ROTFLMMFAO…!!!
1438 by Jeff Hess
14 August 2007
14 August 2007
WHAT THEY SAID…
1407 by Jeff HessNever let anything cross the threshold of your home unless it’s something that you know you need or that you know you will love and cherish for a long time to come. That bobble-head you got for free for filing up your gas tank doesn’t count. Neither do pasta machines, breadmakers, or ice cream makers in most cases. Before you buy anything, ask yourself, do you really need it? Is it a replacement for something you’re throwing out? Is it another black sweater? Or is it something you don’t already have? Jerry Brito
14 August 2007
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 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 Albino Blacksheep: Bloxorz.
14 August 2007
WHAT THEY SAID…
1357 by Jeff HessFirst, there is one helluva lot to say for doing outdoor work in the sun, hour after hour, to that point of exhaustion. This may be particularly true for those of us who spend most of our lives parked at a keyboard or parked in a conference chair or parked on a tarmac.
Our primal bodies need this sort of thing! And while regular exercise is great, this is of a whole different character-this is really participating in the outdoor world, not just using it to tone heart muscles, important as that is. Second, this is a seriously cool project of my own design; doing heavy-duty yard (farm) work is one thing, and rewarding-but creating something that you dreamed up is a whole different deal.
Third, every day brings surprises. Nothing beats surprises! (E.g., I didn’t even know that wonderful boulder was there, as it was covered with brush! What a beauty!) This project started out as a simple effort to clean out a stream filled with debris from the forest in which it started-perhaps 20 years of debris.
But the “work” meandered and grew day by day into this opportunity to create a fascinating, enchanting zen-like space that reveals a smidgen of the magnificence of this little piece of Southern Vermont heaven. I never know how the day is going to proceed-how sweet that is. Tom Peters
14 August 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
RN Clara Hart: I rolled out of bed this morning, tied on my running shoes, and headed out the door determined to get a little Army 10-miler training in. Saturdays are usually my days to complete a long run, and although I relish my time to sleep in, too many thoughts were racing around in my head for me to stay under the covers. Finishing my stretches I started…
14 August 2007
HOW TERRIFIED WOULD YOU HAVE TO BE…?
1026 by Jeff Hess
This is an indisputable fact: Jose Padilla is a citizen of the United States, subject to all rights and protection of our Constitution and to a rule of law that rests upon the bedrock principle that we are all innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This is also an indisputable fact: Jose Padilla was imprisoned without charge for 42 months.
It now appears that his confinement and treatment, including allegations of torture, may have broken Padilla’s mind.
Padilla’s treatment in the brig is classified as a state secret.
Ironically, no one knows this better than Padilla himself. When Hegarty, the psychiatrist, asked him about his interrogation in the brig, Padilla responded: “I can’t talk about what happened to me because it is classified.”
Although Padilla has been meeting with his Miami lawyers for more than a year and a half, he refuses to discuss his treatment in the brig in any detail.
The torture allegations made last year in the Miami court case were raised as a result of repeated sessions asking Padilla “yes or no” whether he’d endured the kinds of harsh interrogation tactics reported in the press. He reluctantly answered yes to some, and no to others. But his lawyers could pry no details or narrative from him.
To repeat the question, how terrified would you have to be to not be able to assist in your own defense?
The Christian Science Monitor has a second piece up today that amplifies what is going on in Miami.
When suspected Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla was whisked from the criminal justice system to military custody in June 2002, it was done for a key purpose – to break his will to remain silent.
As a US citizen, Mr. Padilla enjoyed a right against forced self-incrimination. But this constitutional guarantee vanished the instant President Bush declared him an enemy combatant.
For a month, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been questioning Padilla in New York City under the rules of the criminal justice system. They wanted to know about his alleged involvement in a plot to detonate a radiological “dirty bomb” in the US. Padilla had nothing to say. Now, military interrogators were about to turn up the heat.
Padilla was delivered to the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., where he was held not only in solitary confinement but as the sole detainee in a high-security wing of the prison. Fifteen other cells sat empty around him.
The purpose of the extraordinary privacy, according to experts familiar with the technique, was to eliminate the possibility of human contact. No voices in the hallway. No conversations with other prisoners. No tapping out messages on the walls. No ability to maintain a sense of human connection, a sense of place or time.
Andrew Sullivan has been on the Padilla case all along and reading down through this list of posts is instructive.
And a hat-tip to Molly for the original nudge.
14 August 2007
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SHUG…
1000 by Jeff HessHelped are those too busy living to respond when they are wrongfully attacked: on their walks they shall find mysteries so intriguing as to distract them from every blow. p. 134
In honor of Terry Kanago, the most loving person I know, and her comment that inspired me, I present a daily passage from Shug’s gospel. It is my hope that readers will contribute their own Helpeds so that we’ll never run out of reminders that as Alice Walker wrote: to bless means to help.
14 August 2007
FROM MY DAD…
0800 by Jeff Hess
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
In Karl Rove’s dreams and nightmares:
Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California. White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia’s third language.
Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.
Baby conceived naturally. Scientists stumped.
Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.
Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the AmericanTerritory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iraq , Afghanistan , Syria and Lebanon).
Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.
France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica .
Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.
George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.
Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.
