Furibundum

I think I'm bored blogging. I think I'm done with it. I think what's the point? I think you should check out my blogroll instead. I think they say stuff better anyway.

I am sure all of heaven's heard me cry, as I tell you all the reasons why this life is just too hard. But day by day, without fail, I'm finding everything I need, and everything that You are to me... Yeppers, that pretty much sums it up.

I was one of those grassroots Facebook campaigners responsible for Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live the other night, so for that, let me just say: "You're very welcome!" I thought she was fantastic, better even than I had expected she might be, and by most accounts her coming on the show was a huge success. Except for some, who apparently had more eternal concerns weighing on their minds, precluding enjoying it so much. Like Jose, who while conceding that Betty White is legend "in this day and age of rebels and rockers" (I really don't know what that means, but it seems to be a good thing), is more concerned about her afterlife appearance instead, presumably being so old as she is. A legend, sure ... "However, I think Betty really needs to start taking her relationship with God serious. Betty can't please this new generation, she has nothing to prove to them. Her relationship with the Lord is what she needs to take serious." Well, all...

To tell you the truth, I'd probably hire this hottie Lucien to "lift my luggage", too, or whatever else, as a matter of fact, so it's doubtless inappropriate for me to knock some other guy as being so very wrong for actually doing just that. Hypocritical of me, I know, and hypocrisy is never a good look. Except that the "some other guy" happens to be anti-gay activist and fundie Baptist preacher George Rekers , who hired this particular 20-year-old (well, not to fret semantics, but more exactly rented than hired , to wit ...) from the gay escort site Rentboy.com . Where one can apparently troll for such nice, slender blonde male hookers porters as Lucien. See, George needed someone to accompany him on his ten days traveling throughout Europe, he says, to help with lifting his luggage , is all. "I had surgery, and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." Well, I suppose that's one way to put it, and where better to find someone...

This is a picture of an old lady and her grandson. They are in love. This is the first time in years Granny has felt sexually alive, and he has always been attracted to older women. So they are having a baby together. The pair of them paid for a surrogate with a viable egg for him to spunk. Awesome. Via this...

The other day I left this comment, mostly pointless to the original blogger's post , you know how things digress sometimes: "I once worked with a blind lady, she had no eyes, and one morning she came into the break room and said, 'I can't even see straight until I have my cup of coffee.' She also had a TV in her office, go figure." I forgot to mention in commenting, that she also wore eyeglasses... Got me thinking, though, about my time working there at Unity Village (especially how I should never have left for so many reasons, but I will spare you all that), and Kimberly Morrow in particular, the blind one in for the cup o' joe. Specifically, a certain article she wrote back then for one of the magazines I worked on at the time, Daily Word . Here's part of Kimberly's article, although it's a puzzler to me why I hesitate swiping it, since I seldom have qualms pilfering others' stuff (excepting that one time from Martha Stewart, but she...

Well, that bill passed, the one from Georgia "so as to prohibit requiring a person to be implanted with a microchip," Senate Bill 235 . At least it made its way through the House Judiciary Committee, anyway, next stop the House Rules Committee that decides whether it moves on to the full House vote and (fingers crossed) final passage. I'd think it probably should, taking into account the compelling testimony brought up at this last hearing, from some fat lady about why non-consensual chipping should be made against the law. There she described in detail her own personal experience, with being implanted against her druthers: "I'm also one of the people in Georgia who has a microchip," she began. ("Also one?" There's more of them there?) She went on about the specific disadvantages, how it violates one's "right to work without being tortured by co-workers who are activating these microchips by using their cell phones and other electro...

Stupidity, thy name is Edward Hudgins : "Most individuals who celebrate Earth Day by cleaning up trash beside the road no doubt mean well. But ... the premises behind the eco-extremists are anti-human and, if acted on consistently, would lead to worse carnage than that wrought by communists . On Earth Day we should reflect not on the planet but on the inhabitants who can make it of value." I should have something to end this here, but all I can think to say is, "Huh?"

