Must Read....EDITED

"The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack. Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

We end the countdown where we began, our #1 story. with a special comment on Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday. It demands the deep analysis - and the sober contemplation - of every American. For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence - indeed, the loyalty - of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land; Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants - our employees - with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; And not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as "his" troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq. It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile… it is right - and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For, in their time, there was another government faced with true peril - with a growing evil - powerful and remorseless. That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the secret information. It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s - questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was England’s, in the 1930’s. It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone to England. It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords. It knew that the hard evidence it had received, which contradicted it’s own policies, it’s own conclusions - it’s own omniscience - needed to be dismissed. The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.

Most relevant of all - it "knew" that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile - at best morally or intellectually confused. That critic’s name… was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill. History - and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England - had taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty - and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy excepting the fact that he has the battery plugged in backwards. His government, absolute and exclusive in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis. It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to today’s Omniscient Ones. That about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely. And as such, all voices count - not just his. Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience - about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago - about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago - about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago - we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact plus ego. But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to flu vaccine shortages, to the entire "Fog of Fear" which continues to envelope this nation - he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies, have - inadvertently or intentionally - profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporer’s New Clothes.

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised?

As a child, of whose heroism did he read?

On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight?

With what country has he confused… the United States of America?

The confusion we - as its citizens - must now address, is stark and forbidding. But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light and we can too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this Administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that - though probably not in the way he thought he meant it. This country faces a new type of fascism indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed, "confused" or "immoral."

Thus forgive me for reading Murrow in full: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," he said, in 1954. "We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear - one, of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of un-reason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men; Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were - for the moment - unpopular."

And so, good night, and good luck." ~ Keith Olbermann

You sir, seriously rock.

Here's the story of another man who stood up to "speak truth to power" and and the government efforts to silence him...

Tip o' the hat to Jade, just thought the word should be spread.

EDIT: Further Commentary from TIME Magazine

Why the Nazi Analogy Is on the Rise

"But what's so revealing about the Bush administration's offensive is that it's the same rhetorical playbook that conservatives have been using for years.

Consider Charles Krauthammer, an influential Washington Post—and TIME magazine—columnist and administration ally. He is the probable source of Rumsfeld's quote, having used it in his August 11 newspaper column about Iran. In doing so, he joined what writer Ross Douthat calls the growing number of conservatives who see "Iran's march toward nuclear power" as "the equivalent of Hitler's 1930s brinkmanship." And a Nexis search reveals that Krauthammer tends to see Hitler analogies everywhere — he trotted out the same Borah quote to denounce the alleged appeasement of China in 1989 and North Korea in 1994.

In fact, any negotiation with a rogue regime or decision to reverse course can be condemned as appeasement. More than a half-century after WWII, isn't it time for our foreign policy debate to move beyond a single inflammatory analogy?" ~ Brendan Nyhan

Indeed, though this hints one step further than I have gone. I theorized before the Bush adminstration is using an outdated paradigm for the "War on T'rrur": The Cold War Domino Effect. "If one falls to communism/terrorism, they will all fall. If we set up a democracy in the countries in question, communism/terrorism will simply fade from the Earth." (Well, we all know how well that one works.) But such desperate clinging to the WWII era hints that, in fact, while the terrorist's tactics have evolved in the last 60 years, President Bush's has devolved. No wonder this adminstration can't get the job done, they were fighting communists and now they think we're fighting Nazis. What's next? The Kaiser?

Obviously, since we all of a sudden have all these "(Islamic) Fascists" running around. This is an intentional attempt to fuel American paranoia and biogtry against all Islamic Peoples...remember folks: Indonesia, largest population of Muslims in the world, women work & vote, kids wear jeans and buy Nickelback albums. Sound like a fascist nation to you?

You're being manipulated people, so what are you going to do about it?

On Being Red…

There is a lot of mystique and assumptions about red-heads. Assumptions that have little foundation in science but loads of anecdotal evidence, but for once it seems that one of the red-talking points does have some scientific evidence to back it up:

Redheads 'have more sex than blondes or brunettes'

The study by Hamburg Sex Researcher Professor Dr Werner Habermehl looked at the sex lives of hundreds of German women and compared them with their hair colour. He said: "The sex lives of women with red hair were clearly more active than those with other hair colour, with more partners and having sex more often than the average. The research shows that the fiery redhead certainly lives up to her reputation."

On behalf of red-heads everywhere I say, “Well, duh.” ;)

Part of that is the perception of the group as well, I don’t now how many times I have heard older men say, “You have to have at least one redhead before you die…” as if it’s like climbing Mount Everest, driving a Ferrari or drinking Germain-Robin while smoking the finest Havana cigar.

(Which, according to many men on Fark, if you add the essence of all those experiences up and mix in a dash of LSD, equates a relationship with a female red head. There also seemed to be a popular consensus that red heads were smarter than your average bear as well.)

While the proliferation of quality dye jobs has masked the true red-head community (up until the late 1990’s, you could spot a dyed-red from a mile away), the fact is any red-head walking into a bar automatically gets more attention than blondes or brunettes of equal beauty. But part of it is also the lack of inhibition associated with the color which I think affects us on multiple levels. Redheads do not feel as constrained by social custom, ergo they can “cut-loose” more easily than other women in both public and private. They do tend to be more direct and blunt and tend to do or say what they really feel, hence the temperamental reputation. Do we have worse tempers than other hair colors? That I don’t know. Few women express anger outwards as redheads are not only allowed, but practically expected to do. Most women turn anger on inwards themselves or become resentful and manipulative, expressing anger passive-aggressively. Red heads are more likely to explode. I don’t know if they become more angry than other women, but they are more likely to express it.

I love being Red. We so rule. :D

And does this lack of inhibition come encoded in the hair’s genetic make-up, or is it a social expectation: We expect a red-head child to act up, ergo when he or she does, they get away with it more than children of other colorings?

Anyway, here are some more interesting facts about red heads…

While jokes about “red-headed step-children” abound on this side of the pond, red heads in the U.S. don’t seem to suffer the same negative associations that their “ginger” cousins do in the U.K. where red hair was viewed as being well…evil. Associated with witchcraft and the devil (as well as an uninhibited libido, which was viewed a bad thing in women until recently). It’s much more of an open prejudice there, though that has fallen off in more recent generations and many a "Ginger Defense League" website has popped up promoting Red-Hair Pride.

Red heads require more anesthesia than others tending to be more sensitive to pain. This may be linked to the melanin deficiency they suffer (one of their melanin receptors doesn’t work) which of course, results in a greater sensitivity to UV rays (ie. “burning like a lobster”). They also bleed more profusely than people of other colorings, especially during childbirth. This has led some scientist to theorize red hair may be a genetic “whoops” on Mother Nature’s part. Red Hair is the rarest of hair colors and there is a lot of speculation as to where it came from. It seems to have first developed in Europe only 40,000 years ago, fairly recent in human history, but predating the Celts. Scotland actually enjoys the highest concentration of red-heads at 13% with 40% of the population carrying the gene. Ireland comes in a close second with 10% of the population being red haired. This does not neccessarily indicate origin but could be an expression of what they call the "Founder Effect" which results the greater frequency of recessive traits expressed in isolated populations making them genetically unique.

