their sex life has never been better.

'She wears make-up, takes real good care of herself and leaps into my arms when I come home each day,' he says. 'She looks after me properly, attends to my every whim and really listens to what I say.

'She loves that I'm in charge and that she doesn't have to worry about making any decisions. She knows it's all taken care of, and I love being the boss of the house…'"

I have never been married. I'm probably not that likely to get married. Marriage always freaked me out for various reasons. Then I read crap like this and my head wants to explode. I know married people, I even know happily married people and I feel confident saying that it would be deeply offensive to them to intimate that happiness will only exist if one person (likely the female) submits totally to the other person. Who are these freaks and why do we have to read about their disturbing relationships? People are offended by gay marriage but not these weirdos? I really don't understand.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

DampOwls » Blog Archive » Ridiculously Cool Technology

DampOwls » Blog Archive » Ridiculously Cool Technology: "June 6th, 2007 by admin

This is some very cool technology from a division of Microsoft. It was demonstrated at the TED conference and shows some amazing manipulation of various images."

Monday, June 11, 2007

Officially Evil

CoolAqua: Giuliani Campaign's Dirty Secret: "One has to wonder how much of the funds donated to the Bush Campaign, and promised funds for the Giuliani campaign, were essentially stolen thru quasi legal means from US debt relief funds appropriated by the well meaning US Congress, at the behest of the Bush Administration, for African or third world country Debt Relief.

Billionare Paul Singer's and other Vulture capitalists scam to fleece American Taxpayers appears to work as follows:

Well meaning Americans empathize with the suffering of starving third world citizen, being attacked by a changing climate, overpopulation, civil war and strife, and aids. President Bush magnanimously offers up a program to offer Debt Relief to the third world country, and the US Congress responds by approving funds, which are then held in a US account.

Simultaneously, Vulture funds such as Paul Singer's, knowing that the target country finances are about to be re-capitalized by the US Taxpayers, go out and buy up the debt which was supposed to be forgiven. Here's a recent example:

'...By extraordinary coincidence, the amount claimed is almost exactly the sum which Zambia is due to receive this year as a result of the Gleneagles debt deal...'

The Vulture funds then sue in England or other countries, and gain awards for the junk bonds that were about to be forgiven. After the Court rules in favor of the Vulture fund, the Vulture fund can then tap into the funds approved by the US Congress for debt relief.

In the case of the Vulture fund suit won Friday against Zambia, the $2 million dollar junk bonds bought by the Vulture fund must now be repaid with interest. Debt that the US Government planned on forgiving for $2 million dollars is now worth $40 million due to the British Court settlement.

Every now and then, something good happens!

Judge: No 10-year sentence for teen sex - Yahoo! News: "'If this court or any court cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish ... justice being served in a fair and equal manner,' the judge wrote.

Wilson's original sentence, for aggravated child molestation, was widely criticized on the grounds it was grossly disproportionate to the crime. State lawmakers later passed a law to close the loophole that led to the 10-year sentence."

Sunday, June 10, 2007

We got it wrong, says former torturer - World - smh.com.au

We got it wrong, says former torturer - World - smh.com.au: "Between January 2004 and January 2005, first at Abu Ghraib prison and then in Mosul, in northern Babil province, he tortured suspects, most of whom he said were innocent. He realised he had entered a moral dungeon when he found himself reading a Holocaust memoir, hoping to pick up torture tips from the Nazis.

Mr Lagouranis told The Sunday Telegraph: 'When I first got back I had a lot of anxiety. I had a personal crisis because I felt I had done immoral things and I didn't see a way to cope with that.'

Disturbingly for the British military, which has distanced itself from the worst excesses of Abu Ghraib, Mr Lagouranis says the Americans learnt much of their uncompromising approach from British interrogators.

'We heard about interrogators in Northern Ireland who were successful. Some of our interrogators went on the British interrogation course, which was tough. People wanted to emulate that, but we went too far.'"

Autism is a bio-neurological developmental disability that generally appears before the age of 3.

Autism is a bio-neurological developmental disability that generally appears before the age of 3.: "Contrary to claims by vaccine manufacturers touting 'mercury free' vaccines an investigation by Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI) recently found mercury in all four vials tested. This despite manufacturer claims that two of the vials were completely mercury free. Boyd Haley, PhD, Chemistry Department Chair, University of Kentucky, feels that if mercury can be detected in any vaccine using standard instrumentation, the content should be disclosed in the product insert and manufacturers should not be allowed to call the product 'mercury free.' "

Things I want to do

YearlyKos Convention - n. yier-lee-KOS k&n-'ven(t)-sh&n An annual convention gathering people from all walks of life who belong to the Netroots community, the US-based (but globally focused and inclusive) non-partisan grassroots political action community that uses the Internet and blogs as primary tools for: expressing viewpoints, building consensus, acting to change the status quo, mobilizing huge numbers of people and informing each other and the world about current events, grassroots actions, networks, meetings, policy and more. The YearlyKos Convention is a project of bloggerpower.org with the generous support of the Netroots Arts and Education Initiative (NAEI).


I Really want to go, but have no one to go with..so sad. Maybe I will go by myself?

Are we really this hated?

The Guardian:
The United States is the most hated country on the planet, followed by, to the extent that there is a distinction, Israel. So far as I know, there are no other contenders. You can say "Who cares?", as many will say, or "Screw’em if they can’t take a joke" or "I’d rather be feared than loved". All very droll. Still, it is an interesting datum. No country ever lives up to its own PR, but there was a time when America was widely admired. Now, almost universally, it is seen as a rogue state. And is.
......

"The increasing, detailed, intrusive regulation of life, the national desire for control, control, control. Everything is the business of some form of government. Want to paint your shutters? The condo association won’t let you. Let dogs in your bar? Never. Decide who to sell your house to? Racial matter. Own a dog? Shot card, pooper-scooper, leash, gotta be spayed, etc. Have a bar for men only, women only, whites or blacks only? Here come the federal marshals. What isn’t controlled by government is controlled by the crypto-vindictive mob rule of political correctness. This wasn’t always in the American character. Add the continuing presence of police in the schools, the arrest in handcuffs of children of seven, the expulsions for drawing a picture of a soldier with a gun. Something very twisted is going on.

How much of the public knows what is happening, or even knows that something is happening? I don’t know. But I don’t think that it’s going to go away. In ten years it will be an entirely different place with the same name. Almost is now."

Friday, June 08, 2007

Obsidian Wings: Are We Disappearing Children?

Obsidian Wings: Are We Disappearing Children?: "Also according to Mohammed, he and Majid were detained in the same place where two of Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s young children, ages about 6 and 8, were held. The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding."

Oh BUT! Don't fear...

“We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children...but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care.”

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

More reasons to hate the Media

Glenn Greenwald - Salon: "The great fraud being perpetrated in our political discourse is the concerted attempt by movement conservatives, now that the Bush presidency lay irreversibly in ruins, to repudiate George Bush by claiming that he is not, and never has been, a 'real conservative.' This con game is being perpetrated by the very same conservatives who -- when his presidency looked to be an epic success -- glorified George W. Bush, ensured both of his election victories, depicted him as the heroic Second Coming of Ronald Reagan, and celebrated him as the embodiment of True Conservatism.

This fraud is as transparent as it is dishonest, yet there are signs that the media is nonetheless beginning to adopt this theme that there is some sort of epic and long-standing 'Bush-conservative schism.' But very little effort is required to see what a fraud that storyline is."

Saturday, June 02, 2007

super cool

not sure why i think this is so cool, but i love it.

http://www.shadowcards.com/