Film of the Week

Series of Unfortunate Events
by Michael Dare

Frank Series works for "Unfortunate Events," a subsidiary of the CIA who specialize in "suiciding" people who oppose the status quo. After Frank slips a drug into the cocktail of a U.S. Senator who plans on voting against subsidized strip mining in Yosemite National Park, the Senator's body is found in a gay brothel, dead of an apparent heart attack. The bill is passed and half-dome is leveled to supply Halliburton with enough bauxite to arm the SUVs of all Senators who voted for the bill. The ghosts of Gary Webb, Paul Wellstone, Margie Schoedinger, John Lennon, and John F. Kennedy Jr. form a League of Super-Zombies who wreak havoc on Capital Hill.

To Make a Dadaist Poem
by Tristan Tzara

Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you are--an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.

Twenty-First (Century) Psalm

A fool is my shepherd. I shall not think. He maketh me to bog down in a quagmire. He leadeth me beside dirty water. He destroyeth my ozone. He leadeth me down paths to the extreme right, for his lobbyists' sake.

Yea, though I walk through relatively safe streets, I do fear evil (the threat level is orange), for thou hast scared me. My assault rifle comforteth me. Thou anointest my car with oil. My deficit runneth over. Thou preparest my table with fast food in the presence of my television.

Surely paranoia and resentment will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in this Empire of Fools till I die, uninsured.

- Lawrence Swan in a letter to The Nation -

Stoners of the Week

Almost 3/4 of senior citizens are for legal marijuana.

Good Shit

    "It took a 10 pound investment to build Mr. Ajibo's EcoSan, half of which was donated by WaterAid via Estamos in the form of cement and a plastic sheet. The remainder was Mr. Ajibo's contribution in the form of bamboo poles and traditional ropes he fetched from the bush to complete his latrine.
   "On completion of the EcoSan, all the human waste excreted into the pit latrine by his family and other villagers became properly managed resources that put the village on the road to sustainable food sufficiency and development. Diseases spawned by the stinking, fly-infested traditional latrines were consigned to the past.    "Harnessing the latrine compost is a simple matter. Once a hand-dug latrine is filled and soil and ash are added, it is covered for up to eight months while the family moves on to the next pit.
   "During the composting process, harmful pathogens in the faeces die off due to lack of moisture. What remains is a rich humus which is used in the fields to boost food production."
- Basildon Peta: Appeal: The revolutionary human compost that has changed the face of farming in Mozambique - 

Stupid Answers of the Week

 How does the flawed female clone come into being? If he is resurrected after he dies, wouldn't the female clone have to die before he could be resurrected as the male himself? Or does she escape the clone factory by blowing the technician and then seducing the owner of the company who is also the chief of Homeland Security, and so they try to cover their mistake by cloning him again, this time as the correct version, but now the psycho hosebeast keeps killing him. Or is it that the company has decided to capitalize on its assets by producing memoryless female clones of white males and selling them as sex slaves to Japanese and Saudi Arabian businessmen, but for some reason this one retained the kernel of her memory? 
- Jeff Crook -
  I can't Russia complicated job like this. I'm sure Illinois you every time you read it.
You broke Iraq this time.
Iran to see the war machine's next big crime.
That insect was stuck in Greece.
My glee and enthusiasm with her pushed-up cleavage was brazil.
Not even aloe can kurdistan.
- palantir -

Bahrain again? Why is it so Chile?
Following my last run-in with Champagne, I vowed never again to Taiwan on.
Iran so fast, I passed Michael Jordan.
- Rita M -

Stupid Question of the Week

Send your answers to stupidquestion@disinfotainmenttoday.com.

Christmas Poem from Hell

You've no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light's light's a slight light,
And tonight's a night that's light.
When a night's light, like tonight's light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.
- Tongue Twisters -

History Lesson from Hell

Check out this annotated list of important dates in the history of drug control in the United States.

