DemoKat

Still kicking

2008-01-29T19:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't died, I just have dial-up as my only internet connection.

Funnily enough, they are not one and the same. Only almost.

Later.....

IRS Piles On

2007-08-20T01:27:00.000-05:00

For those who struggle to pay their bills, who watch their housing payments rise out of reach with their adjustable-rate mortgages, who lose a job or who fall victim to illness, losing one’s home can feel like hitting bottom. But one more financial indignity may await as the fallout from the great housing boom ripples across the United States.[...]

Notices of unpaid taxes, unanticipated and little understood, will probably multiply as more people fall behind on their mortgages, said Ellen Harnick, senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research and policy center in Durham, N.C.

Foreclosure is one way that beleaguered homeowners can fall into this tax trap. The other is when homeowners are forced to sell their homes for less than the value of the mortgage. If the lender forgives that difference, they are liable for income taxes on that amount.

The 1099 shortfall, as it is called, stems from an Internal Revenue Service policy that treats forgiven debt of all types as income even if the taxpayer has nothing tangible to show for it, unless the debt is canceled through bankruptcy.

Bush Operating Theory on Wiretapping

2007-08-19T23:40:00.000-05:00

He’s operating on The Theory Of We Get To Do Whatever The Fuck We Want, and so he’s doing whatever the fuck he wants.

There's no better explanation of it anywhere.

Mark Teixeira Tribute

2007-08-19T23:15:00.001-05:00

Oh yeah, I'm a major Braves fan...

From the mouths of soldiers...

2007-08-19T07:22:00.000-05:00

A group of sergeants in the 82nd Airborne gives us the report that General Petraeus never will:

Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magnanimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take. Trying to please every party in the conflict — as we do now — will only ensure we are hated by all in the long run.

At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. “Lucky” Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, “We need security, not free food.”

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal.

h/t Think Progress

Ugh! Wash those clothes people! Or better yet, don't buy in the first place.

2007-08-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

BlondeSense Liz has an excellent post about China and the environment.

Billydoom's sister has been living in Shanghai for the past few years. Shanghai boasts being a fabulous international city but it is also polluted to the point where it's unbearable in the summertime for those unaccustomed to breathing air that you can see and eat. Her husband comes back to the states in the summer just so he can stay alive. The Chinese citizens don't have the luxury of heat in winter or air conditioning in the summer. It's not like manufacturing plants provide heat and a/c to the workers or they have such luxuries at home either.

The clothes you buy from China are made under extreme conditions by people who wear gloves and coats all day while they sew your garments in winter and sweat all over the garments in the summer and god knows what sort of particulates they cough on said garments.

Why anyone thought Beijing would be a good place for the summer Olympics next year, beats me. Anyone who's been there will tell you that just standing there fills your lungs with un-coughable phlegm. How athletes will compete makes you wonder.

Barry Bonds - Traitor and Terrorist!

2007-08-18T01:50:00.000-05:00

Via Ana Marie at Swampland, I found the following at The Smoking Gun:

Meet Jonathan Lee Riches. The federal prisoner/habitual litigant recently scored headlines with his insane $63 billion lawsuit against Michael Vick (who allegedly stole Riches's dogs, sold them on eBay, and used the proceeds to buy weapons from the Iranian government). Riches, who is doing a decade in prison for fraud, is at it again, this time filing a loony--though quite funny--complaint again Barry Bonds, baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and Hank Aaron's bat. In his lawsuit, Riches, pictured in the below mug shot, weaves an intricate conspiracy theory involving television ratings, steroids, the cracking of the Liberty Bell, Colombian narco-terrorists, and secretly recorded conversations for which journalists Robert Novak and Judith Miller have transcripts.

What are the complaints? Let's see...bat assault, HGH violations, treason, major fraud, skimming the books, illegal moonshine, terrorism, social security fraud, treason, stalking, identity theft, copyright infringement, false information, illegal electronic wiretapping, and bad debt.

And where is Mr. Riches? Wait for it... South Carolina, of course!

Good luck with that, Mr Riches. Especially the illegal wiretapping bit. We're in need of a good precedent.

UPDATE: Riches has been up to this thing for awhile. Check out more of his kooky lawsuits at Dreadnaught.

Rudy! and Mitt! and South Carolina

2007-08-17T04:42:00.000-05:00

I really cannot pretend to know who South Carolina Republicans will favor in 2008 overall. The wingnuts in this state are unfathomable to Democrats here. I'll give it a shot, nevertheless.

But, I will bet you dimes to dollars that it will not be Rudy Giuliani. One of the reasons will be articles like this in the New Yorker:

The South Carolina State House, a grand, copper-domed structure in downtown Columbia, is a showplace for the state’s long history of hellbent defiance. The most prominent feature on the grounds is a monument to fallen Confederate soldiers, whose virtues “plead for just judgment of the cause in which they perished.” Beside it, atop a thirty-foot pole, waves the Rebel flag, the object of fierce national debate a decade ago, when it flew above the capitol dome, and no less conspicuous now, in its new location. Among the nearby statuary stands a life-size likeness of Benjamin R. (Pitchfork Ben) Tillman, the four-term United States senator who led the movement that disenfranchised black voters in 1895 and instituted Jim Crow. Inside the building, cast-iron staircases rise to an elegant lobby, and portraits honor the men who shaped the state’s querulous history, including John C. Calhoun, who contrived the rationale—nullification—for Southern secession, and Strom Thurmond, who led the South out of the Democratic Party. The lobby opens at either end to the state’s two legislative chambers, which, in March, ratified an amendment to the state constitution that bans not only gay marriage but gay civil unions. That month, the state house of representatives also passed a bill requiring any woman considering abortion to reflect upon an ultrasound image of the fetus.

It was here that Rudolph Giuliani, New York’s thrice-married, anti-gun, pro-gay, pro-choice former mayor, found himself one morning in April, in what appeared to be a critical moment in his young campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination. The previous day, during a campaign stop in Florida, he was asked by CNN’s Dana Bash if he supported the public funding of abortions. Giuliani seemed flustered by the question and finally answered, “If that’s the status of the law, I would, yes.”

Even before Giuliani began his run for the Presidency, the consensus, sounded in news columns, blogs, and political journals, was that he could not survive scrutiny of his political heterodoxy and his personal imperfections by the Republican Party’s conservative base.

Now, as Giuliani made his way into the capitol, his candidate smile firmly fixed, he was met by reporters. “Mayor, you talk about being a straight shooter,” one said. “Is this position you have on abortion something that’s going to shoot a hole in a key Republican plank?” [...]

At Magnolia’s, Giuliani’s advance people tried to fill time. Barry Wynn, his South Carolina campaign chairman, talked up his candidate’s chances, solicited donations, and took questions from the waiting group seated before him. Someone asked what effect the Christian right would have on Giuliani’s prospects. “Good question,” Wynn replied. He lives in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, the home of Bob Jones University. In South Carolina, another way of saying Christian right is “Greenville Republicans,” the group credited with John McCain’s undoing in his 2000 run against George W. Bush. Wynn’s uncle was Lester Maddox, the axe-handle-wielding Atlanta segregationist who became governor of Georgia. Wynn himself is a former state Party chairman. “I’ve already talked to a lot of people I consider very hard-core social conservatives, part of the religious right, who are supporting Rudy Giuliani,” Wynn said.

Lordy, where do I begin? Let me just go paragraph by paragraph.

First of all, let me just say that I was at the state house about a year ago. The dome cannot be missed. It can be seen many city blocks away. If the damned old Rebel flag was still flying there, you could see it quite far away. I looked for the Confederate soldier statue, which just about every southern city of middling size has on main street, and I couldn't find it. So, no, it is not "no less conspicuous now". It is considerably less conspicuous unless you just go traipsing around the grounds hunting for it.

Yeah, there probably is some statue of "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman who was a racist, a former governor, and a four term U.S. Senator but the truth is that no matter how he is demonized, and perhaps rightly so, he was a man of his time. That time being the freakin' 1890's. You know, a hundred years ago!

Don't talk about John C. Calhoun. Just. Don't. He was the Vice President of the United States, after all, and he wasn't voted in by just South Carolina.

Yeahyeahyeah, Strom Thurmond, blahblahblah. For the first 50 years of his life, he pandered to the racists even though most everyone knew he wasn't that much of one himself. For the last 50+ years, he was a burden to good, real Democrats in the state but all in all, was a pretty good Senator to the people of South Carolina.

Yep, they did do that banning gay marriage thing which totally sucked. I haven't been able to find the voting records for the legislature on anything, much less this, as the Republican's have been doing a bang up job of keeping their doings under wraps as much as possible. But, just off the top of my head, I'm betting that the opposition didn't get much traction because a whole lot, if not the majority, of Democratic legislators in the state are black and anti-gayness is preached in black congregations quite virulently here as it is in much of the country.

The House did vote on that ridiculous bill about abortion, was roundly and passionately lambasted for it all across the state, and the Senate had enough sense to effectively gut it.

That's right. Anti-abortion forces are not all that powerful here except in the most wingnuttery factions.

So... you might be saying about now, well then, if so, then Giuliani must have a good chance in SC.

Uh. No.

"Rudolph Giuliani, New York’s thrice-married, anti-gun, pro-gay, pro-choice former mayor"

of New York-fucking City!

(Hey! Don't pounce on me! I love New York City. Minus the Yankees and the Mets.)

I'm just sayin'.

I'm saying that I don't care how many people fawn over him while he's down here, say nice things about how they're going to vote for him, blahblah, it ain't gonna happen when they enter that voting booth!

In most cases, they are just being polite. Yep. Polite. They don't want him to get his feelings hurt and they want him to feel welcome.

They are not going to elect a philanderer who's on this third marriage to clearly a money grubbing social climber divorcee (there is almost nothing worse to be in this state), who is going to try to take away their GUNS!

And they are damned sure not going to vote for a New Yawk City Mayor!

Articles like the one in The New Yorker are just going to bring that reality home to them.

Now, let me add a caveat here. I'm talking about South Carolinians. Not transplants. Not second generation or probably even third generation transplants. Basically, if your granddaddy wasn't born and raised here, you aren't considered a "real" South Carolinian. You're just a guest. To be treated politely, even indulged, definitely excused, but never to be taken seriously in polite company. In my experience, by far the largest segment of the "religious right" are not native South Carolinians. They are transplants brought in by Bob Jones University or the spawn of those transplants. The natives that are the "religious right" are the holy rollers, pentecostals, Church of Christ country folks who don't know any better and aren't all that active politically or socially, and even those who are comprise only a very small eeny-meeny micro-segment. The vast, vast majority of native Southern Baptist South Carolinians are not that "right", not even that "religious" but only devoted church goers, and don't even know what evangelical means.

Seriously. I'm not kidding!

I just had to explain what evangelical means to my sister who is a lifelong devoted Southern Baptist two or three time a week church-goer and she's not a dummy either! She's very intelligent and would no sooner go to one of those mega-churches (we have one or two that do their business in big auditoriums) than she would go to the moon. A really big traditional church, sure, like Taylors First Baptist where the minister is the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention. But, they are moderate traditionalists. They don't run around on a stage with a microphone headset screaming at people that they've gotta preach the gospel or go to hell. That is Bob Jones territory and natives avoid it like the plague unless they are just ignorant and misguided (as some probably are).

Unfortunately, there's no getting around the fact that these transplanted BJU'er's are allowed to vote but I don't think the natives are outnumbered yet. So, no, it just ain't gonna happen for Rudy in SC, I don't think.

Now, I could just stop here, but since I'm at it, let's talk Mitt!

I frequently take casual polls of all my family, friends, and acquaintances on Rudy! and Mitt! Some are Dems, some are Repubs, but all are born and bred South Carolinians.

(Not my choice... I've lived all over the country and I like people from all over, it's just that here at home it's what I fall into, if you know what I mean.)

Here is how that conversation goes, invariably:

Me: "So, y'all think Rudy is going to win in South Carolina?"

Them: "Bwaaahahahahahaahaha!"

Me: "Uh, I guess not. Why do you think?"

Them: "He's a low-down cheater! His kids won't even talk to him! He's an ass! He's a New York Yankee! He'll try to abolish guns!"

Me: "So, how about Mitt Romney? You think he'll win SC?"

Them: "Bwaaaahahahahahahahahhahhahahahahhahahahahahahaha!"

Me: "Uh, I guess not. Why do you think?"

Them: "He's Mormon!"

Me: "Is that enough to keep him from winning SC?"

Them: "Bwaaaahahahhahahhaaahahahahahahahahahhaahhahhaaha! He's crazy! He's in a cult! He wears special underwear, for God's sake!"

OK. So that is how it is. Now you can say how awful, how prejudiced, how backward, how whatever-you-want-to-say, and I really wouldn't argue with you. But, that is how it is.

We are an idiosyncratic people here in South Carolina. Just like Vermonters, Mainers, Texans, Bostoners, Philadelphians, or wherever else in this country that is a little eccentric, peculiar, and out of the mainstream.

But that is just how it is.

What Republican has a chance in SC? Hmmm. Many men will like Fred Thompson, I'm betting. But his wife is a fatal flaw when it comes to South Carolinian women. Women here look on her and then look on both of them with disgust. And they will likely deride their menfolk who favor him. They may vote for him, but it will be sheepishly.

A lot of the women may actually like Tancredo. Huckabee* may charm them but he's too extreme on the abortion issue.

The secret truth about abortion here is that those who actually get abortions are more likely to be from "good Republican" households, or the daughters of those households who have been so kept in the dark about sex that they end up getting pregnant. The poor just end up having the children. And, heck, alot of the dumb redneck poor vote Republican anyway. Most middle-class Democrat families have well informed daughters unlikely to get pregnant.

If McCain re-positions himself on Iraq, he can and will win them all back if he gives it half a shot. The immigration issue hurt him badly, but the war is a lot more unpopular here than most would think, especially considering the response of the wingnut crowd in the SC Republican debate. If he can overcome his immigration fiasco, and take a more reasoned approach to Iraq, he will take SC Republicans hands down.

UPDATE: Changed from Brownback to Huckabee. What was I thinking? As if there's a dime's worth of difference.

Resistance against tyranny...

2007-08-17T00:50:00.000-05:00

bluegal, either this bluegal or this bluegal...(shows you how much I'm plugged in!...not that it matters because I like both of those sassy gals) over at Crooks and Liars mentions the REAL ID brohaha today:

The cards would be mandatory for all “federal purposes,” which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don’t comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes.

Admittedly, I don't cover enough of South Carolina politics on this blog so I thought I'd take a moment to weigh in on this issue.

South Carolinians will be getting their passports in droves. Why? Because it will be a cold day in hell before South Carolinians will be dictated to by the federal government on an issue such as this, in case we hadn't made that clear by now. Uh, duh.

Basically, the SC State Senate said, uh, no. No unless the feds pay for it.

The SC House? They didn't just say no, they said "HELL, NO!" Period.

Here is how the SC bill reads:

S 449
SECTION 1. Chapter 1, Title 56 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 56-1-85.
The State shall not participate in the implementation of the federal REAL ID Act."

No if's, and's, or but's. No clauses. No question.

Actually, an earlier resolution, (H 3989) , passed by the legislature, made it's standing quite clear:

Whereas, the State of South Carolina recognizes the Constitution of the United States as our most fundamental charter of liberty and the Bill of Rights as affirming the fundamental and inalienable rights of Americans, including freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures and freedom of privacy; and

Whereas, the Constitution of the United States grants to the federal government the ability to make only seven mandates on the states, and that these mandates are...

And where did I get much of this info? Here! Yeah, no kidding... I can't help it but I'm LMAO. They actually WROTE it!

Deliciously, they began their entry with these words: "Building on its tradition of being at the forefront in the resistance against tyranny, the state of South Carolina..." Because, really, there's just no getting around that bit of truth, at least as far as the tyranny of an overreaching federal government is concerned.

You know, like the imperial presidency which we now have, and a gutless Congress made up of those who face their constituents a few times a year (maybe more in election years) instead of facing them every morning when they go out to get their paper off the lawn.

Just ask Tarleton and Cornwallis about Cowpens for, uh, one thing.

And no, let's not make this about the civil war where the issue was the unconscionable scourge of slavery but the reason or the "cause" was dyed-in-the-wool anti-federalism.

Heard "Democrat" Party used lately?

2007-08-16T01:57:00.000-05:00

Yeah, me neither. I bet this, from back in February, is why....

Way to go Rep. Weiner (D-NY)! You should get all the credit.

Hat tip to Humor Has It

Freaky!

2007-08-15T03:17:00.000-05:00

Possible UFO's in Haiti?

UFOs Spotted In Haiti - Watch more free videos

Ground meat, indeed

2007-08-12T23:24:00.000-05:00

Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq

Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis

Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
Sunday August 12, 2007
The Observer

Lieutenant Clay Hanna looks sick and white. Like his colleagues he does not seem to sleep. Hanna says he catches up by napping on a cot between operations in the command centre, amid the noise of radio. He is up at 6am and tries to go to sleep by 2am or 3am. But there are operations to go on, planning to be done and after-action reports that need to be written. And war interposes its own deadly agenda that requires his attention and wakes him up. [...]
When he emerges from his naps there is something old and paper-thin about his skin, something sketchy about his movements as the days go by. The Americans he commands, like the other men at Sullivan - a combat outpost in Zafraniya, south east Baghdad - hit their cots when they get in from operations. But even when they wake up there is something tired and groggy about them. They are on duty for five days at a time and off for two days. When they get back to the forward operating base, they do their laundry and sleep and count the days until they will get home. It is an exhaustion that accumulates over the patrols and the rotations, over the multiple deployments, until it all joins up, wiping out any memory of leave or time at home. Until life is nothing but Iraq. Hanna and his men are not alone in being tired most of the time. A whole army is exhausted and worn out. You see the young soldiers washed up like driftwood at Baghdad's international airport, waiting to go on leave or returning to their units, sleeping on their body armour on floors and in the dust. [...]

... It is a theme that is endlessly reiterated as you travel around Iraq. 'The army is worn out. We are just keeping people in theatre who are exhausted,' says a soldier working for the US army public affairs office who is supposed to be telling me how well things have been going since the 'surge' in Baghdad began.

They are not supposed to talk like this. We are driving and another of the public affairs team adds bitterly: 'We should just be allowed to tell the media what is happening here. Let them know that people are worn out. So that their families know back home. But it's like we've become no more than numbers now.'

The first soldier starts in again. 'My husband was injured here. He hit an improvised explosive device. He already had a spinal injury. The blast shook out the plates. He's home now and has serious issues adapting. But I'm not allowed to go back home to see him. If I wanted to see him I'd have to take leave time (two weeks). And the army counts it.' [...]

When the soldiers talk like this there is resignation. There is a corrosive anger, too, that bubbles out, like the words pouring unbidden from a chaplain's assistant who has come to bless a patrol. 'Why don't you tell the truth? Why don't you journalists write that this army is exhausted?'

Much more at the above link. Many thanks to Booman Tribune's Stephen D.

Hillary Repugs "Life Preserver"

2007-08-12T04:00:00.000-05:00

Grassley 'Sure' Hillary Will Be Democratic Nominee
by: Douglas Burns
Saturday (08/11) at 21:54 PM

Veteran U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley acknowledges that his Republican Party faces some significant challenges but he predicts the GOP will avoid a political drowning thanks to a life preserver coming its way from the Good Ship Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"The Administration is very unpopular but don't forget all the negatives that Hillary Clinton's got," Grassley said. "And some Republicans say the only way we can win is if Hillary Clinton's our opponent. Well, she's going to be our opponent."

Is the Iowa pol sure of that?

"Yeah, I'm sure of that," Grassley told a gaggle of reporters in the press area off stage in Hilton Coliseum several hours before the Iowa Straw Poll speeches started.

At the time....

2007-08-11T01:27:00.000-05:00

This cracked me up... (my emphasis added)

Colonel Blashford-Snell first encountered a Double-Nosed Andean tiger hound called Bella in 2005 when he was carrying out reconnaissance for this year's expedition in the area near Ojaki.

He said: "While we were there, sitting by the fire one night, I saw an extraordinary-looking dog that appeared to have two noses.

"I was sober at the time, and then I remembered the story that the legendary explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett came back with in 1913 of seeing such strange dogs in the Amazon jungle.

"Nobody believed him, they laughed him out of court."

Transformative

2007-08-11T00:56:00.000-05:00

Excellent article on John Edwards in RollingStone:

If you last tuned in to Edwards during the son-of-a-mill-worker days of 2004, the difference in his vision will surprise you. Gone is the cautious centrist groomed by uberconsultant Bob Shrum as a sort of Bill Clinton Lite. For 2008, he has been replaced by what the campaign hopes will play as the Real John Edwards, a shoot-from-the-hip progressive who won't scare away moderates. "Incremental steps don't work," Edwards says today. "We are not in that place in America anymore. We need huge changes. And it's going to require a president and a people who are willing to do some things that may feel dangerous in the short term."

Take global warming: While Clinton spouts happy talk about ethanol and "clean coal," and Obama focuses on a technocratic proposal to lower the "carbon intensity" of auto fuel, Edwards has a plan that would make the Union of Concerned Scientists proud. "We need an eighty percent reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2050," the candidate told Rolling Stone in a wide-ranging interview. "You start by capping carbon emissions in America. Beneath the cap, you auction off the right to emit any greenhouse gases. And you use that money --$30 to $40 billion -- to transform the way we use energy."

Or poverty. Ending deprivation at home -- by making it easier for workers to unionize, raising the minimum wage to $9.50, cracking down on predatory lending, and providing matching funds to help low-income Americans save -- remains the hallmark of his candidacy. But informed by his travels in Africa, Edwards now proposes spending $5 billion a year to educate 100 million children worldwide, improve drinking water and sanitation in developing countries, and slow the ravages of HIV and AIDS.

Party of the People

2007-08-07T01:10:00.000-05:00

House follows Senate over the cliff

2007-08-05T01:35:00.000-05:00

The Democratic controlled House joined the Democratic controlled Senate in selling out the Constitutional rights of the citizens of this country to the Bush regime...

Aug 5, 1:00 AM (ET)
By CHARLES BABINGTON
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.

The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature.

Late Saturday, Bush said, "The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, has assured me that this bill gives him what he needs to continue to protect the country, and therefore I will sign this legislation as soon as it gets to my desk."

The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency's ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Civil liberties groups and many Democrats said it goes too far, possibly enabling the government to wiretap U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties without adequate oversight from courts or Congress.

The bill updates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. It gives the government leeway to intercept, without warrants, communications between foreigners that are routed through equipment in United States, provided that "foreign intelligence information" is at stake. Bush describes the effort as an anti-terrorist program, but the bill is not limited to terror suspects and could have wider applications, some lawmakers said.

The government long has had substantial powers to intercept purely foreign communications that don't touch U.S. soil.

If a U.S. resident becomes the chief target of surveillance, the government would have to obtain a warrant from the special FISA court.
Congressional Democrats won a few concessions in negotiations earlier in the week. New wiretaps must be approved by the director of national intelligence and the attorney general, not just the attorney general. Congress has battled with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on several issues, and some Democrats have accused him of perjury.

The new law also will expire in six months unless Congress renews it. The administration wanted the changes to be permanent.

Many congressional Democrats wanted tighter restrictions on government surveillance, but yielded in the face of Bush's veto threats and the impending August recess.

"This bill would grant the attorney general the ability to wiretap anybody, any place, any time without court review, without any checks and balances," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., during the debate preceding the vote. "I think this unwarranted, unprecedented measure would simply eviscerate the 4th Amendment," which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Roveamort, the evil behind the "throne"

2007-08-05T00:39:00.000-05:00

via Crooks and Liars

The Knack

2007-08-04T23:28:00.001-05:00

See the group but the spectacular riff is cut down.

My Sharona

2007-08-04T23:27:00.001-05:00

The death of disco and the rebirth of rock and roll.

Freakin' hilarious

2007-07-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

via the ever hilarious bogol

American Color

2007-07-05T01:52:00.000-05:00

A magnificent photo essay.

h/t The Happy Warrior

A Disgrace

2007-07-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

What strikes me most profoundly about the Bush commutation of Libby is how Bush is apparently impervious to the fact that his entire administration, not just this one act, has possibly done irreparable harm to the nation.

I remember how agonized LBJ was over the Vietnam War and the protests which tore the country nearly asunder. I recall how Nixon seemingly aged 20 years during Watergate.

Both men were at least honorable enough to suffer, visibly, and to spare the country further infliction of themselves upon it.

Bush could not care less. Despicable.

Peeved

2007-07-03T23:57:00.000-05:00

More at The Agonist:

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Question...

2007-07-01T01:55:00.001-05:00

Please tell me if this page loads slowly for you. My poor BlueKitty may be slowing the speed of the page loading, and if so, I'd really like to know. The poor blue baby may have to go.

Ahhh... achievement!

2007-06-30T23:57:00.000-05:00

Mingle² - Online Dating

Dream Speech

2007-06-28T23:03:00.000-05:00

At the Washington Monthly, Ted Sorensen has written the speech he would most like to hear given by the Democratic Party Presidential Nominee, whoever he/she may be. It is exactly what I'd like to hear, too.

My fellow Democrats: With high resolve and deep gratitude, I accept your nomination. It has been a long campaign—too long, too expensive, with too much media attention on matters irrelevant to our nation’s future. I salute each of my worthy opponents for conducting a clean fifty-state campaign focusing on the real issues facing our nation, including health care, the public debt burden, energy independence, and national security, a campaign testing not merely which of us could raise and spend the most money but who among us could best lead our country; a campaign not ignoring controversial issues like taxation, immigration, fuel conservation, and the Middle East, but conducting, in essence, a great debate—because our party, unlike our opposition, believes that a free country is strengthened by debate.
(snip)
Let me assure all those who may disagree with my positions that I shall hear and respect their views, not denounce them as unpatriotic as has so often happened in recent years. I will wage a campaign that relies not on the usual fear, smear, and greed but on the hopes and pride of all our citizens in a nationwide effort to restore comity, common sense, and competence to the White House.

In this campaign, I will make no promises I cannot fulfill, pledge no spending we cannot afford, offer no posts to cronies you cannot trust, and propose no foreign commitment we should not keep. I will not shrink from opposing any party faction, any special interest group, or any major donor whose demands are contrary to the national interest. Nor will I shrink from calling myself a liberal, in the same sense that Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, John and Robert Kennedy, and Harry Truman were liberals—liberals who proved that government is not a necessary evil, but rather the best means of creating a healthier, more educated, and more prosperous America.

They are the giants on whose shoulders I now stand, giants who made this a better, fairer, safer, stronger, more united America.
By making me your nominee, you have placed your trust in the American people to put aside irrelevant considerations and judge me solely on my qualifications to lead the nation. You have opened the stairway to what Teddy Roosevelt called the “bully pulpit.” With the help of dedicated Americans from our party, every party, and no party at all, I intend to mount that stairway to preach peace for our nation and world.

My campaign will be based on my search for the perfect political consensus, not the perfect political consultant. My chief political consultant will be my conscience.

Thank you for your applause, but I need more than your applause and approval. I need your prayers, your votes, your help, your heart, and your hand. The challenge is enormous, the obstacles are many. Our nation is emerging from eight years of misrule, a dark and difficult period in which our national honor and pride have been bruised and battered. But we are neither beaten nor broken. We are not helpless or afraid; because in this country the people rule, and the people want change.

True, some of us have been sleeping for these eight long years, while our nation’s values have been traduced, our liberties reduced, and our moral authority around the world trampled and shattered by a nightmare of ideological incompetence. But now we are awakening and taking our country back. Now people all across America are starting to believe in America again. We are coming back, back to the heights of greatness, back to America’s proud role as a temple of justice and a champion of peace.

The American people are tired of politics as usual, and I intend to offer them, in this campaign, something unusual in recent American politics: the truth. Neither bureaucracies nor nations function well when their actions are hidden from public view and accountability. From now on, whatever mistakes I make, whatever dangers we face, the people shall know the truth—and the truth shall make them free. After eight years of secrecy and mendacity, here are some truths the people deserve to hear:
We remain essentially a nation under siege. The threat of another terrorist attack upon our homeland has not been reduced by all the new layers of porous bureaucracy that proved their ineptitude in New Orleans; nor by all the needless, mindless curbs on our personal liberties and privacy; nor by expensive new weaponry that is utterly useless in stopping a fanatic willing to blow himself up for his cause. Indeed, our vulnerability to another attack has only been worsened in the years since the attacks of September 11th—worsened by our government convincing more than 1 billion Muslims that we are prejudiced against their faith, dismissive of international law, and indifferent to the deaths of their innocent children; worsened by our failure to understand their culture or to provide a safe haven for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees displaced by a war we started; worsened by our failure to continue our indispensable role in the Middle East peace process.

We have adopted some of the most indefensible tactics of our enemies, including torture and indefinite detention.

We have degraded our military.

We have treated our most serious adversaries, such as Iran and North Korea, in the most juvenile manner—by giving them the silent treatment. In so doing, we have weakened, not strengthened, our bargaining position and our leadership.

At home, as health care costs have grown and coverage disappeared, we have done nothing but coddle the insurance, pharmaceutical, and health care industries that feed the problem.

As global warming worsens, we have done nothing but deny the obvious and give regulatory favors to polluters.

As growing economic inequality tarnishes our democracy, we have done nothing but carve out more tax breaks for the rich.
During these last several years, our nation has been bitterly divided and deceived by illicit actions in high places, by violations of federal, constitutional, and international law. I do not favor further widening the nation’s wounds, now or next year, through continuous investigations, indictments, and impeachments. I am confident that history will hold these malefactors accountable for their deeds, and the country will move on.

Instead, I shall seek a renewal of unity among all Americans, an unprecedented unity we will need for years to come in order to face unprecedented danger.

We will be safer from terrorist attack only when we have earned the respect of all other nations instead of their fear, respect for our values and not merely our weapons.

If I am elected president, my vow for this country can be summarized in one short, simple word: change. This November 2008 election—the first since 1952 in which neither the incumbent president’s nor the incumbent vice president’s name will appear on the national ballot, indeed the first since 1976 in which the name of neither Bill Clinton nor George Bush will appear on the national ballot—is destined to bring about the most profound change in the direction of this country since the election of 1932.

To meet the threats we face and restore our place of leadership in the free world, I pledge to do the following:

First, working with a representative Iraqi parliament, I shall set a timetable for an orderly, systematic redeployment and withdrawal of all our troops in Iraq, including the recall of all members of the National Guard to their primary responsibility of guarding our nation and its individual states.

Second, this redeployment shall be only the first step in a comprehensive regional economic and diplomatic stabilization plan for the entire Middle East, building a just and enduring peace between Israel and Palestine, halting the killing and maiming of innocent civilians on both sides, and establishing two independent sovereign states, each behind peacefully negotiated and mutually recognized borders.

Third, I shall as soon as possible transfer all inmates out of the Guantanamo Bay prison and close down that hideous symbol of injustice.

Fourth, I shall fly to New York City to pledge in person to the United Nations, in the September 2009 General Assembly, that the United States is returning to its role as a leader in international law, as a supporter of international tribunals, and as a full-fledged member of the United Nations which will pay its dues in full, on time, and without conditions, renouncing any American empire; that we shall work more intensively with other countries to eliminate global scourges, including AIDS, malaria, and other contagious diseases, massive refugee flows, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and that we will support the early dispatch of United Nations peacekeepers to halt the atrocities in Darfur. I shall make it clear that we do not covet the land of other countries for our military bases or the control of their natural resources for our factories. I shall make it clear that our country is not bound by any policies or pronouncements of my predecessor that violate international law or threaten international peace.

Fifth, I shall personally sign the Kyoto Protocol, and seek its ratification by the United States Senate, in order to stop global warming before it endangers all species on earth, including our own; and I shall call upon the Congress to take action dramatically reducing our nation’s reliance on the carbon fuels that are steadily contributing to the degradation of our environment.

Sixth, I shall demonstrate sufficient confidence in the strength of our values and the wisdom and skill of our diplomats to favor communications, negotiations, and full relations with every country on earth, including Cuba, North Korea, Palestine, and Iran.

Finally, I shall restore the constitutional right of habeas corpus, abolish the unconstitutional tapping of private phones, and once again show the world the traditional American values that distinguish us from those who attacked us on 9/11.

We need not renounce the use of conventional force. We will be ready to repel any clear and present danger that poses a genuine threat to our national security and survival. But it will be as a last resort, never a first; in cooperation with our allies, never alone; out of necessity, never by choice; proportionate, never heedless of civilian lives or international law; as the best alternative considered, never the only. We will always apply the same principles of collective security, prudent caution, and superior weaponry that enabled us to peacefully prevail in the long cold war against the Soviet Union. Above all, we shall wage no more unilateral, ill-planned, ill-considered, and ill-prepared invasions of foreign countries that pose no actual threat to our security. No more wars in which the American Congress is not told in advance and throughout their duration the true cost, consequences, and terms of commitment. No more wars waged by leaders blinded by ideology who have no legal basis to start them and no plan to end them. We shall oppose no peaceful religion or culture, insult or demonize no peace-minded foreign leader, and spare no effort in meeting those obligations of leadership and assistance that our comparative economic strength has thrust upon us. We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might.

In the final analysis, our nation cannot be secure around the world unless our citizens are secure at home—secure not only from external attack, but secure as well from the rising tide of national debt, secure from the financial and physical ravages of uninsured disease, secure from discrimination in our schools and neighborhoods, secure from the bitter unrest generated by a widening gap between our richest and poorest citizens. They are not secure in a country lacking reasonable limitations on the sale of handguns to criminals, the mentally disturbed, and prospective terrorists. And our citizens are not secure when some of their fellow citizens, loyal Islamic Americans, are made to feel they are the targets of hysteria or bigotry.

I believe in an America in which the fruits of productivity and prosperity are shared by all, by workers as well as owners, by those at the bottom as well as those at the top; an America in which the sacrifices required by national security are shared by all, by profiteers in the back offices as well as volunteers on the front lines.

In my administration, I shall restore balance and fairness to the national tax system. I shall level the playing field for organized labor. I shall end the unseemly favors to corporations that allow them to profit without competing, for it is through competition that we innovate, and it is through innovation that we raise the wages of our workers. It shames our nation that profits for corporations have soared even as wages for average Americans have fallen. It shames us still more that so many African American men must struggle to find jobs.

We will make sure that no American citizen, from the youngest child to the oldest retiree, and especially no returning serviceman or military veteran, will be denied fully funded medical care of the highest quality.

To pay for these domestic programs, my administration will make sure that subsidies and tax breaks go only to those who need them most, not those who need them least, and that we fund only those weapons systems we need to meet the threats of today and tomorrow, not those of yesterday.

The purpose of public office is to do good, not harm; to change lives, help lives, and save lives, not destroy them. I look upon the presidency not as an opportunity to rule, but as an opportunity to serve. I intend to serve all the people, regardless of party, race, region, or religion.

Let us all, here assembled in this hall, or watching at home, constitute ourselves, rededicate ourselves, as soldiers in a new army. Not an army of death and destruction, but a new army of voters and volunteers, in a new wave of workers for peace and justice at home and abroad, new missionaries for the moral rebirth of our country. I ask for every citizen’s help, not merely those who live in the red states or those who live in the blue states, but every citizen in every state. Although we may be called fools and dreamers, although we will find the going uphill, in the words of the poet: “Say not the struggle naught availeth.” We will change our country’s direction, and hand to the generation that follows a nation that is safer, cleaner, less divided, and less fearful than the nation we will inherit next January.

I’m told that John F. Kennedy was fond of quoting Archimedes, who explained the principle of the lever by declaring: “Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world.” My fellow Americans—here I stand. Come join me, and together we will move the world to a new era of a just and lasting peace.

h/p Crooks and Liars

Lost - Synchronised events around Plane Crash

2007-06-18T15:45:00.001-05:00

Suffering Lost withdrawal.

Obama may take SC, not Edwards

2007-06-17T08:41:00.001-05:00

You would never know it by the pundits on "Meet the Press" this morning, but Barack Obama spoke to a huge RACIALLY DIVERSE group in Greenville, SC yesterday. I saw the news coverage and the audience was at least as white as black.

3500 crowded into a mall here to hear him speak.

3500!!!

In Greenville, SC, home of Bob Jones University!

Read about it in our Republican (hard) leaning newspaper here, here, and here.

You'll note how hard The Greenville News pushes for school vouchers, which has been roundly voted down by not only the populace of SC, but by the State Legislature. Repeatedly.

Obama is going to hurt Edwards far more than Clinton in SC, unfortunately. I talked to black voters in the first Edwards primary victory and they were all voting for Edwards. I talked to black voters in the Kerry/Edwards election poll lines, they weren't voting for Kerry, they were voting for Edwards.

This doesn't bode well for Edwards.

Feeling blue?

2007-06-17T06:43:00.000-05:00

I go by the name BlueKat, but I'm not one of the blue people of Kentucky.

Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shining.
Shine on the one that's gone and proved untrue.
Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shining.
Shine on the one that's gone and left me blue.

Cracking the brands

2007-06-15T07:14:00.000-05:00

One of our best SC Dem bloggers, Tim from Crack the Bell, is involved with a brand study of 2008 presidential candidates for SC by a SC market research firm. It's very interesting, and, as far as I can tell, is dead on target on each and every candidate.

No surprise that John Edwards is most in tune with SC voters and most sensitive to the needs of the poor.

It's extremely frustrating to me that Clinton still comes out on top despite her numerous negative factors.

You can download the entire studies free of charge here.

Mitt's Bitch

2007-06-15T01:29:00.000-05:00

Oh, hells bells! I've had a link up to a site named The Shot under my "Southern" category for I don't know how long. I found it in links of some of my fellow southern bloggers, most likely SC bloggers.

Lately, I've been feeling a little more under the weather with my mastocytosis, so I've been neglecting this poor blog and just hanging out, checking out other blogs, especially The Swampland as this week one of my heros and mad crushes, Mudcat Saunders, has been there stirring up a little fresh hell. I know that's no excuse for neglecting my few faithful, but I do appreciate your continuing checks for new material here. I feel guilty because I haven't been really sick and I know some of you worry. Having masto is just like you might feel when you feel like you are coming down with the flu most of the time when I'm symptomatic. Sometimes, not often, its like having the flu, when it's very active. I'm okay, just symptomatic and a little too bleech to fight it very well due to stress, so don't y'all worry, it's not like I'm dying.

Anyways...! I was just getting around to following some links that had been recommended for Saunders as he was getting his feet wet in the blogtopia (yes, Skippy coined that term) and y'all know that I don't want to miss anything.

And guess what I found?

And, at the beginning of the week, Ben Smith at The Politico revealed that the National Journal’s Hotline had to end its use of a South Carolina political Web site after learning that it had strong ties to a firm connected to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

The site, The Daily Shot, is part-owned and written by employees of a political consulting firm that works for the former Massachusetts governor. The Hotline acted after more than a month of private complaints from the campaign of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of Romney’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, people involved in the discussions said.

Holy bejebus!

Needless to say, it is coming off my links list immediately, and I urge my fellow southern liberal/Democratic bloggers to take it down posthaste.

Why dint y'all tell me? I feel so dirty and eeeyew... used!

Al Gore

2007-05-30T04:03:00.000-05:00

I supported Al Gore in his first campaign for the presidency. I met the man at a reception, listened to his speeches, and campaigned like a dog for him, including participating in taking polls, stuffing envelopes, making get out the vote calls, you name it.

When he was selected as Bill Clinton's running mate, I couldn't have been more thrilled. I thought he made an excellent Vice President.

Again, I supported him against Bush and was devastated when he did not win the Supreme Court decision.

I had written him off as a "goner". I had even gotten to the point that I was being irritated by so many urging him to run again this time.

However, this man who is before us today, this man as represented on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, this man, I could support again.

I don't think he will run again. I'm not sure that I would support him over John Edwards if he did decide to run. I think that if you want to be president, then it must truly burn in your belly, not be something you decide at the last minute to pursue.

However, I would no longer completely rule out the possibility.

Al Gore on The Daily Show, Part 1

2007-05-30T04:01:00.000-05:00

Part 2

2007-05-30T03:57:00.000-05:00

Don't tell...

2007-05-28T02:53:00.000-05:00

Tinkerbell:

At a recent U2 concert in Dublin, Bono asked the audience for total quiet.

Then, in the silence, he started slowly clapping his hands, once every few seconds.

Holding the audience in total silence, he said into the microphone:

"Every toime I clap my hands, a child in Africa doies!"

A voice pierced the quiet from the front of the crowd with a broad Irish accent.

"Well, feckin stop doin it, then!"

Immigration

2007-05-28T02:23:00.001-05:00

Recently, I've modified my views on immigration. I've come to the conclusion that the only answer is to actually put illegal immigrants on the fast track to citizenship. In fact, to make citizenship mandatory.

Why? Because once they are citizens, their employers must pay them at least the minimum wage, offer them benefits if their other employees are offered benefits, and they will be required to pay taxes and their medical bills along with the rest of us. All of which will solve the disparities of having so many millions of illegal immigrants in our society.

It's not the "illegality" of their presence that is the problem. The problem is that their status as "illegals" allow them to be both taken advantage of and to take advantage of available services.

So, I was especially interested in this additional Krugman column (excerpt):

In 1910, almost 14 percent of voting-age males in the United States were non-naturalized immigrants. (Women didn’t get the vote until 1920.) Add in the disenfranchised blacks of the Jim Crow South, and what you had in America was a sort of minor-key apartheid system, with about a quarter of the population — in general, the poorest and most in need of help — denied any political voice.

That dilution of democracy helped prevent any effective response to the excesses and injustices of the Gilded Age, because those who might have demanded that politicians support labor rights, progressive taxation and a basic social safety net didn’t have the right to vote. Conversely, the restrictions on immigration imposed in the 1920s had the unintended effect of paving the way for the New Deal and sustaining its achievements, by creating a fully enfranchised working class.

But now we’re living in the second Gilded Age. And as before, one of the things making antiworker, unequalizing policies politically possible is the fact that millions of the worst-paid workers in this country can’t vote. What progressives should care about, above all, is that immigration reform stop our drift into a new system of de facto apartheid.

Now, the proposed immigration reform does the right thing in principle by creating a path to citizenship for those already here. We’re not going to expel 11 million illegal immigrants, so the only way to avoid having those immigrants be a permanent disenfranchised class is to bring them into the body politic.

h/t Tennessee Guerilla Women

Bush's Betrayal

2007-05-28T01:52:00.000-05:00

Paul Krugman, Trust and Betrayal:

Here’s the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a “movement” that “has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he should be treated as a lunatic.

When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of “Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda” wants to “bring down the West,” he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.

And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will “follow us home” if we leave, he should be laughed at.

INTERNATIONAL THINKING AT ITS BEST!

2007-05-25T19:03:00.000-05:00

My mother just emailed me this, and ya gotta admit, it's amusing.

What is the truest definition of Globalization?
Answer: Princess Diana's death.
Question: How come?
Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines. This is sent to you by an American, using Bill Gate's technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that use Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals..... That, my friends, is Globalization.

What Keith said...

2007-05-25T18:45:00.001-05:00

Here.

As for me, I'm sorry to say I was not surprised. I mean, really. Did we expect them to grow a spine? It's just sad. Sad, that just before Memorial Day, our Congress has signed the death warrants of who knows how many more of our soldiers, not to mention civilians, contrary to the wishes of over 70% of the American people, all to appease a spoiled brat who would piss his pants if a watergun were aimed at him by a two year old.

I've never seen my 80-something mother, a devoted lifelong Democrat, ever be so disgusted and enraged with her party and her government.

John Edwards Speech

2007-05-24T22:34:00.000-05:00

John Edwards speech to the Council on Foreign Relations:

"As all of you know, we need a new strategy for rebuilding a strong military for a new century.

Any new strategy must include new preventive measures to win the long-term struggle and fuel hope and opportunity. This includes strong and creative diplomacy, and also new efforts to lead the fight against global poverty. I've proposed a plan to lead an international effort to educate every child in the world. As president, I would increase foreign assistance by $5 billion a year to make millions of people safer, healthier, and more democratic, and by creating a cabinet-level post to lead this effort.

Any new strategy must improve how we gather intelligence. From my years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know how difficult this can be. We must always seek to protect our national security by aggressively gathering intelligence in accordance with proven methods.

