17 May 2007

LAZYBOY, UNDERWEAR GOES INSIDE YOUR PANTS…

1231 by Jeff Hess

For Jill and Wendell.

The schools now:
      It is all about self-esteem
      in the schools now.

Build the kids’ self-esteem,
      make them feel good
      about themselves.

If everybody grows up
      with high self-esteem,
      who is going to dance
      in our strip clubs?

What’s going to happen
      to our porno industry?

These women don’t
      just grow on trees.

It takes lots of drunk dads
      missing dance recitals
      before you decide
      to blow a goat
      on the internet
      for fifty bucks.

17 May 2007

FROM THE SANDBOX…

1200 by Jeff Hess

Teflon Don: Friday was a day of firsts for me. First time driving a Cougar, first time riding with EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), first overnight stay in an Iraqi house, and first time I didn’t have my camera on mission. The last was the one I regret. I was unsure about driving the Cougar — it’s a lot bigger than the RG-31 I’ve driven before, and the…

17 May 2007

$21 A WEEK…

0824 by Jeff Hess

Someone needs to sit Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan (Ohio-17) down and give him a course in home economics. In an often-repeated bit of political theatre, Ryan and fellow congressman Jim McGovern are taking the Food Stamp Challenge, attempting to live for a week on the $21 alloted to an individual receiving foodstamps.

And, of course, he’s blogging the experience.

I applaud the attempt. And living on $21 worth of food for a week is really tough. But not as tough as they’re making it.

Here’s how Ryan spent his money:

Yellow cornmeal — $1.43
2 jars strawberry preserves — 4.80
1 jar chunky peanut butter — 2.48
2 packages angel-hair pasta — 1.54
Chock Full o” Nuts coffee — 2.50
3 cans tomato sauce — 4.50
2 containers cottage cheese — 3.00
1 loaf wheat bread — 0.89
1 head of garlic — 0.32
Total: $20.66

First, nobody shops for a week on $21, they shop for a month on $84. That means that certain staples — oatmeal, rice, condiments, etc. — are purchased that may last more than the 30 days.

Second, where’re the carrots, the greens, the beans, the fruits?

Third, get more creative than peanut butter and jelly.

Fourth, Ryan complains that a loaf of bread doesn’t make as many sandwiches as he thought it would. Tim, how about open-faced sandwiches? Think outside the loaf and double your usage.

I could go on.

Does a just and caring society demand that the least of its member live on $21 worth of food a week? Of course not. But I’d be very interested to see what shopping lists home economics teachers (do they even exist anymore?) might come up with.

17 May 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.

17 May 2007

MY COMMENTS…

0741 by Jeff Hess

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1934 Former Toledo Blade photog Dietrich altered pics back to 2004
1930 Plain Dealer… [doesn’t] even make Top 30 newspaper websites

17 May 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 Story: Substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting by Robert McKee.

An act is a series of sequences that peaks in a climactic scene which causes a major reversal of values, more powerful in its impact than any previous sequence or scene.

16 May 2007

WAL-MART WEDNESDAY…

1924 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.

WAL-MART LAUNCHES A FIFTH COLUMN… In a fifth-column move intended to help Wal-Mart breach the barriers preventing the Bentonvile Behemoth from pillaging the retail market in New York City, the company has joined the The Association for a Better New York.. Keep reading…

AVOIDING THE APPEARANCE OF WAL-MART… I loved the above headline from The New York Observer and I just had to steal borrow it. The battle between Wal-Mart and New York is heating up and the Bentonvile Behemoth is getting creative about how it insinuates itself into local politics. Keep reading…

AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, 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 GreenEggsArea51. Keep reading…

HE”S ALWAYS WELCOME HERE… Citing time pressures, one of our guest bloggers Someone in U.S.A. has shut down his personal Wal-Mart blog: Watching Wal-Mart. We all can relate to the time it takes to blog. Someone left the following comment at Watching Wal-Mart Watch: Keep reading…

16 May 2007

WHAT THEY SAID…

1556 by Jeff Hess

But in case the import of this is not clear: John Ashcroft was way too moderate for these people. John Ashcrof. Andrew Sullivan

16 May 2007

SOMETHING TO SET JERRY SPINNING…

1535 by Jeff Hess


Instead of grumbling about Jerry Falwell’s legacy, here’s something to celebrate. Roosevelt High School in Fresno, California crowned Johnny Vera, a transgendered senior and member of the school cheerleading squad, as its Prom Queen. The 17-year old Vera set the tone for her win last Friday in her candidate’s speech:

“For me, it’s about more than a crown. It’s about saying to people, ‘Come out and be who you want to be,’ ” Vera said. A crowded, urban high school scene paused to listen. “You have to say, ‘I am who I am, and I’m proud of who I am. My spirit will never be down on the floor.'”

16 May 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 For foster youth: vMentor.

16 May 2007

FROM THE SANDBOX…

1200 by Jeff Hess

Eddie: A few days ago I was sitting in here on the computer getting ready to post some stupid blog about how boring life is now, when they came in and told me we were under communications blackout and I had to get off. Those of you who have been deployed know what this is. Our base goes under a comm blackout when someone from the base has…

16 May 2007

HOW FAST ARE YOU…?

