Me Tarzan, You Jane, Nobody Knows What the Chimp Thought

Tags

American Exceptionalism, ethics, evolution, Fox News, happiness, History, humanity, John Boehner, Media, morality, Nazism, psychology, religious right wing, Sharron Angle, sociology, teabaggers, the Family

We are a dualist species. We think of most everything in either or, left or right, up or down, in or out. You get the drift.

We are red state, blue state, we are elites, average joes, we are adventurous or skittish. We define binarily, we do it all the time.

Mostly we define us, them. We’ve always done this, in fact those in the know claim they know of no society or people who doesn’t have some concept of themselves versus others.

So, are we to throw up our hands and just give up and in? Are we doomed to any real concept of unity? Are we perpetually at some level of war with anyone not like us?

No. At least so says Erich S. Gruen, in a new book called, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. Gruen posits that we make that a choice, it’s not an imperative. Basically, he looks at ancient groups and teases out the nuances of their relationships with others. While superficially, they may appear us-them, in practicality such was not really the case.

While perhaps not totally convincing, Gruen at least points to the fact that we are not in a hopeless adversarial situation,  never to be solved. In a world increasingly divided, this is good news.

***

If you are just dying to engage in some deep philosophical thought, (and who isn’t), then pop on over to read about morality and the good life. Can you achieve happiness without living morally? Is morality a virtue for its own sake? Should it be? Now that you are thoroughly all jiggly with desire to know more, go on, get over to read more! (Whew, now I feel like I’ve done my moral duty in presenting you some uplifting material.)

***

Good grief, the most funny stuff seems to be coming from Iowa these days. You better sit down for this one. It seems Sharron Angle, (remember her?) was in Des Moines, IA, no doubt for some teabaggery thing. She admits she’s thinking of running for President! Hip, hip, Hurray! Now just think. The handlers/caretakers of Bachmann, Palin and Angle gather the ladies together for a good old DEBATE. Can you just imagine the fun? Oh Please God, Oh Please!

***

Foxy Noise should leave well enough alone. Some days ago, that idiot Megan Kelly chastised a guest for claiming that Fox regularly used Nazi references to people they don’t like. Kelly said this was untrue, she watches all the shows and Fox NEVER does such a thing.

Of course this was too much for Jon Stewart, who a couple of days ago ran a montage of Fox “Nazi references, including Beck of course, but also O’Reilly. Well Billo couldn’t resist defending himself. You can read it at Crooks and Liars. Somehow, his calling Huff Po Nazis is not the same as some congressman calling the GOP Nazis. Billo—you are an idiot.

***

It wasn’t that long ago. Just a couple of years. Remember? Our foreign policy was in shambles. Bush’s cowboy diplomacy had angered most of the world. He epitomized the idea of “ugly American” and strutted around like we had no need of allies. Nobody could touch our stuff.

Yes, well it seems that most of the GOP potential presidential candidates continue in the same vein. American Exceptionalism continues to rear its ugly head.

This idea that we are the greatest, the best, the God-ordained perfection in the world is troubling. As we become more and more a global economy, and our political and security needs are necessarily entwined, boasting about our superiority is decidedly a stupid thing to do.

But morons like Palin, DeMint and others seem determined to alienate everyone. What’s worse, it’s being tied to a  religious element that is even more unsavory. A blatantly revisionist history, a call for a spiritual renew all seem aimed at reclaiming our rightful place as God’s favored.

To be so blind and obtuse as to not see how ugly this appears to the rest of the world is tragic. To not realize that every country’s people like to think well of their own homeland is short-sighted in the extreme.

Worse yet, these folks are starting to have a negative and embarrassing influence within other countries as they support groups and leaders who are properly Christian, as they see it, although they may be acting in decidedly unChristian ways.

It’s a long article at AlterNet, but well worth your read. (The Family raises its ugly head again.)

***

I admit to a good deal of ignorance. I’m totally ignorant why Tunisia is up in arms. Ditto for Egypt. I think I’m supposed to be for the Tunisian uprising, but not so about the Egyptian. Anybody want to explain it in a nutshell? I’m not so much a follower of international news. My bad.

