Monday, October 31, 2005

The weekend, long ass post

So back to my life, Sunday was nice, I got up early and checked on the girls asleep in the living room. There’s something beautiful about a sleeping girl, there’s an innocence there that you just can't help but watch her breath, you just want her to stay that innocent forever, to protect her from any harm, but alas that’s not going to happen. You cant protect someone forever, they have to learn on their own. Another girl asleep in the chair with her mouth wide open, not the most attractive look but amusing and has it’s own innocence with it, that reality of it, not trying to play to societies norms, cause your sleeping no accountability to anyone, just rest. I sat and watched the birds and the squirrels for a while as I drifted in and out of sleep for the next few hours. Eventually the ladies started to wake, hair a mess, make-up smeared, no showers, they all looked exquisite to me. I like seeing girls before they spend hours trying to look pretty, it’s refreshing to see lovely ladies in their natural state. There is also something about seeing her open her eyes for the first time that day and smile as soon as she see you across the room. I will say that from the other perspective it can be weird to wake up and see someone looking at you. She just sorta smiled then rolled over and went back to sleep for a while, can’t blame her that couch is so comfortable. I just wanted to crawl in under the blanket with her and fall asleep with my arms around her. Call me lame but I am a big fan of falling asleep wrapped up with a beautiful girl, even if it’s just a friend. Sleeping nose to nose is nice, although you better hope you don’t have halitosis (bad breath), hopefully she doesn’t either. But its really more comfortable to sleep facing the same direction, if I’m sleeping on my side id like to be able to bend my knees then you just place one arm around her waist and the other just sort of falls where it may up on her shoulder or around her waist, where this hand falls depends greatly upon the relationship with the lady in question, obviously. Now why the hell am I getting into details about how to fall asleep with a girl, some times my ramblings take me to destinations that I would have never found otherwise, other times it leads me to thinking of ordinary events and thinking I know any more about it that any other sap. Oh well. This took a decidedly negative turn after lunch, the food was good but they pawned the last of the chili off on me and I’m just not feelin it any more. I think its official I am now the office bitch, or the gopher, when there is some odd-ball job that needs to be done in a hurry then I get sent. I don’t see that as an insult the way other people do. One shop I worked in the shop gopher was one of the best guys there, he had responsibility and he was the only person other than the owner who not only had a company vehicle but it was a brand new truck. He was the gopher cause you could give him any job and he would just do it, no complaints no questions he just did what ever needed to be done whenever it was needed. I don’t know what all the guys made but he was probably one of the highest paid too. That’s why I’m ok with being a Gopher, they know they can ask me to do almost anything and Ill do it. Of course bitch might be a better description than gopher, as in this instance it was running to a pizza joint to buy a sub for the boss cause there was a board of directors meeting/lunch, and one of the members wanted a meatball sub, they told me to either go to subway or a local pizza place, of course I said fuck sub-way, the other place has a killer meat-ball sub anyway. Oh so back to Sunday I guess, it all was cool the girls eventually got up and around, we looked for food but there wasn’t shit so they talked me into McDonalds, god damn I hate fast food. They came back to the house and we chilled for a few and picked up the house a little. I went and took a shower and then we headed down to the girls house for a little while. She had to clean her house then we watched some TV and I headed back. Oh at some point, must have been while I was in the shower, one of the girls sprayed my old cologne around and holy crap it stunk the whole house up, it was ridiculous. Hours latter when the parents got home they were bitching about the smell. I got to remember to yell at her for that shit.
It was a beautiful day and the weather is supposed to be great for a while. They’re talking about around 60 all week, which for this area in the start of November is quite nice. Might just have to break out the basketball again. I hope to sneak out of work a little early today. Well that was my weekend. I need a girlfriend, good lord I was just thinking about how lame it is that I was fantasizing about falling asleep with my arms around a girl that I’m just friends with, and don’t want to be more than friends. She is beautiful but she’s just not the one for me. Oh and I suppose she does have a boyfriend but that’s pretty low on my list of reasons not to want her. Then there was the drama of one of the other girls finding out that her sorta-boyfriend didn’t want to go out with her anymore. It really hurt her when she found out that he had decided this several days ago and didn’t tell her even though she had spoke with him several times since then. Oh well. I’m realizing that this is going on way longer than it needs to but im not to concerned because no one reads this but me, and if my sister reads it she will be real confused about me hanging out with girls and not wanting to date them, well she might think its because of what she just went through telling the family about her new boyfriend and unless she read the old posts about the prior friendship with these girls then she wont get it. I know she didn’t read any of those old posts because he would have called or e-mailed me immediately if she had. I think its better that she didn’t read any of those as it really is an awkward friendship to try to explain. I felt bad for the one that broke up with her boyfriend, they hadn’t been going out very long but she really liked him, I think, and he seemed like a nice guy the once or twice that I met him. But he just wasn’t right for her and I knew it but I wasn’t about to stick my nose into their relationship. I tried to comfort her in the best ways I know how, first was the sympathy and a hug then her sister and I got her laughing about completely unrelated things. The other girl is having a big fight with her boyfriend, I never found out the details of what the fight was about, hey if they want advice and they come to me Ill be happy to help them out, but I’m not going to go prying into their lives. That and if you go to them to give advice and it turns out badly then they might think you were trying to get them to break up and that’s really not a situation I need. On the other hand, obviously when a girl is sitting there crying after getting off the phone I’m going to play the concerned guy and lend a shoulder to cry on and all tell her that its ok and all that she’s beautiful and all that crap. And its my style to make sure she is laughing again quickly. You know you did well when shes laughing and the tears haven’t dried on her cheeks yet. She seemed ok after a little while, I'm sure she is still upset but she’ll get over it. So lets see there’s one other girl but she doesn’t cause much drama, well that’s not entirely true either she was dating my friend and so I got stuck in the middle of a few things there but nothing major. I thought it was over between them but then yesterday she was talking to him and so maybe she figured out that he only wanted a fuck buddy and maybe she’s ok with that. Hey there is nothing wrong with having a chick as a fuck buddy so long as both people know that’s all it is. When one is in love and the other is just horny that’s when you run into trouble. Oh yeah one of the girls threw out the hypothetical of what if people went into “heat� like animals do, or maybe it was more of a question of if people do. I answered her that no people are always horny. She asked if guys are really always horny and I said, Oh yeah. I wonder what its like only being horny some of the time? Sure guys have times when they’re really horny but even during the lows they are ready to go. I always feel bad for girls when they break up they usually take it a lot harder than guys do, or at least they are more open about it. Then there is the fourth friend who I haven’t seen in a little while, she got two jobs and moved out of her house, and then quit one of her jobs. I found out a bit more than I wanted to know about that girl, which has happened a lot lately. Found out that she’s a bit of a thief, and not like the usual steal stupid crap from a store cause you’re young and stupid, but stealing from friends and friends parents. That’s not cool in my book. She was always the annoying one of the group anyway, and now she has moved in with a chick that I barely know but seems completely insane. Well maybe not insane but a little off kilter. And the girl that moved out was not the most mentally or emotionally stabile person in general. Hey I want to help her but if she doesn’t want help then there isn’t much anyone can do. Hmm.. is there more that I can bullshit about?
Well I could get into my apartment hunting but that’s dull business, and my lack of love life is highly exciting. Right….

Happy Halloween

Halloween

Well the party I was planning on going to I was warned was lame ahead of time so just chilled with a few friends on Saturday. Was hoping for a good party but oh well.

Well today is actually Halloween and a few people are dressed up at the office, there’s a bee downstairs, a witch is fly around somewhere, and there is a giant Hershey’s kiss in the office next to mine. I thought about throwing on my cheap ass costume of a racecar driver, I was just going to where my old work shirt and my helmet, it would probably be the most expensive costume around seeing as the helmet is around $400 but then again I already had it. And its not a real fire suit id be wearing just an old mechanics shirt.
So I got a new web site Ill have to add to the links it’s got a great name, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. I like United for Separation bit. They are with the ACLU in the Dover PA court case against "intelligent design." there web site is http://www.au.org/site/PageServer

Friday, October 28, 2005

More sites to check out

http://www.dickeatsbush.com/
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/ this one ive been to before
http://www.worldcantwait.org/
http://www.bradblog.com/
http://www.mykeru.com/
http://www.airamericaradio.com/
http://www.codepinkalert.com/
http://www.afsc.org/
Thank you Bush Flash.

Casualties of War
Ok this one is impressive, it is a map of where every soldier that has died lived. Wow. Im not sure what to say about it.

what a job

Ok Im actually swamped at work right now, but Im doing a lot of mind dumbingly boring data entry right now so I have to stop from time to time and write some shit. This office is amazing, I live in a pretty conservative town and the office is in one of the rougher ghettos in town, its a fairly small town, like 35 thousand people and yet this office is habitated by a very liberal group. I suppose it makes sence because it is a human resouces type place, these people are all here because they want to help others, and thats a pretty liberal concept in itself.
Of course the counter to that is that Im trying to find an apartment and the only person I know that is also going to be looking for one is my arch-conservative friend. It will make for interesting conversations at the new place if we move in together. Hes an old friend and im sure something as trivial as dispising everything that the other stands for wont get in the way of our friend ship, or cause akward moments. Should be fun.

Wal-Mart anit-bush photo

So in case you needed another reason not to go to Wal-Mart, here we go. Student is assigned a project to take pictures of their Bill of Rights rights. So for the first amendment he takes a photo of Bush tacs it on the wall and holds a thumbs down in front of it, and takes a picture. His only crime was that he then sent the photo to Wal-Mart to get it developed. when the photo developer saw the picture they called the cops the cops imediatly sent it to the Secret Service and the SS went to the school to question the student and the teacher. The student was not indicted on possible charges of exercising freedom of speech which carries a possible life sentence in this country.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1006-25.htm
This is a story that should be covered by the MSM but they wont, they dont believe in journalism anymore. then again freedom of the press is punishable by a minimum of 85 days in jail so I can understand there reasons.

If you want to respond to this teacher here is her homework site that has a link to her E-mail adress
http://www.schoolnotes.com/27917/sjarvis.html

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Drilling in the nature preserves in Alaska

I heard last night on the news that they had passed the resolution allowing for Oil companies to drill in Alaskan Wildlife Sanctuaries. That is disgusting, they areso concerned about the profits of these companies that they will allow some of the last unspoiled wilderness left in this country to be exploited by the oil industry. How can we allow this, I know that the country has many major problems to worry about and so something like environmental protection easily falls to the way side. People will support it because they think it will cause gas prices to drop, but trying to build in the middle of an Alaskan park cannot be easy, Im sure it will take several years before they start producing, and even then why would they lower prices when keeping them inflated is making them so much money? This is a sad day for anyone who enjoys a walk through the woods.

Price gouging?

Theres no one so dispicable that they would use a national emergency as a way to turn a quick profit, is there? How low do you have to sink in the caves of moral decency to turn the deaths of hundreads of people in to a finicial opportunity to screw people?
Washington Post
And tomorrow, analysts expect Exxon Mobil Corp. to show that it earned nearly $9 billion over the past three months -- the largest corporate quarterly profit ever.
Im not sure if that means highest ever for that company or highest ever for any company, but it doesnt matter its a record profits for the last three months, hmm I wonder why?

Miers is outta here

Well As you most likely know Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to the Supreme Court. Hmm, maybe she has good judgment after all.
In her letter to the president, Miers said she was "concerned that the
confirmation process presents a burden for the White House and its staff and it
is not in the best interest of the country."

cnn
Thats a fair assesment, now just convince him that some of the other policys aren't "in the best interest of the counrty." Kinda sad when the nominy has to point out to the president that his desicion was bad for the counrty, you would think that a president might have some insight into what was good or bad for the counrty. Oh well one down, lots more work to go.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

one more for the day

i gotta run but I needed to throw this on the site real quick.
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=485972&ok=true
Ok its a whole thread of Photoshop pics of what History would be like if there had been Fox "news." theres some funny pics, there are quite a few which dont work anymore but scroll down thru theres some funny shit in there.
heres the home page
http://www.fark.com/

New Sites (to me)

found some new sites by looking thru some of my own links, one was called Punk Voter.com I kinda have to put that one up another is Music is Not a Crime.org they sound interesting the little bit I've looked at each. Here is Police Crime.com another one that I havent looked at much but its got a good title.

Elmo got busted

no not for drugs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4376548.stm
just a funny little add in to the news.

good news from the House

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4377446.stm
They have blocked $4 million in funding for the development of bunker busting "mini-nukes." They actually wanted to have tactical nuclear weapons that could be used to take out bunkers. Who decided that this was a good idea? Thank god there are still a few people left who realise that we can't use nukes as part of our regular arsinal. The general idea of building new nukes, most likely borrowing money from China to due it, is simply absurd. Why would we possibly want to spend more money on nuclear weapons, while the rest of the world is trying to reduce the number of apoclyptic weapons out there. Now I know these are called Mini-nukes and that they arent going to kill off the entire human race if they are used, but why would we use any form of nuclear weapon while trying to prevent so called "rouge" nations from building their own. If we use nukes, of any size, that is simply giving the "enemy" an excuse to use them. The old theory of do as I say not as I do might work with children but it isnt very good foreign policy. Seriously we are 8 trillion dollars in debt, the economy is shit, there are massive clean-up efforts under way from the natural disasters, dont we have more important things to spend our money on than new nuclear weapons? And I just thought about the fact that they claimed to be spending $4million on this program, that can't be right. We'd spend 4 million dollars on a nuclear weapons program in about an hour. They would spend $4million apeice on those weapons, not including developing a nuke that "buries its own fall-out." For the first time since Bush took office I hear about something happening that might acctually make us safer, NOT building nukes will make us safer.

Iraq, this is bad, even for Iraq

Telegraph News
According to the British military up to 65% of Iraqis feel that attacks against occupying forces are justified. And less than 1% think that the occupation is making their country more secure. Between this and the fact that Vietnam had fewer casualties in the first 4 years of conflict the similarities are getting scarier every day.
Ascribe Iraq vs Vietnam
The monthly death rate for US soldiers has doubled since the end of the “conflict.�
Ok I only saw this on the link from Buzzflash, the site it is in reference to you need to pay to visit, its Mercury News. I would look it up but I’m not paying for it.
And of course we have passed the 2000 soldiers killed mark in Iraq, or as U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, director of the force’s combined press center, puts it “… The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall ...!� I would expect a fragging for that one. That will be another similarity to Vietnam when you hear about fragging again. My generation knows the term Frag from video games where it is simply killing someone, usually the enemy. Durring Vietnam the term meant to kill your commanding officer, usually in the field.

This is almost completely unrelated.
I need to keep a copy of the ten commandments with me, along with the bill of rights. I always point out to the pro-war pro-death penalty “Christians� out there that little line about thou shall not kill, but I always forget about thou shall not bear false witness and coveting they neighbor there’s a few in there that I could you against the hypocrites.

The newest mantra from the Repuglican Party for the poor in these United States is---“Let them eat horsemeat�! Each and every time I think they’ve hit bottom, the Repuglican Party has proven they can go even lower! God save the United States from the Repuglican Party
thanks buzzflash for a few of these.

Is it going to be a merry Fitz-mas?

Hmm.. is the left excited about the posibility of a few top officials in the administration going down? I think the fact that the term Fitzmas is being used pretty much sums that up.

Ok Crooks and Liars is doing Fitzmas Carrols,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/19/103211/60

O Little Town of Washington
O Little Town of Washington,
How still we see thee lie.
The folks belowDon't seem to know
That Fitzmas day is nigh.
The grand jury is weighing
Indictments `gainst these crooks.
Hopefully, we soon will see,
Fitzgerald throw the book!


Walking in a Beltway Wonderland
Pundits talk, are you listening?
On Rove's brow, sweat is glistening
.A beautiful sight,Fitz will indict,
Walking in a beltway wonderland!
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he is Preznit Bush.
We'll call him an indicted co-conspirator,
And then we'll start to kick him in the tush!
Can you tell, we're excited?
Just to see, who's indicted!
Those who have clout,
Will be frog-marched out,
Walking in a beltway wonderland!


Those were my two favorites, imagine if they are actualy convicted of treason. That would be swell. I said it before but I still root for life in prison not the death penalty for two reasons, I'm not a big fan of the deathe penalty and more importantly in this case, I cant throw a party for an execution.

Monkey Trial

Here we go, Id been looking around for any new information about how the trial in Dover PA is going, the trial that puts "inteligent design" on the stand. I heard a little about the trial at the start and then nothing. I had not look to terribly hard but I figured a case that could change the way science is taught in this country would be worthy of a little air time. But no we need to find Natalee. Ok so of course the ACLU is to the rescue with transcripts of the entire trial. so heres the link. Intelligent design
I haven't had time to read them yet but I will give a summary when I do. I am waiting to see what the ID answer is to the vestigal apendages and organs, like the apendix. ID does believe in micro-evolution, that way they dont have to disprove the small amout of evolution that can be watched in the world. I think they did a pretty good job of covering there asses when they came up with this.. im not sure what word to use, theory gives it to much scientific credit. well anyway, I gotta get back to work I just wanted to save that link to the transcripts for future reading.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

THE ONION RULES!!!!

they were sent a letter to stop using the presidential seal on their website. so they sent a letter back which had this to say.


