... srsly?

In the ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!! department:

Baghdad celebrates first public Christmas amid hope, memories

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag. ....

.... In the middle of the park there's an art exhibit, the creation of 11- and 12-year-olds: six displays, each about three feet wide, constructed of cardboard and Styrofoam, filled with tiny dolls dressed like ordinary people, along with model soldiers and police. They look like model movie sets depicting everyday life in Baghdad.

Afnan, 12 years old, shows me her model called "Arresting the Terrorists."

"These are the terrorists," she tells me. "They were trying to blow up the school." In the middle of the street a dead "terrorist" sprawls on the asphalt, his bloody arm torn from his body by an explosion. Afnan tells me she used red nail polish to paint the blood. A little plastic dog stands nearby. "What is he doing?" I ask. "He looks for terrorists and searches for weapons and explosives," Afnan says.

Am I wrong for thinking this is absolutely insane, and potentially dangerous?

bye!

Check out this great six minute piece by Rachel Maddow on Bush administration members that, in the past 8 years, were the subjects of various scandals requiring their "release" from employment and occasional incarceration:


www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27934583#27934583

The list goes on, and on, and on. Pretty entertaining too, when reminded of the insane shit these people did. And then I have to wonder, for every crime or foul spotted, how many went undetected?

Good morning?

So, this is fucked up... I got up a couple hours ago, shortly after 5 AM, and went to the bathroom, then into the living room, where I was surprised to find my housemate Jason and pseudo-housemate Rebekah watching the Colbert Report at really high volume. WTF, I thought.

It's a couple hours later, and I've realized that that was 5 PM. Now it's past 7:30 (PM) and I'm sitting here wondering WTF just happened. I can't remember the last time I was awake. But when I got up at the ungodly hour of 5:something, I totally felt like I was getting up early in the morning, and even went to the kitchen in my robe to perform the regular ritual of getting some cereal and orange juice.

Now I have to ask Jason is he's seen me up and about earlier today. Or WTF.

Maddow Rising

The new issue of the Advocate has a great little story on my heroine, Rachel Maddow. And if you're not watching or listening to Rachel, you're missing out.

WTF are you people thinking?

Holy fucking shit: convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is winning his race for re-election by a tiny margin. It's still too close to call, as of nearly 6PM EST on the day after, but the current tally is 48-47% w/99% of precints reporting.

Check it. Surreal. Not to leave the saner people in Alaska out in the cold or nothin' (HAW HAW HAW), but I'm really not against this secession idea.

Meanwhile Al Franken seems to have lost by not even 500 votes, which triggers an automatic recount. CNN is listing the Georgia seat as being undecided, although incumbent Saxby Chambliss - besides having the cooler name - seems way too far ahead; not sure why they haven't called it already. The Oregon seat is still up for grabs... the Dem has 2k less in votes, but a quarter of the precints have yet to complete their counts; some lean heavily for the Dem, some for the Rep incumbent.

Dangerous Game.

Massachusetts Budget Game

Question 1 on today's ballot in Massachusetts is asking us to eliminate personal income tax in Massachusetts. Once the police have had their funding slashed to ribbons, I will feel far safer in getting away with smashing in the skulls of those who vote Yes on 1.


... I just finished my budget actually... I won! Did it! I had to cut health care, human services (elderly, disabled, transitional assistance, mental retardation, children/families, etc.), the state police, prosecutors, and prison system, most of the fire and public safety services, and some dubious sounding "additional assistance" being given to various "local areas."

Good thing I'm on SSI/Medicare/etc. now. If I hadn't been on MassHealth back in 2000-1, I'd have died, but, since I don't need it anymore, bye, fuckos!

O-ho.

Inane prattle post:

I've got a real man-crush on Morten Harket. I'm listening to something from his new solo album, but most people would look at him and say "ah, the a-ha guy," which would be correct... he's the lead singer of a-ha. He's the doll on the right on this 1980's album cover:



Thing is, here's a couple shots of him from a live appearance a few weeks ago, too:



The guy is almost fucking 50. I'm jealous of his beauty.

Tangential aside: I just learned from Wikipedia that Harket holds the record for longest note held in a "hit" (I imagine that means "top 40") song... 20.2 seconds in "Summer Moved On" from their album "Minor Earth, Major Sky" (2000). Yay for Wikipedia.

Anyway, the new a-ha album is out early 2009, so, another reason to live another year. Yeah yeah, I know most everyone is thinking "a-ha? srsly? LOL!" Yes, they are still alive. They broke up and regrouped, and have put out an album every 2 or 3 years since 2000. Interestingly they've gone from being on the forefront of technopop in the 80s to increasingly analogue in these past few years (to the point where "Analogue" is even the name of their 2005 album... which rocks).

Worst timing ever.

Man, this is sad... Obama's grandmother just died. One more day and she could have seen him (hopefully) become president. Fuck.

Agist, racist America.

Current stories on CNN.com:

"Could McCain Lose His Home State?" - Jesus, people, enough with the senility jokes already.

"Obama Could Steal McCain's State" - Yeah, because all black people are thieves. WTF.

Life on Mars

Just finished re-watching the complete Life on Mars TV series (the original BBC one, not the dubious American remake)... fucking amazing show. I recommend it. I've been watching the US series, actually; out of curiosity more than anything else. It's kind of embarrassing to watch some of the little scenes that they needlessly aped from the original. Totally unnecessary. The value of this new show, though, is that 1973 New York is substantially different from 1973 Manchester, and watching both is really interesting for their time capsule captures of those years.

You'd think that Harvey Keitel (who replaced Colm Meaney from the US version's pilot) co-starring would also bring something to it, but so far his character/performance seems pretty weak. But then, I'm also comparing him to the original series' actor Philip Glenister. And this actor for the main role of Sam Tyler, Jason O'Mara (of Resident Evil: Extinction fame) can't help but pale in comparison to my man-crush Jon Simm. Besides starring in LOM, he most visibly played The Master in some awesome Dr. Who episodes last year, in which he got himself elected as the new prime minister of England. Amusing connection... when working undercover in an episode of Life on Mars, he took the name of "Tony Blair," as he gets himself invited to a swingin' key party. Cute.

Wow! From IMDB, I just learned that Simm and Glenister just did a movie together, called Tuesday (not yet released, I don't think?). And Simm's filming this crazy series called Seven Days, about a guy and his relationship with his wife, while he serves out a prison sentence. The crazy part is that they're filming this thing for a few weeks at a time, over a period of the next four or so years. At the end, it'll be released as a film worldwide. Simm has also been rumored to be the next Dr. Who, but I'm betting against that one.

Why does Japan rule?

Because: Super Stationmaster Tama

So You Think You Can Vote?

Here’s a partial roundup of recently reported election fraud. Wee! (I’m not even touching on voting machine fraud here… I imagine it will be easier to spot post-election.)

Most of this information has been taken from the Brennan Center for Justice and the Voter Suppression Wiki, as well as msnbc.com and Commondreams.org

Oh, where to begin…

We don’t take kindly to strangers around here:

In Virginia, someone has been putting up flyers informing of a separate election date for Democrats, on Nov. 5th. In Kern County, California, a radio host also announced that Republicans are being urged to vote on November 4 and Democrats on November 5.

At Virginia Tech, students have been informed that if they're from out of state but vote locally, they'll risk losing their scholarships, health insurance, and cause their parents to pay more in taxes. Similarly, anonymous robocalls have warned that out-of-staters living in Virginia that vote in-state are committing an outright criminal offense.

Students in Virginia and in several other states have been denied registration when listing their dorm room addresses, even though these are completely valid.

An anonymous flier circulating at Drexel University in Pennsylvania – and in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia - has been informing voters that undercover police officers will be hanging out at the polls to arrest people with outstanding warrants, or even traffic tickets... a nice touch was the text in the flier mentioning that this warning comes from "an Obama supporter."

Robert Balink, El Paso County Recorder and Republican Delegate, sent a letter to the president of Colorado College stating that if a student is a dependent of out-of-state parents, the student is not eligible to vote in Colorado. This has happened in other states as well.

South Carolina’s voter-registration site says students who want to register to vote at their college address must demonstrate “a present intention to remain in the community.”

Similarly, in Idaho and Tennessee, students cannot establish voting residency unless they have affirmative plans to remain in the state after graduation. Virginia and Indiana also make it difficult for students to establish residency.

