Small town life . . . enough to make a shy, bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder
Mo'nonymous on Strange newsThe Eure...
Mo'nonymous on The reasonfor the se...
today
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
Ask Questions for God
at the Blue Pyramid.
| PARENTAL |
| ADVISORY |
| CEMETERYGATES CONTAINS EXPLICIT LYRICS |
visited *loading* times
It's sort of like a roller coaster.
Weather
is what we've been doing. All kinds of cool satellite stuff here.
The Eel River at over 24 feet at about 2:00 this afternoon. Flood stage is 20 feet. This is from Fernbridge. You can see where it's gone over the bank into the fields on the right side between the two stands of trees. The water was moving fast, with lots of huge trees in it.
More bank-to-bank water.
Coming down off of Fernbridge, the river is over the bank on this side, almost up to the road.
The photographer.
Caltrans closed the bridge at about 3:00 this afternoon.
Brill
Howard Dean, George Soros et al. plan the War on Xmas.
Cash in hand
The kids and I went to see Harry Potter last week. When we were all buying our snacks, I asked my son if he had enough money to pay for his. "No problem, Mom. I've got more dollar bills than a stripper."
P.S. We all enjoyed the movie and we all agreed that Moody looked nothing like what we had imagined.
The real reason for the season
OK, this isn't as good Festivus, since there is no Airing of Grievances ceremony, but it's still highly amusing. Chrismukkah. The Yarmuclaus fashion show is lovely.
Everyone looks better at closing time
Scientists come up with a formula for the beer goggles effect. It's not just about the amount of alcohol.
Out of the mouths of . . .
Solvij told me this morning that Madonna "sure can move fast for an old person."
Bibliobibuli
A fable for book lovers. Reading Happily Ever After.
Via Accidental Blogger.
Outfitting the Merry Christmas soldados
A must-have accoutrement. And cheap too! "PROUDLY proclaim The Christ Child as the center of the Christmas Season once again" by buying stuff. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Requiascant in pace
Richard Pryor. Eugene McCarthy (great photo of McCarthy there).
Pregnant?
Paxil might not be such a hot idea.
via Suburban Guerilla.
Traitors to the cause
Updating this post, President and Mrs. Bush participate, I mean actually participate, in a menorah-lighting ceremony. There are actual photos of the whole sordid thing.
But is he related to Guy Noir?
Victor Noir.
Get your war on
Your Christmas war. Borrowing a strategy from the John Birch Society, the religious right is waging a war on the secularization of Christmas.
In 1959, the recently formed John Birch Society issued an urgent alert: Christmas was under attack. In a JBS pamphlet titled "THERE GOES CHRISTMAS?!," a writer named Hubert Kregeloh warned, "One of the techniques now being applied by the Reds to weaken the pillar of religion in our country is the drive to take Christ out of Christmas -- to denude the event of its religious meaning." The central front in this perfidious assault was American department stores, where the "Godless UN" was scheming to replace religious decorations with internationalist celebrations of universal brotherhood.
Jerry Falwell, the Liberty Counsel, and the Alliance Defense Fund have launched the "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign."
In signing on to "Friend or Foe" this month, Falwell urged the 500,000 recipients of his weekly "Falwell Confidential" e-mail to "draw a line in the sand and resist bullying tactics of the ACLU and others who intimidate school and government officials by spreading misinformation about Christmas."
The goal of the War? To make sure that folks know they're constitutionally permitted to put the Christ back into Christmas. Their methods? Spies, threats, boycotts, and lawsuits. Their reasoning? According to Tim Wildmon of the of the American Family Association, majority rules when it comes to religion in public places. " If someone is upset by that, well, they should know that they are living in a predominantly Christian nation."
Ironically, a huge focus of the campaign is on putting Christ back into our shopping experience. Also ironically, the folks crying out about the loss of the spirit of Christmas need a bit of a history lesson.
The Puritans considered Christmas un-Christian, and hoped to keep it out of America. They could not find Dec. 25 in the Bible, their sole source of religious guidance, and insisted that the date derived from Saturnalia, the Roman heathens' wintertime celebration. On their first Dec. 25 in the New World, in 1620, the Puritans worked on building projects and ostentatiously ignored the holiday. From 1659 to 1681 Massachusetts went further, making celebrating Christmas "by forbearing of labor, feasting or in any other way" a crime.
The concern that Christmas distracted from religious piety continued even after Puritanism waned. In 1827, an Episcopal bishop lamented that the Devil had stolen Christmas "and converted it into a day of worldly festivity, shooting and swearing." Throughout the 1800's, many religious leaders were still trying to hold the line. As late as 1855, New York newspapers reported that Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist churches were closed on Dec. 25 because "they do not accept the day as a Holy One." On the eve of the Civil War, Christmas was recognized in just 18 states.
Bill O'Reilly, of course, is a soldier in this war again this year. It's pretty funny, though, that he hasn't abided by his own exhortations.
Even the White House is not exempt from inconsistency, failing to print "Merry Christmas" on its Christmas cards. And that's driving some conservatives wild.
Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."
Other folks, however, have their priorities straight about the White House's faux pas.
That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. "I think it's more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas cards," said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman.
A response from one of those folks who killed Jesus:
Do not be drinking a beverage if you
open this. TBogg = ultimate snark.
Too bad they aren't Jesus' General's girls.
The proper way to celebrate the holidays
Buy this.
Boys gone wild
Cologne is being confiscated.
Some boys have been dousing themselves in Axe, apparently believing commercials that show a young man applying the cologne and being immediately hit on by beautiful women.
Unfortunately for the boys, they're not getting the sort of reaction they might have expected.
This will go down on your permanent record.
Holiday shopping
for Catholics.
Plus ça change
A bit of an article about expanding Athenian democracy:
