Take a bite out of crime...

Buy Nothing Day is on the 25th of November this year.
I always tell myself that I will push the movement each year, but life goes by too fast to plug the day properly. So, here is my plug....Buy Nothing Day is a movement that's been around for a few years as a culture-jamming action against the gross consumerism in "civilized" societies, most notably the United States.
Please participate in this event as a demonstration of the people's power to influence the system and speak out for more conscious decision-making amongst legislators and corporate leaders.

My political compass

The Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -5.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.67

This is apparently where I fall on the political graph as a result of the test offered here.
I fall in the same category as the Dalai-Lama and Ghandi as well as Nelson Mandela.
Not bad company if I may say so. Looks like my buddy Dubya falls in the exact opposite quadrant, which only serves to strengthen my faith in the validity of the test.
Unfortunately, the graph wouldn't copy over properly, but you'll get the idea when you take the test.

Thank God for holidays!!

Lucky for me that Halloween is here today, because I am not quite ready to lay the heavy stuff on y'all yet.
I'm actually trying to figure out an effective way to facilitate discussion on the topics I'm preparing. It seems that posting comments involves too many hoops, although one can post anonymously and include their name or tag in the body of the comment to get around the login.
Anyway, I am looking into free (what, me pay for something?) forum space or something similar because this thing is going to take a serious turn for a little while.

But, today is All Hallows Eve and it's hard to be serious on this holiday. Somebody's always gotta bring me down, though. Check out this article about the sanitizing of Halloween festivities in schools. Can ya stand it?!? Now, more than ever, we need a direct upload interface (a la Matrix) jacked into our skulls. No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks. Just knowledge; pure, simple, completely controlled by the Freemasons....whatever.

Happy Halloween, kiddies! May God bless your heathen, pagan, souls-damned-to-hell asses!!! Oh...and stop by the Winter Street house for some candy. Love y'all.

Quick link to a "legalize it" site. This person is certainly not the captain of the Debate Team, but makes the arguments in an entertaining manner while stating all the usual facts.
It certainly keeps me from reinventing the wheel on a subject that I have a passion for (of course, it's an apathetic passion.)
Anyway, here's the link: If you support keeping drugs illegal...

Tons of ideas swimming around in my head to write about and I get distracted by a Treehugger post.
The post sent me to Ideal Bite to check it out and I find a link to a small rave about The Lorax!
You may have noticed that if I weren't a Christian, I would most likely worship the Lorax. I mean, for crying out loud, I'm a thirty-five year old man with a Lorax sticker on the back of my Jeep (see Jeep photos in previous post.)
I haven't given this Ideal Bite site a thorough look-over yet (first impressions aren't great) but they get big props for the Lorax reference!!!

There are many topics that I've been putting together in my head for posting, but the memorialization of an incredible woman takes precedent.
Despite Cedric The Entertainer's disingenuous words in Barbershop, Rosa Parks was the catalyst for a movement that altered the hearts, minds and history of an entire country forever.
She may not have been the only person fed up with Jim Crow laws and the general mindset of 1955/56, but she was the one responsible for initialising a cascading shift of thought that led to a bus boycott and eventually a Supreme Court decision!
Rosa Parks was a strong, black woman who deserves the respect and reverence that she has accrued over these long years of struggle.
92 years old...and what a legacy. Rest in peace.

"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right." -- Henry David Thoreau

Stumbled Upon a website dedicated to the shirt-folding technique demonstrated in the Japanese viral video that circulated a few years back.
Check out the step by step.

Incidentally, kids....all those animated GIFs that I put on these posts can be snatched and dragged to your desktop, if you didn't know already.

That rainbow bar in the last one makes for an extremely obnoxious background when it's tiled.

What is up with San Diego these days?
It's become the geek Mecca of the month all of a sudden!
First, El Jacquez pulls the rug out from under our budding friendship in search of greener pastures; now, Jon L. Johansen has moved out there.
I missed a boat somewhere, I think. Of course, I can't uproot la familia on a whim, but I can't help but think that there is an adventure calling my name and I'm ignoring it.

I need attention!

It's "feelin' froggy Friday" folks, so I'm gonna post a bunch of words and phrases that are guaranteed to get me attention, both wanted and unwanted. So, here goes:

cannabis, meth, Dubya, George W. Bush, IED, war, drugs, kill, murder, Christian, O'Reilly, ass, seeds, martial, communist, socialist, anarchy, Bill Gates, Clinton, Cheney, die, impeach, green revolution, eco, terrorist, dissident, WTO, molotov, protest....

Boy, that lost its novelty fast. Oh well.

My other car is a.....

I told you Bucky was da man!
Check out this article that BoingBoing gives us the heads up on.
Sweet Geek, that's cool!

...and it disintegrates in water!

I have mentioned in past posts that I am very sensitive to my impact on the environment and even my environment.
That's not to imply that I am, in any way, good at reducing my impact on the earth and others, it's just that I am highly aware of my obligation to do just that.
That being said, I found an interesting alternative to plastic (eeyuck!) packaging being manufactured in Australia.
This article on Inhabitat reminds us why this is an excellent product. Our dependence upon petroleum runs far deeper than our fuel tanks.
My only concern is that this "plastic" is corn based, meaning that the Monsantos and Novartis/Syngentas of the world will find their way into this somehow.

seeking some quick entertainment?