***

No one mentioned it. But I saw it. I figured John (Eye’s the SPEAKER!) Boehner was most aware that he was on camera during the SOTU. And it put him in a conundrum of sorts. I mean President Obama kept saying things that were universally good, and it would not look good to not applaud.

So John seemed, a good deal of the time, trapped into half-hearted clapping that he really didn’t want to do, but thought would look bad if he didn’t. Then there were other times that his face looked for all the world like he’d been chewing a lemon. How to keep a calm face when he desperately wanted to yell in the best GOP wacko form: “YOU LIE.”

I thought it was funny at least.

Channeling Shirley Temple and Butterfly McQueen

Tags

Anita Hill, Christine O'Donnell, Clarance Thomas, election 2010, Harry Reid, Latinos, Nevada, racism, Sarah Palin, SCOTUS, Sharron Angle, voting

“My Gooonnesss, my goooness,” and “Miss Scarlet, Miss Scarlet!”

I think there are actually important things to talk about in this world, but how CAN you ignore the tomfoolery (who is tom and who is he foolin’ with?) goin’ on in the e-lex-shun run-up.

I mean, geeesh, how many folks can you offend in one week Ms. Angle? First she claims that Latinos are sort Asian, and can’t you see that she looks pretty darn Asian herself.

Then, in defending an ad aimed at dirty Hispanic illegals crossing from Mexico, she claims it was really aimed at dirty Hispanic looking Asians crossin’ from Canada. The Foreign Minister from Canada awaits in vain an apology that his country is acting like a sieve for terrorists.

And then she finishes it all off with an ad that implies that Harry Reid is in a “conga line with Michelle Obama.” I looked this photo over real good, (it being a WH conga line, I’m assured) and I can’t see either one of them. Can you? Inexplicable, but then we are talking about Sharron Angle after all.

Oh and get this. One of those shadow groups, “Latinos for Reform” (yeah right) is urging Latino Nevadans to stay home on election day to teach them dirty Democrats that they can’t take you for granted. I mean the cahones for goooooness sake! They don’t even have the nerve to ask Latinos to vote for Republicans. . . . They simply urge them to not be good citizens. The ad has since been taken down. Pundits everywhere think Harry just got the gift from heaven.

***

Think about how many times you have heard or read male Sarah supporters mention how good-looking she was. As if that trumped her stupidity. (intentional stupidity albeit. Sarah is not actually dumb, she just is so lazy that she doesn’t find it necessary to learn anything beyond what she thinks necessary to make that next buck.) Maureen Dowd speaks to the issue of brains versus beauty in her latest NYTimes piece, Making Ignorance Chic.

***

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a whole bunch of new cardinals. I have something to say about that, but I think I will post it over at Walking in the Shadows. Look for it in the next day or two.

***

Ginni Thomas is the wife of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, the ultra conservative justice who I believe thinks that the states have a right to set up “State” churches, not believing apparently that the 14th amendment is applicable. Be that as it may, his wife is a real piece of work.

Ginni is politically active, something that few if any spouses of the SCOTUS are for obvious reasons. The members of SCOTUS try mightily (Alito’s head shaking and silent words at a State of the Union speech were a shocking  failure of protocol) to appear above politics.

Inexplicably, Ginni left Anita Hill a voice mail asking her to finally apologize for her treatment of Ginni’s main-man, Clarence. She later, in explaining, claimed she was reaching out to heal old wounds–though a tape of the message hardly bespeaks that. Hill has never retracted her testimony, and Clarence has slapped at her in his book about his life. This one makes no sense, except to say that there is something “in the water” when it comes to the right-wing.

***

After perusing some 200 entries, I’ve yet to see anything amounting as a defense by Witchypoo about her “where is separation of church and state in the Constitution.” The only thing reported so far, is a lame “she meant that the actual words were no where in the Constitution.” Well, yeah, we all know THAT. Anyone who has watched the video knows better in any case. Her demeanor was smirky and just oozed “gotcha” as she pretended to taken down verbatim Coon’s answer. As the audience snickered she turned, puzzled, then smiled broadly looking for backup that she was right, and clearly quite afraid she was wrong.