1112 by Jeff Hess



I got an email this morning from Jobs With Justice asking me the above question. My first response, not as fast as I used to be. But it looks like, at least in Internet connection speeds, I’m really up there, for an Ohioan. But when I compare myself to other industrial nations, most notably Japan, I’m back in the turtle world.

Granted, communications workers have a big horse in this race: Recent studies show that building a national high-speed network could add 1.2 million jobs and $500 billion to the economy.

Regardless, I still think this is an important issue.

16 May 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.

Why some objects are male and others female.

Freezer bags: male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.

Photocopiers: female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. They are an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can also wreak havoc if you push the wrong buttons.

Tires: male, because they go bald easily and are often over inflated.

Hot air ballons:male, because to get them to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under their ass

Sponges: female, because they are soft, squeezable and retain water.

Web pages: female, because they’re constantly being looked at and frequently getting hit on.

Trains: male, because they always use the same old lines for picking up people.

Egg timers: female because, over time, all the weight shifts to the bottom.

Hammers: male, because in the last 5000 years, they’ve hardly changed at all, and are occasionally handy to have around.

The remote control: female. Ha! You probably thought it would be male, but consider this: It easily gives a man pleasure, he’d be lost without it, and while he doesn’t always know which buttons to push, he just keeps trying

16 May 2007

BUSHLAND, BUSHLAND ÜBER ALLES…

0751 by Jeff Hess

How do you differentiate yourself in 30 seconds from a pack of wannabes who all want to out homogenize each other. It’s tough but two Republicans seem to have done it last evening. Writing about the second debate among candidates for the Republican presidential nomination last evening, Andrew Sullivan had this to say.

The only two people with coherent positions were McCain and Paul.

McCain supports a war without end, a permanent occupation of Iraq, regardless of whether a national government there can exist in the foreseeable future. He’s for empire, as are Cheney and Bush.

I can see no reason for him to withdraw any troops in the next five years. The notion that a national Iraqi government, composed of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, will be able to defend itself and take the side of the West in the war in Jihadist terror is simply ludicrous in the imaginable future.

That much we surely know by now. So empire is the new Republican consensus: an empire built entirely for security reasons, and an empire which somehow manages to make us less secure.

Paul, in contrast, had the balls to state the classic Republican position, and to defend it in the wake of 9/11. Man, that guy has some brass cojones. He even invoked Ronald Reagan in urging withdrawal from the irrationality of Arab politics.

Other than McCain and Paul, the others were risible in their soundbites and faux toughness.

Pax Americana!

16 May 2007

NO HEAVEN… NO HELL… JUST WORMFOOD…

0703 by Jeff Hess

[Update — 0758 — There was a much more important death noted in the news this morning.

Private First Class Christopher E. Murphy, 21, of Lynchburg, Va. gave his life in Iraq.

As I do everyday, I thank PFC Murphy, and all those who have died, for his service and his sacrifice. May his family come to find comfort in his honorable actions and their memories of their loved one.]

Driving home last night I had to listen to the accolades from Jerry Falwell’s admirers and sycophants on, of all feckin’ places, NPR. Sure, they shot a few questions in there about his bigotry and hate, but it was still stomach churning. This morning Slate’s Timothy Noah does an excellent job of reminding us of the true legacy Falwell has left us.

God, they say, is love, but the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died May 15, hit the jackpot trafficking in small-minded condemnation. The controversies Falwell generated followed a predictable loop. 1.) Falwell would say something hateful or clownish about some person or group associated with liberalism. 2.) A public outcry would ensue. 3.) Falwell would apologize and retract the offending comment. 4.) Falwell would repeat the comment, slightly rephrased.

The soundbites spewed by Falwell have become classics of ignorance.

Speaking after the attack on 11 September 2001:

“The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way-all of them who have tried to secularize America-I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’ “

Speaking about another prominent Christian minister:

“I must personally say that I do question the sincerity and non-violent intentions of some civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. James Farmer, and others, who are known to have left-wing associations.”

Speaking on public education:

“I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again, and Christians will be running them.”

My heart goes out to the only people who matter right now in all of this, his family. They will have their private memories and their private grief.

The rest of the world should let them have that, and move onto important matters like the continued destruction of our government and the senseless slaughter of our men and women in Iraq.

16 May 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 Story: Substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting by Robert McKee.

It is useful to title each sequence to make clear to yourself why it”s in the film.

15 May 2007

MY COMMENTS…

1658 by Jeff Hess

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1655 PD hires first female editor

15 May 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 eMentoring, iCouldbe.

15 May 2007

IF THE BEAR CAN DO IT…

1253 by Jeff Hess

15 May 2007

FROM THE SANDBOX…

1200 by Jeff Hess

LT Carl Goforth: I flew my first day mission a few days ago. An IP (Iraqi Police) came in with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. After three hours in the OR, we had to remove his spleen and part of his pancreas. There was shrapnel lodged near his vertebra, but we were able to safely remove it without causing any neurological compromise. He ended up losing a…

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