November 2007 archive

Pony Party, Are We There Yet?

The Morning News

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Witnesses testify in Blackwater lawsuit

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

44 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury investigating Blackwater Worldwide heard witnesses Tuesday as a private lawsuit accused the government contractor’s bodyguards of ignoring orders and abandoning their posts shortly before taking part in a Baghdad shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Filed this week in U.S. District Court in Washington, the civil complaint also accuses North Carolina-based Blackwater of failing to give drug tests to its guards in Baghdad – even though an estimated one in four of them was using steroids or other “judgment altering substances.”

A Blackwater spokeswoman said Tuesday its employees are banned from using steroids or other enhancement drugs but declined to comment on the other charges detailed in the 18-page lawsuit.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

Theoretical Political Questions

The following questions are theoretical questions.  They resemble real-life situations, but are not presumed to be correct in their analysis of actual events.  The purpose of this is to view our reactions to situations in isolation, free of the fuller picture that incorporates all truths.   By doing so, we can break complex reactions down to their components, to better understand the complicated layers of analysis we all use, and to recognize how fallacies in one component of our reaction can cause fallacies to be accepted by the whole of our reaction.

Also by doing so, we can free ourselves to answer the actual question, rather than ask a different question which allows us to give the answers we would prefer.  In the interest of that, and of getting actual answers to the question, I ask that readers consider the information in the questions to the exclusion of real-life matters which are not considered.  If you believe that the questions excluding unasked issues are meaningless, then of course, so would any potential answer to them be.  If those are your feelings, then do yourself a favor and spend your time considering other things you feel are less stupid.

Point of Personal Privilege?

Having been “called out”–not once, but twice–by an essayist here this (yesterday) evening (Eastern Standard Time), I would like to respond.  I do so with good will, in good faith, and in support of the guiding karma that has made this site so special to me/us.

First, how I was called out:

“Heh (0.00 / 0)

BTW, there is a cowardly racialist shithead posting here named Faheyman who is scared to comment but is having fun downratig me in another thread.  

Hey Faheyman, scared to defend yourself with words? Get some spine Faheyman.”

by: Armando @ Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 12:29:38 PST

——————————————————————————–

Faheyman? Really? (4.00 / 2)

I haven’t been watching…

I have to say, I whenever I downrate someone, I let them know why, unless it’s brain-numbingly obvious.

What I hate, is when people stand by not saying anything when they agree with you.

That’s part of the reason I left Dkos, apart from the Dem betrayal…I put myself out there and got TR’d to hell sometimes for sticking up for my views, and in a community of thousands, did anyone come in and at least lend a word of support?

by: TheManWithAPoint @ Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 12:39:22 PST

——————————————————————————–

I do not give a fuck about the downrate (4.00 / 2)

or hidden comments or whatever.

Let him come and explain himself here.

by: Armando @ Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 12:41:08 PST

[boldface added]

Note from a “self-styled” progressive

According to the Great Armando I am a “self-styled” progressive.  Why?  Apparently because I spoke up about how I felt regarding one of Armando’s posts.  

Well Armando, while you feel you are being a true progressive by typing all day and verbally bashing the majority of the members on this web site, I have a different approach:

1. I bought a farm so that I can help to feed my community without pesticides and herbicides.

2. I came out against the War in Iraq one year before the war in Iraq started.

3. I was asked to join the Kerry Campaign because of my skills with web advertising, promotion, construction, and my enthusiasm.  My main goal was to bring in visitors to the Official Kerry Forums.  I brought in over 50,000 people to not only visit but actually register and begin the first real national presidential discussion online.

4. I was the first blogger/web guy to get involved in the Cindy Sheehan March to Crawford.

5. I helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

6. I have personally built over a dozen blogs and websites for other progressives so that their voices could be shared with the world.

7. I am replacing my old Subaru with a new Hybrid car to reduce my impact on the planet.

8. I have posted over 500 links to DocuDharma in various search engines, directories, news services etc.

So, you tell me Armando, am I a real progressive?  

…Unless Absolutely Necessary

I think the time has arrived for the deliberate citizen to consider the essential question of our representative democracy:

“What Would Jefferson Do?”

Iglesia ………………………………… Episode 13

.

(Last week’s episode……and you can read the entire series by clicking on the tag!)

.

Time slowed.

He actually heard the hammer of the handgun falling through the air on its way to make contact with the bullet that was about to end his life. Something funny happened to his vision and he was looking down a long tube of light as the darkness closed in from the edges of his vision like a black iris.

He fell down the tunnel……and into the past, at least part of him did. Part of him now, was also floating above his body, observing. And part of him was still kneeling naked on the cold steel floor of the gently rocking train, listening to the hammer fall and concentrating wildly on keeping his sphincters closed. The last two weren’t very appealing right now, so he decided to concentrate on the part that was falling down the tunnel, as it seemed to be by far his best option at the moment.

I’m offended by the intimation of a need for censorship

In the past several days, the bits and bytes flowing between the participants on this forum constituting words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and complete diaries have sometimes been formed in such fashion as to offend another. Is that a problem? To some, it may be. To others, probably not. In any case, should the actions of some be censored so as not to offend anyone who may read what transpires across this open medium? For the most part, the answer to my posed question is a resounding NO!

Top Ten Reasons I Shouldn’t Run A Blog

1) I whine about running a blog too much.

2) I try to see both sides of an issue

3) I am entirely too unwilling to write people off

4) I suck at refereeing blog disputes

5) I get depressed when people I like disagree unamicably

6) I want to fix everything

7) I lose my temper too easily

8) I feel horrible when I lose my temper

9) I try to do too much and get mad at myself when I don’t and end up doing even less

10) I can’t think of a tenth reason why I shouldn’t run a blog.

Toxic Toys: Republican Policy

I did Google image searches for “Lead & Toys” and “Recalled & Toys”. More than 400,000 images were found. I didn’t search on “Date Rape Drug” and “toys”, but you know that would have some hits as well. The collage below contains a few of the images I found in my search that I selected for this short rant. Nothing I have to say in it is particularly new, but I feel better now that I have written it. I’m a parent of 3 children, and the thought that the toys I buy for my kids or my siblings’ children would somehow poison them scares the hell out of me. It makes me angry, too, to know that my government is complicit in endangering our children.

PONY OPEN THREAD: Flying

a flying dog…

and, not to put the pooetie crowd in a snit… here’s a flying cat

but this would not be complete without a flying pig, now would it?

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