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

This is an Insane Press Conference

Bush Hears Voices

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."
Update: 6/3/07
I think the strategy is to draw a line around the oil and oil pipelines. Position bases to defend same and withdraw from the rest of Iraq. Because the right sees our country's destiny as being in charge of the oil we need to keep up our lifestyle. Including me going RVing. Then we can call it "Korea". With a DMZ around the oil. Then the rest of Iraq can go to hell. Since there will not be a functioning government to ask us to leave for a long time, we can continue to suck on the oil soda straw.

Learning to cook Belgian Style

I am reading Belgian recipes and tried one last night. A Belgian beer stew. My cooking style is to read a few versions of a recipe, decide what it is supposed to taste like and then cook it in my shortcut style. It was pretty good. It was to be served over rice or noodles, but I am trying out using various whole grains so I served it with cooked bulgur wheat. Pretty good. I used less fat and meat than the recipes called for, but one recipe even said to skim off extra fat before serving. My recipe had no extra fat so that step was saved.

Great Progressive Podcast

93 - Food Workers' Lungs Destroyed: Another Case Study In How Right-Wing Policies Increase Human Misery, Suffering, Pain And Death

Carter must be sent to Guantanamo Bay

Great video from Bill Maher.

watch video

Great Video About Oil

Crude-the incredible journey of oil
a video in 3 parts, well worth the time spent watching it. I certainly learned a lot.

Off to Iraq

Jon's neighborhood friend Phil is off to Iraq for stint #2. He is currently in Germany with wife and new baby Ethan. Dad, Bud, is sorry and worried about this but says Phil made up his own mind to join up. (He was looking at how attractive the education benefits can look, since he had not been able to afford college.)



Speaking of college, we went to Shelley Evans graduation on Friday. Now there is a persistent person. She worked almost full time all the time she was going to school and she now has a degree in Chemistry from Sac State. No new job yet, but she is working on it.

The Lie about Defunding the War

Congress has numerous times defunded military actions. The media has promulgated the lie that defunding the war would cause the troops to suddenly run out of bullets, gas or boots during a fire fight. This reminds me of the Doonesbury cartoon that showed Bush putting the troops on half rations because they had run out of funds. Only a few people have spoken out against this lie, so most Americans, the last number I heard was 8 out of 10, equate defunding the war with abandoning the troops. This is like the 25% or so who still think Bush is a great President instead of the worst. I am proud of the people in Congress who voted against this current war funding bill.
Update: 5/28 I see that a memo went out re food in Iraq last Monday:
"Due to a theater-wide delay in food delivery, menu selections will be limited for the near future. While every effort will be made to provide balanced meals, it may not be possible to offer the dishes you are used to seeing at each meal. Fresh fruits and salad bar items will also be severely limited or unavailable." Maybe Doonesbury had some advance information.

A Terrorist? Me?

Are you a Terrorist?

YOU ARE A TERRORIST!!! TERRORISTA!!! GO BACK TO IRAN OR RUSSIA OR WHATEVER COUNTRY YOU ARE FROM TERRORIST!

I think I got picked on this quiz because I wear shoes and read books.

A Tribute to the Graduates

To Shelley Evans Graduating from Sac State
To Robert Turpen Graduating from 8th Grade
To Desi Borden Graduating from 8th Grade
To Jasmine Turpen Graduating from 6th Grade

A recycled Jon Stewart Commencement Address:

"Lets talk about the real world for a moment. ... I wanted to bring this up to you earlier about the real world, and this is I guess as good a time as any. I don't really know to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it.

"Please don't be mad. I know we were supposed to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one we were handed. So, sorry. I don't know if you've been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize.

"But here's the good news. You fix this thing, you're the next greatest generation, people. You do this---and I believe you can---you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw's kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don't, you're not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked-guy pile of enemy prisoners and don't give the thumbs up you've outdone us."

---Jon Stewart commencement address
William and Mary College, 2004

Watching the School Traffic

William is waking up and I have the coffee going for him. He has numerous appointments today. Just a few more days of school then there will be less traffic. Just summer school and sports functions. I am working on at home projects. Beginning my list of all things that have to be done prior to the visiting hoards.

Afternoon in Zion

Virgin River

The Watchman watches over Watchman Campground

The bike ride was fun but the trail is not too long. Less than 3 miles. So this afternoon we are just hanging out . I was sitting in my chair under a tree when a ground squirrel came under the chair and nibbled on the towel I was sitting on. Startled me. The squirrels are quite bold. They come up to you and sit on their hind legs and hold out their front paws begging. When people leave their campsites the squirrels are on their chairs and tables looking for anything. A poster says it is $100 fine to feed them. But they did not learn begging from not being fed. Dad is down in the river right now soaking. We will leave early in the morning and probably boondock near Tonopa on the way home.

Morning in Zion

5/21/07 When dad is ready we are to go bike riding this AM. Maybe we will have a picnic near the river as the paved bike path goes next to the river. Passed a young couple this AM with a problem similar to ours 33 years ago. The mom was trying to brush the little daughter’s long dark hair which was tangled into camping knots while the dad held the baby. On our camping trip like this I was caring for Jon and handed dad the brush to do Val’s lovely long dark curly hair that he had not wanted to cut. After a few piteous howling swipes Wm said maybe it would be a good idea to cut it. That was Val’s first pixie cut, on a picnic table with nail scissors. The wireless is still up but slow and low. Maybe belongs to the park?

Zion National Park

Someone has high speed wireless and I am poaching a bit. We are here 2 more nights and then off to home. We have done some walks and some relaxing.

Kanab Utah

I am now up to date. We are at the Kanab RV Corral with cell coverage and high speed wireless. The owners are Dutch. I would have said something in Dutch if I had been studying it. Bad me.

Kaibab Squirrel

Kaibab Squirrel

William took this picture.

We are now at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Wm woke me up about 7:15 this morning to point out a rare Kaibab Squirrel right outside the window. They are elusive and very cute tassel eared squirrels. They have long furry pointed ears, dark grey bellies and fluffy snow white tails. This is the only place in the world where they live. People have asked us all day, if we have seen one and we can truthfully say yes!