The religion of Death

*click on the title to read the interview



In his interview on Working For Change website, "Chalmers Johnson on our military empire (Part I) Cold warrior in a strange land"
Mr Johnson points out that our military, the most obvious face the United States shows to the world, is propping up our economy, in a Depression style make-work program.


Militarily, we've got an incoherent, not very intelligent budget. It becomes less incoherent only when you realize the ways it's being used to fund our industries or that one of the few things we still manufacture reasonably effectively is weapons. It's a huge export business, run not by the companies but by foreign military sales within the Pentagon.

This is not, of course, free enterprise. Four huge manufacturers with only one major customer. This is state socialism and it's keeping the economy running not in the way it's taught in any economics course in any American university. It's closer to what John Maynard Keynes advocated for getting out of the Great Depression -- counter-cyclical governmental expenditures to keep people employed.

The country suffers from a collective anxiety neurosis every time we talk about closing bases and it has nothing to do with politics. New England goes just as mad over shutting down the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as people here in San Diego would if you suggested shutting the Marine Corps Air Station. It's always seen as our base. How dare you take away our base! Our congressmen must get it back!

How true that is, and how much more solid our economy would be if all that money were put to use creating high tech industries that would help to clean up and power a new post oil lifestyle!

Instead of new imaginative industry, we export the religion of death. How sad.

Declaration of Independence Under Review

Go read it - completely snark-a-licious!

The Waking of the Sheeple

The People are finally waking up! My question is why did it take so long, and after all that this administration has done to beat us down, why was it illegal immigration?? Are all us whities too scared of Bushco's shadow?

Meanwhile, Bushco's suggestion that we give the illegals here "guest passes" smacks of exploitation ~ of the illegal worker, the workers who patiently stand in line and come here legally, and of the american taxpayers, who have to pay for the doctor bills, the education, and the police, fire, roads, and every other piece of infrastructure that illegal workers and the companies that hire them do not contribute to.

*hattip: HuffPo

Open Letter to Mr Leiberman

Mr Lieberman,

I give you your own words:


"I do believe the Constitution allows for one recourse that would provide a means for us as the people's representatives to register our and their disapproval, and would, I believe, help us to bring appropriate closure to this terrible chapter in our nation's history. It is well within the Senate's constitutional prerogatives to adopt a resolution of censure expressing our contempt for the President's misconduct, both that which is charged in the articles and that which is not. Such a censure would not amount to a punishment, nor would it be intended to do so. What it would do, particularly if it united Senators across party lines and positions on removal, is fulfill our responsibility to our children and our posterity to speak to the common values the President has violated, and make clear what our expectations are for future holders of that highest office.

And what it could do, I believe, is to help us to begin healing the wounds the President's misconduct and the impeachment process's partisanship have done to the American body politic, and to the soul of the nation. I have observed that roughly two-thirds of the public consistently expresses its opposition to the President's removal. But I do not think we can leave this proceeding, especially those of us who have voted against the Articles, without also noting that roughly one-third of the American people have consistently expressed their belief that this President is unfit to lead this nation. That is a startlingly large percentage of our people who have totally lost confidence in our nation's leader."

You thought your words applied to President Clinton. How much more appropriate, then, to apply it to Mr Bush, who has approval ratings of less than half what Clinton had when you made this speech. How much more appropriate to apply it to Mr Bush, who has ignored the constitution he swore twice to uphold, and who has been caught breaking the laws that were put in place expressly to prevent this behavior. Moreover, Mr Bush knew he was breaking the law as he was doing it, lied about it during the last election, and still continues breaking the law in defiance of the people.

You think this is all old news, and we should go forward to legalize his behavior??? You, sir are derelict in your duty to your constituents, and the people of our fair land. You are failing to uphold the vows you took upon election to the high office you now hold.

I call Shame: shame on you, Mr Lieberman, for having no spine, and for representing Israel before your own people.

Sincerely
SB_Gypsy

*sent this morning, and hattip: Digby

(some day I'll figure out how to get a link when it's not provided)

More spring break

These are more pics taken on my Spring Break day.









These winter woods, so easy to see thru, will be lush with undergrowth in 2 months' time. This spot right here has not been cleared in my lifetime.







