US leaders now see themselves as priests of a divine mission to rid the world of its demons

As George Bush told his troops on the day he announced victory: "Wherever you go, you carry a message of hope - a message that is ancient and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, "come out," and to those in darkness, "be free".''

In December 2001, Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of that city, delivered his last mayoral speech in St Paul's Chapel, close to the site of the shattered twin towers. "All that matters," he claimed, "is that you embrace America and understand its ideals and what it's all about. Abraham Lincoln used to say that the test of your Americanism was ... how much you believed in America. Because we're like a religion really. A secular religionGuardian Unlimited | The Guardian | George Monbiot: America is a religion: "Few people believe that the resistance in that country is being coordinated by Saddam Hussein and his noxious family, or that it will come to an end when those people are killed. But the few appear to include the military and civilian command of the United States armed forces" Is this then the fulfillment of america? Is this a way of life that has finally played itself out? Here's hoping!

The dangers of national divinity scarcely require explanation. Japan went to war in the 1930s convinced, like George Bush, that it possessed a heaven-sent mission to "liberate" Asia and extend the realm of its divine imperium. It would, the fascist theoretician Kita Ikki predicted: "light the darkness of the entire world". Those who seek to drag heaven down to earth are destined only to engineer a hell

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | London ladybirds top sex disease league: "Last Updated: Monday, 28 July, 2003, 16:10 GMT 17:10 UK

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

London ladybirds top sex disease league

Nine in 10 of London's ladybirds suffer from a sexually transmitted disease.

The figure is well above that of the ladybird population outside the UK capital and scientists have been looking for an explanation.
'We think it's the car pollution,' Dr Greg Hurst of University College London told the BBC. Ladybirds feed on greenfly and greenfly thrive in polluted conditions.
It seems that in London, the greenfly do so well that the ladybirds breed very quickly and their generations get mixed up; one generation may easily breed with the next or previous one.
'Remarkably promiscuous'
This increases the transmission of the sexually transmitted disease.
'When they come out from over-wintering, they are remarkable promiscuous,' Dr Hurst said. 'They actually get the highest prevalence of sexually transmitted infections of virtually any insect.
'By the end of May, 80-95% of adult ladybirds will have acquired a sexually transmitted infection.'
Fortunately for the ladybirds, the effects of the disease are not severe. "

"How can we prepare ourselves for such unpredictability? What will happen to us if we can no longer rely on our instincts and traditional wisdom?

"I believe the Arctic is a very important ecosystem to the health of the rest of the planet.

"I guess what we can do is just try and educate people and say: 'Hey, watch out, this is what's happening to us.'"

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Canada's climate change close up: " I think the bigger it gets the faster it will go. "

The project represents the team's effort to create a semi-living entity that learns like the living brains in people and animals do, adapting and expressing itself through art.


...but the brain is in Atlanta
"We are looking at future scenarios where geography won't matter," said Mr Ben-Ary. "The brain of the semi-living could be anywhere in the world, while the body (machine) will interface and be fed off it," he told BBC News Online.
The computer translates any resulting neural activity into robotic arm movement. By closing the loop, the researchers hope that the rat culture will learn something about itself and its environment.

"I would not classify [the cells] as 'an intelligence', though we hope to find ways to allow them to learn and become at least a little intelligent," said Dr Potter.


Dr Potter hopes the venture will provide valuable insights into how learning occurs at a cellular level.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Rat-brained robot does distant art: "American and Australian researchers have created what they call a new class of creative beings: 'the semi-living artist'. " Robots brains will be the internet

"What it's good at is spotting changes over time," he told BBC News Online.

Meris can observe how plankton spread through the Earth's oceans, providing a valuable insight into the way the seas act as a counterweight to global warming by storing carbon dioxide.

Meris' field of view means that it can provide an almost daily view of any given point on Earth.

Its host satellite, Envisat, was launched on an Ariane 5 in 2002. The satellite is the biggest and most expensive Earth-observation spacecraft ever built by Europe.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Satellite shows dramatic Aral loss: "Along the way much of their water is taken for the irrigation of thirsty cotton crops.
Large scale irrigation began in the 1960s and has led to the Aral losing half its area and three-quarters of its volume"

BBC NEWS | Business | US calls time on Iraq mobile firm: "Batelco unexpectedly launched its mobile roaming service last week, allowing the country's few cellphone owners to make and receive calls around the world.
But the authorities were concerned that a renegade service provider could upset its own plans to put Iraqi mobile licences up for tender next week."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Palestinian anger over fence: "Palestinians say it is an attempt to grab land "

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran points to journalist 'murder': "Zahra Kazemi, 54, was detained on 23 June for taking pictures of Tehran's Evin prison.
She died in hospital in Tehran on 10 July after falling into a coma having received head injuries during more than three days of interrogation.

The journalist's burial in Iran sparked anger in Canada
An Iranian report said she died in custody from a severe blow to the head that fractured her skull and caused a brain haemorrhage.
Five officers were arrested last Saturday following 'comprehensive investigations' into Ms Kazemi's death.
The photojournalist's death led to a diplomatic row between Ottawa and Tehran. "

Leahy appeared at a news conference with religious leaders who deplored the injection of religion into the debate. "Even to hint that a Judiciary Committee member's opposition to a judicial nomination is based on the nominee's religion is a cause for alarm," GOP Presses for Votes on Judges (washingtonpost.com): "While the Senate's feuding over judges does not appear to have resonated widely with voters, both parties intend to use it to mobilize their core constituencies, especially on issues such as abortion."

To put it another way, hypocrisy is our way of acknowledging that certain principles are important, even -- perhaps especially -- when we are tempted to violate them.
Hypocrites Say It Best (washingtonpost.com): "In other words, we killed them in self-defense"

Yahoo! News Message Boards Technology News: "NEW YORK -- Online song swappers say the fear of getting hammered with a hefty lawsuit has had little effect on their habits -- at least for now.



<
RIAA same as big auto companies
by: cat00012000 07/30/03 09:02 am
Msg: 7 of 7

Remember when the Japanese started taking over the auto market? It was easy because the big three didn't want to change the way they did business. Some people embrace change. Some run from it. It's the difference between being liberal and conservative. Change wrong and you end up with chaos. Don't change at all and you decay. The RIAA has got stink all over it. "

Mr. Wolfowitz's using 9/11 to push regime change in Iraq, even though the hawk had advocated getting rid of Saddam all through the late 90's.
Blanket of Dread: "Senator Russ Feingold pressed: 'I would ask you, Secretary Wolfowitz, are you sure we have our eye on the ball?'"

BBC NEWS | Health | Unlocking the brain's secrets: "Dr John Mazziotta, an expert on the imagery of the human brain from the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) said: 'No two brains are the same. Their shape. Their size. The way they are organised.
'You can't just point at an area and say, 'Here's the seat of language'"

You Say Tomato: "Another answer may be that in modern America, style trumps substance. Here's what Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, said in a speech last week: 'To gauge just how out of touch the Democrat leadership is on the war on terror, just close your eyes and try to imagine Ted Kennedy landing that Navy jet on the deck of that aircraft carrier.' To say the obvious, that remark reveals a powerful contempt for the public: Mr. DeLay apparently believes that the nation will trust a man, independent of the facts, because he looks good dressed up as a pilot. But it's possible that he's right."

Richard Clarke, then the top White House official on counterterrorism, testified that when he visited several FBI field offices and asked agents what they were doing about al-Qaida, "I got sort of blank looks of 'What is al-Qaida?' "How Not To Stop the Next 9/11 - Congress' pointless plan for preventing terrorism. By Fred�Kaplan: "Tenet did not follow up the Plan with any meaningful action. He ordered no National Intelligence Estimate on the threat Bin Laden posed, made no calculation of the resources required to execute the Plan, made no decision to downgrade other priorities to accommodate the Plan, and neither requested nor received any participation by the FBI or any other intelligence agency."

"The FBI … did not inform policymakers of the extent of terrorist activity in the United States Former National Security Advisor Berger has testified that the FBI assured him that there was little radical activity in the United States and that this activity was 'covered.' Although the FBI conducted many investigations, these pieces were not fitted into a larger picture." (Page 245)

Louis Freeh's animus toward the White House. … No one outside the Bureau could acquire any sense of the scope of FBI knowledge on a particular issue. The White House could not know what it did not know, so the gravity of the problem could not be assessed. For the NSC staff working on counterterrorism, this was crippling—but how crippling was also something they could not know. Every day a hundred or more reports from the CIA, DIA, the National Security Agency, and the State Department would be waiting in their computer queues when they got to work. There was never anything from the FBI.

The Age of Sacred Terror

Freeh simply realized that his true constituency wasn't the White House but the Republican (and passionately anti-Clinton) Congress, which wrote his budgetFreeh At Last? - Sorry, Louis, but Congress' 9/11 report doesn't vindicate you. By Timothy Noah: "The report is scathing on the lack of preparedness at all the intelligence agencies, not just the FBI. But among all those who ran these agencies during the months and years immediately prior to the Sept. 11 attacks"

FireWire portscosts only $1024, a great price for any notebook, but especially for one that includes a combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive and Microsoft Office XP Small Business EditionPCWorld.com - Compaq Presario 2100Z: "There's no wireless capability, although such a feature is becoming increasingly common "

Michael Rogers: Practical Futurist: "FasTrak toll tags (the Bay Area version of the RFID-equipped boxes that automatically deduct tolls as you pass through toll gates). "

There’s a scary lesson in these contests between the grandmaster and his soulless opponents. We are sharing our world with another species, one that gets smarter and more independent every year. Though some people scoff at the idea that machines could become autonomous, remember it wasn’t long ago that almost no one thought a computer would ever beat a human chess champion. Could we ever face anything akin to the horrendous sci-fi nightmares that we see in “Terminator 3”? In the long run, it’s well worth worrying about. But the machines aren’t worried at all.
Machine vs. Man: Checkmate: "he made a glaring mistake. And it suddenly became obvious that when computers and humans compete, it’s really not the same game at all. Kasparov was devastated in a way that an unfeeling machine never would be. Worse, having yielded the advantage, he had no hope—as he would have against a human—that his well-programmed opponent might make its own mistake and let him back in the game. The realization paralyzed even the great Kasparov, and it haunted him for the rest of the match. "

animals that appear to express emotions are merely reacting to hormonal rushes triggered—in cold, but typical, technical language—by “outside stimuli.” pet owners have always suspected: animals experience surges of deep-seated fear, jealousy and grief—and, most important, love All of them experience fear—the most ancient of the emotions, mediated by the amygdala, an almond-shaped organ in the brain. Many animals may feel something akin to love as well Not surprisingly, the animal that has shown researchers the most emotional complexity thus far is the dog. Bred as human companions for thousands of years, dogs have evolved into master communicators. Recent studies show they are even better than chimpanzees at reading human emotional cues “What drives them to be affectionate is pretty primitive: food, shelter, attachment. They’re not thinkingAnimal Emotions: "some scientists argue that animals have no emotions, that they merely respond to incentives like so many automatons"

early growth spurt is followed by several years of slower expansion, giving the autistic child an adult-size brain by the age of 4 or 5. During adolescence and adulthood, autistic brains are generally no larger than normal ones. Unfortunately, they exhibit a range of other anomalies, including dense clusters of underdeveloped cells in the hippocampus and amygdala—structures that are critical for integrating emotional and sensory information. Courchesne believes it can be summed up in three words: “growth without guidance.� Normal brain development is not a monologue but a dialogue, in which the brain generates neural circuits and the child’s experiences determine which ones survive. The first year of life is a critical period for this “experience-guided growth�—and it’s not hard to see how a sudden shift into high gear might derail it. The brain’s circuitry would expand haphazardly as cell growth outpaced experiencePredicting Autism: "Autism, the new findings suggest, is not a sudden calamity that strikes children at the age of 2 or 3 but a developmental problem that can be traced back to infancy"

we, the government, can protect you from the guerrillas, but the guerrillas cannot protect you from us, and you are going to have to choose. It took years, internment camps and horrific human-rights abuses, but eventually the Guatemalan rebels were crushedBody Counts: "This was a favor the Iraqis did not ask, a revolution in which they did not participate and a debt of gratitude they do not feel"

it’s hard to call those triumphs a liberation,

Both the Net and Linux were created, grew and flourished almost entirely outside the regulatory sphere. They are, in a literal sense, what free markets have done with their freedoms.Saving the Net: "'I think that I could turn and live with the animals... Not one of them is demented with the mania of owning things.'
--Walt Whitman "

Relaxing broadcast property ownership rules, in the absence of making larger chunks of available spectrum for everybody, is hardly deregulation. It is a highly selective change in existing regulation that opens opportunities only to the most successful players in a completely closed marketplace

Liberals often are flummoxed by the way conservatives seem to love big business (including, of course, big media). Yet the reason is simple: they love winners, literally. They like to reward strength and achievement. They hate rewarding weakness for the same reason a parent hates rewarding kids' poor grades. This, more than anything else, is what makes conservatives so radically different from liberals. It's why favorite liberal buzzwords like "fairness" and "opportunity" are fingernails on the chalkboards of conservative minds. To conservatives, those words are code-talk for punishing the strong and rewarding the weak.

As George Lakoff explained in Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don't (University of Chicago, 1995), conservatives consider strength a "moral value". Strong is good. Weak is bad.

In street basketball there's a rule called "make it, take it". If you score a basket, you get to keep the ball. Three-on-three basketball works the same way. So do volleyball and other sports with rules that favor achievement over fairness.

Relaxing media ownership rules is all about "make it, take it". Clear Channel and Viacom have made it. Why not let them take more? It's simply the marketplace at work, right? Again, only in a highly regulated context.

We can't change conservative value systems. But we can change the emphasis on what we conserve and why. That's why we need to figure a way around the Property Problem too.

.

Duhaime's Law Dictionary defines property this way:


Property is commonly thought of as a thing which belongs to someone and over which a person has total control. But, legally, it is more properly defined as "a collection of legal rights over a thing". These rights are usually total and fully enforceable by the state or the owner against others. It has been said that "property and law were born and die together. Before laws were made there was no property. Take away laws and property ceases." Before laws were written and enforced, property had no relevance. Possession was all that mattered. There are many classifications of property, the most common being between real property or immovable property (real estate, such as land or buildings) and "chattel", or movable property (things which are not attached to the land such as a bicycle, a car or a hammer) and between public (property belonging to everybody or to the state) and private property

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Artist seeks internet-enabled third ear: "'It's not so much about enhancing the body but rather constructing, experiencing and being able to articulate alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with technology - ultimately exploring alternate kinds of embodiment" I have often thought about a computer socket in the back of the head so we wouldn't have to convert digital to analog in order to sense it . We could just put is on a digital buss that developed interface inside the brain. Oh well, it could happen.

BBC NEWS | Health | Brain machine 'improves musicianship': "neurofeedback - trains musicians to clear their minds and produce more creative brain waves"

Neurofeedback monitors brain activity through sensors attached to the scalp which filter out the brainwaves

These filtered brainwaves are then 'fed back' to the individual in the form of a video game displayed on a screen.

The participant learns to control the game by altering particular aspects of their brain activity.

This alteration in brain activity can influence performance.

I want to keep my eye on this. I hope something becomes of it. I certainly like to try it

Imperial College London and Charing Cross Hospital who conducted the study.

Dr Tobias Egner

Wired News: Web Cliques Too Cool for School: "cliques are representative of classic popularity patterns. " I looked through this list. They all seem to be for young girls.

Why Ask Why?: " we all are motivated for survival purposes to develop cognitive understandings of reality that enable effective prediction and control over our worlds. When we understand and know what to do to produce de-sired outcomes and to avoid undesired ones, our worries are relatively few. But when something happens to engender uncertainty about our constructions and comprehensions of reality, our worries may be many. "

a model of motivated social cognition that builds upon this fundamental need to know, this need to reduce uncertainty about the causes of social events. We argue that there exist chronic individual differences in causal uncertainty beliefs that are related to chronic motives to reduce uncertainty about the social environment. Such motives can be domain-specific

07.22.2003 - Researchers help define what makes a political conservative: "the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality"

punish outsiders and those who threaten the status of cherished world views

President Ronald Reagan were individuals, but all were right-wing conservatives because they preached a return to an idealized past and condoned inequality in some form. Talk host Rush Limbaugh can be described the same way. I'm not looking to provoke anybody, but isn't this exactly the way Hitler looked at things. I know comparing people to Hitler is unproductive, but the truth is the truth.

The researchers said that conservative ideologies, like virtually all belief systems, develop in part because they satisfy some psychological needs, but that "does not mean that conservatism is pathological or that conservative beliefs are necessarily false, irrational, or unprincipled

Bush told a British reporter, "Look, my job isn't to nuance."

