From last night’s homework assignment:
The tradition of Christmas
A tree, big and green
Waiting to go out with your
Family to pick out the perfect one
The biggest, bushiest, greenest, nicest
One u can find, it’s a free for all
First come first serve
Or early bird gets the worm as my
Grandma says load it on top of your car
Hoping it doesn’t fall off before you
Get home thus ruining the Perfect tree
Walk in the door, pushing and shoving
To get the tree inside the house
Put on some Christmas music,
Dance around and act silly
And have a fun time decorating the tree
Putting the lights on first then the
Ornaments, after that you hide the pickle ornament
After you finish all this
You treat yourself to some hot coco
And the company of your family
– CBtE
on PBS: NYT
I am sick of these religious fruitcakes ruining everything. Why can’t they just turn the tv off? And if they want to cut the public funding for something, why not start with the Iraq war?
In CT we have the FIC Blog (Family Institute of Connecticut) hat has taken up the banner of gay-bashing and all of those other fine “traditional family values” that have come to be the norm for hatemongers.
I recently did a little bit of digging on one of their main claims of fast growning into “One of the biggest political Blogs in CT”… It seems some of their claims didn’t quite hold water:
“Does the Fic Lie About their Readership?“
connecticutBlog and MY Left Nutmeg had some fun with it afterwards as well:
If you check out ctblogger’s post, it is an expanded version of my original one with pictures so even the people at FIC could understand… lol
While some of the other Bloggers in our state had been trying to go after FIC for their hate content… I went straight for the heart of their purported “base”. For some reason they won’t put me on their “opponent list” now, having labeled me as drunk and unreasonable? LMAO
side note: There are Family Institute of “X” Blogs in many other states. If you have the time you might want to see if you can expose some of their BS. They are minor league Dobsonites.
Haha,
Well, they’ve been goaded into putting up a Site Meter now. All of 7 visitors last hour and 27 so far today (and that includes me).
I took a look at it after the first 4 days it was there… And of their last 20 visits at the time had 3 referals from my site, and 7 were from “liberal sites” that were watching them as well… I suspect their opponents list was designed to, hopefully, drive up their traffic. But now they have to contend with arguments of logic in their comments. heh
It is interesting to note that the FIC has a link from the Heritage Foundation’s website in their “ct education” section for local educational resources. Sure as heck is not the kindof wing-nut information I want to use for consideration in my kids’ education.
The fact that they put up the public sitemeter was a direct result of my post. I don’t think they like me, nor ctblogger and MLN, because they haven’t put us on their “opponents list”. It really hurts those faarrr-right-wingnuts when they have to face up to those pesky LIBERAL FACTS.
This all started when FIC tried to label Connecticut Local Politics – a group Blog of progressive, centrist and conservative bloggers – as a “Liberal Blog”. A blatant lie that many Bloggers called them on. The authors at CLP are pretty balanced there, but the reality that the readership would naturally be more progressive in Connecticut doesn’t make them a liberal Blog.
I have yet begun to fight them on their Christianist/bigoted positions on the issues. That was just my opening shot across their bow. 🙂
Iraq strife worst yet – Pentagon
Wapo notes: An Adolf moment has arrived:
White House, Joint chiefs split on more troops
Pentagon warns of risks of `surge’ option for Iraq
“But the Joint Chiefs think the White House, after a month of talks, still does not have a defined mission and is latching on to the surge idea in part because of limited alternatives, despite warnings about the potential disadvantages for the military, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the White House review is not public.”
On background
What a surge Really means – William Arkin
A contempt for truth?
Or
Are we surging to defeat?– -TomPaine W. Patrick Lang and Ray McGovern
There seems to be a pattern with Bush’s Iraq decisions: a lack of measurable goals. Unless you have REAL goals that are observable and measurable, you are simply admiring the problem, spinning your wheels, wasting your time. It seems to doom Bush’s every move in Iraq. I wonder if that is the result of a basic dishonesty about the underlying reasons we are in Iraq to begin with. Of course, it could also be the result of ignorant mule headedness and gross incompetence, not to mention “A contempt for truth” take your pick.
Imho, Bush’s “contempt for the truth” will lead to the ‘surge option’ -most likely reasoning – you can’t break an already broken army.
Let’s see how many of the Joint Chiefs fall in line with the decider-in-chief. 2007-Jan. ’09 setting up to be more of the same old, same old.
for the women of Iraq: via Alternet
I suppose we won’t hear Laura Bush squalking about this any time soon, she’s busy looking for all those freshly painted schools. (That’s not paint, Laura, it’s blood.)
You have got to remember: Stepford wives don’t see anything wrong with the Iraqi extremists treatment of women. If they did they wouldn’t have married an American extremist themselves.
Janjaweed blamed for Chad attack
Looks like the Darfur-conflict is about to spill over to Chad and Central African Republic…
Why Teens Do Stupid Things
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BENGAZI, Lybia (AP) Dec. 19 — Luc Montagnier — the French doctor who co-discovered HIV — testified in the first trial that the virus was active in the hospital before the Bulgarian nurses began their contracts there in 1998.
