Monday, January 31, 2005

Joke - Casanova In Training

A 16-year-old boy comes home and tells his father, "Dad, I had my first B.J. today."

Dad is proud as he thinks about his son becoming a world-class casanova.

"How was it?" asks Dad.

"Not too bad, really fun," replies the son. "But my jaw aches like hell, and it leaves a helluva taste in your mouth."



Dick Mac Recommends:
Arthur Rimbaud
Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters









Friday, January 28, 2005

Road Trip

While on a road trip an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch.

When leaving, the elderly woman left her glasses on the table and she didn't miss them until after they had been driving about twenty minutes.

To add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around in order to drive back to the restaurant.

The elderly husband was the classic grouchy old man. He fussed and complained and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her, the more agitated he became. He wouldn't let up for one minute.

To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant.

As the woman got out of the car, the husband yelled to her: "While you're in there, you might as well get my hat and credit card."



Thanks to Elaine for sending this along!



Dick Mac Recommends:
Insignificance
Theresa Russell, Nic Roeg









Thursday, January 27, 2005

The Deficit



When liars want you to believe that it is Democrats and social liberals who put us into debt, just ignore them. They need forgiveness, they are ignorant and unable to see truth. They are immoral.

Just remember this graphic from the Congressional Budget Office that perfectly illustrates Bill Clinton's efforts to pull us out of the Reagan/Bush debt, and make us solvent, only to have Reich wingers elect Bush twice and drive us right back down the slippery-slope of deficit spending while eliminating government services and financing an immoral war.

Liberals know how to run a government and build a nation safe for all its citizens. The Reich wing proves time and again that they are only interested in providing tax cuts for the rich!



Dick Mac Recommends:
Ignoring Reich wingers!






Wednesday, January 26, 2005

It's CompUSA Then

Where do you buy computer equipment, peripherals and supplies?

I have always been rather haphazard about choosing retailers: whichever store is convenient I will use. No more, though.

According to BuyBlue.org, the only computer retail outlet that has a positive blue rating is CompUSA. Why? Well, the website explains that making no political contributions is better than donations to the Reich Wing:

"CompUSA/Good Guys currently has a 100% BuyBlue rating due to lack of political contributions for the 2003-2004 election cycle. BuyBlue believes that lack of political contributions is a "blue" value as well because it shows a company is in business to do business and not influence the political landscape. It is tough to stay out of the politics game when your competitors are busy spending their money buying influence with one side or the other. On our rating scale that lands CompUSA/Good Guys the highest rating."

My primary computer is a Dell, but BuyBlue points out that Dell gives the majority of its political donations to Reich Wingers, so I will buy Dell no more. Next PC I use will be built from pieces bought at CompUSA.

Please consider spending your money with companies not currently supporting the Reich Wing. The BuyBlue site can help you make learned decisions.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Do you really want to know about CompUSA? Well, then, purchase the CompUSA August Executive Summary as a PDF download!








Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Johnny Carson 1925 - 2005

In 1966 I began to watch grown-up TV. I watched the State Of The Union speech, Jeopardy on mornings I was home sick, followed news coverage of the Vietnam War and Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty, and saw the Joey Bishop Show. Then there was Johnny Carson. By 1968 I was watching both the Democratic and Republican conventions, Playboy After Dark, reading the Christian Science Monitor and New York Times for coverage of Vietnam and becoming fascinated by Gore Vidal, whom I had seen for the first time on the Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson. I had some, but not much interest in Gilligan's Island and Batman; I was more interested in the news and current events.

I was a master at sneaking the TV on after bedtime. With my mother being a single parent, working full-time, and raising four kids, she would go to bed pretty early. This made late night TV watching rather simple. Wait til ten-thirty and flip on the set for the news, then it was always Johnny Carson.

My mother probably knew I was watching late-night television, but that meant I was safe in my bedroom!

