I found a comprehensive entry with great Burning Man links at one of the blogs I regularly read, Laughing Squid. I'm feeling lazy tonight and don't really enjoy re-blogging into the digital echo chamber, so I urge you to go there for ongoing Burning Man information. Also, Scott Beale reports that the fire was arson.
If you don't click that arson link, you'll never forgive yourself for missing the weirdest police mugshot since Texas politician Tom Delay got arrested for something ... being a pompous, grinning asshole, I think.
The Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales has resigned. How do I feel about that? I'm not sure. I thought his inability to lie well at congressional hearings was actually fairly entertaining to watch. He is just one of many psychologically dysfunctional men in power from Bushworld that should be in prison.
President Bush continued insulting our intelligence in a speech at the American Legion convention. This time, his speech writers were wise enough to drop the idiotic historical Vietnam references. These speeches are just public relations bullshit gearing up for the Congressional fight when the House and Senate return to Washington.
While I like the slogan, "strategic patience," the neocons are still using the phrase "we fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here." President Bush is still drumming up support for war with Iran with patriotic proganda slogans and unbelievably quoting the AIPAC Senator Joe Lieberman. Oy vey!
There will be a total lunar eclipse tonight (early Tuesday morning). Set your alarm clock, if you have to do it. There really aren't that many total lunar eclipses during one's lifetime. Sure solar eclipses can be all weird and scary, if you don't know what is happening, but lunar eclipses shouldn't be ignored just because you own a playstation or television. If you have children, I think it would be worth it to wake up the kids and let them watch it. They have all day in school to sleep anyway.
People living in western North America and eastern Australia will have the best viewing opportunity of this eclipse. People living in Europe and Africa will be out of luck. Although, with a global internet, one could watch the eclipse via webcast.
Basically, if you are in an area covered by the darkest orbital bell curve above, you'll be able to see the entire lunar eclipse. For people living in the western United States, the lunar eclipse begins at 01:51 PDT early Tuesday morning and ends at 05:24 PDT. I made the above image by modifying this NASA image by Fred Espenak. The next lunar eclipse in 2008 will favor the eastern U.S, Europe and Africa.
First of all, one thing that has stuck in my craw all night long is, of course, our president George Dumbass Bush. What kind of man can stand in front of an audience of veterans and dare speak to them about Vietnam when his chicken-hawk, neocon war-mongering cronies dodged the draft?
Sure, Bush was occasionally patrolling the skies over Houston when he wasn't drunk during the Vietnam war, but how dare he say, "One unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields.'" U.S. News and World Report has a good roundup of reactions to Bush's speech.
The families of the 58,249 dead U.S. military service members probably don't think the legacy of the Vietnam war is that we didn't stay in Vietnam long enough "to win." The Vietnamese people have a different perspective about the cessation of U.S. military operations in their country. What kind of fucktard neocon historical revisionist is writing Bush's speeches now? Oh, I forgot -- the popular right-wing nutbag theory is that it was actually the liberal U.S. media that "lost" the Vietnam war.
Look, if Bush wants to compare Iraq to Vietnam, we can do that, too.
Incredibly mis-informed foreign policy disasters.
Texas governors prolong the war for domestic political purposes and ego.
A fucktard idea has no good resolution.
If the U.S. stays in Iraq, people will die. If the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, people will die. Bush broke Iraq and the U.S. military only has about as much influence in Iraq as any other regional militia. In the north, you have the Kurdish Peshmerga (400,000). In the south, you have Sadr's and SIIC's militias (500,000). In the middle, you have the U.S. military (150,000) trying to protect assets in the Green Zone.
Scattered throughout the country, you have tiny pockets of Saudi Wahabbists and Iranian Qods who have the oil money funding and the motivation to make Iraq a never-ending battleground for their own Muslim sects and for control of the resources within Iraq. And then there are the soldiers of fortune, Blackwater. They certainly don't have any motivation to end their own extremely lucrative contracts in Iraq.
