PittsburghThoughts

Thanks to Gina for the link,

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Democratic House and Senate members signed on to a measure today that would feed Christians to the lions. Nancy Pelosi was quoted as saying, "Democratic Christians will be spared, but only after they converted to atheism."

George W. Bush grilled a 12-year-old boy on a spit today at his ranch. He said, “That’s some mighty good eatin.” 

A recent contingent of leading Republicans returning home from Iraq, said today, "Things are going so well, that soon we’ll be able to build factories there and put more Americans out of work." 

A resolution was passed in the Senate today declaring blogs illegal, Senator Ted Stevens (R- Alaska) was quoted as saying, “I don’t know what they are but I don’t like the sound of them.”

A House Ways and Means Committee Spokesperson said today, “ The problem is; when we have the ways, we don’t have the means and visa versa.”

The House also voted on a bill that would require all members to be paid in gold. The Senate is expected to follow suit. Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke said, “Gold is the way to go, the dollar ain’t going to worth shit soon.” 

Alberto Gonzales was set to begin writing his memoirs this week but was stopped dead in his tracks when he realized he couldn’t remember anything. 

Dick Cheney morphed into a reptile today on the White House lawn. Scientists suggest that it may be a step up the evolutionary ladder for him.

 The U.S. Treasury announced that it will start minting coins from plastic. However, with soaring oil prices, some say plastic may become too expensive and suggest minting coins from dirt. 

Mattel stock hit an all time high yesterday after announcing the creation of a new teething toy for babies, it’s made of lead impregnated with glass. 

In a Presidential decree today, President Bush said all clocks must be modified to run backwards until September 10, 2001. “This time we’ll be ready for those bastards.” he said.

Ace reporter and Washington correspondent,   Gene

Reflections on my own act of violence,

Is it possible to objectively decide that violence is the most expedient course of action to take towards problem resolution? It doesn't seem likely, does it? The use of violence has too many negative connotations, implications and consequences. It's a barbaric admission that reason has either failed or hasn't been given a chance to succeed and it's usually a visceral reaction, not a logical one.

But, it seems to me, some problems transcend reason. Can you reason with a brute? A grizzly bear? No, reason is impotent were there hasn't been a prevenient consensus that reason should prevail.

Under these circumstances the question may become, to what degree shall violence be deployed? Usually the answer is plain; enough to resolve the problem but not enough to create more or greater problems. This usually becomes the larger prevailing issue once violence has been employed and why it's so successfully employed by authoritarians. They have the means to establish how much is too much and may adjust the standards applied as seen fit.

To be on the wrong side of authority and employ violence will almost certainly end tragically, so every effort must be made toward problem resolution before its employment, also, a serious consideration must be made whether the negative consequences outweigh the benefits of its use. 

This is all pie-in-the-sky nonsense to the emotional system. Seldom will the parties agree in advance to the terms and conditions of the outcome, unless it's staged violence, as in a sporting event or insurance fraud. But, for those predisposed to resolve, once and for all, an insurmountable problem with unreasonable, truculent persons, violence may be the most efficient means when operating within a limited sphere or resources, i.e., buying the other person off, which seems to me, more cowardly and reprehensible than addressing the body directly.
 
My experience however, hasn't confirmed that anything has been resolved by me being violent, not yet anyway. It has only brought me satisfaction that I acted to resolve a particularly difficult problem regardless of the fear of consequence or appearance. It may, in the end, be selfishness that encouraged me to react violently, the selfishness to believe that my judgement is superior and to have my will prevail over others, that, and the need to protect what I still consider a part of me.  Gene


 

All's not well that doesn't end well,

If days were made of shit, today would have been an extra shitty one. I got into a fight. Not a argument, not a disagreement, not a battle of wits or a yelling, screaming, face saving, macho dance of love, but a fight. And, like all fights, I walked away injured, and, like all the fights I've ever been in, injured by secondary concerns.

I once punched someone's belt buckle and broke my hand. Tonight it's my back and leg. I waited for the police to come but they never did, I'm glad. Being locked-up while fucked-up is in itself fucked-up.

I'm not a violent person but like Kenny Rodgers said, sometimes you have to fight to be a man.
 
When someone fucks with your kid...it's time...even if that kid turns around and stabs you in the back. You just never know about people.    Gene

I've been a complete dunce; paying for something that I can get for free, no, I don't mean NPR. I'll kick myself as soon as I'm done here.

I don't know how well I'm going to adjust, but I cancelled my AOL account this morning. I installed the free AOL explorer, it has the same features; you have to snoop around a little to find them, but findable they are.

