The Future: Biodiesel

BioDiesel station in Ben Lomond, California.

Brodie's Social Life

As you can see, Brodie, is a handsome fellow. We adopted him from a local shelter when he was a tiny kitten, maybe 8 weeks old. We placed him in a carrier and on the ride to his new home, he was completely silent.













When we brought Moralee home from the shelter, she howled all the way. (She was already grown - about 2 or 3 years old.)













Brodie lived in a bathroom for his first week in our home. He had a severe respiratory infection with bloody sneezes and was on antibiotics for the first two weeks here. Every time I opened the bathroom door to visit him, give him medicine or feed him, he hid behind the toliet. He was completely silent for the first few weeks with us. I asked the vet if he might be mute, but he just laughed and said to Brodie, "You don't have anything to say, do you?" When he did start speaking, he made funny chirping sounds - typical of Maine Coon cats.

The shelter had found Brodie all by himself and I suspect his mother was feral. He likes other cats, but hides when non-family humans appear in the house or yard. Rob and I are the only people he trusts. He loves to see other cats and chatters excitedly to them.

Brodie watches birds and squirrels through a picture window in our dining room and lately a lovely Calico cat has been hanging out there. She's very shy, like Brodie, and runs away if we go outside. Brodie has a crush on her and chatters to her when he spots her out there. Rob cut out kitty peepholes, so Brodie can keep an eye on his lady-love.



The other night, Brodie got behind the drapes and looked out the picture window in the living room. He howled loudly - a sound he makes only when he sees that lovely Calico. I quietly opened the front door and Brodie zipped out the door and, in his eagerness to meet the cat, he frightened her. She screamed and ran away with Brodie trying to follow. This was very brave of him because he isn't allowed to roam. I take him out on a leash sometimes and he walks slowly and cautiously and runs back to the house if he hears any scary noises. Scary noises can include the sounds of me stepping on fallen leaves.






Brodie watching for that beautiful Calico.

Why Get a Darwin Fish?

10 reasons, posted by someone at Craig's List:

Enraptured with Jerry Falwell

In 1997 Jerry Falwell said that the rapture will come in the next 10 years. What excuses will Falwell give on Jan 1st 2008 when the world does not end?

The the top 10 excuses he'll come up with are here.

Dept of Homeland Panic

Learn how to use plastic sheeting and duct tape and then you can't say they didn't warn us.

The Department of Homeland Panic.

Amazons in Appalachia

By Marilou Awiakta

According to Albert Einstein, there in a dimension beyond time/space where time stands still—past, present and future are one. My Cherokee ancestors knew how to enter this dimension at will. Since their spirits abide in my native mountains in East Tennessee, I walk with strong nurturing grandmothers that Timberlake met on his journey.

“Where are your women?”

The speaker is Attakullakulla, a Cherokee chief renowned for his shrewd and effective diplomacy. He has come to negotiate a treaty with the whites. Among his delegation are women “as famous in war as powerful in the Council.” Their presence also has ceremonial significance: it is meant to show honor to the other delegation. But that delegation is composed of males only. To them the absence of their women is irrelevant, a trivial consideration.

To the Cherokee, however, reverence for women/Mother Earth/life/spirit is interconnected. Irreverence for one is likely to mean irreverence for all. Implicit in their chief’s question, “Where are your women?” the Cherokee hear, “Where is your balance? What is your intent?” They see that the balance is absent and are wary of the white men’s motives. They intuit the mentality of destruction.

I turn to my own time (1983). I look at the Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission . . . at the hierarchies of my church, my university, my city, my children’s school. “Where are your women?” I ask.

Wary and fearful, I call aside one of Attakullakulla’s delegation. I choose her for the gray streak of experience in her hair, for her staunch hips and for the lively light in her eyes that indicates an alert, indomitable spirit. “Grandmother, I need your courage. Sing to me about your life.”

Her voice has the clear, honing timbre of the mountains.

I am Cherokee.
My people believe in the Spirit that unites all things.

I am woman. I am life force. My word has great value.
The man reveres me as he reveres Mother Earth and his own spirit.

The Beloved Woman is one of our principal chiefs. Through her the Spirit often speaks to the people. In the Great Council at the capital she is a powerful voice. Concerning the fate of hostages, her word is absolute.

Women share in all of life. We lead sacred dances. In the Council we debate freely with men until an agreement is reached. When the nation considers war, we have a say, for we bear the warriors.

Sometimes I go into battle. I also plant and harvest.

I carry my own name and the name of my clan. If I accept a mate, he and our children take the name of my clan. If there is deep trouble between us, I am as free to tell him to go as he is to leave. Our children and our dwelling stay with me. As long as I am treated with dignity, I am steadfast.

I feel the Grandmother’s power. She sings of harmony, not dominance. And her song rises from a culture that repeats the wise balance of nature: the gender capable of bearing life is not separated from the power to sustain it. A simple principal. Yet, in spite—or perhaps because—of our vast progress in science and technology, the American culture where I live has not grasped this principle. In my county alone there are 2600 men who refuse to pay child support, leaving their women and children with a hollow name, bereft of economic means and sometimes even of a safe dwelling. On the national level, the U.S. Constitution still does not include equal rights for women.

The Grandmother can see this dimension of time/space as well as I—its imbalance, its irreverence, its sparse presence of women in positions of influence. And she can hear the brave women who sing for harmony and for transforming power. “My own voice is small, Grandmother, and I’m afraid. You live in a culture that believes in your song. How can you understand what women of my time have to cope with?”

Grasping my chin gently, the Grandmother turns my face back toward the treaty council. “Listen to Attakullakulla’s question again. When he says, “Where are your women?” look into the eyes of the white delegation and you will see what I saw.”

On the surface, hardness—the hardness of mind split from spirit, the eyes of conquerors. Beyond the surface, stretching future decades deep, are crumpled treaties. Rich farms laid waste. And, finally, the Cherokee, goaded by soldiers along a snowbound trail toward Oklahoma—a seemingly endless line of women, men and children, wrapped in coats and blankets, their backs bowed against the cold. In the only gesture of disdain left to them, they refuse to look their captors in the face.

“Come,” she says.

“Where?”

“To Chota—the capital—to see the Beloved Woman.”

