George W Bush
The lithograph is of human female faced owls flying around with human male faced owls as three women below them put a plucked male faced fowl on a spit. It didn't make sense prior to me researching it but in the efforts of writing the paper I discovered that whores in Spain, at that time, were commonly called "Buhos", or owls. This was due to the hours that owls, as well as whores, kept and the fact that they both hunted at night. This knowledge helps the print make more sense as you can see that the older women, presumably the madames of the whore houses, are the ones shown as preying on the male owls that have been snared.
It constantly reminds me that the money girl like this makes never stops with them. There is always someone behind it, be it a pimp or a dealer, that gets that cash. What's worse is that this girl and whatever guys climb on her are the ones that are taking the risks and will eventually burn themselves down.
For the ladies, find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.
(By the way, we need to make sure that we use "dame" and "broad" around this place more often.)
Alba or Beil?IM replied to Mother, via cell phone:
Biel, hands downLater Phone call:
Debate!
"I have tried ever since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.Here is the crux of her whole problem, in fact the crux of many parent's problems, when is comes to having kids and what they do with their lives. Kids, regardless of their age, are free willed individuals. That means that they think and decide and do things on their own, without consulting us and , occasionally, totally contrary to what we think is good. Our children, from birth until death, will make an infinite number of decision of various scopes and sizes that are dictated by just as many external and internal forces. Our guidance, however thorough and comprehensive we endeavor to make it, is merely one of those forces.
"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years, and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most." (em mine)
Sheehan warned that the United States was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland," and that onetime allies among Bush's Democratic opposition turned on her when she began trying to hold them accountable for bringing the 4-year-old war to a close.Another life lesson to get out of this is one that Cindy, not Casey, missed. When you got from "no one" to "someone" question why that is. In the midst of all the rhetoric about "America's political hegemony" and "imperialistic war machines" she was spouting in sunny Venezuela and cheery Cuba, there had to be a moment where she realized that she had sold out her own cause. At some point she had to wonder why the politicians were so willing to be seen with her one week and then so willing to dump her the next. Sadly, if she ever had a clue that she was getting used before now we couldn't tell but it would have been better for everyone if she had discovered that a few years ago. It would have been better for her, and it seems that she realizes that it would have been better for her family too.
In the meantime, she said her antiwar activism had cost her her marriage, that she had put the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and all her speaking and book fees into the cause and that she now owed extensive medical bills.
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote. "I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.
"I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble."
Iraq war veteran Army Capt. Dennis J. Skelton, who brought fellow servicemembers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center National and the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda to the event, recognizes that American support for military personnel has undergone a tremendous change.Memorial Day is not a "Happy X" holiday, it is, and should be, more of a day of somber and thoughtful reflection upon the sacrifice of the men and women called to duty.
“It’s amazing to see the transition that has occurred in this country over the last four decades between the last major conflict, which was Vietnam, and the global war on terror,” Skelton said. “There is definitely no shortage of patriotism in this country, and that’s evident by the number of non-profit, philanthropic organizations, and attention that America has given.
Skelton, a former platoon leader with the 25th Infantry Division in Fallujah, Iraq, lost his left eye and suffered other injuries in a rocket-propelled-grenade attack.
“To me, and to all of my peers that are in hospitals recovering – sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines – it’s amazing to watch and witness America understanding that there’s a difference between those that make policy and those that enforce policy. And they will continue to support those who enforce, and while in the same breath, debating in a public forum, those who make it,” he said. “It’s just a beautiful thing to finally evolve to an area that we can professionally in the same forum do both simultaneously.
“It’s great to know that even though there are some who may not agree with intentions or involvements and outcomes, they will forever support me as an individual that voluntarily made that choice to serve in a very complex environment,” he said.
Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning.Okay, lets start with the worst part of the article. The photo used to lead the story includes a protester with a sign which reads "Let Are Kids Walk." This is just so sad that I have no words.
The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises.
About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.
Crystal Martinez complained that while she finished at the top of her class with a 3.5 grade point average, she is now blocked from graduation by failing the TAKS test.How sad a day for education in America when the best a student at any school can do is pull a 3.5. And what does this say of the teachers when they GIVE her the grades that amount to a 3.5 and she is still too dumb to pass a test which the teachers essentially TEACH TO in the first plac.?
Many residents in the town, most of whom are suspected of massive in-breeding that has resulted in an abundance of shuffling, hump-backed children, now believe that the rumors are not true.Read the rest...
WOODSTOCK, Ill. — A pair of 16-year-old girls face hate crime charges after they allegedly handed out anti-gay fliers targeting a classmate at their northern Illinois high school.I'm sure they'll be there any second. Protecting free speech and the 1st amendment. Right?
The girls were arrested May 11 after handing out fliers in the parking lot of Crystal Lake South High School that depict a male student kissing another boy and contain hateful language about gays.
Officials say the fliers targeted a male classmate, who is also a neighbor of the girls. The two girls had apparently been feuding with the boy.
Earlier today, a judge rejected bond for one of the girls, citing her home environment and already lengthy juvenile record — 13 run-ins with the cops. Instead of home detention, the girl will be held at the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center while the case is pending, according to the Daily Herald.
This is my birthday present from my mom. Here's a better look at it.
Sweet, huh. What? You want to know what it is? Ok. It's a carbonado diamond.Carbonado or "black" diamonds, are the exotic diamonds found in Brazil and the Central African Republic. They are unusual for being the color of charcoal and full of frothy bubbles. These diamonds can also have a face that looks like melted glass.You know you're jealous.
A research team led by Stephen Haggerty of Florida International University in Miami has presented a new study that the odd stones were brought to Earth by an asteroid billions of years ago. The findings were published online in the journal "Astrophysical Journal Letters" on December 20, 2006.
The scientists exposed polished pieces of carbonado to extremely intense infrared light. The test revealed the presence of many hydrogen-carbon bonds, indicating that the diamonds probably formed in a hydrogen-rich environment-such as that found in space. The diamonds also showed strong similarities to tiny nanodiamonds, which are frequently found in meteorites. Astrophysicists have developed theories predicting that nanodiamonds form easily in the stellar explosions called supernovas, which scatter debris through interstellar space.
Haggerty maintains that the deposits in the Central African Republic and Brazil, probably come from the impact of a diamond-rich asteroid billions of years ago, when South America and Africa were joined. So even though the two diamond fields are now thousands of miles apart, they're remnants of a single, original deposit. Haggerty estimated that the asteroid must have been about half a mile (one kilometer) in diameter.
The unusual bubbles seen in specimens of carbonados probably came from fizzing gases when the diamonds were forming, Haggerty added. This adds further credence to the extraterrestrial origin theory, since conventional diamonds form under immense pressure deep beneath the Earths crust, where gas bubbles simply couldn't form.
Carbonado diamonds also contain a mineral called osborneite, which has been found only in meteorites and comet dust recovered by the recent Stardust mission. Additionally, adding to the evidence for an extra-terrestrial origin, carbonado diamonds have never been reported among any of the other 600 tons of "conventional" diamonds mined, sorted, graded, traded, cut, and polished in the last century. Hopefully, researchers will eventually identify a carbonado parent body in the Asteroid Belt."
David the dog won't leave his master's side, but his story has gone international.Dwayne was originally planning to donate less, but something derisive in his wife's response caused him to up the ante, much to her dismay.
Saturday, The Saginaw News featured the predicament of Richard R. "Ram" Reister, 55, of Chesaning, a disabled Army veteran who is trying to raise money for an operation to save his dog's life.
He put out fliers around town in April that read: "Attention. $10 gets your lawn cut and trimmed. Disabled vet needs work to save money to pay for surgery for my dog and best friend. Contact Ram at (989) 413-2517."
Dwayne R. Machinski, 40, of Emmett called from Iraq, where he is a civilian contractor. A former Army infantryman himself, he said he has two dogs at home that he can't wait to see when he gets home. He's sending Reister $200.So, good on ya Dwayne, and my compliments to all of the other dog lovers out there who are helping Mr. Reister with his situation.
