It's a Baking Saturday!

Obligatory Friday Dragon-Sex Post

...Dragons need to be verrry careful whilst mating...

Late Summer Fish Blogging

Larry Craig - a thought or two

It seems nothing short of pathetic that Craig, who had brushed off rumors of homosexual activity for years, would deny the option of matrimony to some of the same men from whom he supposedly sought sex in restrooms.

Situation: Middle Aged man who has a great life, wife, children, power, well paid job with great benefits... is trolling a public bathroom in DC (shudder) for man on man sex.

Situation: Two people who have their lives together(to their own satisfaction) and love each other want to get married and commit to a lifelong, mutually supportive relationship who incidentally are both the same sex.

Question: Could there BE two more diametrically opposed situations?

One situation is a powermonger playing with fire, morally, physically and career-wise. The other is arguably a pretty run of the mill chunk of the american pie.

The idea that these Gross Old Perverts equate what they do in a DC bathroom to a commited loving relationship between gay people disgusts me.

The very reason they want to ban gay marraige is because they DO equate it. They look upon their own actions and are rightfully disgusted, then they look at a loving relationship and paint it with their disgust for their own perversion.

...which would be bad enough, but a fair number of these families that want and need legal standing have children.

I guess that the party that could let New Orleans drown without lifting a finger to save it has no scruples about ruining the lives of a few children. After all, in a powermonger's view they are just collateral damage.

Wednesday's Pic

Stroke First Aid

If you think you've just had a stroke, time is your worst enemy. As the clock ticks, your brain cells are dying. The biggest problem we have right now is that the only medicine that has been approved for stroke must be administered within the first three hours, and after that is contraindicated.

From Science News, Week of July 14, 2007; Vol. 172, No. 2

article: Brain Attack

Treatment with tPA saves many patients—as it did Anderson Holness—by opening obstructed blood vessels in their brains. But the drug has severe limitations. Doctors have to first do a computerized tomography scan to make sure that the person isn't experiencing a bleeding stroke, which tPA would make worse. And the clot-busting drug must be administered within 3 hours of the onset of a stroke—which isn't always possible because many delays occur on the way to emergency treatment. After 3 hours, the risk of bleeding outweighs the potential benefit of tPA, at least according to current medical judgment. The potential complications have made emergency room physicians reluctant to give tPA, says Costantino Iadecola, chief of the division of neurobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

As a result, less than 5 percent of ischemic-stroke patients in the United States get treated with tPA. "Very few patients can benefit from the only treatment we have available for stroke," Iadecola says. "There is a tremendous interest to develop new treatments."

They've been looking, but the most promising treatments are having difficulties becoming approved, since they are combinations of drugs that don't nessessarily work well individually.
They are working on a promising combination right now: Irish Coffee, magnesium, and cooling the brain by 3 degrees C, which will slow many of the effects of the stroke.

James Grotta of the University of Texas in Houston combines cooling with an infusion of the equivalent of Irish coffee: caffeine and ethanol in a combination researchers call caffeinol. Caffeine, Grotta says, blocks dying cells' glutamate release, and ethanol blocks glutamate's action on surviving cells. Both compounds are cheap, their side effects are well-known, and they can easily enter the brain, he says.

In rats, a caffeinol infusion 2 to 3 hours after an induced stroke can reduce the brain area in which cells die by about 60 percent, compared with the area in animals receiving no treatment. If the regimen includes cooling the animals by 2°C, the area of dead cells is reduced by 80 percent. A person would have to get the equivalent of two cups of strong coffee and one cocktail to get a dose equivalent to what the animals received, Grotta says. He's currently testing the treatment's safety in people.

So, if you think that you've had a stroke, take magnesium with two cups of coffee, a stiff drink, and wrap a damp towel on your head and go straight to the hospital.

Oh yeah, and Medical Marijuana has been shown to guard against strokes, by lowering the blood pressure.



Wow, don't ya just love modern medicine?

Daddy Long Legs

According to my neice, they have the most deadly poison, and yet they cannot harm a person: their teeth are not strong enough to break our skin.

Lunar Eclipse early tomorrow morning

By COLLEEN SLEVIN, Associated Press Writer

DENVER - The Earth's shadow will creep across the moon's surface early Tuesday, slowly eclipsing it and turning it to shades of orange and red.

The total lunar eclipse, the second this year, will be visible in North and South America, especially in the West. People in the Pacific islands, eastern Asia, Australia and New Zealand also will be able to view it if skies are clear.

People in Europe, Africa or the Middle East, who had the best view of the last total lunar eclipse in March, won't see this one because the moon will have set when the partial eclipse begins at 4:51 a.m. EDT. The full eclipse will begin an hour later at 5:52 a.m. EDT.

An eclipse occurs when Earth passes between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun's light. It's rare because the moon is usually either above or below the plane of Earth's orbit.