Try using Googlism to tell you about yourself. This thing has some hilarious things to say about yours truly.

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Katharine is 34 today.
She is the best (only) sister I have.
She is cool.
She is pretty.
She was a cheerleader in high school.
She is old.
She can drive.
We used to play office and school when we were kids.
She is 16 months my junior.
She was always better at the school thing than I was and I admire her for it.
She was always better at the social thing than I was and I admire her for it.
She has a boyfriend.
They are getting married.
Oh, by the way, Katharine has agreed to be my running mate in the 2008 Presidential race. That's right folks, a woman vice-president and a brother/sister team in the White House.
It's never been done...so we're gonna do it.

Happy Birthday, Pinky!

Where, oh where, has my little dog gone

So, I was checkin' out the Green Party sites this morning and shocked and ashamed to discover (how I'm the eighteenth pale descendent of some old queen or other....what? No Smiths fans?!?)
that Kentucky is one of only five states in the union that have no official state Green Party.
I worked really hard, to the detrement of my family life, on that Nader campaign in 2000 and I thought we had something solid going after the election. Where did everybody go?!? Why didn't you young 'uns take the reigns?!? Louisville, what happened to you?!? You were the strongest of us all? Is this how we want Greens to be viewed in Kentucky? As a bunch of apathetic granola-heads who only have something to say around election time?!? I can't vote in the primary elections because I'm a Green! Come on, people, if it's left to me to rally the troops, this will be a sad ending.
Stand up and holla Greens! We need you more than ever, now!

The Greens/Green Party USA link
Green Party of the United States link

If you don't know what the Green Party stands for, it's all summarized in the Ten Key Values.
Want to know my dirty little secret? I actually voted for the Libertarian candidate in 2004.

Lastly, if you don't vote your conscience in these elections (voting for the lesser of two evils is NOT voting your conscience, it's just plain nàive) or, God forbid, you don't vote, take a look at all the choices you have here.

And while were on a political bent, a few more links:

Appalshop produces probing and profound films about Appalachia. Not all Kentuckians live in Lexington or Louisville kids.

The U.S. Constitution Online It doesn't hurt to reread this and the Declaration, also on this site, once in a while.

Truthout.org is definitely not objective, but it's also, and more importantly, not the radical right sheep either.

And speaking of innovative thinkers....

I never got around to posting about a short, but poignant book about Richard Feynman called Feynman's Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow.
Great book about a fascinating figure in his last years. It also chronicles Mlodinow's struggle to find his place at Cal Tech amongst some of the greatest physicists of our time.
This is an accessible book that doesn't even require an interest in, much less an aptitude for, physics to be enjoyed.

Spaghetti and bucky balls

It's been a little over a week since I last read the Future Feeder site, so I missed the link to this site that's put Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics book in PDF form.
Bucky was a visionary, a "futurist", a mathmetician and much, much more. His legacy of thought and works is considered by many to be unsurpassed in scope.
The man passed away in 1983, but his theories and designs are being utilized in incredibly innovative engineering and scientific technologies today.
One of my interests is nanotechnology and R. Buckminster Fuller's "Bucky Tubes" are quickly becoming the basis for nanomachines.
I am always pleased when he gets the recognition he deserves.

Here in my car, I feel safest of all....

I replaced the battery in my poor, neglected baby girl today.
Not only did she start right up, but she popped into "creeper" gear as though it were just yesterday that we had been trompin' around on the trail.
What an extraordinary vehicle!
She's completely stock, but she can do everything that the tricked out boys can do.
And believe me, that's a boast that's been tested.
In early 2003, I took a new job and thought a more professional and fuel-efficient vehicle might be warranted.
So, I bought the Nissan Sentra that I drive now and the Jeep was relegated to the "garage" out back.
We've even downgraded the insurance to "recreational vehicle" because of her lack of use.
We periodically toy with the idea of selling her, but every time I start her, the very idea of getting rid of her hurts.
She's been good to me over the years, she's a '92, and I thought she deserved a dedicated post.
There is another photo of her before her battery
change over on my photo blog.

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire

If you haven't seen What The Bleep Do We Know yet, now's as good a time to see it as any.
This is an incredible film (documentary?) about the latest in quantum theory. Well made and accessible, you will thank me later when you've blown your mind out on quantum interference.

I still watch it periodically to remind me that magic still exists.

Forgive us, for we know not what we do....

Simon And Garfunkel - Sparrow

Who will love a little sparrow
Who's traveled far and cries for rest?
"Not I," said the Oak Tree
"I won't share my branches with no sparrow's nest
And my blanket of leaves won't warm her cold breast"

Who will love a little sparrow
And who will speak a kindly word?
"Not I," said the Swan
"The entire idea is utterly absurd
I'd be laughed at and scorned if the other swans heard."

