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New Jersey Wildlife News
I spotted three pheasants today in Liberty State Park, one male and two female. Actually, they might have been grouses. I started walking toward them, and they ducked under a chain link fence into an area marked "No Trespassing - Hazardous Materials," thus evading me. I swear this happened.
Got to see the NYT in hard copy today and found this
40'X8'X8' Shipping containers were also in the news again. The City of Newark just noticed how high the stacks were getting and are complaining cause they're blocking their view of the NYC skyline. We have been importing them two to one over exporting them for years. Buy your retirement homes now while they're cheep!
On July 26, I wondered when the Bush "Who cares what you think?" story would appear in the NY Times, marking its complete transition from obscure e-mail to world news. Evidently it appeared sometime between late July and today, because James Wolcott mentions it on Slate: "There was an incident reported recently in the New York Times where a man in Philadelphia politely expressed his disappointment with some of Bush's decisions, and Bush snapped, 'Who cares what you think?' That, I believe, is the true Bush."
polly, want a cracker?
hello everybody--i didnt go on my 3 day boat trip downriver--due to luck and love i recieved otherization for a trip up into the restricted areas, a place i dought many americans have ever been, i would like to tell you all about it and one day will, but exploration comes at a price and i am fairly sick, i am at the bar palmistes and am going to see if rum will help--off the fete of st laurant manana for a few days with a side trip to see the leatherback turtles being born on the atlantic..........love wheel
anybody want to speculate on the possibility of carbonated icecubes?
Just as I was beginning to wonder how much more post-feminist tolerance of advertising sleaze there could possibly be, I saw the following, markered onto subway posters:
On a Budweiser ad of a jock hoisting a bikini-clad babe onto his shoulders, the words STOP RAPE CULTURE. (Underneath, in smaller letters, someone wrote "Stop Bud Culture.")
On a King Cobra ad of a nude Hispanic girl hiding demurely behind a giant beer can, the caption WOMEN ARE WORTH MORE THAN THIS.
heres a bit of mindless clinton bashing or shrub fluffing, depending on your point of view, from us news.
"There must be some kind of high to working for the first family, because it sure ain't the money. White House salary figures obtained by Washington Whispers show that for most posts–except the very top–annual pay is equal to or less than former President Clinton's rate of three years ago. In fact, President Bush's $23 million payroll is $84,000 less annually than Clinton's in June 1998, although he's employing about the same number of staffers. And that's despite hiking the top rate from $125,000 to $140,000 for close aides including Chief of Staff Andrew Card, spokesman Ari Fleisher, aides Karen Hughes and Karl Rove, legal chief Alberto Gonzales, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, lobbyist Nick Calio, economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, and faith-based guru John DiIulio. Office heads paid more by Clinton than Bush: personal secretary, communications, political affairs, and even some on the first lady's staff, including Laura Bush's press secretary and chief of staff. Lowest paid: $25,000 for mail openers. New to Bush: six ethics advisers making an average of $84,900 each."
so essentially, if bush hired one more ethics adviser, and god knows he can use them, then the white house payroll would be exactly the same. i would hardly call that a notable difference. heres a complete list of salaries for the white house staff. or you could look at it this way, bush pays his executives more and his peons less, just like every other CEO.
"When soft
rock hit in the early 1970's, I think people just thought the [Boomer]
generation was taking a nap," he said. "In reality, we were going to sleep.
We never woke up again."
Just waiting on some kids to wake up--I don't know who it is I'm stepping over to get to my computer--so they can assist in the loading of a U-Haul which will be loaded with "stuff" to take to a storage shed so M's workers can finish the back two rooms of her house. It's funny how there doesn't seem to be as many kids sleeping over this weekend. Isn't that funny? I've popped a handful of Ibuprofen and although I don't see "handful" in the prescribed dosage I'm sure like so many things it is an area open to interpretation.