Yet we cannot do so by abandoning human rights and the rule of law. As two former generals recently wrote in the Washington Post, "If we forfeit our values by signaling that they are negotiable ... we drive ... undecideds into the arms of the enemy." And we must avoid actions that will give terrorists or even other nations an excuse to abandon international law.

As president, I will close Guantanamo Bay, restore habeas corpus, and ban torture. Measures like these will help America once again achieve its historic moral stature -- and lead the world toward democracy and peace."

This kind of speech, plus his healthcare plan is why I support Edwards.

Native or Indian?

2007-05-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm still here for the time being and I have a question. American Indian or Native American?

I'm watching Tavis Smiley interview Dick Wolfe on PBS and he just said that that the "politically correct" terminology was now American Indian instead of Native American.

Who says so? When did this happen? He says it's settled because the Smithsonian opened a museum named The Museum of the American Indian.

So what? I'm part Cherokee and part Catawba and I'm sure that my great(+)grandmothers had nothing whatsoever to do with the West Indies, or India.

I don't know that either offends me personally, however, we are referring to peoples native to the continents of the America's, so Native American simply sounds more correct.

2007-05-10T01:36:00.000-05:00

Sorry, folks, but I am dealing with serious issues surrounding my illness and the devastating financial repercussions ensuing from this most rich of all nations inability to provide healthcare for it's citizens in need.

The only bright spot in my life right now is that my doctor is attempting to get me into a National Institute of Health clinical trial which will pay my transportation to Bethesda and resultant medical care.

So, since it is believed that I am suffering from one of the rarest diseases in the world, there is, at least, that.

Vote Democratic!

And don't lose me. I will return again. When, I cannot say.

2007-04-26T01:59:00.000-05:00

Here are a few bits to chew on...

God exists since mathematics is consistent, and the Devil exists since we cannot prove it. Andre Weil, (1906 -?) In H. Eves Mathematical Circles Adieu, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1977.

I don't believe in mathematics. Albert Einstein, (1879-1955) Quoted by Carl Seelig. Albert Einstein.

Suppose we loosely define a religion as any discipline whose foundations rest on an element of faith, irrespective of any element of reason which may be present. Quantum mechanics for example would be a religion under this definition. But mathematics would hold the unique position of being the only branch of theology possessing a rigorous demonstration of the fact that it should be so classified. F. De Sua, (1956) In H. Eves In Mathematical Circles, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1969.

Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us consider the two possibilities. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Hesitate not, then, to wager that He is.Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) Pensees. 1670.

The excitement that a gambler feels when making a bet is equal to the amount he might win times the probability of winning it. Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) In N. Rose Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh NC:Rome Press Inc., 1988.

In my opinion, a mathematician, in so far as he is a mathematician, need not preoccupy himself with philosophy -- an opinion, moreover, which has been expressed by many philosophers. Henri Lebesgue, (1875 - 1941) Scientific American, 211, September 1964, p. 129.

Why I am not an atheist

2007-04-21T02:47:00.000-05:00

I am not an atheist because I am not arrogant enough to think that I am so wise as to know that God does not exist.

Ever since I posted on Pascal's Gambit (or Wager) I have found numerous references to it in forums and on blogs, etc. Usually it is being used by atheists in various ways, always claiming it to be fallacious or easily refutable or otherwise faulty. However, in order to do so, they invariably change Pascal's assumptions to suit their purpose and then declare "Eureka! Wager disproved!"

It doesn't work that way, folks.

For it is based on certain assumptions, and one primary assumption is that God is good and rewards believers with heaven and punishes non-believers with hell.

You cannot change the assumptions in order to disprove the wager.

However, you can think of it this way:

If you believe in God, and he does exist, when you die, God does whatever he wants to do with you, and the possibilities are infinite.

If you believe in God, and he does not exist, then nothing happens, and the possibilities are nil.

If you do not believe in God, and he does exist, when you die, God still does whatever he wants to do with you, and the possibilities are still infinite.

If you do not believe in God and he does not exist, then nothing happens, and the possibilities are still nil.

Either way, the odds are always in favor of the House (or God), because our belief or non-belief in him has no bearing whatsoever on his existence or non-existence. If he exists, he holds all the cards.

If you are turned off, or disillusioned by the Christian God concept because of fundamentalists or whatever, that's fine. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what form of God we're talking about here. An active, prescient God who directs us all in everything we do. An inactive, detached God who set everything in motion and then disengaged. A good God who has a nifty little heaven set up for all believers and a nasty little hell set up for all non-believers. A God who transforms us into another reincarnated being after death. A God who does nothing whatsoever with us once our time here on earth is finished.

IT JUST DOES NOT MATTER, PEOPLE. Whatever you think, whatever you believe, whatever you've been taught, whatever you've read, whatever you've envisioned or prophetized or proselytized, it JUST DOES NOT MATTER.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND? You, me, the preacher, the priest, the rabbi, the master, the bodisattva... we are all just little bitty human beings running around on a teeny tiny planet in a gi-normous, unending Universe and it does not matter what we believe.

We don't know that there is not a God. We don't know that there is a God. God doesn't flicker on and off like a neon light depending on what one little human is thinking one second as compared to what another little human is thinking the next second.

God either exists or not. What we think has no bearing on his existence. Just because you imagine there is a God does not make God materialize. Just because you think there is no God does not make God disappear.

If there is a God, when you die, God will do with you whatever he will.
If there is no God, when you die, then nothing will happen.

I've studied Buddhism pretty extensively, and the problem I have with reincarnation is that something has to set that in motion which means that there would have to be a God. And, if there is a God, then he may or may not reincarnate you because it will be his choice what to do and he will do as he will. So, you can have no true assurance of reincarnation.

No matter how well educated you may be, or how intelligent, or how knowledgeble, you, my friend, are not all-knowing.

You can feel self-assured all you want, but you can have no assurance of anything except that one day you will die and on that day, and not until that day, you will know the truth.

Intact dilation and extraction

2007-04-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

is what the media has allowed to become better known as "partial birth abortion" in support of those whose agenda is against the health of living women and for unborn fetuses, whose use by medical professionals has been outlawed and upheld by the Supreme Court today.

What does this mean? It means that physicians will now induce labor so that these fetuses will be expelled vaginally, or will perform cesarians.

Both of which are much more harmful for the living woman, but will achieve the same effect ultimately.

John Prine

2007-04-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

will be on Austin City Limits Saturday night at 11pm. Just a note to myself if no one else. I love John Prine.

Artist: John Prine
Song: Jesus the missing years
Album: The Missing Years
[" The Missing Years " CD]

(spoken)
Jesus.... the missing years

It was raining. It was cold
West Bethlehem was no place for a twelve year old
So he packed his bags and he headed out
To find out what the world's about
He went to France. He went to Spain
He found love. He found pain.
He found stores so he started to shop
But he had no money so he got in trouble with a cop
Kids in trouble with the cops
From Israel didn't have no home
So he cut his hair and moved to Rome
It was there he met his Irish bride
And they rented a flat on the lower east side of Rome...
Italy that is
Music publishers, book binders, Bible belters, Money Changers,
Spoon Benders and lots of pretty Italian chicks.

Chorus:
Charley bought some popcorn
Billy bought a car
Someone almost bought the farm
But they didn't go that far
Things shut down at midnight
At least around here they do
Cause we all reside down the block
Inside at ....23 Skidoo.

Wine was flowing so were beers
So Jesus found his missing years
So He went to a dance and said "This don't move me"
He hiked up his pants and he went to a movie
On his thirteenth birthday he saw "Rebel without a Cause"
He went straight on home and invented Santa Claus
Who gave him a gift and he responded in kind
He gave the gift of love and went out of his mind
You see him and the wife wasn't getting along
So he took out his guitar and he wrote a song
Called "The Dove of Love Fell Off the Perch"
But he couldn't get divorced in the Catholic Church
At least not back then anyhow
Jesus was a good guy he didn't need this shit
So he took a pill with a bag of peanuts and
A Coca-Cola and he swallowed it.
He discovered the Beatles
And he recorded with the Stones
Once He even opened up a three-way package
In Southern California for old George Jones

Repeat Chorus:

The years went by like sweet little days
With babies crying pork chops and beaujolais
When he woke up he was seventeen
The world was angry. The world was mean.
Why the man down the street and the kid on the stoop
All agreed that life stank. All the world smelled like poop
Baby poop that is ..the worst kind
So he grew his hair long and thew away his comb
And headed back to Jerusalem to find Mom, Dad and home
But when he got there the cupboard was bare
Except for an old black man with a fishing rod
He said "Whatcha gonna be when you grow up?"
Jesus said "God"
Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?
I'm a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood
They're gonna kill me Mama. They don't like me Bud.
So Jesus went to Heaven and he went there awful quick
All them people killed him and he wasn't even sick
So come and gather around me my contemporary peers
And I'll tell you all the story of
Jesus...The Missing Years

Repeat Chorus:

We all reside down the block
Inside at ....23 Skidoo.

In Memoriam

2007-04-18T03:01:00.001-05:00

To life.

Oh, yeah, we're safe...

2007-04-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

I know all the facts are not in yet, but I think the incompetence of the Blacksburg, VA police is self evident.

What a total fuck up! I wouldn't even trust them to find all the bodies.

I would say that the FBI should have been sent in by noon, at least, if I even thought the FBI were competent enough under this administration to do a decent job.

What does the Department of Homeland Security do, exactly? Our largest universities apparently haven't even gotten a memo about how to provide security on enormous campuses, even against a lone gunman.

They send emails? EMAILS???? How ridiculous is that?

How about a bloody, fucking siren?!? Just a simple, low tech siren that sounds to alert everyone to get into a room somewhere and lock the g*ddamned door! Maybe a different sounding alarm to alert everyone to vacate the buildings in case of a bomb threat?

Is that too complicated to fathom?

Not only was this act unconscionable, the response was, also.

In Defense of Hip Hop

2007-04-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

Frank Zappa on Crossfire

Yeah, I can't believe I'm about to defend Hip Hop either. Or rap. Or any of the truly misogynist crap that passes for it. Personally, I never listen to either. Still, I gotta say that I'm with Snoop Dogg.

It is musical artistic expression. I don't like it, but I recognize it as art. It is profoundly anti-American to censor art in any way, shape or form. It is a violation of the First Amendment, clearly, to censorship art.

Don Imus, Glenn Beck, or any other political, cultural or other commenter does not qualify as artistic expression. They do have Freedom of Speech, but Freedom of Speech does not allow defamation, libel or slander of specific individuals. Which is what occurred in the Imus situation. Too bad, so sad. I would not have accepted his apology until I received a check from my libel suit.

Music lyrics which do not defame, libel or slander specific individuals are protected under the 1st Amendment. One can speak out against it, one can boycott it, one can protest it, but one cannot censor it.

Otherwise, I'll let Zappa have his say.

Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-11T22:58:00.000-05:00

November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007

Goodbye and rest in peace, my favorite contemporary author.

As a memoriam, of sorts, below is re-published poputonian's post from Digby's Hullabaloo:

"Last year, Vonnegut published another best-seller, this one called A Man Without A Country. Vonnegut's humor will make you laugh, but his fatalism will make you cry. In typical Vonnegut fashion, the points he makes throughout the book are woven together with the flair of a creative writer. The two main complaints he emphasizes are unmistakable: the senseless killing being perpetrated by America, and America's addiction to fossil fuel. America is destroying the planet, which leads Vonnegut to reject the country he once fought for.

Overall the book is about politics, government, and philosophy, but on its sweeter side it is about people and family, about community. It might well be his best work ever. At one point in the book, Vonnegut describes how children learn to be creative, or how they came to use their brains to think and imagine; no sounds, no pictures, just thinking and imagining:

We are not born with imagination. It has to be developed by teachers, by parents. There was a time when imagination was very important because it was the major source of entertainment. In 1892, if you were a seven-year-old, you'd read a story--just a very simple one--about a girl whose dog had died. Doesn't that make you want to cry? Don't you know how the little girl feels? And you'd read another story about a rich man slipping on a banana peel. Doesn't that make you want to laugh? And this imagination circuit is being built in your head. If you go to an art gallery, here's just a square with daubs of paint on it that haven't moved in hundreds of years. No sound comes out of it.

The imagination circuit is taught to respond to the most minimal of cues. A book is an arrangement of twenty-six phonetic symbols, ten numerals, and about eight punctuation marks, and people can cast their eyes over these and envision the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the Battle of Waterloo. But it's no longer necessary for teachers and parents to build these circuits. Now there are professionally produced shows with great actors, very convincing sets, sound, music. Now there's the information highway. We don't need circuits any more than we need to know how to ride horses.

(snip) Have you ever served in a war? Have you ever been held captive? Vonnegut was an American prisoner of war, held in captivity in Dresden, Germany on February 13, 1945. That was the night the British intentionally massacred 135,000 people. Killed them all dead, in one night.

It was pure nonsense, pointless destruction. The whole city was burned down, and it was a British atrocity, not ours. They sent in night bombers, and they came in and set the whole town on fire with a new kind of incendiary bomb. And so everything organic, except my little POW group, was consumed by fire. It was a military experiment to find out if you could burn down a whole city by scattering incendiaries over it.

Of course, as prisoners of war, we dealt hands-on with dead Germans, digging them out of basements because they had suffocated there, and taking them to a huge funeral pyre. And I heard -- I didn't see it done -- that they gave up this procedure because it was too slow and, of course, the city was starting to smell pretty bad. And they sent in guys with flamethrowers.

Why my fellow prisoners of war and I weren't killed, I don't know.

I was a writer in 1968. I was a hack. I'd write anything to make money, you know. And what the hell, I'd seen this thing, I'd been through it, and so I was going to write a hack book about Dresden. You know, the kind that would be made into a movie where Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and others would play us. I tried to write, but I couldn't get it right. I kept writing crap.

So I went to a friend's house -- Bernie O'Hare, who'd been my pal. And we were trying to remember funny stuff about our time as prisoners of war in Dresden, tough talk and all that, stuff that would make a nifty war movie. And his wife, Mary O'Hare, blew her stack. She said, "You were nothing but babies then."

And that is true of soldiers. They are in fact babies. They are not movies stars. They are not Duke Wayne. And realizing that was key, I was finally free to tell the truth. We were children and the subtitle of Slaughterhouse Five became The Children's Crusade.

Why had it taken me twenty-three years to write about what I had experienced in Dresden? We all came home with stories, and we all wanted to cash in, one way or another. And what Mary O'Hare was saying, in effect, was, "Why don't you tell the truth for a change?"

Ernest Hemingway wrote a story after the First World War called "A Soldier's Home" about how it was very rude to ask a soldier what he'd seen when he got back home. I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

But I think the Vietnam War freed me and other writers, because it made our leadership and our motives seem so scruffy and essentially stupid. We could finally talk about something bad that we did to the worst people imaginable, the Nazis. And what I saw, what I had to report, made war look so ugly. You know, the truth can be really powerful stuff. You're not expecting it.

Of course, another reason to talk about war is that it's unspeakable.

I can sense the brain circuits of the right-wingers, or the flag conservatives, or the authoritarian followers, as they try to process Vonnegut's words: Just how courageous was he in battle? Prove it. Did he have any serious injuries, or just superficial ones? Did he have the right attitude, that of a soldier dedicated to his country? Does Vonnegut think any war is worth fighting; is the Constitution worth fighting for?

It so happens that idealism enough for anyone is not made of perfumed pink clouds. It is the law! It is the U.S. Constitution.

But I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened instead is that it was taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable.

I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: "C-Students from Yale."

George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka Christians, and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences.

To say somebody is a PP is to make perfectly respectable diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia, published in 1941. Read it!

Some people are born deaf, some are born blind or whatever, and this book is about congenitally defective human beings of a sort that is making this whole country and many other parts of the planet go completely haywire nowadays. These were people born without consciences, and suddenly they are taking charge of everything.

PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And they are waging a war that is making billionaires out of millionaires, and trillionaires out of billionaires, and they own television, and they bankroll George Bush, and not because he's against gay marriage.

So many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick. They have taken charge. They have taken charge of communications and the schools, so we might as well be Poland under occupation.

They might have felt that taking our country into an endless war was simply something decisive to do. What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin' day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with any doubts, for the simple reason that they don't give a fuck what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In these Times, and kiss my ass!"

Outrageous, I say!

2007-04-11T14:13:00.000-05:00

Secretary of Defense Gates is outraged at the "hardship" that was caused to servicemen and their families by someone leaking the Iraqi tour extension to 15 months.

Yeah, right. It was the leak of the information that causes the hardship.

Not the 3 month extension.

The hypocrisy of this administration knows no bounds.

The inhumanity of this administration knows no bounds.

Why? Please tell me.

2007-04-10T23:46:00.000-05:00

I came across the following at Alicublog and I had never read it before. It's amazing how the tears return even now, 45 years later, when I was not yet even in pre-school when it happened. Perhaps that is why. Perhaps it was so traumatizing for me because I was so young. I don't know.

Having lived, no, experienced the Kennedy assassination, segregation, the civil rights movement, the King assassination, the race riots, desegregation, the Cold War, the Bobby Kennedy campaign and assassination, the Vietnam War, the peace movement, the Manson murders, the hippie movement, the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Olympic Israeli massacre, the women's liberation movement, the sexual revolution, Watergate, the oil/gas shortages, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the communist Soviet Union, the greed/speed/coked out 80's, massive inflation, recession, the near collapse of Wall Street, and now the rise of global terrorism targeting the western world, and heaven only knows what else I've left out due to sheer exhaustion of thinking about and living the above, there is one thing I know.

I know that we are experiencing the worst Presidency in my lifetime, and, I think, in the history of the country.

My mother is in her 80's. She has experienced all of the above, plus The Great Depression and World War II.

She is absolutely certain that we are experiencing the worst Presidency in the history of the country.

What was media obsessed with today? The parentage of a 7 month old infant and the rantings of a foolish old radio personality.

Why?

Breslin and the Gravedigger

2007-04-10T23:40:00.000-05:00

Digging JFK Grave Was His Honor

Jimmy Breslin

Newsday's Jimmy Breslin wrote the following article for the New York Herald Tribune in November 1963.

Washington -- Clifton Pollard was pretty sure he was going to be working on Sunday, so when he woke up at 9 a.m., in his three-room apartment on Corcoran Street, he put on khaki overalls before going into the kitchen for breakfast. His wife, Hettie, made bacon and eggs for him. Pollard was in the middle of eating them when he received the phone call he had been expecting. It was from Mazo Kawalchik, who is the foreman of the gravediggers at Arlington National Cemetery, which is where Pollard works for a living. "Polly, could you please be here by eleven o'clock this morning?" Kawalchik asked. "I guess you know what it's for." Pollard did. He hung up the phone, finished breakfast, and left his apartment so he could spend Sunday digging a grave for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

When Pollard got to the row of yellow wooden garages where the cemetery equipment is stored, Kawalchik and John Metzler, the cemetery superintendent, were waiting for him. "Sorry to pull you out like this on a Sunday," Metzler said. "Oh, don't say that," Pollard said. "Why, it's an honor for me to be here." Pollard got behind the wheel of a machine called a reverse hoe. Gravedigging is not done with men and shovels at Arlington. The reverse hoe is a green machine with a yellow bucket that scoops the earth toward the operator, not away from it as a crane does. At the bottom of the hill in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Pollard started the digging (Editor Note: At the bottom of the hill in front of the Custis-Lee Mansion).

Leaves covered the grass. When the yellow teeth of the reverse hoe first bit into the ground, the leaves made a threshing sound which could be heard above the motor of the machine. When the bucket came up with its first scoop of dirt, Metzler, the cemetery superintendent, walked over and looked at it. "That's nice soil," Metzler said. "I'd like to save a little of it," Pollard said. "The machine made some tracks in the grass over here and I'd like to sort of fill them in and get some good grass growing there, I'd like to have everything, you know, nice."

James Winners, another gravedigger, nodded. He said he would fill a couple of carts with this extra-good soil and take it back to the garage and grow good turf on it. "He was a good man," Pollard said. "Yes, he was," Metzler said. "Now they're going to come and put him right here in this grave I'm making up," Pollard said. "You know, it's an honor just for me to do this."

Pollard is 42. He is a slim man with a mustache who was born in Pittsburgh and served as a private in the 352nd Engineers battalion in Burma in World War II. He is an equipment operator, grade 10, which means he gets $3.01 an hour. One of the last to serve John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was the thirty-fifth President of this country, was a working man who earns $3.01 an hour and said it was an honor to dig the grave.

Yesterday morning, at 11:15, Jacqueline Kennedy started toward the grave. She came out from under the north portico of the White House and slowly followed the body of her husband, which was in a flag-covered coffin that was strapped with two black leather belts to a black caisson that had polished brass axles. She walked straight and her head was high. She walked down the bluestone and blacktop driveway and through shadows thrown by the branches of seven leafless oak trees. She walked slowly past the sailors who held up flags of the states of this country. She walked past silent people who strained to see her and then, seeing her, dropped their heads and put their hands over their eyes. She walked out the northwest gate and into the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. She walked with tight steps and her head was high and she followed the body of her murdered husband through the streets of Washington.

Everybody watched her while she walked. She is the mother of two fatherless children and she was walking into the history of this country because she was showing everybody who felt old and helpless and without hope that she had this terrible strength that everybody needed so badly. Even though they had killed her husband and his blood ran onto her lap while he died, she could walk through the streets and to his grave and help us all while she walked.

There was mass, and then the procession to Arlington. When she came up to the grave at the cemetery, the casket already was in place. It was set between brass railings and it was ready to be lowered into the ground. This must be the worst time of all, when a woman sees the coffin with her husband inside and it is in place to be buried under the earth. Now she knows that it is forever. Now there is nothing. There is no casket to kiss or hold with your hands. Nothing material to cling to. But she walked up to the burial area and stood in front of a row of six green-covered chairs and she started to sit down, but then she got up quickly and stood straight because she was not going to sit down until the man directing the funeral told her what seat he wanted her to take.

The ceremonies began, with jet planes roaring overhead and leaves falling from the sky. On this hill behind the coffin, people prayed aloud. They were cameramen and writers and soldiers and Secret Service men and they were saying prayers out loud and choking. In front of the grave, Lyndon Johnson kept his head turned to his right. He is president and he had to remain composed. It was better that he did not look at the casket and grave of John Fitzgerald Kennedy too often. Then it was over and black limousines rushed under the cemetery trees and out onto the boulevard toward the White House. "What time is it?" a man standing on the hill was asked. He looked at his watch. "Twenty minutes past three," he said.