You can see the stone wall here, where a field was once cleared. Being the end point of a glacier, New England is scattered thickly with boulders and rocks. Early farmers hefted the rocks out to the edges of the fields, creating a crazy quilt of rock walls. Some merely heaps, some dressed and fitted nicely.







































These trees, pruned agressively under the high voltage lines, look to me like their hair is standing on end.

Starhawk: Cleaning up New Orleans

Bioremediation in New Orleans
Nov. 23, 2005
By Starhawk

I’m just back from another week in New Orleans. This time three of us, myself, Juniper and Scotty, had a special mission—to set up a small bioremediation demonstration as a beginning seed for a long term project. Over Thanksgiving Week, Common Ground has sponsored the Road Trip for Relief, an effort to bring hundreds of volunteers into the Ninth Ward, one of the areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“Bioremediation” means cleaning soil and water and restoring it to health using biological allies: beneficial bacteria, plants, and fungi. Restoration on the scale of New Orleans is, of course, a huge and overwhelming project. Nevertheless, there are many techniques that are fairly simple, natural, and applicable on a small scale, and Common Ground has been working on a proposal to fund and train a worker’s cooperative that would be able to put them into practice.



A very interesting article, the rest is here.
Part II
Part III
Part IV

The Rock

*Whew* Finally got these pics posted!! This has taken me three days, and many tries to upload these few pics. I finally had to bring two to work, and upload them there. Why is it that the DSL at work is so much faster and more reliable than the DSL at home? Same company, same level of service, same price, so: what the hey???



These were from our Spring Break day - we went home early, and I had my little Casio 3.1mp camera with me. I spent about a half hour climbing around this outcrop, taking pictures.





In the pics above right, and below, you see where Boston Ferns come from: the New England woods! I never would have thought a boston fern could winter over with the cold and snow.








The moss here was under snow the day before. How resiliant - a touch of the sun, a little warmth, and it's chugging right along.

Dragon Blogging

Taking pics on the way home!

I've been meaning to get some pics of this rock, while it still had ice and snow on it - too late! I spent a good half hour clicking away all over this one, I'll have to do another post on just this outcrop.

The weather went from sunny and 63 degrees, to threatening, just in the hour it took to drive home.


The final rays of the setting sun, falling over field and pond...






...and finally, can you see anything special in this picture?

Me neither ;-)

*as usual, click on the pics for a larger view

Wooo Hooo : Spring Break!

It's 65 degrees out this afternoon, and at 2pm, the Boss says "Let's go home"


Damn Right!

The Freeway Blogger

I was over at Blondesense, discussing methods of getting the word out, and remembered this site from a marathon sleepless blogging session last year...

Kudos to the freeway blogger, for spreading the essential truth.

I don't think so!

This is Houston, a public restroom, on the street:



This is the view from the inside:


All one way mirrors....
Could you use it??? Not me, not a chance, no way!

*hattip: Jude, from Showers and Sunflowers

Please, Mr Cheney,

*hattip: Pam's House Blend

Bill Napoli

GOOGLE BOMB!

*hattip: Smart Bitches Trashy Books...

Look at What They DO

Conventional Wisdom says National Security is a republican arena, yet the reality is again painting another picture. This time we look at republican votes AGAINST our security lo these past few years:

_In 2003, House Republicans, on a procedural vote, agreed to kill a Democratic amendment that would have added $250 million for port security grants to a war spending package.

_Two years later, nearly all House Republicans voted against an alternative Homeland Security authorization bill offered by Democrats that called for an additional $400 million for port security.

_Senate Republicans stood together in 2003 to set aside a Democratic amendment that would have provided $120 million more for port cargo screening equipment.

_One year later, all but six Senate Republicans voted to reject a Democratic attempt to add $150 million for port security in a Homeland Security appropriations bill.

*From Hill Democrats, GOP Moving on Ports Issue.

These facts should should be on every billboard in the nation this summer - a wedge to kick the bums out of congress. Will the braindead dems pick up the ball?

Dragon Blogging

I took the weekend off. I needed a break, so I rewired all my audio/visual components, and Hubby helped me label all the wires - he has these nifty little stickum numbers. Hey, I have them all working nicely together now, I want to keep it that way! Got rid of the VHS, the cable splitter, and the a/b switch, added a DVD player. All the components run thru my Tuner/amp, for the best sound. I also ran an audio wire from my computer to the tuner/amp in my room, and got rid of the big CD player. Now I can play any of my music, and no clunking cd changer. Whew.

