FRIDAY F U N

• Choose a background noise while working, web surfing or sleeping.
• Make-up magic: The same model made to look 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years old.
• Spectacular hotel opening in Dubai (really, it's spectacular!)
• What if we could only speak truthfully?
• Give exploding golf balls to your golfing uncle for christmas.
• In case you missed this funny SNL skit:
  
  

This is amazing. Peter Schiff two years ago predicted much of what is now happening in the economy:

Bits and Pieces for the Week of November 23 - 29

Employee Freedom Action Committee, is a pro-business group fighting the Employee Free Choice Act. TV ads claiming that workers who cast secret ballots in forming a Union will hurt employees... is totally false. It will make it easier to participate in unions, which a majority of people favor. They are blaming Unions for all the current business related problems. They forget to mention that Unions provide affordable healthcare, livable wages, workplace safety and a decent pension for workers in a day and age when it's becoming obsolete. In reality, they are part of the "current system" which "allows employers to use intimidation tactics to stop workers from organizing." In other words Union busting. (7 of 6)

A big WTF! "The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago." (7 of 6)

Incumbent Republican, Saxby Chambliss, currently in a run off for his Georgia Senate seat against Democrat Jim Martin, seems too like golfing with lobbyists. What caught my eye however was, "Despite having a “bum knee” that kept him out of military service in Vietnam, Chambliss ranked as the #2 golfer in the Senate and the 33rd best golfer in Washington, DC, according to a 2005 feature by Golf Digest." This asshole had the nerve to run a swift boat campaign against Max Cleland, a man who lost 3 limbs in Vietnam. Scum of the earth, if you ask me! (7 of 6)

Not something you hear everyday... 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown. Yes, Iceland adopted unregulated "free market" capitalism and went broke. "About a third of Iceland's population of 320,000 are believed to have lost their savings." Let this be a warning to the folks that still believe in Milton Freidman, Any Rand and Alan Greenspan style of economics. Is it too late for the United States? (7 of 6)

Bits and Pieces for the Week of November 15 - 22

Why we're going to be stuck in Iraq for a looooong time. I think that the least we could do, considering all the horrific damage we've done to Iraq, is leave much of the stuff there for the Iraqis. (mike)

20 reasons why consumers will drag the U.S. economy into a severe recession. (Mike)

Europeana is a wonderful use of the internet (note: yesterday's site debut was so popular that it temporarily shut down access)

I have to give a big shout out to my Congressman... Raul Grijalva. He was named co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, along with Lynn Woolsey. He helped Obama with the Hispanic vote throughout the Southwest. (7 of 6)


Almost 700,000 children went hungry in the U.S. last year. Wonder how many hungry kids there will be this year? One word: CRIMINAL!! (7 of 6)

France reveals that U.S. stopped the French military from capturing bin Laden. (Mike)

I was thinking of taking the family on a trip to Mexico's interior next year. Only if the violence decreases. They are plum crazy down there. (7 of 6)

FRIDAY F U N

• For you puppy-lovers out there, here's a live puppy cam.
• Thanksgiving Quiz (I got 8 out of 20 correct. Beat that!)
• 12 Black Friday Secrets Retailers Don't Want You To Know
• A robot that makes faces
• A supercompact Batmobile
• Find the word that's on the tip of your tongue
• Find out how long it will take to crack your password (note: special characters really make a difference!)
• Some cute holiday commercials from HP.

