|
Dissolve into Evergreens
|
||||
|
Obama At House Republican Retreat In Baltimore: FU... AIG Loses Exec, Wins TARP Comp Ruling - Regulatory... Man v. Nature Spicy Predictable Consequences not why, but why not Tea Party Zombies Squishy Mice Pumpkin Star Trek Pumpkin Star Trek Follow Up Justin Oldham - Politics and Patriotism
Wilco The Flaming Lips The New Radicals John Mayer Zero 7 Dream Theater Radiohead Death Cab for Cutie The Notwist O.S.I. Ani Difranco The Shins Elliott Smith Badly Drawn Boy Chroma Key Coheed and Cambria The Streets Andrew Bird Sufjan Stevens Atom Site Feed 
|
4.29.2004
Waving the Myth in my face I'm going to take a few minutes to write about my feelings on the military. First of all. I don't fight. I hate confrontation. I'll stand up for myself and fight for what I want but I never pick a fight where I don't have to. This is in contrast to some that love conflict and thrive on it. Second, I think most people get it mostly right. The soldiers that serve in the military do represent our country and should represent our interests. They are there putting their lives on the line to "defend" us. I put that word in parenthesis for a reason and I'll explain why in a bit. So it is right to have respect and honor people that are standing in for us so that we don't have to. In the ideal world we would only ever send people off to combat for the explicit goal of defending our homeland. We would only do so after our Representatives gauging the will of the people to do so grant such authority. As with anything involved in the Democratic process only actions sanctioned by those being governed take place. Its an elegant feedback system wherein those who shoulder the burden of war are the very same ones deciding when and where war should be engaged. Sounds good, in theory. But there are some problems. In general its the members of the privileged classes that are making the decision to go to war, sending members of the working class off to fight. Class division, whether you like to admit or not, does affect policy. There has been talk about a draft. Some for reasons of this class inequity are proposing to start drafting people into the military. I suppose this is in the hope that when the powerful face the reality of sending their own kids to war they might not take the decision so lightly. I disagree with that logic. I don't want to be in the military and I'm glad that people that actually want to fight are there instead of me, and I bet they are glad that I'm not over there in Iraq complaining my ass off about how truly fucked up this whole war has been. However, its not even fair to say that everyone that joins the military does so out of a sense of duty and obligation. Let's face it, joining the military is a career decision for some. They are there doing their job the same as if they were sacking groceries, because they need the dough. For many joining up is the quickest way out of a dead end situation. You spend a few years serving, learning some skills, making a little scratch and you get to see the world. Sounds good, at least till the day that some politician in need of a re-election theme decide to pack your sorry ass up in a transport and send you off to die. I wouldn't mind serving if I thought I could trust the political system to work right and I would only be sent off as a last resort measure because it was absolutely VITAL that I get put in harm's way to DEFEND the country. I have no such faith. The Iraq Debacle has not changed my view of things... Nope. So you have some kid that enlisted thinking that he might get out of Deadend, KS or any other small town USA and next thing he knows he's out tramping through the desert about to become a statistic. Money for college. Something about marketing the military makes my skin crawl. I watch those ads where the son or daughter tells their parent they are joining the military and the parent gives them that "I'm so proud of you" look. I want to throw something at the TV. Tell it to me straight. Don't make this about some quest to earn parental admiration. Don't make this about becoming an adult! Fighting a war is not a right of passage, it is a necessary evil at best. We "defend" ourselves, but how that word can apply to Iraq is beyond me, given the complete and total exaggeration of the threat posed by Saddam and his Weapons of Mass Disappearance. We fight others because we HAVE TO, not because it has become part of our social fabric. Chris Hedges: War as myth begins with blind patriotism, which is always thinly veiled self-glorification. We exalt ourselves, our goodness, our decency, our humanity, and in that self-exaltation we denigrate the other. The flip side of nationalism is racism--look at the jokes we tell about the French. It feels great. War as myth allows us to suspend judgment and personal morality for the contagion of the crowd. War means we do not face death alone. We face it as a group. And death is easier to bear because of this. We jettison all the moral precepts we have about the murder of innocent civilians, including children, and dismiss atrocities of war as the regrettable cost of battle. I sense that we have also made war part of the life cycle of this nation. Its our rebirth. There was a sense during the buildup to the Iraq Debacle that "This is what we do", pull out the flags, slap on the bumper stickers, here we go again. I feel the opposite must be true. This is not what we do, we do this only because we have to. Not because it has become a stage in our own national right of passage. For an interesting experiment, go here and read through the speech that Hedges gave at the Rockford College last May, almost a year ago and find anything that he said that was not true or prescient. I couldn't, yet he was booed and harassed till he had to cut his speech short. War, we have come to believe, is a spectator sport. The military and the press -- remember in wartime the press is always part of the problem -- have turned war into a vast video arcade came. Its very essence -- death -- is hidden from public view. To that end we must maintain the myth and protect it as well we can from reality. Sinclair Broadcast Group has ordered eight ABC affiliated stations to not carry Friday's Nightline Broadcast. The ABC Television network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30th edition of ?Nightline? will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq. Political agenda? I feel that it is my duty as a citizen of this country to question the actions of our leaders and inform myself to the best of my abilities. That is MY political agenda. War is not a sacred cow that we must only talk about in rosy happy terms lest we "undermine the efforts". I, in contrast to what many others have expressed DO NOT think that it is unpatriotic to call into the question the motivations of those wishing to send fellow citizens off to die. On the contrary, I will "undermine the effort" when it is called for. It is not contradictory to call this Debacle an Excercise in Stupidity and still have an immense amount of respect for people that are serving our country as best they can. Not all soldiers are angels, most are just kids strapped into gear and sent out to carry out their orders. Those orders are supposed to come from us, the citizens, through the representatives. And if those represenattives, or president, lie about what we are doing then we have the duty to say something! I'm disgusted... I'm sure I'll regret posting this, but not right now. | Look R.I.P. ... - photo by yp8 at pbase.com I suck.. I suck... I will never be able to take a photo like this.. ever... ever... ever! | 4.28.2004
Little George W. Fish Not much new that I want to say. I did want to pass this along, I saw it a while ago and went and dug it up to repeat here. Enjoy. David Rubenstein, co-founder and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group: The board was for Caterair, an airline catering service that Carlyle bought from Marriot. But when we were putting the board together, somebody [Fred Malek] came to me and said, look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. Needs a board position. Needs some board positions. Could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth. (emphasis mine) ----- Watch Big Fish, its a great movie. I stayed awake through the whole thing. Put that as the blurb. | 4.27.2004
Am I the Anti-Christ? Google Search: john kerry anti-christ tribulation Wow, I'm in the fourth spot! And yes, this showed up on my referral page. | 4.26.2004
Violence Against Liberals Orcinus: A terrorist targets liberals I thought this warranted some more exposure. What I want is for the right wing "moderates" to realize that you can't stir up resentment and demonize people without some nutjob taking you seriously and running off half-cocked to "get some Liberals". From a Suntimes.com article: The search also turned up a list of federal officials, political and public figures with the word "marked," next to the names. Breit told agents it meant "marked to die," because the people were liberal, opposed to gun rights or opposed to the current government. and from a news release from the Brady Campaign: Breit's library included The Turner Diaries, the anti-government cult novel that inspired Timothy McVeigh, and Guns, Freedom and Terrorism, the book authored by National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, investigators said. There is lots of traction and mileage to be had tapping into the Angry White Man demographic. They are politically active, they are feeling stressed as the market changes and they feel a great sense of entitlement about this country and its wealth. The right has been very effective at defining an enemy, the liberals, and stoking the anger that white men already feel as they watch their importance in society dwindle. There are numerous factors involved in the disaffection that "guys like us" are feeling and it deserves more thought than I have given it thus far. Today's white males are living in a different world than their fathers. Definitions of manhood are changing as men are no longer the primary breadwinners and find that that role has been greatly reduced as more and more women leave to make their own way. The nature of work has shifted