Thursday, September 30, 2004

Buckley Says.....

I always enjoy William F. Buckley's op/ed pieces, even when I don't agree with his particular opinion. Here's his piece on tonight's upcoming debate.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Grant's Facelift

Have you guys seen the new fifty-dollar bill? I think I like it.

I've long admired foreign currencies that included a variety of colors, hologram effects, and even see-through plastic windows (the "white parts in the photos, which are of Thai baht notes, in various denominations).

Monday, September 27, 2004

Red States, Blue States....a Purple Nation?

For all the blathering about red states, blue states, blah, blah, blah, this guy, Crummy, took what seems to be a better approach. He shows the states, how their residents voted, but used shades of purple, rather than just red or blue. Interesting, though, the District of Columbia is still "pure blue". Another fellow had some interesting commentary on this issue here.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Work is funny sometimes

Today, at work, a patient who hasn't been able to eat for weeks (he's been receiving intravenous feedings only) attempted to make it to the toilet. He failed. He proceeded to spread fecal waste all over the walls, floor, and his wheelchair. I helped him to clean himself up, got him some clean clothes, and was ready to send him on his way. One of the other nurses walking by, seeing the mess, asked "oh poor Mr. ######, where did all of that come from?" Without missing a beat, he said, "my ass". Mass laughter ensued.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

As a miscegenator myself, I can't believe I missed this

Famous rascist Richard Butler died. The folks at OBE ran a great obituary.
  • RICHARD BUTLER (9/8/04) - Racist.  Mr. Butler headed up the Aryan Nation.  How'd
    
    that happen? Well apparently, Richard was working as an aeronautical engineer
    when he became fascinated and enthralled with Adolf Hitler and with Christian
    Identity. Christian Identity is a sect that holds that people of white,
    northern European ancestry are the real children of God, and that Jews and
    minorities are inferior. I suppose Jesus woulda gotten a kick outta that being a
    Jew and all. If there was a parade down your street with guys in white hoods
    and you were wondering who the heck planned it.....Chances are the Butler did
    it.
Mission Accomplished

It appears that the real goal of Dr. Atkins evil plan has been realized. And this will benefit the world, by eliminating one famous method of getting away with murder.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

What the experts have to say

Mercury News provided this overview on what the late-night show hosts have had to say about the upcoming presidential election.

On a disturbing note, one of the "techs" at my place of employment stated that she thought that Clinton was still president, and that "Bush and that other guy" were running against one another to take his place. She said this with a straight face, and I believe that she was serious. The disturbing part-----her vote counts just as much as that of those of you who are able to figure out what all of these "lines and circles" mean. That's too bad.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Hostage Eugene Armstrong beheaded

Eugene Armstrong was beheaded by one of the multitude Islamic terrorist organizations, in particular Tawhid and Jihad, which is said to have links to al-Quaeda. Here is an article about the beheading, and a translation of some of the speech of the purported knife wielder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. For those who are interested, you can find the video footage here. I should warn you that the site hosting it, ogrish.com, has links to porn sites, an other such things that some of you will find objectionable. However, they do maintain an immense archive of footage and photographs that do not get shown in the American media. This archive includes gun-camera recordings from American combat vehicles, news crew footage of the combat, and several of the hostage beheadings and other atrocities. I believe that these things should be seen, to show the reality of war, and of the types of people with whom we share our planet. I'm always in favor of more information, especially in an unfiltered, non-editorialized form. Much of the footage there is both graphic and disturbing, so remember, I did warn you.

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Prom dresses for expectant mothers?

My beloved Ferlie has often bemoaned the lack of maternity clothes for children (since she has to shop at GAP KIDS to get clothes in her size). This may be a step in that direction, at least it's a maternity-friendly dress for the prom crowd.

Friday, September 17, 2004

From the "What are we becoming" department:

America has certainly had it's share of political violence, riots, and general unpleasantness in the past. Are our political divisions going to keep becoming nastier and our people more polarized? I don't know, but I really didn't like the story behind this picture, and regardless of who'll get your vote in November, if you call yourself civilized, you have to object to this sort of thing. And this, (a Bush supporter pulling the hair of a protester) as well.

The "loyalty oaths" and the "free speech zones" really bother me as well. Some will argue that these are necessary, in order to deal with protestors who have, in fact, often run amok, and who often use their "free speech rights" as a pretense for disrupting or hampering the work or action of others. As far as we're concerned, the whole damn country is a "free speech zone", though the police should rightly arrest any "free speaker" if we/they are causing harm to the bodies or property of others. Another problem situation arises when the right of the protester to speak infringes upon the rights of others to peaceably assemble, also guaranteed in the Constitution. The simple truth is that our culture is becoming less civilized, and it looks like the abuse of their freedoms by some is going to tempt our government to intrude more and more upon Constitutionally granted rights.

Lincoln was right, "a house divided against itself cannot stand". I'm curious to see where our divisions take us.
Book 'em, Kofi

Apparently Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, believes that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was illegal. Oh, well, fortunately, nobody seems to pay attention to this guy anyways. One short article here , but of course, our guys respond here.