What to do on a snow day?

Make a pie...

Then go out for a walk, to get some pics. This one was interesting, because it was a little smeared, so I added a watercolor effect on it, and got what you see. I guess you have to click on it to see the effect.

And this is what was happening to my favorite stream. The light colored stuff floating down the stream are floating rafts of snow. The water is so close to freezing, the snow can survive, floating.(the coldest water is at the top, 38 degree water is densest & sinks to the bottom)

Snow Day - Woooo Hoooo

The Boss let everyone go home early today (well, half of us wanted to get home before the storm got too bad) maybe I'll make that pie that Hubby's been talking about for the last two days.

Maybe I'll even get out for some pics with the new camera....

What Sci Fi Crew Would You Fit In?

You scored as Moya (Farscape). You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.

Moya (Farscape) 94% Serenity (Firefly) 88% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 88% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 81% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 75% FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) 75% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 69% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 69% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 69% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 63% SG-1 (Stargate) 56% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 31% Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

(Hattip to The Green Knight/Whamstress )

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"
~ Benjamin Franklin


"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

~ Nathan Hale (1755 - 1776), last words, 22 September 1776


"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death!"

~ Patrick Henry (1736 - 1799)




"Civil liberties do not mean much when you are dead,"
~ Sen. Jim Bunning , R-Ky

What a Weenie!

Readings from the Book of Hope Part II

This is the second in a series of exerpts from this book. I have felt lately that there is an undercurrent of despair and discouragement right now on the web, the feeling that a whole lot more of bad will come down the pike before the good starts flowing again. There is a basis for Hope. We all have to find it.





...Some of it is a matter of how we tell our stories, the problem of expectation.

On April 7, 2003, ... several hundred peace activists came out at dawn to picket the gates of a company shipping armaments to Iraq from the docks in Oakland, California. The longshoreman's union had vowed not to cross our picket line. The Police arrived in riot gear and, unprovoked and unthreatened, began firing wooden bullets and beanbags of shot at the activists. They had been instructed to regard us as tantamount to terrorists: "You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that [protest]," said Mike Van Winkle of the California Justice Department. "You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act." Three members of the media, nine longshoremen, and fifty activists were injured. I saw bloody welts the size of half grapefruits on the backs of some of the young men - they had been shot as they fled - and a swelling the size of an egg on the jaw of a delicate yoga instructor. Told that way, violence won.

But the violence also inspired the union dock workers to form a closer alliance with antiwar activists and underscored the connections between local and global issues. On May 12, we picketed again, with no violence. This time, the longshoremen acted in solidarity with the picketers and, for the first time in memory, the shipping companies cancelled a work shift rather than face protest. Told that way, the story continued to unfold, and we grew stronger.

And there's a third way to tell it. The April 7 picket stalled a lot of semi trucks. Some of the drivers were annoyed. Some - we talked to them - sincerely believed that the war was a humanitarian effort. Some of them - notably a group of South Asian drivers standing around in the morning sun looking radiant - thought we were great. After the picket was broken up, one immigrant driver honked in support and pulled over to ask for a peace sign for his rig. I stepped forward to pierce holes in it with my pocket knife so he could bungee-cord it to the truck's grille. We talked briefly, shook hands and he stepped up into the cab. He was turned back at the gates. They weren't accepting deliveries from antiwar truckers. When I next saw the driver, he was sitting on a curb all alone behind police lines, looking cheerful and fearless. Who knows what has or will come of the spontaneous courage of this man with a job on the line?

Recently, a mainstream media outlet refused a political ad from a progressive organization, against an incumbent, and we were stymied. It's getting harder and harder to be heard in the United States. The progressive organization turned around and hired trucks with megaphones and signs, and ran them all around town to get the word out. It sometimes takes just a little imagination.

The only certainty to life is death. I was always impressed with the line in a long forgotten western : "Today is a good day to die"

That clarity of purpose, that willingness to resist oppression with everything you've got, well - it made a strong impression on a little girl.


From Hope in the Dark, by Rebecca Solnit. It's a great book, I highly recommend it.