Nadoo's

This is the best of my life.
Nehad.
Savannah, Georgia.
Gas station parking lot.
Outside of a mini van named Margarita.
Michael Jackson has never been more flattered in his life than the day he saw this impersonation.

The 2008 DNC Will Rival 1968 Without a Doubt

1968 Democratic Convention. If you don't know anything about it, shame on you, you're not an American! Either that, or you went to public school in America.

Let me sum it up: Police. Riots. Anti-War Protests. People going to jail for peaceful protests. And, a party on the brink of divide over who to nominate for the 1968 election. Lyndon Johnson announced he would not run for re-election, Bobby Kennedy had just been assassinated, and Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey were divided over Vietnam War policy. The party nearly split in 1968, and because of the police violence, the whole world was watching.

PBS put together a great piece on it.

Ronald Browstien of the Los Angeles Times said in his column yesterday that the demographics are being split down every imaginable plane. Both Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) are polarizing figures, yet they are leading the Democratic race. Why? Because they are so dynamic? The problem that the DNC faces in this election is not beating the Republicans, it is restraining itself from suicide.

Early polls reveal that both of these candidates are atypical. The first woman and the first black candidate with real potential to recieve the Democratic bid for President.. ooooh, let me pop my bottle of Kristal.

Truth is that these candidates have the potential to divide the party altogether. Expected allegences fall apart when put to the test. The only one that stands is that women support Clinton more often then men do. But, when it comes to the down to the moment of decision, I wish I could be a fly on the wall. Neither one of these candidates can win. Neither. So, the DNC must choose a less popular candidate with less financial backing in order to meet the middle-of-the-road political climate.

Brownstien agrees with me: Politically, 1968 was nothing compared to what we have to look forward to in 2008, and he gives some of the lead-in polls and statistics to back it up.

I noted recently that the competition between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, the two top contenders, is following an upstairs-downstairs pattern familiar from most Democratic primary races since 1968. Obama, like past Democratic hopefuls such as Eugene McCarthy and Bill Bradley who stressed reform and railed against politics-as-usual, is running best with college-educated voters; Clinton, like predecessors such as Walter Mondale and Al Gore who emphasized bread-and-butter concerns, polls best among voters without college degrees.

In a contest that features the first woman and African-American candidates with a real chance of winning the nomination, race and gender are also shaping the initial patterns of support. In most surveys, Clinton polls better with women than men; for Obama the reverse is generally true. Among African-Americans, the two run closely, with most polls giving an edge to Clinton. Read More!

The Democratic Party is in crisis here. Neither of these candidates have enough of a support base to keep them afloat in the 2008 race. So, the party will either be torn apart trying to decide between the two of them, or it will die the same death as the donut I left on top of my refrigorator for a week and a day: long, stale and moldy.

Guess Who's Back

After a four month hiedous, I am back and refreshed.

To my fans, I apologize, and allow me to give you an update on where I have been. I graduated from Temple University, thank heaven; got lost in the woods on a job hunt, but fortunately the secret service was called and I was rescued without any harm - Oh, wait. No, that was Al and Tipper Gore on a long wallk in the woods, I apologize again; was a passanger in a car wreck, broke my back and recovered; and now I am back in action with a reinvigorated fervor for life.

Courtesey of Villianous Company

Kinda like Al Gore when he finally found his way out of the woods. Look out!

Atheism a thing of the past?

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/books/reviews/8930/the-twilight-of-atheism-by-alister-mcgrath/

I thought this one was interesting.

Tim O'Neil wrote a PopMatters review of The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World by Alister McGrath, which discusses the future of atheism as a modernist concept.

According to O'Neal, McGrath condemns modernity with a double-pronged attack from the forces of spiritualism and post-modernism, viewing atheism as a "totalizing worldview." By definition, atheism excludes the truth of other opposing worldviews. As McGrath points out, "this critique of of such a notion has major implications for religions such as Christianity and Islam."

The problem with this argument from my view, and O'Neal seems to have agreed, is in the postmodernism lends itself rather well to atheism. Both discount the grand narratives of meaning and purpose that are answered by religion. They both reject belief in absolute Truth. 

 

O'Neal made a great point, declaring that the insertion of postmodernism into the book only muddled the argument by bringing in unnecessary contraditictions. 

 

It's an interesting argument. Certainly worth looking into. But, I think that O'Neal nailed it when he said that the insertion of postmodernism muddled the argument by bringing in unneccessary contridictions.  
 

2006 in review

Key international events of the year gone by

Brought to you by in part by iafrica.com (http://iafrica.com/news/features/519415.htm ) on Tue, 12 Dec 2006. This was a fabulous synopsis pf the years events with some of my own commentary. The highlights are to help guide you, and the articles are to explain the top stories that are dying for more explanation. Enjoy your history lesson with the events that made headlines throughout 2006.