Who will take pity in his heart
And who will feed a starving sparrow?
"Not I," said the Golden Wheat
"I would if I could but I cannot I know
I need all my grain to prosper and grow"

Who will love a little sparrow?
Will no one write her eulogy?
"I will," said the Earth
"For all I've created returns unto me
From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be"


This morning, NPR had a piece on five National Guardsmen from Pennsylvania that were killed needlessly in Iraq.
But, the mourning of parents having survived their children is just a fraction of the whole problem.
Whatever reason George W. had for sending us into warfare, it was wrong! Why can't the world see that this is all an illusion?!?
All the divisions, all the hatred, all the material manifestations of desire.....all of it is illusion.
Know this, all of your possessions, every cell of your physical form will be reclaimed by Mother Earth! Dust to dust, you wayward fool!
All that will remain is your soul, the spirit that is an integral part of the universe. How do you want that spirit to live? Hating? Scared? Lonely in its fierce individualism?
Or would you rather make your mark with positivity, lifting I and I up and transcending the short-sighted hording and petty jealousy? Do any of us really have the answers?!?
Can I kill you with a clear conscious because my Jesus is better than your Mohammud?
Or should we just slow down and talk awhile? Can't we just have a spirited and healthy conversation about these "differences" that divide us so?
Believe me, evil exists. But, why do we have to succumb to it so absolutely? As trite as it sounds, love is the only answer I think will free us.
I don't like humans, that's no secret. But, I do love humans, just as I love God and all God's manifestations. The universe has enough perversion and cruelty (in our limited perspective) without humans contributing more. If we're such intelligent creatures, why can't we get past the trappings of our imagined reality?

Vigilance is exhausting...

Believe me, the temptation to give the current administration enough rope to hang themselves is great. After all, if there is anything that I know about the masses, it's that they are reactionary simps (boy, that'll win me an election, eh?!?)
Everything will eventually make a dramatic swing back the other way. I have two problems with this, however. The first is that I have a young son. I don't want his formative years (junior and senior high) to be marked by a collective movement towards restricted rights and unconstitutional violations of privacy. I don't want him to bear witness to any more extinction of species or destruction of nature, let alone be forced to filter every drop of water or breathe through a mask.
The second problem I have with this inevitable swing of the pendulum is two-fold. First, it will take too long. I know, that doesn't denote an abundance of wisdom, but I am human after all. I want to see us reclaim our progressive and loving ideologies now, not after I'm dead. I don't want us to have to rollerskate uphill for decades trying to pull ourselves back out of the 16th century draconian state into which we're headed before we can start to rebuild.
Second, the swing will undoubtedly be reactionary and extreme. This is where we lack wisdom, folks. Rigid polarization is not healthy for a country, a society or a species. We can't afford to reserve our energies until conditions have become unbearable, we have to act, not react. We cannot afford to take license when our liberties are under threat (consult Mortimer Adler's Six Great Ideas for an explanation of these terms.)
The middle way is not merely a buddhist concept, it is a universal path that, when followed, leads to the peaceful appreciation of life that I think we all seek.
Right, so with that said, check out this article and this article to see what sparked this post.

Pizza anyone?!?

If you haven't seen this piece from the ACLU --you know, the "pinko commies that want to 'pussify' the nation", check it out.
Funny and serious all wrapped up in a neat little package.

for those who will give me crap about the math...

Stumble! is an excellent Firefox extension

Stumbled upon this tonight...




...thought it needed to get some exposure.

The site is here

and speaking of....

For the record, House of Sand and Fog also features a Jennifer Connelly that's not the Jennifer Connelly of Labyrinth

Warm and fuzzy in the good places.....

Tragedy is no longer acceptable entertainment

Laura and I just finished our long-overdue viewing of the Vadim Perelman film House of Sand and Fog.
The film was sad; gut-wrenchingly sad. There was no justice; no clean resolution, only tragedy.

Is that why it didn't do well commercially? Because it was a tragedy? The film was engaging, interesting, well written and brilliantly acted and yet only critical acclaim lifted this film from profound obscurity. Shameful. In Shakespeare's time, tragedies were the most popular plays, hands down. What happened to that appreciation? Must we have neat and tidy endings? We were both moved, deeply. Do not shield yourself from your natural reactions to this film. Rather, embrace the tragedy and what it can teach you about humanity and about yourself.

Those dirty sons-a.......

This is more of a tantrum than a permanent part of my presidential platform, but, if we are ever able to identify the "THE MAN" gene, I will make it a nationwide policy to abort any fetus containing that gene!
This morning, before I settled in to work, I thought it might be nice to start the day with a little reading of Treehugger. Well, lo and behold, this article sparks my fancy right off the bat.
Unfortunately, when yours truly tried to hyperlink to the company's site, I was blocked by Websense; apparently because of references to the evil Marijuana. Heaven forbid we let a grown man see references to Cannabis, he'll get all stupid and incapable of fighting for us in Iran.
WTF, people?!? Is cannabis really that threatening to our youth? More threatening than IEDs?!?
Send your kids to Iraq so that I can fuel my drive over to the Green Man's crib and pick up that phat O to da Z that he's been holdin' for me.

Right. Tantrum over.....I'm gonna head out this afternoon and try some of that hemp dessert. After all, if Woody digs it, it's gotta be good, right?