katrinacane's Friends

Sometimes, when in adulthood, something happens to you for the first time, it is devastating. You really don't realize how you'll handle a situation until it happens.
Today is the ultimate in Bastard Friday. ULTIMO.

Obama vs. the Taliban

Two cartoons from GI Special.

Current Music: Moonwater - Eternal Lover (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe wit

More Stupidity Awards

Below from GI Special

================================================

Stupidity Awards For July 2009: #2:

Shortage Of Copters Killing British Troops; Their Commander Doesn’t Even Have One;
But Murderous Idiot Prime Minister Says There’s No Shortage

16 July 2009 By VOA News & Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian News and Media [Excerpts]

British military operations in Afghanistan are being seriously undermined by the shortage of helicopters, with commanders having to rely on ground transport at greater risk to soldiers, a hard-hitting report by the Commons defence committee concluded today.

The cross-party report is likely to cause ministers severe embarrassment because they have persistently denied that a lack of helicopters is having any adverse impact on operations.

Britain's 9,000 troops in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province have fewer than 25 helicopters – 10 Chinooks, five Sea Kings and eight Apache attack aircraft – at their disposal.

The report said a larger fleet would allow soldiers to travel by air, instead of on the ground, where they are exposed to roadside bombs.

Fifteen British soldiers have been killed this month, many by roadside bombs planted by Taliban insurgents.

Media outlets reported Thursday that Britain's top army commander was forced to fly in an American helicopter when he visited the front lines in Helmand because British forces could not spare one.

British Prime Minister Gordon has repeatedly said that British forces have the resources and equipment they need.

Stupidity Awards For July 2009: #3:

Dead Men Walking:

Obama Fools Send 81 U.S. DEA Agents To Shut Down World’s Largest Opium Production

July 15, 2009 By Josh Meyer, McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is dramatically expanding a long-neglected second front in the war in Afghanistan, dispatching Drug Enforcement Administration agents in an effort to decapitate the Taliban-linked drug-trafficking networks that are fueling the insurgency and corrupting the Afghan government, current and former counternarcotics officials say.

In response, the number of DEA agents and analysts in Afghanistan will jump from 13 to 68 by September, and ultimately to 81 in 2010, and more will be deployed to Pakistan, too.

Current Music: Seti - Beacon (Universal) (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe wit

Stupidity Awards For July 2009: #1:

More from GI Special.

U.S. Command Pressures Taliban To Execute A U.S. Soldier They Hold Prisoner:

"If You Do Not Release The U.S. Soldier Then You Will Be Hunted"

16 July 2009 By VOA News & By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

A Taliban commander in southeastern Afghanistan said he will kill a captured U.S. soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two provinces.

Mawlavi Sangin said Thursday that the soldier is healthy but threatened to kill him unless the U.S. stops airstrikes in Ghazni province's Giro district and Paktika province's Khoshamand district. Giro has been heavily bombed. The final decision about the soldier's fate will be made by Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

A U.S. military spokeswoman, Captain Elizabeth Mathias, said the military has distributed leaflets in the two provinces calling for the soldier's safe return.

One leaflet shows an American soldier sitting on the ground and shaking hands with Afghan children. It asks for the missing "American guest" to be returned home.

But another leaflet shows U.S. soldiers kicking in the door of a house and says: "If you do not release the U.S. soldier then you will be hunted."

Comment: T

When you’re being hunted, you can’t afford the luxury of being impeded by taking care of a prisoner. So, U.S. command has just issued instructions to the Taliban to kill the U.S. soldier.

Hardly a surprise; they need a dead martyr for propaganda purposes more than a live POW.

American commanding officers have a culture different from our own.

They are a strange, primitive people, many of them beardless fanatic religious fundamentalists, who place no value on human life, and who believe that if they die fighting for their prophet “Jesus,” they will be taken up to paradise by beautiful naked boys with wings called “angels.”

Their effort to kill those who do not wish to submit to their occupation is called “the clash of civilizations.”

Current Music: Rapoon - Flight (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most med

Good News For The Afghan Resistance!!

Below from GI Special.

==============================================

U.S. Occupation’s Terrorist Tactics Recruit Even More Fighters To Kill U.S. Troops:

Despite Bullshit From U.S. Commanding General, More Kids, Women And Farmers Murdered
By U.S. Air Attacks

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 50,000 Afghan troops over here to the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, butcher their families, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Afghans are sure a bunch of backward primitives.

[They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country.

[What a bunch of silly people.

[How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by Barrack Obama.

[Why, how could anybody not love that?

[You’d want that in your home town, killing kids, women and farmers, right?

[You wouldn’t organize with your neighborhoods to take up arms and fight back, would you? Would you? ]

Fonts

I finally figured out how to install fonts on Vista. No idea why I did not see it sooner.

I have a gazillion fonts from my old USB hard drive which I can't use here.

kellcrow7 has copied over 50 CDs worth of data for me.   Unfortunately, most of the files are corrupt.

        About half my old fonts were freeware, while the rest I paid for.

        Tonight I began to look thru a mammoth freeware font site. As with most freeware fonts, most are not to my taste, but there are still plenty of font worth installing.
http://www.abstractfonts.com/fontlist/a

Current Music: Rapoon - Flight (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most med

Dow Pitching New Pesticide That Doubles As an Extraordinarily Potent Greenhouse Gas

Below from Organic Consumers Association. URL at end.

==============================================

Dow Pitching New Pesticide That Doubles As an Extraordinarily Potent Greenhouse Gas

* Center for Biological Diversity, July 13, 2009

Straight to the Source

SAN FRANCISCO - July 13 - Public health and environmental advocates have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to deny a request from Dow AgroSciences for a permit allowing it to release large amounts of sulfuryl fluoride onto farm fields in four states. The chemical is a toxic pesticide whose global warming effects are thousands of times stronger than carbon dioxide.

"The hazards of using sulfuryl fluoride in agriculture have not been evaluated. It is also 4,780 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide," said Dr. Brian Hill, a staff scientist at the Pesticide Action Network. "Either one of those facts makes permitting these tests a major mistake."

Dow AgroSciences proposes using sulfuryl fluoride to sterilize soil in farm fields. The permit would allow the release of 32,435 pounds of sulfuryl fluoride on 65 acres of test plots in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and California. Releasing just 10 percent of that amount into the air would be equivalent to releasing 15.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide. "A car that gets 30 miles per gallon would have to be driven 23 million miles - the distance of a trip circling the world over 930 times - to cause that much global warming," said Hill.

"Dow would like to sell this toxic chemical to farmers across the country - and will apply to do so if this test goes well," said Craig Segall of the Sierra Club. "We don't need more global warming pollution, so we're asking EPA to nip this problem in the bud."

"Other offices within EPA are currently working diligently to control climate change, which the EPA recognizes as the most pressing environmental challenge of our times," said Justin Augustine of the Center for Biological Diversity. "It makes no sense for EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs to work at cross purposes with the rest of the agency by allowing the use of such a harmful substance."

Not only is sulfuryl fluoride a potent greenhouse gas, its high toxicity likewise poses significant human health and ecological risks. Thus far, EPA has not carefully reviewed the health risks for those exposed to the chemical or considered the impacts of the releases on endangered species and other wildlife. The groups' letter asks EPA to take a hard look at these questions, including by consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Soul In Limbo - The Hour Grows Late (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled

Scientists Warn of Hazards of GMOs

Below from Organic Consumers Association. URL at end.

===================================================

* Agence France-Presse, July 8, 2009

NOTE: Translated from French original by Claire Robinson for GMWatch.

EXTRACT: [the study] brings to light "a significant underestimation of the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others. We demand the systematic publication of the results of these tests, which we could only obtain on a case by case basis by taking legal action."

Study criticises testing conducted by Brussels on GMOs
Agence France-Presse, 8 July 2009

AFP, Caen - A study conducted by eight international researchers calls into question the reliability of tests of the European Food Safety (EFSA) and the US FDA to assess the health risks of GMOs and pesticides, it was learned Wednesday.

The article, signed by French, Italian, New Zealand, British and American experts, is published by the website of the International Journal of Biological Science, according to a press release from the Research Committee of Independent Information on Genetic Engineering (CRIIGEN), chaired by former environment minister Corinne Lepage and based in Caen.

"Agricultural GM companies and evaluation committees systematically overlook the side effects of GMOs and pesticides. This is clearly illustrated by the EFSA and the US FDA, which evaluated the controversial GM maize varieties MON 863 and MON 810," said CRIIGEN.

It [the study] brings to light "a significant underestimation of the initial signs of diseases like cancer and diseases of the hormonal, immune, nervous and reproductive systems, among others," said CRIIGEN.

"We demand the systematic publication of the results of these tests, which we could only obtain on a case by case basis by taking legal action," Gilles-Eric Seralini, one of eight authors of the article, who teaches at the University of Caen and chairs the scientific board of CRIIGEN, told Agence France Presse. "The health crises may be more important than the international financial crisis because of the lack of transparency of the regulators," concludes CRIIGEN.

On Friday, France rejected the findings of the EFSA which judged that MON810 does not pose risks.

Click here to read the study results.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18515.cfm

Current Music: Steve Roach - Almost Touching (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe

Foreclosures climb 34 percent in Louisiana

Below from C_3 list

AP reports today that, "The number of Louisiana households threatened with the loss of their homes increased 34 percent over the first half of 2009. Over the first half of the year, 5,160 Louisiana homeowners received some sort of foreclosure-related notice, ranging from an initial notice of default on scheduled payments to sale and seizure. For the first six months of the year, Louisiana ranked 39th in the number of foreclosures. In June, the state ranked 34th."

Orleans Parish is hardest hit:

"Orleans Parish had the highest foreclosure rate with one in every 460 housing units receiving a filing, which includes default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossession. With 243 filings issued, Orleans saw a 2.5 percent increase from May and a 247 percent surge since last year."

The spike is due, according to the company that crunches the numbers, to a change in methods allowing them to more accurately count foreclosures:
http://www.realtytrac.com/ContentManagement/PressRelease.aspx?channelid=9&ItemID=6802

"Daren Blomquist, a spokesman with the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure database, said the company added data coverage in several parishes earlier this year and started tracking lis pendens notices, or properties where a lawsuit is pending, in areas where that information had not been collected previously. 'We were undercounting the lis pendens notices before and the category has been under-reported," Blomquist said. "Unfortunately it's harder for us to get those figures in some states.'"

Of course this points to a much wider problem. Louisiana and City officials have constantly been touting the "recession proof" economy of New Orleans and the state, when in fact much of the data they point to is cherry-picked and inaccurate.

Still, La's forclosure rate is half the national average. We're not Nevada, thank goodness.

Current Music: Sundummy - Beyond The Reef 2 (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe

The Escalation Scam

Below from Grackle list. URL at end.

=========================================

July 9, 2009

Troops in Afghanistan
The Escalation Scam

By NORMAN SOLOMON

The president has set a limit on the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. For now.

That’s how escalation works. Ceilings become floors. Gradually.

A few times since last fall, the Obama team has floated rising numbers for how many additional U.S. soldiers will be sent to Afghanistan. Now, deployment of 21,000 more is a done deal, with a new total cap of 68,000 U.S. troops in that country.

But “escalation” isn’t mere jargon. And it doesn’t just refer to what’s happening outside the United States.

“Escalation” is a word for a methodical process of acclimating people at home to the idea of more military intervention abroad -- nothing too sudden, just a step-by-step process of turning even more war into media wallpaper -- nothing too abrupt or jarring, while thousands more soldiers and billions more dollars funnel into what Martin Luther King Jr. called a “demonic suction tube,” complete with massive violence, mayhem, terror and killing on a grander scale than ever.

( Read more... )

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday that no limit has been set. Speaking to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he sounded an open-ended note: “There is not a ceiling on troop levels in Afghanistan.”

Mullen’s comment was scarcely reported in U.S. media outlets. It has become old news without ever being news in the first place.

The war planners in Washington are bound to proceed carefully on the home front. News of further escalation will come “piecemeal” -- “with no more high-level emphasis than necessary.”

Norman Solomon is the author of Made Love, Got War.

http://counterpunch.com/solomon07092009.html

Current Music: Jeffrey Koepper - Spiraling (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe w

for those in and around the Big Apple

Below from Jay on C_3 list. Demonstration is in Harlem at NAACP convention.

=================================================

Fw: FD: July 16th 5:30 PM Emergency Anti-War Demo at NAACP Convention with Obama delivering keynote

Obama the war monger is beginning to feel the heat. Protesters in Harlem will be greeting him when he speaks at the NAACP conference. With the front page of the TP announcing 3000 more troops from Louisiana being sent to the kill more Afghanis, seems like we should be joining our brothers and sisters in Harlem, and denounce the new face of racist US imperialism as well.

Jay

-----Original Message-----
From: "Nellie Bailey" <harlemtenants@gmail.com>
Sent 7/15/2009 10:56:35 PM

Thursday, July 16th Anti War Protest to Hold Obama Accountable

4:30 PM on the East side of the street at 6th Avenue
between 53rd and 54th Street across from the Hilton Hotel.
Obama is schedule to speak at 5:30 PM.
Press Conference held before at 4:30 PM with rally to follow.

Nellie Bailey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ( Read more... )

According to Bailey African Americans cannot ignore $12.8 trillion spent, lent or committed to bankers while Black employment, an issue President Obama refused to address directly, shot up 14.9% in May of 2009. The current cost of war in Afghanistan stands at $2 billion per month and will increase 60% before the end of 2009 while body bags continue to arrive on US shores. Obama’s silence on the bloody siege of Gaza pales in comparison to the current actions of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and NYC City Councilman Charles Barron, both part of the Viva Palestina relief efforts prepared to enter Gaza, ironically on the 16th. Not a word from Obama when the Israeli’s government threaten to blow out of the water the relief boat carrying McKinney and others last month.! For sure, the Obama administration’s façade has cracked under the weight of the President’s flip-flop centrist and right of center politics. Having sold himself as a transformative political leader, Obama within six months of his presidency abandon virtually every major campaign promise for peace abroad, and economic and social justice on the domestic front.

Critics argue while it is natural for African Americans to assume a race pride adulation for Osama’s catapult to the Presidency it should not exact the price of turning a blind eye to the bankruptcy of US foreign and domestic policies that essentially mimics, in many instances, those of former Republican President Bush. Blacks must recapture their moral high ground by holding Obama accountable. African Americans, impacted hardest by the economic depression, have no choice but to organize militant demonstrations, rallies teach-ins and education forums. This is the only way Obama will pay attention to Black issues that he dodges so artfully! African Americans, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama, are constituents like any other groups. We, too, deserve the respect and attention of the nation's first Black President.

Current Music: Gas - Pop Ii (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medica

Out into the Big Room

        When Raven used to talk to our cats, she used the phrase the big room to mean outside the apartment. Bob loved to go out for walks.   Aleister, the Siamese, was terrified of the big room.

        Today, I ventured out into the big room for the first time since I came home Sunday night.

        I had planned to go to Whole Foods this week. I am almost out of laundry soap.   Locally, the stores do not stock any free-&-clear laundry soap. I have a small emergency bottle of some soap which makes my laundry smell absolutely dreadful.   I am also out of Oxyclean.   As I do my wash on the stove every 2 days. I need both soap that does not smell dreadful, and Oxyclean.

        I am also almost out of epsom salts. The Walgreen drug store closest to me has incredibly terrible inventory control. They have been "backordered" on Oxyclean for over 2 months, and they are also out of the big bags of epsom salts.   As I use 2-4 cups of epsom salts every day now, I do not want to be unable to take my daily epsom salts tub soaks over the weekend when I hope to be working.

        Also, I have been housebound now for 3 days. I had no idea if my muscle pains with prevent me from lugging my setup to work. So I went out this evening for a 7 block walk, then home with heavy bundles.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Steve Roach - Gestation (Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with

"I never really liked us anyway"
Have laptop, will travel.

After not hearing from the Datavision people, I wrote them an email I marked "URGENT" telling them to cancel the order, then, if they weren't going to bother talking to me. Within twenty minutes, they had replied/cancelled the order - funny how these things work. Anyhow, I then ordered not-quite-the-one-I-wanted-but-good-enough from Newegg, overnight rush. Hooray, it is here! I'm just glad I don't have to mess with that crap anymore. Unfortunately, I do have to mess with all the attendant crap that comes with trying to set up a new computer. Alas!

I have done the important things already: installed Firefox, Steam, Skype, Trillian, and AVG. Finally got Firefox to bend to my will (it took forever D:), and am working on the same for iTunes (more difficult because of size, mostly). I'm having an interesting time deciding how to go about managing a computer where the desktop and OS are on a 50GB partition of a much larger HDD...which is to say, how to remember not to just save everything to the desktop. I have mostly managed by putting the "My Stuff" folder, where I keep actually everything, on the "Data" partition and a shortcut to that where it would normally sit on my desktop. I also had to burn my own recovery discs which was fine except that I burnt two copies of the first disc on the provided DVD's because I am sometimes not very smart. Still, I have both discs now, which is the main thing. Will move on to installing Diablo (1 and 2) as soon as iTunes sorts itself out (which may be a while.

In completely unrelated news, I am feeling very hungry.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: none...yet

"Oooh, score one for me!"
I just realized how funny, ironic, and sad that it is that I have an OREO coffee cup on my desk. Like it's a personal advertisement or something.

I saw a new movie. It's not new as in a recent release, but some straight-to-DVD movie that I'd never heard of. It featured some of my favorite actors: Donald Faison, Whoopi Goldberg and even Paul Mooney. What was it called, you ask?

HOMIE SPUMONI

It's the story of a young black kid who is found floating in a river in Italy and adopted by a family and relocates to America. I'm not even kidding.
It was actually funnier than I'd expected. I thought this would be another "Internet Dating' (Katt Williams movie) but, despite Joey Fatone's role in it, it was laugh-out-loud funny.

I kind of recommend that you watch it.

We are fishing

We are fishing, originally uploaded by auryn24.

On the SOUTHERN HOOKER

Y'all's some funny people.
Wow, when I said "what I do with this money?" The choices were more like, pay the power bill, renew SCA membership, renew domain name.... Ah, that must be why I'm not getting my email. That's not going well. I must remember to use that domain name for something...

Um, let's see, buy milk, buy beer, buy frozen dinners, save it for medical care, pay credit card, pay taxes, pay phone bill, pay rent, pay boyfriend, pay shrink.....

I bought a piece of cake and a mocha. There was sugar. It was very dangerous.

What would you do with a vanity domain name?

The season is almost here. I need to come up with Children's Activities involving Roman times-- and 14th C. England versus France.... the concept of ransom will be involved in games, so scavenger hunts, capture the flag, exchange of prisoners, we can play those games.

I still haven't got a clue what kind of costume to do for ....Zalgo, FlyLady, fortune teller...Dragon*Con. It's hard to adapt to all the life changes in age and shape... Interestingly, the latest research shows I'm better off not losing too much weight... slightly chubby does better than average, go figure. Lady Aviator might work for something steampunky, but steampunk promises to be expensive. I still haven't caught up with SCA clothing, although luckily, that's easier --I need alterations and repair, not entirely new costumes.

So, Alex talked me into going to Second Life. Ok, I can't blame Alex, I didn't have to go. But I ended up here. It was almost, for a minute, like visiting someone I used to be.

Flash from the Past: Review of Rocky Horror Picture Show

I am a packrat. I save everything. Much of what I save is later lost. None of it is properly indexed. But once in a while a little gem pops to the surface.

Back in the early 1980s, when my computer was the original IBM-PC (8088 processor, 2 floppy drives)

lilywinky and I first saw Rocky Horror Picture show. Anne (

lilywinky) wrote a review and handed to the folks at the movie theater the next time we went to see Rocky Horror.

They posted her review, and gave her a free pass.

Anne's review just surfaced. I was sorting thru a zillion CDs which

kellcrow7 has been burning for me of files & folders off my USB drive which Windows Vista refuses to recognize.

I made no attempt to correct spelling on the text below.

=========================================

( Read more... )

Current Music: Woob - On Earth (Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica.

from GI Special

“Once You’re Wounded, They Basically Forget About You”

Rats In Command Won’t Award Purple Heart To “The Most-Decorated Man In His Unit” --- Blown Up Twice In Iraq And Declared Totally Disabled By Army:

“He Feels Like The Florida National Guard Abandoned Him When He Needed It Most”

Retired Florida National Guard Sgt. Ernie Rivera has been ruled totally disabled by an Army medical board.

The details of retired Florida National Guard Sgt. Ernie Rivera’s harrowing deployment to Iraq are told in the thousands of pages of his medical file.

Severe traumatic brain injury. A cracked vertebrae. Surgically repaired shoulder.

Rivera, the most-decorated man in his unit, won two Bronze Stars for his service in Iraq ending in mid 2007.

But he can’t get what he values most.

A Purple Heart.

( Read more... )

As U.S. Troops Focus On Afghan South, “North Is Spiraling Out Of Control”

“The Governor Of Balkh Province, Puts The Rise In Violence Down To The Behaviour Of International Troops”

They “Do Not Respect The Laws Of Afghanistan, Or The People’s Customs And Traditions”

“They Arrest People Without Any Evidence”

July 10, 2009 By Abdul Latif Sahak, Institute for War and Peace Reporting [Excerpts]

While British and American forces concentrate their efforts in southern Afghanistan, the once-peaceful north is fast spiralling out of control with the Taleban making a number of important gains.

They include the town of Chahrdara in Kunduz province, where a recent visitor reports that the Taleban have set up their own administration to rival that loyal to the central government, complete with tax collection and a court system.

The northern provinces -- Balkh, Kunduz, Jowzjan, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul and Baghlan -- have seen a surge in violence over the past few months, with suicide attacks, armed assaults and roadside bombs, and the insurgency appears to be gaining ground.

At the same time, the attention of the Afghan and international military remains firmly focused on the south.

But while the war in the south consumes valuable time and resources, the north could spiral out of control, warn international experts.

( Read more... )

Federal “Judges” Just Love War Profiteers:

Court Rules Soldier’s Wife Can’t Sue KBR For Iraq Brain Injury Caused By KBR:

“Carmichael Was Reportedly Left In A Permanent Vegetative State”

7.13.09 Army Times

The wife of a soldier incapacitated by a brain injury in a wreck during a fuel convoy in Iraq cannot sue the civilian contractor delivering the fuel, a federal appeals court ruled June 30.

Sgt. Keith Carmichael was a gunner assigned to ride in a tanker truck operated by Kellogg, Brown & Root during the 2004 convoy.

He was thrown and pinned beneath the truck when the civilian driver failed to negotiate a curve.

Carmichael was reportedly left in a permanent vegetative state.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Pacha Ibiza - Ibiza Mon Amore (Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-temp

Ok.

Ok., originally uploaded by auryn24.

This is my glitter fake tat.

Israeli War Crimes in Gaza

Below from Jewish Voices for Peace. URL at end is to PDF of the full report. URL above that is to write to your congress critters.

=============================================

The Israeli group Breaking the Silence has just released a collection of testimonies (1) by Israeli soldiers that took part in the Gaza attack last December and January.

This is not the first report documenting the horrors inflicted on the civilian population in Gaza. Less than two weeks ago, for example, Amnesty International produced a report documenting Israel's use of battlefield weapons against the civilian population trapped in Gaza. (2)

Today Israeli soldiers corroborate charges that the military repeatedly violated international law.

You know what? You feel like a child playing around with a magnifying glass, burning up ants. Really. A 20-year-old kid should not be doing such things to people.

The soldiers testify about their use of human shields (3), their use of phosphorus over civilian populations, and about the sheer magnitude of the destruction.

Why fire phosphorus? Because it's fun. Cool.

It looked awful, like in those World War II films where nothing remained. A totally destroyed city.

The soldiers also relate efforts of the military rabbinate unit to make the attack a holy war between "the sons of darkness" and "the sons of light."

[They told us] No pity, God protects you, everything you do is sanctified.

The list goes on.

Now we have heard from both Gazans and Israeli soldiers, all telling a similar story.

Generous US aid - American tax dollars - made this possible.

American-made weapons were used to attack Gazan civilians, productive factories, schools and administrative buildings.

The British government has canceled a number of weapons contracts with Israel.

Isn't it time for members of the U.S. Congress to pay attention? Demand an investigation now into the use of US tax monies to fund war crimes in Gaza.

(1) Breaking the Silence Testimonies
http://www.shovrimshtika.org/news_item_e.asp?id=30

(2) Amnesty International Gaza report
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/impunity-war-crimes-gaza-southern-israel-recipe-further-civilian-suffering-20090702

(3) Ha'aretz: Israeli soldier: "We used Gazans as human shields."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100300.html

Original article removed from Ha'aretz, but available in full here:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/14/18607903.php

(4) BBC Breaking the Silence on Gaza Abuses
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8151336.stm

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=2b9ji2Doqz8zcwnyq2dAzXnSbrmZC1RI

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/images/BreakingtheSilence-CastLead.pdf

Current Music: Sophie & Ives - Untie Me (featuring Sophie Moleta) (Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out.

muscle and head report

        Today has been very cool.   Temp in my sleeping nook peaked at 81F, rather than the 90+ temps of the past few days, so muscles complained less than when I sleep in the heat.

        Mike called me this evening to attempt to impress on me the need to get checked out by a doctor.  Mike is a worry-wort with a severe doctor addiction. I have known Mike since 1993 & he still does not understand how much I loathe and despise the medical profession. Now that there is no Charity hospital, I would be charges up the wazoo for a checkup & there is not much good would come of it, other than some doc who expected to get paid then had his/her little greedy heart broken when I refused.

        I feel more pain in my butt where I bounced off the flagstones. Chest pains under collarbones have increased some, but my body is much more aware that some sleeping positions just do not work.

        I was shaking a quart jar just now. Sides of neck hurt. Sides of neck are now tender to the touch.

        I got a good night's sleep last night. Only 2 breaks in sleep to go pee, so I am sleeping much deeper than the previous 2 days.

        I discovered a nifty trick.   My shoulders burn when my undershirt drags on them when I move my body.   It feels like a sunburn.   So I now spend my waking hours shirtless, thus decreasing my discomfort.

        In thinking back over the incident, I have some insights I wish I would have had back then. ( Read more... )

Current Music: Kick Bong - 2 Seasons (Side Liner Remix) (Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient a

Spiffy Graphics on my new laptop

        One of the reasons I bought my Dell Studio 17 laptop was because it supposedly would be very good with graphics.

        Back on my ancient desktop machine, I used to use Winamp for music. Winamp has visualization plug-ins to make computer animated graphics in synch with the music. Spiffy!   But on my old system, it slowed down my system to a crawl.

        Now I can run full screen animated graphics on my laptop screen, while working on my second monitor. CPU usage remains below 25%. Reloading 9 tabs on my Firefox browser takes no longer than it does w/o visualization running.

        I can't capture animations (yet) but here is one frame of animation I am running now in winamp. ( Read more... )

Current Music: Pacha Ibiza - Ibiza Mon Amore (Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-temp

Obama makes Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board website disappear

Below from Grackle list. URL at end.

Hmmmm. From what Obama supporters tell me, Obama is supposed to be a big fan of Civil Liberties and Privacy oversight. I guess he is just getting more with the program his ruling class masters feel is more in their best interest.

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"The White House has erased all mention of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from its Web site. The removal, which was done with no public notice, has underlined questions about the Obama administration's commitment to the board, which was created on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission to oversee the federal government's actions on civil liberties and privacy."

Full story at:
http://www.propublica.org/ion/changetracker/item/disappearance-of-privacy-board-from-whitehouse-website-raises-questions-714

What the hell is wrong with me?

What the hell is wrong with me?, originally uploaded by auryn24.

I just spent three hundred bucks on a pair of sunglasses. i AM NOT My sister in law. i never spend that kind of money on this kind of stuff. they are marc jacobs and fly. oh well. i'm on vacation.

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