"Dear Mr. Dixon,
"I greatly appreciate your comments regarding my Weekly Radio Address parody. But I'm surprised the president deems it wise to spend taxpayer money for his lawyer to write letters to The Onion.
"If you have a lot of extra money lying around that you don't know what to do with, here are some better ideas for spending it:
"1. How about a tax break for satirists?
"2. With indictments in 'Plamegate' forthcoming, perhaps a nice going-away present for Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney, or whoever the president may be firing. I recommend a subscription to The Onion.
"3. It has recently become obvious that there is need for some sort of federal organization to administer the management of emergencies - a hypothetical 'Federal Emergency Management Administration,' if you will. You could spend the money on that.
"4. Harriet Miers could really use a scholarship to some kind of rudimentary judge school.
"In the event there's any extra money left over after all these projects, then perhaps the president could justify paying lawyers to protect him from comedians."
It's not a lifelong feud yet, but it's a start

God I hope this is accurate.

a soldier without a voice

http://goetzit.blogspot.com/2005/10/double-plus-ungood.html
He was silenced by the military, the title is perfect; double plus ungood

funny conservatives

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/10/con05394.html

But seriously, maybe the funniest conservative of all time is Tom "Kill It Without" DeLay. It's no small task to distill that body of humor down to a few examples, but chortle along to these gems:
1. "The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills."
2. "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes."
3. "Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour [the minimum wage at the time] are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families do not exist."

I cant beleive that last comment, i got nothin'

Al Franken on Plamegate

Gaelicstarover

"'And so basically, what it looks like is going to happen is that Libby and Karl Rove are going to be executed' because 'outing a CIA agent is treason,' left-wing author and radio talk show host Al Franken asserted Friday night, to audience laughter, on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman. Franken qualified his hard-edged satire: 'Yeah. And I don't know how I feel about it because I'm basically against the death penalty, but they are going to be executed it looks like.' Franken later suggested that President Bush is at risk of receiving the same punishment, since Karl Rove likely told him what he did, but he added a caveat: 'I think, by the way, that we should never ever, ever, ever execute a sitting President.'"

…from the Wayne Madsen Report (July 31, 2005):“CIA sources report that at least one anonymous star placed on the CIA's Wall of Honor at its Langley, Virginia headquarters is a clandestine agent who was executed in a hostile foreign nation as a direct result of the White House leak. Rove could be looking at a lengthy prison term. Many Nixon officials spent years in prison for doing much less.�

Can you imagine if Rove and Libby were executed? or Bush?
I would prefer life in prison for them, cause I can't throw a party for an execution.

National Debt passed 8 trillion dollars

yup 8 trillion. not sure theres anything more that needs to be said about that.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Texas bans marriage

SOS State
"The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage "

So texas wants to ban civil unions so they ban all marriage? thats the way im reading that. I suppose thats one way to end divorce.
Why are these people so damn afraid of gay marriage, I am assuming that this was ment to stop gay marriage and wasnt actually ment to bad marriage in general. If this passes I hope it goes to court and the court upholds my meaning of the law and then all marriages are nullified. It would serve them right.

Rosa Parks 1913-2005

The tired woman who started the civil rights movment. I have no great insight into this woman and many things will be said about her in the next few days. A memory that must not be forgoten, an act as simple as not wanting to get out of her seat for a white man half her age, sparked a revolution in this nation. If that isnt proof that one person can make a difference then I dont know what is.
I always liked hearing her say that it wasn't civil disobedience it wasn't a protest of an unjust law, she was just tired after a long day at work and she didnt feel like going to the back of the bus.
Lets aways keep her memory alive, fight against the powers that be, even if its only because we dont feel like putting up with them anymore.

Recomended Reading

These were sent to me in an e-mail, I want to remeber to look at them later, so there here.
Might be some good stuff, this Jason Miller seems like he does a bit for research.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10648.htm
Surrender is not an Option
http://pacificus.org/
WAR, PEACE AND ARMS CONTROL IN THE BRONZE AGE
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1014-27.htm
Torture and Misery in the Name of Freedom
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GJ07Ak01.html
The conquest of Southwest Asia
http://cvilleindymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=1957
Cuba we need you
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1017-28.htm
The Mindless American: a tragedy in the making
orbstandard Peaceful Assault
Peaceful Assault on the Epicenter of Evil

Monday, October 24, 2005

The onion, I cant get the pics to load, oh well

Blacks Disapprove Of Bush

Polls conducted by NBC have Bush's approval rating with African-Americans at 2 percent with a 2 percent margin of error. What do you think?

Ralph Gorecki,Cabinet Maker"Still, Republican think tanks say Bush can easily turn his approval rating around if he would just take it to the rim more often, instead of always settling for mid-range jumpers."

Sigmund Halvermann,Property Manager"Finally, a guy whose popularity among blacks is even lower than mine."

Sylvia Munsoon,Seamstress"Bush is just lucky this isn't a real democracy, or else he'd be in trouble."

Bush's Not-So-Candid Chat

A televised conversation between President Bush and American and Iraqi troops that was originally presented as a candid chat turned out to be carefully scripted to address Bush's goals for the war and the new Iraqi constitution. What do you think?

Gerald Huppmann,Arbitrator"This would be a major problem for the president if anybody cared anymore about whether or not the things he did were fake."

Rainey Milford,Daycare Attendant"Oh, so that explains the part where the Islamic fundamentalist ran in with a bomb and was single-handedly subdued by the president."

Sean Guidry,Realtor"It just shows that he cares enough to pretend to like the troops. That should be worth something."

yeah maybe back then,


"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else"
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

NOFX on Buzzflash

http://www.bushflash.com/idiot.html

Its a great song by one of my favorite bands and I just found out they have a little video to go with it thats shown on buzzflash.
Im not sure how i missed this one before, ill probably have to add a permanent link to it.

The song is called, "The Idiot Son of an Asshole" take a guess at who its about.

Pharmicist refusing to fill persciption

Well This starts off as a good point about freedom OF religion is also freedom FROM religion. the second half of the post turns into a seriously depressed story about an addict from a Christian school. But the first half is interesting. About a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for an emergency contraceptive on moral grounds. That person should immediately be fired. What’s next Tom Cruise and his Scientologist start working at pharmacies and telling people that all meds are evil and not to take them. We wouldn’t stand for that, what’s the difference? If you act like a pompous ass and refuse service because you think your better than someone and your a Christian that’s ok? You can be any religion you want but don't try to push your convictions on me.
Ok apparently CVS is working on a clause to allow pharmacists to refuse service due to "deeply held religious beliefs." They probably have no problem dispensing Prozac to young kids. If a pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for Ritalin would that be allowed? how about refusing to dispense Viagra because you don’t like the image of old people having sex. Its along the same lines, if sex is only for procreation and sex for pleasure is hell worthy which is why abstinence is the only allowable contraceptive to these people, then by that token having sex after menopause is a hell worthy trespass as well. And there for Viagra and the others should be refused by those same pharmacists. Now maybe they do, maybe there are hard line Christians who can see that its a two way street, but I have yet to meet one. This is to bad, I have boycotted Wal-Mart for a few years now, one exception when I had to go to one to buy blunts but the irony made it almost acceptable. Now it looks like I might have to boycott Target as well, that’s to bad cause I always heard it was like a nicer version of Wal-Mart and they are going to build one near me soon. If they fire the pharmacist for refusing to do their job then I will support them, if they decide to support a person who may have caused this young woman to have to have an abortion instead of simply swallowing a pill, then I will never spend a single penny at any Target location. There is also the cruel irony of this pharmacist may have caused a person to need an abortion. Does that factor not register with them? I suppose they are still on the kick that we need to overpopulate the planet ever more. That the child of a single mother who is going to lose any chance at government help because the richest 1% need a 70 billion dollar tax break and are to concerned with profits to worry about the fact that that single mother cant afford to feed this child, and now she can't go to college because she needs to support a child before she was ready. So now she’s living in the back seat of her car with an unfinished college degree and a starving child while working two minimum wage jobs just so she can try to pay for health insurance and car insurance for a car that she cant drive unless she steals gas. The child will grow up on the streets cold and bitter at the world probably grow into a life of crime and drugs, and when he mugs the son of that Pharmacists to try to get a fix so he can escape from the hell that is his life, the pharmacist will blame the liberals for not putting him in jail years ago. Thanks Mr. pharmacist for keeping this a morally righteous country by stopping someone from using the morning after pill. Its a better world because of people like you.

The hypocrites are everywhere, save the country, Burn the liars.