I ended almost every night watching Carson. He was hysterical. I barely understood much of his monologue, but I learned a lot about irony by filtering his jokes and the audience laughter through the 'serious' news I'd read in the paper and heard from Walter Cronkite and Jack Hynes. Carson taught me how to analyze the news and make it part of my personal experience and to laugh at it. He was smart and his jokes about serious issues were insightful, analytical and well-timed. I learned that I could laugh at the world as long as I understood the seriousness of it all.

I watched him interview Vidal, Racquel Welch, Phyllis Diller, Truman Capote, Don Rickles, Joe Namath, politicians, musicians, comedians. He did skits and magic acts; he handled snakes and other exotic animals from some zoo. He gave unknown singers a break they only dreamed of.

My mother and I watched Tiny Tim marry Miss Vickie on the Tonight Show; and Bette Davis rip apart Faye Dunaway; I saw Jimmy Stewart when I though he was long dead. I watched Bette Midler serenade Carson during the last week of his broadcasts and I wept as she sang "One For My Baby." There were so many magic moments.

Johnny Carson, though neither the inventor (that would be Steve Allen) nor the stylizer (that would be Jack Paar) of his profession, raised the job of late-night talk show to an art form. Nobody else has ever done it as well. Those who followed him, the Lettermans and Lenos and Arsenios and Conans are dullards in comparison. They are neither smart nor analytical. They read jokes written by staffs of writers and it is clear they have no personal skill that allows them to insert their own sensibility into their shows or any personal attachment to the material. None of them can come remotely close to Carson.

It's impossible to say that he will be missed, because he has already been gone for so long. In many ways, Carson died in 1992 when he retired. He was insanely (sanely?) private and never appeared in the public-eye these last twelve years of his life. One thing is for sure: if Ed McMahon decides to do another commercial for Alpo, Johnny will not precede it with his trademark "I'll be right back."

Rest in peace.



Dick Mac Recommends:










Monday, January 24, 2005

The Heddon Street Phonebox

What is the Heddon Street Phonebox?

Heddon Street is a little U-shaped street that connects at both ends to Regent Street in London, just up the road from Man In The Moon Passageway. It is a tiny street with not many businesses. An infamous furrier was once located there, but moved out sometime in the 1980s. There is no use Googling it, because the only K. West that exists today is a hotel & spa in W14, Kensington, London.

What made this furrier infamous? An album cover, of course. K. West is unwittingly one of the best-known unknown businesses in history. Also in Heddon Street is a phonebox, known as a phonebooth in the United States, that is the most famous phonebox in London, because of the same album cover.

Although only reaching #75 on the Hot 100 in Billboard's United States charts upon release in 1972, there is nary a human in Western Civilization over the age of 25 who is not familiar with "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars," by David Bowie.

Ziggy Stardust is alleged to be a conglomeration of many characters Bowie encountered during his career, most notably, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, whose big breakthrough was an unfortunate appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in the late 1960s. Bowie has since paid tribute to Ledge by recording "I Took A Ride (On A Space Shuttle)" as "I Took A Ride On A Gemini Spacecraft" on his Heathen record. The song "Lady Stardust" is alleged to be about Marc Bolan, lead singer of T.Rex, and the first of that new breed of English rockers to wear make-up and androgynous clothes.

The album is a masterpiece, and its cover is just as famous!




Teenage Wildlife has the most concise discography entry.

The Ziggy Stardust Companion is likely the most comprehensive website devoted to this remarkable LP.

Everyone should have their picture taken in the phonebox! At the Ziggy Stardust Companion is a page of different people doing just that. Included is a photo of a group trying to "set the record for most [people] in the Heddon Street phone box at one time"!


Can you find me?




Dick Mac Recommends:
The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
David Bowie




Friday, January 21, 2005

Thank You!

I want to thank all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me your chain letters over the past years. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.

Because of your concern:

I no longer can drink Coca-Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put "Under God" on their cans.

I no longer drink anything out of a can because I will get sick from the rat feces and urine.

I no longer use Saran Wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample, then rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a stupid number for which I will get the phone bill from hell with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer eat pre-packaged foods because the estrogen they contain will turn me gay.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer date the opposite sex because they will take my kidney and leave me in a bathtub full of ice.

I no longer have any sneakers -- but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman-Marcus since I now have their recipe.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time).

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

Yes, I want to thank all of you soooooooo much for looking out for me! I will now return the favor.

If you don't e-mail this blog to at least 1200 people in the next 60 seconds, a large bird with diarrhea will crap on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas of a thousand camels will infest your armpits.

I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's 8th husband's 2nd cousin's 3rd husband's ex-wife's mother's beautician!



Thanks to jendi for sending this along!



Dick Mac Recommends:
The Andy Warhol Diaries
edited by Pat Hackett






Thursday, January 20, 2005

Joanne Grant, 74, Dies

Over the years I have learned that social change instigated by the famous is implemented by the hard-working. Last week saw the passing of a woman who dedicated her life to making the world a better place and documenting that change.



From the New York Times:

Joanne Grant, 74, Dies
Documented Grassroots Efforts on Civil Rights
By JENNIFER BAYOT
Published: January 15, 2005

Joanne Grant, an activist who documented the grassroots efforts behind the civil rights movement through her journalism, filmmaking and commentary, died on Sunday at St. Vincent's Midtown Hospital. She was 74 and lived in Manhattan.

The cause was heart failure, her son, Mark Rabinowitz, said.

Ms. Grant wrote "Black Protest" (Fawcett, 1968), a documentary analysis of black resistance from 1619 on. One of the first books to trace the origins of the civil rights movement, it remains required reading in many classes on African-American history.

A former assistant to W. E. B. DuBois, Ms. Grant sought to profile the struggle for civil rights through its community leaders. Her award-winning documentary film "Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker" (1981), about an unsung matriarch of the civil rights movement, was broadcast nationally on PBS. She later wrote "Ella Baker: Freedom Bound" (Wiley, 1998), a biography. In "Confrontation on Campus" (New American Library, 1969), she described sit-ins at Columbia University and elsewhere.

"She was an important voice in the early writing on the civil rights movement," said Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, a professor of African-American studies at Harvard. "Scholars began to realize that you couldn't understand how this became a national phenomenon unless you understood how communities rallied around issues."

Friends described Ms. Grant as the movement's publicist and said she saw herself as both journalist and advocate. She was a member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960's and in later years organized benefits for social causes and political candidates.

In the 1960's, as a reporter for The National Guardian, she often traveled to rural Southern towns to describe demonstrations and organizations that other publications largely ignored.

"She exposed and explained the civil rights movement in ways that the daily press either couldn't or wouldn't," said Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Joanne Grant Rabinowitz, whose father was white and mother biracial, was born in Utica, N.Y., on March 30, 1930. She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in history and journalism.

In addition to her son, Mark, of Manhattan, she is survived by her husband, Victor Rabinowitz, a lawyer and activist; a daughter, Abby, of Hamburg, N.J.; a stepson, Peter, of Clinton, N.Y.; a stepdaughter, Joni, of Pittsburgh; a half-sister, Mary Jane Hubbard of Norwich, N.Y.; a half-brother, James Hubbard of Orlando, Fla.; and two step-grandchildren.




Ms. Grant leaves a legacy of writing and film that deserves to be remembered.

Her most recent book Ella Baker: Freedom Bound is currently available.

Her 1968 book, "Black Protest History, Documents and Analyses, 1619 to the Present" was called by the New York Times "by far the fullest documentary history of three and one-half centuries of Negro-American protest and agitation . . ." and can be found at new and used book stores.

"Confrontation on Campus" about the Columbia University student riots in 1968 can be found at used shops.

She also wrote, directed and produced the 1981 documentary Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker.

An obit of Joanne at eugonline.com

Evergreen Review article



Thanks to Mark for keeping me informed.



Dick Mac Recommends:
Ella Baker: Freedom Bound
by Joanne Grant






Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Not One Damn Dime Day - January 20, 2005 - Tomorrow

I received this in the mail and I think it's a great idea! Can you go without spending money tomorrow, Inauguration Day? It's a great way to speak-out!



Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime day" please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse spending. Not one damn dime for nothing for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart, K-Mart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all, for that matter). For 24 hours.

The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians have put the troops in harm's way.

Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan - a way to come home.

There is no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.

For twenty-four hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.



If nothing else, please pick one item from your daily routine that you will sacrifice purchasing: a double hazelnut latte delight, or the daily paper, or dessert, or a bottled water . . . anything!




Dick Mac Recommends:
Prayer & Meditation
Pray and meditate daily.




Tuesday, January 18, 2005

MLK Follow-Up (Fall Out?)

"How dare you criticize black people for wanting to be just like white people?" was a question asked of me by a total stranger who read yesterday's article about MLK Day.

The writer is correct, of course. I have no right to hold one group to a higher standard than another, even in a single statement, even though I proffer the same criticism to all groups on a regular basis.

"for someone who clames to be a leftists, your making racist clames in your blog" read another email. Sigh!

Are my statements of 17 JAN 05 racist? I don't think so. They are intended to inflame the spirit, to get people to look at their lives and ask if they are doing anything to change the world for the better.

I am disheartened that "liberated" people like blacks, women and homosexuals, have settled-for a middle-class existence. It seems that those who once fought for change have just formed one big consumer group, and not really changed anything except their own economic place in the food chain of savage capitalism!

I did not know Dr. King, but I do not think this is what he died for!

My criticism of our fat, lazy culture is not intended as a dismissal of the important work done by the liberationists of the 20th Century, but as a rebuke to those of us still living for our failure to stand-up to immoral leaders and xenophobic neighbors.

Irrespective of that, I thank you for writing and being angry.

On a happier note, my friend Richard points out that Westminster Abbey in London, England, has a statue of Dr. King above the entrance to their West Front. King is included with a group of ten martyrs of the 20th Century.

It is this sort of recognition and facts like the existence of this statue that discredits all anti-Dr. King sentiment. Those who would rescind this holiday, those who oppose this holiday, and those who despise the civil rights represented by this holiday (racists all of them) should look to the government and throne of England and see that the world knows the truth about Dr. King: he was a martyr, a wonderful, hard-working, diligent, tenacious worker in the effort to bring dignity to all people of the world.





Dick Mac Recommends:
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.










Monday, January 17, 2005

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Throughout his career, at the time of his death, and since the inception of this holiday, Reich Wingers have been smearing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s reputation. Constant chatter about his sex life and political beliefs are peppered with typical racist and red-baiting references.

Dr. King was one of the most important figures of Western civilization and received the Nobel Peace Prize because he worked tirelessly for equality and civil rights. Everything the Reich Wing wants to highlight should be ignored.

People who object to a holiday for Dr. King are racists. People who oppose this holiday are those who do not want the civil rights movement to be celebrated in any way. They wanted it to fail and they would be happiest if we returned to the racist ways of our past.

Sadly, the black community has become a numb, assimilated group with homes filled with televisions, beverages loaded with high-fructose corn-syrup, gas-guzzling SUVs, and plenty of Republicans to spare; so, the community who Dr. King served so faithfully is incapable of coming to his defense. He fought for equality and those who benefited have settled for being just like their white counterparts: reactionary, rich and lazy!

Dr. King's legacy of challenging stereotypes, demanding social justice, and working for the disenfranchised has been forgotten, swept under the rug, and demeaned like so many immoral wars, dirty plagues, and bad elections.

Americans, black Americans especially, have abandoned Dr. King, and nobody should be surprised when this holiday is abolished by the Reich Wing. America doesn't deserve Dr. King's legacy, and everyone should just start going to work on this holiday to get more money to buy more soda pop and bigger cars and ignore the hard work for which this man died.

Though most Americans (including black Americans) have no idea why: You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!

Seattle Times King Timeline



Dick Mac Recommends:
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.