I’ve heard of her—Nanyehi . . . “spirit/immortal.” Nanyehi, whom the whites call Nancy Ward and hold in great respect . . . the Beloved Woman whose advice and counsel are revered throughout the Cherokee nation. She is said to have a “queenly and commanding presence,” as well as remarkable beauty, with skin the color and texture of the wild rose.

I know about her courage. She works ceaselessly for harmony with white settlers, interpreting the ways of each people to the other. From her uncle and mentor, Attakullakulla, she has learned diplomacy and the realities of power. She understands that the Cherokee ultimately will be outnumbered and that war will bring sure extinction. She counsels them to channel their energies from fighting into more effective government and better food production (she also introduces them to dairying). To avoid bloodshed, she often risks censure and misunderstanding to warn either side of an impending attack, then urges resolution by arbitration. In the councils she speaks powerfully on two major themes: “Work for peace. Do not sell your land.”
All the while, she knows the odds . . .

What time/space will the Grandmother choose for me to meet the Beloved Woman? I imagine a collage of possibilities:

1775/Nanyehi fights beside her husband in a battle against the Creeks. When he is killed, she takes his rifle and leads the Cherokee to victory. Afterwards, warriors sing of her deeds at Chota and the women and men of the Great Council award her the high office she will hold for more than half a century. She is seventeen, mother of a son and a daughter.

1776/Having captured the white woman, Mrs. Lydia Bean, Cherokee warriors tie her to the stake. Just as they light the fire, Nanyehi arrives on the scene, crying, “No woman will be burned at the stake while I am Beloved Woman!” Her word is absolute. Mrs. Bean goes free.

1781/At the Long Island Treaty Council, Nanyehi is the featured speaker. “Our cry is for peace; let it continue . . . . This peace must last forever. Let your women’s sons be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words.” (Note: no white women were present.)

Colonel William Christian responds to her, “Mother: We have listened well to your talk . . . . No man can hear it without being moved by it. . . . Our women shall hear your words. . . . We will not meddle with your people if they will be still and quiet at home and let us live in peace.” (From Ilene J. Cornwell, “Nancy Ward,” Heroes of Tennessee, Memphis State University Press (Memphis, 1979), 41.

Although the majority of Cherokee and whites hold the peace, violence and bloodshed continue among dissenting factions.

1785/The Hopewell Treaty Council convenes in South Carolina. Attending the Council are four commissioners appointed by Congress, thirty-six Chiefs and about a thousand Cherokee delegates. Again, the Beloved Woman speaks eloquently. Knowing full well the pattern of strife that precedes this Council, she bases her talk on positive developments. “I take you by the hand if real friendship . . . I look on you and the red people as my children. Your having determined on peace is most pleasant to me, for I have seen much trouble during the late war. . . . We are now under the protection of Congress and shall have no more distrubance. The talk I have given you is from the young warriors I have raised in my town, as well as myself. They rejoice that we have peace, and hope the chain of friendship will never more be broken.” (From Pat Alderman, Nancy Ward, The Overmountain Press (Johnson City, Tennessee, 1978), 69.

Hope—that quality so necessary for survival. The Beloved Woman never loses hope. Perhaps I will learn the source of her strength by sharing her private moments: I may see her bend in joy over her newborn second daughter (fathered by the white trader Bryant Ward, to whom she is briefly married in the late 1750s) or hear her laugh among her grandchildren and the many orphans to whom she gives a home. Or, I may stand beside her in 1817 as she composes her last message to her people. Too ill at age seventy-nine to attend the Council, she sends the last message by her son. Twenty years before it begins, she sees the Trail of Tears loom ahead and her words have one theme: “My children, do not sell your land.”

Nanyehi . . . Nancy Ward . . . “as famous in war as powerful in the Council.”

The Grandmother’s hand on my arm halts my imaginings. We stand at the edge of a secluded clearing, rimmed with tall pines. In the center is a large log house and around it women—many women—move through sun and shadow. Some walk in the clearing. Others cluster on the porch, talking quietly, or sit at the edge of the forest in meditation. Not far from us, a woman who is combing another’s hair leans forward to whisper and their laughter rises into the soughing pines.
What year is this Grandmother?”

“It is not a year; it is a season—you and the Beloved Woman are meeting when each of you is in her forty-seventh season.” From the expression of my face the Grandmother knows I appreciate the wisdom of her choice: Four and seven are the sacred numbers of the Cherokee; four symbolizing the balance of the four directions. It is the season when no women should or can afford to be “puny.” The Grandmother nods. Motioning me to wait, she goes toward the lodge, threading her way through the women with a smile of recognition here, the touch of out-stretched fingers there.

With my hands behind my hips, I lean against the stout, wiry-haired trunk of a pine. It’s resinous scent clears my mind. These women are not the Amazons of the Greek fable. While they are independent and self-defined, they do not hate men and use them only at random for procreation. They do not elevate their daughters, or kill, cripple, or make servants of their sons. But did the Greek patriarchs tell the truth? If Attakullakulla had asked them, “Where are your women?” they would have answered with a shrug. I’m wary of Greeks bearing fables. Although there is little proof they described the Amazons accurately, ample evidence suggests that they encountered—and resented—strong women like my Grandmothers and characterized them as heinous in order to justify destroying them (a strategy modern patriarchs still use).

In any case, why should I bother with distant Greeks and their nebulous fables when I have the spirits of the Grandmothers, whose roots are struck deep in my native soil and whose strength is as tangible as the amber-pitched pine at my back.

“What was it like,” you ask, “to be in her presence?”

“Come. I will show you.” It is midnight/June/the full moon. Behind a farmhouse near the Kentucky border, you and I walk barefoot through the coarse grass. Crickets and treefrogs are drowsy. Birds are quiet. And we are enveloped in a powerful, sweet odor that transforms the night. Too pungent to be honeysuckle. Too fecund for roses. It recalls a baby’s breath just after nursing, along with the memory of something warm and private that lingers on the edge of the mind . . .

Sniffing the air, we seek the source—and find it. The cornfield in bloom. Row on row of sturdy stalks, with their tassels held up to the moon. Silently, in slow rhythm, we make out way into the field. The faint rustle of growing plants flows around and through us, until, when we stop by a tall stalk, there seems no division between flesh and green. We rub the smooth, sinewy leaves on our cheeks and touch a nubile ear, where each grain of pollen that falls from the tassel will make a kernel, strong and turgid with milk. Linking arms around the stalk, we lift our faces to the drifting pollen and breathe the spirit of Corn Woman—the powerful, joyous, nurturing odor of one complete-in-itself.

