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April 03, 2004

I Fought the Water Heater, and the Water Heater Won

Ah, the several joys of home ownership. I used to think my cats owned me . . . now I realize that my house does.

The title of this posting generally speaks for itself; I can add but that it's going to be a long term problem for me because Dubya's economic policies are STILL keeping me from finding remunerative employment.

While I do not in the least condone what the residents of Fallujah did this past week, I am beginning to understand their motivations. The major difference is that I want to do that only to the people directly responsible for my current predicament, and not just anyone who happens to be handy.

Anyway, just a couple of short comments so that I can get back into the swing of things around here.

First: if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's . . . a hunting trip?!?!?

I'll give a nod to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia--he did at least find a way to rationalize both his self recusal from the Pledge of Alliegance case and his refusal to recuse himself from the VP Cheney secret energy policy commission hearings case. He claimed consistently that the proper standard is whether any actual impropriety had or would take place. Regarding the Pledge of Alliegance, he admitted he'd spoken out strongly and often on the "OKness" of "under God" in the Pledge, and so had no choice but to recuse himself from that matter.

In the VP Cheney case, he spent 21 pages detailing why there was no actual impropriety, thus no need to recuse himself.

Well, . . . if the standard were IN FACT "no actual impropriety," he'd be right. But (surprise, surprise!) that is not in fact what the standard for recusal is.

The standard is that the judge must avoid "even the appearance of impropriety," which Scalia clearly did NOT do in his refusal to recuse himself from the VP Cheney case.

As the Amish farmer said in "Witness," "It just doesn't look."

And I know Scalia is smart enough to know better. When is he going to realize that a lot of us are smart enough to see through his obfuscation?

Second: Dances with Cranes

Consider this a public service announcement. The National Geographic Society and the Rowe (bird) Sanctuary have put up a web site with a "crane cam" so that those of us who are so inclined can view the annual spring migration of the Sandhills Cranes through Nebraska without travelling to their Platte River stopping over places and wrecking the ecology there. Check it out at http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/cranecam/index.html.

Third, and quite enough for the weekend's merriment: Oh, those wacky Romanians!

This from the Knight-Ridder Newspaper services: in southern Romania, they are killing vampires . . . for real.

In the village of Marotinu De Sus, Toma Petre's relatives recently pulled his body from its grave, cut his heart out of his chest, burned it to ashes, and mixed it with water and drank it. The police are up in arms about it, but as Petre's own sister, Flora Marinescu, said, "What did we do? If they're right, he was already dead. If we're right, we killed a vampire and saved lives. Is that so wrong?"

The police seem to think so: they plan to charge the instigators with disturbing the peace of the dead . . . which is punishable by a three-year jail term.

Apparently, vampire slaying is still a big deal in Romania, especially in the south, where children have been taught for generations how to kill the undead. Why? Because vampires prey on their own families. If someone falls ill after a death in the family, the presumption is that the vampire is draining the blood of the sick person at night, mostly because it's looking for company.

According to 30-year-old shepherd Doru Morinescu, vampires "would be alright if you could set them after your enemies. But they only kill loved ones. I can understand why, but they have to be stopped."

Furthermore, according to Ion Balasa, there are only two ways to prevent vampires from preying on their own families: if you put a long sewing needle into the dead person's bellybutton before burial, he will not become a vampire.

After the person has become a vampire, however, the only way to stop him is to dig him up, cut out his heart with a curved sickle, burn the heart on an iron plate, and have all the ill relatives drink the heart's ashes mixed with water. Mr. Balasa says further that the heart of a vampire will try to escape when being burned and that it will squeak like a mouse; one must take a wooden stake and pin the heart to the iron plate "so it won't get away."

I'll let the Freudians amongst you out there on the barricades try to figure out why I juxtaposed Scalia and vampires . . . but do you think it might be worth it to import some Romanian Vampire Slayers to Washington DC? I am quite sure we could find their relatives on some extended family trees.

Posted by Renaissance Woman at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2004

Hit 'Em Again, Howard!

Failed Democratic candidate Howard Dean is demonstrating to the rest of the Democratic Party exactly what should be done now the the primary selection process is essentially ended.

