Archive for
July, 2006
July 31st, 2006
Well, holy crap. This is exactly what I’ve been talking about. This is what I’ve said was coming. And don’t give me that crap about “if you’re innocent, you have nothing to fear”. This is the kind of legislation meant to be abused. This legislation is not what America is supposed to be about. This is the kind of thing that leads to people disappearing from their homes in the middle of the night and no one hearing from them again because of something they accidently said on their cell phone or typed in
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Tags: detention centers, Police State, politics, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales
July 31st, 2006
Today is Day 20 of the “Crisis in the Middle East”.
Do you know how many days it’s been since the U.S. invaded Iraq?
According to Frank Rich in yesterday’s New York Times, yesterday was Day 1,229, making today a nice even 1,230.
According to CNN, “there have been 2,802 coalition deaths, 2,576 Americans, two Australians, 114 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of July 31, 2006.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Baghdad, American soldiers, New York Times, ABC, Fox News, NBC, Nouri al-Maliki, Frank Rich
July 31st, 2006
O.K. This is interesting.
I’ve always recommened The Gradual Vegetarian for anyone interested in becoming a vegetarian. It’s an excellent book and I wish I’d had it when I tried the whole 100% Vegetarian lifestyle thing cold turkey (so to speak) back in the early to mid-90’s when it was almost impossible to find good meat substitutes in regular grocery stores and health food stores were hidden away in secret parts of town like Diagon Alley.
Really now
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Tags: free, vegetarian, animal rights
July 31st, 2006
With everything going on in the world, I needed some silly news. Thankfully, Maine was willing to comply.
GORHAM — Forgive some young Australian rugby players if they’re having a bad day. Their coveted world record apparently has fallen. The new record setters - all 1,489 of them - gathered Sunday, on the final afternoon of an annual summer festival, in front of Town Hall in Gorham. When an official gave the word over the public-address system, everybody put on their Groucho Marx disguises, each one complete with trademark glasses,
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Tags: Gohram, Maine, Groucho Marx, World Record
July 29th, 2006
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Tags: Quote of the Day, Martin Luther King Jr.
July 28th, 2006
Secretary of State Condi Rice’s prediction of a “New Middle East” may have been dead on, but I don’t think what’s happening over there now is what the White House and Israel had in mind. As a result of the US’s refusal to publically support any call for any sort of cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and in fact, the US’s apparently brazen and seemingly hypocritical encouragement of Israel to bomb the hell out of a weaker country on the very verge of the kind of democracy the US supposedly promotes, the U.S. and Israel may have finally done
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Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Egypt, Arab governments, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Sunnis, President Hosni Mubarak, Iran, al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri, Palestine, Condi Rice, Shiiti, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, King Abdullah II of Jordan
July 28th, 2006
Vindicated at last! Pardon me while I recharge my Starbucks card.
(HealthDay News) — Your morning cup of java may be one of the healthiest beverages in your diet, as more studies show the health benefits of coffee.
Two cups a day of coffee may promote heart health, decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes, and reduce leg pain related to exercise in many people, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Researchers have also been investigating the possibility that coffee could protect against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The beverage is one of the richest sources of antioxidants in the
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Tags: coffee, wellness
July 28th, 2006
Georgia Stillwell is a member of Military Families Speak Out and the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq. She’s active in organizations working for peace and to bring her son and our military home from Iraq.
Below is are her amazing thoughts as presented on Stories in America: (emphasis mine)
Distracted, damn right I am!
When I returned home from my trip to Washington DC. Where I met with various Senators, Representatives and the Speaker of the House as part of Military Families Speak Out Operation House Call, I received a
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Tags: American soldiers, Iraq, Military Families Speak Out, Georgia Stillwell, Gold Star Mothers, politics
July 27th, 2006
Mother Jones has a long list of statistics show how the poor keep getting poorer. Here are some of their article points:
- 1 in 4 U.S. jobs pay less than a poverty-level income.
- Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has steadily risen. Now 13% of all Americans—37 million—are officially poor.
- Bush’s tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those earning $1 million are saved $42,700.