“Where are your women?”

We are here.

Migrant Mother by Dorthea Lange

Florence (Owens) Thompson

Roger Sprague, grandson of the subject of this photo, identifies her on his web site.

Her name was Florence, she was just 32 years old and had come from Oklahoma to California some dozen years before, to a land of promise -- a promise which, for her, had not been kept.

Her first house was in Shafter, California. Though it was small and poor, it was as much as she had in Oklahoma. But this place and these times held a promise of something more for her and her family. To own her own home, to raise her kids and give them more than she had had, to live the American dream.

There was work in the mills and factories of California for Cleo. He was a frail man and light of build. A near death fight with pneumonia, at age twenty-one, had left his lungs weak, making them a target for any germ that happened along. His only excesses were a tendency to overwork himself to provide for his family, and his deep, and intense love for Florence.

Cleo had married Florence over the objections of his own family, who all felt that Florence was too headstrong. They all predicted that the marriage would fail, a bad sin in 1920. A wife was there to raise the kids and do as she was told by her husband. Florence, in contrast, was only 17 when she informed Cleo's family that they would never rule her or her kids. She loved Cleo, but she was who she was and that was that! (Cleo's people knew that Florence was at least half Cherokee, but they did not know that she was Full blood Cherokee.)

More here...

Rove Questions Liberals' Sympathies

It slithered out of its dark hole and said:

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

Then it slithered back into its hole from which we heard it hiss:

My precious! That's what he wants now, yes; we wants it! He wanted it because it was a ring of power, and if you slipped that ring on your finger, you were invisible; only in the full sunlight could you be seen,and then only by your shadow, and that would be shaky and faint. My preshusss.

With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien and to Gollum who was a more honest, sane and credible character that Bush's Brain is.

Downing Street Memo Meme

I found this at Amuse Yourself! Blog:

"The Downing Street Memo Meme Song

(sung to the tune of 'Rawhide')

Downing, Downing, Downing
Scott McClellan's frowning
'Cause that Downing Memo won't hide

'Though Blair was re-elected
And Dubya re-selected
Neither liar's got time on his side

They think the truth can't reach 'em
But wait 'til we impeach 'em
Wait 'til they're indicted, cuffed, and tried

Blog it up, get it out
Pass it on, give a shout
This is real, there's no doubt
They lied!"

The rest is here.

The Last Throes

On May 31, 2005 Dick Cheney said:

"The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

Terry Moran questioned Scott McClellan about Cheney's "last throes" statement:

Q Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its 'last throes'?

McCLELLAN: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that's why we're doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward….

Q But the insurgency is in its last throes?

McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day -- you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.

Q But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?

McCLELLAN: Innocent -- I say innocent civilians. And it doesn't take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you're willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. That's what I say when we're talking about a determined enemy.

Q Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?

McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.

Q What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?

McCLELLAN: Terry, we're making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You're seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They're working side by side with our coalition forces. They're working on their own. There are a lot of special forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.

Q Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.

McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.

Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a 'last throe' lasts for?

McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve....

Editor and Publisher reports:

According to the classified CIA report, the Iraq insurgency poses an international threat and may produce better trained Islamic terrorists than the 1980s Afghanistan war that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

I hope that all those idiots who voted for Chimpy because they believed he'd keep us safer are paying attention. They could very well be in their last throes any day.

Ben Lomond Crime Watch

Ben Lomond, California is a tiny town in a coastal redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Our local paper, The Valley Press, includes the mountain towns of Felton, Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek (and it doesn't have a web site). It is published weekly and usually consists of 4 to 6 pages. Once per month a crime watch section is included. This week's issue included the monthly crime watch and was especially entertaining.

The first one is titled A Picky Thief:

West Drive, Felton
June 15

A resident reported that someone had entered his residence through an unlocked kitchen window and swiped his digital camera. The owner insisted it couldn't have been a member of his household, because he had a taped marker on the floor near his desk, which no member of the household is allowed to cross.

The second item is titled Double Bogey
East Zayante Road
June 14

Officers stopped a car for an infraction. The 42-year-old female driver had a warrant, suspended drivers license, a false license plate registration tag, and a couple of Vicodan tablets in her pocket.

While the officer was preparing to take her off to jail, her husband drove up in another vehicle. His vehicle had a false license plate and false registration tabs, for which he was cited.

I feel safer now that our local crime wave has ended.

Positive Blasphemy

If you need more blogs to read, I recommend Positive Blasphemy

A Tolerance for Atrocity

This excellent analysis was written by Mike Davis:

The Toledo Blade's brave unearthing of the story of the Tiger Force's murderous sojourn in the Song Ve Valley in Vietnam back in 1967 has been smothered in silence and indifference just as was the Associated Press revelation in 1999 that an American massacre of hundreds of Korean civilians had taken place at No Gun Ri in 1950. And because we are unmoved by the war crimes of the past, we are passive in the face of the monstrous acts being committed in our names today. Where are the congressional investigations, the public outcries, and the campus protests in the wake of the revelations about the torture regimes at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and Guantánamo?

Part of the answer, I think, has to do with the failure of progressives -- especially anti-war activists of my generation -- to sustain a public fight over the moral legacy of U.S. genocide in Southeast Asia. After Nixon brought the boys back home, the antiwar movement disarmed unilaterally. In contrast, pro-war forces, organized through powerful veterans' organizations and a caucus of warrior politicians, have never ceased to refight the war on the terrain of memory and public history. The open sore of Vietnam, never lanced, has become the Republicans' most prized symbolic property.

When the Democrats eventually realized that Vietnam -- their war, after all -- would not go away, they became patriotic revisionists as well. Indeed, a major goal of the Democratic Leadership Council -- the principal group driving the party rightward through the 1980s and 1990s -- has been to put the shields and spears back in the hands of its candidates. Vietnam -- according to John Kerry and even Bill Clinton -- was an American tragedy and it was finally time to honor our heroes.

This kind of solipsistic thinking has erased the Vietnamese people from history. Not even the Japanese ruling party has gone as far as the American Democrats in the rehabilitation of war crimes and war criminals. (New School President Bob Kerrey -- whose reputation seems to have suffered little damage from testimony that he massacred unarmed villagers in Vietnam -- is a case in point.)

