Typical

Yesterday, in addition to my bookmark poem, I posted a link to www.nowthatsfuckedup.com. Randy Rhodes on Air America mentioned it...she explained that it was a porn site that allowed free access for soldiers in exchange for their gruesome [and real] images from the field. It's filled w/images of missing heads, amputees, blown off faces--really gory stuff. I decided to take it off my blog a few hours later b/c I thought maybe it was just too much or something, I don't know.

I was thinking: " I wonder why the government hadn't shut this one down too?" God forbid someone actually see what's really going on over there.

'Should've known it was only a matter of time.

Bookmark

It was interesting to see you
and
satisfying
to be reminded that chapter ended.

now
i'm in an entirely different book.

this time,
a fairy tale
not
a horror story.

Yes, but...

1900 troops have been killed in Iraq. The part I can't figure out is where is the number of troops that have been wounded? I can't seem to find this number.

Are they even keeping track? Are they hiding this like they did the photos of the dead [in Iraq and now in Louisiana] imagining that somehow the public will forget it exists?

Are we as a nation so wrapped up in watching really bad reality t.v. that no one cares about actual REALITY?

Hasn't anyone noticed that Haliburton's stock is now 64.70 a share, up from $9/share in '02?

And how on earth can the Bill O'Reily's [ahem O'Lie-ly] Sean Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs of the world ceaselessly defend the shitty job this administration is doing?

insomnia

So, I've been on a bit of a Stephen King thing lately. I found one of his books in the Free Book Box at the beach this summer and realized it had been a good 13 years or so since I read his stuff and needed some good summer reading. I had forgotten how much I like his writing style and how insane his imagination is so I got on a bit of an S.K. tangent.

Tonight I have insomnia. It's 4:16am and I've been wide-the-hell awake since 3am.

Ironically enough, the book I'm reading by S.K. right now is called Insomnia and about...you guessed it....not being able to sleep.

The main character, poor guy, starts getting on this pattern of going to bed and then waking up at 3am, 2am...1am...and that's it--he's done for the night. Eventually he starts hallucinating [or maybe not--tbd] people's auras which would be a really cool skill to have.

Happy people have pink or white or yellow glows around them--evil people have black auras...angry people flicker green or red.

I'm staring at Michia [the cat] sleeping on the floor and she seemingly does not have one. Just a lot of fur. If she did have one, it would probably be Orange. With Stripes.

Maybe I need some more sleeplessness. I'll see what happens by Sunday.

night biking!

It's fall and it's offically mountain biking season. For me, anyway.

I love mountain biking enough to do it year round but somehow in the summer I gravitate to the sand and sea instead of the woods.

Now that it gets dark at 7pm [6:30 in the woods with the canopy] lights are crucial. At dusk they are merely a helping hand but by the time the sun disappears entirely they are all you've got.

When you realize your lights are not fully charged [last night] and watch them fade out to nothing you stick to the other riders like glue. I've been in there when the lights went out and it's not easy to find your way out in the pitch blackness of it all.

I know those trails inside and out so getting lost is not an issue and having been there so often, each trail's terrain sticks out in my mind like a map. Roller rock to the left, cliff drop off to the right--big stump dead ahead.

At night, it's a totally different game. With only a 4 foot circle of light, you have no time to make a decision. Either you go over it, around it, land on it....it all happens within in a moment and then you move on. [or not].

I find that I get over twice as many obstacles this way, without any time to talk myself out of it. Maybe that should be a life metaphor.

Last night was great. About 20 riders--only visible by the lights on their helmets and handlebars. I only flipped over the front of the bike twice [soft landings/like a cat].

Only 6 days until I can do it again...

PostSecret

This is one of the more brilliant
things I've seen out there lately.

It makes me want to paint.

Even Burt Bacharach is Fed Up

"Singer/songwriter BURT BACHARACH has attacked US President GEORGE W BUSH for his handling of the Hurricane Katrina rescue operation.

The WALK ON BY star insists America had adequate warning of the horrific disaster which rocked Louisiana and left New Orleans submerged, and yet Bush continued to fund the war against terror instead of protecting his people.

Bacharach, 77, recalls reading newspaper articles months before the hurricane, warning "that (New Orleans) would be engulfed, that people would drown, that bodies would be floating down the road.

"Instead of pushing the funding up, they took most of it away to fight this stupid war, and that's unforgivable.

"I think Bush is just about the poorest president we've ever had. You'd have to go back before I was born to find a worse one."

15/09/2005 13:43"

Bill Maher's closing bit on Real Time with Bill Maher, HBO:

"Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

"Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

"But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

"On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

"So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.' "

Pathetically Insenstive and Ridiculous Quotes About Hurricane Katrina and the Aftermath

"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold."
–CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans' hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them."
–Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005

I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
–President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina

"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"
–House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston

I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school."
–First Lady Laura Bush, twice referring to a "Hurricane Corina" while speaking to children and parents in South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005

News reporter says to Bush: "Mr. President, do we know how many people have been affected by this tragedy?"
Bush: "It's lots."

"We just learned of the convention center – we being the federal government – today." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, to ABC's Ted Koppel, Sept. 1, 2005, to which Koppel responded
" Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting on it for more than just today."

"I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years, these things happen."
--GOP strategist Jack Burkman, on MSNBC's "Connected," Sept. 7, 2005

"What didn't go right?'"
–President Bush, as quoted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), after she urged him to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown "because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right" in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort

GDub Takes a Vacation

And my new favorite statistic of the day: " [after Katrina] President Bush's job approval was at 39 percent, the first time it has dipped below 40 percent since AP-Ipsos began measuring public approval of Bush in December 2003."