Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Romania Anyone?

US Near Bottom of Global Privacy Index



Latest News
US Near Bottom of Global Privacy Index

Judge Overturns Maine Law on Rx Data

Surveillance Bill Delayed Until 2008

EU Worries About Privacy in Google Deal

Report Advises Caution Shoppping Online

Buy AP Photo Reprints

LONDON (AP) -- Individual privacy is under threat around the world as governments continue introducing surveillance and information-gathering measures, according to an international rights group.

"The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after country," said Simon Davies, director of London-based Privacy International, which released a study on the issue Saturday. "Even those countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany and Canada, are sinking into the mire.

Although privacy was improving in the former communist states of eastern Europe, it is worsening across Western Europe, the report said. Concerns about terrorism, immigration and border security were driving the spread of identity and fingerprinting systems, according to the report.

Greece, Romania and Canada had the best records of 47 countries Privacy International surveyed.

Malaysia, Russia and China ranked worst, but Great Britain and the United States also fell into the lowest-performing group of "endemic surveillance societies."

The survey considered such factors as legal protections, enforcement, data sharing, the use of biometrics and prevalence of closed-circuit cameras.

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration has come under fire for monitoring - without warrants - international phone calls and e-mails involving people suspected of having terrorist links.

Davies said little had changed since Democrats took control of Congress a year ago.

Britain was criticized for its plans for national identity cards, a lack of government accountability and the world's largest network of surveillance cameras.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Because God Forgives

But he doesn't help you get the rock hard abs needed for seriously repugnant sociopathy...

Serial killer worked out to prepare for slayings
Wed Aug 17, 4:49 PM ET
WICHITA, Kansas (Reuters) - Confessed Kansas serial killer Dennis Rader worked out to build up his strength because he found killing people physically hard, law enforcement agents told his sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

The 60-year-old Rader, who called himself BTK, for "bind, torture and kill," showed little emotion on the first day of the hearing.

But relatives of those he killed sobbed and hung their heads as they listened to how Rader stalked and slowly killed his victims, largely for sexual gratification, in a 17-year murder spree.

The testimony included photos of many of the bodies.

The agents told the courtroom that shortly after his arrest last February Rader confessed to 10 murders, telling them that in one killing Rader used toys to try to distract three small children as he bound and strangled their mother.

In another he pulled a chair next to a bed so he could relax while 9-year-old boy suffocated in the plastic bag Rader wrapped around his head. And in yet another, he took his victim to a church at night where he photographed her in various sexually explicit ways.

Rader had told law enforcement agents that he found killing people was harder work than he had expected so, as he continued killing, he worked out to improve his strength.

His first victims were four members of the Otero family, whom he killed in their Wichita-area home in 1974. Rader said he went after the Oteros because he was attracted to the Hispanic features of 11-year-old Josephine.

He killed her parents and younger brother while Josephine wept and called for her mother. Then he led the girl to the basement, telling her she would soon join her family in heaven, Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Larry Thomas testified.

Rader removed some of the girl's clothes, groped her and hung her from a sewer pipe, masturbating alongside her body as she died, according to Thomas.

Throughout the testimony, the bespectacled, balding Rader was largely expressionless, absently scratching his forehead or resting his chin on his palm.

Victims' relatives were expected to testify during the sentencing hearing, which could last three days, according to Sedgwick County District Court officials.

Rader could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison. He will not be executed because Kansas did not reinstate the death penalty until after his crimes, which occurred between 1974 and 1991 and spread a wave of terror through the Wichita area.

Rader was a one-time Boy Scout leader and before his arrest earlier this year was lay president of the congregation at Wichita's Christ Lutheran Church where he was a regular Sunday worshiper.

Monday, July 11, 2005

Brake Pads

Since I haven't found a shop willing to upgrade my truck brakes to the level they ought to be upgraded I've decided to do it myself.

General instructions as well as parts

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Documentary

I need to film a documentary about the quest to save El Morro Village. I think it should open with compelling footage of families playing, ordinary people living, and then cut to bulldozers, environmental catastrophes, and beauraucratic misconduct. Eventually, I would really like to get interviews with legislators explaining why they wish to gamble 17 million taxpayer dollars on a scheme that only has the potential to double revenues, and also has the potential to put them in the hole by 20 million dolars before 2010.

Sundance, SXSW, Cannes all the way baby!

Monday, June 06, 2005

How Bad Has It Gotten?

So bad that one time Uncle Tom whipping boy Clarence Thomas is actually one of the only guys I still agree with on the Supreme Court. That is Scary with a capital "S".

Maybe someday I'll think of John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld and the new architect of torture as the "good guys" because they weren't overt fascists.


FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.


---
Court: Patients May Not Use Pot Legally By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago
---
WASHINGTON - People who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.

The court's 6-3 decision was filled with sympathy for two seriously ill California women who brought the case, but the majority agreed that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people who grow pot for them.

Justice John Paul Stevens, an 85-year-old cancer survivor, said the court was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits of marijuana, and he noted "the troubling facts" in the case. However, he said the Constitution allows federal regulation of homegrown marijuana as interstate commerce.

The Bush administration has taken a hard stand against state medical marijuana laws, but it was unclear how it would respond to the new prosecutorial power. Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki would not say whether prosecutors would pursue cases against individual users.

In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court's "overreaching stifles an express choice by some states, concerned for the lives and liberties of their people, to regulate medical marijuana differently."

The women who brought the case expressed defiance.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I don't really have a choice but to, because if I stop using cannabis, I would die," said Angel Raich of Oakland, Calif., who suffers from ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain. She says she smokes marijuana every few hours.

Diane Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants. "I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," she said.

The ruling does not strike down California's law, or similar ones in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. However, it may hurt efforts to pass laws in other states because the federal government's prosecution authority trumps states' wishes.

John Walters, director of national drug control policy, defended the government's ban. "Science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," he said.

California's law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Monson and Raich contend that traditional medicines do not provide the relief that marijuana does.

California has been the battleground state for medical marijuana. In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in a California case that the federal government could prosecute distributors despite their claim that the activity was protected by medical necessity.

Two years later the justices rejected a Bush administration appeal that sought power to punish doctors for recommending the drug to sick patients. That case, too, was from California.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Monday that "people shouldn't panic ... there aren't going to be many changes."

Local and state officers handle nearly all marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients.

"I think it would look bad if the federal government focused its prosecution authority on a sick person," said Daniel Abrahamson, with the Drug Policy Alliance. "Individual patients growing for their own purposes have not been the targets of the federal authorities. We hope that it stays that way."

The government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana raids since September 2001, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Congress could be the next stop for the debate.