Kofi Annan is urging us to take action in the Sudan, however. The action....oil sanctions, and the like. I guess the plan is to hope that the rising price of petrol in Darfur will prompt the janjaweed (pro-government Muslim Arabs in favor of killing off the Christian Negroes) militias to stop killing, looting, raping, etc. Does anyone other than "poor baby Paul" have the opinion that the U.N. is a pathetic joke?

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Bad Obituary

Johnny Ramone, one of the founding members of the Ramones, has died. I hope that his passing was peaceful, and that his family and friends were able to find comfort. I also hope that no one else has an obituary that seems to say that he was married to his mother (scroll down to the bottom).

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

And the bad news is?

It appears that New Orleans could end up under water. If you read back through the history of what is a fascinating city, you will see that it was built and sustained largely through corruption. Oh, now, I'm not going all Falwell (wikipedia here) on you and saying that it is America's Sodom and/or Gomorrah, but New Orleans certainly seems to have more than it's share of shady dealings. I certainly hope that the Orleanies will get out with their lives, but I must state for the record that it would be incredibly foolish for the federal government to help rebuild the home of Mardi Gras on it's present, below sea-level, location. Of course, foolish and federal government seem to go hand in hand, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Of course, we can always hope that the city won't be flooded after all....but it really is just a matter of time.
Crackhead wins city council primary.....again

Apparently, everybody's favorite D.C. crackhead has made yet another political comeback. What a shame.
The sorry bastards did it again.

It looks like House of Representatives have voted themselves another pay increase. Or, to be more accurate, didn't vote to stop their automatic pay increase. Still, I don't like this a bit.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Last night, Ferlie and I watched Heavenly Creatures, one of Peter Jackson's early films. The movie is based on the true story of murder-mystery writer and murderess Anne Perry's (Real name Juliet Hulme) teenage friendship with Pauline Parker, which ended in the two murdering Parker's mother. We've been reading up on the actual events, and it is a very interesting story (the link takes some digging around, but has some fascinating information).

Jackson has done a wide variety of movies, though he's most known for his Lord of the Rings adaptation. Of note, he made The Frighteners, Meet the Feebles (think a muppet porno-snuff film), and is now working on a King Kong re-make. Heavenly Creatures is the best of his films that I've seen, and I recommend it whole-heartedly. Melanie Lynskey is amazing as Pauline, and her chemistry with co-star Kate Winslet is amazing, as is how closely so many of the actors resemble the real persons they portray. In the next few days, we'll post a review on movieskeptics blog.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Remember

Three years ago today I was taking care of a lesser Saudi Princess in the ICU of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital when "it" happened. My friend and co-worker Helen walked in and said (in her Kiwi accent) "Paul, you're not going to believe this, but an aeroplane just crashed into the World Trade Center Building." Knowing Helen to be a practical joker, particularly regarding stories of American icons (she once started a rumor that someone had stolen the Lincoln Memorial in honor of John Wilkes Booth's birthday), I said something like silly like "you're right, I don't believe it, though it is time that the South rose again". Then my friend Richard walked in and confirmed her story. He's a big, burly Texan from what I tend to think of as "one of my hometowns", Midland, Texas, and while he'd tell a tall tale (like me, I suppose) I knew he'd rather pull out one of his eyes than make light of anything American. I believed, immediately thinking of the incident in the 1940's when a military aircraft crashed into the Empire State Building.

After I made certain that the patient was stable, I left an Indian nurse that I was training to watch the patient while I went to the next room to watch the story unfold on CNN. We all know what happened that day, so I'll cut the narrative short. My wife and I were well treated by the Saudi folks that we knew, the ones with whom we worked, and even complete strangers on the street. We were given free plane tickets home the day we requested them.

Three years ago today, an act of great evil was perpetrated against our people. I hope that everyone remembers that, and that our government does what can be done to prevent a similar event in our future.

The saga of the Bush National Guard Memoes Continues....

The Washington Post had this.

Wired had this.

To Quote my Great-Uncle Reeder Parker (a former Tennessee politician)..."Politics is the worst kind of ticks they is".
What could be more American than Levi's?

from the Farkers....
"What could be more American than Levi's jeans? Pretty much anything, as they close their last American factory."

Friday, September 10, 2004

The TRON suit guy

For our fiftieth post, I wanted a topic that had significance, one that would appeal to all of my loyal readers. Well, as you shall see.....I failed. However, I did stumble across this site, which is apparently one of those internet phenomenonae that I always find 2 years later. Still, I have to admit that this guy is one heck of a sci-fi fanboy....In my wildest geek days, I could not top this....I doff my B-wing pilot's helmet to you, J.Maynard.

For those of you who don't know, TRON was pretty much the first movie with computer-generated special effects, it starred Jeff Bridges, and while it kinda flopped at the box office, it was super-cool to those of us who were kids in the early 80's.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

I always work on Labor Day, too.

The debate over federal government imposed holidays is always a fun one, though I tend to follow my own family traditions more than 'logically sound doctrine' when determining what holidays I celebrate, and how I choose to do so (this will be another post). "The Agitator" has a good opinion piece on "floating holidays". Despite his Fox News affiliations, he seems like a good Libertarian sort of guy, and while I don't always agree with him, I generally enjoy his column. You can see his blogger here.
Are Muslim women in Canada afraid of their own religion's law being enforced?

I'm very curious about how this situation will be resolved. Canada has long tried to appeal to the sensibilities of it's immigrant population, and Canada's government is no doubt more immigrant friendly than that of the United States. Apparently, religious figures (not figurines, you wacky idolaters) are being allowed to help settle non-criminal legal disputes between members of a common religious group, using that group's laws, guidelines, etc. as the basis for those settlements. Christians, Jews, and members of Canada's "native" minority have been using this arbitration system for some time. Some Canadian adherents to Islam, particularly the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, are less than excited about this, afraid that they will be pressured by their religious community into accepting the decisions of imams that stem from an interpretation of sharia (Muslim religious law) that differs from their own personal religious approach.

Here's a tenditious audio story from NPR.

Is this, more or less, nothing more than the rise of feminism within Canada's Muslim community? For about 18 months, we lived in Saudi Arabia, a country that uses it's own interpretation of sharia as the basis for all legal matters, and I can certainly see where conflict may arise in Canada, as you will have Muslims from some very different sharia traditions incorporating their own views into Canadian civil law. I am looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Ah Crap!!!!!


It looks like the Genesis space probe has suffered the same fate as the Genesis spin-off band Mike and the Mechanics. Well, at least the band didn't crash into the desert due to a parachute failure.

A number without significance

I wish that it hadn't happened, but the U.S. military's death count has risen to, and surpassed, 1,000. I am not saying that these most recent deaths are not significant, but that the 1,000 dead is just a number over which some people will allow themselves to feel unnecessary distress, like the oil price of $50 a barrel, and the Gregorian calendar year 2000 (well, maybe the year 2000 had significance due to some short-sighted computer programmers and purveyors of pre-printed checks). I have no doubt that people will try to make political gain out of this event. Each death is a tragedy to the family, friends, and loved ones of the soldier killed. The death of the 1,000th soldier is no more or less a tragedy than #1, #42, or #999, and my heart goes out to each of the grieving families. I just hope that, in the end, it is all worth it.


Sunday, September 05, 2004

From the "it's about time somebody told the truth" department

Finally, a political website with which I can agree.


Saturday, September 04, 2004

Hey, we're gonna top that next year!

This guy in Alaska set a new record by growing a 707 lb giant gourd. Instead of the cute little gourd birdhouses, we could use these for cute little gourd doghouses...
Muslim, or American?

Here's yet another story of an American military service member who converted to islam and committed treason.

Friday, September 03, 2004

We're Famous!

Okay, Ferlie and I are only mentioned as "friends in Nashville" , but that's the closest I've come to being mentioned by name in the Decatur Daily. It's a start. Mike was featured in the story, though, sad to say, they didn't include any photographs of him.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

World Records that we'll never try to break

And people think that I have weird hobbies. Check this guy out.
Team America!

I saw this on Mike's blog, and had to rip it for you guys. This movie, (trailer here) is a marionette film, from the guys at South Park, that satirizes the United Nations, the Hollywood Left, and a lot of the silliness involved in the political side of our (very serious) current struggle against international terrorism. I am a big fan of South Park, and I'm very much looking forward to this movie. Like a lot of their material, much of it will require too much thought, knowledge of history/culture/current events, and deductive reasoning for the majority of folks in our semi-brain-dead culture to get all of the jokes, plus it is guaranteed to offend a whole lotta people. I hope it makes a lot of money.

Also, read this article Mike found from WSJ on "South Park Republicans".

Here's an article attempting to define South Park Republicans that I didn't steal from Mike.
Yesterday we got to hear the heartbeat of "baby blue eyes" again. It had a good beat, you can dance to it, and Ferlotta and I are happy beyond belief.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

From the "Is this what we can expect in our future" department:

I would appear that Mother Russia's troubles with the Caucuses in general and Chechnya in particular, are continuing to worsen. From the point of view of this American non-muslim, the root of Russia's terrorism problem is very different from ours. We have Al Qaeda and their associates are seeking to harm America and Americans, ostensibly, because of our international policies, which include support of Israel and our government's actions throughout the muslim world. Putin's government is trying to maintain control over Chechnya, and islamic Chechen separatists seem to be willing to do almost anything, most recently taking 400 adults and school kids hostage, to resist. The battle over Chechen subjugation has been going on for over 200 years, and isn't likely to be resolved soon.

Supporters of both of these resistance/terrorist movements speak fighting occupation and imperialism, and both receive funding from muslims all over the world, particularly Saudi Arabia. Chechen rebels purportedly also receive a great deal of financial backing from Turkey, who has been called an important American ally in our war on terror, despite many Americans questioning the value and sincerity of an alliance with Turkey.

Whoever is in the oval office over the next few years will have their hands full of islam-associated problems, of that their is no doubt.