Author: AirBeagle

Just woke up from another spectacularly weird dream … this one was a first, since it was just like watching a TV show and I wasn’t in it.

In fact, it was a TV show … Dallas, of all things. I don’t recall ever watching a single episode of Dallas ever. Not even the ‘Who Shot J.R.’ series. But it was in my dreams this morning.

Bobby (who I think was supposed to be J.R., but was called Bobby in my dream) was played by Jack Nicholson. His wife, Susannah, was played by Angie Dickinson. And yes, I know that Bobby’s wife was Pam and that there was know Susannah, but a Sue Ellen. Hey, it was a dream.

Anyway, Susannah went out to the oilfield in her Cadillac convertible to see Bobby. They talked for awhile and then he stabbed her. She was surprised. He walked away and while he was gone, she took out a pen and wrote, ‘Bobby Ewing did this to me,’ and signed it ‘Susannah Ewing,’ which is how I know how to spell her name.

She managed to put up the roof of the convertible while he was gone. When he came back, she took a gun from under the seat and shot at him and then put the car in gear and chased him around the pasture, finally cornering him and forcing him to fall backwards into a sunken concrete box, where he sat with only his head showing.

But suddenly somehow, the tables were turned and she ended up in the box. I woke up as he was dragging a hose from a gasoline pump over to the box so he could fill it up and set her on fire.

Yeesh. Pretty much the weirdest one I’ve had in a very long time.

Thomas Jefferson wasn’t perfect, but he was on to a good thing when he wrote that separation of church and state was a good and desirable thing.

Case in point is Colorado, an increasingly Fascist FunDumbMentalist state where « a judge and lawmakers are being threatened and harassed by nuts from the Springs »:

‘Colorado lawmakers who voted against impeaching a judge who made a gay-positive ruling in a child custody case are being swamped with demands from the conservative lobby group Focus on the Family to turn over all of their files, letters, documents, emails, phone records and notes. FOC, one of the most vocal opponents of gay issues, had sought the removal of Denver District Judge John Coughlin after he ruled last November that a woman could not subject her child to homophobic teachings at her church. … Judge Coughlin in awarding custody ordered [the woman] to prevent the child from receiving any homophobic religious teachings.’

That one really stirred up the FFs:

’”This is a judge who has put the word ‘homophobia’ into a court decision,” said Tom Minnery, Focus on the Family’s vice president for public policy. “That is very alarming to us. We want to know everything we can about this case and the reason why our elected officials did nothing to look into this matter.”’

But even the Fascist-leaning Colorado legislature refused to play ball:

‘When the impeachment measure reached the House Judiciary Committee a majority of members, including some conservative Republicans, found that Coughlin had done nothing to warrant impeachment. Even Gov. Bill Owens, who opposes same-sex marriage, advised against impeaching Coughlin. Now, FOC is using Freedom of Information Laws to see if lawmakers were “unduly influenced”. Some members of the committee call the action political blackmail and other accuse the FOC of harassment. One member, Rep. Anne McGihon (D-Denver) who refused to vote for impeachment, and who calls FOC’s actions harassment, said she would comply.’

Yup, she’ll comply. And FOC will continue to grow in power and influence in the state. Having lived there for a year, I can attest to its character and the curious paradox that, in spite of being so hyper-religious and praise-Jeebus, it’s one of the most unfriendly and aggressive and violent places I’ve ever visited (and that includes Oakland and Detroit). I’ve said many times that the Columbine HS massacre was no surprise.

And stuff like this just continues to bolster my impression. And to make me think that Thomas Jefferson knew what he was talking about.

The Torture Roundup for tonight:

« A pregnant Lynddie England gets hung out to dry ». She’s been turned into the face of American torture by the media and the military, her family is angry at the military, angry at Bush and in denial and she herself is back home and pregnant. The New York Times goes into exhaustive detail here about her personal life; detail which I haven’t seen on any of the male participants. Coming at the same time as Ann-thrax Coulter and other Fascist pundits’ blaming the torture and abuse of Iraqis on women in the military specifically and feminism generally, it’s an interesting phenomenon.

« A different view of Private England » and the place where she hailed from:

‘Lynndie England, 21, a rail worker’s daughter, comes from a trailer park in Fort Ashby, West Virginia, which locals proudly call “a backwoods world”. She faces a court martial, but at home she is toasted as a hero. At the dingy Corner Club Saloon they think she has done nothing wrong. “A lot of people here think they ought to just blow up the whole of Iraq,” Colleen Kesner said. “To the country boys here, if you’re a different nationality, a different race, you’re sub-human. That’s the way girls like Lynndie are raised. “Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you’re hunting something. Over there, they’re hunting Iraqis.” In Fort Ashby, in the isolated Appalachian mountains 260km west of Washington, the poor, barely-educated and almost all-white population talk openly about an active Ku Klux Klan presence.’
—The Daily Telegraph

Which brings up a rather interesting and disturbing point; in George W. Bush’s Amurrican Empire, despite his protestations to contrary, it is not at all unAmerican to support torture and eye-for-an-eye. The entire rightwing Fascist chorus doesn’t think this is a big deal at all; their attitude was summed up thusly:

‘A colleague of Lynndie’s father said people in Fort Ashby were sick of the whingeing. “We just had an 18-year-old from round here killed by the Iraqis,” he said. “We went there to help the jackasses and they started blowing us up. Lynndie didn’t kill ‘em, she didn’t cut ‘em up. She should have shot some of the suckers.”’

That’s a pretty succinct summation. And of course, torture and prisoner abuse is not only not unAmerican, it’s long been very much the American Way all over the world and in the heart of the Empire itself, in places like Parchman and Angola and San Quentin and McAlester and Huntsville, etc. While the Boy Emperor was the provincial governor of the Republic of Texas, the prison system spent most of his time in office under judicial consent decrees, a situation replicated in 39 other state prison systems. A judge wrote about the Texas system:

‘Many inmates credibly testified to the existence of violence, rape and extortion in the prison system and about their own suffering from such abysmal conditions.’

The judge imposed the decree after learning that Texas prison guards were allowing inmate gangs to buy and sell other inmates as sex slaves.

It’s simply a fact that this kind of thing is a very American as The New York Times article (from which the quote above comes) noted:

‘Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates and human rights advocates. In Pennsylvania and some other states, inmates are routinely stripped in front of other inmates before being moved to a new prison or a new unit within their prison. In Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear women’s pink underwear as a form of humiliation. At Virginia’s Wallens Ridge maximum security prison, new inmates have reported being forced to wear black hoods, in theory to keep them from spitting on guards, and said they were often beaten and cursed at by guards and made to crawl.’

In fact, America’s penal system can be directly connected to Abu Ghraib:

‘The experts also point out that the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours. The inmate, who suffered from schizophrenia, was kept naked the whole time. The Utah official, Lane McCotter, later became an executive of a private prison company, one of whose jails was under investigation by the Justice Department when he was sent to Iraq as part of a team of prison officials, judges, prosecutors and police chiefs picked by Attorney General John Ashcroft to rebuild the country’s criminal justice system. Mr. McCotter, 63, is director of business development for Management & Training Corporation, a Utah-based firm that says it is the third-largest private prison company, operating 13 prisons. In 2003, the company’s operation of the Santa Fe jail was criticized by the Justice Department and the New Mexico Department of Corrections for unsafe conditions and lack of medical care for inmates. No further action was taken.’

He claims to have left Iraq after Abu Ghraib was reopened and has washed his hands of more recent events. But it really doesn’t matter. Instead of exporting freedom, liberty, democracy and our traditions of civil rights, Constitutional due process of law, respect for justice and so on, we’ve exported our arrogance, our violence and our prison system.

