From Spc. O: You’re frozen. For a split second every muscle in your body tenses, and your mind draws a blank. Was that incoming? Wait for the alarm. If it was an incoming round, the siren blares off with a recorded voice and electronic bell “Incoming! Incoming! Incoming! Bing bing bing. Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!” Stay calm, get to cover, listen for the…
My dad’s principal hobby revolves around trains. He grew up at the end of the steam era and experienced as a boy the pinnacle of railroad domminance. On summer vacations we always visited at least one steam engine-related site. Last week he sent me this cautionary tale about what can happen whey follow the rules to the letter.
The Good news: It was a normal day in Sharon Springs, KS when a Union Pacific crew boarded a loaded coal train to head on the long trek back to Salina.
The Bad news: Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing becomes overheated and melts off letting the truck support drop down and grind on top of the rail creating white hot molten metal droppings to spew downward on the rail.
The Good news: A very alert crew noticed a small amount of smoke about halfway back in the train and immediately stopped the train in compliance with the rules.
The Bad news: The train just happened to stop with the hot wheel on top of a wooden bridge built with creosote ties and trusses.
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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.
Kate thought Yolo was of the bear spirit. The bear, according to ancient people who had known bears well, was of a loyal, generous and young-loving nature. Bear mothers were the most dedicated parents imaginable. The most fierce in protecting their young; but also the most peaceful creatures when left unmolested. People with bear spirit had a certain level feel about them: they often seemed large and strong, even if they weren”t particularly. They gave off a vibe that made you want to sit near them. Not to talk, necessarily, but to feel. p. 189
From A CPT in Ft. Hood: A few days ago, Vice President Cheney came to Ft. Hood and addressed members of the community and the post, on the eve of the 1st Cavalry Division’s return to Iraq. The Vice President was surrounded by purple heart winners and those who had earned bronze stars with valor or higher medals. That was, at least, the initial…
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.
2153 “Religious Whites Disproportionately Shift Away from GOP” per Gallup Poll
A guy is driving through Southern Ohio, headed for some vacation time in Myrtle Beach, when he pulls off I-77 for gas and sees a sign in front of a house that reads, “Talking Dog For Sale.” He rings the bell to inquire and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a Labrador Retriever sitting there. “You talk?” he asks
“Yep,” the Lab replies.
“So, what’s your story?”
The Lab looks up and says, “Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running.”
“But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.”
“I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.”
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.
“Ten dollars,” the guy says.
“Ten dollars? This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?”
“Because he’s a liar. He never did any of that shit.”
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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.
We will have no future eating the slops the masters have brought, and furthermore clinging to them for dear life.
It”s all about food, as I see it, she added. The food we eat, how good it is for us. And how efficiently we cleanse ourselves of it when it no longer is good for us.
Some us are holding on to bad food we ate years ago, she said, and the bad feelings that when with eating it, I might add, without any idea that this is the easiest slippery slope to an early grave. Children, she said, seriously, looking into each of their faces, we must learn to let go. p. 173
Everyone I know predicted that once Google got its corporate hands on YouTube there would be an ever-tightening strangle hold on what got posted. It took a scant 72 hours for the suits in legal to mark their first video for censorship Was it some potty-mouthed comedian? Was it yet another Paris Hilton bedroom frolic? Nope.
It was a political ad featuring former Secretary of State Madeline Albright toasting Kim Jong-il following a state visit in 1994.
According to World Net Daily:
The popular video-sharing YouTube site, which is being purchased by Google for $1.65 billion, limited access to a political ad that mocks the Clinton administration’s policy on North Korea, but contains no profanity, nudity or other factors generally thought objectionable.
The company announced a “flagging” policy change just this week, about the time that a controversial spoof by Republican filmmaker David Zucker depicting former Secretary of State Madeline Albright as a cheerleader for Islamic terrorists started appearing with a warning page in front, requiring verification that a viewer is 18 before the video will appear.
Fortunately enough people must have complained because the video is no longer flagged (as of 1426 EDT). I don’t agree with the message in the video. It is so objectionable that even the Republican Party declined to air it. But it is protected speech of the most important kind.
That Google should choose this video to mark it’s new venture is reprehensible.
From Sgt Salamander: I had been pulled for an OP here in Baghdad. So I grab a private, my favorite private, and tell him to throw on his gear and leave those books behind. College was a terror. I went from Protestant and a believer to well-read and subversive. Let’s break the mold, son, let’s enlist and have things to write about. So here I am, educated and enlisted…
A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family.
In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger…he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.
If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn’t seem to mind.
Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)
Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home… not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.
My Dad didn’t permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and enerally embarrassing.
I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my arents, yet he was seldom rebuked… and NEVER asked to leave.
More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at irst. Still, if you could walk into my parents’ den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?
We just call him, “TV.”
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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.
I have Native American friends who are trying to talk their people off of fry bread, she said. It”s killing them. All that worthless enriched flour and grease. But they say, Oh, no, if you take away fry bread Indians don”t have no culture. Such trash, she finished, and adjusted her lei. p. 172
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.
