The Real Jeff Gannon?

I received a most surprising e-mail today. I have not been able to research the matter and determine whether or not it is accurate, but I thought that its contents were so explosive that they needed to be shared more widely.

If you can shed any light on this story, by all means please let me know. -- John

"Now that Jeff Gannon has suddenly departed, under mysterious circumstances, from the prestigious Talon News Service, a lot of crazy stories have been circulating. Some people are even trying to claim that no such person as Jeff Gannon exists, that he is really an escort-for-hire named Jim Guckert. Yeah, some people will believe anything.

"Jeff Gannon is a real person, he is NOT the same person as Jim Guckert. Jeff Gannon is abusing that poor man, making him the fall guy for Gannon's sleazy activities.

"I repeat, this story has NOTHING to do with Jim Guckert, it is the truth about Jeff Gannon, and what kind of man he really is:

"Samir Hamdi was a teacher at a small high school in Kabul, Afghanistan, swept up by U.S. forces in December of 2001 and detained at a torture camp in Pakistan. In 2003, he was dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJs, then ordered to describe for a visiting American "journalist" the "lenient and humane treatment" he'd received. He spat at Mr. Gannon, and was clubbed and dragged away. During the subsequent beating, he fell forward upon the camp Commandant's feet, which sent that officer berserk. In 2005, he still suffered from double vision from the Colonel's frenzied application of a wooden baton.

"Karim Musharrak, an Iraqi shopkeeper detained since 2002, was not even on the books at the prison camp in Egypt where he was detained, one of the "phantom" prisoners whose presence is not recorded or acknowledged, even to the Red Cross, for "security" reasons. His group, too, got the cleaned/fed/clothed routine in preparation for a visit from an "independent journalist". They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his name and home town on it, in the palm of his hand. When paraded before Mr. Gannon and a camera man, he walked the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: "Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?" and "Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?" Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed Gannon their slivers of paper. He took them all without missing a beat. At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, he turned to the officer in charge ... and handed him the little pile of papers. Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Musharrak was almost number four. But he survived, and was one of a handful of prisoners who were finally recognized as innocent and released ...which is the only reason we know about Gannon's actions that day.

"This is the truth about Jeff Gannon, and anyone who doesn't believe it can just go ask Jeff Gannon!"

Good Donuts

I was walking into downtown Corvallis this afternoon, on my way to the offices of Willamette Valley Community School where I would teach another session of my history class, "The Cold War and Stuff", when I happened to see that the Cork's Donuts franchise at 4th And Jefferson was open.

I was delighted, though regretful that Kathe wasn't with me. We'd been hoping to visit it together for over a week. I found out that they are only open from 5:30AM to 2:30PM, and had been closed a few days due to a family emergency.

Michelle, the counter person, gave me a box of donuts for the kids when I told her I was teaching a class next thing. It was a bit too appropriate that the class just ending had been covering juvenile obesity, but that's life.

We talked a little about Dr. Strangelove, which we had finished watching the other day, and then started in on The Atomic Cafe, and ate some donuts.

Really good donuts. If there's a Cork's near you, check it out.

My Valentine

Kathe gave me a cute little windup walking monster. I never met a vinyl-covered windup before.

I gave her a pipe wrench. Her fine set of pipe wrenches mysteriously disappeared during that idyllic summer I was enjoying so much, so she needed one (I'd already gotten her a really nice hammer for Christmas).

Hey, it works for us.

That Dirty Rotten Racist, Barbara Boxer

jheyne@victorhanson.com

Ms. Jennifer Heyne:

Since Victor Hanson is apparently being coy with his own contacts, I
will direct this comment to you.

I'm not entirely clear what Mr. Hanson's point was concerning Senator
Boxer's challenge to Dr. Rice, but he seems to be saying that no Democrat
should ever confront or challenge any African American, ever, no matter how
egregious the provocation, and that this protection is granted solely on the
basis of race.

I find it hard to imagine a more racist notion.

John M. Burt

From: "VDH Assistant"
To: "John M. Burt"
Subject: RE: Boxer Vs. Rice
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 15:53:59 -0800

Dear Mr. Burt,

Victor is never coy, just very busy. I think the point was that the
Democrats are especially angry that a black woman might harbor her own
ideas -- and so prone to grill a black republican more closely and in ways
that was never seen even by more controversial appointments -- because the
Democrats feel blacks owe them something as champions of civil rights. It's
much like the plantation owner who felt his slaves owed him for their
livelihood. Ultimatly, Boxer's anger was Rice's race, not her testimony.
Hence, the tenor of the attack was motivated by race. He suggests the same
phenonmenon with C. Thomas.

I confess that I write this from a conversation with Victor and have not
read the article. So I am as remiss as i am busy. I don't even know if
this made since. Good luck

Sincerely,

Jennifer Heyne
Assistant

_____________________________________
This comes from "Private Papers"
VDH's website at www.victorhanson.com


Ms. Heyne:

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to reply to my message of the other day.

I am interested by the line of reasoning used here. Mr. Hanson declared, with no supporting evidence, that Senator Boxer's close questioning of Dr. Rice was not motivated by political expedience in opposing an effective agent of the Bush Administration's agenda, nor by moral objections to Dr. Rice's well-documented carelessness with the truth, but solely by hostility towards a "disloyal" African American.
You support this assertion with . . . your own assertion of the same thing.
Oh, well. Doubtless the charge of racism laid against Senator Boxer will stick, once asserted by enough people. And Secretary Rice's falsehoods will remain ignored, no matter how well they are documented.


Life goes on,

John M. Burt

Finally Figured It Out

Now I understand why Bush is so determined to change Social Security, and most importantly, why he wants to change it in this particular way.

He's trying to bring it in line with all the Republican programs.

In order for it to fit in alongside "No Child Left Behind", "Homeland Security", the "Clear Skies Initiative", and so forth, "Social Security" needs to be entirely concerned with private risk.

What Color Is Your Bracelet?

First there were the yellow rubber bracelets.

Then the pink ones.

And the red and blue "VOTE" bracelets, and the post-election bracelets, and other blue bracelets. Lots of them. And red ones, too.

The green bracelet seems sort of beside the point.

Or just go here and get the color you like.

Working Assets offered us a blue bracelet stamped "NEVER SURRENDER", but when they came, they were purple.

I guess we'll wear them anyway.

LOL @ This, But Not That

[Recycled from 12:01PM, 9 February 2005]

Chilly here this evening. It will take awhile for my fingers to loosen up after the frosty climb to the lookout. Some days I wish I had put my imaginary private sanctum in a stone-walled sub-basement, or maybe the Negative Zone.

Arthur D. Hlavaty provided me with a link to Civil War-era e-mail shorthand.

Wow.

Less amusing, also from Hlavaty's blog, is the story of Maya Keyes, recently fired from the job of being Alan Keyes' daughter:

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2005/02/republican-compassion-in-action.html

It's always a mistake to wait around for them to fire you. She should have resigned a long time ago.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Don't delay."\\

Spirited Boxer vs. Converted Rice

jheyne@victorhanson.com

Ms. Jennifer Heyne:

Since Victor Hanson is apparently being coy with his own contacts, I will direct this comment to you.

I'm not entirely clear what Mr. Hanson's point was concerning Senator Boxer's challenge to Dr. Rice, but he seems to be saying that no Democrat should ever confront or challenge any African American, ever, no matter how egregious the provocation, and that this protection is granted solely on the basis of race.

I find it hard to imagine a more racist notion.


Respectfully,

John M. Burt

News Item

Samara, Ohio -- Today the bandages came off and Missy Potamia's family got to see the 13-year-old's reconstructed face for the first time. Two years after an unfortunate misunderstanding when she tried to deposit money at her local bank, extensive surgery has undone broken cartilage, smashed cheekbones and shattered teeth.

Her mother was delighted.

"To tell the truth, Missy was always a plain child. Her big blobby nose and buck teeth were a real drawback, but we could never have afforded braces, let alone plastic surgery. Fortunately, the bank's insurance paid for it, and since her face was so totally ruined, it gave us a chance to give her the look she always wanted."

Bank security guard George W. Bush declared that Missy's beautiful new face vindicated his own actions two years ago.

"Even though it appears she wasn't actually trying to rob the bank," Bush said, "it's now clear that I still did the right thing in taking prompt action with that baseball bat."

Bush's contract with the bank has recently been renewed for another four years.

Prettifoggery

We've had some eerily pretty fogs in the evening lately. The kind where every light becomes a fuzzy fairy palace and the world becomes van Gogh's _Starry Night_. Real nice, so long as you don't have to drive in it.

Mmmmmmm

Headed towards the LBCC campus to class, I took Kathe along to drop her downtown, where she will take care of various personal and WVCS matters. She must be having a good day, where her legs don't hurt her too much, to be confidently planning to walk all over downtown.

I pulled into the ARCO station at 3rd and VanBuren and gave Kathe a long, lingering, emphatic goodbye kiss while the attendant approached the car.

"What are we doing here today?" came the familiar question.

"Besides necking, you mean?" I answered with an insufferable grin.

Acting as a Society to Help People Be Secure

The comic strip Mr. Boffo has a recurring feature called "People Unclear on the Concept", in which someone displays a serious fundamental lack of misunderstanding. I'd like to think that George W. Bush has a similar lack of comprenehsion about the word "social" and the word "security", and what they mean when you put them together.

1905: "They made us many promises, but they kept only one: they said they would take our land, and they took it."

2005: "They made us many promises, but they kept only one: They said they would cut Social Security benefits by 40%, and they cut them."

Keep Social Security secure.

Elsewhere in the news, my body-weight profile now stands at:
October: 240 lbs.
November: 222 lbs.
December: 217 lbs.
January: 215 lbs.
February: 214 lbs.
Not bad, but I believe I'll try to steepen that curve just a tad.

The Political Correctness of George W. Bush

Arthur D. Hlavaty provides me with a link to Molly Ivins' piece about what constitutes politically correct language, according to the Administration, on Social Security privatization -- excuse me, personalization.

I had already noticed a long time ago that "politically correct" is usually used to mean politically incorrect -- that is, at variance with the reality being promulgated by those who wield political power.

Doesn't it make a lot more sense to refer to the language used by people with political power as "PC", rather than the language used by outsiders who have none?

Pundit Payola

Please. This shouldn't be difficult. I shouldn't have to haul myself all the way up to the lookout just to tell you this:

Tax dollars should not be spent to secretly hire columnists to promote the government's position, and ten times over not to support one side of a partisan debate.

Why would anybody have a hard time understanding that?

Postcards for Buster

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is throwing a tantrum over an episode of the PBS kids' series "Postcards From Buster", because it depicts a real live girl with her real live parents who are . . . maple syrup tapsters!

No, I mean . . . homosexuals!

Yeah, that first thing didn't sound right . . . .

Come to think of it, the second one doesn't, either.

PDX -- That Was Fun

I went to Portland without Kathe today. I hardly ever do things without her, but I had a rarish opportunity due to a space in my schedule, and since Kathe didn't want to go, I devoted the day to hanging out with my Portland friends, spending time with them without having to worry about Kathe being bored or annoyed.

Preparing for the trip, I looked at the box of graphic novels that the Library had chosen not to shelve (see yesterday's entry). Since they had undergone the iconic experience of being hauled in a little red wagon, I decided to take them to Portland and see if Francine or Diane wanted to borrow them.

I met Kathe's daughter Sarah for lunch. She got a kick out of showing me around her workplace, introducing me as her "stepfather". Her amusement at being 45 with a 44-year-old stepfather reminded me of when my son Waldy was born. We went to visit Sarah, and Sarah's son Loy, then six, invited his friends in to see his "baby uncle".

Sarah bought me some food at a Chinese buffet, and while we sat eating and talking in her car, Kathe called my cell phone to inform me that she'd received a text message from our daughter Asnakech, reminding her that today is Ash's 23rd birthday. We were partly excused by the fact that Ash barely remembered it herself.

I went by the apartment Asnakech shares with our son Tesfaye but nobody was home at that point, so off to Tigard to see Francine. I met Francine when we were both innocent yougn college students who could be moved to tears by the (first) death of Jean Grey. It had been a long time since we'd been able to spend a couple of hours together, and it was good to catch up.

I dropped by Ash and Tes' place again and found them home. We had coffee and talked about old times.

Next, I crossed the river yet again to see Diane, a friend of more recent vintage than Francine but also valued and too seldom-seen. Her collection of fantasy memorabilia of all kinds continues to grow.

And then home, and boy did it get late. But a couple of hours of driving in the dark (ecch) were worth it. I feel so good after blowing a day doing what I wanted to do.

Library Books

After several years of working up the nerve, I packed up most of my "graphic novels" and took them to the public library. There, the hardworking Alex sorted through them over several days, set aside the ones which she was actually going to shelve, and called me to pick up the remainder (I wasn't going to donate them unreservedly, and have them wind up feeding some Friends of the Library 3/$1 table).

I'm going to miss the Superman Archives, the Batman Archives and other things Alex accepted. I'm going to wonder why she didn't take Kingdom Come or Somerset Holmes. But I'm going to feel really good seeing my books on the shelves.

Worth a Try, I Suppose

Lawsuit Filed Against George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney

Doug Wallace

WASHINGTON -- January 18 "Information Clearing House" -- A lawsuit was filed late Friday January 14th in the U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada against President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The lawsuit alleges that both defendants have acted outside the scope of their job description in waging a war against Iraq. The complaint alleges that both defendants and others working within the White House and Defense Department have covertly implemented a white paper called “Rebuilding America’s Defenses:” as presented by the Project for the New American Century or PNAC in September, 2000 two months before the murky elections of that year. Among the persons signing the paper were Richard Cheney and Jeb Bush. While the paper was published on the internet, implementation of it by the White House has been in secret.

The thrust of the white paper calls for the complete domination of the globe by the US with wars against Iraq, Syria, and Iran, domination of outer space and of Cyberspace. It calls for an enlarged military to fight simultaneous wars. Security bases world wide with extensive constabulary forces posted to keep all nations subservient to US military and economic power. It also calls for nuclear rockets to be fired from Spy satellites to suppress any challenge to US global domination.

The class action lawsuit filed by retired attorney and great-grandfather, Doug Wallace alleges that the defendants have violated their oaths of office in entering into a private treaty relating to International relations without approval of the Congress and have made a mockery of the Constitution under a false banner of a war on terrorism.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against further implementation of the PNAC plan without a 2/3 vote of the congress and a full disclosure to the American Public. It also names John Does 1-100 as defendants. The suit seeks restitution to the US Treasury from all Defendants of the cost of the war with Iraq and also seeks a ruling that since the deception about the war and execution of it was outside of their job descriptions they should all be individually liable to private persons injured as a result of their illegal conduct. To view Complaint go to www.dougwallace.com Under the circumstances, notice of support to the court would be appropriate (A printable copy is available at page 26 on website ).

CONTACT: Founders Freedom Defense Fund : Doug Wallace 775-833-5010

Copyright © Information Clearing House. All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

Me Neither

Nothing much happened today.

Didn't do anything special.

And we didn't spend one damn dime.

I Love My Kids

Kathe and I drove to Portland today to deliver some more fo Tesfaye's stuff, primarily his bed. We took the van, ruinous though its gas milage is, in order to hold the mattress and box spring.

Along the way we stopped at a coffee shack, had a mocha and took photos, adding one more entry to our hoped-for coffee table book on the Northwest's coffee shacks.

It was good to see Tes after a few weeks without him. Good to see Biftu (aka Asnakech) again, also. And before we left, we got to sit down and have some wat and injera. *Grin*

Left for another trip will be visits to friend Diane, friend Bella, friend Heather in Salem, and stops at several other nifty coffee shacks seen along the way, as well as the London Eatery, a coffee shack in a retired doubledecker bus.

David Brooks and/or American Women

To: David Brooks, columnist, New York Times
From: John M. Burt, blogging person
Re: Your column on American women's career options

Interesting piece. I agree that the common pattern of a professional woman interrupting her career at mid-gallop in order to have babies after her healthiest and most fertile period has ended is less than ideal. It seems to me that it would indeed make more sense for women to have their children earlier, and go to work later.

Yours is the first proposal for conservative social engineering I've seen in a long time that struck me as reasonable, neither excessively punitive nor offensively condescending. Thank you for something worth chewing over.

Happy Birthday

Follow the link above, to http://www.mecca.org/~crights/dream.html

That should do for today.