While there are other legal options for patients, Stevens wrote, "perhaps even more important than these legal avenues is the democratic process, in which the voices of voters allied with these (California women) may one day be heard in the halls of Congress."

Still, even supporters say it is unlikely Congress would pass a law allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana.

O'Connor was joined in her dissent by two other states' rights advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas. While conservatives may not necessarily support medical marijuana, they have pushed to broaden states' rights in recent years.

O'Connor, who like Rehnquist has had cancer, said she would have opposed California's medical marijuana law if she were a voter or a legislator. But she said the court was overreaching to endorse "making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use."

Thomas said the ruling was so broad "the federal government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers throughout the 50 states."

The case was hatched when Monson's backyard crop of six marijuana plants was seized by federal agents in 2002. She and Raich sued then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of arrest, home raids or other intrusion by federal authorities.

They claimed protection under the Constitution, which says Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders.

The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Coincidences

I keep reading about people being killed in or near holy cities in Iraq. Then the articles go on to explain how difficult it is to attain peace in such a divided region, and it got me thinking. Isn't it weird how Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus were all from the same neighborhood?

Why aren't there more Greek gods that are still worshipped?

Is it racist that there are no black holy figures that I have heard of, or is it a study in rational thought?

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Heil Pontiff!

Member Hitler's Youth, Anti-Aircraft Personnel Nazi Army, Deserter Nazi Army, Head of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (that's the branch in charge of Inquisitions for those of you keeping score), God's Rotweiler, once denied being "the Grand Inquisitor". . .Is this simply a list of things I hope never to be on my resume?

No, it represents the qualifications to be Pope.

Is there anything to like about this guy?

Well, perhaps he will bring a new age of reason by pointing out the folly of it all. Nah, too logical.

Is it really time to take a step backwards when you are just reconciling mistakes from 350 years ago?

Fun Facts:
The last execution by the Spanish Inquisition was of schoolmaster, Cayetano Ripoll, July 26, 1826. His trial lasted nearly two years. He was accused of being a deist.

de·ism (dē'ĭz'əm, dā'-) n.- The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.

discordianism n. - the veneration of Eris (a.k.a. Discordia) -- the goddess of chaos, discord and confusion.

Galileo Galilei died under house arrest in the fledgling Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Galileo's achievements include: demonstrating that the velocities of falling bodies are not proportional to their weights; showing that the path of a projectile is a parabola; building the first astronomical telescope; coming up with the ideas behind Newton's laws of motion; and confirming the Copernican theory of the solar system. He was denounced for heretical views by the church in Rome, tried by the Inquisition, and forced to renounce his belief that the planets revolved around the sun.

The Vatican officially recognized the validity of Galileo's work in 1993.

Come Again?

Yesterday I saw a monster sized SUV with a "Powered by Jesus" bumper sticker and a Disney license plate frame. I wondered whether the driver was aware that Walt's cryogenically preserved corpse has the better shot at resurrection.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Baseball Towns

I'd always wondered how a town becomes a baseball town, or a football town. For Los Angeles it wasn't a matter of choice. Football left town, hockey closed down, the Lakers imploded like a supernova and the baseball teams happened to get pretty good. It is either become a baseball fan, or do something truly god awful like rooting for SC.

Now I understand.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Death, Death, and Oranges

That and some nifty culinary tips about oranges were in the news today. I did not realize that zest should only come from the very top skin of the orange. No wonder my zest was always too zesty.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Ding Dong

The pope is dead. You have to wonder how he feels if a lifetime of chastity really wasn't required to get into heaven. Worse yet, St. Peter is probably an old Jewish guy angry as hell about this Christianity thing taking the direction it has. Poor Pope.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

What the Fuck Does It Require?

Hillary Clinton is talking up the Conservative Agenda:

Destroying the Party to Save It

Senator Hillary Clinton keeps moving to the Right.

Clinton made news a few months ago when she urged pro-choice people to find common ground with anti-choice people in the abortion struggle--even though the anti-choice side has been rejecting the common ground of contraception for decades, and now rejects emergency contraception as well.

Clinton's latest attempt to prove she's a Republican is her call for a system rating sex and violence in video games, TV, and other entertainment for children. Three weeks ago she joined two of the most viciously anti-child, anti-education, and anti-sexuality senators (Brownback, R-KS and Santorum, R-PA) in calling for the government to study the impact of media on childhood development.

Two years ago, we quoted Santorum as saying that the Constitution does not grant a right to privacy (#39). On the eve of the historic Lawrence decision, he said that if the Supreme Court acknowledges a right to gay sex in the home, "then you have the right to bigamy, incest, adultery...man on child, man on dog, or whatever."

Brownback, of course, recently convened Congressional hearings about "porn addiction"--which somehow didn't include any sex therapists, or anyone challenging the concept itself. Just last week he convened hearings on regulating the porn industry without inviting any representatives of the $9 billion industry.

According to The New York Times, Clinton is increasingly referring to faith and prayer in her speeches. Along with other 2008 Democratic presidential contenders such as Joe Biden and John Edwards, she's stressing the importance of national security over education and health care--even though a March Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 53% of Americans think the Iraq war is not worth fighting, and 57% disagree with President Bush's handling of it.

Clinton apparently believes that it's more important to get elected than to stand for something. She seems to be willing to destroy the Democratic Party in order to save it. We think it's a poor strategy: if voters want a Republican, they'll go get a sincere one, not a fake one.


--End Quote

Fuck all the people who try to cowtow to people that believe in toppling sovereign nations simply because they won't toe the line.

This is America. We are about freedom, not oppression. Fight for your rights!

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Madness

If your team isn't in the Tourney at least you can make some money.

Bet the 12 seeds baby!

Hopefully my man got there to lay the wood on Wisconsin-Milwaukee knocking off the Crimson Tide. It's the Cheese.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Fucking for Chastity

In the Headlines today:

Paul Wolfowitz is going to head the World Bank, the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge is open for oil drilling, and Scott Peterson's death sentence is still going to get more ink. Someone slip some hashish or LSD into the food at Wal-Mart. Please shake this nation by the shoulders.

I watched a Pentecostal preacher on TV last night talk about how he wanted to be more holy. He could start by withdrawing troops. Fighting for peace is like fucking for chastity.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

You Know What I Hate?

I hate it when I get a good head of steam about something so important to me then forget completely what I hate in the first place. That's what I hate.

I had a perfectly good reason to be mad here, and I just can't remember what it is.

I hate that.

More than anything I fear that Gonzo journalism may fade into the rearview now that S. has seen the bats. Stream of consciousness will never die, but Gonzo was so much more. It epitomized a way of life that is being killed day by day.

