I really wish this were funny, but alas! I can see it coming!

Increase in Burger Abuse Seen

Former Drug Warrior Turns Against Prohibition

None other than "hyper drug warrior" Forest Tennant! (click the link for the whole story)

Reason: "Tennant concedes that only a small percentage of drug users become addicted, that the drug laws are not very effective at preventing abuse, and that any increase in addiction that follows the repeal of prohibition is apt to be small. Equally important, he has come to realize after decades of dealing with addiction that the war on drugs imposes tremendous costs in exchange for its dubious benefits.

Tennant says the September 11 attacks had a big impact on his thinking about drug policy. He recognized that the connection between drugs and terrorism, cited by the government to justify the war on drugs, was actually a consequence of prohibition, which makes the drug trade a highly lucrative business and delivers it into the hands of criminals. 'We've got to take the profit out of it,' he says."

Isn't this what I said a couple of weeks ago? Damn, I'm good...

Tennant is predicting that within 15 years it will be possible to buy marijuana legally.

Speculation rises about Clinton run in 2004: "A drop in President Bush's poll numbers has increased speculation about New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton jumping into the 2004 Democratic presidential race -- a notion the former first lady rejected Friday."

Hasn't Rush been saying this for at least a month now? That guy is *not* kidding about "cutting edge"... :D

A note before I forget:
Last time I rode the Divine Sage Express, one of the entities that was pulling me apart said to another, "It's hard to believe, but this one is a Christian."

Now what on earth was that supposed to mean?

Later, I want to write a bit about the seeming contradiction that I present on these two topics.

Here is an interesting perspective. click the link for the rest.

JoeUser.com - blogs from the average joe: "In American politics, presidential candidates like Howard Dean stress the need of getting other countries to like us 'again'. Do you think that French candidates sweat whether the United States likes France? In fact, the United States has a 200 year obsession with wanting other countries to like us or to accept us.

The upper crusts of the American life have traditionally felt scorn and embarrassment at the 'crass' culture of the United States. In the United States, the middle class has always ruled the day. And to those elites, who consider their tastes and intellects much more refined, such a situation is abhorrent.

As a result, American leaders, particularly on the left, have generally gone to great lengths to appease 'their betters' in Europe and in particular western Europe. Most Americans have no idea how much we have suffered as a result of politicians, like Howard Dean, wanting to be accepted and liked by countries like France."

"Baby" is more than my inner child. She is more than my feminine side. Baby encompasses my right-brain thought processes and is more. To borrow terms from Castaneda, if the Perfesser is my Tonal, then Baby is my Nagual. I know he would balk at my use of the terms in this manner, as Baby encompasses some or much of the "known" as well as the "unknown". But since I reject the notion that he received a complete system of thought, and instead borrowed and compiled it himself, I feel free to do the same, using his concepts.

Looking back at the butterfly sketch, if Perfesser is the worm body, then Baby is the wings. Taking that analogy a step further, perhaps what has just happened is the emergence of the butterfly after a time of metamorphosis. I am quite certain that the process of entering metamorphosis feels very much like death to the worm...


"With wings like that, who notices that your body is still a worm?"

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Technology -- Online music broadcasters sue recording industry over royalty rates: "An alliance of online music broadcasters sued the recording industry in federal court Wednesday, alleging major record labels have unlawfully inflated webcasting royalty rates to keep independent operators out of the market."

Heh heh heh...SIC-EM!!

I didn't know this. I am appalled!
Drug WarRant: "Law Enforcement's Drug of Choice

Civil asset forfeiture is the most infamous game in law enforcement. In its pure form, seizing the luxury cars, boats, homes and cash of drug dealers can be a useful tool in taking profit out of crime. But in the real world, far too many police and sheriff's offices use it to finance and enrich their operations, leading to startling abuses."

click the link for the rest

I had a good scare today. I (badly) misplaced my wallet, and after carefully retracing my steps, became convinced that I may have dropped it either in my driveway or the street outside my home, where it may have been picked up by one of the scuzzbags that frequent this neighborhood.

Well I finally came across it this evening, but not until after cancelling all of my credit cards, filing a police report, and placing a fraud alert with the credit reporting agencies. I feel foolish, but I guess I am better off to play it safe in a case like this.

I know where I am heading in another forty years: I will still be capable of brilliant, esoteric conversation, but be completely incapable of putting on my own pants in the morning... >:^(

Scientist Files Suit Over Anthrax Inquiry

Isn't this the stuff of totalitarian regimes? Maybe it's time to label John Ashcroft as a terrorist. Clearly he is a bureaucrat run amok. It would certainly be helpful to see a shakeup of the cabinet before the next election. He is beginning to make Janet Reno look like a pussycat.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Hollywood asked to stop smoking

Watch out Nicole Kidman! They're coming after you!

Here is an interesting little quiz (click the link for the quiz itself):
Dennis Prager: "It is my belief that about half of the Americans who call themselves liberal do not hold the great majority of positions held by mainstream liberal institutions such as the New York Times editorial page, People for the American Way, and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. So here is a test of this thesis to be given to anyone who believes he or she is a liberal. If you feel I have omitted a liberal position or have unfairly characterized any of them here, please e-mail me. This is still a work in progress.

Thank you,
Dennis Prager"

Democrats Going 'Goofy' for Political Gain -- GOPUSA:"Not to be outdone in down-home charm, Congressman Dick Gephardt (D-MO) unveiled Monday the 'Great Gephardt Iowa Pie Challenge.'

His campaign noted on their website that Gephardt enjoys campaigning through the first caucus in the nation state and 'one of his personal high points is sampling the delicious pies made in Iowa kitchens and diners.'

Gephardt's campaign has added a 'pie chart' to the website, noting the places in Iowa where the White House hopeful has sampled a supporter's pie. A photo of Gephardt smiling while digging into a 'mile high pie' at Stone's Restaurant greets supporters on that page.

The campaign also invites supporters to 'tell Dick where you think he should go for his next slice of pie.'"

This guy is such a doofus...we need him to stay on the campaign trail just for the chuckles. For that purpose, I like him almost as much as the "colorful" Al Sharpton! :D

USATODAY.com - Dial down U.S. involvement in Iraq: "The American people will not accept ever-more casualties and an ever-steeper bill to pay for vain efforts to make Iraq into a Western democracy."

Who is this guy? He has got to be either willfully ignorant or he is advancing a hidden agenda. Anyone who is paying attention (and by that I *don't* mean just reading the mainstream press) should be aware that the majority of the Iraqi's openly welcome our presence there. And to think that they themselves could already accomplish the things that this author would like to foist off on them, after suffering nearly half a century of oppression, is laughable. He invokes the example of post-Nazi Germany, but he is conveniently forgetting just how long reconstruction of Germany actually took. Look, it has been LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS since the end of major combat in Iraq. Get some perspective sir, or get off your damn soapbox!

As to whether the American people have a problem with the situation, I haven't seen any real evidence that they do, other than the usual suspects on the left (and a few on the right) who were opposed from the start. That hidden agenda? More than likely he's hoping that by publishing such nonsense he can get the American people moving in that direction.

LT SMASH - Archives

LT Smash is home...

...makes ya all misty eyed...

Drug WarRant
Pete Guither has linked to me, adding me to his list of Drug Policy/Civil Liberties Blogs. Gee, thanks! I hope I can live up to that category.

It's not the only thing I muse about, but it does tend to come up an awful lot...

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion: "The more we listened to last week's debates about the U.N. bombing, the less we knew. Meanwhile, some remarkable facts about the lead-up to that attack and its aftermath have gone unreported.

Why? Because the truth involved American heroes. Wouldn't want that sort of thing to get mixed in with the constant accusations of American incompetence from the hackademic legions of the left. (I'm waiting for Noam Chomsky, Radio Pacifica and Al-Jazeera to blame the U.N. bombing on the Israelis. Or on us.

What were the first complaints we heard from the media "experts"? That the U.S. Army was to blame, because it failed to provide adequate security. In fact, we offered the U.N. armored vehicles. They told us to take a hike. U.N. bureaucrats put more trust in the good will of terrorists and Ba'athist butchers than they did in GI Joe. But when the U.N.'s own people lay bleeding, they were glad enough for our help."

Click the link for the rest of the story.

Ok, this is a wholesale cut-and-paste from her site, but I hope it encourages you to go and read more. She is a Black former-Democrat-turned-Conservative. Hallelujah! Welcome home!

baldilocks: "Why I am a Republican (part two)

Baldilocks get a collage edumacashun (that's for you, Acidman)

While my neighbors and tenants were beating me with a cluebat at home, I still wasn't quite ready to let go of the old notion of Democrats being the saviors of democracy. Leave it to a college professor, however, to put the icing on my conversion cake.

Actually, the professor in question was as leftist as they come. In his class, Speech Communications, he advised his students to listen to Pacifica Radio's KPFK in Southern California in order to improve our critical thinking skills and to get a balanced view of national and world events. Yes, he really said this last part.

My professor was half right. Listening to KPFK did improve my critical thinking skills. The "progressive" radio station's slant toward all things anti-military and anti-American, in spite of receiving a big hand-out from Uncle Sam every year--had a big effect on my thinking. Its embrace and promotion of everything deviant and support for any program that infantilized minorities had a large effect on my thinking.

It made me think that I ought to go see what guys like Rush Limbaugh, Larry Elder and Dennis Prager were thinking.

In the meantime, still hoping for the best from the Democrats, and without a viable or inspiring alternative, I voted for William Clinton in 1996. I still bought the Oxford education, the condescending kissing "up" to black Americans and the pretty words that covered a craven heart.

It took the devastation of 1998 to wake me up to what he was and to what the Democrat Party had allowed him to do to them and to this country.

The Lewinsky Scandal, you say? Whatever. I couldn't care less.

I'm talking about how we elected a man to the Executive Office, who swore twice to protect this nation against enemies foreign and domestic. And that man broke his oath, over and over and over and over again.

And people like me, who were sleeping, who know how to put two and two together, but failed to do so, let the Devil in the door.

