As I get older the "great generation" gets really older. In fact, they are dying off quickly. We'll soon be counting down as the last few survivors of the great middle years of the 20th Century pass on from this world.
This is the generation that raised my generation. We had a front row seat to their accomplishments, moments of glory and the stories they told of their younger years. I feel like I really understand that generation much better than my own. It's kinda like having a better idea of what your partner looks like than yourself. We watched with wonder as the events perpetrated by "the great generation" unfolded.
Now, don't get me wrong, this generation was my parents. The first time I heard them called "The Great Generation" I wanted to puke. I've had a few good reasons for despising these people and viewing them as a bunch of cold and unquestioning bunch of proles, but that's just a little part of the story. Try and look beyond your own prejudices.
There are three really monumental things that I believe the people of the 40s (that's how I've always thought of them) accomplished. 1) They fought a huge war in a decisive and clearly articulated manner. 2) They accomplished some level of racial desegregation and 3) They put a man on the Moon.
There is one other event that shaped their lives even though they had nothing to do with the occurrence of that event; the Great Depression.
The Great Depression(they always just called it "The Depression") taught them that everything wasn't just going to be there for them and that they would have to work for whatever they got. The Depression saw millions of American men take to the highways in search of sustenance to support themselves and their families. I remember my mother and grandmother talking vividly about the events of the Depression that had occurred only recently on their timelines. How men would come to my grandmother's door asking to do some bit of work just for something to eat. My grandfather always had a job on the railroad, so they believed their house was marked as one where the homeless and transient men could get something to eat. They would tell me of how there would sometimes be a few fellow sitting on the porch eating a piece of bread and butter or jelly or some soup. They loved to tell the story of how my grandfather came home one winter day without his new coat and explained to my grandmother that the guy he saw down at the train station needed it more than he did since he had another old one in the closet.
This was the spirit within which the Great Generation often operated and the one within which I was taught to exist.
World War II changed everything for them. Suddenly, as they entered the 40s, what appeared like a turning of the economy and for once in their life a little prosperity, turned into a nightmare of catastrophic proportions. Hitler and the Japanese become the complete focus of their anger and wrath. On the home-front, people learned to sacrifice without question and to support the war effort at all cost, because afterall, everyone's husband, son, brother, uncle or cousin were off fighting and many many of them were dying. Not using your car, having rations for things like flour, milk, coffee and petroleum products seemed trivial in light of how the young men of their generation were sacrificing. There was no questioning of authority by this generation in such circumstances. They sacrificed, they fought and they were victorious in a clear and concise manner that everyone could understand, everyone felt a part of and everyone could mark with a specific day when it happened. VE and VJ day lives in the hearts of all from that generation.
The great generation came home from war and set about to created a great nation and a better world. Sure, there were horrible things that happened and they certainly had their share of transgressions, but for the most part they wanted what was best for the country and supported the common good.
Some might argue that the civil rights movement is not something attributable to the great Generation. I disagree. It occurred during the years when they were making things happen. Dr. Martin Luther King is given credit for really making the civil rights movement happen. He was a member of the Great Generation. I believe I could rest my case right there. Yea, it was members of the Great Generation who fought AGAINST civil rights and desegregation, but it was also member of their generation who fought harder FOR civil rights and desegregation. People like Rosa Parks, Ralph Abernathy, Edgar D, Nixon, Medgar Evers and Dr. King and their many hundreds of counter parts and thousands of supporters in the NAACP, CORE, SCLC and other such organization were all members of the Great Generation. Lyndon Johnson, the U.S. president and white man who most prominently stood up and supported these heros of civil rights and their agenda, was a member of the Great Generation. This history is sometimes viewed as the core of Black History in America, but it is also the history of America in general and the things that happened under the watch of the Great Generation.
I love space and I love everything that happened in the 60s as man finally broke the bounds of gravity and traveled to a world outside our own. It was a fascinating time, perhaps one of the most fascinating times in history. It was an endeavor that, while fueled by a competition with another country to become the dominant power on Earth, had an overtone of overall human achievement and something done "in peace for all mankind." It was the Great Generation that accomplished these amazing feats of human activity.
It's hard to imagine the determination and creativity that it took to send men to the Moon and return them safely and not just once, but six times onto the surface, twice into lunar orbit and once in a heroic recovery of three men who had serious equipment malfunctions, looped around the moon and successfully came back to Earth. The steps that they took to get there were in themselves each amazing feats of discovery that pushed the frontiers of space farther and farther out until finally, they landed on the Moon.
I like to focus on the great astronauts who made the flights (if I name a few great ones I will leave out too many who were just as great), but there were others just as heroic. Heros like Max Faget who designed early NASA spacecraft or Werner Von Braun who was the greatest rocket scientist that ever lived and put the first American satellite into orbit and designed and built the mighty Saturn V rocket for the sole purpose of getting men from planet Earth to the Moon. Behind every larger than life hero of the Great Generation's space program there were tens of thousands of technicians and engineers who built the thousands of parts that went into all the various spacecraft and test facilities. The American space program from Mercury to Apollo was perhaps the greatest achievement of human endeavor and technological development. Without the support and committment of all the American tax payers, these accomplishments would never have occurred.
The American space program gave the world and the next generation a huge basket of new technologies to exploit. What happened to it? Not much. The next generation just didn't have the will, the drive or the integrity to make use of the gifts they were given. We have squandered away the technologies on nothing more than consumer goods and the technologies required for a super class of capitalists to slowly accumulate more and more of our national resources within the sphere of their own domain. "for all mankind" was simply a flash-in-the-pan ideal that went nowhere when given to the next generation. Our generation hasn't even left Earth orbit! Our own lobbs into space have been done with the equipment and technologies handed down to us from the previous generation. Even NASAs latest plans for putting men back on the Moon as simply reworked designs inherited from the 60s wizards. Such is the case for most technologies within our technological society. We just don't have the ingenuity and purposeful behaviors excersized by the past generation. Don't believe it? Take a look at the current crop of astronauts and compare them to the great ones who pioneered space flight. 'nuf said.
But this post isn't about the shortcomings of my generation. I don't really have a clear picture of my own generation. I'll leave that up to my children's generation to comment on, but one thing is for sure, the accomplishments we can take credit for are minor postscripts compared to how the Great Generation performed.
Hell, even environmental awareness and the movement that brought on the clean-up of our nation was brought about and nurtured by the Great Generation. Rachel Carson was a member of that generation. It was the generation that started the Environmental Protection Agency in this country and enacted the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. They acted upon the ideals of Aldo Leopold and caused a great turnabout of culture. Remember the 60s and all the protesting us hippies did and social experimentation we performed? Yup, the Great Generation enabled all of that. I'd have been sitting in my local town park smoking dope with the rest of the slack jawed yokels on the $5 my mother would give me to "go to the movies" if my father hadn't handed me $50 and said "go do what you have to do" when I asked him if I could go to Washington. That took a lot of integrity for a man raised on unquestionable patriotism.
What's my point? I don't know, but think about the people around you who are in their 70s and 80s now. They probably experienced times and events that you can't imagine. Next time you get a chance to talk to someone like that, ask them about their life. Find out what they went though, where they've been and how they did the things they did and then tell your children about it. If we don't at least pass along the experiences of that generation, what will we have 50 years from now?
I know, someone is going to take great pride in pointing out the transgressions of the generation I am venerating in this post. OK, have at it. I doubt you are going to come up with anything that isn't floating around in my brain right now. Humanity is a ruthless set of players and there is a thread of inhumanity and downright barbarism that flows through every generation. That's not what I'm talking about, so can't I point out the positive aspects of these great people?
I'd love to hear the positive events and accomplishments of those who YOU know from the Great Generation.
See y'all down the barnyard.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
How did we get here?
What pitiful condition we find ourselves in here in America 2007. The president, which represents (and believe me, that's all he does) the administrative branch of government has an unbelievably low approval rating of 24% according to the latest Zogby Poll. The congress, which are the legislative branch of government have an equally astounding low approval rating of 11%.
No president or congress, since approval ratings have been taken, have ever had approval ratings so low.
Just for a bench mark, Bill Clinton's lowest approval rating was 41% in mid '93. During the kangaroo court held by the republican congress in '98 and '99, Clinton's approval ratings hovered in the high 50s and up into the mid 60s.
When Jimmy Carter was villified by the right in their successful bid to get Reagan the Traitor elected amidst the Iranian hostage crisis, his approval rating only went as low as 34%.
Richard Nixon, when he had been all but impeached, was getting ready to be indicted of criminal offenses and was resigning his presidency had an approval rating equal to this sitting president of 24%. That's how bad it is for Bush.
The most astounding thing about a 24% approval rating is that it indicates that 1 of 4 Americans approve of the job this treasonous and moronic administration is doing as president. Who are these people and what kind of strong mind altering drugs are they consuming? What mental deficiency requires a person to stand by such a disasterous administration that has wrought such havoc upon the nation?
So what of congress? Well, this is the most ill thought of congress in history. Congress has always had a very low approval rating, but their current 11% is a real record. No wonder since they were elected to stop the war in Iraq and turn this country around from where it was going under republican control which was acting like a servant to the administrative branch. Now the democratic controlled congress is perceived as acting like a servant to the administrative branch. Every chance they've had to curb funding and turn around the erosion of constitutional rights has been turned down by them. They have delivered to this administration every thing they have demanded. In turn, the administration has taken every opportunity to attack the democrats in congress. No wonder people think these recreant politicians are not worthy of approval.
Are YOU sick of this shit yet? Can you look at the picture and put all ths inito perspective or is reality just too much for your feeble proletariat mind? Can you visualize where we were in the year 2000 and contrast that to where we are now? Are you capable of putting 9/11 into perspective or are you one of the ignorant masses that swallows it as it is fed to you by the main stream media and the corpo-fascist thugs?
Hint: It wouldn't be like this if the corpo-fascist weren't hell bent on accumulating more and more of our national resources in their own pockets at the expensee of the middle class, the working class and the poor.
_________________________________________________________
Neo-conservative fundamentalists look out at the world and see it populated by baby killing abortionists who need to be controlled and oppressed by a police state.
Liberal do-gooder granola chewers look out at the world and see nothing but good honest working class people who need to be enabled and provided with the resources to build their utopia.
Neither outlook is correct, but I'd rather support a positive constructive future than a fatalistic future of negative self loathing.
No president or congress, since approval ratings have been taken, have ever had approval ratings so low.
