Apr 29 2008
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Forest Gump died.
When he arrived at the pearly gates St. Peter met him and said
“Well Forest, because of the wars and all, there has been a huge increase in the number of souls arriving. We came up with one last test, just to make certain sure that all are worthy of being here.”
“Um, okay.” says Forest.
“It’s three questions, and you don’t have to give your answers immediately. You can go think about it and come back later.”
“Um, okay.” says Forest.
Apr 29 2008
My 3 year-old son has these moments.
He wants something.
A toy that his sister is playing with or some fragile item he sees in a store or maybe to ride his tricycle around the block when he suddenly wakes up at three o’clock in the morning.
And we have to say, “no”.
That’s when the meltdown hits…
Apr 29 2008
Some days there’s nothing i feel like putting in the pony. Ok, that’s a lie. Some days im particularly sensitive to the amount of sports content i put in the morning pony ;), but have nothing of substance to say. On those days i generally hunt for a news story or some other item on the web i can present for discussion. But on Monday when i am typing this (like with time travel in the douglas adams books, we need new verb tenses to discuss what we’re typing that wont have published until some time before youre reading it but after im typing it…but we’ll save that topic for another day) i’m horrifically unfocused…the Flyers are playing, and, at the risk of sounding whiny..i just dont feel like it…
So here are some finds from my horribly unfocused web travels…
From the “news you can use” category, is it any wonder that this Yahoo!News article caught my attention???
Chocolate may reduce pregnancy complication risk
Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is rich in a chemical called theobromine, which stimulates the heart, relaxes smooth muscle and dilates blood vessels, and has been used to treat chest pain, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries, Dr. Elizabeth W. Triche of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues
Apparently after polling new mothers and testing cord blood, researchers found a possible link between higher chocolate consumption and fewer occurrences of preeclampsia. So I guess all those Peppermint Patties I ate in 1993 were a good idea… 😉
Apr 29 2008
And the thought occurred to me
How come that everything you see
Is so bad
So bad
Cheney lawyer claims Congress has no authority over vice-president
The lawyer for US vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job.The exception claimed by Cheney’s counsel came in response to requests from congressional Democrats that David Addington, the vice-president’s chief of staff, testify about his involvement in the approval of interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.
Ruling out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn Wheelbarger said Cheney’s conduct is “not within the [congressional] committee’s power of inquiry”.
“Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice president’s official duties, or what a vice president recommends that a president communicate,” Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides on Capitol Hill.
Apr 29 2008
 Sun
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Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…
Apr 29 2008
I’m pretty angry tonight. People are being stupider than usual and if you know my general attitude toward humanity you know that’s saying something. The source of my discontent this evening is, of course, the incestuous Beltway Bendover for Ass Access Butt Sniffing Feces Flinging Media and their Hollywood for the Ugly Uncle Brother Wife Sisters in the institutional political class.
Never heard a preacher like Reverend Wright before? Did you sanctimonious morons ever GO to Church or are you Christmas/Easter Christians? Can’t remember the last time? You’re going to burn in hellfire for eternity you GOD DAMN SINNERS!
YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN GOD DAMNED RELIGION!
NOBODY is worthy to sit at the feet of the Lord your God. You were “conceived in sin (disobedience)” which is why SEX IS EVIL! There is not a one among that doesn’t offend the sight (not to say smell, for you stink of death and corruption) of your vengeful jealous GOD who doesn’t care whether it’s a Golden Calf or Mammon that you put before him, and thinks that coveting and killing and lying and stealing ARE EVIL! Who would demand the sacrifice of your first born son and punish you (to say nothing of your innocent kin- wives, children, servants, livestock, whatever) ON A BET!
Wrath of God?
But he loves you. Nope, really.
In addition to smiting your enemies for real estate, he loves you enough that he incarnated some part and yet all of himself into a fully HUMAN being who lived his whole life without sinning at all, Jesus Christ our Saviour.
If you believe in some carefully selected texts of dubious historical provenance called The Gospel (and I know you believe that they’re the inerrant Word Of God) Jesus was a teacher with at least 2 strong messages; one of which I’m going to characterize as temporal and social, and the other of which I’m going to characterize as spiritual and to hell with parallelism.
Jesus’ Social message was that there are things God can do for you other than smiting your enemies.
He can make you kinder and more compassionate. He doesn’t much care for the greedy and sanctimonious. He’s not that into violence toward others even when provoked.
Jesus’ Spiritual message was unmerited favor by grace.
By believing that he was the incarnation of God sent here to spread God’s message of love and forgiveness of sin, you can spare yourself the torment of an eternity of existence after death separated from God’s presence. The proof is that Jesus died and was raised from the dead (plus assorted other miracles).