Friday, January 14, 2005

Geldof Denies Cocaine At Live Aid, Says Bowie Massage Was Best High

Bob Geldof denies he was high on cocaine while he organized the Live Aid benefit twenty years ago. One thinks the lady doth protesteth too much, as William Shakespeare (or Oscar Wilde) might proffer!

Do all nouveau riche deny their past like this?

His denial is limited to the day of the event, on which day he says nobody offered him any. That's all fine and good; but I find it hard to believe that a new wave musician cresting a wave of success in the mid-1980s consumed no cocaine while organizing a huge international event and surrounded by his peers who all freely admit they consumed the substance at every possible moment during the same time span. Well, maybe he didn't, but I doubt it!

The best quote from this recent denial is that the only high Geldof had on the day of Live Aid was that "(David) Bowie gave me a massage, which I have to say is the best I have ever had."

Well, in the mid-1980s I always said that if only David Bowie would rub my back, I wouldn't have needed all that cocaine either!

The story at contactmusic.com



Dick Mac Recommends:
Live Aid





Thursday, January 13, 2005

Dr. Robin Meyers Peace Rally Speech

This is purported to be a speech delivered by Dr. Robin Meyers, Professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma University, that was delivered at a peace rally at that campus on November 14, 2004. I do not know if that is accurate, but it's a lovely bit of writing and I thought you might like to read it.

As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University. But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor.

Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian. We've heard a lot lately about so-called "moral values" as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I'm a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value - I mean what are we talking about?

Because we don't get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

· When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

· When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

· When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

· When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.


· When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

· When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

· When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva Convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

· When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists - and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

· When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

· When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.

· When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

· When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

· When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.

· When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.


· When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of all religious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

· When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn't have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.

· When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.

I'm tired of people thinking that because I'm a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I'm tired of people saying that I can't support the troops but oppose the war - I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam War was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong - the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you - young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It's your country to take back. It's your faith to take back. It's your future to take back.

Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists-so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious.

Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith. And war - war is the greatest failure of the human race - and thus the greatest failure of faith.

There's an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.

Time to march again my friends. Time to commit acts of civil disobedience. Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can, too!



One of the great things about coming-of-age in the 1970s, was activism. We stood to be counted in our opposition to war, and in suppport of reproductive rights and equality for all Americans, we worked for social and economic justice. The current generations now have plenty to fight for: peace, social justice, economic justice, and defending the Constitution. All you twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings: Please take action.



Thanks to Dave for sending this along.

Here are some links about Dr. Meyers:

http://www.hci-online.com/rmeyers
http://www.ocadp.org/action/moratorium/meyers_speech_rally_1.02.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=20484
http://www.mayflowerucc.org/staff/meyers.html



Dick Mac Recommends:
The Separation of Church and State
by Forrest Church






Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Joke - Speeding Tickets

A man is driving home from a party and his wife is in the passenger seat knitting while he navigates the roads, occasionally driving over the speed limit.

A police officer pulls him over for speeding.

The officer says, "I clocked you at 80 mile per hour, sir."

The driver says, "Gee, officer, I had the cruise control set at 60, perhaps your radar needs calibrating."

Not looking up from her knitting the wife says, "Now don't be silly, dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control."

As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, "Can't you please keep your mouth shut for once?"

The wife smiles demurely and says, "You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did."

As the officer makes out the second ticket for the radar detector, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, "Damn it, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut?"

The officer frowns and says, "And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine."

The driver says, "Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket."

The wife says," Now, dear, you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving."

And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and screams, "Why don't you please shut-up?"

The officer looks over at the woman and asks, "Does your husband always talk to you this way, ma'am?"

"Oh, heavens no, officer! Only when he's been drinking."



Thanks to Jim for sending this along!



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Tuesday, January 11, 2005

"Bacon Very Important That Bacon Be Available At Every Meal And During Day"

I love bacon!

Everyone loves bacon!

I've even heard about a vegetarian who claims that bacon is a spice and adds it to her meals at whim.

I like it in peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Sometimes I like to just cook-up a pound of bacon for a snack, nibble on it, then keep the leftover in the fridge to be added to everything I cook through the week.

