torsdag, augusti 31, 2006

I knew there was a reason I dig Keith Olbermann

The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and
shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.
Donald S. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.
Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable comments to the Veterans of Foreign Wars
yesterday demand the deep analysis - and the sober contemplation - of every
American.
For they do 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, they credit 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
England.
It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all
treaties and accords.
It knew that the hard evidence it received, which
contradicted policies, conclusions - and 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
- 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 Omniscients.
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 the entire "Fog of Fear" which continues to enveloppe 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 I
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."

fredag, augusti 25, 2006

If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

So, here's how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc).
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question press the next button.
Ready? GO!

Opening Credits:
Ani Difranco - Swim

Waking Up:
Nirvana - About a Girl (unplugged)

Falling In Love:
Kasey Chambers - Saturated

Fight Sequence:
Gorrilaz - El Manana

Breaking Up:
Nine Inch Nails - Love is Not Enough

Making up:
Liza Minelli - Cabaret

Life's Okay:
Lucinda Williams & Steve Earle - Poison Lovers

Mental Breakdown:
Ani Difranco - Falling is Like This

Driving:
Madonna - Where's the Party

Flashbacks:
Beck - Black Tambourine

Happy Dance:
The Dandy Warhols - Be-In

Regretting:
Dolly Parton - Go Tell It on the Mountain

Final Battle:
Ram Trilogy - Human Auture

Death Scene:
Bjork - Pagan Poetry

Closing Credits:
Rasputina - Signs of the Zodiac

Can't clean forget the cow....

I have a special affinity for cows and couldn't omit some bovine post to accompany these other animal pics.
Incidentally, if you are interested in bovine poetry I recommend this site.

I love this shit

Some more animal fun. This time a moonwalking bird brought to you by the fabulous Nature program on PBS.



There is almost something hypnotic about the movements. The ornithologist's that is.

Cats that look like Hitler


Here's some animal amusement for everyone to enjoy.

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

Thanks to Loubird for showing me the way.

onsdag, augusti 23, 2006

A climate repair model


Once again it is Scientific America that tries to open the eyes of our inept government and egocentric industry about the issue of global warming. Global warming is occurring, no one can honestly debate that. "Almost all of the 20 hottest years on record have occurred since the 1980s. " That right there is a little scary, it means those my age and younger have never known anything else, and yet it is our generation that believe the most. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but once again we find something truly unfathomable and yet sadly not. Those who argue whether or not global warming is man-made are not only a group of self-centered imbecilic asshats and are missing the point in its entirety. Nearly every respected climatologist has come to the resounding conclusion that global warming is the creation of human caused carbon emissions. I wonder if it would take the voice of God (yes with a capital G) to convince the remaining skeptics. Sadly that won't happen. Why? Because he doesn't exist! So read the article and the rest of the same issue of Scientific America, and let us try to actually change how we do things.

My first suggestion, ask any politician what are the most important issues facing the world right now. If global warming is not in the top three, then these short-sighted morons don't deserve to be on the city council in any American town or city let alone a higher public office.

We need change and we need it now. If we wait much longer the effects will be irreversible.

What a Moronic President


Slate has one hell of a good article about the stupidity of our commander in chief. Man, I still feel sick every time I think about how that office was stole by a group of complete racist ideologically insane bitches, who installed an utterly retarded puppet as the head of the executive branch. Anyhow, click on the link and read the article if you really want to know just how much Bush doesn't understand about Iraq and the rest of the Middle East (not to mention the rest of the known universe). In fact, I'm not even sure if he knows how to wipe his own ass. And if you think that last statement is some form of hyperbole, all I have to say is prove it bitches.

lördag, augusti 19, 2006

Faith and Societal Well-being

Here's an interesting article from the Journal of Religion and Society." Basically it discusses the correlation between faith and the (can we say subjective?) health of a society. The conclusion has this slightly disturbing statement, "The U.S. is therefore the least efficient western nation in terms of converting wealth into cultural and physical health." This is one of those things that should be completely unfathomable and sadly isn't.

torsdag, augusti 17, 2006

How common are you?

Ever wonder about the popularity of your surname? Well now you don't have to. PBS has an interesting page where you can enter you surname and find out.

My Surname, White, is ranked 15th. While my mother's maiden name, Brooks, is ranked 69th.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/thesweetestsound/popularityindex.html

måndag, augusti 14, 2006

What in the heavens is a Pluot?

Disney has diversified a little too much, don't ya think? Posted by Picasa

On our way to the River.

 Posted by Picasa

fredag, augusti 11, 2006

Floating beds


While bones aren't much to my liking, floating beds, now there is something I could jump on board with. Who wouldn't like to be floating as they drift off to sleep? For some odd reason a floating bed makes sense to me. I'm not entirely sure why, so don't ask. My only fear. What happens if you have some metal objects shoved through your skin somewhere and you get to close to the magnets that make this bed float? I'm not sure I would appreciate my tongue stud getting stuck to the bottom of my bed. God bless the Dutch.

What is up with all the bones?

It disturbs me a little to discover that bones and the marrow contained within have becoming a popular ingredient in upscale dining situations. Like most Americans I have an adverse reaction when my meal contains bones, but for some reason dishes like the one in this picture have had enough people order them that they will remain on the menu for the time being. Which just leads me to say, that is fucking gross.

måndag, augusti 07, 2006

The Paper Clip

If you could harness its power -- that is, turn every one of its atoms into pure energy -- the paper clip would yield about 18 kilotons of TNT. That's roughly the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. In the Hiroshima explosion, countless atoms of uranium were split apart in a nuclear chain reaction. Each time an atom split, the total mass of the fragments speeding apart was less than that of the original atom. The bomb, in essence, transformed three-hundredths of an ounce of mass into a cataclysmic burst of heat and light.

onsdag, augusti 02, 2006

From a land where other people live


Lightning Strikes!

tisdag, augusti 01, 2006

Rare cloud formations over Antarctica

Kayaboy?!?

As you might have been able to tell, work today wasn't providing me with much to do. Or at least not much that I want to do. So, I've been wasting some time cruising the internet. I'm a bit bored so I decided to use google's image search to look for images of well myself, Kayaboy. So, only two images came up.

First was a abstract painting reminiscent of Kandinsky or better yet Rothko, I guess I'll leave that up to the reader. No real problem with that.

What did bother me was the other image, that of some tool. Why my search resulted in this picture (either of them really) is beyond my limited understanding. Anyone have any suggestions?

Skipping Moose

Now there is a sight I would want to see.

While clicking my way through SFgate (my favorite time waster here at work), I came across an article with an intriguing headline. "Bus Crashes As Tourists Photograph Moose" Even more amusing was the last line, "The moose, which was unharmed, was seen skipping away into the forest."

There is something that I just find amusing in that imagery.

What exactly is gmail's obsession with Spam all about?

No, I don't mean email spam, I mean the Hormel spiced ham product Spam. I'm not about to confuse the two as the Hormel people seem to think. There always seems to be some recipe for a Spam dish. Whether it is Spam veggie pita pockets or a Spam hashbrown bake. I'm not a big fan of spam. No wait, that isn't exactly correct. I'm not even a small fan of spam. In fact, I can honestly say I hate spam. The way it looks when you open the can, the putrid smell that is released from the packaging, but most importantly the appetitite-suppressant taste befouls my sensibilities. Eeeew! Please Gmail enough with the Spam.