away from such "manly" pursuits such as manufacturing to less macho office work. As wealth becomes more and more concentrated we all become more and more marginalized and this is felt most acutely by those white males who were raised to believe that the doors to success and power would be open to them. A few days ago I was in a local music store and overheard two guys talking politics. I didn't stand around and listen to what they had to say but I heard two phrases that raised my eyebrows. "The liberals are exploding..." and "It sounds racist but its true..." Without knowing all that was said I won't know for sure what these men were talking about but here in Oklahoma I know better than to mention that I am a liberal. I frequently have people state their disdain for liberals quite openly, assuming of course that I am like-minded. I am not. I am torn between being very out and "in your face" about being a liberal with the belief that its harder to demonize a familiar face, and being closeted about my politics. For now I choose closeted, not just to have access to people's unbiased opinions but for my own safety as well. I feel that extremes on the right, the liberal haters are prone to violence, and I don't care to make myself a target any more than I have to. | Notice The Memory Hole >Correction/Amplification Regarding Dover Casket Photos Among the 361 Dover casket photos are a minority of images showing coffins of the Columbia astronauts. [Read more.] I didn't realize this at the time that I posted them, mainly because when the Air Force asked for clarification during the process, I specifically told them that I wasn't requesting photos of the Columbia astronauts, only military personnel killed overseas. I know this was a concern so I posted this followup. The war photos are here, no astronauts. | 4.25.2004
Movie Magic Twice now I have tried to watch Master and Commander: far side of the something.. and twice I have fallen asleep while watching it. Right about the time they're sailing around chasing that ship... I may end up buying a copy for those nights I can't get to sleep. "Sir, its the Acheron!" *thunk* UPDATE: Finished... the ... movie... it gets better towards the end but the foreshadowing is pretty heavy throughout. You find yourself wondering just when "it" will happen. I wouldn't go so far as to recommend watching M&C but if you must just make sure you are well rested. If you want a more entertaining "men in boats chasing each other around" movie watch Pirates of the Caribbean. | Never Underestimate Irony - The Shirt 
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. My favorite T-shirt inspired by some late night ramblings... a creation story for the cynical. In the beginning there was nothing, except irony, and three small marbles. All was in blissful equilibrium until two of the marbles accidentally collided in what was thereafter call The Big Joke. From this event issued great streams of silliness in all directions. Unfortunately the Great Celestial Marbles were lost in The Big Joke. After The Big Joke the waves of silliness expanded, compacting the Irony and causing immense pressure between these two great forces. At the intersection, formed in the turmoil is the Rind, or what we more frequently call it... Reality. This Rind is a porous substance with undulating bubbles of Ridiculousness flowing within it. These bubbles are a by-product of Reality. It was late, I was trying to impress a girl. There's a diagram. 
It worked, or she liked me in spite of my silliness. Who's to say? Who can understand the power of Irony? Other shirts I have made: "I Believe in Gravity!" - Made in response to those "Yes, I believe in God!" trinkets that were popular after Columbine. Bright green, white letters. "worker" - olive shirt with bright (traffic cone) orange letters. Planned Shirts: "I'm not Mute, I'm Anti-Social" "serf" | St. Mathew's Post Office Box Church Kilgore Trout (Yes, that Kilgore Trout!) over at CNR recently shared his experience with a holy artifact. The most hawly Prayer Rug was sent to him by St. Mathew's Church right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma! See the rug. Its a beaut, definitely a standout in the "rugs with big faces" category. Sadly, I found out later that St. Mathews is not really a church here in Tulsa, unless you broaden the definition of church to include P.O. Boxes. This mail order operation is actually run out of a mansion in Los Angeles. Though Ewing claims it is a church, Saint Matthew's Churches, once called St. Matthew Publishing Inc., has no address other than a Tulsa post office box. It has two listed phone numbers in Tulsa and both are answered by a recorded religious message. I was devastated to say the least. I was all dressed up and ready for a service this morning. I assumed that they would have "loaner" prayer rugs for first timers, with a deposit in case you forgot to return it, or got it muddy. But no. Its not here. In its application for tax-exempt status, Church by Mail stated that 'it conducts regular worship services, usually without the congregation physically present.' How many angels can dance in a P.O. Box? So its a scam. Why do random mailings asking for money always turn out that way? Not only is it a scam, its quite a lucrative one. Ewing, the man who runs the thing siphons off money by hiring his own for-profit advertising firm to do work for the non-profit mailing service. He receives a salary from each. He has make his career out of setting up similar operations for the likes of Oral Roberts and Robert Tilton, both paragons of virtue. You remember that Oral once claimed that God would take him if people didn't send in $8 million by March 31, 1987? St. Mathews has a very familiar strategy, hitting up the poor and desperate. A memo from McElrath (a partner in crime) to their lawyer: 'Using this new method of selection we are actually picking those geographic areas that we know respond the best to our growth letters. The size of each special area is about two to four city blocks. And thank God there are 10's of thousands of them across the nation.' What's this say about KT's neighborhood, a "special area"? I dunno. I once spent a day in Denver, it seemed like a nice, if expensive place to live. To learn more about St. Mathews you should read this article written by George Loper whose favorite author is.... Kurt Vonnegut. The circle of irony is complete. | 4.24.2004
A couple of things... Ever notice how rabid right wingers hate (with a passion) uppity women? They seem to actually believe that Hillary Clinton will be the Vice Presidential running mate AND that she secretly plans to kill John Kerry in his sleep once elected. Why? So she can claim the mantle of leader of the One World Government (cue scary organ music), proving she is the anti-Christ and bringing about the End Times. And when they wanted to smear John Kerry's anti-war activities a doctored photo of him near Jane Fonda surfaced on the net. Gasp! Another uppity women. I guess Jane Fonda wasn't the anti-Christ after all... and Hillary didn't steal the Democratic nomination either. (If only being wrong acted as a future deterrent.) In their eyes feminism is responsible for the downfall of civilization. Because, in case you haven't noticed, civilization has fallen down around our ears. You mean you haven't? Me either... I kinda like things the way they are, sans Patriot Act, George W. Bush being president and invading Iraq. So maybe Jane was the Anti-Christ and we have been living in the tribulation since the sixties? That would explain a few things. Why Pat Robertson is still here, and such.... reality shows? ---------- I've done a little marketing work for the Bushies. I have decided that they should adopt the term "Guided Democracy" to explain how we will be "freeing" the Iraqis but still retaining the right to veto their choices, should they decide to kick us out. Its like Guided Meditation. (said in a soft, gentle voice) "We are there to guide them. If they should get lost on their way to freedom we will be there to help them get back on the right path. Our gentle hands will embrace them like a new baby bird. We are the training wheels, but they are peddling the bike." We'll get Bremer some flowing white robes and he can grow out a beard. With some practice he can even master that "spaced out" non-blinking look that some new age gurus have. "We're not occupiers, we're mentors, guides, helping hands... friends of democracy. Friends with armored vehicles and a swarm of hired mercenaries. But friends nonetheless." ---------- After searching for a copy of Joseph Arthur's "Redemption's Son" throughout Tulsa, I decided to finally order it. It arrived in today's mail. I had downloaded many of the songs but now I have a legit copy and new songs to boot. Life is good (sans Patriot Act, George W. Bush being president and invading Iraq of course) | Boy, will I get it now... Kristoff A poll this month found that three-quarters of evangelicals believe "the mass media is hostile," and nearly half agreed that "evangelical Christians are looked down upon by most Americans." Begat Atrios: No one finds it particularly troubling when it's pointed out that an "out" atheist couldn't get elected dog catcher in most of this country, let alone to Congress. I'm actually not complaining really - I'm not trying to establish some sort of new victim group here. But, nonetheless, I'm a bit sick and tired of White Christian Males pretending that they're the persecuted ones. Who begat Backslider: What is the deal with them in power whining how powerless they are? I had an acquaintance in a bar pissing and moaning about how "normal Americans" were low man on the totem pole these days. Intrigued, I pressed him as to what he meant by "normal Americans". He said, "You know, guys like you and me." And then there was me... First let me state that religion is not the problem, the problem is screwy thinking (or no thinking at all). Religion is just the right flower for that kind of bee. The hallmarks of fundamentalism just so happen to be the same ones that advocate the complete and total shutdown of the critical thinking zones of your brain. When those little neurons get shut off there's no end to the amount of stupidity that can issue