Most primates, including people, practice Positive Assortive Mating meaning “like mates with like”. As much as we idealize the blonde in western culture, the fact is statistically people are more likely to have children with mates with similar features to their own. Blondes marry blondes and brunettes marry brunettes (through the way women dye their hair now a days, one has to wonder if men realize they are getting a brunette when they marry). Except red-heads. Statistically, red-heads tend to prefer mates of different coloring than their own. So if it is a genetic “whoops”, this may be a genetic self-correcting mechanism.

That’s is, if it a nature over nurture thing.

Completely non-scientific personal experience, I have found most red headed women seem to prefer men of dark coloring. It’s that whole saturnine thing. When we see January White-Sale Pale in the mirror every morning, people of tan skin, brown-black hair and dark-brown eyes tend to show up more readily on our radar. They're exotic to us. I will say there have been red headed men who have piqued my interest, but they are rare compared to the brunettes. Four (1, 2 (who would be a ten times more attractive if he didn't take himself so seriously), 3, and one BF) in my lifetime compared to all the other men I have been interested in which considering how few red-heads there are in the population, doesn’t really support the notion of redheads avoiding each other. If you look at the pencentages, that is actually more than the population average. Perhaps it’s less a matter of preference than it is availability.

How Bad Is It? EDITED

Medical testing on inmates could be allowed

“PHILADELPHIA — An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse…

…Until the early 1970s, about 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested on prison inmates, federal officials say. But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after revelations of abuse at prisons such as the Pennsylvania Prison System in Holmesburg, Penn., where inmates were paid hundreds of dollars a month to test items as varied as dandruff treatments and dioxin, and were exposed to radioactive, hallucinogenic and carcinogenic chemicals.”

“Paging Doctor Mengle, Doctor Mengle to the phone please.”

American Citizens Stuck Bewteen a Rock and a Hard Place

(08-26) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- The federal government has barred two relatives of a Lodi man convicted of supporting terrorists from returning to the country after a lengthy stay in Pakistan, placing the U.S. citizens in an extraordinary legal limbo.
Muhammad Ismail, a 45-year-old naturalized citizen born in Pakistan, and his 18-year-old son, Jaber Ismail, who was born in the United States, have not been charged with a crime. However, they are the uncle and cousin of Hamid Hayat, a 23-year-old Lodi cherry packer who was convicted in April of supporting terrorists by attending a Pakistani training camp….

..."They've been given the opportunity to meet with the FBI over there and answer a few questions, and they've declined to do that," Scott said.

Mass said Jaber Ismail had answered questions during an FBI interrogation at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad soon after he was forced back to Pakistan. She said the teenager had run afoul of the FBI when he declined to be interviewed again without a lawyer and refused to take a lie-detector test…

"They can't be compelled to waive their constitutional rights under threat of banishment," Mass said. "The government is conditioning the return to their home on cooperation with law enforcement."

These are your rights the government is messing with people. If they had something on these guys, they would have filed charges and asked for extradition. As it is, they are arbitrarily revoking the Constitutional rights of American citizens. In a few years, it could be you or me.

And let's not forget that last year...

U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules

Is there any way this adminstration hasn't attacked our freedoms as Americans?



I tell you again, the greatest threat to American Freedom is sitting in the Oval Office.

EDIT: Last night the Stephen Colbert Report had Ramesh Ponnuru on touting his new book, The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life

During the course of the interview, he claimed that the Supreme Court had "given women the right to umlimited abortions at any point during their pregnancy".

One would think to write about about a SCOTUS ruling, an author would have bothered to actually read the ruling. Roe Vs. Wade does NOT give the right to volutary abortions at any time during pregnancy but limits it to the first trimester only. After that it is at the states discretion and most states have their own laws limiting volutary abortions to the first trimester only.

In fact, here's a pretty spreadsheet updated to 2002.

The argument over abortion is a legitimate one, but when the Right to Lifers and Neocons do things like this they just make their side of the argument look like a pack of idiots and liars.

But then, what can you expect from an author endorsed by Ann Coulter?

Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?

Who gives a flying fuck?

Honestly, it’s terribly sad what happened to this innocent child, but given the number of children that die in violence in this country yearly, plus everything that is going on in the world, I find it very difficult to fall for this blatant “Don’t look at the man behind the curtain” tactic on the media’s part. I don't mind that it got reported that they caught the guy, I do mind the non-stop coverage of every second and every facet of his transportation and arraignment.

Folks, things suck and they suck a lot worse than the ten year old murder of a single exploited child. Stop looking at the soap operas and the pretty lights and let’s get down to business.

Besides, painting and dressing a six year old to look like she had a walk-on as a tramp in Dynasty is disgusting. I think any parent that turns their toddler into a sexual object needs to spend a hell of a lot of time in jail. All beauty pageants for girls below the age of 14 should be banned.

Katrina Recovery

Coming up on the one year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katina on the gulf coast, people are still homeless, areas still without potable water and electricity, infrastructure still failing in the aftermath. It doesn’t seem to be a problem of the amounts of money (Gawd knows there is enough money being thrown around), but complete lack of coordination on multiple levels of government throughout the Gulf Coast and Washington D.C. The Gulf Coast is a major moneymaker for the United States. If the municipal or state governments cannot come up with a cohesive plan to rebuild their regions better than they were, why hasn’t someone stepped into to coordinate the process from Washington? What is truly sad is the current results show agencies doing nothing more than trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, meaning this could happen all over again in exactly the same fashion. Shouldn’t we be trying to improve the region to safeguard it and its people against such disasters happening to them again? Given the multi-state scope of destruction, wouldn’t a federal committee guiding recovery be a good step? Certainly at this late date? Why should any region of this nation be no better than a third world country with no plans for improvement?


Prayers to all those in the Gulf Coast still trying to put their lives back together in Katrina’s wake.

Hooray for a Cease Fire!

Well, it sounds as though things have calmed down in Lebanon and the peacekeeping force is being pulled together, albeit slowly. At least people have lowered their weapons and are talking, which as a step.

I think the U.N. needs to convene a assembly to deal with the subject of terrorist and terrorism and how it should be handled. The Lebanese people paid the price for a group of foreign funded extremists in their midst and I don’t think Hezbollah or any terrorist group should be treated as a sovereign entity. I don’t think the U.N. should be disarming Hezbollah, but arresting them. The group’s principal goal is the elimination of Israel and there is little hope in trying to reason with them because we are never going to give them what they want. (In return, I would like to see Israel pay for all the damage they caused innocent Lebanese people. If people actually started calling them into account for their actions, I think perhaps they might consider moderating their response next time.) However, if we treat all non-state sanctioned political movements as being worthless in the eyes of the world, then we close the door on those groups with legitimate grievances against their governments, oppressed peoples.

It’s a pickle. We don’t pay attention to these people until they have been pushed to violence and then we seem to pay the wrong kind of attention to them once they have crossed that line.

Racism, Sexism in the U.S.

In my ongoing exploration of popular media, I have become increasingly disturbed at what American society is becoming. In the wake of Katrina, passive racism is a topic that needs to be addressed in the country openly, yet not only do we have the latest season of Survivor which has split it’s “tribes” up into ethnic groups in a publicized-sanitized “race war”, but last week saw a number of political figures on both sides of the aisle making racist vaguely remarks. “Tar Baby”? Have our leaders really been held that far back in the past? Are they that far out of touch? Shouldn’t we be talking about how we have designed a system that keeps minorities economically disenfranchised from the cradle to the grave (poor healthcare, under-funded inner city schools, nearly no vocational training, next to declining numbers of manufacturing jobs)? After conquering the big issues of racism in this country, shouldn’t we be trying to fine tune the system by cleaning out the dusty attitudes and little cobwebs of discrimination from the corners of our society?