Did I go to far with that little scenario at the end? Was it over the top? I wish it were an impossible tale, a story that was just a little to far fetched for a person living in the richest most powerful nation the world has ever seen. I wish it was impossible.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Another Book Report

I read Noam Chomsky's Imperial Ambitions a few days ago, It was a collection of interviews he has done recently. It is great Chomsky, if your a fan then read it, if not well... read it anyway. It was a fairly short book and a very quick read. I was quite impressed at one point when he referenced an article from an Isreali journal, he said that it was only in the Hebrew version, that the english print didnt run the story. I was impressed with that level of research untill latter on he talked about majoring in Hebrew which explained the earlier reference. Another part that really amazed me was when he talked about his schooling, that he almost dropped out of school and that he was "probably majoring in handball at the time." He said that he has almost no formal training in any field, including linguistics. That is quite impressive that someone of Chomsky's status is almost entirely self taught. I suppose thats enough about Chomsky for the moment.
On to Howard Zinn and Terrorism and War, another interview book. I did not realise that was the style of this book when I bought it but I suppose that's why it came up as a related book to the Chomsky peice. This was another excellent book, although quite short. I read it in a single sitting which left me wanting more. Another brilliant attack on the foreign policys of the US which is creating a resivior of would be terrorist. The Orwellian ideas abound, the endless war, the idea that war is a nessesity to capitalism and that as long as our sole motivation in this country is profit we will always have war because there is simply to much profit to be made in preparing for war. I was supprised by how candidly he expressed his views against capitalism, now that the soviet union has collapsed it is far less dangerous to be labeled a communist but it can still be quite damaging to a career. Zinn is quite simply one of my favorite authors of this time.
Speaking of favorite authors I am still waiting for my Kurt Vonnegut book to arrive, I am all for supporting the independent bookstore but I ordered the book waited a while got bored orderd three books online and have finished reading two of them and the third I will probably only skim through and will be done with it soon. I want to support the little guy but she isnt making it easy for me.
Ok the last book im not done reading but I probably wont bother with a special post for it. It is called Unfit Commander, you can probably guess who it is about. Its a whole book about Bush's time in the National Guard, the author is quite repetative which is not terribly supprising when someone writes an entire book about a period of time in someone else's life that they dont want to talk much about and the paper trail is not all there. The bulk of the book actually is the paper trail of Bushs years in the National Guard. It is copies of all the paper work that has been released by the administration. So far the book is mildly interesting, although it is a good reference if you want to get into the debate about his military career. Although at this point I have much better reasons to dislike Bush rather than how well he did in the Guard as a young man. The one part of the book that is suppossed to be timely is a portion about Harriet Miers aand how she helped to get him out of trouble. This is the reason I bought the book and I havenot yet gotten to that part in the book. So maybe there will be some good stuff at the end of the reading. I hope so, maybe if the ending is really good ill do a quick addition to this post, we'll see.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

alternative tentacles

09/18/05: Rare glimpse of right wing honesty "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
- Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal

I told you Id find Jello's e-mail
It isnt that hard I went to his company website and there it was 2nd on the contact list.
The FAQ's people ask for his personal e-mail, the response is that he doesnt have a personal e-mail or even a computer as of the writing in '04

I'll probably add AT to my links, its a great record label that sells lots of cool shit.
They also have a good quote of the day page

09/14/05: Like husband, like wife! "I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school."
-First Lady Laura Bush, twice referring to a "Hurricane Corina" while speaking to children and parents in South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

hmmm..... ideas......

I think we need more political debates in this country. I think that Noam Chomsky Howard Zinn and Jello Biafra should debate against Bill O'Rilley, Pat Buchannon and.. and to be honest I cant think of many big conservatives right now. Maybe 5 people per side, how about a three way debate. maybe throw in some moderates? eh fuck the moderates they just agree with both sides and just wait to see who the winner is on each issue, then they take a stance. I was listening to a few old speeches made by the previously mentioned Zinn, Chomsky, and Biafra. Chonsky is a brilliant intellectual who is able to speak in a way that almost anyone could understand, that is a rare trait. To be confident in your intelligence so you dont always have to prove it. And then there is Howard Zinn who talks about working on the civil rights movement in the first person. He was there He was a professor at an elite black college in the south. He mentioned in one book being upset with another author who put words into the mouth of Martin Luther King, Zinn responded with what he believed King would have done in that same case, He then points out that he was basing his knowledge of King on first hand experience, he worked with King. Zinn also has one quality which is why I prefer him to Chomsky, Zinn is funny at times. He is able to throw in just enough humor to keep the audience intregued. Jello Biafra I want to throw in with the others because while Im sure he is an intelligent man, although probably not on the same level as Zinn and Chomsky. Jello's strong suite is that he was the front man for a band, He is far better than most at firing up a crowd. He is also a very creative thinker, he definiatly is able to look at the world from a different view than most people. Maybe they should just do a tour instead of a debate, I would pay pretty good money to see the three of them on a lecture tour. And lucky for me Cornell is quite close and they would probably stop there. That would be an interesting tour bus right there. I would be more that happy to be a roady for them. Maybe ill e-mail jello with that idea, hes the only one of the three that I bet wouldnt take that much effort to get in contact with.

life in prison vs. death penalty

I got into a little debate one day with a friend of mine about the death penalty. Now im not completly against the idea of killing a murderer or a rapist. There is the single biggest problem of not killing the wrong person. This is so obvious that Im not even going to discuss that part. The next point I brought up was one that we are all interested in, the cost. I told him that it cost more to kill a criminal than to put them in jail. He said that it can't because of how expensive it is to keep someone in jail. Now we were having this debate in a bar and couldn't exactly prove it either way. Now I can see the logic behind assuming that it is more expensive to keep someone in jail for 50 years than to stick a little poison in his(or her) arm. So I looked into it real quick and of course theres at least one entire website dedicated to the costs of the death penalty. But for greater clout I am going to use the information from Amensty International, actualy much of it is the same info. According to these sites it is about 70% more expensive to kill a person than to put them in jail for the rest of there lives. Maybe there are places that claim something different, but I didnt have time to do a lot of reasearch. I think my friend was only assuming anyway. have a good one, Im goin to lunch.

Daily show tonight

Bill O'Rilley is going to be on the Daily Show tonight. Should be fun to watch. Its pretty sad that the only solid debate between liberals and conservatives will be on a comedy show. And it might end up not being much of a debate, O'Rilley usually just tells people that they are wrong and wont go any farther than that. But I can still hope for a good debate. And there is the big advantage of Bill not being able to turn off the other guys mike, we all know hes a big fan of that trick when debates dont go the way he likes. The other thing that always amusses me will be tomarrow when the liberal web sites will talk about making Bill look like a fool and then the conservative sites will say that Jon got his ass handed to him. I realise that everyone is bias, I know that I am, I try not to be but obviously Im going to watch with the hopes of seeing Jon make Bill look stupid. I have no reason not to admit, it I dislike Bill O'Rilley the few times Ive seen anything that he has to say it makes me sick. He made a comment one day about how unemployment was higher under Clinton at mid terms than with Bush. I took about two minutes to check the facts and while he wasn't lying he may have missed the point that unemployment was quite high when Clinton took office from Bush I and that it steadily declined durring his entire time in office. The unemploment then started to rise durring Bush's administration. While O'Rilley did not lie it is still an inacurate picture of the truth. It is things like that which make me dislike Bill O'Rilley. Oh well hopefully we'll get some entertainment out of this.

Monday, October 17, 2005

destroying a dream

My dream girl is back in town, of course I have no idea how long she's been in town and she hasnt called me. I'll be calling her soon. I should probably just give up on that whole idea already. When I was working with her I didnt have a chance so I'm not sure why I think I will ever have a chance. I had pretty much forgotten about her, well not really, ok I had pretty well put her out of my mind, and then I was racing around durring luch and I saw a car that looked like hers and oddly enough she was driving it. yeah so that may have resparked some interest on my half. Its funny I have some friends that make me feel very mature and proper and other friends where I feel like a downtrodden slob compared to them. Yet I have a good time hanging out with either group. Although I will say that I usually laugh more with the immature people. This girl I simply called my dream girl, which Im not sure if thats and exageration or an understatement? anyway dream girl always makes me second guess myself, not becasue shes doing or saying anything to make me seem inferior but simply because I always I am just trying to keep my foot out of my mouth. Im sure shes everybit as crude as the rest of us when shes with her friends, but I feel like ive offended her anytime I make the least bit of an off-color remark around her. The problem is thats my humor and I have often felt that my humor is one of the stronger points of my personality. If I am not comfortable enough around her to make an ass of myself then maybe she isnt right for me anyway. I need friends that I can laugh with, I laugh and have a good time with this girl its just that its always subdued, I need friends where I can just full tilt laugh my ass off. I have freinds that way, just not enough that are of the female persuasion (the basketball team doesnt count).
There was one other person I took an interest in this summer, shes very smart and she deffiniatly makes me laugh unfortunatly for me she lives to far away. I saw her for the first time in a long time this summer, and only for a weekend. But it was fun and I felt comfortable and easy going. Im sure it was nothing but I felt like there was a little chemistry there. Of course it always feels like theres more chemisty when you've been drinking. Like I said before shes far away so it doesnt really matter anyway. She cool and definiatly someone I hope to keep in touch with. Im not tied down, except to this job, so I can move to a new city if I want to. Probably a bad idea though to move to a new city just for a girl that most likely has no real interest in me any way. It would be kind of funny to just show up and ask if you could stay there, hey i think im going to move here mind if i crash for a while, oh and by the way uh, wana go outsome time? hell yeah now thats smooth. so back to the so called dream girl that doesnt make me laugh. I saw her today.
This blog has taken a decidedly un-political turn. Im not sure if thats a good thing. Im not sure that my personal life is anymore interesting that the lies of our leaders but theres a lot less information available to the general public about my life as opposed to the lies of the politicians, so this is a service to anyone who wants to write a biography about me.
And to anyone writing a biography about me, you should wait untill after I take over the world. But having backround is good so you can reasearch this if you want to.
wow this post was a hell of a rambling, it went on and on and didnt go anywhere. oh well.

missed a good concert

Just talked to my friend about the concert, in his words. I can die happy now.
thats pretty much all there is to say about that.
I cant believe i missed danzig and doyle. damn.

good weekend

life is odd. One friend from college calls me up a week or so ago and asks if I want to go to a Danzig concert, then he says Doyle is going to be there. I really wanted to go but there was no way I could afford it right now. In case you dont know Danzig and Doyle are former members of one of my favorite bands, The Misfits. So it was hard to, but I had to say no to that one. I bet it was a great show.