from the mouth. Why should we be tolerant of stupid people? Well, because we will always have them. I advocate letting them play with nerf toys while the rest of us run things. Sadly, they sometimes form into fundamentalist churches led by a smart person that hits upon the truly novel idea of tricking the dumb people out of all their money. And since even dumb people need work, they have money to give to their church. The smart guy then decides that the more dumb people he can get to join him the richer he'll be. One morning he asks himself, "How can I tell the dumb people from the smart people, and how can I distill my congregation to include only the most gullible people possible?" Its an interesting process by which you keep ratcheting up the levels of absurdity in your preaching. So that by the time you get to 700 Club levels of absurdity you have refined your followers to the most gullible of the dumb. You see, not all dumb people are gullible too, its a sub-section of dumbness. Am I saying that only dumb people go to church, not at all. There are lots of good reasons to go to church. The difference is that smart people go to church to: meet members of the opposite sex, network with people in the community, learn about their own spirituality without becoming a brain dead zombie, and play bingo. Also.. it can be a part of your traditional family life. Church is part of who your are in some cases. But that doesn't mean you have to be one of the fundamentalist gay hating bigots that pollute the intellectual air in your community. Are Christians persecuted? Yes and no. Yes, because the basic fundamentalism of some religious ideologies is dying in the light of reason. Like one astute commenter on Eschaton pointed out, they lose people every time they try to tell people how to live their lives. Modern people have come to appreciate the freedom to drink liquor, have kinky sex with another consenting person and speak their mind. As well they should. Hug a liberal. And no, because Christianity is alive and well in the United States. Its doing well because it has adapted to the new reality. Most Christians have embraced freedom and incorporated it into their spiritual lives. How far have we come when modern day Christians defend democracy by invoking God's name when a few hundred years ago religion and God were the primary opponents to freedom as we know it today. The clergy really liked the King and they gave us assurance that God liked the Kings as well. God has changed his mind on the monarchy thing and we no longer hear any modern Christians lamenting the loss of the Divine Right (with the possible exception of Pat Robertson who wishes Bush would be King). Most modern societies have moved the role of religion to one of cultural institution, like Hockey for Canadians. I just wish most liberal Christians would treat the fundamentalists like the throwbacks they are. Tell them to run along and play with their Nerf crosses. But nevermind me, let's ask Douglas Adams what he thinks: I don't accept the currently fashionable assertion that any view is automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and opposite view. My view is that the moon is made of rock. If someone says to me "Well, you haven't been there, have you" You haven't seen it for yourself, so my view that it is made of Norwegian Beaver Cheese is equally valid? - then I can't even be bothered to argue. There is such a thing as the burden of proof, and in the case of god, as in the case of the composition of the moon, this has shifted radically. God used to be the best explanation we'd got, and we?ve now got vastly better ones. God is no longer an explanation of anything, but has instead become something that would itself need an insurmountable amount of explaining. So I don't think that being convinced that there is no god is as irrational or arrogant a point of view as belief that there is. I don't think the matter calls for even-handedness at all. What would James Michener think? | 4.23.2004
Flag Draped Memories Dover AFB If you want to see the pictures unearthed by thememoryhole.org then you can access then here. The Memory Hole website is getting slammed by people who are understandably interested in the information that is being denied to them. The soul of democracy is information. We must realize that American soldiers (kids) are being killed and that Iraqi people are being killed as well. If we don't see the images it doesn't have that same impact. One of the lessons of being an artist and a photographer is learning to tell a story with images. Looking over these photographs you get the story; lives lost, solemn respect for the dead and the isolation of their arrival. Tonight, Russ from Thememoryhole.org is enemy number one in the White House. | History Lessons The New York Times > Washington > Politics: White House Says Iraq Sovereignty Could Be Limited Inching towards colony. This is the point in the history of this whole Iraq debacle where clear, rational, pragmatic people start to admit that giving the Iraqis a full Democracy would lead to predictable consequences, ones that would end up being detrimental to our national interests. As historians will no doubt mention, this was the point in which American policy makers had to decide whether they wanted a stable U.S. friendly colony in the Middle East with military access and oil reserves, or an Islamic democracy hostile to our interests. "They had no choice". The Democrats agreed. Then presidential candidate John Kerry had already called for a similar solution to the "Iraq Problem". Liberal pundits had agreed that it was the only way to fix the "mess that Bush made". They all agreed that American intentions were good but things "didn't go as expected". | 4.22.2004
Is the Sky Falling? ... or will we switch to a lower cost alternative once we run out of sky? While posting some comments on a earlier post I found I had lots to say on the subject of environmental doomsday-ism. I try to stay optimistic, but at the same time I don't wish to bury my head in the sand and pretend there isn't something wrong. What's wrong? From my perspective, what's wrong is our basic assumption regarding resource availability. The way we are running things now we seem to be deliberately ignoring the fact that we are building an infrastructure based on a finite resource. Which is all fine and good as long as you take the view that we'll (the current generation) all be dead and gone long before it ever starts getting ugly. So we can keep filling up your SUV's and building more and more strip malls out into precious open space and with any luck we'll die while things are still pretty good. I find the current lack of motivation to wean ourselves off of oil pretty frustrating. It doesn't take much to see the basic problem with our current system. Primary among them is the scary fact that a resource that we depend on is buried under a bunch of people that mostly hate our guts. They hate our guts because we've (first the British, now us) been screwing them over because they had the misfortune of being born on top of a precious resource. They should talk to the Africans and Latin Americans, I bet they'd have a lot in common. Secondly, we are using up resources faster than they are being produced. oops. After 9-11 it became pretty obvious what the problem was, but our dumbass president blamed it on people that "hated freedom". What a crock, because sure, there are people that hate freedom, but they are the same as the small group of wingnuts that think the 700 Club is the word of God. In general, people (and this is the optimist again) are pretty cool on the notion of freedom. This "freedom hater" rhetoric is a shell game to distract us from the real problem. The real problem? For reasons of political expediency and money we are not addressing our problems as a society. We are not taking responsibility for our own needs. We have tremendous material wealth, some due to our own hard work, political climate, freedom and natural resources. I'm not above tooting our own horn, BUT, I don't stop there like some many others do. I accept that our material wealth is dependent on others. Yes, we are dependent. Now more than ever. Fuels from the Middle east, labor from the Far East. Its hard to make the case that we alone are responsible for our own wealth, even though that's not the message that we get from right wingers. For them, WE are the ones holding up the world. Not true. Without the labor and resources from elsewhere our standard of living would drop precipitously. It seems fashionable to assume that our material wealth means we are blessed, if not by "the almighty" then by our own cleverness. I have a real love/hate relationship with capitalism, mostly hate. Its a reactionary system that tends to undervalue the intangibles while it exaggerates the material. If we had a real functioning democracy instead of this corporate run charade we might have a chance of diverting our own destructive tendencies with good policy. But as its stands we seem to be in the position of electing a national Board of Directors that do the bidding of their corporate masters. As a result we get all sorts of distorted policies that should make any "invisible hand" types squirm. Instead of looking our problems square in the face we invade an oil rich nation for the (intended or not) goal of securing our own dependency. Its like watching an alcoholic buy a chain of liquor stores. "Its an investment" he might protest. Sure. Is the sky falling? Maybe, as long as we let the current political climate continue. If we let the current mythology of our own righteousness reign we will surely drive blindly down a dead end. If we start looking at our own faults and start asking hard questions, start putting resources into real solutions then we have a chance. We have wealth. Our choice is to either squander it to preserve a dying lifestyle or think ahead and plan for better days ahead. In the end it falls down to whether you believe that human beings can think beyond their own present comfort and do what's best for people in the long run. So why am I an optimist again? | 4.21.2004