Surf Shack
the cia headquarters in langley va is now called The George Bush Center for Intelligence.
song of the common loon
song of a humpback whale
Broadcast TV is all but hopeless. I figured Muslims in Appalachia had to be the most fascinating subject around, but it turned out to be utterly boring. It was on Ch25, the public service channel that shows lots of ethnic programming, along with PBS stuff that didn’t make the cut at Ch13. They do have one good show: Classic Arts Showcase. It’s a clip show, but without the frenzied presentation we’re used to. There’s no host, just a stately sequence of videos, with long dissolves between them, and titles superimposed at intro and exit. Like MTV, but very slow. Everything is public domain or donated. Mostly it’s classical music, but a wide range of performances from different times, including a lot of historically notable footage. It’s interesting to see how the conventions of performance and presentation have changed over the course of the last century. They also have dance, bits from theater and movies, and once in a while they come up with some weird gem, like an obscure quasi-futurist animation, a vaudeville routine, or an architecture documentary. Beats “reality” programming, and it’s easy to ignore while you’re trying to write a post.
i guess this isnt a new story but as a result of the cloning decision in congress yesterday it resurfaced as an aside. i remember a raelians story from last year but i didnt remember the cloning angle.
have to say i am in joying my afternoons drinking rum at the bar des palmistes, watching the people, the old colonial buildings, this was once a hotel, one of the only hotels, where many an explorer stayed, now its bar, cyber cafe, video rental etc (staying with the times??)....
MB was asking about the medieval Cathars, relative to a wine label she's working on. Conveniently, along comes the New Yorker with a review of several books about them. They inhabited the Languedoc, a rich and independent area of southern France, stretching into northern Italy and Spain. They considered themselves Christians, but their dualism (similar to neo-platonic Gnosticism) marked them as heretics in the eyes of the Catholic Church, and they were mostly wiped out in intra-European crusades during the 13th century. The famous line, "kill them all; god will recognize his own" comes from one of these massacres. As practitioners of an "alternative lifestyle", the Cathars have been adopted as spiritual ancestors by mystics, French nativists, vegetarians, conspiracy theorists, and would-be heretics of all sorts. Not much is really know about them, beyond what we are told by their enemies, so it's been easy for latecomers to speculate, casting them in whatever light is convenient. Languedoc still produces fine wine, and it appears that heresy has enough cachet in some circles to provide a marketing rubric. There certainly seems to be good tourist trade built on the legends. As far as images go, this page from Google shows that, beyond their cross (a Greek cross encircled) the most persistent image is of a ruined castle on a crag, a romantic evocation of their promise and persecution, not to mention a great photo-op before the vineyard tour. Keep digging if you want to get into the really nutty stuff. This guy may know the secrets, but he wants $9.99 first. Disinfo has a treatment of the source I'm familiar with. This fairly levelheaded capsule comes from an interesting aristocratic site, which also contains a good collection of heraldic crosses. These may be of interest to Bill regarding the "surfer's cross" (see #86 & 102 ). But if you want to know what they did with the Ark of the Covenant (or was that the Holy Grail?), I'll never tell!
Tired of hearing the late conservative media honcho Katharine Graham described as a cross between Mother Teresa and Rosa Luxembourg? Read CounterPunch's anti-eulogy.
greetings from french guiana, this is a truely grand place, in the capital now (cayenne), just left the museč departmental which was full of stuffed animal's inc a giant caimen that washed a shore one day near by, the place was layed out beautiful and you get a real outback feel, yesterday when the plane pulled off the caribean and went inland a 100 miles my jaw allmost dropped, nothing but jungle and rivers cutting throught it--AWESOME--hope my luggage shows up (it was found in haiti) and my tour guide (he has my interior flights lodgeing info...)
Hey Frank, what's up? I've been missing you around here.
its all most 20 years since my first travels abroad, sitting here sweating pro fusely, i never sweat this much 20 years ago, no did i post to my friends--i dont consider my self adventerous, i dont eat sea urchins, but now 20 years later i,m in my 50th country/territory, its a great caribean night here, i really like this country, cool blended unspoofed at least where i stay, the rum gave me good thoughts but this keyboard gives me trouble so i must quit, onward into adventurne i go, i` will get some DEET and go to the jungle just my tee shirt and my malaria pills::::pack light i said in the early daze (this is the wierdest keyboard i have ever seen-the french must all ways be different/cult)