Prescott

We had a great Saturday. Started off by Alex's kickball game at 9:00, we headed straight from there to Prescott and to the Gurley St. Grill to have lunch with my friends from my Sierra Club trip, Cat and Ralph. Very good food ... I recommend the lettuce wraps.

But the true highlight of the day was the opportunity presented to us by Cat's husband, Hal, to go flying. Hal has been flying since he was 14 and owns a couple of his own planes. We took off from the Prescott airport in their Beechcraft:


We flew north to Chino Valley and Paulden and then headed east to Sedona:


Anyone that has been to Sedona realizes how beautiful it is there ... but you do not realize how much you are missing. Flying over the red cliffs at about 1000 feet gives you an even greater appreciation and allows you to see views that you just cannot get driving.

Alex had a blast but all the excitement eventually caught up with him:


Many thanks to Hal and Cat for taking us up.

Cronies

Not a banner day for cronies. First, Brownie's unflattering e-mail comments came to light:

• "I got it at Nordstroms...Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?"
• "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
• advice on ordering at Sonic: "Order a #2, tater tots, large diet cherry limeade."

Then Republican hack, Ken Tomlinson, resigned his post at the Center for Public Broadcasting. As Free Press executive director Josh Silver was quoted: “It’s time to clean house at CPB. We need to get the politics out and put the public back in public broadcasting.” Amen, brother.

And all this after Harriet Miers getting shot down last week. It's time for the ultimate cronies, Cheney and Rove, to be shown the door. Is it too much to ask that people be hired because they are the most qualified and the smartest? And not because they are big fundraisers or because they've been carrying the water for your family since the dawn of time.

Poverty

"Just as Hurricane Katrina destroyed lives and communities, it also demolished the illusion that the challenges facing poor families and neighborhoods are “somebody else’s” problems. ... many Americans may recognize a new reality: poverty must be our entire nation’s concern. Some may even understand in a new way that their own hometowns face similar challenges ..." -- F Barton Harvey of the Enterprise Foundation

We're too used to being able to ignore poverty because it was only something that occurred in other countries. We see people starving in Africa, but only in the abstract. It doesn't affect our daily lives. But when Katrina came, the scenes we saw on our television looked like they could have been Somalia.

Poverty isn't something that's happened over night. So, you can't blame it on one administration. But some administrations are better than others at addressing it. The media largely ignores the problem. When they do say something, it's misleading. For example, famous tool Bill O'Reilly said, "... halfway through President Clinton's tenure in office in 1996, the poverty rate was 13.7 percent. Halfway through President Bush's tenure, the rate is 12.7 percent, a full point lower". Technically correct but misleading. As David Brock of Media Matters shows, "During the Clinton presidency, the poverty rate fell from 15.1 percent in 1993 to a low of 11.3 percent in 2000; it has risen every year that Bush has been in office, from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 12.7 percent in 2004." So, while the mid-term averages would lead you to believe that Bush was doing more than Clinton did, the truth is exactly the opposite. Clinton took office with a high rate given to him by the elder Bush and successfully lowered by almost 4 percentage points. Bush, given a lower poverty rate, does the exact opposite. For more info: Media Matters

"Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. This administration declares unconditional war on poverty in America." -- Lyndon Johnson

You wonder why Kanye West says that the President doesn't care about black people and then you hear him say, ,"I was disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African-American community. I was. I’ve done my best to elevate people to positions of authority and responsibility — not just positions, but positions where they can actually make a difference in the lives of people. I put people in my Cabinet. I put people in my sub-Cabinet.". He sounds more concerned with getting votes than with helping anyone.

US poverty: chronic ill, little hope for cure

Here are the facts:

• Since 2000, the ranks of the poor have increased year by year by almost 5.5 million in total
• Today, 33% of black children live in families under the poverty level.
• Last year, African American households had the lowest median income of any racial group ($30134), down a full percentage point from the year before.
• The unemployment rate for African-Americans is double the rate for white Americans. Over the past six months, the average unemployment rate for white Americans was 4.39 percent; for black Americans, it was 10.06 percent.
• Poverty is a universal problem, as is inequality. The world's 500 richest people, according to U.N. statistics, have as much income as the world's poorest 416 million.
  
  Statistics and quote from: Think Progress
  

"The federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won." -- Ronald Reagan in 1988

What can we do?

Raise the minimum wage -- From Think Progress:

• 4.3 million: Number of Americans who have fallen into poverty since President Bush took office
• $5.15: Federal minimum wage
• $5,000: Amount below the poverty level working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at minimum wage will leave a family of three
• 7,300,000: Number of workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage
• 72%: Percentage of adult workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage
• 1,800,000: Number of parents with kids under the age of 18 who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage
• 11 million: Number of jobs added to the economy in the four years after the last minimum wage hike
• 2.5 years: Amount of health care for two children which could be bought by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25
• 86%: Percentage of Americans who support raising the federal minimum wage
  
  

Mr. Harvey of the Enterprise Foundation in his paper, Ending Concentrated Poverty, goes into some of the causes of US poverty:

What has caused concentrated poverty:

• deindustrialization
• globalization
• suburban development that does not included poor and minority families

The above have all eroded the job base in the heart of cities. But he has several workable, proven solutions:

• enhance access to opportunity for low-income families
  - housing choice vouchers to help with rent in communities they choose or to help with mortgages
• rebuild and reinvest in a smart, sustainable way
  - "private-public partnerships to turn dysfunctional environments into healthier communities"
• ensure meaningful decision-making roles for low-income people

We cannot be considered a civilized society if we continue to leave a larger and larger segment of our population behind. We talk about being proud to be an American because fight wars in foreign lands. We need to be proud to be an American because we're fighting a war here ... against racism and poverty.

Without Training Wheels

On Cyberkitten's blog, we've been discussing the meaning of life. Well, I can think of no better one than my son. Alex learned how to ride his bike without training wheels today. The meaning of my life is to try to be a good example for him and to try in whatever way I can to make the world that he grows up in a better one than the one I did.



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Went to the Thunderbird Balloon Classic with Alex Friday night and had a great time. Click the image for a page with more pics:

Gonorrhea Lectim

The Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of sexually transmitted disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous and high risk behavior.

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him").

Many victims contracted it in 2004, after having been screwed for the past 4 years, in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease. Cognitive sequelae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to:
. anti-social personality disorder traits;
. delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavor;
. chronic mangling of the English language;
. extreme cognitive dissonance;
. inability to incorporate new information;
. pronounced xenophobia;
. inability to accept responsibility for actions;
. exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado;
. uncontrolled facial smirking;
. ignorance of geography and history;
. tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies; and
. a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behavior.

The disease is sweeping Washington. Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed and baffled that this malignant disease, which originated only a few years ago from a Bush in Texas.


*** Ed. note -- didn't mean to cheapen the discussion with a joke. But I couldn't resist (dbackdad) ***

Meaning of Life / Free Will

While we're in the religious discussion mood, I highly recommend a couple of current discussions going on at a couple of my favorite bloggers:

• Is The Meaning of Life 42? - a twist on the normal "meaning of life" question

• A simple question... - a discussion about free will

Devolution

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." -- (Albert Einstein, Religion and Science, New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930

51% of Americans do not believe they evolved ... 15% agree (that those 51% didn't evolve) (grin)

Majority of Americans Reject Theory of Evolution

Do these numbers provide affirmation to Creationism? Creationists may think so. I don't.

Other "Christian" countries don't think so either:
Comparing U.S. Religious Beliefs with other "Christian" Countries

Educators don't think so:
National groups won't let Kansas use materials in science standards

What DO these numbers tell us?

• Our science education is not what it should be. Our public education system is being abandoned and more and more kids are going to private Christian schools.
• Other countries better understand what a secular government is (our country once did)
• We value dogma over learning and inquisitiveness. We've become a country of anti-intellectual pride.
  

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." -- (Albert Einstein, 1954)

"I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature." -- (Albert Einstein, The World as I See It)

Rosa Parks

An icon has died:

Rosa Parks: 1913 - 2005

Hypocrite of the Day

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday on Meet the Press:

Ms. Hutchison said she hoped “that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.”

Ms. Hutchison in 1999 during the Clinton impeachment:

[S]omething needs to be said that is a clear message that our rule of law is intact and the standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray. And I think it is most important that we make that statement and that it be on the record for history.

I very much worry that with the evidence that we have seen that grand juries across America are going to start asking questions about what is obstruction of justice, what is perjury. And I don’t want there to be any lessening of the standard. Because our system of criminal justice depends on people telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That is the lynch pin of our criminal justice system and I don’t want it to be faded in any way.

Apparently it's only perjury if it's the other party in power.

Quirks

Thanks to Sadie and Jewish Atheist for passing this on to me to do ... so here goes. My strange habits and quirks:

1) I'm pretty compulsive about being early for appointments and for never taking sick days. I think it's the residue of a midwestern work ethic inherited from my dad.

2) I will finish every book or movie I start regardless of how wretched it is. I don't know if it's just another ethics thing about finishing what you start or if I feel that their is some redeeming quality in just about anything.

3) I LOVE going to auctions. It's the atmosphere, the competition, the white-trash huckster element. It can be for anything ... antiques, furniture, whatever. I used to work at an auction house when I was a teen and I was fascinated by the behind-the-scene things that went on then and that I can see going on now as a participant.

4) If I have the time and the TV remote, I will watch absolutely any televised sporting event. I find golf entertaining. I'd watch professional lawn darts or competitive tiddlywinks.

5) I love pickles but hate them on hamburgers. I will pick them off, eat them, and then eat the hamburger. I think it's because I don't think that hamburgers should be crunchy.

6) I don't really like mustard but if I'm eating a corn dog, I have to have it with mustard. Ketchup just will not work.

7) I'm compulsive about book, CD, DVD collecting. I have entirely too many of each (800+ books, 300+ CD's, 200+ DVD's). But I can't get rid of any. I always feel that I'll read, watch, listen to it someday. That means I still have a couple of Extreme (you know ... "More than Words" -- gag me) CD's that I just can't bring myself to dispose of.

8) Among my books, I have probably 100 books on chess! And I never play anyone. But if Gary Kasparov ever came to my house, I could probably give him a good game.

9) I've kept the tickets from every concert, sporting event, movie that I've ever went to. I keep saying that I'll put them in topical scrapbooks some day. And exactly who would that ever be interesting to?