We Get Comments

My post below, "What Is "Good" About Our Military?" generated some excellent comments. Please be sure to read them. (Mike)

Bits and Pieces for the Week of November 9 - 15

Atmospheric Brown Clouds: adding to the complexities and effects of global warming (Mike)

Go to the Living Wage Calculator and find out the facts for your community. (Mike)

Notice a drop-off in spam email lately? One company that is responsible for approximately 50-75% of all spam mail was temporarily thwarted Tuesday. (Mike)

A more efficient generator could dramatically improve the efficiency of wind turbines (Mike)

Joe the Plumber now has a web site which he says he set up to help those in need. So far, about the only person you can help by using his site is.... Joe the Plumber. He has a couple of ways for you to line his pockets (preorder his book or buy a "membership"). (Mike)

A NY Times cover page for dreamers (Mike)

Obama criticized for not acting quickly enough on healthcare reform..... even though he cannot yet do anything about it for two months! (Mike)

According to Australian Press the Taliban stole 12 Humvees. No wonder it's not reported here... how fucking embarrassing! (7 of 6)

Famous pot smokers (Mike)

We've been looted. Big time. (Mike)

6000 Muslim Clerics Endorse Fatwa against terrorism. I hope more Muslim Clerics get on this band wagon. (7 of 6)

What Is "Good" About Our Military?

It is wrong the way so many American veterans are mistreated by our government once they've served their time, and it is a moral problem for all of us since we are the ones who elect our government. Just look at our dysfunctional V.A. Hospital system for an obvious example.

However, I do not feel pity or compassion for U.S. soldiers killed or wounded in combat unless they were involuntarily drafted in the first place. Anyone who signs up for military service at the recruitment office simultaneously signs away their right to righteously complain about getting shot or otherwise wounded by "enemies". They only have the right to complain about their mistreatment by their country after their service, and only because their country failed to uphold its part of the signed recruitment contract.

As long as we Americans continue to glorify the existence of soldiers, we will never embrace the pursuit of peace. We are, ironically, a War Nation. We spend nearly half of our taxes on the maintenance of a monstrous military machine that far exceeds its need in this fractured and idealistically complex world. We create enemies (e.g. Iraq and Iran) so that we can justify the military's existence and the profit that it brings to the wealthy. We blindly glorify our troops with flags and parades and fireworks and the label of "honorable".

Somehow, we've equated "honor" with killing faceless humans. Nothing is more dishonorable than murdering a fellow human whose face you cannot see. Nothing is more uncivilized than allowing oneself to be ordered to murder without first determining for oneself if this human target is trying to kill you or just trying to defend himself/herself.

The order to kill this faceless enemy was made by a pack of white, wealthy corporate barons thousands of miles away (in government buildings) who did not come with you to first examine the persons, at whom you point your weapons or bombs, to see if they are a threat to your and my existence.

Tell me this: When was the last time our military fired at a foreigner who was crossing our border and threatening to kill us? I would say that it was about 67 years ago at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, long before most of us were even conceived. Has anyone attacked us at our borders since? No. We are securely protected by two peace-embracing nations on our northern and southern borders, and by two massive oceans to our east and west.

Attacks by terrorists, by the way, is not a military issue, but rather a police issue. 9/11 was not brought on by another nation's military but rather by a group of nation-less, criminal thugs. As Bush has now so infamously proven, you cannot fight criminals with a military. Defeating criminal activity requires police action and law enforcement expertise.

We do not train our soldiers, as a top priority, to be peacekeepers, but rather to be killers. Our culture is controlled by a wealthy class, which incessantly strives to falsely advertise to the poor and otherwise gullible youth that the military is somehow good and "patriotic". It is "good" to teach yourself how to kill others. It is "patriotic" to consider your country as somehow intrinsically superior to any other on the planet. Thus a dutiful, mostly lower economic class allows itself to buy the false notion of the military as something good and wholesome and American. But that is exactly what the ruling class wants because it serves only their own self-interests.

Until we Americans realize that we are being hoodwinked by a group of amoral corporate barons whose wealth and influence have no match, and until we finally reject their power and lies, this endlessly destructive cycle of youth-patriotism-military-"honor"-death-injury-PTSD-homelessness-poverty-youth will not cease. Ironically, we are a cowardly and hypocritical nation for claiming that organized killing is wrong while simultaneously refusing to advance beyond such incivility and unchristian behavior.

