Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

I’m putting this short video up tonight so that people can hear for themselves how Tucker Carlson bragged about slamming a gay man’s head against the wall. It includes the audio of Tucker Carlson speaking.

Category Five means catastrophic. Hurricane became a Category Five hurricane overnight. That’s the second Category Five hurricane in the Caribbean this year. Think Hurricane Katrina, only it’s Central America that’s being devastated instead of New Orleans. Honduras and Belize are getting the brunt of this one, and will the Yucatan be ravaged yet again?

A link that we all should become familiar with: The National Hurricane Center.

Oh, you went right down to Texas
With your banner near unfurled
And they told assembled buses
As they sit and knit and purled
That they couldn’t vote in straw polls
For all the money in the world
But His Troops Are Marching On!

Ron Paul, they’re setting out to screw you
As if they hardly even knew you
But if they did, they wouldn’t do this to you
Your Troops Are Marching On!

They can steal the vote in Texas
They can mock you in debates
They can try to shut you up
When you show up five minutes late
But they made their last mistake
When you they underestimate
Your Troops Are Marching On!

Ron Paul, you know that I adore you
No matter how much they all abhor you
And soon, I will be voting for you
YOUR TROOPS ARE MARCHING ON!

RON PAUL 2008! HOPE FOR AMERICA!

I am writing here although my friends told me not to because they said you were hopeless. I say you are THIS CLOSE to seeing the light, which is why you are struggling SO HARD against it. Look. Ron Paul is for HOPE in this country by saying YOU and YOU ALONE can be responsible for your destiny. Choose your path! Take responsibility for your actions! Don’t expect government to solve your problems. Don’t expect government to get into your personal affiars. Live Free or Die! This is the USA envisioned by the framers of our state-centered constitution. This is the USA we need to get back to. This is the USA Ron Paul will take us back to, not by being a perfect leader, but by being the person who lets us all LEAD OURSELVES again, in freedom and liberty. Open your minds and you will see it is so.

RON PAUL 2008!

I was at an ice cream shop yesterday evening, buying a scoop of ice cream for my son after his first day at school. As I was standing in line, I saw a a row of boxes on the shelf next to me, with a label that read “Traditional Crepe Mix”.

Some people may be too removed from their rural roots to remember the days when the folk would work in the fields by day, and come home at dusk with baskets full of their traditional crepe mixes, to use for the following week’s breakfasts.

Where has that tradition gone? Don’t leave the old ways behind. Show your traditional values. Go buy a crepe mix.

A wave rising up
establishes its descent
even as it swells.

So, Osama Bin Laden, who once was regarded as a terrifying threat to American lives but now seems more like an over-the-hill late night talk show host, has released a new video.  No dancing in it, shamefully.

In his new video, Bin Laden suggests that if America wants the Iraq War to be over, Americans should just convert to fundamentalist Islam.

Well, it’s a start.  I’m glad that Osama Bin Laden is willing to negotiate.

Here’s my counter offer, then.  I will consider converting to fundamentalist Islam if Osama Bin Laden converts to Buddhism first, as a good will gesture, just to show that people are all willing to change.  In order to help Osama Bin Laden feel confident in converting to Buddhism, I’m asking the Dalai Lama to become a Wiccan.  After all, everyone knows that there isn’t enough room in Nirvana for the Dalai Lama and Osama Bin Laden both.

The weekend before the attack, I was working, as usual, for one of New York’s mega-law firms on the 59th floor of the North Tower. I have no particular memory of that weekend. It was uneventful. Probably, at some point, I wandered around alone on one of the four floors that the firm occupied and availed myself of the view. I left work on Monday morning, at about 7:30 AM.

Next day, Tuesday, I got up to go to a 12-step meeting that was a few blocks south of the World Trade Center. The meeting, which was my home group at the time, met from 7:30 to 8:30. Usually, from there, I went to my current job, which was teaching ESL at a private school about a mile north of the Twin Towers. However, my hours had been cut, so I wasn’t going to work. So, my wife argued with me about the meeting, and I ended up not going.

