Pantsless Aggression

Teaching Lilly About the War on Terror

2006-05-31T00:51:00.000-04:00

The War on Terror has been an enigma of sorts. It is has only loosely defined and grossly misinterpreted on both sides of the political aisle. Some say it’s a merely a Trojan horse for America to imperialize the Middle East and control the oil market while others are not nearly as cynical. These folks accept that the War on Terror is in fact the last great struggle for Western Civilization. It is as some have called it, the fourth great global war in history (for those that consider the Cold War the third great war.)

But despite all of these grand phrases and such, just what is the War on Terror? If you were to ask the average American in the street what he or she thought the War on Terror was, you would most definitely get a bevy of answers:

It’s a war against radical Islam.

It’s a war against Muslims.

It’s a war for oil.

It’s the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

We’re at war?

And while there might be many answers to that simple question, I truly wonder if people really understand just what is the War on Terror and why does it look the way it does. Why does it feel the way it does? What’s different about this war than the battles of the past? It is easy to accept what our leaders tell us so that we don’t have to think too hard about it but the fact remains that after nearly 5 years of battling this elusive foe, many simply do not know what it is we are trying to do. Mind you, for that I blame our president but that is a column for another day.

We, the capitalist modern West, are fighting a combination of radical religious fundamentalism and Fascism, as purported by Arabs and Persians who dominate the oil rich Middle East of Eurasia. That’s the headline right there but even that doesn’t really begin to describe in detail to those that need a better explanation what the whole point of this conflict is. In fact, it is because most people don’t really understand the headline that the war has become as muddled and misunderstood by the masses

Now let me tell you about Lilly. Lilly is a 17-year-old Mexican-American recovering meth addict from rural parts in central Florida. A friend of the family in the trailer park she lived when she was a little girl raped Lilly. She had a history of violence toward others that would make Sabu blush. To say our girl Lilly was limited in her understanding of the world would be a rather gross understatement. After nearly a year in an inpatient rehabilitation facility the girl could barely even fill out a job application and did not understand the concept buying insurance for her car what exactly the point of insurance was.

Now here’s the rub; Lilly will be able to vote in the very near future. In fact, if the current political trends hold, every pandering politician this side of Cuba will seek after her vote. When I think of how the message of what it is to fight the War on Terror has been so badly communicated, I think of poor, feisty, barely literate Lilly because if grown adults whom actually follow politics really don’t understand what is going on, this kids got no chance in hell of figuring it out.

One day at work, Lilly came to me after group and asked if we were going to get bombed by Iran. She stated that she had seen something in the on-campus that school on TV that scared her half to death and made her wonder if she was at risk. That prompted me to have to boil down nearly every important historical even from World War I to the War on Terror to its lowest common denominator in order for this girl to understand the current Iranian nuclear showdown. After about an hour of me drawing boxes and arrows on a marker board to illustrate the finer points of global policy and war, low and behold this child that resembles more animal than girl in her behavior actually understood the complexity of the War on Terror. She had somewhat of a difficult time explaining it to her peers but regardless; I was like a proud father watching his daughter taking her first steps into a larger universe.

That is when it hit me. My social studies teacher once told me that when you teach somebody something, you own that information for life. Teaching Lilly about the War on Terror actually cleared up some of the problems I had understanding the war. First off, and I didn’t realize this until after we were with our impromptu tutoring session, most people don’t know the first thing about fighting a conventional war, never mind an ideological one.

War is simply one mans attempt to secure resources for his people. Land is where the resources are kept obviously so as Sepultura once said, we war for territory. It its most base form, you mass an army to control the enemy’s territory and then either take over or sever their supply lines. Once you’ve done that, it’s over. The war is done. Mission accomplished. All of the ballyhoo, pomp and circumstance that we’ve learned in countless history classes regarding battles and such were about nothing more than the acquisition of scarce resources by competitive peoples.

People are expendable, good soil and a dependable water supply isn’t. People are replaceable; coal, oil, uranium, gold and other precious metals aren’t. That’s been the driving force of war, to risk people in trade for goods you cannot find elsewhere or are running out of in your own territory.

However, scarcity of resources may be enough for individual men to send millions of his brethren to their doom, but for those on the death march, even the ancient version of warring for oil was not appealing. That is where ideology comes in.

Whether it is religion, patriotism, revenge or the love of a hot chick, to make men fight you must give them a reason they can buy into. Convincing them to hate total strangers who look different from them is a good start but anyone who has studied marketing knows, you need a common denominator for people unite under. Once you’ve got your us VS them ideology rolling it’s easy to make men grab resources for you. It’s easy to commit mass murder in the name of whatever boogeyman you’ve created to unite your army.

The problem we’ve come to since the end of War World II is that somewhere along the way the ideology that makes men fight seemed to have surpassed the quest for resources that is the reason men are made to fight. The Cold War was absolutely about acquiring more resources or retaining the ones you had but those resources were for the first time in history actual people. Capitalist need people to buy their wares and Communists need people to man supply lines and make widgets. If either side had killed too many people then the whole point of the war would have been lost. After all, you can’t rule a country of corpses, until you are Tim Burton (cue rim shot).

The War on Terror is an extension of the Cold War. If you were to look at the possible endgame for the radical Muslims, what you would get is a world full of fellow believers whose sole purpose is to keep this ideology alive. Islam, like all belief systems feeds on humans willing to drink Kool-Aid. That’s it, that is all there is to it. I’m not even sure if Bin Laden and company has thought far enough in advanced to what they’d do with a world where Mohammed wasn’t threatened naked white chicks and newspaper cartoons.

That in a nutshell is why this is such a hard war to fight. If killing people were the way to win then the Muslims would have already lost, just ask the Japanese what I’m talking about. But that isn’t it. Even taking territory such as in Iraq and Afghanistan does next to nothing for us in the grand scheme of things because having control over those places doesn’t cut the average Muslims steady supply of blind faith.

However, not fighting is an even worse option than fighting badly. Because just as we cannot cut their supply of faith, it is that endless supply of faith that keeps them in the quest for the resources they seek. And that resource is us.

Somewhere in Central Florida a 17-year-old Mexican-American girl came away from a rehab understanding why we fight. Only 300 million more left to go.

Things I Still or Will Do...

2006-04-25T20:44:00.000-04:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

This was "borrowed" by my Deputy Chief of Staff, Halden Johnson. It's a nice companion piece to my bit on being Forever Youngish

So apparently MSN’s Men’s Lifestyle has some tips for those unfortunate souls that are 30 and up. The list details 59 things a man should NOT do past the age of 30, many of which I still or would very likely still do.

1. Coin his own nickname.
4. Hacky sack.
8. Ask a policeman, "You ever shoot anybody with that thing?"
13. Tap on the glass.
14. Shout out a response to "Are you ready to rock?"
18. Jokingly flash gang signs while posing for wedding photos.
19. Give shout-outs.
20. Use numbers in place of words or locations, such as "the 411" for information, or "the 313" for Detroit.
24. Compare the trajectory of his life with those of the characters in Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant."
26. Air drum.
28. Eat Oreo cookies in stages.
30. Sleep on a bare mattress.
31. End a conversation with "later skater."
32. Hold his lighter up at a concert.
33. Publicly greet friends by shouting, "What's up, you whore?"
34. Wear Converse All Stars with a tuxedo.
37. Call "shotgun" before getting in a car.
38. Dispute someone else's call of "shotgun."
40. Mist up during Aerosmith's "Dream On."
41. Purchase fireworks.
42. Google the word vagina.
46. Organize a party bus.
47. Say "two points" every time he throws something in the trash.
48. Buy a novelty postcard in another country of topless women on a beach and write, "Wish you were here" on it.
49. Keg stands.
51. The John Travolta point-to-the-ceiling-point-to-the-floor dance move; also that one from Pulp Fiction.
52. Put less than ten dollars' worth of gas in the tank.
54. Read The Fountainhead.
55. Watch the Pink Floyd laser light show at a planetarium.
56. Refer to his girlfriend's breasts as "the twins."
58. Whippits.
59. Say goodbye to anyone by tapping his chest and even so much as whispering, "Peace out."

Gas Prices Too High?

2006-04-24T20:26:00.000-04:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

I, like you, have noticed gas prices going up. I, also like you, have also read a number of chain letters and MySpace bulletins containing idiotic idea after idiotic idea about how we can "fight the power" by boycotting big oil, or only shopping at certain gas stations on one day and not shopping there on certain days, and so on.

Now, maybe I'm too cynical for my own good, but I think that's all a bunch of poppy cock. The only way to get the oil companies to lower prices is to threaten them with legislation. That's where Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) comes in, who recently supported a windfall profits tax, along with measures to stem concentration of market power among a few select oil companies, to offer relief to consumers hurting at the gas pump (click here for more).

It's true that Republicans are usually the last to tax rich business tycoons, but even my more liberal friends consider Sen. Specter to be one of the last voices of reason and rationality in Washington. When you consider that he's also the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and, like it or not (and I don't care if you do or don't), the Republicans still control everything (for the time being at least), Specter could very well get something done if he gets enough support. He already sponsored bi-partisan legislation on Monday to reduce fuel costs.

So instead of sending out another e-mail that your friends are going to forward to their friends without even reading it themselves in the first place, write to your local congressman (you'll have to look that up yourselves), or write to Senator Spector and let him know you're behind him, or even how the higher gas prices are starting to effect you and your family (especially if they go up to $4 or $5 a gallon, as some a predicting).

Sen. Arlen Specter
711 Hart Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: 202-224-4254
(Click here for e-mail)

If you roll with the Dems and would prefer to get behind one of your own, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have also been vocal against the rumored "price gouging." See how to get in touch with them.

And as a side note, I'm sure there are more than a few of you who think writing to your elected official is as big of a waste of time as hitting the forward button on your e-mail. All I can say is that I felt the same way. Then my mother wrote to our local Congressman when the insurance companies were harassing her for money we didn't owe them. We got a letter back that he (or someone from his office) was going to look into it. She stopped getting harassed.

Democracy does work once in a while.

My Ten Commandments

2006-04-09T19:30:00.000-04:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

I'm usually Mr. Happy Go Lucky, but much like all of you, there are a number of things people do that piss me off. So a while back I had posted my Three Commandments. From there it grew to five. Now, there are ten. And since I've grown tired of the news and have nothing else grinding my gears, I share them with you now...

(There were fifteen, but Moses dropped the tablet that had 11-15 chiseled on them.)

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF JOHN*
*I reserve the right to make exceptions depending on how cute she is

1. Me having a cell phone does not put me at your beck and call. I'll answer it when I'm free and available to talk.

2. If I want your opinion on how I'm supposed to think and/or live my life, I will ask you for it.

3. Being my friend does not grant you unfettered access to my personal life. If I don't want to talk aboot it, so it is written.

4. If the group is doing something I deem to be boring or suck, I reserve the right not to do it.

5. If I ask a yes or no question, I expect a yes or no answer. Not an excuse or a dissertation.

6. It is okay to listen to Fall Out Boy. It is NOT OKAY to look like you listen to Fall Out Boy.

7. There are two types of people in this world: people who like a strong cup of coffee, and people who should just switch to decaf and stop complaining when I make the coffee too strong.

8. If I'm at the gym and have my headphones on, don't start a conversation with me.

9. The Good Lord gives us twenty four perfectly good hours a day, and unless you've got company, why waste them in bed?

10. Be excellent to each other.

Forever Youngish

2006-03-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

"Soon I'll be thirty. I don't want to be thirty." - Moxy Fruvous

The wee younglings I work with at the mall are often surprised when they discover that I'm, shall we say, approaching the second anniversary of my 29th birthday. One them talks about me to his friends, about how I still find dick and fart jokes funny, and uses me as an example for how's there's hope for them all. They all refer to me as "that guy." And it's not just me. A lot of the "older" crew that I run with is the same way.

I remember when I was a wee one myself, I'd wonder at what point I was going to cut the hair, stop listening to the Metal, stop watching the wrestling, etc. The hair may have been cut (since even though I still live in my parents basement, I don't want to look like I still live in my parents basement), but the heavy metal and the wrestling are still there. There was never a point when I stopped watching cartoons, and may even watch more now than I did then.

I'm often amazed at how none of us have, for lack of a better term, "grown up." I was even more amazed to see the topic as the cover story for New York Magazine. So sayeth the authors:

"It's more interesting as evidence of the slow erosion of the long-held idea that in some fundamental way, you cross through a portal when you become an adult, a portal inscribed with the biblical imperative "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: But when I became a man, I put away childish things." This cohort is not interested in putting away childish things. They are a generation or two of affluent, urban adults who are now happily sailing through their thirties and forties, and even fifties, clad in beat-up sneakers and cashmere hoodies, content that they can enjoy all the good parts of being a grown-up (a real paycheck, a family, the warm touch of cashmere) with none of the bad parts (Dockers, management seminars, indentured servitude at the local Gymboree). It's about a brave new world whose citizens are radically rethinking what it means to be a grown-up and whether being a grown-up still requires, you know, actually growing up."

Now, there was a bit of psychobabble in the article, and definitely some mocking. There was also the indignity of using a Star Trek reference, "Grupps," to label our kind. Personally, I always dug the label Generation X, but so be it. The article as a whole was still what a number of friends and I have commented on recently - about how we may take on adult responsibilities, we don't actually grow up -and it doesn't matter if we're budding rockstars, struggling entrepreneurs, or simply two dudes looking to conquer the world one blog post at a time.

And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. We all have jobs. Some of us have homes and spouses and children. We even have more "mature" interests. We just haven't let go off our "less mature" ones. I enjoy watching Sen. John McCain interview on Meet the Press the same way I enjoy Mick Foley cutting a promo on RAW. The Complete West Wing DVD sits right next to the Complete G.I. Joe. My MP3 player has Zeppelin and Taking Back Sunday, Prince and Kanye, Kenny Rogers and Big and Rich. We all do.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm not even sure I was going anywhere in the first place. I was just amused to see an something that amuses me about my friends and I on the cover or New York Magazine.

Xenu Be Damned!!!

2006-03-27T19:40:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

Kyle: Do you have any idea how retarded that sounds?
Mr. Connelly: Is it any more retarded than the idea of God sending his son to die for our sins? Is it any more retarded than Buddha sitting beneath a tree for twenty years?
Stan: Yes. It's way more retarded.
A snippet of dialogue from South Park that may or may not be a reference to Scientology…)

Strange things are a foot in South Park. It started last season when they aired an episode called "Trapped in the Closet" that made fun of Tom Cruise and Scientology (which can be viewed here).

Then Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef and a Scientonologist) suddenly left the show citing the shows "growing insensitivity towards personal spiritual beliefs."

Then "Trapped" episode was scheduled to re-air on March 15, but at the last minute Comedy Central pulled the episode, amidst reports that Tom Cruise had leaned on Paramount Pictures (the studio owned by Viacom, which also owns Comedy Central and has the Cruise-starring "Mission: Impossible III" coming out this spring) to have the episode yanked from broadcast.

Most recently, South Park "killed" off Chef in "The Return of Chef" (clips of which can be viewed here), and issued the following statement regarding the "Trapped" episode being pulled off the air...

"So, Scientology, you have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun. Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

Now, why Hayes is suddenly offended by "spiritual insensitivity" (when he didn't mind them satirizing everyone else's spiritual beliefs) is anybody's guess. What cracks me up is, don't they realize that by getting upset at South Park, it's just going to make things worse? Trey Parker had even said in a recent Time Magazine interview that they've "...created a brand for ourselves, so that now people can't get mad at what we do, because then they're just making fun of themselves."

So by Isaac Hayes quitting and Tom Cruise being...well, being Tom Cruise, all they did was guarantee that ten times more people are going to download "Trapped" than would have ever considered watching it before, and there are going to be digs at Cruise and Scientologist on every other episode of South Park. They even started by having the "destroyed" Chef rebuilt ala Darth Vader.

Scientology: 0
Fans of South Park: 3 (and counting)

Black White Nonsense

2006-03-23T09:35:00.000-05:00

I don’t watch much TV these days. Some wrestling here and there, the occasional cop drama (The Shield, The Wire, etc.) and that’s really it. When I can watch TV I usually just watch the news and typically I settle for the most entertaining of the bunch, Fox News.

Wait; come back, my story gets better!

However, last week I had to travel to NY for some personal business and by late Saturday night, I was so worn out that I ended up watching the first show that even looked remotely interesting. That show happened to be FX’s new reality show “Black White” which is produced by rapper turned actor extraordinaire Ice Cube.

The premise of the show is that we have two families, one black and one white, whom will live together in a house for a certain period of time and will be made to look like the opposite of their race; the black family will be turned white and the white family turned black, through the magic of Hollywood makeup. Then, once each family member has been altered, they are to go out and experience the world as a new race and report back to the producers, hilarity ensues.

Just from the previews, I thought this show looked ridiculous but you’d be surprised what you’ll watch when you are dog-tired and TNA Impact isn’t on for another hour. As I watched the plot for this episode unfold I had an epiphany based on the behavior of the players in this reality drama. When it comes to race relations, black people in general have the personality of a victim borderline personality disorder.

That’s right, I said it, black people in general, when the issue of race comes seem to act like they have borderline personality disorder.

Now just what the heck is borderline personality disorder, you are asking?

A person with a borderline personality disorder often experiences a repetitive pattern of disorganization and instability in self-image, mood, behavior and close personal relationships. This can cause significant distress or impairment in friendships and work. A person with this disorder can often be bright and intelligent, and appear warm, friendly and competent. They sometimes can maintain this appearance for a number of years until their defense structure crumbles, usually around a stressful situation like the breakup of a romantic relationship or the death of a parent.

Relationships with others are intense but stormy and unstable with marked shifts of feelings and difficulties in maintaining intimate, close connections. The person may manipulate others and often has difficulty with trusting others. There is also emotional instability with marked and frequent shifts to an empty lonely depression or to irritability and anxiety. There may be unpredictable and impulsive behavior which might include excessive spending, promiscuity, gambling, drug or alcohol abuse, shoplifting, overeating or physically self-damaging actions such as suicide gestures. The person may show inappropriate and intense anger or rage with temper tantrums, constant brooding and resentment, feelings of deprivation, and a loss of control or fear of loss of control over angry feelings. There are also identity disturbances with confusion and uncertainty about self-identity, sexuality, life goals and values, career choices, friendships. There is a deep-seated feeling that one is flawed, defective, damaged or bad in some way, with a tendency to go to extremes in thinking, feeling or behavior. Under extreme stress or in severe cases there can be brief psychotic episodes with loss of contact with reality or bizarre behavior or symptoms. Even in less severe instances, there is often significant disruption of relationships and work performance. The depression which accompanies this disorder can cause much suffering and can lead to serious suicide attempts.

One of the main elements of recognizing someone with BPD is projection of feelings onto others. What the BPD person will typically do, and what I saw the black folks in this show do is ascribe particularly intense and negative emotions to their white counterparts, when they themselves were the ones feeling those emotions. In other words, the black family kept insinuating that the white family was racist or that everything they did was a subtle knock on the black race when in fact it was the black family that continually displayed intolerance.

The first example started right at the beginning of the show. The two moms are sitting with their dialect coach to learn how to speak with the inflection of the race they are playing. On the practice sheet in front of them are a list of words, one of which is “bitch.” The white mom then says in what was obviously a playful manner, “Yo bitch!” Now I’m not saying the white woman made the best choice there but haven’t we all made a wet-fart-in-church type joke that we thought was in the spirit of the moment and it turned out not to be so funny. You can accuse her of being a dork and little on the stupid side but she wasn’t being a racist by any stretch of the imagination.

However, the black mother of course goes right off the deep end. At that moment and for the majority of the episode, the black mother goes on and on and on and on and on and on about this woman is a racist and nobody calls a black a bitch and blah blah blah. The white practically begs for forgiveness and explains quite clearly that it was an innocent remark bred in naïve stupidity. Not having says the black mother, clearly the white woman is racist in the mind of the black woman.

But that’s not all that happened.

Now the white woman is in her black person makeup and the two women are shopping the black part of town at a street market. Mind you, the whole purpose of being there is to shop where black people, for what black people might buy. They walk into a clothing store and one of the wares being sold is a dashiki. Granted you don’t see too many average black people donning the dashiki at the mall but at least some do wear them or the shopkeeper wouldn’t be selling them. The white woman sees one she likes and buys it. Of course the black woman sees this yet again as example of racism and that the white has gone “too far.”

There were a few more examples where the same thing happens. The white folks try in earnest to experience life as black people and the blacks folks in turn call them racist. That is when it hit me, it isn’t that the while folks on the show hate blacks at all; the black folks hate white people and apparently are uncomfortable saying so out loud. So, like a client with BPD, they project their own feelings of hate and anger on to white people, crying racism at every turn.

