Posts from — July 2006

I keep hearing people, Senator Obama most recently, talk about a need to address issues of faith. Perhaps his faith accepts and endorses public proclamations, but for most of us raised as Christians it is a private matter. We were taught that public protestations of faith are hypocrisy, because that is what Christ taught in Matthew chapter 6. Are we expected to ignore the clear meaning of that chapter because the Christianists have chosen the path of the Pharisees? Are the Christianists exempt from the Bible as well as the Constitution?

When I see Roy Moore’s “Rock” in the Alabama Supreme Court, or this latest “construction” Karen has posted, I view them as poor representations of the “Golden Calf” mentioned in Exodus. When they stick G-d on the money or in the “Pledge of Allegiance” I consider it sacrilegious, just as Teddy Roosevelt did.

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Italia

The Azzuri win.

[cat daddy and dr squeeky called it.]

According to TBogg everyone who is considered to be part of the “liberal” segment of blogtopia™ ^{[skippy the bush kangaroo]} is required to stop everything and condemn a woman you probably don’t know for writing comments you haven’t seen on a blog you don’t visit about a guy who is only vaguely familiar from snarky comments about his culinary choices.

Failure to do this is an implicit admission that you approve of every mass murder ever committed and regularly bite the heads off of kittens.

Sounds to me like some people in the Blight lack confidence if they feel threatened by such things. Fortunately, the US government has an all-expense paid confidence building course that is available to all citizens between the ages of 18 and 40. Fresh air, healthy exercise, lots to eat, free medical care, all available for a signature. All the details are available on this site. I’ve heard that they now provide free video games.

On Friday it was reported that Gunmen, bombers target Iraqi holy sites and today Shi’ite gunmen rounded up and murdered approximately 40 Iraqi Sunnis, including women and children.

Maybe if one side or the other adopted this flag the US government would admit that there is a civil war in progress, along with the insurgency against the foreign occupation. All our efforts at helping the Iraqis “stand up” accomplishes is supplying more arms and training for the factions that are fighting.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

This is probably the only post I’m apt to make in support of a candidate, but this is my home turf sand.

The Pensacola Beach Blogger has a three post series on Drilling Rigs off the coast and what it will mean to the Panhandle. Floridians have gotten complacent because of the ban on drilling and were caught off guard when members of our House delegation, including Jeff Miller of District 1 and Allen Boyd of District 2 voted to re-open the issue. Hopefully our Senators, Nelson and Martinez, will be able to stop this bill in the Senate, and it won’t magically re-appear in a conference committee.

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There is a new report coming out that posits: Global Warming Fuels Wildfires.

The basic premise derived from three decades of data is that the snow pack is melting earlier and there are longer periods of hot, dry weather every year that are resulting in conditions more favorable to wildfires. There are not only more fires, but the fires are lasting longer and affecting larger areas. The fire season is starting earlier and lasting longer.

Locally, tropical storm Alberto was welcomed over in eastern Florida as it put out a number of persistence wildfires, and reduced the fire danger after an extremely dry Spring. Private fireworks were banned this year on the entire Panhandle because of the fire danger. All of the debris from the hurricanes of the last two years has dried out and is available to fuel a major fire in our pine forests.

We haven’t had enough low wind, high humidity days that are needed for the controlled burns that had reduced the fire threats in recent years.

I’ve mentioned before that the military was receiving dunning notices from their utility companies, but I was struck by this quote in the NBC article, Budget woes force Army bases to cut services:

But military analyst Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said money management seems to be the larger problem. The Defense Department spends about as much on maintenance and operations as it does on weapons and personnel combined, he said, so there should be more than enough for the bills.

“It makes me worry if the Pentagon can’t do its accounting well enough to find money for its electric bills,” he said. “It just boggles my mind a little bit.”

This plays to the fact that the Shrubbery walked into a donut shop recently and had to borrow money from an aide for a snack – the wealthy don’t carry money, that’s why expensive purses are so small. They don’t worry about it, so they don’t actually track their spending. CEOs do the same thing, which is why they don’t notice when their corporations are heading down.

Money has never been a problem for these people, so they have no experience managing it. While some people are balancing health care, food, and rent, the wealthy just spend money when they have to. If you have never worried about running out, you are not apt to worry where it goes. The fact that other people may need money to stay in business, or to stay alive, just doesn’t occur to them.

Right after learning that FBI Losing Top Anti-Terror Talent because if you don’t apply for a job in Washington after you become the head of a district office the Bureau will demote you, we learn Three held in New York tunnel plot.

If this is real why was anti-terror funding to New York reduced?

This guy is supposed to be al Qaeda and trained at a camp in the Syrian controlled area of Lebanon, in spite of the known hatred between al Qaeda and the Shi’ia Ba’athists who control Syria?

His “playboy” lifestyle was a “cover” for his fundamentalist convictions?

This was a real plot, even though there has been no surveillance of the purported target, no acquisition of materiel, and no appreciation of the problems of getting sufficient explosives into a railway tunnel carved out of the bedrock under the river?

This is real because these guys got together in a chatroom and discussed it?

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember a time when guys would sit around, drink a few beers, and tell each other the most absurd lies about sports, women, cars, and how “bad” they were. The rule was the first time someone started sounding like the truth, you knew it was time to go home.

I realize it’s an election year, but they are going to have to do better than this. I admit it is a better story than the Haitians in ninja costumes in Miami, but still…

Dot Calm

Call me when she’s asleep.

[Editor: Dot takes a break in a drawer slot in the dresser. Having put up with Ringo wanting to play for an hour, she went into hiding.

Friday Ark

July 7^th, 2005, London

BBC In Depth and the Wikipedia articles on the bombing.

They have finally managed to stop a real threat to the American way of life. [Actually more of the Southern way of life, as R. Neal notes.]

A group of low-lifes with ties to NEW YORK CITY were caught attempting to sell Coca Cola secrets to Pepsi. While it didn’t involve “The Secret”, this is just another example of the moral decay of the country. There are just some things you don’t do for money.

Italy v. France

The US had a draw against Italy in the Group stage.

Update: I forgot to include a link for the Nodong launch facility. [Stop smirking, you’re adults.]

This is all open source, okay? No super secret spy stuff involved, it is on the Internet.

In the beginning there was the Vergeltungswaffe and the V-1 was looked at by Thor and adjudged: “It’s kind of wimpy isn’t it. A sort of model airplane that isn’t very accurate. I think it needs some work.”

And they labored and produced the V-2, and Thor said: “That’s more like it! The proper shape, know what I mean [nudge, nudge, wink, wink]?”

And the V-2 was so pleasing that it’s basic design was used to build other weapons.

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