Swamp Musings

Hanoi Approved of Role Played By Anti-War Vets

BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB - Special to the Sun
October 26, 2004

The communist regime in Hanoi monitored closely and looked favorably upon the activities of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War during the period Senator Kerry served most actively as the group's spokesman and a member of its executive committee, two captured Viet Cong documents suggest.

The documents - one dubbed a "circular" and the other a "directive" - were captured in 1971 and are part of a trove of material from the war currently stored at the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University at Lubbock. Originally organized by Douglas Pike, a major scholar who is now deceased, the archive contains more than 20 million documents. Many are available online at the Virtual Vietnam Archive and, as the election has heated up, have been the focus of a scramble for insights into Mr. Kerry's anti-war activities. The Circular and the Directive are listed as items numbered 2150901039b and 2150901041 respectively. Their authenticity was confirmed by Stephen Maxner, archivist at the Vietnam Archive.

The two documents provide a glimpse of the favorable way the Viet Cong viewed the activities in which Mr. Kerry was involved...

Click the link and read the rest.

Here's another link, decently indexed:

John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi's American Puppets?

Newly discovered documents link Vietnam Veterans Against the War to Vietnamese communists

Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman.

The Circular: International Coordination of Antiwar Propaganda

The first document is a 1971 "Circular" distributed by the Vietnamese communists within Vietnam. It discusses strategies to coordinate their national propaganda effort with their orchestration of the activities of sympathetic counterparts in the American anti-war movement. Specifically, the document notes that the Vietcong and North Vietnamese delegations to the Paris Peace talks were being used as the communications link to direct the activities of anti-war activists meeting with them in Paris. To quote from the document:

The spontaneous antiwar movements in the US have received assistance and guidance from the friendly ((VC/NVN)) delegations at the Paris Peace Talks.

-- Circular on Antiwar Movements in the US. The reference to "VC" indicates the Vietcong; "NVN" is the North Vietnamese government.

This sentence is particularly important in light of John Kerry's admission that he met with leaders of both communist delegations to the Paris Peace Talks in June 1970, including Madame Binh, foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam, also known as the Vietcong. FBI files record that Kerry returned to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese delegation in August of 1971, and planned a third trip in November...

Click the link for more and to be able to use the internal links.

Turned on the teevee first thing this morning wondering what SeeBS would have to say about HMXGate. SSDD (same ‘stuff’, different day). Nada, except for Kerry bellowing about the total incompetence of Bush. Then they had an interview with former prez Billy-Bob talking about the voter base, dems and pubs both being about 45%. I’ve got some thoughts on that but it’ll keep.

I got my morning load of humor when I went over to Drudge. 60 MINS PLANNED BUSH MISSING EXPLOSIVES STORY FOR ELECTION EVE
Much SeeBS asshattedness. It’s possible that the NYT has saved them from another RatherGate. I especially enjoyed the last paragraph of the article:

“"Darn, I wanted to see the forged documents to show how this was somehow covered up," the Bush source, who asked not to be named, mocked, recalling last months CBS airing of fraudulent Bush national guard letters.”

NYTrogate is a pretty telling video snip from NBC News.

What DID rattle my chains was a dem ad on taxing evil corporations and “the rich”. Obviously those nutjobs are confident in the total ignorance of the unwashed ones. Corporations never pay taxes. Never. Raise taxes on a company, the company passes it along to the consumer. Raise them high enough, the company can’t compete with imports so it outsources production. Where did those jobs go? Raise tariffs to level the playing field? Kinda hard to do what with the WTO and all but those evil overseas companies never pay tariffs anyway. It gets passed along to guess who? ..yep. You. It’s a win-win situation for the bureaucrats, it even gives them endless excuses to continue raising revenue for redistribution. Mean, miserable, greedy corporations, we’ll show them…

Now we get to those “evil rich” that make $200K or more each year. I don’t know how accurate the 70% of new jobs are generated by small businesses figure is but it seems reasonable just judging from years of observation. A lot of them are ma and pa outfits, partnerships, sole proprietorships, and some go the LLC routine if they can stomach the additional raft of paperwork. All of them are going to have to put up with a veritable flood of permits, licenses, OSHA, EEOC compliance, EPA (much more intrusive than you think), workman’s comp, sales tax collection and compliance, inventory accounting and taxes, scads more depending on the nature of the business.

For talking purposes, I’m going to leave out the various incorporations. Practically speaking, incorporating makes sense only if the revenue is over $200K except for manufacturers of consumer goods or has consumer traffic (tort lawyer magnets) in which case, regardless of revenue, a LLC and a huge liability policy should be in place before the shingle is hung out.

Proprietorships get bit bad. Firstly, medical insurance isn’t deductible and for a healthy family of 4, runs over $9,900/year here in Florida. SSI, not deductible, scratch another $13,311 for the government Ponzi scam. It’s truly amazing how many things in the way of capital equipment depreciation/replacement or facility improvements are NOT allowed, can’t come up with a general estimate but from my own experience, runs about 20%. Subtract another $40K from the deductible list.

There are so many “surprise” expenses that can happen, especially with a dual-use facility (prepare for an IRS audit if declared, expect to be denied) that I’m not going to list them, too business specific to generalize.

Let’s see what we have: $200K X 33% = $66K tax owed. Subtract non-deductible business/medical/SSI expenses, $63,211 plus $66K from the net and the proprietor has been rewarded $70,789 for the year providing there haven’t been any FUBARs. God help the poor bastard if a tort lawyer or a particularly aggressive IRS auditor comes a-visiting. Storm damage is also amazingly poorly reimbursed by that wonderful insurance company with the sky-high premiums.

$70K is a pretty nice income for the poor SOB that has spent a good third of his year just fighting his way through the mountains of paperwork without getting a damn thing done. 16 hour days, 7 day work weeks just to TRY and be useful in the little company (wife and kids? What wife and kids?).

Ah, the evil rich. Let’s jack his sorry ass up another 10% per year. It’s only $20K and he can afford it. Betcha we could make it 20% and the hind-gut fermenters that voted us in would just squeal with delight!

Abolishing the IRS is way overdue. Between the unbelievable regulatory bureaucracy and the hopelessly complex tax code, the US is no longer competitive in the world market, it’s not even competitive in the domestic market. It is high time the FairTax, H.R. 25, gets a proper hearing. It has a chance if GWB is re-elected, it has no chance at all under Kerry.

I see Drudge is messin’ with TRUTH as Kedwards would like one to believe again..

