Archive for the Featured category
July 19th, 2006
I’m not a big fan of Secretary of State Condi Rice. That’s no secret. However, I do give props when they are deserved and I must say that I was quite stunned when I read this morning that she had made the decision to waive the transportation fee to Americans evacuating from Lebanon. Kudos to her!
I will add a comment that a number of bloggers were blaming the Republicans solely for the transportation fee in the first place, but a little research does reveal that while “un-fucking-believable,” it is apparently a leftover U.S. policy from a
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Tags: Lebanon, U.S. Embassy, CNN, Condi Rice
July 19th, 2006
Remember when Right-wingers used to make the argument that the war was justifiable because of all of those people Saddam had killed? Remember how the death toll under all of those years under Saddam was much worse than anything we could do?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — More than 14,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in the first half of this year, an ominous figure reflecting the fact that “killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread” in the war-torn country, a United Nations report says.
Killings of civilians are on “an upward trend,” with more than 5,800 deaths and more than 5,700
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Tags: Iraq, Saddam Hussein, death toll
July 19th, 2006
Apparently our military is feeling a bit uncomfortable with the Wiccan Pentacle and has been a bit slow to approve it for placement on military grave markers (9 years and still counting). It’s o.k. to serve and die as a Wiccan but don’t expect the same respect as Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and atheists in death.
At the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the small town of Fernley, Nev., there is a wall of brass plaques for local heroes. But one space is blank. There is no memorial for Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart.
That’s because Stewart was a Wiccan,
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Tags: Faith, Wiccan, Freedom of Religion
July 19th, 2006
It’s very, very difficult to be the kind of paranoid truth-seeker I am and actually know something really, really big and not tell anyone for almost a year. The most I did was say “I know something I’m not supposed to know and I can’t say what it is.”
The truth is that I promised a very good friend when he told me not to print it here on this website or any website, for that matter, until it was a matter of public record. In fact, I still know more facts than have been in the news so
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Tags: murder, euthanasia, Hurricane Katrina, Memorial Hospital, Times-Picayune
July 18th, 2006
Bet you thought I forgot about this…
So, the morning after the family picnic, English, PW, and I got up incredibly early — like so early people in the States probably hadn’t gone to bed yet. Our plan was to catch an extremely early train out of Woking to London Victoria Station where were would meet up with our tour for the day: Bards & Battles!
As you can see, at 6:00am on a Sunday morning, Woking’s train station is pretty dead.
However, somewhere between Woking and Victoria
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Tags: UK, Woking, London, Victoria Station, World Cup, astral tours, Oxford, Harry Potter, Christopher Wren
July 17th, 2006
Un-fucking-believable!
The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur. We will also work with commercial aircraft to ensure that they have adequate flights to help you
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Tags: Lebanon, Israel, U.S. Embassy, Beirut
July 12th, 2006
Well, the first sign of any trouble occurred when I reached the Boston airport. Somewhere between the bus from Portland and security, I lost my nifty really soft travel pillow. Logan airport’s security and Lost and found were extremely unhelpful and rude and ended up giving me a long distance number to call, which I’ve since lost. Hard to believe that lost and found is a long distance phone number.
So, my first expense on the trip was at the Logan airport buying a new one at the Brookstone kiosk (and they wouldn’t give me a discount for loyalty
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Tags: UK, Brookstone, Aer Lingus, Logan Airport, fibromyalgia
June 7th, 2006
The United States has more people in prison than any other country. We’re in debt nearly 9 trillion dollars. We have the second worst newborn death rate in the modern world. 2/3rds of young Americans can’t find Iraq on a map. The dollar is falling, falling, falling. Iraq is a mess. Our 15 year olds rank 24 out of 38 in mathematics and 26 of 38 in problem solving. We’re the fattest nation in the world! Hello, Iran? The number of uninsured Americans continues to rise. We haven’t found Osama bin Laden.. and yet,Congress is focusing its power and efforts on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Seriously?
And you wonder why the vast majority of Americans disapprove of the job you’re doing. [“Dear Congress” (Audacity)]
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Tags: Congress, Iraq, Gay Rights, Iran, Osama bin Laden, national debt, stupid
June 5th, 2006
According to a new 379-page report released yesterday, women “now earn the majority of diplomas in fields men used to dominate — from biology to business — and have caught up in pursuit of law, medicine, and other advanced degrees.”
Federal statistics released yesterday show women now also earn the majority of bachelor’s degrees in business, history, and biological and social sciences . The same is true for traditional strongholds such as education and psychology.
And in disciplines where women trail men, they are gaining ground, earning larger numbers of degrees in math, physical sciences, and agriculture. [“Degreewise, women
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Tags: Women's Rights
May 31st, 2006
Every day we here in America are bombarded with the news that more Iraqis and Americans have been killed. Usually we’re just given a number, a total dead for the day.
37. 12. 53.
If one of the American soldiers happened to be local, in a few days, we might hear his or her name on the radio and television as well as the unit he or she served in.
