Moving: Day Two

OK, so I'm a day late and a dollar short. The rest was necessary and most welcome.

Thursday’s itinerary turned out to be easier than Wednesday's. Three friends arrived within 15 minutes of one another. After coffee and light conversation about the world’s problems, hatches and trunks were opened and the loading up began.

The fabulous (and I do mean fabulous) four made quick work of the boxes and a few more pieces of furniture that miraculously fit into the vehicles. Even a large and rather bulky CD/DVD cabinet made the trip. When our caravan arrived at the new place we found my new roomie cutting new carpet on the driveway, so we waited, watching as he nervously “measured twice and cut once” then he put the dogs and cats in his room so we could keep the door open. What a blessing that was.

The unloading went much faster this time and roomie was there to tell us where to put the furniture. He had rearranged the pieces brought over on Wednesday and, I must say, it all looks good in his place.

We were finished by lunchtime, and after playing with roomie’s two dogs for a while everyone dispersed to run whatever errands they had. I am grateful for their help. I didn’t know how I was going to do this by myself. I am blessed. Really.

I had various lists from which to choose; everything from making another trip with more clothing, picking up odds and ends, groceries, hardware, more boxes, and work.

I managed to get through 2 lists before giving in to fatigue. My brain just didn’t function anymore.

How tired was he, Johnny? Well, forgetting that the flatware was already at the new place, I reached for the plastic dinnerware ( I call it the crystal dinnerware - it's more A-List gay that way) only to find there were no forks left – plenty of knives and spoons – not one fork. After briefly toying with the idea of eating dinner with a spoon, or going out somewhere, I was too tired and decided to make a run to the store for a small box of plastic forks.

Upon my return I misjudged entry to the garage and the side mirror snagged the freezer door and opened it briefly as I backed out to try again. Something fell off the freezer when the door opened but I knew not what. I quickly found out…it was the brand new gallon of auto coolant I had just purchased, its top had busted on impact and coolant was leaking all over the floor of the garage. Two rolls of paper towels later...

All that for a fucking fork.

Today was easy by comparison; CoA to the post office, drop off recyclables, visit the bank, stop by work for boxes, and a short trip to the grocery store. More sorting and tossing than packing today and streaming NPR as I do some web work and write this piece of craziness. That’s as it should be.

It’s been quite a surprising week. Now it’s cocktail time. Cheers!

More later.

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Moving: Is There A Doctor in the House?

There are aches and pains in places I didn’t know existed. Or, at least forgot existed. OK, so I’m old.

The phone began to ring at about 8:30 yesterday morning. It rang again a few minutes later, and then again within a half hour. The first two were on their way and ready to help move boxes containing my life to the new place. The third called to say that they’d be here in the afternoon to pick up the slack…or me.

Fortunately, the morning duo had vehicles with lots of storage space and it was quickly determined that much more than boxes would be moved that day. We loaded up and made our way to the new place.

Problem: there are two cats loose in the house. Meaning, we cannot hold the door open as we transfer our loads to the various places throughout the house. It had to be one-at-a-time. Oy!

After that first trip the imagination kicked in (not mine, my brain is singed) and one friend suggested that we could take on more than just boxes….his cape flowing in the wind.

So, we began to measure and organize small pieces of furniture and stuffed the caverns of our cars with more boxes and the furnishings as well. I was huffing, and impressed.

One friend was done for the day. Not physically, but had an afternoon appointment in another town and had to leave us. So, my organizational genius and I put our two vehicles to the test one more time and transported items for the kitchen and bath. He left to run a few errands and get ready for an evening dinner out with the guys. I would not be attending.

When I returned I found a message waiting from the third caller (see above) who was on his way over to help. Frantically, I packed more boxes and measured a couple of chairs to find out if they would fit in my car. They would. But maybe not both.

Having just returned from a job interview, my friend arrives in dress clothes. Not to worry, he takes off the tie, loosens his collar, and digs in. Amazing.

We succeed in getting both chairs into my car, with his back seats down (he has a Forrester) his car takes almost all of the remaining boxes. I take what's left.

Now a pro at taking back roads to get to the new digs, I caravan with him and we (again) have to deal with two insurgent kitties. When we are done, he heads home to get ready for the same evening out with the guys – I will not be attending.

All said they would call in the morning to see what they could do… I was so tired.

I see Bengay in my future.