For example, why a pretty white six year old gets ten years of media attention when she is murdered vs. the complete ignoring of crimes against children of minorities.

What has also disturbed me is the number of shows on TV that were blatantly exploitive of women.

Now, I don’t mind guys having themselves a good ol’ time by looking at pretty girls, many times it has been said the stripping exploits the men more than it does the women and I see a legitimate argument in that. However, men’s attitudes do not disturb me so much as women’s attitudes about it. There seems to be a growing number of women that feel they have nothing more to offer then their pretty faces and “party girl” attitudes and the popular media seems to be trying to reinforce that image.

While channel trying to find Speed Channel one night, a flipped past the reality show/contest on CMT about finding the “Ultimate Coyote” for the Coyote Ugly bars (hey, it’s publicity) Now I have worked in the food biz and seen how hard a bartender's job is, so I was intrigued.

Briefly.

“I think I have a lot to offer this competition because I’m not afraid to be a woman and wear make-up and act feminine…”

*Click*

“Being a woman” means “wearing make up”? “Acting feminine” means dancing on a bar in skimpy clothes?

I don’t begrudge anyone a clean good time, but I have to wonder that anyone would identify “being feminine” by what the girls at Coyote Ugly do. I also have to wonder, do the women on Survivor cease to be women, are they “not feminine”, because they are not wearing make-up and flirting?

Why does “being feminine” mean having to sell yourself to the crowd? Why does “being a woman” mean having to compromise yourself? I don't mind folks for having a good time, but let's call it what it is. Coyote Ugly girls are not "being feminine", they're using sex to sell alcohol. Hey, this is capitalism and if it works, more power to ya, but don't try and dress it up as "a proper woman should..." My mother doesn't dance on bars, does that mean she's isn't "a real woman?"

This wasn’t the only example of the media perpetuating the idea that being feminine meant being a sexual object, but it was the most blatant on that comes to mind. Well, that and the endless “Girls Gone Wild” commercials in Comedy Central (Man, those things are long)...and "Next". And do you know what that sort of attitude results in? Lemme tell you guys what was said on a Dale Jr. message board, by a so-called “woman”.

“Dale Jr. needs to find a nice girl who will let him think he is in charge, but will actually crack the whip on him…”

This was of course almost universally agreed with and anyone who felt that was a rather sick and pathetic way to view relationships and a horrible thing to wish on anyone was labeled a deviant and a trouble maker.

*roll eyes*

Manipulation, yeah that’s real “feminine”. Controlling, yep that’s “being a real woman”.

Who the fuck has that kind of time?

See that’s what happens when women are taught that the only thing they have to offer is their looks and a “fun attitude”: They feel powerless because their self-esteem is reliant not on themselves, but others opinions of them. They have no inner power beyond how they affect men (or women depending on their preference), which is not strength at all but a co-dependency because they need the feedback. Because they feel controlled by that dependency, in turn they try to manipulate and control people around them.

While there are some great fictional shows like CSI that present strong women who are utterly feminine without compromising themselves (Catherine Willows rocks), the “reality show culture” seems intent on turning women into teenage girls again, their self esteem dependant on others opinions of them.

Many conservatives talk about "the golden years" of the 1950’s with a hazy nostalgia, espcially those that didn't actually live through them as adults,; the intact nuclear family, the afternoons playing outside in safe suburban neighborhoods, the capitalism that provided for all, the black and white nature of politics.

What they forget was all the dirty little secrets that accompanied that "golden era": Racism, Chauvinism, Psuedo-Patiotic Paranoia. All three have returned, not to the degree they existed then, but they have returned.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States is slipping backward; politically, culturally and economically and we have to find some way to stop it.

Bristol.

Ooooh, owie! Elliott was doing SO WELL! He had a top five car on a track he knows inside and out when he got tagged by a speeding-on-pit-road penalty and then Joe Nemecheck. So wrong man, just so wrong. I don’t know if he ran over a black cat or what, but I’m sure it must feel as though he working through about two years of bad karma.

Keep your chin up Elliott, it’s a new team in a new car. I’m sure there will be some stumbles while everyone gets settled in. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just enjoy the rest of this year for the trail and error period it is and start fresh in February 2007.

Mark Martin, also a bad night. :(

Dale did very well finishing up 3rd while his team pulled off a slew of under 13 second pit stops and Tony Jr. made a car that was a “piece of crap” Friday afternoon into a car that could lead Saturday night, at least it was a top ten car that Dale could wheel to the front. That team really showed what they were capable of Saturday.

I daresay a couple more like that a Tony Jr. might just earn my forgiveness for Pocono 2004. ;)

Here's Some Fun Stuff

While channel flipping, I stumbled across this last weekend:

The Red Bull Air Race

It's basically stunt flying through a preset crouse in prop planes, simply amazing to watch.

Can You Guess....

About which society this little gem was written?

“…the senatorial class was localized throughout the *country*, performing *national* administrative duties, receiving *national* administrative titles, and displaying little of the public-mindedness and public generosity that had characterized its earlier members. The financial burdens of the state fell more and more on the *middle class comprised of civil servants, army officers, teachers, and physicians* and *the lower class comprised of the merchants and traders, craftsmen and small farmers*. The economic decline of the *Blank* century therefore must be regarded chiefly in terms of its effect on the lower ranks of society – the men and women whose ability to lighten the new economic burdens of taxation and inflation was strictly limited.”

...

Lemme give you a hint.

“…the senatorial class was localized throughout the Empire, performing imperial administrative duties, receiving imperial administrative titles, and displaying little of the public-mindedness and public generosity that had characterized its earlier members. The financial burdens of the state fell more and more on the honestiores and humiliores. The economic decline of the third century therefore must be regarded chiefly in terms of its effect on the lower ranks of society – the men and women whose ability to lighten the new economic burdens of taxation and inflation was strictly limited.”

It’s referring to beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire. (Edward Peters, Europe and the Middle Ages)

Any resemblance to American economy and government today is purely coincidental, of course. ;)

As much as the History Channel and Christian televangelists may want to sell the idea that "Roman Vice Brought Down the Empire" (played all weekend *bor-RING*), the fact is the Empire long survived the Julio-Claudian Caesars (Augustus through Nero) and it was the rather less salacious economic, political and military mismanagement that led to Rome's demise rather than the juicy "moral corruption" of its upper class, and that is what it will come down to for America if we don't start paying attention to our government and electing intelligent, ethical leaders. We have already seen "morals" without ethics for the current administration, I am looking forward to some morals and ethics in the next.

TV has been very amusing to watch, the gross materialism and fascination with dangerous creatures and people reflected in the vast majority of our programming is amusingly pathetic. Now we get blatant racism with this latest season of "Survivor". Sit back for a moment folks and think about what our media programming says about us....

At least teachers and army officers back in the R.E. earned a wage that kept them in the upper middle class and merchants were relegated to the lower middle class. Two up on us. We at least don't have highly factionalized military that are more loyal to the regional commanders than they are the national government. (Took care of that last century. One up for us.)

Michigan

*YEA!*

Elliott Sadler places 10th! For a guy that jumped into a new organization mid-season driving a make of car he has never driven, built for someone else, that’s a very auspicious beginning with Evernham Motorsports. Here’s to a great future!

