Archive for
July, 2005
July 31st, 2005
Well, the War on Terror is over.
Well, actually, it’s just been renamed.
“Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism.” Nifty, ain’t it?
I’m sure that the Bush Administration doesn’t think anyone will notice and probably most of the sheep following blindly won’t notice.
I never thought they should have been calling it a war in the first place. A war suggests soldiers marching honorably off to war with women keeping the homefires burning. It suggests defined battlegrounds and strategies and even a defined enemy, generally having a central location so that we can eventually march in with great glory and free the
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Tags: War on Terror, terrorism
July 31st, 2005
Remember 10 days ago when I thought that second London Bombing attempt was a copycat?
This article appeared on CNN.com today. Apparently they’ve arrested one of the July 21rst attempted “bombers” in Italy and he claims that is was an act of protest against London’s participation in the War on Iraq and seems to indicate that he never intended for anyone to die.
Hussain Osman, who is also known as Hamdi Issac, said the four men who partially detonated backpack bombs before running from their targets on July 21 were not
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Tags: CNN, London bombing, terrorism, anti-war, protest
July 31st, 2005
You know the old saying about your mother telling you to always wear clean underwear in case you’re ever in an accident?
I think I can expand on that.
Always keep the state of your life in the order you’d want it in just in case you’re ever in an accident and aren’t capable of handling it otherwise.
What I mean is — I was so depressed that I let my apartment go pretty bad prior to the accident. The Effexor was just starting to catch on when I had that toxic reaction and then the car accident. Now I’m
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Tags: Effexor, depression
July 30th, 2005
I’ve been seeing those commercials for that movie about the 40 year old guy who’s a virgin and I got to thinking about this. If you meet someone over the age of 25 who claims he or she is a virgin, would you:
A.) Assume it’s a lie?
B.) Think there’s something mentally wrong with the person?
C.) Think he or she must be a Bible Thumper?
D. ) Simply be very surprised?
E.) None — please list in comments.
Tags: none
July 30th, 2005
- I’ve just realized I use my left arm and back quite a bit in folding clothes, even when I’m sitting.
- The canvas baskets I bought yesterday don’t fit under the coffee table like I’d hoped so I could hide the clutter from my non-existent guests.
- I want some Afghan food but don’t want to drive to Portland to get it.
- I would pay someone $100 to clean my kitchen.
- Shaun of the Dead wasn’t as dumb as I thought it was going to be, but I probably won’t watch it on purpose again.
- I sometimes worry that I’m too self-involved.
- I’ve got too many clothes and
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Tags: discombobulated
July 30th, 2005
Remember how excited we were when we went into Afghanistan and brought rights to women, made it possible for little girls to go to school, and women to vote. I think Bush might have bragged as much about how glorious it was to stop the religious control of women that the Taliban had as he over-related everything to 9/11.
And yet…the same cannot be said to be true of the conditions in Iraq, though Bush certainly made a big deal about women voting in Iraq and the number of women elected to office.
Here’s a little history lesson for you: In
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Tags: Iraq, Women's Rights, Islam
July 30th, 2005
Found this at In Search of Utopia who found it at iFlip-Flop. As David so eloquently points out, there is hypocricy in the fact lack of coverage for this particular story of this particular pregnant missing mother of one, who, while apparently quite beautiful, is not the usual blonde, anglo-saxon type that the media likes to flash on television screens and front page newspapers. This woman deserves as much media attention as Lacy Peterson and the young woman who went missing in Aruba.
I copied Howard’s post directly from Philly Future, where he started this
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Tags: Latoyia Figueroa, missing persons, Natalee Halloway, Lacy Peterson, CNN
July 30th, 2005
Am I the only one continuously frustrated by the fact that the code for web rings or icons representing the things you support do not come in valid xhtml? I spend more time trying to correct their code than my own code.
Tags: blogs
July 29th, 2005
I fought it from the beginning. I refused to watch it because “everyone” in my social circle was talking about it and usually they tend to talk things to death. El for example ruined several shows for me because she obsessed over them and after a while, I started telling Peter I wasn’t watching Xena because I wanted to talk about real life.
Up here in the artic, I have peace and quiet and my curiousity got the best of me.