Michigan and Tennessee require all first-time voters who registered by mail to vote in person; they cannot vote absentee. This makes it nearly impossible for college students (a great percentage of whom are young, first-time voters) to vote in their hometowns.


Boo!

New Mexico: two families reported visits by a private investigator inquiring about relatives that the state Republican Party alleges voted fraudulently in the June primary. Obviously, if two people report something, there are many more that haven’t.

In Ohio, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters recently requested, via subpoena, personal information for 40% of the voters who registered and immediately cast a ballot during the weeklong period in which Ohio allows same-day registration and voting. Could this guy’s last name be any more clear of his intentions?

Dozens of voters reported that a firm hired by the California Republican Party tricked them into registering with the GOP when signing a petition they believed to toughen penalties against child molesters.


Purging registered voters: No match, no vote, late purging practices, and so much more.

Several states have been illegally purging their voter rolls this year, including Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Nevada.

“Voter caging” is the practice of sending mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of the mail – which is marked with a “do not forward” instruction - that is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters’ registrations on the grounds that the voters on the list do not legally reside at their registered addresses. Another favorite tactic is to simply purge voter rolls within 90 days of an election, which is against federal law.

Michigan has done both of these, illegally purging its voter rolls this year within 90 days of an election, and by sending out non-forwardable mailings to recently registered voters. But Michigan’s masterstroke of evil genius is in the current attempt to use home foreclosure lists to prevent voters registered at those addresses from voting. In addition to anybody who's unable to prove their current address at the polls, the threat of humiliation might also help deter many foreclosed homeowners and their families from even attempting to vote.

In Colorado, the Secretary of State admitted that at least 2,454 voters were purged illegally within 90 days of a federal election. Several thousand additional records were purged as potential "duplicates" within 90 days of the election, also in violation of federal law. Another several thousand were illegally purged based, again with the tactic of sending non-forwardable mailings to newly registered voters.

Georgia recently began using an unreliable matching process to purge the voter rolls of alleged non-citizens. The process they use misses naturalized citizens because it only checks the citizenship documents used to obtain driver's licenses, no matter how long ago, and those records are not updated when legal residents become naturalized.


These aren’t the voters you’re looking for:

The Department of Veterans' Affairs in Virginia denied voter registration access to residents and patients of its facilities, refusing to allow election officials or nonpartisan groups to offer voter registration services, and failing to provide such services itself.

Several states, including New Mexico and Florida, haven’t been providing voter registration services at social service agencies, as required by the federal Motor Voter law.


Felons can’t vote, even if they’re not:

In many states, felons can’t vote. In some, they can at least vote once they’ve gotten out of prison. I’m sure they’re told the former, when entering prison, but the latter fact might be overlooked. In any event, this is another source ripe for shenanigans. Personally, I think everyone should be allowed to vote. But then, I’m into the idea of democracy and due representation.

Mike Hubbard, Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, sent a letter to the Alabama Commissioner of Corrections opposing and suspending a voter registration drive for prisoners. Alabama Law prohibits felons convicted of crimes of "moral turpitude" from voting, although the inmates being registered did not fall into this category, per an opinion issued by the State Attorney General in 2005.

Earlier this year, a county election administrator in Muscogee County, Georgia purged 700 people who were supposedly ineligible because of criminal convictions. The purge was highly inaccurate and included people who had never received even a parking ticket.


Don’t bother showing up, suckafish!

In Florida, some voters have been robocalled, stating that they have apparently "voted by phone already," in the hopes that voters will not actually hit the polls on Nov. 4th (or whenever). Go ahead, pick on the senile retirees.

Recently, the republican mayor's office in Indianapolis made 31 polling location changes and there has not been, nor will there be, an official announcement or mailing to the voters to inform them of these changes. Surprise: a lot of these location changes are in areas of the city with strong democratic followings. Other areas with the changes are of those with a low socio-economic status. Polls in Indiana are only open from 6am-6pm; due to the early closing time, people tend to want to vote in the morning, since it’s difficult to do so after work. Hopefully they’ll go early, and then decide to vote at their new station, in exchange for being late; those trying to squeak in before closing after work might well not have the time to get to their new polling location.


Fun with ballots:

In Rensselaer County, New York, absentee voters received ballots that listed the Democratic candidate as “Barack Osama.” The County Elections Office Commissioners claim it was a typo.

In a number of states, ballots have the option for a voter to check off a “straight ticket” option. Meaning, you can tick off a straight ticket vote for one party or another, and it counts as if you voted the party line in every election listed. But in many cases, election boards have decided that this doesn’t count for the election of president, and some also of judges. So if you don’t also check off your party’s candidate for president, you didn’t vote in that contest at all. This isn’t new: historically, this has caused a 1% "undervote" for President -- an estimated 35,800 votes in 2004. With many new voters this year, it could be higher.

In Ohio, Absentee Ballot Requests contained an extra box to check indicating whether or not you’re a registered voter; respondents who sent back the form without checking the box won’t receive absentee ballots. The Board of Elections found that, although ticking off the box was not listed in the form as being required information, returning the form without checking the box was tantamount to requesting a ballot without being a registered voter. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner offered to contact voters who forgot to check the box and allow them to correct the issue, but the Republicans – who sent out over one million of these forms - rejected the proposal (not sure who these “Republicans” were though… if they could reject something, I imagine it would have been a government official in a position above Brunner?).

In Colorado, 18,000 ballots weren’t mailed to voters in Denver. If voters don't get the last-minute mail sent out Monday (Oct 27) and return their ballots by Friday (Oct 31), their votes won't be counted. The Sequoia Voting System organization was behind this; they originally blamed it on the post office, but has since admitted blame.


Okay, that's it for now. But don't worry, there will be more! We still have almost a week left, and Election Day will be just like Christmas!

Back then, I could have gotten away with the unitard, too.

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi
You are a caring and loving individual. You understand people's emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.



Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Deanna Troi 80%
Worf 60%
Will Riker 55%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 55%
Data 48%
Spock 45%
Jean-Luc Picard 45%
Geordi LaForge 40%
James T. Kirk (Captain) 35%
Mr. Sulu 35%
Chekov 30%
Uhura 30%
Leonard McCoy (Bones) 20%
Beverly Crusher 20%
Mr. Scott 0%

Ackshully this kind of makes sense. Especially if you saw me when I was a 22-year old transvestite with long, curly hair. Funny that the next highest results are the guys that Troi bonked. Oh, and I don't know how to drive a car, and Troi managed to crash the Enterprise every time she tried to fly the thing.

The original Ambiguously Gay Duo: Captain America and his rascally pal Bucky!

From Captain America

Ok, I've been reading some of the earliest Captain America comics, from 1941, and man... they're magic. For your viewing pleasure, check out a bunch of pages and panels I've uploaded here. You won't be disappointed.

Grasping at straws... yer doin' it wrong.

I love that Joe Biden actually threw that WFTV news anchor's ridiculous bullshit back into her face. Why doesn't this happen more often? How is that female candidates generally have bigger balls than the men? Well, maybe they have to, just to be able to compete against the old boys' network.



Anyway, it's about fucking time. And is it that I don't read the right sites (pun unintended but nifty nonetheless), or has the media generally ignored that John McCain has had just as much (and more recent) involvement with ACORN than Obama? I may well have missed this on whatever news source, I only got to hear it from Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann.



In short, McCain was the keynote speaker of an ACORN-sponsored rally in 2006. Obama was involved 13 years ago, when as a lawyer, he and the US Justice Department co-represented ACORN when pushing through a motor-voter registration law. So, yeah, in general Republicans hate ACORN, since unregistered voters - once registered - are overwhelmingly likely to vote for a Democrat. Of course, ACORN is not guilty of voter fraud. They were the ones that reported that they'd discovered some of their pay-by-the-registration employees to be guilty of fraud.

Song for Sarah

Quote of the Day

From the amazing series Life on Mars (the real one, by the BBC, not the new American remake):

"He's got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course..." - Gene Hunt

Am I boring you yet?

Okay, in addition to the low-key excitement I feel in Alaska giving a senate seat to the Democrats, there are some other big senate races that I've been looking at lately. The most highly-contested elections all lean heavily toward the Dems taking more Republican seats.

In Georgia, Republicans have trounced the last two elections. But this year, the Dem candidate (Jim Martin) is only 2% behind incumbent Saxby Chambliss. Of course, seeing as how Georgia has gotten an early start in disrupting peoples' right to vote, that's a big 2%. There's also the obstacle of having to run against an opponent with such a cool name.