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON OCT 25 2004 22:45:05 ET XXXXX

NBCNEWS: HUGE CACHE OF EXPLOSIVES VANISHED FROM SITE IN IRAQ -- AT LEAST 18 MONTHS AGO -- BEFORE TROOPS ARRIVED

The NYTIMES urgently reported on Monday in an apprent October Surprise: The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives are now missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

Jumping on the TIMES exclusive, Dem presidential candidate John Kerry blasted the Bush administration for its failure to "guard those stockpiles."

"This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration," Kerry said.

In an election week rush:

**ABCNEWS Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 4 Times
**CBSNEWS Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 7 Times
**MSNBC Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 37 Times
**CNN Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 50 Times

But tonight, NBCNEWS reported: The 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives were already missing back in April 10, 2003 -- when U.S. troops arrived at the installation south of Baghdad!

An NBCNEWS crew embedded with troops moved in to secure the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility on April 10, 2003, one day after the liberation of Iraq.

According to NBCNEWS, the HMX and RDX explosives were already missing when the American troops arrived.

It is not clear why the NYTIMES failed to inform readers how the cache had been missing for 18 months -- and was reportedly missing when troops first arrived.

The TIMES left the impression the weapons site had been looted of its explosives recently, and since Iraq has been under US control.

The TIMES reported: "The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday."

[In a fresh Page One story set for Tuesday on the matter, the TIMES once again omits any reference to troops not finding any explosives at the site when they arrived in April of 2003. Attempts to reach managing editor Jill Abramson late Monday were unsuccessful.]

"The U.S. Army was at the site one day after the liberation and the weapons were already gone," a top Republican blasted from Washington late Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors last saw the explosives in January 2003 when they took an inventory and placed fresh seals on the bunkers.

Dem vp hopeful John Edwards blasted Bush for not securing the explosives: "It is reckless and irresponsible to fail to protect and safeguard one of the largest weapons sites in the country. And by either ignoring these mistakes or being clueless about them, George Bush has failed. He has failed as our commander in chief; he has failed as president."

A senior Bush official e-mailed DRUDGE late Monday: "Let me get this straight, are Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards now saying we did not go into Iraq soon enough? We should have invaded and liberated Iraq sooner?"

Top Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart fired back Monday night: "In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame. Instead of distorting John Kerry’s words, the Bush campaign is now falsely and deliberately twisting the reports of journalists. It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous."

Developing...

* * * * * *

Ouch..

..more ouch

CNN - Report: Explosives already gone when U.S. troops arrived
NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time

Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Posted: 0545 GMT (1345 HKT)

(CNN) -- The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a network embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived.

NBC News reported that on April 10, 2003, its crew was embedded with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division when troops arrived at the Al Qaqaa storage facility south of Baghdad.

While the troops found large stockpiles of conventional explosives, they did not find HMX or RDX, the types of powerful explosives that reportedly went missing, according to NBC.

The International Atomic Energy revealed Monday that it had been told two weeks ago by the Iraqi government that 380 tons of HMX and RDX disappeared from Al Qaqaa after Saddam Hussein's government fell.

In a letter to the IAEA dated October 10, Iraq's director of planning, Mohammed Abbas, said the material disappeared sometime after Saddam's regime fell in April 2003, which he attributed to "the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security."

Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003. According to NBC, troops from the 101st Airborne arrived the next day to find that the material was already gone.NBC News says its crew was embedded with soldiers at time. ...snip..

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Now let's see if I've got this right (I'm simple-minded), Baghdad fell on April 9 and when the US Army got to the Al Qaqaa site on the 10th, 760,000 pounds of high explosives had been spirited out overnight, right, Mr. Kedwards? Whyfo I have such a problem believing that? That's 19 fully loaded (and I mean LOADED) tractor-trailer rigs worth. That's a tough job even when the sky isn't full of fancy aeroplanes with fancy imaging systems that like to make big things really tiny. Each truck would be carrying 10 times the weight of Timmy McVeigh's Oklahoma fertilizer bomb and HMX/RDX is vastly more powerful. Loading and running 19 truckloads of that out overnight under rather adverse conditions stretches credibility a tad. Methinks it had been gone for quite a while.
..along with a hell of a lot of other 'stuff'..

It must be an awful thing to be a Democrat these days. Lord, what a piece of crap they've saddled themselves with. Even that moonbat Howlin' Howard would have been better. Kerry has shown himself time after time over his entire career that he has no comprehension of the difference between fantasy and reality, truth and fiction. His record from when he enlisted in the US Navy Reserves in Feburary, 1966 to this presidential campaign is so pitiful, so self-aggrandizing, it's hard to even understand how he has gotten this far. This latest by Joel Mowbray at the Washington Times is just more of the same.

Security Council members deny meeting Kerry

By Joel Mowbray
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

An investigation by The Washington Times reveals that while the candidate did talk for an unspecified period to at least a few members of the panel, no such meeting, as described by Mr. Kerry on a number of occasions over the past year, ever occurred.

At the second presidential debate earlier this month, Mr. Kerry said he was more attuned to international concerns on Iraq than President Bush, citing his meeting with the entire Security Council. ...snip...

* * * * * *

John Kerry, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, 3 December 2003

Thanks to some friends in New York, I was invited to come up and meet with the Security Council in the week prior to the vote, and I wanted to do that, because I valued my vote. And I wanted to know what the real readiness and willingness of our partners was to take this seriously.

So I sat with the French and British, Germans, with the entire Security Council, and we spent a couple of hours talking about what they saw as the path to a united front in order to be able to deal with Saddam Hussein.

John Kerry, speaking to the Boston Globe, 10 December 2003

I spent a lot of time before the vote looking at this issue. I went up to the United Nations at the request of some friends. And I met with the entire Security Council in a room just like this at a table like this. I spent two hours with them. (inaudible), just me and the Security Council, asking them questions. The French ambassador, "Is there a time when President Chirac would be ready to come on board? What do we need to do to move the French people to a place where they understand the stakes? Are you prepared to spend money? Do you believe we might have to use force in order to disarm Saddam Hussein? At what point would you be ready to do that?" I went through that with all of them.

John Kerry, speaking to campaign rallies as reported in the New Yorker, 19 July 2004

Because I might well have been in Iraq if Saddam had stiffed the U.N., continued to not allow inspections, hidden things. But I would have brought other countries to the point of impatience with him. Then they would have been there with us. And the President could have done that. I know it because I spent the time to go up and meet with Security Council representatives. I talked to them at great length prior to the vote....I came away convinced that they were serious, that the resolutions did mean something, that they saw it as a moment for the U.N. to stand up for itself.