I’m guessing the girl has decided to just shut up. It’s a cooked goose, and it’s still a month until Thanksgiving. It’s Ovah Witchypoo. Course it always was, but we needed one phenomenal GAFFE of monumental proportions to seal the deal so the MEDIA can move on to something that matters.

***

And to close ‘er out, we have this from the Salon.

Related Articles

• The Galling Thomas: 20 Years Later, Ginni Thomas Calls Anita Hill To Demand An Apology (crooksandliars.com)
• FBI Contacted After Clarence Thomas’ Wife Ginny Calls Anita Hill Asking For An Apology (mediaite.com)

Sometimes Things Just, Well Work Out

Tags

Christine O'Donnell, corporate America, election 2010, GOP, Harry Reid, Nevada, political ideology, Politics, right wing, Sharron Angle, teabaggers

I woke up hearing that the Contrarian was on the phone. No big deal, except that it was around 3:30 in the AM. A moment or two and I knew why.

“I switched to you guys because I was having trouble getting on with ATT. This is the second time in as many months that I haven’t been able to access the Internet. I’m getting frustrated.”

Oh boy, I thought. Not good. Sigh. . . .

I awoke at around 7:20, and got up. The Contrarian mumbled,”babe we can’t get on the Internet. They are going to call, we’ve at level two.”

I scratched my head. “They are going to call?”

“It’s them, not us. I don’t know.”

Well, that set a tone. I could avoid certain thing no longer.

I started my coffee, then slipped in and gathered a basket of dirty clothes. Once that was running, I poked into the fridge and took out the four granny smith apples I’d purchased on Sunday. Then the sugar, then the flour, some shortening. None of this looked the least bit fun.

I did morning prayer, my rosary, and then got my bagel and cream cheese, some more coffee, and my EFM material and sat down to study a while.

Then I got up and made a half recipe of pie crust, and put it in the fridge. Then peeled, cored, and cut up my apples, added the usual cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, sugar, salt, cornstarch. Rolled out my dough into a rectangle and put it on top of my deep dish pan. Into the oven. We have “Apple Pandowty” for dessert tonight. Turned out quite nice. Good with a scoop of ice cream.

Then I folded clothes, tore down and remade a fresh bed, swept all the uncovered floors. Taking a break, the phone rang.

“That better be them!”

You have no idea how much I hoped THAT were true.

It was, and they figured it out. “Sometimes when our guys shake hands they sort of miss each other. They don’t line up.” That’s what the Contrarian said.

I figure that the truck backed up to the trailer and was off-center. That happens in the Intertubes sometimes I guess. Anyway, they just have to switch out our password, and try a fake one, and then re-enter our password. Then magically, it all untangles and lines up right again.

Don’t ask me the why this works. It does. I’ve learned when computers are concerned, well let’s make that any machine, it’s best just to accept success and not question the hows and whys of it.

And hey, I got a lot of housework done. I vacuumed after our return to Internet access. So that proves that I am a reliable good person surely.

***

For reasons I have no clue about, (we somehow miss-taped it) we missed the Angle-Reid debate. I don’t understand that it was very good for Reid. He was, well as he is. . .not exactly a dynamic speaker. So Angle by merely being “as good” probably helped her cause. I think it’s looking dim for Reid. Guess Nevada will get a nitwit. Who knows, perhaps they richly deserve it. Or maybe he will win. It’s too close to call.

***

Joe Klein has been my friend since he threw in the towel with John McCain in the 2008 election, calling him simply a dishonorable scumbag. Okay, my interpretation, not his. He looks at the likes of Christine O’Donnell, who like her model, Palin, is authentically ignorant, seemingly by choice. They are revered by some, who think they are like themselves. Sadly the “average” guy and gal, used to be informed and willing to learn. That is the difference here. Klein calls them our ignoramuses. In other words, Klein asserts that the ignorant now pass as “authentic” and thus “one of us” to the teabaggery folk. This comes, he asserts from the best and brightest in a sense betraying the public trust with their utter greed. Interesting take .