On the other hand, this may be nothing new. Our ancestors made heroes out of Indian killers and built statues to scalping parties. Why should we be any different?

Bush's American Gulag

To the tune of Hotel California by the Eagles

On a dark old navy base
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of urine
Rising up through the air

Up ahead in the gulag
I saw the grand inquisitor
My head grew heavy,
and my sight grew dim

I had to stoop for the chains
There he stood in the doorway
I heard the torturer laugh
And I was thinking to myself
This could be Painful
or this could be Hell

Then he turned up the rap sounds
And he showed me his fist
There were voices down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to Bush's American Gulag
Such a shitty place
Such a shitty place

Plenty of room at Bush's American Gulag
Any time of year
Any time of year

It couldn't be much worse
Bush blesses it with a curse
It makes him feel powerful
And compensates for his tiny tool

They're livin' it up at Bush's American Gulag
What a crappy place
What a crappy place

Relax said the warden
We are programed to recieve
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave

Guantanamo: Hotel California

We learn about conditions of the detainees at Gitmo from an FBI agent (via MoJo Blog):

"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.'"

It's been called the gulag of our time by Amnesty International. I would call it Bush's Gulag.

Dada's blog

Dada, who previously posted here and on Rofblog, now has his own blog: Dada's Daily Dally.

I'm going to read it daily. Go on over and take a look.

Put the Constitution to Work

They keep talking about drafting a constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just
give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for
over 200 years, and we're not using it any more.

Thanks to TotsieArens for these comments.

Robert Greenwald Interview: Today

This just in:

Listen to a live interview with Robert Greenwald, producer of Walmart, The Movie, today, Sunday, June 19, 2005, on the Jon Elliot show on KLSD 1360AM.

You can listen online at: The Jon Elliot Show (Number 1 Rated Sunday Radio Talk for Southern California) is broadcast every Sunday from noon to 2pm on KLSD, liberal talk radio and Air America affiliate.

Greenwald is scheduled to appear at about 12:45 pm PDT. But you may want to hear the whole show. You’ll be pleased at Jon’s knowledge, politics, and interview style. His guests are always interesting and on-point with our concerns of the day.Gregory SwimAssociate ProducerThe Jon Elliot Show

Thanks to Gregory Swim for this information.

Biblical Zoo

The Tulsa Zoo is bowing to pressure from Christian fundamentalists and installing an exhibit depicting the biblical account of creation. Zoo officials had objected, but Christians said the zoo already had religious exhibits: a globe inscribed with the Native American saying, “The earth is our mother; the sky is our father,” and a display about elephants that included a statue of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh. “I see this as a big victory,” said Dan Hicks, who organized the campaign for the new exhibit. “To not include the creationist view would be discrimination.”

Any dinosaurs in that exhibit?

Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis (AiG), which claims to be the world's largest creation organization, praised Hicks, vice president of the Southern Plains Creation Society.

"We need more people like Dan Hicks who are willing to boldly lead the battle (yes, and even to endure some ridicule) to tell people the truth concerning the creation of the universe," Ham said on the AiG Web site.

"Yes, it will only be one small display among many at the zoo, but remember: 'So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void,'" added Ham, citing Isaiah 55:11. "... Pray that the approval of this display will not be challenged and that God's Word concerning creation will be a witness at the Tulsa Zoo."

There they go torturing the English language again: "God's Word concerning creation will be a witness at the Tulsa zoo."

Do they ever think about the nonsense that comes out of their mouths or do they just parrot old English from the Bible, a book that was written by ordinary men? Unfortunately, critical thinking is in short supply among these people.

Xappa's World

Our 15 year-old cat, Xappa, has been diagnosed with early stage kidney disease and now she has her own blog at Xappa's World

Our vet tells us that a virus used in vaccines for cats is suspected to have caused chronic kidney disease in cats. The dangerous virus has been removed from current vaccines, but a lot cats have already been injured by it.

We have a protected back yard using cat fence-in so our cats are allowed outside but they aren't exposed to most diseases. We are beginning to believe that vaccinations may be doing more harm than good. An adjuvent used in most vaccinations is causing an aggressive, life threatening cancer in some cats. Veterinarians are now vaccinating cats in their legs, so that if the cancer forms there, the leg can be amputated.

Our 3 year-old, Brodie, had a reaction to his last vaccination and it will truly be his last vaccination.

Consider these remarks from The Holistic Cat:

...I now consider vaccination to be tantamount to animal abuse in most cases.

In essence, Drs. Schultz and Phillips are stating that the only reasons for annual vaccination are legal (as with rabies vaccination) or as a means of manipulating guardians into bringing their companions for examinations (rather than simply recommending an examination). They also clearly state that booster vaccines provide no other benefit, including improved or added immunization. Although it has been some years since this was published, the veterinary community has made little headway toward following these recommendations. Some university experts now recommend vaccinations every three years, and other university clinics recommend titer testing to determine need. While both concepts are a step in the right direction, they still do not reflect the actual picture.

When Animals Talk

Jane Goodall will explore animal-human communication on the Animal Planet this week end.

Dr Goodall's message is that communicating with animals brings humankind closer to another world, and that such liaisons can bring about unexpected benefits to both.

The Republican Taliban

Howard Dean tells the truth when he says that the Republican party is mostly made up of white Christians and now the media can't stop talking about it. What I can't figure out is why they're in shock and awe over hearing the truth - maybe it's because, in their professions, they hear and speak it (the truth) so infrequently.

I try to avoid Chris Matthews' Soft Testicles show, but late last week, I was busy when his show started up and it took me a while to find the remote. My ears were assaulted by the following:

Chris Matthews to Rudy Guiliani:

Most people are moderates, don't you agree?

Guiliani:

Sure, I guess so.

Matthews:

Howard Dean is not moderate is he?

Guiliani:

Well he told the truth, so, no he's not a moderate like us.

Matthews:

We're moderates so we're so superior to him, aren't we?

Around this time I found the remote control and switched channels. I just hope Matthews gave Guliani a big towel along with those big, wet smooches.

Disclaimer: Okay, I admit I paraphrased a little bit, but I accurately portrayed the conversation as I heard it and there was no evidence of a hardball anywhere.

Bitchin'

This has been around for a while, but Zoe recently sent it to me, and if you haven't seen it before, you might enjoy it:

BITCHOLOGY

When I stand up for myself and my beliefs, they call me a bitch.

