Obamacans

W.W.J.E.?
Who Would Jenna Endorse? All she said is that she may not support McCain and is open to the Democrats. She didn't pick one. If the buzz and chatter is to be believed, most of the Republicans who crossed over and voted for Hillary were doing it to help defeat Obama so McCain could run against her (and the GOP's preference to face Hillary in the election is documented).
From Larry King:

KING: Do you have a favorite between the two, the two Democrats?

LAURA BUSH: My favorite is the Republican.

KING (pointing to Jenna): Yours too, I would imagine.

JENNA BUSH: I don't know.

KING: A-ha! Are you open to...

JENNA BUSH: Yeah, of course. I mean, who isn't open to learning about the candidates and I'm sure that everybody's like that.

Actually, Jenna honey, everybody is not like that, but it would be nice if it were true. We don't know who Jenna would endorse, but there have been several Obama endorsements from prominent Republicans. Do check out this editorial piece from Susan Eisenhower (Ike's granddaughter): Why I'm backing Obama

More recently, Susan's sister-in-law and the daughter of Richard Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, not only endorsed Obama but has donated the maximum amount allowed to him (serving to cancel out Tricia's donation to McCain). I wonder if David Eisenhower is feeling like he's part of a bad sandwich?

Douglas Kmiec. Prominent legal scholar, former Catholic University dean, advisor to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, legal counsel to 2 Republican presidents. His formal Obama endorsement.

Lincoln Chafee. His Obama endorsement maybe not as big a surprise as the others. He was a liberal (moderate) Republican, and has left the Republican party to be an Independent. His record doesn't look very Republican to me (with a few exceptions).

More on Obamacans:
USA Today
Newsweek
NY Sun

Senseless and Senselesser

Couple of head-shaking items related to religion.

Jonesville, SC: [LINK] Here's why Americans have a reputation for being stupid. Listen to this ignorant ass preacher who put on his church sign:

OBAMA OSAMA
HUMM
ARE THEY BROTHERS

Yeah, it's maddening. Even after the huge flap over his (Christian) pastor, this guy is not convinced that Obama is not a muslim (and therefore a terrorist) because of what his name happens to be. He fails to see how the sign is bigoted or even political. Also, his whole scrapple-for-brains congregation voted to keep the sign as it was. After the story got international coverage, including Fark, he has since changed the sign. These are the people who think Bush is a good President. Another video link.

This video shows another example of people who have lost the ability to think clearly. There was a comment that it was like the Manson Girls meet Little House on the Prairie. Boy, is that spot on.

Earth Day - The Unforeseen

EDIT April 23: I am bumping this post up and adding some comments post-viewing.

It’s an excellent film, and I think in somewhat limited theatrical release right now, expanding gradually, but should be out on DVD in September.

This screening was sponsored by Save Our Springs Alliance, which is featured prominently in the film. There was a Q&A afterward with the filmmaker, Laura Dunn, the cinematographer, and some others who appeared in it. A few weeks ago at the premiere, Robert Redford also put in an appearance. He is an executive producer, appears in the film, and… I just learned from this viewing… learned to swim in Austin as a kid!

The film is focused on Austin, but the elements at work are the same ones that show up in all situations like this: the greedy developers, the lobbyists, the citizens who buy into these things, people who value property rights over the environment (typified by people sporting signs that say things like “Birds Don’t Pay Taxes”), the politicians who get their votes, and ugly growth that destroys the very reasons that people wanted to live in an area in the first place.

The Unforeseen


Website for The Unforeseen
IMDB
Tomatometer 84%

Tags: environment - Austin - Redford - Unforeseen

Big stuff

I don't think these are photoshopped.

Well, last week it was the giant fly swimming in my cup. This week no real-life close encounters with freaky big critters, but did see these guys on the web. Look at this Italian cat!! 35 lbs. of sugar in a 30 lb. bag. What a cute tubster. Not sure we'd be able to afford the lasagna it takes to feed this guy. [LINK] And if you still think it's Photoshopped, here's another news link on the kitty with a different picture. More fat cats on Neatorama.

Forced perspective, to make a bad thing look even worse.