***

Frank Rich has an astoundingly cogent article in the NYTimes on how Christine O’Donnell and those of her ilk are making a great camouflage to what is really going on behind the scenes. Big corporate billionaires support these candidates, because in the end their redound to the benefit of the GOP, which IS going to do their bidding if they come to power. Rich lays it out well how all the “shadow” organizations are behind the teabagger movement funded by big business interests. These billionaires share zero of the agenda of the teabaggers, as is also true of the routine GOP professionals. They both find the teabagger candidates and their silly voter/followers useful in putting them back in power.

***

Related Articles

• Worst. Debate. Ever. But, Advantage Angle (outsidethebeltway.com)
• FIGHT FREE: Verdict: Reid, Angle debate a snooze (politico.com)
• Watch: Christine O’Donnell Compares Serving Openly Gay in the Military to Committing Adultery (pinkbananaworld.com)

Amen, It’s a Good Day

Tags

cake, Chilean Miners, Christine O'Donnell, Congress, DADT, election 2010, Humor, life in the meadow, Recipes, Sharron Angle, teabaggers

As I write, fifteen of the thirty-three trapped miners in Chile has been returned to the surface. So far everything is going smoothly. Amen to that.

I suspect there is one proud Papa looking down upon us this day, happy that at last, in this moment of time, his children have managed to put aside all their petty arguments, and are working in true togetherness to perform this miracle. For miracles can only occur through humans willing to give of themselves without reserve.

Would that we could do the same with all our other troubles. It is a lesson we should examine carefully for the clues that might lead us to deal more honorably, more tolerantly, more humanely, with each other on other problems.

***

On the home front, we are once again reminded that life in the meadow is sometimes most primitive. A new generation of raccoons has arisen that have no memory that a wide berth is to be given the acre or so around the house. One ventured too close, and we were startled during a showing of Mad Men with a horrendous explosion of snarling, and breaking of twigs in the underbrush. What emerged was Bear and Brandy each on one end of a poor “Little Ricky.” Bear is 13 and Brandy 11, so after several minutes they were unable to dispatch the straying coon. It lay crying in pain, they standing over it panting and whining.

I was able to call them off and into the house, while the Contrarian donned shoes and went out with shotgun. A loud report, and the coon was no more. I grieve for it, as I do for all innocent animals. It was doing nothing but living its life, sadly it made a fatal mistake. Both dogs were pretty sore the next day, stiff from muscles long unused. They are fine again today.

***

Andy Borowitz has a great new post on Sarah and Christine. Don’t miss it. It’s important to get a good laugh every day.

***

Ree Drummond has a really decadent cake called Tres Leches. It’s a great cake for company, and doesn’t take much time. Three Milks would be a translation. It’s exceedingly rich. Take a look.

***

Election 2010

• O’Donnell is debating Coons tonight at 7:30 on CNN, but check local listings
• Angle debates Reid on Thursday. No further info on that yet.

***

On the DADT front:

      Us Federal district Court Judge, Virginia A. Phillips has put a stop to all military discharges as a result of DADT. Now, since Obama campaigned on ending this awful practice, shouldn’t he instruct the Justice Department not to appeal? There is no one else who has standing as far a I know to appeal. Barney Frank is urging that if there is an appeal, the Administration wait until the last moment in their 60-day time limit, so as to give the Congress a chance to repeal the act before hand. As I said, I’m not sure why this isn’t a no-brainer. Or am I missing something?

***

Killing the Buddha offers you a quiz today. See if you can give the right answer to 12 questions. Who said it? McCarthy, Beck or Palin. Should be fun!

***

We watched the first episode of Dancing with the Stars, and then quit, sure that Bristol (my mama is a Grizzly) Palin would not be voted off no matter how badly she could dance. True to form, she sucks, and is not being voted off due to “massive teabagger voting”. What a joke this show becomes.

***

And if there were any more news, I’d tell ya.

Related Articles

• Watch: Olbermann Interviews SU’s Alexander Nicholson, Barney Frank on the Judge’s Ruling Barring Enforcement of ‘DADT’ (towleroad.com)
• A locked-up win for Chris Coons in Delaware? (cnn.com)

Of Ink and Quills and Parchment

Tags

2nd Amendment, Jack Kerouac, Muslims, Qur'an, right wing bigotry, Rosh Hashanah, Sharron Angle, Soame Jenyns, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Writers, writing, Yom Kippur

One of the joys of living, it seems to me, is the ever-present ability to re-invent oneself. So, a few months ago, I declared, amid no fanfare whatsoever, that I deemed myself a writer.

