Photo of the Day/Week
Janesville, IA – March 2009, Photo by cookie
Bloodstar
Liberals and Libertarians on Everything and Nothing
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BloodstarLiberals and Libertarians on Everything and Nothing |
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Janesville, IA – March 2009, Photo by cookie
As I stood by
the waves crashed against the dock
the memories of youth slipped with the ticking of the clock
As I stood by
the rain cleansed from every surface dust
yet I thought only of future rust
As I stood by
a child yearned for a sign of love
perhaps God will bring forth a heavenly dove
As I stood by
a life was taken that I might be free
all I thought was if the power would go out from the knocked down tree
As I stood by
someone wished their dream could be a reality
and I wondered if they really were that much in need
As I stood by
I figured someone else would help the youth
I thought someone else would do the praying
would be sharing of their resources to others
I didn’t think what I did could make a difference
As I stood by
I began to wake and realize the truth
that no difference is made in merely standing
that even alone I’m given my druthers
to be the hand, the ear, the rock, the difference
We need more of this.
OBAMA:
I’m not suggesting that we’re going to agree on everything, whether it’s on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me.I mean, the fact of the matter is is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own party. You’ve given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, “This guy’s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.”
And I — I would just say that we have to think about tone.
It’s not just on your side, by the way. It’s — it’s on our side as well. This is part of what’s happened in our politics, where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do.
After all, it combines two of my favorite things.
At least that’s the skinny from Reason
Today the backers of the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act turned in nearly 700,000 signatures; they need just 434,000 to qualify the measure for the ballot. The Los Angeles Times notes that “a Field Poll taken last April found that 56% of voters in the state and 60% in Los Angeles County want to make pot legal and tax it.”
While sometimes interesting things get put up for votes through voter driven measure, I think the concept is still a horrible one, Direct Democracy tends to increase the power of the majority at the expense of the minority, which is directly against what I feel the constitution was designed to do. So while on the surface it seems like an interesting and neat idea, I think the way legalization is being pushed is through a flawed and dangerous concept.
Sadly, it looks like this snow/freezing rain event is going to stay just north of Atlanta. However they’re now predicting snowfall totals well over a foot in A large swath of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. That’s a LOT of snow. Of course freezing rain is never fun, so yeah, good luck over there. it looks like we’re missing it by about 50 miles. given a slight delay or a more southerly track, things could change, but I doubt it.
Snow falling Marietta, GA January 7th – Photo by bloodstar
(from a crappy camera phone no less, as my digital camera was stolen when my car was broken into)
Well This chart is interesting
4 AM tonight… Heavy Iceing north of I-20? We’ll see…
So, You should go read the columns by David Gerrold, He writes twice a month, if’s at Maximum PC, so it’s computer related. But who cares, He has a flow about his writing that I will always envy, because he’s not afraid to just talk and talk and all the knowledge and stories he can put together seems to just plain work.
There are many things that motivate us through the day that keep us moving forward. Often we may dismiss our daily activities, may become similar to a robot and loose that lack of motivation the understanding of why we are doing what we are doing. When this happens we loose a sense of our self, our goals seem distant dreams, and a lot of the world around us may not make sense leading us to fight it or surrender in a way that lowers our self-esteem.
However, when you sit and refresh yourself on what is motivating your daily actions (and reactions) you begin to get reacquainted with yourself, who you are, who you want to be, and begin a route to redefining or making clear the path you are on.
Finding what motivates is finding out what state you are acting from as well. This may mean you find your actions are motivated by a state of fear, of joy, of selfishness, of love, or many other states. Knowing this state will further connect you with who you are, who you have been, and help you decide whether that is how you want to be moving forward.
Your intentions and motives are key to the results you receive in life! With observing your motivations you become aware of your essence and can move beyond what and where you are be it to further accomplish dreams or ensure that the beauty and benefits you now have continue.
Why are you doing what you are doing?
Is it for selfish, manipulative or fearful reasons? Is it for honest service with integrity? Maybe you’ll discover you don’t know.
If you would like to read/do the meditation/action that comes from these thoughts visit my Meditations page. I look forward to posting more in the upcoming weeks and months ahead!
You go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.
- Nancy Pelosi, In response to Obama’s SotU speech.
Despite my own personal feelings about Corporations and the concept of corporations as a person, From a 1st amendment perspective, the Supreme Court got this one right. If the Congress wants to pass a law that restricts the ability of a corporation to speak (and yes, money = speech), but then exempt certain companies (specifically companies that own media outlets), then you’re going to have all sorts of issues justifying why if there’s a compelling government need to restrict speech that some companies can, and some companies can’t.