OK, not the limits of my weirdness, but the most obvious ones that I can think of right now. Eric, Josh, and Isabella, consider yourselves tagged.

Michael Ledeen

If you want to know about neo-conservatism, and specifically the biggest American proponent of it, check out Shaw's outstanding post at Progressive Eruptions. It's very comprehensive:

The Most Dangerous Man in America, Michael Ledeen

FEMA

If you want to get even more of an idea how out of touch the leadership of FEMA was during Katrina (and a clue to what they really feel is important), check out the following e-mail exchange transcripts provided at a Senate hearing by regional director Marty Bahamonde:

Excerpts from e-mails among Federal Emergency Management officials during Hurricane Katrina: (Note: All times CDT)

_Marty Bahamonde, regional director for New England to David Passey, regional director for the Gulf Coast, Aug. 28, 4:46 p.m.

_Bahamonde to Deborah Wing, FEMA response specialist, Aug 28, 5:28 p.m.

_Passey to group, Aug 28, 7:16 p.m.

_Passey to Bahamonde, Aug. 28, 9:58 p.m.

_Bahamonde to Michael Heath, FEMA official, Aug. 29, 7:33 a.m.

_Bahamonde to Nicole Andrews, FEMA spokeswoman, Aug. 30, 7:02 a.m.

_Bahamonde to FEMA Director Michael Brown, Aug. 31, 11:20 a.m.

Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes.

_Sharon Worthy, Brown‘s press secretary, to Cindy Taylor, FEMA deputy director of public affairs, and others, Aug. 31, 2 p.m.

"Also, it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner. Gievn (sic) that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to get to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc.

_Bahamonde to Taylor and Michael Widomski, public affairs, Aug. 31, 2:44 p.m.

"OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! No won‘t go any further, too easy of a target. Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy restaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move my pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don‘t stab me in the back while I try to sleep.

_Bahamonde to Taylor, Sept. 3, 1:06 a.m.

"The leadership from top down in our agency is unprepared and out of touch. ... But while I am horrified at some of the cluelessness and self concern that persists, I try to focus on those that have put their lives on hold to help people that they have never met and never will. And while I sometimes think that I can‘t work in this arena, I can‘t get out of my head the visions of children and babies I saw sitting there, helpless, looking at me and hoping I could make a difference and so I will and you must to."

From the Herald News Daily



This would be funny if it didn't involve people dying. This morally bankrupt group of "Mayberry Machiavellians" makes me want to puke.

Angry White Male

Here's to you .... that unrepresented, descriminated-against minority: the angry, white, middle-aged male. Your heroes are Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. You are angry and you don't even know why. As Thomas Frank describes it in What's the Matter with Kansas:

"Everything seems to piss conservatives off. And they react by documenting and cataloging their disgust. The result is what we will call the plen-T-plaint, a curious amassing of petty, unrelated beefs with the world. Its purpose is not really to evaluate the hated liberal culture that surrounds us; the plen-T-plaint is a horizontal rather than vertical mode of criticism, aiming instead to infuriate us with dozens, hundreds, thousands of stories of the many tiny ways the world around us assaults family values, uses obscenities, disrespects parents[...] It offers no resolution, simply reminding us that we can never win. The plen-T-plaint is the rhetorical device that makes Bill O'Reilly's TV show a hit, as he gets indignant one day about the Insane Clown Posse and gets indignant the next about the Man-Boy Love Association [NAMBLA]."

Your flushed red face and spittle are palpable even on talk radio. I have to wipe my down my radio after you are done. You are unhappy with what you've done with your life and you are going to take it out on everyone else.

You feel you have a God-given right to the 350 years of white supremacy and unearned privilege. Just because you screwed up what you were given doesn't matter. You rail against affirmative action yet you have no problem with our president (who couldn't get into college in Texas) being let into Yale because of his daddy.

Well, I will tell you what. Angry, white, middle-age male ... you don't represent me, and you don't represent my friend, the Great White Bear.

==============================================================

Speaking of Bill O'Reilly, he was the guest on the Daily Show yesterday. And as usual, Stewart killed!!! I have no idea why O'Reilly even agreed to be on the show. While being courteous and funny, Stewart still managed to allow Bill to look like an out-of-touch idiot:


Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart

==============================================================

You want to know why we're screwing up in Iraq? Here's a pretty good analysis, and it's not from some left-wing site. It's from the American Conservative:

Billions of dollars have disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets.

Some of the highlights:

• at least $20 billion of the Iraqi people's money and hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money have been wasted
• young, unqualified Heritage Foundation neo-cons were given high ranking jobs and payed 6 figure salaries
• 363 tons of hundred dollar bills were distributed to contractors and middlemen with virtually no accountability

When the final accounting of the corruption in Iraq comes out, hopefully Americans will take to task those responsible.

Apathy

"Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent." -- Bruno Jasienski

Fear is a big thing now days. Fear of terrorists. Fear of natural disaster. Fear of avian flu. If we're always scared, then we'll look the other way when our freedoms are being taken. But the thing we really need to fear is apathy. We can't become so desensitized to death in Iraq that we don't care about the war any more. We can't become so desensitized to corruption in government that we stop being critical of it.

