discoveries from the internets and some stuff I wrote too
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recent quotes i like
"Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." - ? | | | | | | |
"If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice. " - shane claiborne | | | | | | |
"If Liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell ||||||
"On Facebook, no one can hear you scream." - I dont know ||||||
"The reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it." - Machiavelli ||||||
Chest of Drawers
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This chest of drawers is to replace the cheap stand (with no storage) that
was previously holding up our parrot's travel cage. She only lives with us
a few...
An important message from Consumer Reports
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This is our last post on Consumerist.com. We’re deeply proud of all the
work we’ve done on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by
secretive ...
My Milk Toof Travel Update
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*Dear International readers from Southeast France!*
ickle, Lardee & myself will be traveling around the southeast of France
area from 06/02-06/20. If anyo...
The Years Of Writing Dangerously
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Thirteen years ago, as I was starting to experiment with this blogging
thing, I wrote the following: [T]he speed with which an idea in your head
reaches th...
Saint Francis of Assisi
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… everyone who follows Christ receives true peace, the peace that Christ
alone can give, a peace which the world cannot give. Many people, when they
think ...
X-Factor Auditions, Part Two: The registration...
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Kind of creepy to be walking around White Plains at 4:30 in the morning. No
lights on, no cars, no people. I felt like I was in a zombie movie. And,
really...
Levi said on a national morning show the other day that he could easily unload some "huge secrets" that could ruin Sarah but that he chooses not to at this point. He did throw a couple small barbs her way like saying that Sarah would often make jokes about her "retarded baby" etc.
Sarah no likey - today she came out with her rebuttle - she asked why anyone would listen to someone who would "sell their body" just to get into the spotlight.
for your "well isn't that ironic" meter's enjoyment here we can view our uber-chaste ex Alaskan gov in action:
almost no one sings the entire thing - so - click below and you can see the FULL lyrics :)
actually it's not that hard to see why most performers don't sing the whole thing, it's a bit of a tougue twister even just reading it - let alone memorizing and singing it!
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more! Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
"We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States, We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States." Barack Obama
WSJ's Douglas Blackmon speaks with Charles McCain Jr. and his sister Mary McCain Fluker. The two are descendants of slaves held at the Mississippi plantation owned by the family of Sen. John McCain's great-great-grandfather. They discuss the legacy of the McCain name.
UPDATE: Mccain explains what a progressive tax is and why it is not Marxism - long ago, in 2000 (im sorry but given all the other factors i think mccain would have won if he went back to his 2000 self for the general election campaign):
The intellectual father of market capitalism:
The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. . . . The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. . . . It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion. - Adam Smith
the earned income tax credit ("EITC") that was enacted by Gerald Ford and then re-enacted and expanded in 1986 by...could it be, don't tell me, say it ain't so!...Ronald Reagan.
The EITC uses tax revenues (derived from our progressive tax system) to provide additional income to people below certain income levels under a formula so that it gradually phases out as incomes increases. Qualifying families receive a monthly check from the government.
So, Ronald Reagan was a redistributor. That must mean he was a socialist, even a communist. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/reagan-the-redistributor_b_138428.html
mccain seeks to buy up 300 billion dollars of private mortgages and take them under government control and one of the reasons for Palin's original popularity in alaska was her support for hiking taxes on the oil companies and distributing some of the money to citizens, who already each recieve a free check every year for thousands of dollars from the Alaskan governemnt due to the oil revenues made off of federally and state owned lands - and yet somehow they can tout these policies and at the same time make a case against obamas supposed communism in the same speech with a straight face - george orwell would be proud.
so, having failed to present obama as a radical christian (reverend wright), and then as a radical muslim (simply false), then as a radical hippy pentagon bomber (ayers - when obama was 8 years old), they have decided this week that he must be a communist.
