28 March 2007
28 March 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.
28 March 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 The Story of O by Dominique Aury writing as Pauline Réage.
You should never have agreed to be a god for me if you were afraid to assume the duties of a god, and we all know that they are not as tender as all that. p. xxiii
27 March 2007
WRITING A CAR… DAY 4… -$736.34
2100 by Jeff Hess
I’ve begun to winnow the list of magazines. I took an initial pass and marked those I thought interesting in bold. There are a lot of magazines here and I’ve got to figure out how to nibble it down to chunks I can deal with. Just looking at the list makes me anxious. I see this in my students, the way a whole sheet of problems makes them shut down.
It’s not endless. There are rest area on the journey.
Butt… Chair… Write…
27 March 2007
OK, I’M SPEECHLESS…
1613 by Jeff HessFrom Customers Suck via Pharyngula.
I work at a bookstore. I was cashiering today when a woman and her two kids (a boy and a girl, both somewhere between 13-15) came up to the register.
The mom was buying 2 celeb gossip magazines, and the boy put down a book.
The girl then walked up and set down the newest volume of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.
The mom says “You can’t buy that.”
Girl: Why?
Mom: Because it’s too big.
Girl: [Brother] is buying a book that big. It’s not very expensive.
Mom: [Brother] is a boy. You’re a girl. And girls shouldn’t read big books like that. It’s too thick. Boys don’t like girls who read thick books. You want boys to like you, don’t you?
The girl went and put the book away.
This breaks my feckin’ heart.
27 March 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 22 Ways To Overclock Your Brain.
27 March 2007
FREE TICKETS… NOT…!
1208 by Jeff Hess
A friend has passed along four tickets to join a test audience previewing possible television shows. The event is sponsored by Television Preview and the tickets are for this Friday evening, 30 March at 7:15 (no one will be admitted after 7:45 p.m.) at the downtown Holiday Inn (1111 Lakeside Avenue). And, oh yeah, no one under 16 will be admitted.
If you’ve gotten these tickets, stay home. It’s a marketing survey scam (scroll down to das monkey).
Thank goodness for the Internet. I was going to offer these tickets to anyone who wanted them because I have other plans for Friday night. I hate to think of the enemies I might have made if I’d not checked out the scamming Television Preview.
27 March 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
Today I get to put a face on one of the voices from the Sandbox. We’ve been following the experiences of Sgt. Brandon White for several months now both in From The Sandbox and on his personal blog. This week the Akron Beacon Journal profiled White and said his: war journal is not kept in his pocket or his duffel bag or his footlocker. His…
27 March 2007
27 March 2007
HALLIBURTON CALLED…
1018 by Jeff Hess
Remember a few months ago when the Bush administration had to deal with the skull-popping realization that if it put the Polar Bear on the endangered Species list it would have to admit that it had been lying all these years about the whole global warming thing? Well, the Bushies have come up with the perfect solution:
Just gut the endangered species act. End of problem and the world is safe for the oil companies.
From Salon this morning:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is maneuvering to fundamentally weaken the Endangered Species Act, its strategy laid out in an internal 117-page draft proposal obtained by Salon. The proposed changes limit the number of species that can be protected and curtail the acres of wildlife habitat to be preserved. It shifts authority to enforce the act from the federal government to the states, and it dilutes legal barriers that protect habitat from sprawl, logging or mining.
“The proposed changes fundamentally gut the intent of the Endangered Species Act,” says Jan Hasselman, a Seattle attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, who helped Salon interpret the proposal. “This is a no-holds-barred end run around one of America’s most popular environmental protections. If these regulations stand up, the act will no longer provide a safety net for animals and plants on the brink of extinction.”
And with all the attention focused on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ flaming high dive into the reflecting pool, the Neo/Theocons probably figured nobody would notice. At least, they had to be thinking, Al’s swan dive won’t be a total waste.
…the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act should come as no surprise. President Bush has hardly been one of its fans. Under his reign, the administration has granted 57 species endangered status, the action in each case being prompted by a lawsuit. That’s fewer than in any other administration in history — and far fewer than were listed during the administrations of Reagan (253), Clinton (521) or Bush I (234).
Furthermore, during this administration, nearly half of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees who work with endangered species reported that they had been directed by their superiors to ignore scientific evidence that would result in recommendations for the protection of species, according to a 2005 survey of more than 1,400 service biologists, ecologists and botanists conducted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit organization.
Ah yes, the old ignore scientific evidence ploy. Can have pesky facts getting in the way of truthiness now can we?
27 March 2007
RIGHT THINKING FROM THE LEFT COAST…
0910 by Jeff Hess
Lee offers an excellent take on Andrew Sullivan’s riff concerning the treatment of the 15 captured British sailors and marines currently in Iranian custody. If anyone in the Iranian government has half a brain, they’ll take Lee’s advice to heart and not only embarrass England and the United States, but rack up serious points around the world.
Update: I just had another thought. You know what I would do if I was Ahmadinejad? I would interrogate these men using established Geneva Convention protocols. I”d allow them access to legal counsel, to the Red Cross, and to the world media. If there is to be a trial I would make it as transparent as possible. And I”d gleefully point out that the Iranian Republic has far more respect for the rights of soldiers than the United States does.
A civil rights war. I love it.
27 March 2007
MY COMMENTS…
0827 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.
0838 Jewish Theological Seminary to accept openly gay and lesbian students
27 March 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 chuckle I present: From My Dad.
27 March 2007
27 March 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 The Story of O by Dominique Aury writing as Pauline Réage.
“You should never have agreed to be a god for me if you were afraid to assume the duties of a god, and we all know that they are not as tender as all that. p. xxiii
26 March 2007
WRITING A CAR… DAY 3… -$736.34…
2100 by Jeff HessThe above is the perfect example of why I need to write myself a new car. That was the money I put into a new gastank and sending unit for my 1990, 199,000-mile+ Toyota Camry this morning. I spent most of the day absorbed in Ralph Keyes The Courage To Write: How Writers Transcend Fear.
Books like this are reaffirming and ought to be mandatory reading for everyone who thinks they love a writer.
The book came recommended by my writer friend John Ettorre. It seemed so appropriate at this point in my life that I’ve moved it to the top of the My Chapbook queue and the first mention will appear on Thursday, 29 March. If you’re impatient to see what I’ve pulled out of the book, you can read it directly from my electronic chapbook.
It’s not pretty, so don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Butt… Chair… Write…
26 March 2007
26 March 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 Tips To Get Ready For The First Day Of The Semester.
26 March 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff HessSPC J.R. Salzman: I”m doing the best that I can, considering. I spend a lot of time really pissed off or really upset. I know I am getting better at a pretty good rate, but still. In Iraq I was the go-to guy for anything that could go wrong with my CET”s (convoy escort team) Humvees. I was the guy that could build or fix anything. Heck, I even built…
26 March 2007
MONA’S MONDAY…
0800 by Jeff HessMy dad isn’t the only one who sends me fun stuff via email. A good friend and educational mentor also routinely passes along her share of chuckles — intermixed with not a few requests for veracity on things viral and outrageous. Don’t worry, there still plenty of stuff to come From My Dad but occasionally I’ll toss a few of Mona’s finds in as well.
When young David was asked by his father to say the evening prayer, he realized he didn’t have his head covered…so he asked his little brother Henry to rest a hand on his head until prayers were over. Henry grew impatient after a few minutes and removed his hand. The father said, “This is important…put your hand back on his head!” to which Henry exclaimed, “What, am I my brother’s kipah?”