Good Morning

I'm up, Kathe's sleeping in, in a few minutes I must go and take a sweet little old lady to Meeting (church). A quiet moment. Of course, since we're going to a Quaker Meeting, the whole morning is going to be pretty quiet. . . .

Yesterday morning there was a thick pebbled coating of ice on everything. Very pretty on the trees, but annoyingly durable on the windshields, and scary on the street.

I had coffee and a sandwich for breakfast. Did you know that if you freeze cream cheese, it comes out in this crumbly form, more cheese and less creaminess? It doesn't spread as well as ordinary cream cheese, but I like the texture.

Some people write entries like this every day on their blogs.

Good News

I actually prefer the good news, believe it or not. True, I don't blog much about it, but really I'd rather climb up to the lookout tower and look up good news, and tell you about it here. I'd rather log onto Heavens Above and look up what satellites and space debris will be visible in tonight's night sky over Corvallis (three rocket boosters, two satellites and the space station, as it happens), and watch them from the lookout (or, if I feel more comfortable in a non-imaginary location, from the street out in front of the house).

The Huygens probe, now there's good news. Excellent news, delightful news. River beds, shoreline, rocks washed up by ancient flows. Beautiful. Delightful. I wonder what the flowing liquid is? And are those rocks water-ice? Just curious.

The next lander will have to have a rover, so it can go hunt around and look for signs of life and interesting patterns of deposition.

Humans have successfully landed a probe on distant Saturn, and have not used it to kill anybody so far. Kinda gives you this funny feeling . . . "hope", I think it's called.

I think I'll climb back down to the house and pet the rats for awhile, and then go cuddle up in bed next to my sweetie.

Dubious Impact

Isn't NASA asking for trouble by naming a spacecraft after the film Deep Impact?

After all, that was a disaster movie.

True, it's only a robotic probe, it's not like they named a space shuttle Titanic, but even so . . . .

We've Got Rats

A family member is moving and has therefore gifted us with rats. Four healthy males: Chewbacca, Horatio, Ratzilla and Bob. Oddly, there is no Bill, even though the family has a long tradition of rats named Bill: Mister Bill, Dollar Bill, Three-Dollar Bill, Food Bill (a large one), &c. They're all friendly and well-socialized, accustomed to crawling back and forth across people's shoulders. Kathe and I have made friends with them and they are now settled into our house and our shoulders.

We may or may not also be receiving the former owner's last rat, a female named Mrs. B. She has been and will be housed apart from the males, in order to ensure that this gift does not keep on giving.

Alberto the Torturer, Still

Columnist David Sarasohn reports, "It's now big news that the next United States attorney general thinks torture is a bad idea. It's a smaller story that it turns out he actually doesn't. "'Despite reports,' Gonzales said firmly, he didn't consider the Geneva Conventions 'quaint and obsolete' -- although the 'reports' consisted of a memo he signed saying that he did."

When pressed on whether he still believed, as another signed statement he made indicates, that the President has authority to exempt torturers from U.S. laws and treaties, Gonzales simply refused to answer.

It looks as though poor, put-upon Judge Gonzales is indeed being "borked" -- Like Robert Bork, he is being rightly condemned out of his own mouth for his bizarre and morally putrid legal pronouncements.

Still Proudly Unindicted

Clackamas County Prosecutor Alfred French has been found by the Secretary of State's office not to have violated any Oregon election laws in the course of filing his affidavit on behalf of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the recent Presidential election.

He is found not to have done anything illegal in using his job title, or in having his statement notarized by a county staff notary.

Left unanswered is whether he did anything illegal or unethical by telling BIG FAT LIES in his affidavit.

But hey, who care about truth?

Psychology 215

Developmental Psychology is the last prerequisite for admission to the nursing program at LBCC. After this, there is nothing else I can do to earn more points towards admission, except come back year after year re-applying.

On the other hand, maybe I'll get in this year. Think positive.

I wasn't looking forward to this. After all, I already have a Bachelor's degree in psychology, even though I happened not to have taken 215, so how much benefit could I gain from taking it?

It's not too bad, though. A little heavy on squashy psychodynamic theorizing for my tastes, but I can handle it, I reckon.

Bush's Mandate

Yes, Mr. President, you DO have a mandate…

It is written in the U.S. Constitution: “…form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” [Preamble to the U.S. Constitution]

Today, as you swear to uphold our Constitution, please consider this:

Form a More Perfect Union
· Help unite our divided American people. Listen to what all sides say, not just those who agree with you.

Establish Justice
· Appoint truly representative Supreme Court justices who have demonstrated allegiance to fairness, not to a particular point of view.
· Protect the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Do not threaten or weaken them in the name of the War on Terror.
· Protect the weaker, poorer and less powerful members of society from the richer and more powerful members.

Insure Domestic Tranquility
· Help bring peace to our neighborhoods. The Wars on Drugs and Terror have failed to bring this peace precisely because they depend on a war mentality.
· Help strengthen families by providing the tools they need to be resilient, not merely by referring them to religion.

Provide for the Common Defense
· Protect us from real and immediate threats, such as crime in the streets and in corporate suites, hunger and homelessness; not questionable threats from distant lands, such as Iraq and Iran.

Promote the General Welfare
· See that the wealth of this great land is shared fairly and widely enough that no hard-working citizen is denied a stake in it.
· Protect our environment.
· Provide quality public education for grades K through college.
· Ensure that all Americans have health insurance.

Secure the Blessings of Liberty to Ourselves and our Posterity
· Ensure that our liberty is protected not just from those outside our country, but also from those inside it.
· Consider the effect on the wellbeing of future generations when making today’s policies.

We, the undersigned, call upon you, Mr. President, to carry out this mandate.

To help Oregon PeaceWorks place this message as an advertisement in the January 20th edition of the Portland Oregonian, send a donation to Oregon PeaceWorks, 104 Commercial St. NE, Salem, OR 97301; www.oregonpeaceworks.org.

Those Poor Savages -- Or Not

Once in awhile you hear about those tiny isolated tribes living on islands in the Indian Ocean, diligently preserving their isolation from the outside world. And good for them.

Now we learn that they, alone of all the nations affected by the Boxing Day tsunami, may have nboticed that something was up and taken effective action to protect themselves.

So now we have a whole new reason for wanting to make contact with them: because they know something we need to learn.

By golly.

Belated Christmas Present for the Infertile

Check out the link above for Soper's clear and brilliant analysis of Mr. & Mrs. Claus' real problem: infertility.

Brilliant.

In other news, I need a haircut. I'll see if I can get Bella or Diane to do it. That would involve going to Portland, but that's okay, I like Portland.

Weighing In

October 8th, 2004: 240 lbs.

November 2nd, 2004: 222 lbs.

December 1st, 2004: 217 lbs.

December 30th, 2004 (counting as my January, since I was near a medical-grade balance scale) : 215 lbs.

Not bad, considering that's weight lost over Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and their various leftovers periods.

It's the chocolate I realy can't escape. Mmmmm, chocolate . . . .

Still, not bad. I'm going to try for 200 lbs.

What was my program? Unfortunately, you can tweak it any way you like with this nutrient and that, this kind of exercise and that, but in the final analysis you have to eat less than will sustain life. This is painful, your body tries to force you to stop doing it, but there's no way around it. Eat less than will sustain life, and stop before you do yourself a serious injury.

For some reason, climbing all those steps to the lookout every day doesn't seem to have any effect on the process.

Also, check out the zine at the link above and here. Not that it has anything to do with my weight, I just think it's cool.

Happy New Year

It's a new year, all things are made new.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

Hope is renewed.

Try to feel it, John.

Try to feel like we can all begin again.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

It's a new year, all things are made new.

Can't sleep, clowns will eat me.

It's a new year, all things are made new. . . .

Bush's Bulging Back

I've seen the photos and I am convinced:

Bush wasn't wearing a radio prompter, he was (and is) wearing a portable defibrillator.
Which means he is very severely ill, and has been hiding it from us for months.

Is that an impeachable offense? Ought to be.

Stingy?! Who, Us?

I am shocked and outraged that U.N. official Jan Egeland would have the gall to refer to the assistance offered to poor and stricken nations by certain unnamed countries as "stingy"!

After all, what nation gives the largest share of its GNP to foreign aid?

Norway? Oh.

Well, but what country gives the largest total amount of dollars?

Japan? Oh.

Okay, but where does the U.S. rank among industrial nations as a benefactor of the less fortunate?

Tied for seventh place? Oh.

