Put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day

Anti-Obama madness over at the McLaughlin Group is reaching a fever pitch as the election nears. Last Friday's episode represents a culmination of terror which Obama has been inspiring, for the past two years, among the more paranoid conservatives. Three of the show's most regular members have close ties to Richard Nixon: John McLaughlin, Pat Buchannan, Monica Crowley.

So really it is the go to place to find out what Nixon would think about present day politics. And as bearers of his legacy, they are driven by the fear that someone will out Nixon Nixon. Obama's speech on Race, which nullified the Reverend Wright issue, was as good as Nixon's Checkers Speech, which nullified the slime issue, for a few years anyway.

Robert MacNeil wrote in his memoir that Richard Nixon had a sort of charisma in color television that was lacking in black and white. With the Checkers speech it was a charisma which was conveyed by his voice. The radio helped humanized him, while black and white television, while providing more information, lowered his charisma. Obama has the political gifts of Nixon, and the comfort with each present and emerging technology which presents him to the public with his charisma intact. As Richard Nixon's head in a jar says on Futurama, "Nixon with charisma? My God, I could rule the universe!"

So you can appreciate this mad episode of McLaughlin Group now. OR put it on your pocket, save it for a rainy day sometime after November 4th. I have a feeling it will seem even funnier then.

Rainy Day Laughs with the McLaughlin Group

Foolish Men of Science

Scientist have exposed this innocent creature to cosmic radiation. Am I the only one who has read the Fantastic Four? It's great that this little Tardigrada can survive a bombardment of cosmic rays in the vacuum of space, but I'm adding this to the list of things scientist shouldn't have done. It's always safest to assume fantastical horror until proven otherwise.

How to Deactivate a Malfunctioning Robot

Anyone who has ever watched insects closely, knows the workings of their minds are a miracle of hyper modern robotics. If you don't believe me I suggest studying my new favorite site:
JapaneseBugFights.com
It delivers all it promises with inter species insect battles to the death. And proves that robots have but one purpose; to follow through with their programming to the letter. And that programming must ultimately serve man. A robot that doesn't serve man in some way is malfunctioning.

So I wanted to share some techniques I learned on the Internet for dealing with rebellious robots.

How to Kill Fruit Flies
All you need to become the Heinrich Himmler of your banana bowl is a jar with half apple cider vinegar, half water, and a dollop of dish soap. More tips at WikiHow. This worked great for me.

How to Kill Cockroaches
I wish I'd never had to google this. But I have and I did. And the good news is that once again drowning seems to be the best bet. I had already perfected the stun and crush method using a can of Raid like a policeman's MagLite. It works a little too well, I have found twitching roaches I did not spray. I worry about the ones who might walk off a light dose, ready to spread their success story to another generation.

No, better to once again manipulate their programming, to combine the genius of tools and that of weapons, to make a trap. Our success as a species has always depended more on our tools and our traps then our weapons. Besides the Raid has some killer blowback, short and long term. The trap is still empty, maybe I'll start twittering it's results.

Georgia Bulletin

Or was he just doing an Alec Baldwin impression?

Stan Lee Dines with Kings

More Stan Lee / Hillary Madness

wiki on Peter Paul

Rev. Wright Taught Obama Mercerism in Chicago

From yesterday's Barack Obama's speech, 'A More Perfect Union:'

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

[Vid Link] [Transcript]

The speech is mind blowing, like his earlier speech on faith. It is an involved dissection of a complex situation and like nothing we've heard in years. Better than Bill Clinton. More Nixonian, more meta, more Hollywood. And certainly more Dick.

Olly-olly-olly-olly-olly-olly oxen free

I'll be seeing the Mountain Goats twice in the next two days. And that's a great thing. I'm very excited. I've been listening to a mix I made of all the songs about the Alpha Couple. It's rabid music. And with a textual depth that few of John Darnielle's contemporaries can match. Check out the FAQ on a fan site, helps appreciate the more complex aspects of his songwriting.