none of these arguments are taking root because they obviously do not mesh with the obama so many people have heard and seen. he is obviously not a man of malice out to confuse or deceive the world into following him down one or another radical path - to our ruin and his fortune. it just ain't so. but try the mccain camp must because they made it this far and they are seeing their dream slip away under the weight of the last 8 years of republican but not conservative government, mccains own poor judgements and general air of befuddled consternation at why his embrace of the far right has left his former fans - the independent voter - alienated, and palin's sexy but hollow psuedo-patriotic jingoism and horrifying lack of preparedness to be president if mcain, the oldest man ever to run for president in the history of the united states might pass over during his administration. they see their dream of rescuing themselves from bush and cheney's arrogant disregard for the opinions of americans of all political stripes and so they are grasping at straws. you may not believe the polls that have obama so far ahead of mccain but it is obvious in the desperation of the mccain campaign in switching from theme to theme to theme in their attacks on obama that the mccain camp sees the their ship is sinking. hence the latest attempt to resurrect the red scare - communism - now dead for 18 years. But fear of commies worked so well for so long for the right, how could it not work again? and that is the fundamental problem with the mccain campaign, it is stuck on issues that were relevant and useful 20 years ago but that no longer resonate today. communism, hippie radicals, racism, fear - the republican party has tried to run a campaign that might have worked in 1984 but falls flat today. europe and japan and china are socialist, and their economies, currencies, banks, etc are better off than ours at the moment, bill cosby and oprah managed to become friends with almost every white american, everyone is tired of the baby boomers and their hippy/anti hippy teenage narrative that they are still trying to work out. their themes are dead. but the democrats have managed to shake off the redundant themes of the past 20 years - they have managed to become known as the party of fiscal responsibility (remember the massive clinton budget surplus?), a reasonable and limited foreign policy, a respect for the privacy and social freedoms of american's, a respect for the restraints of the constitution and finally:
From the moment he vaulted into national consciousness with his inspiring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, this theme has lain at the heart of his approach and his appeal. "We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States, We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States."It is a message of fundamental unity and good will, at a time when politics often resembles Henry Adams' mordant description: "the systematic organization of hatreds." - Steve Chapman
and in the words of another:
The selection of Palin as the vice-presidential candidate was guided by identity politics. McCain clearly believed that a female candidate would appeal to former Hillary voters. The sexism in that assumption is pretty staggering – and American women swiftly and mercifully proved McCain wrong. In fact, what has been striking about the reaction to Palin is that women, even in the first blush of the marketing, have always been much less impressed by her than men.
Then, as Palin ducked any real policy speeches, she became an identity politics figure for the white right. She went to the heartland, which she kept calling the “pro-America” part of the country. By the end of the campaign her message was almost entirely: “Vote for me. I’m like you. You’re like me. We’re better than other people.”
It wasn’t racist. It was just the reductio ad absurdum of political appeals based purely on cultural or ethnic identity.
The roles have reversed. The republican party is now the party of identity politics and the democratic party is now the Big Tent.
The guy who created these signs is named Clinton Slagle. He's got a confederate tattoo on his arm. He strolled into our headqtrs back during the primary looking for a sign, saying Obama was the only person who made any sense to him.... - Lisa Bocook and The Field.
The plot involves stranded Russian soldiers who's tank breaks down on Palin's front lawn and the four-eyed brunette lady of Alaska played by Lisa Anne.
If you were trapped in the Andes Mountains after a horrible plane crash and spent the weekend eating your fellow passengers in order to survive then you missed Colin Powell's endorsement of Senator Obama. It's kind of a big deal i guess, Powell being a former appointee of Bush the First, incredibly popular former Joint Cheif of Staff of the US military during the first Iraq war, Bush the Second's Secretary of State who told the UN all about the weapons of mass destruction that later turned out to be non-existent, an (until this weekend) darling of the right wing teevee and radio hosts, a registered Republican etc etc etc.
But there have been many other fairly influential conservatives who have been saying enough is enough is enough is enough and have decided that, for this election at least, to hit for the other team and have chosen to endorse Barack. Here is a shaort list of Republican and independent conservatives who have said they will NOT be voting for the Republican candidate this time around:
Michael Smerconish - "For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president. I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amid the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia. Five considerations have moved me:" "I've decided"
The libertarian former governor of Massachusetts William Weld said he's never endorsed a Democrat for president before, but in the last six weeks or so, it became "close to a no-brainer."
Chicago tribune - "The Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama Friday, marking the first time in the paper's 161-year history it has backed a Democrat for president."
William Randolph - "When I read something like this, it makes me realize: there are only so many times I can tell people that I'm a conservative, but not that kind of conservative before it becomes clear that I'm using the wrong word. Like all words, the meaning of “conservative” emerges from a complex communal process. It's not mine to control. So do I spend the next few years putting the word in dissociative quotation marks? Or do I just let it go free, knowing that if the word does not come back, then we were never meant to be together in the first place?"
It might be fun to try to keep the word for contrarian purposes, or just out of sheer stubbornness, but: what's the point?
US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008. By Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty.
In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg's focus group were "audibly snickering" at John McCain's grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to "Joe the Plumber." http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/10/undecideds_laughing_at_not_wit.html
just look pretty much anywhere on the web. still - i thought he did much better than previously - even tho i considered it a tie. and a tie is probably not enough to take away obama's 8-13 percentage point lead in the polls - depending on which poll you like.