These are called Camel Spiders. They are not as big as they look here, I think this is a forced perspective kind of shot. The critters actually DO get to be 6 inches long... which is still a damned big spider!!! Yikes!!! [More about Camel Spiders, which they say are not really spiders. I say close enough with legs out the wazoo.]

Then, take a look at this post. It's from Australia and shows a 14 inch stick bug... not doin' anything... just hangin' around on the porch mindin' his own bidness. Cool bug.

More about the Keep Austin Weird house

I mentioned in yesterday's post about the "Keep Austin Weird" house and how it tamed down to be sold. Then MrB sent me a link to the owner's site. She's a real estate agent and artist, and she's got lots of fun stuff on there - her art gallery and art car, videos and more.

Here's the segement that played on HGTV's "What's With That House?"


(I want a pig)

Here's a selection from her gallery of paintings that I picked out for Dr. Monkey.

Just another April Austin day

A beautiful Saturday, perfect weather. Started out at a great garage sale in Tarrytown, a few houses down from this creative piece of carport art, and the old "Keep Austin Weird" house that was once featured on the show HGTV's "What's With That House?" (they call it "the pig house")

but has since been tamed down and is now for sale. {sigh} Click photos to enlarge.

From there we went to the Earth Day festivities down at Republic Square Park. Austin is really a very green city, but I've always been pretty unimpressed by the Earth Day efforts. This was combined with an art event that was mostly about letting kids make stuff, and making the adults wish they were kids. Here are some pics:

One of the entrances

Bugcycle

Live music, of course

Wonderful live oak tree at the other entrance...

...big enough for climbing

Someone's pet giant turtle

Even though this event is about being "green," a lot of the participants are selling products and some of them are linked to large corporations that might not be so green... and that's hard to avoid. I was disappointed to see that The Domain was one of the big sponsors. It's a huuuuge shopping complex of very high end stores (mostly chains) such as Tiffany and Neiman Marcus, one of those sprawling artificial paradises that will eventually include condos. It's also infamous for bleeding the Austin taxpayer for something that will drive out local businesses. I see no reason to go there.

We left the Park in search of light exercise and tasty beverages. Here is a mural that I didn't remember seeing before. There used to be a microbrewery on the adjoining lot, which the mural was part of, and that was taken over by the Fox & Hound (another chain!!), now that's been torn down to make room for more condos. This mural will not be there long.

The Austin Duck Adventures is an amphibious open-air tourist vehicle that takes people on Lady Bird Lake as well as through some popular places in town. They give everyone on board a "quacker", a duck call, so they can quack at everything. I busted out laughing when the tour guide spotted a woman carrying a guitar down the street and yelled through his bullhorn, "THERE'S A MUSICIAN!!" and they all went "QUAAAAAACK QUAAAAAACK!!!!!" I guess strolling musicians are on the tour checklist.

We walked quite a bit. Saw this beautiful flower on prickly pears at Mother Egan's,

but waited until Woodrow's to have a beer. How can you resist this sign?

Friday Furball - Henry Gets His Way

Tags and links: Friday Ark - Carnival of the Cats - This week's carnival is at Catymology - Cats - Catblogging

Mandomonium

Our friend Sarah Jarosz played on local TV, click on the pic to watch in a new window. We first saw her in 2004, at the Old Settler's Music Festival, and she was about 13 playing traditional bluegrass music with her family band. She'd also cover a lot of Chris Thile tunes from his first 2 solo albums he made when he was 13 and 16 (if you are a mandolin lover, get those!! he's not just good for a kid. He was great, even back then, and he wrote most of the songs he recorded on those) (sorry... Chris Thile = {gush}... my #1 mandolin hero). Anyway we got acquainted with her and her parents in waiting lines for Nickel Creek shows and others. Hardcore fans tend to get acquainted. Anyway, she has grown musically so much over the years, she's got an amazing voice and is writing beautiful songs. She's shared the stage with a very long list of the finest acoustic musicians including every mandolin god you can think of.