Nice save on Pit Road, BTW. I TOLD you the guy could wheel it.

“Well done” to Dale Jr. for his 7th place finish, duking it out with Mark Martin down to the line, that’s the kind of racing we want to see! Well done indeed to both men!

The race was a good one, it’s easy to see why driver like the track so much, but what was with all the tire problems?

Points to Dale Jr. for the use of the word “uncouth”. My weigh in on the Busch race? Well, as I said before, when Cup drivers are winning in the Busch series week after week and the top five in the Busch series are all cup drivers, it’s time to bring an end to the “Buschwhacking” free for all. As for Carl and Dale…well. Carl was loose. That was obvious and with Robbie there, there wasn’t much of a place for Dale to go. But did Carl “check up” (slow down)? …er…if Carl was “checking up”, why was he still ahead of Robbie, in fact gaining on him? I’m not trying to impugn anyone’s honor here, things get pretty crazy in the heat of the moment, but I don’t think Dale is as innocent as has been suggested. Though Carl’s behavior afterward wasn’t exactly taking the high road either.

It’s a racin’ deal, let’s move on.

I Figured Out What Wrong with America…

We’re becoming a bunch of fucking pussies.

Sorry, but there it is.

What has caused me to draw this conclusion? I just got cable.

Now, I have never had cable in my adult life, which means my TV watching experience has been much more limited than others. So after it was installed today I figured, “Hey, lets see what the rest of the world is so enraptured by.”

So being an animal person, while channel flipping I stop at Spike TV’s “When Good Pets Go Bad”. Oh. M. Gawd. What a sensationalist, paranoiac piece of crap.

O.K. Usual spate of dog attack stories to make you terrified of your neighbors boxer and the odd “pet snake gets loose and swallows a Chihuahua.” But then they get desperate. “BE AFRAID!!!” They start going into wild animal attacks. A moose that a school attempted to keep as a mascot. Shamu getting frisky and pushing a swimmer around. Guy who wrestles alligators gets his comeuppance. Got news for you guys over at Spike, those have never been, nor will they be (without thousands of years of genetic manipulation), pets. Those are wild animals, never meant to be pets. You deal with wild animals, you takes your chances.

Then there was a police dog attacking a perp. Oh yeah, that's a "Pet" gone "Bad". As anyone will tell you working dogs are not pets.

The one that snapped the straw on my camel's back was the footage of a team of Clydesdales getting loose at a parade. Yeah, four horses each weighing as much as a car running at a crowd is scary, but my Gawd do they play this up. First of all, they start running from 400 yards out from where they broke through the line. They went for the place the crowd was thinnest and by the time the got there was only one guy that must have froze or something, because everyone had cleared out. Mom’s had time to grab their children from strollers and clear out. But this guy was slow and he got knocked to the ground, but he was still moving and conscious. Know why? As Gandhi can tell you, horses don’t step on things on the ground. They are afraid of them. That’s why they hate snakes and mice and little things. Horses have to be specifically trained to trample people as warhorses were in the Middle Ages. These clydesdales were just trying to get away, nothing more. It not like they stuck around. They jumped a bunch of lawn chairs and were trying to be gone.

“See this woman and her child trapped by the rampaging animals!” The footage shows her at least 10 feet away from them as the horses ran by. “See this brave man runing straight into their path!” Actually, he was running up behind them after the horses had stopped (the two rear horses slipped and fell bringing the team to a halt). Jeezus!

Spike TV, the “Man’s Show" x24, and this is what they run? Is this what American men are becoming? Paranoid of every little thing: “It has the capability to hurt me! Kill it! Kill it NOW!” What's next, guys from the WWF show us you to make blanket forts?

I come from a logging family and am fond of draft horses (thoroughbreds always look as if they would snap into kindling if they actually did any real work). I actually enjoy going to horse pulls if I happen to be at a country fair and I love checking out the stables. I’m not expert on horses by any means, but I enjoy them. One fair I was at in Maine, one guy had this beautiful set of matched Horse-zillas. Bays, 20 hands high if they were an inch. Beautiful, picture book team. They looked like the team to beat, but once they got out in the ring this young redneck trainer of theirs was screaming and whipping and pushing and all manner of unseemliness to get a “meh” performance out of them. Not bad, but certainly not what those animals were capable of.

Next guy, older gent, comes up. Totally mismatched team. One of them: a dark 17-18 hander and them other was a chestnut, little thing compared to other horses in the ring, size of a regular horse, but heavy. The trainer stands 8 feet back from the team, reigns in his hands and chirrups. That’s it. *WHAM* 4000 lbs. of horseflesh slammed into that harness in perfect synchronicity. Perfectly coordinated starting and stopping and when he gave them a rest, they stayed on their toes. They were waiting, they were ready to go.

I don’t need to tell you who won the contest…but I will lay odds that young buck probably didn’t go home and think, “Gee, maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong.” He probably went home, blamed his horses to everyone that would listen and probably traded them for another pair because it couldn’t possibly be his training methods.

The problem with most animals is people. Either we raise them wrong or we push them too far or we’re in their space. Animals are hardwired. They have to a hell of lot more adjusting to us than we do to them with a lot less brainpower to do it with (though there are some people that would make one question that observation). Yes, Nature is a dangerous place. The world is a dangerous place. You know about ten times more people die from the flu in the U.S. every year than died on 9-11? More people get hit by lightening yearly than killed in dog attacks? As one article I put up long ago observed about shark attacks, “Its an ocean, not a swimming pool.” You know what? Its nature, not your backyard. These are animals, not toys. Our ancestors had to deal with it and them on daily basis, far more than we ever do, and you didn’t hear them whipping the public into a frenzy, inciting paranoia about the “Dangerous Creatures Among Us!”. Life’s tough, get a helmet you big pansies. Or stay in your perfectly manicured backyards forever. Better yet, hide in the closet forever with a baseball bat, then nothing can happen to you. If you decide to come out with the rest of us a good rule with animals is respect them and their space and they will usually respect you and yours.

That show was the most obvious example of what I saw, but it seems to me that popular media is intent on making America scared. Gawd, it’s no wonder some of the outrageous attitudes I encounter, the twisted combination of violent machismo and “Aiiiigh everyone/everything is out to kill us, we’re all gonna die!” that the Bush administration has been able to exploit so well. Now I understand where it comes from: They’ve spent their life watching TV which tells them to be afraid of everything.

Folks, turn it off. Just turn it off, go read a book, go outside, call a friends, hop on the computer, just stop watching the damn thing. Read a newspaper rather than watching to news. Yeah, have shows you watch. I’m got cable to watch NASCAR and the Daily Show. I’m still going to watch NASCAR and the Daily Show, but if those shows aren’t on, I’m going to turn it off. Watch you shows you like, and then turn the damn thing off because they are only out to make money and as Wes Craven can assure you, fear sells big bucks.

Sunny Side

You’ll have to excuse the sparse nature of this entry, as a treat to myself/consolation prize I joined the 21st century and got myself an iPod. After a night of going...*maniacal giggling* a little nutz on the iTunes music store (all those tapes from the 80’s to replace), I’ve spent the last 24 hrs ripping choice pieces from my CD’s to download.

Our Constitution Still Means Something!

Federal Judge Orders End To Wiretap Program

The reaction of the White House is pretty damn telling.