Shortly after 9:00 AM, a friend of my wife’s called her to tell us a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I think she said “a small business jet.” I was concerned but not overly upset. During WWII, a fighter-bomber had hit the Empire State Building. I turned on the TV, and it was immediately obvious that this was no small plane. Shortly after, my wife and I went outside to the nearest street corner, which was line-of-sight to the towers. Along with hundreds of neighbors, we watched the huge plume of smoke for a few minutes, and then we went back inside. On TV I saw the second plane hit, and immediately realized that this was some kind of a terrorist attack. We went out again to watch but nothing much could be seen because of the smoke.

A few minutes later, on TV, I saw the South Tower fall. I refused to believe my eyes. We went out again and I swore I could see the tower hidden in the smoke. We went back inside and saw the North Tower fall. We went back outside. Soon, we were aware of crowds of people walking north away from the site, covered with dust. It took us a moment to realize that these were people fleeing the disaster. At one point my wife and I helped a tall, well-dressed old man, in his seventies, who stumbled and almost fell in front of us. As we caught him, he sobbed: “I feel so guilty!”

The next few hours were a nightmare of police cars, fire trucks, helicopters, etc. The fall of the towers was played over the air over and over again. At one point, my wife and I walked over to the local hospital, St. Vincents, with the idea of giving blood. There was already a huge line. Standing by the emergency room entrance were several dozen teams of paramedics, nurses and doctors, each with a gurney, ready to receive the survivors who never came. I could see the pain and fear on their faces as they stood there with those empty gurneys. We went home after awhile.

In the late afternoon, I determined to volunteer to help. I walked along the West Side Highway along with a bunch of construction workers who had been working on a building site in mid-town. We went through several lines of police to reach a location about a quarter mile north of WTC 7, which was still in flames. At that point, there were thousands of people milling around: local residents, people like myself who wanted to help and construction workers, paramedics, etc., who had genuinely useful skills.

After awhile, it was evident to me that there was nothing I could do personally. I watched WTC 7 being slowly engulfed in flames. It was obvious it was going to fall soon. I’m not a morbid type, so I walked home slowly as it got dark. I passed through Greenwich Village as I walked. The bars were full, but I was amazed that some people seemed to be relatively calm. As I walked though my neighborhood, Chelsea, people were already setting up the little shrines with candles that were all over the City for the next few months.

At home, my wife watched the videos of the towers falling and the streets filled with debris over and over. After awhile, I stopped watching. We eventually fell asleep at some point early in the morning. It was a bad day: a very bad day.

What kind of Republican values are these, that when one Republican brings out a valid criticism of another Republican, the critical Republican gets censored?

This week, a web site critical of Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign was shut down, so as to avoid upsetting the Republican orthodoxy. Apparently, Republican Party leaders did not want to allow any criticism of Fred Thompson, even valid criticism, on the off chance that Fred Thompson could become the Republican presidential nominee.

PhoneyFred.org, created by a Republican, pointed out the obvious: Fred Thompson’s record of one and half terms in the United States Senator was sadly mediocre. The site’s creator wrote, “You’re probably in the same boat: You can’t get the theme to ‘Law and Order’ out of your head, but can you name one thing that Fred did during his eight years in the United States Senate?”

Fred Thompson was not competent enough to do much in the Senate, and he isn’t competent to serve as President of the United States. Unfortunately, the Republican Party wants its followers to pretend not to see this obvious truth. They’re willing to sacrifice honesty for the sake of power.

PhoneyFred.org is now offline. The truth is still the truth.

Here is the full text of George W. Bush’s Executive Order of September 12, 2007:

“Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines flight 93, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, last extended on September 5, 2006, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2007. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

GEORGE W. BUSH ”

Nearly all of George W. Bush’s presidency has been a national emergency. There’s really nothing else to say, is there?

They call it “The Curse of Machu Picchu”. Oh, of course the academics and the newspaper reporters who write about their “mainstream” so-called findings won’t use that term.

It doesn’t take an advanced degree in paleontological microbiology to see that something is rather fishy about the death of Gene Savoy, the archaeologist who made a career out of discovering ancient lost cities in Peru, at sites such as Gran Pajaten, Gran Saposoa and Gran Vilaya.

Notice something in common about these ancient lost cities? They all begin with the word “Gran”, which my sources tell me is the ancient Incan word for “curse”.

So we come to the Curse of Machu Picchu. True, Gene Savoy did not discover Machu Picchu, but he did go there after it was discovered, and was linked with the original explorer of Machu Picchu, contaminated with a form of curse-by-association that locals call “appacaboyo”.