I've seen it bandied about too much on some of our blogs that because Bush won the election, that must mean he was given tacit approval for the way in which he runs government. He won because of the fear and apathy I've mentioned before. People were afraid of terrorism and they felt that Bush presented the best choice for handling it. They became so blinded by single issues (abortion, gun rights) that they hurt themselves economically. As Thomas Frank says in What's the Matter with Kansas, "By separating class from economics, [those leading the cultural backlash] have built a Republican friendly alternative for the disgruntled blue-collar American." How else could you explain that a Yale/Harvard/Skull and Bones blueblood with a multi-millionaire Washington insider dad could be viewed as a man of the people?

I've also seen it said in many places (TV and otherwise), that because Bush is a "man of God", then all is well. I know personally many people that voted for Bush that practically believe that he can walk on water. Anything short of them personally witnessing the President killing someone is OK and they will rationalize imperialism, corruption, torture, you name it. This mass cognitive dissonance is astounding. They will continually adjust their beliefs to try and match it to the reality around them. And they will deny they are doing it.

And our media, god bless them, are worthless. They are too chicken-shit to do any actual investigative work because of their ties to the corporations that own them. And those outlets that are in bed with the government (FOX) show their indignation with government corruption by lamenting that it is being exposed at all. Bill O'Reilly is a piece of work. He worries that government indictments will hurt the country. William "first family of neo-conservatism" Kristol thinks that the "criminalization of politics that’s really gotten totally out of hand". It does not bother them at all what has created the situation. To them, all is fair in politics. Is that what our representative democracy was supposed to be?

It's not our job to blindly follow everything our government says. There is no reason to believe everything that they tell us when they are proven again and again to be lying to us. There is no reason to believe that they are better informed than we are. And we should not stand by idly and assume that things will be taken care of by someone else. Be informed. Be vigilant.

"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." -- US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

Wag the Dog

Is it just me, or is this just a little too like Wag the Dog:

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged



What does it say about your democracy when the only way that you can speak to the people is by carefully creating the situation and coaching the response?

**UPDATE** More from Think Progress indicates that even the questions themselves were staged:
Video: Pentagon Aide Admits Having “Drilled Through” Questions For Photo-Op



Speaking of polticial movies, what are some of your faves? Mine in no particular order:

Bob Roberts
Bulworth
Fahrenheit 9/11
Dr. Strangelove
Wag the Dog
Bowling for Columbine
Election
All the President's Men
Primary Colors
JFK
Fog of War

It's a pretty broad definition. Technically, Schindler's List (one of my all-time favorite movies) could be considered political. But I'm trying to confine the list to those directly associated with politicians or the government.

Also, you'll have to forgive me for not including the following ... but I've yet to see them (I know ... shoot me):

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Manchurian Candidate
Candidate
Citizen Kane

John Muir quotes

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

"Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you."

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools." -- I know ... an ironic quote from me. It's still a good quote. It's the thought that counts.

John Muir -- famed conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club

Sierra Club Service Trip -- Elgin, AZ

"Do not ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive". -- Harold Whitman (told to me by new dear friend Cat Hayden)

My vacation/service trip with the Sierra Club was a rousing success. Not only did I have a great time, I feel that we did some good.


During last week, a group of 10 Sierra Club members stayed and volunteered at an Audubon Society Research Ranch in southern Arizona. Our work consisted of upgrading and repairing fences on the property so as to allow the local species (deer and pronghorn) to pass the boundaries without being injured. In addition, we collected native grass seeds and transplanted native grasses into areas where they had been pushed out by exotic plants.


We had several guest speakers that had knowledge that placed them at the top of their fields. But the most impressive thing about them was their enthusiasm and willingness to give us some of that knowledge. The first was Ron Probst of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. He presented a slide show and afterwards we observed firsthand many celestial objects with the telescope that he had brought. I'm a big science/space nut and I was in my element with this speaker.


The next speaker was Homer Hansen, an environmental scientist but whose hobbies (and vast knowledge) extend way beyond that. Besides being on many committees in Southern Arizona concerning environmental issues, he is an expert on bats and birds. He's the chairman of the Wings over Wilcox, an annual bird and nature festival in Wilcox, Arizona. On this day, he spoke to us about Sky Islands."The Sky Islands are forested mountain ranges surrounded by seas of desert and grassland." Southeastern Arizona is one of the preeminent places on Earth for this. It was a very interesting talk and afterwards he led us on a walk where he explained some of the importance of sky islands and their effect on species diversity of plants and animals.

On our off day, we visited Garden Canyon within the Fort Huachuca Army base. We hiked, observed pictograph drawings on the mountainsides and saw several native species.


But don't be fooled into thinking the whole week was just all goody-goody stuff and learning. I had an absolute blast because of the items listed above but also because I met some incredible people. The other members (and leaders) of my group were not only extremely successful in their own careers, but also intelligent, well-traveled (about half the group lived abroad at one time or another), civic minded (most had done service trips before), funny (able to jump between Fellini and Farrelly brothers without skipping a beat) and hard-working. We exceeded both the expectations of Audubon and Sierra Club in how much we got done. Plus, we had great food and propped up the economy of Sonoita, Arizona with our consumption of alcohol. I value the friendships I developed on this trip and will undoubtedly see these people again in the future.

