Author: Brian

What is it about an orphan that is stunned to find a place of belonging and so much more stunned to lose it that life is weak and breath desperate? We cannot know. We refuse to know any person so alone.

So orphans go. A few luckily kept. Some to war. Many to arguing. And many a star not lit among our blind blue sky. Old is same. Weakening and age takes as much as nothing given and never loved. Orphans and elders is what we say are alike. Skirts on a bird. Pants on a whale. Dust on days.

What is it a dead spouse leaves? Would you say something stupid like life’s lessons? That’s a trite error because marriage isn’t trite. Awhile together is enough to paint our inside, twist our frame, pace our journey, and fuse our view. Awhile alone is enough to wash us bare, bend us more, erase our deeds, and blind our hope. A remaining spouse is another orphan, another old coot. Soot. Dust.

What is it not orphans, not old, not left behind, want so much they forget orphans, old, and left behind? Perhaps wanting belonging. Yes, belonging too.

Warning. Viewer Discretion is Advised

Dinoire met with a number of doctors in the months before her surgery. Her injury occurred while she was sleeping. Dinoire woke up to find that, while unconscious, her nose and lips had been bitten off by her black Labrador — which was ultimately euthanized. It was only when she attempted, in vain, to smoke a cigarette that Dinoire realized she was without half a face.

Face Transplants Can Work and Are Not Medical Oddities

This article says, “you might call it cutting by color“.

“Cancer surgeons today operate “blind” with no clear way of determining in real-time whether they have removed all of the diseased tissue, which is the key to successful surgery.

“Researchers in Massachusetts now report development and early clinical trials of a new imaging system that highlights cancerous tissue in the body so that surgeons can more easily see and remove diseased tissue with less damage to normal tissue near the tumor.

“This technique is really the first time that cancer surgeons can see structures that are otherwise invisible, providing true image-guided surgery.”

How many centuries from cave to river? How many centuries from docks to keys? How many centuries from trade to democracy? How many Presidents keep promises?

The cruel reality, says BusinessWeek, promises are broken:

Here’s one way to figure out how the 2008 election will affect the stock market: Look at the Presidential candidates’ platforms and speeches, and decide whether they would hurt or help particular industries.

Stand on a floor and buy. Stand on a floor and sell. You decide.

Or filibuster.

I learned just now, a filibuster is “An early 17th century term that the English used for a buccaneer in the Caribbean.” The French, the Dutch, also said, “”vrijbuiter” meaning “free looter.” Put that in your pipe!

No, no, it’s not the goofus amongus we worry about. Oh, not anymore, fer sure.

At this point for me, it’s almost like there’s no turning back. And because of my own actions, I watch my kid closer than I think is necessary for her social development. Overprotective? Maybe. It’s kind of sad, really. But this is the information age, and security risks are far different than they used to be.

I’m not hard to find, and I am a proud parent. And just to throw it out there, I will shoot an intruder if you come to my house. Remember that if there are any freaks reading this *looks over shoulder*

That’s so old school, it’s actually embarrassing… but I made my bed and now my family has to lie in it.

I suppose the next step is to educate my child as much as possible eh? Don’t talk to strangers, never open the door, and don’t touch Daddy’s gun. Oh man what have I gotten myself into…

Search icon Danny Sullivan wrote “Being Social Online & Protecting Your Kids”. The comments are interesting too.

yuh sure, great universe and a’ that

Went out with Lucky Lord Barkeley this AM, not 200 feet, in the cold dew, and he’s stung on his hip by a yellow jacket. I thought a thorn, maybe a snake but I was watching and saw no sweeping.

He tailed in zigs and stopped to ask for help, nosing his right butt. Took me minutes to find this burr in his fur.

As soon as he saw it, I crushed it, he ate it, then he ran to bed.

Remember Jack Kennedy asked kids to fix us with a Peace Corps?

Politics made sense and kids like good sense, and peace was a real word.

But bullets killed this man, his brother, and King too, then sunk a generation.

Now it’s propaganda run by idiots hiring fools, so twisted only fools understand it.

While we cower, silly people, angry men remain unable.

Dreaming without editing. It’s Friday.

As if frogs know they’ll be rats, we vote zero government as if the Bible says it’s true. That’s our recent evolution, wot?

Upside-down might be easier to fix than stupid.

There will not be articles in the mainstream media examining McCain’s character. But here’s an article from a fellow POW that knows John McCain. He says, I Spent Years as a POW with John McCain, and His Finger Should Not Be Near the Red Button.

Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60’s and 70’s. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John’s age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years.

I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.

It is also disappointing to see him take on and support Bush’s war in Iraq, even stating we might be there for another 100 years. For me John represents the entrenched and bankrupt policies of Washington-as-usual. The past 7 years have proven to be disastrous for our country. And I believe John’s views on war, foreign policy, economics, environment, health care, education, national infrastructure and other important areas are much the same as those of the Bush administration.

I’m disappointed to see John represent himself politically in ways that are not accurate. He is not a moderate Republican. On some issues he is a maverick. But his voting record is far to the right. I fear for his nominations to our Supreme Court, and the consequent continuing loss of individual freedoms, especially regarding moral and religious issues. John is not a religious person, but he has taken every opportunity to ally himself with some really obnoxious and crazy fundamentalist ministers lately. I was also disappointed to see him cozy up to Bush because I know he hates that man. He disingenuously and famously put his arm around the guy, even after Bush had intensely disrespected him with lies and slander. So on these and many other instances, I don’t see that John is the “straight talk express” he markets himself to be.

Doctor Phillip Butler is a 1961 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a former light-attack carrier pilot. In 1965 he was shot down over North Vietnam where he spent eight years as a prisoner of war. He is a highly decorated combat veteran who was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merits, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Heart medals. After his repatriation in 1973 he earned a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at San Diego and became a Navy Organizational Effectiveness consultant. He completed his Navy career in 1981 as a professor of management at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He is now a peace and justice activist with Veterans for Peace.

For an illuminating comparison, here’s a mainstream examination of John McCain, 25 Things You Might Not Know About McCain. Please note that AP is a wholesale distributor of media products.

Undecided about how you will vote if there is a federal election this fall? New research suggests you may not know your own mind. Yes, we may be able to hide our vote from ourselves!

But I just completed an online test sponsored by Harvard.

You have completed the study
Thank you for your participation. In this study you answered questions about yourself and about the 2008 United States Presidential election.

You also completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) measuring associations between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and John McCain and Barack Obama. Your results for the IAT are reported below.

Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Barack Obama compared to John McCain.

The Italian Vanity Fair has interviewed a half-brother of Barack Obama who is living on a $1 per day in Nigeria. Born to Obama’s father who left when Obama was two. [story]

The Minnesota Star-Tribune reports:

When Cindy McCain talks about growing up, she usually refers to herself as an “only child” — a phrase that ignores the existence of her half-sisters.

“It’s terribly painful,” Kathleen Hensely Portalski said. “It is as if she is the ‘real’ daughter. I am also a real daughter.”

Portalski said she stood quietly by for decades while her father lavished attention on his second family. But the past few months — with Cindy McCain’s repeated references to being her father’s only child — finally became too much. “I was his family, too,” she said from Phoenix.

Cindy McCain has another half-sister, Dixie Burd, by a previous relationship. [story]

Markus Feldenkirchen at Spiegel writes:

If Barack Obama accomplished one thing in Berlin, it was to make it painfully obvious just how uninspiring German politicians are.

And our crop of politicians are picayune too. It’s audacious to seek leadership without the will and the skill of taking us to a better place.

The ‘technocracy’ of this 2008 election annoys me. McCain will tweak a tax policy, a healthcare rule, and appoint pro-life department heads, grumping into the future under a herald of cynicism and war! Who cares?

A leader inspires. We carry out the work. Obama is asking us to choose a better future.

This is probably as important as picking up a cigarette butt to keep the earth green, but it’s a note about creative merchandising.

Selling one’s vote is prohibited by federal law and also by most states.

So in order to penalize a 19-year-old student who, in May, posted his vote for sale on eBay for a bid of 10 dollars, state authorities in the northern state of Minnesota resorted to a law passed back in 1893, and actively enforced during the Prohibition Era years later, to punish people who tried to sell their votes against alcohol.

“When we see these listings we definitely take them down,” said England.

The eBay site records about seven million new articles for sale each day and on average posts about 112 million items for sale at any given moment. Given that volume of activity, patrolling for illegal posts presents a challenge.

“It’s possible that someone would put a listing up, it’s possible to be up for a couple of hours before we catch it. It’s possible that for a brief period of time something might actually be visible on the site,” she said.

“We are very clear, if you engage in illegal activity on our site, we absolutely will share information with law enforcement. We provide testimony in court.”

The Minnesota man was charged with corruption and solicitation, criminal charges that could have cost him up to five years in jail and a 10,000-dollar fine. But he was sentenced at the end of July to just 50 hours of community service.