It isn’t just on “Black White” that I’ve noticed this pattern. I’ve worked with black families, from all different strata’s of life and this pattern has repeated itself . Any challenge or feeling of unease that a black person is made to endure, that would be typical among any other combination of races seems to be met with cries of racism. It is obvious to me that the reason is, deep down, on some level, their exists to this day, a seething hatred of the white race in black people that no matter what happens, will always show itself in times of stress. And as evidenced by the characters on “Black White” this hatred will typically be projected on whites that have long ago learned to accept black people as their brothers and sisters.

To paraphrase Dennis Miller, but that’s just my opinion, I could be a racist myself.

Stock Tips are Like Assholes...

2006-03-12T19:36:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

I've been playing the market as of late. This is the first time in a few years that I have a steady job and am making a few sheckles, plus in order for me to fully embrace conservatism I really should have a stock portfolio.

It's also something I've wanted to do for a while. One of my regrets was that I didn't invest in my old company when it was at $.12 a share. I could have gotten 1,000 for $120. If they went bankrupt, BFD? It's only $120, and I would be more concerned trying to find a new job (which I wound up being anyway). If it hit, I could make some decent money. But I got scared since my few of the market is people jumping off of buildings when they lose. The company, when it was taken off the market, was at $9.76 a share. Do the math.

So for the past few months I've been garnishing some of my weekly wages, putting them in an investment account, and set forth to make my fortune. My first fiscal quarter is almost over, and I am happy to announce that I'm up 4.4%! Go me. A few of my friends have been asking me about it, so I thought I'd share a little of what I did and learned thus far.

FORWARD LEANING STATEMENTS
I'm not an expert. I don't even play one on TV. And as a matter of full disclosure, my holdings are Marvel Entertainment (MVL), Lion's Gate Films (LGF), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Nokia (NOK), Hasbro (HAS), and Activision (ATVI). Apparently when you write about stocks you're supposed to disclose your holdings, so I thought I'd do it all at once.

MONEY
I take 10% of my monthly salary and invest it. It's just like putting the money in a savings account, only with a risk. Plus on an average, stocks yield 11% in interest, so it's a good risk. I chose Schwab.com to open my account. I saw a bunch of commercials for different sites, but Schwab was the easiest for me to figure out plus the others usually had an minimum account balance you needed to keep.

I also take another 10% and opened an ING Direct account, just because having a cash account makes sense too. Things might be a little tight this year, but after living paycheck to paycheck since...well, since I ever started working in the first place, another year won't kill me to make sure I never have to do that again.

READ AND WATCH TV
There are two websites I go to. One is Finance@yahoo.com, and the other is TheStreet.com. Both are free, and both have invaluable advice. The Street (owned by CNBC's Jim Cramer) sends me a newsletter everyday that collects the different articles on the site. The finance page at yahoo lets you create your own watch list, and collects relevant articles from all over cyberspace.

Bookwise, I started with "Make More Money Now" by John Bradshaw Layfield. Yes, THAT John Bradshaw Layfield. My thinking was that it'd be a good read for someone like me, without having do gram one of the "Dummies" or "Complete Idiot's" books. I've just started reading Cramer's "Sane Investing in an Insane World."

Then you have television. CNBC is great, particularly Jim Cramer's "Mad Money." He's insane, and he makes investing seem fun. You also have the Saturday morning finance shows on Fox News. Yes, we all know Fox News is evil and totally biased towards conservatives. I mean, when all other networks have the President's approval rating at 33%, Fox has it at 39%! Totally scandalous! But seriously folks, I'm not endorsing drilling in Alaska or cutting Justice David Souter's brakes. These (the analysts on Fox) are simply people who have been very successful making a lot of money in the stock market, and they bring up interesting points. One of them is even Wayne Rogers from M*A*S*H. How can you not trust Trapper John McIntyre?

You'll be surprised what some of the research might uncover. I was avoiding WWE, mainly because as a wrestling fan, the product bores the hell out of me and I don't see it reaching another high peak like it did a few years ago. Yet, it was always a highly rated stock and I couldn't find out why. Once I read how hot digital media is going to be in the future (they have their own channel), and reminding myself how well their international business does, I decided to go for it. My stock is up 11% since investing.

TWO THINGS I'VE LEARNED
1. Oil prices go up, stock prices go down. I don't know why.

2. When a company announces it's earning before trading starts, that's generally good news. When they announce them and the end of the day, that's generally bad news.

KNOW WHAT YOU'RE INVESTING IN
My mom keeps telling me about how she and my dad invested when they were told it was a good time to do so, and lost all the money they invested. Here's the thing. She doesn't even remember what they invested in. That's the wrong way to do it, plus there's no excuse these days when you have a wealth of information and research at your fingertips.

I chose Marvel because I know Marvel. They were the fastest growing New York Company in 2005. They just signed a licensing deal with Hasbro, and starting in 2007 will license their characters for new action figure, video games, and anything else Hasbro wants to do with them. They've got three movies coming out in '07 (Ghost Rider, Spider Man 2, and Fantastic Four 2) plus a little movie coming out in May called X-Men. This was a no brainer for me, and my stock is up 14%.

Conversely, I had invested in a company called JDS Uniphase (JDSU). I know nothing aboot fiber optics, but Cramer highly suggested it and I got in when it was $3.07 a share. Their most recent earnings weren't as high as expected, I had read a number of experts start to sour on tech. I didn't know what that meant and realized that I know nothing about fiber optics, so I got scared and got out when shares dipped to $2.94.

They closed Friday at $3.70. Do the math there.

That's been my journey thus far. I started with a $150 and it's basically just been a lot of reading and a lot of checking Yahoo Finance ever five minutes to make sure that the market hasn't crashed. It hasn't so far. :-)

Untitled John McCain Post

2006-03-07T18:05:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

There are still a few days to go before the start of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, and the first endorsement appears to have been made with Sen. Trent Lott "throwing his support" the way of Sen. John McCain. So sayeth "CNN's Morning Grind" e-newsletter:

...Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) appears to have snagged the endorsement of Sen. Trent Lott (R-Mississippi). Lott tells the Grind that when he takes the stage in Memphis on Saturday, his remarks will focus on "the Republican Party in the South and about my friend John McCain."

...In typical Lott-speak, the Mississippi Republican said he wouldn't characterize the speech, "as an endorsement necessarily," but he noted that McCain will accompany him to a Mississippi delegation reception Friday night and then tour areas of the Mississippi Gulf Coast destroyed by Hurricane Katrina on Saturday afternoon.

This is interesting for two reasons. There have been rumours that Sen. Lott has wanted to return to a leadership position (he was the Majority Leader before stepping down after making an idiotic comment concerning Strom Thurmond's past run for the Presidency). With Sen. Bill Frist retiring as Majority Leader and Sen. Rick Santorum (the #3 guy) facing elimination this year, Lott might be positioning himself to take one of their jobs by latching on to the '08 front runner.

What's even more interesting (although not surprising) is that the front runner is John McCain. Could it be that the ~~real~~ ~~staunch~~ ~~devout~~ ~~ultra~~ uber conservatives are starting to warm up to the idea of a McCain presidency?

I never understood their beef with McCain in the first place. He's one of the few who actually talks about fiscal responsibility. He's on the side of the President more often that he's not, is on his side for most of the big issues, and is even to the right in some instances of defense and national security. He's pro-life and anti-gay marriage, so that should satisfy the Bible belt. Yes he's broken ranks with the GOP on issues like stem cell research and the environment, but lots of others have done so as well. So what's the beef other than he doesn't cater to "the base" as much as "the base" would like, and he doesn't hate Democrats?

As far as catering to the base is concerned, I'm not naive. I may think he shoots straighter than most other politicians...but he's still a politician. Catering to "the base" somewhat is a necessary evil to make sure people go out to vote and/or send you money. As long as he doesn't complete bend over for them, I can deal with a William Rehnquist Law Center for the University of Arizona and the occasional dig at Senator Clinton.

And the "not hating Democrats?" That's a good thing. Different people with different ideas working together is that this country was founded on, yet we've become so polarized I feel we could be headed for a civil war. More and more there seems to be less of a concern to do what's good for the people and more of a concern for being spiteful towards the other guy. Seriously, what would stop a Republican President from one day saying, "You know, my party will never get the Northeast's electoral votes. To hell with them?" What would stop a Democrat from saying the same about the South and Midwest? Most scream, "I'm right, you're wrong!" McCain says, "We both love America, just with different ideas of how. I feel mine are better."

Call me crazy, but isn't a quality we should want in a President? People trust him. Imagine that? A leader people trust.

Personally, I think what you're really starting to see is what I've been saying all along. Try as the far right moght to find someone else, as they start to think long and hard about the words "President Rodham Clinton" they're starting to realize that none of their favourite sons have a chance of beating her.

Now they all need to realize what a great choice their only choice actually is.

Hypocrisy and Friendship: The New Cold War

2006-03-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

Nearly everyday the question regarding our involvement in Iraq is asked, “Why are we there?” The answer our president has given is, “We are there to bring democracy to a place where there was once tyranny.” I’ll grant you that he came up with this well after the original reason, to disarm former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of his weapons of mass destruction, turned to ashes in his mouth. However, even if it was our third or fourth reason to justify invasion, the theory I believe is sound. A viable democracy in the Middle East could start a cascade effect, spreading outward from Iraq and Afghanistan and summarily ridding terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda a place to organize.

It’s really not that bizarre of an idea.

The problem is, as with all things concerning the Bush Administration, is a matter of consistency. We’re standing firm with this noble idea that it is good to depose tyrants in the world and allow all people to be free in the hopes that free people will maximize the potential for relative peace around the globe. However, as Eddie Izzard once said, “If we’re going to just take it upon ourselves to get rid of tyrants, well then let’s get rid of all tyrants then, not just the one we don’t like….are we going in alphabetical order starting with ‘S’?”

Bush and company talk a fairly good game when it comes to certain dictatorships they don’t like. They brought down their old buddy Saddam because he was a loose end as well as a loose cannon and probably felt like it was only a matter of time before the piece of Cold War strategery came back to haunt them. Of course they don’t like Iran because of that whole “death to America” business not to mention hard feelings from the overthrow of the Shah. And if it weren’t for either China or Russia, North Korea would be a steaming pile of ash by now, as they present no real strategic or economic value to the world. These are easy totalitarian countries to pick on.

But when Bush talks about Russia all of a sudden that very same lack of democracy is overlooked and Moscow is regarded as a, “good friend.” Bush has practically gushed over Putin, who by all accounts has become as close to a Stalinist as one could be without killing millions of your own people (for more on this read Kremlin Rising).

Despite what is apparently Bush’s wishful thinking regarding our friends to the East, the Council on Foreign Relations has presented a more accurate portrayal of where Russia is headed and what that means to us.

Almost 15 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ties between Russia and the United States are "headed in the wrong direction", suggests a new report released here this week by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

In addition to disagreements over an increasing number of foreign-policy issues - most recently, Moscow's hosting of top officials of the Palestinian Hamas party - the US is concerned about internal developments in Russia, particularly what it regards as the growing concentration of power in the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin.

"At a time when the president of the United States has made democracy a goal of American foreign policy, Russia's political system is becoming steadily more authoritarian," according to "Russia's Wrong Direction: What the United States Can and Should Do", the 98-page product of a CFR task force that included many top US experts and former policymakers who have specialized in Russian affairs.

"Russia is a less open and less democratic society than just a few years ago, and the rollback of pluralism and centralization of power may not have run their course," says the report, which is likely to strengthen those in the administration of US President George W Bush and Congress who have called for a tougher line with Moscow. Google Source

Russia has been sliding back toward totalitarianism for some time now. Even as Bush was inviting Putin to the ranch and calling him a good friend to America, Putin was very visibly imprisoning those who threatened his power, taking over media stations and committing near genocide in Chechnya. You’ll notice that there’s very little mention of this in the mainstream news except for the one time Bill Maher alluded to it on his late night cable show.

Even today the tone regarding Russia is so much softer than the one we reserve for Iran or North Korea. This stark hypocrisy and unwillingness to face reality has pretty much given Moscow the opportunity to go hog wild in reconstituting itself as a superpower that will stand directly opposite of the US.

For example, where we try to send a message to the terrorist groups Hamas that anti-Semitism and threats of violence are not acceptable in any governmental body, Moscow practically falls over itself to extend an olive branch.

Hamas' leader hailed his Moscow talks as an end to the militant Palestinian group's international isolation and said Russia's position in negotiations differed from that of the United States and other Western nations, according to an interview published Monday.

Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal, whose three-day visit ended Sunday, told the daily Vremya Novostei that "Moscow became the place where we opened the door to the entire global community."

"It broke the blockade which Israel and the United States have been trying to impose on us," Mashaal said.

He also said that "Russia's position is completely unlike that of the West," and praised Russian officials for understanding Hamas' stance.

Many Russian media and observers hailed the Kremlin invitation to Hamas as helping boost the Russian role in Middle East peacemaking. Geidar Dzhemal, a Moscow-based Islamic affairs analyst, said talks with Hamas also helped the Kremlin win stronger sympathy from the estimated 20 million Muslims who make up nearly 14 percent of Russia's population. "That was a very successful spin by Putin," Dzhemal told reporters Monday.

But Alexei Malashenko, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Russia's hosting of Hamas was unnecessarily warm. "Hamas should have been given a pat on the shoulder, but they had a passionate tango instead," Malashenko told Gazeta. Source

Russia not only opposes sanctions against their buddies in Tehran, but now they also oppose sanctions against North Korea. Russia opposes any kind of sanctions against what the United States calls rogue states such as Iran and North Korea, Glev Ivashentsov, Moscow's top diplomat to Seoul, said on Tuesday.

His remarks came as U.S. and North Korean officials were to hold a meeting in New York later in the day amid Washington's financial sanctions against Pyongyang for the communist state's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars.

``In principle, we are against any economic sanctions because they do not work,'' Ivashentsov told The Korea Times after a forum hosted by the Korea News Editors' Association in Seoul.

``There should be dialogue, there should be consultation, but sanctions do not work neither against North Korea, nor against Iran, nor against any other country,'' he said. Source

To quote from the movie Aliens, “What exactly are we suppose to use, harsh language?”

Apparently that’s exactly what Russia would like our global reach to be cut down to. At the end of the day, what Russia, China, the Middle East and to a lesser extent the European Union really want is for the US to be disarmed of its military and economic strength. It’s the rest of the world that wants set tones and pace. That’s probably been the single biggest problem with Iraq. We’ve invested so much time, energy and resources into this one affair that we’ve compromised our ability to deal effectively with the rest of the world and now places like Russia are jumping at the window of opportunity to assert themselves and dominant powers.

Meanwhile, we’re still harping about spreading democracy in a world that spits on it.

My Rant on Politics and the Oscars

2006-03-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

"There's nothing political about it. I just don't need to see a movie about two sheep herders snuggling in a sleeping bag." - Don Imus (not an exact quote, but the jist of what he said about "Brokeback Mountain")

The big story of the day (besides South Dakota outlawing abortions, the Dubai deal, the mess in Iraq, and what Reese was wearing) was the Oscar Awards. Have the Oscar's gone political? Are they out of touch with mainstream America? What political message does voting for Crash over Brokeback Mountain send?

Personally, I'm glad Crash won. It was a great movie, but more importantly, I have Lion's Gate Entertainment in my portfolio. Besides that and "Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion" being #1 for the second week in a row, I had a good day. Plus I was getting sick of all the Brokeback parodies. "Brokeback to the Future" was pretty funny, but that's hardly the issue here.

I also really like George Clooney. Everyone is pointing to his speech as being "politically charged," but all he did was say what he felt and you could see how moved he was by the award. He also said something on Larry King Live recently that I dug:

"I'm not holding press conferences. I'm not standing up saying OK this is what you should think. I'm really not. I'll answer a question. I sit here with you and I'll answer a question. Now should I not say what I believe or say what I think?"

But Clooney isn't the issue either. The issue is that we live in the Polarized States of America. Anytime anything happens anywhere, there's some fool arguing about the political ramifications of it. Last year's Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby (awesome flick, btw) was reduced to nothing more than a movie about euthanasia. This year we had gay movies, race movies, more gay movies, movies about big oil, another movie about another gay person, and one about Johnny Cash. The far right cries, "See, Hollywood doesn't share your morals. Send us money." The far left yells, "See, we're pissing off Christians. Send us money."

BULLSHIT.

All because the movies are about things that you don't normally talk aboot in church on Sunday, that doesn't make them political (or at least shouldn't). The main problem with the Oscars, or the problem with the Oscars being "out of touch" with the mainstream, is that more than half the films nominated are films most of us have never even heard of. Some of them are movies that were only released to two theaters at the time of the nominations. I like to think I have slightly more sophisticated tastes than your average moviegoer, and I'm not implying that a movie like "40 Year Old Virgin" should be up for anything, but some of the movies that were nominated even bore the hell out of me...and that's only if I've heard of them in the first place.

Sure you have "Titanic," "Gladiator," and other big budget movies that people have heard of. Half the movies nominated are simply really good movies, which were even good in spite of whatever commercial success they received. But the rest aren't. They're usually movies that a few critics will say, "I declare this movie to be acceptable" and no one questions it because they're afraid they'll look like a non-intellectual, or simply stupid.

When Oscar tries to "appeal to the mainstream?" You get a song called "It's Hard Being a Pimp" winning an award for Song of the Year. Yep. A song with such touching lyrics as "Man it seems like I'm duckin dodgin bullets everyday / N**** hatin on me cause I got, hoes on the tray / But I gotta stay paid, gotta stay above water / Couldn't keep up with my hoes, that's when shit got harder..." was the better than any other song in any other movie this year.

Martin Scorsese has zero Oscars. The Three 6 Mafia has one Oscar. Thank you very much Jon Stewart.

There are honest to God political issues that are worthy of an intelligent debate - the Dubai ports deal, the recent abortion ban in South Dakota, the war/foreign policy disaster in [pick a country off the top of your head]. But political issues surrounding an awards show? Did Hollywood snub the "gay community" by voting for the one movie not involving gay people? Was this liberal Hollywood thumbing its nose at God fearing red state America?

I just simply don't care.

Rudy Giuliani: The Belle of the Ball

2006-03-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference is this week. Many people are looking at this as the first insight into who might be running for President in 2008. Confirmed speakers, those with rumoured presidential ambitions include Senators John McCain, Bill Frist, George Allen, and Sam ~~Brokeback~~ Brownback; Governors Mitt Romney and George Huckabee; and though he's not rumoured to be running for anything, RNC Chair Ken Melhman's speech might prove interesting since he's rumoured to have a favourite.

One possible Presidential hopeful who won't be there is former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, which was the focus of an article in the most recent Newsweek. Giuliani is considered by some to be the "...most important chess piece on the table right now" where Republican and 2008 are concerned. Outside of McCain, there isn't another Republican who can match his popularity, and most polls usually have him at the top of the list.

The biggest problem many feel the former mayor will have if he chooses to run, and a reason why the SRLC might be so important for a candidate in his position, is the fact that he's pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage, two positions that will surely have the all important Southern Conservative constituency throwing their Bibles at him during the South Carolina primaries.

(For the record, I find it ABSOLUTELY DEPLORABLE that abortion and gay marriage has become the litmus test to determine what makes a good conservative. I could go on and on about how the primary system does both parties more harm than good and how pathetic it is the evangelicals have the GOP running scared about thing that have nothing to do with cutting taxes or lowering domestic spending, but why bother? You campaign with the voters you have, not with the voters you need).

There is however a glimmer of hope that some of the religious conservatives might be coming to their sense. Or at the very least, maybe they've thought long and hard about the words "President Rodham Clinton" and realize that no one they like has a chance in hell of beating her. I give you this passage from the Newsweek article:

Ralph Reed, a godfather of religious conservatives, thinks Giuliani's charisma may help him overcome his social-issues liberalism in the Bible belt. "He can take control of a room better than any politician I've seen," said Reed. The key moment with the pastors was in the private holding room, where he spent quality time among their leaders. Giuliani told them that the key to his final decision on whether to run would be whether he thought he could raise enough cash.

My thoughts? I think Mayor Giuliani would make a much better Vice Presidential candidate (along with Secretary Rice). A McCain/Giuliani ticket would be near unstoppable, and teaming him with any of the other senators rumoured to be running would make them slightly more palatable. Though if my options are either Clinton or Allen/Frist/Brownback, I'm moving in with my Deputy Chief of Staff and this site becomes "John Brodigan for a Better Ottawa."

Though with all this early talk about the 2008 elections, one has to wonder, have the Republicans all but given up on 2006?

Am I Gay Enough For Ya?

2006-02-27T01:42:00.000-05:00

As I am writing this column, my lovely bride-to-be is picking the ingrown hairs out of my back and shoulders.

Wait! My story gets better…

A friend of mine and I were recently lamenting the fact that neither one of us are as naturally well groomed as a woman might want us to be. I know for sure that if there’s one thing my fiancé wished to change about me it’s that I should take more of an interest in my appearance. She wishes that I would more time in the mirror, grooming myself and making myself look pretty as a matter of pride.