I’m not sure there is some formal standard that one must meet in order to claim this appellation. If there is, I may not meet it. But then I don’t care. It is my claim, and anyone is free to disagree.

Note that I call myself a writer, not a Writer. I reserve the capital W for those who can REALLY write. I scribble, with an occasional dash of brilliance that streaks across the sky and too soon snuffs out much as your average meteorite. A big ado about little–this is me.

I have concluded that being a self-proclaimed writer gives me a certain ability to be witty and slashingly evil. All in the name of sharp-edgy rhetoric, the turn of a phrase that causes a gasp from you my reader. You do gasp on occasion don’t you? Please say you do.

It’s why I adore people like Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman, and goodness knows one of my favorites Truman Capote. And Tennessee Williams! Rapier wit, icy, droll, slicing, eviscerations. I just love them all.

I read this piece today courtesy of 3quarksdaily and frankly the article on a very old book on the study of evil is worth reading, but I include it for its gorgeous quotes. One is by Capote, who in reviewing Jack Kerouac‘s On the Road, quipped:

That was not writing, that was typing.

There is another by the reviewer of Soame Jenyns book, A Free Inquiry in the Nature and Origin of Evil. But follow the link for that. As I said, a discussion of the author’s theory of evil is worth the read in and of itself. Evil here is cast in the greater sense of natural as well as man-made, and Jenyn’s concludes that evil is required to keep balance in a well run universe. I would of course not agree, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Oh just want to throw in my two cents at the GOP attempt to “speak against the nut case pastor in Florida.” Both Sarah and John B. have weighed in and both, as I have heard are tying the impropriety of the Qur’an burning to the impropriety of Park51. Like there is anything remotely similar in the two. Just exactly what is to be expected from moral defectives. Shame on ya both.

Helen weighs in on the book burning over at Margaret and Helen. Never miss these lovely slices of humor and straight talk. Ever. I mean it.

I got to thinking. (You have been warned.) We were watching The Colony last night. It is a reality show where about ten people are thrown into an area somewhere along the Louisiana coastline, as “refugees” of a viral global epidemic. Nine-tenths of the human race is dead. They are left to their own devices. It’s fairly interesting as they scavenge material and food, trying to build a viable community.

They are not doing well with food, and they are starting to show the effects. I suddenly giggled at the possible headline:

 Reality show participants forget that it’s just pretend, and by lots kill a member for food. Body found partly dismembered. One survivor was heard to  say, why “he tasted just like pork, better than the cockroaches we were eating for sure.”  All have been hospitalized and are under observation. Psychiatrists condemn show producers for not making the make-believe aspect more clear. Meanwhile, the partially eaten body of James Kelly was turned over to the family for burial. A closed casket is expected. Authorities are investigating for possible criminal charges. The leader of the survival group, when advised that it was all just make-believe, expressed his sympathy, and emphatically said, that no such killing would have occurred had they not been so hungry, or had they known that a Burger King was right down the street, behind the fence.

Well, so sue me. I have a morbid mind at times.

On a completely different note:

I ran into this at Tikkun Daily Blog: Non-Jews would benefit from observing Rosh Hashanah thru Yom Kippur (Sept 9-Sept 19). I think Rabbi Lerner is right. Repentance and atonement are things we all need, both individually and communally. We are so quick to blame others for the chaotic world we live in. We don’t condone nor commit the hate that swirls around us, but we are complicit when we sit in silence bemoaning the state of things. When we don’t speak out, and let it be known that we disagree with the war mongers and hate mongers who continually tear down bridges and erect walls of division. This is a good read.

Heather at Crooks and Liars has an important question, or at least reiterates one: when has someone crossed a line? When is the GOP rhetoric just too much. When is it dangerous? When it is traitorous? When do we pull back in disgust and turn our backs on such people as simply unacceptable in a democratic state? Rachel Maddow asks this of Sharron Angle and her continuing threat that people may have to resort to their second amendment rights to get what they want. Is this the real face of the GOP? Are they the party of dictatorship?

What’s on the stove: pork chops and parslied potatoes and green beans.