Will you take this man... ? As you get older and older you become more set in your ways. You become individualized. You have routines, you do things a certain way. Not just anyone would understand why its VITAL that you avoid left turns and make entire blocks instead or why you don't like spending too much time in crowded spaces. When you think about starting a relationship you not only have to ask another person to accept who you are but also all the decisions you've made. Its easy to live with your own decisions, its harder to live with another person's decisions. Some people call this baggage. I don't like that term for what I'm talking about. I'm talking about life choices. Maybe after high school you decided to join a band and travel around the country in a buss instead of going off to college and cultivating your accounting skills. Maybe you decided to have your entire left leg tattooed with Celtic symbols in a grand romantic gesture for some girl that was half-Irish. You look in the mirror, remember those things, laugh and go about your day. So what happens when you meet the girl of your dreams and she hates tattoos or rock music? Is it fair to ask someone to give up their fantasy of a posh little suburban life as you complete your life's work of creating the ultimate Hogan's Heros fansite? well, is it? | What Could Be Finer? Annual Spring Wine Festival May 1, 2004 Nuyaka Creek Winery Join our celebration of fine Oklahoma wines during the Nuyaka Creek Winery 2004 Spring WineFest! More than just a showcase for great wine, the festival offers a fun filled day in the country, live music and the chance to visit with other Oklahoma folks interested in building a great wine industry for our state. Sounds like a nice way to spend a Saturday in May. INFO EVENT: 2004 Nuyaka Creek Spring WineFest DATE: May 1st, 2004 Noon until 7:30 PM ADMISSION: Buy one $5.00 souvenir wine glass and taste all of the wines INFORMATION: Call the Nuyaka Mall at 918-756-8485 | 4.20.2004
Closed for Rapture Opps I guess I wasn't ready! If you are reading this after the rapture, you need to realize that you have been left behind. At this time, you may be feeling rejected by God. You might be saying to yourself, "Why didn't He take me?" or "I don't understand; I've led a good life." The problem isn’t that God rejected you; the problem is that you have rejected Him. By not committing your life to Jesus and by declining to follow Him, you have left Him with no choice but to leave you behind. | Y Tu Food? Boston.com / Business / McDonald's turnaround man dies of apparent heart attack He often said his favorite meal was a double cheeseburger. This past weekend I went and watched a screening of Pleasant Kingdom. It was about an animal sanctuary, the people who started it and the animals that have been saved from horrifying lives as factory farm products. Having spent time with ardent animals rights people in the past I was well aware of the plight of animals born and raised for slaughter in the factory farms. Its one of the main reasons I swore off meat. I realized that any effort I could make to reduce the demand for cheap animal products would be beneficial if not entirely effective. The problem still lies in the culture of consumption and the dominate perception of meat as a desirous part of our diet. It has become such a dominant component of the way we conceive of our food that most restaurants define their meals in terms of which meat product is served. "Would you like the Chicken, Beef or Pork?" While I was working at a steak house years ago I was amused to observe people eat the majority of their meal; salad, cabbage rolls, hummus, tabouli, potato, ribs and boloney and still demand a full refund if they didn't like their steak. As if the rest of the food they ate was irrelevant in the face of the importance of the steak. Some people wrongly assume that I no longer like meat. In fact I used to enjoy steak quite a bit. I used to eat a medium cooked Ribeye every weekend. But I realized that I had little or no connection to the food I was eating. As I learned more I realized that my relationship to this food was damaging. As part of a consumer market, I was contributing to the demand for greater and greater supplies of meat at cheap prices. This in turn leads to greater cost cutting in the production of animal products which leads to greater abuse of the animals. As the drive for greater production and profits leads to the disrespect of human being in the workplace so too does this happen with animals, to a far greater extent because they have no means of protesting their own treatment. We have only our own sense of empathy for their plight to mitigate their abuse. However, we have become completely disconnected from our food. We no longer bear any psychic burden for the consumption of another living being. Its slaughter and torture have been entirely hidden from our view. All we see is the final product that has been stripped of all reality and masked with marketing and packaging. What connection does a double cheeseburger have with a cow? Is this your fault? Not really. What has become more and more evident to me as I write and think is that we, you and me, are part of institutions that have an overwhelming influence on our perceptions and our behaviors. We bear heavy negative punishment for calling these institutions into question or even trying to escape from them. Once you do however you realize that your own actions were never quite your own. I have learned important and valuable lessons by systematically removing myself from expected modes of behavior for certain periods of time. If you're feeling adventurous you can participate in this year's TV Turnoff Week from April 19-25. Go ahead, I dare you. (laughs) More and more I realize that movements like environmentalism, animal rights, and workers rights are all related to an institutional corruption. We have created an institution, corporate capitalism that demands that we consume goods at a monstrous pace. Its the treadmill of production and consumption. We no longer produce to meet our needs, we overproduce to meet the needs of those that demand greater and greater luxury. The farther we travel past mere sustainability the more we have to draw from our natural world, the source of all wealth. People, animals, earth must give in greater amounts to meet the demands of market growth. Its a sobering thought to realize that we produce enough food to feed every human on the planet but millions still starve. Its a frightening sight to watch an entire dumpster fill with the wasted food from one night at a restaurant. Its not just enough to realize that we could dramatically increase the amount of available food by bypassing the need to convert grain to meat. You have to realize that even if we did increase the amount of available food, people would still starve because of our institutional mechanisms. Its not enough to guilt people into becoming vegetarians or vegans, because to do so they will have to face the repercussions of living outside of a system that has certain expectations. That's a lot to ask, on top of the daily trails that most people face. Why should people willingly impose hardships on themselves above and beyond the ones that are already imposed upon them? The overall goal should be institutional change. | 4.19.2004
Car Woes Today on the way home from work one of the little dash speakers blew and is now making buzzing noises. It happened on a new CD so at first I thought "wow, that's annoying...." till I hit skip and it kept on buzzing through the next song as well. "Baaaa Baaaa this is the sound of crackling" Bought Death Cab For Cutie's "Transatlanticism". Sounds good, I love Ben Gibbard's voice. I don't think I'm the only one. ALSO.... I think I have a leaky heater core. When that happens, little clouds of steam come out of your vents and when you try to use your defroster, or any heater for that matter, it fogs up your windows so bad you can't see through them. So if its too hot, my car smokes like crazy and if its too cold I can't see out my windows. Either way I can't listen to the radio without it buzzing, unless I turn off my front speakers. I think I'll walk to the store.... | Get Smart CBS News | Woodward Shares War Secrets | April 18, 2004?23:40:06 Apparently Bob Woodward said something interesting on 60 minutes. Bad things about Bush.  Right wingers, lower the umbrella of silence! Update: Clicking the picture above now takes you to the Get Smart innovations webpage, where you can see the Cones of Silence! | Life in Retail I work in a modern corporate retail version of 1984. Why do I say this? Let me give you a few details. I'm sure many of you have experienced situations similar to the one I am about to describe. I have experienced nearly identical situations in at least three separate retail jobs. Right now I work in a sales environment. I get assessed on how well I perform, meaning I get tracked on what I sell and how much I sell. Those numbers are then compared to the "projected" goals. The amount of harassment I receive from management is determined by how well I meet those goals. If I perform up to expectation I get patted on the back and smiles. If I fail to meet my goals I get little mini-lectures on how I can improve what I am doing. I get tracked, my department gets tracked and the entire store gets tracked. They track overall sales, margin and various breakdowns of selected items and services. These numbers are then used to motivate employees and reward management. Every day the numbers are read aloud for everyone to digest. On the surface this doesn't sound too whacked out, at least to the average person. On a personal level I think it all smacks of conditioning with a heavy emphasis on negative reinforcement. But we've come to accept this. Where it starts to feel like an Orwell novel is when you stop to look at how the numbers are generated. I'm not sure of the exact method but from what I have been able to learn, they project the current sales based on last years sales, then they add a percentage as the target. Of course if you succeed in meeting the current goal then you have only a greater goal coming to you next year. At some point you WILL fail to meet your goals and it is usually then that they start getting rid of people. Much of my consternation with this system comes from the hopelessness