On my way home from work today I stopped to get some gas. As I filled up my moderately fuel efficient little Mazda pickup I watched the sale price climb to nearly $50. I began to think about how prohibitively expensive gas is for the average family in my town. Just as I was about to let my mind wander on to another topic I looked up and saw the display on the pump next to me:
While searching for airline tickets, I mistyped a domain name and ended up at American.com. On this site I found a link to an article titled The Upside of Income Inequality.
Of course your first instinct might be to shout something like "Down with those damn rich people! They are always taking all of the money!". Well according to this article they are actually earning all of the damn money. The ditch which sat between the high school educated worker and the college educated worker has become a chasm. Apparently while the high school educated group has grown with inflation, the college educated group has been growing far above it. This is thought to be due to the shift in America's economy away from labor and towards information management. Anyway, the article points out that while the gap grows larger is doesn't mean that the rich are getting richer while the poor get poorer. (Note: the rich always get richer, it's what they do best) It's actually the middle class that has excelled and pulled away from the lower end of the spectrum and is moving up towards the rich.
One other thing that caught my attention in this article is that women and minorities seem to benefit the most from a college education in terms of income growth percentage. I suspect that this is because of the disproportionately low income they might have made before becoming college educated. But hey, what do I know?
The Rational Response Squad is giving away 1001 DVDs of The God Who Wasn't There, the hit documentary that the Los Angeles Times calls "provocative — to put it mildly."
There's only one catch: They want your soul.
It's simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube , and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn't There DVD. It's that easy!
(Yea i'm lazy and that was modified copy from their site…)
It appears that the Evangelical Church has come out. The Rev. Ted Haggard was found to be buying drugs and getting "massages" from gay male escorts. According the accused (Haggard) he bought Meth but never used it. He was just curios about it. He also supposedly only received massages from the gay escort who was his Meth hookup. Apparently after the National Association of Evangelicals publicly voiced supported for gay marriage ban amendments his gay lover was upset at the hypocrisy and decided it was time for Haggard to come out. You can find the original article here. Here in Tennessee there is a proposed state level constitutional amendment on the ballot in this mid-term election. The exact wording of the proposed amendment is as follows:
"The historical institution and legal contract solemnizing the relationship of one man and one woman shall be the only legally recognized marital contract in this state. Any policy or law or judicial interpretation, purporting to define marriage as anything other than the historical institution and legal contract between one man and one woman, is contrary to the public policy of this state and shall be void and unenforceable in Tennessee. If another state or foreign jurisdiction issues a license for persons to marry and if such marriage is prohibited in this state by the provisions of this section, then the marriage shall be void and unenforceable in this state."
The Tennessee Equality Project is working with a campaign they call Vote No on 1. They outline many reason why the law is fruitless. The primary one being that it is already illegal to grant marriage certificated to same sex married couples here in Tennessee.
The opposition is Family Action Council of Tennessee and their campaign RealMarriage.org or "Vote Yes on 1. I for one find it funny they the Family Action Council of Tennessee uses FACT as an acronym they should have come up with a name that fit the acronym FAITH instead. There is very little fact on either of the opposition sites, but more than enough faith to go around.
The photo to the right of an Evangelical Church makes a lot more sense to me now. (The obviously doctored photo to the right came out much better than my GIMP skills should allow. I guess when you have some artistic inspiration the sky is the limit. Hehe…)
It's funny that in a supposedly mostly Christian nation, where politics are charged with Christian religious moral issues, that this country is spending nearly five times more on the Pagan holiday of All Hallows Eve than on the mid term elections. Why is it that so many people of Christian beliefs participate in Halloween?
Who knows…
I've edited out the religious bashing rant as it really didn't fit this post properly. It shall be making a return as it own much more cohesive post.
On September 28th, 2006 habeas corpus died. You've probably heard of habeas corpus, and might even know that it is a very important protection for the citizens of this country. What a lot of people do not know is exactly what it is. If you are detained or brought in for questioning by the police they are only allowed to detain you for a short period of time. If in fact they have not charged you with a crime then your lawyer may submit what is know as a writ of habeas corpus. This states that if you do not intent to charge the person in question then you must release them. This is to prevent authorities from detaining someone indefinately with out charging them. This is to prevent people from being jailed with out being charged and convicted with a crime. So how does this bill suspend habeas corpus? Well if something is not expressly excluded then it is in legal terms it is included. According to the bill (errr…law) enemy combatants are not afforded habeas corpus rights and can be tortured during interrogation. But who exactly constitutes a enemy combatant? Well that my friends is up to President Bush and President Bush alone to determine. Since the wording does not exclude US citizens it could be me, or you, or your parents, siblings, children, yes even your minor children. Anyone in the world can be declared an enemy conbatant by Bush. Since habeas corpus is suspended for these enemy combatants, when they come to take your child away there is little you can do about it. They don't have to tell you where they are taking the person, or what they will do to them, but they are allowed to torture them physically, mentally and sexually. They can keep them detained forever with out ever charging them with a crime and you will never see them again or know what happened to them. This may sound like a bizarre distopian society from a books like "1984", but it's not. It is your world, and if you live in the US then it is your country, and your problem.
It is obvious that our government is no longer looking out for our best interest. Infact they are not just neglecting our interest but infact working in direct opposition to our interest. It is time for the people of this country to take action. The democratic party isn't doing anything. Each day they grow more impotent and powerless against the Bush Regime. The people must effect change!
In case you were not aware http://www.worldcantwait.org is organizing a day of mass protest on October 5th . There will be protest in over 80 cities that day. If your reading this then you probably know me personally. With this in mind please be aware that I will be completely and totally disappointed in you if you do not participate in some way. You don't have to walk out of work or school, but you can go out when your done. You can also help promote the event by printing and handing out fliers at school, in the street, and post them around the neighborhood, stick them on cars, hell, staple it to your forehead if you need to.
Just incase your intelligent here is the information you will need to look up the bills for reference: The House resolution is HR 6166. The Senate bill is S. 3861.
Theme Music:
For the last two weeks or so i've been completely consumed by 9-11. If you had asked me 4 years go where we would be today regarding 9-11, I would have told you that most of the questions would be answered. Some how though, 5 years have slipped by and none of the questions have been answered, and now hundreds more exist. At most we've been given explanations made up of half truths, psuedo-science and out right lies. As more and more time passes I become more and more sure that the only way to effect change is through revolution. So what exactly is a revolution? Lets take a quick look at the definition as it applies to the current subject:
rev‧o‧lu‧tion [rev-uh-loo-shuh
n]
–noun
Here in the United States of America our system of government boils down to a very simple premise. "…of the people, for the people, and by the people." These nine ten word above all else sum up the very essence of our system of government. Lets take a look at these words for a second. Firstly in "…of the people,", of states that the persons making up the body of the government are the same people that the system governs. Second we have "for the people," which suggest that the government exist for the benefit of the people it governs. Finally we have "by the people." which shows derivation, meaning that the people are the source of the government and its direction.
So how exactly does a revolution take place in a country "by the people"? The short answer is that it doens't. The long answer is, technically it can, but why would "the people" want to move away from a system that is designed specifically to benefit and empower them? It is relativly safe to say that so long as the government is of, for, and by the people their won't be a revolution. When the people begin to loose faith in the system that allows them to elect their peers to positions with in the government then it is no longer a government "of the people". When the government begins to eliminate the rights of the people, and shift money from programs that serve the people to the eleet "upper crust" of society it is no longer a government "for the people". When the government is given special privilages over the people the people become disenfranchised and begin to feel that the government is a seperate entity that they have no power over, and it is no longer a government "by the people".
I'll leave you with the following quote from George Orwell's 1984: "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
With that in mind go start a revolution!
…Clifton "Woooooo weee…oh lord…this racism is killing me inside…"
In case you didn't already know Clifton is the milkman character from the Dave Chappell "The Niggar Family" skit. Pretty funny shit…but lets not get distracted here. Ok, ok…go ahead and get distracted, and then continue reading.
All of the recent blatanly racisist comments by republican party members has really got me steamed. But lets not turn this in to a Racisist Republican bashing post. There are plenty of racist fuck faces in all walks of life. Of course most of them are red neck republicans. Lets take a quick look at some of the things over the last couple of weeks. I'm really not sure if I should laugh or cry. These are politician that are controlling the world we live in… You may be asking yourself why i'm picking on the Republican party when there is so much rasicm in the world to address. Well, it's because they are race-baiting the elections. They have been know to do this time and time again. They are hurting in the polls right now and stand to lose the control the now have over our government. So they go back to the tried and true tactics of race-baiting the South East and Mid West to snatch white voters away from the Democrats. It really fucking sad…not that they are racist, but that it actually works. It shows you just how fucked up this world we live in is.
Macaca:
Black people can't swim:
There's more where that came from but I just can't take too much of this at once, so lets end this on a light, but still very racism remark Daily Show style.
Feel free to scream now…just let it all out…when your done we will all still be living in a very racist world…but while your screaming you will probably not be thinking about how fucked up it all is for that one tiny moment…
I stumbled upon this BBC article. Apparently some researchers are experimenting with using Ketamine to treat depression. Here is a little quote from one of the researchers.
"The team says ketamine, in its current form, would not be appropriate for medication because of side-effects at higher doses, which include hallucinations and euphoria."
Euphoria is a side effect!? Umm…i'm not a doctor, but lets take a quick look at the definition of euphoria.
Euphoria - A feeling of great happiness or well-being
Now lets take a look at the definition of depression…
Depression - A condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal; sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason.
So let me get this straight, euphoria is basically the total opposite of depression. So wouldn't the fact that the patient is feeling euphoric mean that the treatment was working? Oh no! How are we going to keep our depression patients from feeling euphoric!? *sigh* These people are depressingly stupid!
Read the whole depressing article here
On a side note, I have never experienced euphoria from Ketamine. From what I know about Ketamine it is a disassociative anaesthetic. This means that it blocks signals to the conscious mind, and psycologically seperates certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories from the rest of the psyche. So this disassociative aspect seperates you from the negative and/or indifferent feelings of depression. Taken in high enough doses you are likely to feel completely seperated from yourself. i.e. out of body experience…
I think of all of the things about NYC that I miss (other than Mike and Larry of course) I miss Complacent Nation's flash-mob open-source style events the most. Watching all of these people dance to randomly generated live music while constantly moving around the streets of NYC makes me want to cry. Mostly because I know nothing this beautiful, fresh, and spontaneous will ever happen here in Middle Tennessee. 