Clifton Pollard wasn't at the funeral. He was over behind the hill, digging graves for $3.01 an hour in another section of the cemetery. He didn't know who the graves were for. He was just digging them and then covering them with boards. "They'll be used," he said. "We just don't know when. I tried to go over to see the grave," he said. "But it was so crowded a soldier told me I couldn't get through. So I just stayed here and worked, sir. But I'll get over there later a little bit. Just sort of look around and see how it is, you know. Like I told you, it's an honor."

Posted: 16 November 2003
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Misogynist racist ass

2007-04-10T01:28:00.000-05:00

I understand the racism aspect of Don Imus' statement, but what would really piss me off is the misogynist libel. He called these women "hoes". Which means, he called these women whores.

If I were one of the Rutgers team, I would hire an attorney and sue his fucking ass for defamation. After I'd hunted down the damned lizard and beat the ever living shit out of him.

Okay, I'd definitely do the former and definitely want to do the latter, anyway. For sure, the cretin would be looking over his shoulder for the male members of my family for the rest of his pitiful little life.

Imagine hearing your college age daughter called a whore, broadcast nationwide, just for being an outstanding basketball player?

Ye gods.

Just my little comment on the matter.

Experience Designer Network

2007-04-08T18:42:00.000-05:00

I've just discovered this very intriguing site and thought I'd share.

2007-04-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

The ultimate mystery of being is beyond all categories of thought.
- Joseph Campbell

Pascal's Gambit (or Wager)

2007-04-08T13:04:00.000-05:00

"Pascal's Pensées sits among the most profound and beautifully written masterpieces in the history of the world. When commenting on one particular section, Sainte-Beuve praised it as the finest pages in the French language. Will Durant, in his 11-volume, comprehensive The Story of Civilization series, hailed it as "the most eloquent book in French prose." In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity—seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal's Wager.

Pascal's Wager
Pascal's Wager (also known as Pascal's Gambit) is Blaise Pascal's application of decision theory to the belief in God. It is one of three 'wagers' which appear in his Pensées, a collection of notes for an unfinished treatise on Christian apologetics. Pascal argues that it is always a better "bet" to believe in God, because the expected value to be gained from believing in God is always greater than the expected value resulting from non-belief. Note that this is not an argument for the existence of God, but rather one for the belief in God. Pascal specifically aimed the argument at such persons who were not convinced by traditional arguments for the existence of God. With his wager he sought to demonstrate that believing in God is advantageous to not believing, and hoped that this would convert those who rejected previous theological arguments.

Explanation
It states that if you were to analyse your options in regard to belief in Pascal's God carefully (or belief in any other religious system with a similar reward and punishment scheme), you would come out with the following possibilities:

You may believe in God, and God exists, in which case you go to heaven: your gain is infinite.
You may believe in God, and God doesn't exist, in which case your loss is finite and therefore negligible.
You may not believe in God, and God doesn't exist, in which case your gain is finite and therefore negligible.
You may not believe in God, and God exists, in which case you will go to hell: your loss is infinite.

From these possibilities, and the principles of statistics, Pascal deduced that it would be better to believe in God unconditionally. It is a classic application of "game theory" to itemize options and payoffs and is valid within its assumptions."

Via Theopedia, for those who have apparently never heard of such reasoning until just recently.

Intellectual vacuity is not a term I've heard used in relation to anything ever put forth by a mind such as Blaise Pascal, albeit paraphrased by a somewhat lesser mind, no doubt, in this particular case.

More at Wikipedia:

"The Wager posits that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists than not to believe, because the expected value of believing (which Pascal assessed as infinite) is always greater than the expected value of not believing. In Pascal's assessment, it is inexcusable not to investigate this issue:

Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which touches them so nearly.[1]."

I have no further comment to add, especially in regard to the preference of the Christian God to any other concept of God. I am aware of many of the criticisms of the Wager, but none that I consider wholly valid as counterpoints to the bare bones of the argument itself.

Need a good bellylaugh or a hundred?

2007-04-06T01:09:00.000-05:00

Until you've read Harry Hutton's congregation...errr... conflagration of commenters over at Chase me, ladies, I'm in the calvary on Malkin's imbecilic "I am John Doe" nonsense, you really haven't lived.

What I wouldn't give to see her in a room full of them for five minutes.

And far reaching

2007-04-03T03:16:00.000-05:00

When I wrote about the Blogroll Amnesty and expressed my opinion that Atrios should exemplify diversity and link to more minority blogs, this is not exactly what I had in mind.

Linking to "one of the most compelling arguments against purging blogrolls" made by a decidedly minority blogger, as described at Faux Real, by titling the post "Things Which Make Me Want To Shoot People In The Face" illustrates that Duncan Black just does not get my point at all. To put it mildly.

From reading his blog, I take it that Atrios blogs in order to make an impact. Well, my my my. He certainly is doing just that. Influencing public discourse? Unh. Not so much. At least, not so much as he thinks and not in the way he would surely choose, I would think, especially on this subject.

Perhaps Mr. Black would prefer to lynch all of those of us whom he has offended by his (and others) actions which basically did nothing but "rend the network asunder" as Demothenes so aptly puts it in his comment at Faux Real, and who have the temerity, the absolute gall, mind you, to comment upon it.

Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.

Perhaps it is time to admit that all he and Kos and others did was stir up a shit storm that may, should no such admission be forthcoming, drown out their own voices in the end.

For what have they become? To my mind, more and more, some of the powerful A-listers have become nothing more than political "insiders", much like what we are fed daily by the MSM. Coverage of actual politics is non-existant already. What is deemed "coverage" is nothing more than pundits and "insiders" making opinionated comments about politics and politicians, and, ever more increasingly, about other pundits and "insiders" and their opinions. Is that not Atrios' forte?

Thanks, but, no thanks. Give me the words out of the horses mouth, or ass, whatever they may be, and I will form my own opinion, thank you very kindly.

We little blogs may be tiny, but yea, are we not mighty also? For, collectively, we are vast. The A-listers may be powerful, but they are few, and quoth as they may be by offline media outlets, we wee ones are vox populi. In the end, it is we who will not be ignored.

Not really, and yet...

2007-04-02T23:43:00.000-05:00

Summer makes me drowsy.
Autumn makes me sing.
Winter's pretty lousy,
But I hate Spring

- Dorothy Parker

Actually, I've always loved Spring. It is the season of my birth, and every year since it has seemed like the season of my own rebirth. Until, that is, I developed a disease where my immune system is on overdrive all of the time. And until Spring no longer springs but pounces like a lion with everything, and I do mean everything, blooming all at once!

I've never seen a Spring like this that I can recall. A few daffodils peeked out and seemingly the very next day, every tree, bush, bulb, and flower burst forth like a beautiful, yet deadly (to me) volcano of color and pollen.

We've had three 80 degree days already with another on the slate for tomorrow. Yet, it's likely to be freezing on Easter Sunday a few days from now.

Nothings happening to the climate, my ass. Way to go, (surprisingly) Supreme Court.

Meantime, as you can probably tell by both the quantity and quality of my posts, I'm living on double doses of Clariten and constant doses of Benadryl on top of everything I have to take already.

Doing better

2007-03-30T19:30:00.000-05:00

After two vet visits, continuing doses of Metacam, amoxicillin, and an analgesic, Risky is back about 85%. Oh, and about $200. This pic is a few months old, but I liked how it shows how we've all been revolving around him the last 10 days or so. Bless his heart. He drives me crazy. But, I'm so glad he's doing better.

He's walking, except not so great on the hardwoods or the kitchen flooring... once he's down on them, it's hard for him to get up. He's doing great on the carpet and out in the yard on the grass. His balance is much better.

His "accidents" are getting fewer and more far in between. He's making it to the paper or barking to go out when its time, so my carpet is grateful, and I won't have to take out a loan for the purchase of more paper towels, but it's definitely carpet cleaning time. Oh, how wise and optimistic was I to put in $2,000 of berber carpeting with 16 and 14 year old dogs.

2007-03-23T23:46:00.000-05:00

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

--Machiavelli

Courage and Patriotism Defined

2007-03-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

How does Jay Carney manage to keep his job at Time? Is he the Editor of an independent magazine or a partisan political hack?

In his editorial today, "Can Edwards' Campaign Just Go On?", he states:

"The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly." The words from John Edwards were a shock, coming as they did after he and his wife Elizabeth had spent the opening minutes of their press conference in Chapel Hill, N.C., describing how her breast cancer had returned, and spread to her bones. Just moments before, John Edwards had explained that because his wife's cancer had spread "from breast to bone, it is no longer curable." With that grim statement, I—and, presumably, many other listeners—assumed that the former North Carolina Senator and top-tier contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination was ending his campaign, or at least suspending it. "

Guess what, Mr. Carney? I neither presumed, nor assumed anything. Then, I am not a so-called "newsman". Nor did I make any presuppositions as to whether or not the campaign was to be ended or suspending. I simply waited to hear what they had to say.

As an Edwards supporter, I was, and am, terribly concerned about Mrs. Edwards and the effect that her illness will have on her family, and, secondarily, I was concerned about whether it would affect the campaign. But, I, unlike you, the experienced "newsman", did not speculate. I waited to hear the facts.

Mr. Carney continued:

Instead, Edwards said nothing would change; his campaign would continue and Elizabeth would be by his side on the road. Elizabeth spoke about the importance of her husband's campaign, how the country needs him to be president. Both said there was never a debate yesterday, as they were receiving the news about her condition, about whether he should drop out of the race. John said that when the two of them were alone, Elizabeth was concerned about everyone but herself—her children, her husband and her country, in that order, but not herself.

He clearly meant it to be inspiring, but there is also something
discomfiting about that statement. Even more discomfiting was Edwards' claim that by soldiering on while his wife has incurable cancer, he would be proving that he could deal with the pressures of being president. I wonder how voters will react to that sentiment.

Actually, Mr. Carney, Mrs. Edwards said that her husband "cornered" the doctor and interrogated her about whether or not the campaign would have a negative effect on his wife's health and was assured that it would not. That being the case, then it is reasonable to understand that there would not be a great deal of discussion about whether the campaign should continue, although Senator Edwards stressed that they had discussed it extensively. Mrs. Edwards clearly believes in her husband and believes that her country needs him to be President, so, again, I can see how there would be little debate necessary.

Mr. Carney finds it discomfiting that when the two of them were alone, Mrs. Edwards was concerned about her children, her husband, and her country, rather than about herself.

Discomfiting? DISCOMFITING? I found that statement comforting, inspiring, courageous and the most admirable displays of motherhood, devoted spouse and above all, patriotism and love of country that I have ever heard in my life. Bravo! Elizabeth Edwards, Bravo!

That alone assures me that this country needs you as our First Lady of our Land. Needs you desperately.

Mr. Carney miscast Senator Edwards by phrasing his statement that it "was Edwards claim that by soldiering on while his wife has incurable cancer, he would be proving that he could deal with the pressure of being president."

Excuse me, Mr. Carney. That is not an accurate portrayal of what Senator Edwards said.

At all.

I understand that in an editorial, you, who must have risen to that high post by miraculous intervention, have the right to express your opinion. You do not have the right to rephrase actual statements.

Mr. Edwards simply stated that Presidents must be able to deal with sometimes unfortunate occurrences in ones personal life and not be distracted enough to impact the performance of his duties. Which is the case. And that if he was to run for the office, he had to be prepared to do just that.

I found that his realization of this and willingness to face this incredibly reassuring. He understands this as did Lincoln, Roosevelt, and a number of other courageous Presidents.

That, Mr. Carney, is how voters will react to this sentiment. A courageous man and woman who are so devoted to their country and to commit to their dreams for the betterment of their country that they are willing to continue on, despite all odds, despite all obstacles, to lead this country onto a better pathway. A better pathway to health care for all, a better pathway to the elimination of poverty not only for the people of this country, but the elimination of poverty for all the impoverished in the world because they know that that is the crux of the problem of the resentment and violence and hate that is displayed towards this country. Just to mention a couple of the inspiring themes of Senator Edwards candidacy.

Mr. Carney goes on to posit that this will impact the commitment of donors, political activists, and regular voters as to whether Edwards will stay in the race.

I say it will impact it, and will impact it tremendously positively. If they are this committed, then it will inspire great commitment and devotion to them.

Mr. Carney then goes on with this utterly ridiculous and ignorant statement:

It is certainly true that with effective treatment, Elizabeth Edwards could live many years. But it is also true that even the best treatment isn't always effective, and that bone cancer is particularly lethal.

Mr. Carney, I realize you are not a medical professional, but as the Editor of a major publication, I would think that you might manage to make an inquiry from a medical professional before stating something not only misleading, but an outright falsity. Elizabeth Edwards has breast cancer, not bone cancer. Because it has metastasized and spread to the bones of her ribs does not make it bone cancer. It is still breast cancer, and, as such, is still highly treatable and not a death sentence.

I know. My sister died of bone cancer only a year ago. Bone cancer is a death sentence. A very quick death sentence. My sister died only about six months after diagnosis.

Breast cancer which has spread is not necessarily a death sentence and can be successfully treated if not cured.

How dare you, Mr. Carney, to imply otherwise by the simple display of your utter ignorance?

Edwards' supporters, and surely many average Americans, have to be wondering at what point the candidate will decide that his duties as husband and father to three children, including a 6 and 8 year old, trump his duty to his country and the cause of winning the White House.

Tell me, Mr. Carney, at what point does the soldier being sent to Iraq decide that his duties as husband and father to his ailing wife and children, even small children, trump his duty to his country? Huh?

At what point, asshole?

That soldier has no option, other than desertion and court-martial, to do his duty to his country.

Senator Edwards has nothing compelling him to endure his presidential campaign. He has worked hard to become a very wealthy man after starting life as a poor boy living in a mill village in a small South Carolina town. He never has to work another day in his life.

As Elizabeth Edwards said, if his campaign was all about John Edwards, it would be easy to give up his campaign faced with the daunting fate that awaits him and his wife and their family. It would be very easy.

They have not chosen that easy route. They have chosen the hard route. Similar to that hard route that each and every soldier that is being sent into the meat-grinder that is Iraq is being faced with every single day that and they will continue to be faced with should a Republican president be elected. The hard route that too many may possibly be faced with, albeit hopefully for a shorter period, should one of the other Democratic candidates be elected. John Edwards will end this war and he has said he will end it and start withdrawing troops significantly and immediately.

Yes, Mr. Carney. Senator Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards have decided to "soldier" on, and by doing so, are displaying the most courageous, inspiring, and patriotic actions of anyone I have ever seen in my lifetime.

I, for one, do not think they have it in them to do any less, no matter what the future holds.

If that does not earn them the admiration, respect, stalwart support and the votes of their fellow Americans, then this country no longer deserves people of this stature as leaders.

The hubris of man

2007-03-21T19:03:00.000-05:00

My mother used to have a large pond on her property which became overpopulated by ducks. She attempted to get some of the ducks moved to a nearby pond not so overpopulated, simply out of concern for the ducks as they were fighting over territory. I can't remember what method she had used, possibly by placing an ad or something, but I do remember that she was immediately contacted by government officials and told that it was illegal to mess with migratory birds whatsoever. It was against federal law. Specifically, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Which reads: "...it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported, or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or eggs of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof,..."

Now, I know there are addendum's and modifications and the Secretary of the Interior has some discretion, etc., BUT... would the destruction of the migratory geese, named in the treaty JUST BECAUSE they are understandably aggressive in the protection of their nests and because they supposedly "foul" parks apparently reserved only for the enjoyment of humans, who have driven these birds to the use of parks by DESTROYING their natural habitats by over development of land and the destruction of the few wetlands left in this country, be just a wee bit in violation of the spirit, if not the letter of this treaty and federal law?

Honestly, this makes me sick. The hubris of man. This is the type of action that will cause nature to eventually kick our ass off of this planet and we will unquestionably deserve it.

Updated:2007-03-21 11:49:04
Chicago Goes on Goose Egg Patrol
AP
CHICAGO (March 21) - The city needs a flock of volunteers - for goose egg patrol.

Park District officials are enlisting people to help locate nests of goose eggs as part of an expanded program aimed at downsizing the population of the aggressive park-fouling birds. *

The patrols will search 11 city parks for goose eggs during the birds' nesting season, which begins at the end of the month and lasts through April.

The volunteers will be taught about geese habitats and life cycles, but they won't be allowed to handle the eggs. That
task will be reserved for employees of La Grange-based Wild Goose Chase, who will shake the eggs to destroy the embryo or coat them with corn oil to suffocate the developing chick. *

"I can't stress enough, this is not an Easter egg hunt," said Susan Hagberg, president of Wild Goose Chase. "This is very regulated. If people think they can do this on their own, they can't."

Park officials have tried to control the flocks by planting grasses less attractive to the birds along lagoons, spraying digestive irritants on grass in Grant Park, and using border collies to drive migrating geese away in the fall.

The Humane Society of the United States supports the egg hunting method, said spokeswoman Diane Webber.

"It's much more humane than rounding up the geese and gassing them,"* she said.

*my emphasis

Weird blogger

2007-03-21T01:02:00.000-05:00

Don't know why "Risky" posted twice. Weird blogger. I won't delete it in case blogger sorts itself out.

Meantime, check out another adorable critter:

Knut, the baby polar bear. Let's try really hard not to let these beautiful creatures become extinct and damn the Bush administration and whether they'll allow mention of them or not.

or

http://www.gofish.com:80/player.gfp?gfid=30-1084094

via Dependable Renegade

Risky

2007-03-21T00:25:00.001-05:00

I don't have much time for blogging right now because I'm tending to my little 16 year old shih-tzu, Risky. He has had bad arthritis in his back legs for a few years now, in addition to the after effects of canine vestibular syndrome for three years now, displays some symptoms of cognitive dysfunction syndrome and has gone blind in one eye with cataract in the other.

In other words, he's very old.

He has to be sedated to be groomed. Only 1/4 of a tranquilizer, barely a speck. But, he has always been a snapper and now he'll snap if bothered at all, even though he's on more medication than I allow myself to spend on myself. Not that he has any teeth, unless he catches you with the stumps of his jaw teeth, and then its just the pressure of his jaws that hurt. Still, since he is a shih-tzu, he must be groomed or his face becomes like a sheepdog, which can't happen as it irritates his eyes. So, to be groomed, even by my sweet and gentle groomer, he has to be tranked a bit.

Afterwards, he sleeps, and sleeps. Usually for 24 hours. Last time, he had trouble getting back to walking for about 3 days. This time, its Wednesday, he was groomed on Thursday, and he still will not use one of his back legs. I took him to the vet on Tuesday for an injection and a new medicene. I'm having to work with him to get him to use his leg, helping him walk, taking him to his paper when he has to go or everytime I think he might and holding him up, massaging it, putting heat packs on it, etc.

He goes nuts barking and whining if I'm away from him more than a few feet for more than a few minutes and if I turn my attention away to anything other than him. Like if I pick up my laptop. The only reason I'm able to write now is because he's sound asleep at my feet after taking his new medicene.

So... blogging vs. devoted companion of 16 years who needs me. Hmm. That's the definition of a no brainer. I'll be back as I can when I can.

I mean, look at that face!

Risky

2007-03-21T00:25:00.000-05:00

Happy weekend

2007-03-17T07:24:00.000-05:00

Spend some time in pointless entertainment and try to forget that this is the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War.

Play catch, make a dragon chase you, sing the pirate song because you are a pirate and you can do whatever you want, draw random lines, and much more.

Edwards in SC Monday

2007-03-17T07:15:00.000-05:00

Sen. John Edwards in Columbia Monday, March 19

Former Senator John Edwards will be at Benedict College, 1600 Harden Street, on Monday, March 19, at 1:45 PM.For more information call 803-338-6225 or email Marilyn Hemingway at mhemingway@johnedwards.com.www.JohnEdwards.com/events

First Debate in SC

2007-03-17T07:13:00.000-05:00

S.C. Democratic Debate Back In Lead

South Carolina is back on track to hold the first Democratic presidential debate after organizers of a debate next month in New Hampshire have had to move their event back to June.The candidates have made firm commitments to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn to appear at the April 26 debate at his alma mater, South Carolina State University in Orangeburg.The 90-minute debate at the historically black college will be televised live nationally by MSNBC and local NBC affiliates. Click HERE to read more.

Killing us softly

2007-03-17T04:16:00.000-05:00

Look, I know this is a commercial site, but you've really got to ask yourself if commercial growers, as well as most industry, is just not trying to freakin' kill us all.

I, who have a disease where my system has basically gone into constant attack mode against everything, always producing an allergic response whether I'm in contact with anything I'm allergic to or not, then hyperdrive once I do encounter one of probably thousands of things I am allergic to now, especially have to ask the question.

I'm no expert, of course, but having grown up in the south I know that cotton crops had no real enemy other than the boll weevil, is all this really necessary? Or is it just a way to maximize profits? Isn't that what everything is about these days? Maximizing profits?

I dunno. I just saw it referenced in an email group, and thought I'd pass it along. It really makes you wonder.

100% cotton. 73% true
The average 100% cotton T-shirt contains only 73% cotton. The rest is made up of chemicals and resins that were used to grow and make it. Yet, we all think cotton is one of the most natural things around. The truth is, it's not as nice as we'd all like to think.

Indeed, cotton is the world's most sprayed crop. It uses over a quarter of all insecticides used today (see list below). The way they grow it isn't good for the farmer's health, the water table's health, the factory worker's health, the river's health and eventually the sea's health.

That's why we use organic cotton. It costs us 30% more than normal cotton. It means our products cost a little more, but we think it's worth it. After all, you wear your T-shirt next to your skin for 10 hours a day. (Just think how Nicorettes work).

The average cotton crop is sprayed 8-10 times a season. Indeed, it takes 17 teaspoons of chemical fertilizers to raise the 9 ounces of cotton needed to make a T-shirt.

The most common pesticides used are: Chlorphynfos (causes brain and foetal damage, impotence and sterility), Cyanazine (causes birth defects and cancer), Dicofol (causes cancer, reproductive damage and tumours), Ethephon (causes mutations) Fluometuron (causes blood and spleen disorders), Metam Sodium (causes birth defects, foetal damage, mutation), Methyl Parathion (causes birth defects, foetal damage, reproductive damage and destroys immune system), MSMA (causes tumours)

Nailed (causes cancer, reproductive damage and tumours), Profenofos (causes eye damage and skin irritation), Prometryn (causes bone morrow, kidney, liver and testicular damage), Propargite (causes cancer, foetal and eye damage, mutation and tumours), Sodium Chlorate (causes kidney damage), Tribufos (causes cancer and tumours), and Trifluralin (causes cancer, foetal damage and mutation).

In America last year, farmers applied 53 million pounds of toxic pesticides to cotton fields. Out of the world's total insecticide usage, 25% is used just to farm cotton.

And, if that isn't enough, once the cotton has been grown it is dyed using toxic dyes. Then, to prevent it from creasing, it is finished with formaldehyde.
Common sense says that can't be right. Go organic.
©2006 howies® All rights
reserved

Why Romney Cannot Win the South

2007-03-16T08:52:00.000-05:00

I've been wanting to post on this subject for awhile, but my mental capacity in relation to my illness has never coincided with the desire to really lay it out there on this subject. Since my brains foggy now, after a short period of total lucidity, I thought I'd spend a little time highlighting some other blogs I love that are off the beaten path.

Steve Reuland of Sunbeams and Cucumbers takes on the subject and hits the bullseye.

Mitt Romney -- Still a MORMON!!!!

Way back in the heady days of September 2006, I mentioned that nascent presidential candidate Mitt Romney's status as a Mormon isn't going to go over well with the religious right, especially in South Carolina where they've kind of doubled-down on the whole wacky religion thing. Lots of conservatives have tried to downplay the religious bigotry inherent in "the base" and pretend as if Romney's religion is no big deal to the tolerant, open-minded Republican primary voters. Except of course for that little incident where a party leader accosted him about his religion.
Now there's another example in Monday's Greenville News. For balance, of course, the News feels the need to lead off with an example of that famed Republican tolerance:
Bob Leach, a Republican legislator from Greenville, got right to the point with Mitt Romney on one of the presidential candidate's early stops in South Carolina late last year.
"Who was Jesus Christ?" he asked Romney, a devout Mormon.
"My personal Lord and Savior," Leach recalled Romney saying.
Leach, a Baptist and House Republican Caucus chaplain, was so taken with the response that he soon endorsed Romney.
Leach is so tolerant, he didn't really need to know anything about Romney other than the fact that he accepts Jesus as his lord and savior. Just so long as he isn't, you know, like a Jew or something.
But not everyone is as ecumenical as Bob Leach:
But Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, didn't sway fellow Republican Rep. Gloria Haskins of Greenville, who attended Bob Jones University.
"Mormonism is a cult, and you can't paint it any other way," she said recently. Haskins is supporting the candidacy of Arizona Sen. John McCain.
So says the graduate from BJU. Here's another:
The Rev. David Kay, associate pastor, said it [the how-to-convert-a-Mormon seminar] wasn't triggered by Romney's visits, but by his own increasing
awareness of growing Mormon missionary work. Mormonism, he believes, is a cult rather than a Christian religion.
Kay describes Mormonism's martyred founder, Joseph Smith, as "just a nut case" and said "anybody who would believe the teachings of Joseph Smith is
misled."
Yeah, Smith's teachings are pretty nutty. They're almost as nutty as believing that Adam and Eve frolicked with dinosaurs, that the Pope is the Anti-Christ, that a one-world government run by the UN will trigger the end times, that all kangaroos are descended from a pair that hopped to Australian from the Middle East after getting off of a boat they had been on for a year, and other things that no rational person could ever, ever believe.
But Romney's religion isn't the religious right's only hang-up.
That terrible evil known as divorce also has them up in arms:
They're not reluctant to weigh in, as frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani learned last week when a top Southern Baptist Convention official said the
thrice-married former New York City mayor's tangled personal life may be too much for evangelicals to accept, The Associated Press reported from
Nashville.
I really think that a guy who's been married three times isn't that big of a deal considering some recent revelations about the lifestyles of prominent evangelicals. Sometimes I wonder if they shouldn't just get it over with and choose leaders who are openly gay pedophile gambling drug addicts. It would would probably be less embarrassing that way.
Anyway, the whole point here is that of course Romney's Mormonism is a huge issue among the religious right, and anyone who thinks that it'll go away by focusing on Romeny's conservative credentials, or the fact that he's never been divorced (very important when formulating foreign policy you know), is deluding themselves. Romney will lose the primary, and part of it will be due to the fact that we do not live in a religiously tolerant society.

One side note - Gloria Haskins is one of those leading the efforts in the SC Legislature to make it mandatory for all women seeking abortions to be forced by the state to undergo the medical procedure of an ultra-sound and then be forced to view it before being allowed an abortion.

We have so many crazies in this state, and I lay the primary blame on Bob Jones University. I, and most everyone I know and am related to, rue the day that paragon of prejudice was ever allowed to build in our once fair town. As a little girl, they were the objects of ridicule, standing on the street corners waving their arms and their Bibles at us, preaching eternal damnation at the top of their lungs. Once the Reagan revolution embraced these types of idiots, they suddenly became mainstream and started infiltrating, and then dominating our churches, our schools and our government. I don't know about now, since so many have stayed here after graduation, but these people came here from states like Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, etc. It's been like watching the brown-shirts take over Germany. Unreal.

International Aid on a personal level

2007-03-16T08:35:00.000-05:00

If you would like to do more for those in dire need, but sometimes wonder how you can without simply tossing money into coffers that sometimes seem like they do more to pay their executives than actually help, here are a couple of ideas:

From Hard-Boiled Dreams of the World, via Big Fat Liberal

Youse established the International Breast Milk Project, and in May 2006 she sent a second shipment of over 23 gallons of breast milk. Another 35 gallons were sent in late 2006, and more shipments are scheduled for 2007.

If you’re interested in donating, click here: don’t waste a drop of breast milk.

Africa Aids Facts
Many babies in South Africa are in dire need of breast milk because their mothers have HIV, which can be transmitted through breast milk. Many other babies need breast milk because their moms don’t have access to water clean enough to mix with powdered baby formula.

An estimated 12 million African children under the age of 18 have been orphaned by AIDS.

Each day in Sub-Saharan Africa, over 6,000 people die from AIDS. Another 8,500 contract HIV. Every day, over a thousand newborn babies are infected during childbirth or through their mothers’ milk. Africa is home to 25 million people with HIV, which is about 64% of global infections.

And, then there is:

Kiva.org Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

Also, via Big Fat Liberal. Thanks, Lynne.

All about the Benjamin

2007-03-14T14:12:00.000-05:00

Some wisdom for the current age:

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

God help me

2007-03-14T13:32:00.000-05:00

CNN just had a piece about how ignorant people are about religion.

Benjamin Franklin said, "God helps those who help themselves." He said a bunch of stuff like that in Poor Richard's Almanac. I knew this. CNN did not, however, that did not keep them from "funnin'" with a bunch of poor folks who thought it was in the Bible.

Uh, I'm ignorant of something and you are too, so you're just stupid and funny.

Then, they asked a bunch of folks who wrote the Gospels. A lot of folks said they didn't know. So, CNN, thinks that is just so funny, haha. Of course, they say, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Only it's not!

No one knows who really wrote the Gospels! No one! Those are just the names attributed to them.

Now, it's possible that some people may have even learned that in church and so that was why they were unsure of how to answer the question. It might be a small percentage, but it is possible.

The Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament was written by at least three authors, most likely four, but I guess if CNN were to ask "Who wrote the book of Isaiah?" and people answered "Isaiah", then CNN would laud them for being correct.

Somebody please help CNN to learn to just report the facts, ma'am, and nothing but the facts and please stop reporting lies and delving into subjects of which they know nothing whatsoever about.

CNN, another propaganda machine

2007-03-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

TPM Cafe Election Central reported at 2:35pm YESTERDAY that John Edwards had been the first candidate to call for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales.

TODAY, Hillary Clinton called for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales on the Today Show.

CNN is presently reporting on its news ticker that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nomination front-runner (despite that not one primary has been held) called for the resignation and was ECHOED by John Edwards, "another" Democratice Presidential candidate.

WTF?

Could it be more obvious that the corporate (meaning Republican) controlled media is doing everything it possibly can to promote Clinton? Clinton is the candidate the Republicans are drooling to run against.

Which is exactly why she is the absolutely last candidate the Democrats should nominate.

Lovin' him more everyday...

2007-03-14T01:58:00.000-05:00

Edwards Becomes First Prez Candidate To Call On Gonzales To Resign
By Greg Sargent bio
Yep -- John Edwards is first out of the box. Again. A statement just out from his campaign makes him the first of the Dems to demand that Alberto Gonzales step down:

"Today's news is only the latest and most disturbing sign of the politicization of justice under President Bush. From the abuse of investigative authority under the Patriot Act to the unconstitutional imprisonment of the Guantanamo Bay
detainees and illegal torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Force Base, this president has consistently shown contempt for the rule of law.

"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales betrayed his public trust by playing politics when his job is to enforce and uphold the law. By violating that trust, he's done a great disservice to his office. If White House officials ordered this purge, he should have refused them. If they insisted, he should have resigned in protest. Attorney General Gonzales should certainly resign now."

Edwards, recall, was the first to pull out of the Fox-hosted debate. Let's face it -- the guy is making what's shaping up as a very credible bid for the "had enough, let's fight back on all fronts" wing of the Dem primary electorate.

Just a small matter of life and death

2007-03-13T23:18:00.000-05:00

One of the main reasons I support John Edwards:

"We have a dysfunctional health-care system," Edwards said during a campaign stop at the Council Bluffs Senior Center.

Health care is central to Edwards' campaign, and he told the assembled group that 42 million Americans have no health care coverage. He said premiums have risen 90 percent over the past six years and that the government has an obligation to make sure everyone has affordable health care.

"It's based on the concept of all of us taking some responsibility so that we can make universal health care available," Edwards said.

Edwards' plan includes:

Businesses would be required to cover their employees.

Businesses that don't would have to pay into a fund.

Health-care markets would allow people choose either public or private insurance.

Chronic and long-term care would be covered 100 percent.

Preventative care would be covered.

Premiums would be subsidized.

"We're going to bring down the cost of health care in America dramatically," Edwards said.

Edwards said his plan would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year. He said he would be willing to raise taxes to pay for it but thinks much of the money can come from somewhere else first.

"I pay for it by rolling back George Bush's tax cuts for the richest people in America. That's how I pay for it," Edwards said.

Edwards went from Council Bluffs to Sioux City and planned more town hall meetings across Iowa on Sunday.

Earlier this week, Edwards picked up the backing of more than 100 Democratic activists in Iowa who had been supporting the presidential bid of former Gov. Tom Vilsack. The list includes state Rep. Kurt Swaim of Bloomfield and United Steelworkers Union leader John Campbell.

Why? Because my life depends on it. Is that enough?

Existentialist

2007-03-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

Oh, well. Back to me. Hee.

This is a great quiz. So accurate!

What is Your World View? (updated)

My results:

Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility.

Existentialist 100%
Modernist 75%
Postmodernist 75%
Materialist 75%
Idealist 75%
Cultural Creative 50%
Romanticist 25%
Fundamentalist 0%

I got yer Google right here, Atrios

2007-03-13T02:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, maybe I'll just post a little about the blogroll amnesty bullshit. Just because of certain comments like this made by Duncan Black about this post over at My Left Wing. Which, by the way, he didn't link to directly since My Left Wing is probably all but anathma to him and his little coterie of no-life-but-Atriot-comment-thread lifers, but via the cross post at ePluribus Media and then whined about when called on it, by saying he just doesn't have enough hours in the day to follow blogger ettiquette... or would that be ethics?

He seems to have enough hours in the day to make short, pithy comments about just about every tiny little news item that serves his agenda, just not enough time to make nice to his fellow bloggers. Granted, it would have required a little effort to find it, he would have had to go through the Independent Bloggers Alliance, where he might have caught a rash or something, and he might have had to leave out a "Wanker", being so busy and all.

I am a microscopic speck in blogtopia. Some days it bothers me that I only have a teeny weeny group of readers, most days (as in 99 out of 100) I couldn't care less. Some days, I love it because I can put up all kinds of crap about myself and know no one will see it or care but me. I link to Jon Swift and I've finally gotten around to adding Skippy but they don't even know, so they don't link back to me and I guess I could join the Alliance and might one do all of those things one of these days when I feel like getting around to it. So, needless to say, I don't have a dog in this fight, other than my feeling of what the hell is right and what the hell is wrong. And I don't mean "right" as opposed to "left". Plus, while I consider myself very much a left of center liberal, I have very carefully weighed and carefully considered views that don't fit in that mold and would probably give Maryscott O'Connor apoplectic anaphylaxis.

However, I can guaran-damn-tee you that if I did have the kind of following that Atrios does, I would be sure that my blogroll was populated by more than WHITE MEN, with more than a few token women bloggers, ALL of whom already have a huge (and well deserved) following, and two, count 'em, two (as far as I can tell having gone through his entire blogroll) token African American's. Both men, by the way. Not that I hold that against Oliver Willis and Steve Gilliard (hang in there, Steve, I haven't always agreed with you but I want you healthy and back!)

ESPECIALLY if I held myself up to be a leading liberal voice!

But, geezuslouisas!! There's a big, big world out there, populated by voices that aren't the voices of the BIG WHITE MAN, the popular feminists, and ain't gonna stir the pot too far from the mainstream black guys. No offense intended, especially since I haven't read that much of Willis, just a quick first impression.

I'm a freakin' middle aged southern white woman and I've found some scintillating minority voices, who don't try to echo the big white man blogger world, and I'm not scared, put-off, freaked out, or threatened by it. I LOVE IT!! And my viewpoints, while I think I try to be open, liberal, embracing and all that I am and can be, are surely not always those with which these bloggers might agree. But, I link to them because I love what they have to say and how they say it. Hell, sometimes after reading them, I don't even agree with myself! Or I change my mind, whether I post about it or not. Because they broaden my mind and my viewpoints and help me see all sides and learn new things and gain new perspectives. And, quite a few I've found only because they have cared enough about me to link to me!

Now, Eschaton is Duncan Black's blog and he has every right to do whatever he wishes with it. Still, do I sympathize with Skippy and My Left Wing and Jon Swiftand all of the other bloggers who got wiped on the Atrios "Blogroll Amnesty Day"? Hellza, yeah, I do!

In his comment linked to above, (yes, I graciously linked as I graciously left him and Kos-but-no-link-here on my blogroll, um, while still "having my say", I can't help it, I'm southern) Black claims that he wiped his blogroll so he could link to more blogs.

Uh. You gotta limit there, Atrios? You get charged by the pound or sumthin'? Maybe try Blogger Beta or something if your blog has set up it's own rules of limitations? Ummmm.... open the pod door, Hal.

I mean. Come on! That is sheer and simple bullshit. I thought Atrios was the all great and powerful cut to the quick bullshit pointer-outter of the Intertubes Universe! Maybe he might want to turn his keen eye to himself before he writes such unself examined, unself knowing Bushspeak.

That's got to be teh Eschaton WMD if I've ever heard shit. And I've heard a lot of shit.

So, I just gotta ask. What are you afraid of, Duncan Black? Afraid you're going to link to someone who's not going to echo you and your white male dominated echo chamber? Afraid you're going to link to someone who might get you called out by the MSM you so outwardly loathe and so inwardly seek to emulate? Opting for MSM cred instead of (blog) street cred? (Had to add that "blog" in there because I was just hollaring thinking about a former Bryn-Mawr economist Philadelphia Yankee white boy having street cred! Oh lordylordylawsy! That would make my granny hoot.)

Oh, well. Out of the kindness of my heart for you, poor Yankee white boy, I'll give you a few links that I've discovered. It's just a few, granted, since I don't hunt them out but get blessed with finding them, but it's a hell of lot better than you've got, so I recommend you check them out and see if you can find some room on your gilded lily blogroll.

The Primary Contradiction
IntelligentalIndigena (angry indian)
African American Opinion
African American Political Pundit
Skeptical Brotha
Jack and Jill Politics
Francis Holland
Angry Black Bitch
Spirit21

There now. That should get you started. Or it would, if you ever saw this. But, hey, maybe you'll Google yourself again. Hee. That cracks me up. I would never think about Googling myself. But, then, I am not the Great Atrios.

Sorry. Seriously, you do good work - so much so I'll probably keep checking Eschaton first so I can find links that might interest me without a bunch of opinionated blather about them. It's so sparse it's like a surprise-a-link page. I mean, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO? More power to you if you can earn $5000 a month on that shit.

You just could do a little better. You might not have set out to get where you are today on purpose, but you got there by one other blog linking to you. Then another. Then another. And, back in the day, way back before I and 99% of your other readers turned our bloodshot eyes your way, you were all just little bitty blogs by some guy on the internet.

Turn your back on all those who actually give a damn, and who actually try to earn a little money for their efforts, and who are hurt by your abandonment if you like. But, despite your self-proclaimed indifference to religion, you might try reading The Divine Comedy for it's allegorical content alone. For in it, the ninth level of hell is reserved for traitors.

(Kos is probably split between the fourth and ninth levels. Split, as in literally. If there is, was, or will be a hell, literally.)

UPDATE: I was trying to get some sleep in my weird, post-apocalyptic (wacky illness) world, but I couldn't knowing that I might have left off The Unapologetic Mexican who has been on my blogroll for quite some time and is not only unapologetic, but unforgettable, so I had to get up just to add him.

I'm sorry I don't have any Japanese or Micronesian or even Polynesian, but I probably wouldn't understand the language anyway. And, speaking of language, I speak southern and "white boy" is not racist when spoken by a white southerner, just to clarify because of some half-wit commenter. It is, in this particular case, condescending and patronizing, thank you, and intentionally so though perhaps not terribly nice of me. And, more often than not, it's a term that can be tinged with not a little exasperated affection, even if the white boy is a Yankee and a full-grown man. Hell, I have 80 year old freakin' uncles who are white boys. Down here, if you have a problem with being called a white boy, or a good ole boy, or just a boy when you happen to be white, then you're just plain thought to have a problem with doubting your own masculinity, as long as it's not preceded with damned and stupid. That's when only utter disgust and shame takes over. As in, those damned, stupid white boys at Duke didn't have a lick of sense and oughta be horsewhipped whether actually guilty or not because they oughta known better and they disgraced themselves, their families, their university and the south with that ignorant, uncalled for behavior. (Forgive my colloquism, but sometimes I just feel like it.)

None of the above applies to male blacks. Then it's fighting words, or worse, and rightly so just the same here as anywhere else.

All. About. Me.

2007-03-13T01:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry for all the "me" shit lately. Believe me, there's ton's of stuff I'd like to be ranting about instead, but since my rare and incurable disease is borderline under control at the moment, (except for short spasms), I'm trying to keep copacetic.

Ranting, or even concise, devastating analysis, oftentimes are anti-copacetic.

So I'm just tagging and saving up crap to post when no one gives a flip anymore. Plus, I'm just sooo freakin' bored with blogging about the same old crap that everyone else blogs about, especially the "big dawgs". Damn, how many takes on the same subjects do all y'all "alternative media" folks need anyway? The high traffic sites are all beginning to look a whole lot the MSM these days if you ask me. D'ya think that maybe if 100 million people have already seen the same Newsflash! on 50 million blogs, not counting every fucking news outlet in the english speaking world, ya just might not have to have it on yours?

I may be spending some time altering my blogroll to reflect this somewhat... I still haven't given my take on the whole blogroll amnesty bullshit yet, but I may let my blogroll do some of the talking for me.

For right now, I'm just glad to be only a semi-blathering idiot from mild to moderate illness activation, compared to the drooling, wobbling, completely illiterate blabbering blathering idiot I am when my symptoms are in overdrive and my poor brain is so awash in chemicals that it probably tastes like kosher dill pickle.

My yummies

2007-03-11T05:23:00.000-05:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

This. Is. Me.

2007-03-11T02:31:00.000-05:00

Update: Of course, why wouldn't I say it was? Being in the same 1% of humanity as Einstein, Socrates, and Blaise Pascal is a real head rush. The really hilarious thing is that I checked once and found that my so-called IQ is supposedly like way above Einstein's was estimated to be. Either my test grader was drunk or Einstein's "estimater" was stoned. I did retest on the 'puter once about three years ago. It was lower, on par with The Great Genius, and I was put in the top 1% quintile of humanity or whatever that shit is... I don't put much weight in that IQ doodie... it's probably skewed seven ways from heaven, but this Jung dude seems to have had it going on. At least now I know why I have no concept of money, have to get mommy's help to figure out how to pay my bills, and can't find a thing if it's not out in plain sight. As a matter of fact, I'm quite sure that nothing exists if I can't see it, even if I know for a fact that it's in a box somewhere in that big room of boxes I haven't unpacked since I moved almost a year ago. It will reassemble itself from it's scattered molecules when it falls once again into my line of vision. Heh.

Of all the descriptions of my personality type, this is my favorite. It is the most concise. This. Is. Me.

The mind of an INTP is both a finely-honed analytical tool and a playground of ideas. Its strongest function is introverted Thinking, which is supported by extroverted iNtuition. In other words, INTPs interact with the outer world intuitively, observing the big picture and its implications. They use their introverted T to process this information logically and abstractly, analyzing new ideas until they understand every aspect. Starting with only a vague intuition, an INTP can construct a whole new world of ideas.

As an analytical tool, the INTP mind excels at solving problems and designing systems. It uses logic like a sword, slashing out irrelevant information and cutting straight to the heart of a problem. INTPs have an innate dislike of redundancy and imprecision. Their primary weakness is likely to be a tendency to overlook or become impatient with details. Details are annoying consequences of the imperfect "real" world; INTPs prefer to focus on the ideal world of intellectual constructs. INTPs enjoy playing with ideas and may enjoy arguing for fun. They are happiest when they are involved in discovering the intricacies and elegance of a complex system. They seek out natural laws and underlying principles from which they can build inventive theoretical models. When involved in these analytical and intuitive activities, they can produce ideas of startling creative brilliance.

Work:
INTPs can be successful in many fields, and may find themselves hopping from job to job as interest in different areas of knowledge wanes and waxes. The ideal jobs for INTPs are ones that
* require analysis of global concepts rather than a focus on details
* involve interaction with few people rather than many
* provide the opportunity to work on a series of new and interesting problems rather than to see one project through from beginning to end
* allow them to use their minds creatively without worrying about the practical application of the ideas they develop.

INTPs also tend to work best if they are not over-burdened with rules and regulations and are free to express the more creative aspects of their thinking. They have an intense need for competence in whatever job they are doing, but they do not usually feel the need to demonstrate this competence to others. As a result, the extent of their abilities is not always recognized. Indeed, they don't need to receive a great deal of praise from others and may even be embarrassed by it.

While INTPs are unlikely to have difficulty with the intellectual aspects of a job, they may find that the same qualities that help them excel in understanding ideas sometimes lead to friction with coworkers. Others may interpret INTPs' deep concentration and need for solitude as unfriendliness or even snobbishness. INTPs excel in critical thinking and will often point out flaws in others' logic. Others may see this as arrogance and may react with anger and defensiveness. If INTPs are able to express approval and appreciation of others' work, they will find that office interactions go more smoothly. INTPs are generally fair, objective, and adaptable coworkers. They challenge others so that all may become more competent. They enjoy working with people who are intelligent and intuitive.

Personal:
Relationships generally do not come easily to INTPs, although they can be faithful and devoted friends and mates who can be adaptable and easy to live with. Their introversion may prevent them from having an active social life, which they are not likely to regret most of the time. They may also forget or ignore social conventions, not feeling bound by the "illogical" rules of society. To an observer, INTPs can seem emotionally cold and overly critical. From the INTPs' perspective, they are simply applying logical principles to their own behavior and to the behavior of others. If they criticize, it is only to correct what they see as an inconsistency or flaw in logic. They intend to be objective, not hurtful. Because INTPs focus on what is logical, they have a tendency to be unaware of or to dismiss their own feelings and the feelings of others. They are likely to be genuinely surprised when their loved ones complain of feeling "taken for granted" or neglected. They can be insensitive to what other people want or expect from a relationship. However, people who do get to know INTPs more closely will probably find the experience to be very rewarding. While many INTPs have a very cynical side, they can also display a childlike sense of wonder and interest in new ideas. They usually have a good sense of humor that ranges from dry subtlety to impish playfulness.

By developing a stronger awareness of feelings and increasing their comfort with them, INTPs can add a new layer of richness to their lives. Their feelings are usually hidden but can run very deep. This depth, combined with the illogical nature of feelings, can make it very difficult for INTPs to express their feelings verbally. However, they will find it rewarding to discover and pursue what is emotionally important to them rather than only what is logical. For the INTP, the Feeling function is closely linked with the unconscious and is a source of creativity.

In Psychological Types, Jung describes the most difficult challenge introverted thinkers face: preserving the integrity of their mental lives while not becoming too isolated from the outside world. It is easy for INTPs to become bitter and angry when others misunderstand their ideas and personality traits. They may see this misunderstanding as "proof of the abysmal stupidity of man." The INTPs' response may be to become critical, unapproachable, and even overly emotional and touchy, which leads to further isolation from other people and from the world. Jung cautions that while this isolation may seem protective, it has its own dangers. It leaves INTPs vulnerable to attacks from their own unconscious minds. This inner conflict can lead to depression and to a tendency to expend too much energy fighting unimportant battles. However, this outcome is certainly not inevitable. By developing their weaker Sensing and Feeling functions over time and by holding on to the more light-hearted aspects of their personalities, INTPs can more fully experience and express the considerable potentials of their minds.

7/27/98 -- Amy Elmore, MA Clinical
Psychology

So. Is. This. BUT, as I've grown older, I've come to appreciate other people, mostly and especially other people who I love, and I have worked hard to be more sensitive and understanding and empathetic to them. They love me back so I must be doing okay.

Portrait of an INTP:

Copyrighted © 1984 Gnoslogy Books Ltd.

INTPs exhibit the greatest precision in thought and language of all the types; they tend to see distinctions and inconsistencies in thought and language instantaneously. The one word which captures the unique style of INTPs is architect--the architect of ideas and systems as well as the architect of edifices. This type is found in only 1 percent of the population and therefore is not encountered as frequently as some of the other types.

INTPs detect contradictions in statements no matter how distant in space or time the contradictory statements were produced. The intellectual scanning of INTPs has a principled quality; that is, INTPs search for whatever is relevant and pertinent to the issue at hand. Consequently, INTPs can concentrate better than any other type.

Authority derived from office, position, or wide acceptance does not impress INTPs. Only statements that are logical and coherent carry weight. External authority per se is irrelevant. INTPs abhor redundancy and incoherence. Possessing a desire to understand the universe, an INTP is constantly looking for natural law. Curiosity concerning these keys to the universe is a driving force in this type.

INTPs prize intelligence in themselves and in others, but can become intellectual dilletantes as a result of their need to amass ideas, principles, or understanding of behavior. And once they know something, it is remembered. INTPs can become obsessed with analysis. Once caught up in a thought process, that thought process seems to have a will of its own for INTPs, and they persevere until the issue is comprehended in all its complexity. They can be intellectual snobs and may show impatience at times with others less endowed intellectually. This quality, INTPs find, generates hostility and defensive behaviors on the part of others, who may describe an INTP as arrogant.

For INTPs, the world exits primarily to be understood. Reality is trivial, a mere arena for proving ideas. It is essential that the universe is understood and that whatever is stated about the universe is stated correctly, with coherence and without redundancy. This is the INTP's final purpose. It matters not whether others understand or accept his or her truths.

The INTP is the logician, the mathematician, the philosopher, the scientist; any pursuit requiring architecture of ideas intrigues this type. INTPs should not, however, be asked to work out the implementation or application of their models to the real world. The INTP is the architect of a system and leaves it to others to be the builder and the applicator. Very often, therefore, the INTP's work is not credited to him or her. The builder and the applier gains fame and fortune, while the INTP's name remains obscure. Appreciation of an INTP's theoretical work frequently comes posthumously--or the work may never be removed from library shelves at all and thus lost.

INTPs tend not to be writers or to go into sales work. They are, however, often excellent teachers, particularly for advanced students, although INTPs do not always enjoy much popularity, for they can be hard taskmasters. They are not good at clerical tasks and are impatient with routine details. They prefer to work quietly, without interruption, and often alone. If an organization is to use the talents of an INTP appropriately, the INTP must be given an efficient support staff who can capture ideas as they emerge and before the INTP loses interest and turns to another idea.

INTPs take their mating relationship seriously and usually are faithful and devoted--albeit preoccupied at times. They are not likely to welcome constant social activity or disorganization in the home. In all probability, the mate of an INTP will initiate and manage the social life. If left to his or her own devices, the INTP mate will retreat into the world of books and emerge only when physical needs become imperative. INTPs are, however, willing, compliant, and easy to live with, although somewhat forgetful of appointments, anniversaries, and the rituals of daily living--unless reminded. They may have difficulty expressing their emotions verbally, and the mate of an INTP may believe that he/she is somewhat taken for granted. As a parent, the INTP is devoted; they enjoy children, and are serious about their upbringing. The home of an INTP parent is usually calm, low-key in discipline, but well run and ordered.

INTPs deal with the environment primarily through intuition, and their strongest quality, the thinking function, remains relatively hidden except in close associations. Therefore, INTPs are often misunderstood, seen as difficult to know, and seldom perceived at their true level of competency. They are inclined to be shy except when with close friends, and their reserve is difficult to penetrate. They are very adaptable until one of their principles is violated. Then INTPs are not adaptable at all! They may have difficulty in being understood by others because they tend to think in a complicated fashion and want to be precise, never redundant in their communications. Because their feeling qualities may be underdeveloped, they may be insensitive to the wants and wishes of others, often quite unaware of the existence of these wants and wishes.

When Fox attacks

2007-03-10T22:43:00.000-05:00

Normally, I would never post a campaign fund solicitation letter, even from John Edwards, whom I believe to be the best candidate at this point. However, this one tickles me in the way that it attacks back, against Fox News, Roger Ailes, etc.

Dear Friend,
You may have heard by now that John Edwards was the first candidate to officially say no to the Fox News debate in Nevada—and because of the hard work of so many grassroots and netroots Democrats, news is breaking tonight that Fox is out.

Fox has already started striking back at John for saying no. (There's a surprise—Fox attacking a Democrat.) Last night, Roger Ailes—the life-long Republican operative who is now Chairman of Fox News Channel—said that any candidate "who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake" and "runs a real risk of losing the voters."

And John's not their only target. Tonight Fox News Vice President David Rhodes is telling news organizations not to get involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus because of "radical fringe" groups—meaning grassroots Democrats (that would be you)—who objected to Fox's long history of spreading Republican propaganda at the expense of Democratic leaders.

The whole right wing is getting in on the attack; the Drudge Report is blaring the headline: "War! Dems Pull Out of Fox News Debate."

Enough is enough. It's time to send a clear message to Fox News and their allies that their right-wing talking points and temper tantrums won't go unchallenged anymore—when it comes to what Democrats should do in the Democratic primary, we'll decide—no matter what they report:

http://johnedwards.com/r/7156/861975/

Fox News has already proven they have no intention of providing "fair and balanced" coverage of any Democrat in this election.

In recent weeks they have run blatant lies about Senator Obama's background. And Fox was only too happy to give Ann Coulter a platform to spew more hate a few days after her bigoted attack on Senator Edwards and the gay community.

Now it's time for Democrats to stand together and send a clear message to Roger Ailes, Fox News and all the rest of them: bias isn't balance, but turning tables is fair:

http://johnedwards.com/r/7158/861975/

The truth is, Fox News can "report" whatever they want. And when it works for us, we'll deal with them on our terms. But this campaign is about responsibility and accountability, and we need to send the message to Fox that if they want to be the corporate mouthpiece of the Republican Party more than they want to be an impartial news outlet, they shouldn't expect Democrats to play along.

You can send that message by contributing today, and remind Fox News that in this election, Democrats won't take their spin lying down:

http://johnedwards.com/r/7160/861975/

Thank you for standing up for what we believe in.

Jonathan Prince
Deputy Campaign Manager
John Edwards for President

P.S. -- If the folks at Fox wonder why nobody thinks they play it straight, they should take a look at what Roger Ailes said about debates in 1988 when he was a top Republican spinmaster for then Vice President Bush: He told the Washington Post, "I don't know that we need to do more than one [debate]. There's no reason to think we'd need more than one." And he told the New York Times, "I don't think you learn anything about the issues" from debates. So please send Roger Ailes a message: Hypocrisy isn't fair and it isn't balanced; it's just hypocrisy—and we've had enough of it from you.

How You Can Take Action

Make sure you receive email updates from Senator Edwards. Find out how to add john@johnedwards.com to your Address Book. Click here to unsubscribe from email sent by John Edwards for President. Paid for by John Edwards for President 410 Market Street, Suite 400, Chapel Hill, NC 27516 (919) 636-3131. johnedwards.com. Contributions to John Edwards for President are not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

Heard about Darfur lately?

2007-03-10T21:50:00.000-05:00

Then, there's always something to help put things back into perspective.

Retry

2007-03-10T21:17:00.000-05:00

Sometimes there is just so much shit going down that thinking about it, let alone blogging about it, just wears me out. The FBI violating our rights. The bullshit from the Right. That the SC Legislature is about to vote to force women to endure and view ultrasounds of the fetus before being allowed abortion. The debates about religion. And just so much more.

Earthlings to Whatever God there might (or might not) be: Hey, God, just what the fuck is going on?

God to Earthlings: Oh, just the usual. Having a hell of a good time. Nothing better than watching all this shit going down while holding out on the "Because". It's a riot. No, really, it's a riot.

Testing, testing

2007-03-10T00:09:00.000-05:00

I've been taking a lot of tests lately, mainly to see if I've changed much in the almost two years I've been disabled. Not so much, apparently, which is surprising. Here's the latest, the Jung Typology test.

Jung Typology Test

Strength of the preferences %
Introverted 44 Intuitive 62 Thinking 12 Perceiving 22

Qualitative analysis of your type formula

You are:

moderately expressed introvert

distinctively expressed intuitive personality

slightly expressed thinking personality

slightly expressed perceiving personality

Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
by Joe Butt

Profile: INTP

Revision: 3.0Date of Revision: 27 Feb 2005

INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into thought as to seem detached, and often actually are oblivious to the world around them.

Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. While annoying to the less concise, this fine discrimination ability gives INTPs so inclined a natural advantage as, for example, grammarians and linguists.

INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to most anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.

A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions.

Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play, similarly languages, computer systems--potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can overtake the INTP's conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli are held at bay. Accomplishing a task or goal with this knowledge is secondary.

INTPs and Logic -- One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her obsession with logical correctness. Errors are not often due to poor logic -- apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of overlooking details or of incorrect context.

Games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego, Chess, Go, and word games of all sorts. (I have an ENTP friend that loves Boggle and its variations. We've been known to sit in public places and pick a word off a menu or mayonnaise jar to see who can make the most words from its letters on a napkin in two minutes.) The INTP mailing list has enjoyed a round of Metaphore, virtual volleyball, and a few 'finish the series' brain teasers.

INTPs in the main are not clannish. The INTP mailing list, with a readership now in triple figures, was in its incipience fraught with all the difficulties of the Panama canal: we had trouble deciding on:
1) whether or not there should be such a group,
2) exactly what such a group should be called, and
3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization and maintenance of the aforesaid group/club/whatever.

A Functional Analysis -- by Joe Butt
Introverted Thinking
Introverted Thinking strives to extract the essence of the Idea from various externals that express it. In the extreme, this conceptual essence wants no form or substance to verify its reality. Knowing the Truth is enough for INTPs; the knowledge that this truth can (or could) be demonstrated is sufficient to satisfy the knower. "Cogito, ergo sum" expresses this prime directive quite succinctly.

In seasons of low energy level, or moments of single-minded concentration, the INTP is aloof and detached in a way that might even offend more relational or extraverted individuals.

Extraverted iNtuition
Intuition softens and socializes Thinking, fleshing out the brittle bones of truths formed in the dominant inner world. That which is is not negotiable; yet actual application diffuses knowledge to the extent that knowledge needs qualification and context to be of any consequence in this foreign world of substance.

If Thinking can desist, the INTP is free to brainstorm, calling up the perceptions of the unconscious (i.e., intuition) which are mirrored in patterns in the realm of matter, time and space. These perceptions, in the form of theories or hunches, must ultimately defer to the inner principles, or at least they must not negate them.

Intuition unchained gives birth to play. INTPs enjoy games, formal or impromptu, which coax analogies, patterns and theories from the unseen into spontaneous expression in a way that defies their own comprehension.

Introverted Sensing
Sensing is of a subjective, inner nature similar to that of the SJs. It supplies awareness of the forms of senses rather than the raw, analogic stimuli. Facts and figures seek to be cleaned up for comparison with an ever growing range of previously experienced input. Sensing assists intuition in sorting out and arranging information into the building blocks for Thinking's elaborate systems.

The internalizing nature of the INTP's Sensing function leaves a relative absence of environmental awareness (i.e., Extraverted Sensing), except when the environment is the current focus. Consciousness of such conditions is at best a sometime thing.

Extraverted Feeling
Feeling tends to be all or none. When present, the INTP's concern for others is intense, albeit naive. In a crisis, this feeling judgement is often silenced by the emergence of Thinking, who rushes in to avert chaos and destruction. In the absence of a clear principle, however, INTPs have been known to defer judgement and to allow decisions about interpersonal matters to be left hanging lest someone be offended or somehow injured. INTPs are at risk of being swept away by the shadow in the form of their own strong emotional impulses.

Famous INTPs:
Socrates
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Sir Isaac Newton

U.S. Presidents:
James Madison
John Quincy Adams
John Tyler
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gerald Ford

William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.)
William James
Albert Einstein
Tom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives)
Henri Mancini
Bob Newhart
Jeff Bingaman, U.S. Senator (D.--NM)
Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids)
Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
Tiger Woods

Fictional INTPs
Tom and Fiona (Four Weddings and a Funeral)
Dr. Susan Lewis (ER)
Filburt (Rocko's Modern Life)
Copyright © 1996-2007 Joe Butt

Anyone who thinks (s)he is an INTP is invited to join one of these INTP fora: http://www.cheshirecat.net/mailman/listinfo/intp http://intp-list.org/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intpopen/ http://www.intpcentral.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intp-type/
Type Relationships for INTPs:
Identity
Pal
Complement
Contrast
Supplement
Anima
Suitemate
Cohort
Companion
Tribesman
Advisor
Pedagogue
Enigma
Novelty
Neighbor
Counterpart
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The only bit that bothered me was the playing with mathmatics part. I hate and despise math. Primarily, I think that advanced mathematics are just made up shit people try to use to illustrate what, to me, are obvious truths, able to reach through reason alone. I believe I actually read that Einstein would have an idea and then have to work out the math to support his thesis. My question is, why bother. Use reason.

Although, in a sense, I suppose I still play with it as I imagine numbers with distinctive personalities and appearances. Not like a 4 is a flower, but like a 4 is blue and kind of kicked back on his heel, looking down his nose. 10 is red, squat and fat. 9 is a pink party girl. That kind of thing.

Ok, call the guys in the white coats now.

But, first, let's see what Keirsey says:
********************

The Portrait of the Architect Rational (iNTp)
RATIONAL
ARTISAN
IDEALIST
GUARDIAN
Copyrighted © 1996-2007 Prometheus Nemesis Book Company

Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition, it is the structural engineering role -- architechtonics -- that reaches the highest development in these Rationals, and it is for this reason they are aptly called the "Architects." Their major interest is in figuring out structure, build, configuration -- the spatiality of things.

As the engineering capabilities the Architects increase so does their desire to let others know about whatever has come of their engineering efforts. So they tend to take up an accomodating role in their social exchanges. On the other hand they have less and less desire, if they ever had any, to direct the activities of others. Only when forced to by circumstance do they allow themselves to take charge of activities, and they exit the role as soon as they can without injuring the enterprise.

The Architects' distant goal is always to rearrange the environment somehow, to shape, to construct, to devise, whether it be buildings, institutions, enterprises, or theories. They look upon the world -- natural and civil -- as little more than raw material to be reshaped according to their design, as a formless stone for their hammer and chisel. Ayn Rand, master of the Rational character, describes this characteristic in the architect Howard Roark, her protagonist in The Fountainhead:

"He was looking at the granite. He did not laugh as his eyes stopped in awareness of the earth around him. His face was like a law of nature-a thing one could not question, alter or implore. It had high cheekbones over gaunt, hollow cheeks; gray eyes, cold and steady; a contemptuous mouth, shut tight, the mouth of an executioner or a saint. He looked at the granite. To be cut, he thought, and made into walls. He looked at a tree. To be split and made into rafters. He looked at a streak of rust on the stone and thought of iron ore under the ground. To be melted and to emerge as girders against the sky. These rocks, he thought, are here for me; waiting for the drill, the dynamite and my voice; waiting to be split, ripped, pounded, reborn, waiting for the shape my hands will give to them." [The Fountainhead, pp 15-16]

Many regard this attitude as arrogant, and Architects are likely, especially in their later years, after finding out that most others are faking an understanding of the laws of nature, to think of themselves as the prime movers who must pit themselves against nature and society in an endless struggle to define ends clearly and adopt whatever means that promise success. If this is arrogance, then at least it is not vanity, and without question it has driven the design engineers to take the lead in molding the structure of civilization.

Albert Einstein as the iconic Rational is an Architect

Thomas Jefferson and Robert Rosen are examples of the Architect Rationals

A full description of the Architect and Rational is in People Patterns or Please Understand Me II
***************************
Wow. I pretty much agreed with most of the analysis above and then I found the following. Wow!!

There is nothing in the following that is not true of me, except perhaps for the computer geek/trekkie allusions. I long ago became as proficient as I cared to with computers, not that I'm adverse to learning new programs or whatever, I've just satisfied my curiousity to the point of knowing that I could learn whatever I wanted to about them sufficienctly to become competent and they lost their mystery long ago. Likewise, I love science fiction, but fully realize that it is, after all, fiction, and not worth my time or intellect to delve into it further than entertainment. In place of these things, my primary interests lay in history and sociology and religions and philosophy. All the things where my curiousity can never be satisfied.

I both surprised and not surprised that my personality type is only 1% of the population. I wasn't expecting it, hadn't thought about it, and when I saw it, my reaction was of course.

I would be interested to know what the average IQ of INTP personality types are. Once, I became quite certain that there was something really, really wrong with me because I was so different than most people I've ever known. I went to a psychiatrist. He asked me what I was reading. I answered The Divine Comedy at night and Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy over breakfast. What had I read most recently? Virgil's The Aenid and Homer's Odyssey and Illiad. He laughed. He said to promise that I would find out what my IQ was because it was very high, he was sure and that I would never be happy until I had a more challenging job. I did. It was 168. Maybe 167. I'm not good with remembering numbers except by their personalities and so I know it was one of those. That's when I finally decided to actually try to move into a better situation and eventually became an analyst. I really liked it but hated the people I had to work with and the politics. Not that it matters now since my brain function turns into mush when my symptoms start acting up, and are generally on life support at all other times, depending on what medication I'm taking.

Anyway. Otherwise. About the following: Wow!
****************************

A description of the INTP Personality Type

by Paul James

Original version: April 5, 1999
revised and published on the web: March 12, 2000

INTP is one of the 16 personality types defined in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I will assume that visitors to this page already have a basic knowledge of the MBTI system for I wish to concentrate on describing the INTP type as best I can. The descriptions below are based on personal experience combined with knowledge derived from other MBTI sources and I hope that other INTPs and non-INTPs alike may find some of this material illuminating. This page may be updated and expanded when appropriate.

For a general introduction and overview of MBTI temperament analysis, visit Robert Winer's excellent resource at Gesher.

INTPs are about 1% of the general population, making this one of the rarest of types. The basic dynamic of the INTP is illustrated in the following table:

RANK of FUNCTION FUNCTION ORIENTATION
Dominant Thinking Introverted ( Ti )
Secondary iNtuition Extraverted ( Ne )
Tertiary Sensing Introverted ( Si )
Inferior Feeling Extraverted ( Fe )

The consequences of the orientation and rank of each of the four functions for the INTP type is described in turn below.

