Where in the World?

I was watching the Today show this morning. They were doing the "Where in the world is Matt Lauer?" thing. He was in the Netherlands, I knew it was a progressive society and all but I was surprised to find out what an important role that lesbians play there. He said if it weren't for the many dykes there that half of the land would be under water!LPO

Closing Time

One night a police officer was staking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible DUI violations. At closing time, he saw a fellow stumble out of the bar, trip on the curb and try his keys on five different cars before he found his. The man sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes.
Meanwhile, all the other patrons left the bar and drove off. Finally he started his engine and began to pull away. The police officer was waiting for him. As soon as he pulled onto the street, the officer stopped him, read him his rights and administered the breathalyzer test to determine his blood-alcohol content.
The results showed a reading of 0.0.
The puzzled officer demanded to know how that could be. The driver replied, "Tonight I'm the designated decoy."

antilimit

dirtycarart

Voluntary Evacuations?

I just don't quite understand the concept of "voluntary evacuations". I know our rights are slowly being taken away in this country but I still have the right to leave my house if I want to. Isn't it a voluntary evacuation every time I leave my house?

Jimmy Carter Ahead of His Time

The Terrible Choice

What a terrible choice to have to make. The candidates that want to end our country's occupation of Iraq are also the candidates that don't care much for the peoples right to keep and bear arms. That's the bad thing about a two party system. I wish that there was a viable candidate that wanted to end the occupation of other countries and also was for the right of the people to keep and bear arms. I'm very conflicted, I know that I hold the right of gun ownership higher than a lot of my friends both online and off.
I'm a little too street smart to think that gun control will keep guns out of the hands of criminals. If you think that it will, well frankly, you don't know shit. You are ignorant, just look at drug laws. There are all kinds of very strict laws against drugs. Is it possible to get drugs if you want them? Yes and the more of a criminal you are, the easier they are to get. So why would guns be any different. Here is just an example: I was talking to an inmate and mentioned that I was going to buy a gun pretty soon. He said "Oh I should hook you up with my brother, he's a pretty big drug dealer and he's got all kinds of guns, people trade them in for drugs all the time." I opted to buy a gun legally instead since gun laws aren't real tight right now but I had that option. I guess the Democrats want people to feel like they are going to protect you from guns but I hope you know that is only an illusion. So, I've vented a little but am still facing a terrible decision.

Hillary's Health Care Plan

Hillary's American Health Choices Plan covers all Americans and improves health care by lowering costs and improving quality.
It puts the consumer in the driver's seat by offering more choices and lowering costs.

Here is what a typical trip to the hospital might be like under Hillary's Plan.

My TVs Got an Attitude

There is one thing I hate about these new fangled TVs. If the signal gets weak, they shut down to a blank screen. Why back in the day TVs would let you watch snow all day long if you wanted to. Now it's like the TV says "That picture isn't good enough for you to watch or for me to show for that matter." I say "Fuck you TV, I'll decide if it's good enough for me to watch."
So I've got an old power guzzling console TV that makes the electric meter spin real fast as a back up. That TV knows its place, it doesn't care how bad the picture is. It's like "Knock yourself out big boy, I don't care." and that's the way it should be!

Pope Warns Teens of Bush Regime

"My own years as a teenager were marred by a sinister regime that thought it had all the answers; its influence grew — infiltrating schools and civic bodies, as well as politics and even religion — before it was fully recognized for the monster it was.

I always get those two mixed up

The English language is suppose to be a hard one for people from non-English speaking countries to learn. Just messing up on one word in a sentence can give it completely different meaning.
"I want a hot shower!"

"I want a golden shower!"

I mean if you just got those two words mixed up, well you might think that this is a very strange country indeed.

Mary Fallin makes strong statement

John Lee Hooker & Santana - Chill Out

"It was three A.M., I remember awakening to nuclear weapons fire." "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our bomb shelter."

Timewave Zero

What's That Sound?

My plans to sleep late went out the window this morning. I woke up about 6:30 to the faint sound of a dog whimpering. I could tell by the sound that the dog was in distress. I thought "Did I leave Bob locked outside last night?" I grabbed my clothes, ran downstairs and saw Bob asleep on the couch, snug as a bug in a rug. So I went out back and followed the sound through the semi-darkness. Yoshi, our Alaskan Malamute had fallen in a hole that I had dug to get to the sewer line, it's about four feet deep. I guess she had been in there a long time because she looked exhausted. BTW she is at least thirteen years old, maybe older. I helped her get out but she wasn't able to walk, she just laid down. I got her some water followed by milk and a piece of meat lovers pizza. At first she wasn't moving her back legs but after resting for a while she crawled around a little. I think I'll just let her rest in the sunshine for a while. If she's not able to walk later I'll call the vet and try to talk her into making a house call. Not exactly how I expected my day off to start but at least I didn't have to call into work with a very strange excuse.

UPDATE:

Yoshi is doing much better, she's able to walk around and is eating like a wolf (which is good because that's basically what she is).

The Mist

Maybe Obama had just watched this movie when he made his statement about guns and religion. It seems like it's about how fear effects people in our society. I watched it last night, not bad.

Thank You!

A list, organized by state, of the 156 members of Congress who voted, on October 11, 2002, NAY to the War in Iraq.


Alabama Rep Earl Hilliard

Arizona Rep Ed Pastor

Arkansas Rep Vic Snyder

California Sen Barbara Boxer- Rep Joe Baca- Rep Xavier Becerra- Rep Lois Capps- Rep Gary Condit- Rep Susan Davis- Rep Anna Eshoo- Rep Sam Farr- Rep Bob Filner- Rep Mike Honda- Rep Barbara Lee- Rep Zoe Lofgren- the late Rep Robert Matsui- Rep Juanita Millender-McDonald- Rep George Miller- Rep Grace Napolitano- Rep Nancy Pelosi- Rep Lucille Roybal-Allard- Rep Loretta Sanchez- Rep Hilda Solis- Rep Pete Stark- Rep Mike Thompson- Rep Maxine Waters- Rep Diane Watson- Rep Lynn Woolsey

Colorado Rep Diana DeGette- Rep Mark Udall

Connecticut Rep Rosa DeLaura- Rep John Larson- Rep James Maloney

Florida Sen Bob Graham- Rep Corinne Brown- Rep Alice Hastings- Rep Carrie Meek

Georgia Rep John Lewis- Rep Cynthia McKinney

Hawaii Sen Daniel Akaka- Sen Daniel Inouye- Rep Neil Abercrombie

Illinois Sen Dick Durbin- Rep Jerry Costello- Rep Danny Davis- Rep Lane Evans- Rep Luis Gutierrez Rep Jesse Jackson, Jr- Rep Bill Lipinski- Sen Bobby Rush- Rep Jan Schakowsky

Indiana Rep Julia Carson- Rep John Hostettler- Rep Pete Viscloskey

Iowa Rep Jim Leach

Maine Rep Tom Allen- Rep John Baldacci

Maryland Sen Barbara Mikulski- Sen Paul Sarbanes- Rep Benjamin Cardin- Rep Elijah Cummings- Rep Connie Morella

Massachusetts Sen Ted Kennedy- Rep Michael Capuano- Rep Bill Delahunt- Rep Barney Frank- Rep Jim McGovern- Rep Richard Neal- Rep John Olver- Rep John Tierney

Michigan Sen Carl Levin- Sen Debbie Stabenow- Rep David Bonior- Rep John Conyers, Jr- Rep John Dingell- Rep Dale Kildee- Rep Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick- Rep Sandy Levin- Rep Lynn Rivers- Rep Burt Stupak

Minnesota Sen Mark Dayton- the late Sen Paul Wellstone- Rep Betty McCollum- Rep Jim Oberstar- Rep Martin Olav Sabo

