This post is for our friends in San Francisco. We are going to be in San Francisco from December 19th till January 2nd. We will be staying in the San Remo on Mason Street. We would love to hook up and hang out, so please let us know if anyone is up for some fun!
Archive for September, 2005
We’re going to San Francisco!
September 30, 2005We’re going to San Francisco!
September 30, 2005This post is for our friends in San Francisco. We are going to be in San Francisco from December 19th till January 2nd. We will be staying in the San Remo on Mason Street. We would love to hook up and hang out, so please let us know if anyone is up for some fun!
Some People Are Just Fucked Up
September 29, 2005I finally went to www.nowthatsfuckedup.com to see what all the fuss is about. All I can say is that some people are just fucked up. Sad thing for me is I have seen these same photos of the same dead people (Iraqis) before.
When I joined the Army in 1993, most of the guys in my unit had been in Desert Storm. And they were happy to show me their pictures of dead Iraqis. They told the story of each pic, laughing and making jokes, being sure to tell me every gruesome detail.
So, these pics are nothing new for me but if you are weak stomached, I would avoid them. The people that posted them will see these images in their nightmares one day. And I have no pity for them.
May the spirits of the dead haunt them to their graves.
Fruit Loops
September 28, 2005Found this piece on COHA’s site:
Evangelicals in Venezuela: Robertson Only the Latest Controversy In a Long and Bizarre History
..One strand of the often unsavory and arcane history of U.S. evangelicals in Venezuela goes back decades. In 1946, members of the North American based New Tribes Mission, a fundamentalist Protestant sect, entered Venezuela from across the Colombian border. Posing as tourists and “curious explorers,” they settled along the Negro River in the region known as Casiquiare. At the time, the area was used for the exploitation of natural rubber which had not yet been replicated as a synthetic fiber and was, as such, still a vital strategic material. The arriving missionaries were not given a particularly warm welcome by the indigenous peoples living in the immediate area. The Aquencwa Indians, then led by their leader Horacio Acisa, soon began to violently resist their unwelcomed northern visitors.
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Though New Tribes had come under fire from leftist university professors and the capital’s intellectual elite, criticism would shortly come from yet another, but unexpected quarter: the military. In 1976, Tomas Antonio Mariño Blanco, a navy captain and commander of the Federal Territory of Amazonas military garrison, ordered the detention of two American engineers bearing identification cards from Westinghouse, a leading U.S. defense contractor, and General Dynamics, which produces military jet aircraft. The engineers were carrying out mineral prospecting and were in the company of a missionary working for New Tribes Mission.
Jaime Bou, the New Tribes Mission head in Venezuela, intervened on behalf of the Americans. After staff members from the U.S. Embassy later joined Bou’s efforts, the two were released and the case was closed. However, Antonio Mariño reported that the missionary organization had been financed by General Dynamics, which had sent funds and pilots from California. According to Mariño’s investigation, New Tribes was also linked to a shadowy California foundation called District 1355 as well as the evangelical sect, Summer Institute of Linguistics. All New Tribes missionaries had taken courses with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an organization repeatedly accused of ethnocide and espionage in other Latin American countries. Antonio Mariño had determined that District 1355 had sought to acquire a concession in Colombia to cultivate rice and other crops, which it proposed flying out of the region in a fleet of C-141 planes.
The concession, located between the Meta and Tomo Rivers, was known to contain deposits of silica and cobalt. Bou along with some of his associates had traveled to Puerto Carreño in Colombia to meet with members of District 1355. Shortly thereafter, Colombian president Cesar Turbay Ayala prohibited the Summer Institute of Linguistics, New Tribes and District 1355 from operating on Colombian soil. The president declared that the missionary groups had lent support to unauthorized overseas transnational companies which were searching for strategic resources.
There is a lot more in the article, but let us focus on the New Tribes Mission.
You stand at the edge of a village. Men and women talk, but their words make no sense to you. The way they think and live is utterly foreign. These people have no concept of the God of the Bible.
You are here to plant a church.
Yes, a new culture, a glimpse into human history. Let’s beat the native out of them with a Bible. We all know how well Christianity has worked for so many other indigenous peoples.
delay indicted!
September 28, 2005ok, this brought me out of my stupor. i just received word that rep. tom “the hammer” delay has been indicted!!!!
this is a brief snippet of an email i received:
The Texas grand jury investigating House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s political organization indicted him on criminal conspiracy today, according to the Travis County clerk’s office. Rep. DeLay is now required to step down, according to House Republican rules. Two of Rep. DeLay’s political associates were accused of conspiring to violating the state election code two weeks ago.
in case you are not aware, we have laws in texas that prevent donations from businesses to political candidates. delay used TRMPAC to raise money nation wide, then funneled it into texas house races.
you’re goin’ down, bugman!
also, please visit the daily delay blog for some action items related to this breaking news.
No Representation (Updated)
September 28, 2005I have no representation in the government. I look at the politicians and do not feel a single one actually represents what I think, feel or want. Or government is supposed to be about representation of the people in the political forum. But it is not.