I on the other hand, and my friend agreed, believed that when it doesn’t matter I shouldn’t have to put to the time in. Grooming is for special occasions and work, not for just hanging around the house. At least that’s what I used to think before my fiancés special brand of Marge Simpson’s “gentle nagging” got me to at least shave every other day or at least before she and go out at night.

This topic among many has had me thinking of late that it’s pretty ironic how woman want to be with a “man’s man” but then can’t seem to stand anything about what being a man is all about. Men like stuff, especially my generation of men, whom are admittedly a little slow to grow up.

We like video games, music, TV, movies and sports. I myself like to curl up with a good non-fiction book, but then I’m something of a nerd. My point is, my wonderful fiancé has often pointed out that I spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on exterior things than I do on myself or more intimate details of our lives.

Oh who am I kidding, I’m the say guy that managed to miss a bartender flashing her chest to the entire club in Levittown, NY but can spot someone with Bi-Polar Disorder from a mile away.

Anywho, I have come to the conclusion that on some level, I believe that my fiancé is one of many woman who wish their man was just a little gay…just gay enough to take the proper amount of time and care in their grooming habits. You know the usual suspects; plucked eyebrows, exfoliated skin, waxed bodies, clean shaven face, manicured nails, and freshly pressed clothes.

Any woman reading this would look at this list and say, “Well yeah, your not a homeless person, why shouldn’t you do all that?” And any straight man that reads that list (usually) would say, “What man has that kind of time? I have stuff to do like watch sports, work, exercise, get drunk, and/or blog (OK that last one is just me, but you see my point.)

But many men in fact do take the time to properly groom themselves. These men typically have learned these habits from mothers or sisters and do them if for no other reason than they want to meet women, women who like a well groomed man. Of course the stereotype is that any man who takes that time on themselves instead of something important (like whatever hobby they are interested in) is clearly homosexual.

There’s the rub. Women seem to want both. As a matter of fact Nan Shipley has written a book on the subject, “Is Your Straight Man Gay Enough? The Ultimate Renovation Guide.” According to a review in the Sacramento Bee, “The book purports to aid women in surreptitiously – this is crucial – remaking their hairy, distracted, sports-addled straight men into something a little more like their well-groomed, empathetic gay best friend. The one who likes to shop, listens to her pour her heart out and loves to dance.

In Shipley’s case, her gay best friend is Jason Anthony, a literary agent in New York City who is also her co-author. Together, they have written a funny book that uses stereotypes about men on the straight-gay spectrum in the hope that a clever woman can split the difference to her advantage.”

This actually makes a lot of sense. Women want a guy that will be sympathetic to their needs and one of those needs that they should be made to feel good. One way and probably the most important way is to show how much you care by looking good for her. Now that may not make a lot of sense to guys to the ladies it is the gospel according to Cupid. She becomes special by virtue of the amount of effort your lazy butt puts into your appearance.

Listening to them and being supportive especially in those times when they feel like their world is crumbling around them also helps a bunch. Men are problem solvers. We’re a fairly simplistic bunch. The thing is, sometimes their isn’t a viable solution and all the person needs is someone to vent their frustrations to. As the guy, your job is to be there and give your sweetie a safe place to vent without this need to solve the problem quickly so they can stop talking and you can watch wrestling…wait, never mind that last part.

However, getting back to stereotypes most guys think that what I just described is a little on the gay side. What guy in their right mind wants to listen to a whole lot of whining? The answer is, the guy that wants to see their relationship work, that’s who. Being sensitive to your loves needs, whether its emotional or physical is not gay, it’s the right thing to do. There’s plenty of stuff guys want from their women that under normal circumstances they wouldn’t be willing to do but they do anyway to make us happy. The least we can do is not look like a complete slop when they want to go out to dinner on a Saturday night.

So if you have to be a little “gay” to make your woman happy, what bloody difference does it make? She certainly won’t think less of you because that’s what she wanted in the first place. Like Chris Rock once said, and I’m paraphrasing here, when you were single no woman would touch, then you met one that cleaned you up and now every woman wants to sleep with you. He was exaggerating but the point is clear, if you want to make the woman happy, you have to frolic in the periwinkles of homosexuality every now and then. It’s not the worst price to pay for a lifetime of companionship.

On Being the Single Guy...

2006-02-26T20:02:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

"Instead of wasting your time watching the news, you should do something useful like finding a girlfriend."
- something that was said to me

Being single sucks.

I've already spit a few verses in the past aboot "dating," so there's no need to revisit it. And the actual being single isn't really what "sucks." I enjoy my life. I go to the gym, write, read, go out with my friends on the weekend for a few yucks, and am able to do whatever I feel like without having to worry about entertaining anyone. I'm not saying I don't miss having a "girlfriend." I miss the companionship and the, as cheesy as this sounds, having someone to simply act silly with (that's different than it is with your regular friends). Plus lets be honest, sex is cool and "friends with benefits" never really appealed to me (even though I do have some really hot friends). But other than that, I'm really happy with my life right now. More so than I've been in a while.

What makes being single suck? It's other people. We live in a society that puts such a ridiculously heavy emphasis on who you're with. Everyone, regardless of age or gender, either judges people based on who they are (or aren't dating), or judges themselves based on who they are (or aren't) dating.

-Girls need to be in a relationship to make themselves feel complete, plus they aren't getting any younger.

-Guys like the accessory of a girlfriend. Girls accessorize with a pocketbook or some jewelry when they go out. Guys accessorize with their girlfriends.

-Families go ga ga over who's married or who's getting married, like it's a competition. If you're not, it's "okay" in that condescending sense you give a child when they come in second place. Just substitute "you did the best you could" with "I'm sure you'll find the right girl for you someday."

What's worse is when you're the single guy in a kliq full of couples, because than you're the charity case. Everyone wants to set you up and they all claim to do so because they're your friend and they're concerned about you as a friend and don't you understand what a great friend they're being to you? You can't go out for a few drinks without an endless barrage of, "What about that one? What about that one over there? Why don't you talk to that one?" Setting you up isn't "she's perfect for you," as much as it is "you're both single and we want a couple to do couple things with." It all begs to question, if everyone is being such a great friend to me, why can't they respect my wishes to leave me alone and let me live my life?

Plus I'm a shy guy and I don't really connect with that many people. That causes a three point problem when it comes to a girlfriend. First I have to find someone I connect with. Then she has to connect back. Then when once we do connect, she has to not be dating someone else. The joke is that while I'm not really sure what my type is, I do know that she's usually either with someone else, or just broke up and "isn't ready" yet. That's hard enough without having everyone interfering.

Not to mention, those stars haven't aligned all that often. When they have, it's been great and I loved every minute of it. I'm just not, nor have I ever been, willing to settle for less just because I'm at a certain age, or that my friends are all settling down, or that because everyone's doing it and if I'm not part of a couple, I just suck.

I know there are girls out there for me who are worth sharing some of my life with. When the time is right, I'll meet her, or she'll find away to reveal herself. Until then, I'm content being selfish and living my life the best way I know how.

Where Have All the Rockstars Gone?

2006-02-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

I know there are more important things going in the world, but I still found this article to be interesting. I also found it to be a shame that this is the direction the music industry is spiraling to.

Some of my favourite songs are cuts from albums that were never singles. There are some incredible, incredible songs that never got any radio airplay, yet fans scream for them when the band is in concert anyway.

It sucks that all of that is at risk of disappearing.

Will there be another U2, Led Zeppelin, or Beatles? Some observers point to Coldplay - the sensitive British band fronted by Gwyneth Paltrow's hubby, currently on tour across the US - as a band with the potential to attain Pink Floydian proportions.

But to do so, Coldplay and other would-be heirs to the throne will have to build a base audience, grow in clubs, thrive in theaters, then move on to arenas and stadiums. They will have to capture a young audience that stays with them as both band and audience age. And they'll have to stay relevant so that new generations of listeners become fans along with their older siblings - and parents.

In an era of increasingly diffuse and niche-oriented outlets for music - especially radio stations and Internet sites - it's more and more difficult for any one band to break out into the mainstream and conquer large numbers of ears. Can a band that emerges in today's climate, where pop music seems ever more disposable, ever hope to attain the colossal popularity of a Metallica, The Rolling Stones, or Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band?

Click here for more...

Teens Save Classic Rock

2006-02-14T06:24:00.000-05:00

The following was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

This was reassuring.

I find myself in utter amazement how so many younglings have so little knowledge of...well, pretty much anything. But if I'm being specific, I'm amazed how they have so little knowledge of any "old" music. Forget music from before they were born or even music from a few years ago. Some of them I doubt know anything before the song that they've just listened too.

This is something I just can't relate to. When I was a young squire, we were able to appreciate the bands of the day like Guns and Roses and Pearl Jam, as well as bands like Led Zeppelin or Queen. There's been decades of incredible music that have touched so many people - emotionally and spiritually - in such a profound way, it bothers me thinking that the music being forgotten, ignored, or to quote the vernacular of da' streetz, "slept on."

Thankfully, I came across this article from Rolling Stone, giving me a glimmer of hope. Kids today might not know what the Vice President or Canada is. But if they can tell the difference between "Black Dog" and Black Sabbath, there might be hope for this generation yet.

(BTW, Canada is another country, and the Vice President is that old guy who hangs out with President Bush and looks like George Ross from the Apprentice. He just shot a man too).

Like countless parents before him, Steven Tyler is shocked at the music that's been blaring out of his fifteen-year-old son's bedroom lately. But the Aerosmith frontman can hardly disapprove. "I walk by at night and my son is listening to Zeppelin stuff, like 'Black Dog,'" Tyler says. "He's turned all his friends on to Cream, and they're all into [Aerosmith's] Toys in the Attic. I told him, 'I can't believe you're listening to this.'"

Though classic rock is in no danger of edging out emo and hip-hop on most teenagers' playlists, a growing number of kids are also making room for Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles. At the same time, electric-guitar sales are soaring, with the cheapest models nearly doubling in sales from 2003 to 2004. "Kids go through hard rock, hip-hop and pop very quickly, and then they're hungry for something else," says E Street Band guitarist and garage-rock DJ Steven Van Zandt -- who gets hundreds of e-mails from teens thanking him for introducing them to bands like the Kinks. "They always end up coming to [classic] rock & roll."

Click here for more...

Orwell, Islam and St. Valentines Day

2006-02-13T01:21:00.000-05:00

Valentines Day. If you are with someone you love, it is an opportunity to shower that person with attention and affection befitting the Queen of Egypt (especially you men, if you know what’s good for you). If you are not involved with someone romantically, it’s either a day you’d just as soon forget or possibly (if you’ve got it like that) an opportunity to meet someone whom is just as lonely as you.

Whatever the day means to you and yours particularly, February is the month dedicated to celebration of love (and black history)). Historically, expressions of love consisted of cards or notes exchanged between lovers. These days many women regard Valentines Day as important if not more so than Christmas or their birthday (which in the minds of many women, should be regarded as a national holiday).

However, not all women in the world see Valentines Day as a positive event. For example, according to Agence France-Presse , “An Islamic separatist women's group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed to prevent couples celebrating Valentine's Day in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir.

"We will not allow anyone to observe Valentine's Day as it does nothing but spread immorality among youth," said Aasiya Andrabi, firebrand leader of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Millat or Daughters of Faith.

The group, which supports a 16-year-old separatist insurgency against New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir, is also engaged in a crusade to stamp out immorality in the Muslim-majority region.

Valentine's Day, which is celebrated February 14, is "against our culture and Islamic teachings," Andrabi said in a statement reported by Current News, a local news agency.

Once again we see the mighty Islam threatened by innocuous inanimate objects and symbols of very human emotions. It seems that every time we turn around, there’s another story out there about someone from the Islamic faith complaining that fairly normal behavior distracts too much from worshiping in the Muslim faith.

One has to wonder how that religion lasted as long as it has when the natural tendency for any human being is to flout convention and seek out the least common denominator.

As an aside, just to prove my point, not long after coalition forces ousted Baghdad from Baathist rule, men in Iraq sought out porn, in droves at the local Internet cafes. Now one could make the argument that they were just overcome by devilish Western immorality but I highly doubt we had much to do with it.
This is not the first time I’ve heard of Islamic states attempting to morally police their civilian populations. The BBC reported two years ago that, “Iran's morality police have made several raids in Tehran, in an apparent crackdown on women who flout the strict Islamic dress code.
Witnesses said dozens of young women were held in the raids on shopping centres and shops in the capital.

Police also confiscated several items of clothing deemed to be too revealing.

After winning parliamentary elections in February, hardliners warned they would not tolerate what they described as social corruption.”

We hear all the time about how we’re living in an Orwellian society, mostly based on how corporations manipulate the mainstream media into producing stories meant to shape the minds of an unread public. All things are possible but it seems to me that as far as Orwellian societies go, the Muslim world has us beaten hands down.

In Orwell’s “1984” the citizens of Oceania, spoke a dumbed down version of English called Newspeak meant to stave off behaviorally unacceptable or unappealing actions of their tightly controlled public. The main characters sexual life, was entirely regulated by two Newspeak words, sexcrime (sexual immorality) and goodsex (chastity).
Sexcrime spoke to all sexual misdeeds as the government perceived them such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and other so-called perversions, and, in addition, normal intercourse practiced for its own sake. In this quasi-fascist apocalyptic future, these acts of amour were all punishable by death.

Now “1984” was a fictional story about where the Western world seemed to be headed back in 1948. However, the more I look at what Orwell was saying about the future of society, the more his predictions seemed to be describing modern fundamentalist Islam, morality police and all.

It seems ridiculous to me that any country would spend resources to try and control peoples private behavior but then I’m just a Satanic Western infidel, so what do I know?

This does bring me to what I believe is an interesting point. The powers that be in the Muslim world are trying to rid their sphere of all Western cultural influences while desperately hanging on to Western technology and of course, Western money. Going back to the lovely ladies of Kashmir, they seem to be regarding Valentines Day as a Trojan horse of sorts, smuggling in to their pristine culture and bevy of depravity and lucidness. But, is Valentines Day just an Anglo thing or has it been adopted by all parts of the world and reframed to meet their cultural mores?

According to Thanhniennews.com, even our old Communist enemy, the Vietnamese have gotten into the spirit of love and romance.

Seeking the best gift for Valentine’s Day on February 14 has become a chance for Vietnamese youngsters to express their heartfelt feelings towards their significant other.
Since early February many souvenir gift shops in Ho Chi Minh City have been crowded with young shoppers seeking that perfect Valentines Day gift.

Personally, I say go with something thoughtfully engraved. Nothing makes a girls heart melt like a gift that was meant for HER and HER only. At least that was what my fiancé told me as we were walking through the mall during the pre-Valentines Day sales.

That’s hardly the issue here. While some radical Kashmiri women are looking to suck the fun out of yet another widely acceptable cultural phenomenon, I believe this latest episode between the East and West is a small part of a larger issue. Aside from nuclear annihilation and all of that, there is certainly more at stake in the War on Terror than I think people realize. The question boils down to whether or you want to live in the world we enjoy now or one where tokens of love and affection are sin against man.

Happy Valentines Day!

On Being an Office Slave

2006-02-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

The preceeding message was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that. -Lloyd Dobler

I was kibitzing with a friend recently who is considering a career change. He had made a comment that the only way to make a lot of money is to sell something, and he didn't want to do that. It made me think of that quote from Say Anything. When the movie first came out oh those many years ago, you laughed just because it sounded funny. It wasn't until I thought about it the other day that I full understood what Lloyd was saying.

That describes what I'd say a decent 75% of Americans do for a living, and it's never what we aspired to do. Remember those anti-drug commercials, where the voice over would say, "No one ever says I wanna be a junkie when I grow up?" No one ever says they want to work it an office when they grow up either. Like most other things in life, it just happens. And to be honest, it's not so bad.

We all have dreams of doing great things for a living, where we're famous, rich, or making a difference in the world. We all dream of making a living doing what we love. But with all dreams, eventually you have to wake up. I did begrudgingly. I had a job doing "what I loved," that wasn't all it was cracked up to be (particularly when we got laid off). I needed money, so I started taking temp jobs in offices just to pay my bills until I could find that incredible job I was going to love going to. It never happened, but something else did.

I was temping at an insurance company. No one ever goes to school saying "I want to sell insurance when I grow up," as I'm sure no one in the office did. But everyone working there was happy. They all laughed and joked around, and enjoyed each others company. Work was just, whatever. It was a simple means to an end.

That's when it hit me, it really doesn't matter what I do for a living. So what? I go to an office, stare at a computer, move some numbers around, have a few cups of coffee, and eventually go home. It doesn't stop me from reading, writing, working out, spending time with my friends and family, traveling, investing, and doing all the other things that makes life fulfilling. If anything, it affords me the ability to do so.

Plus I'll be honest, doing "what you love" for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be. What you love stops being what you love, and starts being work. Factor in the work/office politics that all jobs have, and eventually what you love can quickly become something that makes you miserable.

I'm may never make a difference in the world reconciling bank deposits or selling expensive trousers, but working only accounts for 33%of your life. That still leaves you with 67% to make that difference doing other things, or to just simply enjoy what time you have with the people that make this life worth while.

And that doesn't suck.

The Heartland Dissident

2006-02-12T17:59:00.000-05:00

The preceeding message was paid for by John Brodigan for a Better America

There was a great article on Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) in this weeks New York Times Magazine. I've been hearing Sen. Hagel on the morning shows and he's found a spot on my short list of public officials I don't hate. My political mantra is that I'm just a guy trying to figure what's right and what's wrong in a world who only cares aboot who's right and who's wrong. It's the "Conservatives are from Mars, Liberals are from Venus" way of governing that seems to have invested most of the Senate, with a short list of exceptions.

Sen. Hagel is on that list with Senators McCain (R-AZ), Warner (R-VA), Graham (R-SC), Biden (D-DE, though he needs to know when to stop talking once and a while) and surprisingly enough, Feingold (D-WI). (Senator Obama shows promise - I'm just not ready to jump on the bandwagon yet). I don't have to agree with them on everything - or anything for that matter (as is the case with Feingold and Biden). I just have to feel that when you speak, it's what you honest to God believe and that you're not just reading the script handed to you by y our party leadership, the pollsters, or "the base."

I believe that with Chuck Hagel. This article highlights most of the reasons why.

With a bluntness that seems habitual - and more than occasionally strikes fellow Republicans as disloyal - Senator Chuck Hagel started voicing skepticism about the Bush administration's fixation on Iraq as a place to fight the Global War on Terror more than half a year before the president gave the go-ahead for the assault. What the senator said in public was milder than what he said in private conversations with foreign-policy gurus like Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser in another Bush administration, or his friend Colin Powell, the secretary of state, who thought he still had a chance to steer the administration on a diplomatic course. The Nebraskan wanted to believe Powell but, deep down, felt the White House wasn't going to be diverted from its drive to topple Saddam Hussein. When he rose on the Senate floor that October to explain his vote in favor of the resolution authorizing force - he'd persuaded himself that his vote might strengthen Powell's hand - he gave a speech that would have required no editing had he decided to vote against it. What sounded then to the venture's true believers like the scolding of a Cassandra sounds fairly obvious three and a half years later, which is to say that Hagel's words can reasonably be read as prescient: "How many of us really know and understand Iraq, its country, history, people and role in the Arab world?. . .The American people must be told of the long-term commitment, risk and cost of this undertaking. We should not be seduced by the expectations of dancing in the streets." The president had said "precious little" about post-Saddam Iraq, which could prove costly, Hagel warned, "in both American blood and treasure."

Click here for more...

New Review: Plows, Plagues & Petroleum

2006-01-05T23:40:00.000-05:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

The debate over our environment seems to be split into two camps. In the first camp are uber-conservatives who appear to believe that there is no such thing as pollution or environmental degradation. These are the people who are convinced that humans have no effect on the environment, thus making it perfectly fine and ethical to ignore environmental precautions and regulations. If you’ve ever listened to the Rush Limbaugh show, he perfectly sums up this attitude when he purports that the earth has been here for untold billions of years and no matter what we do to it, it’ll continue to live on, relatively unharmed by the hands of human civilization.

The other camp professes that the above belief is a bunch of hooey. The liberal/eco-friendly/environmentalist crowd believes that the earth is sacred and should be preserved above all else. That sounds just dandy at first, but when you take a closer look at how these people intend to go about bringing on this idea of mass-preservation, it is plain to see that the strict environmentalists are at the very least irrational and unreasonable. Many feel that our modern lifestyles of invention are a sin against this valuable planet. They have suggested, quite seriously, that we abandon our polluting cities and mass manufacturing and go back to the simple life of farming. Live off the land and mother earth will go on unmolested.

Neither side is correct, according to University of Virginia's retired Professor of Environmental Studies, William F. Ruddiman. In his new book, “Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate,” Ruddiman explains in acute detail how humans, since the dawn of civilization, have affected climate and what that means for our future.