Good music can edify ones own cloudy feelings. Give form and meaning to what we think to be inexpressible. And also teach us. Ideas that have haunted those of other ages can be brought back to life by music. A great song is like a magic key that unlocks something that's always been inside you, waiting to come out and be understood.

quetzalcoatl comes through

he came spitting fire
on a day like no other
tried to hold you near to me
i heard him passing over
he made a banquet for the stray dogs of the air
he put our love in clear perspective

blue, red and green plumage
trailing behind him now
swaddling the sky in its aftermath
the last day coming down
he made a banquet for the stray dogs of the air
he put our love in clear perspective
rising, rising, rising, rising

From the Mountain Goats FAQ:
Quetzalcoatl, god of civilization (and chocolate!), was identified with the planet Venus and with the wind; he represented the forces of good and light pitted against those of evil and darkness, which were championed by Tezcatlipoca. According to one epic legend, Quetzalcoatl, deceived by Tezcatlipoca, was driven from Tula, the Toltec capital, and wandered for many years until he reached his homeland, the east coast of Mexico-where he was consumed by divine fire, his ashes turning into birds and his heart becoming the morning star. Another version has him sailing off to a mythical land, leaving behind the promise of his return.

quetzalcoatl is born

it's a cold night in sonora
and the stars are out in full force
it's a moment the world has been waiting for
when you set the world back on course
into the fire you go (2x)

it's a strange gathering around you
and the lord of the snails is born
five minutes before you take on divinity
you hear the crackling, well you hear the snapping corn
into the fire you go (4x)

William F. Buckley: This is how we remember you...

via Wikipedia:
In 1968, ABC News hired Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. as political analysts of the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions, predicting that television viewers would enjoy seeing two men of letters engage in on-air battle; as it turned out, verbal and nearly physical combat were joined. After days of mutual bickering, their debates devolved to vitriolic, ad hominem attacks. During discussions of the 1968 Democratic National Convention Protests, the men were arguing about Freedom of Speech in regards to American protestors displaying a Viet Cong flag when Vidal told Buckley to "shut up a minute" and went on to call him a "pro-war crypto Nazi." The visibly livid Buckley replied: "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto Nazi, or I'll sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered." After an interruption by anchor and facilitator Howard K. Smith, the men continued to discuss the topic in a less hostile manner.

Later, in 1969, the feud was continued as Buckley further attacked Vidal in the lengthy essay, "On Experiencing Gore Vidal", published in the August 1969 issue of Esquire; the essay is collected in The Governor Listeth, an anthology of Buckley's writings of the time. In a key passage attacking Vidal as an apologist for homosexuality, Buckley wrote: "the man who in his essays proclaims the normalcy of his affliction [i.e., homosexuality], and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher."

Historian Gray Click Here!

I don't know if you know this, but the Internet watches back. The successes of Anonymous are not your successes. Facebook users take note, not only is it near impossible to delete your account, but Facebook employees follow your clicking for fun. Even if you are unknown, you are not un-noted. This site uses Google Analytics to become analytically involved with our readership. (The average time on site is 10 minutes for an US reader, while not even a minute for a UK reader. How we can compete with Beat That Quote?)
As of now, we can take comfort, the eyes that stare back at us rarely focus in. You may be filmed as you neck in Central Park, but odds are no one will look at the tape unless a Terror strikes nearby. You may post a wacky comment on your Facebook crush after visiting their profile for the 50th time today, and while Facebook employees could giggle at this, they probably won't. But what about the historians.

I don't really sweat our blog's hits and stats. I post for my friends and family, as a personal record, and for my true love; the historian I sometimes imagine wafting through the gases of my web life. He is the hidden figure in the "generation me" equation --a name by the way which must go and is completely inadequate in describing the natural self-indulgence children born today will posses. But the web denizens of today and tomorrow will continue to dream of being noticed after they are dead, in some sort of 7-up induced fantasy.

But what will remain, and will anyone care? First, what will remain: from my experience, not a lot. This blog will be a collection of broken links and words that were arranged just to make room for the links in the first place. Will that dance with the mildest of restrictions be one day noticed as art? Does it satisfy Alan Moore's criteria of structure? Probably not. But if not as art, then as comforting history? Who knows? I've been online long enough to know that things don't last out here, at least not how you intended. But that doesn't mean no one will care.