So what, I'm not very mature for my age. I don't care, I'm easily amused because of it, and I enjoy being amused. Like this picture of a crucifix which was hoisted a couple of months ago above the main altar at the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic church in Oklahoma: I can come up with lots of hilariously inappropriate captions here, some that even I am embarrassed to admit thinking up, despite my unabashed crudity. I would share but probably everyone else is too sophisticated to see the humor. Plus, I really don't want to go to Hell. I'm guessing that there are an awful lot of Okie parishioners down there at the church where this is hung for real, who I reckon wouldn't appreciate my sense of humor about it, either. They are, in general, hugely offended by it instead, because they see nothing funny whatsoever about displaying Jesus' ginormous penis in church, not in the least bit! Seems as though this has caused quite a "deep divide" among members o...

Arguments for why the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the Qu'ran, well, not so much. Michael Gleghorn is a research guy with Probe Ministries, so he knows how to research and probe stuff, to figure out such things. And here's what he came up with , reasons why he thinks one can suppose that the Bible is indeed the divinely inspired Word of God: "First, the Bible claims to be an inspired text: 'All Scripture is inspired by God' (2 Tim. 3:16). This does not prove that it really is inspired. However, if the Bible nowhere claimed to be inspired, then we would hardly have good reason to believe that it was. Thus, what the text claims for itself is important. So you see? The Bible is most likely the inspired Word of God because it says so itself, right there in its own pages, and also nowhere does it mention that it is not , which is just as important, as the Probe dude points out. Furthermore, answering to the question why the Qu'ran can not also be a divinely...

Well, I suppose you could call it a resurrection of sorts, or at least a make-believe one. Martha Stewart got a dead rabbit for Easter, stuffed into what she says was the most beautiful Easter basket ever. "Stuffed" being the key word, a taxidermic bunny. You can click here for a look-see on Martha's blog. I'd copy it, but frankly the bitch scares me and I'm afraid to pilfer her stuff. Also, that rabbit is just plain creepy. She also got an iPad, which made reading the comments there entertaining; her blogger buddies should learn specificity, which exactly of the uncalled-for two they were commenting about. At least for me it was amusing, but then again I'm admittedly depraved. "My husband really wants one of these just to try out & see what it's like ... Enjoy it and let us know how it is!" Heh. Oh well, I thought it was funny anyway. Of course, Jesus wasn't just pretend resurrected, He raised up from the dead for real; no Evolution ...

Church 4 Times this Easter Sunday, All 4 U. Sometimes I wonder if maybe Jesus wishes He had just stayed dead; this has to be completely embarrassing.

I don't know exactly how much national attention has been given this, other than maybe a blurb here or there, but it's getting quite a bit of buzz around here in the Kansas City area, a campaign ad airing on local radio station 980 KMBZ . It's from one particular, xenophobic assclown Glenn Miller, who registered as a write-in candidate to replace retiring state senator Kit Bond. Miller also once ran the White Patriot Party , fun fact there. And so here ya have it: [ audio here in separate window] "Hey, white man. 100 million more dark aliens are coming to America. Google 'the next hundred million' for proof. In 1960 white people were 90% of the population. Today, truth be told, we're less than half. Another 100 million foreign mongrels are on the way. But you don't care, do ya, whitey? "All you care about is satisfying your belly, pocketbook and genitals, or watching the coons play ball on television. The future white children will be a nightmare ...

I don't know what's up with me the last couple of days, but I have gotten really indifferent about political goings-on and headline news in general. Instead I've been just perfectly laid back about most everything that normally would get me riled up, and I must say I am rather enjoying the reprieve. It's not that I'm unaware of the news, I check out those tabs across my homepage, but just a glance enough to know whatever and then... meh. I'll lose all of this mellow before too much longer, I know, but for now I am mostly blah about piddly affairs, other than what truly matters going on just around me; the sort of thing that usually annoys the hell out of me when others are that way, not giving a hoot. It's not exactly true saying that I don't give a hoot, though, it's just a different one in tone, considering that my discernment of what goes on "just around me" is existentially everything , really. I think it's the weather, along with w...

This, with an overly-emphasized virtual h/t to my friend Rainlillie for the bestest find ever. Like the guy says, "Stepping outside the norm is the greatest liberation that most people can find." You go, Sir John Whitmore! Nic Askew go, too.