Wheelchair moves at the speed of thought


10:53 24 July 03



Severely disabled people who cannot operate a motorised wheelchair may one day get their independence, thanks to a system that lets them steer a wheelchair using only their thoughts

New Scientist: "At the moment the user can choose between three different commands: for example, 'turn left', 'turn right' and 'move forward'. Millán's software exploits the fact that the desire to move in a particular direction will generate a unique pattern of brain activity"

The Smirking Chimp: "1 of 1. CC1 | Member 8093, Joined Sep 05, 2002 | 86 posts



Posted: 2003-07-24 13:16
Why is it that one of the big reasons the FBI was unable to uncover the hijackers plot to bring down the World Trade Center never seems to get talked about? I'm talking about the fact that the Republican congress had the FBI working full time trying to dig up dirt on President Clinton's sex life. When Clinton did attack Bin Laden Republicans said he was just trying to divert attention from the scandal that they were trying to impeach him with. If you ask me, Tom Delay, his crowd and supporters bear some responsibility here. Am I wrong? Are people just too scared of these guys to say so? Even now Larry Klayman is suing Mrs. Clinton for Jennifer Flowers. I just don't understand how these guys get away with it. However, I didn't really uderstand the press during the Reagan years either. I think there must be some kind of guilt complex working here. Something is screwy. Tell me I'm wrong.

-----------------
'No, something can be done,' Atta replied. 'There are ways. The U.S.A. is not omnipotent.'
If we can't do it with love in our hearts and a smile on our faces then we don't have any right to do it at all. We're suppose to be some kind of different. Stills
Edit this post | Reply to this post | Reply with quote | "

Yahoo! News Message Boards Politics News: " federal judge refused to release Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from a lawsuit by Gennifer Flowers which accuses the senator of masterminding a campaign to discredit Flowers' claim of an affair with Bill Clinton.




Impeachment kept 9/11 hijackers free
by: cat00012000 07/24/03 12:36 pm
Msg: 2212 of 2212

With the right wing congress focusing all the government's resources on digging up dirt on Clinton, Osama Bin Laden roamed free as a bird. When Clinton did attack him the Republicans said he was only trying to divert attention. He should have diverted more of their sick, sick, sick attention to something that really affected our well being. You can blame the hijackers on Tom Delay and his crowd. It's the truth. "

The Smirking Chimp: "Re: Computer voting is open to easy fraud, experts say (Score: 1)
by CC1 (cat00012000@yahoo.com) on Thursday, July 24 @ 12:17:35 EDT
(User Info)
The Left is slitting its own throat here from both sides. There is a scandal here all right. It's the scandal of denying people easy access to the polls. The right steals elections by denying people the right to vote or by screwing up the ballots. It is the conservatives that want to make it hard for people to vote. The idea that they are going to steal elections through fraud by machines just plays right into their hands. They always used to try to make it hard to register. The harder it was to register the better chance the minority has to rule. If it was easy enough to vote Democrats would win a hell of a lot more. Republicans like to make it hard to vote. They have a section at the Free Republic complaining about how easy it is for Democrats to win by fraud. The hard part about elections is the idea that the ballot has to be kept secret. There is always going to be a trade off between secrecy and validity. Republicans don't even like people to be able to vote absentee. Face it, it is easier for the rich to get to the polls than it is for the poor. It ought to be easier to vote, not harder! We ought to vote on more issues not fewer. The law in my state, Missouri, makes it difficult to vote absentee. Guess who that favors? The left is really shooting itself in the foot on this issue. There is fraud going on all right. It is the fraud concerning turn out. The harder it is to vote the lower the turn out. The lower the turn out, the more Republicans. If it was easy enough to vote that everyone did this would be a much, much better country contrary to what they say over at the Free Republic. Republicans have the money, but Democrats have the votes. Make"

Gov. Davis Comes Out Fighting In Round 2 of Recall Campaign (washingtonpost.com): " Now, he is warning that California could soon be 'hijacked' by radical right-wingers. 'This election is not about changing governors, it's about changing direction,' Davis said at an anti-recall rally in San Francisco this past weekend. 'We want to go forward. They want to go backward.'"

the first governor in the country to be kicked out of office by a recall in more than 80 years. He has to keep other Democrats from jumping into a special election, demonize his political opponents, and convince voters frustrated with his handling of the budget crisis -- he tripled taxes on vehicles last month -- that California would slide into worse shape without him.

Then the economy soured and the state's energy crisis struck, causing blackouts. Davis was widely criticized for reacting to it slowly and indecisively. Voters, who have never shown much personal affection for him, were furious

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Major Change in Mental Health Care Is Urged: "I think the `if implemented' is the critical caveat.'
Mr. Emmet

The value of the report, she said, is that advocacy groups can use it to back their statements when they ask state legislatures and other agencies to pay for treatment

Bill to Ease Imports of Less Expensive Drugs Gains in House: "The fliers, based on a legal memorandum drafted by the trade group, are sent specifically to conservatives who support the reimportation measure. One shows a baby and states that if the drug importation bill passes, abortion pills 'may become as easy to get as aspirin" I find these people exceptionally disgusting. It is very hard to see their side of things. They are like dictators that are falling from power. However, they probably feel like they built up their industry only to lose it to liberal do-gooders

The Gutknecht bill estimates that widespread drug importation could reduce average drug prices in the United States by 35 percent and drug spending by $635 million over 10 years. If passed, the bill could wreck the industry's carefully constructed worldwide pricing systems.

manufacturers now worried that their success in the marketplace had become a political liability in Congress.

"There's this sense on the Hill that the industry is too rich for its own good," the lobbyist said.

drug prices in the United States were 67 percent higher than those in Canada and about twice those of Italy and France,

The drug industry now gets more than half of its worldwide revenues from American consumers

Daniel Vasella, chief executive of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. "Importing from countries with a different drug review and approval process and regulated prices undermines the foundation of the American economy

Well, I seem to be having a hard time. I knew that when I started I would eventually run into a wall of sorts. This is may be it. The thrill is gone. I think it's time to go public with this

Relief for Eyes Irritated by Computer Use (1 of 2) - AllAboutVision.com: " you actually blink two-thirds less than usual when you're looking at a computer?* When you don't blink enough, your eyes can become dried out and irritated."You also tend to open your eyes wider, which exacerbates the drynessThree simple tips can overcome the problem.

1. Think about blinking. Make a conscious effort to blink more often. Put a note on your computer if necessary.

2. Take a break. Several times per hour, take a minute to look around at things that are at varying distances from your computer, like a clock on the wall, or something outside a window. Or, take one big break, about 15 minutes, per hour.

3. Use eyedrops as needed. Look for the ones marked "lubricating" or "lubricant," as other kinds can be addictive, even in over-the-counter strength

Houston's School Dropout Debacle: "It turns out the Houston schools have not lived up to their billing. Their amazingly low high school dropout rate was literally unbelievable � the educational equivalent of Enron's accounting results. The school district has found that more than half of the 5,500 students who left in the 2000-1 school year should have been declared dropouts but were not."

What is it with the people in this administration? They just cannot tell the truth.

NEW ORLEANS, LA — Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop and a noted entrepreneur and human-rights activist, has learned that her new book A Revolution in Kindness has been banned from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola as “a threat to internal security."

“The fact that a book about the power of kindness can be denounced as a threat to security beggars belief and is yet more evidence of the issue of security being ambushed and colonized by politicians to buttress their own repressive and undemocratic agendas,” said Roddickthe bitter shack of resentment: "Officials inside the prison have confirmed that the book was rejected for security reasons, but refused to elaborate. In May, Roddick was ejected from the prison while visiting Albert Woodfox (another member of the Angola Three, who also contributed to the book), and prison officials have refused to explain why.

A Revolution in Kindness (Anita Roddick Books 2003) is a compilation of essays by celebrities, politicians, homeless people, activists, refugees, doctors, entrepreneurs, and philosophers about how the world might be transformed if kindness trumped other values, such as greed, revenge, and power. The book contains essays by Roddick, Ralph Nader, Angelina Jolie, Annie Lennox, Philip Berrigan and many more."

Green Bay Press-Gazette - Tired eyes? You might have Computer Vision SyndromeThis is what I've got!