More evidence for that argument surfaced on Dec. 6 — too late to be submitted in court — when Nature magazine published an analysis of HIV and hepatitis virus samples from the children.
Using changes in the genetic information of HIV over time as a “molecular clock,” the analysts concluded that the virus was contracted before the six defendants arrived at the hospital — perhaps even three years before.
Defence lawyers say the children alreadyhad the virus which causes Aids
Idriss Lagha, the president of a group representing the victims, rejected the Nature article, telling a news conference in London that the nurses had infected the children with a “genetically engineered” virus. He accused them as doing so for research on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies.
In testimony last month, the defendants denied intentionally infecting children.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."CG, I want to know about the pickle ornament. Nice homework assignment, by the way… I give it an A. 🙂
Thanks! I thought it was cute.
Here’s the scoop on the pickle ornament. Which reminds me that I need a surprisse for the pickle-finder.
Wow. I’ve never heard of the Christmas pickle before. Where on earth would one even FIND a glass pickle ornament I wonder? You could learn something new every day here in the frogpond. 😉
Totally agreed on the assignment. It’s pretty great! Very evocative!
Blair’s defence that stopped the BAE/Saudi arms fraud probe in the national interest comes apart as it is revealed Police efforts were bugged.
Controversial claims have again emerged that Martian microbes could have established themselves here on Earth after hitching rides on meteorites. A handful of bacteria on Earth today have the ability to survive exposure to extremely high levels of radiation that would kill other organisms. Now, a team of scientists argues that bacteria could only have evolved this unusual ability on a planet like Mars.
In addition to boosting heart health, moderate alcohol consumption might protect against rheumatoid arthritis, a preliminary mouse study suggests. Mice that drank diluted ethanol were about 40% less likely to develop the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis than those given water instead. Researchers say that more studies are needed to understand exactly why alcohol has this effect and whether it also protects against arthritis in humans.
Researchers have discovered that a rare species of batfish is critically important in the recovery of degraded coral reefs that have become overgrown with algae. The batfish was thought to eat invertebrates, but has been discovered to eat the weedy, overgrown algae. In simulations on experimental plots on the Great Barrier Reef, parrotfishes and surgeonfishes, which are the routine consumers of seaweed on coral reefs, were unable to reverse runaway algal blooms.
Concern is growing over pollution from jets. Much remains unknown about climate change and the role aviation plays, though climate scientists express particular concern about jet emissions in the upper atmosphere, where the warming effect from some pollutants is amplified.
Borneo, the third largest island in the world, still has some amazing surprises for the scientific community: only this year about 52 new species of animals and plants were discovered there.
New observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope strongly suggest that infrared light detected in a prior study originated from clumps of the very first objects of the universe.
The sensitivity of the human sense of smell has been significantly underestimated, a study suggests. researchers from University of California Berkley laid scent trails, including one of chocolate essential oil, in a grassy field, and asked 32 people to find the 10 meter trail and track it to the end. Those who took part were blindfolded and wore thick gloves and earplugs to force them to rely exclusively on smell. Two thirds were able to follow the scent. And while they remained slower than the animals at tracking scents, their performance improved over time. In other tests, it was found that humans required both nostrils to be working to be able to track scents.
And Scientific American reports on a new model of how the sense of smell works. It is commonly believed smell works by molecules fitting into receptors like a lock into a key. But a new model proposes that smell works more like swiping a credit card – the molecule you smell fits into a receptor and an electron travels across it using the quantum tunneling effect, allowing structurally very similar molecules to have very different perceived odors. Before it tunnels, the electron distorts the odorant molecule’s electrical field. When it tunnels, it effectively disappears, causing that electrical field to wobble like a plucked string, Turin explains. Tunneling is likely to take place if the plucking matches the molecule’s natural mode of vibration.
Political Sources: via TPM has it that incoming Speaker, Nancy Pelosi has knighted Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to replace Emanuel as DCCC chair.
Alright! Maybe there will be some ethics in Washington again?
Manuel Contreras, the masterminder of the Embassy Row bombing that killed Orlando Letelier and American citizen Ronnie Moffitt, was sentenced today to ten years in jail for the disappearence of two Chilean citizens. Altogether he now accumulated 50 years in jail. His sorry ass will never see freedom again. May he live a long and miserable life.
In what court was he tried? Is this a good news story about Chilean criminal justice? These are not ironic statements, they are sincere. I am not well informed about Chile.
It doesn’t say in which court he was tried, (I assume in a Federal court), but it was in Chile. It is a good news from the Chilean Justice system. However the bad news is that he is serving his sentence in a Army’s Communication Command. Just hope that he will transfered to a common jail someday. But it is good news that jail sentences are pilling up.
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Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepulveda has declared that he received his orders directly from General Pinochet"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."See below for a comment 🙂
In one of the sadder stories showing the rift between the obscenely wealthy and the poor souls scraping to eat something other than mud:
Source: Reuters, 12/18/2006
Hi Oui! There is no way the WH will make public Pinochet’s participation in the Embassy Row bombing, since Poppa Bush covered it up and mislead the FBI. However it is good to now that someone remembered the 30th anniversary. (Surprised me! :-))