Came across this through this great site called "Not in our Name". I would like to believe it reflects many of the Americans thoughts and feelings over the last couple years. The site also has this great ad that was aired apologizing to the Iraqi people.
Transcript of Tim Robbins Speech to the National Press Club
Before you blow this off as some anti-american propaganda, give the speech a read, it's worth it.
Random Pensées made me recall some of my younger years, especially around my college days.
When I was younger I used to try to scare myself into doing things because I knew I'd just procrastinate if left to my own will. I'd imagine the absolute worse thing happening if I didn't do
This wasn't a good plan. Unfortunately as I got older I'd immediately panic thinking I'd missed something significant, and many times I'd lay in bed at night imagining the worst scenarios possible.
Somewhere along the way I think something broke, so many things were freaking me out so many of the time that I stopped, dead.
After Tristan was born, many things were also put in perspective. I realized that life was more important, and my family was more important than paying all my bills on time even if I couldn't afford them. Xavier reinforced these ideas, with his incredibly strong lust for life, and will to thrive despite all odds has amazed me thoroughly.
Manageable debt dodging, that's my current goal. If I get only one call from a utility company a month my goal is obtained. Sure I'm paying penalties, but we can still eat and drive to work every day, this is the core goal.
Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness: In Their Own Words
I had to link to this summary of the recent "showboat" of a farce with Bush and Allawi, because, well... you'll have to read it. Every second word that has come out of Bush's mouth since he got to the UN has made me want to build a bomb shelter, hole up and hide. I just hope these guys theories pan out so we can get off this planet, maybe go here and leave the dumbasses to kill each other. Either that or we need an alien species to appear and start threatening the world ... then maybe all of these f#@$kers would smarten up.
Heh... had some fun in the office today, someone (not pointing fingers) changed the date on the server computer to 2034 (you know who you are), and one of our apps syncs the date on your workstation to the server date. So you can imagine the fun when one of my coworkers can't access the network drives etc. because it tells her "Date and time are different than the server". She restarts the computer, then it tells her she can't log in to the domain AND she doesn't have a local username so she can't even log onto her local computer. She was pretty happy.
Apparently in MS world if you're workstation is 30 years off the server computer date it doesn't like you anymore. Isn't that special.
I had a bit of a scare on the weekend, on Saturday and Sunday I was taking care of Xavier while my wife peddled her wares at the flea market. She reads tealeaves, sells handmade hemp bracelets, and handmade egg ornaments. So we were having a pretty good day (he's motoring around on his legs now, so it's a constant chase), until about 2:30. I was talking to my mom on the phone, I hear a thump, turn to look and he's sitting on the floor, hitting the window crank on the window sill and then he started to cry.
I went over and noticed that there was blood coming from the corner of his eye. Of course I kind of freaked a little, told my mom I'd call her back. I wiped the blood away and tried to get a look at it, of course he wouldn't let me, so I comforted him for the 15 or 20 minutes that he cried. He stopped crying at the mention of going out (or bye-bye), thank goodness, so I got to look at it a bit, it was pretty nasty looking and his eye was puffy.
Took him to emergency, the nurses seemed a little concerned, partially because he fell fast asleep in the car on the way there. I got bumped ahead in the line, but it was still almost 2 hours until I got to see anyone. Meanwhile X-man had a bout an hour of sleep in my arms on the waiting room chairs. Man sometimes I wish I was a kid again, being able to sleep anywhere.
The doctor saw him for about 3 minutes, looked at the eye, said that there was no redness in the white of his eye, so he should be fine, it will just weep a bit and be sore. Nice doctor, but he was a little condescending "This kind of thing will happen alot at this age" I'm like "Yeah, but it's his EYE, hello?" (ok, I didn't actually say that, but I wanted to).
So now he's walking around with a bit of a shiner, but it doesn't bother him, so that's good. He's back to his trouble-maker self.
So I'm not sure how to take this report that was reported by CBC News: Saddam intended to start developing WMD: report
Are they saying that intention is grounds for war? Or are they saying once and for all that he had nothing in place to create WMDs? I'm sure that somehow GWB will try and confuse the moron vote into thinking somehow his own supposed "good intentions" (the killings and bombings and such) were justified because Saddam had been sitting in his palace pondering how great it would be to have big nasty weapons to attack them with.
I apparently lied in my last post when I said I don't like reading the news... that's all I've been posting about lately. DoH!
I still don't understand how a population of people can vote back in a president when he blatantly lied, and in doing so has killed so far a minimum of 12755 iraqi civilians. Is this some racial thing, or alien thing, that somehow their lives don't count as much as the 1000+ US troups that have died? I don't understand it.