More recently, a Maryland resident posted his vote for a starting bid of 3.99. [story here]

Next thing you know because bacteria lives longer in a petri dish of reversatrol somebody will be selling life extension pills.

Methinks love goes places.

Have you ever done skunk?
There’s a Gulag in every skunk.
Tonight’s my third lifetime imprisonment.

My Spaniel Lucky was sprayed tonight. I can say now that I’m damn near professional. When I’m older I’ll tell somebody each of the stories.

Dr. Caceci of Texas A&M University knows there is a great de-skunk discovery for removing skunk odor:

Forget what you have heard about tomato juice–vinegar— it doesn’t work.

Skunk spray is mainly composed of low molecular weight thiol compounds. (“Thiols” are compounds with the “-SH radical” attached to a carbon atom.) In industrial applications, alkaline hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is used for scrubbing similar compounds from waste gas streams.

Hydrogen peroxide and baking soda, when combined, become a “chemical engine” for churning out oxygen. The soap breaks up the oils in the skunk spray, allowing the other ingredients to do their work.

Rinse well.

Odor’s gone!

The Skunk Remedy Recipe

In a plastic bucket, mix well the following ingredients:

1 quart of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

1/4 cup of baking soda

1 to 2 teaspoons liquid soap

Discovered and first tested by Paul Krebaum, Last Update: 10/08/02

StylishWeb posts three dozen pics of monkeys.

It’s an experience.
Faces and expressions.
Provocative and interesting.

And, of course, every kid under 100 will have fun too.

Top CEOs Give 10 Times More To McCain Than Obama; McCain Promises Huge Tax Breaks For Them In Return

McCain has cultivated support from mega-corporations by promising to dole out huge tax breaks in return should he win the presidency.

McCain’s plan to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent would yield $45 billion in tax breaks for the 200 largest corporations:

Eight companies — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Bank of America Corp., AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Microsoft Corp. — would each receive over $1 billion a year.

McCain would deliver about $4 billion in tax cuts to the five largest oil companies.

He would also hand over $2 billion to the top 10 health insurance companies.

Editor, International Herald Tribune:

Here is a crazy idea to address the United States’ gaping fiscal deficit: Persuade corporate America to start paying taxes.

I think we can chalk this up and just let it go by:

In the beginning, he attracted competent people to his cabinet and promised to tackle longstanding problems, including the spread of madrasas, the religious schools that had become breeding grounds of Islamic extremists.

But the madrasas remained untouched, mainly because Musharraf handed the task to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which was opposed to the plan, said Jehangir Tareen, a former minister of industries and special projects in the cabinet.

Musharraf did back some important changes in the news media and the rights of women, his supporters and critics agree. Now, dozens of private television stations exist, many of them with rambunctious political talk shows. He also moved to improve the status of women by pushing for the amendment of strict Islamic laws.

“Musharraf tried to construct a modern, enlightened state,” Tareen said. “But he proved you cannot do this on the structure of a patronage-riven and police-oriented political machine.”

Is there an ‘x’ number of idiots taking up good seats of leadership that one of these days we’ll just fix it? Rambunctious has always been one of my favorite words.

America’s back in the Cold War and W.’s back on vacation.

Talk about your fearful symmetry.

After eight years, the president’s gut remains gullible. He’ll go out as he came in – ignoring reality; failing to foresee, prevent or even prepare for disasters; misinterpreting intelligence reports; misreading people; and handling crises in ways that makes them exponentially worse.

He has spent 470 days of his presidency kicking back at his ranch, and 450 days cavorting at Camp David. And there’s still time to mountain-bike through another historic disaster.

I really like this sentence: “He’ll go out as he came in – ignoring reality; failing to foresee, prevent or even prepare for disasters; misinterpreting intelligence reports; misreading people; and handling crises in ways that makes them exponentially worse.”

It is not easy bringing new to day.

The most long labor.
The remaining take packages home.

Maybe another Augustine will say this is sin.

Of course it is.

There’s no church, no government, no creed, unless joy.

This is the challenge for politicians and diplomats: strategic military hostility and confrontation must remain a thing of the past.

General Sir Mike Jackson

I am ashamed of this article and cull this post to point out how lame we are.

How To Fix The World – Forbes.com
“We have to revive a culture of innovation and repair.”

What?! You were doing something else?

India.

Friends.
Just sayin’
Much available.

NBC: He’s 23. Can you tell him what to do?

MOM: We’re collaborative.