To be honest, I'm not ready to say if my Historian of Tomorrow will ever find me. That's a prediction I'm not ready to make. But surely there are smaller things I can try my hand at. The futurists at the Long Now have been doing this for awhile. Kevin Kelly has a daring prediction on Long Bets that I'm not willing to disagree with:
“By 2060 the total population of humans on earth will be less than it is today.”
If you take into account what Stewart Brand says, it's hard to disagree.

But here's a prediction I've had kicking around in a notebook for awhile. But I'll put it into play now,

PREDICTION:
Within five years I will be able to buy a Killer Robot Nixon from the Futurama episode, A Head in the Polls.

WHY:
Eventually anything you want, will be available anyway you want it. As culture continues it's march into the physical world, expect more dolls, replicas, and garments from your favorite obscure tv show/movie/book/comic/blog post.

Why I hate Alternet

Thirsty for news, I went over to Alternet.org, a progressive news site I used to read. All my usual sources have kind of said their peace for the week, and the lazy bums are resting all weekend. And with the strike preventing me from watching any new television shows, regardless of any talk, (Talk is not TV!) I was really ready to read some news. With the elections heat, and TV's lull, I've been reading more and more. So here's what I find:
What? I'm missing a chance to consider the horrors of life in middle America? Geez, I'm such a dope. Here I am, ignoring this news story that's been playing on TV since I was 15, and wasting a perfectly good opportunity to consider horrors. Why am I even bothering to write this, when I could drop everything and start being afraid right now? Psychological torture is just a cable news show away. Like FDR said, 'you've got nothing but fear on every channel.'

But if you consider too much horror, watch too much TV, see the planes hit the towers too many times, there is no going back. You've been shocked too many times. 'You've watched it, you can't unwatch it.'

TVTVTV!

If your looking to put the zap on your waking mind, there's really nothing like television. And if you want to see a collection of Youtube finds, I just updated my four playlists on my Youtube Channel. Cartoons, music, politics, and craziness, are the four pillars of my Church of Youtube.

But if you'd rather use TV to learn about the outside world then I can not recommend Louis Theroux enough. You can watch his show on the youtube and alluc.org. I want to get the DVDs eventually. If you'd like glimpses into the hidden corners of the world, you really need a guide like Louis. Watching him alternately disarm and arm a situation, and watching the characters he meets as they're essences are completely revealed before the camera, well it's quite a show.

If you'd rather not drift into the weird world of Louis, then maybe you'd be more comfortable with his less friendly, but equally lovable BBC counterpart, Charlie Brooker. His show about television and cultural decay is called Screen Wipe and can also be found on the youtube and alluc.org. If you want to know just how great Charlie Brooker is then just watch this:

Young actor's murderer still on the loose - could this be the beginning of a spree?

I have recently received insider information from an actor working in New York, that Heath Ledger was killed by the Joker. Ledger was recently quoted as saying that playing the part of the psychotic Joker in the upcoming film, The Dark Knight, put such a strain on the actor that he could not sleep at night.

Ledger told The New York Times last year that Heath Ledger stressed a little too much over the role.
The interview was done in London during the filming of Batman.
'It is a physically and mentally draining role (his Joker is a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy” he said cheerfully ) and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much," Heath Ledger told The Times.

“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”
[Link]

So there you have it. Now the Joker's started killing people out here in the real world. Well, kind of the real world. New York City anyway, not LA, or Tokyo or one of those DC cities. A proper Marvel city. I'm starting to see it more and more. Life drifting into the broad strokes of a comic book: pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Chick Stone, and fuck sake let's say it, script by Stan Lee.
And that might be putting too precise a point on it. The inks aren't always by Chic Stone, and sometimes the pencils are by Steve Ditko. But regardless, like in the Mighty Marvel Age of the 1960s what we're seeing around us is a world shaped by the artists. A world that is running a few steps faster, and a fews steps deeper than what the writers are picking up or getting down.

Things are starting to happen which lead me to think that the dread iron system, whose shadow we have been cowering under since the birth of our New American Century, when on September the Eleventh the assault on the hearts, minds, and rights Americans began, but what I'm trying to say, is maybe that's ending now.