Then another friend from college says that herself and another girl from school want to go the Corning Glass Museum. I thought it was slightly odd that they wanted to go to a museum that much but thats fine by me. They both plan on coming in late saturady and going to the museum on sunday morning. So this sounds like a good time.

Then yet another friend from college says that hes heading back to germany for a while and that hes going to hornell to see some college friends and asked if i wanted to go.

So the weekend ended up like this, friday a few of us went to a new blues bar in town. The food was excellent and the music was ok. two of the people had been before and said the music was better last time but there was a cover that time. oh well it was a cool place, kinda pricy for bar food in Elmira but the food was easily on par with any resturant in town so the price was resonable if you look at it that way. That was an early evening.
Saturday I went up to hornell and hung out with some of the guys from college drank some beers played some poker had a good time. I had to wake up at 8am so that I could get ready and head to corning and meet the girls and their boyfriends at the museum. I drove 45 minutes and was there before they even left to hotel. oh well the hotel was only like 10 minutes away. We toured the museum and went and saw the live glass blowing demonstration, that part is always amusing. Three of us then went to luch and to my Moms store on market street. The other two members of our crew werent feeling so well after a late night and went to their car and took a nap. The three of us went and had a nice lunch at the Market Street Brewing Company. My friend from school got a beer sampler and found out the lager is her favorite. she also found out that her boyfriend just likes beer and it doesnt really matter what type. We then went back to the museum and a few of the others got to make their own glass objects. one girl made a bead for a necklace, another girl made an ornament, and one of the guys made a flower. The flower was pretty cool actually and I would recomend that to anyone interested in doing there own peice. They all had to leave fairly early in the day, one of the girls had to work that evening. So I went to see my basketball crew. We eventualy made our way over to the basketball courts for a little while. I was happy to hear that the one young lady that ive mentioned before is doing very well in her classes, shes said all A's as of now. I knew she had potential. Then another friend called and I went over to a bonfire for a little while. It was really windy though. All in all a pretty good weekend.

unlikely activist

Here’s a company that is supporting freedom of expression in a very forward way. The company is an infamous internet t-shirt company that produces some amazingly harsh social and racial commentary. Are most of the shirts offensive, yes, but many of them are also hilarious. This is a company that has been embraced by many magazines and celebrities and has been viscously attacked by opponents, i.e. people lacking humor. Oh and when I say attacked I don’t just mean simple death threats I mean one person actually poisoned the owner of the company at a party. These were death threats that someone followed through on. Oh in case you’re not into the offensive internet t-shirts the company I’m talking about is T-shirthell.com.
The activist side that this came from is that the company saw the person who got kicked off a commercial airliner for wearing an offensive shirt. I will say that this is not really a constitutional issue about free speech because the airplane is private property and so the airline does have that right.

http://www.tshirthell.com/traveloffer.htm
So T-shirthell has announced that if any of their customers are refused a seat on an airline then they, T-shirt Hell will provide them with transportation. Oh and they aren’t talking about a bus ticket either. They said that if available they would use their own corporate jet and try to get the person where they were going on the same day.
I’m sure that it is mostly a publicity stunt, If you haven’t seen their shirts, lets say their are a few that probably should get you kicked off an airplane. They probably assume that some else will get kicked off a plane, they will send a jet to pick the person up and some level of media will pickup on it. Not a bad plan from their side. They say that there doing this to protect freedom of expression, which I’m sure is true to an extent and for those reasons its pretty cool. And its nice to see a company that feels that strongly about there product.
So go buy a t-shirt and offend someone today.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

a bit 'o shit

Well no update on the serious matter, I guess no news is good news sometimes.

Just saw that Cingular has pulled millions of dollars of advertising away from FOX. They didn’t really say why other than political reasons. Hey that’s good enough for me. Faux news is simply despicable.

I also saw an article about how Bush may have committed one high crime and two misdemeanors when he stated that one of the reasons that he chose Harriet Miers was due to her religious convictions. For a supposed constitutionalist you would assume that he would know that using religion, as a reason for employment is illegal in this country, possibly on several levels. Impeach Bush now. In the article he accidentally wrote article IV not VI oops.


Article. VI.

Clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

I think that breaking any law in the constitution is a high crime and definitely grounds for impeachment.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Another update

once again don’t read this if you haven’t read the "serious not politics" and the two "updates" then don’t read this.

I told the girls that I had talked to my boss and another person that I work with about the whole situation. I told them that I was strongly advised not to hang out with them any more. I told them that I had not made up my mind for sure but that I had to do some serious thinking about the matter. I am going to tell them that they can call me anytime they need and I’m still their friend. They understood where I was coming from when I said that I could get in very serious trouble and could possibly fuck my life up for a long time if they were caught drinking around me. I haven’t entirely made up my mind. I know that my boss is right and that there is just to much risk. But there is still the lingering fact that I do enjoy hanging out with them and I do feel like I can help them out with a lot of little things in life. Actually the one girl gave me the second nicest compliment that I’ve ever had. She told me that I was the happiest person that she knew, and that she was just happier when I was around. I thought that was sweet. still the greatest compliment I’ve ever received was from the girl I worked with this summer. It was actually very similar; she told me that I made her feel better about herself. I really can’t think of a much nicer thing to say about some one than what these two people told me. I guess my way of dealing with depression is to compliment others. Its amazing how much difference you can make in a girls day just by saying, hey that’s a nice shirt or just that they look good today. The important thing is to mean it when you say it. If you don’t think they look good then don’t say they do. But on those days that they are looking nice then tell them. Guys like being complimented too, but it doesn’t have as great an affect. just some simple compliments and then just be a good friend and soon they will make you feel better about your self. But start by giving and you will always receive. That is another reason why I don’t want to lose these friends. They make me feel better too. I see that big ol' smile shining at me and I just know that I’m bringing a little joy into the world. Is that so wrong? Probably not, but there is a great risk involved with them. And its not that I disagree with the law in this case the law is there to protect young people from negative influences, or worse. And the sad truth is that there are probably a lot more people with bad intentions than good. Well that’s probably not true. I say probably to much. I don’t like to make definitive statements about things I’m not sure about. Maybe I should stop thinking about this as if I’m out here trying to save these kids. They’re basically all right, I’m not going to change their whole lives around. I might be able to convince one to go seek counseling and I might be able to help a couple of them do better in school. I can try to convince them to wear seatbelts and stop littering. The littering drives me crazy cause its just laziness, there’s usually a trash can with in reasonable range. But I’m not very likely to make any really big changes in any of their lives. Well the one girls life could be changed pretty dramatically in the future by whether or not she seeks counseling. Hell even in that case I don’t know how much difference it will make. She seems pretty well adjusted, but then again it may just be defense in action. I still want her to go to for help from a professional. This friend ship has been far and away the oddest I’ve ever had, but that doesn’t mean its any less of a friend ship. I think I’ve been able to help them out with a few typical teenage questions and hopefully helped with one major issue, and in return I’ve been exercising and laughing. Im not sure why I think of this now but yesterday one of the girls was telling me that she might be put into special education classes. I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. I knew she had a learning disability and that she had to get help taking tests. I just figured it was ADD or something like that. Although now that I think about it she doesn’t act ADD. She said she’s slow, not exactly a medical description but I suppose that maybe she is just low IQ. I’ve never really been friends with someone who is “slow� so I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that statement. I just asked how she felt about being put into those classes. She said that its easier to graduate and she wont have to take regents and that type of reaction. I’m not really sure how to feel about that one. She definitely isn’t a genius but she seems intelligent enough. She doesn’t seems stupid, I’m trying to come up with a way to say that nicely but I can’t. I just worry about chances of getting into colleges and getting a job, beyond McDonalds, with that diploma. I assume it’s a different diploma, maybe not though. Oh in trying to rub my morals off on these girls I had to yell at one of them for skipping school yesterday. Her older sister finally got her drivers license so they drove around all day. I was pretty disappointed with her for skipping. The problem is that her mother lets her do this shit all the time. I’m not trying to say that I’m a perfect person or anything even close to it. I have my problems just like anyone else, but I do have a few positive morals that I would like them to have as well. I know what I should do and I have feeling I know what I’ll actually do, and as usual they aren’t exactly the same. I should tell them that I cant see them but to call me if they ever need to. What probably will happen is that I will still see them but I will be more careful, I’ll probably see them less and less until we just kind of drift apart. We’ll still run into each other from time to time but it wont be very often. I’m not really sure that it’s a good plan but its realistic. I know myself fairly well and that’s just what I foresee. As long as I just watch my ass and don’t do anything stupid it should be ok. I don’t know the other idea really does make more sense, its just seems kind of cold. She tells me about the most traumatic things in her life and I turn around and say that’s cool, but I gotta go cause I don’t trust you not to get me in trouble. This shouldn’t be this hard of a decision. I do care about these girls and I want to guide them, to help them reach the potential that I can see in them. At the same time I could squander all of my own potential if any thing happened. I hate the idea of just looking out for myself though. Do the ends justify the means? If I can help someone does it matter how its done? Yes it does matter, fuck Machiavelli.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

further update

once again if you didn’t read the first one called " this is serious and not politics" and the second one called "update" then don’t read this one.