But that’s okay. The Cabal is circling the wagons. Fascist pundits are on the case, and « now a soldier has been trotted out to say ‘it ain’t that bigga deal »:

‘Arevalo said he was angered by the reports of prisoner abuse because he felt that soldiers at his compound were doing a good job. Arevalo said he even made a point of being friendly and talking to the prisoners, including one Iranian prisoner who used to tell soldiers off in English and Arabic. “We prided ourselves on keeping prisoners in control, and after that came out, I was somewhat disappointed,” he said. “It’s not the whole army’s fault. It’s two people who were bored or something. Just a few bad apples.”’

Yeah, he’s one of the good Germans, er, I mean Americans. Maybe some Iraqis will send him some rose petals …

Publicly, the NeoCons want us to think everything is a-okay and hunky-dory. Privately, « as the Washington Post reports », military officials are unhappy with the Dr. Strangerummy/Wolf-of-Dimwitz lunacy:

‘Deep divisions are emerging at the top of the U.S. military over the course of the occupation of Iraq, with some senior officers beginning to say that the United States faces the prospect of casualties for years without achieving its goal of establishing a free and democratic Iraq. Their major worry is that the United States is prevailing militarily but failing to win the support of the Iraqi people. That view is far from universal, but it is spreading, and being voiced publicly for the first time. Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, who spent much of the year in western Iraq, said he believes that at the tactical level at which fighting occurs, the U.S. military is still winning. But when asked whether he believes the United States is losing, he said, “I think strategically, we are.”

Army Col. Paul Hughes, who last year was the first director of strategic planning for the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said he agrees with that view and noted that a pattern of winning battles while losing a war characterized the U.S. failure in Vietnam. “Unless we ensure that we have coherency in our policy, we will lose strategically,” he said in an interview Friday. “I lost my brother in Vietnam,” added Hughes, a veteran Army strategist who is involved in formulating Iraq policy. “I promised myself, when I came on active duty, that I would do everything in my power to prevent that [sort of strategic loss] from happening again. Here I am, 30 years later, thinking we will win every fight and lose the war, because we don’t understand the war we’re in.”’
—The Washington Post

Wolfie, of course, disagrees with all this and has his head planted firmly in his arse:

‘Wolfowitz, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official, said that he does not think the United States is losing in Iraq, and said no senior officer has expressed that thought to him, either. “I am sure that there are some out there” who think that, he said in an interview yesterday afternoon. “There’s no question that we’re facing some difficulties,” Wolfowitz said. “I don’t mean to sound Pollyannaish—we all know that we’re facing a tough problem.” But, he said, “I think the course we’ve set is the right one, which is moving as rapidly as possible to Iraqi self-government and Iraqi self-defense.”’

But the Army has Wolfie’s number:

‘A senior general at the Pentagon said he believes the United States is already on the road to defeat. “It is doubtful we can go on much longer like this,” he said. “The American people may not stand for it—and they should not.” Asked who was to blame, this general pointed directly at Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz. “I do not believe we had a clearly defined war strategy, end state and exit strategy before we commenced our invasion,” he said. “Had someone like Colin Powell been the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], he would not have agreed to send troops without a clear exit strategy. The current OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense] refused to listen or adhere to military advice.”’

Of course they didn’t. ‘Cause the Cabal is always right, the Cabal is always omniscient, praise the Cabal.

The article quotes senior military officials as saying we’re going to be in Iraq for at least five years (for the rest of the Boy Emperor’s ‘term’ wink wink?) and we will be taking casualities throughout that period. Interesting.

Why does it take the publicized photos of humiliated and abused and tortured Iraqi prisoners (which has arguably further ruined our tattered image and made the nation even more vulnerable to terrorist attack) to get the Boy Emperor to, as the BBC put it, ‘make an unprecedented public apology’?

After all, he won’t apologize for the five arrests, the cocaine use, the alcoholism, the DWIs, the casual attitude toward military service to his country during time of war, and the rape of workers, the environment, gays and lesbians, the elderly, retirees, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum …

You know, I’m sorry, but I’m on an our-culture-is-crappy kick tonight.

While at that notorious southeast AA middle school, I served a couple of hours in the ‘media center.’ It was fine, I always enjoy that.

But am I a complete old crotchety s.o.b. because I think it should still be called the library, damnit!?

And further crotchetiness ensued when I was shelving returned books for the 900s and came up to the biography section. I had to shelve just-read and returned bios on Steven Spielberg and [gag] Britney Spears between bios of Bessie Smith and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which hadn’t been checked out in a very long time.

Now, I’m sorry again, but I admit to having a bit of hard time lately living in a society/culture which has plunged from the heights of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Bessie Smith to the likes of Mr. E.T. and that trashy blond singer/slut thing in a mere 100 years.

Just call me Grandpa and be thankful I don’t get a t.v. reception.

While subbing today at the city’s notorious southeast-side middle school, I noticed one thing during a geography class viewing of a movie about South Africa and apartheid during the 1980s: The kids were talking and laughing and not paying the slightest attention during the parts where the characters were laughing and having fun. But when conflict came on the screen (a loud argument between two girls), the room suddenly got very quiet and everyone watched in rapt attention. Shortly thereafter, when one girl was crying and being consoled by another character, they laughed at her and called her a crybaby and then resumed their chatter.

Like it or not, our society is in enthrall to violence and conflict. Kinder and gentler is an unattainable myth. It’s all downhill from here. Especially since these kids will be added to the ranks of Ann Arbor’s homicidal drivers in just two years.

I just woke up from two very weird dreams.

In the first, Frank died and I started dating Julia Roberts. Yes, really. And after a month, she proposed. And her mother was talking to me about stuff and saying that I was the one Julia had been waiting on for so long. (The trigger: I read in People yesterday that a 17-year-old kid saw Julia on location and hastily scribbled a sign asking her to the prom. She declined because she’s already married.)

The second dream was just as strange. Back-to-back dreams. My sister was driving her Suburban, I was in a Cherokee and Frank in the Wrangler. We were in Oklahoma City and going back to Duncan. She had a young Asian couple with her. The man rode with Frank, but my sister said this would be a good time for the woman to drive me in the Cherokee. We got in and she proceeded to be unable to make turns and drove through a field, laughing and having a good time, with me trying to turn the wheel back to the road and explaining that she has to take it slow and easy because of the Cherokee’s higher center of gravity. As we were about to get on I-40, the alarm rang and woke me up.

Yeesh.

I’m a little late on this, but here goes.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

“But this is to anticipate the end, rather than to find a serviceable beginning.” [The Third Reich: A New History, Michael Burleigh (2000, New York: Hill & Wang).]

Much more bustling downtown today. Still not like a typical school day, but Steve says the traffic getting around town, especially around State, was actually worse than during the school year. A mixed bag, I think. I found a table in Ambrosia easily. Campus (the outdoors parts) seemed fairly busy. The libraries were fairly dead. As I walked home after work tonight (first time I’ve walked all the way from campus home in a long time) there were a couple of parties going on out on front lawns on South State, including a volleyball game in front of one of the frats; not sure if these were just stragglers or what. I was able to cross South State without getting killed, which would not have happened on a typical day during the year. So, I’m not sure. Like I said, a mixed bag. It definitely doesn’t feel as though the town has emptied out, though.

The Boy Emperor’s Cabal’s attempts to screw workers out of overtime pay were scuttled by the Senate, at least temporarily, :

‘The U.S. Senate voted to block … Bush’s administration from putting into effect overtime pay regulations that would limit extra pay for some workers. Senators voted 52-47 to bar changes in overtime rules that would shrink the number workers eligible for overtime and 99-0 for another provision that guarantees overtime for workers in 55 professions, including computer programmers, teachers and journalists. Both provisions are attached to a tax bill that is being debated. … The votes mark the second time in a year senators moved to stop the Labor Department from issuing rules that would restrict overtime pay.’
—Bloomberg.com

Hooray for the Senate. But of course, the Orwellian administration immediately started bleating, ‘Won’t somebody please think of the corporations!!!!’ and whining that those nasty idiot workers at places like Wal-Mart are about to scuttle the entire economy and deny any profit at all for the embattled and put-upon rich by their endless whining and lawsuits:

‘Labor Secretary Elaine Chao has said the revisions would save U.S. companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and RadioShack Corp. $2 billion a year in litigation costs for overtime disputes. They would cost companies $1.1 billion for extra wages in the first year and $375 million for higher pay each year after that.’

