Leaving for Mexico

That's it, we're off tonight for Mexico... to get married! Yep, that's right, it's actually happening, and we're excited about it! We're going to have a blast with our family and friends, and we're going to comment on it on our travel blog (as usual): planetaryvagrant Hope to bring some of that sunshine to everyone's home with our pictures! Cheers!

Right Wing Nut House - HAMAS SIGNS CONTRACT TO RUN AMTRAK

HAMAS SIGNS CONTRACT TO RUN AMTRAK: "In a continuing effort to prove that Americans are not anti-Arab Islamaphobes, the government has announced that day to day operations of the passenger rail carrier Amtrak will now be in the hands of a state owned company run by the Palestinian group Hamas. The deal comes on the heels of an agreement to allow the state owned Dubai Ports World(DPW) to manage ports in the United States."

Songs in the key of church and state

Reassuring thoughts.... I'm not alone to be upset and a little involved mentally with the current situation in this country (and others but let's not go there for this post!)... My very soon to be husband is also completely nuts, and now I have proof!!!!! Yes, I do, he's nuts and he writes songs about it, check it out: Mike's latest single... with video and all!!! Watcha think!? huh!? Coming out on February 28th on the Itunes Music store, until then you gotta go to his site...

Mute for a while

I realized this morning that I haven't come here at all in a while... It seems that the death of my cat affected me a little more that I thought it would and it's been harder to deal with the whole organizing the day thing. So while Mike and I have about 3 jobs or more at all times, my excuse for not being able to also write in this blog lately is my cat!... ... And the fact that we're getting married in a couple weeks, leaving for Mexico in exactly a week and also the desperate state the world is in, which prevents me a lot from surfacing more! So for now I guess I won't write about how I sort of hate the world today, the governments in all their forms and languages, the people in the streets of LA who IF they are out of their car think nobody exists but them, and the way we find it funny that a guy got shot by our vice president while people die under mud slides and earthquakes or in unecessary wars... On such a note, I do have to quote a bumper sticker I saw the other day that I simply love and worship: "Somebody please give Bush a blow job, so we can impeach him!" Oh, and I might not have been writing, but I've been following the blogosphere. It's quite fascinating how much that guy (or his cronies) can do every day, every single god damn day, but still is... well.. here.

NPR : Congo Violence Creates Medical Crisis

NPR : Congo Violence Creates Medical Crisis Morning Edition. February 13, 2006 · Hundreds are dying daily in the embattled Democratic Republic of Congo. But most of the deaths aren't from bullets. Disease and malnutrition are taking a steady toll. After years of civil strife, the health care system in much of the Central African country has collapsed. In one town, the organization Doctors Without Borders is attempting to provide services to nearly 20,000 refugees. Technorati tags: Congo, Zaire, Doctors without borders More on the subject at NPR This seems like it will never end....

Duty

Duty, according to George W. Bush and George Bernard Shaw See, we have a duty. The job of the President is to confront problems, not to pass them on to future Presidents and future generations. ˆGWB I have a duty to nominate well-qualified men and women to the federal judiciary. I have done just that, and I will continue to do so. ˆGWB We have a duty for future generations. We have a duty to leave this world more peaceful. We have a duty to reform the institutions that are old and tired. That's our duty. ˆGWB I have a duty as the president to define problems facing our nation and to call upon people to act. ˆGWB I have a duty to protect the Executive Branch from legislative encroachment. I mean, for example, when the GAO demands documents from us, we're not going to give them to them. ˆGWB When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. ˆGeorge Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

LAist: Global warming: hot economic news for California

LAist: Global warming: hot economic news for California A report released last month by the California Climate Change Center at UC Berkeley says that global warming presents California with valuable business opportunities. "Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in California" says that "climate action in California can yield net gains for the state economy, increasing growth and creating jobs." In more simple terms, that spells ECONOMIC BENEFIT. If California is smart, our state could easily become "a leader in the new technologies and industries that will come into existence worldwide due to the common goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions." Technorati tags: Los angeles, climate change, california climate change, schwarzenegger, climate action team

She's gone...

No more furry ball making a figure 8 around my legs, no more talking back when i say no, no more butt elevator, no more hair everywhere on our bed and sofa, no more big huge eyes looking at us to try and communicate telepathically... Our cat is gone, we had to let her go after trying so so so many things to help her and help us, but it was all in vain, and now we might not have the risk of her injuring someone, but we also don't have her anymore. And that hurts.... a lot! She left us February 8th around 9pm, and now there is white burning candle in the living room I can't get myself to not replace...

Back to inquisition times....

The bubble says: "Don't be so pissed, Mohammed, we were ALL caricatured here!!"

Global warming map

Check it out... link

Been there, heard that!

"House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting. Stay with RollCall.com for updates." Thanks C&L for pointing this out!!!

Climate change

Here we are again, with another study showing that the climate change is real and is a big problem... Treehugger published this article commenting on this study: The UK government has published a book that collates evidence presented by scientists at a conference hosted by the UK Meteorological Office in February 2005 called Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (Cambridge University Press). We've been aware that climate change is a problem for some time; we can now consider ourselves on alert that climate change is a real problem. Among its conclusions, the book states there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels, and that rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed. In the book's foreword, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair writes that "it is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases... is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable." The conference set two principal objectives: to ask what level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is too much, and what the options are for avoiding such a level; what did it come up with? Currently, the atmosphere contains about 380 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas linked closest to climate change and the principal concern of scientists, compared to levels before the industrial revolution of about 275ppm. The European Union adopted a previous target of preventing a rise in global average temperature of more than two degrees Celsius, which, according to the book, might be too high -- enough to trigger melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Above two degrees, says the report, the risks increase "very substantially", with "potentially large numbers of extinctions" and "major increases in hunger and water shortage risks... particularly in developing countries". The book concludes, therefore, that in order to have a good chance of achieving the EU's two-degree target, levels need to be stabilized below 450 ppm. The UK government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, was less than cheery about the feasibility of such an accomplishment. "We're going to be at 400 ppm in 10 years' time, I predict that without any delight in saying it," he said. "But no country is going to turn off a power station which is providing much-desired energy for its population to tackle this problem - we have to accept that. To aim for 450 (ppm) would, I am afraid, seem unfeasible." So what are the options for avoiding dangerous concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? The book notes that the technological options to reduce emissions do exist. It concludes that the biggest obstacles to the take up of large-scale use of technologies like clean and renewable sources of energy lie in vested interests, cultural barriers to change and simple lack of awareness. ::Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change via ::BBC climate changesea risingglobal warmingecologysabolabgreen

Bush didn't mean it literaly

From Afarensis: Via Eschaton and Daily Kos comes this interesting story. Remember the bit in SOTU where Bush says he wants to reduce dependence on middle eastern oil? Apparently he didn't mean exactly what he said: One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally. What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025. But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are. *snip* He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Not exactly, though, it turns out. "This was purely an example,"[emphasis mine - afarensis] Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said. He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth. Ummm, now I'm confused...an example of what? Saying something you didn't mean and have no intention of following up on? Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.

Oh yeah, Condi and her helmet look like...?

yes, Rick Moranis! That's too cool!

Shmates of the Shmunion!

Post on Bushmerika What else to say!? Except that this picture pretty much says it all?