October 2007 archive

“Don’t Ask…Don’t Tap”

There are four basic sexes with their own particular accommodations and conventions applicable thereto. There are men who are physically attracted to women, men who are physically attracted to men and women vice-versa.
The Republican party rules are quite clear. You can serve your country in the military if you are a male attracted to males or female attracted to females as long as you keep your sexual orientation secret and particularly do not discomfort your heterosexual comrades in arms.

Department of Peace Mission Statement

Every corporation or enterprise seeking success in their core endeavors is absolutely advised to have a cogent workable “Mission Statement” with which to focus the enterprise and its workers on a common goal. A desire for Americans to live secure in their homes through a long term plan to actualize planet wide peace by means other than force of arms should be integral to America’s goals.
Establishing a Cabinet level position to enshrine and thus execute this Mission Statement is a simple commonsense act signaling that America is committed via both human and material resources to bringing life, liberty and justice truly to all.

Organizers need a Senate sponsor and are working to bring out Ted Kennedy to sponsor this bill in the Senate.
Check out the site, http://thepeaceallia…. See who is sponsoring the bill.

Standing Up Against The New McCarthyism And Ending The Iraq War

Paul Waldman writes a good piece about Rush Limbaugh saga. I especially like his connecting Rush' New McCarthyism techniques to the Republican Party New McCarthyism on Iraq:

Think about how much time and effort they expend on convincing Americans that progressives and Democrats are “anti-military,” “hate the troops,” and even “hate America.” So any progressive veteran who criticizes Bush administration policies represents a profound threat to all the arguments they have made. It becomes particularly thorny when nearly the entire current leadership of the conservative movement — not only media figures like Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, but also political figures including President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and many others — were of draft age during the Vietnam war but managed to stay out of harm's way.

But Democrats and their allies like Move On do not win this battle by aping this strategy, as Move On wrongly did; this battle is won by Democrats standing up against these McCarthyite tactics and, more importantly, standing up to Bush on Iraq. That means not funding the Iraq debacle after a date certain. More.

Liberal Fascist Larry Johnson Cutely Advises Congressmen to Keep U.S. Troops in Iraq

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Larry Johnson ex CIA and fascist advocate of torture and a member of what appears to be a nascent liberal fascist movement has written a piece on the CIA friendly website Booman Tribune that attempts to portray his position as trying to get the American Policy on Iraq and Iran “back into the realm of sanity”.

America must protect it’s long term interests in Iraq. America must stay in Iraq as long as it needs Iraqi oil. There is no other interpretation of this confused diary by Larry Johnson. It’s cute.

Johnson relates how he met with 14 members of Congress. Perhaps he met with Rahm Emmanuel who knowledge of Iraq is betrayed by his ignorance when he states that Saudi Arabia is governed by a Shiite majority aligned with the Shiites in Iran.

From crooks and liars

“The Iranians are a Persian culture and the House of Saud is a Shiite government, a total different culture and a different people and etc. The question about Saudi Arabia is there is a clear, they have been funding radical schools throughout the Mideast and it is a big problem for us.”
Crooks:
Um, no, Rahm. The ruling mullahs of Iran (who are Persian, you got that right, but that’s an ethnicity, not a religion) are Shi’a. The Saudis are Sunnis. That’s part of the problem. The “insurgents” in Iraq (at least, most of them) are Sunnis.

Bomb Threat?

Tuesday night I had a quiz scheduled for my Java I class.  At least I call them quizzes.  Everyone knows they are exams, but calling it a quiz is an attemtpt to lessen the pressure.  I count the overall grade on the quizzes as 25% of the total grade and count their best 5 out of 6, so each quiz is really 5% of the total grade, with one mulligan. 

Projects (aka homework: programs they have to create) counts 50% of the grade.  The final projects, which are individually created to be different for each student, counts 20% and the catch-all “classroom participation” is the other 5%.

Anyway, after letting them ask any question they wanted for the first 15 minutes, we started the quiz at 6:15pm.  At around 6:35 one of my students finished (she’s good!), asked when she should return and went to her car “to chill.”

At 6:40pm the alarms went off.

International Day of Action for a Free Burma – Today

Burma. We asked you to care. We’re asking again.

As you read, someone lays beaten and bloody for the crime of caring too much, for the sin of fighting with ideas not guns. Imprisoned.

How can they go on without support? Is this asking too much?

If you can spare some time to walk & talk, open your heart & meet me after the jump.

Doing it for Ourselves 1.3: Passive solar


Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in

Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in

Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in


Oh, let it shine, c’mon

Now everybody just sing along

Let the sun shine in

Open up your heart and let it shine on in

When you are lonely, let it shine on

Got to open up your heart and let it shine on in

And when you feel like you’ve been mistreated

And your friends turn away

Just open your heart, and shine it on in


~The 5th Dimension

(Words by James Rado and Gerome Ragni: Music by Galt MacDermot)


What is Passive solar? How does it differ from active solar technology? What are the benefits of passive solar technologies? Read on to find out.


By the way, this weekend marks the National Solar Tour by the American Solar Energy Society. You can check to see if there are any tour events in your area here

International Day of Action for a Free Burma

Just a reminder.

I defer to koNko…..

Please do what you can where you are, and keep the Burmese people in your heart today.

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Pony Party: Calico Edition

The calico cat is not an actual breed of pootie but the result of an interplay of sex linked genetics. They are usually female, although it is possible for a calico to be a male. They must possess three colors to be considered a calico.

Ethical Knots: Life and Death Edition

Being the first, perhaps, in an occasional series on various ethical tight spots. Together in the threads may we untangle and tangle the most intricate problems. Perhaps this will contribute, however obliquely, to The Manifesto Project.

What should I do?

If it were always absolutely clear what it is that we should do, there would be no need for “ethics” with various modes of making just and reasoned decisions.

Ethics and complication, ethics and uncertainty, ethics and danger, ethics and risk, they travel together. Called upon to exercise your ethical judgement, when there is a true test, it is because you find yourself in an impossible situtation, where none of the outcomes clearly announces itself as the right one.

Love Songs for Joshua

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The puppy is Ben who is the genetic perfection of a German Shepherd.  Ben grew up taking care of Joshua and now he takes care of an autistic boy in upstate New York.  The boy is Joshua who is the genetic perfection of a human being and a son, my son.

Pony Party: Sky Edition

Sometimes I like to sit outside in the early evening or morning and look up at the sky. I like to imagine that somewhere there is another person looking up at the sky thinking the exact same thoughts  I am.

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