Month: October 2008

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” – Mark Twain

Harrod’s is selling this Teddy Bear sofa. At first I was delighted and then I realized I would feel cruel sitting on these sweet bears.

The art Hummer by Matthew Harrison truly shows the conflict in the USA economy today, ey wot?

In a nutshell, we pay for services, not for results; and bad results actually increase the profits of providers, because they generate more services. – Cervantes, Health Sociologist

Knock it off. It’s not right. The American people are not running against each other for office… [Danny Sullivan, search techno leader]

Stupid stupid wingers, so inflamed to merely win, fail to see simple principles in the slogans cemented to their thoughts.

The grandfather of market theory Adam Smith said,

“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. . . . The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. . . .

It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”

The ultra-rich bajillionaire Warren Buffett “blasts the system” that lets him pay less tax than his secretary.

Class is open in Europe, Canada and Mexico, but hidden in the USA. We know nothing about the rich.

This election seems like parents arguing if spanking is a good thing. Our nation is better than that.

Todd and Sarah are unabashedly asking “for God’s intervention” on election day.

About God on election day, Sarah says “God will do the right thing on election day.”

“It is that intercession that is so needed. And so greatly appreciated.

“And I can feel it too…

“I can feel the power of prayer, and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation.

“And I so appreciate it.”

define:unabashed

Mark Morford:

I’m told it is sometimes helpful to project outside yourself, to mess with your own ideological boundaries, to attempt, however exasperatingly and however much it makes you want to hose yourself down with the cool fire of intellectual clarity afterwards, to enter the minds of your enemies, or those with whom you merely disagree, or — perhaps most challenging of all — with those whose mental gyrations you simply cannot fathom in the slightest.

Strong and optimistic? Yes. Only with vision and decision.

We must be strong at home to be strong abroad – that is the lesson of our history. – Barack Obama

John Ralston Saul

“I’ve talked to several Supreme Court justices, several times in several countries and I say, look, in your rulings, can you differentiate easily in cases between the social contract and the commercial contract, and to which the answer is, we can no longer differentiate. And that lies at the heart of the problem.

“You don’t have the concept of the other, and of obligation of the individual leading to individualism.

‘You can’t have that if the whole legal system has slipped over the last, really, 50 years, increasingly, to a confusion between the social contract and the commercial contract. Because they are two completely different things.

“The social contract is about the public good, responsible individualism, imagining the other. The commercial contract is a commercial contract. They’re not supposed to be confused. They don’t actually fit together.

“The commercial contract only works properly when the social contract also works in a democracy.”

I laughed when I believed future history will call us Limbos in the same way history called them Luddite.

Hate Radio is as real and will be forever noticed.

To make easy victory the angry fool yells ‘Kill Him’ near our Secret Service, while our wealth is slipping away and while the world scorns us not for our dead but its dead.

We compete in falsity to only win pride. Does fear do this? No. Only lies make fools. Is superstition against reason? No. Our thinking is losing to simple dominance.

What horrid shame is poor freedom?
Reporters Without Borders, burdened with a checkered pedigree, tells us that our nation ranks only 46 of 169 for a free press. See Reporters sans frontières – Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index.

In good Virginia, are they waking?
The Newport News Daily Press headline says, October 21, 2008, “Government Lies Are The New Normal”.

Fear, which had cut through us like a hot poker, became instead a low- grade fever, ambient noise, wallpaper, something you feel without feeling, hear without hearing, see without seeing.

Then you look up one day and realize how profoundly that fear has changed your world.

Is losing normal?
A good American replies,

“I would rather be killed by a terrorist than oppressed by my own government.”

Other good American friends also say:

1. I only fear that we will wait too long and sacrifice too much of our freedom and self respect as a people before standing up to the deceit, tyranny, and oppression that is becoming so commonplace.
2. I don’t know what people are talking about. The war on terror has not affected me one iota. However, it sure has made life miserable for terrorists! Which is great! I don’t care if the ragheads have to suffer. They started it and by God, we’ll finish it.
3. For all the reasons we initially broke away from England can now be leveled our own “elected” Government. The Red and the Blue have been screwing you, and its been going on for 50 years. Think about it, All of the major issues that face this country back then are the same things the politcians run on today. Nothing has really changed except that now more wealth is concentrated to 1% of the Population.

“So what is a Limbo”, a future student asks?

A good person trapped in anger, failed by style, poor often, saying nothing.

Suicides for whites ages 40 to 64 rose between 1999 to 2005.