George is right about the future, but it is Orwell, not W. who is right. An endless cycle of bloody conflicts against nations our people can't find on a map. Huge wall size TV's with constant entertainment piped into our ears via our personal entertainment gadget seemed plenty fantastic in 1948, but 21 years past 1984 it is the reality. That sure casts that old Mac Super Bowl spot in an interesting light now doesn't it?

Who among you would take a carful of narcotics to Vegas with the intent of looting the looters?

That mark would follow you for the rest of your life because to forgive is Christian, and we're a Christian nation, but we love to persecute. We were founded by people too fucking pious and hypocritical for their own countrymen to stand. Isn't this the logical conclusion?

Friday, February 25, 2005

What's The Point?

A friend forwarded me a copy of The Washington Post article from February 24, 2005 that details how the Department of Defense is trying to get the Department of State out of the way in inserting personnel into foreign countries. The Pentagon doesn't want to have to ask permission of or notify the ambassador in a country before inserting Special Forces. It makes me wonder why we even have a State Department anymore.

Shouldn't all of our foreign relations be handled by strictly military personnel for at least the next four years?

It seems like it would save a lot of money if we just shut down all our embassies, and the entire State department took a four year vacation. It wouldn't be enough money to not operate at a defecit, but I guess that is asking a bit much.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

S.

The following is from my friend Alok Kumar. It says what I thought much more eloquently than I did.
On the Death of S.

Life is ugly and poorly dressed
Hunter S. is laid to rest
amongst the twilight did he fly
a sparkle of chemicals in his eyes
today marks a solemn turn
the death of freedom and peace burns
today a gift has gone away
an idol lost generation betrayed

why did you put a bullet in your head
why did you vanquish a movement led
by heroes and thinkers who gave us hope
that we too could drink, drop, and dope
who can say why acid freak, vagabond of woody creak
put a pistol to his head and from this world abruptly fled

we will have your books and your life
to think of during times of strife
but somehow I will always know
sometimes your mind you have to blow
for those of you who feel deprived
at least Keith Richards is still alive

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Biding Time

I read the other day about a defense attorney who has been jailed along with her paralegal staff for aiding terrorists. All she did was allow her client to communicate with the outside world. In America that is Free Speech. We were not founded on any other one principle besides Free Speech.

The argument used was that this man speaking would cause lives to be lost. There are countless phrases that have been uttered over the last few years that have met that criteria and as much as I dislike and disagree with those statements I would never condone banning the individuals from saying them. Take for example, "Bring 'em on", "We're gonna smoke 'em outta their holes", "Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction". All of these have now cost over 1,000 American lives and some uncounted and probably attrocious number of Iraqi lives, but we can't censor W.

Can he censor me?

With an Attorney General who condones torture, more conservative Supreme Court justices on their way, and a culture where "Americans should watch what they say" I suppose that I am just biding time until my ultimate stay in Abu Ghraib. Maybe I'll make Guananamo Bay. It is closer, and the weather should be stellar.

I've always wanted to see Cuba.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Outsourced Torture

When we abridge the rights of Americans to free speech, the terrorists win.

The following story is appaling in that this attorney was prosecuted, and because she had to sign any agreement to abridge her clients first ammendment rights at all. If Bush wants to get cruel and unusual then extradite prisoners like this to prisons in North Korea, Zimbabwe, or Sudan. Don't trash my country and my laws.

If we can outsource high paying American jobs for less overseas, then we should be able to outsource our torture too. China has a billion people and almost no respect for human life. They would be great at taking over the torture and Constitutional violations that we don't want to sully our reputation by doing in house.

This is going to be a long four years...

N.Y. Lawyer Convicted of Aiding Terrorists
By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York lawyer aided terrorism by helping a client send messages to militant followers, a federal jury found on Thursday in a case critics said stemmed from Bush administration efforts to discourage the defense of accused terrorists.

Lynne Stewart, 65, long a defender of the poor and unpopular, was convicted of helping her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, to contact followers in Egypt with messages that could have ended a cease-fire there and ignited violence.

Abdel-Rahman was found guilty in 1995 of conspiring to attack U.S. targets, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was serving a life term when the crimes charged against Stewart occurred.

Stewart was convicted of all five counts against her, including two terrorism charges that combined carry a maximum 15-year prison term. All five counts combined carry a maximum term of 30 years, but it is unlikely she will be sentenced to such a lengthy term.

The complex trial lasted more than seven months. The Manhattan federal jurors deliberated 13 days.

"I committed no crime. I know what I did was right," Stewart said, adding that she would appeal. She remains free until her sentencing, tentatively set for July 15.

"I was a poster girl for John Ashcroft (news - web sites) and his Patriot Act," she told reporters after the verdict, referring to the former U.S. attorney general.

Prosecutors said Stewart enabled Abdel-Rahman to communicate with the Islamic Group, which they said is a terrorist group that had Abdel-Rahman as its spiritual leader.

Stewart maintains she was just zealously representing her client and her defense team argued she was a victim of a Bush administration effort to discourage lawyers from defending those accused of terrorism.

Stewart began to cry outside the courthouse while speaking after the verdict and was comforted by her husband as supporters chanted, "Hands Off Lynne Stewart."

WAKE-UP CALL

"I hope this case will be a wake-up call to all citizens of this country," Stewart said. "You can't lock up the lawyers. You can't tell lawyers how to do their job."

In addition to the terrorism counts, she was convicted of three charges related to lying to the government by breaking a pledge to prevent her client from communicating with followers.

"I'd like to think I would do it again," she said. "It's the way a lawyer is supposed to behave."

Stewart's co-defendants Ahmed Sattar, a postal worker who acted as a paralegal for Abdel-Rahman, and Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator, were also convicted. Sattar, charged with the conspiracy to kill people outside the United States, could be sentenced to life in prison.

The case attracted attention from U.S. lawyers, some of whom believed Stewart was the target of vindictive prosecutors who wanted to punish her for her leftist beliefs and others who said she willingly broke the law.

"It's unbelievable," said Ivan Fisher, a New York defense lawyer. He said she was "absolutely" a target of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies.

Jeff Fogel, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said, "There are some (lawyers) who will be scared and won't take these cases, but there are others who might be even more zealous to demonstrate that we won't be cowed."

Others, such as Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet, said Stewart broke the law: "This case had nothing to do with zealous advocacy and everything to do with obeying the law."

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the convictions "send a clear, unmistakable message that this department will pursue both those who carry out acts of terrorism and those who assist them with their murderous goals."

During the trial, prosecutors said Stewart signed and then broke a deal with the U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) to prevent Abdel-Rahman from sending messages that could cause violence.