Some Christians think that outward prosperity is an indicator of God’s grace. Some Christians think that sacrifice guarantees prosperity. Some Christians think that avoidance of sin through conformist behavior is sufficient, but they are mistaken because the OMNIPOTENT GOD who sees the fall of every sparrow can look straight into your heart and mind and knows your EVERY unworthy motivation and secret. Every lazy self indulgent moment of your stinking existence for which there is not enough incense for the nostrils of GOD!
When was the last time you washed the wounds of a leper?
But even the mildest of Christians contend that evidence of acceptance of the teaching of Jesus is that you strive to emulate his actions. Heal the sick. Help the poor. Turn the other cheek. Love your neighbor as yourself and forgive them their trespasses.
Little stuff.
Some people are not Christians. People like me for instance who don’t believe in God at all and follow teachers who have something to say about the human condition in practical terms and find other excuses for altruism than fear of punishment.
Can deathbed acceptance forgive a life of sin? Are you repentant enough?
God Knows!
Apr 29 2008
Paragraph 25 of an article in tomorrow’s NYT:
OPEC’s 13 members plan to spend $150 billion to expand their capacity by five million barrels a day by 2012. But OPEC will need to pump 60 million barrels a day by 2030, up from around 36 million barrels a day today, to meet the projected growth in demand. Analysts say that without Iran and Iraq – where nearly 30 years of wars and sanctions have crippled oil production – reaching that level will be impossible.
This is why we are not going to leave Iraq. The country that controls the future of Iraq and Iran, controls the world for the next 40 or so years.
Apr 29 2008
I can’t prove the assertion in the title. I’m not connected to any “inside” track. And anything a lowly wage-earner like me could possibly know about conspiracies is almost certainly disinformation.
But the assertion is true, and I bet you know that. And so we must ask some questions.
It might possibly be illegal, and it’s certainly anti-consumerist, to entertain the mental state they used to call “remembering.” It’s a superstition of mine that remembering is indispensable to being prepared for the future. It seems if you notice something happens again and again and again, over a period of years, that you might expect it to happen again in the future. Now, if you find that notion a little whacky, it’s best we part company here. Otherwise, here’s what I remember about our Media, our Democratic politicians, and our elections:
Apr 29 2008
I suppose this isn’t a shock to anyone, but once again the House Democrats are ignoring their Constitutional power of the purse and are working on funding the Iraq occupation well into 2009. Led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House Democrats work on huge Iraq money bill according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president’s term.
Neither the Bush administration nor Congress has been forthright with Americans about the true costs of the Iraq invasion and occupation. Now, once again the House Democrats are betraying the voters who put them into power in 2006 as they maneuver to fund the Iraq occupation once again to a tune of $108 billion, plus $70 billion of “breathing room” funding for the next president.
Apr 29 2008
[This is kind of a test run. I’ve been reading the business press, including blogs, a lot lately. It’s like watching a train wreck in slo-mo. Since I lack both time and theoretical chops to write much in the way of long analyses of the unfolding economic crisis, I propose to occasional short pieces at my home blog, the lefty-politics-with-occasional-music Fire on the Mountain, highlighting one or another tidbit that has caught my attention. here’s the first. Lemme know what you think.]
The weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal provides one more reason the housing crisis isn’t going anyplace soon. It’s not just that the supply of houses for sale is up (to 2.3 million according to Bloomberg News), what with falling sales, foreclosures, overproduction of new units and rising fuel costs making the exurbs look much less attractive. The banks are acting snakebit:
Lenders are demanding higher credit scores, mandating private-mortgage insurance on many more loans, and requiring larger down payments. Fewer first-timers qualify for the house they want, or they’re paying a larger monthly amount to own it.
Apr 29 2008
Rednecks and Jingoists have a quaint saying describing their ignorance perfectly: My country, right or wrong.
Just how far does that go, I wonder.
There is another old saying. Kill em all, let God sort em out.
And one more, for your listening pleasure: You reap what you sow.
Grrr
Apr 29 2008
Hello, I haven’t posted a diary here before. I signed up….I think it was on the Grand opening day.
I blog at a site called A Creative Revolution and We are trying to get some media attention on this topic. So I thought I would post here to catch any Canucks. Any help and support from our American freinds is always very much appreciated too.
The Facebook group Mass Graves of Residential School Children Identified- Where is the media?
Started two Fridays ago, has now grown to almost 2000 members. The purpose of this group is pretty self explanatory. With the release of a list of suspected mass graves, we are wondering why this hasn’t made a bigger dent in the traditional media coverage.
There has been a lot of time spent slandering Kevin Annett, a lot of that has been coming from certain religious organizations, with a definite vested interest wouldn’t you say?
But here is the larger more important question? Is there enough evidence to investigate and place this under public scrutiny?
We believe there is.