“In the ongoing conflict with al-Qaida and its allies, the president has the primary duty under the Constitution to protect the American people,” the department said. “The Constitution gives the president the full authority necessary to carry out that solemn duty, and we believe the program is lawful and protects civil liberties.”
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the Bush administration's “Terrorist Surveillance Program” is “firmly grounded in law and regularly reviewed to make sure steps are taken to protect civil liberties.”

In other words:

"The sky is blue."

"No, it’s NOT!"

Of course, with SCOTUS stacked conservatively, it will be very interesting to see if and how they try to wriggle out of ruling the same way. I see Edwards abstaining again.

It’s Been a Gaiman Week

I read Stardust, watched MirrorMask and just read Marvel 1602. Actually these are Gaiman more sensical pieces, if you will, so my mind is not too unhinged.

Stardust was a really cool fairytale. Lovely story and cool characters in an imaginatively constructed world made out of an eclectic collection Europe’s traditional fairy tales creatures and magick. It’s a pretty straightforward story (for him) and an easy enjoyable read. I understand it being made into a movie with Michelle Pfieffer and Claire Danes.

What I like about Gaiman’s main characters is when they have been thrust into a new strange world, they don’t spend undue amounts of time whinging about it. After the initial shock they go with the flow rather well, a big factor in making them very likeable. Both Stardust and MirrorMask had such main characters. MirrorMask was that weird one from the Henson Company you heard about a while back. Well it is weird, but well worth it, think of it as a dark Prince and the Pauper. (As Gaiman said a Sony exec described it upon seeing it for the first time, “it’s like Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast…on acid…for children.”) Being a SciFi person who loved Henson’s “Labyrinth “ and “Dark Crystal”, getting into the movie’s headspace was no trouble, but for other’s the visuals may take some getting used to. However the story, the choices and responsibilities a young girl faces as she is dragged kicking and screaming toward adulthood, is well worth the effort.

Marvel 1602 was a wonderfully refreshing departure for the Marvel Universe, especially since it has become incredibly overburdened with melodramatic complexity. Basically, imagine if Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Charles Xavier and Co., Daredevil, Dr. Doom and others had not been born in our time but rather at the end of the Renaissance in Europe.

I know, I know how it sounds, but it’s surprisingly good, the story is excellent. Fortunately, I collected both initial runs of Alpha Flight, so I could recognize who “Virginia Dare” was, but her companion…that one went right by me. I felt like such a doof when it was revealed. Be sure to watch for the running Peter Parquer joke and I think I prefer the Matt Murdoch of the late Renaissance to the modern version. “And keep your sticky fingers off Ireland…” James I always struck me as a big wanker.

There been a need for escapism lately…things are getting pretty damn ugly out there (more on that tomorrow), not to mention I paid my tuition, plus almost $700 worth of textbooks. *Ack*

*Sigh*

You know one of the thing I love about the East? You have real clouds here. In Southern California clouds are whispy things that look at you from on high and say mockingly, “Moisture? I know not this “moisture” of which you speak.” Clouds here are full bodied and solid, some of them like mountains you could climb, little countires in and of themselves. The sunsets are amazing. I saw my first Carolina rainbow today.

Reading

There is almost something almost deliciously sinful in today’s hectic and over scheduled climate in spending an entire day curled up on the couch with a good book.

I make a point to do so whenever possible.

Cheating

Cheating: An Inside Look at The Bad Things Good Nextel Cup Racers Do in Pursuit of Speed has been sitting on my book shelf for a while now, but I just got around to actually sitting down and reading it.

I was raised in a family of engineers, do-it-yourselfers and generally mechanically inclined men, so I was raised with a healthy respect of technical ingenuity and my-oh-my do they get ingenious in the Nextel Cup garage.

This book covers the technical aspect of the sport most histories of NASCAR do not. It covers the entire history of NASCAR from it’s first race in 1949 up to the 2004 season from strictly the garage’s point of view. Who did what, how NASCAR reacted and how it affected the rules into later seasons. “Cheating” is a fuzzy term in the garage and Jensen is conscientious about what were deliberate attempts to break the rules, such as the many imaginative hiding places for buckshot used to get a lighter car through the weigh-in process and a million and one places to hide extra fuel, and good mechanics/CC’s pushing the envelope by manipulating the grey areas in the rule books, such as the first experiments shaping the car for aero dynamics, building a car at 7/8th scale for instance. He also attempts to make sure both sides are heard in any debate on NASCAR rulings, through he doesn’t shy away from drawing some conclusions which are obvious to those sitting on the outside.

Cheating not only details the colorful mechanical attempts, and some of them were quite colorful, of CC’s to get more speed out of the car, but also outlines the development of the arcane NASCAR rulebook and NASCAR approach to cheating and how it rules on infractions, which to fans often seems arbitrary and ungoverned. Well, it is often still arbitrary and ungoverned, as witnessed when NASCAR seized one of Tony Stewart’s cars in 2003 and kept it for months, without finding anything but an offset rear window, or when one of Rusty Wallace’s engines was stripped down to the bare block out in the open for everyone in the garage to see, also finding nothing wrong. But the book does give some hints at the thought process and occasionally political concerns the NASCAR has to deal with when handing out fines, points penalities and suspensions for cheating. Whether you agree with those thought processes or not is up to you.

For most fans who know their sway bars from their track bars most of the mechanical discussion is easy enough to follow, through there are a couple parts where more familiarity with automotive mechanics definitely help picture what was done. This book merely a isn’t a delicious tell all of the dark side of NASCAR, but a more complete picture of the sport and the men and companies that shaped it. I believe this book is valuable to the NASCAR fan wanting to take the next step into fandom, to get more out of the sport by learning more about what happens when the car is not on the track. Most NASCAR fans that have come recently to the sport (which is a large number) have never heard names like Smoky Yunick, he and others rate only a passing mention or a footnote in most histories of the sport. Yet it is because of them that stock car racing evolved into what it is today, from cars off the show room floor to the highly engineered machines we watch today.

More Fun Reading

Also arrived yesterday was the latest edition of Archeology Magazine, who’s cover story was titled “The Next 50 Years” by Brian Fagan. Fagan is sort of “The Man” in archaeology right now. Not so much in the fore-front of research, but he has written text books on a wide variety of archaeological subjects, especially dealing in various pre-historical cultures all over the world. I have five of his books already from various courses I have taken. He's sort of archaeology's older statesman. Fagan’s editorial outlines where archeology is now and where it is going. The focus of Archaeology has turned from “proving history” of large flashy finds of tombs and ancient cities to “reconstructing past lifeways”, understanding how humans and cultures developed on this planet. This approach focuses not so much on the artifact one might see in a museum, but on the composition of those artifacts, where they came from, what they were constructed with and what they were used for.

One could say we have moved from “macro-archaeology” to a “micro-archaeology”. The clay from a pot can tell us where the clay was taken from the earth and the pot constructed, where it was found can tell us how far it traveled and any residue found can tell us what it contained, ergo what people considered valuable enough to store or transport. The medical technology now open to archaeologists now allow us to, as Fagan put it, “know more about Ramses II health than he did.”. Diet, illness, periods of famine, where the person grew up and where they lived, how they lived and died. All vital to understanding the movement of man across the world, studying which cultures were the most successful and learn from the mistakes less successful cultures made.

In a world where we have reached a crisis point in how we live, find alternative means of power and the need to strike a balance between nature and mankind, these are important lessons to study to save ourselves from making mistakes others have made before us.

