17 July 2008

WHAT THEY SAID…

1124 by Jeff Hess

Liesl Schillinger wrote:

The other book, “He”s a Stud, She”s a Slut,” was written by Jessica Valenti, a gutsy young third-wave feminist. (As Ms. Parker vividly puts it, first-wave feminists “got women the vote,” the second wave “got them employed and divorced,” and the third wave “is busy making them porn stars.”)

Hat tip to she who Writes Like She Talks.

17 July 2008

MY COMMENTS…

1113 by Jeff Hess

1109 Republican Jewish Coalition cites Nat”l Jewish Democratic Council against Hagel travel w/Obama

17 July 2008

“CLONIE…”

1030 by Jeff Hess

17 July 2008

I’VE USED MY LAST PLASTIC BAG…

0958 by Jeff Hess

This is a link to a PDF of a Power Point presentation. I’ve known most of this for more than 25 years, and I do use canvas bags, but I also get lazy about it.

No more.

You?

16 July 2008

DO SCHOOLS KILL CREATIVITY…?

1030 by Jeff Hess

15 July 2008

DEBUNKING THIRD-WORLDS MYTHS…

1030 by Jeff Hess

14 July 2008

THE GENIUS OF MULTI-TOUCH INTERFACE DESIGN…

1030 by Jeff Hess

5 July 2008

GONE THINKING…

0001 by Jeff Hess


No blogging, responding to emails, cell phones or encumbering myself in anything else
electronic for the next week as I continue my going out from Egypt.

4 July 2008

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776…

1200 by Jeff Hess

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. -Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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4 July 2008

OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE…

0001 by Jeff Hess

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. – And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

3 July 2008

LIGHTNING CALCULATION AND OTHER MATHEMAGIC…

1030 by Jeff Hess

2 July 2008

IN THEIR BOOTS, TONIGHT, 7 PM EDT…

1233 by Jeff Hess

2 July 2008

WAL-MART WEDNESDAY…

1030 by Jeff Hess

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

I CAN”T WAIT FOR THE DEFENSE ON THIS ONE… Watch…

VICTORY OF SORTS IN NORTHCROSS… A change in fortunes for Responsible Growth for Northcross is not the victory the group wanted – preventing a Wal-Mart from being built – but an announcement this week that Wal-Mart would build a 99,000 square foot store is good news. Keep reading…

AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoth”s, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring SeanKentComic. Keep reading…

LEAVE IT TO A CAPITALIST… …to not know the difference between a bucket and a basket. Keep reading…

COULD THIS REALLY BE THE NEW LOGO…? Will Wooten describes it as: a logo for a social network for flower enthusiasts. I wouldn”t be so kind. Keep reading…

DENY, DENY, DENY, DENY, DENY, OOPS, OK… The core funciton of America”s broader health care system administrators is to reduce costs by denying payment for all but the most undenyable of claims. This extends well beyond basic medical treatment and into the realm of dissability and long-term/life-long care. Keep reading…

IN JONATHAN”S NIGHTMARES… Take a peek…

WHY DOES CANADA GET SPECIAL TREATMENT…? Regular readers know Wal-Mart”s record on product recalls; even the really dangerous products can hang around for days or weeks. The merely offensive can take months to disappear. So what made Rockband products fly off the shelves after an urgent recall? Keep reading…

AMERICA REACTS TO WAL-MART”S NEW LOGO… On Sunday I posted Wal-Mart”s new logo and made the comment that what it reminded me most of was Kurt Vonnegut”s use of an asterisk to symbolize an anus. I am not the only person to make that observation. Keep reading…

SINGLETON CASE GAINING SHANKSOMENTUM…? On Sunday I wrote about the case of police officer Jimmy Singleton and pondered why Wal-Mart felt compelled to add its two- (one-?) cent”s worth in the form of a friend-of-the-court brief opposing Singleton”s disability payments? Keep reading…

2 July 2008

MY COMMENTS…

1030 by Jeff Hess

1030 Hey Barack whiners – wedge this.
1008 Milblog reveals factual error in SCOTUS child rape case (or, another reason why blogs matter)
0831 Obama to expand faith based programs (cue Tim Allen huh? grunt)

2 July 2008

WHAT THEY SAID…

1023 by Jeff Hess

Stephen Bainbridge wrote:

The difficulty with this argument, of course, is that we managed to win an 8 year hiatus between 1993 and 2001 without waging a preemptive war on Iraq, restricting civil liberties, torture, creating an American Gulag (Guantanamo, Baghram, renditions, etc….) and so on. If Barnett”s argument made any sense, the failure of the Clinton administration to take such steps after 1993 surely should have resulted in at least one Islamofascist attack on US soil pre-9/11.

1 July 2008

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO…

1030 by Jeff Hess

1 July 2008

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0230 by Jeff Hess

Found in my electronic chapbook.

… rage involves much more arousal than does melancholia, with its leaden apathy. (T) p. 190

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

30 June 2008

MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…

1430 by Jeff Hess

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 7 Ways To Have The Greatest Day of Your Life.

30 June 2008

JAW-DROPPING PHOTOSYNTH DEMO…

1030 by Jeff Hess

30 June 2008

MY COMMENTS…

0901 by Jeff Hess

0858 When Is It Permissible To Publish A Private Person’s Email? What’s the Most Efficient Way to Fight Smears?

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