We haven't been to The Old Settler's Music Festival (our little mostly-bluegrass event) for a few years now. It's a little pricey for us these days. But I am headed out the door in a few minutes for Waterloo Records where there will be a free in-store performance by the Waybacks. Then we will get to see Sarah when she opens for some more friends, The Greencards, on May 9th at Threadgill's. Looking forward to that show. Two days after that, there will be the Second Annual Mandolin Mayhem (I think also at Threadgill's... last year it was at Mother Egan's), featuring three great players: Kym Warner of the 'Cards, Dennis Ludiker (of South Austin Jug Band), Sarah, and maybe some guests.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music

The Dark Side, Hot Blood and White Power

A lot has been said about the children and the forced marriages, rape, the "alter bed" and those are extremely important, but I wanted to stress a couple more things about this sect -- more reasons that children should not ever be allowed in the care of those people -- especially in isolation. Religious Doctrines get weird if they are fundamentalist in nature, when people take mythology and metaphor literally, combined with extreme intolerance.

Blood Atonement

Their version of this is not just the regular blood atonement of Jesus dying for our sins and replacing the the old law which made use of animal blood sacrifice (as well as offerings of first fruits of crops)... in both cases to allow the Big Guy upstairs to be able to look upon us lowly filthy unworthy scum. Their Blood Atonement also calls for the occasional killing of other people -- to save them.

The little Eldorado weekly paper has been reporting on this group that moved into their area from the onset (not much else going on...), and here are excerpts from their article on Blood Atonement in 2004:

[...]
Many conservative Mormons broke with the LDS church in the 1890s when the church renounced the practice of polygamy, or plural marriage. Eventually, the disaffected Mormons began to gather in small groups, finally coalescing into a handful of fundamentalist sects. Chief among these were the early settlers of a tiny town on the Utah/Arizona border called Short Creek.

Few realized then that Short Creek, later renamed Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, would become the center of the fundamentalist Mormon universe. Today, the sprawling town, and its outlying neighborhoods, is home to nearly 10,000 people who look, not to the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, but to FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs, for spiritual guidance.

Jeffs' followers differ with the mainline Mormon Church over a number of core beliefs, one of them being Plural Marriage. But another area of strong disagreement involves the Doctrine of Blood Atonement, the belief that there are some sins so egregious that the sinner's own blood must be spilled in order to atone for them.

[...] There is little debate, however, that by 1856, the doctrine was widely accepted by the Mormon faithful.

That same year, Brigham Young delivered a sermon, that was later published in the Journal of Discourses, saying, "There are sins that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, and if they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins; and the smoking incense would atone for their sins...

"And further more, I know that there are transgressors, who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further; I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins.

"It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit.... There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, or a calf, or of turtle dove, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man."

In 1978 the LDS Church repudiated the Doctrine of Blood Atonement, just as it denounced the practice of Plural Marriage some 90 years earlier, bringing it in line with the teachings of most mainline Christian churches that only the blood of Jesus, shed some 20 centuries ago on the cross at Calvary, can atone for sin. Most fundamentalist Mormon groups, and in particular the group that occupied Colorado City/Hildale, viewed the LDS action in 1978 as another in a long line of heresies.

In 1988 Rulon Jeffs succeeded Leroy Johnson as the Prophet of the fundamentalist Mormons of Short Creek. In 1991, he formally incorporated the church under the name Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with himself listed as president, agent and sole trustee. It was he, perhaps more than any other man, except for the possible exception of his son and successor, Warren Jeffs, who advanced the Doctrine of Blood Atonement among the FLDS faithful.

In a series of sermons published in 1997, Rulon Jeffs told his followers, "I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil...

"This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it.

A combination of events, beginning in the year 2000 have led some FLDS observers to worry that the group could choose to put the teaching of Blood Atonement into practice. First, the aged Prophet Rulon Jeffs, speaking through his son, Warren, predicted the world would end that year and that the FLDS faithful would be "lifted up" and rescued from the destruction. Jeffs' followers prepared for the day by withdrawing their children from the public school system. Then, gathering outside of town in a large field, the group massed and waited, but nothing happened.

Prior to the promised lifting up, many of Rulon Jeffs followers had maxed out their credit cards and stopped making payments to banks and other lenders. When the day of deliverance failed to materialize, they found themselves fending off creditors and some began openly questioning the Prophet.

But, Warren Jeffs had answers. The problem had not been with the prophesy, but with the believers who were told that their own lack of faith had prevented their ascension to heaven.

