Philosophy, politics, and religion from behind the bar.

She is healing. And getting stronger, slowly. And, I suspect, lying in wait for when she's healthy and strong enough to kick my ass for being a shitty housekeeper. Keep an eye on the local police blotter.

  I'm just a lonely blogger. I do what I can. Here's what the really good writers can do with the material.   John Oliver. The Daily Show. "Judge Johnny": http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-july-30-2013-tim-gunn

On the theory of evolution: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10153052809985117&id=302201620116 I've neglected to mention these guys. And they're great. Their FAQ page, if you go back to asking the same old questions and pushing the same accusations: http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/page/faq My hat is off to all these guys. These guys, TAE, the Friendly Atheist,  and so many others that have the scholarship, the patience, the drive, the amazing eloquence, and use the resources to do what they do. And I don't spend nearly enough of my time with any of them. Seriously, spend some time with them all. You'll be better for the experience.

http://tfninsider.org/2013/07/31/creationist-demands-that-houston-museum-ban-atheists-and-science-supporters/ Where better to discuss science and critical thinking than a real museum of natural science? How much of a hypocritical idiot do you have to be to ask that groups be banned for just that? There is desperation in the evangelical, anti-science, anti-humanist, Christian community to stoop so low. I truly think that we are watching the death spiral of this ancient and useless ideology. Information, education, and progress will not allow it to hang on. And that's a good thing. A great thing, really.

Just because. That's why. Elvis Costello playlist from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uff0h-zHuao&list=RD02qynbbfC7J5U And Joe Jackson, just for good measure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr2n-9p7WM&list=RD02GnaUL8OpBck Just listened to the song again, and man, is MY face red... "No *uniform is going to keep you warm". All these years... (I like my version better)

  I smoke too much, especially when writing this blog. Do a post, take a smoke break. Respond to comments, smoke. Rinse, lather, repeat. It's taking its toll. I huff and puff and cough and sputter more than I did. (Suziema, you're not allowed to react to this. I don't want to self-censor for any sense of delicacy.)   For the record, if anything comes of it, I prefer to be DNR. I'm not one for pain and suffering. Pull the plug, and don't think twice about it.    This comes up because of an odd confluence of internet interactions in the past two days. My sister sent me an e-mail about putting down her pet, and I responded about us putting down our cat a few years ago. Then, my buddy out in Oregon responded to a joke I posted by saying, "You're killing me." To which I responded that he was at least in the right place, a reference to Oregon being the first state to legalize assisted suicide. Then, we have an elderly family member in assisted living who...

  Altnet: Why is No One Fighting for the Voting Rights of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners? http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/felon-voting-rights-more-important-voter-id-laws?page=0%2C0   One  way to keep right-wing candidates in office that favor prison slavery and privatization is to skew the vote in their favor. The recent controversies over slashing the protections of the Voting Rights Act are only one way to accomplish that.   Taking away the rights of the incarcerated and paroled, often for the rest of their lives, takes out a significant block, not only of voters, but of voters with a vested interest in the outcome of elections.  What better way to secure your office than to pack our prisons overwhelmingly with people of color? Just one more incentive to fill more cells. It's a vicious circle. They want more people in prison, and they have the power to put them, and keep them there.

I have to go get her a cane. She's thrilled to shit. Too thrilled. She woke me up yelling. I'm afraid the cane is for a dance routine. She's going to do Putting on the Ritz and she's going to make me be the Peter Boyle role.... Leon Redbone My Walking Stick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQufirEduXk Elvis Costello Blame it on Cane (Cain) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qynbbfC7J5U Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle from Young Frankenstein Putting on the Ritz : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co6-tYS9k1U Some people like creative writing. Suziema likes creative spelling , sometimes with hilarious results: Sue Koltak 42 minutes ago via mobile · Alex just bought me a beautiful green Cain. Like · · Unfollow Post · Share Faith Hayes , Paco Mgl and 5 others like this. Alex McDowell Next week, if she's nice, I'm getting her an Abel. 37 minutes ago · Like · 4 Richard Swan You beat me to the Abel joke!...

   Differences of dogma about dogs (really) with neighboring churches, Catholic and Presbyterian turns into a signage war that is too funny. And they wonder why atheists find all of them ridiculous. http://aattp.org/two-neighboring-churches-disagree-then-this-awesomeness-happens/

   I've done the politics, the philosophizing, the religion. All of that here. I've done damn little about the "behind the bar" stuff.   I'm only working two catering places, and the jobs are very infrequent. 2-3 a month. They're a frenzy of pushing out drinks, but usually open bar. So it's just "take this product, and shove it over the counter to those people". Simple stuff. We don't have the product or the tools to get fancy. And the situation doesn't demand it. Restaurant work is a little more interesting in that, as Tom Waits would say, we can "getchya a little sumptin' that ya can't get at home". For what it is, the pay's not too bad, but it's so infrequent, it turns out just to be basically cigarette and gas money. I need a regular job.   It turns out to be convenient this month as I have to kind of watch over Suziema's recuperation. September may have a new place for me. It looks promising. Keeping...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/29/serco-biggest-company-never-heard-of Multi-national corporations have taken over Great Britain. Anyone ever heard of Serco? They're buying up everything, and running it all into big profits and shitty service. Prisons, schools, transportation, government health care, energy, environment, you name it. It's the same model as the right-wing Randians are pushing in this country. Government sells contracts to companies that can profit by cutting costs, and there's less oversight (or none), and little things like quality, safety, and wages go down enough to profit the private companies hugely. Serco has their hands in a few government services here, in the US, and several other countries as well. Serco has done pretty damn well over the years. Their chart on the London Exchange: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=SRP.L+Interactive#symbol=srp.l;range=my;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale...