I admit it. Though I’ve only seen two episodes, I love Firefly. It’s the first time in a
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Tags: none
July 29th, 2005
If you get the chance, check out Scott-O-Rama’s Proud To Be An American? post from yesterday. I must say I feel his anger and disappointment in the current state of a country we were raised to believe was the best country in the world. It’s hard to be proud when you feel you should appologize to the world just for being an American.
In the United States, we are taught from a very early age that the U.S.A. is the greatest country in the world. We learn about other cultures that don’t have the freedoms that
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Tags: blogs, propaganda, patriotism
July 29th, 2005
I found the following on The Daily Blatt. This is a news story that has deeply bothered me for days — enough to make me speachless, even with my fingers. I cannot even begin to express in words the horror and sadness and dispair for humanity I feel when I hear stories such as this. I don’t know why every story like this seems to surprise me at the depravity and hatred and fear of “civilized humans”.
I Saw the News Today by Loyal F Ramsey
On the screen the words read
A FATHER BEAT his 3 year old
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Tags: stupidity, evil, blogs
July 29th, 2005
From The Guardian in the UK:
Brazilian did not wear bulky jacketJean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said that the first reports of how her 27-year-old cousin had come to be killed in mistake for a suicide bomber on Friday at Stockwell tube station were wrong.
“He used a travel card,” she said.
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Tags: Jean Charles de Menezes, London, Terrorists, Conspiracy Theories, innocent
July 29th, 2005
A long time ago, in a city far far away, I had a writing circle where I encouraged the group to write five sentences that could be the first sentences of a story or novel. The intent is to draw readers in, to make them want to know more. The first sentence of short stories and novels and articles should grab the read and make them unable to close the book and toss it away.
So, I’m going to start trying to do this once a week on Fridays from now on to get myself back into the groove
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Tags: writing, Friday Five 1rst Sentences
July 29th, 2005
Well, I went and met with the Physical Therapist and had a chat. He went on and on about how he could work with me on some theraputic stuff but in the end, it won’t help cure anything faster — it’ll just help ease the pain temporarily. Thinking back to the year I spent going to the chiropractor for 3 times a week to help my migraines (which it didn’t), I asked him if this is like if you get a cold and take cold medicine, the cold will go away in 14 days but if you don’t
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Tags: physical therapy, wellness, car accident
July 28th, 2005
I have killed two plants since coming to work here. One was a slow painful death and the other seemed to commit suicide quite quickly.
So imagine my surprise when someone going on vacation for 2 weeks asked me to water her plant.
I can’t decide if she’s just oblivious or if she hates her plant…
Tags: none
July 28th, 2005
Found this at Think Progress. It’s amazing how different the two men are; certainly the current President hasn’t been listening to his father’s advice — war in Iraq would be a quagmire, leakers are traitors…I wasn’t always happy with Bush Sr.’s policies, but I had great respect for the man. Too bad the apple fell from the tree and rolled down into a ditch with the rest of the rotten apples.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH: “I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my
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Tags: George H. W. Bush
July 28th, 2005
Found the Following at Preemptive Karma and thought it was definitely a question worth passing on. Like PK, I’d like to know your own thoughts…leave me a note in the comment section.
Brian Keegan at Centerfield lays out a worthy query:
If it’s better for the states to decide than the feds, isn’t it even better to let each and every person in each of the different states make their own choices on matters of controversy, thus avoiding the bitter battles engendered by all sorts of governmental “one size fits all” pronouncements?
As for me and my opinion, I
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Tags: politics
July 28th, 2005
Tags: none
July 27th, 2005
I remember when the term “Gamer” meant a person, usually a geek, most often male, who spent his or her weekend nights in the basement of someone’s house with the lights dim and the well-worn, over-used game books piled about in various stages of open-ness. Dice bags and character sheets were peeking from under pizza boxes and empty soda and beer cans.
I’m always so confused now when someone refers to him- or herself as a “Gamer” because it could be anything but mostly, it turns out, it has to do with XBoxes, Multi-user online games, and joysticks and controllers.
And
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Tags: none
July 26th, 2005
Well, I found one. Email from the company assures me that the laptop shelf and other shelves could be adjusted all the way to the floor if I wanted — I’m sure my cats will be pleased.
Now I just need to wait to be paid back for the repairs to my car and my medical bills from that insurance company…though I bet this laptop desk would help with some of the back pain resulting from too high a laptop.
Tags: none