What is particularly great about this book is that Ruddiman is not speaking from the pulpit of a particular political platform. By his own admission, he is merely presenting the pure scientific facts of his arduous studies. At the end of the book, he explains rather succinctly that part of the reason he wrote “Plows, Plagues & Petroleum,” was to provide clarity in a debate that has been hijacked by extremists on both sides of the fence. He also uses this text to answer the critics of his previous work on the correlation between climate and human manipulation of the earth in the advancement of civilization. Continued

New Review: The War on Christmas

2005-12-15T23:15:00.000-05:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

‘Tis the season to be a polemic!
Actually that’s not really fair. John Gibson, author of the best seller, “Hating America,” and anchor of Fox News Channel’s, “The Big Story,” has written a reasonably rational book cataloging events where the federal holiday, Christmas, seems to be under attack in several school districts and municipalities throughout America. “The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought,” isn’t nearly as bad as the title makes it sound.

First, this is not an opinion piece like an Ann Coulter or Michael Savage book. Gibson editorializes somewhat, but his thoughts are not what comprises most of the volume. Instead, as stated above, what Gibson does is break the book down chapter by chapter based on a town where something happened that appeared to be -- or was absolutely meant to be -- a threat toward the public celebration and recognition of the Christmas holiday. The chapters take place in Covington, Georgia; Mustang, Oklahoma; Baldwin City, Kansas; Plano, Texas; Eugene, Oregon; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Maplewood, New Jersey. The narrative comes from Gibson’s first person interviews with the players of each chapter.

At 29-years-old, I can still vividly remember how my public elementary school in Uniondale, Long Island in New York plastered the halls and classrooms with Christmas trees, Santa Claus, stars (not the Jewish kind) and decidedly secular but appropriate snowflakes. On the calendar, plain as day, it read for the last two weeks of December, “Christmas Break.” This theme followed when my family moved to the other side of Nassau County and I attended Plainedge Public High School. Though my school had a large population of Jewish families, the last two weeks of school were known as the “Christmas Break.” To my recollection, not a single Jewish kid cared in the slightest why they were getting nearly two weeks off from school.

Therein lies the problem, which is the impetus for Gibson’s book. More

New Review: The FairTax Book

2005-12-08T23:35:00.000-05:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

Have you ever had this conversation?

Person A: Hey, how much did you make this week from your job?

Person B: How much did I make, or how much did I take home?

You see, right there is the problem. As a law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working society we seem to have contracted battered-wife syndrome when it comes to taxes. In what other series of circumstances would anyone put up with essentially being mugged on a weekly (or bi-weekly) basis? When it comes to income tax we shrug and just hand over our money amidst a wave of resignation.

We should be angry about this (and many of us are), but what action can we take to change our regressive tax system?

Alas, there is salvation in the form of syndicated talk show host Neil Boortz's and Congressman John Linder’s co-authored work, “The FairTax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS (Not the mention the Social Security tax, the Medicare tax, corporate income taxes, the death tax, the self-employment tax, the alternative minimum tax, the gift tax, capital gains taxes, tax audits, and some major headaches every April 15.)”

Basically the FairTax would be a consumption tax at a rate of 23% in lieu of all the above-mentioned federal taxes. The worker/investor would receive all of his or her earned income in their paycheck without any funds removed for any taxes. Under this system, if you bank every paycheck and never spend a dime of it, then you’ll never have to pay a federal tax. However, other than basic necessities such as food and clothing, most people do not manage to go through life not spending their hard-earned dough. As a result, all Americans would pay federal taxes through new consumer purchases that would carry a 23% sales tax, which would then be used to feed the federal coffers including Social Security and Medicare. (More)

The Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend…Even the Iranians

2005-12-05T00:22:00.000-05:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

What puzzles me about the last election cycle was how Bush’s team depended on the “flip flopper” label to undermine John Kerry’s candidacy. All of a sudden it became the worst thing ever to change ones mind in light of new facts. Well, in a true Bush Administration Moment, it looks as if they are indeed changing their minds and opting for a new strategy regarding the war in Iraq. In what can only be described as, “Thank God the average American citizen doesn’t pay attention to the news or has chronic Attention Deficit Disorder", the US is now looking to Iran of all countries, to help stabilize Iraq in order for US forces to withdraw from that country sometime within the next few years. Now ain’t that a kick in the head?

According to Newsweek, President Bush gave US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, explicit permission to begin a diplomatic dialogue with Iran in order to help secure Iraq after US troops’ pullout in phases. Mr. Khalilzad stated in the press that, “I’ve been authorized by the president to engage Iranians as I engaged them in Afghanistan directly.”

Ambassador Khalilzad has worked with the Iranian’s before. Khalilzad has in the past made deals with Teheran in Afghanistan, most notably at the Bonn summit of Afghan factions, which shaped the nature of Kabul's government after its liberation from the tyranny of the Taliban in 2001. It appears the Mr. Bush is looking at Khalilzad to rekindle that old magic again with our friends in Iran.

As I’ve stated previously, at this point there are so many reasons against going to war with Iran, nukes or no nukes, that dialogue and co-existence actually seem like a bold and rational strategy. Iran, as we all know by now, is indelibly tied to Russia, China, Venezuela, and as of late, India.

In fact, there are now reports that India’s view of Iran’s nuclear policy is not only nearly exactly the same as the Russians but there strategy to solve the nuclear dilemma and not refer Iran to the UN Security Council appears to be bearing fruit.

Continued Here

New Review: Condi VS Hillary

2005-11-18T00:57:00.000-05:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

The presidential race of 2008 promises to be even more bombastic than the 2004 race, which at times, seemed to nearly send this country into civil war. In many ways it will be a sequel or continuation of the events that made 2004 stand out in the annals of political history. Because 527s such as Moveon.org and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were able to vociferously shake the foundation of electoral politics, you can be sure that more groups will surface to promote their candidate du jour and the word “shrill” won’t even begin to describe them. Add to the mix a large helping of former Internet donors/bloggers and the election cycle of 2008 promises to be more entertaining than a barrel of monkeys on ecstasy.
Nearly everyone on the planet with the exception of my father believes that the honorable junior senator from New York, former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, is running for the seat currently occupied by President George W. Bush. The political wisdom of the day is that she has been eyeing the oval office ever since she attended Wellesley College and now is in a tenable position to effectively contend for that much-coveted role of Commander In Chief. Because Senator Clinton is such a relatively powerful and (more importantly) famous public servant, likely challengers and their chances at beating her in a national election have become somewhat of a cottage industry in the American public marketplace.

Enter “Condi VS. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race,” by former Clinton political consultant, pollster, and Fox News contributor Dick Morris and his wife, CEO of Vote.com Eileen McGann. This might be considered the third installment of Dick Morris’ loose trilogy of books apparently designed to eviscerate the Clinton’s legacy and more to the point, derail Hillary’s attempt to re-enter the White House as President of the United States. After taking Hillary and Bill head on in their respective autobiographical responses, “Rewriting History,” and “Because He Could,” Morris takes a different tact with “Condi VS. Hillary.”

This book is promotional material meant to jumpstart a “Draft Condi” movement well ahead of the 2008 presidential election cycle. In this work, Morris compares and contrasts both women with the intent of selling Madame Secretary of State on the US public as a viable challenger to the supposed juggernaut that is a Hillary candidacy. At least half of the book is written in such a way that Ms. Rice comes across as Jesus of Nazareth coming to bring salvation to American voters, while Hillary is something akin to the plagues of Exodus meant to drive us all into the sea. (More)

New Review: Kremlin Rising

2005-11-11T00:29:00.000-05:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

This is a story about a boss. A strong boss. The kind of boss that could bring stability to a land that has only flirted with normalcy throughout its long and storied history. This is a story about one such man and his people who apathetically traded in democracy for a chance at normal life.

Those who have studied Russia/The Soviet Union know full well just how dysfunctional its society can be. Whether it was the tsars/czars or the communists, Russian people often didn't know what or who was going to be in charge. If there has been one characteristic of the Russian people, it has been a desire for somebody to take control and give them the stability that has eluded them for far too many years.

“Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the End of Revolution,” by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, former Moscow bureau chiefs for the Washington Post, is a blow by blow account of how a former KGB agent rose from mediocrity to become President of the newly democratic Russia -- only to cancel democracy and become a quasi-dictator. It is also a neat account of how the people of Russia have gone along with this rollback of democracy, which in many ways highlights the psycho-social dynamics of the folks who populate the former Soviet Empire. (More)

New Review: The God Gene

2005-10-27T23:34:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

In today’s highly charge political atmosphere, science and religion seem to be at war with one another. Half of the people in this country still think the theory of evolution is a threat to their religion and insist that schools should teach Intelligent Design. The other half believe that anything having to do with religion should be relegated to the basements of people’s homes and the word “God” should be listed as the eighth dirty word you can’t say on television. Secular, science prone folks think that the religious folks are lowering the bar for academics and intelligence, while the religious folk believe the other half to be a bunch of godless heathens who are going straight to hell.

One would think that it would be impossible to merge those two parties together in some sort of cohesive fashion, but author and preeminent geneticist at the National Cancer Institute, Dean Hamer, has successfully accomplished just that. Hamer has written a book entitled, “The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes,” that in my opinion successfully makes the case that biology and spirituality are one in human existence.

First, let me say that we are not necessarily talking about religion here. Religion is a social construct made up of cultural, historical events, and meaningful rituals. Religion is the sum of biology, spirituality, and the lesser realized geographic lottery, not the impetus of spirituality, as one might tend to argue. (More)

New Review: Endgame

2005-10-14T00:40:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

The War on Terror is not an easy subject to write on. First, it is hard to even begin talking about it because there is no absolute truth about it. Abortion kills fetuses. That is an absolute truth. The question then becomes whether or not killing fetuses is something we should allow or not allow, and then the conversation moves on from there. With the War on Terror, there is no absolute truth. Some people don’t even believe there is one going on, that it’s merely a catch phrase. It’s like having a conversation with somebody who doesn’t believe the Holocaust ever happened; you just can’t even begin the discourse.

“Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror,” by Lt. General Thomas McInerney & Maj. General Paul Vallely is not for everyone and there’s no way it can be. When I review books, I try to steer clear of the really bad polemics (barring Michael Savage and Ann Coulter, which I read for laughs). I try to tackle only the books which appear to be the most evenhanded. Though “Endgame” is written soberly and without that crazy alarmist slant that makes it seem like jihadis are beating down our very door, it was clearly written with a certain audience in mind: the Fox News audience.

This book will not win over any new converts. Before reading it you must first already believe that we are in a war against radical Muslim fundamentalist terrorists. That may seem rather obvious, but it does need to be stated out loud. If you are of the opinion that the only reason there is Muslim terrorism is because of the existence of Israel or bad behavior on the part of the US, then there’s no point in reading this book. The authors are former US military men and current Fox News military analysts, so the fact that there’s a heavy US-favored slant goes without saying. Read more

Crony Baloney

2005-10-13T10:31:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

You know it’s the end of the world, as we know it when you find yourself in complete agreement with both Bill Maher and Ann Coulter.

Our common ground has come in the form of Supreme Court Justice nominee Harriet Ellan Miers. We all agree that this woman, while deserving of praise and respect, is grossly unqualified to fill the spot of Supreme Court Justice. As Ms. Coulter so eloquently put it, “You’re not suppose to nominate the cleaning lady, we thought this was clear!” Indeed, Ms. Coulter.

According to the Washington Post, Ms. Miers experience is as follows: 2004 – Present, White House counsel; 2003 – 2004, White House deputy chief of staff for policy; 2001 – 2003, White House staff secretary; 1995 – 2001 chairwoman, Texas State Lottery Commission; 1972 – 2000, private law practice; 1992 – 1993, president, State Bar of Texas; 1989 – 1991, member Dallas City Council; 1985, president, Dallas Bar Association.

This is all well and good but she’s missed one critical career move that would have at least brought her qualifications within a hairs breath of being adequate for the job – she’s never actually been a judge! I don’t think she’s even brought a case before the Supreme Court. With her nomination, President Bush has essentially said that anyone with a law degree and pulse can be a Supreme Court Justice.

This is not the way to do business. Apparently GW chooses people to fill important positions the same way Bill Clinton chose “dates” in the White House; they both just look outside their respective Oval Office door and tap the first person within 30 feet.

I’m thinking maybe I should try going to law school and then get a job as White House janitor. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to be mopping when GW needs to pick a new UN Ambassador.

It should go without saying that any nomination the president is privileged to make should come from a pool of the most qualified people in that discipline. When you nominate the head of the EPA, you should find someone with a high pedigree of experience in both environmental sciences and administration. You don’t nominate the dude who ran the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 because he happened to be sipping from the White House water fountain when the nomination needed to be made. So it goes with the highest court in the land. The president should be choosing from a pool of qualified JUDGES, not the broad who thinks George W. Bush – Mr. Misunderestimated – is the smartest man she’s known. Look, I voted for the guy and even I don’t think that.

It’s not as if he tried to find a woman who was qualified and this was the best he could come up with. There are organizations such as the Federalist Society, whom have made it their job to collect and cultivate resumes of good conservative judges that would be beyond reproach for such an esteemed position of power. In the July 25, 2005 issue of the Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol wrote, “President Bush would improve the Court by appointing any from a long list of well-qualified women. Among them are federal appellate judges like Edith Jones, Edith Brown Clement, and Priscilla Owen on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Janice Rogers Brown on the D.C. Circuit, Karen Williams on the 4th Circuit, and Alice Batchelder on the 6th Circuit; distinguished law professors like Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard, and Lillian R. BeVier, John S. Shannon Professor of Law at Virginia; and state court judges like the impressive Maura D. Corrigan, who served on the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1992 to 1998, and has been on the Michigan Supreme Court since then, including a stint as chief justice. And the list goes on.”

Needless to say Ms. Miers was not the best or only choice for the job. But that’s not the issue with George W. Bush now is it? The issue has been and will always be loyalty above all else. Nobody does, says, or goes anywhere without being loyal to the Godfather, lest they be smeared into oblivion by resident traitor Karl Rove. It’s not about whether you’ll be good in the chosen position, it’s about your ability to follow orders, complete tasks, look good on the cover of the New York Times and most importantly, keep your mouth shut!

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil had one job in the administration; pass a massive tax cut. He accomplished that mission and shortly thereafter the administration had no more use for the guy. He wrote a book about this, thus showing his disloyalty and the Bush administration called him everything but a Communist and a homosexual.

Former terrorism czar Richard Clarke alleges that his boss wanted him to “find” evidence that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. When he couldn’t and/or wouldn’t and then decided to tell his story to the world, the administration essentially called him Chicken Little and further claimed that he was, “out of the loop.” Now why they would keep the terror czar out of any loop is beyond me and maybe a question for a later column.

Loyalty. Condoleezza Rice was loyal and she was promoted to Secretary of State. If she stays loyal she will most likely be “drafted” to face Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2008. Colin Powell loyally kept his mouth shut after being the good soldier by putting on a brilliant dog and pony show for the UN in the run-up to the Iraq War. Now he’s going to possibly own a baseball team and occasionally he hangs out with Bush instead of being hung out to dry like O’Neil and Clarke. Loyalty.

All jokes aside, Harriet Miers has one function if she becomes a Supreme Court Justice. Her function will be to be loyal to a fault to George W. Bush. For the next three years that will be a lofty job indeed but once he’s gone…what? The man can’t be president anymore after 2008. Loyalty to him in a lifetime position will amount to nothing. It would be one thing if she were this staunch conservative whom one could depend on to vote a certain way no matter who was in the White House, but she isn’t. She was on Harry Reid’s short list for Pete’s sake! She’s a Bush crony and nothing more.

George W. Bush is the Wizard of Oz. It would seem that the people chosen to surround him act as the curtain to keep the prying eyes of the American public from seeing who he really is. With this nomination of Harriet Miers he as reduced our Supreme Court to the likes of a country club. Shame on him and shame on us for giving him 4 more years to make a mockery out of every branch of government.

New Review: Open Wide

2005-09-30T01:46:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

Being the type of movie fan that would practically live in the theaters during the summer months or even see up to four movies in a weekend, it was quite interesting to read “Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession,” by Dade Hayes & Jonathan Bing.

“Open Wide,” published by Miramax Books/Hyperion, is the inside story of how a film gets produced and marketed to consumers. The reader is taken behind the scenes of a typical summer blockbuster release weekend to find out why by the time a film is released, we’re all simply ecstatic to overpay for tickets and stand in long lines in the dead of night with other movie geeks.

“Open Wide,” focuses on three major motion picture releases for the 2003 summer season. The movies competing for the July 4th market of expendable moviegoer income are “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde,” and the DreamWorks animated feature, “Sinbad.” Using these releases as the anchor for the narrative of the book, the reader learns about how armies of slick marketers shape and manipulate the consumer base well ahead of the release date so that their box office numbers will be smashed out of the park on opening weekend -- no matter how good or bad the actual movies are.

However, this book is not just about how and why the fans react as they do, but also about the acute neurosis of the Hollywood moguls and filmmakers that are only as good as their last gig. In Hollywood, you may be king for a day, but a fool for a lifetime if you take projects that fail to bring home big box office numbers (just ask John Travolta before Quentin Tarrantino resurrected his career in “Pulp Fiction”). Read More

I Want a New Fuel Source

2005-09-28T00:47:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

With apologies to Huey Lewis & the News:

“I Want a New Fuel Source, One that won’t make me broke, One that won’t make me crash my car, Or make me have a…stroke”

OK so not much rhymes with broke that would have made sense here and I’m not much of a poet.

All tomfoolery aside, the issue of renewable and clean energy for mass consumption is a serious issue indeed. Unfortunately, because of shortsightedness, greed and public malaise combined with mass Attention Deficit Disorder, we as a country are for the time being, in an abusive relationship with crude oil.

As of July 2005, the US imported on average10.256 million barrels per day of crude oil. The single biggest exporter to the US was Canada, oddly enough, not Saudi Arabia or Iraq (though they do come in at 2 and 6 respectively).

“The top five exporting countries accounted for 68 percent of United States crude oil imports in July and the top ten sources accounted for approximately 86 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports.” (Source)

On the domestic side, the US produces on average 5,419,000 Barrels per day. However, here’s the rub:

“The United States consumed an average of about 20.4 million bbl/d of oil during the first ten months of 2004, up from 20.0 million bbl/d in 2003. Of this, motor gasoline consumption was 9.0 million bbl/d (or 44% of the total), distillate fuel oil consumption was 4.1 million bbl/d (20%), jet fuel consumption was 1.6 million bbl/d (8%), and residual fuel oil consumption was 0.8 million bbl/d (4%)l. Total 2005 petroleum demand is projected to grow by just 1.4% (280,000 bbl/d), to an average 20.7 million bbl/d, in response to the combined effects of somewhat slower economic growth and relatively high crude oil and product prices. All the major products (except residual fuel oil) are expected to contribute to this growth. Motor gasoline demand is projected to increase 1.8%, to 9.22 million bbl/d. Jet fuel demand is projected to post a growth rate of 3.1% in 2005 to average 1.67 million barrels per day, still below 2000 jet fuel consumption but sharply up from post-9/11 lows it reached in 2002 and 2003. Distillate demand in 2005 is projected to grow only 1.5% year-over-year as industrial growth slows.” (Source)

In short, between automotive gasoline, jet fuel and other oil related products, US domestic consumption will continue to grow as supply itself or access to cheap product decreases. In either scenario, the price of fuel in the American marketplace will continue to escalate along with the cost of living as salaries and job opportunities dwindle.

These sorts of economic woes wouldn’t annoy me so much if they were unavoidable. For example, I don’t lament the lack of domestic jobs due to globalization and the rise of cheap labor in Asia because it couldn’t nor shouldn’t be stopped. It’s the natural effect of open global markets. However, this debacle regarding our shameful energy policy is fixable if not for politicians bought and paid for by oil lobbies and an unread population unwilling to pay attention and demand more of their duly elected public servants.

The fact of the matter is that we don’t have to have automobiles fueled by crude oil. There are viable alternatives that are available to the public in our markets as we speak.

For example, last year I believe it was Daryl Hannah who went on “The O’Reilly Factor” to promote Grassolean.com, one of the companies currently producing and marketing biodiesel automobile fuel.

According to their website, “Biodiesel is a vegetable oil based fuel that can be used as a replacement for petroleum diesel in any diesel engine with little or no modification to that engine. Biodiesel is rapidly gaining acceptance around the world, in large part, due to the its many health and environmental benefits, when compared to the effects of regular diesel.

The combustion engine has stood unrivalled as the primary source of power for industry and transportation. Continued use of these engines in the near and distant future is almost certain. Much like crude petroleum oil, crude vegetable oil can be processed into fuels. Unlike fossil fuel, "bio-fuel" can be grown year after year on the same land.”

