Isolation, USA
Courtesy of Tammy & Abby (resisting the urge to merge them into a mysterious "Tabby" source) each sent me a link to a story that suggested this theme.
From Crawford, Texas, Dubya's "home town" comes word of a very local paper that's seen the light and gone from backing Bush to realizing we'd been duped and need a regime change of our own. From The Iconoclast ...
Then, out of San Diego, there's a piece on the state of near isolation the Bush administration has alienated the US into a greater sense of isolation than we've seen in a long time.
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George Dubya Seagull
Here's a must-read piece by a retired USAF Lt. Colonel concerning the use of the "Leadership Matters" slogan being used by the Bush administration . Please read and spread it around.
"An absence of leadership qualities in our military leaders gives rise to terms like "Seagull" Colonels and Generals, a species known to swoop in, make a lot of noise, crap all over everything, and then fly away. But our seagulls had an advantage over Bush and Cheney. Regardless of the mistakes made and not remedied, regardless of the illogic, stupidity and sheer idiocy of our present unit's existence under a seagull commander, at least we could be 100% sure they wouldn't be around for long."
Now, let's see how quickly the Bush team tries to rip Karen Kwiatkowski's military record to shreds while drumming up as many yes-men in uniform to salute the money-stuffed shirt in the White House.
A bite of fun I should be asleep now, or at least reading myself in that direction, but I wanted to make some quick comments about one of this weekend's new releases, Shaun of the Dead . One of my sons and I caught Shaun late this afternoon, and it was a good time. The filmmakers have a fun sense of humor, but it's also very much a zombie movie. Or, one could see it simply as a romantic comedy with zombies as a critical plot element to effect change. Either way, a real affection for Romero's films is in evidence, at least the first two, as elements of both - especially 1978's Dawn of the Dead - are echoed in this film. It flirts with elements of a British Dumb & Dumber , too, but only just so; the two, central buddy characters are often goofy, but it's much more in the vein of lifelong friends who are keeping each other in perpetual childhood than their simply being over the top and under the bar morons. The laughs are genuine, the pacing's good, and the c...
An amusing, informative item that landed on my doorstep a couple days ago is The Bush Junta: 25 Cartoonists on the Mayberry Machiavelli and the Abuse of Power . A mix of styles and perspectives on many of the wacky characters who are digging such a pit for the next generation to either spend years crawling out of or simply be buried in.
The eBay experience
(An education in progress) A couple weeks back, as mercenarily mentioned in every post for the thirteen days they were in force, I ran a series of Heroclix auctions. 141 auctions run, 118 sold and 23 went unsold. Everything started at no more than 99 cents with no reserve price. Some sold at the minimum bid, some… considerably better than that. In the end – such end as I can see at this point - I must judge them to be a success.
The latest armload of packages headed out into the world this morning. A few down here in the lower 48, a couple more to our well-mannered would-be world conquerors in sheep’s clothing to the North, and other boxes headed to Mexico, the UK, and France, among other locales. That leaves me with three or four loose ends by way of people I haven’t heard back from.
Providing everything reaches its destination and is received well (ie no one disappointed by some unforeseen problem) I’ll be happy with the way it came off.
Still, there was...
Fantastic photos?
My schedule leaves me perpetually behind the times, it seems, but I have to at least note the Fantastic Four pics that have been flying around the net for the past few days, which I only just now took the time to look for. I can see what they're trying for with Chiklis in the Thing costume, but aspects of it have me wishing they'd have gone for a CGI effect instead; still, that could work.
When I saw the ages of the actors being hired -- all I had to go on, as Ioan Gruffudd's name meant nothing to me -- I was hopeful we'd see Reed at least aged reasonably close to where he should be, but these costume pics have me wondering.
As noted in both the above article and the one in USA Today , the cast is already signed to two sequels, so the studio's obviously planning on this being a successful franchise.
They may be able to pull this one out of the fire, but so far I'm not expecting it to be a pleasant experience for any o...
Irresponsible
And, no, while there's some echo of the above applicable to myself, I'm referring to statements made Thursday by Jesse Ventura. Claiming to care for neither Kerry nor Bush he's publicly opting not to vote . The statements were made while addressing roughly 1200 students at the University of Illinois in Urbana. He's opposed to voting for Kerry because he expects his taxes to be raised, while Bush's stance on social issues such as gay marriage and his theistic blockage of stem cell research. The anti-Bush comments fit in with my many reasons for wanting the Dubya crowd out of the White House, while the Kerry ones strike me as simplistic and playing into the hands of the GOP by suggesting that most of us will automatically see tax increases under Kerry. So far what I've seen only says that Kerry would intend to end the very high income tax breaks that have been put into place, recognizing the social contract that should exist between a governme...
Now, how many lives did these moves cost?
It's come to light that the Bush administration passed up several opportunities to take out Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his terrorist organization in 2002 and 2003... because they were afraid nullifying them would weaken their case for plunging us into the protracted debacle in Iraq.
I don't have the text handy, but I did catch enough of his ramble at the U.N. today to hear something that is almost certain to come back as a nasty soundbyte in years to come, as he professed that the nation that will form in Iraq as a result of this invasion and occupation will never be a threat to the world... Okay, I found it:
"Today, the Iraqi and Afghan people are on the path to democracy and
freedom. The governments that are rising will pose no threat to others."
Yeah, that's the one that's bound to come back with sharp teeth. In a part of the world where fundamentalist Islamic clerics are one of the few consta...
The Path of Blood & Claimed Glory
"Right now, the course we're on, we're achieving Bin Laden's ends."
If only more eligible voters in the U.S. were aware of this...
Anyway, think about it while browsing through these photos of Dubya, starting with this one of him most certainly not fraternizing with the common soldiery.
A worse mix than Visine and Tabasco (or: "Gorblimey!")
Between a crushing work schedule and the wind-down into the final, almost certainly anti-climactic end to my run of Heroclix auctions (I'm not complaining, though, as it's been a good run and most of the high profile material was sold during the first three days), I'd not done any postings since last Saturday. However, Tammy dug up another item that's too irritating to avoid mentioning. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the freak show of the human mind and spirit that is The Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair.
The second place, middle school level project is likely to warm the hearts of female readers as much as it did Tammy's. The first place at the high school level has me wondering if this is the start of a fundamentalist bioweapons lab. Anyway, it's good to know the Lord caters to any prayer demand, no matter how frivilous or potentially dangerous, eh? As for the elementary school...
Odds and Ends
Being September 11th - three years, with a Leap Year tossed in having shifted it from a Tuesday to a Saturday - it's a good time to steer clear of the inevitable memorial pieces likely to be sprinkled through that frequent media misnomer "The News." Certainly, if one lost someone in the tragedies in New York, Western Pennsylvania or Washington, DC there's a point to personal memorials. My expectation is that there won't be many large events, however, that someone won't attempt to hijack for a political message.
Concerning the whole Bush, Texas Air National Guard memo fuss I cannot lay claim to having followed the most recent Verified! Forgery! Verified! Forgery! chain this past week's brought. For me, the issue was decided well ago by looking at it from enough distance to be more than reasonably sure that: Dubya was given special, shielding consideration in not only being put high on the list to get into what was an assured, safe t...
Does Cheney need a handler now, too?
In the same week that Dick Cheney had the nerve to claim that a vote for Kerry would see new terrorist attacks (as noted earlier in the week ) he's now claiming that eBay is, what, where the people who've dropped out of the unemployment statistics entirely due to a lack of employment and their benefits having run out have found self-employment ? To be fair, there are a some people who've done that, and Dick was probably speaking extemporaneously at the time, but I'm glad to see that he's been called on it. I especially liked John Edwards' response.
Comics gaming geek ponderings
(A piece too long, it’s not to be bothered with unless you’re into Marvel comics and/or Heroclix)
Now that boneyard’s list for November’s Mutant Mayhem Heroclix set is nearly complete, it’s time for me to start seriously considering whether or not to let my order of a case stand. Okay, barring a sudden financial reversal and some harsh belt-tightening, I’m nearly certain to let this stand and become my early Christmas present to myself. I’m just trying to see if I can justify it, okay? No? Okay, then I just like to watch myself talk. Happy now?
My current auctions (you knew there was no way I wasn’t going to plug them while they’re still running) are demonstrating to me that I can get at least some money back on many of the extras I might pull, and while I don’t get to play the game very often I still enjoy it when I do get to play. Obviously I’m feeling some need to justify this to myself or someone…
[Side note on how complete the list is: The ...
The Never-ending Story
Recent news, including admissions from U.S. central command chief General John Abizaid, indicate that more regions of Iraq are under "rebel" control today than were last year . The invasion of Iraq, never reasonably undertaken for any of the goals stated by the Bush administration, has handed the U.S. military alone over 1,000 deaths of honorable, self-sacrificing people killed on this fool's errand, and has essentially brought terrorism to regions where it wasn't before -- all the while helping to foster a climate that is incubating new terrorists.
Each day I hope that a few more people grasp this, and that they take this knowledge with them to the polls on November 2nd. It's going to be a long, hard trek back to civilization, folks. The sooner we begin, the better.
Whoah! Hey, it not only worked...
...but all the sudden three of the posts I'd attempted to put through earlier suddenly appeared. (One was a duplicate attempt, so I deleted it.) Maybe the others I attempted will pop up? Hopefully whatever the problem was it's passed. Presumably these entries weren't there for anyone's viewing prior to tonight, despite them bearing the dates when I tried originally posting them; I'm fairly sure they weren't, as someone who came out to lunch with us today (Hey, Abby!) mentioned that she's missed seeing anything new here this week.
Tonight I added another 15 auctions to my Heroclix auctions , bringing it up to a total of 141 lots in motion. I believe I've hit the wall with this. I haven't done any selling on eBay in several years, and I need to reacclimate myself. Besides, I want to keep this block tight enough that there won't be too many days between the ending of the first auction and that of the f...
Giving it another try...
As Mark Gibson noted back on the 7th it's been difficult to post on Blogger for days. Hell, it's been impossible for me to post since this past Sunday -- hence the silence. If this goes through it'll be lucky seven or so, as I've tried at least six other times to make quick, casual postings during this week, both from home and work.