"I know how expensive vet bills can be," he said. "If his dogs need help, dude, I know exactly what he's going through."
We started dancing and love put us into a grooveIt came on the radio this morning. See girls, there's a message in here. Don't mind what he does or if he "dances" with someone else... just keep dancing and he'll come back to you. At which time you should accept him back without question. Ahh... simpler times.
As soon as we started to move
The music played while our bodies displayed through the dance
Then love picked us up for romance
I thought it was clear
The plan was we would share this feeling just between ourselves
But when the music changed the plan was rearranged
He went to dance with someone else
We started dancing and love put us into our groove
But now he's with somebody new
What does love want me to do
Love said..
Let the music play, he won't get away
Just keep the groove and then he'll come back to you again
Let it play
Let the music play, he won't get away
This groove he can't ignore, he won't leave you anymore
He tried pretending our dance is just a dance but I see
He's dancing his way back to me
Yes he discovered we are truly lovers
Magic from the very start
Cause love just can't we prove
And anytime we move
And even though we danced apart
So we started dancing and love put us into our groove
As soon as we started to move, as soon as we started to move
Love said..
Let the music play, he won't get away
Just keep the groove and then he'll come back to you again
Let it play
Let the music play, he won't get away
This groove he can't ignore, he won't leave you anymore
He tried pretending our dance is just a dance but I see
He's dancing his way back to me, he's dancing his way back to me
Love said..
Let the music play, he won't get away
Just keep the groove and then he'll come back to you again
Let it play
Let the music play, he won't get away
This groove he can't ignore, he won't leave you anymore
Sparking conversation In the tradition of coffee houses everywhere, Starbucks has always supported a good, healthy discussion. To get people talking, “The Way I See It” is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on our widely shared cups.This was mine, of which the picture I will post.
"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."Now that's less interesting than cup 230:
---Bill Schell, a Starbucks customer from London, Ontario, Canada
Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can’t wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They’re basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell.Lest one think that Starbucks has gone anti-religion they also have these cups:
-- Joel Stein, Columnist for the Los Angeles Times
The Way I See It #92:So here's my question: knowing that they are going to get complaints by having cups that opine on religion and knowing that people are too PC today to not "get offended," is it a wise marketing idea to include these things on their cups?
You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose. Focusing on yourself will never reveal your purpose. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. Only in God do we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny.
-- Dr. Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life"
and
The Way I See It #158:
It's tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don't have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it's us – the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing – that need God, a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do.
-- Mike Doughty, musician
"This is not about marriage," said the Monson’s attorney, Joni Thome. "It’s about sexual orientation. The legal relationship is not what matters. What matters is what people acknowledge themselves to be. "Well, your clients acknowledge themselves to be married, when they legally are not, yet want the married price. That's the contested point.
"If we can get the court to agree that this is not about the marriage debate – that this is about sexual orientation – I think the ruling will carry over to other institutions in our state and to other states as well."By the way, lest you think their suit is philanthropic to the gay ethos alone, they are suing for $50,000 for "pain and mental anguish." Not exactly Rosa Parks, but then they want to get paid.
Reef sandals with a wide logo-trimmed strap and an extra-cushioned footbed. Finished with super-secret heavy-duty plastic flasks built in to each midsole. Includes a flask key/bottle opener.
The two teenagers, then aged 16, stayed in one room and decided to kill Davis the next day during a morning chat.The worst part of the whole matter though, is this little tidbit:
The girl who carried out the strangling told police she watched calmly as the emotions on her friend's face shifted from anger to terror as she realized they intended to kill her.
After the murder the pair buried Davis in a shallow grave under the house and reported her missing, but turned themselves in after realizing the grave would be found in a search.
The pair told authorities they were sorry about the impact of the murder on the Davis family, but killing her "felt right" at the time.Note that the girls are not happy about the impact on the still living, but they don't mind that they snubbed out the life of their friend.