My fave? Bacon and Egg Salad! Make egg salad as you would for any sandwich, then add a quarter pound of chopped bacon. Yummmmmm! I should publish that recipe some day.

I hate the band Metallica.

First of all, I don't like the genre of music they play, and there are so many others who do it better. Secondly, I was shocked that they took the record industry side against their fans in the music-download wars.

I can't imagine suing my fans for obtaining my art in any manner! It's just absurd! Most artists, including some of the biggest acts in the world, are happy you listen to their songs. Not Metallica, though! If you aren't willing to pay twenty bucks for their crap CD, then you shouldn't hear their crap music.

Go figure!

Any band or musician that participated in the anti-Napster campaign is a bad artist.

Those of you who know me are aware that I have never participated in online file sharing. I think it is stealing and I think it is wrong. Bands like Metallica are helping sway me towards a different position, though. I have no sympathy for scum like Lars Ulrich and the industry for which he has become an apologist and activist. Smart artists, bands, and executives know that MP3-sharing enhances sales.

I do think that friends should trade songs amongst themselves, without fear of prosecution. Some of the bands I have grown to love, and whose CDs I purchase, are bands that I first heard because someone burned me a copy of their CD, or sent me a few MP3s of their music. This is a good thing!

Metallica wouldn't think so, though, and I'm sure they would want me investigated if they thought for one moment that I possessed one of their crap tunes as an MP3. Rest assured: I don't!

In December, 2004, The Las Vegas Mercury published: SUNDAY, DEC. 5: If you're like most Americans, you probably stay up nights wondering how Metallica can continue to rock the nation in the face of file-sharing dorm larva gnawing away at the band's soul like baggy-jeaned termites. Worry no more! A study released Sunday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project revealed that two-thirds of artists surveyed said online file-sharing didn't bug them all that much. Phew. Now, Metallica, please, release your hard-rocking grip on the lapels of the Internet and we'll Secret-Santa you four personal trainers, two life coaches and a spa day in Sausalito.

The Pew organization is a pretty reputable outfit. Their surveys are usually well organized and well thought-out. They have found that two-thirds of artists disagree with Metallica's position! No surprise, because Metallica are a bunch of asses!

I have never been much impressed by Metallica fans, either! Like the two guys who raped the 12-year-old girls they met in a Metallica chat room, or the guy who thought the song "Ronnie" was about him and decided to kill his mother and an 11-year-old boy. There is more, there are others! Dullards, all of them!

So, what is the connection between something as wonderful as bacon and something as crap as Metallica?

Well, the title of this article, "Bacon Very Important That Bacon Be Available At Every Meal And During Day," is a direct quote from a legal rider the band Metallica attaches to their contracts. Make note of the grammar, please, because I think it is truly indicative of Metallica's skill set and staff.

The website smokinggun.com has a collection of contract riders outlining the requirements that bands and artists put forth while touring. Things like food they want and furniture they require and security they expect. It was there that I found this page from Metallica (click the image to see the entire smokinggun.com story):







Notice that the word bacon is used four times on one page, and it is specified that bacon must be available not just during every meal, but "during day" as well! Bacon is to be made available for the entire time Metallica and their crew are in a facility!

So, when you are backstage at a Metallica show during set-up or sound-check or the actual performance, they must have plates of bacon strategically placed for your comfort and enjoyment, or is the bacon just for the band? This isn't clear really. Do Metallica love bacon so much that they want everyone to have plenty of bacon, or are they keeping all the bacon for themselves?

You have to assume that bacon is featured everywhere backstage at a Metallica show.

I am morbidly fascinated by this and want to hear from someone who has been backstage at a Metallica show. We need to know the truth about Metallica's bacon consumption!

Maybe you can find more info thant I did with this Google search.



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Monday, January 10, 2005

A Real Miscarriage Of Justice

According to a proposed law in the Virginia legislature, a woman must report a miscarriage to police within 12 hours of delivery or be punished by up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. See Va HB1677.