The other day on Facebook, a friend of mine brought up an interesting issue that I hadn't really considered before. He got a mite peeved in one post, about gay-friendly businesses advertising themselves as such, which, so far as I had always imagined, was a nifty thing to do. I'm pretty sure that I would probably opt for one place over another, online or in real life, that would proudly assert welcoming my kind's patronage. Not necessarily that the other company wouldn't likely be just as glad pocketing some coin, gay or no, it's just that the extra measure saying so seems like an indeed cordial thing to do. John brought up the point, though, by asking how appropriate would it be showing off about being Muslim-friendly, for example, or black-friendly, Jew-friendly, Latino-friendly, et al.? Any discriminated-against group of folks should be delighted at being singled out and courted by such accepting establishments, no? Put that way, I see his point; it doesn't ...

There's a lady over at eHow concerned about children thinking Easter is all candy and bunnies. She says, "rather than allow children only to think that it is a 'fun' holiday, it may be time to start thinking about telling them the true meaning of Easter" , so she put together this list on how to do that. Yawn. I say, get the kids involved! Kids love pretending and, of course, action figures! Why not make play-time lesson-time, with this awesome Jesus Christ action figure play set instead? Don't forget the resurrection bit, though, arguably the most important part. You'll probably want to splurge for the cross, too.

Snippets from the ramblings of an irregular three percent; to wit, the archetypal lunatic fringe. For your consideration, format and emphases my own, content via Sipsey Street Irregulars , the gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters: "Pelosi and her ilk apparently do not understand that this Intolerable Act has some folks so angry that they are ready to resist their slow-rolling revolution against the Founders' Republic by force of arms . "They certainly do not hear the soft 'snik-snik' of cleaning rods being used on millions of rifle barrels in this country by people who have decided that their backs are to the wall, politics and the courts no longer are sufficient to the task of defending their liberties, and they must make their own arrangements. "[I]f we are to avoid civil war, we must get their attention BEFORE the IRS thug parties descend upon us each in turn -- when we will be forced into dozens of defensive slaughters and then, to end i...

I first posted this on the blog a couple of years ago, for different reasons back then. The point of it, though, is eternally relevant; whether two years or two hundred, ago or future, a forever germane truth here. I have to remind myself sometimes, getting all riled up and ranting about stuff, I probably should also make a point keeping things in perspective, at the end of the day: ed kowalczyk and live . white, discussion. one of their many greats, one my favorites. from throwing copper , 1994. i talk of freedom you talk of the flag i talk of revolution you'd much rather brag and as the decibels of this disenchanting discourse continue to dampen the day the coin flips again and again and again and again as our sanity walks away all this discussion though politically correct is dead beyond destruction though it leaves me quite erect and as the final sunset rolls behind the earth and the clock is finally dead i'll look at you, you'll look at me and we'll cry a lot but t...

Imperfect, for a fact, but it's finally over; the health care reform bill passed and ready for Obama to sign off on. I'm not wetting my pants about it or anything, but I am glad, for what it's worth. For all my bitching about the details of the plan and for the peremptory stunts pulled getting it through, it is at least something useful, bringing the United States' health care setup closer to better. I suppose it's really not ended yet, of course. Already the Republican claptrap has started up vowing to legislatively repeal the "monstrosity", which might be interesting to watch them try, seeing as how to repeal the bill they would need to bring in 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House. And as Paul Abrams at HuffPo pointedly asks , what exactly in the bill would they scrub? In part, "They will again allow discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, wiping millions off of insurance rolls? They will reinstate lifetime caps on health c...

So the teabagger people did their thing today in Washington D.C. raising some last-minute ruckus against the health care reform bill to be voted on tomorrow. Reluctant leader of the pack Sarah Palin could not be there, but did implore her Facebook friends anywhere near the Beltway to show up. Handsomer-than-ever patriot Jon Voigt urged his freedom-loving American followers to join him there by the thousands. And anchor-baby Michelle Malkin, of course, rallied her lot to swarm in also, advisedly schlepping Zazzle posters along with. Exploiting one's status, or notoriety, calling to arms the masses who subscribe to this or that particular ideology, it's done all the time. And I'm sure it's possible there are some perfectly reasonable tea people out there somewhere, but it really does seem that more often than not, these little get-togethers, like the one today, turn out to be mostly an assemblage of asshats. Probably the liberal media's fault I think that way, ...