In Kentucky, 4-term Mitch McConnell won his last re-election (in 2002) 65-35%. Somehow, his lead over the latest Dem challenger (Bruce Lunsford) has shrunk down below 4%! I'd be amazed if the seat changed hands. The polls vary widely for this one though... last week, one had him at +7%, and another had them at dead even.

In Minnesota, of course, there's Al Franken. He's split the polls with incumbent Norm Coleman. Actually, most polls put Franken ahead, but a couple lopsided ones for Coleman average them out.

When Franken first got his show on Air America Radio, I called in and spoke with him, once, in mid-2004. He was of the belief that somehow the voter suppression bullshit that plagued the 2000 election would no longer be a factor. He actually said - seriously - that congress would fix the system. I called him naive, though I used nicer words. I wonder how he feels about it these days... more importantly, I wonder how he'll feel about it if he loses this election.

Mega-Republican voting Mississippi is somehow a contest. The guy that picked up the pieces of Trent Lott's seat in the senate is named Roger Wicker, and he's got barely a lead over some guy named Ronnie Musgrave. Lott used to win his elections by 30%+. His feller senator from Mississippi is Thad Cochran, and he's had his position for 30 years now... I looked him up when I was reading about Wicker v. Musgrave, and saw that he won his last re-election in 2002, by a score of 85-15%. Christ.

In New Hampshire, ex-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen looks set to rid congress of the vile presence of John Sununu. They went up against each other in 2002, and she lost by 4%; now she's up by 8%.

In New Mexico, it seems a done deal that a Democrat is taking Republican Sen. Pete Domenici's seat. He didn't run for re-election, and Tom Udall is whipping Republican Steve Pearce in the polls. The other senator from NM is Democrat Jeff Bingaman, who has been wicked popular for 25 years now.

The Dems could also possibly take North Carolina, which sounds unreal. A current state senator, Kay Hagan, is actually up a point or two over Elizabeth Dole, hoping for a second term after she took over from Asshole "Jesse" Helms. Taking her out would be huge. Of course John Edwards quit the other seat in 2004, and the current guy is a Republican... I guess that seat has bobbled back and forth between parties for 30 years now.

In Oregon, Gordon Smith, Republican, has held down his chair for about 10 years. Now he's being beat by State House Speaker Jeff Merkley, but only by a little. The other seat is held by a Democrat, who also took it from a Republican 10 years ago.

Lastly, in Virginia, their big-shot 5-term Republican Senator John Warner didn't re-up again, basically handing the seat to wicked popular ex-Gov. Mark Warner, who's up by like 30%... over a Republican, in a supposedly red state. The Republican was actually Warner's predecessor in the governor's mansion, and isn't leprous or anything, but is getting so trounced. Of course, Warner's winning because of that fake, north Virginia.

There, reading I done did for my own demented enjoyment is now yours. It's heartening to see how many seats might well change hands, particularly because next to none of them involve the possibility of a Republican taking a Democrat's existing seat.

Ch-ching....

Late-breaking news: Sen. Ted Stevens vows to fight his conviction on federal corruption charges and says he remains a candidate for re-election.

The first senators for Alaska were Democrats, beginning at the time of initial statehood (1959). Sen. Ernest Gruening was replaced by another Democrat, Mike Gravel, at the start of 1969; while the other first senator, Bob Bartlett, was replaced by Republican Ted Stevens at the same time.

Republican Frank Murkowski - later replaced by his daughter Lisa - have held onto Gravel's seat since 1981, but for Stevens, his reign is about to end, after 38 years. He and Democrat Mark Begich (mayor of Anchorage) have been in a dead tie in the polls for his re-election, whereas Stevens had previously been re-elected by wide margins, time after time.

So, long story short: the Dems just picked up a seat in the senate, in the state that's home to the opposing party's candidate for VP, no less.

An interesting part of this story, though, is of the incoming Senator Mark Begich: his father, Nick Begich, was a representative in congress from 1970-1972, at the end of which he disappeared in a plane crash, the remains of which have never been discovered. But the Republican that he beat for his seat in congress back in 1970 was... Frank Murkowski, who as mentioned above, ended up making it as a senator in 1981.

Murkowski held his seat in the senate until he gave it to his daughter Lisa in 2002, as he had won governorship of Alaska. Which he then lost to some zero-experience wretch from his own party, named Sarah Palin. Now all that's left for Mark Begich is to steal the governorship from Palin in 2010. And uh, hand off his senate seat to someone in his family.

How the fuck is it allowed for an elected official to just pass on their job to a family member? It happens all the time, though I've no idea how or why. I guess I have more reading to do.

Lots of fucking election shit.

Well, fuck. I've been thinking of venting out my near-violent frustrations over many aspects of our electoral process lately, but didn't get around to it until now. It's about 3 AM, and I've read the news bit linked just below, and it triggered it for me... now I can't stop myself from ranting about all of this.

Okay: On CNN there's the first - of I'm sure to be many - stories regarding voter suppression. This isn't the first article on the issue during this election season, but this is the first major incident they're reporting (to my knowledge): 50,000 Georgians have been purged from the voter rolls.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/index.html

Besides my pet project essay on the electoral college process, the many other ways in which we mis-manage our federal election just drives me fucking insane. How fucking hard is it? Fuck off with the need to verify someone's current address, whether it's the person's most recently registered address, whether the person lives in this or that state, city, whatever. One citizen, one social security number, one fucking vote. DONE. No pre-registration. What, we don't have the technology to make it this simple and straightforward?

One fucking ballot: we need the exact same design, same printing, same names listed, same method of checking off your choice, no matter who or where you are in the country. Not only should a federal election be conducted and orchestrated by the federal government, states simply shouldn't be able to make up their own ballots, using their own designs, and their own list of candidates, creating their own convoluted requirements for getting a name on the ballot, etc. It's a federal fucking election. The other elections to be made on Nov. 4th should be on a different ballot entirely. This has nothing to do with any individual fucking state.

Election Day: The idea that Nov. 4th isn't a national holiday is fucking moronic. People must be fully able to get to the polls, although the new passion for early voting is a great thing to help in this regard (assuming that these votes won't somehow get lost, which is an unsafe assumption). But if you're going to have national holidays, wouldn't it make sense to have one that celebrates democracy, and the actual act of voting, perfectly combining the two? If people want to feel patriotic, how can this not be the perfect fucking holiday? Not only should people have the time needed to vote, but they should have the time to get others to the polls as well; and how many more volunteers would we have helping out at our polling stations if people had the day off? Some polling stations are seriously understaffed, and all kinds of problems ensue (besides the ones that ensue from various voter suppression issues). And wouldn't such a patriotic holiday even help to guilt people into meeting their obligation to vote? Use it or lose it, you fucking fucks.

Not that I can really be that angry at people who don't vote. If you've read my bit on the electoral college and how intensely assinine it is that we still use it, then I needn't say more. But if we're talking about voter suppression, that's what the electoral college is; not just because of my detailed inequity of disproportionate voting power state by state, but because almost every state uses the "winner takes all" system. Using the direct election process, everyone's vote is worth the same (assuming it gets counted in the first place... again, unsafe assumption).

What fucking blows my mind even more, is that this isn't a partisan issue. There's no fucking "red vs. blue" or "us vs. them" for our nation of idiots to spaz over. It's all no-brainer shit, that any fucking fool can understand. And yet, we can't. We're the most mentally inept country on the planet, sometimes, on this and way too many other issues. All I can think of right now is the insanity depicted in Terry Gilliam's classic film, Brazil. Like Sam Lowery, I start to dream of escape from our crushing mediocrity.

And in the end, what makes me even more fucking nuts about all of this is that no matter how well Obama is doing in this election, it doesn't matter how many people want to vote for him. What matters is how many votes are successfully cast and counted. Not only does he have to overcome the loss of hundreds of thousands (or more) votes that the Republican party/operatives will steal or destroy (this is a simple, undeniable fact, that this is a blatant part of their campaign strategy for the last decade), but he - and many of his voters - are also going to be undercut by the hurdles that will be placed in their way on Election Day. Hiring off-duty cops to hang around outside urban polling centers. Greeting people with lists of names, telling them they can't vote, or that they'll even be breaking the law by voting. Telling naive (especially first-time) voters that voting for their district has been pushed back a day. If we thought the past two elections were bad, I think we ain't seen nothing yet. I would so love to be wrong.

Gah.