Well I just talked to my boss who is very well versed in working with children with problems. His advice was quite simply that I have already done as much as I can and that I should just avoid the entire situation and simply not see any of the girls anymore. This is probably good advice and really it is what I should do just to cover my ass. But then fear of the law has never really had much of an influence on my decisions. I just don’t know if I could abandon them like that. I know that they look up to me and ask me for advice and help with homework and things of that nature. And I am quite sure that none of them have any crushes on me. He warned me as the other co-worker had that young people in bad situations will go into survival mode and are generally willing to implicate anyone to get out of trouble. I don’t know any of these girls well enough to say that they wouldn’t do that. I worry about them and I fell that I can help them out. My boss worded it eerily close to my feelings that it is a very natural and normal feeling to want to reach out and help and protect young people in a time like this. He also echoed my feelings that I have pretty much done what I can in directing her towards services that can help, and that I am not a psychiatrist and should not try to counsel her directly. I am having a hard time with the idea of just leaving them, I can’t imagine what I would say, I cant see you guys because you have issues. I know I would just say that due to the age disparity that it is just to great a legal risk for me to be around them. But I just cant see myself doing that. It is good advice and I'm sure that for my own safety I should just cut all ties and wash my hands of the situation. Damn.
My social worker co-worker just came in and asked what my boss said. She pretty much agreed with his advice and said that it will be tough but I need to stop seeing them. They’re right I do. Damn. I’ve lost friends before but never like this, where I had to make a conscious effort to stop being friends with a person, or people. I’m sad. I haven’t even said good-bye and I miss them. Damn. Society sucks. I want to help these kids out and I cant, I mean maybe I have helped them but I know I could do more. This is just a terrible situation. I know I could get in very serious trouble though if one of them wanted to get me in trouble. It was such an awkward friendship as it is. Maybe its all for the best. I can’t not do some thing just because its difficult or awkward, I don’t want to say no just cause there is risk and no reward. But the risk is real and could be serious.
Damn.
I really did have a good time hanging around them too. I suppose going to jail would pretty well negate those good times though.
Damn.
Why is it that whenever I ask for advice I hear exactly what I knew I would, and exactly what I didn’t want to hear.
Damn.
I guess it’s for the best.
I don’t have many friends, I wish I didn’t have to lose them just because of age. Why couldn’t they be a few years older? It doesn’t matter. I can’t see them anymore. I know this is what I have to do. I feel like I’m abandoning them in a time of need.
It’s a good thing that no one else reads this crap, cause I probably sound like a schizophrenic right now. Oh well. Its probably for the best this friendship has been kind of a pain in the ass from day one. Its really weird trying to explain to someone why you are hanging out with a bunch of kids who are so much younger than yourself. For the millionth time there were no inappropriate intentions but it is still odd trying to explain why a 23 year old is hanging around high school girls. That makes me think of the line from “dazed and confused� “I love high school girls I keep getting older, they stay the same age�. The problem is how to explain that this is not the case. Oh well I guess I wont need awkward explanations anymore. Leaving them is the best thing I can do, it just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do. Err… this sucks. Oh crap I might have a doctors appointment soon.

lighter side

A couple of old friends from college,April and Shandra, are coming to town this weekend. should be a good time. They want to go to the corning museum of glass. it is a fairly interesting place but im still a little suprised that that was their plan. Oh well I dont really care what the reason is it means a night or two hanging out with a couple of girls from college that I havent seen in a while. Big sis if your reading this dont get to excited they both have boyfriends and live to far away. But I always had a good time with them and thats all that really matters. peace.

Back to politics, and science

I haven't been paying as close attention to the trial of Intelligent design in PA as I would have liked. But in doing a quick little research I found a very persuasive argument, one that I had not heard before. Id like to state that while im not a religious man, I have never felt that it is impossible for there to be a god. Maybe there is a god I don't know. But if there is I bet hes(or she) got a great sense of humor, I mean just look at a platypus. I also think that if there's a god then god got bored and created the universe as his own reality show to watch, hey can you blame him, who wouldn't get bored. Anyway the argument I just saw the start of and had to write something about is this. If we were designed, or better yet if we were engineered by this omnipotent being then why do we have an appendix? Why do some animals have vestigial limbs that they don't use? Why would god engineer in things that are not necessary? I would be very interested to hear the counter to this one.
The Article then goes on to name the top ten useless limbs. So here's there list.
10. Wings on flightless birds
9. Hind leg bones in whales
8. Erector Pili, these are what give you goose bumps, or make your hair stand up when frightened
7. The human tailbone
6. The blind fish, but has eyes
5. Wisdom teeth in humans
4. Sexual organs of a dandelion, they reproduce by cloning
3. Whiplash lizard sex, the whiplash lizard also reproduces by cloning and there are no males in the species, but the females try to have sex anyway from time to time.
2. Male nipples
1. The human appendix, useless but if it ruptures you can die, now why would an all powerful god engineer in such a device?

This is an interesting argument and I will be curious to see if it comes up in court, and if it does what ID will have to counter it with.

Lets teach religion in the home and in the houses of god, any religion. It would be a great injustice to the religions to have science teachers teaching about god. For obvious reasons a science teacher is the wrong person teaching your child about the creation story. I would think foe this reason that the religious right would hate the idea of science classes teaching their creation story. oh well whatever.

Update

If you haven’t read the last post don’t read this one.