Arthur I. Blaustein is a professor of economic and social policy at the University of California, BerkeleyLeave No Millionaire Behind: "Bush does not seem to understand that, while it is not a sin to be born to privilege, it is a sin to spend your life defending it"

the Bush prescription for economic stimulus amounts to inequality, economic cronyism, and acquiescence

Only those people have a future, and only those people can be called humane and historic, who have an intuitive sense of what is significant in both their national and public institutions, and who value them. It is this conviction and the continuing belief in the common-sense vision of the American promise

where recession is recovery, war is peace and a social policy based on aggressive hostility is compassion

TAP: Web Feature: Inconvenient Facts. by Harold Meyerson. July 18, 2003.: " Gingrich has just criticized an intelligence assessment of what Iraq is for being out of sync with Bush's views on what Iraq should be. "

Why Liberals Are No Fun: "is the problem that they lack rage? Cal Thomas, the conservative columnist and Fox host, speaks for many when he argues that 'liberals don't have the anger'" Isn't that what makes liberals stronger?

The unemployment record on the administration's watch keeps heading into Herbert Hoover territory.

Liberal Signs of Life: "Report on dissension about Iraq between Republicans and military men, and you're treated as the vanguard of the antiwar movement. Do the math on a tax cut geared to multimillionaires, and you've declared 'class warfare.' Mention that Bush is neglecting 'homeland security' while bin Laden remains at large, and you're giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
The power of conservatives to control the discourse through biased media is only now beginning to dawn on liberals." In the long run this is good. It is always better if there are two sides. For years blacks and women would protest, and everyone would support them. They never got anywhere. Once resistance formed then people started listening

Recall forces told how to 'trash' governor / Consultant's memo advises Issa's troops to 'kill Davis softly': "'While it is important to trash the governor,' reads the blunt, 17-page memo from Virginia-based communications expert Frank Luntz, 'it should be done in the context of regret, sadness and balance.' "

Untitled: "'Never before in my 40 years of experience in this town has intelligence been used in so cynical and so orchestrated a way.' "

Polls show the British public is losing faith in Blair with a majority feeling they were misled about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction

Greek tragedy: triumph followed by disaster

On "class warfare": "As David Brooks put it in a New York Times op-ed piece a few weeks ago, '[In America], People vote their aspirations. . . [We] have always had a sense that great opportunities lie just over the horizon. . . None of us is really poor; we're just pre-rich.'" Give me a break!

conservatives who decry the politics of class warfare never go on to finish the thought -- you're never hear them talk about the virtures of class cooperation

Conservatives like to say that class is an illusion in American life

Well I'm back. I am going to try some more.

img src='http://images.quizilla.com/P/pressthebigredbutton/1055173051_ydeficient.jpg' border='0' alt='morally deficient'



img src=

img src='http://images.quizilla.com/P/pressthebigredbutton/1055173051_ydeficient.jpg' border='0' alt='morally deficient'

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/cat00012000

"img src='http://youraccount.yourhost.com/filename.jpg"



Lets see what I get .....................

Blogger FAQ blog: "img src='http://youraccount.yourhost.com/filename.jpg" Ok, here it is again!! This time I left out the outside arrows. Lets see what I get.

Blogger FAQ blog: "." Now this is suppose to be the code that uploads an image. I can't believe I'm going through all this aggravation. I know, I know that it is teaching me more than I can know, but it still has taken me to a new level of frustration. I guess that means that it is important. Looking back at this I wonder what I am going to think

Yahoo! Photos - View Photo: "For quick access, bookmark http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/cat00012000 Tell your " I've been trying to upload a photo for hours now, and it is driving me absolutely and undeniably, without a freaking doubt CRAZY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Results...: "
Threat rating: Medium. Your total lack of decent
family values makes you dangerous, but we can
count on some right wing nutter blowing you up
if you become too high profile.


What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla"

Control 21 servos from your PC: "The OOPic, is a fully programmable controller that has the capability to control up to 21 servos" Maybe pics are the way to go. Even if they are easy to program once they are programmed the computer wouldn't be able to repgm them in real time. Am I getting way to far ahead of myself.

features like Share a Model, allowing you to share component designs with colleagues regardless of which CAD system they use. Welcome to Content Central Maybe this is the future of artificial intelligence. Libraries like this build to the point that indicate what should be designed next just by the patterns that arise in them. In other words a compilation of many designs of the same component point out some deficiency that they all have in common. Patterns form in many different ways. One thing that it takes is multiple elements.

Good morning. I've been thinking about my research if I could call it that. Call it an experiment. I've had this image in my mind, but now that I survey the literature (the web) I see I need to focus on what is possible. I think what I want is multiple inputs and outputs. Lots of senses mainly proprioceptive and multiple muscles. Why? Because that's what it takes to grow complexity. Now I need to adapt those desires to what it availible. I should reach out to other experimenters of the hobbyist variety. I would like to keep assembly to an absolute minimum as that is where I tend to end in failure. I'm not good at it. It's easy to get overwelmed by minutiae. Am I making excuses here? I just have to keep from getting sucked in to something that is beyond my skill level. I'm learning that hooking up a motor to a computer is not nearly as simple as I anticipated. Maybe that is what research is all about, however.

Virus causes mental illness symptoms in mice


22:00 07 July 03
inserted a gene for a single protein produced by BDV into mouse embryos. Mice which grew up to express the viral protein in their brains were more aggressive and hyperactive compared with normal mice New Scientist: "100 per cent of people with severe mood disorders have the virus"

Only glial cells expressed the BDV protein. These non-neuronal cells are involved in forming and maintaining nerve junctions in the brain. That suggests the protein alters behaviour by affecting the function of these cells, says Tomonaga.

Major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia are also characterised by the dysfunction of these special support cells

Pattern of Corruption: "'Plans for Iraq Attack Began on 9/11,' which quoted notes taken by aides to Donald Rumsfeld on the day of the attack: 'Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.'
But an honest intelligence assessment would have raised questions about why we were going after a country that hadn't attacked us. It would also have suggested the strong possibility that an invasion of Iraq would hurt, not help, U.S. security.
So the Iraq hawks set out to corrupt the process of intelligence assessment. On one side, nobody was held accountable for the failure to predict or prevent 9/11; on the other side, top intelligence officials were expected to support the case for an Iraq war.
The story of how the threat from Iraq's alleged W.M.D.'s was hyped is now, finally, coming out. But let's not forget the persistent claim that Saddam was allied with Al Qaeda, which allowed the hawks to pretend that the Iraq war had something to do with fighting terrorism."

Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, seems more concerned about protecting his party's leader than protecting the country. "What concerns me most," he says, is "what appears to be a campaign of press leaks by the C.I.A. in an effort to discredit the president

New Scientist: "Paediatricians routinely measure the circumference of children's heads during examinations. When the authors of the new study looked back at the medical records of 48 normal and autistic children aged two to five, they found that 60 per cent of the autistic children had head circumferences far above the norm when they were six to 14 months of age.
By contrast, only six per cent of the normal children had enlarged heads. The severity of the autistic children's symptoms was also correlated closely with the size of their heads during infancy.
During normal development, the brain grows slowly, and synapses, the connections among nerve cells, are retained or eliminated in response to sensory stimulation or motor activity.
Courchesne proposes that the unchecked brain growth seen in the study may undermine this synaptic strengthening and pruning process, leading to the social isolation characteristic of the disorder. 'They're developing synapses so rapidly that experience doesn't have a chance to determine which are maintained and which are eliminated,' he told New Scientist."

MTV.com - News - Metallica Sue Canadian Band over E, F Chords: " We're just saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F with our music.'

Metallica filed a trademark infringement suit against the indie group at the US district court for central California on Monday. According to the drummer, the continued use of the two chords causes 'confusion, deception and mistake in the minds of the public'." File sharing and now this. I guess these guys represent a new generation of neandertals

The Smirking Chimp: "if Vietnam was the place where America lost her innocence, Iraq may be the place where we lose our arrogance.

The once-triumphant Richard Perle has gone underground. The sublimely smug William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and stalwart champion of empire, no longer looks as though he just swallowed a canary. Crow is more like it. And we've heard more from Saddam Hussein in recent weeks than from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Maybe because Saddam, unlike Wolfowitz, has a plan that's actually working"

The Smirking Chimp: " 'This Administration has had a faith-based intelligence attitude,' Thielmann has said. 'We know the answers--give us the intelligence to support those answers" I'm starting to get carried away again. Aren't I?

"long uneasiness with bloodletting and battle that followed Vietnam has been replaced by a new infatuation for war, a preference for invasion over persuasion

this Administration is undermining America's security--and reputation in the world.