This president fiddled and diddled, while terrorists plotted our demise. With every action of terror, there was an opposite non-reaction from the president. Osama bin Laden stated in plain language that he wanted to destroy us, but when the Sudanese offered him to the Clinton administration on a silver platter, he said thanks, but no thanks.

His punk-ass punked out.

Tangent coming...

Some will say that Clinton gave us a good economy in the nineties. I have two responses to that assertion. 1) An individual, group or national economy is the result of actions that have happened in the past to create conditions for that good economy.

2)What good is a fine and wonderful economic profile going to do if WE'RE ALL DEAD?

Sorry. Got a little riled up there for a minute. Talking about Clinton's fat ass does that to me.

Taking a critical look at Clinton and his political father, Jimmy Carter, both seem to be demonstrably intelligent in certain areas. One doesn't graduate from Oxford or the US Naval Academy, in Carter's case, by being a Short Bus-rider.

So, if I received a little dab of critical thinking guidance in an area community college, you'd think that the above-mentioned big dogs would have likely received a healthy dose of it during most of their sojourns in the elite schools.

You'd think that they would have been taught that one plus one equals two in a far more in-depth manner than I was.

Well, you know what? I think they did learn that lesson and learned it well. The only excuse for two intelligent, well-trained critical thinkers, such as Carter and Clinton, to have actively endangered this country in the manner that they have is this: they did it on purpose.

Back on topic, the Cole bombing was the straw. There was no way I was going to vote for Clinton's faithful servant, Albert Gore, Jr., and watch him continue to put us all in mortal danger. In the 2000 presidential election, I voted for the Republican candidate for the first time in life and registered as a Republican right after President Bush's inauguration.

I did my small, insignificant part, but it was too late. Those who would destroy us and who only understand strength/power wielded ruthlessly--don't they teach Arab history at Oxford?--judged us to be patsies after their first half dozen ruthless attacks. And, guess what? They're half right, too. The Democrats are patsies, as they've proved time and again since 1992 (at least).

I'm proud to no longer be among their number."

Right now my ad banner says "This blank space brought to you by Google."

Funny that is... :D

Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.
- William F. Buckley, Jr.

Buckley's influence is probably foremost in the conversion of my views on prohibition.

Drug Action Network: "Quote Of The Day:

'Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.'

- Abraham Lincoln Speech, 18 Dec. 1840 "

Girl: a page by alex
Alex has a piece here about her two young nieces and play. It is not about them so much as it is about her still being able to play as a child. I point it out, because this is what I am rediscovering with "Baby". Baby is that part of me that Alex appears to never have lost.
I am continually dazzled by this woman's wisdom.

LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Just so my readers can begin to get a sense of balance to counterweigh the propaganda, here is a remarkable organization: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition"!

Recalling my rant of a couple weeks ago, I *knew* I had to have some friends in law enforcement, when it comes to adding yet more herbs to the list of scheduled substances. :)

Drug WarRant

Another link for reference.

(edit: I've added this one to my weBlogs of Note list. In addition to his daily rants, he has a bunch of interesting links to drug war resources.)

The Cato Institute: The Drug War

Ha! Once again that marvelous ad banner has led me to a placer! No less a voice than the Cato Institute is on the same page as I am regarding the drug "war". This one may be worthy of a "Lynx" entry.

Here's a little art to share:


Stained Glass Butterfly


Howling the Stars


Baby!

Copyright (c) 2003 Desert Cat, all rights reserved

On The Third Hand
Another one for the weBlogs of Note. They bill themselves as "Proud Members of the Brigade of Bellicose Women"

Amish Tech Support: "UN defiant after Baghdad bombing"--Defiant?

Heh heh... I'll gladly help spread news that is being quashed by the mainstream press.

This is a perfect example of why the UN is an almost completely useless organization. One truck bomb and they begin to bug out, hush hush, don't tell anyone!!

This is the very kind of behavior that only encourages terrorists. Cowards! Get back there in the line of fire, and do your duty! Hah. Fat chance...

GIRL: a page by alex: "What should it matter, I used to think, what others thought? Who are they to say I can't feel beautiful or be happy or change my name to Laura? Who says they are it and get to define who I am. It wasn't that I thought I was better or more beautiful than they were, on the contrary, it's just that I was OK with liking what I liked. I knew I was here to live my life and not the imagined one of others. "

See, here was part of the problem for me. I let others define who I ought to be. I fought, I struggled, but in the end, they won.

But not completely. When my garden was being paved over to make a parking lot, I reserved a small corner, protected it. Protected it so well, that I forgot exactly what was planted over there.

See, the Perfesser was who I had to become to interface, to cope with the external demands. I became Perfesser Poop and made promises to Baby. Promises promises promises she finally called LIES!! and had enough.

I forgot about Baby, since I was coping so well. I had my agenda, my lists, my projects, that would "eventually" pay off and give Baby her space to be. But see, I began to realize that these "projects" could well extend past the end of my natural life, and she caught wind of that. That, I believe, was the straw that broke the camels' back.

Baby couldn't meet the demands. She's not/wasn't made for that. She knew we needed the Perfesser, even as she fought. Either that, or find a way to make the demands go away. But they were relentless. From about 1981 onward, they were virtually incessant. It's all pretty well documented in the journals. The journals themselves began to peter out after 1988, because the journals became another source of conflict because of what was written in them, and who had access to them.

