~ Who knew the oil companies were non-profits? Now I feel bad for railing against their billion dollar quarterly statements, it seems they really make "no money" on crude oil like many people assert. We have made posts here regarding the skyrocketing gas prices and the effect on the economy and we have heard many rationalizations, the weakening dollar, small profit margins for the oil companies and market demand. In regards to the small margins, I had no idea just how small they were until I...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ Five names that should be stricken from current news media headlines and reports. Amy Winehouse - I am sure there are many drug plagued, strung out addicts out there with some minuscule amount of talent, why must we hear about this one? Pete Dougherty - Same description as above. Britney Spears - I am sure there are many manic depressive, schizophrenic, strung out parents out there with nearly non-existent talent out there fighting custody battles, who fucking cares about hers? Roger Clemens...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ I swear, this will be the last post about this for a while, as some of you may know my dad passed away recently. I had to mention something interesting I noticed at my Father's funeral last week. He was a catholic man his whole life, he came from a catholic family and still went to church regularly until his final weekend. He was not a 'devout' follower, he believed some of the doctrine and also disagreed with some of the tenets, but mainly remained catholic because that is how he was raised...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ The man who raised me, taught me right from wrong and beat my butt when I defied him is lying in an intensive care unit with the possibility of not waking up. I love my father so much. We have our disagreements but we are so much alike I see myself turning into a replica of him as each day passes. I am stubborn... just like he is, I am anal-retentive... just like he is and I am ALWAYS right... just like he is, except when we disagree. He 'used' to win when we were at odds, now I have taken...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ Throughout history of the written and spoken word there have existed efforts to deter or silence opposing viewpoints. This type of attitude, while having the appearance of protecting and insulating your stance from criticism, only indicates the insecurity of your position and gives others an open door to also squelch your ideas from being heard. Once we start censoring ideas we don’t agree with, all ideas can be silenced, even our own, and nothing is beyond reproach. I don’t agree with the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ I was going through pictures today, trying to clean up my drive and get rid of some of the wasted space. I ran across these today and thought I would share some of them. I have had a fascination with the sky, weather and space for as long as I can remember. I have probably spent half my life looking up, either through a telescope or just lying on the ground looking at the stars, clouds and sunrise/sunset. I dream of traveling past the atmosphere to space, but still very much appreciate...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ What level of cognitive dissonance must one hold to believe that when confronted in tragedy a 'god' will save you while your friends, who attend the same Christian school, die around you? A teen in New Zealand, along with a group of fellow students, was 'canyoning' in a national park when the group was taken over by a flash flood. There was an unfortunate series of event's where six students and an instructor from the school lost their lives while one student, Kish Proctor, managed to...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ (H/T to Religion Clause) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who by some is regarded as an advocate for interpreting the Constitution to is original meaning and context, made statements that appear to be an 'argument from tradition', at least from a logical point of view. "I have nothing against formulaic abstractions--otherwise known as rules," Scalia said. But he added: "When one of these judicially created abstractions comes up against a longstanding tradition, it is the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ The wind blew.John McCain said something stupid.George W. Bush said something equally stupid.Hillary lied about getting shot at again.All of the above.Actually, the price rose today not because of any of the reasons above (which I am sure did happen), but because it was reported that U.S. supplies had a higher than expected decline. I know, I know... "The company's profit margin is only 12%", "The executives are barely scraping by on the 10 billion dollar bonuses" or "The corporations don't...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ Recently in my family we have been faced with two very distinctly different illnesses afflicting members of our ‘tribe’. One is more of a long term potentially degenerative natured disease and the other was rather sudden and surprising, both have the prospect of being life threatening. During the car ride en route to the ‘stat’ emergency it came up that, “we are not ready to lose them”. My response was, “you don’t ever want to be ‘ready’ because that would mean they have been sick for far...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ In the democratic and free society, as established by the founders of this nation, The United States of America, censorship and suppression of knowledge should not be tolerated. We cannot allow the government to control independent information sources and effectively water down or completely redact information. When we turn a blind eye and allow this to happen we will no longer have a shoulder to cry on or a pot to piss in when propaganda is utilized to manipulate us. This is the second post...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ Hypersensitivity is generally a result of exposure to some real threat that we expand and become obsessed with preventing. Which is certainly the case when an 8 year-old gets suspended and the school removes all permanent markers because of purported "huffing"(link). How many of us sat in art class and 'smelled' the markers because of an interesting odor? We had no real intention of getting high, actually quite the opposite, the smell was just different and 'weird'. Same thing goes for...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ Congress, after finally getting enough heat from constituents, is calling on representatives from the five largest U.S. oil companies to Capitol Hill to answer a few questions. It seems that while posting record profits each quarter (in the tens of billions of dollars), the companies still find it necessary to vehemently fight to retain billion-dollar government tax breaks. With President Bush threatening to veto any legislation that may bring to an end to this form of corporate welfare,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ In recent years it appears that the United Nations is actively campaigning against the right to free speech set forth by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) adopted in 1948 by the U.N. General Assembly. It almost seems as if the current U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon would like to see Article 19 revised and the definition of "free expression" to only include speech that will not offend the much too fragile doctrines, and sensibilities of religious zealots. With the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

~ In a bit of humorous news this morning I ran across an article about two men from Hawaii that have filed a lawsuit (link) against U.S. Department of Energy, Fermilab, the National Science Foundation and CERN claiming the Large Hadron Collider built on the border between France and Switzerland is a "doomsday machine". Whenever mankind appears to be on the verge of learning something fundamental about the nature of the universe the naysayers come out of the woodwork. I think this suit should...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]