The SSC3 Stepper Motor Control System: "An SSC3 system consisting of an assembled and tested SSC3 interface circuit board, a 9 foot serial interface cable, the SSC3 interface technical manual and programming examples disk is available for $140.00. " this board allows for 3 motors maximum

The Smirking Chimp: "Apparently, the Bush and Blair teams did not want to let the facts stand in the way of a good war." I wonder where the american people are going to end up on this

As a nation that uses more than 20 million barrels of oil a day - about a quarter of the world's daily energy consumption - and imports more than half of its oil, the U.S. is dependent on the Persian Gulf for the bulk of its economic lifeblood. Perhaps if the Bush administration admitted this truth, rather than concocting all sorts of scary stories that had no basis in fact, it wouldn't be in the trouble it's in now.

...Or More Lies From The Usual Suspects? (washingtonpost.com): "The Bush administration borrows from Groucho: 'Who are you going to believe -- us or your own two eyes?'" Well put

Well yesterday was pretty much of a bust. I wonder what today will be like

Saw the episode of Seinfeld last night where Kramer finds the old Merv Griffin set in the trash and moves it up to his room and then pretends to be a talk show host with all his friends as his guests. I feel kind of the same way with this blog. I have taken my life and turned it into a show and really enjoy doing it. You have to wonder how long it will run, however.

HOME Advanced Micro Systems motion control drivers and indexers.: "A Stepping Motor System consists of three basic elements, often combined with some type of user interface (Host Computer, PLC or Dumb Terminal):

The Step motor Indexer (or motion controller) is a microprocessor capable of generating step pulses and direction signals for the driver. In addition, the indexer is typically required to perform many other sophisticated command functions."

STEP MODES

Stepper motor "step modes" include Full, Half and Microstep. The type of step mode output of any motor is dependent on the design of the driver.

FULL STEP

Standard stepping motors have 50 rotor teeth producing 200 full steps per revolution of the motor shaft.

HALF STEP

Half step simply means that the motor is rotating at 400 steps per revolution. In this mode, one winding is energized and then two windings are energized alternately, causing the rotor to rotate at half the distance, or 0.9º's. (The same effect can be achieved by operating in full step mode with a 400 step per revolution motor). Half stepping is a more practical solution however, in industrial applications. Although it provides slightly less torque, half step mode reduces the amount "jumpiness" inherent in running in a full step mode.

MICROSTEP

Microstep is a relatively new stepper motor technology that controls the current in the motor winding to a degree that further subdivides the number of positions between poles. AMS microstep drives are capable of rotating at 1/256 of a step (per step), or over 50,000 steps per revolution.

This is a great site for a battle bot controller. Unfortunately it uses packed data format which takes forever to load and I can't figure out how to copy off of it. It shows you how to assemble a controller kit. Very interesting

Toshiba SR7000 Robot Controller Another site for someone trying to make money on robots. This controller and the site in general looks very sleek. I would have no idea how much business they do, nor would it matter to me too much. It is nice to see something done so professionally. Again I wish I could put up some pictures. Wouldn't it be something if I could and am just too dumb to know how! Such is my life, and probably a lot of other people's too. I have to say, however, just by doing this blog I am improving myself. Maybe I'm just kidding myself, though.

Orocos (Open RObot COntrol Software): "Goals of the project
1. To develop robot control software,...
... under Free Software and/or OpenSource license(s),
... with a long-term vision and design,
... emphasizing software components for (hard real-time) control, hardware interfacing, communication, kinematics and dynamics, task specification, sensing, etc., " I can't even get this site to open right. Somehow I'm not holding my breath. Of course that' the kind of thing that always sneeks up on you and bites you on the butt.

coordination of research, teaching and education, academic-industry collaboration, and publications and conference in the area of robotics[ Euron - European Robotics Research Network ] Here's a new site I've never heard of before. These guys are obviously professionals which leaves me out. It's stange I want to do something different. I want to be creative. That's what I think I'm about. Yet I find it frustrating when I keep running into others that are close to what I want but not close enough. Go figure.

<
Built-in power drivers for two motors
Connects directly to DC motors. Supports all common robot drive methods
Up to 120A output per channel

a href="http://www.robotcombat.com/marketplace_roboteq.html">RoboteQ Robot Controller Electronics: "$485"This type of controller won't work for me because I am lookin for many, many outputs and inputs. This one only has two outputs. It is for basically driving a tank or a bulldozer. There are probably many so called combat controllers and I would guess they are all going to be the same.

Using C-52 EVB for simple robot experiments This is a little homemade controller made to run without any intervention, computer or human. You program the onboard chip and turn it loose. This is pretty much the state of hobby robotics today. I like to keep tabs on things like this as I might find something I can use. I'm having a terrible problem figuring out what I need to learn as far as circuits are concerned. Are there circuits I want to build myself? Making a printed circuit board (pcb) seems to me to be a little too time intensive and a little beyond my expertise. Yet everytime I see a circuit diagram I am drawn like a bee to honey like this is the breakthrough I've been looking for. Go figure.

IFI Robotics - Isaac32 Robot ControllerOk here's the first one. Man, I wish I could put pictures in this blog!

ISAAC32-OI Isaac32 Operator Interface $435

Well, another day is about to start. The question is what am I going to start it doing?. A little tortured syntax there. It's my strength. I think the rubber is starting to meet the road here. I've been doing this for around a week. Could I be getting bored? Me?? Not me!! I need something new like this was a week ago. It would be nice if I could get myself to look at robot controllers this morning. I just have a bad feeling about it like I'm pushing myself into something I don't want to do. Am I whining or what? This is a blog of a pathetic person. I need something fresh. I need to see what is over the next hill. My attention deficit is kicking in. Well I guess I'm going to do it anyway. Robot controllers, here I come again.

The Smirking Chimp: "I recall watching the tape of Bill O'Reilly interviewing the son of one of the victims. Wild Bill must have booked him thinking the guy was a war hawk, because when the guest starting speaking against the war, O'Reilly was screaming insults and saying, 'Cut his mic. Cut his mic.'

The Bushies are interested in 9/11 only to the extent it will further their political goals. Hence the decision to have their convention in September and let Shrubya hold a media event at ground zero."

We have been sold a current-day version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in which all Arabic and Islamic people are evil demons out to get us, in order to justify our government's persecution, exploitation and slaughter of them.

The Smirking Chimp: "If a sitting president can wipe the slate clean at a time when he was trying to convince the American people that invading Iraq was in our national security interests and misleading the country into a war in which our men and women as well as thousands of Iraqi civilians would die, certainly an admission of having sex should put an end to the diatribe that still fills the AM dial.

It seems like the entire administration is in lockstep over this little 'oversight.'

Donald Rumsfeld testified in front of a congressional hearing last week saying that he just found out about the Niger report being false in the last couple days. And he said it with a straight face.

White House Chief of Staff Jon Lovitz... yeah... that's the ticket! Is Saturday Night Live alum Jon Lovitz running this administration?

'Yeah, I, uh, didn't know about the forgery until just this week. I, uh, was out of the office and forgot to read any CIA reports or newspapers over the past year.

'Yeah, that's the ticket.'" I know I'm going a little overboard here, but what the hell.

"If the CIA -- the director of central intelligence -- had said take this out of the speech -- it would have been gone," Rice said. "We have a high standard for the president's speeches."

Rice also added, "I'm not blaming anyone here."

You have to understand how it felt when all this started, and I thought he was going to get away with it.

Rummy pushed another backpedaling spin point: "We never said they had nuclear weapons, we said they had a nuclear program." (Never mind that Misadministration officials claimed that Saddam had between 100 and 500 tons of chemical and/or biological weapons.)

The Smirking Chimp: "It mattered when Clinton lied about his sex life. It diminished the man, if not the office. No matter how we would sympathize with that lie, and I do, it was wrong and it
shouldn't have happened"

But then, this is George Bush's pattern. He looks good until he has to start making decisions and then it all comes crashing down. He's failed his entire life, a series of bad decisions coming home to roost, over and over. Make no mistake, this is not some political crisis he can solve with a few distractions This is the daily Koz being quoted in the smirking chimp. I love 'em both!