Song of the Week

What Would I Do?
by Michael Dare

What would I do if I were me?
I'd open the curtains for all to see
I'd steady the ground while I shook the tree'
'Cause that's what I'd do if I were me

What would I do if I were me?
Yale would give me a fake degree
I'd work for the Sacramento Bee
'Cause that's what I'd do if I were me

What would I do if I were you?
Hustle my ass to Timbuktu
Listen to Blink 182
'Cause that's what I'd do if I were you

What would you do if you were me?
Live to a hundred eighty-three
Teach an Iraqi to water-ski
Yep, that's what you'd do if you were me

What would you do if you were you?
Live to a hundred eighty-two
Take back the books that are overdue
Yep, that's what you'd do if you were you

What would we do if we were them?
Change all our nephew's names to Clem
Sign a new contract with MGM
Cause that's what we'd do if we were them

What would they do if they were us?
Never go anywhere on a bus
Use the occasion to scream and cuss
Yep, that's what they'd do if they were us

What would I do if I were me?
Move to the Mediterranean Sea
and tip my hat to the bourgeoisie
'Cause that's what I'd do if I were me

Never let anyone disagree
Never appear if I can't emcee
You've got my personal guaranteeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
That's what I'd do if I were me

Quiz of the Week

Our government has decided to require a special license to publish dissident authors from countries we don't like because:

1. it's a courtesy to repress authors already repressed in their own countries.
2. the First Amendment isn't really part of the Constitution per se, which is why they call it an amendment. 
3. if the word "dissident" doesn't set off a few alarm bells, you're still living in a pre 9/11 world. Wake up. 
4. nobody better suited to evaluate the potential danger of a book than a bureaucrat working for the Federal Office of Foreign Assets Control.

- Ironic Times -

Gallery of the Week

Horror of horrors, Anna Nicole Smith turns out to be a pretty good artist.

Sophistimicated Doowacky of the Week

Get out your magic runestones and play The Runic Game.

Satan Doesn't Want You to Know

To make your own ham just like HoneyBaked, use the following glaze...

1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/4 teaspoon paprika
dash ground ginger
dash ground allspice

Now all you need is a blowtorch.

Don't Take My Word For It

"Where it is a duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat."
- John Morley -

"So many of us define ourselves by what we have, what we wear, what kind of house we live in and what kind of car we drive. If you think of yourself as the woman in the Cartier watch and the Hermes scarf, a house fire will destroy not only your possessions but yourself."
- Linda Henley -

"When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest."
- William Hazlitt -

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
- Bertrand Russell -

"Once we plunge into the inner space, we discover the source of enthusiasm, and we are re-energized. Therefore, it is important that we turn to our innermost reality - the inner Self, the true Self, because That is perfect, self-propelling, and self-luminous."
- Swami Muktananda -

    "Parental warnings are nearly inexhaustible in considering this film. Please do not be deceived by the light-hearted, cute trailers for this cartoon and take your kids to see it assuming it will be clean, innocent fun. Many parents would not find this material suitable viewing for children.    "There is nudity throughout the movie. We view Patrick's bare buttocks during three scenes, and SpongeBob's once. At one point, Patrick surprises SpongeBob at a community gathering by swinging over the crowd, naked, holding a sign between his buttocks which bears a message to his friend. SpongeBob and Patrick are also shown in their underwear a few times. The underwear is drawn to look like men's fitted briefs.
   "These characters are not real, and are not even human, so many may choose to gloss over the animated nude scenes, though it sends a wrong message to children that it's okay to pull down one's pants for a laugh."
- Lacey Mical Callahan: Christian Spotlight on The Spongebob Squarepants Movie -

"In most states, 'possession' of a controlled substance is illegal but 'use' of the substance is not. Because of this, in these jurisdictions, there would need to be evidence of past possession before charges could be brought. This evidence could exist in the form of photographs, video, or the testimony of others, but even these might not lead to prosecution if the quantities were small and sales were not involved. As long as the individual is no longer in possession of illegal materials, past possession of small quantities of an illegal substance is unlikely to ever be prosecuted."
- Fire Erowid: Is Past Substance Use Illegal? -

"It's my belief that most of Americans are in denial about factory farms in America. They don't want to know what's happening. They don't want to look, because they're not willing to give up meat. And it's my belief that once we can really have animal-compassionate alternatives where people can buy this product and know that the animal was well-treated during its lifetime, that then they'll be willing to look at what the factory farm is all about. I think when that happens, across the United States, there's going to be outrage about factory farms."
- John Mackey: founder of Whole Foods -

"I'll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. 'I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.' 'I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.' 'Hey, wait a minute, there's one guy holding out both puppets!'"
- Bill Hicks -

"Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood."
- Josephine Baker -

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
- Vincent Van Gogh -

"They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence."
- William Shakespeare: Sonnet XCIV -