As for me, I'm not voting for Obama. I'm voting for Bob Barr, Libertarian candidate. I'm so far left of there it's surreal for me to vote for him, but... a third-party candidate that gets 5% or more of the direct election tally qualifies for federal election funding in the future. I figure, if the Libertarian party could actually get some funding, that will help to tear apart the Republican party even more than it has already. It's lame that I've ended up thinking this way, instead of just voting for my candidate of choice, but, hey, I'm in Massachusetts. Obama will win my state. McCain supporters in my state needn't bother ticking off a box for president, since our winner-takes-all system ends up making them worthless. I actually voted for Nader in 2000, for the federal funding issue, but at this point, since we're stuck in our two-party system (and will always be, until our country rips itself apart), I figure weakening the GOP of Bastards is the best we can do.

Lame (fucking lame).

Meh.

One Man, One Vote

Ok! Here's a re-post of something from 3 days ago, but the link for the PDF here should work.

This is an essay/report that I wrote about four years ago, although it's undergone a lot of revision. Read it, you momo, since no-one else will!]

Just how much is your vote worth, in this and any other election for president?

Does it count? Does it matter? Is your vote worth the same as that of everyone else?

Especially considering the consequences, the presidential race of 2000 will be remembered in history for its dubious nature: everything from misleading ballots to biased officials to unequal access to the voting booth to party operatives scaring away voters from the polling stations. Voting machines manufactured by a blatantly partisan company, bogus absentee ballots, disproportionate numbers of voting booths for districts of pointedly different leanings, and more, and more, and more.

On top of this, the candidate that received the most votes simply lost. And the course of this country, and others, changed drastically. While a president and his administration cannot be held responsible for everything that happens during his term of office, few would contest that a different administration would have had very different effects in the world. But the focus of this brief report is not on these differences - which are potentially massive, and open to great speculation and argument - this is about the electoral college process, by which we select our president.

"One Man, One Vote!"
The Questionable Value of a Vote in United States Presidential Elections under the Electoral College System"

"One Man, One Vote!"

[This is an essay/report that I wrote about four years ago, although it's undergone a lot of revision. Read it, you momo, since no-one else will!]

Just how much is your vote worth, in this and any other election for president?

Does it count? Does it matter? Is your vote worth the same as that of everyone else?

Especially considering the consequences, the presidential race of 2000 will be remembered in history for its dubious nature: everything from misleading ballots to biased officials to unequal access to the voting booth to party operatives scaring away voters from the polling stations. Voting machines manufactured by a blatantly partisan company, bogus absentee ballots, disproportionate numbers of voting booths for districts of pointedly different leanings, and more, and more, and more.

On top of this, the candidate that received the most votes simply lost. And the course of this country, and others, changed drastically. While a president and his administration cannot be held responsible for everything that happens during his term of office, few would contest that a different administration would have had very different effects in the world. But the focus of this brief report is not on these differences - which are potentially massive, and open to great speculation and argument - this is about the electoral college process, by which we select our president.

"One Man, One Vote!"
The Questionable Value of a Vote in United States Presidential Elections under the Electoral College System"

[If someone could please test out this linked PDF, I'd appreciate it... it was intensely annoying to format properly, and I don't trust google-docs (in which it's stored) to cough it up properly for potential readers.]

It hurts my brains.

Gotta love these morons: people like Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, and millions of others, I imagine, believing that Colin Powell endorsed Obama because he's black.

Everyone knows that Obama's an Arab, motherfuckers.

Believe in your dreams.

Just in case you ever missed it:

Unhappy endings.

Finished Neverwinter Nights 2 (original campaign) late late last night. After a fairly decent climactic battle, they deliver an epilogue via still pictures and narration. A really unsatisfying ending, but mostly because of the choice of narrator... one of those situations in which it sounds like they got some guy from the office to read off something. The massive amount of voice acting throughout the game is fantastic, then they end it with this sudden ending and epilogue that just sounds ridiculous.

Gah. Well, on to the first expansion, Mask of the Betrayer. It's supposed to be betterer than the decent OC, but it starts you out at epic levels (18, or if you import your existing character, as high up as he is). I always prefer lower level play, personally. I wonder if the second expansion is also epicky.

The People's Choice

From Phobrek's Blog

In torrenting some comics, I found that someone uploaded this classic old issue of Captain America from 1980, in which our hero faces the possibility of running for president. Thanks, anonymous donor!

Captain America has always been my favorite superhero... imagine me, an ultra-liberal socialist pinko bastard that is critical of most things American, idol-worshipping the man with the flag on his chest (and mighty shield). But most "real" patriots would consider Cap to be a pinko bastard himself, if they read the comic over the decades. Questioning authority... frequently at odds with the government... and OMFG he's got a Jewess for a girlfriend! Well, he did, until she died, and of course he'd dead now, too. But the comic remains brilliant nonetheless.

Anyway, click the pic above to go to a gallery including a scattered bunch of pages from that issue. Classic stuff! And enjoy this blast from the past:

3 debates in 1 nutshell

Stolen from hephaestos who stole it from duccio who stole it from etc....

git out of my hed!

Strange days. I'm half-way through my pharmaceutical detox, a 2-week period in which I'm neither on my previous meds or my new one. Various difficult episodes and effects, the most notable would be about 36 hours of having the inside of my right heel itch furiously. Anyway. The only thing I really want to share with the world now should be:



Background: Technohead was a hubby/wife duo of Lee Newman and Michael Wells in the 90s, who also recorded under many, many other names. Their biggest hit was I Wanna be a Hippy, which topped the charts in like 20 countries, of course none of which was the US. If you haven't heard the tune before, well, blame the Republicans... I always do. But I was bored and so cruised through youtube for the video. I wish I had a decent copy of the thing.



The second vid is of the Ska remix of the tune. I probably have about 15 different mixes of the original track (hey, I even have the fucking t-shirt of it), but this is one of the best, and I'm psyched someone made a video of it, a very very awesomely awesome video.



I'd never seen this last vid before today: it's for their track Headsex, and I was so happily shocked to see that Newman and Wells are actually in it. At least, I'm almost positive that Newman is the woman in the video (it's definitely Wells walking around in a uniform). But the only other pics I've seen of her are:

and .

I hope this is her in the video; she died soon after this album came out, and I love the idea that this hot/wild she was she. If not, it's still probably an appropriate representation of her willz & skillz.

Oh but the best I Wanna Be a Hippy video of all has to be...

Umber Hulks Lub Korn.

Here's my latest goofy pic illustrating that I have too much time on my hands.

It's a (modified) screen grab from Neverwinter Nights 2, the main D&D computer RPG (besides the MMO D&D game, that is). I'm more than half-way through the game, and was psyched to discover that my guy got to take over a keep, and be involved with re-building broken structures, raising and improving a militia, dealing with various problems, etc. The pic here is just some farmland outside the place, though. Click the pic for full size, of course.

From gallery

All hot and bothered.

On CNN's site there's a link to "Christians Create Moral Movie," which by those words alone is too enticing to pass up. So: Fireproof

The article begins:

When brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick were looking for inspiration for their third feature-length film, they turned to God for help.

"To be honest, I prayed about it," Alex Kendrick said. "I said, 'God, would you give me an idea that will impact all of our culture.' "

While he was out jogging and praying one day, the idea for "Fireproof" came to him. He footed it over to his brother's house about a mile away and told him the story: A firefighter who lives by the mantra "never leave your partner behind" at work is about to do just that in his personal life.

Okeydokey. Next I had to hit Rotten Tomatoes to check the reviews. I wasn't going to discount it; it could be a great flick. Regardless, I got what I expected: a bunch of reviews noting that the selling point is the heavy-handed preaching to the converted, serving up an otherwise unimpressive story/production. Then I noticed that RT allows people to leave comments in response to the different reviews, and this got me all hot and bothered. Go look up a book by Michael Moore (easy example) on amazon.com, and you'll find a zillion comments from people who rant with such insane, frightening levels of hate and idiocy that you become rudely jolted back to the reality that we are a doomed people. Isn't that fun? Oh, c'mon!

I flipped through one with a good number of comments, and the predictable laughs ensued. Then I looked at the review excerpts again, to find the one that I thought would best elicit high quality duh.