John Kerry, speaking to the Unity: Journalists of Color Conference, 5 August 2004

I believe in my heart of hearts and in my gut that this president fails that test in Iraq. And I know this because I personally, and others, were deeply involved in the effort with other countries to bring them to the table.

I met with the Security Council of the United Nations in the week proceeding the vote in the Senate. I voted to hold Saddam Hussein accountable because, had I been president, I would have wanted that authority, because that was the way to enforce the U.N. resolutions and be tough with the prospect of his development of weapons of mass destruction.

John Kerry, speaking to the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 26 September 2004

At the time, I said and I supported the president, but I said look, you ought to take an extra period of time, if the French have some reservations, let’s put it on the table. Let’s have a U.N. Security Council meeting. I met with the security council personally one week before the vote, and I asked the French ambassador and the British and the Germans and the others, ‘What are you prepared to do?’ And all of them said they were prepared to stand up and enforce the resolutions of the United Nations, but they wanted the time to do it properly.

John Kerry, speaking to the American people in the second debate, 8 October 2004

I went to meet with the members of the Security Council in the week before we voted. I went to New York. I talked to all of them to find out how serious they were about really holding Saddam Hussein accountable.

I came away convinced that, if we worked at it, if we were ready to work and letting Hans Blix do his job and thoroughly go through the inspections, that if push came to shove, they'd be there with us."

More on this from Redstate's Trevino here. Do you think that meeting is seared, seared in his memory? ...or maybe he was just sharing a smoke with some old buds from Cambodia and got a little fuzzy in the old memory...

* * * * * *

His stellar 20 year career as the junior senator from Mass doesn't speak well for the pretender to the office of POTUS. We've got a county councilman down here in Frogfart, Florida that has a far better resume'.

* * * * *

Kerry's Dishonorable Discharge
by Mark Alexander

October 23, 2004

"Never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing..."
--Thomas Jefferson

"Reporting for duty"? For a guy who's hitched his entire presidential campaign to his military service record, John Kerry sure is parsimonious when it comes to releasing that record. As noted in this column on more than one occasion, Kerry has consistently refused to sign a Standard Form 180 authorizing the Department of Defense to release all of his records.

George W. Bush's military records were so spotless that Dan Rather gleefully trotted out some fabricated documents in order to kick up a little dust. Of course, if Rather were a real journalist rather than just a TV talking head, he might actually develop a source who could find out what the remaining (approximately 100) pages in Kerry's DoD service jacket reveal.

What, exactly, is Kerry hiding? It is already common knowledge that most of his celebrated heroics were spurious, and that most of his medals were without merit (see "Kerry's Quagmire" at http://FederalistPatriot.US/alexander/ ). But given that the cat's already out of the bag, why not just sign the Standard Form 180? ...snip...

* * * * * *

It's worth clicking on the link and reading the whole thing.

* * * * * *

Paul Jacob has a bit of humor (black, of course) with Flush Congress.

Rachel Lucas has an excellent rant at Can't. Take. Any. More. I want to have her babies.

Anne D. Kaufmann has an excellent spoof on the Washington Times story. Not for tender eyeballs!

Here's The Ultimate John Kerry Ad. Opens in your audio player.


* * * * * *

If you've had enough Kerrycrap to last a lifetime and have studied his record, you might consider signing the Online Petition from the Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth.

* * * * * *

" All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be. But if, as in propaganda for sticking out a war, the aim is to influence a whole people, we must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public, and too much caution cannot be extended in this direction."

"The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out."

- - Adolph Hitler from "Mein Kampf"

.......now we know the secret to Kerry's success. 'tis true, the American voters are truly stupid and getting stupider every year.

************
10:45 PM

...just in (for me), in Dover, New Hampshire, Democratic hopeful John Kerry branded President George W. Bush's administration arrogant, blind, incompetent and guilty of "great blunders" after the disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq(AFP/Hector Mata)

This is "interesting", especially since the explosives vanished before US troops ever got there. Hmmmm, BIG news on C. Do you think they'll clear this up? I actually watched it this evening looking for the tiny little Kerry error about his meeting with the UN Security Council. nada.

That ad is allegedly from 1948 but I know at least one can made it into the fifties. When I was a little kid, I was used to seeing things with faces being prepared for the dinner table but when my mom opened a can of this stuff and took its innards out, something told me that this wasn't right.

That cute pup at the bottom of the previous post is Rima. She's 3/4 GSD and 1/4 Handsome Stranger (granny was a loose lady). She's as sweet as she can be but she's at that age where everything must be munched; clothes on the clothesline, potted plants and their containers, recently reduced my 100' extention cord into several smaller sections, all perfectly normal. She also does the random crap routine and will get over it eventually just like all the other critters did and take the biz down into the woods, usually around the end of the first year.

This week I've been out with Cindy (my loppers) and an axe opening up the lane down here as I need UPS to resume service as my drop shipments seem to be getting dropped off randomly and are sometimes hard to find. That's not right.

Since Fall vanished and the temps went back into the upper 80's, I've taken to the cutoffs and kerryboots again and anyone that wears kerryboots know what poor, sloppy footwear they are, no traction and no stability at all. Well, I was sectioning an overhanging water oak limb, not paying attention to my footing, just avoiding the bamboo thorns that were after my legs when zip, my foot went out from under me and I made a 2-point landing. Left knee into the thorns, right hand in a fresh, steaming Rima land mine. That wasn't right. I'd lost my footing in, you guessed it, another land mine. That wasn't right either. Since Rima is of somewhat unknown parentage, I figure she can be a new breed. Shit Sue.

I'm sure there is something wrong with this as well.

Just got my Alltel bill for the month. My DSL rate just went up 57%. Goodbye DSL. **sob!** If I resume dialup service with them (used it from 1997), THAT rate is up 59%. Hello NetZero. This is wrong.



La Grippe of the Trial Lawyers

From the October 25, 2004 issue: Guess who's to blame for the flu vaccine fiasco.
by William Tucker
10/25/2004, Volume 010, Issue 07

JOHN KERRY wasted no time jumping on President George Bush about the unexpected shortage in flu vaccines this year. Why wasn't Bush paying attention? He should have done things differently. And of course Kerry had a "plan" to solve the whole mess.

If Kerry thinks he can solve the flu vaccine problem, he need look no further than his own running mate, trial lawyer John Edwards. Vaccines are the one area of medicine where trial lawyers are almost completely responsible for the problem. No one can plausibly point a finger at insurance companies, drug companies, or doctors. Lawyers have won the vaccine game so completely that nobody wants to play.