Since the Earth is bigger than the moon, the process of the Earth's shadow taking a bigger and bigger "bite" out of the moon, totally eclipsing it before the shadow recedes, lasts about 3 1/2 hours, said Doug Duncan, director of the University of Colorado's Fiske Planetarium. The total eclipse phase, in which the moon has an orange or reddish glow, lasts about 1 1/2 hours.

The full eclipse will be visible across the United States, but East Coast viewers will only have about a half-hour to see it before the sun begins to rise and the moon sets. Skywatchers in the West will get the full show.

In eastern Asia, the moon will rise in various stages of eclipse.

During the full eclipse, the moon won't be completely dark because some light still reaches it around the edges of the Earth. The light is refracted as it passes through our atmosphere, scattering blue light — which is why the sky is blue — but sending reddish light onto the moon.

"When someone asks why is it (the moon) red, you can say because the sky is blue," Duncan said.

The next total lunar eclipse occurs Feb. 21, 2008, and will be visible from the Americas, Europe and Asia.

BushCo wants to give break to strip miners

Look at these gorgeous mountains. I could not imagine cutting them up.

*and a hattip to Robin Andrea for the pic.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration wants to quit requiring coal operators to prove that their surface mining will not damage streams, fish and wildlife.

Under proposed new regulations that it will put out Friday for public comment, strip mine operators would have to show only that they intend "to prevent, to the extent possible using the best technology currently available," such damage.

"With this proposal, we can establish a consistent, nationwide means to reduce the impacts of surface coal mining and provide clear rules specifying what mining activities can and cannot be conducted near bodies of water," said C. Stephen Allred, Assistant Secretary of Interior for Land and Minerals Management.

Current policy from the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining says land within 100 feet of a stream cannot be disturbed by mining unless a company can prove it will not affect the water's quality and quantity.

Interior officials have said that complying with that buffer zone requirement is impossible in "mountaintop removal mining," which involves shearing off the tops of ridges to expose a coal seam. Dirt and rock are pushed below, often into stream beds, a practice known as valley fill.

The new regulations would allow mining that would alter a stream's flow as long as any damages to the environment are repaired later.

Valley fills allowed under the old, 1983 regulations will still be permitted. The volume of rock that can be displaced to get to the surface of a coal seam and the area where that rock is put can be "no larger than needed," according to the proposal.

Environmentalists want such fills banned entirely.

"The Bush administration just doesn't give up in its quest to give away more and more legal protections to the mountaintop removal polluters," said Joan Mulhern, an attorney for the Earthjustice legal firm.

I'll have to find out where to write... I'll post it when I do.

The rest of this article is here

Another View....

This video lays out in plain english a point of view that doesn't get a whole lot of coverage here in teh states. I get so frustrated with those super-religious christianists who try to shove their small mindedness down my throat. (those christians who live their ideals and keep their religion out of my face - I have NO problem with!) I myself, do not believe in sin. I do not believe in "original sin", nor do I believe that simply thinking something can be a crime against God or Goddess. (...by their actions shall you know them...)

If you cannot control yourself and do not know right from wrong, then by all means please use a religion as your guide. What I particularly resent is when someone who so desperately needs such guidence to live peacefully with others ends up telling ME, when they do not even know me, that I cannot live an ethical and noble life without their crutch.

I say - stop laying your failures at my doorstep, is all.


hattip to Blondesense for the linkie!

Let's Talk Dirty In Hawaiian!

Well I packed my bags and bought myself a ticket
For the land of the tall palm tree.
Aloha ole' Milwaukee, hello Wak-ki-ki
I just stepped down from the airplane
When I heard her say,
"Waka waka nuka lika,
Waka waka nuka lika.
Would you like a lei?" Hey

Chorus:
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Whisper in my ear.
Hika puka maka wa wahine
Are the words I long to hear.
Laya coconut on my tiki.
What the heck a muku muku dear?
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Say the words I long to hear.

It's a ukulele Honolulu sunset,
Listen to the grass skirts sway.
Drinkin' rum from the pineapple
Out on Honolulu Bay.
The steel guitars are a playin'
While she's talking with her hands.
Gimme gimme oka doka
Make a wish you wanna poka
Words I understand.

Chorus:
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Whisper in my ear.
Hika puka maka wa wahine
Are the words I long to hear.
Laya coconut on my tiki.
What the heck a muku muku dear?
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Say the words I long to hear.

Well, I bought a lot a junka with my moolah
And I sent it to the folks back home.
I never had a chance to dance the hula.
Well, I guess I should have known
When you start talkin' to the sweet wahine
Walking in the pale moonlight
Oka noka what a set a naka rocka
Sis koom bakas
Hope I said it right!