Too bad for Mr. Savoy that he never stopped to consider that the lost cities of the Incas were lost for a reason. Savoy’s son, who denies the rumors of a curse, admits that his father befell many disasters while attempting to unearth that which the tropical rainforests had reclaimed.

Gene Savoy contracted deadly diseases, was bitten by poisonous snakes, and chased by angry indigenous soldiers, all while working to uncover the secret cities of darkest Peru. Now, Gene Savoy has died.

Coincidence? If you believe that, I’ve got a lost city in Peru to sell you at a rock bottom price.

“New Realism: Crafting a US Foreign Policy for a New Century”
Governor Bill Richardson
Redacted from the Harvard International Review

US foreign policymakers face novel challenges in the 21st century. Jihadists
and environmental crises have replaced
armies and missiles as the greatest threats; globalization has eroded the significance of national borders. Many problems that were once national are now global, and dangers that once came only from states now come also from societies—not from hostile governments, but from hostile individuals or from impersonal social trends, such as the
consumption of fossil fuels. The piece does a credible job of laying out the problems before us and arguing that the Bush Administration has not taken the appropriate measures to deal with them.

The highlights of Richardson’s plans:

First and foremost, the United States must repair its alliances. US leaders also must restore commitment to international law and multilateral cooperation.

Promoting expansion of the UN Security Council’s permanent membership to include Japan, India, Germany, and one country each from Africa and Latin America.

Ethical reform at the United Nations so that this vital institution can help its many underdeveloped and destitute member states meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Expanding the G8 to include India and China.

The US government must join International Criminal Court and respect all international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions.”

On environmental issues, the United States must be the leader, not the laggard, in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by embracing the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, Lead the world with a man-on-the-moon effort to improve energy efficiency and to commercialize clean, alternative
technologies.

Stop considering diplomatic engagement with others as a reward for good behavior.

Various efforts including ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

The United States needs to start showing, both through its words and through its actions, that this is not, as the Jihadists claim, a clash of civilizations. Rather, it is a clash between civilization and barbarity.

Closing Guantanamo

The United States also needs to pressure Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other friends in the Arab world to reform their education systems, which are incubators of anti-US sentiment.

Spend more to develop first responders and to drastically improve public health facilities, which, five years after 9/11, are not ready for a biological attack.

The United States needs to lead the global fight against poverty, which is the basis of so much violence.

Encourage rich countries to honor UN Millennium goal commitments.

Lead donors on debt relief, shifting aid from loans to grants, and focus on primary health care and affordable vaccines.

Promote trade agreements, which create more jobs in all nations and which seriously address wage disparities, worker rights, and the environment.

Pressure pharmaceutical companies to allow expanded use of generic drugs, and encourage public-private partnerships to reduce costs and enhance access to anti-malarial drugs and bed nets.

Promote a multilateral Marshall Plan for the Middle East and North Africa.

__________________________________

I look forward to your comments.

GOP members of the United States Senate left the Senate chamber in a near stampede yesterday, when Senator Larry Craig returned to caucus with them. “Call my wife and let her know I didn’t let him touch me,” one GOP senator was overheard to say into his cell phone.

“It is outrageous,” said another Republican senator to PNN news service, “that Harry Reid refused to allow us to hold a vote on whether to take a special emergency cootie recess. The American people deserve an up or down vote on immoral sexuality in the Senate. Up or down!”

Mitt Romney’s campaign issues a press release explaining that, in protest of the return of Romney’s former ally to the Senate, the Romney for President campaign would refuse to even mention the word “Senate” for as long as Craig was in the Senate.

“Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?” asked Romney’s campaign manager.

Monster storms have nothing on scantily clad women.

I’m trapped in the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport because we’re under a tornado warning. Apparently, someone has seen a tornado moving very close by, and we have just been ordered away from all windows and doors. The airport emergency plan has been activated

Nonetheless, across the hall from me, at the Northshore News stand, a man has just bought an issue of Maxim magazine, which this month features a woman named Erica Durance wearing an outfit made out of black, translucent material.

T&A beats a twister. Smackdown.

Hey I just saw this news piece on Bill Richardson and thought you might want to consider why Bill Richardson is the best candidate for President of the USA in the world we have today.