However, Fagan observes there are still large finds being made. The sunken portion of ancient Alexandria for instance, and the Harappan cities uncovered by the Tsunami and along the Saraswati. South East Asia is especially tantalizing in it’s untouched wonders. For all it’s tourist foot-traffic Angkor Watt, for instance, has barely had it's surface scratched.

Between this and the rapid development in the West, this is actually a good time to be jumping into archaeology. Not only does there appear to be job security (always a nice thing), but the scope of research open, both academically and in the private sector, is unprecedented.

I confess I am not entirely sure where exactly I want to go yet. While most Maritime Historians in the U.S. tend to favor the romantic era of sail: Spanish Galleons, Nelson’s Navy and Tall Ships (and there's nothing wrong with that, I have all of O'Brian's books myself), I find myself more and more drawn to ancient ships and trade routes. The transmission of culture of the Silk Road for example, fascinates me. Do you realize that the great greek philosophers, Homer, Zoroaster (who’s monotheistic influenced the major monotheistic religions of the Middle east: Judaism, Christianity and Islam), the great prophets of the Bible, Buddha and Confucius were all alive in roughly the same 600 years? That some of them may have heard of the others as contemporaries? That while the distances involved precluded it, that some of them may have had the opportunity to actually sit down and talk? Well, while they themselves never did, their ideas certainly met up with one another. It's remarkable the explosion of cultural ideas during this period. It’s an epoch far more widespread than the Renaissance. It's on the scale of Industrailism, but it was philosophical and religious ideas spreading, not technology. And the main route of transmission wasn’t conquest, it was trade. The more we learn, the more realize how far reaching trade networks were in ancient times and how much information was transmitted through them. The sea obviously made up some of those trade routes, we're just beginning to suss out how much of them.

Well, as I said, it’s nice to know I have some job security waiting for me. :)

The issue also has some great articles on the recent excavation of the victims of Franco’s fascist regime in Spain, something the government has been reticent about exhuming and identifying until now. Also pictures from the oldest Etruscan tomb recently revealed by a looter trying to plea bargain. The artifacts are gone, but the frescoes are fascinating in their primitive iconography. (Lions for example, as seen above, were drawn by someone who had obviously never seen them from descriptions of someone who had never seen them either. They’re kind of cute in a mini-ferocious, “I’ll nip yer toes off! grr!” kind of way.) Then there is coverage of the conservation of the Egyptian Temple of Mut, a mother goddess, which has turned out to be older than suspected. It turns out it was yet another construction project on Hatshepsut’s list, almost 100 years before than previously assumed. And a blurb on the reopening of the sculpture museum at Copan, one of my favorite Central American sites as well as an interesting article on excavations in pacific North West of the Russians cites that were the centers of the fur trade network reaching as far south as North California in the 19th century.

Among other things, like the Germans have discovered that Mammoth’s had the same sort of gene for color that mice and humans do, meaning there could have been blonde mammoths.

A thought to give one pause when next you view a Natural History Museum diorama.

As Fagan observed, lots of stuff going on. :)

Cul-Tcha..As In Pop

I rarely watch TV, so I am always a little surprised at where our pop culture is going…such as the informercials…

I bought a beautiful 14,000 ft house with a lawn and a swimming pool and koi pond in the back for no money down and no qualifying...I just killed the former owners and sunk them in the fish pond. The lillies look fabulous! Try not to do it in the house though. Blood stains are a bitch to get out of deep pile carpeting.

Well, it would have been much more interesting if he had said that.

Watkins Glen

Wow! In the three or four years I have been a NASCAR fan Watkins Glen is the one race I have missed every year for one reason or another, now I see why people look forward to it. Watkins seems to allow for a lot more speed and passing than Sonoma does, even if it wasn’t meant for people to go four wide into the corners. ;) Today was a “take no prisoners” race, some pretty hairy stuff and some great driving!

National anthem: Good voice, lousy tempo. (But my Gawd she was annoying during Wally’s World) Jamie McMurray looked for a second like he was going to hit the deck when the fireworks went off.

Got a look at the Busch standings, the top five slots being occupied by Cup drivers. I understand wanting to run a Busch races every once in a while for experience or kicks, but that's B.S. The Busch series is a supposed to be circuit for drivers coming up to gain experience and make a name for themselves, not the Cup boys playground. It's time to cull the Buschwhackers.

Queens-horse-wins-at-Ascot-clap (step up from Golf clap) to Elliott Sadler from coming back from an early spin in the kitty litter to an 7th place finish, his best at that track yet. He never gave up. Well done indeed! *Yea!* I hope things work out for him in his (probable) future endeavors with Evernham Motorsports. Maybe if the car is red they will actually talk about what he does on the track during the race rather than his career plans at every moment he is not racing. Sorry Dale Jr.’s day went from *meh* to *Thppppt* but he maintained his standings. Everyone knows how I feel about the way things are run at DEI so I won't repeat myself.

Can You Spot the Pit Bull?

After yet another “Pit Bulls are the Spawn of Satan” thread on Fark, someone posted this interesting quiz. Go ahead and give it a try.

Trust me, no animal control worker I have ever met can identify anything beyond “Shepard, Lab, Cocker Spaniel, Pit Bull”. They are clueless as to most dog breeds. Now you see what the problem is with Pit Bull Bans such as Denver’s.

Pirates Vs. Ninjas.



Obviously, I come down on the Pirate side of this never-ending fanwankery. So for my fellow pirates I give you: How to Kill a Ninja…straight from the source.

Be sure to check out Ninja Love as well.

Oddiments

The last few days a bird has settled in the woods behind my place that...chirps/chimes/cries rather loudly at dusk. I can't get a look at it. I wonder what it is.

Heads, Carolina Tails, California.
Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer.
Up in the mountains, down by the ocean.
Where? It don't matter, as long as we're goin'
Somewhere together. I've got a quarter.
Heads, Carolina Tails, California.

Pats On The Back

First of all, I would like to catch up to the rest of the world by commending law enforcement officials in Great Britain and Pakistan for foiling the terrorism plot to blow up American and British airliners.

Well done! *applause* Bravo!

And I would like to note, none of this was accomplished by unwarranted phone surveillance or provisions of the Patriot Act, but by solid intelligence and police work. Perhaps Mr. Bush & Co. should take a lesson from these agencies on how to really stop terrorism.

Perhaps this is the wrong moment to bring this up, but I’ve heard a lot of people in the last couple days say “I just don’t understand how anyone could think like this, just wanting to kill innocent people.” as if there was something wrong with all Muslims. Folks, it’s not like we haven’t had this in our own country. There was a lot of "terrorist violence" during the Civil Rights movement. Then there is the Okalahoma City bombing. And then there is homophobic violence.

It’s not like this kind of behavior is in our distant past. We have recent events of random violence done in the name of a cause among our own people within this very year. How do they think like they do? Most obviously hate and the only way to breed hate is to dehumanize those that are different, “the other”, be they a different culture, religion, color, gender or sexual orientation. Americans do it all the time, we dehumanize Gays, Latinos, Women. Look at the frequency of rape in this country and ask yourself if we really are so much more “evolved” as a culture. And now Bush wants us to dehumanize Muslims. “We are at war against Islamic Fascists”. Wasn’t Civil Rights referred to as a “war” by both sides?