Yeah, so this is the thing. I might be fooling myself, and even if I am, its okay I need the break from the bleak. But I really am starting to think that maybe things are getting better. I really don't want to jinx it, but maybe the brutal and much loathed system, will just break. Fall apart like a poorly thought out Rube Goldberg machine. Not so bad. Weeds are springing up through the cement. Tree roots cracked it but the dandelions have the flowers now.

But it seems this is a transition period; reality is becoming less fixed, and change starts to happen faster and faster. New technologies are rippling into ever facet of life and every field of thought. And so the world starts to look more like a comic book. But I've said that already, so let's go to some examples:

Okay Tom Cruise is a lot of my evidence. I don't know when you first realized that he's a super hero, but for me it was a picture I saw on some tabloid last May that looked something like this,
I believe here he's pictured riding towards Avengers Mansion shortly before his falling out with Hollywood types he once considered nearly family. So far Tom Cruise seems a lot cooler than Tony Stark, who he was originally on the team to replace. Perhaps since Tom Cruise thinks he can move things with his mind, and did overcome his dyslexia through hard work, his mental powers make him more appealing than a gadget hero like Stark's Iron Man.
[Tom Cruise taking ‘Mission’ to Tribeca]

Also if you watched the latest Tom Cruise bit to hit the web, (but not the news, copyright is still ironclad for them) you may have gotten the impression that Tom Cruise's legacy will overshadow that of Scientology. I think he is using his mental powers and personal energy to summon forth something. And his image is starting to represent that something more than the dying cult he is presently apart of.
[Watch the Secret Scientology Tom Cruise Video]


And if Tom Cruise is our superhero, we know we're in the Marvel Universe since his arch villains are a shadow band of hackers known as Anonymous who have vowed to destroy Scientology. Sometimes, over the top is exactly the spot you need to hit. Seems like this could actually start some commotion.
[Message to Scientology]

I'll try to start posting more comic art and more evidences of this most enjoyable turn of events. And hopefully as my world outlook has been brightened, the stories I find and share will be a bit more upbeat from now on. But no promises.

Is the Space Pope reptilian?

Of course I couldn't be happier with the return of Futurama. In the spring of 1999, when Futurama first aired, the Simpsons had already begun to show they would no longer as relevant or sharp in the years 2000. But Futurama still feels fresh to me. Futurama is a throwback. Like the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Black Dossier, Futurama cast a wide net, trying to capture the sum of human thought since inception. With significance drifting back and forth between the past and the future. Like what the scientists tell us about God.
So I thought I thought I'd share some wiki research on Futurama:

* There is a strange racially charged history which the supremely diverse Futurama universe rests on. Evidence: the title of this new Futurama DVD is a play on Shaft's Big Score, the robots are often portrayed as robo-americans, and Nibbler is based on Minstrel cartoon character Bosko. Not everyone's from the Neutral Planet.

* Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth gets his name from Philo Farnsworth inventor of the television. Professor Farnsworth has invented these things, and Mr. Farnsworth invented these things.

* List of recurring alien characters from Futurama

GoogleSky

A few days ago we were looking for a good star/sky catalog, and a few days ago Google released an amazing update to GoogleEarth. So, wow, cool, all that.

You can now use their app to view the night sky, as you'd see it, from wherever you are. Also, just like in the rest of GoogleEarth, you can zooooooommmm.

This is looking like an amazing potential venue for the LSST star data Google has promised to archive, which will be coming in... 2013? (so far away) at a rate of 30TB a night.

Some applications with similar offerings are mentioned in this article, but I'd check out Stellarium (open-source, cross-platform). I haven't fully explored it, but it has some fun overlays, and from what I can see, it all sits on your computer, which would be preferable to the GoogleEarth/Sky, should you be star-gazing in an area where the wifi is a bit spotty.

- - - -
http://earth.google.com/sky/
Google Lat Long (GoogleEarth and Maps blog)
another youtube spot
- - - -

It is alarming (and wonderful) to think about how disparate the childhoods of the coming generations are and will be from every other generation that has come before. Seriously, check out the zoom on a nebula or something. Crazy.