Evidence included a call Stewart made in 2000 to a Reuters correspondent in Egypt in which she read a statement issued by the cleric saying he had withdrawn his support for the Islamic Group's cease-fire in Egypt. The group had observed the cease-fire since a 1997 attack on tourists in Luxor.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

The Secret Police

I've heard rumblings that Rummy now has his own unsupervised branch of special ops. I figure things like this have existed for a long time, but an official acknowledgement would be original. I guess that I would feel better about it at any time in history except maybe the Civil War, or McCarthyism.

For a long time I would have agreed with that both parties represented equally valid viewpoints, even if they differed significantly from my own, What scares me are: violations of the Geneva convention and basic human decency being committed in the name of the US, unprovoked invasions that endanger our citizenry and national financial wellbeing, and telling me that a god I don't believe in will help us win a war against an enemy we haven't effectively attacked in two invasions (note: the terrorists are mobile enough to leave when they hear the planes coming, the citizens get fucked. If you don't believe me, then tell me who would be the first one out of your town in a war, you with the job, family and mortgage, or the kinda crazy guy who hangs out on the streetcorner yelling at strangers about Jesus?).

Personally, I think all the Ammendments are important, but the 2nd needs some tweaking. Everyone should bear arms except religious fanatics. I don't care if you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist whether your name is Osama, Sharon, or W. If you believe that you can kill in the name of your god, then you ought to be kept away from firearms and sharp objects.

And please force this administration into more transparency, not less.

In tough times dissidence is patriotism.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Accordion Players

Is the demand for accordion players really greater than the demand for strippers?

I mean twice as great as the demand for strippers?

At least he wasn't a bassoonist.


Stripper Wins Damages After Tiger Attack
--
Fri Jan 28, 3:13 PM ET
Oddly Enough - Reuters

TORONTO (Reuters) - A stripper mauled by a tiger in an Ontario safari park has won C$800,000 ($650,000) in damages because her scars meant she could no longer work, Canadian media said on Friday.

Jennifer-Anne Cowles was driving through the park nearly nine years ago with her then boyfriend when a tiger jumped into their car and tried to drag them away. The two insisted their windows had been shut when the tiger charged, although the park had challenged that.

The judge accepted the couple's testimony that the power windows had been inadvertently lowered when one of the big cats bumped against the car, frightening them.

In a ruling delivered on Thursday and reported in a number of Canadian newspapers, Justice Jean MacFarland said she could only imagine the "stark terror experienced by these young people during this horrendous event."

She awarded Cowles over C$800,000 in damages, almost half of it to compensate for income she would have made as a stripper.

Her musician boyfriend, David Balac, won C$1.7 million, because his injuries left him unable to work as an accordion player.

African Lion Safari, near Hamilton, Ontario, west of Toronto, said it is reviewing the ruling, but it insisted the park was safe.

"Hundreds of millions of people drive through safari style parks worldwide every decade and there are very few incidents causing injury," it said in a statement. "It is one of the safest activities you can do with your family."

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Things Could Always Be Worse

You could be living in an occupied nation:

http://abutamam.blogspot.com/

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

No water and no food if you don't vote. That sounds like freedom and liberty to me. Scorched earth liberation?

Wow. I wish I could be there.

By the way, the tone of the article on Fallujah and the Resistance's victory through retreat proves to me once again that these people are fucking nuts, and there is no cure. Bring our boys home today.

Do not, repeat do not spend 80 billion more dollars trying to stabilize Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and wherever else W is trying to send money. Please bring my Army home. We'll need them to defend us sooner than later at this rate.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Four More Years

I watched the election happen, understood that Bush had inexplicably won again, and even come to grips with the fact that roughly half of Americans really did vote for him, but somehow the fact that he is being sworn in instead of impeached at this point still comes as a great shock to me. War crimes, torture, out of control debt and spending, invading sovereign nations, taking money from criminal organizations, no bid contracts to rebuild the nation you destroyed.

Isn't this the kind of record that incites revolution?

I guess that was once upon a time. Who do you know that voted for Bush?

There have to be some people. Can they explain why?

Monday, January 17, 2005

The Holy See

Now they did it. They have The Holy See looking at them. That is nearly as bad as the Great Eye.


Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release

By Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella

MOSUL/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday and the Vatican (news - web sites) demanded his quick release and deplored what it branded an act of terrorism.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq (news - web sites), where churches have been the target of a bombing campaign that has rattled the tiny Christian minority.

"We have received news of the kidnapping of the ... Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters.

"The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry."

Casmoussa was kidnapped by gunmen in two cars in the northern al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiya district of Iraq's third largest city soon after 5 p.m. (0900 EST), a local Christian official said.

The archbishop was on his way to visit some families from his congregation when the attack took place, he added, but was not clear whether the motive was political, sectarian or financial, in a country where kidnapping for ransom is common.

Most of Iraq's Christians, who make up some three percent of the 25 million population, belong to the early Assyrian and Chaldean churches.

While Christians had little political power under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), they were free to worship and did not feel threatened by sectarian violence.

But Iraq's 650,000 or so Christians have been trickling out of their ancient homeland since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as insurgents step up attacks against both Muslim and Christian holy places in an apparent bid to inflame sectarian tension.

On Aug. 1 five churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul were bombed in coordinated attacks that killed 12 people. Five Baghdad churches were bombed on the Oct. 16 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Eight were killed in two church bombings on Nov. 8.

Midnight Mass was canceled last Christmas, as several cities were under curfew and Iraq's Christian religious leaders feared renewed attacks.

Last month the Vatican's foreign minister warned that anti-Christian feeling was spreading in Iraq and other Muslim countries because of the war on terrorism.

Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.

Washington justified invading Iraq by saying Saddam had developed weapons of mass destruction and claiming there were links between Baghdad and al Qaeda. No such weapons have been found nor hard evidence of pre-war al Qaeda links.

Pope John Paul (news - web sites) strongly opposed the invasion.

Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic church.

There are two Syrian Catholic dioceses in Iraq -- one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul.

According to the Vatican yearbook, Casmoussa was born in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh.


Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Great Knobs

I want one of these USB knobs for my computer from Griffin Technology. They look cool and seem like they would make life really simple if you programmed them right.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Must Read

The Hedonism Handbook by Michael Flocker

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Muffed Punts

Please spare me the argument that OU lost because their punt returner muffed a punt and they couldn't recover. Cal muffed a punt inside their 20 against USC as well, and it led to. . .a field goal. That's what good, let alone great, defenses do. Oklahoma is not a great football team. Period. End of discussion.

Oklahoma would be a mid-level bowl team in a conference where people complete forward passes and the bad teams average 20 points a game. On the bright side, they probably still would have beat Purdue in the Sun Bowl.

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Fuck Texas

Fuck announcers from Texas, fuck teams from Texas, fuck presidents from Texas.