The suture area has stopped leaking and oozing. The staples should come out Friday or so. Healing up nicely. We have her doing leg lifts and spreads 3 times a day. 5 reps each. She loves getting to them, but she really has to work at it. I see her grimacing. It's hard. That leg is very weak. That's the spot where we're going to watch her progress, now. The bruising on her arm and hand where the IVs went in is spreading. It looks bad, but it's a good thing. It just means the blood is going back to where it belongs, I guess. She's getting a little bored and frustrated. That's going to be the hardest part. But she's taking phone calls, so that's good. No visitors yet. We have therapists and nurses coming by every day to check in. By the time the staples come out, that will slow down significantly. Appetite's good, she's getting all the exercise she can, and it's just going to take a little time. Thanks for checking in.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/30/bradley-manning-found-not-guilty-of-aiding-the-enemy/ He still faces over 100 years for related charges he plead guilty to, but found not guilty of aiding the enemy. They have the wrong guy facing charges.

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/tea-party-tennessee-textbooks-slavery_n_1224157.html   Evidently, our private prison slave industry is affecting education as well. Or would, if Tennessee Teabaggers could get away with it.   On the surface, the Teabaggers of Tennessee would want people to view their attempt to skew history as simply patriotic. Paint the glorious "Founding Fathers" in a light that wasn't besmirched by memories of slavery  and native genocide.   "The group demanded, as they had in January of last year, that Tennessee lawmakers change state laws governing school curricula. The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: "No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.""   Following efforts in Texas to "put a conservative...

Just one more article about our police state, and the prison industry that profits from it. From Chris Hedges: http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_business_of_mass_incarceration_20130728/

...wherever it raises its ugly and stupid head.    That is all. Carry on.

Bill Day is a wonderful political cartoonist, one of my favorite forms of art. And he wrote this beautiful piece on his visual memory as a kid of being confronted and confounded by the separate water fountains, one for whites, one for blacks, and his mother's reaction. A good read: http://thebigslice.org/water-fountains/

   Lots of work for her today. Things are progressing better than I thought it would. Everything is so much more of a pain in the ass than normal life would, or should be, but the light at the end of the tunnel is looking closer. Improving day by day. No worries.

   I'm a fan and supporter of American Atheists (regretfully, not financially. Too poor). I think the president of the organization, David Silverman, does a laudable job considering the forces against us. The same with Dan Barker, from Freedom From Religion Foundation. I support them both. And I think the law, history, and the future is on our side. But nobody's perfect, and as they say, getting skeptics and atheists to agree and join forces is like herding cats.    They catch a lot of flak. Not much of it deserving. But the Star of David in the Holocaust Museum controversy is where I may have a nit to pick.    Religion tends to have a lot to do with history. And the Holocaust perpetuated on the Jews was historical fact. The cross beam worship from the Twin Towers Memorial is ridiculous and a prop and a sop to a religious takeover of the tragedy. It shouldn't be allowed. It's divisive, not historic, not even significant, and if people that believe in Br...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/anthony-weiner-falls-hard-in-latest-poll/ When you're in the middle of the battle, you often can't understand legitimate questions. Fourth in the polls in 2 weeks, and everybody calling for him to drop out. And he gets defensive. Politics, business, and religion have a hard time facing the truth.   His reaction is predictable. That's what makes it so sad. Here was a guy that would rip an argument to pieces by sheer intellect and logic and passion. This one's just not going to go his way. And he doesn't get it.    His mayoral bid hasn't got 3 days of life left. The clock is ticking on his withdrawal. Likely tonight. When the air goes out on these things, they tend to fall apart suddenly.

  She's still up and running around like crazy. It's a good thing. I keep reminding her to be careful. I think she's taking it to heart.    Changed the dressing this morning. She had a lot of blood and oozing (normal) before and it was way down today. So the surgical wound is healing nicely as far as I can tell.    A couple of more weeks, and we're going back to semi-normal. By New Orleans, she'll be the one helping me walk...

from facebook: (Original Poster): Has anybody thought of having a Paranormal convention in Downtown Warren? Like · · Unfollow Post · Share · May 19 at 11:40am 11 people like this. Responder 1: Terra, I would absolutely love to attend something like that. I live in Vegas now, but my family still lives in Ohio. Went to Mansfield Reformatory last year; this year going to Hill View Manor in New Castle PA. May 20 at 11:10pm · Like Other Responder:  I think that would be a lot of fun!! May 22 at 11:50am   · Like · 1 Responder 2: Love that idea! Def would attend May 22 at 10:59pm · Like Responder 3: Paranormal conferences were regularly scheduled events at the hotel on Courthouse Square many years ago. They were interesting enough to attract people from outside of this area, as well as local residents. May 25 at 2:33am · Like · 1 Responder 4: me too May 28 at 8:21pm · Like ...