Just for a bench mark, Bill Clinton's lowest approval rating was 41% in mid '93. During the kangaroo court held by the republican congress in '98 and '99, Clinton's approval ratings hovered in the high 50s and up into the mid 60s.
When Jimmy Carter was villified by the right in their successful bid to get Reagan the Traitor elected amidst the Iranian hostage crisis, his approval rating only went as low as 34%.
Richard Nixon, when he had been all but impeached, was getting ready to be indicted of criminal offenses and was resigning his presidency had an approval rating equal to this sitting president of 24%. That's how bad it is for Bush.
The most astounding thing about a 24% approval rating is that it indicates that 1 of 4 Americans approve of the job this treasonous and moronic administration is doing as president. Who are these people and what kind of strong mind altering drugs are they consuming? What mental deficiency requires a person to stand by such a disasterous administration that has wrought such havoc upon the nation?
So what of congress? Well, this is the most ill thought of congress in history. Congress has always had a very low approval rating, but their current 11% is a real record. No wonder since they were elected to stop the war in Iraq and turn this country around from where it was going under republican control which was acting like a servant to the administrative branch. Now the democratic controlled congress is perceived as acting like a servant to the administrative branch. Every chance they've had to curb funding and turn around the erosion of constitutional rights has been turned down by them. They have delivered to this administration every thing they have demanded. In turn, the administration has taken every opportunity to attack the democrats in congress. No wonder people think these recreant politicians are not worthy of approval.
Are YOU sick of this shit yet? Can you look at the picture and put all ths inito perspective or is reality just too much for your feeble proletariat mind? Can you visualize where we were in the year 2000 and contrast that to where we are now? Are you capable of putting 9/11 into perspective or are you one of the ignorant masses that swallows it as it is fed to you by the main stream media and the corpo-fascist thugs?
Hint: It wouldn't be like this if the corpo-fascist weren't hell bent on accumulating more and more of our national resources in their own pockets at the expensee of the middle class, the working class and the poor.
_________________________________________________________
Neo-conservative fundamentalists look out at the world and see it populated by baby killing abortionists who need to be controlled and oppressed by a police state.
Liberal do-gooder granola chewers look out at the world and see nothing but good honest working class people who need to be enabled and provided with the resources to build their utopia.
Neither outlook is correct, but I'd rather support a positive constructive future than a fatalistic future of negative self loathing.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Where food comes from
Lets talk food here for a minute. Do you know where your food comes from?
If you are the typical consumer, you buy 60% of your food at a food store, the majority of which comes from corporate chain grocery stores. The other 40% comes from restaurants, institutional cafeterias and other sources of prepared ready to eat food (look up the numbers yourself and post a reference, this aint no damn academic term paper).
So when you spend a dollar at the food store, how much of that dollar goes into the pocket of Mr. Green Jeans the farmer? Almost none, if any.
72 cents of every dollar goes toward some corporate entity that handles the food after it leaves the farm and 28 cents of every dollar spent on food goes to the farm that produces the food, but where and what is that farm. More often than not, that farm is a gigantic mechanized crop or animal factory supported by the same corporation that sucks up much of the rest of your food dollar. Companies like Conagra, Archer Daniels, Midland, and Pepsico buy food at the cheapest price possible from huge corporate farms that they indirectly finance and then they transport, process and package that food for the supermarket consumer or restaurant. This food is produced as fast and as cheaply as possible. Huge amounts of fertilizers and herbicides are used in crop production. Those chemical products are just that, chemical products produced in chemical plants from raw materials. We're not talking pelletized cow shit here, we're talking about ammonium nitrates, ammonium phosphates, potassium chloride, and other compounds that come from such things as coal, natural gas and sulfur and other ores. Not a pretty thought that your groceries are grown using fertilizers manufactured from something as full of poisonous organic compounds as coal and natural gas.
You don't want to know what it's like for the millions and millons of meat animals that are produced in this country. . . . but I'll give you a brief glimpse. These animals are fed feeds that are grown by methods below the standard for crops grown for direct human consumption. Then these feeds are mixed with all sorts of chemical compounds to enhance growth. Very often the animals are confined to small cages ranging in size from large multi-acre stockyard for cattle to cages for poultry that allow less than one square foot of space per bird. Being in such crowded conditions, these animals are much more prone to illness and infection, so daily doses of anti-biotics are all a part of their feeding formula. Factory farm meat animals do not lead happy and content lives. What an animal eats becomes the animal.
I won't even get into the things that are added to processed foods. Read the labels yourself.
Think about it . . if you go to the produce section of your grocery store and buy a head of lettuce or a bag of carrots, more of your dollar goes directly to the producer, but if you go buy a can of processed meat product, or canned mixed veggies, very little goes back to the producer. Same deal with a fresh piece of meat and a bag of potatoes vs a frozen diner of meat and potatoes. Every added step in the process of getting the food from the farm to you means more dollars in the pockets of the corporate elite who make the real money in all this mess.