"Fireproof isn't merely preaching to the already converted; it's helping to further alienate the unconverted and the skeptical." - Ken Hanke

Found it! I thought this brief line so perfectly nutshelled the biggest problem of any heavy-handed approach to pushing a possibly-controversial idea: it makes the unconverted potentially defensive and reactionary, and you end up sabotaging your own cause (or in the case of this movie, a theme, an issue, etc... I'm not pretending that the film-makers were on some mission here). Again, the easy example is Michael Moore. His overly broad strokes, sarcasm and self-righteous sneer can betray his content, which, were it to stand more by itself (which he did best in Fahrenheit 911), would have a far greater effect in changing people's minds, educating them, etc. But he's so polarizing w/his "us vs. them" swagger. Don't get me wrong, I love Moore, but I keep wishing he'd remove himself more and maintain a distance in his films/shows, letting the content speak for itself.

Digression transgressed. Apologies. So, to get to the punchline, here's the money shot comment aimed at the above reviewer:

"For a non-Christian to critique a Christian film to me is mean-spirited, dishonest and stupid."

HAW HAW HAW!

Switching my vote to Sarah, no doubt

I just read in the Worcester T&G that Sarah Palin (nee Sarah Heath) spent Thanksgiving weekend of 1986 here in Worcester... a few houses over from mine, on Elm Street. What's more, it was a Levi Lincoln house (Governor/Senator of Massachusetts in the early 1800s, native of Worcester, that built a bunch of houses and buildings in the city), as is mine. Anyway, Sarah ate at her boyfriend's family's house, I think (something like that... not interested enough to go back and read the article). Meanwhile, I was turning 17 that weekend (Nov. 24, specifically) and was much more interested in seeing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which opened on the day after.

The Legend of Jessie Cristos

The greatest unknown band on the planet. The Legend of Jessie Cristos was a country/goth rock band that played the soundtrack for the film of the same name, which was never intended to be made. Instead, the songs told the story of the Old West messianic vampire cowboy Jessie Cristos, his martyrdom in the hands of the Elders, his tragic romance of the lady Elizabeth, the pursuit of her father, The Judge, and last but not least, Jessie's Dirty Dozen. When the Dirty Dozen Make Merry, run. Anyway, the band occurred briefly in the late 90s, in Boston, and my participation was in graphics, flyers, playing with a fog machine and lights, and even a couple of times performing on-stage, to read from the Book of Jessie. I'd say "Rest in Peace" to Jessie Cristos, but I doubt he ever will. Ha!

Anyway, I've had these old drawings of mine scanned in for ages, and a brief conversation w/the aforementioned Shannon inspired me to upload them.

From The Legend of Jessie Cristos

Go listen to some LoJC tunes at: Original Snub (note: the versions there are fairly low bit-rate... easier to DL, but don't quite do justice to the recordings)

Aspartame in your brain

Please read about aspartame, also known as Nutrasweet, Equal, and other artificial sweeteners. If you can find the documentary Sweet Misery (you may need to pirate it via torrent), it can be compelling.

Aspartame is used in almost every diet soda, and in every sugarless gum I've ever found. Google "aspartame" or "aspartame poisoning" and you'll find plenty of information that may well make you want to kill the people who make and use it, as well as the FDA that approved its use starting in the mid-80's. Splenda (sometimes marketed as Sucralose) also has its damaging effects, but sounds more like health food when compared to aspartame. Please: you are much better off imbibing sugary soda/coffee/tea/etc. than that sweetened/poisoned by aspartame. You can, however, find some diet sodas using Splenda: oddly, I've found that you can actually get Splenda-sweetened Diet Coke in that unending soda aisle in your local supermarket, whereas I've only ever seen the aspartame version in convenience stores. In seeking out other diet sodas, the Weight Watchers brand is aspartame-free. As ever, the golden rule is: read your labels.

NO BEETS?

These days, not so good. Other days, better.

Aside: This reminds me of the wisdom once spoken by (the ravishing) Claudia Christian on Babylon 5: "No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow. Boom!, sooner or later. BOOM!"

I'm officially off my meds, for the most part, a required difficulty as I switch onto a new med. I've gradually phased out my previous anti-depressant (Cymbalta), and once gone, I've dropped a couple of others cold turkey, as of this morning. The sudden loss of doxepin (AKA Silenor, AKA Aponal) was felt last night: Wiki defines the drug as a psychotropic agent with tricyclic antidepressant and anxiolytic properties, but is also helpful in dealing with insomnia. I slept one or two of my ideally 40 winks, although this did help me remember fragments of dream from those scattered moments. So hey, at least there was some entertainment. I'm also off the currently-trendy Adderall, my legal speed, which I came off of a few days early actually, since I ran out of pills and then lacked the oomph required to visit the pharmacy. My only remaining drugs are lamictal (treating bipolar effects in a less blunt way than lithium) and my testosterone gel (Androgel), which to be honest, often feels useless.

After coming down from Cymbalta for the last two weeks, I now get to spend two weeks dry of those three drugs, so as to remove the remnants of them, as they clash with my new drug of choice, tranylcypromine (brand name version is Parnate). This is an MAIO (monoamine oxidase inhibitor), which carries with it serious restrictions on diet. It's hard to imagine your regular omnivore taking this on, but as a vegan I've got a real head-start.

Anything that is aged or fermented is out. This, and other things, contain Tyramine, which is a no-no amino acid-based compound. Here's a partial list of the forbidden, some of which are extremely serious, and others are to be avoided, or in some cases, allowable in very small amounts:

Anchovies, Avocado, Banana peels, Bean Curd, Beetroot, Booze, Bouillon, Brazil Nuts, Bread w/high yeast, Broad Beans (Fava, Italian Green Beans, Lima, Lentil), Caffeine, Cheese, Chinese pea pods, Chips w/vinegar, Chocolate, Coconut, Coffee, Coke, Corn (sweet), Cucumbers, Eggplant, Figs (canned), Ginseng, Grapes, Meat, Miso, MSG, Mushrooms, Oranges, Peanuts, Pineapple (fresh), Plums, Protein Extracts, Prunes, Raisins, Raspberries, Red plums, Salad Dressing, Sauerkraut, Shrimp Paste, Soy Sauce, Spinach, Teriyaki sauce, Tofu, Tomato juice, Vegemite, Yeast, Yogurt

Aw man - fuck me in the eye! NO BEETS? Kids, for that reason alone, remember: don't do (legal) drugs.

Road Map to God

While I've the focus to write this (and the enthusiasm helps): please read my (I say possessively) Shannon's fantastic bit of thought here:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=33789163&blogID=439596233

Ages ago, in "the best years of my life" (an unhappy thing to say, when such years are no longer anywhere near the present, but, hey, and, meh!), I was lucky to have Shannon as a girlfriend... it was in San Francisco, 1993. I lost touch with her for too long, but in one of my more functional moments, recently, I sought her out in this virtual world, and am very happy for having done so. So, read what she has written that I done linked. All of my readers (0-3?) might become hers!

A-ha!

Ok, as a big fan of A-ha, I can't resist linking this revisionist video:



"IS THIS YOUR HOUSE?!"

Most worthy LOL of the day

see Sarah Palin pictures

Drugs wearing off, mind going, cut paste cut paste cut paste

Once, when we were in debate camp...

September 29, 2008
Palin heads to ‘debate camp’ in Arizona

CNN) — As some prominent conservatives begin to raise the question of whether Sarah Palin should remain on the Republican presidential ticket – and others call for her to be given more public exposure in a bid to reverse falling poll numbers – the McCain campaign is bringing the Alaska governor to John McCain’s Sedona ranch for several days of intense debate prep.

Senior campaign advisor Steve Schmidt and other top officials met Palin in Philadelphia Sunday night, and are traveling with her and McCain to a Columbus, Ohio event Monday morning. The group then heads to Arizona.

The original plan was for Palin to prepare in St. Louis, where the vice presidential debate will be held Thursday. Instead, she has already been preparing in a Philadelphia hotel for four days with advisors. She will now get ready for the debate at McCain’s rustic creek-side home — what a top aide calls "debate camp."

The aide, who's part of the team prepping Palin, tells CNN they decided to take her to debate camp there because it is an "invigorating and enjoyable place to prepare for Thursday."

Apparently someone in the McCain campaign saw that clip of Sarah trying to talk (emphasis on trying) on the TV. Somehow she'd gotten away from her handlers in her hotel room and was standing in one of those parking lot-like restaurants where you get your meal from a lady in a window. Or rather, they call out your name when your order's ready (the dead-eyed woman sleeping through her miserable job blandly asked Sarah for hers, and it didn't register any recognition within her, despite being surrounded by lights and cameras).