JANUARY

• Russia sends shivers through Europe by reducing supplies of natural gas to Ukraine. 
•  At least 78 people die when roofs covered in heavy snow collapse in buildings in Germany and Poland. 
• Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon falls into a coma after a massive stroke; he fails to regain consciousness and is replaced by his deputy Ehud Olmert. 
• The hardline party Hamas enjoys a landslide election victory in the Palestinian territories. Western countries and Israel respond by cutting off aid to Hamas-led government.  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/hamas_3-01.html 
•  Bird flu... need I elaborate?
• Crowd crush kills 360 plus in Hajj celebration in Saudi Arabia.
• Iran resumes nuclear research. Western countries believe is aimed at building a bomb. 
• Protests break out after a Pakistani air strike against a religious college near the Afghanistan border. The dealy strike was US-led. www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1031-02.htm
• The tone is set for the Year of Women: Michelle Bachelet, a socialist, becomes the first woman elected to the presidency of Chile. In Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as the first women president anywhere in Africa.
• The collapse of Livedoor, an internet firm, rocks the Tokyo stock market.
•  Washington says goodbye to Alan Greenspan, long-time head of the US Reserve Bank. Ben Bernanke is confirmed as his replacement.
• The music world marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• New Orleans Mayor Ray Nugin urges residents to rebuild a "Chocolate New Orleans."

FEBRUARY

• Denmark faces a rising storm of criticism in the Islamic world for newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Danish interests are attacked in several countries.
• Some 1000 passengers of a ferry, most of them Egyptians, die when the vessel sinks in the Red Sea.
• The widow of the US human rights leader Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, dies in the United States.
• The 20th Winter Olympic Games take place in and around the northern Italian city of Turin.
• US millionaire Steve Fossett sets a record by flying a plane all the way round the world without landing.
• The British government is embarrassed by video images showing troops in Iraq torturing local teenagers, while new images of violence against Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib prison also emerge. The United Nations calls for Abu Ghraib to be closed.
• Vice President Dick Cheney shoots a 78-year-old friend during a hunting expedition.
• Over 1000 people die when a landslide buries their village in the Philippines.
• At Samarra in Iraq, a bomb attack destroys the dome of one of the holiest Shiite Muslim shrines. The blast brings a huge increase in violence, which increasingly resembles a civil war.
• France is in shock after a young Jewish man is found to have been sequestered and tortured to death over several weeks by an exortion gang.
• Fifty-six people die when the snow-laden roof of a food market collapses in Moscow.
• In England, an armed gang steals a record 53 million pounds (78 million euros) from a security depot.
• The US city of New Orleans holds the first of its traditional Mardi Gras parades since a hurricane spread devastation in August 2005.

MARCH

• President George W. Bush signs a deal to sell nuclear technology India, then goes on to Pakistan, where his visit coincides with a flare up of violence by Taliban forces.
• The United States says it plans to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons.
• 'Crash', a low-budget racial drama, wins the Oscar for the best picture at the US Academy awards.
• The US state of South Dakota introduces a near-total ban on abortions.
• The European Union lifts a nearly 10-year-old ban on British beef.
• Citing fears of terrorism, the US Congress refuses to allow a company based in the United Arab Emirates to take over a firm that controls many American ports.
• France is shaken by mass youth demonstrations against a new short-term labour contract. It is later withdrawn.
• Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, on trial for war crimes, dies in his jail cell before a verdict can be given.
• Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, is re-elected with over 81 percent of the vote. A protest movement against him fizzles out after police move in.
• A former rebel leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo becomes the first person to appear before the new International Criminal Court on war crimes charges.
• The Basque separatist group ETA announces a permanent ceasefire in its armed struggle against the Spanish state.
• Nigeria hands over the former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor to a special tribunal in Sierra Leone, where he is to go on trial for war crimes.

APRIL

• A centre-left coalition in Italy ousts the government of Silvio Berlusconi in parliamentary elections.
• Chinese President Hu Jintao makes his first official visit to the United States, and follows up with a tour of Africa.
• Queen Elizabeth II of Britain turns 80.
• Jawad al-Maliki becomes Iraq's new prime minister.
• John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, dies aged 97.