Fog of War / Silver City

Silver City

Here's a crazy premise for a movie:

- a "grammatically-challenged user-friendly" candidate
- a scion of a famous political father/family
- a slick campaign manager that is the true brains of the outfit
- "complex web of influence and corruption, involving high stakes lobbyists, media conglomerates, environmental plunderers"

Not so wild a premise now. And not so coincidental either. John Sayles, the famed American filmmaker of movies such as Matewan and Lone Star, released this movie in 2004 prior to the election. He was not trying to hide his allegiance. The story may have been fictional and the names changed to protect the not-so-innocent, but the subject of the satire was very obvious.

Led by a cast that includes several Sayles regulars like Chris Cooper and Kris Kristoferson, this movie does a great job of showing how the gullibility of the public can be taken advantage of by a well-organized machine.

-------------------------------------------------------------


Fog of War

One would think that a movie that consists of an 90 minute long interview with an 86 year-old man who mainly talked about the Vietnam War would be (1) boring and (2) irrelevant to today's political climate. You would be wrong on both counts. Errol Morris' Oscar winning documentary does a great job of going back and forth between the interview and archive footage to create a suprisingly lively narrative. And the manner in which he is interview allows you to see the pauses and emotion of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as he recounts his experiences. Far from being an apologist for McNamara, Morris does, however, show how well-intentioned people can get themselves into terrible situations (and take a country with them). It is this that makes this movie so relevant now. The documentary focuses on 11 lessons:

• Empathize with your enemy.
• Rationality will not save us.
• There's something beyond one's self.
• Maximize efficiency.
• Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
• Get the data.
• Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
• Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
• In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
• Never say never.
• You can't change human nature.

11 lessons that were obviously not learned by our current administration. I highly recommend this film.

On Vacation

Sorry, but I won't be able to bore you guys with my posts for a few days. I'm leaving Sunday for my Sierra Club "vacation" and will be there through Saturday.

Heeeeere's Johnny ... and God

This is a pretty funny spoof of the Shining that a guy did for a contest among assistant editors in New York. The assignment: "Take any movie and cut a new trailer for it — but in an entirely different genre. Only the sound and dialogue could be modified, not the visuals". Robert Ryang won the contest by recutting it so that it sounded like a comedy about a writer. Here's his submission:

The Shining



The submission got so much internet buzz that some real producers actually contacted Mr. Ryang.

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A recent study published in the Journal of Religion and Society brings doubt to the view that a godly society is necessarily a safe and healthy society:

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'

"Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion," the article says. But the results of the study show a quite different trend.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

What's the matter with Kansas ... errrr, I mean Pennsylvania?

I keep trying to stop talking about this but reality keeps pushing it back in my face:

'Of Pandas and People'

It's not so hard to imagine those people a few hundred years ago who criticized Copernicus for saying that the earth rotated around the Sun. I'm sure they said there were "gaps" in his theory. Unfortunately, there will always be an "earth is flat" crowd.

==================================================



You'll have to forgive my schadenfreude if anything comes to pass from the DeLay investigation:

DeLay Probe Winds Down; Charges May Loom

I must resist the urge to dance and begin singing, "Ding-dong, the witch is dead, the witch is dead!"

And his buddies are close behind (Frist, Abramoff, Safavian, Rove, Bolton):

Frist Faces Heat as SEC Orders Formal Inquiry Into Stock Sale

The School Safavian and Abramoff Built

Will Safavian Knock Down The Right-Wing House of Cards?

Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration

Plamegate: The John Bolton Connection

So how's that Republican Revolution working out for you, Newt?

• Smaller government? ============>Nope, screwed that up.
• Less government spending? ============> Fucked that way up.
• Less intrusion into people's lives? ========> Can you say Patriot Act?
• Better ethics and more accountability? ============> Pleaaase!
  
  
  
  

1984 Revisited

See what I'm talking about? This is getting just a little bit scary:

Fresh From Iraq, Private Security Forces Roam the Streets of an American City With Impunity



People are losing every possession they have, yet private security forces are making $350 a day? And we're footing that bill kids. And they are working under their own supervision.

And how about the issue of radio tags?

Being a computer professional, I subscribe to quite a few trade magazines. Usually, I just skim through them. But an article on a new technology caught my eye. That technology being RFID:

RFID -- radio frequency identification. Refers to the technology that uses devices attached to objects that transmit data to an RFID receiver. These devices can be large pieces of hardware the size of a small book like those attached to ocean containers or very small devices inserted into a label on a package. RFID has advantages over bar codes such as the ability to hold more data, the ability to change the stored data as processing occurs, does not require line-of-sight to transfer data and is very effective in harsh environments where bar code labels won't work.

One company is thinking of having the RFID's attached to armbands or uniforms of workers. I'm sorry, but it's just a little too like having Big Brother watching my every move. Evidently some workers in the UK agree:

Tracked Workers Outraged Over RFID Tagging

"Gay Problem"

Recently, Superintendent Leonard Stob of Ontario Christian School expelled student Shay Clark for having lesbian parents:

School Expels Girl for Having Gay Parents

Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship."

Evidently having committed parents that have been together for 22 years doesn't count as a "positive Christian life style".

This is not Leonard Stob's first brush with homosexual issues and how they relate to Christian schools. I googled his name and turned up this article from when he was a superintendent in Florida:

Gay Problem at Christian Schools

In that article, he states how the school would not hire any staff who were openly gay.