Now consider where your hard earned dollars go when you buy directly from the person who produces your food. It goes directly into that person's pocket. Now that doesn't mean that every dollar a farmer takes in is cash profit. Quite the contrary. Consumer focused farmers make very little real profit off the food they sell to customers. It costs organic producers even more per pound to produce meat animals or crops. We don't use chemical fertilizers and we don't use herbicides to clear our plots. Both of those conditions make for less yield per acre of crops. Our animals are not fed chemically enhanced feeds, causing them to grow slower and thus eat more feed in their lifetime. Compound that with the fact that organic feed is about twice as expensive as commercial feed when bought in small quantities. . . by small quantities I mean a couple tons or less. You see, commercial factory farms buy their feeds at rock bottom prices. When I go to the feed store and buy comparable feeds, they cost me at least twice as much and that is the price that I pay double for organic feed, so buying organic feed for my turkeys costs me at least four times as much as the feed the factory farms feed their birds. . . probably more and my birds eat more in their lifetime than commercially raised birds.
The other nice thing about buying from the small farmer whether he be organic or not is that his animals are probably pasture fed. That means they graze. "What" you say? "The beef I buy in the store doesn't graze?" Sorry folks, but the beef you buy in the store hasn't seen a green pasture in months. Those cows sit in stockyards and fatten up on chemically enhanced grains for many weeks and sometimes many months at a time before they are slaughtered.
Pasture fed farm raised cattle are happy cattle as are similarly raised poultry, sheep and any other animal raised in a natural environment.
So please, think about where your food comes from. After you've done that decide where you WANT your food to come from. If, like many, you decide you want to eat more healthy and have your money go where it is more ethically utilized, find a farmers market or even a local farmer. Contact your state department of agriculture and ask them where farmer's markets are located or where direct farm buying is possible. Take a ride in the country and stop and talk to a farmer or two. Farmers are pretty friendly people who won't be bashful about telling what's what in their neck of the woods.
So take a shot at changing the way you eat. Eat less processed food and more items from the fresh produce and meat section of the supermarket. Find yourself a farmer's market or some farms that sell direct. Eat less fast food, as it's mostly the dregs of the food processing chain. Think healthy.
I'll see y'all down in the barnyard.
If you are the typical consumer, you buy 60% of your food at a food store, the majority of which comes from corporate chain grocery stores. The other 40% comes from restaurants, institutional cafeterias and other sources of prepared ready to eat food (look up the numbers yourself and post a reference, this aint no damn academic term paper).
So when you spend a dollar at the food store, how much of that dollar goes into the pocket of Mr. Green Jeans the farmer? Almost none, if any.
72 cents of every dollar goes toward some corporate entity that handles the food after it leaves the farm and 28 cents of every dollar spent on food goes to the farm that produces the food, but where and what is that farm. More often than not, that farm is a gigantic mechanized crop or animal factory supported by the same corporation that sucks up much of the rest of your food dollar. Companies like Conagra, Archer Daniels, Midland, and Pepsico buy food at the cheapest price possible from huge corporate farms that they indirectly finance and then they transport, process and package that food for the supermarket consumer or restaurant. This food is produced as fast and as cheaply as possible. Huge amounts of fertilizers and herbicides are used in crop production. Those chemical products are just that, chemical products produced in chemical plants from raw materials. We're not talking pelletized cow shit here, we're talking about ammonium nitrates, ammonium phosphates, potassium chloride, and other compounds that come from such things as coal, natural gas and sulfur and other ores. Not a pretty thought that your groceries are grown using fertilizers manufactured from something as full of poisonous organic compounds as coal and natural gas.
You don't want to know what it's like for the millions and millons of meat animals that are produced in this country. . . . but I'll give you a brief glimpse. These animals are fed feeds that are grown by methods below the standard for crops grown for direct human consumption. Then these feeds are mixed with all sorts of chemical compounds to enhance growth. Very often the animals are confined to small cages ranging in size from large multi-acre stockyard for cattle to cages for poultry that allow less than one square foot of space per bird. Being in such crowded conditions, these animals are much more prone to illness and infection, so daily doses of anti-biotics are all a part of their feeding formula. Factory farm meat animals do not lead happy and content lives. What an animal eats becomes the animal.
I won't even get into the things that are added to processed foods. Read the labels yourself.
Think about it . . if you go to the produce section of your grocery store and buy a head of lettuce or a bag of carrots, more of your dollar goes directly to the producer, but if you go buy a can of processed meat product, or canned mixed veggies, very little goes back to the producer. Same deal with a fresh piece of meat and a bag of potatoes vs a frozen diner of meat and potatoes. Every added step in the process of getting the food from the farm to you means more dollars in the pockets of the corporate elite who make the real money in all this mess.
Now consider where your hard earned dollars go when you buy directly from the person who produces your food. It goes directly into that person's pocket. Now that doesn't mean that every dollar a farmer takes in is cash profit. Quite the contrary. Consumer focused farmers make very little real profit off the food they sell to customers. It costs organic producers even more per pound to produce meat animals or crops. We don't use chemical fertilizers and we don't use herbicides to clear our plots. Both of those conditions make for less yield per acre of crops. Our animals are not fed chemically enhanced feeds, causing them to grow slower and thus eat more feed in their lifetime. Compound that with the fact that organic feed is about twice as expensive as commercial feed when bought in small quantities. . . by small quantities I mean a couple tons or less. You see, commercial factory farms buy their feeds at rock bottom prices. When I go to the feed store and buy comparable feeds, they cost me at least twice as much and that is the price that I pay double for organic feed, so buying organic feed for my turkeys costs me at least four times as much as the feed the factory farms feed their birds. . . probably more and my birds eat more in their lifetime than commercially raised birds.