This is a human problem. It is running particularly high in the Middle East at the moment, but it is not utterly foreign to us. I’m not excusing terrorists or asking for sympathy for them in any way. In my mind, terrorists are nothing more than murderous thugs and deserve no more respect or fear than that. But perhaps if we viewed this kind of behavior as a human problem rather than saying “The other is so different than us that they have this problem”, maybe then we can start to make steps to end the problem once and for all by stopping it at the source as well as making arrests.

On a similar note, here is an article from Time magazine on the steps that Logan Airport has taken in recent years to combat terrorism.

Also well done. I am interested in hearing more about the behavior profiling especially. It would seem to me to be basic police work to note people who are acting suspiciously, I’m surprised it hasn’t be more of an S.O.P until now. It seems to make a hell of a lot more sense than ethnic/”racial” profiling, especially given the diversity of people in all religions now. Though I have to differ with the “Nothing” comment at the end of the article. Until airlines start showing good movies in flight, I want to at least be able to take a good book. There is a certain amount of risk in all life. People like Sgt. Thompson’s job is to be scared and think of possibilities, but that in and of itself makes him something of an extremist that must be moderated against those of us who live in the more mundane everyday world. Don’t be blasé about safety by any means, but don’t be an “airline Nazi” either.

I am really, can you imagine kids on a cross county flight without handheld video games? *chuckle*

NASCAR and The Media.

An editorial in this weeks NASCAR Scene by Bob Pockrass caught my eye. “Thanks To Some Poor Decisions, This is Turning Into a Disappointing Season”. First of all, the title had nothing to do with the main thrust of the article, which was to deride certain people for how they handled the Media...among other things. Elliott Sadler was slammed for bluffing the media when it came to his future plans, Ray Evernham for dumping Jeremy Mayfield for “speaking his mind” and Tony Stewart for…well, just for being Tony, I guess.

Now I confess, I was at California last year when Elliott scribbled his name in the cement and then told his crowd of fans that “the car is great!”, a bold faced lie that irked me but I understood. Being a Leader sometimes means wearing a smile in the face of crushing defeat. It’s called morale and keeping upbeat and positive in the press helps keep one’s team moral up. Just look at Jerry Springer style free-for all in the press between Dale Jr. and the Eury’s in 2003 and 2004 (something that has improved vastly since their reunion this season.) Yes, it made for good copy, but can you imagine the tension working at DEI and in the #8 pit while it was going on? There is a saying in the military: “Praise in public, dress down in private”. Tony often “tells it like it is”, but he’ll “tell it like it is” about other drivers, Mike Helton, NASCAR, auto-racing in general and pretty much anything but his team and Joe Gibbs racing. On that matter he closes ranks with Zippy and his guys and “The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves”. (Smoke’s Team Flag) How would Elliott's team have reacted to having a driver that was spending the last three months saying, "Gee, I don't know if I'm going to be here next year..." pubically? Doesn't exactly inspire someone to give one's all for the team...

No matter how right his perception of the situation at Evernham Motorsports may have been, unless Mayfield had approached Evernham privately on this matter first and was brushed off, making a snarky comment about his boss’s love life in the press was a very bad idea. Yeah, it reads like a daytime talk show *yum, yum, yum* but it didn’t do the working environment at the company any good.

Though in turn I do think Evernham's reaction was a bit...excessive.

So the NASCAR journalists have just got to learn to deal when it comes to not getting the scoop on a team's internal workings. Racers are not obliged to open up their innermost thoughts on anything and everything to the press and there are certain times when they should keep their own counsel. As annoying as the dishonesty is, Elliott did the right thing by throwing out red herrings (that is if they were red herrings and not a simple case of someone changing their mind) to keep the media out of his decision-making process for his next step. That was between himself and the Yates and no one had to know about it until a decision had been made.

The World's Most Sucessful Pick-Up Line

“Excuse me, but does this rag smell like chloroform to you?”

Good Luck to everyone at Watkins Glen tomorrow!

Well, Bollocks...

After spending much time on campus visiting various offices (and never adjoining of course) this week, my University has flat refused to take the credit offered by the special Maritime Program I was accepted into this Fall. The classes are considered Graduate courses and I can't earn anything but elective credit for them at this point. I'm maxed out on electives after the Registar's office culled my transcript from California, so it would be a hell of a lot of money and logistics for a great experience and nothing more. Call me mercenary but if I am going to spend three months flogging myself taking 17 credits worth of courses, I want it to apply to my degree. However since they are considered graduate courses, I can take the program after I earn my BA and it will apply to my Graduate degree, so it's not as if this is a once in a lifetime shot.

I can't help feeling a pang of disappointment and since classes for me now start in 10 days, I have to leave work earlier than anticipated. I hate leaving people in the lurch like that. However, as I said it's not forever, logistically it will probably be easier later for multiple reasons and really, I am already on an adventure: moving across country and returning to school and such. I'm still getting used to that lifestyle, so I y'know...I can wait. Fortunatally, I was smart enough *not* to drop my courses here until everything was squared away so it's just a matter of paying my tuition on this end and buying 20 textbooks.

You think I am kidding....

That's the issue they don't talk about with upper division "You-Want-Fries-With-That-Major" classes: You have a schload of reading.

If the night turned cold...And the stars looked down...And you hug yourself...On the cold cold ground...You wake the morning...In a stranger's coat...No-one would you see...You ask yourself, 'Who'd watch for me?'...My only friend, who could it be?...It's hard to say it...I hate to say it...But it's probably me

When your belly's empty...And the hunger's so real...And you're too proud to beg...And too dumb to steal...You search the city...For your only friend...No-one would you see...You ask yourself, Who'll Watch For Me?'...A solitary voice to speak out and set me free...I hate to say it...I hate to say it...But it's probably me

You're not the easiest person I ever got to know...And it's hard for us both to let our feelings show...Some would say...I should let you go your way...You'll only make me cry...If there's one guy, just one guy...Who'd lay down his life for you and die...It's hard to say it...I hate to say it...But it's probably me

When the world's gone crazy, and it makes no sense...And there's only one voice that comes to your defence...And the jury's out...And your eyes search the room...And one friendly face is all you need to see...If there's one guy, just one guy...Who'd lay down his life for you and die...I hate to say it...I hate to say it...

But it's probably me ~ Sting/Clapton

Busy, Busy, Busy…

Things have been kinda hectic on this end of the world. Mostly running around and wrestling with the paperwork to transfer the credits I will be earning off campus. Most of the courses I will be taking will be graduate level courses, so I have to put the heads of the Maritime History and the Honors programs in a headlock and make them sign off on my classes.

Actually, I'm just going to grovel.

They have extended my tour of duty at the office I am filling in at. Part of me can’t stand the work. It’s depressing after getting a taste of what my life could be this last spring semester. Just pushing paper and answering phones sucks the life out of me now, but the other part is very, very grateful for the income and the nice folks I have met here. On an upnote, I got my financial award letter today and over half my semester has been covered, a goodly chunk of which by scholarship. Free money! WooHoo!

Things are Getting Messy

Well, the peace process stalled out again today as Lebanon rejected the U.N. plan and threatened to send their troops into the southern region to fight Israel, bringing the government of Lebanon itself into the conflict. They are also making noises about rejecting international peacekeeping forces. Meanwhile, the last route for humanitarian aid to southern Lebanon, where 22,000 civillians were trapped, was cut.