    "Chevron, which has been condemned by some human rights activists over alleged atrocities committed in the volatile Nigerian oil fields, pursued a policy of extracting oil from the New Guinea Kutubu oil fields while taking pains to minimize effects on the surrounding jungle. The result, Diamond says, is the Kutubu field has become one of the world's best-protected wildlife preserves.
   "Diamond argues that to achieve similar ends environmentalists need to work with corporations, rather than constantly confront them. As a practical matter, he believes, corporations have more power than environmentalists and will forge ahead unencumbered unless convinced that eco-friendly development is in their financial interests. It is cheaper, Diamond says, to spend more money on environmental safeguards while drilling for oil than to repair degradation later a conclusion he believes Chevron has reached... To stop environmental degradation, which he says threatens human existence, society must convince the degraders that it is in their interest to change their behavior."
- Scott Martelle: The risk of being civilized - UCLA professor Jared Diamond studies why societies collapse -
 

    "Sam never hired any of those wacko neocons. Wolfowitz is a woolly headed professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a consultant to Ariel Sharon. Richard Perle was never in charge of the Defense Policy Board, so he was unable to enrich himself through government connections, or help Ahmad Chalabi con the administration. Perle stayed an honest man, running a chain of soufflé shops. His soufflés were so fluffy he became known as the Prince of Lightness. Doug Feith never worked here, either, so he never set up the Office of Special Plans to spin tall tales about W.M.D. and Qaeda ties to Saddam. And he never bungled the occupation because there was no occupation."
- Clarence the angel to Donald Rumsfeld seeing the world if he had never been born in Maureen Dowd's A Not So Wonderful Life -

"She said come look,
There's a wardrobe of love in my eyes
Take your time, look around,
And see if there's something your size."
- Warren Beatty in Ishtar (the under-rated film of the week) -

"After years of fact-finding and fighting against federal groups like the Drug Enforcement Agency, Doblin's association has seen small victories in recent years. Recently, MAPS launched a five-year, $5-million campaign to support research in the field of psychedelics. The aid is expected to fuel studies like that being undertaken by Francisco Moreno, a University of Arizona College of Medicine psychology professor, who asks whether psilocybin could be used as a therapeutic agent for those with OCD who fail to respond to standard treatments. Behind the study is whether psilocybin, and the activity caused by serotonin on some receptor sites, safely decreases the symptoms of OCD."
- Allyson Gonzalez: LSD For OCD? A Sarasota nonprofit sees a non-traditional remedy for OCD. -

"Donald lived at Mr. Eisner's home for six months when he and Daisy Duck were separated. Donald had been having an affair with Petunia Pig, Porky's girlfriend. It was a no-no at Disney to socialize with creatures from a competing studio, but in Donald's case Mr. Eisner chose to look the other way, which upset the shareholders."
- Mickey Mouse's testimony in Surprise Rocks Disney Trial by Woody Allen -

"The really dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
- U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace: The New York Times on April 9, 1944 -

    "[I]t takes $2 billion, coming in every day, from outside the United States, to keep the U.S. dollar from collapsing--and it is collapsing!

    "In short, when it came to the Gary Webb series and its allegations, the L.A. Times wound up being more protective of the CIA than the CIA itself.
   "None of this explains why, in Webb's obit, Lelyveld and Hymon omit the on-the-record admissions by the CIA of its involvement with drug-connected Contras, an admission owed directly to Webb's work. Maybe, you say, the Times reporters are lazy and just didn't look beyond their own paper's archives. And because the Times didn't cover those admissions, Lelyveld and Hymon remain (eight years after the fact) in the dark."
- Marc Cooper: Kicking a Dead Man -

"So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing. It is my job to create universes, as the basis of one novel after another. And I have to build them in such a way that they do not fall apart two days later. Or at least that is what my editors hope. However, I will reveal a secret to you: I like to build universes which do fall apart. I like to see them come unglued, and I like to see how the characters in the novels cope with this problem. I have a secret love of chaos. There should be more of it. Do not believe -- and I am dead serious when I say this -- do not assume that order and stability are always good, in a society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born the old must perish. This is a dangerous realization, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism which can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new."
- Philip K. Dick: How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later -