He is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man looking to buy a plumbing business who came to symbolize the notion of "spreading the wealth" in Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.
Earlier this week, when Wurzelbacher got a chance to speak with Obama when the candidate visited Toledo, he told Obama that his tax plan would keep him from buying the business that currently employs him.
Sensing an opening in the debate, McCain cited that exchange when the candidates were asked to explain why their economic plans are better than their opponent's. McCain said Obama's plan would stop entrepreneurs from investing in new small businesses and keep existing ones from growing.
"Joe wants to buy the business that he has been in for all of these years, worked 10, 12 hours a day. And he wanted to buy the business but he looked at your tax plan and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes," McCain challenged Obama.
"You were going to put him in a higher tax bracket which was going to increase his taxes, which was going to cause him not to be able to employ people, which Joe was trying to realize the American dream," McCain said.
McCain then looked directly into the TV camera and said: "Joe, I want to tell you, I'll not only help you buy that business that you worked your whole life for and I'll keep your taxes low and I'll provide available and affordable health care for you and your employees. And I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income."
I did a write-up after the first debate. I skipped the second and let the Saturday night live video present my observations - but this last debate I took notes!
the first thing I noticed right of the bat was that there was a much friendlier and human style greeting, body language, words, and facial expressions than the last two debates.
I liked the format and the seating arrangement and the moderator much better than the last two. prefer the ability for them to have more than one response and rebuttal - more like a conversation. much better questions, more detailed and a bit harder to answer than some of the fluff questions from the other debates. moderator feels more confident speaking up. I like that they show both candidates faces as the answers are given.
as for the dial for the undecided to show their approval or disapproval (yes I watched on cnn all three debates) - are there really THAT many truly undecided folks out there at this point? and if they are undecided why? are they simply uninformed because they haven't thought about the upcoming election yet? and if that is the case do their reactions matter all that much to us at home?
repeat of the tax argument from every other debate. obama = taxes on exxon and corporations and cuts for the other 95% of the country. mccain = tax cuts for businesses will encourage business and boost the economy. heard this before in the other debates. in fact heard this since 1980. speaking of which mccain does try to add the classic class warfare response.
obama emphasizing future - future business owners, future technologies and future trade issues thru long term education etc.
mcain keeps saying nuclear - which obama does not oppose. obama formerly did oppose offshore drilling increases but re-evaluated and changed his mind.
spending freeze still baffles me.
tax increases for the rich and corporations during a depression is unheard of AND spending freeze is also unheard of - Hoover increased taxes and Roosevelt increased spending (on a lot of cool projects mind you - Tennessee valley river authority - forestation, dust bowl recovery efforts, they weren't all in vain. there are places you can drive around today where you can see all the old giant trees in a forest all lined up in neat little rows, thanks to the increased spending. however - I don't think that it IS an either or situation. reduce inefficiency and waste in the government and collect that 10-20 billion PER MONTH we are spending for Iraq and there goes most if not all of the budget deficit.
senator mccain's face looks different - tanner and tighter?. but also much better for mcain for them to be seated close to each other rather than standing facing the audience (1st debate mccain made no eye contact with obama and the town hall where mcain seemed to wander about too much. mcain is looking at obama and the camera and the moderator much more than in the past debates and seems much more comfortable this time. obama continues to make more face to face eye contact with both mccain and the moderator. when mcain is talking obama looks and listens to mccain. when the moderator is speaking obama looks at the moderator. when obama answers he looks at the camera. still struck by the fact that mcain is doing much better than the last two times. mccain is much more alert and connected to the debate - as evidenced by his correcting the moderators about climate control (air conditioning) and climate change. maybe others will say it was inappropriate but it was a good catch I think.
"if you wanted to run against bush you should have run 4 years ago" good one, good one.
dial not responding to obama as well as it did in the past two debates
mcain did oppose the republican party on a lot of issues - but that is mostly the old mcain not the new mccain we have seen in the last 8 years after he lost to bush, precisely for that very fact - that he opposed his own party.
mccain wanted 10 debates? I'm tired already after 3!
it is fair to question why palin and mccain did not speak up when people at their rallies called out terrorist and kill him. I think that the video from those events have hurt mccain and palin allot and if they would have spoken out they could have taken the moral high ground
I'm glad ayers came up. I think obama needs to explain that - and needs to explain who else has "palled around" with ayers. annenberg and other republicans. and how about the palins and their associations with the anti American Alaska independence party. that would have been a great follow up question.