Not wanting to waste time on something doomed to instant oblivion, I'll leave it at that and see if this actually publishes, or goes into a loop of "0% completed" publishing until finally telling me "An error has occurred."
Up hill -- both ways
As Mark Gibson noted in his blog yesterday getting blogger to accept posts has become problematic. I've written at least two entries in the past few days only to see them sit and spin in an endless "publishing" loop. An attempt to back up and re-publish finds the window cleared, the entry text gone. For all I know this one will join those in oblivion. If this persists I'll have to find a different venue. Yes, sure, it's a free service, but it's not proving to be much of a service lately.
To be fair, eBay was giving me similar fits Monday night, slowing down my plans to add more Heroclix auctions that night. I had to postpone most of that to last night, when I raised the number of auctions running to 112 .
Let's see if this sucker posts.
Quick notes
I should be in bed. Asleep. Trying to catch at least 6 hours of sleep before plunging into another workday... but here I am.
Noticing that Mark Gibson had been following some of the latest misstatements from America's bane, Dubya (as he tried pushing on the issue of capping malpractice awards, something they're trying to use against Edwards at the national level, and are pushing strongly here at the state level in Pennsylvania), I figured a good complement would be a slightly different stripe of arrogance from Dick "Haliburton" Cheney as he warns that a Kerry victory would see us attacked anew by terrorists. The piece has additional, unintentional yoks as Dubya steps back in with more of the ludicrous, if-we-say-it-enough-times-it-becomes-the-truth accusations of "flip-flopping" by John Kerry. On the one hand it's heartening to hear this shinola cranked up at ever higher volumes, as it shows they're scared and getting a lit...
Shameless self-promotion: The eBay auctions
The first forty eight of my Heroclix auctions started Saturday night. More tonight, and likely more still Monday night... and perhaps more beyond that. The uniques have accompanying pics of one sort or another , but I didn't bother doing that with the REV pieces, especially as I'm intending to list so many. Everything is and will be going up with no reserve and a starting price of 99 cents.
Blogger was giving me problems earlier this morning - I tried to post a version of this just after finishing the listings, but it kept sending me to another log-in screen after giving me an enigmatic "Session Expired" notice. Now to see if it's better this morning.
Kerry fights back
Here are some sections from John Kerry's speech, delivered at midnight last night in Ohio now that the GOP has had its say:
The election comes down to this. If you believe this country is heading in the right direction, you should support George Bush. But if you believe America needs to move in a new direction, join with us. John and I offer a better plan that will make us stronger at home and more respected in the world. And we need your help to do that. For three days in New York, instead of talking about jobs and the economy, we heard anger and insults from the Republicans. And I'll tell you why. It's because they can't talk about the real issues facing Americans. They can't talk about their record because it's a record of failure. We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican Convention. For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief. Well, here's my answer. I'm not going ...
Yeah, yeah... another delay
I'd anticipated starting a wall of Heroclix auctions tonight, but a too long workday followed b a technical glitch has gotten in the way. It's probably for the best, as this will give me a chance to get some other items (aside from uniques) set up, too, and consider some other options. Had I gone through with what I had ready tonight it would have just been 32 auctions for uniques (well, 31 uniques and 1 LE), and I'd like to put up other singles and groups along side those to increase the likelihood someone will aim to buy multiple items and minimize the shipping costs.
Speaking of clix, though, while this week didn't see a sneak peek of one of the figures for November's Mutant Mayhem, it did bring a new set of rules for giant figs . So far it'll only apply to the Giant Man fig in the upcoming set, though it may retroactively apply to Unleashed's Bat Sentry . It's an interesting set of rules, though so far the appl...
The latest book cookery from the Bush White House
Bush political appointees have come up with some new economic indicator which the Census Bureau will be releasing next week. With roughly 60 days to the election does anyone want to guess what shade the lenses will be?
Last year they decided to drop the monthly reports on mass layoffs from the reports (something Bush's father also did while in office) , and then there's the move by the White House earlier this year to simply bypass the National Bureau of Economic Research and move the start date of the most recent recession back into the Clinton administration, before sending all their lackeys out into the political talking head market to repeat it until saturation lends it the ring of truth. It's brainwashing, and I hope enough people wake up both soon and angry enough to get to the polls November 2nd to toss these thieves of our future out of office.
A good, forward-thinking idea. Unfortunately, I expect greed to do it in.
An AP piece about something in the planning stages for my own back yard, Philadelphia , was sent to me this morning. (Thanks again -- all together now -- Tammy, for the link!) The piece is good not only for the speculations about Philly but details of other places across the country that have already or are soon to implement something similar.
Philadelphia is having budget problems as businesses and people have moved out to avoid the rising taxes and decreasing services... which has, as you'd expect, exacerbated the situation. Creating a tech-friendly environment could work considerably towards getting and keeping both businesses and people.
My expectation, however, is that not only will the $10 million estimate for establishing the network prove to be much lower (especially as it's a near certainty that it will involve union laborers) but many hands will be in the pie. Also, I'm not...