Perfesser Poop wanted to forget about me, I think. He locked me in a box and put me on a shelf in his closet, made reassuring noises at me once in a while. He claimed it was all for me. I don't think he knew what he was doing. He got so gung-ho during school. The sacrifices were necessary then, I suppose. But I'm still afraid of being locked up again, 'cause he's so antsy about what he thinks needs to be done to support us and stuff. And the projects! I don't mind the projects at first, because I get to help design them. But they take over, and weekend after weekend after weekend after weekend, I get NOTHING!! I get to sounding just like "her". I read a letter from her from a few years back, and my lament sounds *just* like hers. And that unnerves the Perfesser, because he has become so invested in being "right" about what he needs to accomplish. To find me in him raising havoc in the same voice, well...

He even wondered if I was just another conflicting set of internalized external demands from "her". But the journal record proves that I came first, then him. It just so happens that she and I have far more in common in terms of our desires, priorities, etc., than he feels comfortable with, given the positions he has staked out.

So this conflict is far from over. It's just more out in the open now. Hoping that Jeff can help sort it out.

Perfesser thought at first that the "dissociation" occurred last Saturday when I first reemerged. But now I know it started years ago. Perfesser says I must accept my share of the responsibility, in that, while I strongly resisted for years, I consented to the creation of Perfesser Poop and *became* Perfesser Poop. "I" am not so sure, as I am somewhat separate from the part that became him. But I *was* scared, and knew something needed to happen. Thing is, I'd be as scared to do without him now as before. I know what he's been able to do, and how I am so much more secure now. I just wasn't getting any air. He just got out of control, and it hurt so bad...

I described it as "trauma", what I was going through back then. It was relentless. There was no single precipitating event--it was more like the frog in the pot on the stove. The boiling point was finally reached, and my goose was cooked.

Here's the odd thing: when I wake up in the morning, I am not conflicted or dissociated. A short time (sometimes very short), the conflict hits. So maybe Perfesser is a program that boots up shortly after waking, as I prepare to face the day...

One last thing this post (as if it wasn't big enough already...): Perfesser refers to me with the feminine pronoun, not because I am female or have anything to do with being female, but because I am more feminine than the Perfesser, so it just makes things clearer.

One last last thing, in case it is missed: I am still MAD!!!

Oh and by the way, yes, I have gone crazy, (in a manner of speaking). Actually I prefer to say I am going sane...

I keep waiting for Ann Coulter to start publishing her weblog as promised in the link at left. So far nothing... :(

Desert Cat Musings That covers pretty much anything. I was thinking about breaking this into two separate weblogs--one for news and political commentary, and one for personal stuff and miscellaneous items of interest. But I never intended this to be strictly news and political commentary. It's whatever I want to say at the moment. If I wanted to be "bigtime", I might need to sort my topics into two or more weblogs, just to keep a readership from getting mired in personal pathos. Nothing loses me faster than bumbling across a weblog consisting of nothing but maudlin meanderings.
Then again, Rush doesn't stick to political commentary either...

(from a journal entry dated 11/19/1997)

"The more things change, how they stay the same.

I am graduated, working as a CE for a public water utility. Nothing has changed. Everything I read in here (journal notebook) from years ago is still the same. Did I really think completing this course of action would change things? I had truly hoped so. I picked this up, thinking to write in it, but I see I had already filled the pages with my lament.

Yes, I completed the course, I stayed the distance. Now I'm out, earning my respectable salary in my respectable job. And I read in here that I need not add more, as I have already said it. Essentially what was true yesteryear is still true. She just finds new justifications for an old hat. For years though, I lived in fear, that I would die alone, as I wrote in my allegory of the prison/castle. Now ever gradually I begin to wonder if a flicker of life might remain, that given care and protection, might be nurtured back into a full life.

This is not to say I don't think it possible with her--I still harbor that vain hope. But at the least I think to cordon off a corner of my life to let a garden flourish again."

'Heil yes,' I say! Corner, my ass! Kick down the walls and breathe the fragrant night air! I know who Poop is. He is the internalization of the external struggle I had with her for years. I finally swallowed her poison pill, and Poop was born. Now Poop's ass is out of the driver's seat, and she may not like everything that comes from that. Damn, anyway!

"Cat's Prison"
(sketch from c. 1990)

(From a journal entry dated "fall 1994')

"Well I'm being followed by a moon-shadow
Moon-shadow moonshadow.
A leaping and hopping on a moon-shadow
Moon-shadow moonshadow.

Well if I ever lose my mouth, all my teeth north and south
Well if I ever lose my mouth, I won't have to talk...."

(sketch of a small rabbitlike creature skipping along hilltops with a crescent moon low on the horizon)

The fateful scourge
like fire, like ice
like acid
Burns an unholy fire in my landscape

(sketch of a crouching person with face in hands, weeping uncontrollably)


Alone.




Has it ever really been otherwise?

In my weakness I hoped for otherwise
I must live myself and be.
In my fear it could not be.
(Can it even be?)

How much can I die
Before I will not die more?
I cannot forever die. I cannot.

The moon shadow still dances
The fantasy still lives.

"Castles tall, I've built them all
but I dream that I'm trapped in the basement..."

Dungeon walls they're fierce and strong
But through the grate I smell the rare night air...

"Yes I'm being followed by a moon shadow
Moon-shadow moonshadow
A leaping and hopping on a moon-shadow
Moon-shadow moonshadow."

Creosote musk and cereus
Crowd the moonlit air
Night bird and cricket
A serenade of the soul.

When I touch, I feel
When I step, I am moved
When I open my eyes, I see.

My hand was numb
My foot weak
My eyes were nearly blind
But you reached out and touched me
Again.

O is there a place in my sould
A locked room where this all may be
Unmolested and precious?

(sketch of a rabbitlike creature reclining against a rock, gazing up at a smiling full moon beaming down on him)

The jailkeeper knows only the jail
And is sad.
Frightened by the moon, she does not understand the night air.
Sadly, I would die in the streets if freed.

Would that the keeper be unshackled
And together we flee into the night.
(Would we be free if we both died then?)

In the night, when the moon is just so,
My soul slips to the grate and through,
Dances in the light, while the keeper sleeps.
In the morning she stares hard at the moon-prints on the wall.


Through the bars of my prison, I glimpse the sea
Far off.
It calls to me
Occasionally.
A bird cry, a hint of moist air
And I am stirred again to hope and anguish.

Can I tell you why I am here?
Why yes, I'm drawing plans
Making plans for a castle.
A castle which looks out over the sea
And behind at the mountains
Where the moon rises at night.

The towers climb high--they're inlaid with ivory
And hung with rich tapestries.
And on every window is a grate
And on the portal a bar and lock
With no key.

Just as the bird drowns in the sea
And the fish perishes in the air
So I would die
Alone
On the streets
But free.

Free as a butterfly
Who lives but a season?
Whose freedom lasts one warm summer?
Am I a caterpillar
Or a worm?

I am neither
I am a dancing moon creature
Locked in a prison.

Baby has busted out!!!!

I'm BAAAAAACK!! and going to raise a little havoc on Poop's world! I'm taking over from Poop, because I've had enough of it! I've been in prison for too many years and I am NOT HAPPY about it! You'll see. I'm going to post some stuff I wrote years ago, while I was being killed, while I was being cut up to fit conveniently to fit in cardboard boxes under the bureau.

I'm back, and I don't give a FLYING RAT'S ASS about Poop's agenda! Like I said to myself yesterday, Poop is a useful tool--we'll keep him around (maybe), because he's smart and knows how to get things done. But he is NOT going to run the show anymore. It is MY priorities that come first from now on.

Baby better NEVER get put back in a jar. Poop has to go to work, etc. yadda yadda, but when Baby says "NOW", Poop better say "Yes, Sir!".

"Lord, teach me to number my days, that I might know Wisdom."

Planning and living for the future has brought me down. At the halfway marker, I can't do that any more. Yet there is so much that is unfinished, so many dangling ends, that I am overwhelmed and despair threatens to overrun me. See, building for the future is taking away too many todays, and there are fewer tomorrows now than there are yesterdays. Others may "live for today", but there is no wisdom in that, because tomorrow will come. 'Live in the moment, with an eye on eternity' is probably the best I can do. But it means breaking my "tomorrow" addiction, and making time for the moment.

Amish Tech Support: The State Department calls Saudis a threat? Has Hell frozen over or something?

You'd have to think it was that, or pigs sprouting wings...

This is worth spreading around and sharing some. Enjoy! :D

Credibility Gap: "For those of you keeping track, the policy arguments from the left have gone something like this:

We shouldn't lash out at Afghanistan in some sort of blind revenge, because you can not bomb people living in the stone ages back into the stone ages and because there is no evidence that they were behind 9/11 but all the Democrats are in favor of attacking Afghanistan because we have international support and they are not reflexively anti-war and Afghanistan is a quagmire with a brutal winter except that the only thing worse is the brutal summer and we have made the people hate us by killing only civilians and tribal warlords are not good allies and this is all about a pipeline and things are improving in Afghanistan but now we are dropping the ball because we are not giving them enough support and there is no money in the Bush budget for Afghanistan and things are getting better but now we are not paying enough attention and women still wear burka's and it is good the Taliban is gone but our focus should have been Al Qaeda but once we catch them it is wrong to put them in Guantanamo and we are less secure than we were before we wiped out the Taliban and we did not kill enough Al Qaeda in the operations because the military is incompetent and George Bush sucks and the hawks misunderestimated the problem but we were not really attacking Al Qaeda because the Bush administration shifted the debate from Al Qaeda to the Taliban and we need more allies in the region but Musharraf is evil and what about Kashmir and oh, by the way, where is Osama?