Let’s look at some numbers:
Population of The US- 295,734,134
Total number of Senators- 100
That’s one Senator for every 2,957,341 citizens.
Total number of Representatives in the House- 435
That’s one Rep for every 679,848 citizens.
And at the State Level (Texas):
Total Population- 20,851,820
Senate- 31, one for every 672,639 citizens
House- 150, one for every 139,012 citizens
And on the local level (Arlington):
Total Population- 347,607
City Government- 9
That means one Council member for every 38,623 citizens.
Yeah, I feel represented. How can our government really be of the people, for the people and by the people with these kind of numbers? When this country was founded, we had a lot less folks. The natives didn’t count along with women and slaves. But we have a much larger population now. And there is no way that even a fifth of us get any representation.
This is why money matters in Washington, in the state governments, and even in local councils. With so many represented by so few, the ones with the means simply buy the attention of the politicians. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left out.
On the other side of the coin, with so many people and so few governing, why doesn’t the citizenry pay better attention to what their politicians are doing? Maybe it’s because we all feel so under represented.
Maybe Americans would pay more attention if we made our government a “Reality Show”. One in which politicians have to compete to get our votes, then must go through a series of challenges to stay in office. If they fail, we vote them out of office.
Oh, wait….
(Update)
Anna-In 2000 we voted for multiple parties when we voted for Nader. I still believe that is a viable option. Also, having one president, one person with so much power is archaic and dangerous.
In reality, every citizen eligible to vote is part of the government. The republic is only as strong as the people. Our government is weak and crippled because we the people have continuously failed to keep our end of the bargain.
There are so many avenues to fix this. Run off voting, multiple parties, real civic education; the list goes on. It is the current parties and their need to survive that keeps all these things from happening. Ever wonder why November 2nd isn’t a national holiday? Ever wonder why we spend 500 billion on defense but can’t get voting machines that have paper trails? (Which, incidently, even Venezuela has)
It saddens me to think that in a couple of months so many well meaning folks will go to work propping up the system that keeps our country sick. The Democrats are one half of the problem. They are the other half of the FEC, which is a tool to keep them and the Republicans in control. It kind of reminds me of the book 1984. Perpetual warfare. Each side entrenched, keeping their ground. One side against the other, but both stable enough that regardless of the minor changes both will survive. And at our expense.
Nothing will ever change as long as these two parties keep control. Ever. They may differ in language, but they are the same when it comes to the most important point; keeping themselves in power. And we will all fall in line to keep them there, pushing candidates on this site, going to rallies, going door to door, mailing out fliers.
We the people are lost in this game because we allow ourselves to be. We are the republic. It only exists in our minds, and as long as we continue to think and act the way we do, nothing will ever change.
Reality Television SUCKS
September 27, 2005I am a bit disturbed by a couple of things here. I am disturbed by stupid people who insist on having children. I am disturbed by petroleum companies banking $8 billion in profits while the American taxpayer is coughing up almost $4 a gallon. Most of all, I am disturbed by the fact that the sheople of this country entertain their minds with reality television.
What part of these shows is supposed to be reality?
What is real about a world famous rock band finding a replacement for their front man with an on air competition? What is real about a group of out of work has been actors and actresses living together in a giant house? What is real about a bunch of freaks from different walks of life being stranded together on an island somewhere? What is real about an on air competition of various wannabe pop stars competing for a record contract?
The answer is NOTHING! There is nothing real about any of these situations.
bored and burnt out
September 27, 2005i swear, the aftermath of katrina, the outrages… just really took it out of me. i am wholly uninspired right now and sick to death of everything i’m reading in the blogosphere.
i’m just over it.
i’m taking a short break and will be back in a few days. percy and monkey, please feel free to fill in for a bit.
9-24
September 24, 2005
caption: A memorial to Army Sgt. Michael Mitchell of Porterville, California, who was killed in Iraq April 4, 2004, rests on the grass near the Washington Monument in Washington Friday, Sept. 23, 2004. The memorial is part of ‘Camp Casey’ which was set up as part of the weekend’s anti-Iraq War activities in the nation’s capital. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)
coverage at booman tribune, my left wing, scott in socal is in london, google news, bbc news, yahoo news, the truth out blog, and DC indy media.
and might i just say, “electrical outage” my ass.
update: between organiser and park service estimates, i think we can safely say that about 250,000 turned out in dc this weekend. and gordon, this one’s for you:
Backwards Government Policies and Gas Mileage…
September 22, 2005I have been reading up on fuel economy ratings while I wait patiently for Toyota to release the new FJ Cruiser. After feeling the heat from some of my more environmentally friendly comrades, I feel it may be time to step out of the stone age and get a vehicle that can do better than 10-11 mpg which my truck currently gets. $100 at the pump every two weeks is starting to kick my ass.
First I went to the Ford site, thinking I might just get a new F150, certainly the mileage on that must be better than what I get on my 23 year old version of the same truck. What I found was that in the last 20 years of technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs is that they really haven’t done much in the realm of fuel economy. The new one rates between 16-18 from city to highway and that depends a lot on what you have in the bed of the truck.