Fuck rushing 4 and dropping 7, fuck the lack of balanced pass interference calls, fuck roughing the kicker in the 4th quarter, rough the passer in the 1st quarter and take out his kneee. Better yet, let him die.

I can't believe how flat the Cal Defense looked, nor can I believe that Tedford kept throwing to Jordan and Gray when he should have forced it to Makonnen and run Arrington and Lynch down their goddamn throats until well into the 3rd quarter.

Thank goodness Lynch and Jordan are only freshmen and that we have a JC transfer coming in at QB. Maybe we won't go 1-10 next year.

I suppose the only good to come of this night is that for the first time in my memory someone chanted "Overrrated" at Cal fans.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Countup

We are currently 850 days post-9/11. That's a lot of days to go without so much as a lead as to where Osama Bin Ladin currently resides. Maybe we are distracted in Iraq. The Pakistani Army is withdrawing according to the Toronto Star. Maybe they care as little as our administration does. Maybe it's the fact that we have made enemies of the Muslim world:

"Today we reflexively compare Muslim 'masses' to those oppressed under Soviet rule," the report adds. "This is a strategic mistake. There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies - except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends."

The above quote is excerpted from Tom Shanker's article in The New York Times about a report released last week by the Department of Defense. It came to the same conclusion I did a long time ago. We are in over our heads in a place we don't belong. Iraq has changed its rule 16 times since 1900.
It held elections twice. The rest have been wars of culture, money and power, not a quest for freedom and picket fences.

Maybe we should have listened to the original GW and avoided foreign entanglements. Save the WW II post because had we minded our own business the Kaiser would have taken Europe and there would not have been a Hitler. In comparison to what we wrought by interfering does the Germans taking over the European continent (again) sound so bad?

Compared to killing people does paying the market rate for oil, and developing more effective transit strategies really suck?

Monday, December 27, 2004

Reincarnation

If one will excuse the abundance of religion posts this week, please continue.

I believe in reincarnation. A lot of people wonder why I still eat meat. I figure that the way I am living I am a lot more likely to come back as a cockroach than a cow, so I'm pretty safe.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Primate Quagmire

Bush Monkey Picture Shown on Giant Billboard

Wed Dec 22,10:33 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait of President Bush (news - web sites) using monkeys to form his image that was banished from a New York art show last week amid charges of censorship was projected on a giant billboard in Manhattan on Tuesday.

"Bush Monkeys," a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir last week at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market's managers to close down the 60-piece show.

Animal Magazine, a quarterly arts publication that had organized the month-long show, said anonymous donors had paid for the picture to be posted on a giant digital billboard over the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, used by thousands of commuters traveling between Manhattan and New Jersey.

The original picture will be auctioned on eBay, with part of the proceeds donated to parents of U.S. soldiers wishing to supply their sons and daughters with body armor in Iraq (news - web sites).

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came under fire from soldiers in Kuwait earlier this month who complained that they had to use scrap metal to armor their vehicles.

"Many of my friends are over in Iraq," Savido said in a statement.

The painting offers a likeness of Bush but the image is made up of monkeys swimming in a marsh. It was originally priced at $3,500 in the show's catalog.

Organizers expect more than 400,000 drivers to see the billboard each day for the next month.




Monday, December 20, 2004

Chevy Chase:Comedian, Patriot

So apparently being an alumnus of Saturday Night Live, or an entertainer stifles one's right to free speech. All of a sudden Chevy Chase is wrong for speaking the truth. I haven't found a full transcript, but apparently people are up in arms over the fact that he reminded the US Population that George W. Bush is a dumb fuck, and a lying, uneducated fuck who is starting a jihad on our behalf.

I know Schwarzenegger was born in Austria, but maybe we can elect Chevy President. I mean he has played one on TV back in the 70's so he has more experience than Ronald Reagan. He knows a jihad when he sees one, and would probably be okay with being a one term executive since that would still be about 206 weeks longer than his talk show lasted.

In other news:

Just a stroller in the park

Bill Clinton was going through Central Park with his Secret Service team recently when a man pushing a stroller taunted: “You were an embarrassment to the office of commander in chief.”

The Daily News says Clinton stopped and told his heckler: “Oh, really? ... I'll admit I misled people about my personal life. And I have even apologized for it, but I never misled the people about policy and I certainly never misled the people about going to war.”

Then Clinton spent 45 minutes taking questions from an adoring crowd before telling his detractor: “I hope your children turn out to be as perfect as you are, sir.”

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Bombing Churches

60 are dead from explosions at Mosques in Iraq. I know that many will lament the evil of bombing a holy place where people worship. I don't agree. The United States is running a war in which our President continually evokes God as a reason to fight, and a reason that we will win.

My god isn't in the business of war. He doesn't hold shares in Halliburton. He doesn't tell me who to vote for, and surely does not use public tax dollars to fund faith based initiatives in a country that separates church and state. Then again, I don't believe in religion.

Apparently, the gods of Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims are in the war business. I propose that they only bomb places of worship. Leave all the innocent people who see religion as the ultimate fairy tale out of your wars.

Fairy tales like religion rely on the listener to suspend rational thought. They help children get to sleep at night in the same way that religion helps children and adults get to sleep at night. It is an intellectual crutch in one's search for meaning. Religion makes the bad things in life appear to be good medicine, and allows one to rationalize success as the reward for a life in the service of God. Most importantly, religions cause wars.

The last statement was made famous by a man that I and many others worship--John Lennon. Even the worship of John Lennon caused violence towards the object of the worship so it would seem that humans are not cut out for this whole worship thing and we should try to get off the sauce before it destroys us all.

Don't try to acquit yourself because your religion is better. All the religions have done it and they all believe they are right: Israel v. Palestine, Christians v. Catholics, Hindu v. Muslims, The Crusades (Christians v. Muslims), The Inquisition (Catholics v. Jews), Buddhist Monks v. Gasoline and a lighter.

So do yourself a favor and skip church, temple, the synagogue, or mosque this week. Then write your congressional representatives and let them know that if they really want to end war, they need to light up every church, mosque, synagogue, and temple within range next weekend. It is the religions that allow people the fervor and the suspension of reality necessary to believe in a war. End the religions and you will cripple the war machine.

Better yet turn the bombs and guns over to those of us that don't believe in Paradise, Nirvana, Heaven or Hell. We will kill or die only as a last resort. You can trust us to not turn the guns over to you when you get really upset over the fact that your neighbor believes that Jesus' mother is important and you don't, or that Muhammed should have spelled his name Mohammed, or that they think that Britney Spears is a slightly less terrible singer than Ashley Simpson. Let reason prevail.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Dr. Laura & The Bible

I found this on Mark Minasi's goofing off page while I was looking to him for an answer about DNS

Friday, December 10, 2004

Kinsey

He's back in the news The New York Times has a great article
about the film. If the censors haven't pulled it off the web yet.

What is it about sex that so frightens the conservatives?

Maybe it is that the Bush regime is mostly homosexuals and pedophiles like the Catholic church. That certainly would explain a lot. When you think of a sexually depraved man who needs to assault someone in order to exert his power over them on account of the inadequacy he sees when he looks between his legs, doesn't Dirty Dick Cheney's face look like the one that should be in the Dictionary?

How can you have family values when your values preclude you from publishing howto's about making families?

Thursday, December 09, 2004

History

The winner gets to write it according to popular wisdom. I think that Machiavelli had it right when he wrote that we need to decimate our enemies so that they may not regroup and rise up against us with renewed vigor. That is a paraphrase, but gets the point of a whole lot of Italian across in only one sentence.

Sometimes one wishes that they could rewrite their own history. Avoid mistakes that they could see happening as situations deteriorated, buy Yahoo! at $12 per share, whatever. But your history is the one thing you truly own. For better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and health. No marriage is truly like that. If a spouse cheats, then the other spouse is legally entitled to divorce them. If you cheat yourself, you have to live with it forever.

Monday, December 06, 2004

The Trouble With Texas

I was going to post a response to the comments in my last post, but Aaron got so lengthy in his comments, and I love him for that, that I decided this needed to be a new post for cosmetic reasons.

Most importantly, Sandy Barbour resigned Tedford so she can stay as Athletic Director.

So, I studied Texas' "body of work" and found that they won by 2 points over Arkansas (5-6) and won by four points with 11 seconds remaining over Kansas (4-7) in a game that was only close on account of a questionable offensive pass interference call against Kansas. All of this was noted by ESPN's Pat Forde, but nobody else that I read.

I started this research in response to a columnist (Pete Fiutak of collegefootballnews.com whose work I admire greatly) who claimed both that he appreciated Tedford's class in not running up the score on Southern Miss, and that the BCS "worked" by picking Texas over Cal. He wrote back that "Texas has some far better wins on its resume than Cal does." so I researched further, and wrote back:

I guess I just don't believe in Texas Tech, or Texas A & M either. I mean if you lose to New Mexico and Baylor, respectively, it's kind of like Oregon losing to Indiana. The Oregon win didn't count as significant except that it wasn't a loss. As for struggling with Oregon, they do in essence have Cal's playbook since Tedford was their OC in his last position. Maybe New Mexico's coach used to work at Texas Tech, or perhaps the Big 12 is overrated, we'll find out December 30.

Upon further statistical review, Aaron Rodgers and J.J. Arrington do compare reasonably to a Big 12 team's tandem, but it's Oklahoma, not Texas. Texas is a one dimensional running team that I hope gets beaten in the Rose Bowl like they did in the Holiday Bowl last year after Mack Brown whined about not being included in the BCS. Texas ranks 104th in the nation in passing offense and their defense is almost as good as Cal's giving up 2 points more on average than do the Golden Bears.

Now all that Cal can do is shellack Texas Tech and show the nation that the Big 12 is not really that great, even in the South. Just because people can't talk about anything but football doesn't mean that they are any better at playing it.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

The Trouble With Hope

Now do you folks see why I was so upset about the text messages like, "I smell Roses"?

Let alone some kid in the stands with a sign that read "Give Me Roses or Give Me Death". Kids these days sure seem to need to learn their lessons the hard way. This is still Cal football. If there is something obscure, unlikely, or even set out as an unattainable goal (I'm talking to you Utah) that will impact Cal football negatively, it will be so.

There are signs of change, like the run back for two points agains Southern Miss. Things like that used to go against us, but change is a long process. Longer than three years of Tedford's Excellent Adventure, longer than a season.

Unfortunately, there are still things like acts of an unjust and cruel god that postponed what should have been a non-event game against Southern Miss into one of the biggest spotlight games of the season on December 4. Was it even wise to reschedule instead of letting it go away?

If Cal had finished their season with a 41-6 shellacking of Stanfurd and remained idle with Texas last weekend, who could reasonably move Texas in the standings?

Of course who could reasonably move a team down in the standings for a win on the road?

I don't blame the voters. Voters are irrational humans subject to such abject lapses in judgement that they have made W a two term President.

How can we lose .03 in the computer standings for a win on the road?

That is what I want to know. Is it East Coast PC Bias?
Isn't this what giving control back to the humans was supposed to prevent?

No, it was a toxic level of hope. Hope is like a drug. For hope junkies, who regularly have hope, and have their hopes fulfilled, they can have a lot of hope without it being toxic. They can hire coaches at will. Eventually, the hope controls the junkie and makes them do rash things to get their next fix. They fire bowlbound coaches only to get turned down by the Next Big Coach, and are left grasping for anything to give them more hope. Don't let us become hope junkies, just take it one step at a time and we can avoid the 12 step programs.

As for the Rose Bowl, Go Big Blue!
Steer them Cryin 'Horns!

Saturday, November 27, 2004

A Day at the Lake



This picture is from a day when my friend Jack did some fishing while I watched and drank beer for lack of a fishing license and any appreciable talent for catching fish. Looking at it makes me think so many things about ecology, sustainable living, how far we are from being a sustainable society, and the fact that we are headed in the opposite direction.

I mentioned the other night to someone that the most significant turning point for the United States as a culture came in the 20th century when winter ceased to be a time of conservation to make supplies last until spring. Winter became an orgy of consumption where we try to eat and buy as much as is possible whether or not we can even afford to live past January 1st.

Each year We the People come away fatter and deeper in debt. The average citizen owns less of what they possess. The fact that they place a lower value upon their possessions means that the cycle will continue.

This year, give gifts that will last. For the people who have everything and say they don't want anything. Do not buy them more stuff. As one who wears this distinction (mostly because I want fairly little) I can tell you that more stuff really does overwhelm us.

Instead you could:

Make a tax deductible donation in their name. (KJAZZ is an organization that I favor)

Save CD's, give an iTunes gift certificate

Help Cal renovate its stadium.


There are all kinds of things you can do if you step outside the mall. Maybe you could even give your grandkids a day at the lake.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

A Verse

I thought things were getting better when Ashcroft resigned, then I found out his replacement is the guy that wrote the legal opinion defending our use of torture and calling the Geneva Convention "outdated".

How many signatures would it take to get secession on the November 2006 ballot?

Compliments of my friend Barbara:

The 23rd Sigh

Bush is my shepherd; I shall dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war,
I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou anointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.