Asked out to dinner by a friend. Grace! Facing any kind of cooking machinery would have driven me over the edge at that point. It was a great time; I had a martini, and as my shoulders finally began to relax, I reviewed the day and laughed and shared stories that I had not really noticed earlier in the day.

NOTE: This was to be posted last evening. Sorry.

If I can still move I will post about today. Not as riveting as this post but, interesting nonetheless.

More later.

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September 11 Messenger's Bag: Fascinating!

This amazing piece is from Esquire Magazine and is written by the owner of the bag. Just amazing how the Bushies politicized even the air quality to get what they wanted.

Thomas Cahill squirms in his swivel chair. He's wearing a green-and-red wool sweater covered with pills, eyeing the white garbage bag on the battered metal desk. FedEx delivered the bag last week. Cahill is impatient as the photographer documents everything: the bag, the dust-collection machine, Cahill himself. Staring at the bag with a glint, the broad, six-foot former high school tackle looks like a kid who can't wait for his parents to stop snapping pictures of him near the tree on Christmas morning.

For Cahill--for a lot of people, actually, although they don't know it yet--this bag holds a lot of answers. It has been sealed shut for more than five years, and you should have heard the excitement in Cahill's voice when he found out it existed.

Man, five years. That long?

"Are we ready yet?"

He is sixty-nine years old. In the four decades he has taught physics and conducted air-quality research here at the University of California at Davis, Cahill has seen a lot. Five years ago, he stood near the burning, pissing rubble at ground zero for weeks, taking samples, testing, telling people the air wasn't as safe as the government said it was. To the Environmental Protection Agency, and even to the president, he became a pest, a role of which he is proud.

Today, though, today is different. "This is so exciting," he says to me, actually rubbing his hands together. "We have no other samples from September 11 except your backpack. It will give us a snapshot of what people were actually breathing, which will help the doctors enormously in knowing what to treat." He told me this over the phone, before I arrived from New York to witness the opening. Now, even with me standing there, one of the people who breathed in whatever he's about to discover, he repeats it. Exuberantly. "I'm sorry for you," he says, and he means it. "But I'm also delighted!"

My black messenger bag, which is inside the white plastic blob on the metal table, is Cahill's holy grail. When Esquire called, told him I had kept it in my closet for the last five years, and asked him to test it for toxins, Cahill was stunned. Thousands of tons of debris blew through downtown Manhattan as each of the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11, but no one--not the city, not a lab at nearby NYU, not the EPA--seems to have any primary evidence from inside the plume itself. A heavy rainstorm on September 14 rinsed much of the floating debris from the air, and the city was already hastily sweeping the streets and scrubbing the buildings in a mad scramble for normalcy. Scientists hadn't even arrived on the scene. (Before the bag, the closest Cahill had ever come to finding a primary source was an air filter on an office desk, but the debris had fused to the filter and was too difficult to measure.) What the rains didn't clear was quickly contaminated by the stinky diesel trucks rolling in and out of ground zero and the chemical fire raging a few stories below the street. By the time the EPA began telling people the downtown air was safe, three days after September 11, any chance of isolating exactly what happened in the initial moments of the disaster--what was in the clouds that engulfed more than five thousand people, including me, in a matter of seconds--was presumed lost.

Why did I preserve my bag that day? I can't say. I had just seen a building that took six years and eight months to build aerate in twelve seconds. I wasn't really thinking, just doing. I had walked the twenty blocks to my apartment among the cavalcade of refugees heading uptown, all of us looking like pale, disentombed corpses spreading out among the living. Once home, I stripped, then showered, but my skin still itched, as if someone had switched my cotton towels with pink fiberglass insulation. I threw my khakis and sneakers away--no way the lady at the wash-and-fold was going to touch those. But not my Manhattan Portage messenger bag.

GO! Read the whole piece HERE. This is important information.

More later.
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Boxes and Paper and Tape. Oh, My!

While not up to my ass in boxes last week, I am now.

Every day this week before and after work, and on days off I have packed two, three, six boxes and there are more empty ones scattered about the house as I attempt to find the right size box for the right stuff. Bathroom, Kitchen, clothing, books, CDs, and, well, you get the idea.

After working 10 hours yesterday, I came back to the house and packed well into the night. I slept in this morning, and decided not to attend church services, but do more packing instead.

I finally see that I am making headway in the process.

I’ve used the big boxes for the light things, bed linens, towels, blankets, etc., and because of my shoulder and hands, I cannot pack anything too heavy in large boxes. While a number of folks have offered to help with the move, I take no chances that something will come up at the last minute forcing them to cancel. I am not going to pack the clothes in the closet. I’ll leave them on hangers, bunch them into groups, tie them together with twist ties, and lay them flat on the floor of the cargo area of the car for the short ride to the new place and just hang them in their new closet.

I’ve filled two more trash bags with junk that I somehow couldn’t live without a few months ago. Thankfully, tomorrow is trash pick up day.

The plan is to begin taking clothes over this afternoon so I can present the first month’s rent check. Yes, well, that’s the plan. Depends on how tired – and sore – I am when I stop the packing and have taken a hot shower…

More later.

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Gen. Pace Smackdown: Miami Herald

Don't ask this general about morality

By LEONARD PITTS JR.

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.”

-- Gen. PETER PACE, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

In other words, it's wrong because it's wrong.

Boil down Gen. Pace's controversial comments in a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune to their essence, and that's what you get. Bypass intellect, detour around critical reasoning, and there you are: wrong because it's wrong. No other explanation necessary.

That, says the general, is why he opposes repeal of the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy. He doesn't want homosexuals to serve openly -- they already serve clandestinely -- in the armed forces.

People like the general -- in other words, bigots -- often wrap up their objections in claims of fundamental right and wrong where sexual orientation is concerned: I have a moral objection to homosexuality, they will say, loftily.

I've always thought ''visceral'' would be a better and truer adjective. As in, a gut-level objection to people of the same sex engaging in physical or emotional intimacy.

Read the rest HERE.

More later

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KATRINA: CORPS GUILTY, AGAIN & AGAIN

This from Harry Shearer at HuffPo:

LONDON--A search of Google News shows this story hasn't penetrated beyond the Louisiana border...yet, but today's Times-Picayune reports that Team Louisiana, the ambitious investigation of the flooding that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has released its findings. No surprise, except to those who still believe what happened to New Orleans was a natural disaster: the report catalogues a series of mishaps, poor decisions and other mistakes by the United States Army Corps of Engineers that caused the disaster. And New Orleans City Business, hardly a haven for hotheads, tees off on the Corps' decision knowingly to install faulty pumps in time for last year's hurricane season.

This will be a big story one day, when the Washington Post or New York Times discover it.

unbe-fucking-lieveable!

more later

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Fighting the Fight, but oh so tired...

And then I found this. I feel much better now. OK, so indulge me. Jeez! Just watch and tell me you weren't moved. Simon and Garfunkel in concert. Come on, I dare ya!



If the embed doesn't appear,Please Go Here:

I guess I'm feeling sorry for myself tonight. Overwhelmed by the sorting, packing, organizing, discarding, and the sense of loss.

Really, I'll be fine. No really, I will. It's just that I worked an eleven hour day today and my brain is the consistency of yogurt. Wanna see? I couldn't bring myself to pack one box tonight. I needed a rest.

Enjoy.

More later.

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April First!

Palm Sunday this year is to be move-in day for me to the new place. At least that’s what I’m shooting for right now. My new roommate stopped by yesterday with a key and we discussed whether he could accommodate the few furnishings I wanted to bring along. Turns out he can since he is getting rid of some things in the living room and my things will fit in nicely. Great! I think we’ll get along just fine, but one never knows until one lives together.

I will begin to take boxes over beginning on the 26^th so that everything isn’t a huge rush at the last minute.

Two friends brought more boxes to me this week and I spent Wednesday and Thursday packing up and throwing away. Two others have offered to help move the boxes, but I will have to find someone with a truck to move the bedroom furniture.

I never have liked moving, but this is one way to lighten my load and remove myself from things of the past. And that is a good thing.

More later.

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Personal Mid-week Update

Sophie Tucker (and thanks to Bette Midler for keeping her legacy alive) is rumored to have said during a power outage at some theatre, “somebody help me, I am up to my ass in midgets." Just try to visualize it.

Well, though I am not quite ‘up to my ass’ in them, boxes are getting packed; albeit slowly since there may still be house showings. But, to hell with it, I have to get on and get out and move on. I have taken 7 boxes of books to the library, 3 bags of clothes to the thrift shop – with more to follow – and thrown away all those old tee shirts depicting the magical times of which we were a part and had to keep to remind ourselves. Stonewall 25, Evita, Earth Day, AIDS Walk 93, etc. You get the idea.