Evidently, Christian warrior Leonard is going around the country purging Christian schools of gays. Too bad, there isn't someone to go around the country purging of it of narrow-minded bigots.

Hodge Podge

You gotta give it to the Republicans. Only they would use something like Katrina to justify huge spending cuts in essential programs ... rather than eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest, eliminating subsidies for big oil or getting the hell out of Iraq. The House Republican Study Committee outlines many cuts including:

• cuts or increases in premiums for medicare/medicaid
• freezing of aid to Global AIDS Initiative, Peace Corps
• eliminate state grants for Safe and Drug-Free school programs
• eliminate Even Start

Without any sense of irony, they list items such as the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and the Applied Research for Renewable Energy Sources Programs as "corporate welfare" that can be eliminated and are better served by the private sector. I'm so sick of all this "free market" crap they spout. It was the "free market" people in the 60's that didn't want civil rights legislation to go through. They said that the market would eventually see that they shouldn't descriminate. Capitalism is the answer to every problem to them. Do you know what capitalism and real corporate welfare are doing? They're creating a have and have-not society. And these moronic cuts they are recommending will hit the have-nots the worse, especially the elderly.

In addition, they suggest eliminating the National Endowment for Arts and publicly funded TV. This is not a shocker because these programs represent culture and the Republicans in power right now (not all Republicans, mind you) wouldn't know culture if it hit them between the eyes. Larry the Cable Guy is not culture, you hayseeds.

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Former President Jimmy Carter told a panel at American University this week something that most of us already know, but that is suprising coming from a former president, Gore won 2000 election.



I like the fact that Carter and Clinton earlier in the week are not being afraid to tell it like it is ... abandoning this nonexistent unspoken rule forbidding former presidents from criticizing a standing president. The rule is bogus, as George Sr. had no problem savaging Bill while he was office.

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It's good to see that Homeland Security is doing it's job ... protecting us from those evil vegans:

ACLU sues Homeland Security for arresting, spying on vegans who protested ham




We all know how violent vegans can get. Think of the bedlam that would ensue from a booby-trapped tomato or cauliflower in a crowded area. :-)

Loco en Cabeza

Do you get the feeling that they (Bushes) are all just a few bricks short of a load?


Jeb Bush Reveals His “Mystical Warrior” Friend

I unsheath my mytical warrior quite often ... just never in public. :-)

Somewhere over the Rainbow Trout

Bacon-Wrapped Trout Stuffed with Fresh Sage

Though I don't think my picture or cooking is in the class of The Hungry Blogger or The Church Potluck, I cooked up something pretty damn tasty the other day from the spoils of our fishing trip of a few weeks ago.

4 (10-ounce) trout, head and tail on, gutted
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 large sprigs fresh sage
2 lemons, halved and sliced
1 1/2 pounds sliced bacon
Toothpicks

Drizzle cavity of trout with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Stuff cavity with 4 lemon slices and 1 sprig of sage.
Wrap trout with bacon like a mummy, using toothpicks to hold bacon in place. Each trout will require about 6 strips of bacon.

Grill for approximately 5 minutes per side over direct medium-high heat, or until bacon is crispy and trout is cooked throughout. Trout can also be pan-seared for approximately 5 minutes per side.

The recipe is courtesy of the Food Network.

Big Brother

Have we gotten to the point where it is not hyperbole to say that we've become the society described in 1984? (all block quotes here from 1984)

... loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil

Is the Patriot Act protecting us or taking away our freedoms?

Patriot Act library case

We take these changes to our society as an unavoidable cost of maintaining our security. We are led to believe that we are always in danger so that we give up our freedom without complaint:

"... the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival."

Mysticism has replaced logic. Intelligent design is spoken of on equal terms with Evolution:

"In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for 'Science.' The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc."

Critical thought and informed dissent have been replaced by talking points. We're told what to think and that if we disagree, it's "unpatriotic":

"She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her."

"... a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting - three hundred million people all with the same face."

Tragedy is used to create blind nationalism. Disparate elements are connected to justify the unjustifiable:

"The proles, normally apathetic about the war, were being lashed into one of their periodical frenzies of patriotism."

We've lost the ability to know or to even care when we're being lied to. When the administration changes the rationale for war from WMD's to spreading democracy to protecting oil, we don't complain:

"... she only questioned the teachings of the Party when they in some way touched upon her own life. Often she was ready to accept the official mythology, simply because the difference between truth and falsehood did not seem important to her."

When they act like there was never a different rationale than the current one they are using, we lap it up:

"'Who controls the past', ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"

And they present it with such perceived sincerity and singlemindedness that we feel guilty for doubting it:

"...the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty."

I cite Senator Tom Coburn as one of the main offenders:

Coburn’s Hypocrisy A Crying Shame

But he's only one of many.

We've become so cowed that we are afraid to raise our voices. But we do have the power. The first step is becoming conscious:

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."

Read every news source that you can get your hands on. Don't trust tradional media sources to give you an unbiased view. They all answer to corporate entities and the almighty dollar. Unwittingly or otherwise, the stories they pick and the slant they present reflect that.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

Creationism: God's Gift to the Ignorant

I know this one will surely rile JC up ... and that is not my intent. So bear with me. An article written by Richard Dawkins earlier this year does a really good job of exposing the obvious problems with Creationism and with how those that believe it seek to justify it.