Middle-age white men rose 16% to 26.9 per 100,000 in 2005, from 23.1 per 100,000 in 1999. For white women in that age group, the rate rose 19%. For black men ages 40 to 64, the rate rose 5% to 10.4 per 100,000 from 9.9 per 100,000, and for black women in that age group, the rate rose 14%. Researchers found little or no change in the suicide rates for three other age groups: 10 to 19, 20 to 29, and over 65.

‘Palin Think’

Sarah Palin says If Ice Melts, Polar Bears Can Adapt!

Sarah Palin’s wisdom is cold and polar. Without study. Without empathy. Without regard. Without success.

“Palin has the most anti-environment record of any governor in the US.” [link UK’s Telegraph]

But don’t worry. Sarah says if she’s elected she’ll be in charge of the Senate!

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: They’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

It’s easier to relate to people than to countries.

Chinese show extreme napping
A German photographer has spent six years taking photographs of Chinese people sleeping in any position and situation.

“Dear Visitor,

I gotta warn you! Before you click through my large collection of photos, you should not forget, what you hear and read daily in the media of your home country about the booming China.

Very often with a strange kind of undertone which is supposed to frighten us, they talk about “The Sleeping Giant”. About “The Birth of the New Super Power” or “Awaken of the Red Dragon”.

The reality looks definitely more peaceful.

Since years I am fascinated by the country and the people. Whenever I linger through the boomtown Shanghai, I carry my snap shot camera with me. Because at every corner you can discover people that either are napping in the strangest positions and situations, or are even snoring, while sunk in a deep sleep. Noteworthy are the missing mattresses and pillows!

The calmness, the flexibility and the adaptability of the ones, who are jointly responsible for the revival of China, are fascinating me. I would be happy, if I can bring over some of these feelings to you.

Enjoy now a selection of my already over 600 photos large collection of SLEEPINGCHINESE.”

Pardon me for asking, but if they’re too big to fail, they’re too big, period. – Robert Reich

Seriously, what in the fuck is it with John McCain and beauty queens? His first wife, Carol Shepp McCain, was a swimwear model. But she got into an automobile accident and became only normally attractive, so he cheated on her with a 17 years younger beauty pageant winner named Cindy Hensley, whom he ended up divorcing Carol for and marrying. Then she got to be middle aged and a little plastic looking, and what do you know, McCain starts being seen everywhere he goes with, and doing some potentially lucrative favors for, a cheerleader turned bribe lobbyist, named Vicki Iseman, who’s 13 years younger than Cindy. He gets outed on that, cuts off ties with her, and then a couple of months later (after viciously humiliating his wife in front of a group of bikers, to her face) he picks as his “running mate” yet another beauty pageant winner who’s almost half his age.

From NowPublic:

This documentation includes slave schedules from Sept. 8, 1860, which list as the slave owner, “W.A. McCain.” The schedules list the McCain family’s slaves in the customary manner of the day — including their age, gender and “color,” labelling each either “black” or “mulatto.” The slaves ranged in age from 6 months to 60 years.

Douglas A. Blackmon, author of Slavery By Another Name, which tells of a form of slavery extended well into the Twentieth Century until the start of World War II, through the use of the prison camp system that existed throughout the Southern states in the United States, wrote an article, Two Families Named McCain, that appeared at the Wall Street Journal online on October 17, 2008.

“Too much of the United State’s counterterrorism security spending is not designed to protect us from the terrorists; but instead to protect public officials from criticism when another attack occurs.”

Read this twice!
“Too much of the United State’s counterterrorism security spending is not designed to protect us from the terrorists; but instead to protect public officials from criticism when another attack occurs.”

“There is a perception in both the private and government sector, that security, both physical and digital, is something you can buy. Witness the mammoth growth of airport security products following 9/11, and the sheer number of vendors at security conferences. With that, government officials and corporate executives often think you can simply buy products and magically get instant security by flipping on the switch. The reality is that security is not something you can buy; it is something you must get.”

“The Bush administration has little by little eroded the Constitution, all in the name of fighting terrorism.”

Bruce Schneier

Oh. If you study treachery; if you are American you study treachery, please also look at this, Publicly-funded self promotion, and be 100% certain only blogs and decent Editors will bring you this link.

“We have received a letter from Senator John McCain with a request for a financial donation to his presidential election campaign. In this respect we have to reiterate that neither Russia’s permanent mission to the UN nor the Russian government or its officials finance political activities in foreign countries.” – Russian envoy to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin [story]

In its major assessment of the global economy’s health, Deutsche Bank also warned that Britain is even more vulnerable than the US or the euro area, as it predicted that the powerhouses of India and China would fail to support the wider global economy through the downturn.

The banks’ economists Thomas Mayer and Peter Hooper said: “We now expect a major recession for the world economy over the year ahead, with growth in the industrial countries falling to its lowest level since the Great Depression and global growth falling to 1.2pc, its lowest level since the severe downturn of the early 1980s.”