   "The origin of the Universe is unknown -- it is the ultimate mystery of this whole story. The laws of physics which applied in the beginning are not clear, so it is hard to guess where it might have come from. There are several theories of how the Universe began. This web site follows the inflationary theory of creation, which seems the most plausible. We use the word Macrocosmos to mean 'everything there is'. We will see that the Cosmos and the Universe are just small parts of the Macrocosmos. So how could it have begun? 
    "Perhaps it was created out of nothing. To us, used to the idea that energy cannot be created, this seems impossible, but even today we find two kinds of matter (matter and antimatter) being created together out of nothing in quantum fluctuations. What is more, gravitational energy is equal and opposite to the matter energy in a closed space. This means that starting from nothing gravity and matter might have separated to create the Macrocosmos.
    "The amounts of energy in the Macrocosmos were small. The inflation theory predicts the Universe began with only 25g of matter! However this matter was crammed into a very very tiny space, creating an extremely high energy density."
- The History of the Universe: Macrocosmos -

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
- Xarvon, Alien Investigator -

    "The United States is upping the pressure on four Latin American countries to sign bilateral deals exempting U.S. citizens from International Criminal Court jurisdiction or face losing millions in economic assistance.
    "Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay could be denied $24.5 million in aid unless they sign the immunity agreements, a move likely to stoke Latin America's distrust toward the Bush administration, diplomats and analysts say."
- Pablo Bachelet: U.S. threatens to cut aid - 4 Latin America nations told to sign immunity deal -

    "Let's start from the start: Inauguration Day.
    "On January 20th, 2005, we're calling for a new kind of action. The Bush administration has been successful at keeping protesters away from major events in the last few years by closing off areas around events and using questionable legal strategies to outlaw public dissent. We can use these obstacles to develop new tactics. On Inauguration day, we don't need banners, we don't need signs, we just need people.
    "We're calling on people to attend inauguration as they are: members of the public. Once through security and at the procession, at a given signal, we'll all turn our backs on Bush. A simple, clear and coherent message."
- Turn Your Back on Bush -

    "A 9-11 rescue worker recently came forward to say he was told by FBI agents to keep my mouth shut about one of the black boxes a fellow firefighter helped locate at ground zero, contradicting the official story that none of the flight and cockpit data recorders were ever recovered in the wreckage of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers.    "Honorary firefighter Mike Bellone claims he was approached by unknown bureau agents a short time after he and his partner, Nicholas DeMasi, a retired New York firefighter, found three of the four black boxes among the WTC rubble before January 2002."
- Greg Szymanski: Black Box Cover-Up - Rescue workers silenced after exposing 9-11 whitewash -

"If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day."
- Alex Noble -

"Whenever you advise a ruler...counsel him not to use force to conquer the universe, for this would only cause resistance... Never take advantage of power... Force is followed by loss of strength."
- Lao Tsu -

    "One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts...
    "A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or in the motel turn some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, 'to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?'"
- Bill Moyers: On Receiving Harvard Medical School's Global Environment Citizen Award -

"The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His."
- Roger Ebert -

"Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single practitioner confessedly unworthy."
- Ambrose Bierce -

"A Christian nation, it almost goes without saying, would never invade another country under any circumstances, and would exhaust every peacemaking tool before going to war, if it ever went to war at all. Christians don't kill innocent bystanders, either, even accidentally, no matter how virulent the dictator who rules them, the idea being life under Caesar, however horrible, is preferable to death at the hands of a benevolent bringer of a liberty that you'll never live to enjoy."
- R.S. Janes -

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning."
- Rich Cook -

"The things you refuse to meet today always come back at you later on, usually under circumstances which make the decision twice as difficult as it originally was."
- Eleanor Roosevelt -

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world - It is the opium of the people."
- Karl Marx -

    "1) Wander into the building, and quietly put a wireless access point on the same network segment as the Tabulation PC, maybe behind a copier somewhere, and then casually come in from across the street using a laptop and wireless card. We know they're connected by modems, so:
    "2) Find the telephone number of the office the PC is located in, and use a war-dialing program such as ToneLoc to dial all of the numbers in that exchange looking for a hanging modem. This technique was made famous by the 1983 movie Wargames and it still works today. These machines typically have hanging modems installed, so this should be a fairly easy way in.
    "3) Come in through the Internet. It is reported that many of these machines are connected to the Internet to enable results to be queried using Jresult to pull data from the central PCs. Windows PCs on the Internet are inherently vulnerable, particularly if they're not behind a firewall. Since a firewall would prevent the legitimate Jresult queries from being made, these machines are likely NOT firewalled and therefore at extreme risk for being compromised through their Internet connection."
- Chuck Herrin: How to Hack the Vote: the Short Version -