I think that it is finally the time in our history to reject a military trained to kill and instead have a small, technologically efficient force of peacekeepers and philanthropists with the mission of ONLY maintaining or restoring peace and human rights on our troubled yet hopeful planet. The first step in achieving such a moral state is the rejection of the archaic and horrific military machines created and supported by the wealthy ruling classes of the world and especially of America. Yes, it will make us more vulnerable, but more importantly it will make us truly honorable.

Yes, we can. And, for the love of all that is good and right, we should.

(cross-posted at DailyKos)

The Moron Mormon Church was the driving force for the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Based on what Keith says here, the Mormon Church can now be classified as the Church of Intolerance, not a church with any interest in teaching or preserving love between two (or more) people.

"This Veterans Day, U.S. Soldiers Say 'Stop the War'"

An open letter from war resisters calls for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On this day, Veteran's Day, we would like to express to the American public why we, veterans of the Global War on Terror, have chosen to refuse orders to reactivate into military service. We are direct witnesses to the horrors of this war, having experienced its atrocities at their source, and we have decided that we can no longer carry out these illegal and immoral policies. We believe that veterans and active-duty GIs are in a key position to stop illegal and unjust war, and we are inspired by the resistance of troops who stood against the war in Vietnam. One of the preeminent reasons for the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam was increasing dissent among the active-duty troops stationed abroad and at home. By the end of the war, there were entire units refusing to participate in combat, many going as far as outright mutiny. The United States learned a lesson from the Vietnam War: that it is unlikely, except in the event of self-defense, that regular civilians will execute the life-threatening orders that are given to them by military authority. The solution of policy makers was to create an all-volunteer force that negated the need for a draft. This translates into a mercenary force composed of America's disadvantaged: a sector of the U.S. demographic that is particularly susceptible to military recruitment for lack of other options and finding themselves with deployment orders again and again. To compensate for huge pitfalls in recruitment since the invasion of Iraq, the military has resorted to recalling former service members. This policy is known as "involuntary activation" and utilizes deactivated service members who still have time on their contracts in the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR) to fill shortcomings in specific job specialties. The abuse and misuse of this policy has escalated under the current administration to such a degree that it can now only be viewed as a "backdoor draft" that targets the same disadvantaged individuals the military sought out for enlistment, namely because they are better at not questioning orders. However, we have now begun to question these orders. We are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and members of the IRR who have refused or will refuse any activation orders that would lead to us serving an unjust and imperial U.S. foreign policy. It is a prevailing notion that this refusal is unpatriotic, but we consider our actions the only choice. Not only did the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan do great harm to the people of those countries, but it undermined the ostensible goal with which the wars were begun: Instead of stopping terrorism, it has proliferated terrorism, an expectation that was predicted well before the war started. By refusing activation, we are refusing to participate in wars that serve the purposes of furthering the careers of politicians and high-ranking officers. We openly support other IRR members who follow in these footsteps. The military is a force that rules through fear of retribution for disobeying its will. In reality, more than a third of IRRs simply refuse to report to duty. Most of the rest report out of fear that the military will change their discharge status or prosecute them for desertion, but up to this point, prosecution has been rare. Members of the IRR are not under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and thus far, the military has had a practice of not prosecuting them with criminal charges unless they report in some form or function to activate. Very few willingly volunteer for activation. There can be no promise that President-Elect Barack Obama will stop the stressful and unfair techniques of back-to-back deployments, "stop-loss" or the "backdoor draft" that are damaging the psychology of veterans in irreparable ways. Nor that he will stop encouraging global violence by unlawful uses of force. It is in this vein that we turn to organizations like Courage to Resist, Iraq Veterans Against the War and many other large-scale and grassroots organizations to solicit change in a largely unrepresentative democracy, and to allow the voices of the people to ring through the halls of the Capital. Benjamin Lewis, former Marine Corps mortarman, Iraq veteran, IRR recall resister, peace activist Brandon Neely, former U.S. Army Military police officer, Iraq veteran, IRR recall refuser.-- Benjamin Lewis and Brandon Neely

44th time is the charm:

(h/t: Dr. Wendy)

A case against racism:

Uh oh, the truth is revealed:

FRIDAY F U N

• Literal video translation of an 80's pop song aboput a comic book love affair in a coffee shop. If you enjoyed that, here's another one.