When I stand up for those I love, they call me a bitch.

When I speak my mind, think my own thoughts or do things my own way, they call me a bitch.

Being a bitch means I won't compromise what's in my heart. It means I live my life MY way. It means I won't allow anyone to step on me.

When I refuse to tolerate injustice and speak against it, I am defined as a bitch.

The same thing happens when I take time for myself instead of being everyone's maid, or when I act a little selfish.

It means I have the courage and strength to allow myself to be who I truly am and won't become anyone else's idea of what they think I "should" be.

I am outspoken, opinionated and determined. I want what I want and there is nothing wrong with that!

So try to stomp on me, try to douse my inner flame, try to squash every ounce of beauty I hold within me. You won't succeed.

And if that makes me a bitch , so be it. I embrace the title and am proud to bear it.

B - Babe
I - In
T - Total
C - Control of
H - Herself

B = Beautiful
I = Intelligent
T = Talented
C = Charming
H = Hell of a Woman

Taking a Deep Breath

The temperature has been running a little high lately, but I'm over Markos and DailyKOS and the pie fight. I'm past the angry portion of my grief and am entering the sadness phase. It's disappointing that someone with such a prominent blog for progressives, is so regressive but, as a progressive, I won't be going back to Dk. I'll just keep moving forward.

It appears that not all frat boys are like Markos and Chimperor Gee Dubya Bush and so I'll extend an apology for using a broad brush. I got my B.A. from UC Santa Cruz, an extremely progressive school in those days where we didn't have fraternities or sororities. Heck, we didn't even have letter grades - we had narrative evaluations. Times have changed though and the Greek system arrived in Santa Cruz. Recently some frat boys at UCSC behaved badly on some reality program by killing a pet koi and eating it. They've been prosecuted by local authorities.

Okay, but how about that apology? Here's what I found to refute my stereotyping of fraternities.

Brax is in a fraternity and he writes an interesting blog.

Another fraternity man is posting at Booman and he says:

...Not ALL frat boys are womanizing alcoholics.

Okay, apology extended.

Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore

Shakespeare's sister has an outstanding response to the frat boys at DailyKOS and she summed it up nicely with the following:

With friends like these, who needs Republicans?

More from Women Kossacks

Barbara said...
I was only a lurker on dK. And while I thought the ad itself was only marginally offensive, I found the response to the objections to be intolerable.

I'm 50 years old, and frankly, it was intolerable because it was so danmned predictable. I've seen it a score of times before.

The script is so worn out that I saw it coming before the so-called apology went up.

*sexist thing happens*

Progressive Woman: Hey, that thing there, that was kind of sexist.

Progressive Man #1: You're over-reacting!

Progressive Man #2: You're a prude!

Progressive Woman #2: No, you're missing the point. *That thing* is sexist because *insert reason here*

Progressive Man #3: *insert several slang references to female body parts*

PW#3: That kind of behavior is sexist and unhelpful

PM#4: You girls can't take a joke!

PM#2: Grow a thicker skin! This is politics!

PM#1: We have more important things to talk about. You're just being hysterical. And it's just women's issues anyway and no one cares abut those but those icky feminists!

I mean, really. It just gets old.

There are plenty of smart and truly progressive men out there. I married one. There are also, I'm sorry to say, plenty of men out there who are progressive only up to the point it doesn't interfere with their male 'rights', who shrug off womens' issues with ease.

I don't get it. Do they not know any women, love any women, parent any girls? Would they talk like that to their wives and mothers and sisters and daughters?

John Adams did not 'remember the ladies' despite Abigail's reminders. The anti-slavery movement told women that they would get back to them after the battle was won. The civil rights leaders told women there were bigger battles that had to be fought first. The anti-war people tell us that there's no time to talk about anything but ending the war.

Okay. We've been good. We've waited, if not quietly, for generations of progressive men to get around to caring about womens' issues. And the promises are just plain wearing thin on me.

If you want my vote and my work and my signature on petitions and my tired old body out there holding signs, progressives, then toss this old feminist broad a bone. Stop treating reproductive rights as a side issue to be thrown overboard if the polls shift. Stop tolerating sexist speech in your discourse. Show me some, dare I say it, progress.

Hyperthyroidism in Cats

As a person who lives with three cats and who still mourns the loss of Snoop who suffered from hyperthyroidism, I've been trying to keep up with the latest research about this epidemic in the feline population.

Several months ago, preliminary research suggested a link between hyperthyroidism in cats and a resin that was sprayed into the interior of pop-top cans used for cat food. I immediately took my cats off canned food but when I discussed this with my vet recently, she informed me that researchers are now looking at fish as a cause.

This is in the Short Takes section of the April 2005 issue of Cat Watch, Vol. 9, No. 4 in which they cite the journal Veterinary Medicine Vol. 99, Issue 11:

.... A[n] article in the ... journal examined possible causes of feline hyperthyroidism and elminated several possible culprits: exposure to fertilizers and herbicides, regular use of flea products and having a smoker in the house. But the jury is still out on heavy doses of fish, liver and giblets flavors of canned cat food, which the journal said "may have a significantly increased risk of hyperthyroidism."

My Sentiments Exactly

Elegantly said:

Blogger: "kansas said...
Personally, I'm going to let dKos go. With affection and gratitude, actually, for the several years of good stuff. I'm sure good stuff will continue to happen over there, but I'm moving over here and to Booman (which I'm liking a LOT.) I'm too old to hang out in a frat house, no matter how many A students it has, and the idea of being a Housemother never did appeal to me. "

Daily KOS Run by Sexist Pig

One of the most popular progressive blogs is owned by a man who marginalizes women and has invited us to read other blogs if we don't like his sexist opinions. Some time ago Markos suggested that when NARAL endorsed a pro-choice Republican over an anti-choice Democrat, they were wrong. In another post, he suggested that Democrats should forget reproductive rights in an effort to get votes from the nutjobs who want to control our bodies. Recently Markos accepted an ad that some people found offensive and when they complained he lashed out:

And I certainly won't let the sanctimonious women's studies set play that role on this site. Feel free to be offended. Feel free to claim that I'm somehow abandoning "progressive principles" by running the ad. It's a free country. Feel free to storm off in a huff. Other deserving bloggers could use the patronage.

