The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals - Comment on Religion

Hmmm. Well reasoned sounding. Insightful sounding. He even came up with a patsy on a plane.

I'm sure he loves Jesus. Thing is, I love organic food. It's something I choose based on my ethical orientation. Sure makes more sense to me than protestantism. And I help fuel an emerging juggernaut of an economic engine. That's good enough for me.

My Thoughts on the Obama Candidacy

I just left this comment over at metafilter, but I think it is poignant enough that I need to awaken this old dog and put it here, too. This is in response to the current kerfluffel about Obama's preacher being as crazy as a shit house rat.

We should be so lucky that this slows this candidacy to give folks a chance to think about his steaming heap of empty rhetoric. I say it is long past due that the media takes a critical look at Obama rather than offering to brush his teeth and turn down his bedding. "What? this isn't 1,000 count Egyptian cotton, let me get some for you. I've had some in my knapsack just waiting for you to need them, Mr. Obama, sir. Oh, forgive me, you can't understand me while I'm fellating you?" You can tell alot about a person by the company they keep. What's the real difference between that guy and one of those foaming at the mouth fundamentalists that liberals are so quick to take pot shots at?

Obama is an egomaniac. Bush is an egomaniac. Obama does not have the experience to be president. Bush did not have the experience to be president. Obama = a Bush who can string more than two words together.

Obama will not listen to you. All he wants is your money and your vote. You will not have any input in his government. That is not change, it is more of the same. He is a snake-oil salesman. He has never done anything significant, nor has he been part of anything significant.

His blow-hard short-sighted empty-pants style of governance will get us into more trouble than you could ever imagine. Our system is designed so that any one individual does not have the power to change anything.

There are two possibilities of ways he can change things: he would make change by doing nothing, or he could make change by becoming a tyrant. The middle ground is where our system is designed to operate. Bush has proven that there is no room for a tyrant. Does anyone really want to go from a little Mussolini to a little Hugo Chavez? I suppose that's change of some sort. But tyranny of the left-wing is still tyranny. I'll choose freedom every time.

No one person has all the answers. The American President needs to be able to sit down with all the stakeholders in a given situation and learn from them all. Obama and Bush are the same because they both think they have all the answers. Hell, senile old Nader is the same way.

I pray to Ganesh that I am not forced to make that choice. I saw what's happening here once on a Simpsons episode. Man, I hate democracy. Where have all the technocrats gone?

Have you wondered for one minute why Karl Rove seems so interested in Obama's campaign? Think about it. There's a reason. It's not because Karl Rove likes you and me.

Obama is so caught up in his own bullshit that he has thrown the wishes of the majority of his party, and possibly the majority of Americans out the window. What is wrong with a Clinton-Obama ticket? The right response would have been something along the lines of "If that's what the people want, then I'll be happy to get on board. For now, though, I'm running for President." The dope was roped again. We cant' afford to have him act that way as the leader of the free world.

O Boy Obama

I think I'll come back for a visit. My first thought for you for the new election is this: Obama needs to check himself.

Obama just is not going to cut it, I think the GOP see him as the beatable candidate for the general election, so I think you're not going to see a whole lot of Obama bashing. On the other hand, Hillary is who they're afraid of, so notice that we see quite a bit negative about her.

Outsider's advice to Obama: put your support into the Clinton campaign. Take the VP nomination. Then the Dems could almost be assured of not just 8 but 16 years of rule.

Outsider's advice to Clinton: you're doing great! Keep it up

Maybe They Can Get Something Done in Spite of Their Ignorance

New director vows effort to find permanent housing - The Boston Globe

I heard the race debate rage. Denials flew from the mouths of conservative white men and accusations flew from the thousands of faces I saw on the TV.

It is incomprehensible that George W. Bush, Barbara Bush or any elite or middle class white person could comprehend the impact of racism or classism. I posit here that racism and classism are inextricable linked. I grew up knowing this because often times in rural Ohio I was called nigger on the school yard. While I may not know for sure of my exact heritage, it is pretty obvious looking at me that I have very little, if any, recent African ancestors. What was obvious was the fact that I was dirt poor, on the free lunch program and rarely before my teen years owned a brand new article of clothing.

To my middle class peers, who to me seemed well off, I was a nigger. And they told me so without hesitation. I would bet that George W. Bush, were he as young as I and going to my school would have been right there with the other kids who, for lack of any black people within a 50 mile radius, figured that I was close enough.