MAY

• Bolivian President Evo Morales issues a decree nationalizing his country's abundant oil and natural gas resources.
• Around a million people, mainly Spanish-speakers, rally around the United States to demand better rights for immigrants.
• A US federal court decides that Zacarias Moussaoui, linked to the planning of the September 11, 2001 attacks, will not be executed but instead face life in jail. 
• Violence increases sharply in Somalia, where an Islamic movement is battling US-backed militia groups. 
• President George W. Bush faces heat when it emerges that the government has been secretly archiving the telephone records of tens of millions of citizens.
• Over 170 people die in coordinated attacks by gangs in the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo.
• The United States restores diplomatic relations with Libya, and takes the oil-rich country off its list of states supporting terrorism.
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament and critic of Islam, decides to move to the United States after conflict over her immigration status.
• China completes its massive Three Gorges hydroelectric dam.
• The small Balkan republic of Montenegro votes to cut its remaining links with Serbia and become fully independent.
• Australia and Portugal agree to send forces to quell violence between government troops and rebel soldiers in East Timor.
• A massive earthquake kills some 5800 people on Indonesia's main island of Java.
• Pope Benedict XVI, visits the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
• British director Ken Loach takes the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival for a movie on the Irish independence struggle.
• Alvaro Uribe wins a second term as president of Colombia.

JUNE

• In one of a series of attacks on coastal oil installations in Nigeria, militants seeking a larger share of income for their region abduct and then release eight foreign workers.
• Italy says it will pull its troops out of Iraq by the year's end.
• US and Iraqi officials say their forces have killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the feared al-Qaeda in Iraq group.
• Anti-NATO protesters in Ukraine prevent US soldiers from starting joint military exercises in the country. 
• President George W. Bush pays a brief unannounced visit to Iraq, where violence is killing hundreds of civilians every week. A few days later the US military death toll in the war goes over 2,500.
• Royals from around the world attend lavish 60th birthday celebrations for King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.
• The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says his office has documented major massacres and rapes during the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
• Scientists say polar bears are threatened with extinction because global warming is causing the Arctic ice cap to melt.
• Violence increases in Sri Lanka, with bombings and both land and sea battles.
• Russia says it has killed the hardline Chechen independence leader Abdul-Khalim Saidullayev.
• Countries in favour of hunting whales win a key vote at the International Whaling Commission.
• A painting by Gustav Klimt fetches a record $135-million at auction.
• Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is taken to The Hague where he is to face trial on war crimes charges.
• Japan pulls its small troop contingent out of Iraq.
• Palestinian militants kill two Israeli soldiers and abduct a third in an attack on a border post. Israel hits back with a massive incursion during which it knocks out the territory's only power station and abducts leading members of the ruling Hamas movement.
• Kuwait holds parliamentary elections in which women are allowed to vote for the first time.
• The US Supreme Court says President Bush overstepped his powers by creating special military courts for terrorism suspects.

JULY

• Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon is declared the winner of a presidential election in Mexico. His leftist opponent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says the vote was fraudulent, and unsuccessfully demands a recount.
• A US veteran of the Iraq war is charged with raping a young Iraqi girl and killing her and her family.
• Forty-one people die when a metro train derails in the Spanish city of Valencia.
• North Korea test-fires several missiles, including one which could potentially reach US soil.
• Italy wins the World Cup, beating France in the final match. French star Zinedine Zidane is sent off for head-butting an Italian player.
• Russia says its forces have killed Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who took responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school hostage massacre.
• Bomb blasts on commuter trains kill 140 people in India's financial capital of Mumbai.
• Isreal-Lebanon Conflict. Guerrillas of the Lebanese militia movement Hezbollah capture two Israeli soldiers in a raid over the border. The incident sparks a 34-day war that kills at least 1300 people dead in Lebanon and 158 in Israel, and causes massive destruction in Lebanon.
• G-8 Summit held in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. The event is dominated by the war in Lebanon.
• Cambodia prepares to try surviving former leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, but one of the most important ones dies before proceedings can begin.
• World Trade Organisation talks in Geneva collapse in acrimony.
• A tropical storm in China kills over 600 people. 
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the war in Lebanon can help create a new Middle East. 
• Israel bombs an oil-fired power station on the Lebanese coast, causing an environmental disaster in the Mediterranean.
• The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo vote in a presidential election. The two-round process ends in November, with a victory for the incumbent.
• Fidel Castro, Cuba's leader of 47 years, hands over power to his brother Raul to undergo intestinal surgery.

AUGUST

• US film star Mel Gibson apologizes for making anti-Semitic remarks while being arrested for drunken driving.
• The United States sends troop reinforcements into Baghdad in a vain attempt to stem massive violence in the city.
• Flash floods kill hundreds of people in Ethiopia.
• Oil prices jump when the British oil company BP shuts down a key pipeline in Alaska for long-term repairs.
• Britain announces that it has prevented "mass murder" by thwarting terror attacks on planes headed for the United States. More travel restrictions ensue.
• On August 14, Israel complies with a UN Security Council resolution to end the war in Lebanon. In the final days of the conflict, it drops large quantities of cluster bombs on the country, which continue to maim and kill through the rest of the year. Hezbollah claims a "divine victory".
• John Michael Carr is arrested in Thailand, claiming to be the killer of a child beauty queen murdered in Colorado in 1996. The story turns out to be untrue.
• UN plans to "beef-up" forces in south Lebanon. Italy and Fance commit support.
• An international AIDS conference in Canada ends in recriminations.
• 170 people die when a Russian airliner crashes in Ukraine.
• A special Iraqi tribunal begins a new case against former leader Saddam Hussein, on charges of genocide against the country's Kurdish population.
• Scientists overturn decades of school astronomy lessons by decreeing that distant Pluto is not in fact a planet.
• A teenage Austrian girl found wandering in her town near Vienna turns out to have been held captive in a basement for eight years. Her captor commits suicide.
• In one of many deadly incidents involving illegal immigrants seeking to cross by sea from Africa to Europe, dozens of people are feared dead after 14 bodies wash ashore in Mauritania.
• Amid continuing carnage caused by Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, two western journalists are held hostage by militants there for two weeks. Palestinians continue to fire home-made rockets into Israeli.
• The Ugandan government reaches a truce agreement with the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army. 
• New Orleans marks the first anniversary of the hurricane that has left most of it in ruins.
• At least 10 people die and hundreds fall ill when toxic waste from a cargo ship is dumped in various areas around the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast. 
• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announces an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the state.
• Norwegian art officials say they have recovered Edvard Munch's painting 'The Scream', stolen in 2004.

SEPTEMBER

• NATO says it has launched a major new military offensive against Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, where Canadian and British soldiers take significant losses.
• Meanwhile Afghanistan's opium production has jumped by 50 percent.
• Japan's Princess Kiko gives birth to the royal family's first boy in more than 40 years, bringing sighs of relief from traditionalists. He is named Hisahito, or "serene one".
• The United States marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
• Representatives from more than 100 developing nations hold a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in the Cuban capital Havana.
• Muslims around the world express anger after Catholic leader Pope Benedict XVI quotes a medieval text linking Islam with violence. The head of the Roman Catholic Church says he regrets causing offence, but does not apologise.
• The US shuttle Atlantis makes a successful visit to the International Space Station, while an Iranian-American becomes the first woman space tourist, aboard a Russian craft.
• A centre-right government is formed after elections in Sweden, but two of its ministers soon have to resign over financial scandals.
• Shinzo Abe is appointed prime minister of Japan, replacing Junichiro Koizumi.
• Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand is overthrown in a bloodless coup.
• At the UN General Assembly in New York, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez calls US president George W. Bush "the devil".
• Protesters in Hungary demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who has admitted lying about the economy. (Pres. Bush admitted to lying about more than just money... hmm)
• President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan says the United States threatened to bomb his country "back to the Stone Age" if it failed to support the "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
• Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah makes his first public appearance since the war with Israel, holding a huge "victory" rally in Beirut.
• The start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan brings even more violence in Iraq, where it has become routine to find dozens of dead and tortured bodies every day.
• The British Labour Party holds its annual conference. Prime Minister Tony Blair promises to hand the party over to a successor, expected to be Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, within a year.
• In China, Shanghai's top Communist Party leader is sacked over a major corruption scandal. 

OCTOBER

• Tension rises between Russia and its much smaller neighbour Georgia, after Georgia arrests four Russians whom it accuses of spying.
• Israel completes its military withdrawal from southern Lebanon, but continues overflights.
• South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon is elected to be the next secretary general of the United Nations, to take over on January 1.
• Five girls are killed in Pennsylvania Amish school shooting in the US.
• A sex scandal involving top congressman Mark Foley causes embarrassment for the US Republican Party, weeks ahead of mid-term elections.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation takes formal control of all the western forces fighting the resurgent Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
• Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist known for her coverage of atrocities in Chechnya, is found murdered in Moscow.
• An Islamist movement which has fought its way to power in most of Somalia accuses neighbouring Ethiopia of mounting an invasion.
• North Korea carries out a test explosion of what it says is a nuclear weapon, bringing outraged reactions from around the world.
• The search engine company Google spends a $1.65-billion to buy the YouTube video-sharing website.
• A respected British medical journal publishes a study which concludes that some 655,000 Iraqi civilians have died due to the US-led invasion of March 2003.
• The Nobel Peace Prize ia awarded to Muhammad Yunus, a promoter of small loans in poor countries. Most of the science-based Nobels go to US researchers.
• The head of the British army says his country's presence in Iraq is causing more problems than it is resolving.
• US President George W. Bush signs into law an act legalising secret prisons, relaxing limits on torture and removing the protections of the Geneva Conventions from certain detainees.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average index reaches a record high of over 12 000 points.
• Voters in Panama approve a proposal to widen the canal which crosses their country, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
• A United Nations envoy is expelled from Sudan for published remarks critical of its policy in the war-torn region of Darfur. Fighting increases in Chad, the country which borders Darfur to the west.
• Kazakhstan reacts first with irritation then with resigned humour to a filmed spoof by the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The jokes in the film, 'Borat', turn out to be mostly at the expense of Americans, who nevertheless lap it up at the box-office.
• President George W. Bush signs a law calling for the building of "The Great Wall of Mexico", an anti-immigrant fence along the US-Mexico border.
• The Israeli government takes a sharp turn to the right by bringing on board an ultra-nationalist Russian politician Arkady Gaydamak, owner of the Jerusalem's Beitar soccer club. Gaydamak has a "shady" reputation. http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8058481
• Political and social unrest worsens in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-25/45299.html
• The apartheid-era leader of white South Africa, PW Botha, dies at age 90.

NOVEMBER

• California Congresswoman Nancy Polosi is selected to serve as the next US Speaker of the House making her three steps from the Presidency. She will be the first woman in history to hold the position.
• Trade unions from around the world set up a world federation to represent their interests.
• A report says Britain is becoming a "surveillance society", due to the omnipresence of closed-circuit TV cameras in public places.
• Venezuela fails in its bid to win a seat on the UN Security Council, in defiance of the United States. The seat goes to Panama.
• Hoping for trade and energy supplies, China for the first time hosts a major gathering of African leaders.
• Scientists say overfishing could make seafood a thing of the past for most of the world's people by the middle of the century.
• A tribunal in US-occupied Iraq sentenced the country's former leader, Saddam Hussein, to death. US officials deny that the verdict has been deliberately timed to fall two days before mid-term elections in the United States.
• Former revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega wins a presidential election in Nicaragua.
• Vietnam becomes the latest country to join the World Trade Organisation.
• In the US mid-term elections the Democratic Party regains control of both houses of Congress, dealing a major setback to the Republicans.
• President George W. Bush fires his defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, seen as the main architect of the war in Iraq.
• A top judge in China set strict limits on use of the death penalty, applied in thousands of cases each year.
• Margaret Chan of China is elected head of the UN World Health Organisation.
• President George W. Bush is among Asia-Pacific leaders to attend a summit in Vietnam.
• Joseph Kabila, the outgoing president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, emerges as the winner of the vast country's first free presidential elections.
• A mass kidnapping of officials from a government ministry in Baghdad highlights the fast-declining influence of Iraq's US-backed government.
• Segolene Royal becomes the first woman with a chance of winning the French presidency, as she is selected as the Socialist Party's candidate.
• The Dutch government says it plans to ban the wearing of veils, such as those worn by many Muslim women, in public places.
• Chinese president Hu Jintao visits India, and later goes on to its arch-rival Pakistan.
• Plans to publish a book by OJ Simpson, in which he writes about how he might have murdered his wife if he had actually done so, collapse amid anger from his late spouse's relatives.
• Iran, Syria and Iraq announce plans to work together on ending the mayhem in Iraq.
• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says the United States is trapped in the country, and the world body says over 3700 Iraqi civilians died in the month of October.
• A former Russian spy dies after being poisoned with a radioactive substance in London.
• Rwanda severs diplomatic ties with France amid a legal spat over events leading up to the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
• Rafael Correa, an anti-US leftist, wins a presidential election in Ecuador.
• Iraqi President Jalal Talabani visits Tehran, and his Iranian opposite number calls for US troops to leave Iraq.
• Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church, makes a visit to predominantly Muslim Turkey.
• South Africa becomes the first African country to legalise gay marriage.

DECEMBER

• The world marks international AIDS day, with almost 40 million people infected with the virus that causes it.
• The US dollar falls sharply amid fears for the US economy.
• Almost 500 people are dead or missing in a landslide in the Philippines.
• The last Italian troops pull out of Iraq.
• Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dies.

On top of Spaghetti

To settle an Equality Advocates debate, the following are the Lyrics
to a Children's Song that we were singing at the office this morning.

On top Of spaghetti
All covered with cheese
I lost my poor meatball
When somebody sneezed
It rolled off the table
And on to the floor
And then my poor meatball
Rolled out of the door

It rolled in the garden
And under a bush
And then my poor meatball
Was nothing but mush

The mush was as tasty
As tasty could be
And early next summer
It grew into a tree
The tree was all covered
With beautiful moss
It grew lovely meatballs
And tomato sause

So if you eat spaghetti
All covered with cheese
Hold on to your meatball
And don't ever sneeze

As an interesting aside, the songwriter who composed this master piece
to the tune of "On Top of Old Smokey" was Philadelphian Tom Glazer.

Leave it to a Philadelphian to associate Children's music with Italian food.

Post-modernism is the new black.

Or, so says The Economist.

 

In a detailed review of Selfridges, a London retailer, this article discussed Postmodern philosophy in detail, and accuses Postmodernists of being manipulated by capitalists into becoming a new breed of consumers to feed the beast.

