The Hadley Centre has a fascinating (and scary) animation up of the recorded global warming from 1901 to the present and projections to 2089. Watch the globe move from a cool blue to an angry orange using the Centre’s business as usual’ scenario, which assumes mid-range economic growth but no measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Faux New’s declaration that Republican Mark Foley was a Democrat has gotten legs with the Associated Press and Faux News itself have repeated the lie. At first I thought it was a typo. Now I’m not convinced. It’s official, bad Republican equals Democrate. And, oh, by the way, we’ve always been at war with Eurasia.
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 Opening The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
I assumed that pushing the edge would mean challenging myself to find the energy to do and learn and be more. But for some of us – particularly those of us susceptible to illness like chronic fatigue because we do to much – pushing the edge is more about finding deep stillness and rest and peace, less about doing and more about being. But it would be years before I understood this truth. p. 48
I confess that I didn’t pay a whole lof of attention to Robert Reich when he was in the Clinton administration, but over the last few years Reich has emerged as a popular visionary, speaking and writing in a way that makes economics sensible and rational. Tonight on Marketplace he says it’s: Time To Play The Inequality Card.
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.
and all the boys she dreamed
she’d fall in love with weren’t dead
or gay or still strung out from Nam,
drinking off a rough divorce or looking
for a wife they think will look good
on their resumes.
From Oldies But Goodies by Grace Bauer.
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.
CORPORATE ORGANICS… Wal Mart”s entrance into the $16 billion organic foods industry this spring is threatening to crush the industry, according to a White Paper released yesterday by The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy group. Keep reading…
AT THE WALLYPLEX… 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 Gxngsta. Keep reading…
FIRST THEY CAME FOR FORD… As early as last December, the bloggers here have discussed Wal Mart”s decision to take part in business discussions with groups representing segments of the gay and lesbian communities. I continue to applaud this smart business decision. Keep reading…
KICKING OUT THE SLATS… Jonathan wrote yesterday about Just-In-Time employment at Wal Mart. Today the New York Times weighs in with an editorial about how the Bentonvile Behemoth is cutting the only thing left to cut: workers” wages. Keep reading…
WAL MART AND INTEX LOSE ON APPEAL… Aero Products won a $5.9 million judgement (about 5 hours of profit for Wal Mart) from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. Aero brought the suit claiming that the two companies had poached its patent. Keep reading…
WHAT”S GOING ON IN SELMA…? On Sunday I discussed a letter-to-the-editor published in the Selma Times Journal from Mrs. George H. Taylor who is upset with Wal Mart”s good business decisions to work with The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Keep reading…
ACTION ALERT FROM DONALD WILDMON… When I read the letter-to-the-editor from Gary W. Hearon, I was puzzled by his statement that Wal Mart is backing a pro-gay marriage bill in Idaho. It”s one thing to partner with The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. That”s smart business. Keep reading…
CAN YOU SEE ME NOW…? Once it completes installation of Prism, an infrared shopper tracking system developed by a consortium of suppliers and retailers, the Bentonvile Behemoth will be able to answer the question with an enthusiastic yes! Keep reading…
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 Opening The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
I had been consistently ill since the birth of my second son two years earlier. While the medical profession had just begun to talk about something called chronic fatigue syndrome and was investigating the possibility of a viral cause, it had no real treatment for the debilitating fatigue and constant infections that my failing immune system could not fight off. I was desperate. p. 43
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.
1640 An Open Letter to “Jim” and “Laura”
1217 Tagged! Hooray!
In this country we have a false belief that the balance of powers prevents the rise of fanatical, authoritarian demigods. And that false belief has lulled us into complacency, along with, as Molly says, our SUVs, cable television and Xanax. This historical reminder of reality comes courtesy of The Writer’s Almanac.
Today is the birthday of John Ross, born near Lookout Mountain, Tennessee (1790). Though he was only one-eighth Cherokee, with a Scottish father and a part Cherokee mother, he served as the Chief of the United Cherokee Nation from 1839 to 1866, the period during which the Cherokees were forcibly removed from their land.
John Ross challenged the Removal Act in court. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Cherokees won their case. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall wrote in his opinion that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, and that its treaties had to be respected by law. But President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. Jackson famously said, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”
And how many divisions does Chief Justice John Roberts have?
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 Opening The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
I used a writing exercise I had received from poet David Whyte at a workshop over a year before. David had given the workshop participants a writing exercise based on his poem Self Portrait from his poetry collection Fire in the Earth, asking us to begin with the phrase: “It doesn”t interest me…” and continue with “What I really want….”
I had used this writing exercise dozens of times to go deeper in both my writing and my meditations, to discover what I did not know about my own thoughts and feelings, to open to the ache I felt in my chest for something more. p. 39
Life contracts and death is expected,
As in a season of autumn.
The soldier falls.
He does not become a three-days personage,
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.
Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops,
When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction.
From The Death of a Soldier by Wallace Stevens.
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 Opening The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments. p. 1
This showed up in my spam filters this morning. Normally it would have just gone down the black hole, but I was intrigued by the idea that gambling interests are already starting to target Ohioans. Is this just us or did it get spammed around the country? Any one else spot this piece of slimy spam in their mailbox?
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 Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark by Carl Sagan.
This book is one of the 18 books that have changed my World.
The cure for the fallacious argument is a better argument not the suppression of ideas. p. 429
This is the fairy tale that should have been read to all girls when they were little. Once upon a time in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle. The frog hopped into the princess’ lap and said:
“Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so. ”
That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sautéed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, She chuckled and thought to herself: I don’t freakin think so.
I’ve never heard of this before, and like Andrew Sullivan, I’m more than a bit skeptical. But then again I knew Christianists when I was growing up outside of Marietta, Ohio, and they were quite capable of speaking in scriptural shorthand, to carry volumes of meaning with only a word or two. And we were looking for signs. How stupid was that?
The Iranian Ambassador to the UN had just finished giving a speech, and walked out into the lobby where he met President Bush. They shook hands, and as they walked the Iranian said, “You know, I have just one question about what I have seen in America.” President Bush said, “Well, anything I can do to help you, I will.”
The Iranian whispered “My son watches this show ‘Star Trek’ and in it there is Chekhov who is Russian, Scotty who is Scottish, Uhura who is Black and Su lu who is Chinese, but no Arabs. My son is very upset and doesn’t understand why there aren’t any Iranians, Syrians or Iraqis on Star Trek.”
President Bush laughed, leaned toward the Iranian ambassador, and whispered back, “It’s because it takes place in the future.”
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