Mississippi Rep Bennie Thompson

Missouri Rep William Clay, Jr- Rep Karen McCarthy

New Jersey Sen Jon Corzine- Rep Rush Holt- Rep Robert Menendez- Rep Frank Pallone, Jr- Rep Donald Payne

New Mexico Sen Jeff Bingaman- Rep Tom Udall

New York Rep Maurice Hinchey- Rep Amo Houghton- Rep John LaFalce- Rep Gregory Meeks- Rep Jerrold Nadler- Rep Major Owens- Rep Charles Rangel- Rep Jose Serrano- Rep Louise Slaughter- Rep Edolphus Towns- Rep Nydia Velaquez

North Carolina Rep Eva Clayton- Rep David Price- Rep Melvin Watt

North Dakota Sen Kent Conrad

Ohio Rep Sharrod Brown- Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones- Rep Marcy Kaptur- Rep Dennis Kucinich- Rep Thomas Sawyer- Rep Ted Strickland

Oregon Sen Ron Wyden- Rep Earl Blumenauer- Rep Peter DeFazio- Rep Darlene Hooley- Rep David Wu

Pennsylvania Rep Robert Brady- Rep William Coyne- Rep Mike Doyle- Rep Chaka Fattah

Rhode Island Sen Lincoln Chaffee- Sen Jack Reed- Rep James Langevin

South Carolina Rep Gresham Barrett- Rep James Clyburn

Tennessee Rep John Duncan, Jr

Texas Rep Lloyd Doggett- Rep Charles Gonzalez- Rep Ruben Hinojosa- Rep Sheila Jackson-Lee- Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson- Rep Ron Paul- Rep Silvestre Reyes- Rep Ciro Rodriguez

Vermont Sen Jim Jeffords- Sen Patrick Leahy- Rep Bernie Sanders

Virginia Rep Jim Moran- Rep Bobby Scott

Washington Sen Patty Murray- Rep Jay Inslee- Rep Rick Larsen- Rep Jim McDermott

Washington DC Rep Brian Baird

West Virginia Sen Robert Byrd- Rep Alan Mollohan- Rep Nick Rahall

Wisconsin Sen Russ Feingold- Rep Tammy Baldwin- Rep Jerry Kleczka- Rep David Obey

It's Occupation, Not War

April 12, 2008
It's Occupation, Not War
by Charley Reese

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended some years ago. In Iraq, the war ended with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government; in Afghanistan, with the fall of the Taliban government. What's been happening since is occupation and resistance to occupation.

It's always helpful to call things by the right name. One of the ways using the wrong word can trip us is illustrated by John McCain's campaign theme. We have to win the war in Iraq, he keeps saying. Ending a war implies either winning or losing. No such baggage is attached to an occupation. You can end an occupation without either winning or losing. You just withdraw your troops.

The fact that what is going on in Iraq is an occupation is proven by the nature of the conflicts. They are between factions of Iraqis. Our guys are caught in the crossfire or killed by Iraqis who oppose our presence. There are no large-scale attacks directed against us.

Those who want to continue the occupation paint a horrific picture of what they claim will happen if we withdraw – a massive civil war, genocide or a regional war. There is no hard evidence to support any of those suppositions. But even if they happen, they need not concern us. Lots of factions in different parts of the world decide to kill each other from time to time, and we don't interfere. As long as there are no Americans to get caught in the crossfire, let the Iraqis have their civil war if that's what they want.

On the other hand, there's never been civil war in Iraq. There were rebellions against the Baathist government and, before that, against the British-sponsored governments, but before our occupation, Sunnis and Shia intermarried and lived side by side. There were always Christians in Iraq and, until the state of Israel was created, Jews. That was, in fact, true throughout the Middle East.