Chorus:
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Whisper in my ear.
Hika puka maka wa wahine
Are the words I long to hear.
Laya coconut ya on my tiki.
What the heck a muku muku dear?
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Say the words I long to hear.
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian,
Say the words I long to hear.
Alo.......ha


[Let's Talk Dirty In Hawaiian - these lyrics are found on http://www.songlyrics.com]

Same Old Story

Once again the Bush Administration is saying: We're spying on americans, we've been doing it for awhile, and we're planning to expand this program and make it permanent.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is expanding the use of spy satellites for domestic surveillance, turning its "eyes in sky" inward to counter terrorism and eventually for law enforcement, US officials said Wednesday.

Authorized by US intelligence chief Michael McConnell in May and managed by the Department of Homeland Security, the change will allow more federal and local agencies to tap into satellite imagery and related intelligence products, they said.

It also will expand the kind of intelligence that can be made available to include measurement and signature intelligence, which is used to identify and track targets by their particular physical characteristics, they said.

Charles Allen, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for intelligence analysis, said the main priority is to make more robust use of intelligence capabilities for civil defense purposes.

"The least of my concern is law enforcement," he said in a telephone interview.

"We're looking at that and we'll do it in an appropriate way," he said. But he said the government will move slowly on what probably will be limited applications for law enforcement.

He said spy satellites already have been used on an ad hoc basis to guard against terrorist attacks at political conventions and major sporting events.

The Department of Homeland Security envisions using spy satellites to keep closer watch over borders, ports, bridges and other key infrastructure.

They're asking us once again to ignore their previous felonious actions and let them have considerably MORE power and authority to snoop into our business. But it's OK - it's all in the service of protecting us from harm - any smallest chance of harm, even that chance that we'd gladly embrace in order to preserve our privacy from the most overreaching federal govt evah!

Read of their plans and assurances here

It Does My Heart Good...

...to see people in Cheney's hometown demanding his impeachment:

Hundreds of anti-war activists gathered near Dick Cheney's home at an exclusive Wyoming country club to protest the vice president's role in leading the US into Iraq.

Chanting, "No more Iraq war," and "Impeach Cheney first," protesters gathered outside the Teton Pines Country Club, where Cheney typically spends the month-long August recess. They brought along a 10-foot-tall paper-mache sculpture that featured Cheney holding a fishing poll in one hand and an oil well in the other.

In a video posted on YouTube, a protester climbs the effigy and places a noose around its neck. Protesters then pull down the Cheney likeness in a scene reminiscent of Iraqis and US troops toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein after the fall of Baghdad.

"We organized it because of the war in Iraq and what an injustice it has been," Walt Farmer, a retired Air Force captain and registered Republican, told the Casper Star Tribune. "The Vice President has received a pass in Jackson long enough. We want to let them know we don't approve of the war or how they play fast and loose with the Constitution."

Go to The Raw Story for the video!

My (weedy) August Garden...

What God giveth, Georgie Porgie taketh away

Well, first of all, you got to understand some of my view on freedom, it's not American's gift to the world. See, freedom is God -- is God given.

...........~George W Bush, Interview with TVR, Romania, Nov. 23, 2002

Just a Weed...

... but so bursting with life I couldn't bear to pull it!

Frogs Enjoy the Watergarden

Open Letter to Time Magazine

In your recent Commentary: Nostra Culpa by Michael Kinsley, he dumps the blame for the Iraq war firmly on the American People. Tells us to stfu and get over it.

I'm sorry, I cannot let that pass. The reason that the polls were 70% at the start of the war was because the President and the VP and the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor were all systematically lying to the American People in order to get us to approve of the war they already wanted in January of 2000. This is the Bush/Cheney/Powell/Rummy/Condi/Abu Gonzales Iraq war, and they cannot pass the buck to us. Secrecy is a double edged sword. If they want to slink around in the shadows, lying and prevaricating, and making things up out of whole cloth, then they cannot turn around and say "Hey - you wanted it too". They cannot constantly speak of mushroom clouds, and then say "But, You thought there were WMDs also".

There were plenty of people who knew what a mess this war was going to be, knew how much it would cost us in blood and lives and money and stature - where are their voices now? Why are these Bush apologists still giving us their worthless opinions? I want to hear from some of those people now.

Perhaps, unlike the president and his lap dog generals (he's fired any generals who disagreed with his fancifull ideas about Iraq). Perhaps the ones who were right in the first place would have some idea of how to go forward. I don't see any ideas on the republican side of the aisle.

Thank you
SB Gypsy

1 Simple Rule to Save Your Marraige

.... Don't ever talk to anyone before you've had your morning coffee.

Quote of the Day

“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
.........................................~ Niebuhr

How Many More

How many more, Mr President, How many more
While you cover your ass, and search for a way to save face...
How many more?

How many more, Mr President, How many more
They knew in '68 - that war was lost,
and they threw some 50,000 more lives into it
How many more?

How many more, Mr President, How many more
Our Treasury is empty and our armies are broken
How many more?

How many more, Mr President, How many more?

Another Fine Pic

Four Hundred and Fifty Billion - what we've paid to kill Iraqis, so far...

Is there no one in Washington with a brain?