Kasey looks at camera

Kasey looks at camera
Originally uploaded by MDH, II.

Kasey, aka Houdini loves to escape from her prison yard. She was out Sunday (July 9, 2006) and saw the folks on their way to church. According to the folks, she looked happy and seemed to recognize them as they drove by.

Ha ha, grinned the escapee as she wandered still more.

Italy wins France loses

Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a d***! I would like to say that had this been US football ... timeouts -- challenge and yadda yadda yadda would have meant 2 minutes extra before they announced the same verdict.

I don't like France's government's stances on many things, but hold no hostility toward athetes or citizens. This being said, if a country spends much of its time voicing that it doesn't like another country -- well, chances are some error is within. Much of France refuses to have a Christmas tree -- a Germanic English King's tradion, but anything Germanic is bad, as they had the tamerity to invade France twice, supplemented by Belgum's non-interference stance. "Pork away pal!"


Since German was a nice wall between Communist Russia and France, I would have thought that France would have admired Germany for putting up with the wall, good fences make good neighbors (HA)!

Anyway ... soccer -- long, slow, not the best spectator sport, much like darts, pool, poker, dominoes, golf, bowling ... either you're playing them or you're not. They aren't really fun to watch. Let's examine baseball.

There's a 7th inning stretch to remind you that you haven't fallen asleep at home. I could not sit through a whole baseball game. Hours, hours, hours ... 4th inning? Hours, hours, hours, 2 more innings.... They sell a lot of food and drink because it's hot, it's a long game, it moves at slug speed. Fights are appreciated sometimes because you find that your eyes aren't on pause.

What you get

is sometimes what you plant. I was -- yeuck -- weeding today. I like roses and some other plants. I discovered that clover is ridiculously common.

When birds eat millet and sunflower seeds, you get the same, every-frigging-where. Sunflower plants, millet, ivy --- what a mess. Do you know why people pay gardeners? They pay gardeners because it is an unlikable job.

Impacts some, but not me

makes marks of fatalities during Iraq war. If you watch the simulation, dots mark on days 3+years worth, ending on May 22, 2006 -- obviously a little out of date. Intriguing here are months of greater fatalities: Spring and Fall months show greater levels. Looking at the map, one would wonder why there are faltalities in Kuwait. If this is so, it would stand to reason that these are all fatalities and some non-combatant related. I guess this is to enrage or engage those already in a mindset against the war. I'm not happy with it, nor what seems to be a slow progress, but this doesn't influence me to go on a soap box protesting the war.

I'm never given a clear understanding of how it is there, as there are no impartial news agencies. I suspect that it's difficult, but that there is progress. Most of the US troops don't speak Farsi, so I believe that there is a language barrier as well as the clear culture barrier. The war effort there is halting, with still struggles to put down those attacking police and infastructure. I can only guess that for some, the US (or unified troops) are met with mixed emtions, happy that one regime is done, but worried about imperialism -- all too common in the 20th century. I think, naturally with doubt, the question is: will things be better?

With that doubt ... you aren't sure whether to accept the change, the liberation and help put down the distractors, or should you hedge your bet and let the unified troops work and let the "insurgant" force do damage as well. It certainly won't be a fast transition. The number of fatalities, as MR will undoubtedly note, are small and lower than any other previous large-scale military commitment that has been seen before. While these are the case, the US citizens are still on the fence on the war, in that they aren't spitting on soldiers, they mostly aren't picketing the Bush residences or ranches; but aren't making any action really.

Congress approved of it, then when things went sour -- backpeddled like circus clowns trying to deny they were there, their tire tracks (signing of papers) belied their claims. The media has two camps, one for, one against, but most somewhere in the middle, hoping to get out quickly, not admitting any fault, but egear to take credit.

I find it interesting only, that sentiment can be shown in the way that while underemployment has increased, the number of recruits into the armed forces isn't off-setting the number of persons dislocated by company shifts (manufacturing -- GM, Ford; communication -- AT&T, Worldcom; Energy -- Enron). Instead of jumping into benefits of US military -- now you can recruit up to age 42, they prefer to "stay here and not get involved"*

If they want people to join the military, I think that, while the assumption of seeing combat is daunting, I think the greater worry is what do you get when you sign up for it? Do you get a nice package that can be rolled over into a 401K or no load IRA with competent advice? Will you get medical or other assistance upon completion and discharge? Do you get slush money, so when you're done, you can buy a house and do whatever you want without having to worry about them calling, saying ... uh, could you come back for another few weeks (months) ... gee, we're sorry that it's lasting longer than we said.

If you read paragraph 435, section AB2, clause 3; you'll note there was not defined money for this portion of discharge, so that no dollar figure was mentioned, there is a process time of disolution of time-equity of time served, with apportioned budgetary numbers posted threes after fiscal year, influenced by rank and time period to achieve... ergo: you ain't gettin' your money now -- don't call us, we'll call you. Thanks for playing!

* Star Wars, New Hope (supposedly said of Aniken Skywalker -- baldface lie; expected statement of Uncle Owen who might have remembered Aniken's tenative psychological breakdown -- later becoming Darth Vader)

Followers Chart

I never knew, until I read this courtesy of I-am-bored.com, that there were some Norse gods still being worshiped. Now, I know that I the flat-Earthers are small in number, but this Norse-gods thing is larger than I thought. I also found the compounded list a bit light ... including some affiliations with < 500,000 members. I suppose that some of the other societies/groups are either selectively secret or too difficult to research. There were, of course, the branch-Davidians and other Neo-Nazi mostly-atheists, Whicka, and yet others.

Of the list ... bar none; the scientologists are indubidably the wackest and extreme. If you haven't read Dianetics, do. It is an interesting read for a while. Until you actually process the words that you're reading, like fetal feelings (4 months in womb) can cause lifelong trauma unless otherwise addressed. Okay. How would you discover that it happened in the womb, what it was and why you felt that way. I suppose conventional psycho-therapy would work, but uh ... I'm not buying it.

I suppose ... yes, there are wackier groups, but this would has wonderful showcase individuals that make them look nice and crazy like, John Travolta, Tom Cruise, that brought to light the beyond-bizzare rituals inherent in the system. Help, help, Katie's being oppressed!

unlike the comics

What Jimmy Johnson from Arlo and Janis writes, I believe that it takes more than a week to finish up with people's joy of blowing up air for noise.*

I hear them in the morning, evening, afternoon, noon, night ... last night was a 8 minute "finale'" as it were, with mid-range clusters with no quiet periods between firings. Please, please, please ... just take a break from them ... a week off. Armistice week or something!



* cartoon from July 9, 2006 No offense intended to Jimmy Johnson, only that one week is wishful thinking