that comes with it. I am at the mercy of whether a person decides to come to the store and whether they want to purchase something. I have learned to look forward to extremely rich people that blow money like its going out of style, because that sale will earn me a reprieve. A starving college student with a few dollars to spend on the bare minimum of product without all the extras will earn me a visit and a talk. Conditioning. I get talked to often, because I am poorly conditioned. Reality is not an acceptable excuse. Sadistic as it sounds, the store itself is ranked within the company. Every month you start all over again. One month you can be at the top and everyone is all smiles and peace reigns. The next month you are at the bottom and the managers are on the prowl. The scary part? Nothing changes from month to month. One month you are doing your job and the store is tops, the next month you are doing your job, just the same, and your store is in the tank. The explanation is pretty simple. The fictional numbers are rigged. In a comparative ranking system there will always be people at the top and people at the bottom, if there is a first place store there has to be a last place store. Always. The expectation is that is should never be YOUR STORE that is in the bottom. The expectation where I work is that we should be among the top 25% of the stores in the company. Obviously we don't always meet that goal. I've been there long enough to realize that during the down times you keep your head down and practice managerial avoidance techniques. In this environment you develop coping mechanisms. Going Gung-Ho - This is when you care more about the numbers and the company stock than even the managers themselves, or so it seems. For all I know these same people could be seething cauldrons of bitter resentment. Either way, when they walk through the doors of the store they are warriors for the cause. Its hard to get on to an employee that has already beat you to the punch. These are also your manager wannabes. competency - This is where you become so good at what you do that even if you have an attitude and aren't the best "performer" they keep you because your the only one that knows where everything is stashed or you know that special little trick to get the computer to reboot. One foot out the door - This is where you might already have a better full time job but are working here to supplement your income, or save up for a vacation/Christmas. In some cases you're there for a discount. Its hard to threaten someone if they don't really care if they get fired. Frankly, I thought I would have been fired by now. I think despite my lack of enthusiasm and almost visible contempt for being managed they keep me around because I always show up on time, I'll come in to cover shifts when called and I keep the place clean. I guess that's worth something? | 4.18.2004
Special Mention : Galactic Cowboys 
Space in Your Face (1992) maybe own a ranch on mars aaaaaAAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" | Movie : Kilometer 0, April 23, 7:00 P.M. Film Documentary Kilometer 0--The WTO Shipwrecks in Cancun More info from the Living Arts website about the film. In terms of exposure, globalization has been overwhelmed by the war in Iraq, but for people in the third world it is still the number one issue that will be affecting their lives. During the WTO talks in Cancum an inevitable event (in my eyes) occurred; the rhetoric of free trade met the institutional biases of the current trade system. When it came time for the western powers to start sharing the pain they balked and many Asian and African countries walked. What, you say? "We've felt pain, look at the job losses!" The workers of this country have more in common with the third world than they do with the owning class in our own country. When I refer to class conflict I make no national distinctions. Its naive to think that the wealthy and powerful of this country will pause for one instance in their drive to boost profits to consider their "fellow countrymen". In the view of international business, a labor market is a labor market. We, just like any other workforce are on the wrong side of the ledger, opposite the profits. The pain felt here at home has been shouldered by workers and small businesses that do not have the agility to take advantage of global labor markets. The winners have been large corporate enterprises and their owners, especially those in agri-business. The benefit of taking a classed based, as opposed to a partisan view on this is being able to point out that on this issue at least Democrats and republicans are united to serve the interests of the owning class. There exists within each party small factions that see the current course of trade negotions as being antithetical to good business. | 4.17.2004
Adam and Steve Claremore Progress - Local News OKLAHOMA CITY (cnhi) - One man’s “dark day” was another man’s “tremendous victory” Thursday as the Senate approved the Marriage Protection Amendment that would constitutionally prohibit same-sex marriages in Oklahoma. Count me as one of the "dark days" crowd, though this wasn't unexpected. The battle for rights for homosexuals will be fought elsewhere. Oklahoma is where people go to get away from "that kinda stuff". | Oh Good Lord The Oklahoma Daily - God, not education, is the answer to problems: "If we are so intelligent and educated, then why is our society in a moral freefall? Our society no longer knows the difference between right and wrong. We do not even blush anymore when we hear about unmarried couples living together. We consider bizarre sexual behavior normal. Foul language is commonplace." If you've read this blog with any regularity you know what I think about this issue, but I'll try to make some new points. I challenge the idea that we are educated. In fact, we are woefully ignorant of the technologically advanced world around us and even more ignorant of the philosophical thinking that leads to a free secular society. However I don't think that simply educating people will solve all our problems. That a senior history student can make the argument that the world will be a better place if we all believed in god makes my point better than any text I can punch out here. Did he skim the chapter on The Inquisition? Decide to do "History of the Dark Ages" pass/fail? We are living in a time where we are seeing the consequences of unchecked fundamentalism. Education, openness and tolerance are countervailing forces to fundamentalism. We were counting on the educated secular base in Iraq to fuel the drive to democracy. But that educated class has been overwhelmed by the children of the sanctions era. Isolation and hardship are the lifeblood of religious fundamentalism. Religious leaders make the claim, similar to the one above, that we ourselves, have no power to change our lives, so we must put power in the hands of god, and by that action, the religious leaders themselves. "Hello, get me the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani please...." The problem of course is much deeper than we all think. You see, people cussing, having kinky sex and choosing who they want to live with and how they want to do it are all consequences of... you guessed it: A free society!! And he is right about one thing, education will NOT cure that problem, religion just might. And if I had the choice I'd go have some fucking kinky sex with my live in girlfriend. But I need a girlfriend first. god help me. (Thanks to Okiedoke for the link to the origial article) | 4.16.2004
Classy Cars ^^^Living on Less I am pleased to be listed as a link to this website. The recent posts by "asfo_del" on April 3rd were especially useful to me: (no permalinks) April 3, 2004 The Tangled Web of Overspending April 3, 2004 Cars Unaffordable But Proliferating My poor car is dying. Its got 195,000 miles on it and it is starting to leak oil pretty bad. Combine that with my newfound desire to find a pretty thing to spend more time with and I have a problem. Cars and dating are linked. What you drive is a projection of your social status. Whether we like it or not your car becomes a point of judgment. Pulling up to the curb in a leaky old car says something about you. What that something is however, is in the eyes of the beholder. Our culture, which is largely, if not entirely, shaped by a media that is supported through the money spent by regular people on the products it is paid to advertise, is deeply steeped in the notion that owning things, especially flashy, expensive ones, is a source of pride and well-being. Therefore paying for gas is highly irritating, but paying for a gleaming, well-engineered machine is masterful and rewarding. If my pride and well being were to be judged by the condition of my vehicle then I am in trouble from the get-go. The obvious answer to this problem is to go down to the dealership and pick out a nice pimping ride to woo the ladies with. But there we hit the other snag. Following this logic leads many Americans and others in affluent countries to overspend. There seems to always be another flashy object that rises to the top of the "must have" list. The Politics of Consumption: an Interview with Juliet Schor Contrary to common belief, people generally have a lot of denial about what is actually motivating them in their consumer choices. For instance, most people are not willing to own up to the extent to which status-seeking influences their consumer behavior. Similarly, most people are unwilling to deal forthrightly with the issue of credit card debt - how much they take on in the pursuit of their lifestyle aspirations, why they take it on, and so forth. The main source of drive for people to overconsume comes from our perception of what the ideal lifestyle should look like. According to Schor, that lifestyle looks less and less like the people around us and more and more like the people that exist in the electronic world we see. Of course most of us don't have the luxury of television production budget and corporate tie-ins with Ikea and Pier One to help us outfit our apartments and houses. I take it as a matter of faith that the television world is created for the consumption of a particular demographic; the one with