The other nice thing about buying from the small farmer whether he be organic or not is that his animals are probably pasture fed. That means they graze. "What" you say? "The beef I buy in the store doesn't graze?" Sorry folks, but the beef you buy in the store hasn't seen a green pasture in months. Those cows sit in stockyards and fatten up on chemically enhanced grains for many weeks and sometimes many months at a time before they are slaughtered.
Pasture fed farm raised cattle are happy cattle as are similarly raised poultry, sheep and any other animal raised in a natural environment.
So please, think about where your food comes from. After you've done that decide where you WANT your food to come from. If, like many, you decide you want to eat more healthy and have your money go where it is more ethically utilized, find a farmers market or even a local farmer. Contact your state department of agriculture and ask them where farmer's markets are located or where direct farm buying is possible. Take a ride in the country and stop and talk to a farmer or two. Farmers are pretty friendly people who won't be bashful about telling what's what in their neck of the woods.
So take a shot at changing the way you eat. Eat less processed food and more items from the fresh produce and meat section of the supermarket. Find yourself a farmer's market or some farms that sell direct. Eat less fast food, as it's mostly the dregs of the food processing chain. Think healthy.
I'll see y'all down in the barnyard.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Brrrrreaking news. . . some worth noting, some worthless.
Wild elephants converge on Indian island
By WASBIR HUSSAIN
Sat Oct 13, 10:08 AM ET
GAUHATI, India - About 100 wild elephants have converged on a river island in northeast India, demolishing homes, feasting on sugarcane and panicking residents, officials said Saturday.
Thousands of villagers were using firecrackers and bonfires to scare away the rampaging animals.
"Dozens of houses have been destroyed in the past three days by adult elephants entering human settlements to look for their wandering calves," said the local magistrate, L.S. Changsan.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Normally iin the animal world, when animals feel threatened by human invasion ie: habitat loss, drought, etc., they move farther into the far reaches of their natural environment. Obviously, these animals have reached their breaking point and afterall, they are elephants.
Animal behavioralists are pretty much in agreement that elephants are one of the most intelligent creatures on Earth. They have extraordinary ways of communicatinig over long distances and have memories, well, like elephants. I'll never forget the video I once saw of two elephants who were brought together on an elephant refuge in Texas and went absolutely nuts over each other. The handlers were baffled as to why these eelephants were so immediately attached to one another. After a little research, they found out that they had been together at one point 25 years earlier in a 3rd rate circus. Each had had varied life experiences fill with many other elephants in the 25 years since, but they still immediately recognized each other and fawned over each other. Elephants are incredible, seemingly sentient beings.
So what about these Indian elephants. . . desperate. Let the animals revolt. It's about time. They've put up with genocide and senseless abuse long enough.
Dentist claims breast rubs appropriate
Fri Oct 12, 8:24 PM ET
WOODLAND, Calif. - A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson's lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem.
Police say Anderson said during recorded phone calls that he routinely massaged patients' chests to treat temporo-mandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, which causes neck and head pain.
You go dude. I'm with this guy. Absolutely true. I think all women should become receptive to chest massage and I'll decide which ones I want to volunteer my services. A good rub down is not complete without a good message of the pecs, abs and other frontal muscles.
I'm known for giving good messages and I'm ready to avail my services.
Embattled Sen. Craig honored in Idaho
By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Oct 14, 3:09 AM ET
BOISE, Idaho - Sen. Larry Craig was named Saturday night to the Idaho Hall of Fame, marking the Republican lawmaker's first ceremonial appearance back in his home state since his arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting became public in August.
Craig, 62, seated near the front of the banquet room, received polite applause and a few encouraging hoots when he was introduced.
Yes, the wise fathers of Idaho (no, Larry da ho), have gone and done it. No last minute withdrawls of his nomination, no politically correct and carefully worded statement from the nominating committee putting his induction on hold. Nope, Larry Craig is now a member of the Idaho (Larry da ho?) Hall of Fame.
How honored the other members must feel.
Quixtar sues 30 over Web remarks
Sun Oct 14, 2:15 AM ET
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - Direct-marketing firm Quixtar Inc., a sister company of Amway Corp., has sued 30 people who anonymously posted what it considers disparaging remarks about Quixtar in blogs and online forums and in YouTube.com videos.
In the lawsuit filed this past week in Ottawa County Circuit Court, Quixtar seeks an injunction and damages of more than $25,000 against the posters, identified only as John Does.
I guess in these time of constitutional negligence and corporate anti-litigation movements, people aren't free to express their opinions.
I hope this bothers bloggers everywhere and people who believe in freedom and the Constitution of the United States.
Just for the record: Quixtar sucks. They are a low life corporation that has no regard for people's personal freedoms. I'll bet they are run by a bunch of unethical scam artists who throw happy parties for little children just so they can get dates.
Man wanted for child rape back in U.S.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas - A fugitive wanted in Tennessee on multiple counts of child rape and exploitation was captured Saturday near Matamoros, Mexico, and jailed in southern Texas.
Former Quixtar executive.
Obama goes door-to-door in Iowa
By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 13, 9:35 PM ET
DES MOINES, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama knocked on doors in the Iowa capital Saturday talking up his opposition to the war in Iraq.
Yo, Barack! Get outta Iowa. You're wasting your time. Aint a damn thing there but a bunch of flat landers who haven't seen anyone who wasn't their relative for many generations. . . oh, but they KNOW YOU AINT their relative. That place is the most white bread, midwest boring, dried up shell of a human environ within the confines of America. Who cares what ANYONE in Iowa thinks?