But over here, we never hear the names of the Iraqis.
I kind of get the feeling that for the most part, Americans don’t really get that the Iraqis are actual
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Tags: blogs, Iraq
May 30th, 2006
Over the weekend my mom and I got on the subject of politics. That doesn’t really happen often. Usually if I’m going to chat politics with anyone it’s my dad. It’s not that I don’t think my mom knows anything about politics, it’s just that I think she tends to be more of a follower and less of a thinker. She’s definitely a liberal but she’s more of a follow-the-leader liberal though she doesn’t know it. She scoffed at my grandmother’s follow-the-leader Republicanism but she does tend to say “Well your father thinks…” more than
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Tags: vote, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, politics, Green Party, Patriot Act
May 26th, 2006
Remember after Hurricane Katrina when the rescue teams were trying to get people to leave their homes where their was no electricity or water and it was actually dangerous for people to stay due to toxins in the air and flooding water and decaying wildlife? One of the problems that rescue teams had was that people refused to abandon their pets, something many people across the nation completely understood, because for many of us a pet is another family member, for some of us like me pets are our children. No one would have expected those people to abandon their
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Tags: PETS, S 2528, HR 3858
May 12th, 2006
AT&T
Regulatory Executive Offices
140 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco CA 94105
800-791-6661
Verizon Ethics Line
800-856-1885
NSA Public and Media Affairs
Phone: (301) 688-6524
Fax: (301) 688-6198
E-mail: nsapao@nsa.gov
If you have any more contact numbers, add them to the comments.
Hat tip: Suburban Guerrilla.
Tags: spying on Americans, AT&T, Verizon, NSA
May 10th, 2006
How does this happen? Where do children even get the idea to do this this sort of thing? WTF are people teaching their kids today?
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) — Twelve boys in the first and second grade at a St. Louis elementary school are accused of sexually assaulting a second-grade girl during recess, authorities said Tuesday.
One teacher who was supposed to be supervising the recess has been fired, and another suspended with pay, school superintendent Creg Williams said. Ten of the boys, ages 6 to 8, were suspended for the rest of the school year, and the other
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Tags: sexual assault, children
May 9th, 2006
British government scientific advisers informed health ministers yesterday that patients undergoing routine dental work for root canal issues may have been exposed to the human form of BSE (commonly known as Mad Cow Disease or vCJD) because instruments had previously been used on patients a;ready unwittingly carrying the incurable disease. Approximately 3 million such treatments are done every year in England and Wales and the health ministers were instructed to consider banning the reuse of the equipement needed due to “hypothetical but plausible scenarios.”
Seac, the independent expert committee on BSE and variant CJD, claims that sufficient decontamination is difficult to
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Tags: Mad Cow Disease, UK, vCJD, BSE
May 9th, 2006
With all the hoopla over The Da Vinci Code movie coming out this month and the mainstream media and blogosphere reporting on the Teen “Virginity Pledges”, I have to admit I’ve been pondering the big questions about religion and faith and “The Christian Church”.
Mostly, I’ve been wondering what the big deal about virginity is. (As the World’s Oldest Virgin, I have the right to wonder.)
O.K. I get that Jesus’ birth was a miracle virgin birth signifying that only God himself could have actually impregnated Mary. I see where that is significant.
But what I don’t get is this big hang up by the Christian Church on Jesus’ virginity. Why is it so vital to their Faith that he be virginally chaste for 30+ years?
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Tags: Christian Church, Virginity Pledges, Jesus, Da Vinci Code, virgin, Faith, religion
May 3rd, 2006
Well, I’m absolutely fascinated by the fact that the Main Stream Media doesn’t appear to be reporting anything about the fact that Ohio’s Primaries yesterday had major issues with the voting machines.
Akron’s NewsNet5.com reported that a judge ordered the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to keep the Garden Valley Neighborhood House polling location open until 9:30 p.m. when poll workers had trouble setting up equipment in the morning, which meant that that the polling place didn’t actually open until 1:30 p.m for voting. (Remember, Cuyahoga’s Board of Elections is under investigation for voting fraud from the 2004 elections.)
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Tags: Ohio, Voting Irregularities, vote, politics
May 2nd, 2006
This is a very long exerpt from an article written by Charlie Savage in the Boston Globe, but it’s well worth the time.
WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ”whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political
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Tags: George W. Bush, Congress, Boston Globe, The U.S. Constitution
May 2nd, 2006
Jacob Hornberger, founder of The Future of Freedom Foundation, wrote an excellent commentary on April 26th and I wanted to share part of it:
… we now live in a nation in which the president has the omnipotent power to ignore all constitutional restraints on his power. That might not be the way the president and his legal advisors put it, but that is the practical effect of what they are saying to justify his powers. They effectively claim that the Constitution vests the president — as military commander in chief during the “war on terrorism” — with such extraordinary
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Tags: Democracy, dictatorship, George W. Bush, The Future of Freedom Foundation, Freedoms, 9/11