According to the International Monetary Fund, global growth of anything less than 3pc constitutes a world recession. The warning was echoed by Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley, who said: “A global recession is now under way, and risks are still pointed to the downside for commodity prices and earnings.”[The Telegraph]

They say Bush has made noise about new solutions upholding ‘free markets’, but the Europeans sum up their reaction to him:

“We cannot continue along the same lines because the same problems will trigger the same disasters.

“This sort of capitalism is a betrayal of the sort of capitalism we believe in.”

About 300 people set out to complete the Pacific Crest Trail [wiki] in a single season, and roughly 60 percent make it. Claire Porter, 26, University of graduate student who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of those people. [story]

In just over 5 months, Porter hiked 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada, traveling most of it alone.

Aside from the beauty through which I walk daily, I think I have finally hit my hiking stride. I know, it certainly took me long enough. I just celebrated 4 months on trail. I have finally allowed myself to slow down to 20 miles a day. As my friends continually remind me, 20 miles is not really “slow.” But, I have had trouble quieting the fiercely competitive side of my nature. Starting around northern California, the faster of my fellow PCT hikers began catching me in earnest. They all had started 3-4 weeks after me, so, needless to say, I couldn’t keep up with them. I tried, and only succeeded in running myself into the ground.

On the other hand, that time has slowly taught me to believe that which I’ve always said: this is my journey, not a race. I am not a failure for not being the best. In fact, this whole endeavor lot more fun when I let my body enjoy itself. It’s extraordinarily odd how I compare myself so harshly to those around me. I seem to wrap my whole self-esteem around success in competition.

I know it’s not just me. Everyone makes the same comparisons; it’s part of our nature. I’m glad to have had this opportunity to learn (again) how to let go of that judgmental view. I think I must be a slow learner, since I’ve had the same opportunity umpteen billion times before!

An endless balance between ambition and self-esteem.

The best thing about separating my performance from my own sense of self-worth is that the only way I can ever fail at something is not to try at all.

500 miles left…

Walking the Wild Coast
Erin and Hig walked 4,000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands in less than a year.

Their Ground Truth blog starts here.

“This is our crazy plan. This coming June, we plan to walk from our house in Seattle to Unimak Island (the first Aleutian Island, near False Pass, AK).

“It’s about 4000 miles, through some of the most rugged terrain in North America.

“We’ll be carrying small packrafts to cross rivers and bays and fjords along the way. It’s going to take us 9 months, which means that even though we’ll start in June 2007, we won’t finish until 2008, and will have to deal with the fall downpours in the rainforests of Southeast Alaska, as well as the winter storms on the Alaska Peninsula.

“Why are we doing this? It’ll be an awesome adventure and a whole lot of fun.”

A Time of Gifts
A literary fellow, Patrick Leigh Fermor, walked from Rotterdam to Istanbul in the 1930s. What did he say?

“Melancholy is exorcised, chaos chased away and wellbeing, alacrity of spirit and a thoughtful calm take their place.”

“I’m fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there’s a wider argument that if somebody desperately wants to die because they’re a burden to their family, or the State, then I think they, too, should be allowed to die.” – Baroness Warnock, a leading British medical ethicist

‘It really is a crazy sight and some don’t even understand how Kevin survives an encounter like that. But maybe he has a magical touch that only a wild animal could possibly understand.’

Kevin Richardson is an animal behaviorist and physiologist at the Lion Park in South Africa. What he calls play many would call madness. Kevin’s daily routine involves working quite intimately with lions, jaguar and hyenas, which he has helped hand raise since they were six months old. [interview] [pics & story at Daily Mail]

This is the first image of Earth ever taken from the surface of a planet.

Mars Rover Opportunity large pic at solarviews
Earth from the Moon is here.

Headline:
Woman walks through market holding severed head of man who tried to rape her.

Crowds in a busy market fled in terror as a woman walked among them holding aloft the severed head of a man who had attacked her.

Covered in blood, she held the head high like a trophy, said police – her way of showing that she had delivered her own kind of justice to her attacker.

The gruesome scene was played out in Makkapurva village, India.

Daily Mail

According to police officer Ram Bharose, the unnamed 35-year-old woman had sliced off the man’s head with a sickle she had been using to cut grass near her village.

‘She was getting grass for her cattle when the man came up from behind her and tried to sexually assault her,’ said Mr Bharose.

‘In a bid to save her dignity, she turned on him and during a struggle managed to chop off his head with the sickle.

‘We have no doubts about her story because she had bite marks on her neck and cheek when the man tried to take advantage of her sexually.’