Primary Axis: Introverted Thinking - Extraverted Intuition

The INTP is above all a thinker and his inner (private) world is a place governed by a strong sense of logical structure. Every experience is to be rigorously analysed, the task of the INTP's mind is to fit each encountered idea or experience into a larger structure defined by logic. For here is the central goal of the INTP: to understand and seek truth. The experience of anything takes a back seat. The INTP is not interested in experiences themselves but is far more fascinated by concepts. The drive to understand things that are not yet understood is a very powerful force in the life of an INTP. Where the Ti preference is strong, this drive can override the experiential element so strongly that the INTP will become quickly bored with anything that he has successfully analysed to the point of understanding it. Once understood, it has nothing left to offer, once the satisfaction which comes with achieving the goal of understanding diminishes. Indeed, most primary interests of an INTP are things which he cannot fully understand, usually because they are highly complex or have some exotic, mystical element that does not yield to analysis. This is the real reason why INTPs are drawn to complexity: anything simple is too quickly understood and cannot hold the fascination for long. Similarly, proficiency in any area (which requires continual practice after understanding) is not such a driving force as it might be for NTJs, for example. While a judging NT will often seek to become master of his field, an INTP is satisfied by analysing it alone. The latter is often more of dabbler with ideas which leads me on to his second crucial aspect: detachment.

The Ti-Ne axis leads to a curious overriding desire to observe from a detached position, indicating the preference for intuitive perception with respect to external things. Since accurate analysis needs to avoid becoming hampered with details or being influenced by the actions of others, the INTP invariably seeks to withdraw, at least in spirit, from the situation being considered. This detachment can sometimes be so marked that he will readily see himself as a neutral observer having no personal association with that going on around him (unless forced to become directly involved through an attack on his principles). The INTP enjoys speculating about how a news item (for example) might be received by other people or how a point of view might offend certain types of people and be supported by yet other types; but to have a point of view of his own rarely seems relevant! This also indicates that Feeling is his least developed function. The argument may even be made that "points of view" and "opinions" are irrelevant since only objective truth counts. In reality, INTPs can often become far less objective than they think they ought to be: precisely at those times when the under-developed Feeling gnaws at his being.

Dominant Function: Introverted Thinking

Now looking specifically at first the Ti, the principle of detachment even encompasses how an INTP views himself. He may analyse his own thought processes as if his mind and body were separate from his conscious self. In wanting to understand his reactions to things, he may treat himself, even his own thoughts, as subjects for experiment. At the extreme end of the scale, where Ti is very dominant, the ultimate goal of understanding the world with total clarity must be achieved through total detachment from everything. Fortunately, Ti never dominates over the other 3 preferences to such an extent that such an unhealthy state is reached.

Where detachment ceases is when someone makes an illogical statement or violates one of the INTPs principles. At such a point, the INTP feels the instant drive to provide for clarity. This is his Mission; to be the provider of clarity, and is often suspicious that he is the only person capable of this task. Here, the INTP risks being seen as over-critical, aloof and arrogant. On the whole, however, real arrogance is rare for INTPs for their desire is not to dominate others but simply to observe, analyse and clarify. Once the point has been clarified, the INTP withdraws quickly, for he prefers not to be in the limelight unless absolutely necessary. Hence, for most of the time, INTPs are easy-going and will fit in to others' needs, taking up the role of observer again.

While proficiency may not be a central goal, competence always is. The difference here may be subtle, but it is important. If an INTP decides to learn a skill, then it is very important for him that he reaches a sufficient level so that basic errors can be avoided. Errors made by others are to be expected and can be criticised. But errors made by oneself attack the very root of the person, which is ultimately about rationality, logic and truth. INTPs hate to think of themselves being in any way inadequate, at least in areas that are important to them. So, as soon as he puts himself behind some task, then he must achieve competency. But that is as far as it goes. Refined competency requires too much effort and has little attraction. It would require practice and that usually bores an INTP. Hence, it is common to see INTPs dabbling at many things, achieving competency, just enough to prove to themselves that they could become more proficient if they wished, but rarely actually bothering to refine their skills further. This is a point at which we begin to get a feel for the workings of iNtuition backing up Thinking. The INTP has a whole set of skills which he knows that he would be proficient at, yet other people may know little of this. He is satisfied with the knowledge that he has these skills but often sees no requirement to demonstrate this to others, an indication of the strong Ti nature.

Related to this is the central aspect of independence. INTP's put great weight on being individuals and essentially different from other people, who they often view as being too alike and too interdependent. Independence touches on many aspects. One is the competency aspect above. When he is interested in something, then the INTP must be competent in it. But there are many things which don't interest him, and some of these will be things that others may be very competent in and where it may be assumed that everyone should be competent in them. The INTP usually applies the word "irrelevant" to such things: that is his excuse for any lack of competency in any field. And if he originally wished to achieve something, but failed, then it must be because was in fact irrelevant! The opinions of others are rarely given much weight in themselves. All opinions must get filtered through an analysis procedure to test for viability. No title or claim of being an "expert" carries any weight with an INTP. All people, big or small, are subject to an identical scrutiny. The INTP sees himself as the independent arbiter, whether a fair claim or not. However, when someone has proved his credentials through having sensible opinions, he will be afforded great respect by the INTP. Most respected of all are those who are not only sensible but also innovative. Intelligence is above all highly prized.

Independence, derived primarily from strongly introverted Thinking, leads to perhaps the most difficult aspect (for others) of the INTP, namely stubbornness. If an INTP is pushed into doing something he will automatically resist. The reason for the resistance is simply that any action must first be filtered by the Ti, guided by the Ne. He must be given the chance to reach an independent decision, approving or rejecting the action. Hence, he must withdraw to allow the analysis process to work. If withdrawal is not allowed then stubborn resistance is the inevitable result. However, others may not always find the INTP excessively stubborn, since the decision-making process can sometimes be rapidly accelerated when intuition takes the upper hand. The best way to get an INTP to do something is to suggest the idea as an option and let him sleep on it. Ultimately, the INTP must always believe that it is his decision. Once he is satisfied that the decision was independently reached, then he is content.

A further result of the Ti function is the concept, lived out by many an INTP, that knowledge is everything. They tend to believe that information is the key to life. All mistakes can be avoided by having the right information at the right time. This has at least a certain logic about it. Where they differ from other temperaments (especially from SP types) is that a large gap may exist between knowing and doing. To know is everything, to do is a lower order necessity, if it is necessary at all. This breeds the potential for lazy aloofness. The INTP is often satisfied simply by knowing that he could do something if he wished. This also leads to the danger of overestimating one's capabilities and losing a grip on reality. Here is an aspect where INTP and ENTP types differ strongly. The latter, with dominant iNtuition, are much more driven by shaping the world according to their ideas, ie. thinking supports and subordinates doing. For the INTP, doing supports and subordinates thinking.

Finally, the dominant Ti function means that the INTP takes his interests and beliefs very seriously. Honesty and directness when explaining these interests are usually displayed. INTPs detest facades and particulary dislike people who exhibit them. Equally, those kind of people also dislike INTPs and avoid them at all cost, for they know that the INTP will see right through them. The INTP's serious nature also makes them almost immune to mockery and being made fun of, at least when face to face with their mocker. If someone attempts to make a sarcastic, mocking comment about an interest of an INTP, the latter will defend himself with a pure, almost naive seriousness, explaining his position with a severe exactness, wielding his words like swords. This almost always disarms the mocker who does not expect such a penetrating defence. The INTPs defence usually also contains a subtle but biting attack thrown back in the mocker's face, chiefly because the INTP cannot entirely hide the fact that he believes his opponent to be stupid. Such confrontations might develop rapidly into physical ones, a danger that the INTP should be aware of. This ability to wield words with cutting precision is one of the INTP's greatest assests, but equally one of his most deadly traits. He is capable of using words creatively to penetrate deep into the understanding of a subject, but if not checked and wielded carelessly, his words can become highly destructive, especially where the Feeling function is heavily suppressed.

Secondary Function: Extraverted Intuition

Intuition is a mode of perception which focusses on the larger picture, the connections between objects, on the possibilities rather than the facts. When this is extraverted (Ne), the act of intuitive perception grapples with the world itself in order to understand it and its chief goal is to derive meaning. The INTP is sometimes referred to as the architect. The world is an object of study and possibilities for changing and shaping it according to the schemes assessed by the Ti core are derived from intuition. If his introversion is strong, however, then his schemes tend to remain private and speculative: the world remains an intellectual object of study but his architectural plans may not actually be put into practice. The constructor/inventor ENTP, on the other hand, with whom the Ne is dominant, aggressively grapples with and shapes the world, showing little reticence. The INTP is of the same spirit, but his constructive nature is likely to take shape within more private hobbies and less likely to directly involve others.

Where the extraversion of the iNtuition function becomes obvious is during discussions, especially heated ones. In contrast to INTJs, an INTP will often make controversial, speculative points of argument, often annoying the discussion-partner, and make them in such a way as to leave the impression that he is very serious about what he says. In reality, the INTP is not actually even certain himself whether he really stands by what he is saying, but his Ne strongly suggests that there must be a core of truth there. The purpose then of his outspoken style of argument is to sharpen his own intuitive understanding by testing the reaction of the listener, and indeed to examine the logic of his own arguments in real time while speaking them out. On occasion, INTPs may seem brash and tactless, but for themselves it is part of their way of getting closer to the truth. This is another aspect of the Ne grappling with the external world (in this case discussion with another) to understand it. The Ne provides the raw material for the Ti core to analyse. The INTJ, on the other hand, with Ni dominant and Te as secondary, tends to avoid letting uncertain speculative ideas out in the open: he presents a more considered structured viewpoint to the world while holding his private thoughts free for intuitive reasoning. The INTJ resembles a chess player, ruminating on the possibilites and then making decisive accurate moves. If the INTP played life as chess, he would keep wishing to modify the allowed-move-properties of his various pieces to optimise his strategy, find that that isn't allowed, and ask to start the game afresh! The ENTP chess player would indeed modify the rules to his advantage and complain that the standard rules were inadequate! The ENTJ would play by the standard rules but insist on making the moves for his opponent as well !

Extraverted iNtuition has a strong influence on how the INTP views his own interaction with others. It is the Ne above all that the INTP most loves to show others. He is therefore happy to be seen as somewhat eccentric, innovative and perceptive. In dreaming about what he would like to become or achieve, his goals are invariably highly individualistic. He must become the composer, the solo performer, the genius scientist who makes the unique discovery. If he is to be noticed at all, then he must be centre stage. If he can't be centre stage in an area of interest, then he must withdraw and resort to vitriolic criticism. But in all areas which interest him less he happily leaves to others and observes. With an INTP it is either all or nothing. Half-efforts he dislikes just as much as he dislikes the restrictions of teamwork and co-operation.

Humour is another aspect which marks out the INTP. He can readily dream up jokes about almost any situation. Taking things out of context is the chief source of humour and many an INTP is a Monty Pythonite. The Ne is the engine and source of this joke-generator. Needless to say, the humour of an INTP can be pretty zany and warped and may not be understood easily by others. The problem is that the Ne concepts for jokes are put into a structure only by the Ti. Hence, the humour can become black and tactless, having felt little Feeling input. Funnily enough, INTPs are dreadful tellers of jokes (which seems to be more the domain of those with Se), perhaps because they pay too little attention to detail when speaking spontaneously. If you see someone smirking and laughing at some private thought, without any obvious reason, he's probably an INTP. INTPs may however make good comedy writers, with the humour of Woody Allen being particularly liked.

The preference for intuitive perception means that INTPs dislike having their lives planned. They feel a distinct unease before most fixed appointments and cannot fully relax until the scheduled event is over, or at least in progress. However, the dreaded event is usually far less of a problem than had been imagined and usually brings with it a sense of satisfaction. Action is therefore the saving grace of an INTP, for a sense of achievement usually outweighs the earlier apprehension. Social appointments can also be greatly enjoyed, once they are underway. But joyful anticipation is rarely experienced beforehand, unless the event is central to the INTP's fields of interest. The source of the unease is simply the feeling that a planned schedule inhibits and robs the INTP of freedom. It is also a subordination to the plans of others which the independent INTP resists. Faithfully helping others is not a problem, however, but he must feel in control of his decision to subordinate or not.

INTPs tend to be rather mistrusting of people and are rather sceptical. However, a lot of their trust is based on what the Ne function tells them about somebody. This can lead to a naivity and sometimes to prejudices based on intuitive perceptions of appearence and style. People can be a problem for INTPs: on the one hand they are fascinated by some types of people, especially more extraverted individuals, but a fear of irrational behaviour in others usually leads to caution. Friendship with INTPs develops at a pace which depends considerably on the temperament of the other person. INTPs dislike making the first move and tend to mirror the emotional content of the other person. A jolly person will quickly bring the INTP out of his shell, as much as that is possible, while a serious person will find a serious INTP looking back at him. In this sense, INTPs preference for intuitive perception (rather than action) with respect to people results in them resembling a chameleon. The INTP can fit into many different modes of behaviour, even contradictory ones, in order to get into the mindset of the other person. The goal is to gain enough intuitive data to analyse and assess the person. In doing this, the INTP remains somewhat reserved, never wholly identifying himself with his surroundings. As chameleons, INTPs are therefore approachable and open, unless the Ne tells the INTP that the other person is a type he doesn't like, in which case the reserved attitude may become too obvious. The chameleon behaviour can be particularly strong when discussing something. The INTP may even argue something that he doesn't really believe himself. Sometimes it is for the intellectual stimulation that comes with the challenge of arguing from a variety of standpoints. Otherwise, it may be to avoid early conflict before the situation has been fully assessed. Chameleons hide their true selves. INTPs do not do this cynically, or indeed all the time, but it is a result of the strong desire to remain detached and observe.

However, where friendship develops rapidly, almost instantly, is when an INTP meets another INTP or similar temperament. Communication between such people can become extremely intense, leaving outsiders baffled. When two INTPs get togther, watch out! All forms of social graces and host-guest protocols become irrelevant. Both want only to share concepts and interests and absorb the intellectual stimulation of the other. Interruption of this process by any social necessity is undesired and annoying. Often the pair will become oblivious to everything around them and this may seem almost comical to an outsider. Introductory greetings such as "how are you?" may just be given and received with nonchalant disinterest. Conversations are more likely to open with something like: "Hi, I think I've worked out how changes in the Borg's command protocols can be routed through sub-space without compromising their universal teleconnectivity!", knowing that the other person knows exactly what he's on about. Later, the host may offer the guest a drink after an hour of discussing the latest developments in computer technology, and the guest may then notice that he is thirsty. In most cases however, INTPs have been groomed by other types into accomodating themselves into the social world, so that even amongst themselves a minimal level of social niceties will be given. Favourite topics of discussion are science and science-fiction, music, computers and any abstract concept with which one is currently fascinated by.

One-to-one conversation is preferred in almost every situation. In a group situation, INTPs are sensitive to whether they believe they will be listened to or not. If a dominant (strongly extraverted and loud) person is present, the INTP will withdraw and sulk, believing the dominant person to be a brute. If an INTP speaks, he must be listened to, for he believes his spoken opinions to be important. If not, he withdraws (at least in spirit) and assumes that the people who do not listen lack intelligence. Hence, INTPs make very poor leaders, for they depend too much on the attitudes of others. This is one of the negative sides of the Ne function. INTPs tend to jump to intuitive conclusions, can be fatalistic and have little perseverence. On the other hand, they can make very good assistants to leaders, provided they and the leader are of one mind, for their perceptive analysis can give the leadership useful insights which they may overlook, being too busy with leading. Indeed, INTPs are often glad when someone else takes over the lead, again providing the leader is of the same mind. An INTPs ideal is to provide all the ideas for a project and have a charismatic leader, who agrees with him, carry them out. The only area in which an INTP will carry out his own ideas to completion is in his personal interest world, where other people are not involved. For this reason, INTPs are fascinated by computer technology as well as the Internet which gives him a voice that he would not otherwise have. Many of the most dedicated Computer Freaks are INTPs. Ultimately, INTPs tend to trust machines more than they trust people and may feel particularly at home in the realm of cybernetics.

The Ne-Ti axis is a particularly useful configuration for an interest in Science Fiction. The Ne provides a fascination for abstract ideas while the Ti loves analysing the scientific concepts presented. Many an INTP is a Trekkie, particularly because Star Trek pays a great deal of attention to logical detail. Unlike much of the general population, however, INTPs take such science fiction series extremely seriously, showing the great relative importance attached to the world of ideas. Examples of fictional characters who INTPs have a natural affinity for are Avon (Blake's Seven), Data (Star Trek: TNG) and Seven of Nine (Voyager).

General role models for INTPs are individualistic, creative and perhaps enigmatic people. Innovative free-thinkers who follow their own new paths are usually greatly respected. Famous historical figures who attract the INTP's greatest respect are scientists, composers, inventors and, in society, revolutionary leaders and noble visionaries who bring about major change. Above all, individualism is the key factor, while vision is the most highly prized asset.

The Ne-Ti axis also leads to a curious duality in the thinking of the INTP. The dominant Ti core tends to assume the role of a controller and organiser of his life, while the Ne behaves like a free spirit, almost childlike in its enthusiasm. The INTP tends to experience these two forces as an almost continuous tug-of-war, with neither ever quite gaining the upper hand. He is not disturbed by this duality and can view it with wistful humour. If he has been free-spiriting for any length of time, he soon feels duty bound to analyse his behaviour and systematise it. While if he has been in an analytical mode for a while, he will soon decide that he can do what he wants freely after all. It is a yo-yo situation. Generally, INTPs have a very strong requirement to keep their external, social world as simple and as uncluttered as they can so that they can focus as much energy as possible on their internal world of system analysis and theoretizing. Hence, they tend to be amongst the least demanding and least complicated of all types when interacting with others. They prefer to let the world flow by: to observe the waves being made by others, but to make none themselves. When socializing, the Ne mode dominates, unless a discussion starts up involving the INTP in which case the Ti largely takes over. In their private world it is of course the Ti that dominates.

Tertiary Function: Introverted Sensing

The Sensing function is the mode of perceiving which gathers information from facts, details and objects. When this function is strongly introverted, Si, the focus moves away from external details and is primarly concerned with personal, introspective detail. The experience of the present is not central in itself, as with Se. Rather the focus is on how the present evokes remembered earlier experiences. The key outworking of the Si function is then a concern with memories of the past. INTPs typically have an acute awareness of the passage of past times. Sequences of past events can assume a remarkable solidity in their thinking, while most INTPs have very good memories. Indeed, the sensing function is usually very well developed in its strongly Si mode and forms a strong partnership with the Ti core. Hence, the internal world of the INTP is a world of complex, detailed structure, well organized and methodically kept in order. When an INTP focusses on specific details then he has a very sharp eye for them and will not lose sight of them.

On the other hand, one of the more serious weaknesses of an INTP is that the sensing function makes little inroads out into the external world. INTPs are usually oblivious to external details unless something forces them to take notice. When an INTP goes into a new room, or walks through a city street, he is blind to much of the detail that people with an Se function would see immediately. The INTP always tries to get a feel for the big picture, using his Ne, and habitually ignores all detail. Of course, objects of interest will be seen as a matter of course and he can choose to concentrate and focus on them, but it is remarkable how much he still overlooks. And those objects he does happen to notice will belong to a small set of things that he is interested in anyway. Many other objects would only be noticed if another person points them out to him.

When an INTP lives alone, his home is usually spartan and utility-oriented. There will be little or no decorative objects, electronic equipement will be in abundance and the importance of any object will depend only on its usefulness. The general style of the home is largely irrelevant. When an object is put aside, not to be returned to for a while, it will lie fully ignored until used again. Objects which lie unmoved for more than about 48 hours usually become invisible to the INTP, until such time as he has a use for them again. For other temperaments whose need for tidiness and order in a house is strong, this lack of concern in this area may seem despairing. For the INTP, however, no problem exists. Corners of rooms, table tops and cupboards may become cluttered with objects, but while they don't move they remain effectively invisible and are unimportant. Indeed, less mature INTPs have a reluctance to move objects at all, for the desire to remain detached and not physically interact with the world can be strong. The one thing that will force an INTP to tidy his home radically, even when alone, is when the clutter eventually gets in his way and hinders some activity. Often, however, the offending objects will merely be moved into another corner where they can spend some more weeks being invisible. When an INTP lives with a partner and perhaps has a family, he learns the necessity of focussing on the details of tidiness. This is not usually difficult, since tidying a house is an activity which can be clearly defined and, hence, the INTP can focus on it by treating it as systematic work.

Introverted Sensing often plays an important role in the private world of the INTP. When he visits a place, whether new or already known, his Si function gives an overriding concern for the atmosphere or mood of the place. In his subconscious, he connects the present experiences of his surroundings with memories of his past, sometimes deep past. A sense of history, of universality, is almost always invoked. When on holiday, the INTP wants to experience above all the ambience of each location. Specific details in the present are relatively unimportant and will not be well remembered. However, the atmosphere or mood will be remembered long after, as though it were a solid object. Since people encountered on a holiday usually count as details, unless more personal contact develops, the INTP tends to be drawn more to lonely, isolated places where atmosphere is less disturbed. Nevertheless, the presence of people does add its own ambience which can also be appreciated considerably. The net result of this concern for past experiences and of mood/atmosphere is that INTPs belong centrally to those types referred to as melancolic. The INTP melancolic is typically drawn to wild polar expanses, to mountain ranges and all places on the edges of civilisation. Whatever his particular yearning might actually be, it has a common root. The homeland of the INTP's psyche is a small and cosy community, isolated in the middle of a vast expanse of wilderness.

Because the present is inextricably linked to a sense of the past, INTPs tend to hoard items which help solidify the connection to the past. They find it very difficult to let go of anything they have collected (or indeed created) and which may have a nostalgic meaning. They assume that any object which is of interest now is bound to remain of interest for the rest of their lives. This emphasizes a strong sense of universality in the progression of time, just as it emphasizes the seriousness with which INTPs approach their interests. Frivolity is not in their vocabulary. INTPs often love keeping lists and databases in areas of interest, especially when the lists are associated with things of the past. Collecting periodical magazines or other media of interest is also a very common INTP trait. Such a collection is usually taken very seriously. Yet the collective whole, considered as a temporal rather than spatial object, always assumes more importance in the mind of the INTP than the objects forming the collection themselves. Hence, INTPs are collectors, but they are collecters for whom the objects themselves are only important in so far as they evoke a connection to past events, in so far as they yield a nostalgic mood. The curious problem with any collection of an INTP is that he typically fails to enjoy it in the here and now. Items are stored away so that they can evoke this time at some point in the future, but such a point often never occurs. It may never occur because INTPs are always so mentally active that they continually delve into new interests, and continue to hoard items relating to these, so that they rarely allow themselves enough time to reflect on the ever expanding library of their past. The interests of an INTP would be enough to occupy him for several lifetimes if that were possible.