the most disposable income. This follows from the commercial driven model. The eyeballs that you want to see your product need to be the same as the wallets that can afford to pay for them. If you disagree with this assumption, let me know and we can have that conversation. That we use television to judge our own place in the social strata is understandable. The extent that we do this will depend on the individual. I question the wisdom of basing your life decisions on a show like "Friends" where young people that never seem to work hang out all day in fairly nice New York apartments. But I digress, and that has never happened before... ;-) I would rather not buy a new/used car. I don't have that kind of money to spend. You would be surprised to see my income from last year. A part time sale person isn't raking in the big bucks, I can attest to that. That is a decision I have made. That I will be forced to make a purchase because no alternative exists doesn't seem like freedom to me. I live within the boundaries of institutions that direct my behavior. I find that at this point in time I am subject to two forces: the economic necessity of owning a car in a city where there is little to no public transportation, and the social necessity of owning a nice car in a dating environment where my "pride and well being" will be judge by that car. The economic need far outweighs the romantic need. I've been single for a year and I can go longer. I'm pretty self-sufficient, emotionally. For now at least my car still gets me to work and back, even if that does mean trailing little clouds of smoke. Back to Living With Less for a little reality check for the majority of us. In 1998, the average price of a new car was $23,480. Yet 17 million new cars are sold in the U.S. every year, and the average U.S. household owns 1.7 cars. This in spite of the fact that car ownership is financially devastating to the average person in the U.S., who only makes $22,000 a year. Owning a car is estimated to cost about $8000 a year for a new car, and about half of that for a used car. Although the great majority of American adults own a car, about half of them cannot reasonably afford one without cutting down on necessities or sinking into debt. The need for a car has remained steady or has increased, our incomes have stagnated or declined and the price for a car has increased. In the class war we are losing this battle. | Musical Moods Wired News: Music Magic Found in the Shuffle: "'As it's on shuffle I don't know what's coming up next, and it often surprises me how the same street can look lively and busy and colorful one moment and then when a different song starts, it can change to a mysterious and unnerving place,' Bull reports the interviewee as saying. 'I like the sensation though.'" Reading this as I listen to a random selection of CD's that I have converted to mp3 for computer listening. As I convert more and more albums over I will get even more interesting varieties of music chex mix. Its fun to have a driving metal song like Dream Theater "As I Am" played right next to Ben Harper's "Homeless Child". But what I was really wanting was something like this which looks promising thought I haven't tried it yet. I will, and I'll give you my opinions. I want to be able to assign a mood tag to each of my songs to indicate just where it should fit in during a musical shuffle. Some nights, late when I just feel like lying in bed with the lights low and enjoying being in bed with nowhere to go I like slow soft music. That little bit of reverential nirvana then inevitably gets interrupted by some heavy metal tune, that had I been up and busy, would have been appropriate, but considering my prone state.. not so much. What I want is a playlist editor with maybe four or five definable tabs that I can use to assign to each tune in my collection. I can choose songs that I feel are sad and slow and songs that I feel are upbeat and driving. The random shuffler can then know to avoid the slow sappy tunes when I'm active and running around as well as avoid those heavy metal driving tunes while I lay in bed contemplating my "role in the universe". I've always secretly resented the convention that artists abide by that says that they should present a mix of styles over the course of their album. This, of course renders it useless as a soundtrack to any particular moment. With the exception of a few artists that consistently put out one dimensional records (the Cowboy Junkies come to mind) most feel obligated to include at least one poppy tune in the collection. Damn them! But now we can fight back. With the playlist on many Mp3 players you can cherrypick your music collection and put together custom collections of songs for various listening situations. This works fine but I was thinking of something a little more organic, a system where songs have attributes and you can specify which attributes to stress in your listening. We'll see if Moodplayer can deliver. Update: After downloading Moodlogic and installing it you have to activate your song collection. Which means that the program lokos up your songs in a database and saves that information to use to create "mixes". The database itself is user created and I went through the process, which involved picking a genre, instrumentation and moods for the tempo and lyrics. This information submitted by users into the database is used to creat mixes according to categories. I found the most useful tool to be mixes by genre, where, for instance, you can pick "Alternative" and hit mix. The program creates a list of songs to play in a Mp3 player. On the mix screen there is a wheel marked " Hang, Punch, Get Up, Easy, Relax, Blue and Suprise", of course clicking one of these buttons will generate a mix according to that description. Does it work? Well.... yeah. Clicking on Electronica and then Relax gave me this mix of available songs: Afterlife - Blue Bar Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line Air - PLayground Love (Vibrophone Version) Zero 7 - Distractions mum - Green Grass Tunnel Royskopp - A Higher Place Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities mum - We Have a Map of the Piano Afterlife - Makes Me Feel mum - There is a Number of Small Things Zero 7 - I Have Seen Zero 7 - Give it Away Not bad, I even have the option of picking a more or less diverse selection of songs. The downside, well, it costs money for one. You pay $39.99 for a full version that operates beyond the five day trail period. That's too step for me, but it might be right for you. | 4.15.2004
Blogsky Turning the Tide Chomsky has a blogsky. That's fun. I like Chomsky. He really pisses off the partisans with his straightforward analysis. Is he right? Usually, and when he's not he usually admits it. But science, unlike fortune telling is a practical art. As pretext after pretext for the war has collapsed, commentators have had to scurry to take the next one seriously. The latest, after the collapse of all others, is that the US goal was to establish democracy in Iraq, indeed the whole Middle East. The assumption is taken for granted in news reporting, and accepted even by the harshest critics, who laud the noble vision but think it is beyond our means, etc. Only Iraqis seem to reject it; in recent polls, 1% of people in Baghdad think the US invaded to defend democracy, 5% to help Iraqis, while most of the rest assume that the goal was to take control of Iraq's resources and to reorganize the region for US power interests -- an option that is virtually inexpressible here, though it sounds pretty simple and obvious. This is where you scream about Chomsky being anti-american. He's not, but since he takes an outside-the-institution view of events he has been branded as such. People who call into question the whole mythology of America are to be despised, no matter how accurate their criticisms. More later, at least that's the plan. | 4.14.2004
More Spring Inspired Beauty 
Clicking on the picture will open a new window with a larger version See more photos. | thud I'm sure that at some point in time I've pimped for Kevin Gilbert, but if we learn anything from marketing, its that familiarity breeds affection. So here I go again. Kevin Gilberts "thud" has been a favorite of mine since my first listen. You know that small list of albums that will forever stay on your list of all-time favorites? This in one of those albums. Sadly there's not much of Kevin's work that is up to the same caliber as "thud". Kevin's dead now, sadly he died by his own hand in an accident involving man's favorite pastime. Not baseball. The other one. You may be familiar with a few of his songs even if you've never heard of him. He was part of a songwriting group called the Tuesday Music Club. If THAT sounds familiar its because "Tuesday Night Music Club" is the name of a Sheryl Crow album. Kevin Gilbert has songwriting credits on over half the songs on that cd, including the hits "Leaving Las Vegas" and "All I Wanna Do". The real brilliance of that cd blossomed from the talents of the songwriting group that Crow was introduced to by her boyfriend at the time, Gilbert. "thud" is nearly all Kevin Gilbert, aside from help from a few friends on drums and guitars on songs throughout most of the instruments were played by Kevin. He also produced the album in his own home studio, "Lawnmower and Garden Supplies". The songs are catchy, they have hooks but they are also much more experimental than what you hear from the likes of Sheryl Crow. The lyrics are sharper and more satirical. Its sounds less like a pop album and more like a work of art. Give it a listen, and give it a spin. | Six Steps from God to Jesus Chaotic Not Random Kilgore Trout (Yes, THAT Kilgore Trout!) writes about God. I've heard a few people take on the task of reasoning the existence of God from basic logical assumptions. And you can get pretty far along as long as you stick with vague notions of a creator for creation, the universe, unable to create itself must have been created from an outside force... etc. But.. most people intent on proving the existence of God are not usually content to stop at such simple concepts. The whole idea is to prove that THEIR god exists, hence validating their religious convictions. So at