Yeah.. it’s memes… lots of memes. Some are pretty old, some are really new and topical (such as the one I’ll start with here):
Now, here is Gallery #1.
I received this in an e-mail this morning. It’s too funny NOT to pass around.
That’s my contribution to the upcoming Tax Season humor. We’re all going to need it if people keep electing Democrats.
Sleep did not come easy last night, so I decided to crack open my new book “Destruction Generation – Second thoughts about the 60’s“.
Having grown up in the Bay Area (California, for those few East coasters that think they matter) during the 60’s and 70’s the topic of the first books chapter was incredibly interesting.
It talks about attorney Fey Stender, who infamously defended Huey Newton and George Jackson, members of the Oakland based Black Panthers. I remember those times well. When the Panthers were able to march the streets of Oakland, in roving bands of armed pseudo-militia. Monitoring the police. Since my grand parents lived just a little north of Oakland, I vividly recall my young imagination running a little wild with fear encountering them in our travels around some of the less desirable parts of the East Bay.
The more I read, the more learned about how this woman even directly affected my life! She was responsible for the landmark decision during this time to abolish the California law banning husbands in the delivery room. Gee.. THANKS lady.
The chapter was full of names I knew, like Betty Ann Bruno, and Angela Davis. Talk about taking me back to my childhood.
It’s full of information from people there at that time, living, breathing, fighting and dying for the Revolution. She ran with some of the most radical communist groups and personalities of the times. What I didn’t know, was how many of these groups splintered and re-formed over and over again trying to attain some sort of relevance. Once such group was “Revolutionary Union“ (now known as the Revolutionary Communist Party USA), which after a botched attempt by George Jackson’s son to hijack a plane to Cuba, which resulted in the death of a Judge, his son and two other prisoners, splintered part into the “Venceremos Brigade” which eventually splintered again and re-formed as the infamous “Symbionese Liberation Army“ which kidnapped Patty Hurst.
But there were other shocking revolutions in the book. An area just a few miles southwest of where I grew up was described this way:
Agents had infiltrated the Panthers and Jackson’s “army”. As well as a training area, the Santa Cruz Mountains had become a killing ground, where the burned corpses of “soldiers” thought to have been informers were hastily buried, leaving shards of bone in full view.
Even today, some areas in those mountains ARE NOT places to go wandering around. As recently as two years ago myself and 2 friends were nearly jumped by some ‘hillbillies’ (for lack of a better description) while riding motorcycles on a public road near their mountain homes. Strange things go on in those mountains.
There were associations with other radical groups including the Weathermen (which, as it turns out is the next chapter in the book).
In the end, for all the had work Fey Stender did to free Huey Newton and other Panthers, on May 28, 1979 the past caught up with her, and the very people she spent so much time fighting to help, put out a hit. At 1:20 AM and she was gunned down in her Berkley Home, the gunman asking her “Don’t you feel you betrayed George Jackson?”. She survived the shooting, becoming paralyzed from the waist down and in chronic pain from the 5 bullet wounds, finally taking her own life 6 months with sleeping pills, in Hong Kong.
The chapter included many interviews with people who were there at the time, both prime agents in the cause and those moving around the peripheral. So far it’s been an interesting, informative and compelling read. So far, I’m glad I didn’t put too much stock in the New Republic’s review of this book.
I’m a fairly avid reader, seldom without at least one book to read. In fact I have two I’m working through right now. And by working through, I mean, working. Both of these A Beautiful Math and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information are pretty technical in nature, so they are not a typical casual evening read.
Digressing, while fighting off a nasty cold, I took in a little television time on Saturday, the 9th Anniversary of that terrible day in New York City. Obviously there was little on the national broadcast crap-fest, nor the typical brain-dead cable fare to tide me over. But, I flipped onto CSPAN (a guilty pleasure, I’ll admit) and caught most of the 3 hour panel hosted by Lynn Spencer, a commercial airline pilot, whom wrote the book Touching History, The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11.
I was a fascinating panel discussion. The first panel was comprised of FAA and ATC personnel that were on the front line that morning, trying to sort out disaster, land nearly 5000 planes, and re-route the remaining International flights to other countries. The second panel was comprised of commercial pilots flying when the attack happened, and Air Force pilots that had to intercept countless commercial jets, with orders to shoot if they did not comply.
Stories of a airport in Canada that was stacked 30 planes deep, fighter squadrons recalled from a training mission to be re-armed and then briefed on the rules of engagement for shooting down passenger aircraft, pilots that saw the planes hit the buildings while they were trying to land, others simple told to ‘get out of the area, just leave’.
It was a moving 3 hours of television. I felt compelled to go find this book, but sadly, our local book store (I’m not even sure why I waste my time at Barnes and Noble) did not carry it. I know I can get it online, but I’d like to spend my money local, and support stores that carry books such as this.
When I do get the book in my hands, I will be sure to read, and post my thoughts. In the mean time, you might look into it as well. If the book is anything like the articulate author I watched on TV, I’m pretty confident that I will not be disappointed.