Well the funeral went ok, no real problems. The guy was there. I didn’t even want to know which person it was. I still want my friend to go seek help but I was able to get her to talk about it. she said that she can talk about it but just doesn’t like to because she had to talk about it all the time when it happened. I can understand that. She told me more. She told me details that I am sure not going to share here. The funeral was on Saturday, after the funeral I went to my grandparents for my grandfathers birthday, cake ice-cream the usual crowd. I was looking at my cousin who is (I’m fairly sure) only one year younger than the youngest girl. I realized just how innocent she is, I’m very glad that my cousin is not like my friends. As I’m writing this I’m thinking about what my uncle would do if my cousin was caught hanging out with guys my age, wow that would be an ugly site. The youngest girl told me that she has always had older friends and that she’s hung out with 20+-year-old guys for a long time. While I don’t like questioning other peoples parenting skills, this does concern me a bit. Admittedly she is a pretty good kid so they must have done something right, and I have seen her with her parents and its definitely a house with plenty of love, which goes a long way towards keeping a child on the right path. Ok well I say she’s a good kid but she definitely does a lot of bad things. But just because you do bad things does not always make you a bad person. My small victory this weekend was getting them all to wear seat belts, at least in my truck. I can speak both from first hand experience and from experience working at a racetrack, seatbelts are your friends. So that was my little victory, baby steps here. My co-worker was giving me ideas about how to get they to stop drinking, while I agree with her and her plan is fairly good. The problem is that if it came right down to it and said its either stop drinking or stop hanging out with me (she had a better plan but that’s basically what it comes down to) I am not all that confident of which way they would go. Actually I think one or two of them would be on my side, one would definitely stick with the alcohol. But she is the oldest of the group and I’m not sure that there is anything I can do to help that one. You may have noticed this already but its the youngest one of the group that I have become closest friends with. She's both the one that I think needs the most help and the one I see as having the most potential for great things. Oh well there is one other one who might need more help, but she is a much tougher case. I think if i can help the first one then maybe the second would be that much more willing to listen to my advice. Obviously I’m not an idiot I realize that I have no training to help some of the very serious problems that some of these girls have, but I am able to help by finding out what some of these problems are and getting them to seek help from appropriate places. The girl who was raped ( i just want to scream and cry and maybe break shit just at the thought of that word, and some one so young... ) for instance, I would never dream of trying to help her directly with the mental repercussions of such an event, but I have given her the phone number of the rape crisis center, and I am now going to try to persuade her to actually call them. She also told me that she had contemplated suicide in her past. This scared the hell out of me. She told me that it was a while ago, that she didn’t like who she was, she didn’t like who she was hanging out with and hated school and everything else, she went on to say that she has changed and that she likes the people she’s around now that she actually enjoys school right now and that she loves who she is now, and she has goals and dreams. That made me feel better. But it is something that I will always keep in the back of my mind, because she did say that when she felt that way she didn’t tell anyone at the time, except her mother, eventually. What a weekend. I did hang out with two of them for most of Saturday, I at least kept them away from alcohol for that day. And seeing as the other two went to a party with guys that I went to school with where one of them ended up getting drunk and having sex with a guy my age, the other girl at the party didn’t drink and didn’t have sex. The one that did get drunk, she’s the one who has serious depression issues. She is having a hard time figuring out who she is. Which reminds me, the youngest told me that she was trying to figure out who she is, she then said "does that make any sense at all" I kinda laughed and said yes that’s extremely normal everyone goes thought that, you grow up being what ever your parents told you to be. Then you start to realize that that’s not who you are, its then up to you to figure out who you really are. I told her that it takes time, many people try being many different things until they find out which one feels right. I’m really not sure where I’m going with this post but there’s just some things I need to say and I find it easier to write how I’m feeling than to say it. This is rather cathartic (thanks Darcy) for me. I can’t over emphasize how odd of a friendship it is with these girls. I also cant state it strongly enough that there is nothing romantic with them. And that’s saying something when I’m not interested in a girl, cause damn I generally fall in love with ever girl that’s willing to give me the time of day. Wow that’s pretty sad. I’m looking at this in a few ways, one is still the simple playing of basketball because I need the exercise. There is also this friendship, which by having none of the usual sexual distractions is giving me new insight into the world of women. It’s sort of like researching history. By studying younger girls I might be able to piece together what is going on in the mind of women my age. Then there is the trying to make a difference in the life of a young person aspect. Which goes hand in hand with another aspect, which is that my co-worker keeps telling me that I would be a great social worker, she says I have great EQ. I’m not so sure about all of that, but this might be a sort of trial by fire to see if I have any interest in such work. I will also say that while I become concerned about helping friends with problems I’m not sure that I want to deal with the problems of others on a regular basis. That and I know that an important part of an effective social worker is being able to clearly define what is work and what is not, and never take your work home with you. This has not been the case for me, these are my friends and after hearing some of the things they had told me I did not sleep for several days, even when I did sleep I could not stop thinking about them and what I could do to help. Maybe in a professional environment it would be different and I would be able to go home and not think about the clients, but this is not a professional environment that I am in and I can’t just leave and not think about it. I don’t think that I want to be a social worker; I had never even considered it until my co-worker said I would make a good one. I don’t think it’s a job for me, but then again I don’t really know what I want to do so I’ll keep it as an option. Well this has been rambling on quite well. I could probably keep going if I wanted to. Oh the last aspect of my friendship with these girls is a fairly critical one to any friendship, they amuse me and I laugh when I’m with them. That and when she looks at me with that great big smile I just feel like I’m doing some little part to make this a better world.

Friday, October 07, 2005

This is serious, and not politics

and acctualy that title isnt sarcastic.
Im not sure if I really want to right about this. This is an extreamely personal subject, Big sis if you read this you will probably end up calling me when you finish.

Should I just say it all?
why not no one reads this crap but me, and maybe my sister.

Ok so a while ago I was hanging out at a friends house, hes in a small little neighborhood where everyone knows each other. A few of his neighbors came over one day, this little pack of highschool girls. They were chill and pretty cute, but after bullshitting with one girl for a while I finialy asked how old she was. lets just say way to young to be hanging out with a bunch of people who were drinking legaly. So I ran into them a few more times and someone mentioned that they hadent play basketball in a long time. So myself and one of the other guys started playing basketball with them on a pretty regular basis. I was excited about the idea becuase I could really use the exersice. The girls ammuse me they're just silly highschool girls. One on them clearly has some depression issue though. Then one day I kinda of figured out my role in this friendship, because lets be honest it was an akward friendship we all had. I am litteraly 50% older than the youngest girl. now I know that there is no inapropiate intentions but when I meet the girls parents it was glaringly obvious how odd of a friendship it was. I realised that these girls dont have a lot of positive role models in their lives, i decided that I wanted to try to help them. Sorta an unofficial big brother kinda thing. The day that I realised that they needed a mentor was the day that the youngest girl told me that a friend of theirs was riding a 4wheeler at over 50 mph and hit a tree head-on, no helmet. Their friend was in a coma. I expressed my sympathy and gave her a hug, she then tells me about watching her grandfather die. I'm not sure how long ago this part was but her grandfather was very sick in the hospital for a long time and decided to sign a DNR. The family watched as he died. I was heartbroken to hear these stories out of such an innocent young person. The guy in the coma died a few days later. I acctualy knew threw an outside source that the guy was only being kept alive for organ donation. But his heart was given to a young boy. This is when things got very akward. she kept telling me that she was afraid to go to the funeral because some guy was going to be there. I kept saying that, dont you think whatever the problem is that this guy will be civil during a mutual friends funeral(note: the guy was the cousin of the kid who passed away), she just said that I didnt understand. She was right, i didnt. she had one of her friends tell me the story because she couldnt do it. The guy was her older sisters boyfriend at the time. aparently the guy was violent (although i dont think towards any of them) and just generaly a not nice person. the girl, her sister, and her usual other friends had a little party and they were all pretty drunk. the three friends went and passed out in one room and the sister and her boyfriend went to the other. They then did what drunk boyfriends and girlfriends do. The guy left the room and went to the other room where the three girls were. he said he needed to talk to the younger sister and asked the others to leave. the younger sister was still asleep, she woke up with this guy on top of her, kissing her with her pants arounf her ankles. she screamed and her friends rushed in, the girls parents came and beat the kid up a little bit (to make this even more evil, aprently the guy was smiling at her as her mother puched him in the face, he never stopped smiling). Im under the impression that it was stopped before any acctual... well you get the idea. I couldnt even speak after i heard the story.
I talked to a social worker that I work with and she gave me plenty of great advice. I want to help this girl, shes a sweet caring young girl who really needs a little bit of guidance. Im going to give her the # for rape crisis intervention, this is something that she is going to need to talk to someone about. I am not that someone she needs to see a profesional. But hopefully I can help be getting her to seek that help. This is a new role for me. Ive been the strong guy, Ive been the guy who listens, Ive been the shoulder to cry on, Ive given friends advice about stupid shit, but this is a whole new level. I feel like I am already involved, if only at a minor level, but I dont know how i could look myself in the mirror if I didnt do something to help. my co-worker keeps telling me that I would be a great social worker or something in that field. I dont know about all that but I do think that I must help my friend in this case. The fact that I work in an agency so closely tied in with helping teenage girls that are in trouble just makes me feel all the more obligated to do something. I think she has a great family but Im not sure they grasp the severity of the situation. maybe they do. This is not a situation I ever expected to find myself in. hell a year ago my biggest concern was getting a race car put toghether so that we could leave work and go tear it up at the bar. What a world.
Big sis if you read this, um well.. Im in an odd spot.
Its was a really odd friendship anyway. I knew I had no bad intentions with these girls but its still really weird hanging out with a pack of girls that are between 5 and 8 years younger than I. in case you havent done the math that makes the youngest one 15. this whole situation is just crazy.
For a while I was thinking that I probably shouldnt hang out with them anymore, because it was just too akward but now I feel like I must stay involved. I dont know. Ill update this as I am able.

waiting...

I ordered a few books from a local bookstore and I am now stuck waiting for them to get here. That was taking a little while so I ordered more books online. Now im stuck waitng for five books to get here. My paticence has run out because I finished my last book a few days ago. I dont nessasrialy read every day but its nice to know that I can. I am particularly looking forward to the new Kurt Vonnegut book, Its Vonnegut so I would have bought it as soon I found out it was available but when I heard that the title is " A Man Without a Country" I raced right to the bookstore, but they didnt have it yet. I probably could have driven to barnes and noble and bought it that day but id rather support the local store. Although I might change my mind if it doesnt get here soon. i also ordered the new book by the Dali Lama, I had never read any of his works so that should be interesting. It is supposed to be a very inteligent look at the evolution vs inteligent design ideas. I also ordered a new Chomsky book. New Chomsky 'nuff said. I also got an older Zinn book. I dont need a reason to buy Zinn. Then there was one I saw on Buzzflash, Un-fit Commander. I wanted to but it from buzzflash but im kinda broke and i just bought a bunch of books and if I ordered it where i did I would then qualify for free shipping, and the book was selling for 5 bucks. Ok now im rambling about being excited about books being delivered. Damn im a dork.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Al Gore