Someone made the moment more surreal by asking her a vague question about Pakistan, and her answer was also vague, nonsense words being tossed around with all the others being spoken in the busy little area... place? Parking lot.

Finally someone in McCain's camp said "Fucking Christ will someone reign her in already?!"

boobies.

Police say teen plotted to kill mom for breast implants

FOUNTAIN, Colorado (AP) -- A Colorado teenager hired men to kill his mother so he could use her money to get breast implants for his girlfriend, police said.

Nikita Lee Weis, 18, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, said Fountain Deputy Police Chief Mike Barnett.

Weis' mother, Hyun Weis, was attacked Thursday with a small wooden baseball bat at her home but escaped, authorities said. She was released Friday from a hospital.

---

1 - The headline as it was, I was really hoping that this story was about a son loving his mom's implants so much that he wanted to gouge them out of her and put them in his own chest.

2 - Seeing that the weapon of choice is as it was, are we sure that the "men" hired for this job weren't actually a couple of 4th graders in little league?

Anyway. This has been a very random post.

ok, this is better.

moar funny pictures

Separated at birth?

I knew I'd seen that face before... Sarah Palin is the reincarnation of Nellie Olson!

Once in a while I like to compare the various news sites online against one another, using their lists of "popular" or most read articles. It can be pretty funny, as well as telling. Anyway, today is one of those onces!


CNN's Most Popular
1 National Mall in monumental disrepair, activists say
2 How much skin is too much at the office?
3 Eight dead as canoeists sucked into turbines
4 Woman who died on hospital floor called 'beautiful person'
5 American keeps hot dog-eating crown in overtime


Al Jazeera Most emailed articles
1 Chomsky: US public irrelevant
2 Israel 'committing memorycide'
3 Obama's other Muslim problem
4 Finding Brazil's isolated tribes
5 US 'escalates covert Iran Missions'


New York Times Most emailed
1 Nicholas D. Kristof: The Luckiest Girl*
2 Well: The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating
3 Paul Krugman: Rove’s Third Term
4 Editorial: New and Not Improved
5 The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire

* Had to check this one out to see what it was - an Op Ed bit about a Ugandan girl that managed to go from illiterate peasant to graduating from CT College.


FOX News Most read
1 Flat-screen TV Gas a 'Climate Time Bomb'
2 A Fitting Tribute to a Slain Navy SEAL Gains Attention
3 Grandma, 70, Gives Birth to Twins
4 Surgeon Ordered to Pay $795G for Cutting Off Man's Penia
5 Christina Applegate's Boyfriend Found Dead


London Times Most read
1 Adolf Hitler finally returns to Berlin - but will tight security ensure model behaviour? *
2 Missing PlayStations provide clue to the murder of two French students
3 The top 10 fan versus band scuffles
4 Ingrid Betancourt returns 'home' to France - but doubts emerge about 'daring' rescue **

* Reports on a Madame Tussaud dummy of Hitler being used in a new display.
** This is actually really interesting - IB is one of the hostages recscued in Colombia. But a Swedish radio station (RSR) has been reporting that the rescue was a largely contrived affair, and that the US had quietly paid $20 million (to who, exactly?) to manufacture a staged rescue.


The Nation Most Emailed
1 Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion
2 Obama's Evolving Foreign Policy
3 The White Whale*
4 Just Democracy
5 This Brave Nation: A Defining Moment

* E.L. Doctorow's keynote address at a joint meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society on the theme of "The Public Good: Knowledge as the Foundation for a Democratic Society."


Washington Post Most Viewed Articles
1 Compound in Red Wine Fights Ravages of Age
2 A Man of Seasonal Principles*
3 Leading With Their Left**
4 The Economy? Words Fail Me.
5 Zooming Around the Alps In a Homemade Wing Suit

* Op Ed re: Obama
** Op Ed re: election


ABC News Most Read
1 'Pregnant Man' Has Baby Girl
2 Brinkley's Soon-to-Be Ex Addicted to Sex?
3 Blueberry Cobbler, Flag-Waving Wings and Patriotic Potatoes
4 Brinkley Forgives Husband's Ex-Mistress
5 Sen. Jesse Helms is Dead at 86


CBS Most Views
1 More Passport Files Breached
2 Bush Greets New Citizens, And Protestors
3 Fit To Serve? Most Young Adults Aren't
4 Stolen Beauty
5 Judge Rejects Bush's Stance On Wiretaps


MSNBC Most Viewed Videos
1 Bush heckled during July 4 speech
2 Fireworks Gone Bad
3 Brinkley trial gets nasty
4 Video shows emotional hostage rescue
5 Brinkley takes the stand


Daily Mail (UK) Most Read
1 The floating cities that could one day house climate change refugees
2 Facebook generation 'form flimsy friendships and are bored by reality'
3 Our solar system is egg-shaped, according to distant space probe
4 Polaroid launches a wallet-sized printer that prints your mobile phone snaps in seconds
5 Meet the underwater Anaconda snake that could solve our energy problems


Telegraph (UK) MOST VIEWED
1 Schoolboys disciplined for 'refusing to pray to Allah'
2 Alex Allan, Britain's leading spymaster, found at home in a coma
3 Ray Lewis resigns as deputy London mayor to Boris Johnson over magistrate claims
4 Faceless figures cause a stir at Wimbledon, Harrods and Elton


The Independent (UK)
1 'I fell in love with a female assassin'
2 Why Canada is the best haven from climate change
3 No words necessary: The cartoonists tackle climate change
4 Muslims feel like 'Jews of Europe'
5 Barcelona the most likely destination for unsettled Adebayor*

* A football (soccer) player being traded.


LA Times most Viewed
1 Baron Davis confident he'll be playing with Elton Brand
2 Goleta fire now covers 5,400 acres
3 Germany's newest citizen, center: Chris Kaman*
4 How harmful is porn?
5 Pringles are not potato chips, judge says in British tax case

* Basketball player.


Huffington Post
1 Arianna Huffington: Seven Things Barack Obama Should Do to Keep From Blowing It
2 Obama Vows To Expand Bush's Faith-Based Programs
3 Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens Undergoes Waterboarding
4 Wesley Clark Stands By McCain Criticism
5 Barack Obama: My Position on FISA


The Guardian Weekly (UK), Wallstreet Journal, and Christian Science Monitor don't have such a lists.

Weeds

Related to my last post... marijuana. It still blows my mind that it's illegal. And again, its benefits to anyone - medicinal, spiritual, recreational, experiencing freedom, etc. - are purely inconsequential. What is of consequence is that there's so much money to be made, that massive corporations are currently not making. The tobacco industry must have been hurt by the increasing restrictions, price hikes, etc. on their products over the years (I say "must have been" just because I don't know for sure, and what I do know is that such a massive industry usually won't let itself be stopped from making profit... so maybe they're raking it in by means unknown to me).

But imagine if weed was legalized. The tobacco industry could release an endless stream of products, using various breeds, endless combos (spliffs, blunts, etc.), and make incredible amounts of money. In terms of legality, it would be as controlled as alcohol, if not moreso, and you'd need a license to sell it (the end result would mean mostly only packies and smoke shops selling it). Fines for breaking the various laws would be even bigger than for alcohol.

Meanwhile, the drug war would actually be winnable. People look to chemicals for their speedy recreation, and to weed for their ambling sensations (I just though of those two words together, and had to use 'em, even is it doesn't make a lot of sense... but you know what I mean). So, people will always be interested in scoring some chemicals, but if weed is legal, most of those people would re-direct their hopeful thrills in that direction. If you can get out of your head legally, why go through the danger of seeking out illegal drugs? There's the potentials for violence, arrest, and all kinds of shit. Let's not forget the fact that you're buying chemicals from some guy on the street (or in the park, as it used to be for me, which was a nicer, greener and therefore more progressive environment... uh... right?).

But who knows what's in that stuff? It could be fake, and harmless, or fake and harmful, or laced with something, or it could be the real thing, and all but the first of those carries serious health risks (obviously, chemical drugs can differ greatly from one another; I'm generalizing). There's no recourse against a dealer of illegal drugs, and he has no liability for producing a quality drug at a reasonable price. Obviously, if someone wants to stay in business, you operate appropriately and ensure customer satisfaction. But there's still no nutritional facts information on the packaging. No warning labels! "WARNING: DIS SHIT WIL FUCK U UP GOOD 4 SHO'!"