The Smirking Chimp: "A page on the White House's own website describes the Bush administration's central argument for war in Iraq. The Niger evidence is featured prominently, along with claims that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agents, almost 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents, and several mobile biological weapons labs. The Niger evidence has been destroyed, and the 'mobile weapons labs' have been shown to be weather balloon launching platforms. The vast quantities of anthrax, botulinum toxin, sarin, mustard gas and VX, along with the munitions to deliver them, have completely failed to show up. " And still GWB is going to be reelected. Watch out for that second term, though

European Welfare Farmers: "Yet the rich world's reluctance to dismantle market-distorting agricultural policies, like tariffs and subsidies, betrays an unwillingness to make the sacrifices that poorer nations, with less negotiating leverage, have been asked to make in the name of economic orthodoxy." rich - poor, you mean there is something here to take into account? Could this be class warfare? Those mean poor people just want to ruin everything.

The Smirking Chimp: "Senate Intelligence Chair Pat Roberts foreshadowed just how twisted the logic is going to get when he said that what concerns him most 'is what appears to be a campaign of press leaks by the CIA in an effort to discredit the president,' Yeah, right" Need I say more?

Saddam loyalists--not nationalist resistance to occupation--are the real problem in Iraq. Protesters are terrorists

War is peace, freedom is slavery, and some animals are more equal than others. The lies won't stop until we fire the liars Can you say it any better?

Harry Potter and the Internet Pirates: "'What is unusual for us as people who deal with piracy of books is that these are people who are not directly making money for having put them on the Internet,' said Ian Taylor, international director of the Publishers Association in Britain. 'That is obviously what's been happening with peer-to-peer music, but it's not something we've had to deal with before.'" Rowling is richer than the Queen. Should we really worry if she's not making all the money that she could? I know. I know. It will ruin her initiative if she has to work for nothing. Well maybe that is our culture's fault. It's all a communist plot. You know it is.

ANALYSIS: PALESTINIANS GROWING ACCUSTOMED TO THE PERIOD OF RELATIVE CALM BROUGHT ON BY THE CURRENT CEASE-FIRE: "But we feel it is only temporary, this calmness. " Amen, brother, amen.
internal Palestinian disputes and a halt to easing the Israeli restrictions in the territories are very real obstacles. But he says pushing against those forces is a growing desire among ordinary Palestinians to keep this fragile period of calm alive

The WiFi Solution (TechNews.com): " Intel wants to speed the adoption of broadband by using WiFi to solve the 'last-mile' problem" Please, oh, please. I want broadband so bad I can taste it!

Palestinian Militants Reject Call To Disarm (washingtonpost.com): "Separately, in Ramallah, Palestinian refugees wrecked a local pollster's office in an attempt to prevent him from releasing a survey showing that most Palestinian refugees were ready to abandon claims to return to what is today Israel.
Dozens of refugees pelted the Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki with eggs when they burst into his office moments before he was to release the results of his controversial survey on Palestinian refugees.
Shikaki, whose organization monitors the Palestinian political pulse through periodic surveys, found that 'the vast majority' of refugees were willing to accept monetary compensation in lieu of a return to homes and land they abandoned or were forced to flee when Israel was established in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Palestinian police intervened to calm tempers, but Shikaki, his shirt stained by egg yolk, aborted the press conference he had called at his office to announce the results of his survey." Hey, throwing eggs is one giant improvement over blowing people up. More egg fights! Now!

Liberia Not Another Somalia, Citizens Stress (washingtonpost.com): "'We don't have confidence in one another now,' said Nathaniel Sayeh, 38. 'We need someone to come and stand between us.'" Where is the U.N. in all of this? Is there too much violence for them to step in? What am I missing here?

Race Divides Hispanics, Report Says (washingtonpost.com): "White Hispanics, the report said, have more economic power: Their median household income is $39,900, about $5,000 more than the median income of black Hispanic households and about $2,500 more than Hispanics who say they are some other race.
But black Hispanics are better-educated: They average nearly 12 years of education, compared with 11 for white Hispanics and 10 for the 'other race' group. Despite their education, black Hispanics have 12 percent unemployment, compared with 8 percent for white Hispanics and about 10 percent for Hispanics who say they are neither race." Face it. We are going to learn a lot about human nature before we ever begin to figure out the effects of our cultural attitudes about race. Different cultures have had different rates of advancement. Is that elitist to say? I like the idea of white studies. There is a lot to understand here. How people with more education can make less money is beyond common sense. Does that make any sense?

Maybe I need to use italics to separate what I write from the quotes that I get from the articles

Good morning Blogsphere!

Another week, another insight. I'm a drifter by trade. So I have to wonder if I've already stayed too long. Maybe that's my way of sticking around. Making sense is not my strong suit.

This looks to be an excellent dealRobot Products
Item Dual 5A/channel Antweight ESC R/C Controller Price
ANT100-01 ANT 100 bare board (no connectors) $49.95
ANT100-02 ANT 100 with servo leads, screw terminals and jumper block $59.95

Item uR/C Robot Controller 2.0 Advanced R/C Controller Price
uRRC-20 uRRC 2.0 Assembled & tested $89.95

Item uR/C Robot Controller 1.0 (aka uMOB) Price
uRRC-01 uRRC Bare board $9 Out of stock
uRRC-02 uRRC Programmed CPU (OSMC) $6

Here's a robot controller being resold. Any bets on how much it costs?PRI Equipe Robot Controller
PRI Equipe Robot Controller

Condition is new, not tested.
Warranty is guaranteed to work for 30 days.
Abuse, customer damage not included.

Equipe Technologies Model #: ESC-212 Rev.4.1
Serial #: CTL 8784
Mfg Date: 9/97
KLA Part #: ESC-212-KLA-UNI
New. Not tested.


call (800) 221-2981 for price

The first robot controller I've found outside of the PC gadget. The problem with this one is that it only has as many outputs as the gadget. Also it uses pulse width modulation witch I really don't think I'll need since I plan on using steppers. They're pricing it at $450FIRST Robotics - EDU Robot Controller

I'll be keeping my eye out on this one:OverviewDARPA intends to conduct a challenge of autonomous ground vehicles between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in March of 2004. A cash award of $1 million will be granted to the team that fields the first vehicle to complete the designated route within a specified time limit. The purpose of the challenge is to leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be applied to military requirements

another!Get Your Motor Running

What do you know? A useful technology article! Give me more!Embedded.com - Ten lies about microprocessors

Is this right?Patent for Ethical Artificial Intelligence: "+ + VICES OF EXCESS ........ MENTAL ILLNESS
(Excessive Virtue) ............ (Transitional Excess)
(300 - 399) ............. (400 - 499)
+ MAJOR VIRTUES ........ LESSER VIRTUES
(Virtuous Mode) ............ (Transitional Virtue)
(100 - 199) .............. (200 -299)
________________________________________
O ...... NEUTRALITY STATUS
________________________________________
�- VICES OF DEFECT ........ CRIMINALITY
(Absence of virtue) ............ (Transitional Defect)
(500 - 599) ................. (600 - 699)
�- -- HYPERVIOLENCE ..... HYPERCRIMINALITY
(Excessive Defect) ... (Transitional Hyperviolence)
(700 - 799) ................... (800 - 899)"

The Major Virtues - 100 to 199

110 - Nostalgia
111 - Guilt
112 - Desire
113 - Worry
114 - Poignance
115 - Culpability( this list goes on and on)

I think this guy is a little off, but who am I to be calling someone else crazy?

How in the heck did he come up with all this ? He's got to have a thousand different catagories.

kind of like the USA but guns and money instead of lawyers:Moore's Lore: new technology. Computing, connectivity, mobile, convergence, communications, software, etc.: "If Microsoft wants to compete, let them compete. But do it with engineers, not lawyers."

statesman.com | Gary Chapman: "The hypocrisy of this administration and its allies in Congress is breathtaking. Then again showboats are a type who are usually objects of comic scorn.
When are Americans going to come to their senses about their government?
Chapman is director of The 21st Century Project at the LBJ School. Contact him at gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu."

Am I beating a dead horse here?Iraq Cost Could Mount to $100 Billion (washingtonpost.com): "At the same time, the federal budget deficit is exploding. This week, officials expect to announce that it will exceed $400 billion for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, the largest in U.S. history by a wide margin. Former White House budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. said last month the deficit should be smaller next year, but economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- factoring rising war costs -- said Friday the deficit may climb even higher than their previous $475 billion estimate."

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Republicans contended that President Clinton had stretched the military too thin with the deployment of 10,000 troops in the Balkans, Kosiak noted. Now, there are 16 times that many soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan alone

Two antiwar activists, Elias Vlanton of Takoma Park, and Niko Matsakis of Boston, are keeping a running tally of the war costs on their www.costofwar.comWeb site. Among the site's assertions: the $67 billion spent this year on the war and Iraqi reconstruction could have put 9.5 million more children in Head Start, financed the hiring of 1.3 million schoolteachers, or covered the health insurance costs of 29 million children

Even Republican aides on Capitol Hill complain that the Defense Department has been far too reluctant to own up to the budgetary costs of the war.