Saving NPR, PBS, and the NEA

I received an email from a friend of mine asking that I sign an online petition to save NPR, PBS, and the NEA. I don't know if I can save the public funding for the arts because I'm still trying to get a refund on all of my tax dollars that are being used to support a war that I loudly disagreed with from its outset. It seems to me that we need more availability of Internet radio stations and better tech for Internet video broadcasts as opposed to media that are constrained by the narrow minded fairy tale inspired virtues of the right wing.

Then we could show Janet Jackson's breast, let Howard Stern, Dennis Miller, Bill Maher, and even Rehab Limbaugh rant and rave, and do anything else we wanted to do without fear of fines, or the wellbeing of some imaginary 12 year old girl who is virtuous, pure and not at all curious about sex, how the human body looks, independent thought, or what a cocksucking motherfucker is.

Maybe satellite broadcast is the answer, but it seems that a medium like this would be able to support itself with advertising because everyone ought to want free speech, a more educated populace and naked women. Don't they?

Sunday, November 21, 2004

If Your Monday Is Bad

Things could always be worse. You could be Ron Artest's television. If he smashes monitors for fun, I couldn't imagine what he did when he was suspended by the NBA for the rest of the season without pay. Does that mean the Indiana Pacers have $5.2 million available?

Maybe this is my big break to get into pro basketball.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Bush Increased Our Debt Ceiling

PresBu signed a law extending our credit limits 10% today to $8.1 Trillion. I wish I could do that. I'd just keep extending it every time I ran out of credit. Who needs to work, or produce things?

I'll just up my limits and have my constituents and their children, and grandchildren pay it off. Leave me alone with young Barbara for a few hours and I'd get him some grandchildren to pay down that debt.



Oz

In the study of Populism on the Web see also the wonderful site abusaleh.com, specifically the Wizard of Oz article by Peter Dreier professor at Occidental College. If I could have afforded a private school I definitely should have gone there.

This Iraq article covers the censorship and propaganda making going on in the occupied territory.

A political allegory of failed American populist movement
Peter Dreier

The Plain Dealer, Sunday, March 5, 1995

Almost all Americans know the characters from “the Wizard of Oz.” But few
are aware that the story originally was written as a political allegory.

It may seem harder to believe than the Emerald City, but the Tin Woodsman
represents the American industrial worker, the Scarecrow the struggling
farmer and the Wizard the president, who is powerful only as long as he
succeeds in deceiving the people.

“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written by Lyman Frank Baum in 1900, during
the collapse of the Populist movement. Through the Populist party, Midwestern
farmers, in alliance with some urban workers, had challenged the banks,
railroads and other economic interests that squeezed farmers through low
prices, high freight rates and continued indebtedness.

The Populists advocated government ownership of railroads and the telephone
and telegraph industries. They also wanted silver coinage. Their power grew
during the 1893 depression, the worst in US history until then, as farm
prices sank to new lows and unemployment was widespread.

In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey, a Populist lumber dealer from Massillon, Ohio, led a
mass march of unemployed workers to Washington to demand a federal works
program. That same year, President Grover Cleveland called in federal troops
to put down the nationwide Pullman strike -- at that time, the largest strike
in American history. As the Populists saw things, the monopolies were growing
richer, the workers and farmers, ever poorer.

In the 1894 congressional elections, the Populist party got almost 40% of the
vote, It looked forward to winning the presidency, and the silver standard,
in 1896.

But in that elections, which revolved around the issue of gold vs. silver,
Populist Democrat William Jennings Bryan, a congressman, from Nebraska, and a
gifted orator, ran again in 1900, but the Populist strength was gone.

Baum viewed these events from both rural South Dakota, where he edited a
local weekly, and urban Chicago, where he wrote Oz. He mourned the
destruction of the fragile alliance between the Midwestern farmers (The
Scarecrow) and the urban industrial workers (the Tin Woodsman), along with
Bryan (the Cowardly Lion with a roar but little else), they had been taken
down the yellow brick road (the gold standard) that led nowhere. Each
journeyed to Emerald City seeking favors from the Wizard of Oz (the
president), Dorothy, the symbol of Everyman, went along with them, innocent
enough to see the truth before the others.

Along the way they meet the Wicked Witch of the East who, Baum tells us, had
kept the little Mnchkin people “in bondage fro many years, making them slave
for her night and day.” She also had put a spell on the Tin Woodsman, once an
independent and hardworking man, so that each time he swung his axe, it
chopped off a different part of his body. Lacking another trade, he “worked
harder than ever,” becoming like a machine, incapable of love, yearning for a
heart. Another witch, the Wicked Witch of the West, clearly symbolizes the
large industrial corporations.

Like Coxey’s Populist army en route to Washington, the small group heads
toward Emerald City where the Wizard rules from behind a paper-mache facade.
Oz, of course, is the abbreviation for ounce, the standard measure for gold.

Like all good politicians, the Wizard can be all things to all people.
Dorothy sees him as an enormous head. The Scarecrow sees a gossamer fairy.
The Woodsman sees an awful beast, the Cowardly Lion, a ball of fire, so
fierce and glowing he could scarcely bear to gaze upon it”

Later, however, when they confront the Wizard directly, they see he is
nothing more than “a little man, with a bald head and a wrinkled face.”

“I have been making believe,” the Wizard confesses, “I’m just a common
man.” but the Scarecrow adds, “You’re more than that... you’re a humbug.”

“It was a great mistake my ever letting you into the Throne Room,” admits
the Wizard, a former ventriloquist and circus balloonist from Omaha.

This was Baum’s ultimate Populist message. The powers that be survive by
deception. Only people’s ignorance allows the powerful to manipulate and
control them.

Dorothy returns to Kansas with the magical help of her Silver Shoes (the
silver issue), but when she gets to Kansas she realizes her shoes “had fallen
off in her flight through the air, and were lost forever in the desert.”
Still, she is safe at home with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, simple farmers.

Baum realized perhaps that the silver issue had been lost, but that silver
was not the crucial issue anyway. The Populists had been led astray -- the
real question was that of power. With the Wizard of Oz dethroned, the
Scarecrow (farmers) rules Emerald City, the Tin Woodsman (industrial workers)
rules in the East and the Lion (Bryan) protects smaller beasts in “a small
old forest.” In Baum’s vision farm interests gain political power, industry
moves West, and Bryan, perhaps, returns to Congress.

Baud’s characters resonated with American popular culture at the turn of the
century. He even displayed an early sympathy for American Indians of the
plains, symbolized in the story by the Winged Monkeys in the West, whose
leader tells Dorothy, “Once... we were a free people, living happily in the
great forest... This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the
clouds to rule over the land.”

Dreier is a professor of politics of Occidental College in Los Angeles

Those Who Don't Study History

Are Doomed to Repeat It. A President who by his own admission does not read will not study history. This is excerpted from an essay at exampleessays.com that turned up when I Googled "American Populist".