No sex for 40 mln years? No problem for 1 organism
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/sex_survival_dc;_ylt=At4LhoPwARqC6_.GiJ.VHbAPLBIF)
By Michael Kahn Thu Oct 11, 2:12 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - One microscopic organism has thrived despite remaining celibate for tens of millions of years thanks to a neat evolutionary trick, researchers said.
Asexual reproduction has allowed duplicate gene copies of the single-celled creatures -- called bdelloid rotifers -- to become different over time.
This is typical drivel reporting froom the main stream media on science. It is confusing and in many places makes no sense.
Rotifera are NOT single celled organisms.
Many organisms reproduce exclusively asexually and have gotten along fine for millions of years. Mutations through many avenues provides all the genetic diversity required.
Too often, moron writers try to tackle subjects like physics, biology and aerospace without a shred of knowledge on the subject. They interview a couple people over the phone and then come up with stupid confusing bullshit like this.
the horror.
Pumpkin-chucking events popular for fall
By The Associated Press
Mon Oct 8, 3:27 PM ET
What can you do with pumpkins? The list is not all that long. You can make pumpkin pies and breads, carve jack o'lanterns or use them to decorate your front porch.
Or you can send them hurling into the autumn sky at 400 mph with a 30,000-pound cannon.
The World Championship Punkin Chunkin' contest. . . takes place Nov. 2-4 in Bridgeville, Del., about 30 miles from Lewes and 90 miles from Washington. The event began in 1986 and bills itself as the oldest and largest competition of its type. Last year over 50,000 spectators turned out to watch 100 teams compete, organizers said.
Well shit fire! I bin partaking of sport. Ever morning I go out into the well house and get a pumpkin that didn't make it to market for various reasons. I then carry em over toward the barnyard and launch it by hand as hard as I can sos it smashes on the ground and breaks into as many pieces as possible. The turkeys and chickens then pick on the pieces and the seeds all day long until they aint nuthin but a thin skin left.
We got the property, and we got the pumpkins. Maybe next year we'll just have to have the competition. I wonder if those cannons will scare the laying hens and if all them folks would mess up my hay fields?
By WASBIR HUSSAIN
Sat Oct 13, 10:08 AM ET
GAUHATI, India - About 100 wild elephants have converged on a river island in northeast India, demolishing homes, feasting on sugarcane and panicking residents, officials said Saturday.
Thousands of villagers were using firecrackers and bonfires to scare away the rampaging animals.
"Dozens of houses have been destroyed in the past three days by adult elephants entering human settlements to look for their wandering calves," said the local magistrate, L.S. Changsan.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Normally iin the animal world, when animals feel threatened by human invasion ie: habitat loss, drought, etc., they move farther into the far reaches of their natural environment. Obviously, these animals have reached their breaking point and afterall, they are elephants.
Animal behavioralists are pretty much in agreement that elephants are one of the most intelligent creatures on Earth. They have extraordinary ways of communicatinig over long distances and have memories, well, like elephants. I'll never forget the video I once saw of two elephants who were brought together on an elephant refuge in Texas and went absolutely nuts over each other. The handlers were baffled as to why these eelephants were so immediately attached to one another. After a little research, they found out that they had been together at one point 25 years earlier in a 3rd rate circus. Each had had varied life experiences fill with many other elephants in the 25 years since, but they still immediately recognized each other and fawned over each other. Elephants are incredible, seemingly sentient beings.
So what about these Indian elephants. . . desperate. Let the animals revolt. It's about time. They've put up with genocide and senseless abuse long enough.
Dentist claims breast rubs appropriate
Fri Oct 12, 8:24 PM ET
WOODLAND, Calif. - A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson's lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem.
Police say Anderson said during recorded phone calls that he routinely massaged patients' chests to treat temporo-mandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, which causes neck and head pain.
You go dude. I'm with this guy. Absolutely true. I think all women should become receptive to chest massage and I'll decide which ones I want to volunteer my services. A good rub down is not complete without a good message of the pecs, abs and other frontal muscles.
I'm known for giving good messages and I'm ready to avail my services.
Embattled Sen. Craig honored in Idaho
By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Oct 14, 3:09 AM ET
BOISE, Idaho - Sen. Larry Craig was named Saturday night to the Idaho Hall of Fame, marking the Republican lawmaker's first ceremonial appearance back in his home state since his arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting became public in August.
Craig, 62, seated near the front of the banquet room, received polite applause and a few encouraging hoots when he was introduced.
Yes, the wise fathers of Idaho (no, Larry da ho), have gone and done it. No last minute withdrawls of his nomination, no politically correct and carefully worded statement from the nominating committee putting his induction on hold. Nope, Larry Craig is now a member of the Idaho (Larry da ho?) Hall of Fame.
How honored the other members must feel.
Quixtar sues 30 over Web remarks
Sun Oct 14, 2:15 AM ET
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - Direct-marketing firm Quixtar Inc., a sister company of Amway Corp., has sued 30 people who anonymously posted what it considers disparaging remarks about Quixtar in blogs and online forums and in YouTube.com videos.
In the lawsuit filed this past week in Ottawa County Circuit Court, Quixtar seeks an injunction and damages of more than $25,000 against the posters, identified only as John Does.