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New Review: Countdown To Terror

2005-09-23T05:20:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

Iran is the new Iraq -- just listen to the rhetoric coming out of Washington or browse the bevy of available titles in your local chain bookstore. Currently, there is a stampede of authors attempting to persuade the reading public that Iran is either going to blow the whole world up tomorrow or that they can be reasoned with and the only on-going threat to global security is George W. Bush. That’s the double-edged sword of the free American marketplace; there’s a place on the shelf for every opinion, regardless of how close to the truth it actually is.
There is enough spin and jingoism in the American marketplace to drag the average book consumer into a whirlpool of doubt and confusion. Almost every book I pick up seems to be well researched and highly footnoted, but one would be naïve to believe that these authors are above reproach when penning their individual message. They’ve all got a dog in the hunt somewhere so one has to take each of these titles with some degree of skepticism. And in the end, the reader is wholly subjected to the whims and fancies of the author’s narrative.

“Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information That Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America…And How the CIA Has Ignored It,” by Congressman Curt Weldon, Vice Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is a different animal entirely. Apparently what Congressman Weldon has done here is compiled a litany of declassified intelligence from a source high up in the ranks of Iran and presented it for public consumption.

This isn’t a pile of documents and interviews re-written into a form of a narrative like a Bob Woodward book. This book is literally a stack of intelligence papers presented nearly unmolested in their original forms. Essentially, outside of some narrative explanations, an introduction, and a conclusion full of recommendations, it’s a series of faxes from a man code-named Ali bound together and published by Regnery.

Continued...

The Ugly Ducklings Growing Approval

2005-09-22T00:14:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

Since Israel was created in 1948, after UN Resolution 181 partitioned the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine into two states for Jews and Palestinian Arabs, Israel has been the ugly duckling of the international community. This has mostly been driven by a historical general hatred of the Jewish people. The creation of Israel on “Arab soil” has only exacerbated the world’s hatred of the Israeli’s. In the eyes of those who would rather see the Jews, “pushed into the sea,” the fact that they handily won the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, The 1967 Six-Day War, and of course the 1973 Yom Kippur War, so soon after first the Holocaust and then their recent establishment of a country, has only reinforced said peoples desire to bomb Israel back to the Biblical Age.

While it is common knowledge that the US has had diplomatic relations with Israel since its creation, China, Russia, The European Union, Turkey and many African nations such as South Africa also recognize Israel. By the same token, historically, Israel was not formally recognized or actively boycotted against by most if not all of the Arab League Countries. However, over time, other than Iran and to a lesser extent Saudi Arabia, most of the Middle Eastern countries have either abandoned the boycott or just don’t enforce it anymore.

Though the creation of Israel is the result of a UN Resolution, there is a considerable anti-Semitic component behind the policies pursued there and expressed without challenge. On most occasions the US will stick up for Israel, but not all the time and certainly with our close relationship to Saudi Arabia, the US has done its fair share of playing both sides to our own advantage.

However, the ugly duckling of the global community, Israel, as a result of the recent Gaza pullout, has been making some fairly positive headlines, especially with respect to the UN. According to several sources, including The Independent, “Israel is seeking to capitalise on what it sees as an increase in international contacts - including with Muslim countries - by seeking a place on the UN Security Council.

It has indicated that it wants to join other countries in being allocated a rotating place on the Security Council for the first time in the 57-year history of the state. The move follows contacts including an unprecedented meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan, which both countries said was partly in recognition of Israel's withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza.”

I fully support the Gaza pullout despite being very much pro-Israel. One of the many reasons I thought it was a good idea, no matter what happens to that area, is that within all reasonable arguments, pulling out of Gaza and firmly supporting an equal Palestinian state wipes the political crud off of Israel’s face. I know many pro-Israel hawks believe that the Palestinians can’t be trusted and this only exposes more Israeli’s to death and destruction but for lack of a better phrase, so what? Israel needs to be concerned with how it looks to the global community, not how the Palestinians will squander their latest chance at stability. There’s nothing stopping Israel from defending itself when it has to but in the meantime, the devils must be given their due. This gesture will and already has begun to reframe Israel’s image in the global community, for the better.

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Book review...

2005-09-16T09:57:00.000-04:00

I recently purchased the book "Wrestlers are like seagulls, from McMahon to McMahon" the story of J.J. Dillon, by J.J. Dillon, Scott Teal and Philip Varriale, available from Crowbar Press, via J.J.'s website, www.jjdillon.com. There is a link on the site that transfer's you to Teal's site, where the book can be purchased. Before I review the book, I want compliment Teal and Dillon/Morrison with speedy and personalized service and Dillon put a very thoughtful autograph to me personally. The price of the book and shipping is available on the Dillon website.

I guess I should mention some of my personal thoughts on Dillon before I get into the nuts and bolts of the book. My earliest memories of J.J. is like most people, his run as the manager of the 4 Horseman in the NWA/Crockett territory. Like most people, I lost track of J.J. afterwards, until his appearance on WCW many years later as a figurehead commissioner. Some of WCW's better moments had interaction between Dillon and Chris Jericho (remember Jo Jo DeLeon???) and of course later with Lenny and Lodi. J.J. also made two brief appearances with TNA that come to mind. The J.J. Dillon character was always an unselfish character, always working hard to "get over" the wrestlers. Long before I read his book, I realized that the Dillon character was a "bumping heel", designed to get others over. Even in his runs as commissioner, he was still working to get talent over, not to get himself over. We see so little of unselfish performers like Dillon in today's modern wrestling, it is almost bizarre to think that characters like J.J. Dillon once existed.

Anyhow, the book itself is an interesting read. The book meticulously details the career of a relatively successful wrestler and manager, who was the top or near the top of the card his whole career. Early parts of the book describes how Dillon got his start in wrestling, his runs throughout the various territories. It has numerous funny road stories, as Dillon has always had a natural comedic talent to him. He tells funny and engaging stories at will. He briefly talks of his 3 1/2 year run with the 4 Horseman and tell the obligatory Ric Flair with no pants story (doesn't all wrestling books have pantsless Flair story???).

Upon accepting a non-television character role from Vince McMahon, J.J. goes into considerable detail on his 7 plus years he spent with what was then Titan Sports. Dillon was at Titan through many of Titan's greatest highs and lows. He touches on the sexual harassment trial involving Terry Garvin and Mel Phillips, he touches on the steroid scandal when Vince thought that Pat Patterson and Dillon would have to run the company while McMahon was in jail. Dillon also discusses the tail end of the Hogan/Warrior years and the beginning of the Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels years (including Jerry Jarrett's surprising role in Vince's decision to push Bret and Shawn). I will warn you, don't look for J.J. to name names or give a lot of dirt on what happened. Generally J.J. simply tells you what he seen, not his opinion or rumors or he out and out says he cannot comment on some matters due to fear of being legally tackled by WWE.

J.J. describes his leaving Titan Sports, when his role was Vince's right hand man. He then discusses his move to WCW and Turner Sports/Entertainment and his role (or lack thereof) in the soon to be sinking ship. J.J. does not really tell you anything you haven't heard before about WCW, other than giving the reader a first hand view of what happened, why it failed and why it would never succeed. It is just another chapter in the sad story of WCW. J.J. goes through considerable detail in describing the differences between McMahon and Bischoff and why WCW failed and why it would never succeed and why Vince is still in business and will be in business for many years to come.

I have described in the last couple of paragraphs of the book's dealings with wrestling, but this book is more than that. It is the story of a man who had three failed marriages and had three sets of kids. It is the story of a man had a constant struggle in his life, of living his dream, of doing what he loved and trying to maintain a normal life and being a family man while working in what has to be the most insane business in the world. The sections of the book where Dillon discusses his family is almost heartbreaking, I could not imagine standing in J.J.'s shoes, having to constantly make the choice between his job and family.

I think ultimately for Jim Morrison, this book is somewhat therapeutic and it is telling his family why he did what did and why the wrestling business was what he chose for a living. Jim Morrison is a smart, articulate and educated man, he chose wrestling, he did not have to be in the wrestling business. He did it because he loved it. The wrestling business did the same to J.J. Dillon as it has done to thousands of others. It ate him up, spit him out.

So, we are left with mid-60's Jim Morrison, a guy who has to carry a lunch can to work each day for the first time in his life and has to deal with three broken marriages and three sets of children all over the country. Should we feel sorry for him??? Of course not, for J.J. Dillon it was a wonderful ride, of highs and lows and I can guarantee, any of us would be blessed to walk in his shoes and to experience a life like he did. For all of us in dead end jobs, that we do because we get paid, Jim Morrison lived the dream, he did a job he loved, a job he was passionate about. A job that he got to see the world, he got to rub shoulders with the rich and famous and he got to make a good living doing it. J.J. Dillon isn't looking for pity, he isn't looking for respect, he simply wants to tell a story about a man who lived a dream...

Inventor fuels car with dead cats

2005-09-15T08:12:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought the world couldn't get any stranger...

"BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A German inventor has angered animal rights activists with his answer to fighting the soaring cost of fuel -- dead cats.

Christian Koch, 55, from the eastern county of Saxony, told Bild newspaper that his organic diesel fuel -- a homemade blend of garbage, run-over cats and other ingredients -- is a proven alternative to normal consumer diesel.

"I drive my normal diesel-powered car with this mixture," Koch said. "I have gone 170,000 km (106,000 miles) without a problem."

The Web site of Koch's firm, "Alphakat GmbH", says his patented "KDV 500" machine can produce what he calls the "bio-diesel" fuel at about 23 euro cents (30 cents) a liter, which is about one-fifth the price at petrol stations now.

Koch said around 20 dead cats added into the mix could help produce enough fuel to fill up a 50-liter (11 gallon) tank.

But the president of the German Society for the Protection of Animals, Wolfgang Apel, said using dead cats for fuel was illegal.

"There's no danger for cats and dogs in Germany because this practice is outlawed in Germany," Apel told Bild on Wednesday in a story entitled "Can you really make fuel out of cats?"

"We're going to keep an eye on this case," Apel said."

What War With Iran May Look Like

2005-09-13T09:19:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

There's this conspiracy theory/whispered belief out there that says that Israel via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential pro-Israel group, is pressing the Pentagon to employ a strategy of regional transformation in the Middle East. AIPAC, in theory, feels that because most of the regimes in the Middle East are obviously anti-Israel, it would be beneficial to them to remove from power any and all hostile governments from the region. However, since most of the world tends to lean anti-Semitic, this plan requires subterfuge because stating outright that the War on Terror is really a war to defend Israel wouldn't play well in the sticks...or anywhere else for that matter.

There's some indication that even in the short run, invading Iraq has caused there to be significant pressure on certain "friendly" regimes to make at least ancillary changes in their approach to Israel. For example, according to Islam-Online, "Riyadh has promised, as part of a bilateral agreement signed with Washington on Friday, September 9, not to enforce aspects of the Arab League boycott of Israel that apply to US firms doing business with Israel, US Trade Representative Rob Portman said in a statement posted on his Web site.

The kingdom has also pledged to abide by WTO rules in its trade with all 148 members of the WTO, including Israel, he added.

"As a result of negotiations on its accession to the WTO, we will see greater openness, further development of the rule of law, and political and economic reform in Saudi Arabia".

The agreement, signed without public fanfare in Washington, paves the way for Saudi Arabia to join the WTO by the end of 2005.

The United States was the last WTO member to reach a bilateral market access deal with Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia is one of the four largest world economies outside the WTO and is the only Gulf country that is not member of the world organization."

Though the article goes on the state that AIPAC isn't satisfied with this development, I still contend that the Saudi's wouldn't have even bothered with this much of an olive branch if US soldiers weren't currently blowing up bits and pieces of their Gulf neighbor, Iraq. But small changes and long drawn out diplomacy using economic partnerships as a carrot isn't really what the Pentagon is allegedly after.

If the whispers and the conspiracy theories are true then what AIPAC and the Pentagon really want is for all volatile and hostile regimes to be forcefully removed from the Middle East/Central Asia and be replaced by those who be more amicable to Israel and more importantly, sell the US cheap and dependable oil. Phase 1 of this plan seems to have been carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan, for better or for worse depending on whom you ask. As I've written many times before, the signs seems to pointing toward Iran as the next logical domino that the US would like to topple.

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My Reflections on the Anniversary of 9/11

2005-09-11T23:28:00.000-04:00

I was working in Brooklyn when Islamic terrorists, mostly from Saudi Arabia, used airplanes as missiles and destroyed the World Trade Center. I was 25 years old at the time. I had just started working as foster care social worker a few months prior and was set to begin work on my Masters degree. My office in downtown Brooklyn was a few blocks down from a pier that overlooked the financial district of Manhattan island. That morning my biggest concern was trying to get to work on time as had a tendency to be late most mornings. Little did I know that in just a few hours my co-workers, mostly middle-aged black women, and friends would be looking for me to give answers about why these alleged strangers were attacking our city. I didn't have many answers that day.

I was on the pier watching flames shoot from the Towers. I tried to make sense of it all to those around me who cried helplessly as the world they thought they knew seemed to be unraveling around them. I stood amongst Americans of all stripes while they frantically tried to get information from their handheld radios. Every minute brought another grim detail. Every detail brought more tears around me. I stood and watched in silence. What could I say, I didn't know anything. All I could do was comfort those around me.

The first Tower exploded. Glass flew in what seemed like a million different directions. I felt the boom of the explosion across the East River, from the relative safety of Brooklyn. There is not a day that goes by that I don't hear that sound or see that explosion. Every day that tower falls in my mind.

I was just a kid really. I had just moved back in with my parents after three years of living on my own attempting to be a screenwriter in Hollywood. I knew nothing of world events to speak of. My knowledge of politics was limited to what I could recall from spoken word albums by former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra. I voted Green in the 2000 election because Nader seemed like the only candidate worth getting out of bed to vote for.

I was lucky I knew that much. I certainly didn't know who Osama Bin Laden was so when people turned to ask me, "why?" I simply answered, "I don't know." I swore I would find out though. I swore to anyone that would listen that I would come up with some answers.

When it was over and I took the long, overly crowded Long Island Rail Road home, a wave of thoughts hit me all at once. I started thinking about why we were attacked and once more, why I didn't know anything about it in the first place. For all my punk-rock attitude and swagger, I never once bothered to keep an eye on the government that was supposed to be protecting me from just this sort of act of war. In the years we were being hit by Al Qaeda on a seemingly regular basis, I read Star Wars books, played video games, watched endless movies and bought death metal records. There was no excuse for it. I was an adult and I should have known better.

Since September 11th I've made it my business to read as much as I can about world affairs and history. I started this blog as a way to feel like I was contributing something to the national conversation. If the Islamic terrorists are successful in attacking us again, and I'm sure they will be, I need to be able to answer those around me. I need to be able to answer the question, "why?” If every American collectively forgets about 9/11 or even the Iraq War, and I'm the only person left who remembers, then so be it. I'll never forget and I'll never stop learning.

The irony of this whole affair is that regardless of what the right-wing pundits keep squawking on about, we're really not any safer than we were before 9/11. Our system is failing us and has been since shortly after the event itself.

I didn't intend to write this piece. I was inspired when I read this from Iranfocus.com, "Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been following closely the way the United States government has been handling Hurricane Katrina, and drawing strategic conclusions from it.

In remarks that appeared on Ansar-e Hezbollah website on Sunday, a top official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said the devastating hurricane had exposed America’s vulnerabilities.

“The mismanagement and the mishandling of the acute psychological problems brought about by Hurricane Katrina clearly showed that others can, at any given time, create a devastated war-zone in any part of the U.S.”, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, the official spokesman of the IRGC, said.

“If the U.S. attacks Iran, each of America’s states will face a crisis the size of Katrina”, he said, referring to the massive hurricane which hit the southern coast of the United States. “The smallest mistake by America in this regard will result in every single state in that country turning into a disaster zone”.

“How could the White House, which is impotent in the face of a storm and a natural disaster, enter a military conflict with the powerful Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly with the precious experience that we gained in the eight-year war with Iraq?” he said."

Indeed. There it is in a nutshell. Mother Nature has peeled back the curtain on a regime in Washington more concerned with staying in power and overall cronyism than it is in doing the job of upholding American security. They are no more interested in winning this War on Terror than they are in ceasing our dependence on oil. If anyone in Washington were even remotely serious about the War on Terror, Riyadh and Tehran would be parking lots right now and Cindy Sheehan would be haranguing Bush about when he's bringing the boys home from Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Don't get me wrong; the Democrats are no better and if they were in power now I'd be saying the same thing. In the immortal words of Lewis Black, "The only difference between a Democrat and a Republican is that a Democrat sucks and a Republic blows."

We as a country have distanced ourselves from the gravity of the danger that is still threatening us. We have forgotten what 9/11 means and the first people to forget were our elected officials on both sides of the aisle. As long as our two-party system puts power ahead of security then we will remain exposed to the bevy of danger lurking in the sands of the Arab desert.

On Katrina, the mainstream media has been echoing the phrase, "playing the blame game," for the past week or so. I'm in agreement with one of my fellow friends and writers when he says, "...I want to punch someone whenever I hear the words “blame game.” “On Katrina, the War in Iraq, 9/11 and whatever else is on the horizon, if you want to cast blame, first blame yourself. It's our jobs as Americans to keep an eye on our elected officials to make sure they aren't doing their jobs like African strongmen. We aren't doing that. Those of us that do pay attention would rather fight each other over our respective ideologies.

Look, when it comes to social issues like abortion or even economic issues like free trade, I tend to lean conservative. However, when terrorists threaten to end or convert Western Civilization I'm an American first. Those of you who are loyal to your political party first rather than your country as a whole are complicit in this administrations or any others utter failure to do their jobs correctly.

The elected officials are awful too but we allow them to be so. We do not pay attention long enough to demand better intelligence that would stop another 9/11 from happening. As I see it, there's enough blame to go around. AS a matter of fact, if there's one thing binds us all together is that we are all guilty of not keeping our eyes on any of the balls. Apparently, the Revolutionary Guard of Iran has figured that out as well.

So as I reflect on September 11th, I still feel the hanger and the disappointment I felt as I saw the first Tower collapse into oblivion. I think about my life and how I've tried to cope with that day.

I'm not a professional writer. I'm still a social worker who works hard to make ends meet. I try to be there for my family and for my fiancé when they need me, which requires a weekly 4-hour drive from Miami to Tampa. By Sunday I'm ready to hide under whatever bed happens to be in the vicinity. Yet I still read book after book relevant to what's going on in today's global village. I attack my computer night after night looking for articles and offering my opinions because I think in some small way it helps. I'm moved from a profound sense of duty, which may just be hubris but what the hell, I don't know what more I can do. All I know is that I do it because I feel I have to. There's a small segment of us paying attention and yet look at what our elected officials have allowed to happen. Imagine what our country would like if people like myself gave up paying attention as well.

New Review: China Inc.

2005-09-08T20:38:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

Even in a society such as ours that clings to isolationism like it's precious oxygen, it is near impossible to ignore the juggernaut that is China. With its population a billion strong and its relatively recent turn toward economic liberalization, China lies in every facet of American consumerism.
This intimate tie to China can best be seen in a trip through Wal-Mart. Pick up any article of clothing at random and you’ll find that you are holding a garment made by the hands of a low-paid unskilled laborer from any number of China’s increasingly growing provinces and cities. Now walk over to the cheaply priced DVD players and you’ll see the same thing. And that’s just the unskilled labor force; every year China adds more engineers and scientists to the global economy. They will displace you. In fact, they have already.

Former floor trader, member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and all around business commentator, Ted C. Fishman, has written a guide to understanding the new China. His book entitled, “China Inc. -- How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World,” is a thorough resource for the average American who is slow to catch on to the fact that we will live in an increasingly connected and interdependent global economy. This powerful message is brought to light by the simple, yet graphic front cover: a United States flag pin with "China" stamped on the back. When the typical manufacturing employee loses their job here, Fishman explains in detail that it’s probably because of China and there’s no stopping it.

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Three Countries Blocked All Efforts To Stop The Corruption

2005-09-08T08:52:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

The latest Volcker report says that the UN can't conduct massive multi-million dollar programs such as the UN Oil-For-Food program because from the Security Council on down, the agency is rife with corruption. While the UN does do some good things and ostensibly it is a good place for countries to work out grievances without having to start wars (as conducted by their militaries, as opposed to using terrorists as a proxy), it is plain to see that the UN has fallen far from it's intended purpose. These days it acts as a collective lobbying effort to humiliate both Israel and the United States. What's more, it gives a form for countries that are not strong enough to economically and militarily challenge the US, like France, undeserved equality. China and Russia are a slightly different story.

I've said many times that I thought going into Iraq was strategically the right thing to do if we wanted to put ample pressure on the Iranian mullahs. What this latest installment of the Volcker report clearly shows is that there was no will on the part of the UN Security Council to contain Hussein's Iraq and most likely, as evidenced by the below article, the UNSC was on it's way to lifting the sanctions from Iraq entirely.

Did his regime have WMD's? All reports currently say no but some, like Curt Weldon and Yosseff Bodansky, believe that some WMD were moved to Syria well before the war started and then recently moved to Lebanon. I have no idea if that is true but if it were, then lifting the sanctions would have proved the UN more impotent in dealing with rogue regimes. Even if you believe that no matter what was going on Iraq, we should have never invaded, which is valid, because of rampant abuse and corruption the UN didn't give any viable alternatives. They essentially offered the advice, "Don't invade Iraq, it'll cost us too much dough!" That's not exactly a good reason to let a dictator who financially supports Palestinian terrorists against Israel, stay in power, WMD's or not.

