Another Great Day in the War on Drugs
The stupid War on Terror is closing the gap but the ridiculous war on drugs is still the biggest threat to our liberties.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The Battle for a Country's Soul
Jane Mayer wrote this great piece for the New York Review of Books. I don't know if anything else can better sum up the horror of the rule of Bush and Cheney.
Jane Mayer wrote this great piece for the New York Review of Books. I don't know if anything else can better sum up the horror of the rule of Bush and Cheney.
Paris Responds to McCain
This will teach McCain to mess with someone that can afford to hire a better marketing staff.
Once again John Stewart and the Daily Show sum it up better than anybody else.
This will teach McCain to mess with someone that can afford to hire a better marketing staff.
Once again John Stewart and the Daily Show sum it up better than anybody else.
Hello, Garrison
He Who Saw Hendrix sent me a great link to the current Salon column by Garrison Keillor. I quote: "And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
Good luck with that, sir."
Jim has been sending me links to Garrison's column for several months now and I can't recommend it enough. I thought we had run out of ways to point out the foibles of the likes of Bush, Cheney and McCain but Garrison keeps plugging away and expanding the commentary.
He Who Saw Hendrix sent me a great link to the current Salon column by Garrison Keillor. I quote: "And it's an amazing country where an Arizona multimillionaire can attack a Chicago South Sider as an elitist and hope to make it stick. The Chicagoan was brought up by a single mom who had big ambitions for him, and he got scholarshipped into Harvard Law and was made president of the law review, all of it on his own hook, whereas the Arizonan is the son of an admiral and was ushered into Annapolis though an indifferent student, much like the Current Occupant, both of them men who are very lucky that their fathers were born before they were. The Chicagoan, who grew up without a father, wrote a book on his own, using a computer. The Arizonan hired people to write his for him. But because the Chicagoan can say what he thinks and make sense and the Arizonan cannot do that for more than 30 seconds at a time, the old guy is hoping to portray the skinny guy as arrogant.
Good luck with that, sir."
Jim has been sending me links to Garrison's column for several months now and I can't recommend it enough. I thought we had run out of ways to point out the foibles of the likes of Bush, Cheney and McCain but Garrison keeps plugging away and expanding the commentary.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
The Oympics
I've always enjoyed the Olympic games and today I saw that the New York Times had a nice animated map of the medal count for countries since 1896. You can view it here.
The Panthers and Steve Smith
It's guaranteed that at some point during a season all-star wide receiver Steve Smith is going to physically attack one of his teammates. A couple of days ago he attacked Ken Lucas on the sidelines. Supposedly these two have been going at it pretty hard in practice over the years and, with Smith's temper, it was bound to happen. The Panthers announced that they were suspending Smith for the first two games of the regular season. I say why suspend a guy for being a violent football player? Aren't these guys routinely referred to as "modern gladiators?" I say fights among teammates should be encouraged. What could better bring a team together than a few fights. How often did you get into a fight in high school and end up finding a new friend? Conflict and manly resolution bring respect. Not only should intrasquad fighting being encouraged but football teams should have an annual boxing tournament among players that have accumulated grudges. You could even broadcast the fights on the tube. At least it would give the football fan something interesting to watch during the preseason.
I've always enjoyed the Olympic games and today I saw that the New York Times had a nice animated map of the medal count for countries since 1896. You can view it here.
The Panthers and Steve Smith
It's guaranteed that at some point during a season all-star wide receiver Steve Smith is going to physically attack one of his teammates. A couple of days ago he attacked Ken Lucas on the sidelines. Supposedly these two have been going at it pretty hard in practice over the years and, with Smith's temper, it was bound to happen. The Panthers announced that they were suspending Smith for the first two games of the regular season. I say why suspend a guy for being a violent football player? Aren't these guys routinely referred to as "modern gladiators?" I say fights among teammates should be encouraged. What could better bring a team together than a few fights. How often did you get into a fight in high school and end up finding a new friend? Conflict and manly resolution bring respect. Not only should intrasquad fighting being encouraged but football teams should have an annual boxing tournament among players that have accumulated grudges. You could even broadcast the fights on the tube. At least it would give the football fan something interesting to watch during the preseason.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Friday, August 01, 2008
Rhodo at Valle Crucis, NC
Last weekend was the annual trip to Valle Crucis, NC. It's a beautiful area and a nice place to pitch and tent and hang out for a couple of days.
Here we see Scott sitting on the bank above the creek that runs parallel to the campground doing a little business on his cell phone.
A couple of kids from the campsite next to us playing hide and seek
>
This is a shot of our little community we set up. Music is being played on an Ipod that is using a jerry rigged jam box which is connected to a large battery. Some serious backwoodsman engineering going on there.
>
Bobby arrives bearing beer. He feels pretty happy about it. He won't feel so happy Saturday night after all that vodka catches up with him. Call it a learning experience.
.
These gentlemen were watching the wiffle ball competition because they love sports. It had nothing to do with the two 18 year olds wearing bikinis.
>
On the left is Stevie he's been going to Rhodo for over thirty years. On the right is Murphy. He's been going almost as long. They are the two people you know will be there. And me, I haven't missed one since I started going in 1998 or 1999.
>
This is my special lady friend, Melanie. She has had to be convinced to go to Rhodo each of the last two years and each time she gets there she has fun. Go figure.
The only picture of me that survived the chaos.
>
Of course we had a fire. No one fell in it.
>
The next day we played frisbee. Miles has good technique. One my favorite things about Rhodo is I get to hang out with kids.
Bobby's form wasn't too bad either. Notice the bathrooms in the background. Not the most beautiful structure in the world but there are real toilets and showers with hot water.
Miles is a bit of a ham.
>
Here's how we spent most of Saturday: eating, chit chatting, reading and just plain relaxing.
Saturday evening we went to the apple barn down the street for the annual barn dance. The Lenny Federal Band played. They came out blazing and never slowed down for the next two hours. Lenny's band just keeps getting tighter.
Here's Lenny
Everyone's friend, Bill Walpole
Malin and John Wicker
Bobby and Wendell. Notice Bobby's eyes are at half mast. He's about twenty minutes from crashing in his cousin's car.
I told you Miles was a ham
Barry flashing the secret devil sign
An ever more wobbly Bobby wobbles next to his cousin, Caroline.
The band plays on
It wouldn't be Rhodo without this guy singing Sixteen Tons
Sunday morning's rundown campground
A hungover Wendell lets me know what he thinks of having his picture taken right as he crawls out of his tent.
I'll post a few more tomorrow. It was a picture takin' weekend.
Last weekend was the annual trip to Valle Crucis, NC. It's a beautiful area and a nice place to pitch and tent and hang out for a couple of days.
Here we see Scott sitting on the bank above the creek that runs parallel to the campground doing a little business on his cell phone.
A couple of kids from the campsite next to us playing hide and seek
>This is a shot of our little community we set up. Music is being played on an Ipod that is using a jerry rigged jam box which is connected to a large battery. Some serious backwoodsman engineering going on there.
>Bobby arrives bearing beer. He feels pretty happy about it. He won't feel so happy Saturday night after all that vodka catches up with him. Call it a learning experience.
.These gentlemen were watching the wiffle ball competition because they love sports. It had nothing to do with the two 18 year olds wearing bikinis.
>On the left is Stevie he's been going to Rhodo for over thirty years. On the right is Murphy. He's been going almost as long. They are the two people you know will be there. And me, I haven't missed one since I started going in 1998 or 1999.
>This is my special lady friend, Melanie. She has had to be convinced to go to Rhodo each of the last two years and each time she gets there she has fun. Go figure.
The only picture of me that survived the chaos.
>Of course we had a fire. No one fell in it.
>The next day we played frisbee. Miles has good technique. One my favorite things about Rhodo is I get to hang out with kids.
Bobby's form wasn't too bad either. Notice the bathrooms in the background. Not the most beautiful structure in the world but there are real toilets and showers with hot water.
Miles is a bit of a ham.
>Here's how we spent most of Saturday: eating, chit chatting, reading and just plain relaxing.
Saturday evening we went to the apple barn down the street for the annual barn dance. The Lenny Federal Band played. They came out blazing and never slowed down for the next two hours. Lenny's band just keeps getting tighter.
Here's Lenny
Everyone's friend, Bill Walpole
Malin and John Wicker
Bobby and Wendell. Notice Bobby's eyes are at half mast. He's about twenty minutes from crashing in his cousin's car.
I told you Miles was a ham
Barry flashing the secret devil sign
An ever more wobbly Bobby wobbles next to his cousin, Caroline.
The band plays on
It wouldn't be Rhodo without this guy singing Sixteen Tons
Sunday morning's rundown campground
A hungover Wendell lets me know what he thinks of having his picture taken right as he crawls out of his tent.
I'll post a few more tomorrow. It was a picture takin' weekend.
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