Rush
Tom Sawyer
September 2007 archive
Sep 23 2007
Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective
Sep 23 2007
These were the bad old days…
A couple of days ago, someone tried to chase me out of his diary about sex discrimination because, you know, only women can be victims of sex discrimination. Put me in my place he did. To him, I’m not a woman. So I was never a victim of sexual harassment in my place of work, but maybe some other kind, I guess.
But he has “impeccable liberal credentials,” so, you know, I should just shut up.
I can’t do that. I am morally and ethically incapable of shutting up.
So I remembered a piece from long ago, written in June of 1994, less than a month before the beginning of Diary.
Sep 23 2007
The System is Broken – but we can fix it….
In Harper’s October issue Garret Keizer writes Specific Suggestion: General Strike. He looks the reality that the system is broken straight in the eye and, like me, sees impeachment as the solution. He calls for “not working until the president and the shadow president resign or [are] impeached.”
Follow me down to hear him address the loss of hope.
Sep 23 2007
Permission to Fly, Sir
When one distrusts corporate media as much as I do news which will directly affect my life has to come from other sources. This is from one of them. My daughter is set to fly to California next week and I’m scared shitless.
Sep 23 2007
Mabon
Merry meet all –
Mabon is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the autumn equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere circa September 22 – 24 and in the Southern Hemisphere around March 20.
We give-away our thanks to the earth which gives us our home.
We give-away our thanks to the rivers and lakes which give-away their water.
We give-away our thanks to the trees which give-away fruit and nuts.
We give-away our thanks to the wind which brings rain to water the plants.
We give-away our thanks to the sun who gives-away warmth and light.
All beings on earth: the trees, the animals, the wind and the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance.
We give-away our promise to begin to learn how to stay in balance with all the earth.
‘Give-Away Thanksgiving Chant’ for Equinox Festival, from La Chapelle, Dolores, Earth Festivals
Leaves are falling below the fold.
Sep 23 2007
The MoveOn.Kos/Nader-like,
Far left wing of the Democratic Party must decide which is more important: 1) Failing to elect a President that strictly follows the far left puritan doctrine or, 2) Electing another President from the Bush community. Everyone on the right of center is (completely) intolerable. Some Democratic candidates have expressed broader based views than is permissible in left land. So which will it be in 2008? A president from the Right who is antithetical to every interest of the Center and the Left? Or, will it be a president who will preside over policies that are mostly acceptable to the Center and the Left? No candidate is perfect.
Sep 23 2007
Why Do GOP “Values” Voters Hate America?
Via Steve Benen and PFAW, here’s why:
Why should God bless America?
She’s forgotten he exists
And has turned her back
On everything that made her what she isWhy should God stand beside her
Through the night with the light from his hand?
God have mercy on America
Forgive her sin and heal our landThe courts ruled prayer out of our schools
In June of ’62
Told the children “you are your own God now
So you can make the rules”
O say can you see what that choice
Has cost us to this day
America, one nation under God, has gone astray. . . In ’73 the Courts said we
Could take the unborn lives
The choice is yours don’t worry now
It’s not a wrong, it’s your rightBut just because they made it law
Does not change God’s command
The most that we can hope for is
God’s mercy on our land. . .(Reading from 2nd Chronicles 7:14) If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land
God have mercy on America forgive her sins and heal our land
Sep 23 2007
Statistics 101: Part 2 measures of spread
Yesterday, we looked at measures of central tendency. Today, we will look at measures of spread, and tomorrow, measures of shape . One way of looking at a measure of central tendency is as your best guess of what something will be. Measures of spread tell you how good that guess is, and measures of shape tell you how you are likely to be wrong.
Sep 23 2007
A Slippery Slope: Of Fascism & Punishment
or “1984” Arrives
This started as an answer to Karmafish’s comment on Docudharma about surveillance, and the possibility of any real revolution occurring in these times.
He said:
….And the most obvious reason that he is right is that a revolution cannot be organized on-line, for chrissake.
It’s impossible for the obvious reason… surveillance. You can’t organize revolution, for fuck’s sake, in a place monitored by the opposition. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not happening.
To which I replied, in part:
A surveilled society and a brutalized society is one that cannot force change, radical or otherwise.
We are on a fuckedly slippery slope!
This has been building for days, and I have to speak my mind. Now.
Sep 23 2007
Forced Sterilizations of Indigenous Women
The sterilizations of indigenous women were either genuine mistakes or less direct means of the continuation of the extermination policy against the Indian Nations. At least three indigenous generations from 3,406 women are not in existence now as the result of either human error or intentional genocide. Were the sterilizations unintentional, negligible, or intended genocide? What would the indigenous culture and political landscape be now? One can only imagine, but the sterilizations like the relocations – were forced.
Sep 23 2007
Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective
Sep 23 2007
The Morning News
From Yahoo News THE TOP STORY
And the only one-
1 Iraq: Blackwater guards fired unprovoked
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago
| BAGHDAD – Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in a shooting last week that left 11 people dead, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.
Iraq’s president, meanwhile, demanded that the Americans release an Iranian arrested this week on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias. The demand adds new strains to U.S.-Iraqi relations only days before a meeting between President Bush and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths. |
My emphasis.