8 Minutes On High

President can declare you an enemy combatant, and eliminate your Habeas Corpus rights

October 31st, 2006 by Max

Just thought that bore repeating!

Religious Beliefsl Part I

October 29th, 2006 by Max

What do Muslims believe? Do they want to kill all the non believers? I hear there is something like that in the Quran. What does it say? I don’t hear much official from Muslim officials. Now I know there are serious differences between Shiites and Sunni. I have some knowledge that the difference – the split – comes with who will succeed the Prophet.

We should have this explained.

By someone. Who knows.

I heard a note on NPR today about the veil on Muslim women. What does it imply? And the turban?

IF that means that they hate me, I should know this. Might be helpful to me. I don’t hate them. I think they’re wrong, but then I don’t put much stock in religous leaders period.

I would like to know if something obvious like a Buerka (spelling?) or a Turban means this person hates me. That knowledge would be useful to me.

Now here’s the thing.

If that image, that garb, those clothes don’t mean that, then I should know that too.

Moreover, there are 1.2 Billion Muslims in the world. Millions in this country. There have been no terrorist attacks in this country since 9/11.

Millions of Muslims in this country.

I suspect, that even with George Bush putting people in secret prisons all over the world, if many of the millions of Muslims in this country hated us SO much, something would have blown up in the last 5 years.

My guess is most of them, like most people everywhere, don’t want much more than to live their lives, raise their kids, and be relatively safe.

But I’d rather not guess.

I’d like to know what they think!

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Religious Beliefs Part II

October 29th, 2006 by Max

I saw a bumper sticker tonight. No Jesus. No Peace. Know Jesus. Know Peace.

Ok Fair enough. Jesus was for peace. If we all behaved like Jesus we’d have peace.

What I wonder about is the religious believers who want peace, and who voted for George Bush because he was a believer in Jesus. Then, George Bush started two wars. I’ll give him the War in Afghanistan. But the War in Iraq was George’s own war. He started it. He lied about it (which is another thing followers of Jesus aren’t supposed to do).

How can any Conservative Christian vote for George Bush (and by proxy his minions in the Congress)?

Someday we’ll have to talk about George Orwell and doublespeak and War for Peace and all that, but right now what I want to know is how can ANY follower of Jesus vote Republican?

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This week

October 27th, 2006 by Max

This week was another big week for me. Maybe nothing earth shattering, but a week where I was stressed at the beginning.

Tuesday we had the big meeting. Tom, Mike and I found out that we were going to be re-admitted to the MeadWestvaco family. Sentiment aside, that makes things clear. Not better. Just known. Having Kristi stay as our boss makes my life better. So things are settled at work. Almost. Benefits are still up in the air.

I took the cats to get fixed, shot, d-wormed, d-flea’d. Travel was tough. Now its done. They don’t have to go out any more. Me and the cats.

Its sad. But its settled.

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Sympathy for the Yankees Pt I

October 22nd, 2006 by Max

Kenny Rodgers Post Season Record for the Yankees

1996

New York Yankees

0

14.14

4

3

0

—

7.0

15

11

2

—

6

4

Jeff Weaver

	2002		New York Yankees		0		0		6.75		2		0		0		0		0		0		2.2		4		2		2		0		1		3		1
	2003		New York Yankees		0		1		9.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		1.0		1		1		1		1		0		0		0

“I hate the Yankees because they can buy all the good players.” A lot of people talk like this and I even fell victim to guilt, because of this kind of thinking.

Then it dawned on me.

Kevin Brown
Carl Pavano
Doyle Alexander
Jose Contreras 5.64 2004
Octavio Dotel
Kyle Farnsworth 6 of 10 save opportunities successful in 2006. 3W – 6L
Ken Holtzman Remember him? 5.78 in 1977
Hideki Irabu – Remember Hideki I Rob U? 7.09
Randy Johnson ERA 5.00 2006
Tim Leary
Mike Mussina. What? Mike Mussina? But he’s pitched pretty well for the Yankees. Except he’s 1 – 2 with a 5.30 in Post Season in 2005 – 2006. Not good enough to win.
Denny Neagle
Kenny Rodgers
Ed Whitson 7.54 1986
Jaret Wright

These are just pitchers.

Yes, the Yankees buy a lot of good talent, but its so hard to pitch in New York that many talented players just fail.

I don’t know who to root against in Sunday night’s game. Weaver was woeful, but Kenny Rodgers was woeful until he pitched in the playoffs against the Yankees. Then he was great!

Neither one could pitch in New York. Now one of them comes off the scrap heap to win the World Series.

I don’t care … but don’t tell me how easy it is for the Yankees to win. Its easy to buy good talent, but its hard to win in New York.

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GW is the worst.

October 14th, 2006 by Max

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history

http://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/The_Worst_President.html

This next one is over 3 years old!!!
http://www.billpress.com/books/bushmustgo_main.html

George W. Bush
January 8, 2003

Publication Date: June 15th

Reason #1 –-The War In Iraq: He Misled Our Nation Into War

Reason #2 – The War on Terror: He Made Us Less Safe from Terrorism

Reason #3 – Jobs: He Put 3 Million Americans Out of Work

Reason #4 – The Deficit: He Spent Money Like a Drunken Sailor

Reason #5 – The Patriot Act: He Undermined Our Most Basic Freedoms

Reason #6 – Crony Capitalism: He Sold America Out to Special Interests

Reason #7 – Foreign Policy: He Ruined America’s Standing in the World

Reason #8 – The Environment: He’s the Worst President Ever

Reason #9 – Broken Promises: He’s a Divider, Not a Uniter

Reason #10 – The Credibility Gap: He Never Tells the Truth

Bonus Reason – Florida: He Stole the 2000 Election

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090700104_pf.html

http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/28053

Here’s one aspect in which Bush is monumentally worse than Reagan, Nixon, or Bush 41: Talk to any senior career official in the Justice Department, EPA, Interior, HHS, etc., and they will tell you that through however many administrations they served under, they basically did their jobs as the law required them to do. They might have had conflicts with the White House, they might have lost big policy fights, but on the day to day questions of what cases to investigate or how to enforce existing law, they were free to do their jobs. That is manifestly not the case any more, with implications for science, civil rights, election law, and many other fields.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=george+bush