Why We Should Exit Iraq Now, by Bill Richardson

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have suggested that there is little difference among us on Iraq. This is not true: I am the only leading Democratic candidate committed to getting all our troops out and doing so quickly.

In the most recent debate, I asked the other candidates how many troops they would leave in Iraq and for what purposes. I got no answers. The American people need answers. If we elect a president who thinks that troops should stay in Iraq for years, they will stay for years — a tragic mistake.

Clinton, Obama and Edwards reflect the inside-the-Beltway thinking that a complete withdrawal of all American forces somehow would be “irresponsible.” On the contrary, the facts suggest that a rapid, complete withdrawal — not a drawn-out, Vietnam-like process —would be the most responsible and effective course of action.

Those who think we need to keep troops in Iraq misunderstand the MiddleEast. I have met and negotiated successfully with many regional leaders,including Saddam Hussein. I am convinced that only a complete withdrawal can sufficiently shift the politics of Iraq and its neighbors to break the deadlock that has been killing so many people for so long.

Our troops have done everything they were asked to do with courage and professionalism, but they cannot win someone else’s civil war. So long as American troops are in Iraq, reconciliation among Iraqi factions is postponed. Leaving forces there enables the Iraqis to delay taking the steps to end the violence. And it prevents us from using diplomacy to bring in other nations to help stabilize and rebuild the country.

The presence of American forces in Iraq weakens us in the war against al- Qaeda. It endows the anti-American propaganda of those who portray us as occupiers plundering Iraq’s oil and repressing Muslims. The day we leave, this myth collapses, and the Iraqis will drive foreign jihadists out of their country. Our departure would also enable us to focus on defeating the
terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11, those headquartered along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border — not in Iraq.

Logistically, it would be possible to withdraw in six to eight months. We moved as many as 240,000 troops into and out of Iraq through Kuwait in as little as a three-month period during major troop rotations. After the Persian Gulf War, we redeployed nearly a half-million troops in a few months. We could redeploy even faster if we negotiated with the Turks to open a route out through Turkey.

As our withdrawal begins, we will gain diplomatic leverage. Iraqis will start seeing us as brokers, not occupiers. Iraq’s neighbors will face the reality that if they don’t help with stabilization, they will face the consequences of Iraq’s collapse — including even greater refugee flows over their borders and possible war.

The United States can facilitate Iraqi reconciliation and regional
cooperation by holding a conference similar to that which brought peace to Bosnia. We will need regional security negotiations among all of Iraq’s neighbors and discussions of donations from wealthy nations — including oil- rich Muslim countries — to help rebuild Iraq. None of this can happen until we remove the biggest obstacle to diplomacy: the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq.

My plan is realistic because:

It is less risky. Leaving forces behind leaves them vulnerable. Would we need another surge to protect them?

It gets our troops out of the quagmire and strengthens us for our real challenges. It is foolish to think that 20,000 to 75,000 troops could bring peace to Iraq when 160,000 have not. We need to get our troops out of the crossfire in Iraq so that we can defeat the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11.

By hastening the peace process, the likelihood of prolonged bloodshed is reduced. President Richard Nixon withdrew U.S. forces slowly from Vietnam — with disastrous consequences. Over the seven years it took to get our troops out, 21,000 more Americans and perhaps a million Vietnamese, most of them
civilians, died. All this death and destruction accomplished nothing — the communists took over as soon as we left.

My position has been clear since I entered this race: Remove all the troops and launch energetic diplomatic efforts in Iraq and internationally to bring stability. If Congress fails to end this war, I will remove all troops without delay, and without hesitation, beginning on my first day in office.

Let’s stop pretending that all Democratic plans are similar. The American people deserve precise answers from anyone who would be commander in chief. How many troops would you leave in Iraq? For how long? To do what, exactly? And the media should be asking these questions of the candidates, rather than allowing them to continue saying, “We are against the war . . . but please don’t read the small print.”

Bush: Kids’ health care will get vetoed

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 4 minutes ago

President Bush again called Democrats “irresponsible” on Saturday for pushing an expansion he opposes to a children’s health insurance program.

“Democrats in Congress have decided to pass a bill they know will be vetoed,” Bush said of the measure that draws significant bipartisan support, repeating in his weekly radio address an accusation he made earlier in the week. “Members of Congress are risking health coverage for poor children purely to make a political point.”

