Politics
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Wordless Wednesday
I found this picture at …a roam to Roam, a blog I found through NaBloPoMo, along with a yummy and sad recipe for apple dumplings.
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Waterboarding
I find Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey’s equivication on whether the interrogation technique called ‘waterboarding’ constitutes torture or not to be deeply disturbing. Waterboarding was considered a war crime when practiced against Americans in WWII and in Viet Nam, yet for some reason, Mukasey can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether the treatment involved is equal to torture. This, from Malcolm Nance, a veteran of counter terrorism operations in Iraq: 1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that…
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Religion in Schools
Sometimes a subject just keeps coming at you, until you have to acknowledge it and give it the thought it deserves. Autumn’s Mom wrote a post the other day, in which she mentioned that Autumn’s 7th grade history class is teaching World Religions, and how she thinks that’s a great idea, and wishes she could take the class herself. This reminded me of a podcast I heard recently on To the Best of Our Knowledge, in which they mentioned a book titled Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, and Doesn’t, by Stephen Prothero. From Amazon.com: Prothero (American Jesus), chair of the religion department at Boston University, begins this…
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Anti Racist Meme
I was tagged for this one by Shelliza. She doesn’t say if she was tagged, or if she made this meme up herself. But I’ll go for it. 1. I am: Mostly British. Some of my family came to the U.S. as recently as maybe 4 generations ago, from England. Some of them came over back in the mid 1600s. I remember growing up saying I was English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. I did our family genealogy a few years ago, and couldn’t find any Welsh, and the Irish and Scottish were both disputed. Some of my family came over as indentured servants, some as farmers, I don’t think any…
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If You’re Not Pissed Off, You’re Not Paying Attention
I saw this headline the other day: al-Qaida Has Rebuilt, U.S. Intel Warns The summary is that despite our efforts in that area, “al-Qaida has used its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border to restore its operating capabilities to a level unseen since the months before Sept. 11, 2001.” And, of course, Bush is going to use this report to bolster his argument that we need to stay the course in Iraq, because it is a hotbed of al-Qaida as well. Um, excuse me fuckhead, WHO MADE IT ONE? Iraq was NOT a hotbed of terrorism before we attacked, before we went in and made it a poster crusade for…
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Rethinking the Draft
Memorial Day came about as a day to stop and honor those who died in service to their country, following the Civil War. On Friday, I listened to an interesting radio program (which I already mentioned on Saturday), which discussed the meanings of Memorial Day, and how the bulk of this war is being carried by the military, and the rest of us are pretty much free to go about our business, hopefully spending plenty of money at the mall, maybe even buying a new car or two, so that we can keep the economy strong, and get that Dow Jones up higher and higher. There is such a huge…
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Wordless Wednesday
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Blogs That Make Me Think
I’m both flattered (three days in a row of being flattered! It’s INSANE!) and a little bit annoyed. Flattered, because my wonderful mom, Maya’s Granny, has tagged me for a Blogs that Make Me Think meme, and thus awarded me with a Thinking Blogger Award. How cool is that? Amazing. I’ll confess to being a tiny bit annoyed though, because three of the blogs that make HER think are ones that she probably started reading in the first place because they were on MY blogroll. She shouldn’t get to use Angry Black Bitch, Brilliant At Breakfast, and Echidne of the Snakes, should she? She should leave them to me, right?…
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Firing of Prosecuters…
I have a confession to make…when the whole thing with the firing of the Federal Prosecuters started hitting the news, I thought that it was somehow related to the Army Military Hospital in Virginia. I have read about the problems in this and other Military Hospitals for the last couple of years, I believe at Salon.com, so I wasn’t shocked, and thought I knew what was going on. Then, as people talked more about it, I realized I was just confused, so I went looking around a bit for a decent summary. Here’s what I found, which I cribbed directly from Echidne of the Snakes, in case any of you…
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Crisis Averted…
 No need to find out if the world will end or not, because of me having nothing to say. Shockingly, the source of my inspiration is me wanting to bestow major kudos on a conservative Christian Republican from Texas. From the A/P: Governor Rick Perry signed an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer…. Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to get Gardasil, Merck & Co.’s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV. I’m going to ignore…
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Misc. Friday Stuff
I was at an all day meeting at work yesterday, and it was interesting and fun, but I don’t talk about work on my blog, so that’s that. But, since I usually write my post the evening before, and post in the morning, I don’t have a lot of time to post much now. Gotta shower, get ready for school, walk the dog, etc. What to do? Just miscellaneous stuff, I think, is the way to go. Some of this stuff could easily be flushed out into long, serious posts of their own, but not today. 1. A piece of advice. If you don’t keep your glasses in the SAME PLACE…
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At The Mall
People didn’t really believe in war even while they planned it. The Salinas Valley lived about as it always had. ~ John Steinbeck, East of Eden Ted and I were watching “NOW” the other night, an episode titled “Back to the Front” that followed troops from Fort Stewart, in Georgia, as they prepare to go to Iraq on their second, sometimes third, tour of duty. Although I have a dear friend who was a Captain in the Air Force, she left the military prior to September 11th, and never had to leave her children and husband behind while she went to war. Neither did she have to wait at home…
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WTF?
I wasn’t going to write about this today…I like the happy date-a-versary thing, and why be a downer and take away from the fun? But this story I read in the paper is needling me, threatening to drive me nuts if I don’t write something about it, to get it on ‘paper’ and out of my head. Iran is holding a two day conference to determine whether the Holocaust indeed happened. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust a ‘myth’, and Israel a ‘tumor’. Clearly, the goal here is to show that he is a President who can stand up to the West, as well as to support claims that…
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Idaho? No thanks.
Not to lump a whole state into one nutty town, but I’m thinking no. Has anyone read about this news story? Here’s the gist. The tiny town of Greenleaf Idaho has passed a law that residents “who do not object on religious or other grounds…keep a gun in the home.” What? OK, don’t worry, all you have to do is object on any grounds you want to be exempt from this law, so it’s pretty much gutless. But what is the reason behind this law? “…citizens should be armed in case Greenleaf, which sits on high ground, is overrun by refugees in a Katrina-like flood.” Get that? Because when your…
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An Open Letter to the Democrats
Dear Democrats, Congratulations! I am delighted that you have come in to serve as a balance to the freaks that have been running this country for the last 6 years. We desperately need some moderation out there, someone to keep things under control so that we don’t end up in a theocracy or a monarchy anytime soon. I find it distressing, however, that it appears that you could not have won this race without the Republicans shooting themselves in the face. As I see it, you won because some Republicans couldn’t keep themselves from harassing young boys, or at least being complicit in allowing it to continue. You won because…