The corporate shill/harpy has been on an extended PR campaign (a la Johnny Reb Asscroft’s tour of cities to drum up support for USAPATRIOT) to whine and moan and bitch and complain about those evil mean Democrats and labor unions:

’”As the issue moves to the House, we will continue to expose the misinformation campaign against the rules and strengthen overtime rights for workers,” Chao, 50, said in a statement.’

Isn’t it great how this disingenuous idiot warps the truth by saying that they want to ‘strengthen overtime rights for workers’ by stripping workers of overtime rights?

How disgusting are they gonna get?

While subbing in the media center of a south central AA middle school today, the latest issue of People came in, featuring the ‘50 Most Beautiful’ yahoos on the planet, headlined by Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, of course.

Two selections catch the eye however; both are the offspring, next-generation of 1970s pop culture people. The first is Josh Ritter, John Ritter’s son. Look for a Three’s Company: The Next Generation movie soon, methinks.

The second is heiress and Symbionese Liberation Army gun moll Patty Hearst’s daughter, and let me just say I have rarely seen a more anorexic-looking apparation in the pages of People. Well, at least not since 30 pages before with Jennifer Aniston’s pics, but you get the idea. I mean, I’ve seen Somalian famine victims in the ‘80s with more meat on their bones.

But isn’t it nice to know that the legacies of John Ritter and Patty Hearst will be with us for another few decades? Of course, if Patty’s offspring doesn’t eat a burger soon, that may not be true.

Listen to me, so catty today. That comes from the gorgeous spring day outside and the deserted, sepulchrous media center inside. The highlight of the day was helping students research old dead presidents this morning and discovering that the school has killer wireless internet access.

Not that I’m complaining. I hadn’t read an issue of People in, oh, say three years. So now I’m caught up on that …

I read on one Okie blog that respondents to a poll on that site voted that computer access and refrigeration are more important than indoor plumbing.

Let’s just say that it was an unscientific poll and leave it at that.

After all, my ancestral state has far bigger problems than little polls. « The Daily Oklahoman just wrote an editorial bemoaning the expansion of Oklahoma higher education in the state »:

‘Last we checked, Oklahoma had 13 publicly funded comprehensive and regional universities, a dozen two-year colleges and two higher education centers. From Goodwell to Durant and points in between, college students have no shortage of choices. Now they may soon have yet another. The state House of Representatives gave final legislative approval last week to a bill that would make Duncan the home to a branch campus of Cameron University. Cameron is located in Lawton, which is just 30 miles from Duncan. … Under House Bill 2624, by Rep. Jari Askins, D-Duncan, a learning center in Duncan will be used to offer lower- and upper-division courses and master’s-level graduate courses. Askins says no additional state funding would be needed to operate the campus. We’ll be interested to see how long that lasts. Askins is in line to become House speaker if Democrats retain their control in November, so it’s unlikely Gov. Brad Henry will want to buck his colleague on this. But he should weigh it carefully. There’s no question Oklahoma needs more college graduates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it needs more college campuses.’
—The Daily Oklahoman

Couple of problems here. First, Duncan has had a higher education center in partnership with my alma mater, Cameron, for several years now. This represents just an expansion of its mission and offerings.

And second, as someone who spent five years of his life commuting on Oklahoma’s terrible two-lane roadways that 30 miles between Duncan and Lawton that the Oke seems to think is piffling, well, let’s put it this way: ‘Hey, Daily Oklahoman! Bite me!!!

The condescension, arrogance and petulance in the editorial is just amazing, particularly on this subject. Bringing the opportunity to get a college degree to more and more Oklahomans is a great thing and the Daily Disappointment should be leading the cheerleading instead of trying to snark negative political points against Jari Askins and the Democratic governor.

Shame on them.

Former rightwing attack shill David Brock has « a new website, Media Matters », ostensibly dedicated to combating the same Fascist claptrap he used to produce.

How the worm turns.

Still, donkeys are flying; let’s not criticize them too much and see how far they fly …

« Here’s how our Tough-on-Terror Boy Emperor is protecting us from evil »:

‘The Treasury Department agency entrusted with blocking the financial resources of terrorists has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s money, documents show. In addition, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said that between 1990 and 2003 it opened just 93 enforcement investigations related to terrorism. Since 1994 it has collected just $9,425 in fines for terrorism financing violations. In contrast, OFAC opened 10,683 enforcement investigations since 1990 for possible violations of the long-standing economic embargo against Fidel Castro’s regime, and collected more than $8 million in fines since 1994, mostly from people who sent money to, did business with or traveled to Cuba without permission.’
—Yahoo News

Yup, that’s the Boy Emperor’s Cabal for you … always and above-all is the ideology, while they pretend to do the opposite.

Don’t you feel safer?

The Boy Emperor’s twin ideological tenets, tax cuts for wealthy people and privatization of everything so that those wealthy get even wealthier, is « trickling down all over »:

‘This summer, when backpackers, hikers, and families—with kids in tow—pony up to get into America’s national parks, they could be in for a rude and crude awakening. Due to dramatic budget cuts some parks may be cutting back their hours, hiking trails may be un-passable, educational programs may no longer exist, and even some bathrooms may be shut down. Over the past few months, the National Park Service (NPS) has quietly imposed a hiring freeze, abandoned maintenance projects, cut visitor services, and reduced park hours at a number of America’s national parks. In response, according to Ski magazine, “Forest Service officials appear to be leaning toward a policy change that would allow more visible displays of sponsors, whose logos, names or ads could appear on items they underwrite.” The NPS believes that “its private partners in the tourism industry can help stem the decline in park visitation through aggressive efforts to lure more paying customers into the parks,” says Scott Silver, the executive director of Wild Wilderness, a Bend, Oregon-based environmental advocacy group.’
…
‘The National Park Service used to be one of the most dependable government-run outfits, Silver says. “From its earliest days, the idea behind the agency was that our national parks would be to America what the Cathedrals and architecture of Europe were to those countries, and most NPS officials cared a great deal for the parks and did a good job managing them.” … during the mid-sixties, the tourism industry begun to sink its claws into the NPS and “the process of Disneyfication” had become well-established by the time George W. Bush took office. Now, “politics rule supreme within the Department of Interior and it appears that when the leadership of the NPS is not misdirecting the media and the American public, they are speaking out of both sides of their mouths,” Silver told me in an e-mail exchange.’
—Working For Change

Sounds like the Boy Emperor’s administration: Mortgage our future, rape our past, make our present as Orwellian as possible. The depredations of snowmobiles in Yellowstone will be looked upon nostalgically in a few years when we have to pay Dreamworks a fee to look at Old Faithful, which will only erupt after the captive audience has seen seven previews of upcoming movies starring the Olsen Twins, Jim Carrey, Angelina Jolie and William Hung.

Says Pat Boone, « ‘Censorship is healthy‘ »:

‘A healthy society needs censorship to survive, 1950s musical icon Pat Boone said yesterday. He added that he would welcome strong content restrictions governing movies and other artistic works. “I don’t think censorship is a bad word, but it has become a bad word because everybody associates it with some kind of restriction on liberty,” said Mr. Boone …’

Censorship is NOT a restriction on liberty, I see. This is a joke, right? Not exactly:

‘A more serious meeting of celebrities was when Mr. Boone was invited to a private screening of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” “After the screening was over, I turned and said, ‘Mel, you’re an apostle,’ ” said Mr. Boone, who has appeared in 15 films. “An apostle is one commissioned by God to tell the story and you are telling it more powerfully than it has ever been told or will ever be told, and you are therefore an apostle.” “I consider it the most important film ever made. It is a film that is not only of gigantic proportion but one that changes life, that affects people’s eternal destiny.” It is all the more significant, he said, “because Hollywood has an open antipathy toward Christianity itself.”’
—The Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times

Mel Gibson, an apostle and The Passion the most important film ever made.