 

It said, in sum: The long trail from Adorno and Horkheimer to Foucault was paved with the Pomo attempt to reconcile capitalism, in all of its mass marketing glory, with the overdose of individualism brought on by postmodernism.

 

Adorno and Horkheimer, the authors of the original Postmodern manifest, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), were liberal thinkers, and believed that the evolution of the postmodern mind and society would throw off capitalism. 

 

In truth, the Pomo society is massively individualistic. As the article repeatedly explains, Pomos are the "artists of their own lives," meaning they consume not as contributors to a capitalistic society or to support the economic cycle, but to make their lives uniquely their own. Capitalists take advantage of this. 

 

Foucault recognized this connection. He recommended the readings of F.A. Hayek to explain why people must become consumers in a vain attempt to prevent themselves from being governed.  
 

The article concludes that capitalists have embraced postmodernism to a greater degree than Pomos have embraced capitalism. In their quest for unique, anarchistic lives governed by the individual self, Pomos too have become consumers - MP3 players and iTunes are redefining the music market, YouTube recreating television and visual media consumption, and as the article points out, GoogleNews and YahooNews are redefining news, advertising and marketing consumption. 

 

They have not stopped consuming, only begun consuming in new ways, meaning that capitalists are using postmodern philosophy to their advantage.

 

But, Adorno and Horkheimer would be thrilled with TIME Magazines Person of the Year issue however. "You" were voted person of the year for all of your creativity and accomplishments in 2006. Open-source became the theme of year. There was, again, YouTube, Wikipedia, Linux and the boom of Firefox. All of these are open-source - user created and maintained.

 

Seems Eric Raymond, author of Netscape's Open Source Initiative, has tapped into the Adorno/ Horkeimer liberalism and created a new wave of development. Open Source practices are creeping into agriculture, governance, technology development, education, the health industry and, of course, advertising and shopping. Don't believe me? Check out the Wikipedia notes and references on the matter.

 

As fast as capitalists can come up with new ideas on how to use Pomo fragmentation theories to generate sales, Pomo's are recreating the market. New ideas and information are being traded freely by a great many people these days. Innovation for innovations sake. Profits are taking a back seat to progress. Maybe the Pomo's aren't being as badly manipulated as the Economist implied. 

Daily Martini: Peppermint

Having a Christmas Party?

Having family over?

Well, if your family is anything like mine, that calls for a martini.

Try this one on for size.

The Peppermint Martini

1.5 oz Gin

1 oz. Dry Vermouth

1 oz. Peppermint Schnapps

Garnish with a candy cane and mint leaf.

Perfect for the holidy splendor.

Enjoy.

Newspapers: The great debate

TIME also did a piece on the future of newspapers.

I would elaborate, but my mother is chasing me into out the door for a fit of consumerism inhonor of Christmas. Think I will make her stop at In-N-Out Burger as payment.

Check this piece out. It has the opinions of media movers on the future of Newspapers.

Will they die completely? Read More!

How to have a green Christmas

I'm on a TIME Magazine kick.

TIME published a piece on how to make your Christmas more environmentally friendly. The report covers trees, lights, decorations, candles and even gifts. It makes suggestions like using LED lights, which consume less energy and using Pointsetia hemp to package your gifts. (Yes, you can actually buy pointsetia hemp.)

Of course it makes the traditional suggestions liek buying a potted tree that can be replanted. And, it also recoomended using pointsetia hemp to wrap gifts. (Yes, you can buy pointsetia hemp... on the internet - check out Importica.com or Paporganics.com.)But, there was some unique, practical ideas in the article that can be of use, suchas using LED lighting to be more energy efficient or recycling plain brown paper bags from the grocery store with pretty bows to conserve gift wrap.

Read More!

A semi-positive Wal-Mart post

Wal-Mart was boycotted by some religious groups on Black Friday for its participation in National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and a $60,000 donation to Out and Equal, an organization which promotes equality in the workplace.

According to the Ventura County Star conservative leaders saw this as a betrayal, accusing Wal-Mart of "sliding down the slippery slope" and "being extorted by the radical homosexual agenda."

On another interesting move by Wal-Mart that may please the liberals in the country. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott announced a plan to make Wal-Mart greener.
Whether or not these was an appeal to the liberal community. TIME Magazine reported that Wal-Mart has even gone so far as to demand greener policies from its suppliers.

Still, let us not forget that Wal-Mart is the largest minimum wage employer of the country and that it continues to buy goods from foreign companies without specific human rights regulations. So, starving your employees is fine, as long as the little bit of the foos they eat comes out of paper instead of plastic.

Condoms too big for Indian men

I couldn't resist sharing this one.

A study revealed that Indian and Pakastani men are having problems using condoms because standard sizes are too small for them. After measuring men from all regions and classes, the study found that Indians are 4 to 6 centimeters shorter, on average, than anywhere else in the world.