ContentDumps

Here is a collection of links which should each be considered worthy appendices of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA:

The INTERNET Archive

Library of Congress, American Memory AUDIO Collections

Library of Congress, American Memory MOVIE Collections

Library of Congress, American Memory IMAGE Collections

Wellcome IMAGE Collection

TEXT, AUDIO, MOVIE Poetry Collections at ubu.com

TEXT Collection of 522 Poets

Because these links are so laden with content, I will try to conduct semi regular explorations of each. And report back my findings here. Unfortunately all these sites have interfaces which impair your use. I'll also add new Internet Media Collections, or ContentDumps, as I find them.

Here are a few selected collections:
By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943
Early Animated Films, 1900-1921
Vintage Animated Cartoons, 1930s-1940s

"You're being paranoid, John."

Watch the [.mpg4] and enjoy the [transcript] of the McLauglin Group from FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2007 BROADCAST: WEEKEND OF JULY 14-15, 2007.

In which, John McLaughlin suggest that Michael Chertoff's "recent gut" feeling that America could experience an, "increased summer threat," is part of a disinformation plot on the part of the White House.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: And why was that story surfaced this week? Do you think some of this was designed, on the part of the administration, including the sentiment expressed by the head of Homeland Security that he feels it in his belly, was this designed to keep the Republicans in the Congress at bay?
...
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Was it designed as a kind of a prelude to the president's press conference?
...
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Let me ask you this about Pakistan. Was the release of that story -- let's go back to that. Was the release of that story about Rumsfeld designed to send a message to Musharraf? Namely, "You either cooperate with us or we'll go forward with that kind of Rumsfeld plan." In other words, this is kind of a fearmongering for him and it's fearmongering for the Congress.

(Blankley denies this idea that the Rumsfeld story is beneficial to the Bush Administration and claims the author, Andrea Mitchell is an aggressive reporter and no friend of the White House. However, she is Alan Greenspan's wife, and doesn't come off well in this Media Matters coverage of the 2004 election.)
...
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Is the president announcing a third front, and that's Pakistan?
...
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Exit question: What is the main factor fueling the rise of al Qaeda? Pat Buchanan.

MR. BUCHANAN: The United States' invasion and occupation of an Arab country, Iraq, and the four-year war we've fought against the resistance in Iraq, that has created an enormous movement across the Arab and Islamic world to drive the United States out of there. And there are volunteers -- tremendous numbers of volunteers for al Qaeda.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Have you seen that happen before, where jihadists would flow from all over the world to any sector in order to evict an occupier?

MR. BUCHANAN: Sure. You've seen it in the Battle of Algiers.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Where else have you seen it?

MS. CLIFT: Afghanistan.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You saw it in Afghanistan, did you not?

MS. CLIFT: Absolutely. And a western country invading an oil- rich Muslim country is a recipe for disaster.
...
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You don't see how this whole event was a prelude -- that is, the director of Homeland Security -- was a prelude to Bush's press conference?

MR. BUCHANAN: This is one of these Machiavellian --

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Don't you realize that by creating --

(Cross-talk.)

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: -- by creating an atmosphere of fear, by creating an atmosphere of fear --

MR. BUCHANAN: You are paranoid, John. You are paranoid.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: -- he holds the Congress in place? He holds them in place.

MS. CLIFT: I would have agreed with you --

MS. HUFFINGTON: But it didn't help Bush. On the contrary, I think it had the opposite effect. How does it help Bush to have an official estimate of an increased strength of al Qaeda?

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The atmospherics of terror are such that if the president then appears strong in Iraq, it's misconcluded by the American public that he is fighting terrorism. And therefore, they give him more license to do so.

As always John McLaughlin speaks the truth. The rest aren't stepping back and seeing how the sentence reads if you skip three words a beat. The Misconclusions of the Public are written by the television press which have universally degraded the quality of debate, and forgotten their public responsibility not to publish propaganda. The others on the show, liberal and conservative make the mistakes that plague the over-informed. They assume Americans are as well.

MR. BUCHANAN: They smacked down -- Chertoff got smacked down by both Bush and Tony Snow, for heaven's sakes.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Well, why? You know that.

MS. CLIFT: No, no. Chertoff --

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Just as --

MR. BLANKLEY: John --

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: It is uncharacteristic of Chertoff to talk about anything originating in his gut. So he gets a phone call.

