Peace

HuffPost says it's one of the most popular videos ever played and discussed on You Tube.
Play here.

Abba

Abba explains Iraq. Play here.

The Plague Door

All the family has been visiting and the Boulder Bakers, unbenownst to them, brought us all the norovirus . So we have been quite sick. Do not know who will show up at the race to watch Jon besides Cyndi and the baby. All plans for people coming over here have been canceled except for the original crew of the Plague House.

Dali

"This administration has morphed into Salvador Dali's horrifying 1936 painting, "Soft Construction With Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War"-- a barbaric spectacle of rage, self-destruction and decay." Camille Paglia

Camp Lejeune

Good thing we lived off base and moved away in 1955. Read about toxins here.

al-Marri

Read this opinion if you disagree with the court ruling on al-Marri.

Charlie Brown

Kos posts a lovely report about our Charlie Brown and of course the purile John Doolittle.
Read it here.

Graco Anti-Child?

I hope you know not to purchase Graco products such as strollers, beds, highchairs, swings, etc. Too many defective products. Not recalled in a timely manner. Too many children injured. Most manufactured in China.

Nuclear War with Anyone?

Although we are well aware of the naval build up near Iran and the saber rattling about Iran's nuclear program, are we fully aware of the implications of the build up of military installations near Russia. We hear about a nuclear defense system to combat the threat from rogue states. But what is being set up in Eastern Europe is a system that would allow a nuclear first strike against Russia with a "defense" system to minimize retaliation. Are we ready for all out nuclear war? This is the "we're number one" strategy that the current administration and the military is pushing for. Read Putin's recent press conference here.

Religion's Role in State

PBS documentary Wall of Separation is supposedly an independent analysis of the first amendment. But a quote from Boulevard Pictures about the contents of the show makes you wonder. "Some say the modern understanding of the role of religion in the public square is exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended." It has those lovely two words some say.

Jail

I find it odd that people who are excusing Scooter Libby for his perjury and obstruction of justice are not looking at Martha Stewart as a good comparison. Ultimately it was determined that the only real crime committed by Martha was the perjury. I think there was a real crime committed in the outing of Plame. The only trouble is it is hard to prove that the outing was done with the malice and knowledge of covert status that the law requires. When Martha went to jail there was a certain amount of gloating and satisfaction that the rich bitch got taught a lesson. Now the only rich bitch who is said to deserve a lesson is Paris Hilton who gets sent to jail for a traffic offense when violent offenders are released from LA jail because of overcrowding. Libby on the other hand gets all kinds of sympathy from the MSM for his crime of lying to the FBI and grand jury. I do hope he does go to jail in the interest of fairness to rich white political guys. I hope he sings to make a deal to get out of jail and implicates his puppet masters. He is a scapegoat taking the fall for George and Dick. I do not know if there is as much loyalty among politicos as there is among the mafia, that you do your time and do not sing. Of course if he is pardoned right away, he will never sing. George may be muscled into doing this by Dick who fears the jailhouse song. And George's popularity could not get much lower. Except in Albania.
See more from Glenn Greenwald at Salon.

Just Say No

Say No to Immigrants

great video cartoon

Aggressive Male Animals

Is it possible that there is a link between the aggression documented with elephants--groups of young male elephants running wild, destroying villages, killing people and other animals (rhinos)--and the recent documentation of aggression of young male sea otters? Young male sea otters have been observed ripping the muzzles off of females and trying to aggressively mate with non fertile females who are still nursing pups. They have also been observed chasing females trying to get them to abandon pups. Studies of the elephant aggression has linked it to human caused stress with elevation of corticosteroids. What could be stressing the sea otters? Could it be the decreasing Ph of the ocean?

Joint Chiefs Chair Fired. Why?

Although Gates says that Pace was fired because he wanted to avoid a contentious inquiry in Congress when he was renominated for the post, this may not be the real story. As pitiable as some of the actions and comments of Pace have been in his time in the joint Chiefs, he had balked at the Bush plans for military action against Iran. Mullen is much more of a true believer and would go along with a strike against Iran. In a speech to Pearl Harbor sailors in May he said "The enemy now is basically evil and fundamentally hates everything we are -- the democratic principles for which we stand ... This war is going to go on for a long time. It's a generational war." http://starbulletin.com Yo Ho!!

Creation Museum

Great post about a visit to the Creation Museum at Blue Grass Roots. Lots of great pictures. This is for you Richard.

London Hotel

After many nice reasonable hotels were not available during our time period I finally found this one. The Rhodes Hotel
It had very good reviews from customers, fairly reasonable price for London, and good amenities (free internet access, refrigerator,etc). Truthfully I got it out of Frommer's, but it still took me most of the day to decide on this one.

Tickets to Euope

We committed to tickets. So I could use my air miles, we are flying on different airlines from San Francisco to London on 9/25 but will fly home together on 4/28 from Paris to Sacramento. It is very complex. William has a regular multi city ticket on American. I have a strangely reasonable one way ticket on United to London and a free one way ticket on American for the return flight. Now we have to see about a hotel in London for a few days.

Busheconomics

Bush's "Magic" Economic Formula: The Rich Get Richer; Regular People Lose Ground

This is an extremely interesting article. I actually read the entire thing. And you all know what a skimmer I am.

Democrats Debate

I watched the whole thing and thought the candidates were pretty good. Wolf Blitzer frequently asked stupid "24" type questions. Such as "Bin Laden has been discovered at a location in Pakistan, but he will only be there for 20 minutes and if you bomb the location you will kill innocent people, do you give the order to bomb?" Hillary called him on this and said it was "not useful to talk in these hypothetical terms." In my opinion these are just "bogus gotcha" kinds of questions.

Feral Western Colorado

Of feral dogs, and feral Westerners

See update on 5/31 post

Recent reading

Just finished a scary memoir.

Gestapo?

American Gestapo: No Papers? Off to Jail You Go!

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews (Those who were foreign born)
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists (Those who looked foreign born)
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists (Those who spoke out for peace and justice)
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller