absolution

Since this is the season to be holy it seems fitting to find a way to purge for the upcoming new year. What bliss to enter a new year with a cleansed soul and a new outlook on life... Check out Absolution. BTW if ya happen to find yourself in NEPA, stop in for some debouchery and eggnog and bring something for the tree, ok?

almost a winner

This is the reward I get for not checking my mail. Oh well.

EUROPEAN PRIZE AWARD DEPT
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
P O BOX 1010
LIVERPOOL,L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM
REF:EL3/9318/04
BATCH:8/163/EL.

Attn:Dear Luck Winner,

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the online Sweepstakes Lottery Winners International programs held on the Wednesday 23rd November 2005.Your e-mail address attached to with

ticket number :EL-23133
serial number: EL-123542,
batch number: EL-35,
lottery ref number: EL-9318
Draw 1035
CONGRATULATION!!!

Due to mix up of some numbers and names,we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money Remitted to you.This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 40,000 company and 20,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world.

This promotional program takes place every year.This lottery was promoted and sponsored by group of successful electronic dealers.we hope with part of your winning,you will take part in our next year US$20 million international lottery.

To file for your claim, please contact our Fiduciary agent/paying officer:
Mr Frank Johnson
Tel: +44-703-192-3823
+44-703-184-0275
fax: +44-871-247-2737
Email:claim-officer@emailaccount.com

Remember,all winning must be claimed not later than 22rd Of November 2005.After this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake.Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence.
Please be Warned!!!: Fraudulent emails are circulating that appear to be using National Lottery addresses, but are not from The National Lottery.

Furthermore,should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Note:Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.

Yours faithfully,

Richard K. Lloyd.
Online coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY
Sweepstakes International Program.

how long are we going to stand for this?

Exxon Mobil profit, sales soar to records, Royal Dutch Shell not far behind
Eds: AMs. Also on financial services
By STEVE QUINN
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP) ‹ Exxon Mobil Corp. rewrote the corporate record books Thursday
as the oil company¹s third-quarter earnings soared to almost $10 billion and
it became the first public company ever with quarterly sales topping $100
billion. Anglo-Dutch competitor Royal Dutch Shell PLC wasn¹t far behind,
posting a profit of $9 billion for the quarter.
Those results led Democrats in Congress to demand a new windfall profits
tax. ³Big oil behemoths are making out like bandits, while the average
American family is getting killed by high gas prices, and soon-to-be record
heating oil prices,² Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
But Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said President Bush opposes such a move
and is instead considering a wide range of proposals to help cushion
consumers, including the creation of an emergency reserve of gasoline and
other refined products.
Thursday¹s outsized earnings are a result of surging oil and natural gas
prices that pushed pump prices to record territory after Hurricane Katrina.
They come on the heels of similar eye-popping gains reported this week by BP
PLC, ConocoPhillips Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. Chevron Corp. reports its
earnings on Friday.
Some Republican members of Congress called on the industry to invest in ways
that will increase production so that consumers get a break at the pumps or
when they pay their heating bills. But analysts said telling the industry
how to spend its money was unfair, if not futile.
³Exxon is a good corporate citizen but it does not work for the welfare of
the country,² said oil analyst Fadel Gheit at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive made no mention of the record results in
the company¹s earnings release. Instead, he noted that the world¹s largest
publicly traded oil company ³acted responsibly in pricing at our company
operated service stations, and we also encouraged our independent retailers
and distributors to do the same.²
Likewise, Henry Hubble, Exxon¹s vice president of investor relations, did
not specifically call attention on a conference call to the company¹s record
profit, which rose 75 percent in the quarter to $9.92 billion from $5.68
billion a year ago. Hubble said the company ³achieved a number of important
milestones.²
The previous oil-industry earnings record was Exxon¹s 2004 fourth-quarter
profit of $8.42 billion. Third-quarter revenue jumped to $100.72 billion
from $76.38 billion in the prior-year period.
To put its performance into perspective, Exxon¹s revenue for the three-month
period was greater than the annual gross domestic product of some of the
largest oil producing nations, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait
‹ even though it lost considerable production because of a string of
hurricanes that battered the U.S. Gulf coast.
Robert Kaufmann, a professor at Boston University¹s Center for Energy and
Environmental Studies, says production will return to pre-hurricane levels
and hurricane-related losses will disappear in future earnings reports, but
profits will remain high.
³A lot of the capacity was being built when oil was trading at $20 to $30 a
barrel range, so by definition those fields are much more profitable,² he
said. ³Nobody should be surprised by this.²
Despite the profit surge, Exxon¹s performance fell short of analysts¹
expectations and its shares fell 60 cents to $55.60 in trading Thursday on
the New York Stock Exchange, while U.S.-traded Class A shares of Shell rose
$1.15, or 1.9 percent, to $60.65 on the NYSE.
With oil futures above $60 a barrel for much of the third quarter, Exxon¹s
profits from petroleum exploration and production increased by $1.8 billion
to $5.7 billion. Soaring prices for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel lifted
refining and marketing profits by $727 million to $2.13 billion.
However, income at the company¹s chemicals unit declined by $537 million to
$472 million, a reflection of the higher prices for raw materials.
Exxon said hurricanes slashed U.S. production volumes by 5 percent from a
year ago, while global daily production slipped to 2.45 million barrels of
oil equivalent from 2.51 million barrels. By the end of the year, it will
cost the company about $100 million after taxes, the company estimated.
At Shell, third-quarter net income grew 68 percent to $9.03 billion from
$5.37 billion a year earlier. Revenue at the London-based company, which has
extensive operations in the United States, rose 8 percent to $76.44 billion.
³We are capturing the benefits of high oil and gas prices and refining
margins,² Shell Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser said, referring to the
profit margin on each barrel of crude that is refined into gasoline, diesel
and jet fuel.
Shells profits from exploration and production increased by $2.6 billion to
$5 billion in spite of an 11 percent decline in oil and natural-gas output.
Its refining and marketing profit climbed by $201 million to $1.7 billion.
Its chemicals business saw profits decline by $251 million to $321 million.
Shell said hurricane damage would cost it about $350 million, although much
of the expense would be covered by insurance.
Also on Thursday, Marathon said third-quarter profit more than tripled to
$770 million, up from $222 million a year earlier. Most of the profit came
from its oil and natural-gas production unit. However, the results fell
short of Wall Street¹s aggressive estimates and Marathon¹s stock slumped
$3.80, or 6.2 percent, to $57.28 on the NYSE.

halloween

It's getting to be the time of the year when the dead rise and walk the Earth. T, Jack, and Bob look like they're having a good time. So should you.

Around this time of year we all get together for your typical pagan debouch fest in honor of the H day.
If you happen to find yourself in NEPA around the 28th you should stop in for some hobnobin with some otherworldly creatures.

I'm glad he lost the powder blue

Tom Wolfe is Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Internationally acclaimed author Tom Wolfe has been named this year's Janet Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters at Bucknell University.

The annual award was established to honor and recognize an individual who represents the very highest level of achievement in fiction writing.

Wolfe will receive the award and give the talk, "An Evening with Tom Wolfe," Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Weis Center for the Performing Arts at Bucknell. The talk is open to the public without charge.

Wolfe is the author of 12 books including the best seller The Right Stuff, winner of the American Book Award for general non-fiction in 1979.

His recent novel, A Man in Full, was nominated for the National Book Award four weeks prior to publication and had an unprecedented first-run printing of 1.2 million copies.

His newest book, I Am Charlotte Simmons, takes on the hallowed halls of America's modern university in a scathing assessment of higher education..

Raised in Richmond, Va., Wolfe holds his degrees from Washington and Lee University and Yale University. He worked as a reporter for The Springfield Union, The Washington Post and The New York Herald Tribune before beginning his career as a novelist with his first book, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, published in 1965.

Other national best sellers include The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Bonfire of the Vanities.

The Weis fellowship was established through a grant from the Degenstein Foundation in honor of Janet Weis, author, civic leader and philanthropist.

Weis is trustee emerita of Bucknell University. Her late husband, Sigfried Weis, was chair of the Bucknell Board of Trustees from 1982-88.

Bucknell President Brian C. Mitchell stated, "We are pleased to welcome Tom Wolfe to our campus, and to have him join the list of world-renowned and respected writers who have received this award, an award which is a fitting honor to the life and work of Janet Weis."

Previous recipients of the fellowship award were Toni Morrison, John Updike and Salman Rushdie.

it's not gas. just hot air.

I've been doing some math pertaining to the cost of fossil fuel products and came to the conclusion we're doomed. I hear a lot of "economists" talking about supply and demand and the reason the gas prices are so high is because crude oil is in short supply and the only way we can get the price of petroleum down is to reduce the amount we use. I suppose if an economist says it, it MUST be the truth. I mean, wasn't it economists who said there wasn't enough to go around back in the 19th century? Wasn't it economists that said the trickle down theory was the greatest thing since sliced bread? Wasn't it economists that said there was a shortage of water on a planet that's only 4 fifths water? Wasn't it economists that said there was a shortage of air?
An economist is a tenured PhD who never had to live and work in the real world, let alone practice economy.
If the demand for something remains constant and the supply is stable, then economic logic dictates the price will remain the same with minor adjustments for cost of living. If both supply and demand increase, or decrease, the price should logically remain the same. If supply goes up and demand goes down we can expect a decrease in prices. If supply goes down and demand increases we can expect higher prices. Ok, you get the picture. This is basic stuff. A no-brainer.
But what if some economists get the idea that there isn't enough to go around? No facts to back up this statement. Just a dumb-ass theory from some guys with way too much time on their hands. Proving this theory is simply a matter of finding some loudmouths in the public eye who can say, "Yes, this guy is right! There isn't enough to go around and if that's the case, who should have enough but the elite 2% of our society? The rest can tighten their belts, live a spartan life and work very hard to give all their money to us."

In order to carry out this scheme there has to be a shortage. We have that in oil right now. Or do we? I tend to think this oil shortage is a load of greedy capitalist crap designed to produce big profits for ExxonMobil and if these bastards discovered an oil deposit large enough to float a planet they'd still push the "not enough to go around" bit until they owned everything, and we'd STILL be paying arms and legs to drive to the bread lines.

ExxonMobil made profits exceeding 52% last year. The number 1 rule in business is to constantly make profits more than the year before, year after year til the end of time. If everyone traded in their SUV's for mopeds, gas would have to exceed $20 a gallon in order to match the profits of last year.

On the other hand, if everyone went out and bought the biggest gas guzzlers they could find and trippled the fuel consumption of last year, we might see a drop in gas prices, only because ExxonMobil will reach their profit goals ahead of schedule... That is, if their greed is as limited as they say their oil supply is.

Poor pigless England ...

This was found on Tim Blair's blog.

COLORS LOWERED
Poor pigless England ...

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (Tory-controlled) has now announced
that, following a complaint by a Muslim employee, all work pictures and
knick-knacks of novelty pigs and ³pig-related items² will be banned.

... is soon to be flagless, if certain intolerant folk get their way:


British prison officers who wore a St. George¹s Cross tie-pin have been
ticked off by the jails watchdog over concerns about the symbol¹s racist
connotations.

The pins showing the English flag ‹which has often raised hackles due to its
connection with the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries ‹could be
³misconstrued,² Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers said ...

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British
Understanding, said Tuesday the red cross was an insensitive reminder of the
Crusades.

"A lot of Muslims and Arabs view the Crusades as a bloody episode in our
history² he told CNN. ³They see those campaigns as Christendom launching a
brutal holy war against Islam.²

Doyle added that it was now time for England to find a new flag and a patron
saint who is ³not associated with our bloody past and one we can all
identify with."
A new flag, eh ... I guess a St George¹s Cross made from bacon strips is out
of the question?

UPDATE. Perry de Havilland: ³I wonder how this organisation would react to
calls for Muslims to abandon the crescent moon, the green flag and all other
overly Muslim symbols as being offensive to some English people who may
associate them with slavery?² (via Tom Pechinski)


Posted by Tim B. on 10/05/2005 at 02:57 AM

After reading this I got really pissed off that these moron brits are cowtowing to every whim these little sheet-head, goat fuckin, camel whores demand because of their cowardly PC sensitivities. These social irritants aren't making things any better. They're turning pacifistic people, such as myself, into very pissed off people ready to kick some cowardly moslem ass and then go to the Dudley Borough Council and piss in their faces.

And I'd like to say something about the Crusades. It wasn't a bunch of Christians going to the middle east to raise hell and pilliage. It was a last ditch attempt to save Christianity from a total Moslem takeover. The middle east was primarily populated by pacifist Christians until the Moslems got a bug up their asses and decided to take over the world. The holy see saw the end of Christanity in sight and if not for the efforts of people like Richard the Lionhearted, Italy would have been invaded, Rome would've been sacked, the Vatican torched and the pope and every nun and cardinal in sight would've been murdered and raped, in that order, by the same overly-sensitive bastards that want to do it again in the 21st century. Read a history book and wonder why Turkey, Armenia, Spain and a whole lot of other countries are still under Moslem control and wonder what kind of world we'd have if European Christians didn't try and stop the Moslem war machine in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. We'd have a backwards, medeival world full of ignorant camel fuckers who treat their women with less respect than a dog. Why more people can't see this is beyond me.
The Crusades weren't intended to convert the middle east to Christanity. It was to prevent Moslems from killing everyone in Europe and the middle east who wasn't Moslem. Reasoning didn't work then. The only thing that stopped the Moslems from taking over the world was a force stronger than they were. And let's face it. In a fair fight the best Arab will get his ass beat every time by someone half his size. That's why they fight like cowards..... by sneaking around killing women and children. And you want to compromise with low lifes like this? Wake the fuck up and smell the hashish.

Is this a case of too much or not enough?

For release in weekend editions, Oct. 1-2, and thereafter
Good intentions, money not necessarily enough; evacuee family departs Calif.
mountain home
Eds: Retransmitting to ADDA photo numbers
AP Photos of Sept. 29: NY440-449
EDITOR¹S NOTE ‹ This story follows up on a report about an evacuated New
Orleans family who, helped along by strangers and friends, reached
California and a warm welcome.
By KIM CURTIS
Associated Press Writer
PINON HILLS, Calif. (AP) ‹ Tears streamed down his face as Greyhound bus
1874 closed its doors and rolled off toward Dallas.
At 17, Jamie Ferrande dresses tough in slouching jeans, red sneakers and a
baseball cap cocked to one side. But he jammed his hands into his pockets
and refused to look up as his aunt and five cousins pressed their faces
against the glass and waved goodbye.
Jamie saved his family from Hurricane Katrina¹s floodwaters, but couldn¹t
help them adjust to the well-intentioned efforts of a California family
trying to do the right thing. It was through the kindness of these and other
strangers that Jamie, his aunt and her five children traveled 2,000 miles
from a New Orleans rooftop to a 50-acre ranch near a ski resort in Southern
California.
But what may seem like a Shangri-La became too much to bear for a displaced
family who had lost everything.
Jamie¹s younger cousins were coping ‹ as children do. But his aunt, Troy
Marcelin, quickly shifted from wary to downright miserable in California.
She had grown up and raised her children in New Orleans, a city pulsing with
activity, crowded with neighbors, packed with all things reassuringly
familiar. There, she knew how to make her way. She spoke her mind.
In California, she was beholden to a family she¹d only just met, relying on
their kindness, their generosity. She felt her true self slipping away.
An almost inconceivable series of events had brought them to safety here.
Jamie and his cousin Kenneth had ripped the door off an abandoned
refrigerator and used it as a life raft, ferrying the younger children to
the safety of the Best Western motel where Marcelin worked. A helicopter
finally rescued them, and they landed at a shelter in San Antonio, Texas.
The odyssey continued when Mark Miller, a Californian who once ran a
bed-and-breakfast in New Orleans and hired Jamie for odd jobs, got a
desperate call from the teenager; Miller went to the Web for help and found
an offer that Gene and Susan Knight, a wealthy couple, had posted on
Craigslist.org.
They offered refuge to a family fleeing the storm. They had space in the
house they had just sold in Arcadia, an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, and
they would take the guests with them when they moved to their ranch in Pinon
Hills, near San Bernardino. Other strangers, linked by the Internet, pitched
in to get the family onto a plane for the West Coast.
The Knights were building an addition to their house, providing a total of
seven bedrooms and five bathrooms. It would be plenty of space to blend
their two families, thought Susan, who planned to pay Jamie¹s aunt to help
take care of the kids and house.
The Marcelins ‹ who had never left Louisiana before ‹ were coping with the
shock of losing everything they owned. Thanks to the Knights, they were
sheltered, fed and safe at last. But stresses soon began to show.
Nothing worked out quite as planned.
‹‹‹
At 44, Troy is thin and attractive with delicate features and wide-set eyes.
But time and stress have taken their toll. She¹s missing several teeth and
her face is lined and weary. Wearing cast-offs from shelters and generous
strangers, she cried often during their first days in California, but was
beginning to relax.
Then the moving van arrived at the house in the Los Angeles suburbs. Another
journey to make, and this one was overwhelming for her.
The new house, in a canyon near a tiny rural mountain town, sat in a harshly
beautiful landscape of sagebrush, Joshua trees and scrub covering dry, rocky
soil ‹ opposite in every way from New Orleans.
It was miles to the nearest neighbor (Gene said he owns all the land visible
from the house), and the silence scared Troy, as did snakes and coyotes,
even the family dogs. She has never had a driver¹s license. Her worldly
possessions included $488 in food stamps, $1,500 from the Red Cross and
$1,000 from a Knight family friend.
She felt completely dependent on the Knights.
³It¹s beautiful here. My children love it. But I never pictured mountains
for my living,² she said last week, her eyes filling up with tears. ³And I¹m
just used to doing for myself. I don¹t want a handout.²
In New Orleans, the single mother earned $160 a week as a hotel housekeeper.
Her 21-year-old son worked as a hairdresser and contributed to the family¹s
income. They got by, but barely.
Here, it seemed she was left most days to care for the adopted infants, but
said she was not yet being paid. She said she felt stranded.
The Knights are wealthy by anyone¹s standards. Gene, who works as a software
engineer and inherited the ranch from his father, estimated their worth at
$2 million.
The couple showered their new family members with gifts, including a new
suit, shirt, tie and shoes so Jamie, who had been expelled in New Orleans,
could go to the homecoming dance at his new school. Also: a fully furnished
two-bedroom mobile home for him and Kenneth to live in, iPods for them and
clothes and toys for the younger kids.
Still, the stress in the ranch house became palpable. And it was about more
than the money.
‹‹‹
³Susan is the best mom. ... She has a marvelous sense for the way things
should be,² said Gene Knight, who decided to marry Susan a week after he met
her.
Susan is 51, short and stocky, a fireplug of energy. She knew at 8 years old
that she wanted six children, and divorced three husbands who didn¹t share
her desire for a big family. She¹s kind-hearted, but quick-tempered and
demanding. Crossing her seems unwise.
It¹s clear she meant well, hoping to give the Marcelin kids a chance at a
good education, a different way of life.
But Troy, for one, liked the life she had before Katrina. And perhaps
without realizing it, Susan trampled on her authority.
Troy worried that her youngest, an angel-faced girl nicknamed ³Butterfly²
who wears pink ribbons in her hair, was picking up bad habits.
³When she doesn¹t get what she wants, she goes to Auntie Sue,² Troy
complained two weeks after the families came together.
She was troubled by how the Knights disciplined their two teenage girls,
especially 14-year-old Katie, whose highlighted hair, makeup and tight jeans
make her appear older than a high school freshman. As Katie challenged her
mother, talking back and throwing tantrums, Troy winced and rolled her eyes.
Other contrasts between the families became apparent.
At one point, as the Marcelin boys slurped down Top Ramen, a cheap noodle
concoction Troy bought with her food stamps, Katie whined at the kitchen
counter wanting to rent a $1,500 stretch SUV for homecoming.
Another time, Susan Knight admonished the boys to wash their hands after
eating fried chicken as her girls trotted off, hands unwashed. The Marcelins
sat at the table, the Knights at the counter. The Marcelins cleared and
rinsed the dishes as Katie chatted on the phone.
Her resentment growing, Troy took refuge in the shower, where her children
were less likely to hear her weep. She was afraid to speak her mind, she
said, for fear of getting kicked out.
³It¹s like walking on glass,² she said.
Kenneth said he didn¹t recognize his mom.
³The first few days we really felt like family. Now reality has set in. ...
One day it just changed,² he said. He began to cry and shooed his
10-year-old brother, Tevin, out of his room in the mobile home.
Kenneth revealed that his mom wanted to go back east, to Texas, where her
brother and sister, nieces and nephews all landed after the storm.
Jamie remained silent. Once a talkative boy with a toothy grin that takes up
half his face, he also was crying more easily now.
Had he made a mistake leading his family here?
He couldn¹t answer, simply shaking his head, tears falling. He had been
having trouble sleeping and his transition back to high school hadn¹t been
easy. His teachers feared he was years behind.
³It¹s weird because I¹ve been on my own so long,² he said. ³I don¹t know how
to relax.²
‹‹‹
Just three days after moving to the ranch, Troy made her decision.
She announced to the Knights that she and her children were leaving. Jamie
would stay behind and continue school.
³I can¹t make you understand,² she told Gene, wiping her eyes. ³I want you
to understand.²
She was grateful for all they¹d done, but needed to be in Dallas with her
family. Her younger sister, Shwanda, had found an apartment there and could
help Troy do the same. ³I¹m just looking forward to holding her, crying and
yakking.²
The Knights were stunned.
Gene¹s smile was stuck. He and Susan tried to change her mind ‹ they
reminded her of the better schools and financial support. Things would
improve once they¹ve all settled in, they said.
³This is chaos. This is a mess. But I can fix this,² Susan Knight said.
It was no use. Troy repeated her gratitude but also her determination that
she and her family needed their own place.
The house was a stew of emotions: anger, frustration, disappointment,
confusion.
In the morning, the Knight girls headed off to school. The Marcelin kids and
Jamie stayed behind.
When they¹d arrived from New Orleans, they¹d had the clothes on their backs
and a few garbage bags filled with donations. Now, they easily filled eight
suitcases and backpacks Susan bought for them.
Susan said she realized California was ³completely foreign² to Troy, and
that she¹s ³going back to the only thing she knows, the only thing she has.
³I can¹t fault her for that,² Susan said.
Gene spent another $750 for the bus tickets. He looked bewildered.
³She¹ll be back. She and her kids want to be here,² he said optimistically.
The group was running late. Troy waited in the Knights¹ minivan while Susan
hugged and kissed each child, just as she did when they first arrived at the
airport two weeks earlier.
Gene drove them to the station for the 1:15 p.m. bus. He helped with the
luggage, and bought vending-machine snacks for the kids.
Troy wore blue pants and a white shirt, just like her boys. ³I hope those
shirts stay clean for a few hours,² she said.
Jamie said little. He stood by himself until the bus pulled away.
‹‹
Five days passed before Mark Miller got phone calls from both Susan and
Jamie. It wasn¹t working out, they said.
They asked him to intervene again, to find someplace else for Jamie.
Driving up to Pinon Hills, he picked up the teen whose frantic call began
this complicated chapter, which was now running full circle. He bought a
ticket to Dallas for Jamie to rejoin Troy¹s family, staying at a motel with
money running low.
³I never dreamed,² Miller said, ³it would come to this.²

Wise up

Some of you may not realize this but I live on a farm. I don't work this farm. I just live here and watch the action. I have all the benefits of farm life without any of the drudgery, unless you consider mowing 3 acres of lawn, maintaining the gardens, and chopping firewood drudgery. The gardens are pretty much self sustaining and the lack of rain allowed me to mow the lawn only a handful of times this year but chopping firewood is an annual thing, if you don't want to heat the house for well over 3 bucks a gallon. There were times when I was outside chopping firewood before sunrise in February wearing only a bathrobe and sandals, just to get enough heat to take a hot shower. And let me tell ya, February in Pennsylvania is goddamn cold and chopping firewood at the crack of dawn dressed like William Wallace will let you know the finite extremes of temperature a human can tolerate. Using 72 degrees Fahrenheit as an optimum temperature you can easily see a 100 degree change in either direction will either freeze you solid or cook you in your own juices. No wonder we're not colonizing space. We can't handle temps going from house to car, let alone leaving our three mile thick biosphere. Our color spectrum is woefully inadequate and our sense of hearing is just as bad, and most "lower life forms" can smell a hot dog underwater three miles down stream and our sense of taste is directly linked to our pitiful sense of smell.

Which brings me back to the events of this beautiful morning in Pennsylvania. It's potato harvest time and the fields in front of my house are active with humans and human machinery unearthing spuds of the perfect size for Wise Potato Chips. The very large spuds are left in the southern end of the field near the tree line and the small ones are dropped through the grates of the harvester to lay on top of the fields like golf balls on a dirt driving range.
There's a back to the earth feeling you get while strolling the fields at night, picking these golf ball size spuds under the light of the full moon, in the crisp, autumn air, with some people you care to share these moments with.

If you happen to be in the area, come on over for some free potatoes. It's cool. It's not theft. It's foraging and it's free and there's enough spuds to feed the IRA.

It's a shame that half the harvest goes to waste when so many people on this planet are starving but business doesn't allow food banks unless there's a profitable incentive involved.

If anyone out there has a better idea than to pick the leftovers for personal use I'm all ears.

Did we win the war on terror?

Every now and then the war on porn rears its ugly head. Ed Meese was the last big official to champion this crusade under Ronnie Reagan. Now, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is enlisting the FBI to form a porn squad.
I find it fascinating that Ron and G Dubya are the only presidents righteous enough to go after the porn industry for the sake of "Christian values."
Comparing these two giants of morality, you'll find some interesting similarities. Both had ranches before and during their presidency which served as great backgrounds for their down-home photo ops. Both wore military uniforms during wartime but never fought. Both men are honored and loved for their razor sharp economic theories. Both men made vast amounts of money for the government, thanks to their respective vice presidents utilizing the CIA to wheel and deal with drug lords around the world for cocaine and heroin which they sold to the American people and then arrested them, seized their assets and resold them to buy more cop equipment and forced them to pay for their stay in prison, rehabs, and countless other expenditures to keep them in the system so they can have an ever increasing source of revenue.

Well, the war on drugs was a success. So was the war on terror. With a track record like that it seems absolutely normal to have a war on porn for the sake of "Christian values", even though the government is eliminating Christianity from the American system.

What's with that pledge of allegiance thing?

I suppose this had to happen

barbi with a prayer mat

evolutionary carbuncle

Humans are a pretty strange lot. We like to think of ourselves as the great understanders of the planet. We can't fly, but very much want to, so we build contraptions that allow us to fly like a bird. We can't communicate telepathically so we invent radio. We can't levitate so we invent forklifts. We can't talk to the animals so we try to teach animals to communicate on our level and call them dumb because they can't articulate properly enough for us to understand them. So we teach chimps sign language and these trained primates communicate with us on our terms. Simple communication, but in our terms just the same. All this tells me is chimps can adapt to us far easier than we can talk chimp. All around us are animals and plants attempting to carry on conversations with us and all we can do is pick our noses and scratch our asses instead groking like an advanced primate should. Hell, we can't even understand ourselves but we expect and demand everything to instantly find meaning in our schizophrenic actions. I'm beginning to think humans are just egotistical, machine producing carbuncles of evolution.

double standard?

It's interesting how the black guy is a young man "looting" a grocery store while the white folks are residents "finding" bread and soda from a local grocery store.

I suppose when Haliburton extracts gold teeth from the dead in Louisiana they'll be finding it... tax free of course.

nawlins

As far as the problems with New Orleans goes, I think this guy says it about best.
nawlins

just looking for phrases

I was just surfing through blogdom looking for ideas. Just some random jumping into other peoples blog lifes and checking out the images they want to project to the world. I saw blogs on babies, blogs written by babies, blogs about work, blogs about politics, blogs about religion, and blogs about nothing at all. Well, I can't put them down. This stuff is very important to these people and each, in their own way, are trying to find that ever elusive "meaning of life." I guess that's why I surf... To find the unfindable, to tread on the undiscovered country, and to find the single phrase that will put the whole universe in perspective and make life come alive.

If you happen to find that phrase, let me know. I'm as eager to understand as you.

critics

A "critic" is a man who creates nothing and thereby, feels qualified to judge the work of creative men. There is logic to this; he is unbiased... He hates all creative people equally.

I tend to think of it this way... First, there was the birth of the artist, followed shortly by the afterbirth, the "critic."

where do these voices come from?

Where do these voices come from?

Ya know when you're in that half awake, half asleep state where dreams and waking reality overlap? It's like bits of both realities. This waking, rational reality is what we're used to navigating in but the dream state is most interesting because of it's randomness. Well, I recently spent a few moments in the half 'n half state when I heard this voice. Not an external voice but certainly not a thought voice either. It was sort of an internalized independent voice that sounded a lot like Amos from The Amos and Andy show. It was a slow black man's voice that was talking about something I didn't find in the least bit thought provoking. I was just about as awe inspiring as someone explaining how to put the lid on a jar of mayonaise. Soothing, yes but Earth shaking revelations, no. This voice just went on and on talking about something pretty dull. Soon, another voice came in that was distinctly female. She didn't comment on the black man's voice. She just started talking about something else completely unrelated. Keep in mind I had the wherewithall to know I was in this half 'n half state and whatever was said was something I should pay attention to, no matter how inane. So, pay attention I did, but as you may or may not know, concentration in the half 'n half state makes you wake up so I had to listen with half an ear, like the kind of listening I used to do in 8th grade english class.
I was more interested in this voice phenomenon than the boring stuff they were saying, (just like english class) but in time, sure as the pope wears a funny hat, I got to thinking about this too much and woke up. All voices stopped but I now had a working theory.
Since I didn't recognize these voices, is it possible they were coming from real people from some place else? Did my brain accidently become a radio reciever tuned into Andy and the woman on the different frequencies?
Sure, dreams can be random but randomly tuning in to peoples heads is kinda interesting. I wonder if it's possible to fine tune this reciever and pick up some voices that actually had something to say?

Any thoughts on this?

nutin personal

I've come to realize most bloggers are simple graphophiliacs with the urge to write something about anything or nothing in as many words as possible in order to satisfy their lust to scribble or type with run on sentences and a complete lack of punctuation in a teletype type of Kerouac free form cacaphony of mind flight. Well I'd like to make it perfectly clear I'm not one of these mindless finger dribblers of sheer twaddle like the rest of these scriptoholics who mindlessly go on and on ceaselessly saying nothing at all. No sir it aint me it aint me babe it aint me your looking for babe.

But I could be wrong.