Posts from — May 2008

The Associated Press says Louisiana Democrat takes GOP House seat

BATON ROUGE, La. – Democrat Don Cazayoux won a special congressional election Saturday, bolstering his party’s majority status on Capitol Hill and taking a seat held by Republicans since 1974.

If Zell Miller and Joe LIEberman are your idea of a Democrat, then Cazayoux is a Democrat. An anti-abortion, pro-gun guy who already declared his intention of joining the Blue Dog caucus, you will find him voting with the Republicans on almost everything, in the spirit of unity and bi-partisanship, of course. Nancy would probably give him a committee chair, if there were time left.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Note: This is the only specialty plate for motorcycles, and the “beneficiary” is the Able Trust, also known as: Florida Governor’s Alliance for the Employment of Citizens with Disabilities. I’m not sure that I would appreciate the connotation if I were still riding.

Full disclosure – my first university was Colgate in Hamilton, New York which was founded in 1819 by a group of Baptists, including at least one of my ancestors, to train Baptist ministers. Another ancestor, a minister, may have been responsible for Grover Cleveland becoming President when, at an event for Cleveland’s opponent he referred to the Democrats as the party of “rum, Romanism, and rebellion”. This annoyed the hell out of the Irish Catholics in New York who voted for Cleveland, and carried the state and the election by just over a thousand votes. I’m quite aware of the possibilities of mixing pastors and politics, but it has historically been a Republican problem. In this election John Hagee is more suited to the role of Samuel Dickerson Burchard than anyone else, if the media would report on his words, especially concerning “Romanism”.

[Read more →]

The Associated Press reports on an effort to separate church and state: ‘An Evangelical Manifesto’ criticizes politics of faith

The statement, called “An Evangelical Manifesto,” condemns Christians on the right and left for using faith to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

“That way faith loses its independence, Christians become ‘useful idiots’ for one political party or another, and the Christian faith becomes an ideology,” according to the draft.

[Read more →]

The BBC reports that Spam reaches 30-year anniversary

The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC – a now-defunct computer-maker.
…

The sender of the first junk e-mail message was Gary Thuerk and it was sent to advertise new additions to DEC’s family of System-20 minicomputers.

It invited the recipients, all of whom were on Arpanet and lived on the west coast of the US, to go to one of two presentations showing off the capabilities of the System-20.

Reaction to the message was swift, with complaints reportedly coming from the US Defense Communications Agency, which oversaw Arpanet, and took Mr Thuerk’s boss to task about it.

I was on the East Coast at the time, and did not receive the first spam message, although I seem to have received every one since then.

The Associated Press has a wrap-up of the Florida legislative session. The Republicans used cleavers instead of scalpels to cut $5 billion in spending from the budget, a third of a billion dollars lopped off the education budget. The only state workers who will see a pay increase are the Florida Troopers, everyone else who still has a job will have to make do another year without a raise. Oh, they cut their piddling part-time salaries by 5%, BFD.

“In every age the common interpretation of the world of things is by some scheme of unchallenged and unsuspected presuppositions; and the mind of every individual, however little he may think himself in sympathy with his contemporaries, is not an insulated compartment, but more like a pool in a continuous medium — the circumambient atmosphere of his time and place.”

F. M. Cornford Foreword of Thucydides Mythistoricus

The Reverend Doctor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. [BA, MA – Howard University, MA – University of Chicago Divinity School, Doctor of Ministry – United Theological Seminar] was born just before World War II and I was born just after, so we have shared a lot of American history, we have moved through very similar circumambient atmospheres. I can understand him in a way people from younger generations cannot.

[Read more →]

Don’t miss Catnapping’s latest graphic/verse entry: Mayday, Mayday!.

End of a Lifestyle

I wonder what tutored means?

[Editor: The next time he appears, Excise will be a “retired gentleman cat”.]

Friday Ark

Sadly both Sinfonian and Mustang Bobby have reported that the Florida legislature didn’t clap loud enough or really have enough faith and the “I Believe” plate won’t get passed this year.

So I guess I can forget looking for sponsors for my new plate:

I think it would have been a hit with certain segments of the Florida population.

The May Day association with labor is all American, and just as controversial as everything of any consequence in history. The day is tied to a strike for the eight-hour day and the so-called “Haymarket Riot” of 1886. When it comes to “riots” and the Chicago police are involved, you are not going to find a single truth.

The dynamic duo that mucked up the Pledge of Allegiance, Dwight Eisenhower and his Republican Congress, made May 1^st both Law Day and Loyalty Day so those Commie working people wouldn’t get any ideas about having rights.

Most of the rest of the world honors the efforts of the American worker in 1886 by making this Labour Day.

The real significance was that it is unlikely there was going to be another freeze and it is probably safe to start planting crops, so a fertility festival is in order. This is to ensure a good crop, not to get together and have a good time before getting to the backbreaking work of farming, really.

CBS/AP remembered: “Mission Accomplished,” 5 Years Later

“Since Bush Announced Major Combat Operations In Iraq Ended, Another 3,920 Troops Have Been Killed.”

“That message may have special meaning for the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln, on which their commander-in-chief declared “Mission Accomplished” five long years ago. Their ship has just begun duty in the Persian Gulf, within striking distance of the coast of Iran.”

US casualties are up, and there is still no plan to exit the war. What was the “mission” and what are the standards for “accomplished”?