Blogging My Life

Experiencing a little technical difficulty here folks. I got a month behind on my qwest bill and those bastards shut off my DSL! The kicker is it takes 5 business days to get it turned back on. Now how is that possible when its simply a matter of some data entry shmuck entering a code into a computer? 5 business my ass.... Anyway, I'm at the Seattle Library now, and hopefully, my DSL will be back on tomorrow.

Smokers 

Cow-Bike 

I have been riding the streets of Seattle for many years now and I always see this bike parked all over town. But I've never seen the rider! Never! What I want to know is, does the rider wear a cow costume?

Well, I know I promised that I had some stuff coming, and I do! Really! I swear! Last week, while I was sick and at death's door -- ok, so it was just a bad cold and I really wasn't at death's door -- I was working on an essay on personal relationships which I will post by the end of the week. Anyway, I'm glad to be feeling better, and will be posting again soon.

OK, so I decided that I wasn't going to write anything political, that I was just gonna write about personal stuff. And I haven't written a thing in two weeks. How boring is my life? But I've got some stuff coming.....

Not long ago, one of the networks was covering a Bush rally, and I remember seeing a female Bush supporter holding a sign that read, “Islam supports Kerry.” My first reaction to that sign was, “Yeah, so?” But, being familiar with the mindset of the Christian Right, it struck me that the line of reasoning that accompanies that sign is something to be addressed. This woman’s unspoken proposition is: “All Muslims are fundamentalists and terrorists.” This proposition is, of course, patently false. My goal here is not to discuss the finer points of what exactly fundamentalism is, only to posit that fundamentalism is not the sole property of Islamic terrorists. In fact, we Americans are more familiar with fundamentalism and terrorism than we might remember. And the terrorism of which I speak is a much more home-grown variety. For a technical definition of fundamentalism, and an excellent write-up on the subject, click here I propose to you, dear reader, that the scourge of “fund...

(This artical copied in its entirety from Slate Magazine) Wrong-Way Bush In the war on terror, the worst defense is a bad offense. By William Saletan Posted Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004, at 3:42 PM PT Seventy-five years ago in the Rose Bowl, a University of California football player named Roy Riegels picked up a fumble by the opposing team, spun around, and started running for the end zone. Unfortunately, he was heading the wrong way. He ran with such purpose that people in the stands, including the play-by-play announcer, doubted their own sanity. When a teammate tried to stop him, Riegels—who would go down in history as "Wrong-Way Riegels"—shook him off. He was a man on a mission. This is what's now happening in Iraq and the presidential campaign. President Bush and Vice President Cheney are framing the election as a choice between playing "defense" and going on "offense" in the war on terror. The attacks of 9/11 presented the United States wit...

I usually go through the Seattle University campus on my way to work, and yesterday as I got there, I heard the sound of bag pipes being played. As I rode, I saw a young man holding the pipes and when I got closer I could see it was a Chinese kid! Now, perhaps I am easily amused, but this instantly struck me as very funny and something to be filed away under the "something you don't see every day" category. So I whip it out (my camera phone) and roll up to him and he starts laughing; he knows its funny! So, we both had a chuckle without exchanging a word. It was kinda cool.

Chinese Piper 

Hey, nice vaginas! There are some new works of art hanging in the connector lobby bewteen One and Two Union Square. Every time I get sent there, I find myself just staring at these.

Hhmmm....... 

What do you see? 

Sittin' here watching CNN and Kerry is speaking in Ohio immediately following the Republican's convention. He is finally saying what he's needed to say for a long time. Especially the part about the Bush administration misleading us into the war in Iraq. You'll remember that when it looked like no weapons of mass destruction were going to be found, the Bushies started the spin by suggesting that we really went to war to liberate Iraq. We did it to help out those poor Iraqis. Now, don't get me wrong, those Iraqis were in a miserable position, gassed, murdered and repressed. But that is the case for any number of back-water, shit-hole countries in the world, yet no one suggests invading them to liberate them. And that's not what George W. Bush told the American people. George W. Bush told us that Saddam Hussein had gone to Nigeria to obtain yellowcake uranium in order to produce "nookyooler" weapons, and that if we didn't invade Iraq, the smoking gun...

Can't you just imagine how this went down? It just gets funnier and funnier every time I think about it!

Just sitting here watching CNN's "pre-game show" to the RNC's big stroke fest. The "tens of thousands" of protestors who have showed up are getting a lot of coverage. Anyway, the commentator is explaining how most of the protests had been peaceful, but there "had been a few trouble-makers." At that point, the footage shows a pile of bikes and then shows some scruffy looking folks wearing Chrome (a brand) messenger bags! Fuck yeah. I can just see these guys protesting their right of access being taken away.

This artical is very interesting. I am particularly keen to see what the "mobile bloggers" are capable of.

(Or, Who's is Bigger?) 'Asked if he believed that he and Kerry "served on the same level of heroism," Bush replied, "No, I don't. I think him going to Vietnam was more heroic than my (avoiding service and staying in Texas to pretend*) flying fighter jets. He was in harm's way and I wasn't."' (From the artical) (* items in italics are mine) Bush's statement about flying jets is made even funnier because everyone knows that he didn't even do that! George W. Bush's time-in-service consisted of showing up to a dentist's appointment. In fact, I would like to see an ad that compares this size of each candidates service record file. See, having been in the service, I know that the feds keep all those records. Kerry, having actually shown up for his service and having won all those awards, and even coming home and then speaking out against the war, would have a large, robust, thick file of several inches , maybe even requir...

The other day I was standing in front of 720 Olive Way waiting to pass off some work I had picked up to another messenger. As I waited, I watched a pigeon peck at something in the road. So the bird is doing its thing in the road when along comes a car. The bird tries to fly away but is not fast enough and the car hits the pigeon. This must have broken one of the bird's wings because now it can't fly at all and just helplessly flaps it's wings in the face of another oncoming car. The car hits the bird square which means the tire caught the bird perpendicular to it's body. The force of being crushed causes the pigeon's head to pop off, sending a spray of blood all over a car parked next to where I was standing. I really had to fight the urge to snap a pic. I worried about offending the delicate sensibilities of some of my readers.

It absolutely blows my mind that Bush is getting any play out of this military service record stuff he's using, a la the "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth." How much money did Rummy have to pay these guys to go on national TV and lie like that? It also blows me away that the Bushies are crying foul over the moveon.org ad that pretty much says W. was A.W.O.L. during his own time of service. Bush's only experience with the military was avoiding it and that should get as much play as possible.