Well, I think I might actually find myself in agreement with Pat: Censorship just might be desirable … so somebody slap some tape on his mouth.

After all, shutting Pat Boone up isn’t a restriction on liberty, right?

Doing some catchup as to what’s going on around the world:

Since it was in the Village Voice, it wasn’t much noticed, but « James Ridgeway noted how … slick the ties are between the Royal Bushes and the Royal Sauds » in fact, the two familes are ‘locked together.’ Yeah, locked together in an unholy alliance that could make things very higgledy-piggledy for the rest of us:

‘If the Saudis decided to let the so-called free market take over, flooding the globe with crude and sending oil prices into a steep dive, then the U.S. would be faced with a true nightmare. Lower prices would finish off not only smaller international companies that had been enticed into the oil play by high prices, but could wipe out the domestic oil companies in the U.S., causing sheer political hell for … Bush in his little oil bastion of Houston.’
—The Village Voice

Look out. This October Surprise could get very interesting.

I must plead guilty to causing the cold snap. I lowered the roof on the Jeep for the first time since we moved to Michigan, because I wanted some sunshine and air the other day.

Now it’s too freakin’ cold to go out there and mess with putting it back up. I had a rather cool ride to and from Huron HS today for my subbing gig.

Sorry I caused the freeze. By the way, I ain’t laughing over here. This is friggin’ MAY for God’s sake!

My geography lesson yesterday was on Russia, and the textbook noted that the Upper Midwest of the United States shares the same climate as Siberia.

Yeah, like, no duh.

Speaking of high school and blogging, 16-year-old girls no longer trade secrets about hair, boys and parties. They talk about html, how to post photos and smileys on their blogs and trade web addresses and opinions on whether Blogger is a good tool or not.

No skateboard hijinks today; they were too busy playing a rousing game of ‘Hearts.’ Kids today playing ‘Hearts’??!! I thought that was a Grandpa’s game. (Not that I’m not guilty of playing it by the hour on Windoze machines … after all, that’s about all you can do on a Windoze machine without going stark, raving insane.)

Still, I learn something new every day that I go to high school …

More slurpees today. I’m developing a serious addiction to FCB’s slurpees, particularly coke and wild cherry and white cherry. Nirvana. Thank god they’re downtown and have inconvenient parking at best, or I’d be spending what’s left of our money on them.

We went downtown to return movies to the library and I didn’t want to put the top up on the Jeep, the sun felt so good. But it was pretty chilly; had to run the heater full blast to stay warm. But the sun is great and you have to grab the opportunity for it when you get it.

We were visited by two beautiful birds today, a resplendent bluejay and a shyer cardinal (hence the not-so-hot picture of it). They muscled in on the squirrels and scored some bread. The squirrels pretty much didn’t care, but kept their distance.

Even with the cool weather this weekend, spring around here continues to be fabulous, colorwise.

I’ll give Ann Arbor this, the seasonal color right outside our bedroom window is wonderful, especially in the autumn and spring:

Gorgeous.

Can’t express my disgust for LunarPages and their sysadmin ignorance in terms strong enough or colorful enough. I’m just now putting the pieces back together of this site, and doing multiple installations of Textpattern for each individual subsite. Whatta pain.

Fortunately, Textpattern is easy, straightforward and quick, thank God. It’s very nice to work with and shouldn’t trip any LunarPages lunacy.

Now we’re mostly back in business, but the archives are a mess and the galleries still need work and I have to figure out the photo stuff, etc. So it still needs much more work. Yuck.

Nuggets from the current issue of « Harper’s »:

‘The phrase “national security” undoubtedly will make numerous appearances in the campaign speeches between now and the November election, and if the ritual holds true to form it will add to the country’s inventories of fear instead of increasing its store of courage. To define the national security as a wonder of aircraft carriers or a marvel of surveillance cameras is to mistake the lesser for the greater instruments of American power, to miss the point, made by the signatories to both the Constitution and the report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, that the republic’s best and only chance for survival rests on its freedom of thought and force of mind.’
—Lewis Lapham

And in the Sanctity of Marriage Department:

‘Percentage of the 958 same-sex unions granted to Vermont residents since July 2000 that have since been dissolved: 3
‘Percentage of U.S. heterosexual marriages that are dissolved within five years: 20’

Nice comparison, but a better one is:
Vermont gay marriages ending in divorce: 3 percent.
Oklahoma straight marriages ending in divorce: 60 percent.

Here’s a head-scratcher:

‘From the Frequently Asked Questions page of the U.S. government’s Hurricane Research Division website.
Why don’t we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking them?
During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one should simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms …’

The Amurrican Empire. Whatta country.

Perhaps I’m doing something right in the classroom … As I arrived at a northeast Ann Arbor high school this morning, I met a student who was in a history class I guest taught over a month ago. He stopped me and asked me if I was going be in that class again today and said, ‘Oh, man! I so wish you were, dude!’ when I told him I was headed somewhere else.

And later, a sophomore in one of my English classes pronounced me, ‘Best. Sub. Ever.’ Another said she ‘hearted’ me.

It ain’t Teacher of the Year, but I’ll take it.

But I wonder if it had something to do with me allowing a sixth-hour student to practice skateboard tricks in the middle of the room during free reading time?

Things are beginning to look up; I should be able to get back to posting soon … and lord knows there’s plenty to post about.

Unfortunately, LunarPages has officially trashed my MovableType installation and it’s all dead. The other sections of this site which I controlled with MT are temporarily dead until I get TextPattern installations up and running for them.

I hereby officially withdraw any recommendations I made for LunarPages. Their actions and lack of communication are bad business. Too bad. Things had been going very well.

In the meantime, enjoy the new Dayley Bayley section. And thanks for stopping by. We appreciate your bidness.

I had no earthly idea that I was living with a closeted “Love Will Keep Us Together” fan. Good lord, you think you know someone …

But having said that, I suppose I am forced to disclose myself. I’m more comfortable, as mentioned before, with movies; I’m a real Homer Simpson when it comes to music (“We Built This City” is kinda catchy) and I know next to nothing about it. But oh well …

• ABBA “When I Kissed the Teacher”
• Ace of Base “Beautiful Life”
• Bananarama “Cruel Summer”
• Bette Midler “From a Distance”
• Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
• Bread “Everything I Own”
• Charlene “I’ve Never Been To Me”
• Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come On Eileen”
• Harry Chapin “Cat’s in the Cradle”
• Men Without Hats “Safety Dance”
• Mr. Mister “Kyrie”
• Partridge Family “Come On Get Happy”
• Paul McCartney and Wings “Live and Let Die”
• Police “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
• Robert John “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
• Scott McKenzie “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”
• Terry Jacks “Seasons in the Sun”
• Toto “Africa”

Also, some old Southern Gospel standards. And that “Tarzan” song. And the one where the guys sings “I Wanna Be A Cowboy.” And one to drive Frank really nuts:

• Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds “Don’t Give Your Love Up On Me Baby”

I’m such a music idiot, I don’t even really know if any of the above are cool or not. I just plead guilty to having them in my iTunes library.

And I’m sorry, but I have to be unrepentent about Madonna “Ray of Light”—’Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder …’

(In my defense, I usually have XM Radio tuned to the Blues, Traditional Jazz, 40s or Classical stations, and my iTunes is full of kd lang, Harry Connick Jr., Ottmar Liebert, Miss Ella Fitzgerald and Doris Day, so I’m not a total music lackwit/philistine.)

Now can we talk about movies?

Says the National Weather Service:

‘Tuesday Night: Patchy frost. Otherwise, increasing clouds, with a low around 34.’

Oh, c’mon now, people, it’s pretty much frickin’ May already. This southern boy shouldn’t be seein’ ‘patchy frost and 34’ forecasts in the weather … Lord, will I make it another year amongst the yankees and eskimos? (No offense, y’all, and don’t mind me … just a wee bit homesick for Nuevo Mexico right now.)

Saw this today on Metafilter—a nice place to compare statistics and see photos of cities all over the country. I pulled up the stats for all the place I’ve lived in over the last 40 years to see how they stacked up against each other and my current residence, AA, MI. Sorta kinda interesting. (All stats from 2000):

Roswell, Chaves County, NM (Dec-63—Jun-71)

28.9 square miles

Pop: 45,293 (Male/Female: 48.2%/51.8%)

50.9% white/non-hispanic

10.8% foreign-born

Median Resident Age (MRA): 35.2 years

Median Household Income (MHI): $27,252

Median House Value (MHV): $60,100

HS Grads: 73.8%

College Grads (BS/BA): 16.9%

Graduate Degrees: 6.8%

Unemployed: 9.7%

Married: 52.7%

Never Married: 24.1%

Divorced: 11.8%

Widowed: 9.1%

Commute: 16.2 minutes

Clovis, Curry County, NM (Jun-71—Jun-74)

22.4 square miles

Pop: 32,667 (M/F: 48.0%/52.0%)

55.6% white/non-hispanic

5.5% foreign-born

MRA: 33.1 years

MHI: $28,878

MHV: $64,500

HS Grads: 77.5%

BS/BA: 15.7%

Grad: 5.9%

Unemployed: 6.9%

Married: 54.8%

Never Married: 22.9%

Divorced: 12.6%

Widowed: 7.6%

Commute: 15.3 minutes

Duncan, Stephens County, OK (Jun-74—Apr-94)

38.8 square miles

Pop: 22,505 (M/F: 47.3%/52.7%)

83.3% white/non-hispanic

2.6% foreign-born

MRA: 40.3 years

MHI: $30,373

MHV: $59,000

HS Grads: 76.8%

BS/BA: 19.7%

Grad: 5.8%

Unemployed: 7.2%

Married: 61.7%

Never Married: 16.5%

Divorced: 10.1%

Widowed: 9.6%

Commute: 18.7 minutes

Plano, Collin County, TX(Apr-94—Sep-96)

71.6 square miles

Pop: 222,030 (M/F: 49.8%/50.2%)

72.8% white/non-hispanic

17.1% foreign-born

MRA: 34.1 years

MHI: $78,722

MHV: $162,300

HS Grads: 93.9%

BS/BA: 53.3%

Grad: 17.6%

Unemployed: 3.1%

Married: 66.5%

Never Married: 21.1%

Divorced: 8.4%

Widowed: 2.7%

Commute: 27.5 minutes

Pleasant Hill, Contra Costa County, CA (Sep-96—Feb-98)

7.1 square miles

Pop: 32,837 (M/F: 48.5/51.5%)

76.6% white/non-hispanic

14% foreign-born

MRA: 39.0 years

MHI: $67,489

MHV: $294,000

HS Grads: 93.1%

BS/BA: 42.5%

Grad: 13.1%

Unemployed: 3.7%

Married: 53.3%

Never Married: 26%

Divorced: 12.7%

Widowed: 6.9%

Commute: 30.3 minutes

Highlands Ranch, Douglas County, CO (Feb-98—Nov-98)

23.5 square miles

Pop: 70,931 (M/F: 49.5%/50.5%)

6.7% foreign-born

MRA: 32.2 years

MHI: $86,792

MHV: $235,100

HS Grads: 97.8%

BS/BA: 59%

Grad: 17.2%

Unemployed: 1.8%

Married: 73.1%

Never Married: 17.6%

Divorced: 6.9%

Widowed: 1.8%

Commute: 27.5 minutes

San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA (Nov-98—Aug-03)

46.7 square miles

Pop: 776,733 (M/F: 50.8%/49.2%)

43.6% white/non-hispanic

36.8% foreign-born

MRA: 36.5 years

MHI: $55,221

MHV: $396,400

HS Grads: 81.2%

BS/BA: 45.0%

Grad: 16.4%

Unemployed: 4.6%

Married: 38.7%

Never Married: 44.8%

Divorced: 8.6%

Widowed: 6.1%

Commute: 30.7 minutes

Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, MI (Aug-03— )

27.0 square miles

Pop: 114,024 (M/F: 49.4%/50.6%)

72.8% white/non-hispanic

16.6% foreign-born

MRA: 28.1 years

MHI: $46,299

MHV: $181,400

HS Grads: 95.7%

BS/BA: 69.3%

Grad: 39.4%

Unemployed: 4.2%

Married: 38.5%

Never Married: 50.3%

Divorced: 7.1%

Widowed: 3.2%

Commute: 18.8 minutes

Even though AA is a place that prides itself on its ‘diversity,’ seems to me that there’s far greater diversity in my birthplace, Roswell. Heck, we even got aliens there …

Sometimes I wonder where the hell I’m living. It seems that the Michigan House has just passed a bill that, if it gets approved by the Senate, will permit doctors and other health care providers to refuse to treat a patient on “moral, ethical, or religious grounds” (with the exception of emergency treatment). Those grounds would include sexual orientation. Of course, I would not want to be treated by any physician who had any objection to my being who I am, or who thought it was any of his or her damn business, but I can envision any number of circumstances in which I might not have any choice in the matter.

I suppose the fine, decent, thoughtful people who pushed this piece of legislative garbage have never heard of Hippocrates, or if they have, think he was just another ancient Greek pederast. Two other bills passed that would provide similar opt-out passes for insurers and “health facilities.” I sure hope I never have the misfortune of needing major medical attention in the next 15 months. This is not exactly the kind of development that motivates me to want to stay put in the Wolverine State.

Well, ugh. That’s my reaction after completing the first three assignments for the first of four undergrad courses the University of Michigan is forcing me to take before I will be permitted to join that exclusive club, grad school, on 29-June.

UM’s School of Ed pointed me to, of all places, Brigham Friggin’ Young University’s online independent study department to pick up two geographies, one political science and one economics class in the next eight weeks. I didn’t know it was possible.

But for a mere $1,380 plus the cost of books, you too can get 12 hours of undergrad college credit from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And believe me, the course materials let you know that little fact.

Other than the rather obvious evangelistic efforts, it actually is pretty slick. After you register and pay online, they send you CD-ROMs with Quicktime movies and an access code. You can order your books directly from them or, as I did, cheap online from half.com. (Geography120: $93 at BYU; less than $10 online.)

I received the first CDs last week, and the book for the first geography course today. I went online, entered the access code, enjoyed the presentation from BYU’s president extolling the virtues of education to Godly young men and women, and then started the course.

You are given supplemental text lessons and you read the textbook, then are given opportunities to write short-answer essays and practice the true/false and multiple choice assignment. Once you feel you’ve mastered the text and the practice sessions, you do what is called a ‘Speedback Assignment,’ which is 25 multiple choice and true/false questions. It is open book. Once you’re satisfied with your answers, you hit submit and the assignment is graded instantly.

For my first geography course, there are 13 lessons, a ‘mid-term’ and a final exam. Only about half of the lessons have graded Speedback Assignments, but each of those are worth 5% of your final grade.

The mid-term and final must be proctored by a qualified person. BYU sends the exam materials to the proctor, who administers the test and sends it back (you pay postage). Two weeks after you complete the final, you get a final grade and an official BYU transcript showing completion. Since that will satisfy the state of Michigan that I meet their higher-than-Oklahoma standards for an elementary education social studies minor, it works and I can recommend it … so far. After two graded lessons, I have a 94 average.

Still, I’m having flashbacks to the ‘80s, especially since the middle school class I ‘guest taught’ today spent an hour watching The Goonies. A college boy once more. I’ll have to try better this time around; not cutting classes to go watch bad ‘80s movies like, well, The Goonies should help.

Y’all excuse me now, though. I have a headache brought on by contemplating the peripheral distribution of the populations of Mediterranean Europe, Jefferson’s theories on principal cities and whether Belarus or the Czech Republic is a better source for computer programmers and whether the latter will be able to successfully deal with 100,000 historically repressed Romany.

Ah the halls of ivy.

Between converting this site to Textpattern—since LunarPages is no longer interested in helping resurrect MovableType (if they ever were)—and starting my 12 hours of undergrad courses in preparation for grad school 29-June and substitute teaching, I’ve had very little time for updates here, sorry.

But let’s take a quick look at how the Boy War Emperor is making us ‘Murricans safer, shall we? First up, « when Mubarak talks, perhaps we’d better listen »:

‘Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever following the invasion of Iraq and Israel’s assassination of two Hamas leaders, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in comments published Tuesday. Mubarak, who visited the United States last week, told French newspaper Le Monde that Washington’s actions had caused despair, frustration and a sense of injustice in the Arab world. “Today there is hatred of the Americans like never before in the region,” he said in an interview given during a stay in France, where he met President Jacques Chirac Monday.’
—News.MyWay.com

Ooops.

‘He blamed the hostility partly on U.S. support for Israel, which assassinated Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in a missile strike in the Gaza Strip Saturday weeks after killing his predecessor, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. “At the start some considered the Americans were helping them. There was no hatred of the Americans. After what has happened in Iraq, there is unprecedented hatred and the Americans know it,” Mubarak said. “People have a feeling of injustice. What’s more, they see (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon acting as he pleases, without the Americans saying anything. He assassinates people who don’t have the planes and helicopters that he has.”’

‘Unprecedented hatred?’ Ruh-roh. Not even precedented on 11-Sep?

‘Israel says such killings are self-defense. But Mubarak said the assassination of Rantissi could have “serious consequences” and that instability in Gaza and Iraq would not serve U.S. or Israeli interests. “The despair and feeling of injustice are not going to be limited to our region alone. American and Israeli interests will not be safe, not only in our region but anywhere in the world,” he said.’

Not safe anywhere in the world. Thank you, George W. Bush.

But don’t worry. Our Imperial Senate is on the job, as « a leading senate fascist says the ‘D’ word »:

‘A senior Republican lawmaker said that deteriorating security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft. “There’s not an American … that doesn’t understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future,” Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq. “Why shouldn’t we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?” Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force “our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face.” The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata. “Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class,” he observed. The call to consider a imposing a draft comes just days after the Pentagon moved to extend the missions of some 20,000 of the 135,000 US troops in Iraq.’
—Yahoo News

And just what provoked said ‘intensity and depth of challenges we face,’ eh, Chuckie? I’ll answer the question for you: the Boy Emperor’s Divine Providence hubris, his Cabal’s incredible criminal negligence and ignorance, the complete dereliction of duty by the Congress, talk radio screaming bloody murder and, as a victim of the vast right-wing conspiracy told editors today, « the timidity and cowardice of the fourth estate »:

‘Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) told newspapers editors gathered here this afternoon that they had to be “more vigilant” and act with “more tenacity” to combat the failures of the Bush administration to provide “vital information” to the public. Interviewed by Marvin Kalb on the opening day of the annual American Society of Newspaper Editors convention, Sen. Clinton said: “It’s difficult for editors and publishers here to get to the bottom of stories. This administration, to an extent I haven’t seen before, tells the press to go away—and they do, like most people do when told that more than once. … Many in this administration are quite expert at saying nothing despite your best efforts to get them to say something.” She reminded the editors that “so much is at stake now and the public needs more information.” She also warned that “the echo chamber of talk radio can drown out a three-part series any of you write.”’
—Editor and Publisher

Amazing that she of all people would cut them a break with moderate language. Until these people get their heads shaken so hard their pea brains rattle, they will continue to be steamrolled by the Imperial Cabal. Bet on it.

  

[First pic: We’re going somewhere? Now? YAHOO!!! Second pic: Ummmm, this is a really long hike, dude. Third pic: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!]

Today, we demanded too much of the geriatric and overweight in our house. And I’m not referring to myself or Frank.

We took the beagle on a very long (too long) hike around Pickerel Lake, north of Chelsea in the Pinckney State Recreation Area.

He’s all worned out.

We drove out to Peach Mountain, which is, allegedly, according to this thing called the internet, a place where you could walk around Stinchfield Woods. But we ran smack-dab (as we say in Oklahoma) into that monolithic institution, the University of Michigan, which owns all of that neck of the woods and has an observatory on Peach ‘Mountain.’ (And I wonder if they also own that strip-mine quarry out there, too?)

The roads have very stern ‘No Parking for Any Reason at Any Time’-type signs every few yards and the trees on the edge of the property have ‘No Access for Any Reason at Any time’-type signs every few yards. I don’t think UM wants anyone to get in there, even though we, the public, supposedly ‘own’ it.

So we pushed on and discovered our second obstacle. The Pinckney State Recreation Area, like the Hudson Mills Metropark nearby, charges admission. We thought $4 for Hudson Mills was a little absurd for a short hike; imagine our surprise when the friendly ranger at PSRA wanted $6.

He leaned towards my driver’s-side window and asked which pass we wanted, the day pass? The beagle answered from the backseat with a very loud ‘Ruff!’ Alas, we didn’t have that much cash with us, not having planned on being charged for touching nature.

We turned around and found the parking area at Pickerel Lake (free!) and had a reasonably enjoyable hike (with the exception of a visit from a very friendly and hyper terrier of some sort named Howard, who was at a loss to understand why Bayley was rather … less-than-happy to see him.

The trail is lovely and even though you have to share the road with mondo-bicyclists who all look the same, since they’re outfitted as if they’re in the Tour de France, they were polite and friendly and it wasn’t too bad.

It was, however, way too long for the old, fat beagle. I ended having to carry him the last quarter-mile or so back to the Jeep. On our last rest stop, he attempted to sit down and ended up falling over. And yes, I should be horsewhipped; I’m feeling majorly guilty this evening for not taking just a little bitty hike with him.

He’s been very quiet this evening, not moving a whole lot because he’s sore. Otherwise, he seems to be fine; he’ll just be grandpa-ish for a couple of days. He did enjoy most of the hike (although he could have done without meeting Howard) and it was a beautiful spring day, so it was a good thing.

And maybe, just maybe, he lost a pound or two of all that winter fat. He turns 10 in August and the Battle of the Bulge is getting ever more crucial in making sure that he matches his great-grandmother’s record of 17+ years of happy beagle life.

The archival permalinks are now working. I missed a step in the Textpattern setup regarding ‘clean URIs’ that I didn’t see the other day. So, we should be back running. No word yet on if or when LunarPages can resurrect Movable Type; the server is scheduled to go down Sunday at 04:00, so even accessing the site might be difficult. But at least I figured out most of the archiving system.

Now. Can anyone explain what an ‘NAS’ is and why they might want to move the server AirBeagle.com resides on to such an animal (a move which, I might add, resulted in total failure and the necessity to pull it back out and redo the whole thing—ha, ha, Windoze stuff is so funny.)

« Here’s how the Boy Emperor supports our troops ». Dr. Strangerummy made the announcement:

‘The Pentagon formally announced Thursday that it had stopped the planned return from Iraq of some 20,000 American troops, giving commanders the extra firepower they believe necessary to confront an insurgency that is taking a mounting toll on the U.S.-led coalition. The decision, announced by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after first being reported Wednesday, breaks a promise to soldiers who were assured when they arrived in Iraq that they would stay no more than one year. By extending their tours of duty by three months, the Pentagon is acknowledging that the insurgency has ruined its plans to reduce the size of the U.S. military presence this spring. The troops had expected to return home this month after completing 12 months in Iraq.’
—MSNBC

‘A promise made is a promise kept,’ indeed. Shame on them all.

Support our troops. Bring them home.

   

Proof that Ann Arbor is not always a ‘sunless horror, devoid of joy and hope,’ was provided by a gigantic orange ball in the sky the last couple of days; beagles were especially grateful as they took the opportunity to get in some serious tanning. (No, he’s not mad in that last pic, he’s blinkin’ in the sunlight.)

Thank god for spring.

Weekend Magazine, The Michigan Daily’s, well, weekend magazine, put out its Best of Ann Arbor issue today and a very well-deserved Best Blog award was given to Rob over at Goodspeed Update.

We weren’t even mentioned. Alas. I’m beyond crushed.

The nod to GU is great, but the article’s true genius is the final paragraph, when ‘Arts Writer’ Ruby Robinson pens the following:

‘The future looks bright for blogging to become common practice, especially as bloggers don’t have to follow the rules of newspaper grammar and citing sources and can post articles, opinions and random thoughts with ease and comfort.’

Pardon my very loud guffaws (mixed with a tinge of righteous indignation). But that’s about the smarmiest thing I’ve seen come out of any little local newspaper in quite some time. And believe me, I’ve seen some smarmy out there.

And it comes from a paper that names umich.edu as the Best University Website in Ann Arbor and names whites as the Worst Race, and had staffers call up pizza parlors in town pretending to be drunk and confused Indians with heavy accents, a craving for jalapenos and a spotty phone reception in order to judge the quality of the service.

Isn’t it great, my fellow bloggers, to be looked-down upon by the likes of The Daily? Methinks Ms. Robinson needs to find out that many blogs are not run by 14-year-old girls writing in IM-speak about Justin Timberlake rumors.

Not that all that should take away from Rob at all; congratulations to him for all his very hard work … it’s well-deserved.

Technology is a wonderful thing … until it crashes and burns spectacularly.

We’ve had our own problems (obviously) with technology here around the manse this week; the crash of our Movable Type CMS punted us back into the dark ages of hand-coding web pages (oh the horror!).

But at least we weren’t alone. I went to the Mallett’s Creek branch of the AADL this afternoon and picked out my customary haul of movies (‘cause, after all, it’s my job; around here, Frank’s the Music Nazi, but I’m the Movie Nazi).

But when I went to the self-checkout machines, the screen was filled with an apology notice, ending with ‘See Circulation Staff.’

I went up to the circ desk (fortunately there was no line), where, after 15 tries to make the reader recognize my library card, the librarian was left scrambling for (oh the horror!) a pen and paper. The entire library system was down.

She found a few forms and a pen and wrote down my card number and then had to list the bar codes for all 12 of my movies.

This was followed by the kicker: It took her and another librarian to figure out when the movies were due back. They had difficulty deciding the date one week hence that I am to return the items. Quite a line was beginning to form at this point. Finally, they decided on April 22 as the due date (‘15 plus 7 equals 22, doesn’t it?’).

And then high technology came back to the rescue: She used a ‘Post-It’ note to write the due date and stick it on the movie box (‘Do you want one for each of your 12 movies, sir?’ she asked. ‘No thanks, that’s not necessary,’ I said, my eyes a little wide).

It’s so good to know that some technology is reliable … I simply cannot imagine what would have happened if that sticky note had not worked.

Until I straighten out the fight between Movable Type and Textpattern over my single SQL database, older comments you may have made on posts will not be available, but they are not lost. However, the commenting system is working fine, so feel free to rant away … that is all.

Well, Textpattern is installed and working … I hope. Comments are back and we’re Movable Type/CGI/Perl-free and mostly PHP (but still XHTML Strict compliant). There are some slight differences that I’ll have to work around over the next few days.

There are still some issues; the recent articles and recent comments sections on the sidebar still need some tweaking; MT entries need to be imported; the archiving system has kinks I’ll have to work out over time; and categories are screwed for awhile for reasons I won’t go into.

I’ll have to laboriously add back all entries for the last two weeks, because of MySQL database complications I also won’t bore you with.

But it’s good to be back. Did you miss us?

« This is incredibly disturbing and sad’ »:

‘Out here on the farthest reaches of the U.S. military effort in Iraq, they are calling it “The Silent War,” the one where Marines are mortared and maimed, bombed and blown up, ambushed and killed, and almost nobody but them and their families know about it. Out here on the western perimeter, a few hundred yards from the Syrian border, a battalion of Marines, spearheaded by the embattled Lima Company, has been fighting for nearly two months to forge stability on a piece of territory that the Army’s 82nd Airborne carved out before them, also in relative anonymity. They don’t make the headlines, not like those in Fallujah or Baghdad, but they still bleed and die, still mourn the loss of their comrades.
…
Gannon was surprised when he saw the heavy casualty reports from the 82nd Airborne, which had been there before the Marines. “I was, like, `Whoa, why haven’t we been reading about this?’” he said while sitting in the small office that is his command center. “What’s been going on here? Have they been having some kind of silent war? And, sure enough, they had been.”
…
“We’ve had more contact here in a week than we did in the entire first phase of the war,” said Lt. Isaac Moore of Wasilla, Alaska, who fought with Lima last year and now is with Weapons Company. Cpl. Matt Nale, 32, of Seattle, said he has seen it all, from mines to bombs to small-arms fire. “I don’t think there’s a day that we’ve been out that we haven’t been hit,” he said. Most of the injuries have been relatively minor. Fewer than 10 Marines have been taken out of commission. “Still,” said Navy Corpsman Justin Purviance of Denver, “if we keep getting wounded at the rate we’re going, one of every three men in the unit will be injured before we get out of here.”’
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

33% casualty rates possible? And you gotta die and be sent home silently and anonymously in an aluminum tube before us fat lazy bastards back home even hear your name?

And this in a quiet corner of the Imperial Province of Iraq. What’s happening elsewhere?

Meanwhile, the Boy Emperor ‘acknowledged that recent images from Iraq were alarming. “Look, nobody likes to see dead people on their television screens,” he said. “I don’t. It’s a tough time for the American people to see that. It’s gut-wrenching.”’

I don’t care if you don’t like to see ‘em, you Texas Twit, YOU ordered their deaths and injuries and YOU should have the courage to look at each and every one of them and finally and fully understand the consequences of your extremist political agenda. Your gut should be wrenched … each and every single minute of every day that you don’t clean up this mess you and your ‘advisors’ created.

And you need to fully and completely, without the smarmy, unapologetic frat-bastard-ness, explain to Lima Company why you lied and condemned them to taking 33% casualties in Husaybah.

After pitching a fit with LunarPages, who finally apologized and agreed to restore the entire Movable Type installation, I spent an hour or so this morning trying to make the backup work. It doesn’t.

MT is, to a non-programmer such as myself, often incomprehensible and beyond cranky. If you don’t hold your mouth just right and pray to the Gods of Venus and Mars and turn around three times counter-clockwise and genuflect to Rome, Mecca and Wall Street, it just won’t cooperate. Unless, of course, you are someone who can whip out Perl and SQL code, etc., in your sleep. MT runs great … as long as you don’t touch it. When something goes wrong, look out.

Add to that the recent comment spam and other worries that Perl scripting introduces, I decided this morning to just screw it and move on. I’ve had my eye on a much simpler and more elegant solution for quite some time: Textpattern, created by Dean Allen, daddy of the Oliver Dog and the Hugo Dog, and S.O. of the always intelligent and interesting Gail Armstrong, all of whom are happily living in the south of France. [And if you’re not checking in for your daily dose of Oliver and Hugo, well, you’re just not in touch with what’s right in the world. Cures my cranky-pants every time I see them.]

Textpattern is a wonderful little CMS, very clean and simple, based on PHP. And I should have transitioned long ago. Textpattern took me exactly three minutes and 45 seconds to install, from download to entering my first entry. Compare that with Movable Type, which took multiple failed tries over two weeks, followed by $25 to Six Apart, followed by an appointment for installation, followed by the installation, followed by follow-up e-mails, followed by a few weeks of laborious coding on templates. All I can say is the Oliver Dog’s Dad rocks the house.

Of course, as with anything technological, there is a bit of pain involved: Stripping AirBeagle.com’s template pages of all of their Movable Type tags and replacing them with the new TP tags, as well as learning the new nomenclature of said TP tags. But we should be back up to speed in a few days as I find time to get all the templates converted.

Until I get things running, as I mentioned earlier, you won’t be able to add any more comments until further notice. If you have something to say, please feel free to send me an e-mail (mail | at | this domain.com). Otherwise, thanks for reading and for your patience.

The content management system I use to control all facets of AirBeagle.com was obliterated by my hosting provider, LunarPages, today, without notice or warning and with extreme prejudice. I only found out about it in a back-handed sort of way. Therefore, there will be no updates for a day or two or three until I figure this mess out. I have to find a new hosting provider or a new CMS, which would involve days of re-coding all the templates and CSS for the site. This is coming at the worst time possible, since I’m just starting my undergrad classes in preparation for grad school this summer.

Since the CMS, Movable Type, also controls commenting, you won’t be able to add any more comments until further notice. If you have something to say, please feel free to send me an e-mail. Otherwise, thanks for reading and for your patience as I try to resurrect all the shattered pieces of AB.com.

And everybody stay away from LunarPages. Like the plague. Their attitude is snarky, snotty and nasty. Won’t be getting any more of my business, that’s for sure.

What AirBeagle would look like if he did a guest shot on South Park

(No, I don’t have a goatee in real life. I just thought it looked bitchin’. And I don’t always have a pissed-off look on my face either. Well, at least not all the time.)

Create your own character at the South Park Studios and let us know what you look like.

No, it’s not Michigan-related, but it was fun. Now, what do we call the South Park me?

« Here is what happens in Canada when two soldiers wish to get married »:

‘Jason Stewart has become the first member of Canada’s military to marry a same-sex partner, exchanging vows this weekend with his fiancé Joey Schwehr. The couple eloped Friday when Stewart arrived at Schwehr’s Kingston, Ontario home in a white stretch limousine. Stewart is an Officer Cadet at the Royal Military College. “The first time we went on a date, (Joey) said he wanted to be picked up in a white stretch limo with white roses in the back and be surprised,” Stewart told the Toronto Star from the hotel where they were staying.
…
Canada, like most western countries, accepts gays in the military. “Everyone’s always been really supportive,” said Stewart of his peers and teachers at the college, Canada’s officer candidacy school. “I’ve never gotten any flack about it,” told the Star. “Everybody’s just gung-ho and most of my superiors are more worried about me getting married at a young age than who I’m getting married to.” Stewart is 19 and Schwehr is 20.’
—365Gay.com

And, from the same article, here’s what Jason and Joey would have faced south of the border:

‘But in the United States, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has issued a warning to lesbians and gays in that country’s military to stay clear of marriage and even civil unions and domestic partner registries. “Members of the armed forces still face discharge and other punishments if they attempt to marry or enter into a civil union,” the SLDN said in a directive. “Any attempt by a member of the armed forces to marry, or enter into a civil union with, someone of the same gender can be used as grounds for discharge under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and potentially effect discharge characterization,” said Sharra E. Greer, SLDN’s Director of Law and Policy. “Military personnel should never answer questions regarding their sexual orientation without the advice of an attorney,” Greer cautioned. “Service members have the right to say nothing, sign nothing, and get legal help.”’

Yes, America. Land of the free, home of the brave. My country …

The light of day is dawning and the rats are scurrying. The truth will have a way of coming out. Just ask Richard Nixon and his aides, one of whom, « John Dean, this week judged the Bush presidency as trumping Nixon’s in ‘secrecy, deception and political cynicism’ » which is ‘potentially the most corrupt, unethical and undemocratic White House in history.’

First, « Bush and Blair planned the Iraq invasion immediately after 9/11, putting paid to the Boy Emperor’s lie that he didn’t make up his mind until the last minute »:

’… George Bush first asked Tony Blair to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power at a private White House dinner nine days after the terror attacks of 11 September, 2001. According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the war on terror’s initial goal – dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: ‘I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.’ Regime change was already US policy. It was clear, Meyer says, ‘that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn’t be to discuss smarter sanctions’.’
—The Observer

In other words, when Bush said, and I directly quote Mr. ‘Jesus is my Hero’ himself, ‘Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out,’ he meant it. It appears to have been an all-consuming obsession with him and his so-called administration. So much so that « a man formerly known for his veracity and uprightness perjured himself before the world to justify the invasion »:

‘US Secretary of State Colin Powell has admitted that evidence he submitted to the United Nations to justify war on Iraq may have been wrong. In February last year he told the UN Security Council that Iraq had developed mobile laboratories for making biological weapons. On Friday he conceded that information “appears not to be… that solid”. The claim failed to persuade the Security Council to back the war, but helped sway US public opinion.’
—BBC

‘May have been wrong.’ In other words, you were talking out of your hat to provide cover for a lying, extremist political agenda. And now your chance to, perhaps, become America’s first African-American president may be permanently in the toilet. How are you feeling now, Mr. Secretary?
Incredible.

Well, for goodness’ sake! « Has Dashle FINALLY grown a spine?! »:

‘Mr. President, last week I spoke about the White House’s reaction to Richard Clarke’s testimony before the 9-11 Commission. I am compelled to rise again today, because the people around the President are systematically abusing the powers and prerogatives of government. We all need to reflect seriously on what’s going on. Not in anger and not in partisanship, but in keeping with our responsibilities as Senators and with an abiding respect for the fundamental values of our democracy. Richard Clarke did something extraordinary when he testified before the 9-11 Commission last week. He didn’t try to escape blame, as so many routinely do. Instead, he accepted his share of responsibility and offered his perceptions about what happened in the months and years leading up to September 11. We can and should debate the facts and interpretations Clarke has offered. But there can be no doubt that he has risked enormous damage to his reputation and professional future to hold both himself and our government accountable. The retaliation from those around the President has been fierce. Mr. Clarke’s personal motives have been questioned and his honesty challenged. He has even been accused, right here on the Senate floor, of perjury. Not one shred of proof was given, but that wasn’t the point. The point was to have the perjury accusation on television and in the newspapers. The point was to damage Mr. Clarke in any way possible. This is wrong—and it’s not the first time it’s happened.’
…
‘The Commission should declassify Mr. Clarke’s earlier testimony. All of it. Not just the parts the White House wants. And Dr. Rice should testify before the 9-11 Commission, and she should be under oath and in public. The American people deserve to know the truth—the full truth—about what happened in the years and months leading up to September 11. Senator McCain, Senator Cleland, Secretary O’Neill, Ambassador Wilson, General Shinseki, Richard Foster, Richard Clarke, Larry Lindsay … when will the character assassination, retribution, and intimidation end? When will we say enough is enough? The September 11 families—and our entire country—deserve better. Our democracy depends on it. And our nation’s future security depends on it.’
—Democrats.Senate.gov

Well, with all due respect, Mr. Minority Leader, I’ve been saying ‘enough is enough’ for three years now and begging, wishing, pleading, praying for you and your party to grow a spine and say the same thing. Welcome to the anti-fascist bandwagon. Now are you gonna just make speeches or are you gonna go out and DO something about it? We are powerless, you are not. Do your job; send DeLay to Leavenworth and Bush/Cheney back to Texas. Please.

Oh, great speech by the way …