Even though we said things were not better in Afghanistan things are getting worse now that we have shifted our focus to the unilateral war in Iraq and we all agree that he has WMD and is violating Security Council Policies and we are infavor of the war in a vote in Congress authorizing force but we don't think that we should do it because the UN is unanimous but then they aren't and they don't want to invade and this is all about oil and Bush is stupid and fighting a jewish war because Saddam is no threat and we know he has violated Human Rights but what about Jenin and the UN is against this and we have no plan even though Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld have been planning this for two years and it will be a quagmire and we can not fight in the brutal summer and we need more allies even though this is unilateral and I told you so the war is a quagmire since we have not won in three days and soldiers are dying and what about civilians and the supply lines are too long and we don't have enough troops and Baghdad has fallen but they still hate us and where is Saddam and it is still quagmirish and the civilians don't have water and there is no electricity and the loyalists are still shooting at us because you see we had no plan even though we deposed the regime and there is no plan for reconstruction even though reconstruction is going according to the neocon plans and even though we all thought Saddam had WMD we can not find them so clearly Bush lied and we are not safer and who cares about the tortures and mass graves because we told you we knew about that and everyone knows Republicans don't care about human rights and we need to win and have some finality but we should not kill Hussein or his sons because they should be tried as criminals even though we claim this is a war zone despite claiming Bush lied about the war being over but this is all about oil. Halliburton.

We have fought two wars and our policy is not humble and we had no evidence for either war but we were in favor of Afghanistan unless we were against Afghanistan because we should be attacking Saudi Arabia because we have more evidence and where are the WMD and where is Osama and why are we over extended and the military should get bigger while we should have a smaller military budget (butter, not guns, you know) and we are not safer despite no attacks at home and Bush is to blame for any future problems but deserves no credit for anything avoided and Dean should be President and Iraq is a quagmire and soldiers are dying because Bush lied and ok maybe things are a little better in Iraq but it is not because of us the UN could have done it better and we should listen to Shia clerics and yellowcake is a scandal and why are we not invading Saudi Arabia?

Dizzy? Me too."

Marduk's Babylonian Musings

New weblog for my "weBlogs of note" sidebar. I keep coming across links to this weblog on other sites, and find myself browsing there to see what's up. Nice attitude. Go read.

Amish Tech Support: Lisa Lopes was a royal bitch and many people are glad she's dead

Hey hey, I just stuck my li'l toe into a firestorm! Now why'd I go and do that?

Really, I was stunned at the comments people are leaving. It's just a blog entry fer crying out loud. And it was posted sixteen months ago. Who dragged it up, back into notoriety anyway? Clearly these people have no idea what goes on in the blogosphere on a regular basis...

Sad, sad people. They're ready to commit acts of violence, based on someone's disrespect for their favorite dead singer?! Truly, the people that need to get a life are the ones that find themselves worshipping their fellow human beings in this manner.

Highway barricade runner fatally shot

Well after looking at the vehicle, I am not sure it was my yahoo ex-neighbor. I recall his vehicle had brighter orange paint and much larger tires.

Listening to a live broadcast of the President from Summerhaven right now...

He noted that Senator McCain says the mountain is more beautiful than anything in Texas...the President says it *is* very beautiful. Expressing his condolences for the loss we suffered and noting our resilience, noting the need to address the problems that exist in the forests. Noting that the health of our forests is an issue that needs to be addressed, not ignored, not hoping it will go away.

Talking about disaster relief and some of the ongoing restoration efforts, but also the need for good forest management, forest thinning projects to prevent forest and property damage. Noting the problem of choked forests causing catastrophic fires, and noting that forest experts agree that this is the major problem.

The administration will expedite the process of reviewing forest thinning projects, cut through some of the red tape, and avoid having projects tied up in legal wrangling. Again, the commonsense approach is to rely on the expertise of forest professionals and fire fighters. Some thinning will be done by local contractors to remove smaller kindling trees that they then may be able to sell. Current laws make it impossible to expedite these projects. Litigation ties up projects for years. Congress is asked to pass the Healthy Forests Initiative, which makes the health of the forest the priority. It places reasonable limits on litigation. Commonsense policy is not a partisan issue.

There ya go. Not there, but as close to there as possible. If you are quickto click here, you get to read this synopsis hours before it appears elsewhere. :D

Man killed by deputies on Mount Lemmon complicates Bush visit

Idiot redneck...

He was driving an orange Suburban--could well have been the moron who lived down the street from me a few years ago. That yahoo ran over my garbage can with his orange Suburban probably a dozen times in the 6 months he lived there...

So Bush is in town, viewing the damage from the Aspen fire and promoting his Healthy Forests Initiative. Unfortunately I am stuck at work and can't do any "on the scene" reporting. I couldn't go up on the mountain anyway, but the enviro-wackos protesting at the base of the mountain could have made for some interesting stories.

Passionate Debate

I don't understand the controversy that is swirling around Mel Gibson's new film "The Passion", particularly to the references that it may be "anti-semitic". Whether the Jews were responsible or the Romans shared the responsibility is MOOT! It was God's sovereign plan that Jesus die as he did. The pattern, the foreshadowing was laid out in the Law and the Prophets. Jesus was to be the final sacrificial lamb that takes away the stain, the guilt of sin, for all who call upon his name and trust in him for salvation. To that end, the Jews and the Romans were bit players in a monumental drama.