At issue is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program that subsidizes health coverage for low-income people, mostly children, in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private coverage. It expires Sept. 30.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced a proposal Friday that would add $35 billion over five years to the program, adding 4 million people to the 6.6 million already participating. It would be financed by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.

The idea is overwhelmingly supported by Congress’ majority Democrats, who scheduled it for a vote Tuesday in the House. It has substantial Republican support as well.

But Bush has promised a veto, saying the measure is too costly, unacceptably raises taxes, extends government-covered insurance to children in families who can afford private coverage, and smacks of a move toward completely federalized health care. He has asked Congress to pass a simple extension of the current program while debate continues, saying it’s children who will suffer if they do not.

“Our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage — not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage,” Bush said.

The bill’s backers have vigorously rejected Bush’s claim it would steer public money to families that can readily afford health insurance, saying their goal is to cover more of the millions of uninsured children. The bill would provide financial incentives for states to cover their lowest-income children first, they said.

Many governors want the flexibility to expand eligibility for the program. So the proposal would overturn recent guidelines from the administration making it difficult for states to steer CHIP funds to families with incomes exceeding 250 percent of the official poverty level.

You heard it, folks. Bush keeps flappin’ his gums about how important the kids are but when it comes right down to it what is his message?

Fuck the little bastards.

The worthlessness that is the Democratic Party was exhibited in clear view today.

Congress passed a resolution 341-79, condemning MoveOn for placing an advertisement in a newspaper.

Last time I checked, there was still freedom of speech. Last time I checked, there was still freedom of the press.

Last time I checked, the Constitution still forbids spying against American citizens without a search warrant, and torturing prisoners, and imprisoning people without a fair and speedy trial.

So, is this what the Democratic majority of Congress has delivered us? Condemnation of MoveOn for its legal activities, but nothing to stop George W. Bush - not even a censure resolution?

Why the hell should I ever vote for a Democrat ever again? They’re spineless wimps.

Oh, but I suppose I don’t count. I suppose I’m just one of those on the liberal fringe that believes that nobody is above the law. I guess that makes me a kooky radical these days.

Ordinarily, I’m not super fond of Senator Joseph Biden. Biden tends to bluster, and to tilt toward the right. However, I could help but applaud when I heard Joe Biden say the following words at last night’s Democratic presidential debate in Dartmouth, New Hampshire:

“Rudy Giuliani doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. He’s the most uninformed person in American foreign policy now running for President.”

Blast, Biden! Blast!

World, you shall now celebrate, for lo, the mantis shrimp blogging has begun. My name is Mantis Shrimp Man, and I have requested and received from Irregular Times an Irregular Diary account, and a category within the Irregular Diaries that is devoted to mantis shrimps. That makes my category within the Irregular Diaries the world’s one and only mantis shrimp blog.

Tonight, I introduce the concept of the mantis shrimp to you through the scientific name of the mantis shrimp: Stomatopod

Stomatopod is a bit of a difficult word to remember until you break it down. It’s the word tomato with an S on the beginning, with a POD on the end. The way I think about it is that a stomatopod is like an iPod, except that it’s a tomato with a lisp. It’s an absurd enough idea to stick in my mind.

Is an iPodish tomato with a lisp really a good description for a mantis shrimp? Well, that’s what this mantis shrimp blog is really all about… sort of. Once you explore the fascinating life of the mantis shrimp deeply enough, however, you should be able to answer that question.

It’s the second installment of this mantis shrimp blog today, and what a glorious morning it is to talk about stomatopods for me, Mantis Shrimp Man, the web’s preeminent stomatopodophile.

Stomatopod is the Latin name for mantis shrimp, and you may have caught yourself wondering what the heck stomatopod means in Latin. Obviously, pod means foot, but what about stoma? I remember from back in high school biology that leaves have stoma in them, pores to let moisture out. So, does stomatopod mean porous foot? Almost. It means mouth foot.

Does that mean that these mantis shrimp actually have mouths in their feet, with little teeth and stuff? While that would be very interesting, no. The choice of the Latin name mouth foot was chosen because their anatomy revolves around an interesting front pair of feet that are used to capture food and bring it to their mouths.

I’ll be talking about that pair of feet quite a bit in the future, because they’re just fascinating. Be patient. In the meantime, read a short article from Duke Magazine on the subject.