Republican 'Help America Vote Act' of 2002 makes each US state's voting mirror the Florida system.

Visualize a Fair Election in 2004: "In 2002, with little public notice, Congress passed and the president signed the 'Help America Vote Act.' Hidden behind the apple-pie-and-motherhood name lies a nasty civil rights time-bomb. Every state must, by the 2004 elections, imitate Florida's system of computerizing voter files; the law empowers 50 secretaries of state to purge these lists of suspect voters [NOTE: I did not find that in the law, but it is a monstrous piece of fluff, could be there...]... ...The new law is a radical change in our democracy. Until now, with the notable exception of Florida, voter rolls throughout America have been maintained by county officials watched over by bi-partisan committees. Now the job of deciding who can and can't vote will fall to a single official the 'Katherine Harris' of each state. "

BBC NEWS-New Florida vote scandal feared

BBC NEWS Click here to go to the written article. If you click on the link on the top right you can see the entire report in video. (The video is very disturbing. The reporter uncovers a lot more going on in Florida).

My opinion on the Bin Ladin release

I feel I have to take the release as more literal that the opinion expressed below to get behind the motivations for it's creation. I will now take a look at this release on a surface level.

Bin Ladin addresses this to the American people. He opens by setting the record straight on why they attacked us. He appears not to want the message behind the attack lost behind the revisionary message presented by the Bush Administration --- "that terrorrists hate freedom". He goes on to explain what lead him to attack the US, so US citizens would understand why this rich Saudi and his followers are pissed with us.

In 1982 he says that the US let Isreal attack Lebanon, even had the 6th fleet assist in the attack. As he saw buildings demolished in the attacks and innocents killed, he decided to show America what that felt like to have its innocents slaughtered, hoping that the US would back away from just blindly backing Isreal's (perceived) anti-Muslim agendas.

From there he notes the similarities between the Bush administration and the administrations that dominate the arab world. He advises that he understands the mindset and finds their short term greed, lack of focus, and general incompetence easy to deal with.

He goes on to suggest that the Bush administration is embezzeling America's wealth under the cover of fighting terrorism as well as turning America into a dictatorship with suppression of freedoms.

He finishes by stating that they assumed they would only have 20 minutes to make the attacks on september 11th, but Bush's slow reactions allowed them a full hour.

To me, that sounds like Bin Ladin wanted to help defeat Bush by:

1) Showing that he is still free.
2) Stating that he has no fear of the Bush administration finding him or even making terrorism difficult.
3) Pointing out that the Bush family is very similar to the corrupt monarchies of the Middle East who oppress their people and embezzle their money.
4) Pointing out that the incompetence of Bush allowed their attack to be as successful as it was. IHHO.

Who knows who this benefits. My gut feeling is that this doesn't impact the election much.

Interesting viewpoint sent to me on the why's behind the Bin Ladin release

This is pulled from a letter sent to me. The author and I have differing opinions on who will win the election, although for perspective on this editorial, neither one of us likes the policies of the Bush administration.

"What do you think of the new Bin Laden tape?...

...Anyway, it seems to me that this is going to tilt the election to Bush, on the rationale that we need a tried leader at this time of stress, rather than a new leader. [I believe that Bush had the election tied up before this - I see that Hawaii is now a swing state, Cheney is going there to speak. Hawaii has been Democratic for 60 years!]

So, why did Bin Laden try to tilt the election in Bush's favor? Perhaps he is crazy, but he certainly was not crazy at 9/11; that was skillfully carried out operation. Well, maybe he is now senile; possible, but his aides are not, they would not let him talk, if he did not represent their views. So, we are left with the conclusion that he wants Bush to be re-elected, why?

At first glance, it does not seem logical, but I think he feels that Bush is ineffectual and will not be able to win and America will have to battle on its own. Whereas Kerry is proposing to put 2 more divisions [I think] into Iraq, and most importantly, he will try to get our allies to help.

So, maybe, the old bastard is not so crazy after all."

Aljazeera.Net - A better transcript of bin Ladin's speech

Bin Ladin says neither Bush nor Kerry can protect America if our anti-Muslim policies continue and slams Bush for not preventing the attack of the second tower. Said Bin Ladin:

"It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him. But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations.

All praise is due to Allah."

Bin Ladin Translation DRUDGE REPORT

Sadly the translation is to Drunken Muppet...

PG13: IFILM - Short Films: The O'Reilly Tapes

Not for youngsters!

IFILM - Short Films: The O'Reilly Tapes

Republicans caught in voter fraud.

There have been a number of articles this election season covering allegations of Republican voter fraud. The most compelling, IMO, is this one from Las Vegas.

This site has links to other reports of alleged Republican voting deceit in this election.

In Ohio, republicans are actually in court trying to challenge democratic voter registrations! They are seeking to deny American citizens their right to vote! How unamerican can you get?!?

There are also reports of alleged fraud in Ohio as newly registered Democratic voters received a forged letter suggesting the new voters would not be elegible to vote in this election.

I...AM...COLE!!!!!

It is official!

He is Cole! Submit before his mighty wrath!

(He has his own website!)

Click here to visit iamcole.com

Mashie.org - The art of computer case mods

Mashie.org is an engrossing site about building computer cases that are works of art. I really like his Y2K-bug (pictured above) and his Anemone cases. (The Anemone case was built into an antique radio casing.)

The building process for each case is described in great detail on the site and is quite fascinating. Worth the visit!

In honor of my nephew I voted against Fascism this morning

I went in for early voting today. I was thinking I was going to vote straight ticket Democrat, but I decided at the last minute to do my ballot manually race by race. (Since I first learned that someone could vote straight ticket back in jr. high, I have felt that is cop out and it has bothered me that I was seriously considering voting straight ticket Democrat to vote against organized religion in office in Texas.)

I was filling out my ballot and I was very pleased by my decision to go throught it step by step. In the state of Texas, the Democratic party is so weak that they don't even have candidates in most of the races. So By not voting straight ticket I was able to vote against Republican candidates in MORE races. (There were a handful of races that featured Republicans v. Libertarians. I do identify with a lot of Libertarian values so that was definitely no sacrifice. :) ).

None of the republican candidates I was able to vote for were familiar to me as names that I recognized as having accomplished anything of note in office, so I will sleep well.

COLE

My nephew Cole was born yesterday in Carrollton, TX. He is my sister Gail's first child. He weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 21 inches long at birth. He has dark brown hair that is mostly straight, but it seems likely it will be pretty wavy. He probably will have his father's VERY Italian nose and is pretty fair skinned at the moment, but with luck his tan will come in later. He has a lot of his dad's (Mike's) characteristics, but that isn't a bad thing. Mike is a tank in human form. :)

Click here to see a larger picture of my beautiful nephew.

Democrats signing up more new voters

I can only hope they actually vote.

Why is the National Guard in Iraq anyway?

My impression since my brother joined the national guard was that people in the national guard were not into the military like people in the other branches. They were weekend warriors that really didn't want to make more of a commitment than that.

And now they are in Iraq because our "normal" military is understaffed.

That hits me as no way to run a war and horribly unfair to the national guard. They should be at home in the US waiting for the next riot in LA or the next hurricane in Florida. Bring them home.

I also hate that the government is keeping the soldiers in Iraq beyond their scheduled time. How many deaths has that lead to? The military is comprised of volunteers, we shouldn't be screwing them---essentially saying, "OK we know you are supposed to go home to see your family this month, but we are keeping you another year." Soldiers don't need the goverment fucking with them as they are trying to accomplish their objectives and stay alive.

If we need more soldiers, hire more soldiers. Don't screw the ones we have. (And the reality is we have needed more soldiers in Iraq from day 1. Almost every interview with military personell I have seen they reiterate that fact.)

The reality is that there are a number of areas in the US that are poor and poorly educated where the people will bite on patriotic jingoism and propaganda combined with a few complimentary words from an army recruiter and join the military. If even those people don't want to be soldiers fighting in this stupid war, then maybe we shouldn't be fighting this war!

This is a simplistic arguement. I acknowledge that. I hope you might read my spots on Iran (and the links to articles Iran) to get a more compelling arguement as to why we don't need to be in Iraq.

I wrote this because I do feel our soldiers are being screwed by the Bush administration on top of everything else.

I got a picture in the mail of my niece

Lizzy of "The Little Hot" (arizona) and Tobi of the Lone Star State.

This picture was taken when I came out to visit my sister Jane's family. Like all good pictures there is a good story to this.

Lizzy's favorite thing to do to me was to say she was going to give me a hug and then she would head butt me right in my gut. :p Yeah, I know---all Padwicks are weird.

So she kept telling me, "OK, THIS time I am going to give you a hug...Really!" and as a dutiful uncle I of course put my arms out to get a hug---and she head butts me in the gut.

So by the time Jane took this picture, I have Lizzy's arms pinned and her battering ram ...I mean her adorable angelic head... facing away from me. She is none too pleased. You can see the little gears in hear head cranking away as she tries to figure out a way out of...blech! a hug!

You will note that she hasn't even noticed yet that I am digging my chin into her head.

Actually... when I think about how all of this ended I think I ended up biting my tongue! Oh well, the girls in my family take it easier on me than the girls outside of my family. :P

A dirty little secret of women in the US Military.

I was talking about the war with a friend and something popped into focus I'd like to mention for discussion.

I had a lot of friends and a girlfriend who served in the first gulf war and I was told something that I found very distrurbing. I haven't done any investigation of this beyond asking my friends at the time who served if this existed. They confirmed it consistently and it was enough of a sample for me to beleive it.

Many male soldiers would proposition female soldiers offerring them money for sex. Many women would decline. But not all by any stretch of the imagination. Apparently some female soldiers made a killing in the first Gulf War.

I got to thinking about that. I know that isn't supposed to be something the military supports, but how would the military feel about american soldiers having sex with islamic women in the middle east? The thought path made me feel very uneasy. What would anyone dealing with the control of information favor---an american male soldier sleeping with another American soldier or with a foreign woman with questionable motivations?

That this type of situaton existed had to be known to the leaders of the gulf war. It suggests that this kind of thing was expected.

Which leads me to my disturbing conclusion---what is the point of having women serving with men?

Is Uncle Sam a pimp?

There are a lot of ideas that this concept gives rise to if you follow it to it's logical conclusions. In a nutshell, does allowing women to serve in combat areas create a higher incidence of rape and pressure to give (or sell) sexual favors to their male counterparts?

It makes my head hurt and my stomach sick to think about it. I am admittedly old fashioned (especially for my age). I would not be for women serving with men in combat situations in general and especially not after thinking about this.

Please do not take this to be me calling all women in the US Military sluts. But by the same token, I have trust issues with women (my issue born of dating the wrong women) so I probably would not ever again put myself into a situation where I was dating a soldier. (Before you draw the wrong conclusions, I had trust issues with military girl before she even thought of joining the military. I actually trusted her a lot more after she was gub'ment issue.)

I also would try everything possible to direct a female member of my family down a path that does not involve military service. Frankly I believe that a military job is probably one of a handful of jobs that women could have that have a high incidences of prositution.

Join the peace corps instead, i'll tell them. Women are intelligent and educated in my family, so they would probably easily qualify.

Anyway my trust issues (political as well as personal) are not the point of bringing this up. I wonder if women serving in the military with men in a combat situation is workable. I will acknowledge this is a question asked with very little first hand knowledge of the subject (I was never in the military). If you have information you want to share, please educate me/us.

YouForgotPoland.com

YouForgotPoland.com is a site sent to me by my southernfriedbuddy Johnny Mob (Who incidentally did in fact get laid yesterday! I believe this is the first time since the invasion of Kuwait. Congrats Johnny Mob! ---Someone alert the media!). It features an unimpressive edited video of Bush's stammering at the debates followed by his triumphant proclamation, (to Kerry) "You forgot Poland" (obviously part of his answer on the coalition question.)

The video is heavy handed and frankly not very funny, but the pictures on the main page are VERY good. Worth visiting.

The Grapple: An Insidious plot to take advantage of the pro-mutant sentiment generated by the X-men series of films

A grapple. Pronounced "Grape L".

I was in my local grocery store, The Krogers in Carrollton on Frankford, when I saw a plastic molded case holding 4 apples. The case proudly pronounced "Grapple, Looks like an apple. Tastes like a grape!"

"Wow!" I thought. "This must be some kind of mutant child of an apple and a grape---some fantastically yummy crossbreed that demanded to be sold!"

"I must have it."

"How could someone cross an apple and a grape?" I had to know! My lust for genetically engineered mutant fruit overcame me and I pricked up the box. Through the bottom I read the back of the label.

"What is a Grapple?" The box asked. "Imagine the sweet distinctive flavor of a concorde grape combined with the crispiness of a juicy Washington Extra Fancy apple, and you get the idea."

"Beyond that, the wonderful flavor of a Grapple is hard to describe. To fully preciate (some of the label was missing letters, i'll do my best to fill them in ---'ap'preciate) its total uniqueness you really have to taste one."

" 'Bec'ause of their desert quality and flavor, grapples are extremely versatile. 'The'y're great eaten out of hand, sliced up in salads, served as before dinner 'app'etizers or after dinner snacks."

"'Jus't for fun, try slicing up a grapple and serving it to your friends, along with a '???'nk (would they use "chunk" in this context?) of sharp cheese. Then watch the "wow" expressions of a "first Grapple 'exp'erience!"

----

With a lead in like that, I was helpless. I bought them and scarfed one down almost as soon as I walked in my door. Hmmm. It was an apple, but it tasted kind of like a grape...Genius!!!

Actually, as I ate the apple my critcal side emerged. It was a little slushy. I don't like slushy apples.

I decided I was not in love with Grapples. I took the 3 remaining Grapples up to work for my co-worker, Gary.

Gary WAS greatly impressed with the Grapple. He looked it up on line and found some startling information.

GetFitFoods.com reveals the secret origin of the Grapple---and it is not what you think.

"The Grapple is a Washington State Extra Fancy Fuji apple. This is the only apple that currently meets the strict Grapple standards. The Fuji is bathed through a patented process and in a few days the entire apple takes on the essence and mouth-watering taste of Concord grapes..."

!!!!

This was no case of careful cross pollenation or genetic engineering, this was base ALCHEMY!!!! Evil in it's purest form disguised as simple, honest, safe genetic engineering!

With shocking new information I can only advise you to beware the Grapple.

Tobi goes off on Tatoos

I was talking with some co-workers about tatoos when I realized I had a definite, concrete opinion on them. I was suprised at how unwavering my view is on them, but only suprised. It remains unchanged.

Anyhooo... It seemed like a perfect subject from my Blog.

I might be seen as incredibly unreasonable in writing this---that's OK! (Just please come and read again, OK?)

I think American women need to re-think tatoos. I won't say women everywhere, because I suspect there are places in the world where women understand tatoos. The US is just not one of those places.

In the US in my youth (15-25 years ago) only men got tatoos. It was a sign of toughness---so much so that usually only football players and military men got tatoos. It was acknowledged what tatoos represent. They are scars that the bearer chose to have inflicted on them to show their toughness.

The subject matter was usually pretty simple: skulls and knives; hearts and preofessions of love to their mothers; dragons, lizards, and sharks or anchors and tanks. Simple stuff.

Then it became fashionable for American women to tatoo tribal bands around their ankles. I was OK with that! It was sensual and sexy. A thin band around a woman's ankle, even a tribal pattern, evoked anklets---a great, timeless fashion statement.

But like the claims about marijuana, a woman's first tatoo is like a starter drug. I have been told by numerous women how addictive they find getting tatooed. Once they have the ankle bracelet, they look for something else. Usually something above their butt crack. Then they look for something else. This is where things have gone horribly wrong with US girls' tatoos.

What ends up happening is something like what became of one of my old girlfriends. She has a astrological ram symbol above her crack, a colorful bird on her belly, and something else---I fergit and honestly don't want to spend anymore time thinking about it.

Anyway, this girl is a beautiful girl and she has basically had herself graffitied. The beautiful skin she was blessed with now evokes a filthy english alley. (I am overstating---she is still beautiful, but it did really DESTROY her elegance---a horrible crime for a woman to commit, in my mind.)

Tatoos done in this manner --- without a coherent plan for the body as a whole ---are "guy" tatoos. They are banners to toughness. They don't add to feminine beauty.

They suggest the girl is a thrill seeker. Like smoking, they suggest the girl is willing to do "bad things" to herself for an immediate, short-term high. These types of tatoos suggest an easy woman. Frankly, they scream "skank".

IMO.

Now that isn't to say that women should absolutely not get tatoos. I am just saying--- don't be a man about it.


:)





(I will update this post with a picture of the only tatoos I have ever seen that added to a woman's gracefulness and style. IMO, it is a wonderful example for women on how a woman might envision tatooes if she wanted to be heavily tatooed.)

(Here it is!)



I am always asked if I would ever get noticable tatoos. If I did, I would probably get a giant yakuza tatoo on my back and maybe the 12 monkey's logo on my arm. Something mismatched and tough. But it probably won't ever happen...

Jon Stewart Bitchslaps CNN's 'Crossfire' Show

MTV.com - Choose or Lose - Headlines

History of US Gas Prices

This was a neat little link I found about the history of US Gas Prices. Eyballing it, it seems that gas was around $1 a gallon at the end of Clinton's run. A friend of mine had suggested that, but I didn't think that was accurate. I guess I was wrong.

Final debate

I am a little behind on the debate reviews.

I watched the second half of the final debate after getting home late. I thought both candidates did a pretty good job, but I feel that Kerry won the debate.

Kerry was consistently presidential and seemed quite knowledgeable. Bush seemed competent most of the time, but there were a handful of times where he didn't want to answer the question posed because he knew his answers might be unpopular, so he just talked about other things, like his education reforms. Kerry was not that evasive. He competently answered all of the questions that I saw posed to him, so in my mind he looked more honest.

Bush did not look awful though. He had a few moments were he seemed genuinely earnest and straight forward. If the moments were consistent throughout the debate I think he might have had a good shot at winning the debate.

When he talked about his religion he seemed very forthcoming and genuine. There were also a few other instances where he really seemed to communicate how much he cares about America. I don't feel that he has been that honest in his first term or as forthcoming, so it is too little, too late.

But I do think he did very well. This to me was his best debate this year.

Now after the fact I was disappointed in how many of the statements Kerry made that were false. (I don't hold Bush to that standard even though he also made many untrue statements because Bush has proven ---at least to me---a willingness to lie to get his way.) Bush has created an unimpressive enough resume for himself that no opponent needs to fabricate lies. I think that Kerry might find a slight drop in the polls as people get around to investigating his statements. I think they might cost him some credibility points.

If you want to discover which statements are accurate and truthful, factcheck.org is a useful, independent site.

Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bush by George Soros, Dangerous Rogue Billionaire

Earlier in my blog I linked to an article about a a Billionaire who said he would be willing to give up his fortune if someone could gurantee him George Bush would not win the election. The depth of his conviction to this goal lead a reporter to suggest that the billionaire might be planning to manipulate the markets prior to the election to crash the economy and ensure a Bush loss.

That billionaire is George Soros.

He discusses his thoughts on Bush here.

Interestingly I see eye to eye with Mr. Soros. (Maybe I'll be a billionaire some day... :). )

Bloomberg.com: Dead heat

Bloomberg.com has the race as a dead heat. I am encouraged that:

1)Kerry appears to be leading (by the slimmest of margins, but leading) in most of the battleground states.

2)The vast majority of those states voted against Bush in 2000.

3)Bush's approval rating as Predident is under 50% (47%) ---usually a sign that the incumbent will not be re-elected.

4)Historically, challengers usually win the late committing undecided vote.

5)Finally, it seems likely that the polls are not polling younger voters. The polls usually poll registered voters who have land lines. Younger voters usually are late registering and our culture has evolved to a point where many Americans in their late teens and early 20's do not even HAVE land lines, chosing instead to go with portable phones. Younger voters tend to vote democrat, but usually not in very large numbers. It is possible that there could be a 1% or more push generated by these youngsters---that may be enough to nail it down for Kerry.

...If the economy doesn't get manipulated.

Veronica and National Novel Writing Month

My dear sweet friend Veronica Nichols, whose blog inspired me to start my own, visited my blog yesterday. I was so excited! I told her about it and she immediately visited it, read a lot of it, and linked to it. (I hope my blog doesn't get Farked, lol!---Veronica's blog is big time!)

She gave my blog a thumbs up!---which makes my day. I really wanted to hear her opinion on it. She is one of the best writers I have ever read, so it is cool to hear from her that I am not totally butchering this blog...thing. :).

Veronica has also advised that she will be writing a novel next month! Apparently, next month is National Novel Writing Month. A month dedicated to writing an entire novel! Wow! Dare I try?

Veronica is going to be writing a horror story using The Snowflake Process for Writing a Novel. When I advised that I was considering trying to write a novel, but I didn't know what to write, she suggested an epic adventure...Maybe this is as good a time as any to get the story of the Black Rose down on paper...Do I remember it?

BBspot - Which File Extension Are You?

Which File Extension are You?

IFILM - Short Films: Fellowship 9/11

Fellowship 9/11
"Synopsis
Michael Moore's searing examination of the Aragorn administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events at Helms Deep. With his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering - or if necessary fabricating - the facts, Moore considers the reign of the son of Arathorn and where it has led us. He looks at how - and why - Aragorn and his inner circle avoided pursuing the Saruman connection to Helms Deep, despite the fact that 9 out of every 10 Orcs that attacked the castle were actually Uruk-hai who were spawned in and financed by Isengard."

I think you need to have seen Farenheit 9/11 to truely appreciate this parody. It is very well done if you can ignore the fact that the makers of this short beat you over the head with their beleif that the original movie had no substance.

If you can ignore that, it is goofy, fun, and well done.

IFILM - Short Films: Superman/Batman fan film

"Synopsis
He's just a country boy who has secretly sworn to uphold truth, justice and the American way. Oh, and he's Krypton's Chosen One: our hero, Superman. As Lex Luthor rises in power-- and his disfigured henchman Two-Face runs loose--it seems like not even Kent's super-alter-ego will be able to stop him alone. But who could help Superman? Only Batman! Can these two put their egos--and simultaneous, budding relationships with the Delilah known as Lois Lane--aside for the good of mankind? For each other? Tune in right now, and see!

'A fan film par excellence! High production values, great acting and script! A must-see!' --IFILM staff

From the filmmaker who brought you Batman: Dead End."

Bush: Pre-senile Dementia

click here to see

POLL: Kerry Opens Three-Point Lead on Bush

Promising... hopefully it continues to grow.

Superman Star Christopher Reeve Dies

Superman Star Christopher Reeve Dies of heart failure on Sunday October 10th, 2004.

I heard an interview on NPR a few weeks ago with Christopher Reeve. The interviewer ran through a lengthy introduction praising all of Mr. Reeve's accomplishments in his efforts to walk again, concluding by asking Mr. Reeve where his recovery was today.

Mr. Reeve responded that he wished he could say things were going as well as one would think from the introduction, but the fact was he has had 2-3 near death experiences in the last year after breaking his hip.

Sadly at that moment I kind of suspected Mr. Reeve might pass on soon. I am very sad that he did indeed pass on on Sunday.

Honestly, even as a kid I did not like Mr. Reeve as Superman. I thought he was not muscular enough and was too wimpy. :) (My Favorite Christopher Reeve movie by far the 1980 movie ``Somewhere in Time'' where he plays a very low tech time traveller.)

It was only after he stopped doing the Superman movies that I grew to really appreciate Mr. Reeve. You see, while Mr. Reeve may not have played a convincing Superman on the movie screen, it seems he was Superman in real life. (And for the record he hated anyone making that statement while he was alive---but I am going to defend the statement next.)

Not that I ever met him. I only know of Christopher Reeve what I articles I have read about him and what interviews I have heard about him. The articles all say the same thing about him---that he was always kind and generous to people who met him and always had time for people. The interviews I have read with him, quite frankly, all took place after his unfortunate accident. I came away from those immensely impressed with his strength of will to walk again. Reeve was willing to put his body through all kinds of experimental medical techniques to reach that goal. He used his fame to advance medical science in the treatment of the paralyzed. Like Superman, He put his body in harms way to help others. (OK, that may be overstating things a touch...but not much.) He did so not only to help himself, but because he truely felt that there was no reason people SHOULD remain paralyzed. He knew that he could be a voice for the paralyzed to ensure that medical treatments to help them improve just like treatments for everyone else. Should our medical advances not be applied to certain types of injuries, or is that simply a type of discrimination?

Mr. Reeve was a staunch critic of President Bush for not pushing to legalize and finance more stem cell research. He was very critical of what appeared to be religious motivations for blocking research that can potentially help the paralyzed to live fuller lives.

Christopher Reeve was 52.

Tobi: Fight with Gail over.

Finally.

I called her this morning and said, "We still fighting?!"

She responded, "Are you still fighting with me?"

I said, "Are you acknowedging my points? That's the only thing that ever makes me mad at you."

She acknowledged that she would need to be careful about Mouse, but did note that she was annoyed that everyone in the family disliked Mouse.

I reiterated that I am only saying that she should be careful around Mouse with the baby because she doesn't know what was done to Mouse before she got her. And I said that I totally am not argueing that she should get rid of Mouse anymore---I think she should keep her based on their relationship. (My opinion doesn't really matter on that, but I hope it made her feel a little less put upon.)

Anyway, I am glad we aren't fighting anymore.

GRUESOME GRUB FOR HALLOWEEN

GRUESOME GRUB

Washington BUZZ - "The Most Corrupt Capital"

Washington BUZZ - "The Most Corrupt Capital"

God v. Bush

Thanks for the Link, Mom!

George Bush on the sad state of medicine today

onegoodmove.org/1gm - Love Docs

I should put in my comments on the VP debate

before I forget. I listened to a lot of the VP debate on my way down to Waxahachie to deposit Big House in the hoosgow. I thought both Candidates did very well. Cheney was there to look confident and composed and to raise questions about Kerry and Edwards fitness for the jobs. Edwards was there to defend kerry and get in as many jabs as he could.

I thought both candidates did a great job of reaching those goals, but I think while I would call the debate a draw, the Democrats in essence won. The Republicans had to have a landslide victory to recover from the first debate. They had to have Cheney put questions in the American people's minds about Kerry and Edward's ability to lead the country. I think Edwards came out looking like a very credible VP candidate and Edwards successfully countered almost every attack on Kerry.

A lot of people questioned Kerry's choice of VP, but by chosing a former trial lawyer as his running mate, Kerry effectively won the VP debate.

I think both VP candidates seemed capable, but they both have warts. Cheney is myopic and has bad judgement. Edwards seems to be a pretty boy lawyer who may not be any more devoted to working than George Bush.

Peanut, The Nephew: Locking horns with my sister about the dog

This is my nephew Peanut. He has been chilling in my sister's (Gail's) womb for the last 8 months.

My sister has a hyperspazzy rat terrier named Mouse that they picked up from the pound a few years ago. The dog was over 1 year old when they got her.

Mouse has been noticably moping around since Gail got pregnant. Early on in the pregnancy I talked with Gail and we discussed Mouse's behavioral change. I asked Gail what happens if Mouse starts acting squirly when Peanut arrives. Her response was, "Oh that is a no-brainer. If it boils down to a choice between Mouse and Peanut, Peanut wins and we will get rid of Mouse." I felt pretty comfortable when she Volunteered that.

But then guilt set in. Gail is the most loyal person I know. The idea that she had volunteered that she would get rid of Mouse bugged the hell out of her.

The she suffered through a really bad stretch in the pregnancy when I later found out she was suicidal. She had horrible back pain every morning, she was worried she would not be able to keep her job (Gail is a workaholic with a need to go to work every day), and on top of it she worried she might have to get rid of Mouse.

Gail says that the only thing that kept her from committing suicide was the thought, "Who is going to take care of Mouse? Who will feed Mouse and walk her?" So now she feels like she owes her life to Mouse and that as such she will not even consider getting rid of her.

OK, as soon as she told me that, I never again even hinted that getting rid of Mouse would even be an option.

But I still think she should be very careful around Mouse with Peanut. I worry that Gail isn't hearing me. I say, "Do not leave Peanut unattended around Mouse" and she seems to hear, "Take Mouse out in the woods and shoot her. She is an evil dog."

Maddening. It is like talking to a religious nut. She so doesn't want to even consider what I am saying that she doesn't hear what I am saying.

I sent her an email asking her to keep in mind that she needs to be careful with Peanut around Mouse with a link to an article that talked about a family dog attacking and killing an infant child to underscore that there is the potential for a situation there.

She basically sent me stuff talking about how much more likely it is that a baby would die in an car accident involving alcohol than from a dog attack. It was a none too subtle slap at her brothers, all of whom have driven drunk in their youth. It screams of "this is a touchy subject; Fuck off!".

It also says to me that she isn't even considering the possibilty of a dog attack.

The attitude I get on this subject is akin to telling me, "Do you know how many infants die from playing with electrical outlets each year? It is an infantestimally small amount! Electricity is safe! I am going to leave knives jammed into every outlet when Peanut comes home because electricity will not hurt him."

It is a bullshit arguement; a fallacy.

The fact is Mouse WILL be jealous of Peanut. Peanut isn't even born yet and Mouse is moping around. She needs to acknowledge that that is the reason to be careful around Mouse. She hasn't owned Mouse since birth and doesn't know what her previous owner did to her. She needs to acknowledge that to some minor degree Mouse will always be an unknown and she cannot 100% predict her behavior. What if Mouse ended up in the pound because her previous owner had a baby? What if they HAD to put Mouse in there because she
was aggressive towards their baby? How will mouse react to Gail walking in with a new kid and then Mouse getting less attention?

I want to hear that she will keep Peanut away from Mouse unless she is between them. Frankly I would
like her to promise me that, but it isn't my place to ask that. I wish she would understand that that is how strongly I feel about this.

Even if Mouse wasn't jealous, Mouse is very aggressive about snapping things up in her mouth. Accidents can happen. Mouse has not truely bitten the hell out of anyone, but Mike's Mom (who admittedly is VERY agressive playing with Mouse) did get a small bite. Mouse has barely knicked me a ton of times trying to eat things I have---none of the knicks were at all serious; she has never drawn my blood. Mouse will also jump into bed or get up on the couch with Gail and Mike and walk all over them and lie on them. To me, that just says that there will at best have to be an adjustment period for Mouse.

Gail seems to think that because Mouse is spazzy when a stranger arrives that that is what might cause her to bite Peanut. I think that is silly. Mouse is a spazzy dog and will always be a spazzy dog. That has nothing to do with anything.

If Mouse hurts Peanut it will either be an intentional bite in jealousy, an accidental bite playing with peanut, or accidentally clawing, stepping on, or lying on Peanut.

Am I wrong to demand that she acknowledge the possibility?

Tobi: Hurricane Tina

I put off the last bit of moving for the two days Tina was in town. I had a TON of fun with her.

We went to have Indian food. She liked it but couldn't take the spicyness. She had never had Indian food before. I ordered her a mango lassi to soothe the spicyness. She really liked that until I told her it was puree of mango and yogurt. (She loudly professes to hate yogurt.)

I was so hyped about her coming that I took notes of things we talked about and got stuff at the store for her. She loves chocolate covered strawberries, has a weakness for rocky road ice cream, and is addicted to coca-cola (She prefers them in cans---"The first drink from a can of coke is the best.").

I bought a 12 pack of coke that I had chilling in the fridge and a pint of Blue Bell Rocky Road in the freezer when she arrived. The strawberries were tougher. Kroger did not have any chocolate covered strawberries. I had seen some over at Tom Thumb, but when I drove over there they didn't have any. I decided to dip some myself. I didn't like the look of the strawberries at Tom Thumb so I drove back over to Kroger and I found a beautifully fresh looking box of strawberries. (I don't even want to think about what had to be done to get them looking like that.) I asked an employee to point me to the chocolate dip.

The dip for making a hard chocolate coating is actually just a container of those chocolate shells. You melt them a little in the microwave and then stir them to finish the melting process and then you dip them. But don't overdo the melting (like I did) or you'll end up going back out to the store at 6 AM for more chocolate.

After you dip the strawberries, you sit them on wax paper to cool.

The instructions say you shouldn't put them in the refridgerator, but I did. What I noticed after 3 days was that the strawberries slowly shriveled and became less appealing and condensation gathered around the strawberries (I probably should have covered them :P) , but the strawberries IMO were much better on day 2 and 3 than they were on day 1. To me, they tales like those chocolate covered cheries my Grandmother used to love, but less sweet ---move of a subtle dreaminess to them.

Anyway, she really liked them and I think they made her aware of how much I like her. Mission Accomplished! :)

I took Tina and Big House to lunch at the Blue Goose as Big House was leaning towards Jack In The Box, and I couldn't let that happen. I was kind of disappointed. We went to the Blue Goose in Plano and again I was just not very impressed with their food and it hit me as kind of expensive---especially for an unimpressive mexican lunch ($60+ for 3.)---but it was my choice to go there. (I really like the Fajitas at the Blue Goose in the SMU area and it has seems more reasonable. Probably just my perception though...)

We went simming and had a lot of fun. I think I threw Tina out of MY jacuzi and into the cold pool on account of her sassyness at one point. She retaliated by luring me in close for a kiss with her hotness and cruelly poured cold water on me!!! SO UNCALLED FOR!!!!

I took them out for ice cream at Fresco in Richardson. They liked the ice cream, but Tina did not like it better than rocky road. hmph.

The three of us went dancing at a club in Carrolton. They had a good time. They danced all night---by themselves and with other guys. I did get a little jealous at one point because Tina is pretty wild on the dance floor, but we talked about it and that's just how she is on the dancefloor. Big House met a guy who didn't help matters by telling me over and over that, "...she may be getting aroused dancing with other men and being touched by them---but she is coming home with you!" :P

The last thing I want to think of is my date getting aroused by other men---well actually the second to last. The last thing is that I want to think of is my date having thoughts of other men while she is kissing me.

Anyway, Tina (and Big House) assures me that dancing doesn't get her aroused. It boggles my mind that it wouldn't, but heck, girls are differrent.

I was OK with being at the club as the night was for them. I did dance with Tina a bit at the end of the night and I liked that, but she was ready to go home so we left shortly thereafter.

Tobi: Move Completed + Tiff thoughts.

So I have moved out of the old apartment. It is nice to rid myself of the ghosts in that place. Or the Ghost.

Tiff had written stuff on my mirror in lipstick that was up for pretty much the whole time I lived there. "Smoochies" "Love, Bug" While I was moving I wiped it off. Cleaning it off made me sad. I thought maybe I should take a picture of it, but no. It was way past due time for a clean break.

I kind of wonder if there is something wrong with me. I seem to be very good at burying past realtionships since Dina. Once it is over, I almost never think of the girl. I am only thinking about Tiff because I am writing this entry. That hits me as kind of odd. I wonder if that is my self-defense mechanism.

Or maybe that is normal.

I had some white ceramic ic cream bowls that she bought for me. She always liked them better than I did. To me they are too big. If I put cereal into them, I eat too much. I will probably have my sister take them into Tiff's workplace and drop them off. I don't want to make Tiff uncomfortable by crossing into her territory. She can have Lewisville---I never liked that town anyway.

I also have a wire figure she built in art class. It is a punk rocker. I don't think she liked it as much as I did, and she may very well throw it away, but I don't want to keep stuff of hers. I am sending it with the bowls.

I am keeping the dream catcher she made for me though. I like it. It is very nicely done and I don't want to give that up. I may be being petty though, not sure. I know she would probably want that back.

I had already taken back everything else that she had left at my house while she was "deciding if we should date".

I sew and I had bought a lot of fabrics and patterns to make dresses for her. (I think it is OK at this point for me to say that Tiff has no fashion sense. She is a girl who only occasionally shows any style, and when she does her lack of confidence really undermines it. She has some limited nice inclinations that pull heavily from 40's and 50's suburban styles.) It kind of burns me up that she asked me for all of that stuff a few weeks before she told me we didn't have a future together. To me, that is bordering on stealing. On one hand, I don't care, because it was cloth I chose out for her----I wouldn't want to sew it for others and I sure wouldn't want to look at it---but on the other hand, it stinks of being dishonest and trying to get what you can.

I think about that and I am convinced I am in a much, much better situation than I have been in the last 5 years. She just was not the right one.

MSNBC - Republicans are sending in the Cavalry

MSNBC - The VP debate is on tap and Dick Cheney is "ready to rumble"

MSNBC - The Race is On - Kerry Pulls even with Bush

MSNBC - The Race is On - Kerry Pulls even with Bush after the foreign policy debate.

MSNBC bush/kerry platform comparison tool

MSNBC bush/kerry platform comparison tool

The Bush/Saudi marriage

Who is Bandar Bush and what is the relationship between the Bush White House and Saudi Arabia?

Bush Family Value$

"Bush Family Value$" is an article written by Stephen Pizzo on September 1, 1992 which looked at the business ethics (or lack thereof) of the Bushes.

The Two Faces of Bush

www.twofacesofbush.com is a worth a 3 minute visit. A few nice quotes by people other than Bush and some very weak quotes by Bush. Kind of a soundbite site, so like soundbites you only need a few minutes to gather all you can about that site. They spent a lot more time on the Icon than I would have done.