Well, he still shouldn't have used the word "stingy". It's rude.

19th Century Fantasy, 21st Century Horror

I really like Jess Nevins' online encyclopedia of characters from the fantastic literature of the Victorian period. It pleases me no end that it will also soon be available through the good people of MonkeyBrain Books in good old-fashioned book form.

As news reports continue to paint a more vivid picture of the disaster in the Indian Ocean countries, I am increasingly disturbed and saddened. I can only hope that the nations of the world will move to help the survivors, and that they might take a lesson from the act: that humanity's courage and intelligence, the technology and the immense wealth we have created in modern times, can find better uses than warfare.

Click here to donate to tsunami relief.

The Christmas Letter

Here's the full text of our Christmas letter for this year:

CONTACT LIGHT
Winter 2004-5, a Blackberry House publication, by John M. Burt, 960 SW Jefferson Avenue, Corvallis, Oregon 97333 USA Telephone (541) 753 – 6094, cell (541) 602 – 6026, email john_m_burt@hotmail.com , blog http://www.john_m_burt.blogspot.com

Two cranes are currently being used in the construction project up at Reser Stadium (formerly named Parker after a football hero, now named Reser after a frozen burrito), a few blocks from Blackberry House. A couple of weeks ago, the arms of the cranes were wrapped in bright yellow lights, and the tops of the cranes’ towers were decorated with red lights in the form of Christmas trees.

The cranes look gorgeous from our lawn or our kitchen window, and we’re hoping that we can get a legible photograph of them before the lights come down. We’re holding out hope for the digital camera.
Last year at this time, there were a lot of things that I hoped would be different by now, and most of them have not changed, at least not in ways I would have hoped for. Oh, well, that’s life. And just think of all the things that could have gotten worse, or which could go wrong in the year to come . . . .

Um, err . . . I’ll try to focus on the things that I might finally be able to improve upon in 2005. That strikes me as a much better idea.

I have continued my plan of taking the prerequisite courses for the nursing program, building up points for admission. There’s just one left for me to take, and then I’ll be all out of classes. Possibly I can find some classes that cover the same material that’s contained in the R.N. program, or maybe I’ll just stay home in the evenings memorizing the Physician’s Desk Reference.

I’m also still working for that home-health organization, and at a daytime activity program for old people, and oh yes, doing massage. Pick up a little here and a little there, and maybe we’ll make a living.

Kathe’s health remains stable, but decidedly not satisfactory. Her replacement hips continue to function well, but she continues to suffer from a condition that causes spasms, weakness and severe pains in her legs, often denying her a proper night’s sleep.

Tesfaye at 18 and Waldy at 16 do their own things, for the most part. This was especially noticeable at Thanksgiving, when there were just the two of us for dinner. I’d been alone at Thanksgiving (when I was in the Navy), but I’d never had Thanksgiving dinner with just one other person. Oh, well, at least it was the right other person.

Waldy works with the local chapter of Food Not Bombs, which every Sunday gathers in our kitchen with donated food to prepare a meal which they serve in the park downtown.

We did get some things done this year, most notably the new section of roof. Jake came for an extended visit, during which, with a hired helper, he put long-lived shingles on the section of the roof which needed it most, the south-facing section above Tes’ apartment. They also replaced the 35-year-old skylights in that area, which had finally begun to leak. I had always admired the clever use of big panes of plexi, nailed on in place of an equal area of shingles – the storebought skylights don’t have anything like their charm. And it remains to be seen whether they will last as long as the plexi did.

A big project for next year has got to be the lawn. It’s all, you know, muddy. Probably has something to do with the Waldy People coming around all the time, walking on it. We have a couple of walkways on the lawn, made up of chunks of recycled sidewalk concrete, and we’re always talking about laying another one, but I think this year we may have to go for several.

So, by this time next year, I may be an enrolled nursing student, the lawn may be extensively amended with little gray slabs, and more of the roof may be leak-free.

Or not. Much is uncertain as we grope for answers in this post-11/2 world. Like, when did “My Favorite Things” become a Christmas song? Suddenly it’s on CD compilations and in heavy rotation on the radio – when did that happen? Does anybody remember it happening, or have we always been at war with Eurasia?
“Contact light” is the first phrase spoken from the surface of the Moon. This Contact Light is dedicated to the lights on the cranes. Please keep in contact, folks. And keep it light.

A Good Day

Normally, I wouldn't have counted a Christmas Eve which I spent largely in driving to Portland and back as a very good one, but actually, it was.

My son Tesfaye was planning to move in with his sister Biftu (also known as Asnakech, or Ash), and when she sounded so unwell on the phone, he felt an urgent desire to go to her and look after her right away. Mindful of the sad fate of people like Lester Bangs and Dori Seda, I tended to encourage rather than discourage that impulse.

So, we loaded up Tes' most essential items (pillows, comforter, CD player) and off we went, cleverly timing our trip to coincide with the early afternoon, when everyone who hadn't left for Grandma's house would be heading out of Portland, rather than in. Just before we left, Kathe checked road conditions with the Oregon DSepartment of Transportation's useful and charming Roadcams.

Biftu turned out to be much better by the time we got there, and I got to have a brief but pleasant visit with my younger daughter. On my way out of Portland, I stopped to check on my dear friend Bella, whose phone was disconnected and who had not answered a recent postcard. Turns out that she's just fine, also, and has just been licensed as a teacher of hairdressing. Good show, Bella -- and yes, next time I will stay long enough to let you give me a trim.

Best of all, I didn't have to work any hours at any of my various jobs -- I had a whole day off, and I'd gotten to sleep through the night alongside my sweetie. A way good day!

And now, since the sight of a suspiciously long and flexible aircraft flying over Corvallis reminds me that it's just barely still Christmas Eve and only getting later, I'll climb down from the lookout tower and get into bed next to my sweetie for a second night of blessed repose.

Good Festivus to All

This morning, I was trying to entertain some old people with mind-challenging exercises out of the helpfully-provided mental challenge book, only . . . it was so lame.

"Name things that begin with the letter M"

"Fill in the famous partners: Laurel and . . . Martin and . . . Bonnie and . . . " (I was tempted to amend it with "Leopold and . . . ").

Garbage like that.

So I asked them if December 23rd was any kind of special day, if they knew of any holidays that fell today, or historical events, or events in their own lives. Well, no luck there, although I got a few minutes out of the Corvallis Gazette-Times' "Today in History" column, especially by telling them about the dubious circumstances surrounding the attribution of "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" to the Snicketish Clement C. Moore.

Alas, if I had only read the Portland Oregonian earlier in the day, I could have told them about Festivus, a holiday I'd had no previous knowledge of, since I'd never watched Seinfeld.

So, I more or less immediately ran upstairs and told my son Tesfaye about the family in-joke that had been shared with the world with interesting results, and although no bare aluminum pole was handy, he was happy to take a minute to wrestle me to the floor.

It was fun. Improved my mood no end.

Happy Festivus to all.

Today is the Winter Solsitice

It's tyhe shortest day of the year. The Day the Sun Stood Still. The turning of the wheel. The real Christmas, the real New Year. The days will start getting longer now, and maybe other things will improve also. I can at least try to cultivate that feeling.

It's a new beginning. All things are made new. It's a new beginning, all things are made new . . . .

Unfortunately, some old business won't just go away because I'm thinking positive thoughts. I have an hour between a night shift at this guy's house, and a morning spent at an adult day center (don't worry, I'll be able to sleep in the afternoon), and I'm cutting into the time alotted for me to spoon with Kathe before she gets up by climbing the frosty steps to the lookout tower to post to my blog. Seems pretty silly, but I've really been pushed to my limit by the latest Iraq-related news:

At his latest press conference, Bush has finally admitted that his house of cards is collapsing and . . . he blames us.

Our faltering resolve.

He blames us.

In Order to Save Social Security . . .

To: James Lileks ( lileks@newhouse.com )
From: John M. Burt ( john_m_burt@hotmail.com )

In the Portland Oregonian for Sunday, 19 December 2004, you start out by indignating against those devious Democrats who would dare to suggest that the Republicans proposing to reform Social Security are really out to destroy it. You assure Granny that they intend nothing of the sort.

You then go on to say, "Everyone knows the system will explode in a shower of shredded promissory notes at some point." Um, has anyone ever mentioned to you that it's always a good idea to look twice at any statement that begins with "everyone knows"?

Besides, everyone doesn't know that. Any honest person knows that the system is, under present rules, solvent until sometime between 2045 and 2055, and can remain solvent indefinitely by slightly altering the parameters (increasing the retirement age, reducing growth in benefits or even -- shudder! -- by collecting Social Security taxes on unearned income).

So the only reason for you to say that Social Security is doomed! doomed! doomed!, is that you want to make us think Social Security is beyond hope, will die anyway -- so let's go ahead and kill it now.

Look, just level with us: if you think the world would be a better place without Social Security, simply explain to Granny how she will be better off without it. Surely that won't be difficult.

Trent Lott vs. Donald Rumsfeld

This just observed at the Weston Observer blog:

Sen. Lott Calls For Rumsfeld To Be Replaced
Mississippi Republican Senator and ex Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce that "I am not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld" and said the secretary should be replaced sometime within the next year. Lott believes the US needs more troops in Iraq and a clear exit strategy, something he believes Donald Rumsfeld is not capable of. Lott's comments come only days after Sen. John McCain(R- AZ) said that he has no confidence in the Secretary of Defense. President Bush however is unwilling to let go of the man who devised the Iraq war plan. Rumsfeld has been criticized more frequently of late after his remarks to US troops overseas that "You go to war with the Army you have". Lott's words however may not carry much weight in the White House after he was marginalized in 2002. Lott was replaced as Senate Majority Leader by Bill Frist after praising Strom Thurmond's run for president in 1948 as a segregationist.



Well, either this is a very severe indictment (because Rumsfeld has offended even Lott's extremely low standards), or utterly irrelevant (because Lott's a complete whacko). What do you think? Either about Lott or REMFsfeld.

(BTW, thanks to Arthur D. Hlavaty for the very useful nickname "REMFsfeld". I'm sure all veterans will agree that it's a very appropriate one.

"Hoo Boy, What a Week!", Week Two

Please refer to the post for December 12th. Hoo boy . . . .

Poisoned with Dioxin?

What the hell is that, the traditional form of ritual murder among the corporati?

Elsewhere in the news: I'm finally writing my Christmas-card letter. Yes, it's late. Yes, the cards are going to be late. That's life. When the letter is finished, I will post it here.

The Secretary of Defense You Have

Donald Rumsfeld has been criticized very thoroughly for his glib, condescending replies (and non-replies) to serious questions with which soldiers in Kuwait stunned him the other day.

But not quite thoroughly enough.

There's an important point that must be made more than any other, so much so that I even have the nerve to spend time on my blog reiterating it:

Rumsfeld lied about the armor.

Armor Holdings, the Jacksonville, Florida, company that makes most of the Pentagon's armored Humvees, could easily double production, but REMFsfeld has never asked them to.

That's leaving aside the fact that General Motors could retool one Hummer production line, briefly reduce output for the civilian market, and have armored Humvees bumper to bumper from the Kuwait City docks all the way to Baghdad.

Rumsfeld lied.

He lied because he couldn't care less about something as unimportant as the lives and limbs of working-class scum who would actually go and join the Army.

Actually, maybe Rumsfeld and his friends do care about whether our troops have armored vehicles.

After all, the armor occasionally available has resulted in thousands of soldiers (repeat, thousands) being merely maimed instead of killed outright, and crippled veterans are troublesome to neocon dreams of glory.

Crippled veterans are a visible reminder, far less sanitary than mass-produced crosses in military cemeteries, of what their little adventures really cost. Sure, it's a simple thing to prevent embedded journalists from photographing or interviewing them. And only a little more trouble to exculde them from the victory parades. But once they're dumped on the street, they're harder to control. Someone might *notice* them.

Worse yet, crippled veterans who were sent to war with their ears full of lies and return home broken to be denied medical care and cheated out of their pensions might just possibly vote Democratic next time.

So, much neater and more orderly if they are simply killed.

Hoo Boy, What a Week!

A noon on Wednesday I took the final exam in my Anatomy & Physiology class, got a B on the final, clinching an A for the course.

From the Linn-Benton Community College campus I went directly to the home of a home-health-care client for a "night" shift that started in the middle of the afternoon. I saw him through to bedtime, into bed, kept watch over him while he slept, and then helped him in and out of his hot tub in the morning.

Back home for a little bit of sleep, a short shift at an adult day care center and then back to the old man's house for another 17-hour "night".

Another round at the adult day care, a massage client, a quiet evening at home and a decent night's sleep on Friday night. Hoo boy.

Condoms Break, But So Do Vows

At the request of Planned Parenthood, and under the direction of my conscience, I sent the following message to my representatives in Congress and Senator Bill Frist:

"Dear Senator Frist:

"The world is full of problems, and too many people try to treat all of them with placebos.

"Abstinence-only education has been shown to result in more teenagers engaging in unprotected sex, more teenage pregnancies and a faster spread of STDs.

"It simply doesn't work.

"And big fat lies about sterility, cancer, &c. are not going to help either. Haven't you ever had a conversation with a smart-aleck seventh-grader who thinks it's the coolest thing in the world to catch you in a small error of fact, and who refuses to believe anything else you say for the rest of the day? We know kids are like that, so why are we going out of our way to deliberately tell them lies, lies which they will be quick to unmask with a simple Internet search?

"Abstinence-only (anti-)sex education seems like a good idea at frist glance, but it's been years now, and it's high time for a second glance. Please support the call for investigation of this failed, fraudulent program."

Thank Heaven For Silly Quizzes

Or else I'd have to think of something to say today if I want to keep up my perfect attendance record:

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Party Time

A busy couple of days, of which, in a sense, the final was the least of it. Still, even at the puny wages paid to nurse's aides, I've made a bit of money in these couple of days, and we can use some of that.

I finally get a couple of hours of free time, and wouldn't you know it, Kathe's out doing necessary things. Oh, well -- gives me a chance to scamper up the lookout tower and make a post here.

I tried this gag on November 7th, but nobody bit. Maybe it will go over this time. I notice that the election is still in the news, and even if the suspicious circumstances in Ohio turn out to be just an amazing collection of bizarre coincidences (yeah, right), I suspect that elections will be on our minds for a good deal longer. Maybe even long enough for some useful reforms, that would be nice . . . .

Anyway, here's the recycled challenge:

You promised your grandmother on her deathbed that you would never allow your voter's registration to lapse. Going down to the courthouse to register at your new address, you find that a typographical error makes it impossible for you to register as a Democrat, Republican or independent. You must choose from one of the parties on the form; any form not completely filled out will be rejected. And this is the last day to register before the election.

So, what party do you choose?

Libertarian
Green
Constitution
Natural Law
Socialist Workers

If you need to refresh your memory, or if you would rather choose one of the other parties, click on the link above, or go to:

http://www.dcpoliticalreport.com/PartyLink.htm#V

Take This Easy Quiz!

There are a pair of cranes set up for the renovation of Reser Stadium (formerly named Parker, after a sports hero, now named in honor of the frozen burrito). Currently, they are strung with Christmas lights and are very pretty even from our kitchen window. From the lookout tower, they are spectacular, and I appreciate the spectacle right now, as rain pelts the windows and I alternate between studying for my anatomy & physiology final and refreshing my mind with other things, like blogging.

Faithful reader Peni Griffin says this in a comment attached to my post below, about the quiz which revealed that I am from the Sun:

Here's a research topic for someone with a need to write magazine articles - the history of pointless pop quizzes. Did they start in the 20s with the magazine explosion? Did they coincide with the spread of standardized IQ, aptitude, and psychological testing? Did the Victorians have a prototype, as they did of so many things?

Well, I knew from the start that the Victorians definitely did quiz their guests in all manner of ways. It was one of the standard parlor games, to ask each person present to answer allegedly revealing questions like, "What quality do you admire most in a woman?" and "What single word describes paradise for you?" (Karl Marx, who did most of his own revolutioning in middle-class English parlors, answered those two with "Weakness" and "Fighting").

For that matter, every new development in psychology, from phrenology to hypnosis to dream interpretation, was brought out as an amusement in the best parlors.

But I had a devilish time finding a web site I could link to for corroboration. I paged through all sorts of fun stuff, and learned about innumerable variations on charades and blind man's bluff, but couldn't find what I was looking for.

I did, however, find a most interesting article by a blind psychologist who is critical of the modern "parlor game" of being led around blindfolded in order to "experience" blindness:

http://www.barnard.edu/ods/simulation.html

And that will have to do, with Victorian profiling left for another time, because it is late, and I should either be studying for my final (ten hours away as I write), or else sleeping.

"God Is Still Speaking"

"Jesus never turned people away. Neither do we."

This message (as seen at http://www.stillspeaking.com/default.htm ) was considered too controversial for NBC and CBS (ABC has a long-standing policy against all religious spots, but the message was carried on ABC Family and other Disney-owned cable channels).

Jesus never turned people away. Leslie Moonves and Bob Wright did that.

If you want, you can tell them what you think about that:

http://www.kintera.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=juI1LcPZG&b=261471&sid=46034474&action=1483&template=x.ascx

Sad, Sad, Sad

On November 1st, I observed that there were eleven anti-marriage ballot measures in eleven states, and that it looked as though all of them were going to pass. I said that this prospect made me very, very sad.

Well, they all did pass, and I hadn't even guessed just how sad they would make me. And it wasn't even my marriage, my family, or my kids on the chopping block. But maybe it's because my own marriage has been for so long the light and the stay of my life that I feel so strongly that nobody should be turned away from the door.

Most of the people commenting on this post agreed with me, but not all of them. "kb" in particular had plenty to say. Here is his latest, replying to my latest:

John M. Burt wrote:
>Well, we can start with 1 Corinthians 7: 25-31, 36-40, when it comes
>to the early Church's attitude towards marriage.
>
>Or, if we really want to be gruesome about it, Matthew 19:12.
>
>The early fathers of the Church, of course, presumed that the world
>would end quite soon, and that there was no need to be concerned
>about providing a new generation, or even much reason to be
>concerned about earning a living.
>
>I'm not sure where you came up with a reference to "perversion",
>unless you are unclear on the definition of "concupiscence" . . . ?
>
>Getting back to the original subject, I have to say that the passage
>last month of all eleven anti-gay, anti-marriage, anti-family ballot
>measures leaves me very, very sad. Please excuse me for saying that
>I think no decent person should feel anything but sorrow at this
>turn of events.

to which kb replied:

Hi John,

Sorry for the delay -- I've been wanting to give this response the time it's due and I've been going absolutely nuts this past week.

First off, let's look at the Scripture you mention.

You are right that 1 Cor 7:25-31 and 36-40 *appear* to be taking a very discouraging look at marriage, but you're missing the point. The point comes in vv.32-35:

--8<--
I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs--how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world--how he can please his wife-- and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world--how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.
--8<--

The issue is not that marriage is bad, but that being unmarried allows a person to devote more of their time towards serving God. It is mentioned twice here "an unmarried... is concerned about the Lord's affairs." Throughout Scripture we see a jealous God, one who wants our complete devotion -- this is merely a continuation of that.

As for Matt 19:12, if you take it in context (as all things should be... more on this later) you'll note that in this situation, the Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) were trying to "test him" (v.2). The Jewish law permitted a man to divorce a woman, however that seemed to create issues of adultery under Jesus' teachings... they were fishing for a contradiction.

I think you'll find yourself mistaken when you look a little deeper in the the early church with regards to the concerns about providing a new generation or earning a living. For instance, the Apostle Paul (who wrote a significant portion of the New Testament) continued earning a living while preaching the Gospel. He was a tentmaker.

While the early church (and, for that matter, the present-day church) has believed that "the world would end quite soon" we can see that it hasn't yet ended. Now, is it going to end tomorrow? I don't know. Nobody does. See 1 Thes 5:2; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15. Does that mean we should live lazily today because nothing will matter tomorrow? No! See 2 Pet 3:11-18.

I'm guessing your bringing up of concupiscence has something to do with a Catholic background. From a Protestant standpoint, this point is moot. As man is inherently sinful (since the Fall), we are able to look to one standard as right: God. He expresses himself in different ways, most tangible of which is by his Word (the Bible). And, incidentally, homosexuality has always been a "perversion" of the right expressed there.

A return to the issue of context. Take a look at Psalm 53:1. You'll note that taken out of context, a person could claim "the Bible says 'there is no God'!!!" When we see it in context, however we note that it doesn't say that at all. Yes, it has those four words in that order, but it does prepend it by saying "The fool says in his heart."

John, I'm sorry this all makes you sad. My sorrow, however doesn't change the fact that I strongly believe this to be a step in the right direction and I hope the Parliament of Canada passes similar legislation soon.

Just as I don't believe we should allow special concessions to those suffering from other mental illnesses such as deviant sociopathic murderers, I don't believe a homosexual should be allowed special rights. Homosexuality is a treatable deviant mental illness -- just because culture has embraced it doesn't make it right.

I have nothing against homosexuals, and nor do most good Christians, however we do have something against the sin of homosexuality. Just as we find lying unacceptable, homosexual behaviour is not appropriate.

All I can say to this: "please excuse me for saying that I think no decent person should feel anything but sorrow at this turn of events" is that it seems obvious that the majority of voters on this matter were not "decent" people. What that says about the voting demographic is up to your interpretation.

Cheers,

-kb
--
Kris Benson, CCP, I.S.P.
Natural Networks
http://www.naturalnetworks.ca/
+1(250)961-2533

And here is John's comment on that:

We're getting pretty far off my original point, but I've found a site which expresses it pretty well. You can follow the link above, or copy this one:

http://ks.essortment.com/historyofmarri_rimr.htm

You insist that you "have nothing against" homosexuals, but then you qualify that statement in such a way as to suggest that you have no more against them than you have against "sociopathic murderers". Well, how nice.

As for legislation, current and future: Kris, you and your comrades have something which you feel you must fight against, and you have so far fought hard and well. But the rest of us have something precious to stand up *FOR*, and that is why we will stand firm while you tire, and why ultimately we will prevail.

As for the voters of Oregon, and of the U.S. generally, I have never thought the majority of them were decent people. That's just one more thing we will have to rise above.

A Very Handsome Rat

From up here in the lookout tower, the people walking down Jefferson Avenue to my north, and Tenth Street to my west, look like scurrying rats. I'd call that an improvement, and I'm not trying to insult anybody by saying that. I like rats.

Last week, Kathe and I began to hear in our kitchen the unmistakable sounds of little teeth gnawing on something hard and woody. We checked for signs of intrusion in our foodstuffs and didn't find any, and hoped that it was merely a rat or squirrel chewing open nuts in the crawlspace under the house.

We wouldn't have minded that much. We'd eventually have had to go under and block up whatever access the critter had opened, but there was no rush, most likely, so long as the critter or critters didn't come into the kitchen itself.

Then we did find the bread bags torn open, and rat turds in the bottom of a drawer, and knew we had a problem to deal with. So, we dealt with it.

The bread and other food items in that section of the kitchen were all removed to other locations, and replaced by blocks of poisoned food.

We hated to do it. Rats are charming animals. Attractive to look at, intelligent, good parents, &c., but alas, they are too much like us to make good neighbors: they like the same kind of food, they find our houses comfortable, they carry the same diseases. So we gritted our teeth and put out the baits.

Today we found an especially large, especially handsome rat in the back yard, quite dead. He had a beautiful brown coat, a well-formed intelligent-looking head, absolutely the prettiest rat I'd seen in a long time.

We could never have befriended him, though. It takes generations of selection for gentleness and submissiveness before rats are domesticated enough to keep as pets. Still a shame to have to kill him.

Since he wasn't one of *our* rats, we buried him in the compost heap instead of the pet cemetary, but the incident has increased our resolve to build a new rat cage and buy at least a pair of rats. It's been too long since we had any rats of our own.

Good Old Forwarded E-Mail

I haven't gotten a forwarded message like this one in quite awhile:

"Good Morning!
"I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me and we
all could use more calm in our lives. By following the simple advice I
heard on a Dr. Phil show, I have finally found inner peace. Dr. Phil
proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things
you've started." So I looked around my house to see all the things I
started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning,
I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle
of Bailey's, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of
both Prozac and Valium prescriptions, the rest of the cheesecake, and a
box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel. Please
pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace."

Not bad, as thses things go, and as I said, they seem to have tapered off. People don't seem to forward me goofy jokes and dire warnings much these days, even though I have never been one to rant and indignate against it.

I also haven't gotten many comments posted here, either. Did you all stop reading?

It makes me wonder if I should bother climbing the ladder to the lookout every day (whimper)(peek around to see if anyone is looking sympathetic).

Today is World AIDS Day

Please follow the link on the headline of this post, sign the petition, and do anything else you feel you have the energy to do. In particular, please contact the WHite House. I know, it seems like a futile thing to do, but there is always a chance that **something** will get through to those people. And we know for certain that doing nothing will onyl get us more of the same.

The current administration will go right on ignoring AIDS, or worse (what kind of human being would react to an epidemic by DISCOURAGING kids from using condoms?), unless something gets them to change their behavior.

So act like *you* are something.

Was it Hacked?

A brief but intense rain fell just now, while I was looking up "seam ripper" and "was it hacked" on Google. It pelted against the sides of the lookout for a few minutes, then stopped. Glad it didn't start until I had climbed up here -- it takes forever for my jacket to dry out if I hang it up wet in this tiny space.

Did you ever get the feeling that you were living in a work of fiction? That absurdly unlikely (or just absurd) things have happened that seem out of place anywhere but a cheap novel?

It gets particularly disturbing when the world seems to be acting out a work of fiction based on "real-world" events. For instance, the travails of the Uribe administration in Colombia seem like a roman a clef of Bill Clinton's Presidency, with everything exaggerated: instead of a slightly left of center Democrat, the President is a borderline socialist. Instead of a trumped-up impeachment, he faces a coup attempt.

Another interesting example: the Ukrainian election, where blatant election fraud has resulted in angry charges and counter-charges, ineffectual attempts by elder statesmen to calm things down, the Supreme Court stepping in and sinking to its navel in the muck, threats of secession by the regions most displeased by the whole mess . . . .

But Ukraine is a real country, and so is the USA. And there really were two elections, and there are two controversies. Really and truly.

If you type "was it hacked" (including quotation marks) into Google, you will get links to several interesting items. The first link, to an article published earlier this month in the Orlando Weekly, is particularly good: informative, well-researched and only just as shrill as the occasion demands.

So, was the election hacked? I don't know. Nobody knows, unless it would be the hypothetical traitors themselves. Wouldn't it be good to find out?

Bikin' to Work

End of November, it's getting to be a chilly trip up here to the lookout tower on the roof. I'm starting to wish I'd set up a circuit that would allow me to turn on the heater up here before I make the long climb up the ladder. Boy, my fingers woulfd probably still be too stiff with cold to type, if the lookout tower weren't imaginary.

At present, much though I might wish it were otherwise, the majority of my income comes from my CNA license, rather than my LMT. Currently, I'm affiliated with a home-health agency, going to people who need a little assistance with this or with that: cooking, dressing changes, emptying catheter bags, whatever their particular needs require.

I prefer night shifts over days, and I prefer long shifts over innumerable short ones (there was a time when I was feeling exhausted, and suddenly realized that, where a normal person goes to work five times a week, I was going sixteen times a week -- itwas the act of going to work that was doing me in). But perhaps even more than these, I prefer bicycling to work.

It feels good to stretch these legs, get some chilly open air into my face and up my nose, get a glimpse of what the world looks like at odd hours. Once I've washed away the sweat and changed into my respectable caregiving clothes, I feel like a king. A king with a full treasury and a clean conscience. I feel great.

The smile alone can't help but be good for the clients.

Thanksgiving Memories

Well, I came up to the lookout to write a Thanksgiving message on my blog before dinner, but by the time I got up here, I'd forgotten what I was going to say. So, I wrote something else.

Kathe and I sat down to eat together, just the two of us. It's the first Thanksgiving in my memory where I sat at a table with just one other person (Tesfaye was in Portland with some Ethiopian relatives, Waldy was up in his room fast asleep). Way better than sitting alone, though.

I finally remembered the story I wanted to tell, and wrote on my palm, "TURKEY PIZZA". And here's why:

Many years ago, before I met her, Kathe made a pizza Thanksgiving feast, with three kinds of pizza including one with turkey meat.

Years later, one of the guests (who had been living with the family at the time) told Kathe that he had thought she had served pizza instead of a traidtional Thanksgiving meal because she didn't like him.

Kathe was astounded. Had he really thought she would base a holiday meal for her family on the hope that it would offend one of her housemates? That she would put her own family through all that for the chance to be rude to one guest? That she would go out of her way to cook ANYTHING for someone she actively disliked? Apparently he had. Wow.

This all comes to mind on account of Midge Decter's speech at Hillsdale College's "Marriage and the Family" seminar, as reprinted in the November issue of Hillsdale's magazine _Imprimis_, in which she asserted that all the (voluntary) sweat, (inevitable) tears and (thanks to certain elements of society) blood which gay men and lesbians had expended for the sake of the right to marry were all the result of a passionate desire to stick it to the straight people and make them squirm.

Wow.

Ukrainian Reign Has Plainly Gone Insane

Oops. Somebody noticed that teensy little provision in the 1,600-page appropriations bill, the one that would give (Republican) committee chairs authority to read the tax returns of any (Democrat) person, without oversight or limit:

http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73972

I would have sworn that the Senate Republican caucus stepping on its hubristic dick in this fashion would be the most hilarious news story of the week, but then there was that election in Ukraine.

The second-place candidate is crying electoral fraud (apparently with some reason), and George W. Bush (repeat, George Walker Bush, recently declared the winner of a second "interesting" U.S. Presidential election) is calling for a recount and an investigation.

George W. Bush.

Isn't he even a little afraid that there might be a Hell?

Xmas Wreaths

First thing I did today was to go over to the offices of the home health-care service that I work for as a nurse's aide to supplement my massage income. I rubbed the backs of the office staff and schmoozed, and came away with a few more hours.

My anatomy class had a midterm today -- I think I did all right, though I confess that those various electrolytes are still giving me trouble.

Back at home, I went out with Kathe and delivered wreaths. Lots of wreaths. The Willamette Valley Community School (the headline of this post is a link) made a bunch of money off wreath sales, just like last year. A disturbing sign, though, is how many people who'd bought three or four wreaths last year bought just one. I fear the economy is not warming up as promised.

I'm trying to lose weight at present, and hadn't had much to eat all day. By the time we got home after allthat wreathing, my blood sugar must have been in a deplorable state. I know I was in a deplorable mood. But, a little barley and turkey soup and some bread and I was ready to face a massage appointment.

It was my only appointment of the day -- which of course is why I have to do CNA work, also, and why I'm trying to get into nursing school.

So it was that I didn't manage to haul myself up here to the lookout until after 11PM, even though I'd really wanted to do some computer stuff earlier.

A long day, and a little bit trying, but I'll live. I'm tough. :-)

Big Rubber Bands

Yellow ones, pink ones, they seem to be the hot item these days.

I just signed up to wear a blue one:

http://www.neversurrender.org

I'm still tired, mind, but I'm used to working while tired.

Hanging Clicks in Ohio

When I heard that there was evidence of substantial vote fraud in Ohio, I didn't feel outraged. Or hopeful. Or eager to know more.

I felt tired.

It's All About the Oil

I sit at my computer in the imaginary lookout tower that rises from the roof of our house, the gray November morning rolling on around and below me, a small ceramic electric heater purring at my feet, and conclude that it's all about the oil.

Number two stove oil, that is.

Our antiquated oil stove has heated the house for many years. It handles the living room, downstairs sleeping area and kitchen where we spend most of our time. The upstairs bedrooms and the massage studio require ruinously expensive electric heaters. We hope to be able to replace all of this with proper central heating eventually, but for now we depend very much on the oil stove.

A few years ago, our oil supplier stopped carrying #2 oil. The closest substitute was diesel fuel (close enough that stove oil is dyed red to discourage people from using it as fuel to evade the road tax), but we soon found that in our stove diesel produced a lot of soot and clinker in our stove. Finally, we found a gas station in Albany which dispensed stove oil from a gas pump, but alas, they don't delivery to Corvallis.

So, every time I'm in Albany now (usually three times a week), I stop by that station and fill up our two five-gallon cans, and dump them in the oil tank when I get home. It's a hassle, and messy, and let's not forget tedious (I begin to understand why hauling water is the bane of a peasant's existence), but it keeps the stove lit.

And the bright red oil does look rather pretty as it pours into the tank in the dim light of an overcast winter afternoon.

Welcome to My Upper Sanctum

The computer here at Blackberry House sits at the top of the stairs, with my massage studio to my left and Waldy's bedroom directly behind me as I write, but I've been thinking for awhile about moving my writing location elsewhere.

Dick Geis used to write in a space which was simultaneously his cluttered basement and his own mind (also cluttered, and inhabited by his alter ego, adisembodied extraterrestrial named Alter). Other people write from a cave, or the Inner Sactum, or a secret office hidden in the *real* top floor of the Empire State Building.

I've decided to move my writing operations to a lookout tower like the ones Kathe and her first husband used to live / work in for the Forest Service. So there's now, unseen by the populace and unknown to the city authorities, a five-storey tower rising from the roof of 960 SW Jefferson Avenue, with a commanding view on all four sides of the rooftops and treetops of little old Corvallis. There, surrounded by sunlight or gray overcast or starry skies or wind-lashed rain as the case may be, I will write, sending my words down and outward from there.

I like it up here.

Secretary of State

What does it matter that the title "Secretary of State" will soon be formally conveyed from Colin Powell to Condoleezza Rice?

Powell did what Bush told him to do, even though he knew it was wrong, for the sake of loyalty.

Rice will do whatever Bush tells her to do, and seems to have no concept of right and wrong, only of loyalty.

*shrug* The Americans who will be doing the dying won't care much what the Secretary of State says or doesn't say while carrying it out Bush's next blunder.

Weight Loss

Call this whining if you will, but I feel justified in making this simple observation:

You can tweak diet and exercise, vitamins and drugs, all you like, but in the final analysis, the only way to lose weight is to eat less food than it takes to sustain life. A controlled form of starvation. And this is painful.

That's just how it is. It's unpleasant, especially if you have dicey blood sugar.

That's life.

A Tale of Two Brothers

Kathleen S. Burt, My Only Sunshine, sent me this e-mail today:

80% of all votes in America are counted by only two
companies: Diebold and ES&S.

There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or
oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer
and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio
deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

35% of ES&S is owned by Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who
became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper
trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to
verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same
as what was legitimately put in by voters.

Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket
machines, all of which log each transaction and can
generate a paper trail.

Diebold is based in Ohio and supplies almost all the voting
machines there.

None of the international election observers were allowed
in the polls in Ohio.

30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable
touch screen voting machines.

Bush's Help America Vote Act of 2002 has as its goal to replace
all machines with the new electronic touch screen systems.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel owns 35% of ES&S and was
caught lying about it.

ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S.
and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

Exit polls for the 2004 elections were accurate within 1%
or less in areas where ballot machines were used.

Major exit poll data discrepancies were noted in counties where
touch screen machines were used, especially in Ohio and Florida.

Source and details:
http://memes.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3667&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

"The unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy"
by Steven F. Freeman, Ph.D.,
University of Pennsylvania
November 10, 2004

http://www.ilcaonline.org/freeman.pdf

--
Two petitions for an investigation of the elections:
http://www.petitiononline.com/uselect/petition.htmlhttp://www.moveon.org/investigatethevote/
----

Alberto the Torturer

If you object to my referring to Alberto Gonzales as a "torturer", since he never applied the electrodes himself, I submit that "I was only giving orders" is not much of a defense.

Taking

In addition to everything else that happened on November 2nd, Oregon passed Measure 37, which requires the state, counties and towns to pay "compensation" to landowners if they can construe a government action as reducing the commercial or sale value of their estates.

Now communities are trying to develop procedures to carry out this law. I have one suggestion:

Let the checks be held by the secretary of the nearest elementary school, to be collected by the landowner in person.

What a Rotten Day

Went to donate blood. Had to wait an awfully long time. By the time I got to the table, it was obvious I was going to be late to class, but I lay down anyway.

The phlebotomist sat talking with a donor who was already finished while I waited for her to hook me up. When she did, she fretted over finding a vein, finally picked one, jammed the needle in and couldn't get blood flowing, asked someone else to do it for her.

It still wasn't a very good stick, the blood flowed too slowly. After twenty minutes, she pulled the plug and threw my donation away, 100cc short of a full unit.

So, I got to class late, missing the last lecture before a major quiz, when the instructor tried to cram in all the stuff she hadn't gotten to yet.

Back at home, the big freezer revealed that it had died, and all the food was half-thawed.

We had a refrigerator in the shed that we hadn't gotten around to hooking up, because the space that would hold it had no outlet. Kathe and I got a new outlet installed in under an hour -- the highpoint of the day, and I didn't fail to appreciate it.

We got the food crammed into the little freezer in the new refrigerator, the little frezer in the kitchen refrigerator, and the little freezer in the apartment. Incredibly, it all fit.

Now we're waiting to find out if the freezer in the new fridge actually freezes.

On the other hand, some folks are in Fallujah right now . . . .

Israelis and other Palestinians

I saw an article on a blog named Discarded Lies (I could only wish they would dsicard more lies), which compares Israeli occupation of neighboring Palestinian territories with the occupation and reconstruction of Germany after the Second World War.

The biggest problem I see with that analogy is that Israel has no interest in breaking the Palestinians down in order to build them up again as a successful democratic society as the Allies did to Germany. The Israelis want, let's face it, to break the Palestinians and keep them broken.

Not drive them out, not exterminate them. Just keep them nearby for a cheap labor force, while preventing them from ever developing a viable civil society, much less a sovereign nation.

The Second World War and the postwar reconstruction were conducted by leftists who held to liberal ideas of human rights and human dignity. Their goal was to overthrow fascism and build a successful democratic nation in Germany. They succeeded, in the greatest liberal victory since the Civil War.

There are two nation-states, and an incipient third one in the territory of Palestine. These nations will not know peace until they are all living by liberal principles.

Judicial Activism

President Bush came into office with a long list of people he wanted to appoint to Federal judgeships. That's not surprising, seeing as how Bill Clinton left office with so many seats vacant. Clinton had nominated 246 jurists, and 45 of them had been blocked by Congressional Republicans.

Bush is unhappy that ten of his 201 appointees have been rejected, and wants Democrats in Congress to stop what he calls an "unprecedented" level of opposition.

I do want everybody in Washington to learn how to get along, I really do. It seems to me that Democrats could have engaged in a partisan tit for tat, blocking Bush appointments wholesale the way the Republicans did to Clinton. Instead, they showed a dignified and manly restraint, while still following their consciences.

I hope that Democrats remain firm in holding the line against activist judges who have a radical social-engineering scheme they wish to ram down our throats.

God and/or Satan

In a previous post, I mentioned Satan at work in the world. I'd like to clarify that statement.

Satan is an embodiment of the perverse human desire for self-deception and ultimately self-destruction. This remains true regardless of whether such an entity exists or does not.

And after all, there is a sense, at least, in which Uncle Sam and Smokey Bear are real and alive. In a sense.

I prefer not to worry too much about categories, when it comes to such beings.

I once mentioned a ghost we used to have in our house to someone who said sternly, "DO you really believe in ghosts?" I replied, "I don't believe in ghosts, but I also don't go out of my way to ignore them."

Or as a woman said in Meeting yesterday, "I don't know if there is a God, but I like to feel His presence in this room."

My Own Conciliatory Gesture

I will no longer refer to Bush as the President*.

After all, he did actually win the election this time.

And I find that it does make a difference to me.

I may think those 51% of my neighbors are masochistic idiots, but they really did vote for him, and he really did win, so that's life. That's democracy.

Now, let's see about this "one nation" business, shall we?

Message to America

To Senator John Kerry: You sounded very Presidential this morning. It was refreshing to hear *somebody* sounding that way.

To George W. Bush: Now is your chance to show that there's some timy shred of sincerity behind all your "United We Stand" talk. I'm willing to give you one more chance to prove it. Go ahead, surprise me.

To U.S. citizens 18-25: This was supposed to be the Scooby Doo election: "I would have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!" But you never showed up. I guess you're just a bunch of worthless slackers after all.

To all of you: I really do think that we could start acting like a united country again, even with this President and this Congress. And I think it would be a good idea. Really and truly.

In Praise of My Neighbors

I saw something that did my heart good: a joint Bush - Kerry rally, with campaign signs, American flags and a big signs that said, "United We Stand -- Stop the Hate".

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In Defense of Marriage -- Everybody's Marriage

I hear tell that there are anti-gay (usually anti-marriage) initiatives and referenda on the ballot in eleven states.

I also hear that every one of them is currently expected to pass.

That makes me very, very sad.