Dave’s Good Stuff

I just found this today. It’s a bit old, so you may have already seen it. There are 23 parts to the series at this point. I’ve seen the first two so far.

Why do people laugh at creationists?

Only creationists don’t know.

I’ve always held the opinion, without any facts whatsoever to back it up, that Oil money fuels politics. The degree to which the political machine relies on oil money to operate is up for grabs, but you’ll never convince me that it’s low. I’m a little common sense, and a little conspiracy theory on this one.

Towards that, this is a really interesting site, and well put together.

Follow the Oil Money

I want to thank all my friends and family, particularly my mother, who was born before women could vote, and is watching her daughter on this stage tonight.

– Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Super Tuesday evening

I don’t care what your politics are, just imagine the heart bursting swell of pride her mother must have been feeling. That is an amazing and had to be a wonderfully and deeply emotional moment.

I imagine “terrorists” the world over to be sitting back in their easy chairs, laughing their asses off as they feast on news like this:

An ambulance carrying a heart attack victim, twice defibrillated was stopped by overzealous customs agents, going so far as to open the ambulance and asking him to identify himself. “Sure, let me take this oxygen mask off, and thank God you’re here! Could you tell these pesky paramedics to quit poking me with those paddles? They hurt!”

Said the man’s girlfriend “”I’m irate. I can’t figure it out. He could have died, and I would have blamed that person for murder.”

There is a well-established protocol allowing emergency vehicles to cross the border with a police escort. This was completely ignored by the agents, risking a man’s life in the process.

The terrorists don’t have to do a damn thing anymore! They’ve got us so terrified that we’re killing ourselves to protect ourselves.

America has real enemies in the world," he said. "Creating false enemies among us to score political points does not make us safer, it makes us more vulnerable. And trying to bully and intimidate others into silence or compliance does not lead to progress. It leads to increased polarization and eventually paralysis.

Tom Daschle, Senate Minority Leader 2004

I just thought that deserved repeating.

I’ll be really interested in watching this unfold.

… I am not interested in living my life smoothly. I am interested in living my life on strong principles and standing up for my rights as a consumer, a U.S. citizen and a human being.

- Michael Righi

Terrorists without, and terrorists within. We are slowly but very surely losing our rights and privileges in favor of a sense of security.

ORIGINAL SCRIPT AND AUDIO COURTESY STANDARD BROADCASTING CORPORATION LTD.

© 1973 BY GORDON SINCLAIR
PUBLISHED BY STAR QUALITY MUSIC (SOCAN)
A DIVISION OF UNIDISC MUSIC INC.
578 HYMUS BOULEVARD
POINTE-CLAIRE, QUEBEC,
CANADA, H9R 4T2

A TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES

America: The Good Neighbor.

Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:

"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.

Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.

The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars! into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.

I’d like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don’t they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?

Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles.

You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon -! not once, but several times - and safely home again.

You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.

I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I’m one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."

Stand proud, America!

I don’t know which is more tragic, the original attacks on the Pentagon and the NYC World Trade Center, or the aftermath. I’m not talking about the heroic rescue efforts, or the equally heroic generosity of all those who have donated money, time, and/or blood. I’m not talking about the (some would say misdirected and pointless) clampdown on security at airports.

I’m talking about the death threats, firebombs, and other violence and atrocity carried out against Muslims in both the U.S. and Canada… all around the world, for that matter.

Those that inflict such suffering and anguish are NO BETTER than those that planned and carried out the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon.

NO BETTER.

Maybe even worse.

/. has a thread for personal first hand accounts of today’s events. While not everyone actually posted first person accounts (by definition), I don’t think, in this case it really matters.

This is one of the best uses of /. I’ve ever seen. IMHO.

CNN has enough coverage on this obscenity that I don’t feel I need to explain what happened… as if you didn’t already know.

Instead, at the risk of belittling today’s horrible tragedy, I just want to point out an irony in my life made evident today. Several weeks ago, the building that eScout LLC is located in suffered a bomb threat. We were told to duck under windows and work w/o the lights to avoid the cops kicking us out. Today, 2,000+ miles away, tragically, though completely unrelated to eScout in any way, terrorists bombed our country using commercial jets as missle and fuel, and everyone at eScout was told to go home.

When our lives are potentially at risk, we stay. When tragedy strikes half a country away, we go home.

That irony and testimony regarding complete misplacement of priorities out of the way, my heart goes out to all those personally affected by the absolutely horrible events that took place 12 hours ago. I hope you can someday find peace…