Two weeks ago, British regulators suspended the license of Chiron Corp., the world's second-leading flu vaccine supplier, for three months. Officials cited manufacturing problems at the factory in Liverpool, England, where Chiron makes its leading product, Fluvirin. Chiron was scheduled to supply 46 million of the 100 million doses to be administered in the United States this year. The other 54 million will come from Aventis Pasteur, a French company with headquarters in Strasbourg.

So why is it that 100 percent of our flu vaccines are now made by two companies in Europe? The answer is simple.

Trial lawyers drove the American manufacturers out of the business.

In 1967 there were 26 companies making vaccines in the United States. Today there are only four that make any type of vaccine and none making flu vaccine. Wyeth was the last to fall, dropping flu shots after 2002. For recently emerging illnesses such as Lyme disease, there is no commercial vaccine, even though one has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

All this is the result of a legal concept called "liability without fault" that emerged from the hothouse atmosphere of the law schools in the 1960s and became the law of the land. Under the old "negligence" regime, you had to prove a product manufacturer had done something wrong in order to hold it liable for damages. Under liability without fault, on the other hand, the manufacturer can be held responsible for harm from its products, whether blameworthy or not. Add to that the jackpot awards that come from pain-and-suffering and punitive damages, and you have a legal climate that no manufacturer wants to risk. ...snip...


This is really not good.
THE DEMON IN THE FREEZER


This is almost as much fun as a crushed nut.
Arm-to-Arm Against Bioterrorism

..."Smallpox is the most deadly disease in our species’ history. Variola virus causes this disease and humans are the virus’ only natural host. It is transmitted person-to-person, most commonly through the air. Infected people exhale the virus from blisters in their mouth, and anyone who comes within 10 feet of a smallpox victim can inhale the aerosolized virus and catch the disease. There are no currently available anti-viral measures that doctors can use to treat smallpox. Antibiotics don’t work. "...

It ain't sustainable.
The Reimportation Blues

..."What's to be done, then? Clearly, the situation today is politically unsustainable, as events are proving. The ban should be lifted, therefore, not to encourage reimportation, which isn't likely to happen, but simply to allow market practices to surface. Today, with their high-profit American market protected, companies don't have to bargain hard abroad. The ban shields them, allowing them to claim they have to accept foreign price controls. Practically, Americans are subsidizing socialized medical systems abroad."...


I wanna try this at home!
Vaccine production relies on quaint system

* * * * * *

Sunday, June 13, 2004
Since Britney Spears released her album "In the Zone" last November, more than 15,000 Americans have killed themselves.

Last Tuesday I linked Spanish flu with a few comments. Did a little (very little, been busy) more digging wondering what would happen if a badnasty, either manufactured or natural got loose given present vaccine development and production. For general reference, Reuterville has this to offer:

U.S. Rejects All of Chiron Vaccine, Seeks More

snip.. "Crawford said the FDA and British regulators would work with Chiron to get the plant into good shape for next year's flu season. Influenza vaccine takes months to make and preparations should start in January for next season's vaccine."

The contamination was serratia. Doesn't sound too friendly. Don't think I'd want to have a batch injected.

Michael Fumento checks in with The Feds' Flu Shot Fiasco

But a real killer is this article by Jim Copland at Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy. Note the date.

* * * * * *

Liable to Infection Flu vaccine in short supply partly because of trial lawyers and 'tort tax'
December 14, 2003

By Jim Copland

The recent flu epidemic has brought to the fore a serious public health concern: the vaccine shortage in America. As flu shots must be rationed by the only two manufacturers, many are left to wonder why our vaccines are in short supply.

A partial answer? The same nefarious culprit that afflicts so much of our national economy to the detriment of our health and safety—the expansion of liability driven by Trial Lawyers Inc.

Little wonder that the five remaining vaccine manufacturers in the U.S. have had to spend more time and money defending lawsuits than researching new vaccines, and that no new entrants are rushing to enter the market.

From the early to mid-1980s, as tort litigation exploded, the number of U.S. vaccine manufacturers fell from 15 to three. In response, Congress in 1986 passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Congress realized that vaccination was crucial to the public health but that vaccines, by their very nature, almost inevitably lead to sickness in some of the vaccinated.

So Congress took vaccines out of the courts and instead created a "no-fault" system, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, in which a compensation system awarded individuals injured by a vaccination quickly, generously and without legal hassle. Vaccine recipients retained the right to sue, but only after they had first exhausted their remedies under the no-fault administrative process.

The flood of vaccine-related litigation slowed; to date, under the no-fault system, over 1,700 families have received well over $1 billion for vaccine-related injuries and complications.

In recent years, however, the congressional safeguards have been eroded as enterprising trial lawyers have circumvented the law. How? The litigation industry's ever-creative attorneys have filed suits alleging that thimerosal, a vaccine preservative designed to prevent bacterial contamination, causes autism and other neurological disorders.

Arguing that thimerosal is "an adulterant or contaminant" rather than a vaccine component, the plaintiffs' bar has increasingly put pressure on the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in an end-run around Congress's design.

Unsurprisingly, the trial lawyers' claims about thimerosal are unsupported by scientific evidence. Thimerosal contains mercury, which in high doses can cause neurological damage; and in 1999, Environmental Protection Agency researchers concluded that, in theory, a combination of vaccines in infants could lead to blood mercury levels slightly exceeding EPA guidelines.

But subsequent research determined that, in actuality, even the highest blood mercury levels in vaccinated infants was within the EPA's hyper-cautious guidelines. No scientific study has found any link between vaccines and autism.

The World Health Organization continues to endorse the use of thimerosal as a preservative, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends giving flu shots to children as young as 6 months old—even though the vaccine is still made with thimerosal.

Despite the dearth of scientific evidence and opinion of the public health community, the Clinton administration in 1999 recommended that thimerosal be pulled from vaccines, and vaccine manufacturers, when possible, began to do so.

Spotting a new market, and a long-desired means to circumvent the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, Trial Lawyers Inc. rushed in. By the end of last year, over 190 thimerosal cases were pending, including at least 12 class actions. One class-action claim demanded $30 billion—that's five times the entire vaccine market itself! The tort tax on vaccines combined with government-imposed price controls makes vaccine manufacturing increasingly unprofitable and underlies the eight vaccine shortages we've seen since 2000.