It was 70 degrees warm Friday. I went for a walk. I kind of worked up a stink even. I liked it very much. It has been really nice lately and I already have pretty buds here. Now it is early morning the first day of Spring. I just took this picture. It is snow. There might be a foot of it on the ground later on today. It is going to be 30 degrees instead. It sucks. The picture is still pretty cool, though.

I'm not such a wise person (despite wisdom purportedly coming with age), but about certain things I do believe I have figured them out. Usually, though, I suck putting into words my knowing what's what. Which is frustrating, because when I do have that stray deep thought, I think I should share it with people. Not that I feel called to enlighten the less-illuminated or the stupid, but mostly because I'm just proud I had one at all, a deep thought. Like the forever question of why God allowed this or that, whenever some really horrible-bad freaky shit happens. Or any other variation thereof, if there is a God, where was God, whatever. The substance of the question is the same however it is asked, and for which I may have the answer, I just can't precisely say it. I was listening to Morning Edition a few afternoons ago and heard some rabbi guy, Harold Kushner, speaking about this, and the guy totally nailed it. Rabbi Kushner has written a dozen books offering Biblical...

This is becoming almost laughable now, the whole health care overhaul misadventure. I've made it known before that if I had my druthers, Obama would have been pushing for single-payer, like he once might have done (the classic "I was for it before I was against it" political dodge), but that nonetheless, I was pleased something was going to get passed for long-overdue reform. I can honestly say, though, that at this point I am becoming so confounded by this way or that way shoving it through, I don't really care so much anymore. Maybe if this is what government has become, anarchy is the better alternative. Probably more apt toward getting things accomplished, at least; it arguably couldn't be much worse. When it came down to it, that the only way getting around not having enough votes to pass a final version for signing health care reform into law was to bring up the option of budget-reconciliation , I thought there was some pretty flimsy justification for usin...

After Mike Seaver grew up and found Jesus, he also found this guy to host a show with, their mission to "seek and save the lost the way Jesus did" . Who ever knew Jesus was such a fruit perv?

Normally I might would jump into the fray like everyone else about Tom Brokaw and Karl Rove butting heads this morning , over whether or not the Bush administration had suggested that sharing oil revenue would eventually help pay for the war in Iraq. Which, of course, the Bush bunch did; and which, of course, Rove said did not because he's a lying fat piece of shit . Sort of like when I myself used to deny ever having put on a dress and make-up, despite Polaroids proving a different truth. My gripe is more to the point of why this turd is even allowed air time lying about it in the first place, being off the hook when he and the rest of them should be in jail instead. To even be discussing the issue of the cost of the war in Iraq is absurd and implies justification for the U.S. illegal invasion. But that's just my opinion, and no network's program manager ever once consulted me about their lineups for today. Fatty McGoo got his C&C book plug in anyway, just another one...

"I stinketh, don't I? Any of you have some frankincense I can borrow?" - Jesus (via Matthew Paul Turner )

[ I cheated here. Writer's block, so I confess that I did not write a word of this, all bits and pieces copied and pasted together. Credit duly given to some other American thinkers instead; a mashup of thoughts from many of them into one post on the awesomeness of Sarah Palin. I just mixed it all together. ] The Liberal Socialists hate Sarah Palin because she is a true beauty! Not all scrunched-up ugly like angry Liberal Socialist women tend to be. A good slap upside the head is what the "intellectual elites" truly need. Truth be told they need to be smacked around physically as much as they do mentally. The Left is having a conniption because she is the galvanizing leader of an aroused majority. Sarah Palin's brain is our brain. Maybe, what the spoiled, arrogant, leftist, elitists envy the most is that Sarah is a good mom. She is to be admired for having launched and won political campaigns while raising a family including birthing children. She is a mo...

This guy Colin Beavan's year-long experiment going über green is fascinating to me, both for how extreme he went with it and, too, that he managed pulling it off in New York City. I don't know why exactly that would matter any more than someplace else, it just seems to me that where all things are so readily gettable it might be particularly hard bucking temptation. At the start of it, he said : "For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…" Could just be my own lack of self-discipline is why it impresses me; I couldn't go so far as what they did even from out here in the country. I'm quite certain at some point I'd cave to a trip into town for some n...