Because I've been in a rebooting, de-fraging, cache clearing, registry cleaning frenzy for what seems forever, all too often to solve my navigation and inability to download problems for a day or two, only to have them return like that kid that use to shake you down for your lunch money, this morning, for the umpteenth time, I began to re-install AOL.

I went to one of the millions of AOL pages where you can download their software. This one was the site that AOL help took me to directly, so I assumed it was an official site. I clicked on download AOL. It ask what Windows version I had, I clicked XP. It immediately referred me to AOL 9.0 VR, the VR stands for Vista Ready, download page. I was assured by the little box on the side that it was XP compatible. It’s not and THAT’S been the probable source of my many and varied problems.

I've suspected all along that the VR edition wasn't really compatible with XP and I was loath to reinstall it, but that was it, VR or nothing on the OFFICIAL AOL download page claiming XP compatibility.

Rather that spend any more time on this merry-go-round, I called AOL to cancel my account. In the 6 or 7 years that I've had AOL, it's been a bad marriage, i.e., I learned to tolerated the abuse and neglect until it became second nature to ignore it or rationalize it as just a slight character flaw the could or would be eventually overcome through my unconditional love and understanding.

Today, I took a stand. On the phone, the ever pleasant, foreign accented voice told me that AOL VR IS NOT COMPATABLE TO WINDOWS XP. That's odd, I thought and said, because YOUR OWN WEB PAGE SAYS IT IS! When confronted, he confessed that they have been having a few problems here and there and I could install an earlier version of 9.0 and everything would be hunky dunky. I wasn’t having any of it and I told him so.

I'm hindered now, all the keystrokes that have become ingrained in my psyche in order to facilitate whatever the hell it is that I do when I blog, are no longer relevant. I can't copy and paste (steal and paste) the critical information I need as easily, spell checking has become more of a chore, the shortcuts that I have learned or invented will disappear into the ether. I lament the passing of those good old days when blogging was young and we were in love, but I pledge to you, dear reader, to carry on. You do the same   Gene

Some stuff,

By now, most people that pay attention are aware of the controversy surrounding Congressman Pete Stark's remarks (D-California's 13th district) during a congressional debate over whether or not to expand SCHIP to cover another 4 million children.

What probably isn't widely known is that:

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) put a sign on the floor of the House chamber before the debate: "SCHIP: Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents." [Non-citizens are not eligible for SCHIP.]

Stark obviously hates Bush and his contingent in congress, I salute him. The idea that the democrats have to play nice while the republicans decimate our country is an interesting concept. When they meet someone that plays like they do they are shocked. Now they know how we feel about them.
 

This link debunks the myths about the new expanded SCHIP program. It may also be instuctive to view the comments: GOP to Battle SCHIP Veto Override With Distortions - Wide Open: Insight and Analysis from Ohio's Premier Political Bloggers -...

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Bush quote from: War Room: Political News, Politics News - Salon

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 11:51 EST
It was a joke (we think)
From this morning's White House press conference:

Reporter: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ...

Bush: I've been planning that myself.

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To further complicate the question of why Israel bombed Syria back in September there's this: The Raw Story | US intelligence does not show Syrian nuclear weapons program, officials say

Cheney hand seen behind leaks of 'misleading' stories.

Allegations that a Syrian envoy admitted during a United Nations meeting Oct. 17 that an Israeli air strike hit a nuclear facility in September are inaccurate and have raised the ire of some in the US intelligence community, who see the Vice President’s hand as allegedly being behind the disinformation.

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Meet the new boss, just like the old boss? From: Senators Clash With Nominee About Torture - New York Times

On the second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey went further than he had the day before in arguing that the White House had constitutional authority to act beyond the limits of laws enacted by Congress, especially when it came to national defense.

He suggested that both the administration’s program of eavesdropping without warrants and its use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects, including waterboarding, might be acceptable under the Constitution even if they went beyond what the law technically allowed. Mr. Mukasey said the president’s authority as commander in chief might allow him to supersede laws written by Congress.

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We can't seem to lift ourselves out of the morass that we're in. The dems keep whistling past graveyards and the republicans keep filling them. Symbols and symbolic behavior trump reality. Wearing blinders and stuffing cotton in our ears isn't what we need but it is what we have. Our independence as a nation has led to a nation of sovereign individuals without a stake in any higher purpose than themselves. A malevolence towards the world and each other has processed us, and as always, truth is the first victim. John Edwards said it best, "The President should be asking for citizens to be patriotic about something besides the war."  Gene