I was supposed to have a meeting with my future “roomie” this evening, but I guess he had to work late and was too tired, so was a no-show. It’s OK; I told him it was no big deal if it was tonight or tomorrow night. I’ll still be here packing and sealing boxes. The tough part of all this is where to start? Where to start with 30 years of memories? I will tell you the secret when I discover it.

I am hoping to be out of here and in the new digs by the beginning of April. I have always disliked moving because of all the hassles entailed. But, there is nothing for it.

The change of address. The new ISP. The slow process of adjusting to a new environment. I mean, I haven’t had a roommate in almost 40 years. Yes, major adjustments.

A number of friends have offered to help with the move, which is a godsend. So, it’s all good.

I received a call from a childhood friend telling me to keep my sense of humor. Well, that’s about all I am keeping and it is what has kept me sane, well, semi-sane through all this. Hell, I laugh at myself just about every 10 minutes and that’s got to be worth something.

If you don’t know the background of this soon-to-be-ended saga, and for some bizarre reason you’re curious, just leave your email address and a comment and I will send you the link. Your email address will not be published with your comment.

More later.

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ACT-UP: 20 Years Old

"ACT UP is the most successful grass roots organization that ever lived. Period. There never was, never has been one more successful that has achieved as much as we. We did it before. We can do it again. But to be successful, activism must be practiced every day. By a lot of people. It made us proud once. It united us." – Larry Kramer, Author, GMHC and ACT-UP co-founder. March 13, 2007

Here’s another tidbit:

The life expectancy after infection by HIV is now thirty-five years. Thirty-five years. Can you imagine that? That is because of ACT UP. A bunch of kids who learned how to launch street actions and release a propaganda machine and manipulate media masterfully, and use naked coercion, occasional litigations, and adept behind-the-scenes maneuverings that led to sweeping institutional changes with vast ramifications. We drove the creation of hundreds of AIDS service organizations across the country, leveraging hundreds of millions of dollars a year and fielding tens of thousands of volunteers, all the while amassing a huge body of clinical expertise and moral authority unprecedented among any group of patients and advocates in medical history.

We did all this. And we got all those drugs. The NIH didn’t get all those drugs. The FDA didn’t get all those drugs. We got all those drugs. And we rammed them down their fucking throats until they approved them and released them.

It was very useful, old ACT UP.

It is no longer useful. The old ACT UP is no longer useful enough. There are not enough of us. Few people go to meetings. Our chapters have evaporated. Our voice has dimmed in its volume and its luster. Our protests are no longer heard.

We must be heard! We must be.

Go and read the full speech over at Towleroad.

More later.
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According to Gen. Pace: I'm Immoral

“I ….AM IMMORAL, MY FRIENDS.” (Channeling Queen "We are the Champions" here – which I think is quite appropriate.) My caption for this photo is "my pee-pee is only this big, so none of the gay guys hit on me."

OK, so add your own caption in comments.

To Gen. Pace and others, it appears I possess such incredible, magical powers to force people to accept diversity, you know, those who are different, like an X-Man! Oh, wait…that’s the subplot of the series, isn’t it? Hmmm!

The mere presence of an openly gay/lesbian service person would, according to conventional wingnut propaganda, disrupt unity and morale – not to mention send the moronic, IQ challenged, gun-loving, closeted, redneck homophobes screeching into the desert . (Oh, please, you have bad breath and few teeth; we’re just not that into you.

I really don’t get it. Gay people have always fought for this country – and DIED for the freedoms we, GLBT people are still denied. They did so silently, closeted and at great personal sacrifice...like living a double life. Try it sometime.

So, today Gen. Pace is saying he shouldn’t have been so vocal about his “personal moral views” and I would disagree. The reason that DADT is with us is precisely because of homophobic views like his:

In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays _ and "less on my personal moral views."
He did not offer an apology, something that had been demanded by gay rights groups.

Well General, thanks for not apologizing, even though you know that there are thousands of gay men and lesbians fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many of the almost 4 thousand killed in this “operation” were, in fact, gay and lesbian.

As Sgt. Eric Alva (ret.) writes for the HRC:

It’s this kind of blind prejudice against the estimated thousands of gay and lesbian military personnel that defend our nation each and every day that is truly immoral.
In fact, Sen. John Warner, R-VA., ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a statement today opposing Gen. Pace's comments. "I respectfully, but strongly disagree with the chairman's view that homosexuality is immoral," Warner said.

Shouldn’t the skills and talents of the personnel be taken into account when protecting our country and our freedoms? So, the military’s witch hunt and purge of virtually all the Arabic and Korean translators, making the US more vulnerable to attack than before 9/11, makes perfect sense to you?