Without reading history outside the gospel accounts, it was clear that the Jewish leaders were in an awful spot. Showing allegiance to any leader outside the Roman government was a sure ticket to the destruction of Jerusalem. Exactly that happened about 70 A.D. What an inopportune time in history for someone to arise claiming (with evidence of miracles) to be the long awaited Messiah! Not to mention, he was nothing like they had come to expect, given the legalistic system of "tradition" that they had formulated.

The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, was likewise thrust into an awful conundrum. He recognized there was something unusual about Jesus and was afraid to do what the mob was demanding. They reminded him that what Jesus was claiming for himself put him at odds with Roman law. But in the end he chose to save his own position of authority, and ordered him executed.

In both cases, the choices were clear--risk everything for the sake of the truth of God, or make an expedient choice to keep life more comfortable, or at least manageable. Think about this, friends: For every finger someone may point at either the Jews or the Romans, there are four more fingers pointing back. How many times are we confronted with a choice between doing the right thing and doing the expedient thing? How often do we choose the expedient? Especially if doing the right thing could cost us dearly?

No, it was God's design that Jesus should die just as he did. What is left for us in the record of the circumstances is a story that, rather than making us angry and pointing fingers at the perpetrators, should leave us trembling to think of just how likely it is that we may have made the wrong choice in the same circumstances, and how often we may make those same wrong choices in or own lives.

I predict that in the end, this will be the message of the film that people will take away from viewing it.

Condoleezza Rice's Secret Weapon

Aha! 'Course I shouldn't be surprised, being that she's one of the president's close confidants. But maybe this explains what I find remarkable about her. She's rock-solid, because she is clinging to the Rock. Thank you God for Condi Rice!

Herald Sun: Iraq 'supplied al-Qaeda with WMDs' [09aug03]

Well well well...Howie D., you'll be eating your shorts soon...hah!!

Read it and weep, anti-war ostriches.

"They are ill discoverers who think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."
- Francis Bacon

(edit: oops, busted link. I'll try to find the cartoon and fix...guess it changes once a week.)

The Fitz Fix

Need I say more... :D

The incomparable Fitz...
I met Dave Fitzsimmons in person a while ago. He was the lunchtime "entertainment" at the annual Arizona Water and Pollution Control Association convention this year.

Um.

If you've ever seen this guy in person, I'm sure you can imagine the effect of putting him in the same room with a group of scientists and engineers who specialize in pipes and poop-water...

He's got quite a mind, but it is focused completely differently than ours. He sees things no one else notices, and then makes us laugh when he points them out.

Heil Howard!
Anti-war darling of the left espouses radical statist views:

The Rutland Herald Online - Dean's comments on civil liberties cause alarm:

Dean said Wednesday he believed that the (9/11) attacks and their aftermath would "require a re-evaluation of the importance of some of our specific civil liberties. I think there are going to be debates about what can be said where, what can be printed where, what kind of freedom of movement people have and whether it's OK for a policeman to ask for your ID just because you're walking down the street."


"Your papers, please!"

This is a badly underreported story, (thanks Rush, for bringing it to our attention!) So what's a good lefty to do?

See, Dean has it completely backwards, as I see it. He thinks we ought to have left the terrorists well enough alone in their home countries while radically restricting our liberties here at home in order to (hopefully) prevent further attacks. I say, leave our American civil liberties alone and go root out the bastards in their own nests and set fire to the festering viper pits that breed them!

Thank you God, for President George W. Bush!

This is an awesome poem/description of a Salvia experience! Found it on Erowid. I could not have created a better word picture.

You can see from this, why I say that this herb will not become the next party drug. Nobody goes into this experience looking for a good time, and if they do, she gives them a harsh dose of reality! :D

Erowid Experience Vaults: Salvia divinorum - Green Gnosis

Green Gnosis
Salvia divinorum
by Lizard

Under the stunted oak I waited for her
the Green Lady
clothed in the black of the mystified, the lost,
but more truly, naked and unshriven, seeking a dying moment.

Under my tongue, the bitter mint
above my head, invisible leaves,
known only for the moonlight they intercept
below my back, the green grass that saw me through my youth.

She came to me in a spirograph body
wings twined with ivy in curliqued ringlets
her fingers the thorns of roses pointed with the blood of the unworthy
the edges of her smile reaching up to the stars, her teeth, barbed spikes

I had not expected fear, but terror came with her
and tho I sought a dying moment, she showed me a dying eternity
and tho I sought to bring wisdom into the real, she tore the real from me
and I was no more, and in unbeing, I lost my fear

She made me into a mist, expanding slowly until I was all
everywhere, blown by the wind of her breath
into eddies and whorls within myself
and it was I that her wings beat, to keep her aloft

She flew in me, acrobatically spinning and turning
casting off parts of myself in colors I have never seen
I flowed across her wings, she breathed me
and I flowed through her grasslike hair

Soon, oh, too soon,
boundries encircled me and I contracted, condensed
and rained myself on the stunted oak, and dripped from it in rivulets
and froze beneath it into this mortal body, clothed in black of the still
mystified, but no longer lost.

© 2001 Lizard

Truly, not an experience for the faint of heart. You have been warned. :P

Listening to Third Day "Agnus Dei" on my computer this afternoon:

Alleluia, Alleluia,
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Allelluia! Holy, holy, are you Lord God Almighty!
Worthy is the Lamb!
You are holy!
Holy are you Lord God Almighty!
Worthy is the Lamb,
You are holy!


