Easter
Now Playing: Within Temptation -Memories
Topic: Mysteries of Life

My favorite song of the moment. Video is good as well and the singer is pleasingly beautiful. The website with a preview of the Memories video is here.

CNN is running their 'Special Report' what with it being Easter and all, about Mary Magdalene being possibly the first pope, wife of Jesus and generally in charge of the whole thing. A repeat of something designed to anger those folks who wouldn't even watch CNN. They get to firm up their base by obliquely attacking Christianity so generally it's a plus plus for them. Religion is one of those things that you can't talk about without offending someone but if you are going to do it do it to maximum benefit like CNN does.


Watched another one of my favorite old movies, "Going My Way" with Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald as a couple of Catholic Priests. Barry being the 65 year old leader of a fading inner city church and Bing Crosby being the replacement sent in by the Bishop to revive the church and ease the old fella out. A very slow, wordy, corny, black and white treasure that will never see the light of day outside of perhaps Turner Classic Movies channel. Sweet and comforting. At the end of the movie when Bing Crosby surprises the priest played by Barry Fitzgerald with his 90 odd year old mother from Ireland whom he hadn't seen in 45 years and you see the reunion it's just wonderful and brings a tear to my eye every time I see it. It's a shame that this image of Catholic Priests isn't the one that most people think of when they think of Catholic Priests. The message of the movie or at least one of them is that it's good to do good things regardless of the reward. Do good for the sake of doing good. At Easter one tends to think of the positive values and thoughts that religion embraces and it's really a shame that those good ideas aren't put more into practice. Do good, be good, make amends, be forgiving. All good ideas honored more in a trip to church at Easter and at Christmas for many. Many others not even that if they profess to believe. Talk and action. I always am of the mind that the actions say more than the words do.

David Attenbourough and Kakapo's
Now Playing: Within Temptation - Memories

The Life of Birds by David Attenbourough tells the sad story of the nearly extinct Kakapo, a rare New Zealand Parrot, flightless and nocturnal. It's thumping cries in the middle of the night as it calls for a mate that is not there any longer. Sad, touching and with a slight bright end to the story. It turns out there were a few Kakapo left and every effort was being made to save the species. I mention this because the BBC has a story about the gradual building up of the population of Kakapo. Kakapo baby birds Have been born in good numbers and it's nice to see these fat little things rebounding.

Kaboom -Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator
Now Playing: Gilmore Girls

A FAS page, nuke calculator provides a look at the blast area of various sized nuclear bombs whether detonated from a wheeled vehicle or from a plane. Of course this is because the blast profile is different. For purposes of destruction putting a nuke on a plane can create more destruction. The folks who would likely nuke Washington DC or Cincinnati or Atlanta would have the 'mother of all car bombs' to work with. Either way and whatever the size of the bomb you can use this nice java based creation to see where you wouldn't want to be standing in any of these cities if perhaps you knew when and where a nuke would be detonated by the folks who would want to do this.

Gilbert in Gilmore Girls
Now Playing: Something on WGN with Selma Blair in it

One of my favorite shows, Gilmore Girls on today on ABC Family I think. Heard the jarring sound of my own name from Lorelai Gilmore as she spoke to Luke. (Those would be character names and not the real names of the actors involved) A wooden lawn goat, not even a whole goat but the front end of the wooden goat which was named "Gilbert" as in "Gilbert the Goat" had suffered a terrible weed wacker injury and was beheaded. Gilbert was examined by Luke who said that he could fix it good as new. Nobody would ever know that Gilbert had ever been headless. The name Gilbert danced around for a minute which was cool. Don't hear Gilbert that often. Also of note, and you wouldn't know this unless you actually watched a number of the episodes of this show, he had his tool box with him also named by Lorelai. I mention this because the tool box is named "Bert" which is also a name I've been called. So it was a double Gilbert reference.

Since I'm on the subject of the Gilmore Girls it's very odd when I think about it. The character Lorelai, played by Lauren Graham is of course a beautiful woman. After watching and enjoying the show for some time I saw a movie that she was in. Keanu Reeves was in it as well and in fact Lauren was the girlfriend to Keanu. The thing was, she was in either a bikini or skimpy underwear and you know, it was jarring to see. Odd since of course I generally love to admire beautiful women in skimpy clothing. Not this time. She's still beautiful as can be and I love the character she plays. I've know the character she plays in real life. It's oddly jarring to see her in a bikini. When I figure this out I'll be the first to know.

1950 Technology - Nukes to you

Operational in 1952 and using the technology that was top of the line in 1952 comes the Mark 7 - a nuclear bomb of a small enough size to fit on the planes of the day. A few years later there were hydrogen bombs this size that fit on planes. This would be nuclear weapon technology 50 years old. The usual official Government talk states something about nuclear weapons being too large to be easily transportable. It seems to me this would not be the case. Even with overly large 50 year old technology a nuclear bomb could be put in a truck, a boxcar or a shipping container with no difficulty. I think that in fifty years the technology available to interested parties would allow weapons of this size or smaller. I'd feel better about this if stories like this missile sales didn't happen with some regularity. The fact that the CIA and the US didn't know that about the Ukraine missile sales to Iran and China isn't unusual and when you think about the thousands of nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union and the number of those nukes that are unaccounted for you might start to be concerned. The officials in the Ukraine said not to worry, we didn't sell them the nukes that were on those missiles. Self regulation, a beautiful thing and a wonderful thing to rest your security on.
I just think that when in five years or so when a nuclear bomb is detonated in the United States the cries of how could this happen will be deafening. By that time it will be too late. The rest of our civil liberties will evaporate along with part of a large city.

Jesus-his best week since Christmas
Rising from the water, springing forth from the reflecting pool comes the giant Jesus. Like a giant butter statue or perhaps a thing made of beach sand or even of snow. It seems unique. I don't know how good the church attendance is but the Jesus sits on the property of one of those Mega New Age style super Churches which by all accounts is shiny, new and still under construction. Anyways, The Ten Commandments is on, Yul Brenner is shirtless and with hands on hips saying 'So let it be written, so let it be done.' and Charleton Heston is saying 'Let my People go!' so it's all good. Easter coming up, spring coming up.

pink butterflies
Topic: Mysteries of Life


Just a little thing I was playing with. The little butterfly hovers above my computer screen and reminds me how much I love pink butterflies. Yes indeed.

In celebrity justice I note that Robert Blake was acquitted on the murder charge and you know, that's the name of that tune. (Baretta humor) That Lil/Little Kim was found guilty of perjury and in June will find out if she is going to spend twenty years in the big house. Peterson was sentenced to death and you'll get to see that in thirty years perhaps but I doubt it. However he will have a hellish time in prison and will likely wish he was dead for most of that time. So his karma will get him. Speaking of death penalty and the implementation of same, check out this link to desert vampire where the BBC will give you an interesting account of the execution of a serial killer in Iran. Him and another man lured little kids out to the desert, tortured, raped and murdered them. He was flogged, stabbed by a relative of one of his victims, the noose put around his neck by the mother of another victim and he was slowly hanged in front of a cheering crowd. I don't feel sorry for the person who harmed helpless children. I'm not surprised either, your karma will catch up with you.

In other death penalty news I've been emailed by someone (Richard Soltow) who would like for me to feature a woman who is on death row in Florida. Virginia Larzelere who has a support group at helpvirginia@yahoogroups. A quick google shows that she has some info and advocates on the web already.

In yet other death penalty news of sorts, a young lady added me to her icq, which of course happens all the time. I'm not sure why 22 year old fake females always add me and what scam on icq they might be working but at least this one time it was an actual person. She said "I took the liberty of adding you on ICQ. Now I just want to give you some
more info on who I am, so you don't mistake me for some madman trying to get
you on my contact list or something:" Well a NIN, Tool fan who is studying Egyptology with an interest in the death penalty from Denmark. As Spock would say, 'fascinating'. It reminds me of the nature of the Internet and the wide variety of people I know. From China, Hong Kong, Turkey, India, Canada and the US to name a few places. It's a shame that ICQ is full of so many bots now and spambots and such. It is nice and it's fascinating to actually communicate with people from around the world, with various interests and various points of view. Hard to find that anymore. Oh well.

Thank God- Only problem-Steroids in Baseball
Topic: Politics
Humm. I see Mark McGuire wearing a suit and in front of a congressional hearing. Fox is all over it. CNN is also showing the hearings live. Great. The budget thing is taken care of. The Social Security crisis is apparently solved. No problems in the inner city and all of the problems with education are things of the past. Instead, they are all getting their face time in front of the camera, murmurings of 'the purity of baseball'and 'the hallowed game' are being thrown around. Well, good at least I am hearing the tired suits answering the questions about their 'grandstanding' which is right on the money. Grandstanding, pompous bullshit. This really is a joke.

Favorites
Now Playing: House - Fox tv show
Topic: Mysteries of Life
Tuesday night. Two of my favorite shows on. Gilmore Girls and House. Love em both. I've known real Lori Gilmores and I'm a grump like House.

Ground Zero for WWIII - Taiwan
Now Playing: Grand Funk Railroad - An American Band
In the terrible aftermath of World War II we looked for answers and found that we knew that the conflict and war began with the territorial aggrandizement and desire of a number of countries to have all of their various bits of 'ancestral homelands' returned to them by intimidation or by force. The expansion of Nazi Germany and their militarization - a activity accomplished in the bright light of day and under the suspicious but ultimately ineffectual gaze of France and the United Kingdom is a part of the historical record that can be read and seen for the future that would come by any sixth grader in the world with any quality of History book at their disposal. The militarism of Japan was slow and was likewise easily seen for what it was. After all, the buildup of a military much too big for defense accompanied by the use of that force is pretty much a lead pipe giveaway of future intentions. The easy to spot symptoms and the results are history. Easy to see. Likewise the threat that came after WWII, the threat of Communist ideology and it's desire for world revolution. Another easy to see threat, it proclaimed itself for what it was. We stood up and we conquered that foe. Communism is dead in Europe, a failed and bankrupted ideology whose power to influence nations and their radicals has gone.

The threat rising in the east, like a giant Mt.St Helens, is China. When it explodes and brings the world to war it will be another one of those things where people will say that we should have been better prepared and that the signs of the pending violence were there to be seen. As easy to see as the rise of militarism and violence from Germany's Third Reich. A concerted effort to build up a military for open water use, for cross channel use to invade the country of Taiwan. Missiles piling along the coast, submarines being bought from the Soviets, weapon systems being bought from our perfidious allies in Europe. A new law, a new 'legal excuse' for a desired invasion of Taiwan. The pieces continue to be put in place, pressure is being placed, Taiwan is being threatened, the USA and Japan are being 'warned' to not interfer in the 'internal' affairs of China. Like Hitler wanting Alsace-Lorraine, then a bit of Poland where some Germans lived, China is following the same expansionist, militaristic logic of Hitler. And a logic that remains just as invalid as when exposed by a madman over sixty years ago. China 'legal threats'

Some of the same factors that drove Hitler to focus his people on the desire for 'reunification' are likewise in place in China. A booming economy with needs to expand, a society that has a large young population which in the case of China, will suffer acute social problems which will amplify with every passing day in part because of the large population of males in relation to females, the change from a agricultural society to a manufacturing society and the change in attitudes toward the central government. In both cases the authoritarian states walk that fine line of being able to control their populations and in both cases they appeal to nationalism where it's always easier to rouse populations to combat outside forces, to right 'ancient nationalistic wrongs' and to find enemies everywhere outside of their nations to fight rather than letting their people focus on the wrongs in their own governments.

I believe that China is deciding right now whether they can intimidate the United States and Japan into not defending Taiwan. They are certainly making noises along that line. Ultimately will they risk their world position and their economic well being on this? Many people, many people who know nothing of China, Chinese history or Chinese Culture assume that the answer is no. I assume otherwise. They may already be on a course that they cannot pull back from and the confrontation may already be fated to happen. The Chinese government, like every other government who has faced the United States has assumed, assumed wrongly, that it can either back us out of our commitments or that they can move so quickly and decisively that the US will be forced to back down. Such miscalculations have put the world in flames before and will do so again. Of course it's much more complicated that my few paragraphs can relate. A giant chess game with misperceptions on top of misperceptions, layers and layers of assumptions which reinforce incorrect ideas. Cultural ways of thinking that cannot fathom decisions and thinking of the other side. US government decision makers who cannot believe that such an irrational action could be taken and so they don't even think seriously about the possibility. Chinese thinkers not understanding why the US would risk war over Taiwan. Ahhh.

Peachy Keen
Now Playing: Anything I want on my iPod :-P
Howdy hi. How do I feel? Humm. Well no matter how I feel I always say I feel peachy keen. Found this after filling the gas tank up. Just turned around and before my watering eyes there it stood, the peach of all peaches. Giant water tower peach. Now, don't remember ever seeing one of those. Half expected to see Voltron or one of those giant cartoony characters rumble up beside the peach of great sizedness. Humm. Roll call.





Always happy to see my friends.

Roper v. Simmons - No Execution for minors
Topic: Law
My first reaction to reading this decision syllabus
is wow- shades of emanations and penumbras. I agree with the result of the decision but I find myself marveling at the lack of credible logic involved. It's not completely consistent with stare decisis definition
since it overturns the decision of the court in Stanford v. Kentucky syllabus
which was decided in 1989 and allowed the execution of minors. It seems that the justices have again overstepped their role as interpretors of the law and have gone to their self appointed godlike roles of moral determiners of what ought to be.

I'm conflicted. I don't believe that the death penalty is right on any level. It shouldn't exist. It's existence in the United States is a point of shame and I'm glad that it's been narrowed even further. At last the US has left the company of Sudan in allowing executions of minors. Unfortunately we are still in the company of China, Sudan and Saudi Arabia in allowing executions at all.

Should the Court be looking to unratified International Treaties to help it decide? No. Should the Court be looking beyond the law itself to decide it's cases? I think that if you say no then you say that the court wasn't right in overturning Scott v. Sandford - which as you know decided that a black man was not a citizen of the US and showed that the only place in the constitution that the subject came up showed blacks as property. The fullness and fog of time has shown the first finding by the Supreme Court to be in error and the ones after that to be the right ones. But Scott v. Sandford was 'Constitutional' as the constitution was written at the time. We could look at this decision in the same vein, a moral and 'constitutional' decision that in the fullness of time will not be raved against and will be simply acknowledged as the right decision which causes some political heat and fury from those who disagree.

If sound and fury at the time of a Supreme Court decision were the criteria by which we judged the rightness of the decisions at hand then Brown v. Board of Education would have been wrong and should have resulted in impeachment of Supreme Court Judges. If the issue here is what level of moral decision making by the Supreme Court can be absorbed by the country it seems that past decisions have not brought revolution except perhaps where it was needed. (Civil War).

In this case the logic was tortured and it would have nice if there was more to pin the decision on. As it is, the ranting on talk radio and right wing outlets will give a weeks worth of airtime and ink. In reality, there were very few states that allowed this aspect of the death penalty, fewer still that carried it through. The end result is not much different than it would have been if they ruled the other way. One man who is now off of death row still is looking at a life behind bars. The case details show that he richly deserves every single day they keep him there. He has won no victories and will not be out to prey on innocent people again. His life, his celebrity if you will will die down and the circle of people around him who have provided him with support and celebrity will fade away and in the end he will still be in his cell. A fitting punishment.

Clinton goes to Taiwan
Topic: Politics
A surprise. I see that former President Clinton is in Taiwan at the invitation of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. You can imagine the teeth gnashing in Beijing over this one. China Trip
The link goes to the google list of news items about this. The Taiwan Headlines says that "Clinton Affirms Taiwan's Democracy and Prosperity" while the China Post (Taiwan News) speaks about how angered the trip made the Mainland Chinese. Clinton spoke about the need for Taiwan and Mainland China to work together economically and peacefully. In another victory for censorship, avoidance of issues and not actually standing beside avowed principles of freedom and self determination the other news bits from around the world will be as carefully neutral as possible so as not to anger the Mainland folk. It's always sad to see the double standards and double speak with respect to Taiwan and China. But it was good to see that Clinton went to Taiwan in the first place. Every bit helps.

New York Times again - NJ corruption followup
Topic: Politics
In Monmouth County, Desperate for Development and Its Bounty

Looks like the New York Times is all over this one, the second article, a follow up article, trying to get up close and personal about the endemic corruption in this particular area of New Jersey. State Senator Ellen Karcher was one who didn't want to play ball in the usual graft and corruption of the area and was threatened, offered $150,000 bribe money and had her property vandalized. She went to the FBI which brought the unblinking eye of the G-Men on the problem. Then the article goes on to identify the various social problems of the area to include it being 86% white, rich and with too many small local government entities. All very entertaining.

Oscar Hype - Oscar Blather
Now Playing: CSPAN
Oscars, Grammies, Spring Training, Super Bowl, Opening Day, Presidential Elections, all of these 'events' have campaigns that lead up to the event. Those campaigns get to be so deafening that you just can't wait for the event to get here. Not that you are interested in the event but that you just wish the noise would end. I'm hoping that the Oscars gets here quickly, please please let the noise stop. I don't care that Chris Rock is hosting. I don't care what art house movies are up for what awards or if this or that ancient director gets an award for the first time or if there are enough Hispanic nominees in the short animated documentary by a newcomer who lisps category. In the mass scope of human events it does not matter. In the tiny up close and personal scope of human events it matters not one whit either.

If Matt Drudge wants to worry that Chris Rock might say 'bum' (as in touch my) then all the power in the world to him. It's all one big hype machine. They want you to tune in and watch and see if Chris Rock implodes and provides us with a Janet Jackson moment. Don't think so, I'm pretty sure there will be a five second delay working and I'm almost certain that Rock doesn't have the Boob potential of Ms. Jackson. So why bother tuning in? The dude is not funny, I don't care how many critics and hype machine lackeys pronounce him to be the funniest thing since Richard Pryor. It's always good to remember the story of the Emperor's New Cloths - where everyone says the nude King looks simply wonderful because they think everyone else can see the wonderment of the magnificent livery but them and so they mouth the praises of these imaginary clothes. But really, your eyes do not deceive you, there are no clothes and Chris Rock is not funny. Not even close to being funny. He doesn't even cuss and say shocking and rude things with any style. That would be my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

The other thing that annoys me about all of the hype I tangentially have to suffer through is the overinflated value they put to themselves. Media, TV specifically. Now I took the liberty of checking the 'ratings' today. Some show called CSI was the most watched television show for the last week. Wow, that's impressive. Must mean everyone in the United States is watching the thing. Humm. Never seen it. I must be odd, living in a cave somewhere. Let's see the numbers. I see the listing tells me that 30 million people were watching. Now, that's probably a overly exaggerated number but whatever. Let's see, go the to the US Census site. Oh, about 300 million people in the United States of America. Quick math tells me that one in ten Americans -roughly speaking - was watching this show. Hardly overwhelming. That means 9 out of 10 people were not watching. Perhaps bowling, driving, cooking pasta, having sex, just any number of things possible. Seems hardly worth all the hype and noise about you might hear through the various media outlets we're subject to. And subject to the hype we are, taking their cues from the endless Presidential campaigns we get hit continually with this nonsense. Take a bit of notice, it's cutting down on actual news such as it is these days.