there are homeless EVERYWHERE

via

don't take life sitting down

you GO girl! (really, i LIKE this)

sunflower blogging

at the half door

as i have mentioned, only ONE made it through this year but it's a HUGE one. bigger than i've ever grown

once again this has NOTHING to do with anything OTHER than race

seems like not only is barack obama a nazi, facist, communist, socialist, terrorist, muslim, he is also responsible for the hindenburg going up in a blaze, the assassination of jfk, hurricane katrina, the loss of the us soccer team to brazil, many other things and of course the wars in iraq and afghanistan (listen to those republitards DEMANDING we get out of afghanistan now when they were willing to following king george and the big dick ANYWHERE - i.e. to stay in afghanistan forever)

it has to do with the color of the skin of the president of the united states of america. that's it. plain and simple. really

NC, SC school boards offer Obama speech ‘opt-outs’

By Larisa Alexandrovna

Outraged parent believes race is a factor; One teacher is embarrassed over ‘opt-out’ notes

President Obama is scheduled to give a nation-wide speech to schoolchildren on their first day back from summer vacation on September 8. The speech is billed as a national address to the students of America, however, conservatives have reacted by pressuring school districts to refrain from broadcasting the speech.

In response, schools in several southern states are giving parents an “opt-out” option for their children.

In Simpsonville, South Carolina, for example, the Bells Crossing Elementary school principal issued robocalls to parents telling them that letters would be sent home for them to sign if they did not want their children to watch the President’s speech.

An outraged parent, Chuck Hamilton, contacted Raw Story to complain about what he believes is a racist response to an African American president. “It is obvious to me that had this been Bush, or any other white Republican, the phone call and letter home would not have happened,” Hamilton wrote in an email.

But Bells Crossing Elementary School is not alone in its reaction to the President’s upcoming speech......

repugnant to the constitution

and to all of the citizens of not only the united states of america BUT THE WORLD. it wasn't JUST ashcroft either.

this is the united states of america. we obey laws. we don't torture. we don't jail people without due process. we don't spy on people without warrants.

this is the united states of america

where were all the teabaggers and townhall criers whiners when our constitution was being ripped up, kicked and spit upon? WHERE

Appeals Court Rules Against Ashcroft in 9 / 11 Case

the nutmeg grater: et tu connecticut?

the nutmeg grater: et tu connecticut?

oh my godddess, if this isn't ON the mark.....

colbert has this dude on from time to time. he also hosts nova on pbs
via tywkiwdbi

watch it

i HATE football

but i thought this was one hell of an interesting story. it's sad and it's ugly. seems like i have to especially have to watch what i say - otherwise, i'll get the shite sued out of me

if i ever decide to like football, they'll NEVER be my favorite team (right after the cowboys and pats. I HATE THEM too)

For Redskins Fans, Hard Luck Runs Into Team's Hard Line

By James V. Grimaldi

Washington Post Staff Writer
It would be hard to find a more loyal fan of the Washington Redskins than real estate agent Pat Hill. She's had season tickets since the early 1960s, when her daughter danced in the halftime shows at the old D.C. Stadium, before it was renamed in memory of Robert F. Kennedy.

In the hallway of her modest home south of Alexandria, the 72-year-old grandmother points out the burgundy-and-gold Redskins hook rug she made. In her bedroom, she shows off the pennants from two Redskins Super Bowl games she attended, and she opens a music box on her dresser that plays "Hail to the Redskins."

Now, Hill says, her beloved Redskins are forcing her into bankruptcy.

Last year, Hill's real estate sales were hit hard by the housing market crash, and she told the team that she could no longer afford her $5,300-a-year contract for two loge seats behind the end zone. Hill said she asked the Redskins to waive her contract for a year or two.

The sales office declined.........

one question, why apologize FOR THE TRUTH?

White House adviser sorry for calling Republicans 'assholes'

there are no so very few words

to express my dismay at this. some of these parents are actually EDUCATED. #1) they really can't think our president barack obama is a socialist then, can they? #2) are they REALLY THAT afraid of ONE black man? answers #1) no, they can't and #2) yes they can

well i can't think of anything more facist, socialistic, communistic than telling a child to stay in school. an education is a GOOD thing

can you?

Some Parents Oppose Obama Speech to Students
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and SAM DILLON
HOUSTON — President Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has set off a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.

The uproar over the speech, in which Mr. Obama intends to urge students to work hard and stay in school, has been particularly acute in Texas, where several major school districts, under pressure from parents, have laid plans to let children opt out of lending the president an ear. state law, must approve the curriculum.

“The thing that concerned me most about it was it seemed like a direct channel from the president of the United States into the classroom, to my child,” said Brett Curtiss, an engineer from Pearland, Tex., who said he would keep his three children home.

“I don’t want our schools turned over to some socialist movement.”.....

..............Mark Steyn, a Canadian author and political commentator, speaking on the Rush Limbaugh show on Wednesday, accused Mr. Obama of trying to create a cult of personality, comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader.........

ok, we know this

and we've known it for many years. sure there are many who deny it (usually those responsible of course. they're big boyz and have loads o' bucks and big mouths and easily dupe some of the lemmings). what are we going to DO is the question i keep asking. what? very little? nothing? are we going to continue to spew poison in the air? to dig up and destroy earth? sure seems that way. by the time we actually get around to being afraid, it will be far too late. we'll no longer be able to breathe
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Human-generated greenhouse gas emissions have helped reverse a 2,000-year trend of cooling in the Arctic, prompting warmer average temperatures in the past decade that now rank higher than at any time since 1 B.C., according to a study published Thursday in the online version of the journal Science. The analysis, based on more than a dozen lake sediment cores as well as glacier ice and tree ring records from the Arctic, provides one of the broadest pictures to date of how industrial emissions have shifted the Arctic's long-standing natural climate patterns. Coupled with a separate report on the region issued Wednesday by the World Wildlife Fund, the studies suggest human-induced changes could transform not only the Arctic but climate conditions across the world........

pic: Scientists walk on an iceberg, 36 metres above the water surface of Kane Basin August 6, 2009. A team of scientists are onboard the Arctic Sunrise ship for the first leg of Greenpeace's three-month-long Arctic Impacts expedition. The expedition aims to document the effects of climate change on the Arctic environment, ahead of the Copenhagen summit which will be held in December 2009. (Nick Cobbing - Reuters)

i have found THE

best blog EVER for real

scary shite

i don't have verison but c'mon, they're (almost) ALL alike. they are ALL nasty. but to sponsor an organization who destroys our country (literally) is rather beyond the pale, no?

don't our good citizens have minds of their own any longer? are they really swollowing all of this shite that's being shoveled down their throats?

Verizon Sponsoring Anti-Climate Rally Backed By Coal Giant Massey Energy

On Labor Day, tens of thousands of people will be gathering for the coal-powered “Friends of America Rally” in Holden, WV. The point of the gathering is to rail against the Waxman-Markey clean energy legislation. It will feature right-wing guests such as Sean Hannity and Ted Nugent (who once ranted about killing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton), and is being pushed by mountaintop-removal mining company Massey Energy. Last week, Massey CEO Don Blankenship even recorded a video inviting people to attend the rally, saying they would learn about how “environmental extremists and corporate America are both trying to destroy your jobs.” Watch it:

see i TOLD you!

proof!!!


via

it's ap so i'll tell you what happened

a man with NO ARMS walked into a boa to cash a check. he had prosthetic arms but of course NO THUMBS. he presented valid id, BUT THEY WOULDN'T CASH HIS CHECK (it was from his wife. they told him they'd cash it if he brought HER in).

i guess they never heard of the americans with disabilities act


Bank's thumbprint rule irks man born with no arms

so, it's ALL poland's fault

the war, the 'alleged'* holocaust, barack obama and i guess me too. there are droves of people who listen to the buchanans and the becks and the hannitys and the limbaughs and the coulters and the o'reillys. they not only listen, they BELIEVE AND ADMIRE. the world is indeed a very scary place. i'm almost speechless (but not quite)

(*not alleged to ME mind you. alleged to peeps like buchanan)

Pat Buchanan: Hitler didn’t want war

Political columnist Pat Buchanan is coming under fire for a column arguing that Adolf Hitler didn’t want to launch a European war, and that World War II could have been avoided if Poland had agreed to hand over the city of Gdansk to Germany.

He even appears to have implied that the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if the Allied powers hadn’t guaranteed Poland’s security.

In his column published Monday by Creators Syndicate, Buchanan wrote:

The German-Polish war [sic] had come out of a quarrel over a town the size of Ocean City, Md., in summer. Danzig, 95 percent German, had been severed from Germany at Versailles in violation of Woodrow Wilson’s principle of self-determination. Even British leaders thought Danzig should be returned.

Why did Warsaw not negotiate with Berlin, which was hinting at an offer of compensatory territory in Slovakia? Because the Poles had a war guarantee from Britain that, should Germany attack, Britain and her empire would come to Poland’s rescue......

By Daniel Tencer

i like this description of the iphone: 'the hummer of cellphones'

i swore i would NEVER get one and i sort of didn't. i have another kind of smartphone but i DID get an itouch. it doesn't have a camera, doesn't do text messages and isn't a phone. it does do everything else. i'm addicted to some of the apps. here are a couple of them-i have a few knitting ones and i've d/l some craft podcasts. i have a few games (mostly spelling). i have some news links, nytimes, rachel maddow, npr addict, msnbc, i have pandora radio and a kindle app and ereader apps, wired and google earth, tweet deck and this kick ass vegan (WHICH WAS FREE I MIGHT ADD) app called vegan yum yum which has a ton of recipes.

you do not have to have at&t. you DO need a wireless connection if you're going to use any of the apps that need a connection (not all do but MOST do). i do happen to have at&t though. while i was in i didn't realize they were such data oinkers. i should have realized it but i didn't. with an itouchvermont this past weekend NO COVERAGE. i'm talking NONE. we stayed at the grand summit at mt snow. not sure which town that's in but one would think such a popular place (well it IS in the winter) WOULD CERTAINLY have coverage. but i digress.......



Customers Angered as iPhones Overload AT&T
By JENNA WORTHAM
Slim and sleek as it is, the iPhone is really the Hummer of cellphones.

It’s a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, but the average iPhone owner can also use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user.

“They don’t even realize how much data they’re using,” said Gene Munster, a senior securities analyst with Piper Jaffray.

The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand. Another result is outraged customers......

this subhuman terrorist SHOULD NOT

be allowed in the united states. there are innocent americans (and innocent people of other nationalities) who are somehow on no-fly lists. there are innocents who are on all sorts of lists. yes this subhuman, who we all KNOW is a murdering swine (and i mean NO offense to swine) is being allowed here, on our soil. i don't give a flying fuck if he gloats about the release of another murderer or not. that's NOT the point. the point is KEEP THAT FUCKER OUT OF MY COUNTRY now and FOREVER. lockerbie is just more icing on a blackened cake oozing disease, corruption, venereal disease, murder, torture, rape and worse. he's evil. if i believed in the devil, it would be gaddafi

U.N. Envoy Advises Gaddafi Against Exulting Over Agent's Release

By Colum Lynch

Washington Post Staff Writer

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 2 -- As Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi prepares to make his first trip to the United States since taking power 40 years ago, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations urged him Wednesday not to gloat over the release of a Libyan secret service agent convicted in the Lockerbie jetliner bombing.

Scottish authorities last month released Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people, 189 of them Americans. He is dying of cancer, and authorities said they released him for humanitarian reasons. His case has long been a priority for Libyan officials, and Megrahi was greeted by cheering crowds when he arrived in Tripoli, Libya's capital............

hey msnbc, can you put rachel on 24/7?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

all you'll need to diagnose what kind of flu you have

via

it's a COOKBOOK!!!

i have not watched the video to this story

and i'm not going to embed the video in this posting either. the video is at the link to the story below.

if you have read my blog before you'll know i'm vegan (almost. i knit with wool). i've been vegetarian for way more than half of my life and i've been alive for quite a while now.

one of my many theories is the world is a fucked up place because we cannot even treat animals correctly (i.e. humanely) - how the fuck are we ever going to treat each OTHER 'correctly'?

besides sarevil WHO could toss a live chick in a grinder? what sort of person? could YOU?
(the first link is ap so i'm not going to post anything from it. second link is from the group that did the investigation)

Video shows chicks ground up alive at egg hatchery

By Associated Press

mercy for animals

Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the shocking reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery – Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa.

New hidden camera footage obtained at this facility during a Mercy For Animals undercover investigation gives a disturbing glimpse into the cruel and industrialized reality of modern hatcheries.

The warm, comforting, and protective wings of these newly hatched chicks' mothers have been replaced with massive machines, quickly moving conveyor belts, harsh handling, and distressing noise. These young animals are sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine.

For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day. Grabbed by their fragile wings by workers known as "sexers," who separate males from females, these young animals are callously thrown into chutes and hauled away to their deaths. They are destined to die on day one because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Their lives are cut short when they are dropped into a grinding machine – tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator.

Over 30 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at this facility.

i'm writing about this because it's a subject i know

i am all too familiar with it. if you personally knew me, you'd know even though i have a gruff exterior, i do have a rather kind heart (but really DON'T piss me off). i believe in rehabilitation for our incarcerated. i do believe people can change for the better even. a lot of people can change, but NOT ALL. those that commit crimes of a sexual nature (i hate to use the word sex because the crimes have NOTHING to do with sex. they have EVERYTHING to do with power and control and inadequacies) crimes such as pedophilia or rape. THOSE people can NEVER be rehabilitated. they can not and will never change. chemical or real physical castration (in the case of men and MOST of these crimes are committed by men. NOT all, i realize that) does not work. it doesn't work because as i said, it's NOT a sexual crime it's A VIOLENT CRIME OF a SHOW OF POWER AND CONTROL. if someone is a rapist or a pedophile, it is my opinion they should NEVER be released because they will continue to do what they've done in the past. there is NO 'cure' and there is NO changing them. (there are people who have been labeled as having committed 'sex' crimes that sure haven't. perhaps an 18 year old having sex with a 16 year old CONSENSUALLY mind you. something like that. not condoning it, just saying it may NOT be a crime)

anyway, these violent rapists should NEVER be allowed back on the streets ever again. it's not a question of IF they will rape again, it's WHEN they will rape again. you can disagree with me and say, 'a rose is a rose, they CAN be healed and changed'. to that i say, YOU ARE WRONG AND FULL OF SHITE. THEY CANNOT.

Case Shows Limits of Sex Offender Alert Programs
By MONICA DAVEY

In all 50 states, registries of sex offenders have grown sophisticated and accessible in recent years, a response to high-profile attacks on children. People can search their neighborhoods for former convicts on state-run Web sites, sign up for private services that alert them if an offender moves nearby, even download an iPhone application, “Offender Locator.”

But the case of Phillip Garrido, the California man accused of kidnapping a young girl and holding her captive for 18 years, is reigniting a debate about the usefulness of the government-managed lists and whether they might create a false sense of public safety.

Mr. Garrido, who had been convicted of kidnapping and rape in the 1970s, was listed, as required, on California’s sex-offender registry (complete with a description of the surgical scar on his abdomen and his 196-pound weight) and had dutifully checked in with the local authorities each year for the past decade — all while, officials say, his victim and the two children he is accused of fathering with her were living in his backyard........

it worked for me monday and even tuesday

MORNING. however, when i checked my email (and i was able to access it), i had not gotten any emails after about noon (tuesday). a couple did sneak through later in the evening so i guess it's up and running again. i DO know my personal account was hacked last week. a bot just stole my address book and sent everyone in it emails about tv's or iphones or some such crap. these aren't the good ol' days any more. we depend far too much on technology


Gmail Outage Appears to Be Fixed

By Mike Musgrove

Washington Post Staff Writer

Many users of Google's free e-mail service were stranded Tuesday afternoon when they logged on to find the service no longer working.

According to research firm ComScore, the Gmail service, launched in 2004, has nearly 146 million users worldwide -- so when Google admits that an issue with the service is affecting "a majority of users," that's a not-insignificant portion of Web users.

By Tuesday evening, the search engine company appeared to have fixed the problem as users of communications services like Twitter reported that they were able to access their e-mail again. Google's own site, however, reported that the e-mail service was still undergoing a "disruption.".......

those right wingers sure are odd

sexual repression and lies. only underneath there is NO sexual repression only dirtiness* like the rest of us are

For all the wrong reasons
by PZ Myers

Kristin Maguire, chair of the South Carolina State Board of Education, has resigned from her position for all the wrong reasons. She has been a shill for the religious right, and has opposed the teaching of evolution in the public schools; she has also promoted that worthless 'abstinence only' sex education. She should have been fired for basic incompetence. But no, that is not sufficient reason to kick someone out of office in America. What gets American politicians in trouble?

You guessed it: sex...............


*it's not ME who thinks sex and erotica and nudity is dirty. just wanted to make that clear

i love her

not my state but i still have to post this

he says his views have changed. they very well may have. i in no way shape or form believe they have more than the teeniest tiniest bit though. twenty years is not an eternity. if this man believed 20 years ago single women should not be ALLOWED to have contraception, women are 'detrimental' to the work force and 'the' gays are well who the hell even knows what he thought and currently thinks about 'the' gays........

so now he thinks it's ok for unmarried couples to be ALLOWED to have contraception? so now he thinks it's ok if the little woman has a job?

well he may say so but i ain't buying it

Governor's Race Erupts Over McDonnell's Past Views

By Amy Gardner, Rosalind S. Helderman and Anita Kumar

Washington Post Staff Writers
The Virginia governor's race ignited Monday over Republican Robert F. McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis: Democrats assailed him in e-mail blasts and interviews for what he wrote about working women, homosexuals and "fornicators," and McDonnell tried to explain his views to crucial moderate and female voters.

After a sleepy summer filled with rural RV tours and policy papers on energy and the economy, news of the thesis, first reported Sunday in The Washington Post, pushed the race to a fever pitch.

McDonnell's opponent, Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, bombarded state and national media with details of the thesis, submitted by McDonnell in 1989 for a master of arts in public policy and juris doctorate in law from Regent University in Virginia Beach...

yes, PINK

monday afternoon humor

but once again, these peeps are serious. yup. the earth is 6000 years old. yup, we were fred and wilma and barney and betty. we had dino as pets. yup. the earth is flat too

Christian Fundamentalists Hawk Crackpot Theories With Dinosaur Robots
By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

This article was reprinted from The Faster Times. Faster. Smarter. Funnier: Go to TheFasterTimes.com for the latest in News, Politics, Science, Arts, Health, Nonsense, and everything else.

Recently, reports came out that Florida Adventure Land, a Christian dinosaur theme park in Pensacola, Florida, was shut down for tax fraud. Apparently the owner contended that he was working for God, not the federal government, and so was not required to pay taxes. But let’s back up: what on earth do dinosaurs have to do with Christianity?

Kent Hovind, the evangelist behind Dinosaur Adventure Land, is not alone in using paleontological wonders as a tool for religious outreach. Last October, I visited the Creation Museum in Bullittsburg, Kentucky, a 27-million-dollar pseudo-scientific complex built in 2006 by a group called Answers in Genesis to promote young-earth creationism. Dinosaurs were everywhere, animatronic jaws opening and closing, letting out pre-recorded elephant-like roars on a constant loop. They were hanging out with Adam and Eve in the lush recreation of the Garden of Eden, marching two by two onto Noah’s Ark.

I was confused. Wouldn’t an organization that wants us to believe the earth has only been around for 6,000 years want to distance itself from creatures which have been proven to be millions of years old?.................

these are the very same people

who used to yell at ME to get the f**k out of america if i didn't like it. if i was protesting the war or something like that. i also loved america even if i didn't like some of the things she did or was responsible for. this is my home. i'm not always 100% happy, but i love her. i guess these asswipes don't love her as much as i do. perhaps THEY really SHOULD be the ones steppin'

'We hate the United States': Secessionists rally in Texas
-- Daniel Tencer

For some folks in Texas, the prospect of a universal health care scheme isn't just cause for protest and debate -- it's reason enough to secede from the United States altogether.

Some 200 people rallied at the State Capitol in Austin on Saturday, a small but vocal crowd that set itself in opposition to pro-health care reform protesters.

Larry Kilgore, a Christian activist that the Texas Observer says has advocated execution for homosexuals, "drew some murmurs of disapproval" when he told the crowd: “I hate that flag up there. ... I hate the United States government. … They’re an evil, corrupt government. They need to go. Sovereignty is not good enough. Secession is what we need!”

“We hate the United States!” he declared later in his address.................

julia and spiro got married saturday at

honora winery and vineyard in west halifax vermont. it was wonderful and beautiful and touching and fun. since most if not all of their friends are in the service industry (his from the half door and hers from max's, they got school buses to lug us from the the grand summit hotel at mount snow to the vineyard. wicked smart. it would have been a treatcherous drive even if we weren't a bunch of drunken assholes. dirt roads up and down the green mountains. wow wow wow. anyway we all got there and back to the hotel safely.

the hotel was very nice as well. giant fireplace in the front lobby. it was lit when we got back from the wedding. the fireplace at the vineyard was lit later on as well. both were the middle of the room ones, stone, open on all four sides.

i will say many people (not me this time believe it or not) turned into drunken monsters. i don't mind drunk (as long as you're not driving). i do mind monsters. i do mind when you do bad things or disrespectful things. 'nuff said

i'm not a person who gets star struck. julia has a famous uncle. her uncle happens to be in the rock n' roll hall of fame. we can't ALL say that. he was a genuinely nice and funny man. i know he'll never read this BUT i just wanted to apologize for not GETTING HIS JOKE. i am really not stupid and i really wasn't drunk either. the lightbulb just didn't go on till a day after. yes steven, I KNOW PINK IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR

here are just a couple of photos.