The Oil-For-Food program has already been proven to be a farce. It was a Trojan horse for the purposes of eventually removing sanctions and allowing a despotic overtly anti-Israeli regime to stay in place. Granted I one could say that about almost all of the Middle Eastern countries but they are not all one in the same and do deserve to be treated differently depending on a variety of factors.

For those of you out there in the US and world who feel that American hegemony is worse than international terrorism and look to the UN to be the flashpoint for counter-balance, you have to ask yourself a hard question. How important is containing US "cowboy" actions across the world to you if you won't do even the minimum to cut back corruption in your own institutions? Speaking from the hawk-conservative point of view, why should any of us take you seriously about any matter of international importance when it's coming from a place of rampant corruption and cynicism? No country can honestly take the UN seriously so long as it continues to act like corrupted labor union or mob family. To take the UN seriously would be like seeking clinical therapy from a paranoid schizophrenic.

Here's the story:

Russia, China and France sabotaged UN Security Council efforts to crack down on Saddam Hussein's manipulation of the oil-for-food programme, the Volcker report says.

They worked effectively to assist the Iraq dictatorship, which, according to numerous Iraqi witnesses, had decided to give contract preferences to "companies from countries perceived as sympathetic to the lifting of [UN] sanctions, most prominently some members of the Security Council."

Speaking yesterday, Mr Volcker said there "was no doubt that there were difficulties with the Security Council, hampering action on some reports of smuggling and kickbacks".

The report names China, Russia and France as the main obstacles to a more effective system. Britain and the US repeatedly proposed changes, only to be blocked by the pro-Iraqi trio. The report says there was no sustained effort by the Security Council to tackle claims of corruption or the milking of the programme by Saddam.

It also reveals how Russian companies, by far the biggest beneficiaries of Iraq oil contracts, took huge packages of cash to Iraq's Moscow embassy by way of kickbacks.

In one 18-month period alone, Russian businessmen handed the Iraqis $52 million.

The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn

2005-09-05T23:51:00.000-04:00

I wasn’t sure what to expect when opted to read and review, “The Thinking Toolbox: 35 lessons that will build your Reasoning Skills,” by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn. I had taken and enjoyed Logic 101 when I was in college so I thought reading a book that was designed to improve my “reasoning skills,” would be an interesting venture. Even though the book is really intended for children ages 13 and over, I still found it entertaining, even if a bit rudimentary.

The book is broken up into 35 lessons that feature and introduction, some examples and then some activities relative to the preceding lesson. There is also an entire section dedicated to further puzzles and games dedicated to improving ones reasoning skills. Appropriate pictures that further illustrate the main point of each lesson pleasantly accompany each lesson. Ostensibly this is a fun and interesting children’s textbook dedicated to the art of clear and thoughtful analysis.

Some of the lessons include but are on limited to (1) When it is dumb to argue, (2) Using the scientific method, (3) Five rules of brainstorming, (4) Who has a reason to lie? (5) How to analyze opposing viewpoints, (6) How to analyze evidence and sources, (7) How to list reasons why you believe something, and many other as well.

One of the features of the guide is that it presents a “Christian view of logic.” I was somewhat skeptical of this at first because I wasn’t sure what the authors definition of a “Christian view of logic,” exactly was and how that would affect the narrative of book. As it turns out, if the back cover didn’t explicitly alert the reader to this idea, it wouldn’t occur to you at all that you were being exposed to said, “Christian view of logic.” The authors make it patently clear how one should conduct themselves within the confines of civil discourse and debate. The themes of the lessons are patience, an emphasis on good communication and tolerance of ulterior points of view. These are consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ and just make good common sense.

I do not have children at this time but I do work with disadvantaged and abused children on a daily basis as a family therapist. I believed strongly enough in the books overall message that I decided to bring to a session with a family that has found strength and solidarity in the Christian church. The family, who tend to be open to new ideas and willing to put forth the effort to make positive changes in their family dynamic, were very interested in the book and accepted it as a gift from me. It ended up being the impetus to a wonderful session that centered on how the husband and wife could better improve their communication and find a better sense of understanding of each other. In this sense, it served a very practical purpose. I would submit that, “The Thinking Toolbox,” could be used in a classroom or among family members as a way of exercising better communication skills and also generating positive discussion, as had happened during my session.

The children of the home found it especially appealing as well. While I as an educated adult found many of the lessons to be common sense, the children who took a gander at the book while in session began to acquire and framework for the art of discourse and communication that had previously escaped them. On of the children were simply mesmerized by the lessons and excitedly quoted from the book as he found new words to label thoughts that often went garbled in previous family or school discussions.

Though this guide came from a Christian publishing house, there’s nothing particularly or overtly religious about it. It is as I explained above, simply a guide to building better reasoning skills based on the premise of tolerance and clarity. I believe those themes are universal enough to warrant readership by the religious and secular alike.

If you have children or work with them and they are savvy and patient enough for you to do interesting activities with, I would highly recommend, “The Thinking Toolbox: Thirty-Five Lessons That Will Build Your Reasoning Skills,” by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn.

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

Venezuelan President Offers Aid For Katrina Victims

2005-08-31T00:52:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

No sooner does Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez make an overture of alleged peace and help toward his fellow man do the pundits begin railing against the man. On the radio today I heard all sorts of things like how this is Chavez using the hurricane for political opportunism and how this is all a ploy to make the big bad US look bad and yadda yadda yadda. The talking heads added that we shouldn't do business, even in a crisis such as what's afflicted New Orleans, with a pro-Castro socialist like Hugo Chavez.

To this I say, have you met the Saudi Arabians yet?

Look, New Orleans is very quickly sinking off the map and any help, whether it's from Chavez, Castro or the Prince of Darkness himself, should be readily accepted no matter what the underlying reasons are. Hell, we should be happy that any country feels compelled to lend a hand at all.

I received some calls today and I also heard on various radio programs about how we shelled out tons of dough for the Tsunami victims of SE Asia and various other disasters, but the rest of the world would be less likely or incapable of returning the favor. Well folks, other than food and shelter for the displaced citizens of the Big Easy, we also need oil. I haven't heard a peep from the Saudi's or the Russians. I got nothing from our good friends to the South, Mexico. Why not accept the helping hand of Hugo Chavez? It wouldn't be the first time we slept with the enemy. Again, need I remind you doubters about our continued relations with the French, the aforementioned Saudi's and my personal favorite, the Red Chinese.

Let us not forget that we are eternally grateful to the Russians for forbidding their Eastern European satellite nations from accepting the Marshal Plan. Lord only knows what tempest would have been unleashed if we had been taken up on offer to rebuild the countries behind the Iron Curtain. Chavez would probably be delighted if we refuse his help. He'd get great publicity and it would cost him nothing.

Beyond the terrible aftermath of Katrina and its unforeseen repercussions, it's high time we began to reconcile with Venezuela anyway. The fact that Chavez is a pro-Castro socialist and a Latin American rabble-rousing nationalist just is simply not enough to try and dismiss him. This space has posted story after story about the business deals being conducted between Caracas, Moscow, Tehran and Beijing. Every regime we ignore we ultimately push into the waiting arms of those who seek to disarm the United States.

Chavez may be making a cynical gesture by offering aid, oil and eye surgery but so what? Call his bluff, that's what I say. Make him live up to those words and then let's reassess. At the end of the day, as long as we're still married to oil, I say let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, even a cynical one such as being offered by Hugo Chavez.

Here's the story:

Caracas, Venezuela (AHN) - Last week Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was attacking the U.S. for comments from 700 Club President, Pat Robertson, about calling for an assassination of the leader; Tuesday Chavez is offering aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"We place at the disposition of the people of the United States in the event of shortages we have drinking water, food, we can provide fuel," Chavez tells Associated Press.

Chavez says fuel can be sent to the United States through a Citgo refinery that has not been affected by the hurricane. Citgo is owned by Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela. He also offers to send aid workers to the gulf coast.

Chavez made an offer last week for discount gasoline to poor Americans suffering from high oil prices and offered free eye surgery for Americans without access to health care.

Chavez is heavily criticized for his socialist/communist ties in Latin America and has had negative relations with Washington for years.

Girls are Dumb

2005-08-30T07:08:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

Over the course of the past week, I've found myself drawn into a certain conversation with different womens. It's the same conversation I've found myself a part of...pretty much since I first discovered girls. So, as a public service announcement, and hopefully for the last time, I'd like to give all the womens of the world the following piece of advice. To paraphrase something Brother James said...

If your man is not treating you good, then leave him, cause there's a better man out there who will.

Now, before y'all roll your eyes, hear me out. This isn't journal entry #24,423 on why girls don't like me and only go for jerks. I haven't been that guy since...ok, so I am that guy, but it still isn't that. It just honestly boggles my mind how girls will stay with guys who, if they don't flat out treat them like shit, don't treat them the way they deserve to be treated...or even want to be treated.

And I mean smart womens with actual personalities. If some pop tart or MySpace whore plays the "don't ask me, I'm just a girl" role...whatever. You can't expect people to respect you if you don't respect yourself. I mean girls along the lines of Rachel McAdams character in "Wedding Crashers." She's smart, funny, stunningly beautiful...yet with a guy who is a complete and utter tool. She meets a nice guy that she finds herself falling for, yet still plans of marrying the tool...even though she herself admittedly doesn't know why. Yeah, I know it's a movie, but tell me you haven't known someone similar.

The real mind boggling thing is that, when you question her why she puts up with the guys bullshit, she can't even give you and answer. She wants the flowers and the romance, settles for minimal effort (if any at all), and can't for the life of either one of you explain why. Is it a self esteem issue so many females seem to unfortunately have? Is a relationship the only way they can define themselves? Or is it a society that is all too quick to value sex over self respect?

I don't know where I'm going with this, and I can talk until there's a functional government in Iraq for all the good it's going to do. A week or two will go by, and someone else will be upset because some random boy isn't doing right by her. If that person is you, as a favour to me, ask yourself this question:

If he's not willing to put the time and effort in, why are you wasting yours?

Don't have an answer? Then he's not worth it.

Greenspan: End of home boom inevitable

2005-08-30T00:11:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

This may be the most honest thing this man has uttered since becoming Federal Reserve Chairman 18 years ago (gosh, has it really been that long?). This is simple mathematics. It is no secret that the cost of living is skyrocketing (see the current oil debacle) while wages are decreasing. Everywhere you look more neighborhoods worth living in are being over-developed and gentrified so much that the average American simply cannot afford to live a moderate, middle-income life.

Many people my age (I'm 29) are either still living with their parents or are shacking up with their respective others out of sheer economics rather than actual desire. In order to pay for housing, transportation, food and clothing (without going insane on any of the above items) one has to have wages well over 35K or it becomes impossible to make ends meet. On the flip side of that, suppose you can scrape together a living that at least meets your basic needs, in order for the economy to grow and flourish, consumerism must expand exponentially. Simply put, we gots to buy stuff. It's Pet Rock-uber alles or bust!

Now when you take falling wages, shortages of jobs (no matter what Rush Limbaugh is telling you), and combine them with the rising cost of needs based resources such as housing, you can easily see where all of this going. The bubble is going to burst because reality cannot perpetrate a fraud forever. You cannot raise the cost of a needs based resource like housing so high that the average consumer cannot afford them. At some point the law of supply and demand must take effect and correct the marketplace.

This is what happened with the Internet bubble. People kept dumping oodles of cash into a market, which only served to inflate its worth. The problem was that adequate consumer spending did not back it. The demand was simply not there. At the peak of the Internet boom, the average consumer still thought Amazon was a B-grade schlock skin movie you might see on Cinemax at three in the morning. The average consumer still likes to actually go to the store and feel the item they were purchasing. Sure Internet sales have increased since then but the malls aren't exactly empty either. My point is that this market was inflated well beyond the consumer’s ability or willingness to support it.

That takes us back to housing. If we cannot afford to buy the house, we won't. When the market has too many unbought expensive (or relatively inexpensive for that matter) houses then the whole kitten caboodle will come crashing down. Not to mention that interest rates, as low as they are now, cannot stay this low forever. Markets fluctuate all the time. What comes up must go down. As long as this administration continues to push an agenda of corporate feudalism, there will never be enough consumers to support the rising housing markets.

One last item on this before I cite the article that spawned this rant. One of the other reasons that the Internet bubbled and then busted was that the much-ballyhooed Dot Com stocks were traded so fast and so furiously that they never developed any real value. It was all fake value dependant on the rate of trading. The same thing is happening in the housing market. People are buying houses and quickly turning them over for a fast profit. For the time being that's fine and dandy for those actively trading in the housing market but for the rest of us whom have our lives invested in the home we live in (like my fiancé), when the housing bubble does indeed burst, it will dramatically effect the value of the homes we live in now. After the inevitable bust, we will be shelling out ridiculous sums of money for relatively worthless property. Sure, those that got out early and already turned over their houses won't be affected but the rest of the country will most likely fall into at least a recession if not a depression altogether.

But don't just take my word for it, here's Cheaty McStealsurmoney, Mr. Alan Greenspan:

U.S. home prices could fall as the housing boom "inevitably" slows, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Saturday as he cast doubt on central banks' ability to sway such asset values.

Greenspan offered the warning about the U.S. housing market in concluding remarks to an annual Kansas City Fed symposium, his last as Fed chairman and one focused this year on a retrospective of his 18-year tenure.

In unusually explicit terms, the central bank chief gave his reading of challenges he sees facing his still-unknown successor and laid out his own views on issues such as inflation targeting, fiscal policy and economic imbalances.

"The housing boom will inevitably simmer down," Greenspan said in the prepared remarks. "As part of that process, house turnover will decline from currently historic levels, while home price increases will slow and prices could even decrease."

Greenspan said while he expects continuing debate over whether the Fed could and should use its power over interest rates to try to influence prices for assets such as stocks and homes, he did not think it was feasible to do so.

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Hit on New Orleans would likely cause gas prices to soar

2005-08-29T00:21:00.000-04:00

First and foremost, prayers to the residents of New Orleans, greater Mississippi and Southern Alabama. May God spare you and your loved ones from this impending disaster.

A few weeks back I saw a movie on FX called "Oil Storm." It was shot in documentary style and the premise of it was that a hurricane hit NOLA, thrashing all of the Gulf offshore oil riggs. This starts the US on a course toward disaster because the price of oil skyrockets well out of the means of most average Americans. We then ink a deal with the Saudi's to increase oil imports, which causes a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda. We then send troops to secure Saudi oil fields and then they get attacked. Long story short, the US nearly goes to pieces, all because oil prices have become catastropically high. This of course was a fictional story based on the real possibility of a hurricane wrecking the Gulf oil digging facilities.

Truth is stranger than fiction. In the 4 times I've been to NOLA, I've heard each time that a good size hurricane (category 5) will most likely end the Big Easy. As if it were God's cruel joke, that day has come. I don't know if it's because of the inevitable cost in human lives or my own sentimental attachment to the city that has meant so much to my friends and fiance or if it's just the new contacts in my eyes but everytime I think about what Katrina will do to the city I love, I want to bawl my eyes out.

Don't get me wrong, my primary concern is the welfare of the residents that lie in the path of Katrina's destruction. But, to paraphrase Morgan Freeman from the movie, Deep Impact, "Tomorrow the waters will recede and we will rebuild." When this is over we as global citizens will have to come face to face with some very real and very dire circumstances. Because of zealous corporatism, lack of education and organization on the part of average Americans and plain old shortsighted greed, we in America are not prepared to deal with any significant change in our oil dependant economy. Prepare for the coming Oil Storm in the wake of Katrina.

Here's one story:

New Orleans stood dead in the path of Hurricane Katrina, but the entire nation will feel the brunt of the powerful storm if oil and gas operations in the Gulf get whacked.

Roughly 30 percent of the oil and gas consumed in the United States flows along pipelines or is hauled in on tankers and barges in the Gulf Coast.

A major hit would disrupt fuel shipments and send prices soaring even higher right before the Labor Day holiday, when more than 34 million Americans are projected to hit the road.

Gas prices already are up an average 83 cents a gallon this year. Analysts predict that fears of a Katrina shortage could drive crude oil prices, which traded at around $66 a barrel on Friday, to as high as $70 this week. Every additional $1 per barrel translates into more than 2 cents in the price of a gallon of gasoline.

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God Denies Links to Pat Robertson

2005-08-26T07:49:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, DC—God denied having any links to conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson yesterday after He received reports that Mr. Robertson had called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Sources close to the Higher Being say that He is "tired" of Mr. Robertson and wants him to stop using His name.

This is not the first time that God has apparently been displeased by remarks that Mr. Robertson has made in his telecasts. He is said to have been very unhappy about a request Mr. Robertson made to Him last year, asking that He remove three Supreme Court Justices so that they could be replaced by conservatives. Mr. Robertson suggested that God put in the minds of the three oldest judges that it might be time to retire.

"Frankly He’s a little bit tired of this guy and thinks his shtick is getting really old," says a source who works closely with the Higher Being. The source notes that God has even contacted a lawyer about sending Mr. Robertson a "cease and desist" letter, demanding that the conservative broadcaster stop using His name on the 700 Club, in speeches and in other correspondence.

Clock here for more...

New Review: The Myth of Hitler's Pope

2005-08-26T00:02:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

When one mentions World War II, most people think of the Holocaust because of its monumental impact on the lives of millions of people. And if one were to play a word association game with the Holocaust, people would probably offer responses such as Jews, Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, and gas chambers.
What people might not offer as a response or even think about are the actions of the Catholic Church in respect to that tragic event. They certainly wouldn’t offer as a typical response the Holy See of that era, Pope Pius XII -- sometimes referred to as Hitler’s Pope.

Rabbi David G. Dalin has written an interesting book which concerns the life of Pope Pius XII and his hotly debated role in the attempted genocide of Europe’s Jews. “The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis” (Regnery Publishing), lays out two parallel arguments. The main thesis is that Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, condemned Nazism, Hitler, and anti-Semitism at large. This runs counter to many critics who charge that Pius condoned HItler and was a Nazi sympathizer. The second argument is broader and puts forth the reasoning that throughout history, the papacy has been a friend to the Jews when the world persecuted and murdered them.

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Don't Wanna be an American Idiot

2005-08-24T18:41:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

I generally hate it when artists today mix music with politics. Everyone assumes it has to do with the specific politics, what with me leaning right and everyone in the entertainment industry leaning left. My problem isn't that the artists and I prefer different flavours of Kool Aid. It's that the music they're making sucks. It's terrible.

Don't get me wrong. Some of the greatest songs ever written were in fact politically motivated. The 60's and 70's had timeless classics like "Blowing in the Wind," "Ohio," "Fortunate Son," and one of my all time favs, Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." Our generation? We get timely crap like "Beautiful Occupation," "BYOB," that gay Beastie Boys song...and The Rolling Stones?

There's such a rush to wow us with how they execute their First Amendment rights and say "look at me; I'm speaking out against the (place world leader here)," no one bothers taking time to actually say or create anything worth listening to (which in the case of the Stones, they haven't done since before most of us were born). It's just three minutes and thirty three seconds of "No Blood for Oil" or "They Hate Us for our Freedom" set to a snazzy beat.

Green Day, on the other hand, took the time. The result is American Idiot, easily one of the Top 5 albums of the decade. It's a "concept album," an album where all the songs combined tell a single story, in the vein of The Who's Tommy and Quadrophenia.

I know what you're thinking. "Green Day? American Idiot? Gee John; I wonder who they're talking about?" Obviously there's one man who comes to mind right away, and if he doesn't, he will when you hear the line, "I'm not part of the redneck agenda." The overall political message is clear by the time the Representative from California takes the floor in "Holiday."

But once you either chuckle or roll your eyes (I chuckled while rolling my eyes), look closer. The story isn't about one person being the "American Idiot." It's about how we're all the "American Idiot." It's the people that know who Tom Cruise is, but not Dick Cheney. It's the bartender my friend met who, in October of 2004, had never heard of John Kerry or John Edwards (think aboot it). It's the 53% of the population who whine about gas prices while driving gas guzzling SUV's.

It's the people who honestly think that Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11. The most appalling thing? Some of those people live in New York.

The album is a call to arms for people to, quite simply, wake up. Yes, I'm sure the band would like you to wake up and see things their way. I'm sure someone who prefers the cherry flavoured Kool-aid would prefer you waking up and seeing things their way. Me? I'd be satisfied if people simply woke up.

Don't get me wrong. If I sound pious, I don't mean to. I never cared about what was going on in the world when I was a wee youngling either. But the world's a lot more dangerous then it was when I was growing up, and more dangerous people are looking to take advantage of that. There's a lot I don't know. There's a lot I don't understand. There's a lot I should care more about than I actually do. But I'm trying.

Green Day's "American Idiot" wants you to try too.