The solution? Congress could begin to control the renewed vaccine litigation explosion by clarifying that vaccine additives included in the vaccine license, such as thimerosal, do not lie outside the scope of the law.

Some in Congress did insert language to that effect in the homeland security bill—only to provoke a histrionic response from the trial bar and its allies on the Hill. But the merits of the case for the statutory clarification remain clear.

By reaffirming the 1986 act's intent, our lawmakers could help ease the problem that has left so many Americans worried about immunizing their children.

* * * * * *

Time to get on the rack, got 2 miserable jobs facing me tomorrow before getting back to whacking a few more holes in the jungle. Think I'll relax with Robin Cook's "Vector". ..a nice, light read.

A forum post about what happens to one's absentee vote if one buys the farm before the election got me thinking since I was born in and will probably die in the croaker state. According to Florida Statistics Publications, Table 7, there were 151,374 folk kinda my age and up that took the eternal dirt nap in 2003. The 3 leading formalin consuming counties were 1) Dade, 2) Broward, and 3) Palm Beach. No wonder they had such a hard time with the chads in 2000! Ectoplasmic beings usually don't have much physical engagement with this plane of existence! However, according to the Florida Division of Elections, on absentee ballots, "One request can cover all elections within a calendar year."

There has been a small odor rising due to a scad of 'volunteers' running around nursing homes this year registering and 'assisting' in the voting process... No, they are not Republicans.

..just went and looked up the county by county voting record for Florida in 2000 from Polidata. Pretty kewl, eh? Betcha can't guess the names of the 3 big red (Dem) ones on the bottom! ;o)



Chicago, ya ain't got nothin' on us! ;o) Feel sorry for the poor little red one in the top-middle. It's the county where the U of F is located and always votes slightly to the left of Lenin.

I rather expect howls of voter fraud unless the election is a runaway. The entire voting system is fubar, IMO due to anyone with a body temperature above minus one Kelvin (n/0) seems eligible. I've been fiddling around with a modest proposal for a while that might patch a few errors. Yep, got my asbestos undies on! You're welcome to add to these unkempt thoughts, got a couple of edits to add myself!

Silflay Hraka has a thought or so at Me Am Exercising Mine Franchise that makes sense. Obviously it'll never happen.

Lunch time is over, back to the jungle wars...

Yesterday couldn't have been much better. Got up at my usual time a couple of hours before dawn with the temperature dropping down to 44 degrees before the sun rose. All kinds of nice after a truly miserable summer but definately time to consider putting up the cut-offs and kerryboots for the moment. Got a bunch of outside stuff done then pre-flighted Rustbucket for my first serious attempt at grocery shopping since 8/29. The attempt was successful, even came back with a fresh spindle of CDR's to patch my cobbled files (eventually). Got everything unloaded and put up, then back to the appointed tasks thinking how nice it was gonna be having something other than bean sandwiches and bean soup for supper! Made a monster trash omelette with homemade hash browns, then rattled away on the keyboard with a couple of interesting (to me) observations made in town before picking up my present book, a kinda history of Edwin Paul Wilson, then fading into a coma with the 'X-Files' on the teevee.

Woke up with missing parts as expected. Kinda out of shape and certain bits wouldn't work per original specs. Made tea (first in over a week, outa everything), morning rituals, then took the cuppa to the 'puter. A wheel on the chair broke, spilled tea. Good start. Email consisted of 1 newsletter, 2 Nigerian cons, and a phish 'from citibank'. Yeah. No Lileks to brighten my morning on Sunday so perused the various bits of news and found this bit of boot scrapings:

Kerry Says Bush Plan Could Lead to Draft

Oct 15, 12:59 PM (ET)

By The Associated Press

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., second from left, and his running mate...

There is a "great potential of a draft" to replenish U.S. forces in Iraq if President Bush wins a second term, Democratic challenger John Kerry said on a campaign stop in Iowa.

Bush said in the second presidential debate that there would be no revival of the military draft under any circumstances if he is re-elected. "We're not going to have a draft, period," the president said.

However, Kerry told The Des Moines Register, "With George Bush, the plan for Iraq is more of the same and the great potential of a draft." The interview was published Friday as Kerry was leaving for Wisconsin and a speech on the economy.

* * * * * *

I don't know what they are smoking up in the DNC these days but I sure don't want any. Do they realise that H.R.163 - Universal National Service Act of 2003 is entirely sponsored and co-sponsored by dems?

Bills HR 163 and S 89 have been introduced, prior to the War in Iraq by Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Ernest Hollings (D-SC)respectively.

CO-Sponsors of HR 163:

Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 1/7/2003
Rep Brown, Corrine [FL-3] - 1/28/2003
Rep Christensen, Donna M. [VI] - 5/19/2004
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 1/28/2003
Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] - 1/7/2003
Rep Cummings, Elijah E. [MD-7] - 1/28/2003
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-23] - 1/28/2003
Rep Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2] - 7/21/2004
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 1/28/2003
Rep Lewis, John [GA-5] - 1/7/2003
Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] - 1/7/2003
Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 1/28/2003
Rep Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] - 1/7/2003
Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12] - 1/28/2003

Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC] - 1/28/2003(withdrawn - 6/21/2004)

The bill went down 402 - 2 with only Stark and Murtha (D- PA) voting yea.

Isn't Kerry the one that wants to generate a couple of additional battalions so he can 'deal' with the 'nuisance' of all those misunderstood, pesky non-members of the UN with his non-supporting French and Germans?

* * * * * *

Next pass maybe I can indulge in some good DNC stuff, like the desire for something to be true regardless of the facts. Right now, the chainsaw calls.

// posted by Bogdaddy @ 2:27 PM 0 comments

No politics today. Maybe never again. Well, except for Kirsten.



Yesterday dawned absolutely beautiful. 54 degrees with my glasses on the stand by the open window. Put them on and wondered if I'd developed cataracts overnight. Warm face, cold specs, instant foggy windshield. Eversonice, wandered around for a couple of hours before looking for a bit more in the way of coverings (painful mental image, eh? ;o) just enjoying whole-body goose bumps. Two months from now this dawg will be barking a different tune.