Nuclear winter is a hypothetical global climate condition that is predicted to be a possible outcome of a large-scale nuclear war. It is thought that severely cold weather can be caused by detonating large numbers of nuclear weapons, especially over flammable targets such as cities, where large amounts of smoke and soot would be injected into the Earth's stratosphere. The term has also been applied to one of the after-effects of an asteroid impact or super volcano eruption.I say, why screw around, we need to nuke some volcanoes and soon to be volcanoes. Idaho... well, we got some bad news about old faithful. I expect the Ring of Fire to kick in. Come on everyone, repeat after me:
Canadian activists who attended a controversial conference in Cairo are calling on antiwar campaigners to show increased solidarity with Mideast "resistance movements," including Hezbollah and Hamas.Put these guys on the front lines ,.... and you go ......... poof!
According to an audio clip obtained yesterday by the Citizen, the activists issued the call at a public meeting April 27 in Toronto at which Canadian delegates reported on their experiences at the March 29 to April 1 Cairo Conference.
The focus of the conference was to forge an international alliance against "imperialism and Zionism." Twenty Canadians attended, mostly from Canadian antiwar groups.
more .....
"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."
1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.Now why would Lou want to leave out the section about Authorities job to punish wrongdoers? Wouldn't that include illegal aliens? Oh, I get it. That would also include anyone that violates God's laws and we know that Lou doesn't want America governed by God's laws because that would upset all the lefties he panders to as a "sensible Republican that's bucked the system."
The world's population is expected to increase by 2.5 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050. Almost all the growth will take place in developing countries.Whackjobs like this are part of the reason that the environmental movement must be stopped.
The population of developed nations is expected to remain unchanged and would have declined but for migration.
The British fertility rate is 1.7. The EU average is 1.5. Despite this, Professor Guillebaud says rich countries should be the most concerned about family size as their children have higher per capita carbon dioxide emissions.
Canadian activists were out in force at a recent conference in Cairo that sought to forge closer links between the international antiwar movement and Islamic resistance groups, including several on Canada's terrorism list.
About 20 Canadians attended the March 29 to April 1 Cairo Conference, the largest delegation from Canada in the event's five-year history. According to one report, Canada also had one of the largest delegations from outside the Middle East. In total, as many as 1,500 delegates from the Middle East, Europe, South Korea and the Americas attended.
Many of the Canadian delegates were from the Canadian Peace Alliance, the country's largest umbrella peace organization, and some of its 150 affiliated groups, said peace alliance co-ordinator Sid Lacombe, who attended the conference.
Groups that sent delegates include the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Canadian Arab Federation, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, Artists Against War, the Venezuela We Are With You Coalition, the Toronto-Haiti Action Committee, the Toronto-Egypt Solidarity Campaign and Not In Our Name -- Jews Against Israel's Wars.
The conference attracted representatives of at least four organizations that appear on Canada's list of terrorist organizations -- Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Jamaat al-Islamiya, best known for killing 71 tourists in Luxor, Egypt in 1997.
Among the attendees were Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy leader of Hamas, and Ali Fayad, a member of Hezbollah's politburo.
more ......
Six "Islamic radicals" involved in a plot to kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey were arrested Monday night, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey said Tuesday.
One of the suspects was born in Jordan, another in Turkey, the U.S. attorney's office said. The rest are believed to be from the former Yugoslavia, "either U.S. citizens or living illegally in the United States," the office said in a statement.
"Their alleged intention was to conduct an armed assault on the army base and to kill as many soldiers as possible," according to the statement.
The six are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Camden on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.
The district attorney scheduled a news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss the case.
The men were planning to use automatic weapons to shoot soldiers at the Army post, according to a federal law enforcement source and a senior government source.
The men, some of whom were related to each other, had been doing surveillance and planning "for a while," and they trained in the Poconos Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the federal law enforcement source.