Giggles aside, my point is that the market for the chemicals would drop hugely. And using weed would have the same ramifications as alcohol, such as not driving when stoned, not smoking in non-smoking areas, not buying for minors, etc. Except in Texas. And the penalties would probably be more severe, in terms of fines and any sentencing related to crimes in which weed is involved. (I don't personally think that one should be penalized more than the other, but that's simply how it would end up being if it were ever legalized, because of political demand.)

All of these ideas taken into account, in the end it all comes down to money; industry could be making it in astonishing amounts, and they're not. For that sole reason, it's bizarre that it's not legal. It will be legal again, some day, and it would happen one state at a time, not nationally, I'm sure. It is currently legal in Alaska, and the medicinal use is legal in 10+ states, with restrictions, of course. I'm hoping that my home state (Massachusetts) will be one of the early ones to legalize.

Actually, if weed was legalized in Massachusetts, my brothers would be making more money, as they rent out apartments here in Worcester (through me). The housing market would skyrocket, as hordes of stoners decide to relocate and get "freedom fried." I'd love to see some stats on the business impact of Mass's legalization of gay marriage.

Note - on the Wiki page for cannabis, it mentions that "On June 2005, more than 530 distinguished economists, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, called for the legalization of marijuana." This led me to the excellent site www.prohibitioncosts.org - check it out.

Chomsky on Al Jazeera and then I ramble on and on.

A good (albeit short) interview w/Norm Chomsky can be read on Al Jazeera's site today... you can also watch it (from Al J's Inside USA show). I always like watching or listening to Chomsky rather than reading him, because in the latter case it can often be like reading a technical manual. In person, he has to dumb it down a bit for people like me.

Anyway, he talks about the election, citing the people as being "irrelevant onlookers," which is not a new idea for people considering our process. But what interested me the most was his explanation of how our health care situation might well improve. Apparently General Motors has voiced the idea that it costs them $1500 more to make a vehicle here than if they did in Canada, because of the differences in our health care systems.

In unconscious synch, I re-watched Michael Moore's Sicko last night (I wish this film had gotten more notice), and one of the things that I again took from this was his interviews with Americans in France. They cited that, while they got ridiculous (in comparison to American) paid vacations and leave, their work productivity was amazing. I'd love to see stats backing up these anecdotes, because it's something I've always believed would be true, but haven't had the opportunity to see it in action. If anyone knows of such data/dada - or has anecdotes relevant to this - I'd love to hear it.

Chomsky also addressed our fake democracy, and compared it to the real democracies of some of the poorest countries, like Haiti and Bolivia, also very interesting. But he said that "You know, if peasants in Bolivia and Haiti can do this, it's ridiculous to say we can't."

My response is that a real democracy that serves the people is easier when the country is smaller, or the government is more localized, and that the US's extreme wealth - held in only a few hands - makes a "real" democracy hardest of all. A massive number of protesters in Washington DC can't affect the entire country. Not even the political body of a single state can have a great effect, forget about a "third" political party, or a big advocacy group. And when the government and media are owned by the extremely rich and extremely established, the systems of both (media including the web and its use) are being controlled in their favor.

In short, we're fucked. I know it's easy to throw my hands up in despair, but I throw them up anyway. But I also have hope. While I personally feel useless, the fact that other countries are showing themselves to be more functional can help lead us in saner directions. The fact that GM sees that it could make more money if we had a better health care system is exciting, because in the end, that's what controls everything. Industries are always tailoring their (not our) government to ensure maximum profit, and there are many opportunities for them to do so. They can ship jobs out of the country, of course, and this happens a great deal. But if more and more jobs are exported, people will go nuts and demand and actually create change, again, because of money. And our industries need us to have money. I was so amused by the news that Wal-Mart found that its customers were buying fewer goods at their stores because they couldn't afford them anymore. How's po' Wal-Mart going to make its money if there's none in the country?

Or, the industries can go to war with one another (brief tangential images pop into mind, of kewl sci-fi future wars waged between companies and their troops, logos tattoed on their foreheads, and no sign of "nations" in sight). If the auto industry can make more money by pushing us closer to a socialized health care system, they'll do it. Or they'll try. Other industries and massive corporations might realize the same, and something might actually happen. Increased productivity from happier and healthier employees could become a real factor to corporations' leadership (the happiness/health aspect is inconsequential of course, the productivity/profit is what's truly important).

The way to get industry and its few ruling bodies to make changes for the better are to show that it also betters them financially. Natural (solar/wind/hydro) power pays for itself over time, and beyond that point is free (minus overhead of course). Manufacturing centers should all be going off the grid as soon as possible, if they really want to make money (assuming they plan to be in business for a long time), setting up their own energy farms and the like. The fact that it will help save the earth is, again, inconsequential. Maybe even one day, we'll reverse the course of our military (the biggest expense of all), and de-privatize it. Although then I wouldn't get to see my kewl sci-fi future in action. But I can still dream... I pledge allegiance to Halliburton, hallowed be thy name....

More and more buttons....

OK, more button designs... the first bunch are screencaps from one of the funniest animated shorts ever, "Rejected" by Don Hertzfeldt. The other design is surely to be only the first of a lengthy series of buttons.

ANATOMICALLY CORRECT ANIMAL CRACKER

I am devoting a new photo (well, picture?) album to my beloved ANATOMICALLY CORRECT ANIMAL CRACKER. Enjoy!

Please feel free to inject him into your own pictures. He likes adventures.

Holy poo.

Ok, just watched and re-watched this season's penultimate episode of Dr. Who. Blown away. It's so far off the hook it's ridiculous. Madness! How they managed to cram that much into one episode is brilliant.



This episode is the big bang. Featuring every surviving Dr. Who cast member (as well as some from Torchwood) vs.... well, no spoilers here. If you want spoilers, go to my collection of screencaps that I wasted too much time culling. Now I have to wait six more days to see the finale! Gah.

Serial killers are running our country and we've got to stop them.

Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran

I am fucking terrified.

Yet another button.

Otay, took me way too long, but I think this new button is one of my best:



Dr. Hoffman being the discovering chemist of LSD. I posted a memorial bit here, written by Tim Lott (from the London Independent)... he put the LSD experience into words as well as anyone perhaps could.

Stamp Fun II

My buddy Jon gave me this old set of mint stamps, also from China.

China, Cat. #776-780.
Issued December 16, 1947, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Chinese Postal Administration.

Stamp Fun I

I've started using the Scott Stamp Catalog (the be-all end-all of philately inphormation) to identify some stamps, basically trying to figure out some unknown countries of origin here and there. I finally found the listing for this one:

People's Republic of China, Cat. #269.
135th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), German Socialist. Issued 12/15/1955. One of a pair of stamps issued that day, the other celebrating the 85th anniversary of the birth of Lenin (I ain't got that one yet, but ohhh, I will).



Stamps are kewl.

PSA: Head injuries and You

Friendly reminder:

Let's say someone next to you smacks their head on something hard. Your own head is turned at the time, so you don't see it happen, but you do hear a THUD and him exclaiming AAAAAAHHHH! Naturally, you say, "You alright?"

If the person says "no" or in my case today "no, not really" and then staggers off, and then later returns saying he might be a bit concussed, consider checking on him and make sure he's okay.

In my case today, I'm alright. I got a bit nauseous and have felt woozy, but after a half hour, during which I've checked myself and how I'm doing repeatedly, am confident that I'm fine.

But: when someone says they're not alright, and that they may be somewhat concussed, please actually do something about it. Jeez.

Summer Camp, 2008

Kathleen Engle, 16, from Fairfield, California, said she had looked into the Peace Corps and other options but decided on the military.

“I was in fifth grade when 9/11 happened and that’s when I decided the best thing I could do for my country was this,” she said, playing a video game called “America’s Army.”

“I guess it’s going to be hard to kill someone, but if that’s your job and that’s what our commander tells us we need to do, I’m going to do that in order to protect my country.”

Elite US Army Academy Lures Kids With Mud and Duty

Ick + Philately

It's so humid that I've worked up a sweat while fiddling with my stamp collection. Which is going swimmingly, btw, and which is also how I feel about sitting in this humidity. Ha!

I need more stock sheets, though; I don't use the little gummy flaps to hinge 'em into books, I use the ones with rows of plastic you snug them into. I've got tons of stamps sorted into the cute little glassine envelopes, with nowhere to go.