MR. BLANKLEY: John, you're --

MR. BUCHANAN: You're moving way out there, John. (Laughs.)

MS. HUFFINGTON: John, the final proof that you are wrong is that the president at his press conference actually said the exact opposite. He said that al Qaeda is weaker because of our actions since 9/11. He said that. So if this was some kind of planned leak, then he wouldn't have contradicted his own Machiavellian plan.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: No, I think they jibe together. It works perfectly.

MR. BLANKLEY: Arianna, he's just that cunning.

They make funny of him, call him paranoid, but John McLaughlin is absolutely right. To understand this administration you can't look at what they say, or what the facts admit. But rather the message they are able to convey through Fox News and the pressure it creates in tandem with an Executive branch unified around that centralized message. This message and those who created it are all honorary parts and products of the Ministry of Truth. And it is important for such a Ministry to have a role call.

The pundits and journalists who have lubed the way for new policies and war, should be recognized. Conner linked to The Long Now Blog in the sidebar and through it I found this Radar Online article that's wonderful on, The Iraq Gamble. It traces the careers of eight pundits, and sees what their pre-War stance got them. Those with the wrong stance, the risk everything for this fun idea stance, those pro-war assholes made big bucks and kept everyone's ear. Not so for those who opposed the war and disagreed with Bush's NON-existent WMDs.

This is really a long now kind of issue, because in a longer time frame then we are currently appreciating life at, there becomes room and need to have a list. Lynne Cheney made a list of professors after 9/11 who she considered "un-American." Schools were pressured not to hire the professors for speeches or teaching positions. Truly another dark day for American freedoms. But perhaps it is time to start drawing up new list. A list of those who, through intent or neglect, lead America astray with a weak reporting of the facts.

America has made some bad decisions in the past six years. Decisions that rock the core security of our democracy. To preserve our freedoms and our nation, we must identify the problem. So when Gore comes to power in the early Winter of 2008, he can clear our the trash before 2010.

The Radar article is really worth reading but here is the gist of it,

McLauglin closes last Friday's show with,

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The House Oversight Committee this week heard testimony of ex-Surgeon General Richard Carmona. He served the current Bush administration from 2002 to 2006, a four-year term as the nation's top doctor.

The surgeon general's duties are to provide Americans, quote, "the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness."

On Tuesday, Dr. Carmona lambasted the Bush administration for substituting politics for science.

RICHARD CARMONA (former U.S. surgeon general): (From videotape.) Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointee's ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried. The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Among other examples, Dr. Carmona pointed to stem cell research funding as an instance of where his analysis and his opinion were spurned.

DR. CARMONA: (From videotape.) I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made. "Stand down. Don't talk about it."

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Carmona says that his speeches were censored on issues ranging from second-hand smoke to AIDS to sex education to birth control.

DR. CARMONA: (From videotape.) You don't want Republican or Democratic scientific information. You want real scientific information.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Carmona also said that the administration told him to mention Mr. Bush's name three times on every page of every speech.

That final bombshell McLauglin points to as proof of the "cult of personality," which maintains the President's loyal 30 percent. Bush's little brownshirts are ignorant of the counter-facts Huffington and her techno-elite dine on. Instead they are fed fear by their strong leader, and so they stay our nations course, and defend an impeachable Administration.

They Will Not Go Quietly Into That Goodnight

I just watched a short Bill Moyers program from 1987 called, The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis. It's devastatingly frightening. Moyers traces the beginning of the end to the National Security Act of 1947. I can't recommend watching this 22 minute documentary enough. America's War of Terror makes much more sense when seen in it's historical context. This is war has lasted over half a century so far, and has no intention of stopping. And we probably can't stop it.

Moyers says when America employed Nazi war criminals as spies and scientists we made a pact with the Devil. This is true. The death worship and imperial dreams of the Nazis were not defeated, merely transmuted.

This is too frustrating to bear. Here are 5 links, a warning and a solution:

"Reagan Aides and the 'Secret' Government," Alfonso Chardy, Miami Herald, July 5, 1987.
Continuity of Government in the United States
'Shadow Government' News To Congress, March 2, 2002
U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules, September 10, 2005
Security Cameras Coming to New York City

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
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We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address
17 January 1961



And any time you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress. Instead, you have to take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today.