I guess in these time of constitutional negligence and corporate anti-litigation movements, people aren't free to express their opinions.
I hope this bothers bloggers everywhere and people who believe in freedom and the Constitution of the United States.
Just for the record: Quixtar sucks. They are a low life corporation that has no regard for people's personal freedoms. I'll bet they are run by a bunch of unethical scam artists who throw happy parties for little children just so they can get dates.
Man wanted for child rape back in U.S.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas - A fugitive wanted in Tennessee on multiple counts of child rape and exploitation was captured Saturday near Matamoros, Mexico, and jailed in southern Texas.
Former Quixtar executive.
Obama goes door-to-door in Iowa
By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Oct 13, 9:35 PM ET
DES MOINES, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama knocked on doors in the Iowa capital Saturday talking up his opposition to the war in Iraq.
Yo, Barack! Get outta Iowa. You're wasting your time. Aint a damn thing there but a bunch of flat landers who haven't seen anyone who wasn't their relative for many generations. . . oh, but they KNOW YOU AINT their relative. That place is the most white bread, midwest boring, dried up shell of a human environ within the confines of America. Who cares what ANYONE in Iowa thinks?
No sex for 40 mln years? No problem for 1 organism
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/sex_survival_dc;_ylt=At4LhoPwARqC6_.GiJ.VHbAPLBIF)
By Michael Kahn Thu Oct 11, 2:12 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - One microscopic organism has thrived despite remaining celibate for tens of millions of years thanks to a neat evolutionary trick, researchers said.
Asexual reproduction has allowed duplicate gene copies of the single-celled creatures -- called bdelloid rotifers -- to become different over time.
This is typical drivel reporting froom the main stream media on science. It is confusing and in many places makes no sense.
Rotifera are NOT single celled organisms.
Many organisms reproduce exclusively asexually and have gotten along fine for millions of years. Mutations through many avenues provides all the genetic diversity required.
Too often, moron writers try to tackle subjects like physics, biology and aerospace without a shred of knowledge on the subject. They interview a couple people over the phone and then come up with stupid confusing bullshit like this.
the horror.
Pumpkin-chucking events popular for fall
By The Associated Press
Mon Oct 8, 3:27 PM ET
What can you do with pumpkins? The list is not all that long. You can make pumpkin pies and breads, carve jack o'lanterns or use them to decorate your front porch.
Or you can send them hurling into the autumn sky at 400 mph with a 30,000-pound cannon.
The World Championship Punkin Chunkin' contest. . . takes place Nov. 2-4 in Bridgeville, Del., about 30 miles from Lewes and 90 miles from Washington. The event began in 1986 and bills itself as the oldest and largest competition of its type. Last year over 50,000 spectators turned out to watch 100 teams compete, organizers said.
Well shit fire! I bin partaking of sport. Ever morning I go out into the well house and get a pumpkin that didn't make it to market for various reasons. I then carry em over toward the barnyard and launch it by hand as hard as I can sos it smashes on the ground and breaks into as many pieces as possible. The turkeys and chickens then pick on the pieces and the seeds all day long until they aint nuthin but a thin skin left.
We got the property, and we got the pumpkins. Maybe next year we'll just have to have the competition. I wonder if those cannons will scare the laying hens and if all them folks would mess up my hay fields?
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Workbook excersize for corpo-fascism 101
Bush: Protectionism will cost U.S. jobs
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more — and better — jobs.
Bullshit, it will have the opposite effect. This is all about the corpo-fascists who want to be able to more easily have thir goods manufactured overseas by low paid, sometimes slave, labor.
We've lost many millions of decent paying manufacturing jobs since the corpo-fascist revolution of 2000 due to their "free trade" and anti-protectionism" bullshit.
There, see how easy that was?
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more — and better — jobs.
Bullshit, it will have the opposite effect. This is all about the corpo-fascists who want to be able to more easily have thir goods manufactured overseas by low paid, sometimes slave, labor.
We've lost many millions of decent paying manufacturing jobs since the corpo-fascist revolution of 2000 due to their "free trade" and anti-protectionism" bullshit.
There, see how easy that was?
Corpo-fascism 101
OK, perhaps I haven't made it clear enough and there are some who haven't been paying attentiion to reality. . . and perhaps there are those who don't have a clue as to what reality is even though it seems so obvious to many of us. . . whatever, just consider this:
More money. . .
The corpo-fascist regime currently running our country, and making the democrats look like a bunch of pitiful little school yard puke babies, has but one goal; more money. That's it. They don't care about a whole hell of a lot other than that.
Cheap labor. . .
One of the keys to their successful aquisition of ALL the money is to pay as little as possible in labor costs. Basically, you just want the labor force to subsist and nothing more. A slightly hungry workforce is the optimum condition for manipulating and controlling the workforce.
Motivation . . .
Everything the corpo-fascists do, everythiing you see the current regime fighting for or appearing to be passionate about is about getting more of the money. And remember, the biggest key to their quest is cheap labor, so most of what you see them do is involved with getting cheap or cheaper labor.
More money and cheap labor is the sole motivation of the corpo-fascists.
Now pay attention!
More money. . .
The corpo-fascist regime currently running our country, and making the democrats look like a bunch of pitiful little school yard puke babies, has but one goal; more money. That's it. They don't care about a whole hell of a lot other than that.
Cheap labor. . .