For those of you who are offended by my use of the word fucktard, I totally understand, but I can't apologize for it. I'm angry and it's just the most accurate word I could possibly think to use to describe president Bush. You'll agree with me when the Bush administration repeats another historical mistake and eventually widens the war to include Iran, as happened with Laos and Cambodia. Except this time around, you'll be paying $10 for a gallon of gasoline. Oh, wait. That was the plan all along, wasn't it?
For those of you who think I don't use enough profanity in my writing, I give you:
Now, just so I can calm down ... I found a new candidate for my Digi-Chix list who you might also find entertaining. Megan McArdle writes for the Atlantlic Monthly magazine. I love smart women — but if they also self-describe themselves politically as being libertarian — that is just really hawt.
Her IQ doesn't seem to hinder her sense of humor ... in a geeky way.
Another libertarian quote I recently heard, "Pfft. Yes, marijuana is a gateway drug ... for Dorritos."
Because I'm such a C-Span geek, I watched a Q&A show Monday morning before Washington Journal airs at 7:00am. Brian Lamb interviewed Janks Morton about the making of his documentary film "What Black Men Think."
The story behind the making of this documentary film is as intriguing to me as the film itself. While I was amazed with the video clips shown during the Q&A show, Lamb asked many questions about Morton's background, motivation and how he was able to make the documentary film itself.
It's very inspiring. From what I could tell from the interview, Janks Morton was simply angry enough about the popular misconceptions and myths about black men that he felt compelled to make this film. He's not a film maker. He made it for under $10,000 with a camera, some video editing software, and his own tenacity.
Janks Morton's motivation to make the film seems to have come from a simple question. Are there more black men in jail or in college? Sadly, the popular misconception even within the African American community provides the false answer -- jail. It's just not true. The actual facts make that stereotype of the American black man not just a little wrong, but more than 100% wrong. What is going on here?
Market for Niggas by Taalam Acey
What are some of the stereotypes for the American black man that immediately pop into your own mind -- Gangster, Funny man, Crackhead, Athlete, Baby Daddy?
Janks Morton has made "What Black Men Think" with the idea of starting a conversation within the black community about its own self-image, but I feel it's a topic that all Americans should be discussing. Sure, it's about traditional black/white race relations, but it's also about how the popular corporate media shapes our perceptions.
In my opinion, an additional example of that media manipulation of which Taalam Acey speaks would be the more recent stereotyping and demonizing of Latin American immigrants, especially Mexicans. It is my contention and even admonishment that we all need to get a firmer grip on our tribal emotions and simply check the facts. Otherwise, we Americans are all easily misled, once again.
I would characterize the documentary film "What Black Men Think" as an example of boots-on-the-ground truth, in comparison to some top-down, think-tank or advocacy group message from popular social leaders designed to maintain the status quo thinking for some of their own national organizations' fundraising purposes.
NASA has made the call to bring space shuttle Endeavor home because of the looming danger to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the mission control personnel in Houston, Texas, from Hurricane Dean. Yesterday, the STS-118 crew finished up their final tasks and undocked from the International Space Station (ISS).
Hurricane Dean is a very destructive category 4 hurricane predicted to eventually hit the northern states of Mexico and the southern Texas region. I'm continually finding new things at the NASA web sites. Today, I found NASA has a hurricane page.
On Friday, two astronauts were outside on an EVA (space walk) working when the ISS orbitted over Hurricane Dean. Now, I've been watching EVA live streams for some time, so I'm fairly used to hearing people talk over each other and also hearing the strange noises that accompany a live video feed from space.
Here are links to the short video of that event (WMP) (RM). Listen to the comments of the two astronauts who are extremely focussed on their EVA tasks, but then take a moment as they look down at the Earth and hurricane Dean churning below.
According to the National Hurricane Center, hurricane Dean will continue to strengthen before hitting the northern coast of Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula in the next 24 hours.