As for al-Qaeda, it has been virtually wiped out in Iraq – not by us, but by Sunni tribesmen who turned against it because of its murderous fanaticism. McCain keeps confusing al-Qaeda with Shia and trying to link it to Iran, but al-Qaeda is a fundamentalist Sunni group way outside the mainstream of Islam. Most of its members are Saudis or Egyptians. It was never in Iraq until our war and occupation gave it an excuse to come in. It's never been in Iran. For American politicians to suppose that without us it would thrive and grow in Iraq is just proof of their ignorance.

Our presence in Iraq is the only thing that made al-Qaeda viable. Our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are the principal selling points in al-Qaeda propaganda. We have no interests, strategic or otherwise, in either country. The last thing al-Qaeda wants is for us to withdraw, which is why it should be the first thing we do.

Whatever someone imagines we gain by staying in Iraq and Afghanistan is far outweighed by what we are losing. We are losing lives in dribs and drabs, and we are losing treasure at an alarming rate. We have severe internal problems that our military presence in the Middle East aggravates. Our military is on the verge of being broken. Some Nobel laureates estimate the war will end up costing us $3 trillion. Well, plain and simple, we can't afford it.

We should never go to war unless there are tangible, identifiable benefits for the American people for doing so. Try to think of a benefit we have gained from Iraq or Afghanistan. There are none. We deposed two governments that were not attacking us or threatening to attack us, and we let get away the private terrorist group that had attacked us. It does not matter that they were bad governments. There are lots of bad governments in this world. The only bad government we have an obligation to change is the one in Washington, D.C.

If we don't change direction in this country, we're going to end up impoverished and bankrupt, and you know what? Iraq and Afghanistan will still be the messes they are today.
antiwar.com

After the Goldrush

"After The Goldrush"

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.

I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.

Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature's
Silver seed to a new home.

RHCP I Could Have Lied

The Tower

As the Fool leaves the throne of the Goat God, he comes upon a Tower, fantastic, magnificent, and familiar. In fact, The Fool, himself, helped build this Tower back when the most important thing to him was making his mark on the world and proving himself better than other men. Inside the Tower, at the top, arrogant men still live, convinced of their rightness. Seeing the Tower again, the Fool feels as if lightning has just flashed across his mind; he thought he'd left that old self behind when he started on this spiritual journey. But he realizes now that he hasn't. He's been seeing himself, like the Tower, like the men inside, as alone and singular and superior, when in fact, he is no such thing. So captured is he by the shock of this insight, that he opens his mouth and releases a SHOUT! And to his astonishment and terror, as if the shout has taken form, a bolt of actual lightning slashes down from the heavens, striking the Tower and sending its residents leaping out into the waters below.

In a moment, it is over. The Tower is rubble, only rocks remaining. Stunned and shaken to the core, the Fool experiences grief, profound fear and disbelief. But also, a strange clarity of vision, as if his inner eye has finally opened. He tore down his resistance to change and sacrifice (Hanged man), then broke free of his fear and preconceptions of death (Death); he dissolved his belief that opposites cannot be merged (Temperance) and shattered the chains of ambition and desire (The Devil). But here and now, he has done what was hardest: destroyed the lies he held about himself. What's left is the bare, absolute truth. On this he can rebuild his soul.

video

HAGERSTOWN, MD - We all know owning a dog can be a huge responsibility, with feeding, walking, veterinary care, and of course, loving. But a local canine is lending a paw when it comes to some of those duties.


“Ronin” the 5-year-old bull-mastiff is gentle, affectionate, obedient and he doesn't need a human being to take him for a walk.


“I don't have to walk him with a leash,” says owner Lloyd Weedon. "From the first moment he came to the house he showed us things that we'd never seen before."


His owner says from the get-go, Ronin loved playing fetch with newspapers and slippers.


“So I experimented. I was out in the yard one day and happened to be working on the car. And there was a spare tire and I asked him to get it and believe it or not, he picked up the tire and gave it to me,” says Weedon.


Now, Ronin’s even taking out the trash.


"Most of the time I need an extra hand and he gives me an extra mouth, right? So he carries his own trash,” says Weedon.