    "For starters, as Army Spc. Thomas Wilson pointed out to the shockingly-still-in-office secretary of defense, our troops continue to have their lives put in jeopardy due to a lack of properly armored vehicles. Indeed, half of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq might still be alive if these basic tools of a modern Army were available.
    "Let me repeat that: half of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq might still be alive if only our troops had been properly equipped. What's more, one of the companies that makes the protective plates for the Humvees used in Iraq said last week that it could easily have increased its output if only the Pentagon had asked. Remember how often on the campaign trail the president trotted out his sure-fire applause line, promising, I'll make sure our troops have the best. They deserve the best? Maybe he was referring to the quality of their funerals."
- Arianna Huffington: What Our Troops Want for Xmas: Armored Humvees... and an Exit Plan -

"One of the remarkable things about Abu Ghraib is that it's been spectacular propaganda damage to the United States. It supplied a brand image for American repression: I'm talking about the hooded-man image, which now is recognizable all over the Middle East and the Islamic world as a symbol of the United States and the horrors it inflicts on Muslims. Osama bin Laden, had he gone to Madison Avenue and asked for an advertising image for jihad - even the best firm couldn't have come up with anything better than those images."
- Mark Danner: Torture and Truth -

    "Among activists and investigators looking into allegations of vote fraud in the 2004 Presidential election, the company always mentioned was Diebold and its suspicious electronic touch-screen voting machines. It is Diebold that has multiple avowed Republicans on its Board of Directors. It was Diebold that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush's election campaign. It was Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell who vowed to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush.
    "As it turns out, everyone was looking the wrong way. The company that requires immediate and penetrating scrutiny is Triad Systems.
    "Triad is owned by a man named Tod Rapp, who has also donated money to both the Republican Party and the election campaign of George W. Bush. Triad manufactures punch-card voting systems, and also wrote the computer program that tallied the punch-card votes cast in 41 Ohio counties last November."
- William Rivers Pitt: Proof of Ohio Election Fraud Exposed -

    "A representative from Triad Systems came into a county board of elections office un-announced. He said he was just stopping by to see if they had any questions about the up-coming recount. He then headed into the back room where the Triad supplied Tabulator (a card reader and older PC with custom software) is kept. He told them there was a problem and the system had a bad battery and had 'lost all of its data'. He then took the computer apart and started swapping parts in and out of it and another 'spare' tower type PC also in the room. He may have had spare parts in his coat as one of the BOE people moved it and remarked as to how very heavy it was. He finally re-assembled everything and said it was working but to not turn it off.
    "He then asked which precinct would be counted for the 3% recount test, and the one which had been selected as it had the right number of votes, was relayed to him. He then went back and did something else to the tabulator computer."
- Green Party candidate David Cobb testifying at a hearing held in Columbus, Ohio by Rep. John Conyers of the House Judiciary Committee -

   "Today's Christian fundamentalist politicians are more politically savvy than Reagan's interior secretary was; you're unlikely to catch them overtly attributing public-policy decisions to private religious views. But their words and actions suggest that many share Watt's beliefs. Like him, many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming Apocalypse."
- Glenn Scherer: The Godly Must Be Crazy: Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment -

"All the lessons of history in four sentences:
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power. 
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small. 
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs. 
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."
- Charles A. Beard -

"The authentic human being is one of us who instinctively knows what he should not do, and, in addition, he will balk at doing it. He will refuse to do it, even if this brings down dread consequences to him and to those whom he loves. This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance. Their deeds may be small, and almost always unnoticed, unmarked by history. Their names are not remembered, nor did these authentic humans expect their names to be remembered. I see their authenticity in an odd way: not in their willingness to perform great heroic deeds but in their quiet refusals. In essence, they cannot be compelled to be what they are not."
- Philip K. Dick: How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later -

"Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
- Eugene V. Debs -

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual."
- John Steinbeck -

Everything Else

Everyone who thinks that the answer to the problem of millions of Americans without health insurance is to make it legally mandatory to have insurance, raise your hand.

If you were a judge, wouldn't YOU throw out the lawsuit questioning your own election?

After Laura Bush redecorated the White House for Christmas, Bill Clinton's portrait somehow ended up missing. Don't worry. Pappy Bush and Reagan are still up.