The Danger of Yellow Ribbon Patriotism

2005-08-24T07:49:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

Baring any majour developments, this is going to be the last I say on Iraq. I'm running out of eloquent ways of saying that this country needs to shit or get off the pot, and no one reads them anyway. As soon as people see the word "Iraq" they already have a pre-conceived opinion, and instead of reading what you have to say they just look for an opening to attack.

If I say nine negative things about the President, I'll get attacked for the one time I don't. If I say nine negative things about protesters, I'll get attacked for the one time I don't. Agree with the war and you're a blind patriotic warmonger. Disagree and you hate America. Liberal or Conservative. Red state or blue state. I'm one guy trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong, in a country that only seems to care about who's right and who's wrong. And I've just simply had enough.

Anyway, Time had a great editorial called "The Danger of Yellow Ribbon Patriotism." I highly suggest reading the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

...The military is frustrated by both the mission and the sense that the war isn't front and center for the rest of the country. There is a fair amount of anger among the returning troops, especially the noncareer soldiers, the National Guard and reservists whose tours were extended and then extended again

...They echoed a question that the battalion commander who had lost five of his lieutenants had asked me. "Why hasn't the President issued a national call to service? I don't mean a draft," he said. "But if the President called on people to serve, they would. And not just in the military. My mother mentioned this the other day: 'Why aren't there the war-bond drives we had in World War II? Why aren't we being asked to collect clothing for the children of Iraq?'

...There's no coffin, just the inverted rifle, boots and helmet of the fallen. We call the roll, up to the name of the missing trooper. We call his name: Specialist Doe. Then a second time: Specialist John Doe. A third time: Specialist John R. Doe. And then taps is played. It really gets to you. It's an important emotional experience for the troops. It closes the door and enables you to move on.

Big News in China

2005-08-23T00:10:00.000-04:00

There are two stories of interest coming out of China this week, so far. The first one comes out of the New York Times and states that, “China's biggest state-owned oil company, the China National Petroleum Corporation, announced on Monday that it would pay $4.18 billion for a Canadian oil company with shares traded in New York and substantial reserves in Kazakhstan.

It is China's largest foreign acquisition yet, and more than twice what a Chinese computer company paid for I.B.M.'s personal computer business.

China National Petroleum outbid India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in reaching a deal to acquire PetroKazakhstan, and it is not clear whether the Indian company will step up with a counterbid. Still, the process underlines the growing competition for oil resources by the world's two most populous countries, each of which is rapidly increasing oil imports.”

The other story, which has been percolating for a few days now concerns the first ever joint war games between Beijing and Moscow. This is from Chinadaily.com, “Their military drills, an exercise for the suppression of hypothetical ethnic conflict in an imaginary restive Central Asian country, signifies a new Russian-Chinese cooperation that could direct the shape of regional tension and disagreement in the future. The military drills mark a new friendly phase in a bilateral relationship that has often been characterized by open hostility.

The war games map out possible responses to an imaginary state engulfed in a wave of violence fuelled by ethnic and religious strife. Under great fanfare, they have repeated the urgency to ``fight against international terrorism, separatism and extremism’ in statements aimed at Taiwan and Chechnya.”

Normally I’d be bemoaning all of this and calling for our government to be vigilant against a clearly growing threat in the world. Not today my friends, not today. If this administration has taught me anything it’s that left to our devices we cannot be trusted to do the right things in the world for the right reasons. Like in most cases, we’re at our best when we’re threatened with our entire world collapsing around us.

If competition is what drives the marketplace then said marketplace is very soon going to go into overdrive. Let's face facts here, China is a megalith that isn't going anywhere and can only get bigger. Some analysts have it that China's economy will eventually out produce more than the US'. That'd be some feat wouldn’t it?

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New Review: Lipstick Jihad

2005-08-19T00:15:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

One of the many casualties in the “War on Terror” has been the dehumanization of our Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern brothers and sisters. From 9/11 on, the enemy has been categorically identified as Middle Eastern, and anyone who fits that description has also had to defend themselves against being draped with the albatross of “terrorist.”

Somewhere amidst the “Axis of Evil” rhetoric, many people seemed to forget that outside of the mullahs, Wahhabis, and other assorted jihadis, those who live in the Middle East are people just like us Westerners, with the same wants, needs, imperfections and rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran,” by former Time Magazine Middle East reporter, Azadeh Moaveni, is a rare jewel that very much humanizes the aforementioned Middle Eastern people. The book is made up of equal parts memoir of Moaveni’s life both in America and in Iran, and equal parts social history of modern post-Islamic Revolution Iran. Along the way Moaveni not only introduces the reader to the finer points of modern Iran, but also introduces us to her family and friends through amusing anecdotes and poignant observations.

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Venezuela threatens to cut off oil exports to US

2005-08-18T02:04:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available at The Blogger News Network

If you thought $2.50/gallon for the cheap stuff was bad, wait until you see what happens if Chavez makes good on his threat to cut off oil exports to the US and instead diverts oil exports to our good friends in Beijing. Let me say this, as much as I'm no fan of the Democrats on both foreign policy and social issues, I'm willing to say right now that I will vote for any person (including Hillary, God help me) that throws the entire weight of the federal government behind alternative fuel sources for transportation and tax incentives for the creation of more, cheaper, hybrid cars.

Do you hear me Washington? I'm now a one issue voter. Anyone whom is sincere in fixing the damn energy problem in the country without being completely beholden to "Big Oil" gets my vote. Now I don't think anyone will actually do it but since I keep getting called out for holding the Republicans water, let me reiterate my position here and now. I think that especially when it comes to our energy and border policies, the Bush administration is near treasonous. It's not incompetency, they are actively working against sane and conservative policies regarding both issues. If ignoring or actively working against solving both of those issues is an impeachable offense then by golly, I'll sign the petition to get it done.

Let me make myself perfectly clear, when it comes to oil and border security, George W. Bush is a monumental disgrace. But don't just take my word for it, here's leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

Venezuela has warned it could cut off oil exports to the US if provocations by Washington continue.

In an interview on state-run channel Venezolana de Television, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Tuesday that a possible boycott of petroleum exports to the US would affect Venezuela, but that would be "the price to pay" to uphold national sovereignty.

"We are willing to do it and ready to defend our rights," he said.

Venezuela, with the world's fifth-largest oil exports, has recently made overtures to China, amid continuing tensions between the US and the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Ramirez said that exports to the US could be diverted to the rapidly expanding Chinese economy. He said 14 fuel cargo ships with a capacity of two million barrels of petroleum went to China last year.

He added that Venezuela would have no problem placing the extra oil on international markets because "the world is avid" for the carbon-based fuels.

Venezuela exports 1.5 million barrels of petroleum and refined products daily to the US.

In recent weeks, the war of words has increased between US President George W Bush's administration and Chavez, a leftwing populist who has forged close relations with Cuba's communist regime.

Last week, Chavez suspended cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) after accusing the US of spying on the Venezuelan government.

Chavez has taken to calling Bush "Mr Danger" and describing the Bush administration as the biggest threat to world security.

US, Brazil, India and Russia must back UN moves against genocide

2005-08-16T23:31:00.000-04:00

While I am not prone to lambasting my country for the horrible things it does around the world, preferring to instead keep all events in context, there are some instances in which I am overcome with shame. The following article states that the US, among other countries is actually blocking or seeking to water down a proposal by the UN to protect civilians against future instances of societal collapse leading to genocide. I don't think I need to point out the hypocrisy in spewing a bunch of rhetoric regarding freedom and democracy and then seeking to block a measure calling for the protection of civilians (genocide tends to do a good job in preventing freedom and democracy). I don't even know where to begin so here's the article in its entirety:

With one month to go until the UN summit in New York, the US, Brazil, India and Russia have been called upon to back a new agreement designed to stop genocides like Rwanda from ever happening again.

International agency Oxfam has named these powerful countries as they are currently lukewarm to - or are actively blocking - new measures designed to stop atrocities like genocide from taking place. The reforms will be discussed at the UN Summit in New York in exactly one month's time. Other countries seeking to block the measures include Syria, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan, Eqypt and Algeria.

Oxfam is pushing for a strong agreement on the responsibility of states to protect civilians from large-scale atrocities such as genocide and ethnic cleansing. If agreed this would establish a new standard and oblige the international community to act were there to be another Rwanda or a similar mass murder of civilians where the government was unwilling or unable to do anything to stop the bloodshed. The Rwandan government, supported by dozens of others around the world, has led the calls for a strong agreement but those opposing it are refusing to back down.

“It is hard to overstate how important this is. In one months time the biggest meeting of world leaders in history could endorse a new standard which could help stop a future Rwanda from happening. Today we've taken the step of exposing the governments blocking the agreement so people around the world can call on them to change their minds. We urge these governments to urgently reconsider their position and agree to protect civilians from mass murder and atrocities. The international community must never again allow genocide or mass murder to go unchecked,” said Nicola Reindorp, Head of Oxfam in New York.

India, Brazil and Russia are currently actively opposing strong language on the responsibility to protect civilians. Oxfam is also concerned that the US government, although supporting the ‘responsibility to protect' in principle is currently pushing a watered down proposal.

By contrast key governments supporting the call for strong language include Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Canada and the EU.

The current draft outcome document states that the UN has a ‘shared responsibility to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner,' to, ‘help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.' However opposition from the blockers could still dilute the commitment rendering it meaningless.

“This is a moral issue of huge importance and will establish a new standard that could help save millions of lives. Those supporting the responsibility of states to protect civilians must stick to their principles and those opposing it must think again. Brazil, India, Russia and the US must play their part in helping to stop the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians,” added Reindorp.

Contact
For further information contact:
UK: Brendan Cox on cell: + 44 7957 120 853
US: Laura Rusu on + 1 202 496 3620 or cell: + 1 202 459 3739

The current draft wording on the ‘responsibility to protect is below':

* 118. We agree that the protection of populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity lies first and foremost with each individual State. We also agree that this responsibility to protect entails the prevention of such crimes, including their incitement. We accept this responsibility and agree to act in accordance with it. The international community should, as appropriate, encourage and help States to exercise this responsibility and support the efforts of the United Nations to establish an early-warning capability. The international community, through the United Nations, also has the obligation to use diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, including under Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In this context, we recognize our shared responsibility to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and in co-operation with relevant regional organizations, should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities be unwilling or unable to protect their populations. We stress the need to continue consideration of the concept of the responsibility to protect within the sixtieth session of the General Assembly.

* 119. We invite the permanent members of the Security Council to refrain from using the veto in cases of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

* 120. We support the implementation of the United Nations Action Plan to Prevent Genocide and the work of the Secretariat to this end.

http://www.oxfam.org

Diet Fat Ass, Diet

2005-08-16T21:37:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

I had mentioned my "Three Steps to Losing Weight," which is part of my new Diet Fat Ass, Diet initiative. Being a recovering fat ass myself, I know the benefits of losing weight. By following the John System (eat less, exercise more, want it in the first place), you too can look as fabulous as I do.

But I realize I could probably be more of a help. I am a student of the "shut the fuck up" philosophy, where you encounter peoples whining and excuses by telling them to, well…shut the fuck up. That doesn't mean there aren't a few nuggets of intelligence I can share.

Wanting it in the first place? That's all you, son. You have to search within yourself to find why you want to loose weight in the first place. I had my reasons (they die with me), you need to have yours. Once you have your reason, let's rock.

The best piece of advice I can give is that, the Good Lord gives us twenty-four perfectly good hours a day. Unless you got yourself some company, why waste them in bed? Not having the time...sorry, try again. You need to make time. I make mine in the morning. The gym opens at 5:00 AM, I'm there getting my work out in. When my body needs to recharge, I go to bed instead of watching television. Otherwise, I make the time to do what I need to to git'r done.

Outside of that sage like peace of advice, here are four tools to have at your disposal:

A subscription to Men's Health. If you want half nekkid tarts and the same articles each month only with different entendres, read Maxim (or flip through the pics when you pass by the magazine stand like I do). If you want tips on exercise and diet, from real people and not jacked up freaks, Men's Health is the best way to go. The books they publish are also quite excellent. I use them to help design my work out routines.

A comfortable pair of kicks. Like Steven Wright said, "Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time." I am so sick and tired of hearing people whine about gas prices. If gas is costing you so much, you can do two things. One, GET A SMALLER CAR - NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO DRIVE THE SUV, STUPID. Two, walk. People are so lazy they'll drive to the end of the driveway to check the mail. If you can walk there, then do so. Finished dinner? Take a walk around the block. Have an hour break for lunch? Walk for twenty minutes, then turn around and walk back. I can see not having the time to go to the gym. Not having the time to walk? You need to just pack it in and call it a day.

A plastic bottle. You can't possible drink too much water. Well, maybe you can. You might want to check with a doctor on that one. But invest in one of them five dollar plastic bottles (usually one liter) that you can get at a sporting goods store. Carry it with you at all times. Keep filling it up when you finish drinking it.

Supermarkets Discount Cards. Every super market has them, they're free, and you need to learn to buy groceries instead of Taco Bell.

Next: Simple diet tips. That's right, me giving diet tips. What?

Art of the Protest

2005-08-16T00:51:00.000-04:00

The Cindy Sheehan brouhaha has alarmingly similar elements to the Terry Schiavo fiasco. At first I didn’t want to talk about either one. I figure if the media is going to beat a story to death there’s a good bet that there’s real news elsewhere if you look hard enough for it. What happened with Schiavo that made me bother to pay attention is when is “jumped the shark” sort of speak and became this ridiculous political issue that it didn’t have to be. When congress is convening emergency sessions to pass a law over one woman and yet can’t get a comprehensive energy or border policy together, I feel compelled to throw my two cents in. It would appear that something equally stupid has occurred in the non-news story of the grieving mother, Mrs. Cindy Sheehan.

First, anyone who has lost a loved one in the Iraq War or any other military intervention has my most heartfelt sympathy and condolences. The untimely death of a family member, especially ones child, is especially sad, no matter what the circumstances are. With respect to her son’s passing in combat, I understand where her grief and anger are coming from and if that were the extent of it, I wouldn’t be writing this column.

However, this whole episode where she’s decided to confront President Bush, again, over her sons death stopped being about her grief almost from the moment of it’s inception. Granted, I’m no mind reader but I believe the following exchange from MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olberman” on August 13th, is very telling of this woman’s true intent to date:

OLBERMANN: The nature of the media coverage you're getting now, the response from other families of soldiers killed in Iraq, all of that, from the perspective of your protest there, in a way, isn't it really better if President Bush doesn't meet with you?

SHEEHAN: I would think so, yes. I think it's great. And if he would come out right now, it would really defuse the momentum, and I don't want to give them any hints. And I think that's something they've probably already thought about.

Read more

Biden Meets the Press...Again

2005-08-15T19:27:00.000-04:00

Sen. Biden was a guest on Meet the Press this past Sunday. Yes, Biden being on the Sunday shows isn't exactly "news." If there's two things you can count Sunday mornings, it's a hangover and Joe Biden on one of the news shows discussing how the Administration has fucked up Iraq eight way from, well…Sunday.

One thing I have noticed is that he appears to grow angrier with each visit. Andrea Mitchell (substituting for Tim Russert), had asked the Senator about a Washington Post article saying that the Administration was lowing its expectations for victory and what they can accomplish in Iraq. Senator, the floor is yours:

"I think that the administration has significantly downgraded their expectations. They have squandered about every opportunity to get it right...

"Imagine if Secretary Rumsfeld was the CEO of a corporation. These guys talk about how they came from business backgrounds. He'd be fired by now. The idea that we are at this moment, with this headline saying "U.S. Struggles to Get Soldiers Updated Armor," is absolutely irresponsible. And I realize all the problems. If you read the article, it goes back two and a half years and the mistakes consistently being made. I think Rumsfeld should get his notice on Monday morning...

"We can't fire the president and the vice president for their incompetence, to the extent that it exists, but you can, in fact, do that with the secretary of defense. And look, one of the reasons we've had difficulty getting others to get involved, meaning our European friends, NATO, the EU--they look out there, and as long as Rumsfeld's in charge of this operation, as opposed to the uniformed military, they virtually have no confidence in our ability to get the job done. And I just think it is--I don't understand the president's willingness to continue to follow the advice of a man who has not been right on a single major piece of advice he's given the president since the statue of Saddam has fallen in that circle on that fateful day over two and a half years ago..."

I think Biden's view is a smart one for Democrats to have heading into the midterms. Making the bulk of your campaign how you were going to bring the troops home worked for Richard Nixon, but Democrats already tried that in '04 (kinda sorta, I still don't know where Sen. Kerry stood) and it backfired. People were led to believe that it meant you were against the troops, plus it's not like this is the 70's where anyone is paying attention in the first place. By taking Biden's approach, by saying how we should all want victory in Iraq, and how we need to achieve victory in Iraq, they can't hang "anti-military = anti-America" on you. How can some screaming that our soldiers need more funding, better equipment, and help be considered anti-military?

We need to be winning, but we're not because of all the mistakes the current administration has made, is continuing to make, and isn't being held accountable for. You're supporting the military and supporting our country in victory, while still taping in to the growing sentiment at the Administration has no idea what they're doing.

Where all those people were last November, what do I know? I'm just a guy with a laptop.

New Review: The End of Blackness

2005-08-12T00:09:00.000-04:00

The following is a brief excerpt from a review posted on PopandPolitics.com:

Race is one of the trickiest subjects to discuss in mixed company today in America. It’s hard enough for two people of the same race to have a frank discussion about a complex topic; trying to accomplish this feat with people of different races without the conversation devolving into something out of a daytime trash talk show is a monumentally difficult task.

Taking on this challenge is lawyer and journalist Debra J. Dickerson, who has written an important and profound book, “The End of Blackness: Returning the Souls of Black Folk to Their Rightful Owners.” This 2004 publication will remain a timeless polemic as long as our schizophrenic debate about the meaning of race defines American discourse. Her main thesis is simply that in order for black Americans to come up and truly take their place as full citizens in both mind and deed, they must forgive whites for slavery and Jim Crow, rather than wait for perpetual repentance and apologies. She contends that whites have done all they are going to do as far as apologizing and making up for their horrific mistreatment of blacks since the Age of Exploration. The future for black Americans, according to Dickerson, is in forgiveness.

Dickerson is very fair in her criticisms of both whites and blacks. She unabashedly points out what whites have done to keep blacks pegged in a certain societal place and why said whites feel compelled to act in this way. By the same token, she also uses vivid portraits of history to paint a picture of the antebellum South and life under the tyranny of Jim Crow in comparison to life for the average black citizen circa 2003-2004. (Read more)

10 Bon Jovi Jointz You May Not Know

2005-08-11T06:35:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows me can tell you three things. I'm boyishly charming. I'm devilishly handsome. And, I'm a huge Bon Jovi fan. Go ahead. Make your little jokes...and then go bugger off Sunshine. I make no apologies. We don't choose the music we love, it chooses us. It just so happens that I was chosen on the way home from a camping trip in 1986 when I mistook Jon Bon Jovi for Ozzy Osbourne (I confused "shot in the dark" and "shot through the heart").

They have a new album coming out called "Have a Nice Day," which is also the name of the first single. I caught the video this week and...it's the same lead off single/video they've put out for the past three albums. "It's My Life" was and is an awesome song. "Everyday" was a'ight, just a little too "in the wake of 9/11" for me to really get into (though no where near as bad as the Springsteen album). "Have a Nice Day?" The smiley face is kinda cute (you'll know what I mean when you see the video), but other than that, meh.

It's a shame because the past few albums have had some really good songs on them. They're just, for some inexplicable reason, not the songs that are released as singles. Then I got to thinking about all the other great songs that were never released to the radio, and therefore never heard of (or "slept on" as they say in da' hood). They've released 10 albums or so. That's well over 100 songs, yet only aboot 20 of which most of you have heard of. That makes John sad. I'm sure it makes Jon sad too.

So as a service to you, and as a former member of the Bon Jovi Underground (shut up), I give you the 10 BON JOVI JOINTZ YOU MAY NOT KNOW...

1. Good Guys Don’t Always Wear White
2. Hearts Breaking Even
3. Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars
4. Open All Night
5. Only Lonely
6. Blood on Blood
7. Stick to Your Guns
8. Just Older
9. Raise Your Hands
10. Stranger in this Town (a Richie Sambora solo joint)

You have your orders. Open up WinMX and let the downloading commence. You can thank me later.

Former Alaska governor Jay Hammond dies at 83

2005-08-11T00:53:00.000-04:00

Who was Jay Hammond and why does this matter? I'm willing to bet that is what you are asking.

"Hammond, a Republican governor from 1974 to 1982, championed the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state investment account created with oil royalties, and the annual dividends paid from it to nearly all state residents.

Last year's dividend check was $919.84."

I first heard of Jay Hammond when he was invited to talk about the Alaska Permanent Fund at US BIG conference I attended in 2004. With respect to the Basic Income Guarantee, there was a lot of high falootin jibber jabber by intellectual Green-type folks that wax philisophical about how to implement the BIG in the US. Like most expansive groups of people they couldn't agree on what the best way to do it or even if guaranteed income was the answer. Some favored a Basic Jobs Guarantee and of course looked to the Federal government to fund such a program.

