Babylon Station

A study out of Scandinavia seems to show that married folks are better able to fend off the effects of Alzheimer's and dementia than divorcees. It's a study about the social effects on mental issues that occur in later life.

But on ClusterFox, it's not about social interaction; it's about racial purity:



That's right; he said that the problem is that we, in the U.S., marry other "other species and other ethnics", whereas the Swede's have "pure genes". (Other species/ethnics seem to include Italians & Irish, according to this jackass Kilmeade)

The next time a FauxNews "anchor" or pundit calls Obama's plan "fascist", remember this. What Kilmeade said is far closer to the Nazi voice-over than anything Obama has ever proposed. Even his co-hosts appear to realize that he's way over the line.

Today, on Hannity's radio show, I heard him railing about how the "liberal, elite" media was saying that Sarah Palin's resignation was bizarre and unexplainable. (BTW, Sean, a search of Fox watching sites shows that "on Fox News, Charles Krauthammer said it was an “erratic” political announcement. Karl Rove, on Fox, said that he’s “perplexed” by Palin’s decision. Conservative Rich Lowry told Stuart Varney that Palin’s speech was rambling and not persuasive.", so what's the problem?) He went on to say that "no one complained when Rahm Emanuel abandoned his House seat for Obama's Chief of Staff,", and also some other legislators who left for cabinet positions. That's about as much Hannity as I could put up with because it was just too much stupid.

OK, sparky, here's the thing. They left because the sitting/just elected President asked them to in order to serve at a different level. Palin is leaving because she doesn't like how people are talking about her. She's abandoning the job she was elected to, not to do a higher job for the nation, but to...well, we don't know. She's breaking the contract she made with her constituents.

The woman is a nut. (Palin in 2012 to 2014 and 1/2? Is that going to be the big Palin bumper sticker?)

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So by now, unless you live under a rock (and how would you be reading this if you were?), you know that SC governor Mark Sanford (and doesn't he look like a zombie with that skin-tone in that picture?) was not hiking somewhere, but in Argentina with his mistress. Even his wife claimed to not know where he was. Nor did his sons, on father's day of all things.

OK, this is a guy who demanded Clinton resign because an affair was a breach of trust not only with his wife, but with the people. This is a guy who says that gay marriage is a threat to "normal" marriage everywhere. This is a guy who beats the right-wing drum of family values. Oh, the hypocricy! And check out the emails between the two. Just as bad as the promise keeper, hard-core evangelical, family values John Ensign, who also was having an affair.

Why am I more upset about these bozos than the "affairs" of the left? Two reasons.

One, the left has never tried to dictate to everyone on the moral life. Both these guys held themselves up as the example of the righteous life while they were in direct contradiction with what they preached. And those on the left tend to apologize and then resign! They don't stick around to proclaim how it's all good because God has forgiven them. And pity their poor, shell-shocked looking wives. I feel for the families, but not for the jerks betraying their stated beliefs. (And, by the way, notice how ClusterFox News not only is downplaying this story, but labeling him a "D" instead of the "R" that he is.)

But here's the real issue. He abandoned his state without telling anyone where he was going or setting up a chain-of-command. He abandoned his responsibilities without reason to leave the country and commit adultery. He just left. Can you imagine what would have happened in the case of a disaster? The time lost while trying to contact the governor and then set up alternative authority? Can you imagine what they would be saying if he was on the left about this?

Saturday I showed up, twitchy and scared about the test, found Jon Moss, and sat down for the test, all 150 questions of it.

Aced the general section, 90% on saber, missed four on foil but Moss put them into visual context and I managed to get one right so there's my 90% for foil. Blew epee badly.

Now I just need my practical observation in foil and saber and I'll have two directing ratings!

Spent the next few hours hoping for the practical (and not getting it) and watching foil and saber to try to get a better feel for the direction, especially in saber.

Two things that are making me uncomfortable right now;

One, the poison ivy abuse of my forearms. I pulled some of the stuff from the side of the gym at my kids' school. But I didn't expect it to be so extensive. And now I suffer (minorly at this point, let's be honest).

Two, tomorrow I will be at the pomme de terre to take the director's exam. No reason I should fail. But I just know I will, damn it. And even if I don't, there's the practical.

Good night.

he couldn't get any worse, Rush Limbaugh let a caller make a point that he later took as his own. Here it is from MediaMatter's limbaugh wire:

"Rush's next caller thought that people are missing the point on health care reform -- Obama doesn't care about the cost of health care; it's all about blackmailing Republican voters. Rush didn't understand what the caller was talking about (neither did we), so the caller explained that the Democrats are going to deny Republicans health care unless they vote Democratic. Rush responded: "Well, you could have a point there. They are doing that in other things. That's -- you know, some people tried to establish that that's how they were closing dealerships but I don't think anybody closed the loop for sure on this." But Rush said the caller is right. It's not about health care, it's about control, because "day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country." After another break, Rush clarified that he didn't want to "minimize" this caller's "point" about the fear that Democrats are going to deny health care to Republicans because the Obama administration is using this kind of fear to get everything it wants." (Hear the clip HERE" of Rush explaining that they really want to blackmail you over your medical records.)

Is this just sad? I believe it could be called "projection". As in this is the sort of fantasy that Rush would come up with, so it must be what the opposite party would naturally do. It certainly couldn't be because the progressives want to do something that will actually help people, no that can't be it because he wouldn't do it.

How nasty a thought process is that?

So a alleged neo-nazi walks into the Holocaust museum and opens fire.

And the reaction from the right? Oh, he's obviously a leftist. Not kidding. And it's not just Sibby, like I linked to yesterday. It's lots of people on the right who are claiming that Hitler was a leftist, because the party he rode to leadership translates as the "National Socialist German Workers' Party."

This is revisionism of the basest sort. I could claim to be Georgia O'Keefe, but I still can't paint a damn. Hitler and his cronies were demonstrably anti-left, from their shutting down of the labor unions, to their hatred of the communists, to their opposition to all liberals. Read their words! It's pretty obvious.

And even more pernicious is this sort of thing, said on Glenn Beck's little screed of a doom-sayer show by Harry Binswanger of the Ayn Rand Institute, "Well, this Von Brunn's culture is a tribe of racist, anti-Jewish, anti-Negro, anti-immigrant, everything, and therefore he's a phenomenon of the left, because racism is a form of collectivism. The right wing is individualist -- believes in individual rights, freedom, the dignity of each individual life. But it's the left wing -- you know, Hitler was National Socialism, right? It's a leftist phenomenon."

That's right, no one who is on the right wing could possible be racist, anti-semitic, or violent. All hatred in the world is leftist. This is the same crap that lead to that book claiming that Tim McVeigh was actually an Islamic dupe. Oh, and "Islamo-fascists" are left wing, too.

It doesn't help that the Rev. Wright said some stupid things about jews the other day, but we on the left jumped all over him for it. Heck, he was Keith Olbermann's "worst person" last night. When someone on the right says crap like that, they tend to form ranks and blame the media for reporting it. But to use that as "proof" that hate is a left-wing thing only (as Sibby did, quoting Limbaugh) is just beyond absurd.

(And yes, I know I swore to stay away from Sibby, but the Holocaust Museum shooting made me want to go back to see how he would blame people like me.)

So, for the second time in two weeks, a right-wing fanatic committed a terrorist attack on a target within the U.S. Domestic terrorism. The first of course was the killing of Dr. Tiller in KS. By the way, the accused murderer has claimed that there are several other assassination plots in the works against the "baby killers", so where are all the right-wingers advocating his water-boarding? Or is that only good against non-white terrorists? Not that I would advocate it in either case...

But now there is this guy, 88 year old James W. von Brunn who walked into the U.S. Holocaust museum and opened fire. The man is a well known hater, neo-nazi, and holocaust denier. This is exactly the sort of right-wing attack that the DHS warned about in that now famous memo a few months ago.

AND some are claiming that anti-semitism is a left-wing problem, because, after all, all authoritarianism, hatred, and dead kittens are all due to progressive thought. The mental gymnastics necessary are impressive. If I was that fit and flexible, I wouldn't need to direct to be outstanding at fencing...

Saturday, I was at the Worcester Fencing Club attending a second directing seminar with Jon Moss. The man is great.

And in 11 days, I'll be taking the director's written test at the Pomme de Terre on Saturday. For those of you who think it's not that big an issue, I have one question: Have you ever looked at the Referee Study Guide that the questions on the test are drawn from? Keeping in mind that you need at least a 90% on the test...

And if I'm really lucky, I'll get my practical on the same weekend. I may be a mediocre fencer, but I still love the sport. So why not get certified as a director and work it that way? At least I'll get front row for the bouts.

For those who don't read the usual suspect liberal blogs, here's something to look out for.

A nut-job named Daniel James Murray took around $85,000 out from his bank and casually dropped the following little "facts"; the banks were all going to fail, causing many deaths, it was all Obama's fault, and he was off to kill Obama. (Remember, hate speech by far-rightwingers doesn't cause violence; after all, what harm can come from calling Obama "socialist", "terrorist", and an "America hater"?) The bank teller called the cops.

He has eight registered firearms, a lot of cash and is currently missing. He's driving a 2001 blue Buick LeSabre, NY plates ERL 1445. If you see him, call the cops. The secret service already is worried enough to have filed federal charges. Know any truckers? Call 'em up and get them on the case. This is the nutjob we know about, and he could be anywhere.

One wonders how many others might be out there? Actually, you don't have to wonder, they tend to reveal themselves.

There's the Baptist pastor who is praying for Obama to die, for example.

And the actual Daniel James Murray himself, of course.

And how about the radio white supremacist Hal Turner? He wants to kill anyone who disagrees.

And throw in all the hate names thrown at him from the "respectable" public figures...well.

Update: They caught the guy, outside of a casino. Good for them, law enforcement does work against terrorists.

Some have objected to the idea that speech can lead people to excuse violence if they think the denegrated ones are "threats".

If you are one of them, read THIS;. It's an article that appeared on rense.com (another far right fantasy site) by a guy named Anthony LoBaido, a regular WND writer. It's a screed about how Tiller deserved everything he got and he should have just gotten the hint from the first shooting and bombings. That's right, Mr. LoBaido believe in using terrorist activities to further his goals. The following passage is even more chilling:

"However, it should now be painfully clear to those who do what George Tiller did to the unborn, and support him in their hearts, that they are now and forever will be forced to live in terror that the very same thing might well happen to them. And that countless millions of Americans will silently cheer their demise.

Whether they admit this or not, this is objective reality."

That's a death threat to not only women's health workers, but all of us who support choice. That's the terrorist wish that we all be very scared and change our views before they get us.

Nice, really nice.

More excerpts with commentary at DailyKos HERE

I'm done with Sibby. It has been a growing problem with what he chooses to repost and his rhetorical non-replies to my pointed comments. He says he's in search of the truth, but by only reposting from Limbaugh and the WorldNetDaily wingnuts he's hardly in search of anything other than far-right talking points. And many of those articles carry such hate-laden words for people like me that it was getting stressful. As I posted once before, name calling is getting out of hand. According to the reposts by Sibby, people who think like me are; socialists, maoists, communists, fascists, unAmerican, anti-American, racists, reverse-racists, etc. When called on to actually post an original thought on these, he usually falls back on repetition of the talking points and the "can't disprove a universal negative" approach. Actually, when he does blog (rarely) an original post of his own, his writing is not bad, even if I do disagree.

But he just doesn't get that hateful speech can give rise to violent actions. Case in point; the shooting of Dr. Tiller this past weekend. Tiller has been attacked by the anti-choice crowd for years. O'Reilly on FauxNews has been on his case for four years, calling him "Tiller the baby killer" and accusing him of "Nazi stuff" and performing late term abortions for no reason at all as long as the woman had $5000. Tiller's recent acquittal on charges of performing illegal abortions only served to confirm his guilt in O'Reilly's mind. These terms are common in KS anti-choice circles, too. They hammered at the dubious claim that he had "killed" 60,000 "babies" over his career (which means he must have been doing 6 to 7 abortions per working day for the last 38 years, which is a bit much; that's a little trick we liberals call math), and talked about how he must be stopped. Tiller got shot in the arms in '93, his clinic had been bombed, and he had to wear a armor vest to go anywhere.

And Sunday, a man walked into Tiller's church where Tiller was ushering and shot him dead. Of course the anti-choice crowd rushed to say that they didn't approve of this and they revere all life and this man was obviously not part of their "pro-life" movement. They then went on to point out that we should remember though, that Tiller was a mass murderer and reaped what he sowed. Yeah, great distancing, guys. It's rhetoric like that that leads fanatics, like this anti-choice terrorist, to believe that they are justified in violence. The fanatic Islamic terrorists use the same language about us.

And the far-right uses language like that about people like me.

Monday was SCUBA day. Another good friend our ours, Jim, moved out to Maui 8 or 9 years ago and became a Master Dive Instructor, amongst many other licenses relating to staying underwater for long periods of time.

And it turns out that one of the best dive sites on the big island was at the end of Puoko Beach Rd., where we were staying. It was the best dive I've ever been on. Mountains of towering coral, colorful fish everywhere, a fly-by by a sea turtle, probably wondering what the apes were doing down there... We got to about 55 feet under with great visibility. I didn't want it to end. The only problem was that we went in and came out in the wrong spot, so I'm still feeling the hurt of the major gouge in the bottom of my right foot along with some other minor foot wounds. Jen went second, and so got the benefit of the experience that left blood in the water from both Jim and myself.

The kids spent the entire time on 69s beach, and in spite of repeated application of sunscreen, both ended up with nasty sunburns. Bekah's was 2nd degree.

So the next day we did the round-the-island tour. The big island is about the size of Connecticut, so it really is an all day thing. Stops included a historic macadamia nut plant, the last Hawai'ian black sand beach (the other one now being under 70 of cooling lava), the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, also known as the place of refuge and "royal" compound for the Ali'i (chief) (check the other rotating views to the right of the screen, it's a cool place). The big event was the visit to the Volcano National Park, where the Kailua crater was gouting sulfuric smoke.

The next day was our last, and we spent it on two beaches (69s was one, of course) with a visit to a little known historic site; Pu'ukohola Heiau, also known in english as the temple on the hill of the whale.

And then we left the next day. Best comments? "How are you all doing today?" (from most of the airport staff). "I'm leaving Hawai'i. How do you think I;m doing?" (my answer). Laughter follows....

Sunday was nuts, but in a good way.

In the morning we drove into Kona proper. It's a serious tourist town with all the kitch, garbage, and crap you can imagine. It also has some beautiful sights, historic places, and many fantastic restaurants. Jen and I stayed there our first time in the islands, 13 years ago.

We were there to take the Atlantis submarine tour. It was very cool. We dove to about 110 feet in the end. Aside from a great deal of fish, we also saw two wrecks and the reef communities they were supporting. After, we wandered a bit and went to Boston Basils for lunch. Jen and I loved the grilled pizza they had before, but it was under new owners and had become just another pizza place. *sigh*

And then back to the beach.

That evening, we all went back to the Marriot and met up with Penner (a friend from college who was also out for the wedding). Jen and the kids went to the luau at the hotel. They got seats right at the front, thanks to a woman who had reserved the table and had 4 seats left over that she wanted to give to a family with young children. Alex loved the fire dancer the most.

But where was I? I was night swimming with manta rays. Iggi (a friend of Toni's we met Friday) and I went out on a manta snorkel with Eco-Adventures. It was my birthday present. She had been out before, which was good, because otherwise, it would have sucked. There were about five boats out there, with us as the smallest. We swimmers were supposed to hang onto a surfboard to stay together, but the others were not working well to see the mantas. There was a close encounter just off the boat, but once we were moving around the main site, there were only two swimming deep down by the divers. So Iggi and I broke away from the group. We ended up on the far side of a big boat and shoved around by other swimmers, but the last 15 minutes made the whole thing worth it. The divers came up, and they let their lights linger to bring the plankton up to the surface. The mantas would swim up (and I could have stuck my arm right down their throats!) before turning belly-up to dive down again. They were as close as one or two feet away. It was incredible!

Then we had to swim back to the boat. We were the last ones back, and no one else could understand why we were so pumped. They had all held onto the board and seen almost nothing. Iggi and I didn't care; we had had a great swim. On the ride back to the harbor, the Southern Cross hung in the sky, and the plankton kicked up in our wake sparked with phosphorescence.

Saturday was the day of the actual wedding. It was a beautiful drive up country to the Kahua Ranch, if a bit nerve racking. See, the Hawai'ian Dept. of Transportation has this odd thing about guardrails along its roads; there are many where they are not needed (no drop off), but they seem to be missing in many areas where it's a straight drop down 20 feet! Even if the drop is 100s of feet, often all you get is a low wall, just enough to flip the car so you drop upside down. It does encourage speed limit driving, I will admit. Or at least you get a great view for a few seconds to take into the Summer Lands with you....

Anyway:

What can I say about the actual wedding? It was simple and moving. Both bride and groom were obviously happy and in love as they recited the vows they had written. It was warmer than expected, sunny, and with a light breeze. It was perfect. The reception that followed was also nice. The food was good, the local musician was good; it was just all good. The sister of the best man was an accomplished hula dancer (check the link, there's more to hula dancing than you may realize!), and performed two dances for the couple.

After, we took the kids back to 69s beach for some swimming and then back to the house for homework and down time. Bekah had a thick pile of homework to do, since she was missing a week of school, and Alex had a scrapbook to draw up and fill to show his pre-school class where he had been.

I went out and got Jen some take-out from Tommy Bahamas restaurant (not as good as it sounds in the review, I'm afraid), and then left her with the kids while I went to the after party at the Marriott. Jen feels I need to spend more time relating to adults, and I can't argue with her on that point. It was a good time; meeting with some old friends and making some new ones. But Bekah started feeling sick, so I bailed to buy her some meds and get back to the house.

Just back from a week in Hawai'i on the big island of Hawai'i, mainly to attend the wedding of Toni, Alex's Goddess Mother. And boy are my arms tired. Actually, all of me is. 24 hours ago, I was sitting in Kona airport, waiting to board my flight back to the mainland and wishing I didn't have to leave yet. What follows are a series of entries about last week. It was that good.

So Thursday, May 21st, we rise at 4AM to head up to Boston for our first flight. Two hours to Chicago, four hours to San Fransisco, and then six hours into Kona. By the time we get into out rental house down Puako (POO-a-ko) Beach Rd at local time of 9pm, we had been up for 23 hours. Not much else to say about that day, except that the house was very nice and open. And so was the neighborhood around us. Sleep was good, but...

On Friday, the kids woke up at around 2:30AM due to jet-lag. We got them back down, but sleep was elusive. Oh, yeah, it was my birthday, too, but that was a secondary concern given our responsibilities to the wedding party that day. See, we were the guardians of the turf that was wanted for that night's ceremony/rehearsal dinner at the near-by Waialea beach, a.k.a-69s.



See, Toni and her groom-to-be had set up a serious awa ceremony to happen there that evening. So we met others of the friends, swam, snorkeled, and generally had fun until we had to get out for the next shift. But when we came back....

The awa ceremony was beautiful and moving. A serious Kahuna led the ceremony of good wishes and stories of time and caring and love while praying and preparing the awa. It was great. And we made some new friends and connected with old ones. The kids swam again, the adults watched them and talked. Much laughter and good will came of it all. As the sun dipped, the feeling stayed, and we all headed off to our beds satisfied with the ceremony.

It was one of the most sacred things I have attended in my days.

More later....

This rings so true....



Bring on the snark!

This is another one of those whose rights trump anothers' questions.

A 13 year old has Hodgkin's lymphoma with a 5% chance of survival without chemotherapy, which gives hima 95% chance of survival. But...his parents are a member of a religion that only allows Native American "holistic" medicine. (Story HERE) His mother "has been treating his cancer with herbal supplements, vitamins, ionized water, and other natural alternatives — despite testimony from five doctors who agreed Daniel needed chemotherapy." And the kid believe the chemo will automatically kill him.

So the docs took them to court. His Mom believes he's in no medical danger, but the tumor is getting bigger and he's in considerable pain. The judge found in favor of forced chemo. The basic idea is that while the parents can make that choice for themselves as adults, a minor should not have that decision made for him when his life is on the line.

And now, Mom has run away with the boy to avoid medical care.

Lovely....

...to slap down the bogus "torture works" argument, it's Jesse Ventura.



I always liked him (until he actually had to try running a state), and he still delivers the good sound bites.