Photography is a classic interest of the INTP, which depends strongly on the Si - Ne combination, as well as on Ti for attention to technical detail. Landscape photography, for example, is the art of conveying a sense of mood/atmosphere to the viewer (Si). The correct employment of lenses, filters etc. brings out the Ti core, while the enjoyment of seeing the world as an fascinating varied object to be observed and captured in the best possible way brings out the Ne-Ti architect. Photos are also a way of capturing the present to evoke a sense of past in the future (Si). When involved in portrait or people photography, the INTP will also be primarily concerned with the mood conveyed by the person in the eye of the lens. Quality photographic skill, as well as an intrinsic feel for imagery, is usually second nature to the INTP and can make a good career choice. When viewing photographic images, say in magazines, the overriding concern is for how the photo is conveyed; its mood, its colour, contrast and shading usages, its perspectives and image quality. However, the actual subject of the image, which other types are likely to concentrate on first, takes a back seat unless it is unavoidably dramatic. Hence, INTPs may convey a very critical and impersonal approach in discussing images, which could lead to offence in some situations.

Another area of interest common to INTPs, where Si has a strong influence, is Music. INTPs are usually fascinated by music and may have deep and wide-ranging tastes. Indeed, each of their three main functions (Ti, Ne, Si) plays a role in the enjoyment of music, and indeed music is a key interest for bringing out the feeling shadow of the INTP. Si itself brings a fascination for mood and atmosphere in music as well as for a strong sense of personal nostalgia. INTPs are therefore often keen on melancolic minor-key music in which an introspective and/or esoteric mood is conveyed. Equally, INTPs enjoy hearing music that they heard and enjoyed when younger (provided they can still appreciate it now) and yearn for the sense of nostalgia that it yields. INTPs are also drawn to complexly structured music, thanks to their Ti core. An appreciation of modern classical music, as well as perhaps contemporary jazz, is therefore common with them. Such music types are usually too complex to be understood after a single hearing, which hence provides excellent material for analysis, exciting the INTP no end. Once the basic developmental structure of the music has been assessed, Ne provides the impetus to derive a general meaning of the piece. What does the composer wish to convey, for example? Why was that particular development chosen? Indeed, the Ne is usually hard at work during listening sessions, trying to grasp the meanings behind the often fascinating combinations of sound-world evocations, structural developments and nostalgic impressions.

When the Ti core dominates the choice of music to listen to, the need for intellectual stimulation derived from complex structures and sounds will override concerns for cultured harmony. Hence, INTPs are often drawn to dissonance. Indeed, they may even thoroughly strive for dissonant sound worlds. When in such moods, consonant harmonies, especially of the three-chord-melody variety, are dismissed as boring and uninspired. If an INTP is forced to listen to simple harmonic music for a while, he usually can't wait to feel the relief provided by a few minutes of pure dissonance. The ideal music for the Ti core might be typically a modern symphony, with a complex, but analysable structure, with a rich and varied sound world, predominantly dissonant but with sections of melodic motifs to provide solidity. Examples of modern classical composers who particularly speak to the Ti core might be Simpson, Arnold, Holmboe, Maxwell-Davies and Shostakovich.

However, feeding the Ti core alone with music will rarely satisfy an INTP for long. Where music really inspires in when the Si function is brought into the picture. Generally, INTPs are fascinated by atmospheres evoked by music. Examples of modern classical composers whose music speaks more to the Si-melancoly through sound-world evocation might be Bax, Tavener, Pärt, Szymanowski and Rautavaara. Some elements of world-music also speak strongly to the Si-melancoly. INTPs may be interested in the Folk musics of eastern Europe and India, for example. The role played by the Si function is shared by SJ types, so that INTPs may find a common musical bond with some SJs in this area. Indeed, INTPs often feel at ease with SJs, especially their near-shadow xSFJ types. The SJ's guardian instincts usually help the INTP to feel at ease, while the tradition-based predictability of the SJ approach to life helps the INTP to know where he stands, giving him the space he needs to relax. Although the most intense communicative friendships may develop with fellow NTs, some extraverted intuitive types may overstress the INTP by being too dominant and unpredictable, extracting too much energy from the Ti core.

Ultimately, however, music forms a vital, central role in awaking the underdeveloped Fe shadow in the life of an INTP. It is undoutedly Fe that gives the INTP the life-spark to introduce a genuine sense of joy that music is experienced with. To the INTP, the role of Fe in music appreciation remains mysterious. Music forms which may be useful for awakening the shadow are expressive forms of jazz, where extraverted Feeling is central to the music-making process, as well as some expressive Folk styles (Irish for example). Examples of modern classical composers whose music may appeal to the Fe shadow of INTPs are Messiaen, Copland, Schnittke, Bartok, Vaughan-Williams and, again, Shostakovich (Noting that Fe can be expressing a range of positive or negative feelings).The music of Shostakovich is a particular favourite because, alongside its developmental structure, it also yields an immense sense of passionate tragedy which awakes the Fe-shadow together with the Si-melancoly.

Inferior Function: Extraverted Feeling

Extraverted Feeling judgement, Fe, is the shadow function of the INTP, being by far the least developed of his faculties. Indeed, mature use of Fe typically doesn't begin to take shape until well into middle age. Feelings and emotions are regarded with suspicion and perhaps fear by the INTP and he may be keen to avoid considering or showing them. At the same time, he may experience a certain fascination for the emotional world, but he is desperate to de-personalize any thoughts on that area. He is compelled to subject his emotions to continual analysis, the Ti core literally suppressing the Fe shadow, attacking Fe with accusations of irrationality. He resists letting his feelings go, fearing that to do so would be to relinquish control to an unknown force. He believes emotions to be of a lesser substance than logic and his natural goal would be to conquer his emotions with pure rationality.

Much of the above demonstrates the immature and underdeveloped approach with which the INTP meets his emotional side. In reality, the extraverted nature of the INTP's feeling judgement means that his emotions, when visible, are pretty direct and easy to assess. Since the INTP normally wishes to hide his emotions; when they do come out, they do so in outbursts with an almost childlike innocence. There is a sense of all-or-nothing and, when visible, there is nothing enigmatic about the feelings of an INTP: indeed, shadow functions always seem pretty raw and basic.

When making on the spot decisions while extraverting with another person, the shadow Fe is often temporally exposed on the front line. Its immature nature may then result in an inadequate decision being made. The INTP may regret this later when the Ti core has analysed the events. Hence, INTPs tend to resist being forced to make quick decisions, for they know that their Fe judgement is their achilles heel. However, the resistance is sometimes weakened when Ne jumps in to back up the Fe. The accuracy of the intuitive insight then becomes crucial if the INTP is to avoid fatal errors. It is interesting to observe that the external world of the INTP involves a very free-spirited Ne-Fe partnership, while the internal world is a very clinical detail-structure-analysis Ti-Si combination. Hence, the outward behaviour of an INTP can contrast strongly with his introspective world.

For the INTP, emotions are seen as something mysterious and as uncontrollable as they are unalterable. Hence, the root of the fear of emotions is the fear that they cannot be controlled. Hence, when an INTP does finally respond emotionally to something, his emotions are indeed left uncontrolled, raw and open. However, when witnessing the emotional response of another person, the INTP intensely resists any similar emotion of his own. An example of this is when watching a 'weepy' cinema film in which some heart-wrenching scene is being shown. The INTP despises the attempt by the filmmaker to influence his emotions and is more likely to sneer than cry. This response has nothing to do with arrogance, however. Rather it is the INTP defensively avoiding exposing what he knows to be his weak point. Where an INTP may experience his own emotional response during a film is when he has had the chance to consider consequences of a element of the film. Hence, emotional response to media input usually occurs with a certain independence of will, which could appear enigmatic to others.

The mystery of emotion is also evidence in the INTP's use of music. He always chooses to listen to music which suits his current emotional state, be it aggression, warmth, excitement, relaxation or whatever. Hence, the emotional state is assumed to be an unchangeable, mysterious property of himself. It is easier to choose appropriate music than to attempt to influence this. People with introverted Feeling, Fi, however, will deliberately choose to listen to music which helps them change and improve their mood. INTPs could never do that. They feel an unpleasant sense of disharmony whenever a music style clashes with their emotional state. Indeed, it is remarkable how much attention they pay to their emotions when music is involved.

Sexuality is another important area which brings out the Fe shadow of the INTP. Sexuality fascinates INTPs in a similar way to music. Both have an emotional core which does not entirely yield to analysis. Sexual feelings often clash with the INTPs desire to control and understand his universe. They also clash with the desire for detachment and keeping a distance. But sexuality is the one thing who's natural power can break through any type dynamics. Hence, sexuality can play a big role in balancing the INTP's functionality. However, the INTP's natural approach to sexuality will still have true-to-type elements. He will be keen to understand and categorise his sexual responses. He will be keen to see first the generalities of male- and femaleness before any personal references are made. Nevertheless, in an intimate relationship, the extraverted nature of the feeling judgement leads to a beneficial openness and empathic directness in responding to the partner's needs, providing the healthy development of the Fe function is encouraged. Indeed, for many INTPs, an intimate relationship is the only place where the Fe shadow can really develop fruitfully.

The inferior nature of the Fe shadow shows itself, otherwise, in the lack of ability to show active empathy with people undergoing strong emotions. If he wishes to encourage the emotional person, the INTP tends to resort to giving T-based solutions to the problems involved. Often, the INTP does not really know how to empathize and may feel discomfort and helplessness, especially when he understands the rational basis for the emotions. He may become frustrated that the person remains unhappy in spite of hearing his T-based solutions. Much worse is when the emotional person appears to be being irrational. INTPs detest irrational emotion above all things. INTPs must take a very wide berth around people who appear to be irrationally, outwardly emotional. INTPs are very sensitive to such a trait and fear the potential excesses of the emotional attacks which do not yield to a defence based on logic.

In a similar way, INTPs dislike being in an atmosphere of emotional disharmony. If they need to say something unpleasant to someone close to them, they would prefer to avoid this task for fear of the disharmony that may result. This results from the INTP's fear that he does not have the emotional competence to deal with disharmony. INTPs never like doing something until they know they can do it. The best cure for this reticence is experience: to express his feelings, to live through disharmony and come out the other side with greater experience of his emotional side.

The feeling shadow is the fear centre of the INTP. He rarely fears any factual thing in the outside world, at least not things that will be encountered in normal day-to-day living. Logic stipulates that external objects or people which threaten can always potentially be dealt with by instigating an active defence strategy. Of course, the possibility of being left truly helpless leaves the INTP cold, for once the Ti core is defeated, the inferior Fe can offer little comfort. Resigned acceptance of the unacceptable is an anathema for INTPs. His typical response to helplessness is to hate the world which has produced it. However, the greatest fears of an INTP are usually ideas generated within his own mind. The problem is that the Ti-Ne axis is capable of conceiving very unpleasant ideas, which may be far from reality and even irrational. Ideas and possibilities assume so much importance in the mind of an INTP that they can override a common sense factual grasp on reality. Since the emotional response to an unpleasant idea is based on an underdeveloped function, it may also fail to bring a return to common sense. The net result is the fear that ideas alone may lead to self-destruction. This fear is irrational and is a cry of help from the feeling shadow when being overdominated by the Ti-Ne axis. This problem can be overcome when more balanced type dynamics result from increasing maturity.

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Concluding Words

With this essay I have attempted to describe the INTP personality type in as comprehensive a way as I can. For fellow INTPs, I hope that the ideas presented here may add some new perspectives on aspects of our behaviour, both the well-known and the less-often-considered. For other types, I hope that this may have provided new insights into a relatively rare and enigmatic temperament.

Truth and kerygma...

2007-03-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

...go together like love and marriage, love and marriage, ladedatata daduhdada

Have I ever mentioned that I double-majored? One major was History. The other was Religions? As in all world religions, mythologies, etc. Minored in Philosophy? No? Oh. Well, yeah, I did. I had planned on becoming an archaeologist before a bad man entered my life and kinda fucked things up.

Anyway, I thought some of my regular readers might like to read my comment(s) posted over at Obsidian Wings in response to this post and some of the previous really well thought out comments in the thread, albeit with limited, yet normal and typical resources.

I almost hate to tell y'all this, but religious theologians have long concluded (over the last two centuries, with the third movement ongoing) that the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith are two very different things. There have been three movements of the search for the historical Jesus, all attempts to determine what was the actual historical truth contained in the Gospels and what was kerygma ("Good news" or the dogma of the early church, look it up in Wikipedia.)

Basically, the conclusion by many minds much finer than any of us here is that the Christian religion is NOT rooted in history, it is rooted in faith alone. Minds like Albert Schweitzer and the great German Rudolf Bultmann who ended the first (old) quest with his statement "Christ who is preached is not the historic Jesus, but the Christ of faith."

Gunthur Bornkammm's book "Jesus of Nazareth" is an excellent yet accessible work for any who might like to read further.

Most have come to the conclusion that Jesus was an inspired teacher of one type or another, who either did or did not see himself as the Messiah, who was or was not seen by his followers as the Messiah, but who became the focal point of a new way of thinking and being which was encompassed in what little we think we know about what he actually taught, which was built upon and extrapolated by the early church. The early church evolved in order to spread this new way of thinking and being, into what exists today and the Jesus of history was gradually and perhaps intentionally turned into the Christ of faith.

In no way was this any different than the evolution of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other religion with any one or many Godheads. All religions, indeed many secular philosophies, have a central focus point around which a basic teaching of how man should deal with mankind revolved and the basic tenets have grown and evolved.

So, attempting to prove or disprove the life, death or even existence of the historical Jesus in any relation whatsoever to the Christ of faith is, well, pointless.

Anyone who goes into any church, mosque, synagogue, or what-have-you expecting to be taught historical truth may as well be going into an ice cream parlor expecting to be served a t-bone steak, whether they have the capacity or education to understand that fact or not.

There is no historical truth in any religion. The only truth that can be found in any religion, or philosophy, is the truth that way of being and thinking might contain as to how we should behave toward one another and why in whatever form and using whatever imagery it takes to reach our fellow human beings in a way that they can grasp and understand. What more can you expect, and, moreover, why would you expect more? What more does mankind need other than to learn to live with and love one another with peacefulness and understanding?

Posted by: BlueKat March 09, 2007 at 06:46 AM

Oh, and just as a sidenote in reference to some previous comments, I don't think there was and "O" or a "D" on the tablets of the 10 Commandments. I'm pretty sure they would have been written in Hebrew, not the English language, although Egyptian hieroglyphs wouldn't be totally out of the question.

The Samech (S), and both Mem's (M) are pretty much closed characters, but if you really want to believe the "see thru" letter bit, they could be written with just a teeny weeny opening so the insides wouldn't necessarily have to fall out or hang in the air, umm, magically. But, if the magically hanging letters make you happy, go for it and don't let anyone tell you that you can't believe whatever you damn well choose.

Posted by: BlueKat March 09, 2007 at 06:57 AM

UPDATE: Lawsy, it went on from there. Lotsa pompous asses on the tubes.

Petition

2007-03-09T02:39:00.000-05:00

Sign the AARP petition for affordable healthcare and prescriptions here.

Funniest. Telemarketing call. EVAH!

2007-03-07T04:37:00.000-05:00

This made me laugh so hard, tears were coming down.

Via Where's the Ka-boom

Scooter free zone

2007-03-07T03:57:00.000-05:00

Justice served, though justice will be delayed via appeals and whatnot until the last day of Bush's White House occupancy (Godspeed us all) and then it will be justice denied and treason pardoned.

'Bout all worth saying, as I see it.

Check out these Political Girls

2007-03-07T03:51:00.000-05:00

So funny! So disgusting! So making Hillary look good!

Via Wonkette.

Amen

2007-03-06T06:08:00.000-05:00

Party of Bigots
A few years ago, a business trip took me to through some of the great battlegrounds on this continent. Birmingham. Montgomery. Tuskegee. Selma. To my tour guide at the time, a liberal white judge from Alabama, they were as sacred to the American text as Gettysburg and Yorktown. He spoke with deep reverence about the struggle of black pilots to fly in the Second World War, the bus boycott, the Freedom Riders, and the bombings in Birmingham. He didn't shy away from the personal history, either, and strongly recommended Diane McWhorter's Carry Me Home, the memoir of the daughter of a white supremacist family in Birmingham. Her story, he said, was the story of thousands of white sons and daughters of Alabama.

When we walked through the brilliant Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, he had a quiet suggestion: things change, Alabama has changed, we've all changed.

And he was right. We have changed. But lately, I've come to feel we're not as far down the road as many of us think we are. Even as Alabama does a bonanza business in civil rights tourism, the history feels nearer; the bigots in our grand American tapestry are not so neatly sown into the margins. They're right there in the middle. They have a place in the national party of bigotry.

One national political party does business with bigots - openly and in thinly-coded language.

One national party came to power on the strength of a regional strategy aimed at scratching the scars of the civil rights era till they bled, and delivered a stream of bloody-red electoral votes.

One national party tolerates bigoted speech at its national gatherings, on its mainstream blogs, and on the lips of its grand commentators and media wizards.

That party is the Republican Party - the only national party where bigotry is accepted and in some quarters, openly encouraged.

Read all of Tom Watson's post.

No need for Ann Coulter

2007-03-06T05:02:00.000-05:00

remarks from me, because Margaret Cho has already spoken.
Hat tip to Suburban Guerilla.

I am NINJA!!

2007-03-06T01:57:00.000-05:00

Or that's what they told me at The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test:

a Ninja

(You scored 8 Honor, 2 Justice, 6 Adventure, and 6 Individuality! )

You are a soldier of the night. You rely on no more than your cunning and your repuation to strike fear in the hearts of lord and peasant alike. You've a sense of honor, but one that comes from within, not imposed from outside.

Black clothes and shuriken for you. You're gonna do just fine.

My test tracked 4 variables
How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 45% on Ninjinuity
You scored higher than 2% on Knightlyness
You scored higher than 34% on Cowboiosity
You scored higher than 68% on Piratical Bent

Found it at Pirategula... I mean Pharyngula.

Rocking on Colbert

2007-03-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

Mara Vanderslice rocks.

In the air tonight, uh-huh

2007-03-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

Photo: Jonathan Hayward/AP

I stole this pic from lovepuppy Colorado Bob 'cuz it embodies how I feel with this lovely sinus infection I've finally decided to get treated. Not that I was ignoring it, but with my rare and mysterious incurable disease, I often catch viruses, etc., that I just can't distinguish from my normal. I'm pretty damn sure that I'll be dead at least a month before I'll notice.

Maybe after a few more days of massive antibiotics, I'll get my head up in the air, where I generally keep my ass. No, not my head up my ass, my ass up in the air. Don't misunderstand intentionally. It's not nice to be mean to the sick girl.

Pending wedding any day now

2007-03-01T04:33:00.000-05:00

This is how I'll dress and look if I ever get married again. It will only cost a few thousand dollars from Disney.

It will definitely be in Vegas, probably here.

And the dude officiating at the ceremony will look something like this:

The handsome, young Elvis... not the old, fat, drug addicted Elvis.
I do have standards, you know.

I'm getting a head start in planning because I'm sure I'll get an answer to my personal ad any day now.

Wanted: Extremely wealthy, incredibly handsome and devoted man who will give me absolutely everything my heart desires with no hesitation and no expectation of anything whatsoever in return. Must take long, extensive business trips on a regular basis, remaining completely devoted and loyal, leaving me with my own personal jet, allowing me to do as I please. Large staff of servants and multiple households in various exotic locations required, adjacent to premier shopping and entertainment venues. Advanced terminal illness or advanced age with failing health preferred. Must provide an irrevocable trust of all assets and a signed and notarized writ of divorce/annulmnent in advance of ceremony. Contact immediately.

Show bizzy and serial killers

2007-02-28T23:36:00.000-05:00

Jake Gylllandallydallyhall was just on Jon Stewart's. I really want to see "Zodiac" if it gets good reviews. I've always been fascinated by 3 killers.... Zodiac, Jack the Ripper, the Boston Strangler, and one killer killer, the killer of the Black Dahlia. Actually, I'm not so interested in the monsters themselves but the mystery surrounding who they were. An unsolved mystery drives me bananas. I've read books, watched documentaries and movies and generally tried to find out all that I could. It's the analyst in me, I guess. It seems like if I could just find out everything, I could solve it. Not that I could, just that I'd like to try.

I was so disappointed in the movie about the Black Dahlia. It sucked. (Suck is my word of the day.) It was all atmospheric and relationship oriented. Gag me. I wanted the mystery. Plus, they just made most of that shit up. It wasn't in the book.

So, I'm curious about the "Zodiac" movie. If they bullshit it, I'll know. I've read the book twice. And the guy who wrote it thinks he knows who is was but I don't agree. He made some tremendous leaps. Wonder how they'll treat it? They should leave it as unsolved, because it is.

While I'm on movies, let me just say that we just had the most boring Oscars EVAH. As I don't see every single movie, I never feel qualified to decide who deserves the award so I just watch it for the fashions. I love fashion even though I usually look like a reject from the homeless shelter. Fashion has been sorta the family business, so it had to rub off on me. Especially since I went to work in the business when I was about 13 (with special permission). Thereafter, my work choices veered off wildly. But I still love me some fashion. And what did I see Sunday night? Beige. Rosy beige, white beige, greenish beige, beige beige. Maybe a little champagne beige. Omigod, I thought I would barf beige. The only women who did not dress in beige were beige women. Like whats-her-name, Mrs. Ex-Cruise, oh yeah, Nicole Kidman. Has her face been replaced with a plastic mask, ya think? And that voice! All squishy soft. Don't you know that she probably shrieks like a crazed harridan in reality? So phony, I want to slap that botox right outta her mask. And the hair! Geezalouisa, was there a line out of Haircrafters or did they just hack at their own heads? And the long haired women had hair that was so in need of a trim that it just devolved into wisps of dead ends at the bottom. Eeeewwwww!

'kay. Done.