Creationism: God's Gift to the Ignorant

I have no problem with people that believe in God. I understand that it's a matter of faith and as such you do not need to have proof. My problem is with people that use intellectual dishonesty to justify their belief. Especially, Intelligent Design believers. That dishonesty is distinctly non-Christian. An example from Dawkins' article:

It isn’t even safe for a scientist to express temporary doubt as a rhetorical device before going on to dispel it.

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” You will find this sentence of Charles Darwin quoted again and again by creationists. They never quote what follows. Darwin immediately went on to confound his initial incredulity. Others have built on his foundation, and the eye is today a showpiece of the gradual, cumulative evolution of an almost perfect illusion of design. The relevant chapter of my Climbing Mount Improbable is called “The fortyfold Path to Enlightenment” in honour of the fact that, far from being difficult to evolve, the eye has evolved at least 40 times independently around the animal kingdom.

Most scientists will readily admit what they do not know. That "ignorance" is what feeds science. They are always seeking new answers. Creationists are the opposite. Wherever there is a so-called "gap", they will insinuate God into it's place.

Intelligent Designers would have you believe that that by teaching it in school, children are being given more choices. But what they are getting is the exact opposite. Where once there was the thirst for knowledge, there is now encouragement to stop looking if you don't find the answer. Where once there was awe of the wonder of nature, there is now a blind acceptance of the unknown. Again, from Dawkins:

The creationists’ fondness for “gaps” in the fossil record is a metaphor for their love of gaps in knowledge generally. Gaps, by default, are filled by God. You don’t know how the nerve impulse works? Good! You don’t understand how memories are laid down in the brain? Excellent! Is photosynthesis a bafflingly complex process? Wonderful! Please don’t go to work on the problem, just give up, and appeal to God. Dear scientist, don’t work on your mysteries. Bring us your mysteries for we can use them. Don’t squander precious ignorance by researching it away. Ignorance is God’s gift to Kansas.

Coyotes

Alex and I walked over to the arena today and took in an open practice that the Phoenix Coyotes were having. It's probably the only opportunity I'll ever get to actually be sitting in the front row right at the glass. We had a fun time and they gave Alex a puck.

The first picture is Shane Doan on the left. He was literally only a few feet away from us. Cujo (Curtis Joseph) was the goalie on our end of the ice and looked pretty good. The Coyotes are probably going to have to rely on him quite a bit as Brian Boucher was hurt during the exhibition game a few nights ago.

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School Pledge

There's a case making the rounds of the courts right now concerning the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in school. The contention is on the words, "under god". A federal judge recently ruled that the reciting of the pledge is unconstitutional because it violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."



A lot of Christians (and non-Christians) will say that those two words are not a big deal and people shouldn't make a big deal about them. While others will say that our country was founded on Christian principles and those that would take the words out would be unpatriotic. Both points of view would be wrong.

Those words are a big deal in many cases: you're atheist, you're agnostic, you're Christian but believe in the separation of Church and State, or perhaps you have a different religion. Public schools should not be a conduit for proselytizing. If the Pledge instead said, "We are one nation that denies God exists", people would raise holy hell. The irony seems to be lost on most, though.

Our founding fathers purposely kept references to God out of our constitution. Though the Right would have you believe Jesus himself blesses every move of our President.

I wonder how most flag-wavers would feel if they knew the original pledge: 1) Had no reference to God and 2) Was written by a socialist (that's too damn funny). From David Greenberg's article on Slate of a few years ago:

Given this tradition, it's not surprising that the original Pledge of Allegiance—meant as an expression of patriotism, not religious faith—also made no mention of God. The pledge was written in 1892 by the socialist Francis Bellamy, a cousin of the famous radical writer Edward Bellamy. He devised it for the popular magazine Youth's Companion on the occasion of the nation's first celebration of Columbus Day. Its wording omitted reference not only to God but also, interestingly, to the United States:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

"Under God" wasn't added to the pledge and "In God We Trust" wasn't added to paper money until the 1950's. At that time, it was more of a reaction to the great atheist threat, Communism.

Would we be saying that people weren't patriotic before the 1950's because those words weren't there? Of course not ... and we shouldn't be now.

Absolute Morality

Another interesting discussion at Jewish Atheist ... this time about absolute morality.

Mob Mentality/Conventional Wisdom

Some posts on other blogs got me to thinking about the role of the "mob mentality" and "conventional wisdom" in many of society's opinions. Many of us are quick to criticize someone who posits an unpopular statement. Why is that? I believe it is the mob mentality. At the root of this is fear. We conform to society's beliefs. We don't want to rock the boat. We're afraid of being ostracized. I applaud people like the Dixie Chicks and Kanye West. I applaud people that buck the system, that give an unpopular opinion, that fight the power.

Promoting racial and gender equality were not popular opinions.