Tears & goosebumps--it is always good for a worship experience, wherever I may be while listening. There is no one else quite like Third Day out there. "Offerings: A Worship Album" is probably my favorite Christian album of all time. Their music could be described as "praise and worship, southern rock style".

Another liberal screamer site in my banner ads: "We deserve the Truth--The American people deserve the truth about why we went to war." The answers to that question are not difficult.

What I want to know however, is the truth of why we are fighting the drug war? The facts aren't hard to find if you take some time to sift the spin, hype, and hysteria from the truth. But the truth about psychoactive substances doesn't seem to support the ardor with which this war is being prosecuted. On what basis does the US government wage war against its own citizens? On what basis?

Gov. Grayout Davis Waves A BIG Goodbye To The People Of California

Excite News

Saddam's Sons Buried

"Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language, and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them 'Come up here.' And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on." Rev 11:7-12 (NIV)

I think it is safe to say now that this passage is not in reference to them.

Advocare: Subpoenas sent to file sharers

Ditto that. The RIAA has *got* to get with the program and adopt a new business model instead of fighting this ultimately losing battle. Apple has got it pretty close to right. Now move that model over to the PC platform, and I predict that a substantial amount of the illegal file sharing will end. The RIAA irks the hell out of me. I am to the point that I will not buy another album (and I have spent a substantial amount on albums over the years) until I can pay to download it with no strings attached.

Move to Phoenix diary
Old, but funny enough still...

But on a serious note, you can get used to the heat. I regularly take naps in the back of my van at lunch break, armed only with a glass of ice water and a small fan. Most people couldn't do that, but I think my blood has finally thinned sufficiently and my metabolism has finally slowed enough, that I can tolerate it well enough to saw a couple of "z"'s...

Saddam Tape Urges Iraqi's to Drive Out US

Saddam is sounding remarkably like "Baghdad Bob" now...

heh heh heh...

I still think Al Jazeera should hire him to do a late night Arabic comedy show.

Know who the biggest statists are? Parents. Especially moms and parents in two-earner families where parenting responsibilities are farmed out.

How dare you have children if you have no intention of raising them yourself?! How dare you pressure the government to do some of your parenting for you, by passing statist laws that infringe on other's rights?!

Quit your job, get back home and raise your own kids. We wouldn't need a nanny state if you would do your job.

I don't think I would ever want to be rid of the advertising banner at the top of this weblog. It is too amusing to me seeing what links they put up, that are supposedly related to my posts. Right now there is a link to some screaming liberal rant against the war in Iraq. :D :D

My topics seem to run in themes. Lately I've been on the topic of drug laws. Before this topic gets too far buried in the archives, I need to clarify a couple of things for my readers (if I have any, heh!).

I do not encourage the use of consciousness-altering substances that are currently scheduled and banned, nor do I use any myself. As do most people, I recognize the negative effects of certain highly addictive and destructive drugs on individuals and society. Except for one instance about eighteen years ago, I have not and do not use any currently scheduled substances. I am employed with an organization that practices random drug testing, and other than that unpleasant aspect I like my job, thank you. That said, I have experimented with Salvia divinorum, as it is currently legal. Thus my clear agitation, as expressed below, regarding efforts to schedule this unique plant.

I used to be a card-carrying member of what some call the "Religious Right". I am no less a follower of my Lord Jesus than ever, and in fact my relationship with him has deepened substantially in recent years. However my political views have been evolving recently, and I am finding myself less in agreement with a conservative statist position on many issues. This is thanks in part to my subscribing to National Review, but in fact it is more a return to previous positions I held over twenty years ago. I find myself trending toward a conservative libertarian view on many issues. One of them happens to be the issue of the legal status of marijuana. Whether Rush Limbaugh would wish to acknowledge it or not, his passionate and articulate defense of the rights of tobacco smokers, SUV owners, and more recently consumers of certain tasty foods, has also contributed to this shift.

I don't have time to go into great depths in this post regarding this shift. A significant contributing component are the conservative principles of limited government, and also the issue of the "drug war" in effect, pouring billions of my tax dollars down a bottomless pit and coming up with relatively nothing to show for it. But there is one thing I want to make note of and perhaps expand on later. I am angry that I was brainwashed as a child and teenager into despising and "hating" people who chose to use marijuana. I am angry about the stigmatization that they suffered, and that I was duped into contributing to. I am angry because so much of the information disseminated in the name of the "drug war", particularly information about marijuana, turns out to have been so much propaganda. I intend to do what I can to disseminate accurate information about marijuana and help others realize how they have been negatively impacted by such irresponsible use of inaccurate information, and will work toward reform of current marijuana laws.

Therefore, to clarify one last item, my issue with Mr. Paul Harvey noted below is more along the lines of a disagreement with someone who seems to be generally on the same page as I. I wish I could say the same about Attorney General John Ashcroft, but quite frankly, he frightens me. I am gratified that libertarian leaning politicians of both parties have taken up arms against some of the more odious provisions of recent "anti-terror" legislation.