New Orleans, in 2005, is populated by tens of thousands of individuals who still live in the shadow of slavery. It has been in vogue for a number of years to rehabilitate slave quarters into apartments. I know this sounds preposterous, but it is so. Slave quarters still stand all over New Orleans. Now young, hip, whitey kids live in them because it's cool.

No it is not cool. It is another way that we, as a nation, rub salt into wounds which still, after four decades, have not healed. I say four decades rather than almost a century and a half because New Orleans was not free until the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and even to this day lives a very segregated lifestyle.

How could the Insane Ruler know this? He was too drunk whenever he visited Bourbon Street. He never truly visited the city and drank in its culture. If he ever had, it would be as plain as his pancake covered gin blossoms that the institutionalized racism which he pretends to not see has kept a brother, a sister, a mother and a father down. And has killed hundreds.

Anyone who argues that race is not a factor in this tragedy is either ignorant or a liar or both. This tragedy has a face and its face is that of African America. This tragedy has a class and its class is the lower class. Institutional racism is so sublimated these days that it even fools the ones who are discriminated against. But it does not fool me.

Hurricane Katrina Media Gallery

DigitalGlobe | Hurricane Katrina Media Gallery

Incredible.

The Insane Ruler to the Rescue

Of the oil companies. It speaks volumes about Bush's intentions that the most significant response from the White House has been to release oil from the strategeric reserve. Gotta help them oil companies.

If I may be so bold, I'd like to point out that Bush has been completely inept in his response to the hurricane damage. When he knew it was going to be bad, which we did at least two days before, he could have put tens of thousands of National Guard troops on the ready. He did not. They're in Iraq.

When it hit, he could have watched CNN to follow the damage as it happened. At that point he could have mobilized equipment and supplies to get everything moving towards where they would be needed in just a few hours. He did nothing.

By Tuesday, New Orleans was in a state of anarchy that resembled Baghdad after the fall of Saddam. Looting and plundering and not a single American National Guards person in sight. It seems to me that Bush likes to sit back and watch scenes of heh heh heh anarchy which he could have prevented, if he cared.

How much damage has to happen to our poor country before we have paid enough? Since September 11, 2001, it has been obvious to tens of millions of us that this guy has not our best interest at heart. He waited three days before speaking about this disaster. That was almost forgivable at the time of the tsunami, at least that was half way around the world. Louisiana is next door to Texas! Where he was on vacation!

Why do we pay so dearly for this? What have we done? I voted for Kerry. I have none of this blood on my hands. I knew we would end up as a third world country with Bush at the helm. Castro responds with more compassion and intelligence to disaster in his nation. At least he seems to care.

Where is the outrage? Why has Bush sat on his hands when he could send enough resources to keep the peace, commandeer the staples people need and ration them.

Instead, Bush let the looting happen and now there are countless thousands of new illegal guns on the streets of New Orleans. And there is not yet order. Three days later, when enough time has passed for him to easily send in 100,000 troops to do cleanup. But our rapid response team is in Iraq, getting blown up so that we have political control of an oil producing country.

Well, Bush at least uses the National Guard to help out the oil companies.

Thank You, Peter

Rest in peace, Peter.

I also want to thank you for helping me get done smoking cigarettes.

When Peter announced that he had lung cancer, for some reason his news resonated deeper in me than another random celebrity with lung cancer. I respect Peter and was truly moved by his story and confession about relapsing in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

I decided for sure that I was done. I also have a baby on the way, which is my prime motivation. So with inspiration and motivation, I smoked my last cigarette on the Friday before Memorial Day, this year. I have not smoked a single puff since.

The news of Peter's death has, understandably, hit me pretty hard, since I thought of Peter as my inspiration for quitting. I think the best thing I can do now for his memory is to stay smoke free for the rest of my life.

Whether I relapse at any point or not, I must say that I am quickly becoming one of those ex-smokers who are the worst kind of non-smoker. I can smell a cigarette in the car next to me on the street, even when my windows are up - yuck! I smell them when someone is around the corner downtown a block away. I half jokingly say that I support a public spaces amoking ban. Maybe that's less than half a joke.

Either way, in the end, I no longer smoke and I have Peter to at least partially thank. I thought that smart people could avoid lung cancer by being smarter than it, or something. Obviously that is not the case.

Rest in peace, Peter. Bless your soul. You have earned moksha.

-Paul