Andrew Wyeth 1917-2009

Wyeth was one of my favorite painters. I caught an exhibit of his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art a couple of years ago. He truly was a national treasure.

A moment of silence

Let us take a moment to honor a fallen hero:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s motorcade met tragedy Friday when one of these motorcycle escorts, a Dallas police officer, was killed as he failed to negotiate a curve and slammed into a concrete guardrail.

It happened about 9:15 a.m. as the motorcade was headed across the Houston Street Viaduct toward a rally in Oak Cliff.

Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada was one of more than 30 motorcycle officers whose job it was to hold traffic at intersections while the black SUVs and patrol cars of the motorcade rolled through Dallas.

As the caravan headed south across the viaduct, Cpl. Lozada rounded a curve during his leapfrog toward the front. He apparently was unable to manage the turn.

Cpl. Lozada’s motorcycle ran up onto a sidewalk lining the viaduct, its momentum forcing it against the concrete railing, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. Then it slammed head-on into a concrete outcropping.

The 49-year-old catapulted dozens of feet forward along the roadway, the force of the crash knocking off his helmet.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cpl. Lozada’s family and friends.

once upon a time….

In case you just emerged from a coma it’s Christmas eve. Tomorrow morning the baby Jesus will rise from the pumpkin patch and give all the good boys and girls boiled eggs that explode into dazzling fireworks displays. Not really, but that would be pretty cool. Actually tomorrow is about discovering what a fat white man left for you under a dying tree after breaking into your house and possibly kissing your mother.

This is a strange time of year for me. I get those “holiday blues”, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because I am doing pretty well right now. Maybe it’s that longing for days gone by, the regrets of the past year, or angst about the year to come. To counter the annoying sense of despair I seem saddled with, I went a little Christmas ape-shit.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not tacky enough to go all Griswold. Our lights outline the roof and chimney, and I did a little number on a tree in the front yard reminiscent of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. We do have three trees in the living room though. One seven foot, one three foot, both fake. And one two foot ceramic tree that my parents bequeathed to me this year. The ceramic tree was always in our living room growing up, and so it kind of symbolizes this time of year for me. Now it sits in our living room. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll pass it on to our kid. I did go a little overboard on the presents, but who’s going to complain? Just doing my part to fight terrorism by participating in capitalism.

Getting into the decorating spirit has been good for me. And I don’t care if it’s a religious holiday, or who stole who’s festival and co-opted who’s symbols. Put up lights on everything! Go ahead and put a manger in your yard, a pentagram or a giant lit up dreidel. Just go with it. How often is it not only ok, but encouraged, to decorate your house in crazy lights? Why pass up a chance to give gifts to the one’s you love?

And the music. I have had Christmas music living in the stereo since the day after Thanksgiving. I found this set called “Ultimate Christmas Cocktails” and it’s the swankest Christmas music around. What I want to know is, what ever happened to caroling? We used to go caroling in my neighborhood growing up. All of us kids would stand there singing at the doorways of strangers, then go right inside for fudge and cookies, and on to the next house. I even sometimes want to go to church this time of year for the singing. I wonder if they sing at midnight mass.

Anyhow, add the food, the drinks and the fact that I got the week off, and this holiday season thing rocks. Hell yes Merry Christmas. I’ll celebrate damn near anything that gets me out of work. Hanukah would be a lot more popular if people got those eight days to sit at home and get pissed drunk.

One thing I have been thinking about this year is traditions. This is most likely our last winter just the two of us. After this it’s all about the little one. We have always enjoyed quiet Christmas mornings, just us and some coffee. In a few years it will be paper shredding, squeals of joy and a lot of picture taking. And we will have to start visiting relatives for the holidays, the horror. But at least I’ll finally have an excuse to go toy shopping.

If only it would snow. Start an ice age if need be, I just want some damn snow tomorrow morning. We need to move further north. Right now it’s just cold. Really cold, like stay in the house because there is no reason to go outside because there isn’t any snow to play in so why suffer cold. I miss sledding. It’s a great feeling, the wind on your face as you barrel out of control faster and faster down a hill side, screaming with exhilaration and fear. Plus building snowmen, and snow forts for the snow ball fights. I remember all of it, and it was fun. I would suffer snow shoveling to give our child those memories.

Hope you got tomorrow off work. If you don’t, I hope you are at least getting holiday pay. What ever you do this year, spend some time with those you love. Me, I’ll be curled up with the mrs. and a glass of hot rum and cider.

Merrappy ChristmaHanaFestivuKwanzaKa!

For Crying Out Load

Get a clue people. I am fucking over it. It’s all poison to the mind. We have turned the “Garden of Eden”, the only glimmer of paradise in the cold vacuum of infinite reality, into a shit hole. And I mean every one of us. Pay taxes? You’re part of the problem. Drive a car? Surf the net? You are sponsoring your own destruction. So what the fuck is the point of this whole god damn game? Why do I get up everyday and participate in this crap? Why do we prop up a government that could give a shit about us? Or religions that fill us with hate? Is there some flaw in our design? Are we just acting like the apes we are, just with nukes instead of bones?

I have tried for years to understand the human animal. But what escapes me is why this, this world around us, is the reality we choose to make for ourselves. We have virtually infinite potential. We can do damn near anything we want, and this is what we manifest? Really? Fuck us, fuck us all. We deserve nothing because we have been given everything, the keys to the gates of paradise, and we turned the fucking place into a strip mall.

I just don’t know what to do with it all anymore. My head is a god damn mess. Politics, religion, war, environmental collapse, economic collapse; it’s all coming to get us. Run for your lives. Too bad there is no place else to go. So sit in the shit like the rest of the monkeys and throw some at the windows.

But whatever. Move along, nothing to see here.

Missed my blog B-Day

This blog turned 4 years old yesterday. Happy belated birthday to me and my monkey.

Missed Me?

This site will be undergoing some changes over the weekend, including a name change. I have been commenting on other sites under the name “just another vet” and have decided to change the name of this site to match. Also, it really needs a new look. If anyone has any suggestions, leave them in the comments.

As for actually writing, well, I miss that too. I, like many others, have been suffering from a sense of “why bother” due to the lack of change in world affairs. But I like to bitch way too much to stop. I never expected to change anything with blogging, but at least it gives me an outlet for my rants. Because screaming at the television just isn’t the same.

In the mean time, go check out some of the links to sites on the left hand side. There are some really good bloggers out there writing some great pieces. Speaking of which, we miss you Steve.

Super Quick News Roundup

Here it goes:

VA allows Wiccan symbols on headstones

The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on goverment-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.

A settlement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Wiccans adds the five-pointed star to the list of “emblems of belief” allowed on VA grave markers.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The pentacle has been added to 38 symbols the VA already permits on gravestones. They include commonly recognized symbols for Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, as well as those for smaller religions such as Sufism Reoriented, Eckiankar and the Japanese faith Seicho-No-Ie.

As someone who was openly Pagan in the military, all I can say is good, about time.

Gonzales Vows to Stay on the Job

Alberto Gonzales, with a fresh vote of confidence from President Bush, vowed Monday to remain as attorney general despite lingering differences with senators over the firing of federal prosecutors.

They deserve each other. The rest of us don’t. Maybe we could all pitch in and buy them a cruise together. A cruise that never comes back.

Democrats Challenge Bush on Iraq Bill

A historic veto showdown assured, Democratic leaders agreed Monday on legislation that requires the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.

“No more will Congress turn a blind eye to the Bush administration’s incompetence and dishonesty,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech in which he accused the president of living in a state of denial about events in Iraq more than four years after the U.S.-led invasion.

About damn time. Give ‘em hell Harry.

Abortion Ruling Causes Worries, Confusion for Angry City Docs

The Supreme Court decision last week banning so-called partial-birth abortions is causing confusion and apprehension in the city’s hospitals. At Bellevue’s Reproductive Choice Unit, for example, unnerved residents circulated stories about the hospital’s sordid past, when floors were once full of women who attempted termination on their own. “I don’t think many of us know what partial birth is — it’s not a medical term at all,” said Kiran Chawal, a third-year resident there. “We’ve all looked it up to figure out what they’re talking about. It’s difficult to understand or interpret.”

The legislation of medicine is what angers doctors most, regardless of their political leanings. “It’s not a pro-choice issue as much as it is a medical issue,” says Chawal. “You’re telling doctors how to perform a procedure. Are they going to tell me next week that I can’t use a speculum to do a Pap smear?” Jessica Salas, one of the chief OB residents at Bellevue, doesn’t perform abortions because of her own moral concerns, but she is nevertheless opposed to the ban. “I don’t feel like a lawyer has the right to tell me how to practice medicine,” she said. “It’s a sad day for practitioners in general. They’re telling us how to do our jobs and to do something that’s not safe for the patient.”

Even worse, the legislation is, by medical standards, imprecise. The term “partial-birth abortion” is an evocative phrase used by pro-life advocates, and by the Supreme Court last week, but it isn’t used by doctors, who prefer “intact dilation and evacuation” to describe the procedure. And the ban doesn’t outlaw abortion itself, just this one particular method, so it makes for complicated decisions should emergencies arise. “You want to be thinking about what’s the safest thing for the patient, not taking your gloves off and calling the ACLU to figure out if you’re going to be breaking the law,” said one attending OB/GYN at a large city hospital. “It takes away tools from doctors. Now we have to worry about criminal prosecution while we watch a woman bleed.”

The sick fucks who carry around pictures of aborted fetuses will no doubt rejoice when women start dying from this ruling.

And last but not least:

Soldier: Honor Troops Like Va. Tech Dead

In the article issued Monday by the public affairs office at Bagram military base north of Kabul, Sgt. Jim Wilt lamented that his comrades’ deaths have become a mere blip on the TV screen, lacking the “shock factor” to be honored by the Stars and Stripes as the deaths at Virginia Tech were.

“I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member,” Wilt wrote.

He noted that Bagram obeyed President Bush’s order last week that all U.S. flags at federal locations be flown at half-staff through April 22 to honor 32 people killed at Virginia Tech by a 23-year-old student gunman who then killed himself.

“I think it is sad that we do not raise the bases’ flag to half-staff when a member of our own task force dies,” Wilt said.

Excellent observation. No doubt completely lost on those fine ‘mericans with yellow magnets on their SUVs.

What he said…..

P. Z. Myers nails it:

If you want to grasp the goals of scientists (and, tellingly, the goals of atheists), you have to understand that distinction between believing and understanding.

He is referring to a YouTooCanMakeAnAssOfYourselfAndShareItWithTheWorld video that attempts to explain evolution.

If you are interested in learning more about evolution, here’s a good place to start

Rat Poison In Pet Food

In case you haven’t been paying attention, rat poison has been found in pet food made by Menu Foods, a major pet food manufacturer.

There have been some excellent diaries done on this at both DKos and TexasKaos. Whatever you do today, please make sure you check to ensure you are not feeding your pets poisoned food.

Thanks to the blogs a great deal of information is coming out. We cannot let this story go away as it has the potential to save thousands of lives, the lives of our beloved brothers and sisters, our companions, our pets.

Now, here is my link dump, which I will update as I find more:

First, stock market information on Menu Foods.

Some crazy recent history of Chinese rat poisonings:

China deaths blamed on rat poison

China cracks down sales of powerful rat poison

Rat poison and food security in the People’s Republic of China: focus on tetramethylene disulfotetramine (tetramine)

Clinical Study involving aminopterin

Aminopterin used in treatment of Psoriasis

Rat poison homicides prompt a crackdown (China 2003)

Methotrexate (Aminopterin)

South Africa pet food poisonings

About aminopterin

Pet-food recall: More numbers … and some help

Doctors Caution Thousands More Pet Deaths Expected

Site devoted to this story

The End Is Near

Well, its the end of another year. We survived an election, are still at war and are already gearing up for the 2008 elections. On a personal note, I got a job.

All in all not a bad year. Could have been worse.

As for 2007, well, I plan on working to get Wes Clark elected president. He is the right person for the job.

Other then that, I do plan on keeping this blog alive next year. I know I haven’t posted a whole lot, but with the 2008 election hysteria already starting, I plan on joining in soon.

Have a safe and happy New Year.

Ok, before I go, a couple of lingering questions.

First, what ever happened to Mark Foley?

Second, what ever came of the massive oil spill off the Lebanese coast caused by Israeli bombing?

Third, what is going on in the Plame investigation?

Fourth, what is the fate of New Orleans? I hear it brought up every now and then, but it seems to have slipped away overall.

Fifth, why are we still having voting machine issues in this country?

Sixth, anyone ever mention the war on drugs anymore?

Seventh, what happened to all the anger over folks being held in illegal foreign prisons? Bush admitted as much during the election run up. Is the international community holding any investigations?

And finally, Osama who?