I just got in a bunch of stamps for really cheap (like $8) recently, which were awesome, because they came from a book gotten at an estate sale. Inheriting someone else's stamps is fun, and they might have some rarer ones. Online (ebay and stampwants are the biggest sites, I think) you can get all kinds of stuff, but most often the auctions/sales are for individual stamps or series, with their catalog numbers listed, etc. I like getting a mass of stamps and discovering different stuff. The other stamp purchase I made recently is for 1000 worldwide (this usually means no American or English stamps), and a pack of 25 stamps from Malawi and 50 from Mexico. I mostly got those because they were from the same vendor and were dirt cheap/postage-free. But I'm collecting Malawian stamps in particular, for nostalgic purposes: I spent a semester at Chancellor College in Malawi my junior year at Colby College.

Otherwise I've got stuff from just about every country around, including from some that aren't around anymore. I've got a ton of American and Russian stamps, though, the former out of an interest in my country's history, and the latter because they're kewl. Actually, I can list off a bunch of countries w/bitchin' stamp designs, so I'm still just grabbing any old stamps in general, although this (with the above exception) is being curtailed a fair bit for lack of funds.

I almost made it to an estate sale recently where the guy told me there'd be stamps, but it was too far away. Eh! I'll keep hunting. Estate sales are a gas, btw, and if you've never been to one, you should check it out. People go fucking nuts.

In Memoriam

The best news I've heard in a while:

A Fitting Memorial: The George W. Bush Sewage Plant

If you’ve attended an event or festival in San Francisco lately - or even just hung out at a city park - you’ve probably seen them.

Admittedly, they’re hard to miss. Someone in the group is usually toting a large American flag, and another is often carrying a boom box blaring patriotic music. Sometimes one of them dresses up as Uncle Sam.

They’re the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, but don’t let the serious name fool you. The group’s intentions are in the gutter: They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January, when the next president is sworn in.

(Click to read rest of article.)

Entertainment Recommendations

For your viewing pleasure:

I just finished tearing through the complete BBC series Life on Mars (2 seasons of 8 hour-long episodes each, 2006-07). Starring John Simm of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame, it's the story of a cop that gets hit by a car and sent into a coma, yet (at least in his mind) he finds himself as a cop newly assigned to his same department, but in 1973. It's a fucking incredible series and I can't recommend it enough. There's a new version of it now on American TV which apparently blows, and I doubt I'll be watching it.

This was a ton of viewing for me, right when I was also zipping through a recent Sci Fi channel mini-series called The Lost Room. About 5-6 hours running time in all, and it's a fantastic trip. Peter Krause stars, along with Sydney Pollack and Julienne Marguiles (sp?) as a cop that discovers a key at a crime scene. It turns out to fit any lock, but whatever door you're opening with it will open into a deserted motel room. Again, wicked recommended.

OMFG, I might just vote for McCain!

It's a McMiracle! (hey, CNN's word, not mine)

Here's a cheery story on CNN's site about a guy who lost 80 pounds in 6 months on "The McDonalds Diet." I shit you not. The interviewer happily went over his daily menu with him in detail, both of them describing what's in them, and clearly impressed by their deliciousness. The CNN "news" person even mentioned off-hand that one of the items included an option (grilled vs. ... whatever else), though the dieter didn't go that way.

Sometimes, our guy would or wouldn't take the mid-day snack of Apple Dippers, which the CNN lady described for the viewers that didn't know, as being slices of apple; probably only about half an apple.

Also on the topic of apples, apparently the Walnut Salad he sometimes had at dinner is just a little cup of fruit, which has grapes, walnuts, and again, apples.

The background image for the text on the screen was mostly abstract, but gave the feeling of a sunrise or sunset, a nice orange glow. Inserted into this was a somewhat opaque version of the McDonalds' M logo and the words 'I'm lovin.'

Our man hasn't been in contact with McDonalds, but if he gets any support from McDonalds, it's for the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity he's working with (I looked it up online, and it seems like a great charity). And we also know that our hero - and they displayed this info when introducing him - he's a VP of some company (it's all initials, no idea what it is or does), and that he never graduated from college.

So why'd he do it? Somehow, it all began with that Wounded Warrior Project. He told his wife he was going to finally lose a ton of weight, and because she didn't believe him, he decided to come up with the "craziest idea I could think of at that moment."

This... news item? is so far gone, and so surreal, that I'm not sure how to even begin. There was no explanation, btw, as to how or why McDonalds was somehow supporting this extremely troop-supportive charity he's involved with... the only link was that he engaged in this absurd diet. And that he's on CNN, which is apparently now sponsored by the letter M and the word lovin'.

I love that he's successful, and never graduated from college. And ate solely at McDonalds. Are you like him, at least in the categories of non-graduate, patriotic, and fat? Keep on it! He's a vice president! And he's on CNN!

Wait... I never graduated college, I'm fat, and I'm supportive of our troops! All I need now is to start eating at McD's and I'll be successful and maybe even famous!

BTW, he has no plans to continue eating the "McDiet." He'll be eating healthy meals at home, but says that if he backslides, he'll go back to "what works," as in, the McMiracle McDiet at McDonalds. This is McCNN reporting.

Starbuck says... "YOU MOTHERFRAKKER!!!"

Just watched the "mid-season finale" of Battlestar Galactica... all I can say is WOW. WOW WOW WOW FRAKKIN' WOW. WOW.

If you don't watch BG, you should. Even if you're not interested in science fiction, etc. It's just a brilliantly written, well-acted show. Easily the best sci fi show in years, and some would argue, ever.

Why? is a useless question at this point.

When I read this on CNN's front page just now:

Bomber hits as Iraqis celebrate soccer win
A bomber detonated her suicide vest Saturday in a marketplace in Diyala province, targeting soccer fans who had just watched the Iraqi national team win a big match against China, authorities told CNN.

without even thinking about it, I put my head in my hands and whimpered "Nooooooo...." My response struck me as perhaps melodramatic, but, there it was nonetheless.

It's odd and maybe interesting to me, that this stands out as being one of my most immediate reactions to any of the shitty news coming out from Iraq in a long time. It's like... people get to enjoy a simple pleasure during all of this chaos, this Hell, and then some poor, misguided person is so far gone as to think that doing this will mean something. Instead, it's a perfect example of how meaningless life, reason, reality, has become for some of these people. Senselessness makes sense, I guess. Fuck.

It mah kitteh!

In happy news: a pic of mine made it onto LOLcats' front page, woot! It's someone else's caption, but hey. Kittehs!

Radioactive Man

From Inter Press service, via Common Dreams (which everyone should always read):

‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies

FALLUJAH - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say.

The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after “special weaponry” was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.

After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.

In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tonnes of DU in Iraq thus far.

Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.

“We saw all the colours of the rainbow coming out of the exploding American shells and missiles,” Ali Sarhan, a 50-year-old teacher who lived through the two U.S. sieges of 2004 told IPS. “I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus.

"We" have actually been dropping depleted uranium bombs ever since the Gulf War, and not just during it, and during these past years. All through the 90s these munitions were being dumped in payloads by our forces. The worst of the effects had been felt in the Basra area, which was the main area of activity in the original war. Before this war even started, people there had been dealing with a massive increase in cancer, to a point where 40% of the population was plagued by it. Deformities in newborns were common.

Some people consider the "Gulf War syndrome" that so many of our military experienced was a result of the DU munitions used (in addition to such factors as post-traumatic stress disorder, which will make any condition worse). I'd be really interested to see a study regarding women that served on the ground in Basra back then, and if they experienced particular difficulties when giving birth, or if there were deformities in their children. And in general, the cancer rate for those that served in the area at that time.

Of course, the radiation issued from the remains of the munitions will never go away... it's there to stay. Just like freedom!

---

Ah! I just looked up DU on Wiki, and it actually addresses the lasting effects of DU on US military: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Gulf_War_syndrome_and_soldier_complaints

Kitteh!

So, a while ago I made up some lolcats using old kitteh photos, but I think lol-speak just doesn't come naturally to me. In any event, they used none of them, but if you go to my pet gallery you'll see all six of them. This may be more adorable if you knew the kittehs pictured.

The New Captain America is... Stephen Colbert!

When Captain America died, the only one that could have replaced him was his old pal, Bucky. But then, I considered Stephen Colbert, and realized that when they kill off Bucky, he should be able to step in to the winghead's uniform just fine.



This would have been more clever if I'd designed and posted it when Cap died. Hey, I'm slow.

(Apologies and love to the incredible artist Alex Ross for using/abusing his painting.)