UPDATE: 23-SEP-2010
Try as I might, absolutely no luck in finding the book in a brick-and-mortar store. Too many ‘Vampire Stories’ filling the shelves. A rather sad commentary on America’s literary tastes. Not all is lost, the book is in transit as I speak from an online e-tailer. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be sure to blog when I’ve started to read.
Looks like it will be here sooner than estimated!
Lynn Spencer "Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11"
Previous estimated arrival date: October 07 2010 - October 15 2010
New estimated arrival date: September 29 2010 - October 02 2010
While here at home, watching it rain today, I began to wonder what the rainfall trends have been over the last 100 years, and if there is any obvious correlation to the increase or decrease, when compared with the so-called ‘Climate Change’ that is so much in the news.
While poking around the net I came across we chart produced by The Aquinas Project (some sort of research group), but I found it interesting, so I’m posting it here.
What the chart shows, with annual and decade long rainfall trends overlaid is that.. compared to 120 years ago, average rainfall (at least in the search city they chose) is nearly identical.
So, this raised the question for me. Now, I’m not saying I believe that ‘Global Warming’ is happening at all. Frankly, it’s not, and honest good science proves that. BUT, what this chart shows, based on NOAA data (or so they say) that there is NO long-term effect on average rainfall.
So this makes me ask the question:
Assuming Global Warming (or Climate Change.. pick your BS lable) is real, WHO CARES!??! If it’s not affecting the most easily measured weather ‘symptom’, does it really affect humans at all? And let’s be frank here.. we like to say we’re all about nature, but in the end, it’s survival of the human race we are REALLY worried about. Sure, there are some pathological types that aren’t but, who cares about them? I don’t.
So I ask again… if we’re not even seeing more rain.. does it even matter?
I also wonder what the annual U.S. losses dues to weather related natural disasters plot would look like over a similar period (inflation adjusted of course).
Why do I ask that question? Well, because our ‘Great Savior President Obama is promising $100 BILLION dollars of our money to combat this ‘SO CALLED’ problem.
Well, if we’re loosing less than $100 BILLION a decade to natural disasters then I say STOP wasting money trying to prevent them and put that money into damage mitigation!
New math. This explains a lot of things.
While riding the ferry to Seattle yesterday, I could not help but overhear a conversation between what was most certainly (in my eye) a heavily Liberal leaning older woman, and a pair of travelers from the UK.
Talk of Tony Blair, George Bush and Gordon Brown (whom the travelers thought was a complete mistake), eventually moved onto the topic of health care. This sparked my interest.
It’s a single point. An opinion from one person whom lives in the UK, and is very familiar with England’s version of Universal Healthcare;
WA Liberal:
“How do you like your healthcare?”
He’s simple frank response.
UK Traveler:
“Rubbish!”“I’ve been waiting since April for a checkup.”
“If you have an emergency, you can get treatment.”
I would certainly hope so!!
So.. straight from the mouths of those the live under Socialized Health Care.
“RUBBISH”.
It was sad, but again slightly amusing, listening the Liberal try to paint our world leading health care as ‘as almost as bad as that in the UK’. Hm.. well, with Obama.. soon our health care will be worse!
At least this Liberal, and I think many more than the Democrats want to admit, think that changing the entire system to help a few with under or no insurance is a BAD idea. Anyone that’s been in a Federal program (like the V.A.) probably has an opinion on the ability of the Federal Government to administer any thing more that nt. purchase of $5000 toilets.
Now, there’s change we can all get on board with, right? Personally, this is not the sort of ‘Change’ I want, and, other than a core group of fanatics, neither does anyone else.
It has been 8 years now since that horrible morning in 2001 when a 4 planes, commandeered by cowards, murdered US Citizens and struck at us, hoping to shake the very foundation of this great land.
Somehow the conversation at work devolved into us finding this little gem:
Hemp for Victory. 1943 Film by the US Government. It’s 10 min. long, and seems to have been sped up a bit during digitizing. According to the websie where I found this, the film was VERY difficult to locate, and a usable copy was not located until 1976!.
Here it is, hosted on YouTube… at least until someone in the US Government puts a stop to it:
Airbus fly-by-wire systems have been under scrutiny since their 1988 ‘debut’ in the A320. A less than stellar demonstration this technology:
Now, the http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6612165.ece are reporting that these same systems, combined with potentially defective pitot tubes, are being blamed for a pair of crashed, and have reported in many non-fatal events where failed speed sensors made the aircraft very difficult to control.
The first US incident occurred on May 21 when a TAM Airlines flight from Miami to Sao Paulo, Brazil, lost primary speed and altitude information while in cruise flight. The other was on a Northwest Airlines flight, on June 23, from Hong Kong to Tokyo.
Accounts on the internet from the pilots report a desperate struggle to keep the jet in the air.
Article: Airbus could be asked to ground all long-range airliners
There have been two storm related Airbus incidents in the last month. I’m sure many are looking into the possible connections.
As one of my favorite bumper stickers says:
If it ain’t Boeing, I’m not going!