Cleanup and winterizing get to work together this year. When the abode and environs seem totally hopeless (I'm still working under the assumption they're not), it takes a while to get some type of rhythm going. There ARE other things necessary, cooking, general housekeeping (HAH!), attempting to do things to fund the homebrew, dawgfeed, and bean sammich habits, that kind of stuff. ...plus the piles of paperwork, looong, aggravating story... Yesterday was typical except for the fortunate change of weather making it highly desirable to do outside stuff but.. Got 2 hours in the morning, then 4 hours at the attempted product goodies, then 2 more hours loading Rustbucket with more bags of choking, mildewed debris for the dump. I'd noticed the rear tires looked a bit low, figured it was just the weight but measured anyway. One was at 18 lbs, the other at 15. Many years ago I had a young GSD pup, maybe around 6-8 months old at the time, that was gnawing on one of the tires. Ssssssssssss. He looked bemused. Nyerlathotep (as a pup) also liked to play 'fetch' with concrete blocks.

Back to the low tires - on the way to the dump in the early evening, I stopped by a convenience store that has had an air hose out front since before Highway 90 was built. Re-pressurized all, then decided to go buy a spare pouch of Bugler. The fella clerking was bringing out tired hot dogs and passing them out to a trio of old sooner hounds that had gathered. It's a daily ritual, no eager eater stuff, they'd take their goody and just amble back across the parking lot. I went in and talked with the young man for a while, just country stuff with a few chuckles, bought my Bugler and left. BTW, the Bugler was WW II surplus. Extra-crispy. Hard to roll.

Well, I did leave. ..in a huge cloud of smoke. Yep, another hydraulic line blew up. Made the dump, made it home, then spent the remaining daylight draining the system which had to be done with the engine running. Messy. Bad way to finish up an otherwise decent day. Not too sure what to do about it yet but since the line is original with Rustbucket, I can't grouse too much. Unfortunately since the line goes from a steel line to a swaged flexible to a different size steel line that snakes all over the place to another swaged flexible to another steel line that vanishes into the deep, dark undercarriage with another set of the above (at least), it'll probably cost approximately 18 times what I could get for Rustbucket at salvage. It also looks like a 2 day job to change. Children, can you spell 'diminishing returns'?

Time to get back to work for a while..

Aren't you glad that's over? It's not necessary for me to blog about it, folk like Hugh Hewett did a fine job with his Presidential Debate Scorecard and assorted comments. I'd have ranked some parts a bit differently but all in all, I'm sooooo happy Jesus Forbes Kedwards only made a jackass out of himself rather than going psycho and having to be replaced by her. Also, if you just want a light, funny read, I recommend VodkaPundit, much good blogger humor. I stayed sober, just wound up mixing a few glasses of bi-carb.

Just came across this gem from Kerry's hometown newspaper, the Lowell Sun. Endorsement: George W. Bush for president. The MSM was all over GWB's little hometown paper editorial like stink on dog squeeze but seem to have missed this for some peculiar reason. Wonder why? If the Lowell Sun archives end, I've got the text archived.

Now for some linkage in reference to Tuesday's post about NO2 emissions with NASA goodness. (Drew is a bad influence)
NASA's Terra Satellite Tracks Global Pollution
Visible Earth (atmosphere)
Cities Built on Fertile Lands Affect Climate
Global Population Trends (New Scientist)

Enough for a starter. All these links are good and for most of the imagery, DSL is kinda cool.

**news flash**...FCC will not stop "Stolen Honor" anti-Kerry program from airing. In light of imminent flame war, Drew enables "liquid cooling" for Fark server by dunking it in keg of beer...

I thought this shaggy dog story, especially the name of the county, was pretty good! A nice grin with which to start the day.

A bit of humor for the afternoon:

“When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again..” Praise be to Jesus F Kerry! Sheesh. I wonder if John the Baptist Edwards is setting up his post 11/2 employment back in NC? Faith-healing and snake oil sales would be far less damaging enterprises than his previous two.. ..he might be pretty good at the faith-healing, after all he was able to channel brain damaged folk (handy in a faith healer) and the unborn. Got the touch, yes indeedy he does. Lots of space on cable teevee for him to peddle his remarkable skills. Ben Shapiro has a hilarious column about J the B Edwards today.

What was even more fun, a local radio talk show this afternoon had one host that did the very best faith healer gig I've heard since a tent meeting outside of Theodore, Alabama most of a half-century ago! Fortunately I wasn't using any sharp tools!

From: Best of the Web Today - October 13, 2004
By JAMES TARANTO

Honorable Discharge?

In today's New York Sun, Thomas Lipscomb reports on the latest mystery involving the Vietnam service of John Kerry, who by the way served in Vietnam:

*** QUOTE ***

An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well-kept secret about his military service.

The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in itself is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.

According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was "Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163." This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr. Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honorable discharge.

A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There has been no response to that inquiry.

*** END QUOTE ***

In the absence of an explanation from the Kerry camp, Lipscomb offers some speculation:

*** QUOTE ***

There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges. There is one odd coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued. But when a dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr. Kerry's medals were reissued.

*** END QUOTE ***

We're not sure what to make of all this, but certainly the story of John Kerry and Vietnam is more nuanced than the simple tale of heroism he sold his party and is trying to sell the country.
-------------------------

Why Kerry never signed a SF 180 beats the heck outa me unless he's got something that really needs hiding. Did you know a dead rat in the woodpile smells just like a well-fed rattlesnake?

-------------------------

"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs."

Theodore Roosevelt, January 1897

Repairs are going way too slow, I think I'm changing the 'human habitable' condition until Thanksgiving, 2005 (providing there are no more 'canes). It seems the bugs might have put more than tick spit in me last time as well, can't seem to get my energy back but that may be possibly related to being kinda overwhelmed.

That, and totally burned-out on political crap. Normally it's enjoyable listening to the radio when getting through a day, not at all anymore. There are a couple of critters running for congress that must think people have a memory shorter than last week. If ANYBODY votes for those two meadow muffins, they should have their citizenship revoked, providing they have such. This being Florida, it's a pretty good bet THAT voter bloc was just recently imported.

After a typical day when I feel like I've been a bee at a silk flower show, tired, grumpy, just want to make a scratch supper and enjoy a teevee show and book, back-to-back-to-back batshit pol ads, some so insulting to even my feeble intelligence that I wanna throw my bean sandwich at the screen, I Thank Algore for internet radio. What would I do if the most brilliant, sane, beyond any other genius hadn't invented it just for me? (yeah, my pants legs are rolled up)

Thinking of Algore (less is better), there's an interesting article on NO2 global emissions over at the ESA site. Click on the hi res jpeg, 1.6 mb and admire the plumes. As much as folk are glooming and dooming over 2 buck gas, it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than when Prez Peanut ran the store. Taking the 4X (low figure for inflation), I recall paying over $1.50, sometimes higher, therefore $6/gal back then in California. Not happy-making as I was driving a 440 magnum Charger back then!