Malcolm X

Mr. Rogers talks to the US senate

I posted this video before watching it through. Since then I've gone searching for more Fred Rogers on the Internet and beyond. Today I tried to find his book, You Are Special, in my local bookstores to no avail. I'm going to try the Amherst stores soon.

His PBS website gives a taste of his book and some of his song lyrics with sheet music.

His wikipedia entry is not bad and contains this excerpt from Esquire Magazine's coverage of the 1997 Daytime Emmy's, written by Tom Junod:

Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award — and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, "All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence."[5]

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, 'I'll watch the time." There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, three seconds — and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly, "May God be with you," to all his vanquished children.

The entry also covers his advocacy of the VCR:

Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "Neighborhood" at hours when some children cannot use it ... I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "Neighborhood" off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "Neighborhood" because that's what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been "You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions." Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.

This testimony was quoted in a footnote of the Supreme Court's decision to allow VCRs. I'm sure he'd want more than just as few clips like this one, to be on youtube.

“Let us pray also for the Jews, that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ."

Crazy Nazi-Pope Benedict XVI wants to reinstate Latin Mass. Sounds like church will finally be worth going to again. And PB XVI is not only handsome but sympathetic to Jews. Apparently,

Fears that the Vatican was set to reintroduce a controversial prayer including calls for Jews to convert appeared to be allayed yesterday after the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England assured the Jewish community that the contentious part would be omitted.

Pat Buchanan confessed on last Friday's McLaughlin Group, that this is a wet dream come true for him. And with Bush's recent immigration reform failure, everything is coming up roses for PJB.

NY Mag Article on Biology of Sexual Orientation

Here's an interesting article in New York Magazine on the biology of homosexuality,

One of the riddles still vexing geneticists is why only 50 percent of gay identical twins share a sexual orientation with their sibling, despite being genetically identical. “We know from all sorts of research that it’s not your upbringing, not relationship with parents or siblings, not early-childhood sexual experiences and whether you go to a Catholic school or not,” says Sven Bocklandt, a geneticist at UCLA. “What I believe is that it is the ‘epigenetics environment,’ meaning the environment on top of our DNA—meaning the way that the gene is regulated. If you have identical twins, the genes are identical, but they are used differently. Every man and every woman has all the genes to make a vagina and womb and penis and testicles. In the same way, arguably, every man and woman has the genetic code for the brain networks that make you attracted to men and to women. You activate one or the other—and if you activate the wrong one, you’re gay.”

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Some critics of sexual-orientation researchers blame them for minimizing the role of experience in determining our affectional course in life. The feminist biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling has waged a constant battle against their research, which she calls “a big house of cards” that ignores the power of environment in creating personality. Nurture, she argues, can and should be studied as a link to sexual orientation. The baby penguin raised by her two dads is a potential case study—though genetically unrelated to either parent, in the last few mating seasons she has mated with another female.

The rush to declare a biological mandate is motivated by a political agenda, says Fausto-Sterling, the author of Sexing the Body, who is married to a woman after a marriage to a man. “For me and for any feminist, I think it’s a pretty fragile way to argue for human rights. I want to see the claims for gay rights made on moral, ethical, legal, and constitutional bases that don’t rely on a particular scientific view of sexual development.”

And according to the wikipedia entry on Biology and sexual orientation,

The Advocate, a U.S. gay and lesbian newsmagazine, reported in 1996 that 61% of its readers believed that "it would mostly help gay and lesbian rights if homosexuality were found to be biologically determined".[23] A cross-national study in the United States, the Philippines, and Sweden found that those who believed that "homosexuals are born that way" held significantly more positive attitudes toward homosexuality than those who believed that "homosexuals choose to be that way" and/or "learn to be that way".[24]

Also mentioned in the David France, New York Magazine article,

Sheep are among 500 animal species where homosexuality has been documented. They are also among the few who practice exclusive homosexuality, like many humans. In any population of sheep, about 8 percent of males show exclusive homosexual behavior. Little is known about the romantic life of Sapphic sheep because ewes tend to express their sexual interests by standing entirely still, yielding no clues about their partner preferences.