Categories
ranting

and so once again

J███████ and K– come over for the afternoon. The first words out of J███████’s mouth when he came in were “was your camera in your car Beggs?” “No,” “Good,” he said, “because someone broke the back window again.”

Yes, once again someone broke the back passengers side window of my car. My new car. They did not take anything—the alarm must have stopped them. The door was unlocked but when your tried to open it the alarm went off. Not that they would have gotten anything. The only things in the car are a watch that does not work and the cheep tripod I have been using.

So once again the back seat of my car is covered with tiny shards of glass and I’m going to have to pay to replace a window. I want to know what I did that lead to my car being broken into three times?

You tell me.

Categories
ranting

slippery slope

“[the abuses at Abu Ghraib are] the logical consequence of the pursuit of the war on terror by the United States since 9/11. It is the natural outcome of the policy, openly followed by the US administration, to pick and choose which bits of international law it will apply and when”.

— Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International at a press confrence [ www.guardian.co.uk ] announcing the release of the Amnesty International Report 2004 [ www.amnesty.org ].

Categories
photography

storm over the mall

Took some pics last night down on the National Mall while a storm was moving through. Most of the fireworks were over by the time I got there so I did not get the best pics, but here are the two I liked most:

IMG_1188

IMG_1244

Categories
ranting

tidbits

If George Soros wants to be a thorn in George W. Bush’s side he should offer a free copy of “Fahrenheit 9/11” That would piss him off.

The NRA should spend some of that enormous budget educating and employing the people who normally grow up to commit crimes with guns. That would be the best gun control—and the card carrying NRAers could still own their thousand round a minute guns and re-wallpaper the forest in deer blood every time they go hunting.

And there where like 20 other half formed thoughts that flew out the sunroof somewhere between Chantilly and Logan Circle. Lost thoughts never to be committed to paper—or recorded as electron bits on some server in… where is my server again? Oh well.

I did get a nice package in the post today—a picture of Audrey Hepburn. That will cheer me up any day. Thanks Tati!

Categories
ranting

The Best Democracy Money can Buy

Last night J███████ and I trekked up to UDC to see Greg Palast give a lecture. If you don’t know who Greg Palast is you should.

I stumbled on Greg Palast’s web site while I lived in London because of articles I read in The Observer but I did not pay much attention to it after I left England. That is until J███████, S██████ and I went to Japan to visit Jim. While we were there J███████ picked up a book off Jim’s shelf. Called The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

This book is amazing. It exposes a lot of the dirty little secrets the politicians and big business don’t want all us cattle to know. Given the book has a liberal bent, but Palast is loathed by both Democrats and Republicans for exposing their dirty laundry. With chapter titles like, Jim Crow in Cyberspace: the unreported story of how they fixed the vote in Florida, and Inside Corporate America, the book is very pertinent to the events surrounding the election this year.

Palast’s book helps to confirm that the bad guys won. They won long ago. And they were not democrats or republicans accept in name. In reality they are rich, greedy, lying bastards who parasitically feed off the ignorance and stupidity of the American public. Be they George Bush’s or Kennith Lay’s they don’t have the best interest of anyone outside their close knit group of scavenger groupies.

Anyway the lecture, while short, was very good, and I even got my book signed. Pick up the book and read it, it might open your eyes, or just confirm your darkest fears.