WAIT FOR IT… Wal Mart intends to announce the crowning of King Jeb I today at a press conference scheduled in Florida. No. Sorry. Just kidding. But the Bentonvile Behemoth has called a Florida press conference for later today and Governor Jeb Bush”s staff says he wll be attending. Keep reading…
BIAS…? TOWARDS WAL MART…? NOOO… The Walmarting of St. Albans, Vermont, took a strange twist yesterday when a judge threw out a developer”s permits to build a 146,000 square foot Wally World outside of the town citing bias by two members of the nine-member town Development Review Board. Keep reading…
DANG…! I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN… The sport”s writer who trademarked threepeat collects royalties every time the phrase is used. I should have done the same with Bentonvile Behemoth. Now Business Week used the phrase (misspelled, the word, ends in vile, not ville) and I didn”t get a penny. Keep reading…
IT SUCKS TO BE WAL MART… It was a great month for retail sales in America, unless you happened to have your headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, that is. Retail sales rose sharply for most companies during September, according to the Associated Press this morning. Keep reading…
DRUM ROLL PLEASE…! Since the promise wasn”t generating much excitement, Wal Mart figured it might as well try for the real thing and announced at noon that it”s pititful $4 generic drug plan begins immediately instead of in January. (Note to CNN, October To January is three months, not four.) Keep reading…
MAYOR RICHARD DALEY ON WAL MART… Wal Mart was at the center of two political events in Chicago in recent months. The first was the defeat of a city council plan to make Box Retailers pay a higher minimum wage than everyone else. The second was the opening of its first Chicago store. Keep reading…
PAGING DR. SMILEY… I know several people who buy eye glasses for themselves and their children at Wal Mart. The cost savings over that charged by other chains is significant; the difference between paying $100 and $300 for non-designer frames in some cases. Keep reading…
DO YOU SUPPOSE… that this is why Wally World is ditching the blue vests? Keep reading…
COMMENTS CLOSING TUESDAY… No. Not for this blog. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will close the comment period 10 October on Wal Mart”s dream of its own bank. If you think letting Wally World slither into the banking industry is a bad idea (a very bad idea) drop a note to the FDIC. 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 teamusarox. Keep reading…
GIVING AWAY $499,000 WORTH OF BOOK… And it”s not, as you might expect, the Bible. It”s a bodice ripper from the Harlequin Intrigue collection: Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B. J. Daniels and Wal Mart is giving away 100,000 copies. A press run of 10,000 for a novel is large. Keep reading…
AND JUST HOW DO YOU DO THAT…?
My blood boils when I read a newstory in which the person being interviewed throws out an outrageous pseudo-fact and reporter dutifully writes it down. Case in point, this exchange about Wal Mart”s $4 drug plan yesterday in Ohio”s Columbus Dispatch: Keep reading…
ALL YIN AND NO YANG… In a recent letter-to-the-editor the reader made two points concerning a 25 September USA Today story on Wal Mart”s Green strategy. First, that the strategy fails to include Wal Mart employees in a meaningful way; and second, that as a business leader, Wal Mart could entice other to follow the same path paved with flackery. Keep reading…
IN HASLETT, MICHIGAN… As my co-blogger Jonathan suggested, this is too good to hold until Friday night. From The Meerkat Media Collecative via the Sixth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival comes: How Wal Mart Came To Haslett. Haslett is 45 miles southwest of Michael Moore”s Flint. Keep reading…
From Tadpole: While I was home on leave recently, all the talk on every news channel was about the 10-year-old murder case of a little girl, hardly any mention of the war at all. When there is mention of the war, it’s almost always of Iraq. Many people seem to have forgotten about Afghanistan altogether. Many of us over here feel like the forgotten bastard step-children of war…
We rightly make a great deal about the horrors of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The person in the street, the Iraqi store owner, the mother of three, the high school student, however, may feel nostaligia for the pre-war years because somewhere between 426,369 to 793,663 Iraqis have lost their lives to violence since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
Yes, most of those deaths are from internal fights. No one argues that American troops are responsible for the body count, but according to a second study conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, it has:
… estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest estimate ever for the toll of the war here.
A New Estimate of Civilian Deaths The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month, a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion.
The study also include natural deaths, a point critics are quick to make.
According to this morning’s New York Times, however, that:
The mortality rate before the American invasion was about 5.5 people per 1,000 per year, the study found. That rate rose to 19.8 deaths per 1,000 people in the year ending in June.
Pre-war numbers are sketchy — partially because records were destroyed in the initial attacks and partially because of the secrecy of Hussein’s regime — and that does make comparisons difficlut. Nonetheless the increase does exist and people who previously considered their lives not all that bad are facing a very different world; a world that they percieve to have been created by the United States.
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.
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 Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart by Alice Walker.
Health is our culture; anything that interferes with it is our bondage. p. 172
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