some point they make IT, that HUGE leap that takes God from a simple concept to book-writing prude. Once they hop, skip and jump their way to the Bible then they're home free with various Biblical interpretations for whatever they want to preach. One day I sat down with a C.S. Lewis book. I forget the title but its one that believers give to non-Christians to get them to convert (back). Lewis, a former atheist writes about his transformation into a Christian. I was curious. Here I was a proclaimed atheist and I was ready to have my certainty challenged. Bah! So I'm not an atheist anymore. But not because of anything C.S. Lewis wrote. I'm not an atheist because being one meant that I had no concept of a higher being whatsoever. Me? I'll leave a little doubt there. Some would probably not see much difference from my point of view and hardcore atheism. I find the whole idea that a creator wants to play hide and seek games with humanity silly. So God wants me to believe but he doesn't want to give me any evidence? I have to have faith or it doesn't work? He hasn't come back and updated his official "handbook" for two thousand years? He's telling different groups of people different things? He doesn't bother to step in between two religious factions slaughtering each other to let one side know its wrong? That's freakin' demented if you ask me. To have any hope in the relative goodness of creation I HAVE to NOT BELIEVE in current concepts of God. They're too messed up! That the currents visions of God are just horribly magnified versions of our own human biases and prejudices seems lost on most people. Its obvious to me. So Lewis goes through the usual and gets to the part where he has to go from vague notion of creator to the God of Jesus and Bible and he just fakes it. I was laughing my ass off. I was incredulous. It was like that scene in Army of Darkness where he's about to open the Necronomicon and he yells out "KLATOO... VERATA... NECTtphhhhhhhhhh...". After a little search I think it was Mere Christianity that I had read. The argument as I remember was that since men had a shared reference of right and wrong that there must be a source of this intuition, and that was God. My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. I don't buy it, sorry. So then the leap: regarding Jesus as the son of God. We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form. Right, so if a man runs around saying he is the son of God but is an goodly person and not a lunatic or a fiend, our false dichotomy, erected by Lewis himself, insists that he must be the son of God? The simplest explanation is that this person thinks he is the son of God but is not a violent person. In today's terms he might be a non-violent schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur. But not the messiah. There are many examples of people that are delusional or even make claims to divine contact that are not lunatics. Look at Pat Robertson for example. But I never set out to take on C.S. Lewis. I thought he made a good example of one that has tried to jump the gap between God and religion and failed. In my opinion I might add. So it goes. | 4.13.2004
Lets go over the rules again... If and when you call me an idiot, an ass or any other such names, OR you state that I'm ignorant or I'm full of sh-t I need you to tell me why, ok? I know these things already, I know where the holes are in my arguments, but do you, that's what I want to know? I know I'm not the smartest person on the planet, or in town, or even in this room, but I call things as I see them and if you got a better explanation, take a couple of minutes to write them down and post em up for me to see. I will consider them with an open mind and if you make a good case you might even change my mind. My opinions are a work in progress, as I think they should be, if you've got everything all figured out you're either smarter than most people or you have closed your mind to any new thinking, and if that's the case you might as well go about your own business and leave the rest of us alone. I try to state when I think I'm on shaky ground and if you can come along and knock me down, more power to you, and hopefully I've got a better grasp on things for next time around. I'm not trying to influence people with what I post here, I'm simply letting you in on the thought process that I am going through as I try to figure out what I think on various subjects. If I waited till I had things all figured out I wouldn't post anything here. Or as one more eloquent than myself put it: "Merely saying it tells me nothing--evidentiary foundations will prove your case." So there. | I Give You Music... Now Let Me Sleep! Chroma Key What? You've never heard of Chroma Key? Well, now you have, so you have no freakin' excuse to not listen to at least one of the songs available on streaming audio before you order a cd. The above link takes you to a page where you can listen to streaming versions of all the songs as well as download full length cd versions. What a deal! I might make a few suggestions, as a long time listener: Get Back in the Car - Realized that he never saw anything, now he drives with his headlights off. When You Drive - You sit at a red light, and you smile! America The Video - It makes no sense to me unless I see it on TV The streaming files do not do this music justice. I can only hope that a small sample will entice you to indulge further. I know that most people I expose to Chroma Key become fans. Also note : OSI - Office of Strategic Influence | 4.12.2004
Its Official! camedwards.com: Here It Is Its official, Cam has gone from being an unofficial mouthpiece for the GOP with at least some semblance of impartiality (even if he rarely used it) to an official, paid to say, mouthpiece for the NRA. psst... its a special interest group. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the NRA, not because I want to take away people's guns, as one person so succinctly told me I wanted to, but rather because they have been a primary driver in polarizing the debate about gun ownership. I'll write more about this when I have more time, but suffice it to say there is a huge area for compromise regarding gun issues, but the NRA, like any other interest lobby that gets its support by soliciting money, thrives on selling what is in effect rhetoric based on lies. My interpretation of their position, and please tell me if I'm wrong here, is that since the second amendment guarantees the "right to bear arms" so we cannot have ANY legislation that would regulate that right. To promote this position they scare people into believing that liberals want to "take our guns". I'll admit, some people might want to take your guns, but the majority of people want SENSIBLE GUN LAWS!!!!! Last time I checked we all had the right to vote, but we rescind that right for criminals, which I think is wrong but few make a stink about. So it seems the right to bear a deadly weapon is more valuable than the right to decide your representative. I'll admit right now, I haven't given much thought to gun issues, because to sum up my position: If you want to own a handgun or a hunting rifle, that's fine by me. If you commit a crime with that weapon you should and will go to jail. If you have committed a previous crime you should lose your right to own another weapon. I see no problem with checking to see if a person is a criminal before giving them a weapon. I also feel that your right to bear arms should not extend to weapons that have the ability to kills dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people in a matter of a few minutes, namely tanks, cruise missiles, ICBM's and assault rifles. Personal protection like handguns and sporting guns aside I don't feel like an individual should be allowed to brandish such deadly force. There's a line we have to draw, nobody argues that we should all have access to germ weapons, even though you could make an argument that those are "arms" as well, but a case can be made to allow for a weapon for reasons of self defense and recreational use. Sadly, we cannot have a rational discussion about this because of people like the NRA and the aforementioned "gun taker awayers". The NRA is lined up squarely behind the GOP and their rhetoric is intended to spur support for that party in return for support from the GOP on gun related issues. I think they're all fighting ghosts if you ask me. I once had a few guys I worked with, avid hunters all, tell me that the liberals wanted to take away their guns and that's why they would vote for the Republicans. I was a bit bewildered, I, an avowed liberal, couldn't care less if they wanted to go out with their guns and shoot at animals. As long as they aren't committing a crime I don't mind so much what they do with their guns. Myself, I don't hunt, but I understand its a big thing for some people. I also understand that many people in urban environments are being terrorized by gun violence and they want something done about it. Let's talk people. I remember one night in Dallas I actually heard a driveby shooting happen less than a mile away. I heard it! Some little boy got killed because some thugs drove by with their guns and shot the place up. I can understand the anger and fear. Let's talk about this without using it as a political wedge. | 4.11.2004