Mewling at the Northern Lights

Tags

astronomy, atheists, blogging, fundamentalism, Ground Zero, infinity, Muslims, northern lights, Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, sun, teaparty, wacko rightwing

Howdy!

Hopin’ the day so far is finding you alive, and relatively content. It’s a rainin’ here. No news in that. Not a lot, but with the humidity being 100% making it feel AWFUL, I decided to not try the food gathering trip today.

Alert: HOUSEKEEPING: WordPress, ever trying to upgrade for its users, has added a new “like” button at the end of each post. It will add your gravatar (unique or generic) as well. The point being, I would ask you to use it if you in fact like the post. As they point out, hitting that button can suffice for a comment you don’t have time to make or otherwise are disinclined to do, and allows me to get a better idea of what post topics are most enjoyable for you. After all, I do want you to come here and enjoy yourself, so understanding your likes helps in doing that. Please NOTE: the button only appears on the comment page, so click “add comment” then hit the button between the end of post and the comment box. I wish it were on the main post, but alas it is not.

Enuf said.

You may have heard that the sun has recently gotten riled up about something. Probably something Mercury said–that little planet is hot as hell and always whispering into the sun’s ear. In any case, sol got a bitch on and sent out a nice big cosmic flare which will be entering earth’s upper atmosphere.

The key word is atmosphere. Without it, the sun’s pissiness would fry us. As it is, it provides a delightful free show for those in northern climes. It’s hard to see the northern sky here, what with the danged trees. One has to look nearly straight up to see the sky, but, I’ll take a look as best I can and see if anything can be seen tonight.

I came across a really good post on the teaparty movement. As usual, the right wingheads are trying to make much ado about nothing over the journo-list. One on that list gives some background to the general “the sky is falling” tactics of the teabagger promoters. Be very sure that this is no “grassroots” movement, but one highly orchestrated by the corporate and political world in order to get the masses of dupes to do their bidding. Yesterday we posted a link to a review of the 60’s leftist movement and how it was wrecked by the Right. This is the same Right, as Lindsay points out.

Lindsay also has a good post on the proposed Islamic center in the vicinity of Ground Zero. I am in complete agreement. I am simply appalled at the rhetoric being unleashed. The hatred is open and ugly. First of all, plenty of Muslims died in 911. Second, the vast majority of Muslims hold no truck with fundamentalist Islam. Third the anti-Muslim talk dribbling from the mouths of fundamentalist Christianity is diametrically in opposition to their constant chant of “freedom of religion.” Do these intellectually challenged bigots EVER see the parallel between themselves and the  ffundamentalist jihadists they so fervently hate? FUNDAMENTALISM IS FUNDAMENTALISM!

Also see Moe at Whatever Works, for more links and comments on this sick affair.

Slate has a delicious article on atheism. Mostly I loved it because it agreed with my position, (which was not original with me I can assure you) that fundamentalists and atheists have so much more in common than they think. Atheists, are just as guilty of asserting as true what they in fact can only speculate about. To the point: Atheists assert that all that is not understandable yet will be some day, because they think it will be. No proof my dear skeptics. The article suggests that a defensible position can only be agnosticism of which I would heartily agree. Read and see what you believe. In the end, believers and unbelievers alike merely CHOOSE to believe one or the other.

The New Republic has a review of a new book that investigates the search for mathematical infinity. Sounds like it might be a most  spell-binding book to take a look at. Full of the history of the chase. A case of when mysticism triumphs over science.

Sharron (that woman is more of an idiot than Sarah) Angle has well, gone and done it again. Said something so STUPID that you half way want to believe that a talking dog has been discovered. I mean a human said this! And her lap dog Foxy Propaganda which was the supposed point of her chat, actually showed the clip, proving that for all their protestations, they basically are doing as she asked.

What? She told journo-not Carl Cameron, that she “needed the press to be her friend.” Cameron kinda laughs, all the while no doubt thinking, “damn girl, don’t give us away.” Here I quote her verbatim:

. . .we wanted [journalists] to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported. And when I get on a show and I say send me money to SharronAngle.com, so that your listeners will know that if they want to support me they need to go to SharronAngle.com.”