Some possible reasonable restrictions would be to require shareholder approval of any ads and require the CEO to personally appear on the ad, identify him or herself and the corporation involved and say, “I’m so and so, the CEO of X corporation and I approve this ad.” This isn’t a restriction of speech, though the second idea could be challenged under the idea that anonymous speech should also be a protected first amendment right, but that’s another debate for another day.
Obama is missing the point here, just because corporate money and influence can influence an election, doesn’t mean that restricting the speech of said corporation is the right thing to do. There are a lot of things we don’t like that are protected by the Constitution, and just because something isn’t popular doesn’t take those constitutional protections away.
It’s really easy to forget that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and that the Supreme Court is the final arbiters of the constitutionality of a law. Whatever issues I have with different Justices, I think that overall, the group does try to avoid the worst of political excess and instead we’re looking at a philosophical difference. I’d like to think that once a Justice is on the Supreme Court, the D or R bleeds away and they treat their task with the gravitas that it deserves. Sure, they’re human, and they’re going to have things influence them on some level; but overall, I trust them to do the best they can possibly do.
That’s the other reason why I think Obama was wrong to call out the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court didn’t do this to spite Obama or McCain or Feingold, they did it because they thought that the Law was unconstitutional under the first amendment of the Constitution. Just because a law would do good things doesn’t make it Constitutional and sometimes, as frustrating as it is, we have to accept that.
We rightfully look at the Bankers and point fingers; but someone has the gall to have pity for these leeches, and tells us that the free-market and greed are the real way to make things right. Jesus chastised the moneylenders in the Bible, Mohamed built his Islam to exclude for-profit banking, and Mosses came down from the Mountain with a pair of tablets with at least two lines dealing with them. Its not like this is news; Bankers have, are and will be built upon one of the most fundamental counters to every major religion or societal movement of all times: Greed, Avarice, Coveting their shit, whatever you want to to call it.
Personal greed creates motivation and strength. But like an overactive dog might be the best hunting dog, he is also the one whom you most need to chain when your not hunting. Bank regulation is more than a necessity, its a societal and religious mandate. Pick your flavor of excuse, but rampant greed has no excuse. I look at Sarkozy and then at our President and honestly hope that as two of the leaders of the free world they truly understand the mountain they stand before, and that they do not falter when the test comes before them.
Sometimes the truth comes out despite their best efforts:
“What I told Brian Ross in late 2007 was wrong on a couple counts,” he writes. “I suggested that Abu Zubaydah had lasted only thirty or thirty-five seconds during his waterboarding before he begged his interrogators to stop; after that, I said he opened up and gave the agency actionable intelligence.”
But never mind, he says now.
“I wasn’t there when the interrogation took place; instead, I relied on what I’d heard and read inside the agency at the time.”
“Now we know,” Kiriakou goes on, “that Zubaydah was waterboarded eighty-three times in a single month, raising questions about how much useful information he actually supplied.”
Indeed. But after his one-paragraph confession, Kiriakou adds that he didn’t have any first hand knowledge of anything relating to CIA torture routines, and still doesn’t. And he claims that the disinformation he helped spread was a CIA dirty trick: “In retrospect, it was a valuable lesson in how the CIA uses the fine arts of deception even among its own.”
So, which do you believe, that Zubaydah gave all his actionable information before being tortured, and then was tortured repeatedly when they thought he was holding out, or that he held out on them until they tortured him for a month, and that the idea that Zubaydah only lasted a few seconds was put out there to minimize the perception of how evil things were and that really, torture isn’t so bad, as it only took a few seconds anyway. making it easier for the public to turn a blind eye?
The sad part? most people are going to turn a blind eye to everything because they don’t want to understand what evil people performed. And they want to think that it was necessary; that the ends justify the means. And it’s a heck of a lot easier to feel that way when you don’t have to confront the things that were done or confront the idea that maybe the evil that was done… had no effect. That the torture and rape and murder of people in captivity; and sure some of whom were evil people themselves, but some of whom were innocent of the accusations, made no material effect on the safety of the United States.
Has living in fear of the evil terrorists made America that willing to compromise their morals? And even worse, compromise it without any benefit?
He’s not as bad as Jindal, but he’s not horrible.
Ok I take it back, he can go fuck off, Just because some dude tried to blow up his weenie doesn’t make that dude some uber terrorist. Besides the criminal sung like a canary anyway.
Dude, you’re a moron.
Seriously, this is the best the Republicans can do? No wonder they have to resort their attack ads and talking heads.
I suppose we should take the ten thousand US troops out of Haiti since I’m sure your church can do such a better job?
Yeah. Virginia, you elected this guy? really?
Damn
As much as I have issues with Obama, That guy is the poster child of why I could never be a Republican.
That wasn’t a response to Obama’s speech, that was godawful.
Bring back Jindal.