Then, in 2001, the prophet who had told his followers he was immortal, died and Warren Jeffs ascended to leadership of the FLDS. A series of excommunications, which continued even as recently as last month, were announced as the younger Jeffs solidified his grip on the FLDS church and the United Effort Plan trust, the financial arm of the church that owned most of the property in Colorado City/Hildale.

As word spread that Prophet Warren Jeffs was preparing to move his most faithful followers away from Colorado City/Hildale, FLDS historian Ben Bistline, received an anonymous letter threatening his life. Bistline, who was excommunicated from the church several years earlier, wrote The Polygamists, a History of Colorado City, Arizona. The book apparently drew the ire of the letter writer who told him, "I have a job to do. My job is to protect the prophet Warren Jeffs from you cockroaches and scum...

"There won't be yellow dog here to greet us or stand in our way when it comes time for the prophet to rule this world...

"He's working very hard to get us to a point where God will clean up the world. Then God will be able to order the destroying angels to go forth and they will kill off all the wicked...The prophet has promised us that the destructions are here and we will get to witness them."

For his part, Ben Bistline says that he isn't really worried for his own safety. "I'm more concerned with the mentality of a person who would write something like that," Bistline told the Success.

Ross Chatwin, who was excommunicated from the FLDS Church last year by Warren Jeffs, and who recently won a court order allowing him to stay in his home despite an eviction order from the prophet, says that Warren Jeffs fully believes in the Doctrine of Blood Atonement and teaches it to his followers. "Warren says that the reason we don't live the doctrine is that the United States government won't allow it," Chatwin said. "But, when God returns then his followers can carry it out."

Racism

Alright, if the child rape and murder policy isn't enough then there's the white supremacy that is taught. Again the Eldorado Success has obtained audio of Warren Jeffs himself, speaking to his people about African-Americans [full article and several audio clips here]:

He claimed it was necessary for the black race to be preserved "because it was necessary that the Devil should have a representation upon the Earth as well as God." He continues by saying, "So, the day of the Negro is continued and today is the day of the Negro, as far as the world is concerned."

A lot more than that is said, some even worse. And those things are officially sanctioned by this group as they are from the mouth of the Prophet Jeffs himself.

If you want to read some really crazy crap spewed by an FLDS evangelist, someone who was apparently tossed out of one of the facilities but still carries the message to every forum on the topic. Several of them give him his own area for his threads and ramblings. I don't know if he's spouting their version of things, but he seems to go unchallenged by anyone else claiming to be FLDS. He's a one-man version of "Fundies say the darndest things". I was going to repost some of this bad craziness, but instead will let you read it for yourself. His explanations of scripture and etymology of words will make your head spin with its sad funniness. His moniker is "onthestreet"

Polygamist outcast happy as punch

Texas polygamy blog - thread 1 (April: post-raid)

Texas polygamy blog - thread 2 (March: pre-raid)

Texas polygamy blog - thread 3 (Feb 08) -- this HAS to be drunk blogging.

***************
My previous post on this sect.

Tags: YFZ - FLDS - Mormon - Blood Atonement - racism - polygamy

A debate topic for Philly: "Screw 'em"

That's a quote from Hillary Clinton in 1995 about working class white southerners, "lunch-bucket Democrats," who were both leaning and voting conservative in the 1994 congressional elections. Her advice:

"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."

Author Benjamin Barber witnessed and wrote about in his book, "The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House"

Read the whole article on HuffPo.

So, if the majority of the Democrats vote and have voted for someone else, and are therefore doing nothing for her, I'm thinking the same attitude is there. Screw 'em, they don't matter... and won't stand in her way of getting this thing by hook and crook, schmooze and booze, god and the devil, lies and more lies, lawyers, guns and money.


And just so as to not end this on a "bitter" note, Bruce Springsteen has just endorsed Obama on his website, so listen to Bruce below singing a song that Woody Guthrie wrote. It reminds me of why I care about this stuff.



Tags: Clinton - Obama - Springsteen

Archie Bunker mentality

This is one reason I'm not a Libertarian. The philosophy that we just give everybody a gun, and the good guys will automatically police the bad guys, and it will all sort itself out. [LINK] Some Ohio lawmakers want to allow students to carry concealed weapons at public universities to protect themselves against another gunman. The reason Archie Bunker was funny was because his ideas were so ridiculous, and also, unfortunately, fairly common.