The point made is the level of juice use (coal as well) has gone up dramatically in other countries, specifically India and China. With a combined population of close to 10 times that of the US and rapidly growing energy intensive economies, fuel competition is really going to become stretched. NASA has an excellent photo archive of envirosat material and I'll look it back up and link it if asked. It's over on my IE favorites and I don't wanna go there right now (I'm crabby).

Got a kick out of this little bit of loveliness about the Spanish flu. Wonder if it'll get loose? Also, the bacterial contamination of half the US supply of flu vaccine this year is curious. Didn't know it came from Britain but I've never had a flu shot. Could Britain have had a little problem with sabotage? Last year CDC reported somewhere around 36,000 deaths by flu, down from over 64,000 in 98-99, wonder if it'll get jacked-up this year?

There's two more items on the platter but both will get me going about as bad as the deleted bit earlier starting in on child abuse and can be dealt with when I get shed of the crabs. Got a couple of nice pictures as well but they'd be wasted. This one fits for the moment.

Rae, young friend, old goat-roping buddy, it's safe to post comments to the blog. You can sign in or not, tried a spurious shot using the name 'Yusef Islam', text 'You are a Yankee dog Imperialist, you will die, and we have your address." with the email addy of alzark @ farku.fla

I added the spaces so it wouldn't link. Also, the fun part, it was accepted as a post, displayed WITH the email link. Promptly edited out by me.

And no, I wouldn't even think about bullshitting a bullshit artist. Computer security seems to be a full time occupation of all too many folk these years. The better it gets, the more kode kiddies want to game it. Some collect big bucks, few get caught. It's tempting, "money for nothing and the chicks are free". Yeah. I know a couple of class 1 crackers, yeah, I've tested some of the tools. ..buy new hard drive, burn all backups, reload, pretend one never did it.

I'm still responsible for 2 other folks websites. Tried to convince them otherwise 1) 2 years ago, and 2) 3 years ago. Provided them with access to licensed, paid-for software, told both of them I've absolutely NO interest in continuing, outa here. It was done free, just for "friendship", 'nuff. Horrible and very true, proveable things can be presented for one, the other is just a long time retiree from New Joorsie! 2) may be dead, neither of his phone numbers have answered for the last 2 years, possible his widow went back to New Jersey. The web domain name expires this month. sobeit.

Of course I've 3 of my own, another shared, and a whole bat-shit of knuckleheads that want me to field THEIR nightmares. I've a tremendously funny site that needs to be shared for folk that actually get paid for this crap. I'll link it somewhere down the page when the best start-point can be identified. Some sites can be so difficult and his is awful.

Rae, back to the alternate forum, I had to install some serious firewall/virus/blocking stuff a few years ago. Took someone else's puter and web access to download some serious tracking software, cleaned it (warez is wonderful, don't do it at home! ;o), and it has been entertaing to watch and track various traffic into this point. 80/minute is typical on THAT site, normal is about 3. I've never paid anyone a penny to post on a forum including THAT one, won't. Ever. Free speech is exactly such, the method of communication is up to the vendor/receiver. Don't like it, don't bother. The venue will fade. I've a looong babble on that. It'll keep. I know that needs an answer and it will be provided.

Today was the first time I've seen a human since 22 Sept and he was running a 'load' with his buddy from S. Florida. ..guess the crack supply has been kinda gettin' low outa Florida for a while.. Why did the fellow talk to me? That's easy. I was outa tobacco, in theory I had 2 more week's worth, it became a packed mass of Florida fungus, besides, I've been wanting a cola for 2 weeks. People are interesting live and in person. Some might be nice to be around. No, the yankees need cocaine, why fuss about the fellows.. Besides, being swamp-bound for months, the dress style (rope belt on cutoffs that were 3 sizes too big, disgustingly logoed tee shirt, Kerry dress boots) and the B-26 is a dead givaway. Could it have been the hat?

**by request, the last paragraph has been deleted. Explaination later, no harm, no foul.**

Yesterday was pretty productive, lots more stuff got put back in place. Of course, nothing near as good as desired but a good start. Most days are going to be pretty much the same for the next month. Took a photo of the results of the last action before sitting down to watch the town hall debate, notepad opened, cup of tea ready.. Transcribed, commented and linked all kinds of html stuff, just having a field day for the first 20 minutes. By then I'd snorted tea out of my nose twice and the second time was actually on the keyboard! Pause to save 'stuff', shut 'puter, clean wet board, reboot, all whilst listening. Back to notes (no tea) until the end, then turned off the teevee, turned on internet radio (Brazil this time, no political ads and the commercials are in a language that I don't understand), and got serious with the keys. Much fun, didn't even grouse about having to do all that html stuff. Somewhere between 12:30 and 1 AM, felt the need for an adult beverage. Homebrew in the fridge, a few bottles of last year's hard cider laid by, but there were 2 jugs of that Old Janx Spirit in the pantry. Never ever ever mix broadband, attitude, and that Old Janx Spirit! Sheesh! Kept it up until around 3 AM, tossed the results into a browser, fixed a couple of spacing errors, decided 'this is really good, got up to make myself more comfortable, considered pouring another glass of TOJS but went outside to smell the air and scratch dawg heads. Dawgs are reasonable people mostly. Eventually I came back in, reviewed the work-in-progress, yep, Michael, you post THAT and you better call the dawgs in and load the shotgun. Saved it, poured a glassful, turned off Radio Brazil, picked up a book, then greeted the sunrise 2 hours late. Shoot me!

Suzanne, when I read your 'quote of the day' earlier, I thought to post a bit of fun from Will Rogers and a snapshot of your backyard (spoof shot) that's been residing on my desktop since June. Didn't fit. This one kinda fit the photo and my unfortunate observations about proliferation.

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property either as a child, a wife, or a concubine must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science the science against which it had vainly struggled the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

Winston Churchill, 1899

Shoulda eaten my sandwich, picked up my book, and taken a nap. The back-up washing machine backed-up (trannie on the house machine died last Thursday). Kept filling. The mower won't start. The blade on the chainsaw was seriously loose, now I remember why - cut a LOT of hickory windfalls last season, ran out of adjustment range. Won't use it again until buying a new one as this one just might decide to jump the rails and wrap itself around my punkin' neck (probably a plot by al-Zark).

The dump is open until 6, the mailbox is open all the time, wonder if Rustbucket the Truck will start?