• Believe it or not, this is a 2008 election voting results map. It's all explained here.
• Play Zombie Baseball
• Unusual Coathooks

McCain gave a terrific concession speech Tuesday evening, as you know. What made it so good? One reason could be this:

Taking The Tics Out Of Politics In an earlier post we commented on the stunning array of tics, twitches and jaw-clenches that played across John McCain's face during the campaign. If you study the tape of his concession speech on election night, though, you'll see very little of that kind of body language. Why? Where did it go? The answer is simple but has profound consequences for health and happiness. The reason McCain's facial flickers were so quiet is that he wasn't trying to be two people at once. It requires body tension to feel anger but pretend it isn't there. It takes effort to seal off fear, and even more effort to whistle along pretending it was never there. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways," says the Book of James, and during the campaign, McCain's instability played across his face incessantly. Now, though, John McCain does not have to pretend to be anything he isn't. He doesn't have to be an honorable man trying to live inside his skin with a fear-mongering alien bent on winning by sowing seeds of hate. He's the better for it, and so are we.

Winning Hurts

Some election humor:

Failure to Blow Election Stuns Democrats Party Faithful Mourn End to Losing Tradition Just minutes after their party's longstanding losing tradition lay in tatters on the ground, millions of shell-shocked Democrats stared at their television screens in disbelief, asking themselves what went right. For Democrats, who have become accustomed to their party blowing an election even when it seemed like a sure thing, Tuesday night's results were a bitter pill to swallow. The head-shaking and finger-pointing over the demise of the Democrats' losing streak, which many of the party faithful had worn like a badge of honor, reached all the way to the upper echelons of the Democratic National Committee. "Believe me, I'm as shocked by these results as anybody," said DNC chief Howard Dean, who indicated he has received hundreds of calls from incredulous party members. "We did everything in our power to screw this thing up." Dean pointed to several key elements the Democrats put in place to ensure defeat, ranging from "a rancorous primary campaign" to "the appointment of me." "Somehow, despite our best efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, we won," he said. "I came in here with a mandate to blow this thing and I didn't get it done." Carol Foyler, a lifelong Democrat who owns a loom supply store in Portland, Maine, said she has been "nearly catatonic" since the election results were announced. "For the past eight years, I've fixed myself some herbal tea, turned on NPR, and ranted about the Republicans," she said. "All that has been taken from me." Elsewhere, Sen. John McCain offered this comment on Sen. Barack Obama's victory: "My friends, I've got him just where I want him."

Bits and Pieces for the Week of November 2 - 8

I think the fact that 70% of black voters in California supported anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 needs analysis. Is it because of religious reasons, historical reasons or something else? I find it contradictory when an oppressed group turns around and oppresses a non-related group (as opposed to blacks trying to oppress Hispanics and visa-versa). Is black prejudice against gays taught as a traditional family value, or is it entrenched in the black culture in some other form? (Mike)

Some say that as many as 200,000 jobs may dry up as a result of the failure of U.S. automakers. (Mike)

Words and phrased from the 2008 election season, as per ThisFuckingElection.com (Mike)

5 Homeless people shot dead at a Bu$hville in Southern California. (7 of 6)

John Cusack (yes, THAT john Cusack) has written a very enlightened post about the embrace of capitalism, and all of its inherent evils, by the Neocons. This is just a small excerpt, but please go read the entire piece:

"....Neoconservatives will lie in the weeds and gather forces, the same players in a revolving door. They want back in and if history has proved anything, worshiping the markets is not enough. We must actually kill to feed them. A horrible cross-pollination of fundamentalism, dementia and market fever has turned America into a willing enabler of corporate cannibalism. Nothing else to call it when murder is seen as a legitimate extension of economic policy. Preemptive war is not only justified but openly referred to as a market opportunity. The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. As we look out at the wreckage -- world economies collapsing, nationalized banks and a complete loss of trust -- we can see the hypocrisy as all are revealed as true socialists on the way down, crying in their scotch and Ambien as they run to the state for cover."

