A cautionary tale

Where your $700 billion in bailout money is going:
banker's pockets
other bankers' pockets
And not at all to where we need it.

This is a fun one- I laughed out loud. Just scroll over elements and click on them ...you know the routine.

And this is just ...interesting. And I mean really interesting.

Today is St. Crispin’s Day. Saint Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers! *cough*

In 1825, Johann Strauss II -the Waltz King- was born.

In 1838, Georges Bizet was born.

In 1881, Pablo Picasso was born.

In 1917, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky seized power in Moscow, from the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky, who had assumed power in July, indirectly following the abdication of Nicholas II in March. Nicholas turned power over to his brother Michael, but even as early as the 1905 uprising, all hope for the ruling Romanovs was lost. Michael hoped to hold an election, with “universal suffrage,” in which he would be elected leader of Russia, but the dice had been rolled long before. Historians differ as to whether Michael was ever actually Tsar. If he was, it would have been for only a day.

In 2002, Senator Paul Wellstone was killed under mysterious circumstances in the midst of a hotly contested election.

In 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney was revealed to have been the leak of Top Secret information regarding the identity of deep-cover CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Our country is ill.

It has cancer.

Is this what 'victory in Iraq' looks like? 'Coz it looks an awful lot like ignominious defeat, to me. Or maybe more like a dog running away from a fight with his tail between his legs.

From the New York Times:

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.

In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.

Given the particularly ugly nature of Mr. McCain’s campaign, the urge to choose on the basis of raw emotion is strong. But there is a greater value in looking closely at the facts of life in America today and at the prescriptions the candidates offer. The differences are profound.

Read the rest of that here.

Another intelligent conservative endorses Obama

Maybe, finally, a step in the right direction for the economy?

And some fun video:
Jon Stewart on Republican divisiveness
Ron Howard shows his stripes
The ultimate (un-)endorsement

On this day in 1260, Chartres Cathedral was dedicated.

In 1929, George Crumb was born. Economists call it "Black Thursday," but not because of Crumb; they wouldn't have heard his weird music yet.

In 1945, the UN was born.

Priceless

Oh yeah, Reagan "won" the cold war. What's all this, then?

This kinda bothers me. How is it going to be helpful to erase memory? What will that do to the lessons learned from the experience? "This occurred without impacting the animal's ability to recall any other memories, the scientists say." How do they know? Did they ask the mouse? How would it know what it didn't remember? This is not only dumb science, it's dangerous: more like tinkering with your calculator to see what it'll do when you drag a screwdriver across the circuits than anything actually resembling Science, or intellectual analysis. The brain is not a toy. Not even a mouse's brain. Respect, people: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Respect consciousness in all its forms.

In 1752, Nicolas Appert was born. He would live to invent the bouillon cube, and develop a new method of storing food, in cans.

In 1940, Pele was born. 1,281 goals in 22 years of soccer.

In 1958, Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced the Smurfs.

In 1959, “Weird Al” Yankovic was born.

In 1998, Swatch Internet Time was introduced.

Apples

Warm wishes to the Senator's grandmother and family.

Al-Qaeda endorses McCain while Ben Bernanke goes with Obama

Alaska funded Palin kids' travels

Keith Olbermann on fire

REPUBLICAN voter fraud ...the only kind anyone can find.

On this day in 4004 bce, at 6pm, God created the Heavens and the Earth, according to Bishop James Ussher.* Creation began at nightfall, around 6pm, but wasn’t official until the next day, a Sunday, natch. And in 1811, Franz Liszt was born.

We have apples coming out of our ears. These trees are dropping apples the size of volleyballs (well ok, not really volleyballs, but easily the size of croquet balls). I did not know apples would get that big. They do! We've tried two apple pie recipes so far, and made more applesauce than either of us thought we would eat (but we did, already). Admittedly, most of them have a bug or two, and a lot get nibbled by critters before we can get to them, but that still leaves us a LOT of apples to deal with. The city picks up yard waste every other week in a 60-gallon barrel- we've filled ours probably six times this summer, it's full now, and there are probably another 20 gallons of apples on the ground, and that's to say nothing of the big bucket of good apples I've picked that are just waiting to be made into something. I had been thinking that we might want to spray the trees for bugs next year, but now I'm almost afraid of getting more apples than we could even get rid of. As Phil said- at least they're not hedgeapples! Mmmm hedgeapplesauce....

No, still no pics of the new work yet: I've been busy takin care of more urgent business. Soon though, soon. I'm working on it!

El Dia de la Nacho

Feast day of Saints Hilarion and Ursula (and her 11[000?] virgins).

International Day of the Nacho (U.S. and Mexico).

In 1760, Katsushika Hokusai (printmaker: “Thirty-six views of Mt. Fuji”) was born.

In 1772, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (“Kubla Khan,” “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”) was born.

In 1805, Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson, leading the British fleet, defeated a French-Spanish alliance at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson was injured, but just lived to see the end of the battle, after which his crew preserved his body in rum.

In 1917, John B. “Dizzy” Gillespie was born.

I had the privilege of seeing Dizzy play once, in a park near 12th and Vine streets in downtown Kansas City. He had probably played in clubs within blocks of there, fifty years earlier when it was still the heart of the city (the neighborhood was just beginning a renaissance at the time I saw Diz). He walked slowly; you could tell the stairs to the stage weren't easy, but once he got up there, he smiled and lit up like a firework. It was a great time.

I'm still working on shooting my recent work. It's hard to do without proper lights!

You deserve a break

So, no political news today.

Horse stuck in a tree. No kidding.

You got yer Neolithic, and yer Paleolithic, and then you got yer stone age...

On this day in 1890, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton was born. In 1973, President Nixon, in a last-ditch, selfish attempt to save himself from exposure to “the whole Bay of Pigs thing,” that the Watergate investigation threatened to reveal, overstepped his reach and ordered the dismissal of Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy AG William Ruckleshaus resigned in protest. Solicitor General Robert Bork later did the dirty work. This was the Saturday Night Massacre.