I don't like reading the news these days, and I don't like listening to the delusional ranting of folks who think the U.S. will somehow pull out of the mess they are in if they keep Bush in power.
Articles like this --> Who's Winning The "War on Terror"? do nothing to curb my fear that this world is going into an nosedive that it doesn't have the horsepower to pull out of. I remember reading a childrens version of the Book of Revelations, and certain current events trigger shivers up my spine because I feel we're not that far away from it.
Happy Furry Puppy Story Time with Norbizness: You Guys Are Just Tryin' To Scare Me! gives a nice sum up of Bush's very thin grasp on reality, or maybe he has some alternate reality he'd like to share with the rest of us. I might like to go there, everything seems so happy and peaceful.
Here are some interesting poll statistics regarding the US Election. It's not surprising the states that Bush is leading in such as Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas.
Survey USA - Current Election Polls
I wonder if these same states are all hyped about the expiration of the ban on assault rifles, I can probably bet they are. "Now I can defend mah home from that mob of non-whites that I saw standin' by the unemployment office" (sorry, had to induce the stereotype).
So as I was taking a puff of Advair, for my asthma I did a quick calculation, and it's approx. $3.33 a day to use this stuff to keep my asthma under wrap. Hopefully. And THEN if you need a quick hit because you're having problems, throw on another 90 cents. So many day's you're paying $4.23 , and on a yearly scale that's apporox 1300 - 1545 dollars. Thank you pharmaceutical companies.
Luckily in my case my insurance covers 100%, but if I was not covered, I'm not sure what I'd do, hack and cough until I got sick? I'm definitely not in a tax bracket to get any sort of government subsidy but I couldn't afford $250+ a month (whole family has asthma).
Why do companies like GlaxoSmithKline (makers of Advair) need to charge you that much money ? Maybe to pay for fancy websites like this. Apparently they made a profit of over a billion dollars last year, most likely off of families like mine. Oh, and apparently they're being sued this year, something about not giving correct information about prescribing Paxil to children. Greed prevails.
So I had a gig Fri. and Sat., the usual place, it went fine, but as I was driving into my neighbourhood I noticed a higher number of youthes in the streets than normal. Parked the car behind the house, went inside, watched a little tv (this is around 2:30-3:00).
About 3:15, I hear noises outside, loud voices so I look and there are 2 kids hanging out by the cable box infront of our house, mixing drinks or something, there's a 26 of vodka there too, and looks like a can of something for mix. I wasn't too worried, until I noticed the one kid (probably 16-17) standing out in the middle of the street looking back and forth (it's a t intersection).
It looked like he was keeping watch while his buddy (who was older looking and much bigger) disappeared down the street, then came back in awhile looking really agitated. So I watched for a bit, and I said "forget it" and called the cops, because it looked pretty damn suspicious.
I get off the phone with the cops, and I was sort of keeping an eye on the kids, when a couple of others comes up, more drunken speech, they leave. I now notice the kid on lookout has what appears to be a long knife, I'm assuming kitchen knife, which is glinting in the streetlight. Needless to say I call the cops again, this time quite a bit more agitated. By this time it's about 3:30 or so, so I basically was waiting around for them to arrive.
Almost 1/2 hour later (15 minutes or more after the punks left) they show up, shining a spotlight on our house, and phoning us from a cell phone. "This is officer so and so ... we'll drive around the streets, back alleys, and call you if we find anyone". Needless to say about 10 minutes later I see them driving the opposite direction, away from our house. No call, thanks for coming. Next time I'll skip the first call and say something about drugs, and knives and asian gangs, maybe they'll come faster.
Bah... woke up this morning and my voice sounded like Barry White, but not in a good way.
Went to work, left halfway through, basically shoo'd out of the office so I don't infect everyone else with the sickness. Probably won't be back tomorrow, it's bad... real bad... feels like a vice on my frontal lobe. I guess this must be payback for that post a bit back about the banjo music.
Had an interesting weekend, but I will have to post about it tomorrow, the haze that is my current mental state is getting to me.... ow.
Seems there's a lull out there in blogland. Many of the sites I regularly read are silent, why is that? I have some concepts:
a) School has started, and everyone is too busy
b) Blogging isn't as hip as it was once claimed to be
c) Watching the Republican Convention has lulled their brains into a coma
d) American bloggers are hiding in their basement, huddled in a corner somewhere muttering "no choice for leadership.. we have no choice for leadership..."
e) People are mesmerized by the continuing adventures of our new super heroess Trailer Britney
f) It's all been said, and who cares anyways right? (see point d)
g) Pointless entries like this have bombarded the blogosphere with mindlessness.