Wow. That was the most surreal evening in recent memory. Terrific concession speech by McCain (why the hell didn't he act that civilized during the campaign?) and a classic speech by Obama. Too bad there isn't any way to get Obama into the White House now instead of having to wait two and a half months. Imagine all the damage Bush can still do before he escapes from his job, scurrying out the back door under the cover of darkness on January 20, 2009.

Chris Bowers sums up that which must now happen:

Now To Governing by: Chris Bowers Wed Nov 05, 2008 at 05:59 At long last, after eight years in the wilderness, it is time that we shift our activism efforts away from electioneering, and toward governing. This is a moment I have long desired. Now that it is here, I relish the opportunity. This is just the beginning for Democrats, for the netroots, for the progressive movement. This is just the beginning for Open Left. Make no mistake--for all of our activism, for all of our new infrastructure, for all of our candidates, and even for all of the demographic changes I have trumpeted so loudly, the fundamental reason why Democrats are now in power is because Republicans made people's lives worse (and lying to people about it while it was happening didn't help, either). If we do the same, then the same electoral fate will befall us. If we do not make people's lives better, there will be no realignment, just a brief, historic blip. It is only when we improve the lives of most Americans that our gains will be solidified, and our realignment will take hold. We must pivot toward governing immediately, no matter what happens in the few outstanding elections. It is no longer about electing more Democrats--at long last, we have more than enough. Now, it is about making the Democrats we have better and more effective, so that they will make the lives of most Americans better. There are good reasons to believe that, left unchecked, the Democratic trifecta will not go far enough to mitigate, much less solve, the myriad crises we face. In order to make sure they do go far enough, it is up to the progressive grassroots to keep up the pressure through primaries, the activism shifted toward policies and issues, and the dedication to be willing to see our mandate carried out. And yes, this is the progressive movement's mandate. A mandate to end the war. A mandate for universal health care. A mandate to solve the financial crisis even if it means nationalization and harsh measures against Wall Street. A mandate to repair the environment. A mandate to restore the middle class. A mandate for a truly free and open media. This is our mandate. The country is with us. Better Democrats have shown we can win. Our tenacity and ingenuity have already demonstrated the ability to secure massive electoral gains in a very short time. Now, let's turn those skills to governing. This is just the beginning, but a progressive governing majority is starting to appear on the horizon. Reaching it is a task worthy of our greatest efforts.

Yesterday:
Imagine how good he'll be at this once he's been at his new job for a while.

If you remember nothing else tomorrowwhen you go to vote, remember this:

A shrinking but still significant portion of our (white) population continues to be outspoken and ignorant. Here's an example. Virtually every comment these Republican voters make (except for the white-haired kid, of course) is based on the slime and crap spread by the McCain/Palin campaign and its surrogate news and campaign organizations. If any of it was actually true, Obama would have been called out on it in the critical news media and would have never had a chance to win this election.



"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."
Hubert H. Humphrey

The Mayor of San Diego forgot to drink his Kool-Aid, and his moral conscience briefly came out of its Republican-controlled prison:

Truly amazing how difficult it was for him to announce this, speaking just like he was apologizing for admitting to having done something bad. I know this announcement happened over one year ago, but in two days the knuckle-dragging religious fanatics who control the Republicans in California will try to kill gay marriage with Proposition 8. History will look upon our era as quite primitive when documenting the incessant attempts by educated-but-intolerant humans to prevent others of their species from having equal rights.

Who stuck it to us on the economy:

Palin gets pranked:



More here.