I agree that an immediate cease fire is only a breather and won't resolve issues, but maybe a "time out" would be a good thing. I agree that given Israel's rather board interpretation of "defensive operations" and "Hezbollah targets" used in their current strategy, they do need to have some gawddamned limits spelled out. Taking out the unstable element that started this mess to begin with, Hezbollah, would also not only be fair but damned helpful. Something must be done to defuse this and soon before this blows up even worse than it has.

It's too bad we can't bring terrorist organizations to court like you can sovereign nations. For them to pay reparations to all the nations and people they have hurt and destroyed would end terrorism for all time. Cowards. I think most of the trouble in the world could be avoided if people were actually held accountable.

"Yes, you will get 72 virgins when you die, but your family will be living out of cardboard box for the next three generations paying for your idiocy."

Then again, that's what got us into trouble in 1939.

*sigh*


Whoops, There it Goes Again.

BP shuts down oil fields in Alaska.

People, isn't it time?

Welcome to The Bell Curve

"Culture War" in America May Be Overblown: Poll

"Despite talk of 'culture wars' and the high visibility of activist groups on both sides of the cultural divide, there has been no polarization of the public into liberal and conservative camps," the Pew Research Center said, commenting on its poll of 2,003 American adults.

Best illustrating the willingness of Americans to consider opposing points of view is that two-thirds of poll respondents supported finding a middle ground when it comes to abortion rights -- a solid majority that stood up among those calling themselves evangelicals, Catholics, Republicans or Democrats.

While I wonder if the sample group is too small to be truly representative, I do think despite the pitched voices on either side of the internet most people are in the middle. Shelby Foote once said that the Civil War was the one time Americas great talent had failed them: Compromise. Most of America is in the mushy middle and despite there obviously being two distinct visions of America out there, we should be able to find a common ground, a vision the majority can share.

Brickyard

I didn’t get a chance to see this yesterday and given what I have read on NASCAR.com, just as well. Bashing my head against the coffe table three laps in just wouldn’t be a nice way to spend my Sunday. *chuckle* Nice call by Tony Jr to keep Dale Jr. out to claw his way to a top ten finish, putting him back in the top ten in points. Mark Martin continues the March for Consistency. *keeps fingers crossed for the Markster*

Er…the Elliott Sadler style?

“The Elliott Sadler style is wild hair and I don't want to be the same clean cut guy everybody else is in NASCAR. They got my true personality, or a picture of it at least.”

Errr, Scuze' your Elliottness. While I do agree the "Count-of-Monte-Cristo” beats the “Squeaky-Clean-Teen-Captain-of-the-Baseball-Team” and I understand that you are an ambitious man trying to move forward in a media centric world, I think it would be best to...curb such statements in dealing with the NASCAR fanbase. The reason people are flocking to the sport is because they have enough "style" from spoiled, whiny obscenely over-paid NBA and NFL players swanning around in their Armani's and pinky rings and have come to NASCAR looking for athletes who are more substance. They're looking for function over form. Let’s leave discussions of one’s “style” to the models and designers.

Besides if I wanted a burnt-rubber fashionista, I’d be a Jeff Gordon fan.

I also think it would behoove every celebrity athlete artist, actor, singer, etc. to remember in the grand scheme of things, society needs municipal sanitation workers more than it does celebrities.

Or archaeologists. I'll be fair here. ;)

Though the bit about Terry Labonte's special paint scheme being faster was the mark of a true VG geek. I wonder just how organized the testing was. *chuckle*

Thanks Mom and Dad!

I love you too!



Yer loving D.,
J.

Chronicles of Narnia.

First of all, I should probably, not apologize, but explain my delight in the profanity employed in the previous post. I am a fan of laguage and I love to see it used well. This includes the more esoteric catagories such as profanity. Anyone can pepper their speech with swear words, but to see cursing done with such skill and flair brings me a great deal of amusement.

Secondly, I am training the the new hire for desk I have been occupying over the summer, so my computer access is limited ergo, my posts a bit fewer and futher between.

O.k. On to the show, this film I had a *lot* of trepidation seeing. I was raised on the Narnia books. I some of my earliest memories were of my mother reading those stories to us. Tolkien I encountered later in my childhood and didn’t gain a full appreciation for until I was an adult, but his friend Lewis’ Narnia always had a layer I could access, no matter what age I picked the books up at. Rich in imagination, symbolism and a good adventurous romp, Narnia always made me laugh, cry and think. The stories not only helped set the scope of my imagination, they helped reinforce the groundwork of much of my moral code.

Plus I’m very possessive about certain written works. I hate listening to poetry or good prose because I have read the words and hear their cadence and emphasis in my head. I have my own interpretation. Hearing someone else reading of Whitman’s Song of Myself or Joyce’s The Dead is disturbing because the way they speak the words, the subtleties of meaning they ascribe to them doesn’t match my own. But then, hearing another’s way of seeing those works of art helps us to understand it a little better, but still…I’m possessive.

So as you can tell, I did not really look forward to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as a film.

I had some trouble in the beginning, I had never seen Edmund as having any emotional impetus for being a rotten kid, he was just self-absorbed and resentful as many kids can be (Gods know I was a rotten kid), nor do I remember Peter being so overbearing, but all in all it was a good and faithful interpretation. It’s a great story and they didn’t mess with it. The characters are well done. I did find Jadis a little….I saw her as being more insidious than portrayed. What she says to Aslan on the table, “In that knowledge, despair and die…” was whispered in his ear. The film version was a bit too brutish to be really scary. The effect of course…the Griffins rocked and you get to see why having Centaurs on your side in a battle is a very good thing. They did a wonderful job on all the animals and creatures so I think I can forgive Weta from re-staging the assault on Helms Deep with the lone Minotuar/Uruki on the outcropping waving his troops forward. And the kids did a good job, I can imagine how hard it must have been for them to play such iconic character while being young and inexperienced and having to hold the story together while shooting so much of it against a green screen.

They included Professor Kirk who is, for those that have not read the series, Digory Kirk from the dark prequel: The Magicians Nephew. If you really want some theology to think about, that one’s a dozy.

And Rupert Evret as the Fox. *thumbs up*

But somehow I just didn't get the full emotional impact...maybe because books inherently engage more of the imagination and ergo, I am used to experiencing that story on a deeper level.

One thing I always loved about Lewis’ books was his depiction of the Divine through Aslan, son of Emperor Over the Sea. A phrase often repeated when referring to him, and as Mr. Tumus said at the end of the film, “Well, he’s not a tame lion…” The meaning I take is two pronged. One: God does not serve man. He is not a pet. God does not do and say what we may have him/her do or say. He/She is themselves and you must take him/her as they are, not as you want them to be. The second meaning was the natural aspect of the divine that has been eliminated from the monotheistic religions. Aslan is a force of nature, a wild entity of both great creation and destruction. He brings springtime and war. Death and renewal. His sacrifice on the stone table for Edmund is of course, analogous to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for the sins of mankind as Lewis meant it to be, but Christ was not the only God to sacrifice himself yearly. As I have pointed out before many ancient pagan religious systems contained a God who brought virile spring and summer and died in the wintertime, a sacrifice to the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth. By depicting him as a lion, Lewis brought nature back to God. God created this world and it is a part of him and he is a part of it. Aslan, like God, is part of nature and yet beyond any of our concepts of it. It’s a pretty mind-boggling idea when you really sit down to consider the paradox of it: Being wholly of and yet wholly other at the same time.

Well, hopefully they will go one through the Pevensie children’s adventures and get to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I would pay some serious cash to see Reepicheep in action but who would the voice talent be?