I don't know what was more humorous about this article, the fact that Indian men have small packages or that BBC News actually published a statement about how they use them.

"It's not size, it's what you do with it that matters," he said. "From our population, the evidence is Indians are doing pretty well."

Another Central PA School Shooting

ABC News reported that a janitor was shot and killed Kittanning High School today, and that, due to the proximity of the shooting scene to classrooms, school has been cancelled.

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Kittanning is a suburb Pittsburgh.

It appears that this shooting was not at the hands of a student. But, coming in the wake of two other violent school shootings in the state this year, it reaises questions about gun regulation in Pennsylvania yet again.

Just over one week ago, Shane Halligan, a 16-year-old student at Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County, just outside of Philadelphia, shot himself with an AK-47 in a crowded hallway. In October, there was the,Amish school shooting in Lancaster in which five girls were executed in their classroom.

Although it appears that this shooting in Kittanning was not at the hands of a student, it raises, yet again, the question about gun regualtion in Pennsylvania.

What do you think? Are PA gun laws too lax?

Daily Martini: Blue Shark

I'm feeling saucey today.

Blue Shark Martini

1 1/2 oz Tequila

1 1/2 oz Organe Vodka

1 oz Blue Curacao

Serve in a cocktail glass with orange slice garnish.

Have a designated driver and enjoy.

Columnist: Gay rights are civil rights

I found this in an Op-Ed from one of the most conservative counties in California no less. It's thrilling to know that our straight allies are not only recieving as much flack as we are, but they are giving educated responses back. Remember, as Mr. Pitts points out, this is not a struggle over morality or sexuality, it's a stuggle for equality.

Black-white, gay-straight -- the moral issue is the same
By Leonard Pitts Jr.

This is for a reader who demands to know why I write about gay issues. His conclusion is that I must secretly be gay myself.
Actually, he doesn't express himself quite that civilly. To the contrary, his e-mails — which, until recently, were arriving at the rate of about one a week — evince a juvenility that would embarrass a reasonably intelligent fifth-grader. The most recent one, for example, carried a salutation reading, "Hi Mrs. Pitts."
We're talking about the kind of thing for which delete buttons were invented. So you may wonder why I bring it to your attention, especially since acknowledging a person like this only encourages him. It's simple, actually: He raises an interesting question that deserves an answer...
...I'm not here to argue sexuality. I just find myself intrigued by the idea that if you're not gay, you shouldn't care about gay rights.
The most concise answer I can give is cribbed from what a white kid said 40 or so years ago, as white college students were risking their lives to travel South and register black people to vote. Somebody asked why. He said he acted from an understanding that his freedom was bound up with the freedom of every other man.
I know it sounds cornier than Kellogg's, but that's pretty much how I feel.
I know also that some folks are touchy about anything seeming to equate the black civil rights movement with the gay one. And no, gay people were not kidnapped from Gay Land and sold into slavery, nor lynched by the thousands.
On the other hand, they do know something about housing discrimination, they do know job discrimination, they do know murder for the sin of existence, they do know the denial of civil rights and they do know what it is like to be used as scapegoat and boogeyman by demagogues and political opportunists.
They know enough of what I know that I can't ignore it. See, I have yet to learn how to segregate my moral concerns. It seems to me if I abhor intolerance, discrimination and hatred when they affect people who look like me, I must also abhor them when they affect people who do not. For that matter, I must abhor them even when they benefit me. Otherwise, what I claim as moral authority is really just self-interest in disguise.
Among the things we seem to have lost in the years since that white kid made his stand is the ability, the imagination, the willingness to put ourselves into the skin of those who are not like us.
I find it telling that Vice President Dick Cheney hews to the hard conservative line on virtually every social issue, except gay marriage. It is, of course, no coincidence that Cheney has a daughter who is a lesbian. Which tells me his position is based not on principle but, rather, on loving his daughter.
It is a fine thing to love your daughter. I would argue, however, that it is also a fine thing and in some ways, a finer thing, to love your neighbor's daughter, no matter her sexual orientation, religion, race, creed or economic status — and to want her freedom as eagerly as you want your own.
I believe in moral coherence. And Rule No. 1 is, you cannot assert your own humanity, then turn right around and deny someone else's.
If that makes me gay, fine.
As my anonymous correspondent ably demonstrates, there are worse things to be.
— Leonard Pitts writes for the Miami Herald.
Source: Ventura County Star Op-Ed

This guy is my new hero.

Optimism for reception of lesbian family rights

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in favor of a non-biological lesbian mother, granting her custody over the children she helped raise. The court found that the it was in the best interest of the children to stay in the custody of the non-biological mother, citing her ability to provide more stabilty for the children. This was a break from the traditions of the court which has historically ruled in favor of the biological parents in custody cases.

Reaction from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community emphasized the importance of providing healthy homes for children and family rights, finding that aspect of the case to be more essential than LGBT equality.

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article quoted LGBT leader Lee Carpenter:

"These things are frequently framed as gay rights issues, in terms of the parents' rights. That's partly true. But the part of the story that's missing is it's very important for kids," said Leonore F. Carpenter, legal director for Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, which represented Ms. Jones, along with attorney Maureen Gatto, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

"A child in a homosexual household deserves the same rights as a child in a heterosexual household," she said. But she emphasized that "This isn't just about gay families. Any [third party] who has been acting as a parent can apply this."
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I was pleased to find on a LiveJournal account by Booju_Newju a posting that presented the Post-Gazette article with a question: Should biology play a part in custody?

Comments invariably said that the interest and safety of the child must come first in custody cases, even from those who stuggled with the idea of a same-sex couple raising children.

NJ Supreme Court OKs Civil Unions

New Jersey passed a bill making civil unions legal in the state. According to the Inquirer, Legislators were not far from approving same-sex marriage.

"Many key lawmakers said they would have supported a gay-marriage bill, but they didn't think it had enough support in the Legislature. Civil unions, however, sailed through both houses - 56-19 in the Assembly and 23-12 in the Senate."

The law moves the state one step closer to legalizing marriage for same-sex couples. Activists say they will be back in the Legislature with proposals for a Marriage bill within two years.

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It is expected that residents from neighboring states Pennsylvania and New York will be taking advantage of the states new law, crossing the border to partake in the benefits that come with civil unions, including tax credits, property and estate rights, and powers of attorney.

Frankly, it should be interesting to see what the new law will do to the concentrations of gays and lesbians in neighboring states. Since the rights of civil unions are not recognized in Pennsylvania or New York, it is possible that the law will encourage migration. With the concentration of tax dollars pulled out of the LGBT community, this will certainly put pressure on other states to review their laws again.

It's a huge victory for the LGBT community.

Daily Martini: 77 Sunset Strip

Apologies to my fans... computer problems

77 Sunset Strip
1 oz Bacardi Limon
1/2 oz Absolut Citron
1/2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Triple Sec
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine

Shake and pour into chilled cocktail glass. Top with Sprite
Garnish with Orange slice and cherry
Enjoy

Los Angeles Baptist High... Any wonder why I'm crazy

(image courtesy of Andrew Chantry Fine Art Gallery)

If there was ever a question about my personal philosophy and how it got so messed up, check this out. In My wanderings today, I ran across this years student handbook from my Alma Mater. text in italics is my added commentary, highlighted in color ar the words I found most interesting.

Philosophy

Essentially, the Christian school brings together man's faith in God and its manifestation in his daily living. In its approach to general education the Christian school attempts to correlate and synthesize the whole of human experience, believing that the secular and religious facets of life, properly understood, constitute but two sides of the same reality.
--I love the word choice here. Don't you just get a warm, fuzzy feeling reading all of this chauvinistic perversity?
The school seeks to make Christ real and pertinent in the lives of students by providing an educational program which engenders wholesome attitudes, sound mental processes, and usable socialization skills based on the accumulated wisdom of human experience and of Divine Revelation.
--what does that gibberish even mean?
It is believed that the well educated Christian will be able to find meaning and purpose in the complex maze of life and to pursue courses of action that will bring spiritual self-realization, refinement of mind, moral awareness and creative involvement in the whole spectrum of living. Fundamental to this process is exposure of students to the ideas and forces that have shaped our world and brought us to our present level of achievement. To the extent the school can help students arrive at an embryonic world view, students are encouraged to interpret and reshape both personal and societal priorities and contribute to the betterment of the human condition.
--Excellent choice of words here as well. Embryonic? Are we talking about abortions and getting political here? Really. Defined as shapeless, rudimentary, premature and -at best - budding, why would you want to help a student have an embryonic worldview? Basically, they are trying to shape kids who live in a bubble, unexposed to the corrupting forces of the world and kept pure by ignorance. Brilliant idea guys. But, the next part is my favorite.
This concept of the Christian School is based upon the belief that there are unchanging principles of truth underlying the universe which make systematic knowledge possible, of goodness which make morality binding, and of beauty, which, because it is the reflection of both truth and goodness, frees the spirit for creative expression and renewal.
I was amazed by how far off base this statement is. It runs completely against the Postmodern model. Congratulations LAB, you are officially going against the grain!

Courtesy of the 2006-2007 Los Angeles Baptist High School Student Handbook, Section 1.4

Check it out.

I went to an awsome event cosponsored by these guys last night, and thought I would share some of their material.

Check them out.

Let's Stop US Tax Funded Aid to Israel Now!

SUSTAIN