85-year $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss.
Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.
Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed, they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.
Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.
Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.
Average height of NBA players is now nine feet, seven inches.
New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.
Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.
IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.
Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.
14 August 2007
A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW: ALL NEW PEOPLE…
0715 by Jeff HessOutside in the autumn
the squirrels will be
chattering and scampering
directionless throughout the town
because
they aren’t organized yet.
From The Worriers’ Guild by Philip F. Deaver.
14 August 2007
14 August 2007
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff Hess
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For by Alice Walker.
Unfortunately, many or our leaders seem to view Florida”s Cuban conservatives, including the assassins and terrorists among them, as People Who Vote. p. 145
13 August 2007
BLOGGERS PUSH BACK…
1720 by Jeff Hess13 August 2007
DO WE STILL LIVE IN A FREE AMERICA…?
1640 by Jeff Hess
Imagine discovering that your blog host has deleted your blog, your software, all your directories and your account for which you’ll get no refund. And oh, by the way, if you tell anyone about what the blog host has done, it will haul your blogger butt into court, prosecute you, find you guilty, lock you up and make you disappear.
I thought that was the kind of job only Winston Smith did.
I was wrong.
From Editor: Myself.
Dear friends,
While everyone is on holidays, a new blow to online free speech has taken place and I would like to share it with you and ask for help..
Last Friday, I was kicked out of my hosting company (Florida-based Hosting Matters), as a result of a legal notice sent by Mehdi Khalaji, an Iranian fellow at a neo-conservative think-tank (Washington Institute for the Near East Policy with Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and James Woolsey on its advisory board).
Mhedi Khalaji’s lawyer has sent a notice to my hosting company and also my domain registrar, Go Daddy, asking them to a) remove any ‘defamatory’ material about him, b) make me publish an apology, and c) pay $10,000 for the claimed damages
The lawyers claim are based on a mistranslation of a post I had written a few months ago about Khalaji and his support for a disgusting anti-Iranian campaign (http://www.afpc.org/IFI/iranfreedom.shtml) at another neo-conservative think-tank (American Foreign Policy Council) and his counsel to a think-tank with a clear agenda to overthrow the Iranian government by an economic warfare or a military attack.
The hosting company, clearly intimidated, asked me (documented below) to remove that specific post and also any material related to Mehdi Khalaji, since they didn’t have enough resources to figure if they were actually defamatory or not.
I removed the mentioned post, but resisted against such strange request to remove anything I had written, mentioning Mehdi Khalaji.
Then last Friday, I noticed that the hosting company had actually removed, from my web serve and even my blogging software’s database, any post where Mehdi Khalaji was named in English.
After threatening me not to disclose what the hosting company did, and after a few email exchanges, they terminated my account.
Spread the word.
13 August 2007
ONE REASON I KILLED MY TELEVISION…
1549 by Jeff Hess13 August 2007
GORE VS. BUSH IN 2008…
1422 by Jeff Hess
The rocco media and the bloggosphere are all a twitter over Karl Rove’s interview with Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot. Rove gives the usual excuses about family and opportunities, but I think this is the first step in what I’ve been predicting for a couple of years now:
A rematch of the 2000 election with Jeb Bush upholding the family honor and taking on Al Gore.
Within 60 days of his disappearance retirement I look for Rove to show up in Florida and to shortly thereafter announce that regretably he has decided to answer the call of his party and his nation one more time to support a Bush for president.
Don’t think it can happen? Take a look at Jeb: America’s Next President. Jeb Bush is the smart brother. Perhaps smarter than his siblings and father together.
Can you say Dynasty?
13 August 2007
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff HessI’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 The Small House Half-way Up in the Next Block.
13 August 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff HessLT Carl Goforth: Indigenous to Iraq and most of the Middle East, hedgehogs are occasionally found on-base and the surrounding area. “Knuckles”, our resident hedgehog, was found by some KBR contractors and brought to Charlie Medical. There are 16 species of hedgehog. They can be found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand….
13 August 2007
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SHUG…
1000 by Jeff HessHelped are those born from love; conceived in their father”s tenderness and their mother”s orgasm, for they shall be those – Numbers of whom will be called illegitimate – whose spirits shall know no boundaries, even between Heaven and Earth, and whose eyes shall reveal the spark of the love that was their own creations. They shall know joy equal to their suffering and they will lead multitudes into dancing and peace. p. 134
In honor of Terry Kanago, the most loving person I know, and her comment that inspired me, I present a daily passage from Shug’s gospel. It is my hope that readers will contribute their own Helpeds so that we’ll never run out of reminders that as Alice Walker wrote: to bless means to help.
13 August 2007
FROM MY DAD…
0800 by Jeff HessI could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog head scratch I present: From My Dad.
The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip. You don’t have to actually answer the questions. Just read the e-mail straight through, and you’ll get the point.
1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners.
How did you do?
The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.
Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appre! ciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
Easier?
The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.
“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia.” Charles Schultz
13 August 2007
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff HessMy name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For by Alice Walker.
How is it possible, I wondered, that nine American presidents had failed to comprehend what I could plainly see? That they saw only the return of their previous ownership of Cuba as a desireable goal, and not the health and happiness of an honorable people? p. 132
