I had problems with MacJournal over the weekend not posting to my blogs so this is a test.
Edit – hrm, seems to work fine now. I wonder if it was a Comcast issue. Odd.
A Confluence of…
Ingredients:
Coal ash spill in Kingston Tennessee on December 22
Coal ash spill in Stevenson Alabama on January 10
A new series of television ads against “clean coal” technology first aired the week of December 5
Lack of reporting on the causes of the coal ash spills
stir together thoroughly and ponder the proximity of locations and events
There is something about this that doesn’t sit well with me. Could it be that rabid environmental activists are involved in creating these spills? I don’t know. I don’t much like coal fired power plants but I also know implementing alternatives will take time. And we now have severe environmental damage due to these spills that will likely take generations to clean up. Activists have been known to take similar drastic actions in the past. Think arsons in Colorado, bombing of research labs etc.
Another example that’s got me thinking “what’s wrong with this picture”
Save the eye bleach and watch something else
From the previews I was looking forward to “Superstars of Dance”. The chance for millions to be exposed to a myriad of international dance forms on prime time TV was an intriguing prospect. Now that I’ve seen some of this show I can only say this…
OMG this is not only the worst dance program I have ever witnessed it’s the worst television program!. It’s an embarrassment to some actually decent dancers. Hideous camera work. Ghastly lighting. Incomprehensible judging (I wonder if they’re being coached what scores to give for dramatic effect). Does any really believe that poor schmuck from China really is a Buddhist monk? Poor fellow is only allowed to say his numbers in Chinese and English.
I should have known it was going to be monstrously bad from the beginning when Michael Flatley was introduced as “the most popular dancer on the planet” Give me a f’ing break!
Save on the eye bleach and watch something else.
Feed Me
Due to a request by a friend we now have RSS feeds available for anyone so inclined. It’s nothing fancy. Just go to the very bottom of the page and click on Entries(RSS) and you’ll see a Subscribe button. Some day I’ll figure out how to do a nice little button but for now this is what works. Brought to you but the lovely folks at Feedburner and their nifty little plugin Feedsmith. If you’d like to see comments available via RSS please let me know and I’ll add it as well.
How Long
1775-1781 – Revolutionary War 7 years
1781-1787 – Articles of the Confederacy 6 years
1787-1789 – Constitutional Convention 2 years
1775-1789 – Fourteen Years
How long should it take to build a democracy? Lots of folks are clamoring that four years in Iraq is too long, too many of our young people have died, it’s time to get out now! Any deaths in a violent conflict, for make no mistake this is not a war (congress hasn’t had the balls to declare war since WWII) are lamentable. Especially when that violent conflict was a mistake to begin with. But once you have take it upon yourselves as a country to violently overthrow the government of another country how long does your responsibility for that country, and the innocent people who live there, last? What if say the state legislature of New York were disbanded and the governor hung for crimes? How much lawlessness and chaos would ensue? Add to that a heavily damaged energy infrastructure and transmission system in shambles along with a barely functional transportation system. With out these basics the economy would be a wreck as well. Could we put the pieces back together in just four years? How long will it take us to rebuild New Orleans? and here we all basically speak the same language. We don’t have brigades of Chinese soldiers “helping” us to rebuild via translators or contractors from Russia with private guards “fixing” things. Rebuilding a single city, let alone an entire country, will take a long long time.
And what again about democracy? What is the magic number at the end of the formula for how long it should take? How many citizens of the USA are aware that there were fourteen years between the beginning of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord and the swearing in of George Washington as our first President.(I’m betting that most of those that do have recently been sworn in as immigrant citizens at that) Fourteen years! And that was with a culture that had decades if not centuries of experience with various forms of representative governance and democratic ideas.
The clamoring to pull out of Iraq now and the posturing by various politicians is an embarrassment to the honor of this nation. Well, what little honor we have left. Once we took on the responsibility of destroying the government of Iraq we also took the responsibility of the long hard slog of rebuilding a government. Being stuck there now is the prime reason we shouldn’t have invaded. We shouldn’t have done it in the first place but now that we are there if were are to retain any semblance of decency we must stay until there is some stability, no matter how long it takes or how many soldier’s lives are lost. It’s the least we can do.
Autumnal Lover’s Dance
Arctic lover blows strong
Foliage furls in can-can twirls
Some begin to barely blush
Others go gaudy with harlot hues
Soon, oh so soon
Cool kisses of flurries will fly
All modesty will be stripped bare
And branches will dance
A blustery bacchanal for moons
As cold lover’s white mantle
Conceals only their feet
Making sense of voter registration
does this make sense to you…
I just renewed my California driver’s licence via the US mail. Great, glad that was easy since I’ve got travel coming up in my renewal month of October. However, enclosed was a form for voter registration. All that was required was to fill it out and sign it stating that everything on it was true (and that you’re over 18 and a citizen). Uh, isn’t that an awfully easy way to offer fraudulent voter registration? I mean really, do you think that someone who wants to fraudulently register will care that they’re lying on a mail-in form? All that’s asked for, besides name, address, date and place of birth is either your driver’s license number or the last four numbers of your social security number. Give me a break. You don’t have to be a citizen to have a driver’s license and it’s ridiculously easy to make up four numbers of a SS # or get a fake one. Is it any wonder that politics in this country is a joke when we pay so little attention to the most basic of privileges of a democracy.
postscript…
from the back of the form
“If you do not wish to register to vote, your decision will remain confidential and will be used only for voter registration purposes”
huh?
Please read this
In a restaurant the other day I got to thinking about why we say please and thank you and why it matters. How these three simple words, please and thank you, have a subtle power to shape the world around us. On the surface they are simply an aspect of good manners, a societal pleasantry. On a deeper level they are a good deal more than that. In a simple way they acknowledge that I’m not taking you for granted, I recognize you as a fellow human being not a automaton serving my needs. Each and every one of us is essentially alone in this existence on earth and this aloneness breeds a certain hunger to be seen and heard by others. A simple thank you casts a line of connection between us as humans and says, “hi, I know we’re all alone here but for this fleeting moment we are with each other and I’m grateful for that.” It creates a tiny space in which to relax and breathe without the ever present constriction of isolation which is at our core. A subterranean shift that lasts no longer than a shooting star, but one that salves our souls and allows our humanity, our humanness, to grow.
Thank you.
Inside-out, Outside-in, and back again
Hello little beast inside my chest. Gnawing at me somewhere between my stomach and my throat. Stretching me between crying and screaming and moaning. Who are you? what are you? Are you a hormonal hiccup bathing me in acidic emotions? or chemical aberration that will pass with a good night’s sleep? Or are you the gestation of unformed words that are aching to get out? To whom would you speak and of what? Or are you some small dragon of insight into myself that’s slowly and painfully pecking it’s way out of the shell into existence? Is it your wings that I feel fluttering against my ribs? or simply excess estrogen in my arteries?
Tell me please where I can find an answer.