- In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) compared those who point out statistics such as the one above
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Tags: economics
July 27th, 2006
Did you know that the U.S. Postal Service will provide Priority Mail shipping supplies for customers sending packages to U.S. military personnel overseas?
To obtain a free kit of shipping supplies,
- call the USPS packing supplies order line @ 1-800-610-8734
- select option #1 (”Express Mail, Priority Mail or Global Express Guaranteed products”)
- ask a customer service agent for CAREKIT04 (or a “military kit”)
You need supply only your name, address, and phone number, and they’ll get a kit off to you that should arrive within 7-10 days.
Please note that you still have to pay for the shipping costs yourself.
Check out USPS’ “Supporting Our Troops”
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Tags: none
July 27th, 2006
This is really a fascinating find. Read all the way to the bottom though and tell me if you don’t get a chill down your spine at the odd timeliness of the find and the possible message that no one else seemed to catch.
LONDON, July 26 — Ireland’s National Museum said on Wednesday that a 1,200-year-old Book of Psalms found last week by a construction worker in a bog was so archaeologically significant that it could be called an “Irish equivalent to the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
[…]
“In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as fragile
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Tags: Israel, Ireland, Psalms 83
July 27th, 2006
“Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It’s the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then–we elected them.”
–Lily Tomlin
Tags: Quote of the Day, Lily Tomlin
July 26th, 2006
- The Godless West — The (liberal)Girl Next Door has a post about the religious breakdown of the U.S. based on a map that appeared in USA Today. It’s kind of a surprise actually.
It’s interesting to see the geographical differences, Lutherans in the North, Baptists in the South, Catholics in the Northeast and a bunch of non-religious folks out West. What I found most interesting though is that no-religion places in the top three in just about every state while Evangelicals, if they rank at all, top out at 2%. How is it that such a small minority has so much influence on our government?
- It’s Official, We’re All Living in A Kafka Novel — The All Spin Zone points to an article that originally appeared on The Denver Channel about how Air Marshalls have quotas to make and they’ve been adding people to watch lists for doing things like taking photos on airplanes. You can also read about it at Pam’s House Blend. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: politics, Air Marshals, religion, American Bar Association, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon
July 26th, 2006
O.K. This is too funny.
I’ve decided to go back to the stained glass studio once a week. It’d be good for me to get out of the house and all, etc…blah blah blah. However, that’d be an excessively long day for Pugly to be cooped up in the crate with me at work and then in the studio. So…I’d heard good things about this doggie daycare place from another Doggie Mom at Puppy Playgroup. She also has one really long day and wanted to get her puppy out of the house to use some of that pent up energy. Well,
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Tags: doggie daycare
July 26th, 2006
No one has yet been able to explain to me why the most powerful, best equipped, and best-trained military needs us to clap real hard for them to win. They are our United States Armed Forces, not tinkerbell. If their morale can’t withstand criticism Don Rumsfeld or the Generals in charge, then we have all sorely misjudged them.
– J. Williams
Tags: Quote of the Day, American soldiers
July 25th, 2006
I don’t weight loss blog anymore and my partner in crime for my NTAG blog and I are still debating what we want to do with the site since our combined opinions on pre-packaged weight loss programs are changing, but I did want to take a moment to recognize a milestone I’ve reached in my life.
Back in November, 2001, I officially began Weight Watchers at 186.6 lbs and over the next year and some I lost 60 lbs. Since then and mostly since moving to Maine, I’ve gained all of that back plus 20 lbs.
Starting mid-December I promised my doctor
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Tags: Weight Watchers, weight loss
July 25th, 2006
J: Really, you have nothing to worry about. Those kinds of surgeries are done every day and everything’s fine. It’s like when you had LASIK.
Me: LASIK? Do you actually remember when I had LASIK?
J: um….
Me: There was all this pain? Most painful thing I did to myself on purpose? There was a problem with the surgery done on my right eye? I had to have the surgery redone 6 months later? The recovery was longer than everyone else?
J: Um… oh, yeah. Never mind. This will be better.
Me: Great now
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Tags: gallbladder surgery, LASIK
July 25th, 2006
History has shown us, that strength may be useless when faced with terrorism.
– Captain Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Higher Ground”
Tags: Quote of the Day, Picard, Star Trek