HR 1592 could lead to federal censorship of religious or political speech on the grounds that the speech incites hate. Hate crime laws have been used to silence free speech and even the free exercise of religion. For example, a Pennsylvania hate crime law has been used to prosecute peaceful religious demonstrators on the grounds that their public Bible readings could incite violence. One of HR 1592's supporters admitted that this legislation could allow the government to silence a preacher if one of the preacher's parishioners commits a hate crime. More evidence that hate crime laws lead to censorship came recently when one member of Congress suggested that the Federal Communications Commission ban hate speech from the airwaves.Orwell must have turned in his grave.
Q: What does the BEAR robot do?
A: The patent-pending BEAR robot is capable of carefully lifting a human or other payload up to 500 lbs, and carrying it over a distance to safely set it down as directed by its operator.
Q: What controls the BEAR robot?
A: Currently it is under full wireless control by a single human operator. Eventually the BEAR will have more and more autonomous behaviors, which will make it easier to control.
The quote is from Terry Goodkind and the picture is from D-Day but it think it makes a subtle point worth emphasizing in the halls of power.
Workers began stretching a huge tarpaulin Thursday over parts of Germany's highest mountain in a battle against the effects of global warming on the snow-covered peak -- a process that leaves environmentalists sceptical.
About 9,000 square meters (97,000 square feet) of reflective foil has been spread across a ski area on one side of the 2,962 meter (116,600 foot) high Zugspitze in the northern Alps near Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
This year, the Zugspitzbahn company, which finances the cover-up from revenues from its ski-lift, gondola-lifts and restaurant, ordered 50 percent more tarpaulin than last year. The tarps were unpacked one week earlier than usual following a particularly mild winter and the hottest April in recent history.
"The cover keeps off the heat and channels away rainwater," said Manfred Haas, who manages a team that grooms the ski area with bulldozers and graders. "Every autumn we make note of where the glacier has melted the most and cover those places the following spring."
I wanted to take a moment to ask you to consider a relatively paltry but particularly irritating development that I have become aware of.
PBS funds many types programs and normally receives very little notice with the sheer volume of network and cable options that are available. However, much of their content does look at issues at a deeper level than that of their commercial counterparts. As a result, I find that when they have a program slated that is of any interest to me, I will usually go out of my way to view it.
I don't always agree with their assessments or even their taste in programming but they provide a richer and more through depth of scope in that they don't have to focus on "selling me soap" in between 15 minute segments.
It is for that reason that I am particularly disappointed and unhappy with PBS's decision to pull and refuse to allow the PBS funded program "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center" to air. The reasoning that has been offered is that the piece is alarmist and it was too long. That may very well be the case, but that reason is based around opinion. I find many of PBS's programs to be too long, to broad, too biased and too boring to tolerate but I have a every effective way of dealing with that: I don't watch it.
This show may be utter tripe. It may unfairly depict people of the Islamic faith. It may do a lot of things. However, for PBS to expend over $600,000 dollars in taxpayers money and then not show it for "length" or "run time" is laughable. To not show it for emotional posturing, or for political correctness, is deplorable and wasteful. However to constrain the release of this show, and then further not allow for any distribution of the show or it's footage, for reasons that are ideological is nothing short censorship.
If the people payed for it, why are we not seeing it? Furthermore, if it's unfit for air then don't we trust the FCC to do it's job? Finally, if it is fit for air and it asks hard questions that make a segment of our country uncomfortable, do we really think the reason for that discomfort and the ability for the American people to handle it is so diminished that we have to trust PBS to make decisions for us when they themselves spent the money to make it?
Respectfully, this is a case of political stupidity run amok and a time when the question of "Why aren't moderate Islamic believers stepping forward to bring their faith away from the fringe" is a very relevant question for Americans to both ask and be informed of. If PBS is now scared to ask that question; fine. But I would encourage you to inquire about what is being done to free this show up to allow it to be shown by a willing party who has the guts to ask such a question.
If not, if PBS is unwilling to allow that, they need to seriously reconsider their structure and conceptual vetting process because $600,000 can make a bigger difference somewhere else than sitting in a dark room.
Respectfully,
Rob B