Ronin's owners say his life span is only eight years, but their hoping with plenty of diet and exercise, he will live much longer than expected.

Official: 15 of 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi
2/06/2002
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia acknowledged for the first time that 15 of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudi citizens.

















The great escape
Immediately after 9/11, dozens of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family fled the U.S. in a secret airlift authorized by the Bush White House. One passenger was an alleged al-Qaida go-between, who may have known about the terror attacks in advance.
Did the Saudis buy a president?
How much money has flowed from the House of Saud to the Bush family and its friends and allies over the years? No one will ever know -- but the number is at least $1.477 billion.
The Bushes and their allies controlled, influenced or possessed substantial positions in a vast array of companies that dominated the energy and defense sectors. Put it all together, and there were myriad ways for the House of Bush to engage in lucrative business deals with the House of Saud and the Saudi merchant elite.

In all, at least $1.476 billion had made its way from the Saudis to the House of Bush and its allied companies and institutions. It could safely be said that never before in history had a presidential candidate -- much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president -- been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president's personal fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation.



Official: $20 billion arms sale to Saudis in the works
July 28, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is developing a proposed $20 billion, 10-year arms sales package for Saudi Arabia, a senior administration official confirmed on Saturday.
Posted GMT 4-8-2008 7:27:59

Treasury undersecretary Stuart Levey told a Senate panel that the Saudi government has not taken promised steps to stop wealthy donors from bankrolling al-Qaida and other terrorists through Saudi charities, which are awash in cash thanks to the oil boom.

"Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and the Taliban than any other place in the world," Levey said.

In fact, the terror-funding pipeline is flowing nearly as strong as it was before 9/11 thanks to the bonanza in Arab petrodollars.

Levey says he and other counterterrorism officials are frustrated with official efforts to persuade the Saudis to crack down. He says there's a reluctance to directly criticize a supposedly close U.S. ally.

Both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are content to continue playing footsie with these two-faced sheiks under the diplomatic table. The answer seems to be more carrots and no stick at all.

In fact, despite hearing Levey's bombshell testimony, Congress is rubberstamping a proposed White House deal to export $20 billion in arms to the Kingdom and other Arab states, including smartbomb technology that could be used to harm a real ally like Israel.

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Shhhh

I think one of the things that causes stress might be noise. There is almost always some kind of noise and it's usually right in your face noise. Our brains do a good job of filtering sounds out of our consciousness but it seems like giving it a break once in a while would be good for it. Very seldom do we get to hear a distant sound and wonder what it is but it seems like that is a big part of what the brain is (was) suppose to do. I mean the caveman that could hear an approaching stampede, picture it and quickly climb a tree had a better chance of passing on his DNA than the one that hears the same noise and just goes back to scratching his armpit.

The Love Guru

If you want my gun, you'll have to "pry it from my cold, dead hands."

If you are good at prying, I hear Charlton Heston has a gun for you.

Law Law?

What if they made a law that you couldn't make any new laws until you could enforce the laws that you already had?

What's that kid playing with?

I was an odd child. I use to look at toys in a catalog and pick out the ones that I wanted to play with. Yeah pretty normal so far but then I would get someone that could use scissors to cut the pictures out of the catalog and then I would play with them as if they were the real thing. My parents saved a bundle on toys. Santa use to bring me pictures of the neatest toys!

Return his vacation hours

If anyone in our society is allowed to push other people down stairs, shouldn't it be the police? The Orlando cop that pushed a rude woman down a half flight of stairs should be given his eight hours of vacation back. I think police, firefighters and librarians should be able to push anyone down any stairs at any time. Lawyers, mechanics and cooks should be able to push people down escalators. I think jockeys, dentist and pharmacists should be able to push people into oncoming traffic but not on Tuesdays of course. Presidential candidates should be allowed to push people off of buildings as long as the building isn't over twenty stories tall. Anyone that doesn't agree must be completely mad!

Baby Snakes