After a few days haughy taughty talk I was relieved to hear such a down to earth fellow address this issue with clarity and in a language that could be easily understoon. Using oil as the base, Gov. Hammond implemented something akin to the BIG and after some tweaking it became one of the best things to happen to Alaska. This policy was groundbreaking and should have been followed up on by every state in the union. Instead, years later we got "Welfare to Work," and we're no closer to reducing the poverty gap than we were 30 years ago.

I'm sad to learn of his passing. I'm even sadder that his Alaska Permanent Fund has been summarily ignored in the rest of the US and the debate over how to end poverty still straddles between the total socialists and the Darwinian corporatists.

RIP Jay Hammond.

'Pakistan still exporting terror'

2005-08-10T00:15:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available atThe Blogger News Network

It would seem like our policies to fight the War on Terror are at best schizophrenic and at worst, just plain dumb. Sorting through the international news today I found an opinion piece that stated in brief, "...Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are now finding themselves in the same boat on issues of global terrorism. Pakistan's ISI continues to provide support to the Taliban and such Jehadi groups as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, whose cadres are being arrested worldwide for inciting and promoting terrorism. There are strong suspicions that government-backed Saudi charities such as the Al Harmain Islamic Foundation, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, and the International Islamic Relief Organisation continue to fund extremist and terrorist activities worldwide and disturb peace and harmony in pluralistic societies."

Not to mention this number from the title link, "A prominent Pakistani leader has embarrassed both Washington and Islamabad by disclosing that Pakistan's military government continues to run terrorist training camps and is infiltrating militants into Afghanistan despite professing to be a US ally in the war on terrorism."

We can't win this way. I've said this before but it apparently needs repeating; unless the governments (and their respective militaries) of the vast Muslim nations begin to take seriously the threat of terrorism and then do something decisive about it, we're just waiting for a cataclysmic attack to happen. This is like shooting heroin. Sure you'll live long enough to suffer greatly, but no matter how you slice you're still just waiting to die a miserably painful death.

We cannot continue to do business with the Saudi's and the Pakistani's while they play both roles of ally and enemy. We are just spinning our wheels in a perpetual war with an entrenched enemy that lives on the battlefield and isn't afraid to die so long as they drag us down with them.

But maybe I'm being too naive in asking for the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to pick our side and put an end to their sly support of Islamic terrorism against the West. Maybe what is really called for here is what some have been calling for in Iran; open revolt.

The fact of the matter is that in all reality, short of nuking every country from Somalia to Malaysia, the US can't win the War on Terror. We're good at wars where we can kill innocent people in the name of a higher cause (see World War II) but we're really bad at fighting entrenched, homegrown, asymmetrical armies funded by larger, host countries (see Vietnam/Soviet Union) where we're trying not to kill innocent people. The Jihadi's may have declared war on the West but the fight has to actually come from the Arabs/Muslim/Persians themselves. If the moderate/secular populations of the greater Middle East cannot see it is in their benefit to arrest Islamic fundamentalism then we're left with a perpetual never-ending war with an enemy that cannot be contained. This is the path to inevitable nuclear war.

This is a call to all Arabs/Muslims/Persians with a stake in not living as serfs, slaves and the walking dead. This is your war. You are caught between the radicals that won't listen to reason, don't want peace and will murder you if you get in their way, and a West that is slowly but surely losing patience and can blow this entire planet up 100 times over. Let's not lose complete perspective here; at any given time the US alone could end life, as we know across Eurasia and Africa. Maybe our current president isn't so encourage to do that but let another 9/11 with nuclear implications happen and you can bet your sweet bippy whomever is in the White House will press that big red button.

I should not be reading through Google news searches that "Pakistan is still exporting terror." I should not be reading that the Saudi Royal family, "with whom relations couldn't be better with the US" is still exporting terror. Yesterday I called for the US to grow and start facing reality. Today I'm demanding the same of our Arab/Muslim/Persian brothers and sisters; nevermind Israel/Palestine, nevermind the Shah and the CIA, and nevermind the Crusades; evolve, grow up or surely we will all suffer.

Fuck You Atkins! Eat Lo-Carb Shit!

2005-08-09T20:01:00.000-04:00

The title is mine. The following quote (having to do with Atkins going bankrupt) is from Joel Stein of Time Magazine:

"I love the thought that Atkins acolytes will no longer be smarmily drinking their ridiculous low-carb wine and chastely munching on low-carb Doritos, because I have suffered through their unrequested speeches about ketosis that don't make any sense. You know what happens "on a cellular level" when you eat that junk? You get a lot more cells. It had got so dire that I had taken to eating carbs at restaurants as a punk gesture of rebellion, dipping mashed-potato sandwiches in granulated sugar and inventing something I call Cake-Ravioli Cereal, which, if I can ever figure out how to get it on a stick, will undoubtedly be a huge hit at state fairs."

College is Bullshit

2005-08-09T19:08:00.000-04:00

I had a rather stimulating time at Job #2 this past weekend, which was surprising considering this is where I was told DWI stood for Drinking While Intoxicated. Not this past weekend. I was singing Sam Cooke, and someone actually knew the song. There was a discussion aboot English as the national language. Then came the topic of this latest scribbling.

Usually whenever anyone starts off a sentence by saying, “Hey John, you know a lot about random stuff…,” I fear for what the question is. This time I lucked out. They wanted to know if there was a percentage or statistic showing how many people actual get a job in what they majored in. My guess was that it was less than five percent.

Simply, college is bullshit.

Click here for more...

Tuesday morning thoughts...

2005-08-09T07:45:00.000-04:00

First off, I agree with JB and Mark about weight loss, I have fluctuated in weight over the years, from 165 to 265 and I usually stay in the low 200's now. No matter what, the basis of any diet you can find is eating less (and better) and excercising more. Simple as that. It is easy to blame it on fast food, on your job or whatever, but the bottom line is eating better and excercising more.

Now, as far as working out, some people have to work out. Not everyone is a fireman, mechanic, iron worker or aerobics teacher where their job is physical enough to keep in shape. Many of us have jobs that don't require physical assertion. Thus the necassity of working out. I am renovating my house, that kinda eliminates the need to work out... However, it is not carte blanche for me to eat a double quarter pounder for lunch, a person still needs to watch their diet no matter what.

I watched Supersize Me, and the guy makes valid points, if you eat Mickey D's three times per day, you will get sick. But how many people actually think eating greaseball burgers are good for you??? I am sure if you ate any restaurant food three times daily it would make you sick. If you have a diet of no fruits and vegetables and high in saturated fats, what do you think is going to happen??? You will get sick, simple as that...

Wrestling:

Never watched much of Raw last night. Is it just me or is the thought of HBK and Hogan NOT exciting... I liked Lita better when they had her tramped up...

NASCAR:

Jason Leffler got released from the 11 car, not really shocking, I think everyone could see that team struggling. Terry Labonte, JGR Busch drivers Yeley and Hamlin will have the car for the rest of the season... Silly season is still swirling around Michael Waltrip and the 15. Be interesting to see where that all goes...

Books:

Still plugging away at Stick, Leonard really gives good images of the surroundings when he is writing...

Movies:

Upon request, the movie section will now be written by Dusty Rhodes...

Right heah, right nah, Big Dutht is doon da Hollywooooood theeen... Da last movie da Big Dutht watched wad Rio Bravo, bah Duke, so am not exactally up on da new an 'citin' releases, daby... So Big Dutht will try and keep my fellow bloggahs up and date-ed on what's done happenin...

And Monday night, at the Charlotte Callosee-um, Big Bubba, you clothes are gonna be scatted all ober dat callosee-um, and you gonna be in most of um, jack!!!

Muchos gracias, see ya'll next ti me...

Peter Jennings (1938-2005)

2005-08-09T06:45:00.000-04:00

I was watching this great piece on the life of Peter Jennings before. The TV was on, so I didn’t catch what show it was. But they had interviewed every major newsperson of the past thirty years, and showed highlights of every major story Jennings has been there for (including an arguement with former President Clinton). It was really moving.

Unfortunately what I didn’t realize at the time was that I was watching Access Hollywood. They segued to the paparazzi getting shot with a bebe gun outside of Britney’s bridal shower.

Ain’t that America.

Hi, My Name is Mark, and I'm a Fat Ass...

2005-08-08T23:45:00.000-04:00

So here's what I got from my reunion with John among many great stories traded between he and I.

I have to start exercising in the morning before work, stop blogging night and day, and get to bed before 1:00am every night.

That picture we took together plus John's svelt physique ::::whistles:::: has inspired me to put July (which was a horrible month as far as keeping to any healthy regiment) behind me and get back on track.

Someone pray for me because lord knows I'm going to need it.

Iran, Syria, Iraq to develop regional cooperation

2005-08-08T23:41:00.000-04:00

What does one make of a statement like this? The Iranian mullahs are after the atomic bomb and Syria has decided to marry its fate to them, for better or for worse. If the Shia in Iraq decide to marry their fates to the mullahs, come what may, we'll have a whole new set of problems in the Middle East, not to mention a nightmare scenario with regards to Israel.

Though, reading the article, all three nations are talking about stopping terrorism and moving together to put down the insurgency. Specifically they cite the recent, "...assassination of Egyptian and Iranian diplomats in Iraq, the mass murder of civilians and children in terrorist operations and attacking Bahraini and Pakistani officials..." as serious bones of contention.

The question thus becomes, "Is this all just a clever ruse to throw the West off track or has someone in the Middle Eastern leadership finally woken up?" The cynic in me says the former but I'm praying for the latter.

Here's the Link to the story.

All I Can Do is Write About It

2005-08-08T19:58:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

Mike Barnicle recently had a challenge to Don Imus, Tim Russert, Chris Mathews, and everyone else involved with reporting news. The next time they are interviewing anyone in the Bush Administration, anyone in the Senate, anyone in Congress, Republican or Democrat, he wants them to ask the following two questions.

Who is Natalie Halloway?
Who is Timmy Bell?

His point was that while everyone knows the latest white chick that’s missing, they probably don’t know Timmy Bell. Do you? Honestly, neither did I. Timmy Bell is one of the 21 Marines killed last week in Iraq. Timmy Bell is one of over 1,800 of our brothers and sisters who were killed since the war started. While TV is focusing on white chick #6, and the New York Times has a front page story on how John Roberts Catholic wife goes to church a few times a week (and treats it like she’s in a bizarre cult), no one is talking about the war. It’s almost as if people aren’t even aware there is a war going on in the first place, unless they see something while they’re flipping channels looking for the latest on Tom Cruise.

Click here for more...

The Rantings of a Recovering Fat Ass

2005-08-08T19:52:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

People say that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is considering a run for President in 2008. I don't see it. There's nothing against him personally. It's just the name. A President should sound Presidential. President McCain. President Biden. President...Huckabee? That's like saying WWE World Champion Radulich. But this diatribe isn't about name calling or the Governor's presidential aspirations. This is about his tremendous weight loss (over 100 pounds) and his speaking out against obesity in this country. Being a recovering fat ass myself, I can definitely relate.

Gov. Huckabee did an interview with the New York Times recently. Two of his answers caught my attention:

Do you blame the fast-food industry for this country's weight problem?
We tend to demonize industries, but it's my fault that I was overweight. No one ever forced me to go to McDonald's and order a triple cheeseburger or the largest fries they had, along with a milkshake.

Do you think Americans are lazy?
Without a doubt. We're the victims of our own successes and prosperity, which have caused us to change our lifestyles from being people who had to hunt for our food to people who have more than we can possibly consume. We go to gyms and pay people so they can help us sweat. Isn't that amazing? My dad was a fireman. On his days off, he worked in a mechanic's shop fixing cars. He never had to pay someone and say, "Help me learn how to sweat."

I don't know what his beef is with going to the gym, but you still have to admire a politician who's not afraid to admit we're all lazy. As for the people he aluded to who blame the fast food industry...I'm still amazed that it wasn't my fault I was fat. Apparently it was the fast food industry's fault for making the food, selling it to me, and even marketing it to me in the first place. *sigh*

If people in this country really want to start losing weight, they need to stop making excuses and stop expecting someone else to lose the weight for them. Everyone wants the quick fix. They pay the personal trainer, but don't do what he tells them to. They try whatever the fad diet du joir is, then blame the diet for not working when they wind up gaining weight. They choose to have surgery. They choose to have surgery.

There's nothing wrong with asking for help. I joined Weight Watchers. I needed help learning how to eat properly, and I busted my ass and at one point had lost seventy-five pounds (went from 240 to 165, I'm kinda comfy at 190 now). But where I went to WW to lose weight, I found that most people went for the attention of trying to lose weight. The meetings, which were supposed to be supportive, were overrun by middle aged women who would do nothing but complain about their periods and not being able to eat pretzels. Then when I would lose weight, they'd get mad and use the excuse that it's easier for guys. The real reason I was losing weight? It's because I was doing it and not just talking aboot it.

If people are that serious about losing weight, it's really simple...

JOHN'S 3 STEP PLAN TO WEIGHT LOSS
1. Eat less.
2. Exercise more.
3. Want it in the first place.

Monday aft. thoughts...

2005-08-08T13:09:00.000-04:00

NASCAR:

Tony Stewart won the Brickyard yesterday, it was impressive to watch Stewart throughout the race, he has matured into one of the top drivers in the sport. And if you have have watched Stewart run in other forms of racing, you know he is one of the most talented men in all of motorsports... Rough day for Dale Jr. and the Bud team, he wrecked his car, his 1 team car and Robby Gordon (Robby is killing me in my NASCAR pool...)... Good day for Ganassi Racing, Sorenson and Stremme ran well Sat. night, all teams ran well Sunday. Even McMurray who has been under a microscope all year ran well. Any thoughts by anyone on Silly Season???

Wrestling:

Ugh, wrestling is a sad scene today... If I had the book I would change many things... I think WWE needs to fix many things. TNA could be okay, I guess we'll have to see how things go when they get on Spike.... So, Bret Hart and WWE are back in bed together. I understand Bret doing the DVD to make sure is legacy is held intact, but lets hope he never appears on WWE TV. It would make him look to be the hypocrite of the century.

Cars:

Read about Chip Foose over the week-end in Car and Driver, he had imput on the new Mustangs, too bad GM wouldn't go see Foose. The new generation Impala's look hideous. GM is re-designing its full size sport utilities and trucks, lets hope they hit a home run, because with the losses GM has entailed, they won't recover if the trucks/ute's are a flop...

Books:

On a Elmore Leonard binge, finished 52 Pick Up last week, on Stick now. Anything new out there on anything good???

Random:

My first post, looking fwd to comments, thanks!!!

The Politics of No

2005-08-08T00:54:00.000-04:00

This Post is also available atThe Blogger News Network

You can say this about the Iranian Mullah’s, at least they are consistent. Once again the Iranian’s have been given plum after plum by the European Union and once again, Whitey has been snubbed. I absolutely marvel at events like this. I stand befuddled by the fact that the Mullah’s aren’t even popular enough with their own populace, save the thugs they employ as morality police, but yet they are savvy enough to bring down mighty and powerful first world nations like the much ballyhooed “EU-3,” Great Britain, France, and Germany. I’d say something completely juvenile like, “In your face Europe,” except that I’m actually on their side and this latest rejection by the Mullahs of Iran constitutes not just a serious danger but a major setback in attempting to de-nuclearize the global village.

According to CNN.com, “Iran insisted Sunday it would resume uranium conversion this week after rejecting European Union incentives to end its nuclear fuel work, and said it was not worried about being referred to the United Nations for possible sanctions.”

Click here for more...

Beginnings

2005-08-07T20:52:00.000-04:00

By John Brodigan

A long time ago, in a galaxy blah blah freakin blah, there was once a collection of Internet dorks who used to write. We stopped for a while, but much like the shingles, were just laying dormant until it was time to resurface. That time is now.

Here’s the story:

A bunch of us used to write for a wrestling site (stop laughing) back in the day. Two of us had a falling out, and the rest slowly started to lose interest in wrestling, or at least writing about it. Since then, our collective interests have grown. Combined we listen to every genre of music, represent all three sides of politics, a few different religions, most sports, movies, various TV programs (particularly of the “reality” vein), comics, and a whole lotta other schtuff.

Fast forward three and a half years. The two who fell out kiss and make up. The rest of us, who still enjoy writing, wanted to do something again. Enter Pantsless Aggression. A site dedicated to...well, dedicated to whatever the hell we feel like writing aboot. I go wherever the muse takes me. Mark is into foreign policy, inbetween watching Sean Hannity and Robot Chicken. Halden is Canadian and prefers the aqua rush Kool Aid. Aaron is down with Jesus and mayonnaise sandwiches. MattyP has a thing for NASCAR and country music (even though he’s from Jersey). As the rest of the crue gets their act in gear, you’ll see that their interests are just as eclectic.

Think of it like the “iPod Shuffle” option some radio programmers are using. Instead of jumping from Brittney Spears to Metallica to Carole King, we jump from the War in Iraq, to Rockstar: INXS, to something stupid someone said at the bar last night. If you’re reading this, chances are it’s because you’re a friend of ours. Hey, we have to rebuild a following somewhere. :-)

So welcome, leave your pants at the door, and if this turns out to be a bad idea...remember, it was all Mark’s idea.

French Muslim-Themed 'Beurger King' Opens

2005-08-05T20:17:00.000-04:00

Frankly, and I know I say this everyday but, I'm mortified.

It's kind of like my uncle Hippy Vic, says, we don't need no stinking bombs, just rock-n-roll and blue jeans are enough to take over the world.

Here's the story:

Muslims in France are having it their way with "Beurger King" - a new fast-food restaurant that caters to the country's large Islamic population.

The bright and colorful eatery was launched in July in an eastern Paris suburb crowded with immigrants and dilapidated housing projects. Its name plays on the French word "Beur," meaning a second-generation North African living in France.

The menu at Beurger King Muslim, or BKM, is standard fast-food fare: burgers, fries, sundaes and doughnuts, and prices are comparable to those at major chains. But the beef and chicken burgers are halal - meaning made with meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws.

Waitresses wear Islamic head scarves, as do many of their customers.

Mouna Talbi, 24, traveled 55 miles to Clichy-sous-Bois with her husband and two small sons to try it out.

"I was so happy to come here that I had tears in my eyes when I walked in," she said, watching her sons climb on colored blocks in the play area as she ate a halal burger.

After the success of Mecca Cola, a soft drink marketed to French Muslims, it was perhaps only a matter of time before a Muslim-themed, fast-food restaurant opened in the country with Western Europe's largest Islamic population.

Talbi's children always clamor for fast food, but this was the first time they've been able to order something other than fish, she said.

"A woman in Muslim dress feels at home here," she said, sitting in a red tunic and matching head scarf.

Three Muslim friends from the Paris suburbs set up the restaurant after seeing similar restaurants in Thailand and Algeria.

They saw a demand for a clean, family-oriented halal fast-food restaurant that would offer an alternative to the big non-halal chains and the many downscale halal street vendors.

One of the founders, Morad Benhamida, 33, said he and his partners worked for almost two years on a business plan to convince French backers.

"I was shocked when my bank manager believed in the project straight away," he said, sitting under an umbrella on the restaurant's terrace.

Burger King, the U.S.'s second-largest fast-food chain, has no restaurants in France, according to its Web site. When asked about the Muslim restaurant, Lauren Hammann, a spokeswoman for Burger King Corp. in Miami, would only say: "We are aware of the matter and we're looking into it."

Benhamida said the business plan showed the halal meat came from reputable wholesalers and was inspected twice daily. But he had not anticipated how successful the idea would be.

"I was very surprised because people really liked the restaurant, so much so that we have tripled stocks since opening a month ago," he said. "It seems like magic."

He is planning to hire eight new employees in fall, expanding his staff of 28.

In an area with high unemployment, people are grateful to find work. Some female employees said they took the job because they were allowed to wear head scarves, unlike workers in other French fast-food restaurants.

Female customers also seemed happy. Cherifa Halimi, 19, sat in a booth sipping drinks with four friends, all dressed in black flowing gowns covering all but their hands and faces.

"There are a few changes they could make to give the place a completely Muslim image," Halimi said. "The television is OK, but there shouldn't be any music.

"But I'd like to work here."

Muslim diners said they felt more misunderstood in France since last month's terror attacks in London.

"Even the media demonizes the image of Islam in this country," Ahmed Talbi said, sitting in a booth opposite his wife. "People are afraid of terrorist attacks here, too."

Customers, including non-Muslims, said the restaurant was not segregating Muslims but showing a normal, peaceful Muslim activity that was open to all.

"Both Muslims and other people feel at ease here," Talbi said. "Maybe this kind of place will help to correct the bad image of Muslims and tell the world to stop talking nonsense about us."

Testing

2005-08-05T19:57:00.000-04:00

This is only a test. Had this been an actual emergency, your computer would be melting in your hands.