Elitism

Elitism -- something I hate. Maybe it's a part of my upbringing that stuck, I was taught to hate snobbery, and I do. People throw the term "elitism" around without even understanding what they are saying, but it sounds bad so they do it anyway.

MW- elitism
1: leadership or rule by an elite
2: the selectivity of the elite; especially : snobbery
3: consciousness of being or belonging to an elite

MW- elite
1
a: the choice part : cream
b: the best of a class
c: the socially superior part of society
d: a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence

Modern Republicans are almost by definition Elitist. They are proud of it. Neocons are the worst elitists of all. The rich and powerful have the right to plunder and control the assets of those who have not been selected or do not possess the merits to be rich and powerful, so those elements must move over and make way... or else.

I am not sure where that label is coming from now that it's been directed toward Obama. Makes no sense to me.

McCain = Elitist. Who's arguing against it?
Clinton... trying to win the nomination purely on the votes of the Superdelegates (is there anything about their stature and power that sound "elite" to anyone? see "elite d" above.) regardless of the way the American people vote.

As for Obama's remarks on bitterness, I agree with them. What's more, I think the Clintons agree with them too, at least in part. (and does anything feel that they are not both running?)

"If [Republicans] could cut funding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment, middle-class Americans would see fewer benefits from their tax dollars, feel more resentful paying taxes, and become even more receptive to their appeals for tax cuts and their strategy of waging campaigns on divisive social and cultural issues like abortion, gay rights, and guns."

-- Bill Clinton, in his 2004 memoirs, My Life, making the same argument as Sen. Barack Obama. [Political Wire with H/T to AmericaBlog

"The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death," -- (Bill) Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991. [via HuffPo]

She talks about how we've got to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, gang members, and people with mental problems, and I agree with her in what she says here. Trouble is, now she has done a turnaround. Does she think that (particularly) criminals and gang members aren't dealing with a certain amount of resentment... and yes... bitterness? Then she had to go and spout this line of bullshit hypocrisy:

"You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught be how to shoot when I was a little girl," she said. [Blueberry: my military dad taught me to shoot when I was about 7. It doesn't make me pro-gun. I hate guns.]

"You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It's part of culture. It's part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it's an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter."

Is she trying to suggest that Obama was talking about bitter people resorting to going hunting or doing target practice? Is anyone buying that? And she also reports that she shot a duck. Well whoop-de-frickin-do. More like she shot a fellow Democrat in the face. Cheney must be proud.

Tags: Clinton - Obama

Bug blogging

There was a strange bug invasion last week. Giant flies invaded the office building where I work part time. I don't know if these are horse-flies (although they are 3/4" to 1" long), and have not seen horse-flies at all for many years. The last time I remember seeing them was back in Missouri on a chilly Spring day when we were floating down one of the rivers. They are after your blood, aggressive, and bite HARD. OUCH! Through googling (don't you love googling flies?) I find that they do live around here, and I probably have not seen any because I don't get out in rural areas that much... same for floating down the rivers. I guess if they hung around downtown near Lady Bird (Town) Lake they'd be eaten by bats, but it's still early for bats.

Certain parts of this building became filled with these giant flies. We were told that most of them were coming from a certain stairwell, so that one should be avoided if we didn't want to let more in. But the flies were just flying around, mostly parked on the walls, not trying to bite anyone, just minding their own business which seemed to be nothing at all (typical office slackers).

I had my cup and spoon filled with sudsy water in the kitchen sink, and when I went to finish washing it, there was a fly floating in the water... no longer alive. Not sure if he was after the water or the remnants of oatmeal, but there he was. I didn't think to take a picture, but here is a mock-up showing how big this guy was compared to the spoon.

Why are all these humongous flies in this office building? Most of the people who work there travel a lot, and all over the world, a lot of it in rural areas. I'm wondering if somebody didn't cart them in with some soil or who knows what. I'm also wondering why they haven't been trying to bite people. Maybe this variety prefers do-nuts. If so, they have come to the right place.