"... What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be
Fight the Power ..." -- Public Enemy

• It was a mob mentality in Nazi Germany
• McCarthyism and blacklisting in Hollywood were mob mentality
• The bloodlust after 9/11 and during the Iraq war is a mob mentality
• Criticizing those against the war is mob mentality
• The media was cowed into perpetuating the lies of the administration by a mob mentality
  

"The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties." -- H. L. Mencken

• Conventional wisdom would have you believe that Iraq was linked to 9/11
• Conventional wisdom would have you believe there were WMD's in Iraq
• Conventional wisdom would have you believe only a godly man can be a moral one
  
  Don't trust conventional wisdom. Don't trust conformity.
  

"... Come on!
Yes I know my enemies
They are the teachers who taught me to fight me
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission
Ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite
All of which are American dreams ..." -- Rage Against the Machine

• If someone tells you the Rapture is coming ... be afraid
• If someone tells you that dissent is not patriotic ... be afraid
• If someone tells you that you need to give up some of your freedom to get security ... be afraid
• If someone tells you that killing in the name of God is OK ... be afraid
• If someone tells you that the press shouldn't be free ... be afraid
• If someone cannot give an opinion that wasn't given them by the church or talk radio ... be afraid
• If someone believes everything their leaders tell them ... be afraid
• If someone believes that you can do whatever you want to our environment and it won't matter ... be afraid
• If someone believes that the free market is the cure-all for all ills ... be afraid
• If someone believes that Ronald Reagan was the greatest president ... be afraid
• If someone believes that our country is safer now than before Sept. 11 ... be afraid
• If someone tells you that it's OK for us to torture but not our enemies ... be afraid. "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself." -- Thomas Paine
• If someone tells you that you can't help the poor and needy and criticize their oppressors at the same time ... be afraid
  
  If someone tells you what you can think ...........
  

"Liberty is the possibility of doubting, of making a mistake,... of searching and experimenting,... of saying No to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, social, and even political." -- Ignazio Silone, The God That Failed

ISU 23 -- #8 Iowa 3

A perfect Saturday:

- perusing the EXPO home design center to look at stuff that you can't possibly afford and would have to be seriously sick in the head to even want. $895 for a single lawn chair!! Please explain that to me. But we did see a jacuzi with a built-in 42" plasma TV. Very cool and completely pointless.

- strolling through Kierland Commons in Scottsdale to gawk and make fun of the rich, pretty people. Scottsdale is the Beverly Hills of Arizona ... where zip code and plastic surgery trump social conscience and intelligence.

- ending up at our alumni friend Scott's place in Tempe to watch college football ... specifically the dismantling of #8 Iowa by our Iowa State Cyclones!! My condolences to the Great White Bear as Michigan lost in one of the other games we watched.

- eating Ted's Hot Dogs and drinking Sierra Nevada Pale Ales while watching the games. Nothing like downing some empty carbs. Mmmmm. I think I'll have to do some serious hiking tomorrow to atone for this.

STFU nominees Sept. 4-10

Here are a couple of new ones:

"Price "gougers" save lives." -- ABC News's John Stossel, nominating price gougers for sainthood. Next he'll be praising serial killers for keeping the population under control.

Hurricane "finally cleaned out public housing in New Orleans" -- Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge. Unfortunately, the flood didn't take out the rats.

"The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, 'Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?'" -- Tom DeLay, visiting evacuees in Houston. Like I said, this sad, sad man could be nominated for this award every day.

And our past nominees:

Tom DeLay on the government response
Pat Robertson on the good that the Hurrican has brought to John Roberts
Barbara Bush -- that matriarch of virtue and compassion

Post any other worthy nominees and we'll announce the winner late Sunday.

Katrina

Don't want to beat you guys over the head with encouraging you to contribute to the various relief efforts. But if any of you were still looking for a place to contribute, the person profiled in this story would be ideal:

She survived Hurricane Katrina, but battle against cancer continues


It's already a compelling story enough as it is. But to give you guys some perspective, the person in the story is our best friend Joanie's sister. Joanie is the wife of Eric (who's blog is on top of my list to the right). The Burleys have been our dearest friends for a long time. Eric and I used to work together but we became even better friends after our work carried us on to new companies. Through times of joy (the births of our children) and pain (the passing of loved ones), they have been the best friends that anyone could ask for and we love them dearly.

Joanie's sister's address is at the bottom of the article. Whether you can give or not, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks.

Lance

Oh no, Mr. Bill!!

Senator Mary Landrieu, after initially giving Mr. Bush too much leeway, has been steadily redeeming herself. Back in Washington, she asks the question that we'd all like to know the answer for, "How can it be," she asked, "that Mr. Bill was better informed than Mr. Bush?"

Tom DeLay

It's almost too easy to nominate someone who could really be nominated just about any day of the week, but today's nominee for the STFU award is Tom DeLay:

"The point is if you look at the big picture, it’s a phenomenal accomplishment by everybody involved. It’s unbelievable." -- Tom DeLay speaking to the House today concerning the government's response to Katrina. More here.

And for the opposite of the STFU award, I nominate this guy. He's awesome!

"Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney"

Making Faces

A few weeks ago, we had Alex sit for pictures at a place called Making Faces in Scottsdale. They pose you and then take simultaneous pictures from many directions at once. They then use those images to build a holographic image. That holographic image can then be used to create a bust, a 3-D picture, even a bobble-head.

We just got his bust back and it looks pretty good:


Click thumbnail to get larger image

Just an idea for those with young children that might want something a little different as a reminder of when they were small.