One of the keys to their successful aquisition of ALL the money is to pay as little as possible in labor costs. Basically, you just want the labor force to subsist and nothing more. A slightly hungry workforce is the optimum condition for manipulating and controlling the workforce.
Motivation . . .
Everything the corpo-fascists do, everythiing you see the current regime fighting for or appearing to be passionate about is about getting more of the money. And remember, the biggest key to their quest is cheap labor, so most of what you see them do is involved with getting cheap or cheaper labor.
More money and cheap labor is the sole motivation of the corpo-fascists.
Now pay attention!
Reality check for America!
Time to do a reality check. The corpo-fascists in charge have gotten us bogged down into an unending war that is costing us hundreds of billions of dollars per year and hundreds of millions of dollars per day to execute. When we look closely at that execution of war it is nothing but one big cluster fuck on top of another. General Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded "coalition forces" in 2003 said about the current situation "There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight." Nice, huh?
I so did want for my country to never be involved in another Viet Nam style mess, but here we are up to our necks in something worse.
Can you possibly remember what it was like in America during the mid 90s? Contemplate the differences between then and now.
Ok. here we go. I can here the drooling proles now "9/11, 9/11, man, everything changed after 9/11. . . 9/11." fuck you prole. The only thing that changed was that 21 piece of shit Arab upstarts got lucky and the corpo-fascist traitors now had a legitimate sounding rallying point around which to perpetrate their plans and you ignorant proles guzzled down their jizz. They then set about raiding the national treasury and invading Iraq in order to take over the oil fields. . . uh, invasion didn't work out so well, did it. . . (I told you so).
So yea, if we'd have continued on the path we were on in the 90s, things would still be good. There would have been an economic downturn to contend with, but that could have been Moron Monkey Boy Bush the Chimp's legacy. . . "he got us out of recession." Instead, we have the biggest, baddest, most fucked up cluster fuck in the modern history of America. Our economy is a mess (except for those highly invested in the stock market), the Constitution of the United States is in the worse shape it's ever been in, we've gone from budget surplus to the absolute most preposterous record national debt ever and we're bogged down in a "nightmare" of a war in Iraq.
That's reality folks. Were were you in 1999? You voted for Bush? Oh please don't tell me that. . . you fucking moron prole.
Now, let's take a look at what going on today in Washington.
The Bushistas are threatening to veto budget items put forth by the current democrat controlled congress.
After running us into debt beyond our grandchildren's generation on things like war, tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare programs, while cutting domestic spending programs the corpo-fascist administration is threatening to veto congressional bills that will refund some of those domestic programs. We're talking about things like low-incoome housing, job training, community block grants. . . and oh, did I mention that they have already vetoed the children's health care plan?
It seems to me that it's time for this lilly livered congress to take control of the reigns of government and start making things happen. I've just about had it with the corpo-fascist republicans making demands at this point in the game. It's kinda like you've got the playground bully up against the wall with your forearm across his neck and your other arm is drawn back in a fist and he's telling you that you'd better back off or he's going to kick your ass.
Note to congress: Drop this motherfucker now!
My turkey flock wouldn't put up with such absurd bullshit.
I so did want for my country to never be involved in another Viet Nam style mess, but here we are up to our necks in something worse.
Can you possibly remember what it was like in America during the mid 90s? Contemplate the differences between then and now.
Ok. here we go. I can here the drooling proles now "9/11, 9/11, man, everything changed after 9/11. . . 9/11." fuck you prole. The only thing that changed was that 21 piece of shit Arab upstarts got lucky and the corpo-fascist traitors now had a legitimate sounding rallying point around which to perpetrate their plans and you ignorant proles guzzled down their jizz. They then set about raiding the national treasury and invading Iraq in order to take over the oil fields. . . uh, invasion didn't work out so well, did it. . . (I told you so).
So yea, if we'd have continued on the path we were on in the 90s, things would still be good. There would have been an economic downturn to contend with, but that could have been Moron Monkey Boy Bush the Chimp's legacy. . . "he got us out of recession." Instead, we have the biggest, baddest, most fucked up cluster fuck in the modern history of America. Our economy is a mess (except for those highly invested in the stock market), the Constitution of the United States is in the worse shape it's ever been in, we've gone from budget surplus to the absolute most preposterous record national debt ever and we're bogged down in a "nightmare" of a war in Iraq.
That's reality folks. Were were you in 1999? You voted for Bush? Oh please don't tell me that. . . you fucking moron prole.
Now, let's take a look at what going on today in Washington.
The Bushistas are threatening to veto budget items put forth by the current democrat controlled congress.
After running us into debt beyond our grandchildren's generation on things like war, tax cuts for the rich and corporate welfare programs, while cutting domestic spending programs the corpo-fascist administration is threatening to veto congressional bills that will refund some of those domestic programs. We're talking about things like low-incoome housing, job training, community block grants. . . and oh, did I mention that they have already vetoed the children's health care plan?
It seems to me that it's time for this lilly livered congress to take control of the reigns of government and start making things happen. I've just about had it with the corpo-fascist republicans making demands at this point in the game. It's kinda like you've got the playground bully up against the wall with your forearm across his neck and your other arm is drawn back in a fist and he's telling you that you'd better back off or he's going to kick your ass.
Note to congress: Drop this motherfucker now!
My turkey flock wouldn't put up with such absurd bullshit.
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