Educate them and they will come There are several trends that I feel are contributing to the slow and painful decline of liberalism in America. The most important, though, is our lack of commitment to good, high quality public education. Liberalism, or free thought is bad news for people wishing to create large groups of like minded people. Liberals are not prone to indoctrination. Liberals demand proof and evidence for claims made. Liberals are not easily swayed by emotional or illogical arguments. In short, liberals are poor believers, uppity workers and bad consumers. The great equalizer and the first step on the path of opportunity in an enlightened age is learning. The fact that we, for reasons of politics, or greed, or petty intolerance deny some children in our society or others access to the best education we can provide is a tragedy far beyond any terrorist attack. I believe that I am no better as a human being than any other born on the face of this earth. I have no innate capacity to learn that is not also bestowed on people living in the poorest slums in the world. What great inventions or medical cures, musical masterpieces or new concepts have been lost because the person who could have brought them to us was lost to poverty, starvation or ignorance? We squander immense amounts of human capital by not reaching all minds and tapping them for new ideas. Why do we seem so apathetic towards educating our own people here in our own country? Is it simply because, when you control a person's mind you control their pocketbooks? Is it that simple, is it that cynical? Education is not a commodity but a right. It should not be determined by the abilities of ones parents to pay for a child's education. That only creates cycles of poverty. So why the push to divert funds from public to private? Why do we fund education through property values which can only lead to stratification of school quality based on income? Why haven't we had a major investment in education infrastructure in what seems like thirty years or more? Why are we putting warning labels on good knowledge? The only answer that seems reasonable to assume is that for the sake of controlling minds we tolerate this. For the sake of selling goods, selling religion, or selling political agendas we tolerate an uninformed public. I should not say that we are simply uninfomed, we are bombarded with information on a continuous basis. We learn that Dodge trucks have Hemi power and a backseat DVD player for the kids. We know that this is the last season of Friends. We know that when the time is right, twenty-four hour Cialis is right for you. I guess we know things. But do we know that the Flood Story of the Bible is pre-dated by a flood story recorded in the The Epic of Gilgamesh? You would if you had studied ancient history? Do we know the follies of British colonialism in Burma and elsewhere? You might if you had read Burmese Days or studied Imperialism. Do we know why something is Digital? We would if we had studied electrical engineering or physics. When people become educated good things result, secularism, democracy, and freedom. Though not always a direct result of education, I would say that these things are some common by-products of an healthy and educated people. | 4.10.2004
Out? Sometimes I think the answer to the Iraqi problem is too pull out, say "here you go" and leave. That way, if things go screwy nobody can turn around and blame the Americans. Just like how conservatives get tons of mileage out of "liberals" I know certain factions over there get tons of traction out of bashing Americans. And they will continue to do so as long as we are there. If we continue to run around smashing things to show them "who's boss" we'll be enemy numero uno. The blame for any failure will be attributed to the U.S. Its a gamble, but is it any more dangerous than giving those anti-American forces an issue to recruit with? | 4.08.2004
A No Brainer HomersBrain I know I've neglected to mention how terribly nice it is to have the wonderfully articulate and thoughtful J. Howard hosting his own little egofest: HomersBrain. Now, does that sound like the pleasantries of a bitter man? | Knives Out I couldn't help but wonder, watching Condoleezza Rice testify before the 9-11 commission, how the Republicans will feel now that there is an equivalent forum for mockery and ridicule fueled by the Democrats as there has been for one fueled by Republicans for nearly a decade. They will feel the knife edge that has turned the Democrats into professional wimps. I would hesitate to call Air America "Liberal" radio, its Democratic radio fueled by Democratic partisanship, just like the so called "conservative" radio has been Republican radio fueled by Republican partisanship for years. We should no sooner expect Air America to criticize Kerry for straying from liberal ideals than we should expect Limbaugh to criticize Bush for straying from Conservative ideology. Sure, they might toss in some lukewarm criticism to keep up some sort of pretext, but you should know what to expect when you dial in to either side. Republican attack radio has had the intended effect of forcing Democrats to measure every word they say, knowing that any slip or admission of wrongdoing will be beaten to death on the airwaves for the eager partisans to enjoy and savor. As such it has forced the debate to narrow on that side of the aisle. Air America will have the effect of forcing Republicans to narrow their language as well. The Bush administration spin as presented as "evidence" at the commission hearings is that something went wrong, we're doing things to correct the problem, but nobody in the upper echelon of the Bush White House deserves any blame and will not admit to making any mistakes. Of course you have to wonder, if something went wrong but nobody in the White House knew what was going on, then they were either negligent or they are lying. I can accept Richard Clark's explanation. I can even forgive a White House that says "hey look, we had priorities that we were pursuing that didn't leave enough time or manpower to devote to watching this one particular threat". If they accepted responsibility, beyond saying that the information never got to them, it might be forgivable even though it would be political suicide, especially now that there is a radio network that would pound and pound and pound any admission of guilt. The blade cuts both ways. | 4.07.2004
Elite opinion is turning In Iraq, Without Options (washingtonpost.com): "We wrested control of Iraq when we did not have to, and leaving it to its own devices as sectarian violence grows worse would be a dismal end. The only unequivocally good policy option before the American people is to dump the president who got us into this mess, who had no trouble sending our young people to Iraq but who cannot steel himself to face the Sept. 11 commission alone." I can admit when I'm wrong, and I did so, last night while discussing Iraq with my dad. I admitted that I was wrong to think that it would take longer to overthrow Iraq than it did. I was surprised by the speed at which their military collapsed and we were able to roll into Baghdad. But other than that I've been spot on. Its amusing to watch the shifting rationales on the right. They are victims to a delusion. So too are some on the left, especially those most in tune with Democratic partisanship. I'll tell you a little secret to understanding events: Start from scratch, make no assumptions about who the good guys are, make no assumptions about what people's motivation are. Start with basic evidence and work from there. Its a long slog (to borrow a phrase) but in the end you come out with a much better hypothesis. Yes, this is a scientific process. A common mistake is to confuse the personal with the institutional. What people want as individuals can be quickly subsumed once they become part of an institution. Take my store manager for an example, he's a nice guy, loves his family and genuinely cares about people, but when he's acting as part of the institution none of that can affect his decisions. The world is full of great people who for reasons outside of their own convictions do things that lead to horrible consequences. America is an institution much like a corporation. Collectively we have certain expectations which leads to actions that individually we might find appalling. My best example of this is the use of child labor in other countries. Individually we might find the idea of using kids to built Televisions, CD Players, Tennis Shoes or Game Boys distasteful but at the same time we demand lower prices for our goods. Our own individual opinions matter very little if the institution as a whole is more powerful. There is a difference between public opinion and public demand. While we may publicly opine about our desire to "free the Iraqi people" we also have a much greater public demand for other goals. It may seem odd to think that a president might go against public opinion but go WITH public demand. In such cases we find that public opinion can re-align with public demand. I feel this has happened a few times already in this whole Iraq situation. Let's a ask a few questions... -- and -- -- or -- | It - In a nutshell The Onion | Point-Counterpoint: The War On Iraq I wonder if the people at the onion are having the same troubles I am? (oh yeah, stolen from atrios) | Lilly 
Now that spring is here, I can open up my pond again. Here we see the very first leaves of the lily. I built this pond for my parents while I was in college. My idea was that I could build a self sustaining pond that required very little work on their part but would be a beautiful addition to their yard. To a large extent it worked. They might have to add water in the hottest months, and we've added a pump to filter the water. But as it stands, the plants and the fish return each year and aside from some basic cleaning it takes care of itself. Important for people thinking of building their own pond. Dig at least three feet deep, deeper if you live in colder climates. Make sure you provide shade for a least part of the day and cover the surface of the pond with some plant life to keep water temperature down during the summer. My approach was minimal but you can make it as fancy as you want it to be. Remember though that you should not build more than you are willing to maintain. For the winter we use two old screen doors overlapped and weighted down to keep out snow and leaves. Its a basic Lilly and goldfish pond but its nice to visit and its fun to feed the fish. I still want to add a bench for sitting and spend more time on landscaping. Its still a work in progress... | 4.06.2004
Closest thing you'll get 
I like my privacy, but here's a self portrait that also shows off one of my goldfish. | Rainbow Power 
While driving around today I got a chance to see a full-sized rainbow stretched across the sky. I thought to myself "I wish I had a wider angle lens". Then I remembered that I had a nifty panoramic feature on my camera. So I gave it a try. In the parking lot of Celebration Station, in case you were curious. | |
About Me
Any Box 
|
||
|
Dissolve into Evergreens
|
||||