Even though he lost badly, Dean is the first one out the gate to take on the BushCo/PNAC GOP. Addressing the attendees of the annual dinner of the 21st Century Democrats, Dean was hitting the right point - the credibility of George Warmonger Bush.

Dean said he thought jobs, health insurance and economic security would be the biggest issues of the presidential election. But now, "the credibility of the president of the United States is the biggest issue of this race," he said.

Dean told a gathering of progressive Democrats that Bush failed to act on warnings from Richard Clarke, then Bush's counterterrorism chief, that al-Qaida posed a threat to the United States, and blamed Bush for the hundreds of U.S. soldiers killed and the thousands wounded in the Iraq war. "That is the legacy of this president who did not tell the truth to the American people".

Democrats need to "focus their message in a laser-like way," he said, to oust the Bush administration. "These are people who belong in Crawford, Texas, and not in the nation's capital," he said.

Now is the time for Terry McAuliffe to come to the aid of his party, the one he claims to lead. As chairman of the Democratic Party, he swings the clout to get all the other former candidates - Edwards, Clark, Graham, Gephardt, even Holy Joe Lieberman (unless he becomes honest and changes parties) - to get on the trail and take on George Warmonger Bush and Dirty Dick Cheney from all points of the compass - they can't defend everywhere at once.

Posted by Pessimist at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2004

Horrific

Somalis dragged the corpses of Americans killed in Mogadishu, and we were horrified and angry. We were justifiably angry at the Somalis. But the Bush campaign used those horrible pictures to make hay against the Clintons, saying that if Clinton had been better prepared in Somalia, we would not have been subjected to such a humiliating defeat there. Or, better yet, we wouldn't have gone there in the first place.

Now Iraqis are behaving equally savagely. It is true that they are at war with us, but I cannot accept that "war" means dragging the bodies of slain Americans through the streets. The immediate cause of such barbarity is, of course, those who tied the ropes to the victims' bodies.

But if Clinton and his lack of planning and foresight were responsible for our humiliation in Mogadishu, is there any reason why we should not hold Bush and his pathetic planning for the Iraqi invasion equally responsible for this humiliation?

Now how will the Imperium respond? The original Roman empire used to line up the men of a village, and then kill every tenth man. That gave us the word "decimate." Caesar collected the men of a village which resisted him and had his legions cut off the thumbs of all the men, so they could not bear arms against him. Of course that would escalate the war of horror.

I hate those who desecrate the bodies of any humans. Even enemies deserve dignity in death. But I also am not terribily fond of those who send out our men and women to die and be desecrated when it doesn't need to happen. It's the rattlesnake's fault when he bites me and I die. But it's also my fault when I stick my hand in the hole where everyone says "They's rattlesnakes in there and you're gonna get bit!"

Posted by Stephen at 03:17 PM | Comments (3)

March 30, 2004

Caught In A Trap

The American society can be viewed as a triangle, the most stable geometric shape possible as long as the sides remain constant. But as too many Americans have discovered, their side has changed - a lot!

As if caught in the jaws of a trap, working Americans find themselves oppressed on one side by business and their practice of offshore outsourcing, and on the other side by The Best Government Multinational Corporate Campaign Contributions Can Control (TBGMC5), which can't do enough for business while it can't do anything for working, or formerly-working, Americans.

The two articles I present here show just what is happening to the American Middle class. The first covers a survey of outsourcing companies and their views on future efforts to send more jobs to cheaper labor markets. The second shows how Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao [Mrs. Mitch McConnell, whose husband, US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) showed his compassionate conservativism by voting for restricting the rules for personal bankruptcy, and also voted to pass a bill that would require debtors able to repay $10,000 or 25 percent of their debts over five years to file under Chapter 13 bankruptcy (reorganization and repayment) rather than Chapter 7 (full discharge of debt) like corporations still can do!] practices some of what her husband preaches from the regulatory side.

Continue reading "Caught In A Trap"
Posted by Pessimist at 06:58 PM | Comments (2)

March 29, 2004

It's The Way I Say It Is

I was cruising about looking for a topic, and I discovered this little gem:

Bush Sees Better Times

This should be good! [My comments and additions will look like this]

Personal to Nick Danger - Got a hot one for you straight out of the oven!

Continue reading "It's The Way I Say It Is"
Posted by Pessimist at 06:36 PM | Comments (1)