I have never heard the word "scranton" more in my life than in the last two months - actually ever since clinton talked about learning to shoot a gun up there in the primaries. why is scranton some sort of "perfect America"? I've been to scranton when I was in the monastery up that way, I'm sorry, it sucks. AND I'm tired of them throwing out special needs children as much as I am tired of them throwing out the word scranton.
I think allot of people would have liked to see Iraq divided into three countries - sunni shia and kurdish - and then us get the heck out. not sure mccain scored any real points on that one.
I do like mccain's point that there is a difference between Canadian oil, Venezuelan oil, and Saudi oil.
my sexism in paying more attention to the male dial thingy much more than the female one. I think this is due to three factors - females are stereotypical "supposed" to be democrats. 2 the male dial moves up and down much less. 3 - my own simple sexism.
another observation about the dial - mcain gets good responses with shorter answers. the more he talks he tends to droop off. obama initially takes a dip many of the times when he starts to speak but the longer he speaks the higher his dials go - topping out many times when he finishes his longest answers.
"do you support controlling health care costs?" -this is more like the older debate's questions - a softball -- both candidates HAVE to say yes, and who wouldn't?
obama will cut your families per-year health care PREMIUM by 2500 dollars? that seems a bit of hyperbole. prevention and better efficiency is the key to being able to extend health care to all Americans - which I have finally decided is a right - and if it isn't - it should be. something that could be brought up is that medicine continues to develop scientifically at a very rapid pace - making cancer and aids and genetically inherited diseases much cheaper and easier to deal with so science and development - especially genetic - will end up lowering long term costs.
the uninsured who go to the emergency room ARE the reason your aspirin costs 20 dollars at the hospital. I was uninsured and I had to go the charity care route two times in the last five years. between the two of those hospitalizations the cost was probably 4 or 5 thousand dollars in the end between the two. charity care covered most of that - which means nothing other than the cost gets shifted to everybody else who has insurance. and the rest that was not able to be covered by charity care. that went onto my bankruptcy - which means that - in the end it got routed back to the insured as well. I cant get my tooth fixed or run to the doctor when I have diarrhea for a week or whatever - but the hospital cannot legally turn you away in an emergency. therefore - the currently insured pay higher premiums because I had NO insurance. and I am not an anomaly. I represent a huge percentage of the American population.
O. lord - roe-vs-wade, I think people are so tired of this issue - even though it is such an emotional issue - I think the passions on both sides are fading. again - scranton, special needs, abortion. 30 plus years of this issue - I am tired of it being THE pro-life issue - some are pro-life before you exit the womb but could care less about your life after you exit the womb. I don't honestly believe that ANYONE is pro abortion. the question is how do you best minimize abortions? abortions took place well before roe V. wade, even back to the times of the early roman empire abortions were performed. and they would continue to be performed if roe V. wade were overturned. what, in the end, will make the number of abortions lowest? I think reasonable sex education and the availability of contraceptives makes abortion much less likely.
did obama really need to segue from abortion into equal pay? yes they are "women's" issues - but that wasn't really the answer to the question.
from everything I have read this is where the majority of Americans have settled on the abortion question - America wants a time limit on abortions and do not support partial birth abortions, and they also want an exception for the life of the mother, rape and incest. and both extremes tend to ignore what the American people seem to have already decided.
I totally lost interest in the education debate. I must admit.
closing statements. mccain tries to distance himself from the republican party. wants to freeze spending but also simultaneously expand all sorts of programs (special needs kids, education, buy up mortgages?) otherwise a very good wrap up speech!
obama - change. and he is the stronger change candidate since he is not of the party that has run Washington the last 8 years - and which only 10 % think have us on the right track at present. mccain has tried to co-opt that slogan and I don't think it flies as well for him. but obamas ending speech was rather weak.
end analysis - mcain went back towards the old mcain people liked in 2000, he was much more comfortable and much more eloquent than in the last two debates. I think he may have decided to stop listening to all of his advisers and just be himself and it worked well. everyone is much more huggy-love this time around. mccain did better but I would still call this a tie. perhaps mcain will regain a couple of the points he lost over the course of the last debate but again, I think by this point most folks have already made up their minds and if that is true than obama will do what he did to the clintons, he will start out slow and then in the end cruise past them and take the prize. we shall see November 4th.
going to type this up now and transfer it to the blog - THEN I'm gonna go see what everyone else thot and whether I'm in touch or completely out of touch.