Duh!Lax Oversight Unleashes Troubled Youths on City (washingtonpost.com): "'It's even worse than I thought it was,' Barnes said. 'When you have leaders who don't care, as well as citizens who don't care, this is what you get.'"

Gee, ya think?Support for Bush Declines As Casualties Mount in Iraq (washingtonpost.com): "An overwhelming majority of Americans -- 80 percent -- said they fear the United States will become bogged down in a long and costly peacekeeping mission in Iraq, up eight points in less than three weeks."

We will be on the losing end in Iraq as well:When Frontier Justice Becomes Foreign Policy: "In April 1986 President Reagan authorized an air raid on the home of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya that spared him but killed his daughter. The Reagan administration never acknowledged that Colonel Qaddafi, personally, was the target, nor did it publicly speculate two years later that Libya's bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, was Colonel Qaddafi's revenge for the death of his daughter. But the administration got the message: after Lockerbie, Washington relied on legal action to settle the score."

President Bush, in contrast, personally approved the attempt to kill him, without feeling the need to explain why Mr. Hussein was no longer protected by President Reagan's prohibition and without being asked to do so by Congress.

Like most questions in wartime, this one is impossible to answer in advance

Love that limited government:Digging a Hole for the Future: "If you go, make sure the kids and the grandkids get a look into the pit, for they are the generations who will be paying off the trillions of dollars in interest and debt now being run up by the Bush administration and the lock-step G.O.P. majority."

the Republican government is running a deficit tab that will amount to at least $4 trillion in the next 10 years

I find this hard to understand:Gates Aims Billions to Attack Illnesses of World's Neediest: "'There is no question that there is an effect of their financing slowing and stopping other funders,' Dr. Berkeley said.

I find this article very moving.

Mr. Gates is clearly intent on spending his billions effectively, but he says he measures the effect of his philanthropy in simple terms.

"With world health," he said, "every life you save is a wonderful thing, so it's not this question of whether you solve it or you don't. The chance of completely solving the problems has long odds.

"But really, the thing is that you get to save the first child, the second child, the third child. You can just feel good about that."

Excellent Question!National House of Waffles: "Why does it always come to this in Washington? The people who ascend to power on the promise of doing things differently end up making the same unforced errors their predecessors did. Out of office, the Bush crowd mocked the Clinton propensity for stonewalling; in office, they have stonewalled the 9/11 families on the events that preceded the attacks, and the American public on how � and why � they maneuvered the nation into the Iraqi war"

The Bush administration has known all along that the evidence of the imminent threat of Saddam's weapons and the Al Qaeda connections were pumped up. They were manning the air hose.

This is precisely how to fight any sort of crime:The Associated Press: "'To defeat and destroy our enemy, we must understand more than the crimes it already committed,' said commission chairman Thomas H. Kean, a former governor of New Jersey. 'We must understand what drives and motivates it, the source of its power, the resources at its command, its internal strengths and weaknesses.'
Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told the bipartisan commission that the United States and the international community sat by for a decade as Afghanistan became 'a terrorist Disneyland' where attackers were trained and assaults were planned"

The right wing wants to justify going to war in Iraq any way it can. Too bad it can't.
Laurie Mylroie, an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said major terrorist attacks. beginning with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, can be blamed on Iraq "working with and hiding behind the militants."

But Judith Yaphe, senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, said people have used circumstantial evidence "to jump to extraordinary conclusions on Iraqi support for al-Qaida

I have a feeling that some of the stuff that comes out of this commission is going to hurt Bush. At least I hope so. He has misused this event terribly. The first thing he did was run like a rabbitt. The second thing he did was lie about it.

:: View topic - Taken from 5/29/03 show: Marijuana De-Criminalization: "Drug Prohibition is exactly the same as alcohol prohibition. It would be nice if we didn't have to deal with drunks. Prohibiting alcohol would only increase the number of problems, however. The mafia increased tremendously under prohibition. One reason Japan thought that they could defeat us was that they thought we were all just a bunch of mobsters and drunks. I kid you not.
Look at porn on the internet or when vcr's first came out. People couldn't get enought of it. Gradually however it just became part of the scene. It's nothing we are proud of, but trying to outlaw something just to make people better doesn't work. It's called trying to legislate morality. Give it up.
You can say the older a civilization gets the more corrupt it becomes. There is probably something to that. Complexity has its downside. If you want to keep it simple become a piece of inanimate matter.
_________________
If we can't do it with love in our hearts and a smile on our faces then we don't have any right to do it at all. We're supposed to be some kind of different.
Stephen Stills"

:: View topic - What can we do to encourage all voters to get out and vote?: "Really it is in the conservatives interest to limit the number of voters as much as possible. The people that have the hardest time voting are the people with the fewest resourses. Screaming about voter fraud is just another way of keeping out new ways for people to vote. People should be able to vote using cash machines or anything else that can verify their identity. They should also be allowed to vote on any day leading up to the election. Of course such rules would almost mandate a progressive majority so it will be a while before it happens."

The Smirking Chimp: "Camp X-ray is just another scandel waiting to happen. This is like shooting ducks in a barrel. I'm starting to feel a little sad for President Bush. I guess I should have known. Anyone who makes so many people so angry is headed for some hard times."

Conservatives want limited government and they don't care how much they have to pay to get itTax bite has risen sharply under Bush, antitax group says: " In fact, according to the report, government costs have risen sharply each year that President Bush has been in office after falling steadily during the eight years President Clinton was in office."

The Smirking Chimp: "Patriotism is believing you are superior to others because you were born in a certain country and they were not."

I just never looked at the Vietnam syndrome as a bad thing. I still don't . I'm very proud of being a Vietnam veteran. I'm proud of losing. America had a certain humility after Vietnam. It was hard won. The Smirking Chimp: " The idea was that the loss in Vietnam had soured American policy makers and the public on foreign military actions of any kind. The Bush administration's war-mongering in Afghanistan and Iraq was supposed to drive a stake through that syndrome, by offering an example of successful use of military force in promoting American foreign policy. With Afghanistan quickly returning to its pre-invasion condition of feuding warlords and anarchy (and continuing to prove a hospitable place for Al Qaida-type terrorists), and with Iraq becoming a guerrilla war quagmire that the U.S. has little hope of actually 'winning,' it seems Bush, Rumsfeld and National Security Director Condoleeza Rice are well on their way to reviving the syndrome"

The first signs of a little outrage fatigue. Liberals lose due to compassion fatigue. Conservatives, outrage.Sixteen Little Words ByBenjamin�Healy: "The WP fronts a new poll which found that President Bush's overall approval rating has fallen nine points over the last eighteen days to 59 percent. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they approved of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, while 52 percent deemed the level of American casualties 'unacceptable,' the first time a majority has said so, according to the paper"


"These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president."
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice


Here's and indication that the administration has already pretty much shot its wad and is now into damage control:

The WP fronts and the LAT reefers word that a blue-ribbon presidential commission charged with revamping the Title IX rules regarding gender equity in school sports has wrapped up its inquiry, deciding that the guidelines should remain essentially unchanged after all.

Good morning from my world. Is it great to be alive? I'm asking. I guess it has its ups and downs. As the dialecticians like to say, "It's a unity of opposites." Let's see what's out there in the world of Google news today.

Here's a disaster waiting to happen.Family.org - CitizenLink - FNIF News - Government Targets Sex Offenders: "preying upon America's children in this way is not going to be tolerated.'
Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement will head the project.
Operation Predator will institute a national child-victim identification system. DHS is also working with foreign governments to identify and to deport alien sex offenders.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To find out more about Operation Predator, see the Department of Homeland Security Web site.
(NOTE: Referrals to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family"

Could this be conservative Republicans?CNN.com - Analysis: Beer, chips and belching - Jul. 9, 2003: "'hypernationalistic blondes,' indoctrinated to believe they are first in the class.