American Populist Movement And Progressive Era

Throughout history civilizations have been faced with tumultuous times and revolutionary transitions that call for the revamping of long standing tradition and policy. Change is not always attained with a smooth transition; often it takes the work and sacrifice of many to achieve progress. Within America’s brief but complex history, reform has been a recurring theme that surfaces during times of economic adversity and political dissatisfaction. The latter part of the 19th century carrying into the first quarter of the 20th century saw the emergence of the Populist movement and Progressive Era; these movements were a response to the changing climate in American society due to rapid industrialization, an ethnically diverse personality of a young nation, and birth of American imperialism. Disgruntled American farmers that wished to advance their economic position thwarted the Populist movement. Progressives pushed to improve urban labor conditions, dismantle trusts and monopolies, conserve of environment, and to install an active government. This era signaled the birth of the modern age, and the outcomes of these movements still linger within U.S policy today. To fully grasp the cause of the Populist and Progressive movemen

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Who Is Elite?

In college football the pundits are saying that the SEC is not the "elite" conference that it used to be. Then again the Pac-10, Big 10 and Big XII North are having difficulty filling out bowl spots, and the Big East should be stripped of its automatic BCS bowl berth if it sends 6-5 Syracuse. The ACC is pretty good, but the leaders, Miami, Florida State and Va Tech, have all lost to sub .500 teams.

Is it possible that college football has attained NFL style parity?

I was at the Cal vs. USC game and aside from Cal's kicking game it was one of the best played and coached football games I've seen in the 12 years I've been attending such things. I saw highlights of Texas vs. Oklahoma and those are two really good teams. Auburn looks legit, but so did Tennessee and Georgia at one point.

Should we move the non-conference games to the middle of the schedule and arrange them so that the better teams in conferences play each other?

After week 4 of the season schedule weeks 7-9 against the elite of other conferences. Texas and Cal would get to settle who deserves to have one loss. Auburn could play USC to see if the Tigers really have improved this year, and West Virginia could have been sacrificed to Oklahoma and the Big East wouldn't take up Texas' or Utah's spot in the BCS, or better yet playoffs.

December isn't that important academically, it's half winter break at most schools. March is much more important academically and basketball manages to find the time to host a six round tournament. All I'm asking for is three rounds. Keep the Holiday Bowls, Insight Bowls, and Silicon Valley Classics alive. They will become like the NIT is to the NCAA tournament. It's good sport and a postseason berth in the many years that your team isn't good enough to compete for a national championship.

Even a sudden death round would be better than the current system. If more than one BCS bowl winner has the same record (e.g. 12-0, 11-1), then send them to a neutral site to settle the score. If there's three, then the one with the highest BCS ranking gets a first round bye. It wouldn't happen every year, which would make it like the World Cup, but Americans would actually care about it.

You could select the neutral site each year at mid-season based upon the place least likely to send a team to the BCS series. Las Vegas comes to mind, as does the Pacific Northwest, or anywhere in Big XII North territory.

I oughta run college football.

Election Nostalgia

The 2004 ballots are still being counted, at least in Washington State, and already I'm nostalgic for the campaign season. There was so much hope, optimism, character assasination and mudslinging.

I didn't get a chance to print up T-shirts or bumperstickers that read "Fascists for Bush". Then again I don't know if I should be laughing since I live in a state that has an Austrian governor. It leads one to wonder if starring in commercially successful, but critically disdained movies would qualify one as a frustrated artist.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Football & Naked Women

They are the birthright of every man and the only reason to continue from week to week. If people can't handle the sight of a naked person, then they need to move somewhere far away and stop watching television. The rest of us here are human and normal.

Normal is not an abject fear of sex and nakedness. Normal is the ability to be at ease with naked people and open about the fact that you like to fornicate, desire sex to recreate, and need sex to procreate. Dolphins and primates are the only ones that have recreational sex, and we also have the biggest brains.

Maybe the people that get upset about naked breasts and women in towels are a little lower on the evolutionary ladder.

Maybe It Really Is the Cheese



A 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich a Florida woman says bears the image of the Virgin Mary was back on eBay after the Internet auction house initially canceled bids that went up to 22,000 dollars(EBAY-OFF)

If this is what the Red States are willing to pony up for religious cheese artifacts California and Wisconsin can bleed them dry.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

The Urban Archipelago

I say we elect the editors of The Stranger to office in 2006. Much of what they say is not Democratic, Progressive or Liberal as much as it is Anti-Federalist.

One thing the article does not mention is that the right wing is not conservative in any conventional sense of the word. Making "Conservative" an epithet is a good idea, but conservative implies that things would remain the same or go back to an earlier state. What the right wants now is outrageous and unprecedented. They are combining church and state, staging pre-emptive invasions, and trying to spend our tax dollars on "faith based initiatives".

The Federalists wanted a strong central government for, as Alexander Hamilton wrote, "The additional security which its adoption will afford to the preservation of that species of government, to liberty, and to property." The Federalists feared backwoods hicks and their dirty politics as much as we do and thought there was no way they could ever take over the Federal government, so the centralized power should be at the Federal level. Somewhere Alexander Hamilton is as pissed off as he's been since he last saw Aaron Burr.

The right wing wants to tear down Constitutional protections. They are dangerous, selfish radicals who need to be stopped. Stripping the Federal government of many of its overarching powers is essential in order to achieve the agenda presented in the article.

Local police can be ordered not to pursue casual drug users, but right now the Feds can send in the DEA clowns. Much of the spending of Federal HIGHWAY funds is dictated by the Federal government. The one funded by Halliburton, GM, and the pensions of former Enron employees.

The Federal government should not be able to threaten to cut highway subsidies if states won't toe the line and pass silly laws, like requiring that you be 21 to drink. It should be the states that produce revenue, and get little of it back like New York (the last state to raise the legal drinking age from 18 to 21), that dictate policy and tell the Fed that they will be short a whole lot of dollars if they get any urges to dictate local policy.

This can only be accomplished if we reform our tax code. Right now we are suffering taxation without representation. Your tax dollars and mine are buying bombs we don't support to drop them on people that we'd rather see alive. Taxes need to go through the states to the Fed. Let the red states try to pay for a $120 billion war with their farms in the other kind of red, and their abandoned factories. Maybe Singapore and India will pick up the tab with their outsourced jobs, or the companies that saved the money. . .wait they're based in cities.

It will require attacking the 16th ammendment straight on and probably passing another ammendment to remedy the overwhelming taxation power the Fed has been granted. It's tough, but it is also a rallying point and a platform plank. Take the power away from the armchair quarterbacks currently spending tax revenues from New York, California and Chicago to make sure nobody attacks Iowa or Wyoming. They have it coming if you look at the way they're dressed, but that's another issue.