Monday President Obama delivered yet another one of his health care reform talks , pushing same as of late, only this day he seemed particularly spirited, I must say. More like a campaign rally from back in the day. I don't have the cable out here, so I can't keep up on such things live as I could before, I have to watch after. Sometimes way after; I'm just now catching up. What he's hawking now is not quite the same though, as it was at the beginning, to be sure, but I suppose it is at least something. Clearly reform of our current health care racket is long overdue, so whatever it takes to pick up a Republican "aye" or a couple, I'll pretend that much is cool. Sometimes the gates of history swing on small hinges, as the saying goes; think the 1957 Civil Rights Act (why did I never learn of this?) Don't get me wrong, I have regard for what the president has managed thus far toward getting changed an awfully broke and corrupt system, despite opposit...

I have always been a registered Democrat, until just recently when I went to register again for the county where I live now. It feels funny not being a Democrat after so long a time, but I am now formally a Green Party person. I don't really know for sure what we call ourselves; Greens, I suppose. It could be argued that it was a stupid thing to do, because now my vote will count for even less shit (or will count for even more shit... I'm not exactly sure how that phrase works) than before, as a Democrat. And I did waffle on it a bit for that very reason, but at the end of the day I went with my gut and convictions and switched over. Both parties' platforms in some ways square up, but there are particular planks that I care about, that the Green's ones seem stronger than the Democrat's. On those certain issues, the Democratic stance seems either really ambiguous, or sometimes flat out contrary to my views. The bottom line is that, if for no other reason, going Green...

I have a really bad case of Spring Fever this year, which has only gotten worse over the past couple of days as the temperatures have pushed on into the 50s. Today we actually broke the 60-degree barrier for March which, to me, always means the official start of the season; I make up my own criteria. We'll probably have more snow to come, but this far toward the end of winter I won't mind so much. I had all windows opened this afternoon, it was incredible. Sure, everything is still brownish and dead and ugly, but birds are back in the branches, which is nice. I've also been hearing more from the coyotes during daylight hours than I had for awhile, I'm guessing they don't want to miss out. This is literally the first day that every evidence of snow is gone away after... jeebus, I'm not sure, but months of the stuff it seems. So yay for today! Once things start to green up I very well might need meds to calm myself, I am for real that excited about it turning int...

A few days ago over at the Groping the Elephant blog, Doug B brought up the subject of predictability , specifically of causal determinism. I get the impression from this and other of his previous posts that Doug is a dead set believer of determinism (as far as I can tell). Anyway, so he ended the post inviting his readers to think about that. And I accepted the invitation, since although I knew where I stood on the subject, I really had never thought out the reasons why and figured I probably should. Determinism is the philosophy that every event, including human decision and action, is absolutely predetermined and the result of earlier causes. The presumption here is that there is no such thing as free will or choice, that events which seem happenstance are actually foreordained and could be fully understood and explained (the future could be predicted even) if only an avant-garde smartest someone was able to figure out how things work. Of course I have no issue with believing in th...

I have decided to take a stab at container gardening this season, and frankly, I think I am probably more excited about it than I should be, practically giddy at the thought. As likely as not I could blame that on me running on empty. I slept not at all last night and had only a nap this morning. At this point I'm on my third or fourth wind, so I feel sort of crazy hyper anyway. No doubt I should be going to bed rather than here babbling on about my reckoned on garden, but whatever. So yeah, here's the thing. It's not that I am unaccustomed to gardening, I've done it before so it's not as if I am embarking on some new agrarian adventure. My heredity alone probably would account for a sort of genetic propensity to grow stuff, but container gardening , that's new to me. Never thought about it much, I suppose since I never had any reason to consider doing it before now. This year is different without having my own place, I'm just glad I thought of it in time. ...

You know it's bad when the "Party of No" gets all squirmy about one of their own, a fellow-Republican, demonstrating just why the label. Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky flustered even his partisan peers by digging in his heels to not let pass emergency legislation extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless still out of work. Of course, he ultimately caved and at the end of the day (literally) the Senate passed the measure ready to send on to the president for signing into law. But the inconstancy, not to mention the thoughtlessness, of Bunning's one-man filibuster that delayed getting it there is certainly notable. Such a poser, acting suddenly all fiscally responsible, going on insisting that the extended unemployment pay must be paid for rather than added to the deficit. "If we cannot pay for a bill that all 100 senators support, how can we tell the American people with a straight face that we will ever pay for anything?" he said. ...

I have said for probably about four or five years now that I want to, more than anything (sheesh, that's a bit much, but I do want to quite a lot), go check out the Dancing Rabbit ecovillage , here in Missouri. I want to move there, I want to be a Rabbit, I really do. It's not even very far from where I am in Odessa; Rutledge is only just over 211 miles away, three and a half hours. Much obliged, MapQuest . Here's their deal: "[E]cological sustainability is the primary focus of our long-term vision and our daily lives. Residents agree to follow ecological covenants and sustainability guidelines . We build our homes using alternative techniques such as straw bale and cob, powering them with renewable energy from sun and wind. Vehicles at DR are owned cooperatively and powered by biodiesel. Overall, we eat an ever-increasing amount of local, organic, and in-season foods, including many home-grown vegetables. "We strive to be good stewards of our land, with much of ...

People I know keep on dying, reminds me how I don't like getting older. Granted, most of the ones dying lately, has nothing to do with age; suicide is ageless, of course, as is the sudden niggling cramp or ache that turns out to make you unexpectedly dead in a matter of few weeks. Don't know whether all of the bucket-kickings lately should make me thankful to have made it 47 years when others have not, or instead freak me out wondering if sooner than later it will be my turn , living on borrowed time. Either way, I wish it to be any other time but the present, back to when I didn't think so much. Back when I used to go out dancing to fluff like this, when I could not possibly have known how things would turn out, to an earlier time when more of the people I knew were still alive, and we only just wanted to dance. So give me a break about the song, I know it is so 1989, but it brings memories back for me, and makes me happy, which for today is a good thing, I've been ki...

Back in 2005, then-Senator Barack Obama had this to say opposing The Patriot Act when it came up then for reauthorization: "We do not have to settle for a Patriot Act that sacrifices our liberties or our safety. We can have one that secures both." Throughout his entire presidential campaign, Obama often railed against the Act, criticizing it giving authorization for the Bush administration to secretly spy on U.S. citizens, illegally and unconstitutionally and with little or no judicial or congressional oversight. He pledged that he would institute "robust" checks and balances if he got elected, explicitly promising to overturn its unconstitutional sneak-and-peek provisions toward citizens not even suspected of a crime. "Warrantless surveillance of American citizens, in defiance of FISA, is unlawful and unconstitutional," he said. Now tomorrow, President Obama is set to sign into law an unamended extension of that same Patriot Act, a bill that pre...

I'm just being petty and irritable, of course, but this annoys me a little bit. See, I sometimes cross-post over at AlterNet, mostly because I'm a fan of the site, but also because I'm an attention whore . I know it's their turf and everything, but if they wanted to change my title, don't you think I might at least have been given a heads-up? I got no notice whatever, just a surprise when I went there and saw it done. Likely that's where the "alter" comes from in their name. Trivial gripe, I know, but I'm acting a crank today. Probably for the most part because I'm jealous that theirs is better than mine, and because I understand why they did it. I should know better trying to be clever all the time; lesson learned. I can still bitch about it, though.

Most folks have their own way of thinking about any one thing, which is all right, even when I might disagree with whatever their say-so is on the matter. On the other hand, I am pretty intolerant when the "thinking" part of concluding an opinion plays little or no role at all, rather pigheaded judgment passed without reason or common sense. Take this one particular clown, Cliff Kincaid, editor of the AIM Report for Accuracy in Media , a "non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage" . Setting records straight might be a stretch in describing what they do, actually; it doesn't take much more than a cursory perusal of the stuff over there to recognize their own particular bent on things. Cliff Kincaid is a perfect fit , hooked the same way, leaning decidedly right. But notwithstanding political bias, nuts is just...