and this is an older version

This is what we're up against, economically:
Click on the image to see the details, or just follow the link to see a live version.

quote for the day

"In fact, students at Woodbridge were nearly three times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than children who were given a portion of meat, whole grains, and green vegetables, and then encouraged to skip dessert."

The Onion, reporting on Abstinence-Only Lunch Programs to combat obesity.

uh-oh

You know, I'm used to the doom and gloom stylings of Jim Kunstler. I enjoy reading his stuff, even though I dont totally buy into it. If nothing else, it's a good source to find what the happy corporate boosters in the MSM and government offices arent telling you.
But when I read similar predictions on Robert Reich's blog, then I really start to worry a bit, or, rather, start thinking outside the usual worry box.

It aint over yet folks.

filler

Posts have been in rather short supply of late, as I'm sure few have noticed, since few read this anyway. I havent had much to say lately, politically anyway. When the Opposition tries to screw you, you cant really help but get mad. When your own side does the same thing, well, discouragement is the more likely result.

For now.

Anyway, a few of the exciting summer events I've not blogged about, in brief form:

1. Michael Jackson: a talented has-been, loved his older music (up to the mid 80s or so), hated the freakshow that followed. Enough already.

2. Went to Iowa to visit family. Short, but enjoyable, trip. The highs there were the same as the mornings in Dallas. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Dallas summers?

3. I recently got Netflix. The thing that finally drew us in was the online content. For less than half the base cost of cable, we get all kinds of streaming shows and movies. Satellite will never get me back.

movie time!

You've probably never been there (I certainly havent), so this is what a week of summer in the Artic looks like, sun-wise, anyway.

Addendum:
Crap! I pre-posted this thing a while back, intending it for the solstice, and got the month wrong. I am an idiot.

quote for the bonus pay

"People need Vampires, she said. "They helps 'em remember what stakes and garlic are for."

from Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum

So, let's say that the possible collapse of the credit card industry comes as predicted by some. How many people will support another bank bailout, and how many show up at the capital carrying pitchforks and torches?

enough, already

This is the Sears Building. It will be, and always should be, the Sears Building. If there is any one thing that will destroy us a culture, it could be reasonably well argued that it will be our willingness to sell our history for a quick buck. What's next, the McDonald's Bridge? The Goldman Sachs Building? Kentucky Grilled National Park? Blackwater Battle Monument?

There's been enough whoring of our history, just for a few extra bucks. It's bad enough that consumer culture has left almost nothing to hand down through the generations, now it's getting to the point where we cant even hand down some of our landmarks.

sunday funny

More here.

me me me meme!

A meme from Samurai Frog:

The question is:
"You wake up tomorrow and every person on the planet has vanished. What do you do?"

The replies are:
Day One
Week One
Month One
Year One

Go!

day one: I'm like a kid in a candy store. Mostly because I dont believe it. I mean, this is a dream, right?

week one: By now it's gone on way too long to be a dream, so I'm alternating between panic and fascination. I probably spend half my time making gradiose travel plans, and the other half dead drunk trying not to think about what's happening.

month one: Assuming I'm not too drunk to travel and have got my shit together, I've seen a fair number of really cool things, but it's not much fun doing it alone (a probable motivation for my travels is the hope of finding someone else). By now, despair is probably starting to really set in. Hopefully I've made it a mission to release zoo animals - that might have kept me sober.

year one: I've always thought suicide was stupid, what with so much to see and do in the world. After one year alone, I may have changed my mind.
I've been all over the U.S. and Canada, and have learned to carry very little but perhaps a hand operated gas pump. Everything else can be found on-site. I'm probably really sick of dry goods and canned meat.
I've read a lot of books and seen a lot of DVDs.
There are likely few places with electricity left, but hopefully I've taken that into account in advance and stocked freezers near hydro-electric plants with meat.
Finding dead pets in houses has probably stopped bothering me by now, as has killing the feral ones who attack me.
I've probably been to a military base, and used various weapons to blow things up.
Most likely, though, I have gone completely insane, always assuming I havent died while trying to cross the ocean or learning to fly a plane.
Or, for that matter, died of something stupid, like a fall or an infection.

BONUS!
year ten: I dont know if anyone could survive ten years of absolute solitude. By this point, I've got a dog or five for sure. Maybe I have a chimp or two around, also.
Most likely, what's kept me going for so long is some sort of Plan For The Ages. Something along the lines of collecting great artworks and books of learning and placing them in some sort of long-lasting storage.
For whom? Anybody who can find it.
Does it make sense? Of course not, I've gone totally mad by this point. But it keeps me going, doesnt it?

oy!

Why you should not go running with the bulls.

happy fourth!

Seriously, people, get a grip and just enjoy your 4th of July.

information

If you want to see the original image I used for the current blog header, it's right here, part of a larger collection of panoramic photographs at the Library of Congress.

Addendum: Okay, never mind, the link to the image will only show up as a temporary one, for some reason, so you'll just have to go to the main site and look at all of them.

why?

Do Republicans hate America because they lost?

props to Pryme.

ADDENDUM:

I love the idea that we need a bombing or something to bring on a "grass roots" movement; what does the GOP think elected Obama in the first place? Duh! A grass roots movement! God knows Obama wasnt put in office by the Establishment (well, sort of, but you know he wasnt their first, second or third choice).
If the people actually got what they wanted, and the politicians actually quit covering their asses, as he more or less puts it, then Republicans would lose on even more fronts than they have now.

ANOTHER ADDENDUM

via Gerry Canavan

But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you're not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone's head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Patriotism is dead, long live patriotism.

Adam Serwer

I'm guessing this was sarcasm...