It has had a rough life recently what with catching on fire, having the dawgs dig huge holes under it and getting it stuck, and Frances dropping a tree on the poor thing. Just noticed the right hand rocker panel is about to fall off. You'd think after 238,000 miles, I'd have mercy on the old beast and just put it out it's misery..

Haven't been out to see if my asbestos jock strap is in the mail yet but a bit of humor courtesy of Jeff Kay is kinda cool.

Neal Boortz has a cute photo on his site today as well.

Rand Simberg has an excellent interactive Officially Authorized, Internationally Recognized Global Test available. Much fun!

I see the Swifties have run a full page ad in the St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday and today. Pretty potent stuff. Jane was a hottie, must have seen Barbarella a dozen times! ;o)

..got to go watch a 20 quart pot even if, "a watched wort never boils"..

Makin' progress on semi-re-civilizing this joint. If it doesn't rain between now and Thanksgiving, I may be able to get it back fit for human habitation.

Loved those clean sheets and decent meal last night. Got my book, a 30 year old shoot-em-up (boy's version of the girl's Harlequins ;o), then turned on the teevee hoping to stay awake long enough to see Brian Binnie on Letterman. Made it but barely, mostly in the twilight state between awake and coma but before the show, was treated to scads of back to back pol ads. Major league barf but one was intriguing. Florida has the idiot system that allows it's Constitution to be amended by a majority popular vote, go look at it sometimes. 'tis true, poor Florida has one of the stupidest voter bases in the US. We've even got a Protect the Pregnant Pig Policy in it now. The intriguing one stated that Florida kills 31 people a day in our medical system so I did a little googling earlier and came up with some stats. According to Florida Capital News, there were around 45,000 medical licenses in Florida as of December, 2002. Let's see, 31/day = 11,315/year. That means each med license holder gets to kill someone every 4th year. Now, going over to Casualties.org, there have been 916 Coalition troops killed by hostile fire during the last 20 months. (916/20)/30 = 1.53 deaths/day. 31/1.53 = 20.26 . That seems to indicate our med license holders have a 2,026% higher kill rate than all the Islamogoons in Iraq. Could it be Florida's medical system is actually the major drive of al-Quieda?

Still not running on all cylinders but got to wash & dry a couple of loads of clothes since before Charley. This is probably the wettest summer I've experienced in most of my 54 years of Gulf coastal living and three of the four 'canes here on top of a July monsoon can be described as 'squelchy'. Front yard mud halfway to the knees, s-l-o-w-l-y drying out, house finally got partially flooded when Jeanne dumped her load. Enough already.

The "lemon fresh goodness" came from the first FRESH SHEETS in a long, long time, a 45 minute scorching shower and CLEAN, CRISPY towels but I was out of shampoo. Lemon fresh Joy had to serve. I smell like I'd be good to squeeze over a plate of Steinhatchee oysters! Herbed, baked chicken with Brussel sprouts plus rice & gravy for supper, then a book and bed. I've missed nice, clean sheets. Tomorrow, three more loads to wash and dry, haul out 2 months of trash, pick up two weeks of mail (bills? yep), maybe try to mow some paths back in the jungle IF my chainsaw still works and can get some of the downed trees & limbs out of the way. Optimism.

...start a blog on Friday, last post on Saturday? Actually I had a perfectly good excuse. Woke up Sunday morning with chills and fever, picked 17 ticks off of my carcass including 3 that had gotten deeply embedded. Knew I was in for a few days of misery. Finally got feeling well enough to fix a modest supper last night and will probably be back up to par by Sunday. Of course I'm now nearly a week behind where I'm supposed to be and if I don't do it, it doesn't get done..

When I get a little caught up on chores, got a few thoughts to share.

This turned out to be this non-coffee drinker's coffee morning. I got an email from the DNC (yes, I subscribe, that, and a batch of others) with 'Urgent voter registration deadline' as the title. Being just myself and kinda bemused with the normal end-of-the month stuff, quite aggravated with Kerry's " The United States is pursuing a NEW (caps for strength of yell) set of nuclear weapons", got all fussy and all-nighter.

Where does that boy come from? Sheesh. Put B61-11 in Google, enjoy the results. His non-hod-carrier, WJC, approved such stuff years before. This is a modestly interesting site, still open as of now. You can find better. I did. As soon as my asbestos undies appear, lots more links will appear.

..about the email non-giggle, not fun at all. It's at the DNC Register to Vote easy fraud site. Sooooo easy. Did a bit of research by telephone this morning with a young 'un at the local CC, I suspect that it is totally out of hand by now. Hopefully the kids are not using MY address for deliveries! ;o)

Actually, this is not funny at all.

...of the Southern coast that is. In just a few weeks 4 hurricanes have rather moistened my native State. Twelve years worth of the buggers in less time than it takes to brew a quick batch of beer.

Living on the coast of semi-tropical Florida has always been hyped as a dream situation. Even way-back-then in the 'before' manufactured housing and the forays into the unknown territories, folk have lived where the seasonal storms WILL come and hammer them. That last link is kinda cool, "Motoring tourists homecoming, Arcadia, Fla., Jan. 4-10, 1932". Notice the defoliated condition of the background? The denuded condition of the Gulf coastal regions is the way it is and always has been. Sometimes there are quite a few years between the big storms and trees grow tall. People with reasonable smarts never build where the tall, skinny trees are scant and all leaning in one direction...

What can I say? Florida is knee-deep in folk that all want to live in paradise. Truly, coastal living is awful nice. I'd like to do it.

Having been a devoted space nut since years before Sputnik, no suprise that I've followed the X Prize since its inception. With no cable or sat teevee available, went to watch it on DSL and was mightly disappointed with the service quality. Not suprising due to over a quarter of a million folk 'tuning in' to what was credited as provided by AOL!

If you were interested, you probably saw it. My poor 'puter chair got a bite taken out of it when the "non-sheduled maneuver' occurred. Rand's blog has some reflections and comments but the best is from Spaceflight Now.

I'm ahead of myself (brain farts are common for those with brainfungus! ;o). While watching the run-up to the launch and listening to the various folk making speeches that worried me (pride cometh before a fall), a rather stunning, erudite young lady speechified. I took a snapshot of the screen:



...then went looking for her. Wonderful! Here's some links to a visionary lady:

Failure Was Never an Option
Anousheh Ansari on SiliconIran
AMERICA'S 40 RICHEST UNDER 40
Working Women
PowerPoint presentation

It seemed time to join the blogosphere, thought I'd give it a try. As I tend to be rather opinionated, the heavy stuff won't start to appear until my asbestos pajamas arrive.