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/05/10/ale05154.html
One hell of an article. Read It NOW!!
I wish all gore had won the election in 2000, oh wait he did. I wish the Supreme Court had appointed Al Gore President in 2000.
This is an amazing statement about how the media conglomerates are destroying democracy. Ill give a quick overview but please read the article, as Al Gore is a far more eloquent writer than I.
He states the when this nation was founded almost any literate person could be politically active. Printing presses were widely available and inexpensive enough that anyone of reasonable means could have their ideas printed. In this fashion the general public was educated about the world and politics. The best writers advanced to become famous; it made little difference if they were rich or poor.
With the advent of the radio and later television the individuals could no longer influence the News. The media suddenly held all the power. Once again read the article Al Gore gives a far more thorough analysis of how this all happened. It was not an over night shift but it has happened fairly rapidly. The media outlets are now simply divisions of huge corporations whose goals are profits. It is of no advantage to them to keep the people informed, it is to their advantage in most cases for the nation to be at war and for the people to but the products that the parent corporation sells. They have no desire for muckraking news, unless it can earn them profits.
The lack of public interaction in the news is going to be the downfall of our society in the coming years, how long it will take is anyone’s guess. Unless China buys our nation first. But why would they want all that debt?
Ok I got off on a tangent there and I haven’t even finished reading the article that I’m telling you to read.
The United State is proud to have the 27th freest press in the world. Yippy. That’s almost as bad as our education rankings. 27th freest press, maybe they should add an amendment to the constitution calling for a freedom of the press, oh wait ITS THE FIRST ONE!!!
He ends by saying that we must keep the Internet open, there must not be limitations placed on it. He says that the Internet at this moment is still not as powerful as TV but that it is improving.
Ok I need to go to a meeting for work,
Read this article.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Campus Anti-War Network

New Link added,
Looks like a good site. Talks about a student protester that war assaulted maced then kicked off campus to lose both his education and his job. All without any do-process. This is supposed to be a democracy. Supposedly were fighting a war in Iraq to preserve democracy. We need to fight the war at home for democracy. The leaders of this nation are the greatest threat of all to American democracy. We want peace equality and freedom, who is more likely to take these from you a terrorist or your president? Well lets see we have never had peace for any substantial period of time, we have never know equality in any sense of the word. And freedom has been limited more and more every year since Washington was in office. Who is the enemy of Democracy? Terrorists? Im not scared of a terrorist, if they show up we will do what we can to stop them. They will not win, they cannot win therefore I have no fear of them. The people who rig elections, limit privacy, torture people without putting them before a court, people who can kill tens of thousands of innocent people and then say that they are trying to help those people, they scare the hell out of me. The leaders of this nation are the greatest threats to democracy that this world may have ever know. Communist could never have created the pervertion of Democracy that this country has all on its own.

Etan Thomas

He's a forward for the Washington Wizards.
http://www.wingsofjustice.com/05/10/woj05018.html
I copied most of the good text but theres the link.

At the September 24, Washington, D.C., rally to end the Iraq War, Thomas hammered back at the right wing chorus: "I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip," he told the crowd of more than a 100,000. "I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the 'hood....I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance."
In his tour, Thomas would "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 like the plan, hell we could make it a reality show, use the profits to help Katrina victims. Its kinda like a combination of the shows 30 days and that filthy rich cattle drive. Take a bunch of rich elitist that have never had to work a minimum wage job in there lives let them try to survive in a city with no government support, let them work at fast food joints. Find jobs that only require a GED or no education at all. No republican left behind. This is an idea, the key is making sure that they have no assess to outside funds at all. give them each ten bucks and a resume and let them go for a few months. Thats a show I would watch. we could probably pitch it to fox, but they would make it seem like it was fun and everyone would love working at burger king. Imagine if Condoleezza Rice was arrested for being black while driving (a crime according to Chappelle's show) and couldnt call her buddys to bail her out. That would be hilarious. Im not sure which station to try to pitch this one to. Maybe as a documentary movie, like supersize me. anyway I gotta go. Now we just gotta come up with a catchy name for the show.

The Rude Pundit

'Cause, even though, and, c'mon, the chances of Harriet Miers being some lefty
who's been playin' rope-a-dope with George W. Bush since the 1990s are about the
same as Donald Rumsfeld admitting an error, it's a blast to watch conservatives go ballistic
that Bush didn't nominate Johnny Fuckyerrights, a Pepperdine-educated ideologue
who has personally beaten a "confession" out of a "terrorist" and then shoved
aborted fetuses back into wombs after chainsawing down an old growth forest just
to make a single copy of a book on intelligent design that can be sold by
Halliburton at a thousand-fold mark-up to poor school districts forced by law to
teach it. And, what the fuck, he's black.

I love a good rant and this was a pretty good one so I had to post it, heres the rest of the article
Rude Pundit, Bumfight

Ever see the movie Outbreak

it was a decent flick, never really thought the part about nuking americans because of a disease was to plausible. But that was before Bush, Read This. He wants the millitary to be the first line to quarantine people in case of an out break. The term martial law seems to be flying around a bit too. Just a though maybe a few of our scientist that are building ever deadlier weapons might switch over to a more usefull project. Maybe get few thousand extra people working on flu vaccine, hell once they figure that one out they can figure out cancer and AIDS while there at it. Nah forget all that Id rather know that they are working hard on the next generation of fighter jets and new chemical weapons.

Bennett, about time

Lautenburg Senate
About time someone did something about this.
Im not sure just what this does other than make it a official black eye on this guy.

But it was taken out of context, well I heard the full version. It is no less offensive, Im trying to think of any context where saying "aborting all the black babies would lower the crime rate" could be seen as ok. I simply cannot imagine what was going through this guys head when he said this. And he still wont appoligize, if you some how let that slip I would think that you would appologize durring the same segment.

Bolton, not the guy with the clarinet

Yale Daily News

Interesting article about bolton giving a speech at Yale with a debate with the students at the end. The part that amazed me was that they said had actually answered questions. It sounds like in exact contradiction to most politicians he was to open. They said he was harsh and abraisive even rude at times. I would love to see some of these traits in politicans, I dont want to see these traits in our ambasitor to the UN. He sounds like a person I might like in certain jobs. Anyone who will acctualy debate with students is already doing well with me, but right now with most of the world against us I dont believe this is the right time or the right place for this person in this position.

Wanta shoot people?

Before if you wanted to kill people you had to join the army and only kill who "they" wanted you to, now with the new castle law in Florida you can shoot anyone who enters your home. Not enough you say? just wait theres more, you can shoot anyone who threatens you in your car too! Still not enough? Ok if you act right now, you can shoot anyone who threatens you... Anywhere!! (in Florida)

Great plan people.
http://www.gunguys.com/?p=121
When a site called gun guys says that a pro-gun law is going to far, then maybe its going way to far.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

the war on terror

war is terror.
And were losing anyway you look at it. Im not sure that its a war that can be won, but I know it could go better than this. According to the State Department international terrorism is at its highest levels ever. Ill be curious to see how the spin machine can make this work for them. They will probably say that all the anti-war protests are encouraging the terrorist. Read the quote right below my Blogger logo on the right, above the buzzflash headlines.

Its to nice out to be in here. ill finish this later, or not.

hehe

ok for stupid kicks try this. Google the word " failure "
yeah I know why it happens but its still ammusing.

Senate Space

Ok this is pretty funny. had to post it, its from crooks and liars and is by Fletch
http://www.file83.com/senate_space.wmv

Tom Delay, Harriet Miers

This could be a big week. Tom Delay indicted, again. This time its money laundering instead of conspiracy.
http://www.perrspectives.com/resources/documents.htm#tomdelay
Harriet Miers get nominated for the new Supreme Court Justice, unfortunately no one seems to know who she is. The left assumes they are going to appease her but they don't know anything about her yet.
Andy Rooney, had a nice commentary about or war spending. worth looking at real quick.
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. …"
-- Dwight Eisenhower

Monday, October 03, 2005

Inteligent design

here it goes.
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/cosmo.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_noway.htm#3
Wow, look around on the religious tolerance page, some really good stuff there.
inteligent design is one thing but the idea that the earth and the universe are only 6-10 thousand years old is just really hard to believe, hell some people date the pyramids at gaza as being older than that. The idea that people actualy want this taught at school frightens me.
http://www.creationism.org/topbar/faq.htm
ok this one starts out pretty crappy but picks up at the end. it gives reasonable rebutals to many of the evolutionists logic. He points out that carbon dating rocks is not accurate, which is why I was under the impression that carbon dating only works on things that were once alive.
http://www.creationism.org/articles/index.htm
this is where the faq's above came from, havent had a chance to look at the rest of the site.

The combination of sites does lead to a good point, something like 99.8% of scientists agree with evolution. that is a powerful statement, this can also be used against the evolutionist in that it shows why there are very few in the profesional world who would be willing to stand up against evolution. Then again if there was strong proof for inteligent design than maybe more than .15% would agree with it.
This is going to be a major battle, the case in PA right now is huge. The whole intelligent design hypothesis seems like it still needs to be finalised a bit before it should be consitered for anything.

Have we ever taught a theory in schools before that was not in agreement with the scientific community?