Although I hadn't seen the ad, I decided to accept his invitation to leave. I wondered where to go to find the diarists that I'd enjoyed there. A group of women decided to discuss the issue here which I agree is a good idea, but I do have a complaint about the name of the blog because the term "kossack" refers to the sexist pig, Markos, who is so dismissive of women's issues and I don't consider myself a female kossack.

My favorite choice is Booman Tribune as an excellent alternative to DailyKOS. Feminists, women and men are welcomed there, the ambiance is progressive and the diaries are interesting. I especially like the regional categories.

I'm truly sorry that I once purchased an over-priced advertisement on DailyKOS. I'm a "buy blue" proponent and although Markos is a Democrat, he isn't progressive enough to deserve my hard-earned money. I won't be advertising there again. In fact, it's about time for me to run another ad at Booman's.

Currently I have an ad at Crooks and Liars.

You can also visit my Darwin fish, etc web site here.

The "Trust" Hormone

Okay, okay. I know I'm not the only one who dives for the TV remote everytime Bush says, "We are a freedom loving nation." After nearly four years of his "There are people who hate us for our freedom," blather, I know many Americans have succumbed to the brainwashing, i.e. come to subscribe to the president's "This is a fight for freedom," platitudes to justify nation razing Iraq to the Stone Age.

But some of us still aren't buying Bush's bull. Some of us hear the same old "freedom" this and "freedom" that week in and week out as nothing more than Nazi Propaganda Minister Goeggels' "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it" tactic.

President Bush has a slightly different, yet similar, take on it. "See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

Help is on the way.

Well, take comfort ye cynics of little faith out there. There may be hope for we of little faith. Help is on the way in the form of a "trust" hormone. Inhaled into the body as a spray mist, scientists have discovered a synthesized hormone called oxytocin actually increases one's ability to be more trusting of dubious platitudes; to take more risks after listening to purveyors of empty phrases and propaganda.

Imagine! With a little oxytocin up the nose, Bush won't need his freedom phrases and we can quit diving for the TV remote! (Well, not really!)

Breathe deep, the gathering doom
Watch lights fade from every room....Moody Blues

T-Rex Was the Ancestor of Birds

Tyrannosaurus Rex Was A Chick: "A North Carolina State University team of Scientists led by Mary H. Schweitzer has been studying the fossilized bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which was found in Montana.

The team has found evidence that the T-Rex was not only a female, but an ancestor of birds as well. Medullary bone was found inside the leg bones of the creature. This is a layer of bone that forms in birds as they lay eggs. It aids the development of eggshells by supplying calcium. "

Of course, T-Rex probably never existed because Noah didn't manage to bring one along on the Ark (snark).

"Environmentalist" Ahnie Owns a Fleet of Hummers

There are real environmentalists and there are pretend enviromentalists like Ahnie, gropenator of California. Because a majority of California voters are truly interested in preserving our lovely state, we support environmental laws. Ahnie posed as an environmentalist to get the votes, but you have to ask yourself, would a real environmentalist own a fleet of Hummers? Ahnie does. In fact, he recently held a publicity stunt in which he appeared with a hydrogen-powered Hummer but he didn't drive away in it.

This is the sort of publicity stunt residents of San Jose witnessed when Ahnie sent a Cal-Trans crew into a neighborhood to dig a pothole where none existed and then Ahnie got photographed filling the pothole.

We'll soon have an opportunity to vote for a real Prius-driving environmentalist for governor and he's already got my vote.

From Dan Newman:

Thought you might enjoy this selection from Phil Angelides’ speech today at the World Environment Day Conference. (Angelides is running against Ahnold and his 7 Hummers – January ’07 is when the next Governor assumes office.)

I thought about starting this speech today by announcing my intention to convert one of my Hummers to run on hydrogen. But there’s a problem.

You see, I don't own a fleet of Hummers, not even one. To show you how politically astute I am, three years ago I actually bought a Prius. I selected it for the same reason any father of passionately opinionated teenage daughters would: Because they told me to.

What they didn't tell me is that one day I would find myself in this bind: How's a guy to prove his devotion to saving the planet unless he has a Hummer to convert?

So I’m going to do it the way every good politician does: By reframing the issue. I am here to tell you today that we are not going to save the planet by converting one Hummer at a time.

Instead, we must set targets. And so I pledge to you that by January 2007 California will cut to zero the number of Hummers owned by its chief executive.

WAL-Mart Outfoxed

Robert Greenwald who did Outfoxed announced via email he is now working on a new film:

I am pleased to let everyone know that the next film will be all about Wal-Mart, and I mean ALL. After working in secret for months, I am glad we can let you know what is going on and how you can participate and help. However, be aware that we are still keeping many of the specifics about the film quiet as we don't want the Wal-Mart attack machine knowing what we are uncovering. Here is a good article in today's New York Times introducing the film.

More than a film, the plan is for WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price to be the catalyst to ignite a movement bringing fairness to the marketplace and ensuring a vibrant future for every family -- not just the Walton family. This is a unique opportunity to unite people across the political spectrum -- extending from family business owners, to teachers, to ministers. Republicans from the midwest echo the sentiments of Democrats on the west coast, all set against the backdrop of gun racks, NRA paraphernalia, and countless American flags. This is a love song to America, a uniting cause for a new millennium.

We're On a Need to Know Basis

Rising Hegemon has the scoop on Rush's medical records. : "It is a matter of national import that we be allowed full disclosure of what is in these records. We BLOGGERS DEMAND IT!

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh wants to limit medical records available to Florida prosecutors investigating him for prescription drug abuse.

Attorney Roy Black argued for the limit in Palm Beach Circuit Court Tuesday, but Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff did not rule immediately on which of the sealed records in his possession prosecutors could see.

Black told the Miami Herald the seized records contain embarrassing details about surgery performed on intimate parts of Limbaugh's anatomy that are unrelated to the case."

What if We're God's Next "Dinosaurs"?

The following is an email exchange between Dada and me:

Dada wrote:

Anyway, been meaning to share with you just a "cute" little story. I got it 'straight from the horses mouth'.....i.e., first hand. A person who works in a major midwestern university told me of one of her charges, a senior who just graduated this spring. Said this co-ed, "I don't believe in dinosaurs because the ark wasn't big enough to hold 'em." Yeh, that's it. That's the truth, I swear.

I responded:

Did this student consider that maybe dinosaurs are extinct now because God's blueprint for the Ark was too small for them and Noah had to leave them behind? Maybe that's why we find their bones all over the place - they drowned. I think the student is bitter because our dinosaur ate her fish.