Oh General, you are just another short-sighted bigot, and no, don't keep your personal bigotry to yourself. America needs this information because I have friends who are at this very moment putting their lives on the line for this country and right now, they are nothing more than cannon fodder. And for you, a pious dickhead, to spew this shit really pisses me off.

And I say, bring the troops home – not in body bags. You sir, do not deserve to touch the hem of their uniforms. General Pace, YOU are immoral!

Lift the fucking ban, already.

More later.

UPDATE: This isn't going away. Nathaniel Frank has a good follow-up post up HERE.
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Fox Not Up To Debate Standards.

Some clues as to why the Nevada Democratic Caucus pulled out of Fox “News'” proposed hosting of a Democratic Presidential debate: Well, the captions say it all. They are all wrong or misguided, or totally fucking nuts. Oh, Never mind...



They are consistent, if nothing else. Nothing...else! Thanks to Jurassicpork for putting this together. A job well done. See the rest here.

Thanks skippy!

Mr. skippy the bush kangaroo, a site I read daily, posted a "say hello" link to readers of his blog to visit this one. How he found it, I haven't a clue. I had been working on it for a few days and it certainly wasn't ready-for-primetime (still isn't) but I welcome any and all of skippy's readers who visit.

There ain't much here at the moment - being only 4 days old I'm still moving things in and arranging the furniture - but there will be in the near future. So, stay a spell is you want to, have a beverage, and make yourself t'home. Leave a comment if you like (or not) what you see here.

More later.

Lift The Ban!

This powerful video on YouTube was produced by SLDN (Servicemembers Legal Defense Network). Watch it and then help lift the ban.




As Stephen Colbert said recently, the number of service members kicked out under "Don't Ask. Don't Tell" adds up to about half a "surge" and he wasn't kidding.

More later.

CA Challenges Akinola

Why are GLBT folks so Christophobic? Maybe this is part of the problem...You think?

Changing Attitude Challenges Akinola

PRESS RELEASE
Changing Attitude England challenges Primate of All Nigeria to protect Davis Mac-Iyalla
Friday, 2 March 2007
by Colin Coward


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For immediate release

Changing Attitude England challenges the Primate of All Nigeria and CANA Bishop Martyn Minns to publicly defend Davis Mac-Iyalla

Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, has been the subject of further intimidation this week. He was visited when absent from his place of work by two men who were identified as Nigerians. They wanted to speak with Davis and withdrew when told he wasn’t there. The same morning he was telephoned on his private mobile number by a Nigerian who said ‘So you are back from your trip to Tanzania‘ and then terminated the call.

To protect himself, Mr Mac-Iyalla has withdrawn to a safe location. He believes that members of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) are increasing their intimidation of him following his presence at the Primates’ meeting in Dar Es Salaam and coinciding with progress in Nigeria on the proposed anti-gay legislation.

The threats of violence and intimidation against Mr Mac-Iyalla can only come from members of the Church of Nigeria and with the approval and encouragement of the Church. Changing Attitude believes Mr Mac-Iyalla’s presence in Tanzania has very seriously angered and disturbed the Nigerian hierarchy. He has shown publicly that the statements issued about him by the Church are totally untrue. It is the deliberate action of the Church of Nigeria, organised we believe from the centre, that is leading to these further acts of intimidation against Mr Mac-Iyalla.

The threats are having a devastating effect on the 2,000 members of Changing Attitude Nigeria in their 8 diocesan groups. They are very scared for Davis Mac-Iyalla’s safety and feel worried and intimidated themselves. The threats are having an effect which is no doubt intended by the Church to silence and ultimately eradicate their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members.

In his meeting with Mr Mac-Iyalla at the White Sands Hotel in Dar Es Salaam, Archbishop Peter Akinola confirmed that Davis is a member of the Church of Nigeria whom he had met on several occasions when Davis was serving the Bishop of Otukpo. Archbishop Akinola did not at any moment suggest that Davis was a criminal who is being sought by the church and police in Nigeria on charges of theft. The meeting was witnessed by Bishop Martyn Minns and Canons David Anderson and Chris Sugden.

Changing Attitude England and Nigeria challenge the Primate of All Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, and the CANA bishop in the USA, the Rt Revd Martyn Minns, to issue a statement denouncing those church members who are threatening violence. We ask both the Archbishop and Bishop to unreservedly demand protection for Mr Mac-Iyalla and confirm the sanctity of all human life, whatever a person’s sexual orientation, in conformity with the Lambeth Conference 1998 Resolution 1.10 and paragraph 146 of the Windsor report which states that ‘any demonising of homosexual persons, or their ill treatment, is totally against Christian charity and basic principles of pastoral care.’

The Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude England, said:

“Ii is intolerable that no Nigerian Bishop or Archbishop has issued a statement condemning the threats of violence and intimidation against Mr Mac-Iyalla. By their silence, they are tacitly showing approval for those members of the Church of Nigeria who believe they have the blessing of their church to abuse another Anglican and threaten to commit murder by drenching him in acid.”

“Both Archbishop Akinola and Bishop Martyn Minns are now implicated in the deep and destructive prejudice shown towards lesbian and gay people in Nigeria, characterised by the threats against Davis Mac-Iyalla and the Church of Nigeria‘s support for the proposed anti-gay legislation.“

“In Dar Es Salaam, in front of Canon David Anderson and Canon Chris Sugden, I asked Bishop Minns to contact Canon Akintunde Popoola and tell him to cease issuing lies and false statements about Davis. These statements have encouraged Nigerian church members to visit Mr Mac-Iyalla and threaten him with death. I have not yet received confirmation from Bishop Minns that he has done this, nor that such assurances have been given.”

“Time is now urgent. Mr Mac-Iyalla has been forced into hiding yet again. The Primatial and Episcopal leaders of the Church of Nigeria are acting with blind disregard for the safety of one of their own church members. They are deliberately supporting a bill which contravenes basic human rights and justice and renders the listening process impossible in Nigeria.”

END

Contact:
Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria
Tel. Mobile: +2348025866133
Email: davis@nigeria.changingattitude.org

Revd Colin Coward, Director of Changing Attitude England
Tel. Office: 01380 724908
Mobile: 07770 844302
email: colin@changingattitude.org

More later.

Scooter: Not a Nice Guy!

I don’t know about you, but I almost lost my lunch when I saw the video clips of the jurors from Libby’s trial saying that he should be acquitted asap because he was a “nice guy.” I suppose not knowing what he help put this country through over the last – too many – years, helped in their opinion. But, how do they then justify their unanimous verdict that he is guilty of four of the five counts against him?

Over at FireDogLake, Jane Hamsher has a little bit of history of cute little scooter and his Little Rascals.

Jane says: I don't know how this image of "cute little Scooter" got started, but I think it's important to remember that he was not only a huge neocon warmonger, but one of the architects (with David Addington) of Bush's torture policy, and as such was part of the push to quash Matthew Waxman:

Go and read the whole thing HERE.

More Later.

From Editor B

Favor

This one is for my friends and readers who don’t live here in South Louisiana.

Do me a favor. Please.

First, when you’ve got a few minutes to spare, take a look at this interactive multimedia presentation. It requires Flash and you’ll want to have your speakers turned on.

(For extra credit, you can read the three part series from the Times-Picayune.)

Then, please share that link with others.

See, it’s like this. We’ve known for a while that coastal Louisiana is disappearing at an alarming rate. But scientists are now saying we’ve got much less time than we thought. They’re saying ten years or less before the land loss becomes irreversible.

Go read the rest HERE, and like he says, share with others.

More later.

Coulter!

Just couldn't resist.


Two Words: "DOUBLE ENTENDRE"

Three words: Isn't this sad?

More later...

A Day at the Beach

Well, not quite the swimsuit-umbrella-sunscreen kinda day, but after the cold spell we’ve had these last 6 weeks, when the temps shot up to 70’ today many folks decided to hit the beach and boardwalk. Me, included. There was a strong wind, but the sky was clear and the sun bright, and no one seemed to care. I lost my hat a few times, but always managed to chase and retrieve it before it got too far.

There were families out with kids in strollers, people with their dogs, and people like me just trying to get a few delicious rays of sun and take in the ocean air.

Three black birds (I’m not sure what they were – if you know leave a note in comments) followed me for the first half hour, and then just disappeared. (I was beginning to feel like Tippi Hedren) The gulls were everywhere and screeching their delight that Thrashers was open and selling their addictive beach fries.

There were kite flyers, dads taking pictures of baby’s first beach experience, elderly couples holding hands and walking slowly down the boardwalk with smiles and a cheerful “hello” for everyone they encountered, and folks like me just grateful to get out of the house and into the sun for an hour or two.

The pictures are the fences used to protect the dunes, and one of the black birds.