Thursday, November 25, 2004

Yarns update II - Santa's Parting Words

Apparently my friend and yours Santa has yet another entry in his extensive resume': "Shadow Walker"

"If I'm coming at you from the distance, you can see me... but dont look away. If you look away, I'll be on you before you know it." (snaps his fingers)

I told him that I would remember not to look away. To which he retorted:

"That wont work. I'll be there in your grill between blinks. You wont even know what hit you, or what killed you. "
(Yikes)

"You see, I'm a shadow walker. I dont move on the ground. I move between ticks on the clock"
(he said the last part really slow and dramatically)

So now I'm sitting here, Santa-less... and I'm so pissed. Why oh why didnt I get a live test of Shadow walking. Damnit, I coulda seen Chairman Ho's nemisis in his true form. I might have even gotten a lesson from this Zen master.

Farewell Shadow walker. Perhaps I will you see you again on my next Moses Lake visit.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

yarns update

Santa just showed up again. He said the following:

"If Christine Gregiore is elected governor, and she gets all big-headed and arrogant, I predict that she may be the first governor in this state to be assassinated." (Jaw drops)

"I'm serious, because theres a whoooooole lotta wackos out there"


Yikes... thanks for that, Santa.

yarns spun, sweaters made

Justin Merrill and I once worked with a guy named Dusty who was the biggest liar in the universe. The problem was that Dusty's lies were so intricate, complicated, and interesting, that you stopped caring about being lied to, and started caring about how to secretly document everything that spilled from Dusty's mouth. He was like some sort of maniacal Garrison Keillor. (more on Dusty later).

Such was my predicament this evening/morning. An elderly man came to the desk around 11pm. Looked like a balding skinny Santa. Actually, he looked like Turner's dad in 20 years with longer hair. While I was in the back room, my co-worker David told him that I would be working all night, and that he should come back tell me "his jokes and riddles" (out of sight, I made furious throat slashing gestures, but to no avail). David later said he was sorry. No apologies, David.

Santa turns up around midnight, and started letting the jokes slip. Then the riddles... yawn. I'm so bad at riddles. Then we talked books, then Science Fiction. He's a big Star Trek fan, and I possess a remedial working knowledge on the subject (few episodes of the original series, and the movies).

After that reservoir ran dry, the ground just seemed to open up.

The first indication came with his bravado about being a Scientist, Chess champion, top of his class in Law School, and then recently released from prison - apparently doing time in San Quinten ("God help you if you get sent there"). He said:

"I'll tell you what, the first thing you do at that prison is beat-up the biggest guy there... that'll earn you respect"...
(mmmmmkay)

Then came more monologues (as I frantically grasp for a legal pad):

"I got my guard fired because he cut-up my mail. They don't expect to have a law student inmate. I reported him to the district attorney. They threatened him with federal mail tampering. Long story short, for the rest of my stay, I received 4 different jigsaw puzzles every month for the rest of my stay..."
(jigsaw puzzles!??! What, no dope?)

"I once got in a verbal war with a fellow inmate. I told him to answer the following questions... if he didn't know that answer, I told him to say 'I don't know':I asked him, "how long does it take a bee to get from here to there"The inmate said, "I don't know"... I asked him "how long does it take a bird to get from here to there"... Again, "I don't know". Then asked him what color an orange was: he said, "Orange". Then asked him what the name of the boy was who never wanted to grow up: He said "Peter Pan". I responded, "Well it seems you know nothing about the birds and the bees, but seem to know a lot about fruits and fairies!"
(zing)

"I once leaned on a fellow inmate and asked him 'Whats the difference between a bear and a queer'... 'A bear would never let a man lean on him'"
(bing)

Then came inmate-turned-government-sought-after Physicist:

"I once created a laser that completely revolutionizes any beam of light on earth, including blue lasers. Even the government wanted it. I gave a live test for military officials in the middle of the Nevada desert once: one touch of a button and this laser cut in-two an M1A1 tank w/8" armor. The government demanded the specs. I gave it to them, but the ink disappeared when it hit their hands. I told them to 'forget it' & that I was averse to any brainwashing possibilities. To this day they try to get the information, but they know they'll have to kill me first, so they'll never get it... and thats a true story"
(he seriously ended the story this way)

"I told the government that the only way they would get the information is if it was given to all sides... you know, to balance the equation. They said 'no dice' and so did I"
(I think I saw this in the movie "Sneakers")

"I once created a sound-system that could produce a frequency that can coagulate every square-inch of blood in your body. You're dead before you hit the ground"

"I know of untapped Gold and Silver deposits still in the cascades. No one else knows of these locations. I once went up there, came back with a few nuggets, walked into a gun store and bought a 30-aught-six with no cash, no credit, no paperwork, and best of all: no questions asked" (holy moses!)

This of course, transitioned into a funny - albeit frightening - gun discussion:

"I don't carry your normal gun. I only a carry a gun that once I draw it - yer dead. No pea-shooter here. So powerful, if I aim it at your hand, you'll lose an arm"

"I carry a 44 auto mag. And I don't buy ammo from any store: too many questions, too much paper-work, and it wont ever pierce body armor. No sir, I build my own at home"

"I once walked into a gun store with my 44 and my armor piercing home-mades. I told the owner I could cut through any piece of armor they had in stock. He put 3 Teflon shields on a dummy. I took 50 military paces, ("thats a huge store," I thought), then turned and shot. Not only did it blow a hole in the front, but it also blew a hole on exit, and embedded itself in the wall behind. I walked out of there with $2,500, 'cause there was no way I'm gonna demonstrate without no green on the screen"

Then came the long one about being ex-black-ops. (I grip the pen until my knuckles turn white):

"Yeah I used to be Military. Vietnam. Black ops. Government wrote me a death certificate even before I went out. Our teams only existed on paper - combustible paper. My folks heard 'Rumors of death highly exaggerated' on many occasion"

"Ho Chi Min had a 4 1/2 million dollar price on my head - and thats American green, not VC ruble. I once had 'the Chairman' in my sights, but was ordered to hit his 2nd in command. Shattered Chairman Ho's tea cup though!"
(VC Ruble. I can still hear him saying that. I think I might borrow that one)

"On more than one occasion, I had in my sight the head of Chairman Ho... just one squeeze of the trigger, and the war's over. But I was never given that order. And I ain't gonna get locked in the brig for the rest of my natural born life!"

Later military career:

"I once guarded a nuclear facility. Got a 2-star Lieutenant General retired. Heres how: This General had the base locked up as tight as a duck's butt (or some metaphor to that affect, I forget). But I managed to sneak in a portable timed bomb - set for 10 seconds. When this 2-star was forced to resign for my actions, he once asked me why I only set it for 10 secs. I told him that with a blast like that, its gonna be a one-way ticket."

And then there was a bunch more about joining Civil war gaming clubs, and dominating so hard that he would get kicked out by the moderators. (of course, he would always play the confederacy).

I'll report back soon with any more yarn sequels. Also, I'll post a prequel of "Dusty's tirades" later...

Thursday, November 11, 2004

"Murder of man the trenches"

Dad's response to "(Wo)man the trenches":

I’m puzzled how the pharmacist, Karen Brauer, relates to either a Taliban person or a soldier fighting against the Taliban.

This pharmacist clearly values innocent human life. Some people in the Taliban do not. But it brings up a reasonable question of “Rule of Law” and value of life.

We are a nation of laws, like most nations in the world these days. I like that. It keeps us organized in our behavior and, as important, organized in our thinking.

Among the laws are laws that protect the sanctity of innocent life. We have laws in our books against murder of innocent people, and in the same book laws that ask for deliberate killing of non-innocent people who are guilty of killing others.

After I checked out the USAToday website, and read the article to the end, I think the drug she’s talking about is the “X-Pill,” intended for abortions. At the end we see the issue with which this pharmacist struggles: killing human fetuses, not contraception.

Suicide is another matter, I feel. I struggle with the legal issues of suicide, because it involves the personal choice of the “victim” themselves, not another person. The victim and killer are the same person. I can’t decide if that’s a crime or not. That’s not the issue here.

But I think it’s clear that the victim of murder is not the killer; the murderer is the criminal who killed an innocent human. Let’s assume Ms. Brauer is talking about that issue, murder: one person taking the life of another innocent person.

It seems to me this pharmacist is trying to reconcile how we can allow killing of innocent humans: living fetuses in their mothers’ wombs. In the same regard we need to ask, “Is killing innocent human fetuses the same as murder?” Why do we punish the murder of innocent adult humans — and then expect to glorify the killing of innocent human babies?

That’s the essence of the right-to-life movement:

A. “Is it my free choice to kill a human being?”
B. “Is that free choice the same as murder?”
C. “Is there a time when killing a human being is not murder?” And, “What in the law defines that time?”

There’s a great and disturbing inconsistency of the arguments of those who say, “Keep your hands off me! It’s a personal choice.” What’s the difference among these personal choices?—

1. “It’s my personal choice to kill my human fetus. It’s my baby! I can choose to kill it!”
2. “It’s my personal choice to kill my wife, my husband, my 2-year-old daughter, my 22-year-old son, my uncle, my grandfather!”
3. “It’s my personal choice to kill my classmate, friend, my 7-11 clerk, my bank teller, my drug dealer, my prison guard, a stranger, a random person on the street!”

The same books of law guide us in “lawful killing”— an awful concept that we must have in our law books, because humans can be such awful creatures at times:

a. We deal out the death penalty for criminals convicted of murdering innocent people. We execute murders in the “First Degree:” “deliberate, purposeful killers of other humans.”

b. We kill the enemy in times of war, as fast as we can in order to finish the battle and ultimately to resolve the war. We kill enemy soldiers, whether they are guilty or innocent of civil crimes, because they have been sent out to kill us and others in war.

c. In the same way, we capture alive all the enemy soldiers we can, and we don’t execute enemy soldiers whom we capture, unless we know they committed acts of killing innocent civilians — guilty of “civil murder” — in which case we are supposed to try them in “courts martial,” the same wartime court of law in which we try our own soldiers for unlawful acts in war.

I realize that over time there have been many times when we have broken our own laws in these 3 areas — executing innocent people, killing enemy prisoners, etc. We abhor those times of broken law because, once again, they take innocent life…contrary to law. These breaches truly break the law, and there’s no excusing them: “Well, it was in a time of war, in the heat of battle!” No, they’re still breaking the law, and justice under law must prevail. We can’t use that as a diversion from the rule of law — either way in this argument.

But do we abhor those breaches of law more than, say, killing fetuses and other relatives, bank tellers and 7-11 clerks? Aren’t they all broken laws — laws intended to protect the sanctity of life?

The difficulty is to keep law straight. Do we keep it, or ignore it? Do we keep it all, or ignore a few parts? Do we make exceptions for people who kill in order to become richer? To make their life more comfortable? To preserve peace in the family? To enable them to keep working, so they don’t have to care for another living person? To avoid inconvenience in my life? To advance science? To preserve the lives of sick adults? All these reasons are popular excuses given today for killing human beings — human fetuses.

Do we know the law, understand it, and respect its underlying principles? Or do we carelessly ignore parts of it, and then wonder what’s so wrong about breaking it?

Of course, it’s an open question in a nation of open law — subject to change by the will of the people. We can change our basic law. But we do so at our own peril. And the peril in changing laws regarding human life is twofold:

Human life loses its sanctity, a subject that recognizes a Power higher than ourselves.
We engage the state in “whose life we value, and whose we don’t?” The 20th Century was a mess of nations who got into that — Nazis, Soviets, Cambodia, China, others. Do we want to follow them?

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Turner's response to Nov 2nd

"There would be only two cool things that would happen if Bush was to get re-elected; so without further ado, prepare yourself for the inevitable.

First, is that I will finally be able to get an AK-47 for as cheap as they ought to be.

And second, I guarantee you that ten years from now, on FOX (the only channel left), on Sunday nights at 9:00, probably after the umpteenth season of Malcolm in the Middle, you will be able to tune into The Running Man; but for real. And I have to admit, I will be watching.

Yup, the country is heading down the tubes but fast, so prepare yourself for shooting the first FED through the door in the face when he tries to take away your freedom. Maybe it's just me, but didn't my United States of America pay dearly with many of our sons in a little war called WWII to defeat the rise of fascism, and keep it from ever reaching our shores?

Oh well, the masses spoke, and they chose, and now they have to stew in the steaming pile that they've made for themselves. Fuck them, the swine. Hope you enjoy it you shit-heads."

Amen, Brother

(Wo)man the trenches!

"Druggists refuse to give out pill"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-08-druggists-pill_x.htm

"I refuse to dispense a drug with a significant mechanism to stop human life," says Karen Brauer, president of the 1,500-member Pharmacists for Life International.

I'm starting to wonder why our boys are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, when we have plenty of these Taliban shit-wads at home!

Friday, November 05, 2004

Out of touch - MY ASS!

Another dubious chunk of untreated sewage has been floating around the conservative "think" tanks. Your average right-wing commentator will hold up a map like this one - showing the 2004 election results county-by-county (blue = Kerry, red = Bush):


His caption will be - "look at how out of touch these blue liberals are with the 'rest' of the nation." This looks good in theory, (and even has a neato visual aid - A+ simpletons!), but they are conveniently leaving out one crucial factor: FUCKING PEOPLE!

In other words, if scorpions, rattlesnakes, gophers, varmits, opossoms, twigs, berries, cactii, and bits of sod where someday, somehow given legal voting status, then this map might mean something! And yes, when that happens, we "Liberal Blues" would indeed be out of touch with all of the above earthly inhabitants

But until then, only people have the right to vote, and PEOPLE is the one thing that the blue areas have that the Red areas do not have!

Dont believe me? Heres another map shot from a satellite at night:


Interesting how the blue areas in the map above line-up with the illuminated areas with the map below, is it not?

One might say that we "blue area liberals" are more illuminating than the rest! One might also jest that the red areas are full of dim bulbs perhaps.

But I will say this: What is absolutely astounding is NOT that Bush won, but that Bush could only squeeze 52% out of all that Red!

Using the words of Bush Sr & Jr, we must now be a beacon of hope and a thousand points of light to all those still living in darkness

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Senator Murray letter

Senator Murray,

I was born in raised in the Shoreline area, so I have seen and supported your career up close from the very beginning. I remember seeing you and Bill Clinton at the waterfront before his & your '92 election. I only wish times today were so good.

Your victory against George Nethercutt Nov 2nd was so important for so many reasons. Least of which is that you showed his playing the "terror-card" to be a cheap political tactic with no affect on a stellar senate record.

But most importantly, with the re-election of George W Bush, and his threat to go forward with a far-right agenda, we desperately need your hard work to protect so many of our most basic rights. And to this end, your use of the filibuster will be crucial. Congressional "Gridlock" is often given a negative connotation. But for one who studies politics, I fully understand that the use of a Senatorial filibuster serves your constituency just as much as sponsoring an important bill - and now more than ever.

A filibuster is simply our opposition voiced through you.

So please feel free to make liberal use of this in the long hard days to come. Feel free to talk-to-death a pork-filled military expenditure. Feel free to talk-to-death a permanent top 10% tax cut.

Most importantly, please filibuster any/all of George W Bush's Supreme court appointments "in the mold of Scalia and Thomas".

The future of a woman's right to choose, gay-rights, the environment, and freedom of expression in general, was at stake November 2nd. With George W Bush and his stated agenda in charge, these basic rights are now in your hands. Please do everything you can to protect them.

Playing the adversarial role in the Senate can often (unfairly) be portrayed negatively. Please understand that you have Washington's full support in playing this role.

Thank you again for your many years of service, and congratulations on your re-election.

Sincerely,
NG

PS, Might I suggest "Lord of the Rings" for filibuster reading material. You might even replace the characters "Dark Lord Sauron" and "Saruman" with George W and Karl Rove (or would it be the reverse?)

Victory with strings

The Republicans & Bush are now acting like it's "all them". And it is all them in a sense - both houses and the presidency under their control. But there are still big limits, and Bush's victory has consequences.

First off, Bush & Rove relied heavily on Religious conservatives acting on "values" - with 11 anti-gay ballot initiatives, they prodded their faithful en masse to the polls (something again, that we missed out on with the 18-34 crowd). But this victory may very well be a poison pill and an achilles' heel: the GOP is not made up of only the Religious value-based conservatives. There are economic conservatives (Schwartzenegger, Gulianni, etc) and Libertarians who go with lesser-of-two-evils but cannot stand the religious nuts. Added to this, under the umbrella of "religious conservatives" you have a RAINBOW of different value-systems, some of them diametrically opposed to one another: Protestants vs. Catholics, Baptists vs. Mormons, Pentacostal vs. Traditionalist, HELL - even Baptist vs. Baptist (southern v. ecumenical), and Methodist vs. Methodist (United v. Free v. Wesleyan). Appealling to one, will cause squabbling between them all. This happened before (see: the English civil war and the general European religious civil wars), and it can happen again! Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

These religious conservatives are going to see Bush's victory as a mandate, but if Bush runs with their agenda, he's gonna hit a brick wall, because the other GOP factions will split. A victory, but a poisoned victory.

Back to the drawing board

Hi all,

Looks like its time to lick the wounds. In this period, its important to note a few things: First off, the "red states" were not reciprocated here in WA, and we still have two great senators: Murray and Cantwell. Murray won a strong victory against Nethercutt despite Nethercutt's heavy use of the terror card. He lost. Also remember that here in Seattle, our man McDermott defeated his opponent (a far right, anti-choice christian conservative) with 80%... No, I did not get the decimal point wrong, thats EIGHTY PERCENT. That my friends, is a MANDATE! (duplicated by Barack Obama in Illinois - beat far-right nut bag Keyes with a 70% mandate).

I would encourage all you to send on this message: Take your angers, passions, & fears and put them into ink - Write to our Senators Murray and Cantwell. Tell them to make strong use of the filibuster, and dont let up. Bush tries to push through permanent Tax Breaks? Filibuster. GOP tries to stop it? They cant - they need 2/3rds majority and dont have that. Conservative Supreme Court Appointments? FILIBUSTER LIKE HELL! In my letter to Murray, I told her to filibuster reading "Lord of the Rings", and replace the Dark Lord Sauron with George W Bush, and Gollum with Karl Rove (or perhaps that should be the reverse).

In the meantime, whilst arming the heavy defences, we must pull over to the side of the road, take a pitstop, and tune the engine... This is a process, and the GOP has had their dry-spells too (see the entire 1930s and most of the 60s).

My suggestion? Build a movement similar to the Conservative church connection network. Meet with your Neighbors, friends, associates that are like-minded on a regular basis (weekly if you can). Remember that this is not just a political movement, but also a social, cultural, charity, and collective values movement. Your goal is to access the masses that dont vote, didnt vote, and have given up - primarily the 18-34 group (the youth were supposed to turn out en masse this year, and they did not - This is why we lost). This should not be limited to a "get out the vote" movement headed by P Diddy, where you register people and never have contact with them again . No mass email, telephone bank, or Political Action committee can compete with meeting face-to-face once a week for coffee. The Meet-up campaigns of Dean and Kerry must continue on and grow stronger. Add to this sense of community a continuous and persistant contact with our immediate leaders (starting with Murray, Cantwell, and McDermott), and you have a movement in the making

~Nate

PS, Just wanted to add that along with Murray, Obama, Cantwell, and McDermott, Seattle now has a liberal talk network - Air America Radio. But more importantly, 6 months ago Air America had 2 markets and were bleeding $$$... now they've expanded into 36 markets!