Dada replied:

Oh Nona. You're such a heretic!!

Actually, I thought your idea about their bones being found everywhere was an excellent explanation to the co-ed's doubts of their existence, i.e. God's blueprint for the Ark, given to Noah, were for a craft too small to accommodate 'em. So rather than disproving dinosaur's ever existed, it does just the exact opposite, i.e. dinosaurs did exist. Because their old bones are scattered everywhere; even in the most inconvenient of places, like, where we wanna extend a freeway or build a new casino. They just cause progress problems.

Okay, that was cool--if that was the end of it. But then I found myself unable to nap this afternoon wondering if, in the great flood, the dinosaurs omission on the Ark was an oversight by God? "Oh my god!" (sorry, no pun intended), I thought. How could that be? God's omnipotent. After much contemplation, I decided that God didn't forget the dinosaurs. He musta intentionally left 'em off the Ark by making it too small to accommodate 'em.

"Whew!" I started getting drowsy. I started to nod off, until I had the thought: "If God intentionally eliminated the dinosaurs by purposely excluding 'em; by giving Noah plans for an Ark of limited space, what if this is the way God operates?" I mean, what if God intentionally limited the supply of oil? And what if he put the last remaining oil rich fields under nations of Muslims and other heathens? What if God's messin' with us? What if we're God's next 'dinosaurs'?

The "Logic" of Our Foreign Policy

Q: Daddy, why did we have to attack Iraq?
A: Because they had weapons of mass destruction honey.

Q: But the inspectors didn't find any weapons of mass destruction.
A: That's because the Iraqis were hiding them.

Q: And that's why we invaded Iraq?
A: Yep. Invasions always work better than inspections.

Q: But after we invaded them, we STILL didn't find any weapons of mass destruction, did we?
A: That's because the weapons are so well hidden. Don't worry, we'll find something, probably right before the 2004 election.

Q: Why did Iraq want all those weapons of mass destruction?
A: To use them in a war, silly.

Q: I'm confused. If they had all those weapons that they planned to use in a war, then why didn't they use any of those weapons when we went to war with them?
A: Well, obviously they didn't want anyone to know they had those weapons, so they chose to die by the thousands rather than defend themselves.

Q: That doesn't make sense Daddy. Why would they choose to die if they had all those big weapons to fight us back with?
A: It's a different culture. It's not supposed to make sense.

Q: I don't know about you, but I don't think they had any of those weapons our government said they did.
A: Well, you know, it doesn't matter whether or not they had those weapons.We had another good reason to invade them anyway.

Q: And what was that?
A: Even if Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, which is another good reason to invade another country.

Q: Why? What does a cruel dictator do that makes it OK to invade his country?
A: Well, for one thing, he tortured his own people.

Q: Kind of like what they do in China?
A: Don't go comparing China to Iraq. China is a good economic competitor, where millions of people work for slave wages in sweatshops to make U.S. corporations richer.

Q: So if a country lets its people be exploited for American corporate gain, it's a good country, even if that country tortures people?
A: Right.

Q: Why were people in Iraq being tortured?
A: For political crimes, mostly, like criticizing the government. People who criticized the government in Iraq were sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Isn't that exactly what happens in China?
A: I told you, China is different.

Q: What's the difference between China and Iraq?
A: Well, for one thing, Iraq was ruled by the Ba'ath party, while China is Communist.

Q: Didn't you once tell me Communists were bad?
A: No, just Cuban Communists are bad.

Q: How are the Cuban Communists bad?
A: Well, for one thing, people who criticize the government in Cuba are sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Like in Iraq?
A: Exactly.

Q: And like in China, too?
A: I told you, China's a good economic competitor. Cuba, on the other hand, is not.

Q: How come Cuba isn't a good economic competitor?
A: Well, you see, back in the early 1960s, our government passed some laws that made it illegal for Americans to trade or do any business with Cuba until they stopped being Communists and started being capitalists like us.

Q: But if we got rid of those laws, opened up trade with Cuba, and started doing business with them, wouldn't that help the Cubans become capitalists?
A: Don't be a smart-ass.

Q: I didn't think I was being one.
A: Well, anyway, they also don't have freedom of religion in Cuba.

Q: Kind of like China and the Falun Gong movement?
A: I told you, stop saying bad things about China. Anyway, Saddam Hussein came to power through a military coup, so he's not really a Legitimate leader anyway.

Q: What's a military coup?
A: That's when a military general takes over the government of a country by force, instead of holding free elections like we do in the United States.

Q: Didn't the ruler of Pakistan come to power by a military coup?
A: You mean General Pervez Musharraf? Uh, yeah, he did, but Pakistan is our friend.

Q: Why is Pakistan our friend if their leader is illegitimate?
A: I never said Pervez Musharraf was illegitimate.

Q: Didn't you just say a military general who comes to power by forcibly overthrowing the legitimate government of a nation is an Illegitimate leader?
A: Only Saddam Hussein. Pervez Musharraf is our friend, because he helped us invade Afghanistan.

Q: Why did we invade Afghanistan?
A: Because of what they did to us on September 11th.

Q: What did Afghanistan do to us on September 11th?
A: Well, on September 11th, nineteen men? Fifteen of them Saudi Arabians? hijacked four airplanes and flew three of them into buildings, killing over 3,000 Americans.

Q: So how did Afghanistan figure into all that?
A: Afghanistan was where those bad men trained, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban.

Q: Aren't the Taliban those bad radical Islamics who chopped off people's heads and hands?
A: Yes, that's exactly who they were. Not only did they chop off people's heads and hands, but they oppressed women, too.

Q: Didn't the Bush administration give the Taliban 43 million dollars back in May of 2001?
A: Yes, but that money was a reward because they did such a good job fighting drugs.

Q: Fighting drugs?
A: Yes, the Taliban were very helpful in stopping people from growing opium poppies.

Q: How did they do such a good job?
A: Simple. If people were caught growing opium poppies, the Taliban would have their hands and heads cut off.

Q: So, when the Taliban cut off people's heads and hands for growing flowers, that was OK, but not if they cut people's heads and hands off for other reasons?
A: Yes. It's OK with us if radical Islamic fundamentalists cut off people's hands for growing flowers, but it's cruel if they cut off people's hands for stealing bread.