Of all the legislation proposed to limit reproductive rights in recent years, this might be the worst I have heard.

I understand why people are against abortion (they are misguided and unChristian), and I understand why these whackos want to limit reproductive freedom (they hate the Constitution). But, to punish a grieving mother for failure to chat with police about her miscariage within twelve hours of her loss borders on heinous! This is preposterous and inhumane, if the woman is not in a medical facility!

Some women have miscarried at home, cleaned themselves and visited their doctor long after they have rested and eaten and regained emotional composure. Sometimes days and days after the loss. This is not unusual.

The elected official responsible for this piece of mysogynist legislation is an electronics engineer named John A. (Jumpin' Jack) Cosgrove, the (R)eich Wing delegate from Chesapeake, Virginia, (House District 78).

How much do Baptist electronics engineers know about reproductive rights! NOTHING! They are just against them with no thought about their importance or their role in humanity, or history, or the future.

I guess his wife, Sue Ann, would abide by the law if Michael and Brian lost a sibling all of a sudden, late at night, in a spontaneoue abortion (the medical term for a miscarriage). Jumpin' Jack would drag his bleeding or healing, but mourning (and lovely), wife down to the local sheriff and report her as a spontaneous abortionist. After Sue Ann bucked-up and stopped all her pansy-ass, liberal-leaning weeping for the loss of her child (which loss must have been God's will, after all), she would have to provide the police the following:

- place of occurrence
- usual residence of patient (mother)
- full maiden name of patient
- medical record number and social security number of patient
- Hispanic origin, if any, and race of patient
- age of patient
- education of patient
- sex of fetus
- patient married to father
- previous deliveries to patient
- single or plural delivery and order of plural delivery
- date of delivery
- date of last normal menses and physician's estimate of gestation
- weight of fetus in grams
- month of pregnancy care began (sic)
- number of prenatal visits
- when fetus died
- congenital malformations, if any
- events of labor and delivery
- medical history for this pregnancy
- other history for this pregnancy
- obstetric procedures and method of delivery
- autopsy
- medical certification of cause of spontaneous fetal death
- signature of attending physician or medical examiner including title, address and date signed
- method of disposal of fetus
- signature and address of funeral director or hospital representative
- date received by registrar
- registrar's signature
- registration area and report numbers

That's right! These are the items required by Virginia law to be provided when reporting a miscarriage. Jumpin' Jack Cosgrove's legislation provides for no change to that requirement. So, ladies, keep your file cabinet close at hand while pregnant in Virginia, because you have only twelve hours to provide all this documentation!

What is this really about?

Reich Wing whackos like Jumpin' Jack and all the other asses in the South want to eliminate all abortion, so they are trying to criminalize spontaneous abortions. With this thrown into the fray, the citizenry, in their bewilderment over such a proposal, will be more likely to agree to criminalizing elective abortion, because it is unreasonable to punish those who suffer a spontaneous abortion, and by gosh-darnit, somebody's gotta be punished for all the dead, unwanted fetuses!

Suddenly, banning elective abortion seems reasonable.

Isn't that what this is about?

This is insane! This is dangerous and scary and these people have to be stopped.

America is being destroyed by whacko Southerners, unable to wipe the Jesus from their eyes, who believe that their religious freakdom is the basis for recrafting our nation as some kind of post-modern theocracy.

The "Chief Patron" of this legislation can be reached at the addresses below:

Delegate John A. Cosgrove
General Assembly Building, Room 416
Capitol Square
Richmond, Virginia 23219

(804) 698-1078

Del_Cosgrove@house.state.va.us

or

John A. Cosgrove
P.O. Box 15483
Chesapeake, Virginia 23328

(757) 547-3422

Please write to him, or call him, to share your thoughts. Better yet, if you know anybody in Virginia, ask them to call or write.



Some discussion at Daily KOS.

Whacko John A. (Jumpin' Jack) Cosgrove's Legislative Biography.

I found this at Randi Rhodes' Message Board.



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