This is a southern strategy waiting to happenCNN.com - Italian 'resigns' over German jibe - Jul. 11, 2003: "Minister had said Germans were invading Italian beaches "
"If a leading politician serves mindless prejudices against my people, then a line has to be drawn somewhere," Schroeder said in an interview with German television, when asked why he had cancelled his summer holiday

Give me a break

Yes or no. It's hard to say. Should they have been stopped? By whom?CNN.com - Mourners delay twins' burial - Jul. 11, 2003: "CNN.com received thousands of tributes from readers who were moved by the twins' bravery"

Wal Mart quit their trial run under pressure from some groups worried privacy rights CNN.com - Goodbye UPC bar codes - Jul. 9, 2003: "'You do give up a bit of privacy but the benefit could be that you live,' said Margulis. "

Show me where. Please oh please!!CNN.com - Is Race Real? - Jul. 11, 2003: "there can be a middle ground between left-wing political correctness and right-wing meanness"
more information is available at www.Oxfordancestors.com

I love it when the chairman of a party says the other side is playing politics.CNN.com - Democrats step up criticism of Bush on Iraq - Jul. 10, 2003: "The Democrats have been playing politics,' said Ed Gillespie, chairman-elect of the Republican National Committee"

He has said the effort to bring a stable and democratic government to Iraq will be a "massive and long-term undertaking," but has provided no timeline.

He has brushed aside questions about a now-retracted claim

I'm sorry. It was hell for me when I saw us getting into this mess. So now when I see the whole thing in a lot of trouble I get a little giddy. Doesn't make me look very broad minded. Does it?

Kerry is as bad as Bush on this.CNN.com - Democrats step up criticism of Bush on Iraq - Jul. 10, 2003: "'Now clearly it's time for the president to step forward and tell the truth, that the war is continuing and so are the casualties,' said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, "

Here's the news cycle in action:"Sausage incident" victim speaks out: "Block said that she's not pressing charges - all she wants is an autograph from Simon"

yeah, rightPoint, Click and Die: "�I believe with all my heart if that Web site hadn�t been there, Julie would still be alive today"

Mike Isikoff can kiss my buttTerror Tort Reform

Need I say more?No Mistakes Were Made

Well, I just made this my new home page. I'm lovin' this. That's usually a recipe for disaster. I lived on a commune once called East Wind. I felt the same way about it. It didn't end well.

What happened to Christopher Hitchens?
What changes in a person to make them become a mirror image of themselves? Hillary was a Goldwater Girl. Peggy Noonan was a liberal. So was Charleton Heston. I guess it shows that there is not as big a difference between us as we like to think.Saddahmer Hussein - Forget Hitler and Stalin; Saddam's role model was the cannibal from Milwaukee. By Christopher�Hitchens: "However, to believe that the Saddam regime had nothing to hide is to believe that he threw out the U.N. inspectors in 1998 and then said to himself: 'Great. Now I can get on with my dream of unilaterally disarming Iraq!' Who can be such a fool as to believe any such thing? But that's how Jeffrey Dahmer got away with it for so long: There are enough kind-hearted and soft-headed people around who don't recognize evil even when it is glaring them brazenly in the face."

Blow-Back in Baghdad - Rumsfeld's brilliant war plan has an ugly aftermath. Here's how to fix it. By Fred�Kaplan: "Blow-Back in Baghdad
Rumsfeld's brilliant war plan has an ugly aftermath. Here's how to fix it.
By Fred Kaplan""I'd like to get a third party in there to take a look," Bremer is quoted as saying. But then he realizes there are no third parties. "Have we got anyone in this country that's not us?" he asks. Afraid not. This has to change. And this means Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the rest have to ...

Swallow hard and make nice with the Germans, Russians, Canadians, even the French and the U.N. Unilateralism, however appealing, doesn't work.

Gee, I wonder if anyone, like maybe Liberals, kept pointing that out long before this ever started. But then again when did this start? 9/11?

The issue here isn't whether GWB purposely lied. The issue is how shoddy is this administration? These guys are second rate hacks. At least that's my opinion. I'm sorry.Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: "Condi Rice gave a fifty-minute briefing on Air Force One today in which she explicitly sought to pin the blame for the entire matter on CIA Director George Tenet. "

Rumsfeld vrs. Al Qaeda. Is this a fair fight? I guess that this is the way the world goes around. We need revenge, but in doing so we put our weakest up against their strongest.Whopper of the Week: Donald Rumsfeld - Oh, that IAEA finding … By Timothy Noah: "Whopper of the Week: Donald Rumsfeld
Oh, that IAEA finding …
By Timothy Noah
Posted Thursday, July 10, 2003, at 3:49 PM PT


'Q: Secretary Rumsfeld, when did you know that the reports about [Iraq seeking] uranium coming out of Africa were bogus?


'A: Oh, within recent days, since the information started becoming available.'
—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, answering a question posed by Sen. Mark Pryor, D.-Ark., at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services committee, July 10."

catagories and dimensions are two very philosophical terms. Dimensions, to me, are related to dialectics. Dimensions have polarity, and polarity is the essence of opposites. Catagory is a term that seems to be always popping up. The ability to discern catagories seems to be one of the prime functions of thought. I see the term used often. I need to go back and look at it some more sometime. I know I'm weaseling out here. This is very poor blogging conduct. I wonder how often I'll be finding myself doing it.Psychiatric Times: " change our basic diagnostic stance to a dimensional rather than a categorical one. "

Someone has a negative view of psychiatry? This is about the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but it could be about the whole profession. I suppose I should have some sympathy. Mistakes by these people are more the rule than the exception. Still some of they will care for you when by definition no one else knows what to do with youPsychiatric Times: "is a laughingstock for the other medical specialties;
requires continual apologies to primary care doctors, medical students, residents, and the occasional lawyer or judge;
most of our thoughtful colleagues privately rail against;;
insists upon rigid categories that often serve only to confuse and misinform patients and their clinical workers (sometimes abetted by televised drug advertising);
is so intellectually incoherent as to raise eyebrows among the well-educated, critical thinkers in our own psychotherapy clientele;
persuades the world at large that psychiatry no longer has anything of interest to say about the human condition."

Dean's supporters "have been energized by the willingness of Howard Dean to do what the DLC and the Democratic leaders in Washington have been so unwilling to do: match George W. Bush word for word, and call every lie he tells a lie."Among Democrats, The Energy Seems To Be on the Left (washingtonpost.com): "'The DLC strategy of waffling GOP-lite centrism has been a near total failure for the Democratic Party,' "

Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to have these wild fluctuations from one wild extreme to the other? One thing centrism might be able to do also is keep the Democrats in power longer. On the other hand look at Reagan/Bush. Reagan was no moderate. I think, however that we were in a real conservative cycle that this Bush might be the last part of. I was 18 when Nixon was elected. I was 42 when Clinton was elected. In that time there were four years of Jimmy Carter. I would call that a big conservative cycle! Now Bush is catching the tail end of it. At least that is what I hope this is.

Slowly it grows (outrage). Inch by inch. Step by step.Why the CEO in Chief Needs an Audit (washingtonpost.com): "Still, all these restatements suggest a business plan that was both flawed from the start and implemented with an appalling level of incompetence. Despite that, the CEO of this mismanaged operation is not held accountable and remains popular with the shareholders"







I'm having a real problem deciding whether to add my comments in the beginning or at the end. I guess I need to try both and then look back over the end product and judge which works better.

This is a perfect analogy to the whole current political and milatary situation. Outrage fatigue is slowly being generated. It will take a lot to balance out 9/11, but we will get there eventually. We always do.Crash caused Lynch's 'horrific injuries' - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics: " The deadly March 23 battle in Nasiriyah, in central Iraq, has emerged as perhaps the most famous incident in the war � both for what happened and for what was reported to have happened, but did not.
The Army's 15-page report officially will debunk accounts that Pfc. Lynch emptied two revolvers at her attackers and was shot and stabbed before being taken prisoner of war. In fact, she was riding in a Humvee that was struck by a projectile"

Abbas threatens to resign as Palestinian prime minister - The Washington Times: World: " RAMALLAH, West Bank � Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas threatened to quit as premier and resigned from a key post in Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement yesterday, reflecting turmoil within the Palestinian leadership over negotiations with Israel. "

In a letter to Mr. Arafat, he said he would step down as prime minister unless he gets clear instructions from Fatah over how to handle contacts with Israel.
Fatah officials said Mr. Abbas' move might be a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Fatah members to give him greater flexibility in the talks.

This is a perplexing situation for me. On the one hand I feel like Arafat is a hero to his people. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. On the other hand they seem to be making real progress with this new guy. This might be an illusion, however. We might be back to the same old same old in a couple of months or less. Stay tuned. (like we could tune it out if we wanted to)