Q: Don't they also cut off people's hands and heads in Saudi Arabia?
A: That's different. Afghanistan was ruled by a tyrannical patriarchy that oppressed women and forced them to wear burqas whenever they were in public, with death by stoning as the penalty for women who did not comply.

Q: Don't Saudi women have to wear burqas in public, too?
A: No, Saudi women merely wear a traditional Islamic body covering.

Q: What's the difference?
A: The traditional Islamic covering worn by Saudi women is a modest yet fashionable garment that covers all of a woman's body except for her eyes and fingers. The burqa, on the other hand, is an evil tool of patriarchal oppression that covers all of a woman's body except for her eyes and fingers.

Q: It sounds like the same thing with a different name.
A: Now, don't go comparing Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are our friends.

Q: But I thought you said 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were from Saudi Arabia.
A: Yes, but they trained in Afghanistan.

Q: Who trained them?
A: A very bad man named Osama bin Laden.

Q: Was he from Afghanistan?
A: Uh, no, he was from Saudi Arabia too. But he was a bad man, a very bad man.

Q: I seem to recall he was our friend once.
A: Only when we helped him and the mujahadeen repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Q: Who are the Soviets? Was that the Evil Communist Empire Ronald Reagan talked about?
A: There are no more Soviets. The Soviet Union broke up in 1990 or thereabouts, and now they have elections and capitalism like us. We call them Russians now.

Q: So the Soviets ? I mean, the Russians ? are now our friends?
A: Well, not really. You see, they were our friends for many years after they stopped being Soviets, but then they decided not to support our invasion of Iraq, so we're mad at them now. We're also mad at the French and the Germans because they didn't help us invade Iraq either.

Q: So the French and Germans are evil, too?
A: Not exactly evil, but just bad enough that we had to rename French fries and French toast to Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast.

Q: Do we always rename foods whenever another country doesn't do what we want them to do?
A: No, we just do that to our friends. Our enemies, we invade.

Q: But wasn't Iraq one of our friends back in the 1980s?
A: Well, yeah. For a while.

Q: Was Saddam Hussein ruler of Iraq back then?
A: Yes, but at the time he was fighting against Iran, which made him our friend, temporarily.

Q: Why did that make him our friend?
A: Because at that time, Iran was our enemy.

Q: Isn't that when he gassed the Kurds?
A: Yeah, but since he was fighting against Iran at the time, we looked the other way, to show him we were his friend.

Q: So anyone who fights against one of our enemies automatically Becomes our friend?
A: Most of the time, yes.

Q: And anyone who fights against one of our friends is automatically an enemy?
A: Sometimes that's true, too. However, if American corporations can profit by selling weapons to both sides at the same time, all the better.

Q: Why?
A: Because war is good for the economy, which means war is good for America. Also, since God is on America's side, anyone who opposes war is a godless un-American Communist. Do you understand now why we attacked Iraq?

Q: I think so. We attacked them because God wanted us to, right?
A: Yes.

Q: But how did we know God wanted us to attack Iraq?
A: Well, you see, God personally speaks to George W. Bush and tells him what to do.

Q: So basically, what you're saying is that we attacked Iraq because George W. Bush hears voices in his head?
A. Yes! You finally understand how the world works. Now close your eyes, make yourself comfortable, and go to sleep. Good night.

Q: Good night, Daddy

Thanks to Dawn!

Schwarzenegger Syndrome

Schwarzenegger Syndrome: Politics and Celebrity in the Age of Contempt by Gary Indiana is reviewed in an article titled Demolition Man by Ben Ehrenreich:

"... he starts not with the twisted mechanics of California's 2003 recall vote he'll get to that but with the appointment to the presidency of a 'mush-mouthed, dyslexic, perpetually vacationing cipher.' Jump to that cipher's near seamless elevation to eternal warlord in chief following 'our very own Reichstag fire' and you're not far from the realm where, 'to the bewildered and traumatized who continued to imagine that 'fascism' described a condition other than the merger of the state with corporate capitalism, hasta la vista, baby sounded like as workable a program as anything else.'

Hyperbolic, sure, but if any times ever made hyperbole feel like understatement, these are them. Arnold Schwarzenegger, steroidal cartoon and killer robot, 'dream politician for the Time of the Rapture,' is, after all, governing the most populous state in the union. When it's not actively drawing blood, Schwarzenegger Syndrome can feel unfocused, but what doesn't these days? And it's hard not to love a man who calls John McCain a 'bowel-impacted martinet' and questions his ability to hold up under torture: 'If we threw him in a stew pot, he'd stand up and salt himself. That's the kind of patriotism America needs.' "

Downing Street Memo

A coalition of citizen groups will ask the U.S. Congress to file a formal "Resolution of Inquiry", the first necessary legal step to determine whether U.S. President Bush has committed impeachable offenses. The request, written by Boston constitutional attorney John C. Bonifaz on behalf of the citizen groups, cites the Downing Street memo and issues surrounding the planning and execution of the Iraq war. The full text of the request is available here.

And in a related story, Fox Snooze is the first major media to cover the Downing Street Memo. Still silence from CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and the rest of the alphabet.

The Fatal Flaw in our Constitution

From Google's Quote of the Day:

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don?t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. - Kurt Vonnegut"

God Influences FDA on Birth Control Decision

HERO OF THE MONTH: California State Senator Deborah Ortiz

In response to the growing trend of pharmacies refusing to fill women's birth control prescriptions, California state Senator Deborah Ortiz is protecting the safety and well-being of women in California by sponsoring SB 644, the "Duty to Dispense" bill. For her dedication to the dignity and health of her constituents - she is May's hero of the month!

ZERO OF THE MONTH: FDA Appointee David Hager

Hager, the anti-choice doctor hand-picked by Bush to advise the FDA on reproductive health drugs, has made no secret of his anti-choice views. Hager was reported in The Nation and The Washington Post to have bragged about his role in preventing emergency contraception from being approved for over-the-counter sales:

In his sermon at Asbury College last fall, Hager proudly recounted his role in the Plan B decision.

"After two days of hearings," he said, "the committees voted to approve this over-the-counter sale by 23 to 4. I was asked to write a minority opinion that was sent to the commissioner of the FDA... Now the opinion I wrote was not from an evangelical Christian perspective... But I argued it from a scientific perspective, and God took that information, and He used it through this minority report to influence the decision."