The gist is that Sharron wants the media to be glorified stenos for her “message” which is more or less send money to me. Of course Fox, dunderheads and willing stooges, did just that, airing the clip. Other outlets showed a string of similar “interviews” with friendlies wherein Ms. Sharron re-entreated again and again to “send me $25 to SharronAngle.com.” Too funny. This woman is  a joke.

No doubt you have heard of the Sarah (that woman is an idiot) Palin’s Grizzly Mamas video. Progagandee at Urantia Sojourn has a nice take on it and a very good link to Adrianna Huffington’s post on the same subject. Well worth the read.

Until we meet again!

What’s Up? 07/07/10

Tags

2nd Amendment, aliens, astronomy, big bang, Glenn Beck, GOP, guns, Michael Steele, Sharron Angle, squirrels, teabaggers

Well, I think I’ve got this little guy’s attention! Can you say saucer eyes? I’m trying to figure out what he is eating, and it looks suspiciously like some kind of buggy thingie. Also check out the fingers! Makes you just wanna cuddle doesn’t it?

I think we made like 28 hours without rain. It was raining when I woke up, so I’m not quite sure when it started again. They are starting to put out some warnings for flooding, but not in this county.

I am aware that there can be cyclical changes in weather that go on for years, even decades. But I think there is every reason to associate this new “rainy season” with global warming. They say that England is having the driest summer on record for I don’t know how long.

Everybody has something to grouse about. The east is sweltering this year. I’m surprised they have been able to hold the line with electricity so far. I’ll do my best to bring forth some links that are amusing. Goodness knows I need some, and probably so do you.

I just read where guv Jindal of LA, just signed into law a bill that allows gun toters to bring their shootin’ irons to church–in the name of security that is. Sadly, such nonsense is not just laughable, but indeed frightening. Sarah Posner has a great article on how the right sees its need to arm itself against the danger of democracy in action. This is indeed scary stuff.

The teabaggers continue to struggle. You see, most of them aren’t educated much at all, and now find themselves, as candidates for serious offices, and unable of course to face media with anything close to a cogent message. Case in point, Sharron Angle who is trying to unseat Harry Reid. Now that she is the nominee, she decided to scrap her agenda and start over, and is mad at Harry for reprinting her OWN website, since as I said, she’s changed all her positions. Rethuglians continue to be amazed that what they say is RECORDED.

No doubt you have heard that there is now such a thing as Beck U. Our dear little huckster Glenn will for a small fee of $75 a year, let you enter the environs of Beck U. where you can take courses by faux “profs” and learn the learn history of America and other such reconstructionist ideals. Learn about yer rights there my friend, so you’ll be ready to take on the guv’ment which is takin’ away yer rights.  Glenn continues to make money off the gullible and stupid.

I happened to see Pat Robertson supporting Michael Steele and in the same sentence claiming that McCain and Graham have been rejected as party leaders of the GOP. He’s with Steele, Afghanistan is Obama’s war of choice.  It became that when he added more troops there. Interesting way of looking at it. I love watching the GOP beat up on each other. Oh yes I do.

I’m not an anti-squirrel person. Never have been. I don’t mind if they snitch a bit of food from the bird feeder now and then. In fact, I applaud their bravery. Few venture near our house with two snarly dogs who are quick enough to catch them. I think them cute. And I always do my best to give them the right of way when crossing highways. They are intriguing in ways I had not realized. How so? Read the NYTimes article and find out.

Some years ago we participated in the SETI program. Our computer crunched numbers when we were not using it, part of the massive data influx the program received. Anomalies were searched for. Stephen Hawking said we shouldn’t look for aliens, they are likely to be mean. That was never the working theory of the originators of the SETI program, Frank Drake from I think Cornell originally. Anyway, if the subject intrigues you (word for the day!), then read on.

There is a probe out there, mapping the very edges of the universe, thus displaying how our universe looked in the seconds following the Big Bang. Oddly there is a couple of guys who have proposed a new theory wherein our universe is the result of a wave hitting another wave ( visualize two pieces of paper waving in the wind and occasionally they touch at different parts, creating universes). This probe I think will likely answer whether the BB is the true cause or the oops we touched! is the winner. Either way, fascinating.

And with that: