Author: cosmo

06/27/2006

I found this awesome set of images to compare Earth with other celestial objects. Too bad I didn’t have this a few months ago when Laralee and I taught the second-graders about the solar system– it helps put things in perspective.

06/26/2006

In a move that probably shocked no one, the New York Times has now been labeled “disgraceful” and “treasonous” because they dared to expose yet another secret spying operation launched by the Bush administration. Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the Associated Press that the Times should not have reported on the SWIFT database snooping that’s been happening for the past four and a half years. Bush also condemned the report, using such wise words as:

We’re at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America. For people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America… it makes it harder to win the war on terrorism.

Apparently he is still under the deluded impression we can ever “win” a war against an ideology, not to mention his tired but oft-used reference to mysterious Bad Guys who are looking to hurt us. He continues to believe he has infinite jurisdiction in private transactions as long as it’s being done “to fight the terr’ists”.

I always thought we had a free press specifically so the government can’t run roughshod over everything– it’s just another piece of the checks and balances that keep our country from becoming a fascist police state.

Just another step… we’re getting closer.

06/26/2006

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

— Thomas Jefferson

06/24/2006

Apparently the Bush administration is (slowly) realizing that the words “al Qaeda” no longer inspire the thrilling fear they once did. People aren’t being hoodwinked by Bush and his cronies waving the Nine Eleven Flag, chanting “terrorism” at every turn, and justifying their growing list of abuses of power and privacy by saying it’s all to protect us from al Qaeda.

So, looking for a new scare tactic, we see people like Attorney General Gonzales talking about “domestic terrorists”. In a news conference yesterday, he mentioned that domestic terrorists could become as big a threat as al Qaeda. Thus, we need to be vigilant and diligent and give up a couple more freedoms along the way… because our next-door neighbors could be terrorists! Or our kids’ teachers! Or the guy next to us at the stoplight!

Only a fool would believe all terrorists come from other countries or are card-carrying members of al Qaeda. Obviously there are terrorists living amongst us, and there have been since long before 9/11. But it’s funny (not in a “ha ha” sort of way, though) that the Bush administration is now turning its propaganda machine in that direction, because the specter of the dreaded al Qaeda doesn’t conjure up the same horror.

06/21/2006

Straight from the Associated Press comes this article about a thief who wanted to participate in this year’s Darwin Awards:

Officials in Reading PA say a man was electrocuted on Tuesday, apparently while trying to steal what he probably thought was copper wire from atop a 50-foot utility pole.

Fire Chief William Rehr says employee found the victim, 33-year-old Samuel Ortiz-Valle, about 15 feet from the base of the Met-Ed pole at Cambridge Lee Industries Incorporated. Police Captain Francis Drexler says a pair of wire cutters was found next to the body, leading investigators to believe that Ortiz-Valle intended to cut down the wires to resell as scrap metal.

Note to self: don’t steal copper if it’s fifty feet above the ground.

06/21/2006

From Unclaimed Territory, talking about Iraq:

Virtually every prediction the President and his followers made about this war has proven to be false, while virtually every prediction made by war opponents has proven to be true. The President and his followers controlled every part of this war with an iron fist, ignoring anything which their political opponents said and insisting on the right to exert full-scale, undiluted control over it. And now it has failed, and it’s everyone’s fault except theirs.

06/20/2006

Apparently this is the month for stupid amendments. After the defeat of the Marriage Protection Amendment (thank goodness) we’re now faced with the frighteningly real prospect that the Flag Desecration Amendment will be approved by the Senate– it’s currently only a single vote shy of passage– and sent to the states to be ratified.

In one pundit’s words, this is “the dumbest law ever”. It boggles the mind that people want an amendment to the Constitution that specifically takes away one of the rights protected under the First Amendment. Burning a flag is, at its core, free speech. Sure, it makes some people angry. Voltaire once said, “I may not agree with your opinion, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to have it.” Apparently his words fall on deaf ears these days, because politicians seem more intent on taking away freedoms than protecting them.

I think it’s more “un-American” to prohibit flag burning than it is to actually perform the act. And if this atrocity comes to pass, I may very well burn a flag to protest it.

06/18/2006

Today, apparently, is Father’s Day. This evening we returned from our nine-day jaunt through the Southwest, and the kids quickly went to work making Father’s Day gifts for me. After dinner we had a grand party while I opened them.

Alex gave me a couple of his most prized rocks from his rock collection.

Kyra made a bird feeder from half of a two-liter bottle and some construction paper, and even included the birdseed.

Zack boxed up a few things and presented them to me. In the box were:

  • a red plastic comb
  • a marble
  • a Koosh ball
  • a fingernail clipper
  • one half-liter of bottled water

    • When I commented about how exciting these items were, he proudly told me that he gave them to me so I could have “my very own”.

    Ahh, kids. They’re such a riot.