Yea, my mom and stepdad are selling pecans. So, if you want some good ones call them up or email. Guess who designed their site? It’s not that impressive, but I can change it later if need be.
06
Dec 02
Jobless Rate Hits 6%
The unemployment rate has hit its highest levels in 9 years. That’s not even taking into account the millions of people who have to work 2 jobs each to support their families. The Bush administration offered up two scapegoats, Paul O’Neill and Lawrence Lindsey, to cover for its complete and utter lack of economic initiative or sound policy. Who woulda thunk it that a huge tax cut to the richest Americans would fail so miserably? The richest Americans, even from a capitalist perspective, don’t create jobs unless you consider cleaning mansions a good job. This is a bad sign of things to come. On the other hand, if we hit 10% unemployment maybe people will start looking to hang someone from the streetlights in Washington and things might get done.
04
Dec 02
Be bold, be daring, be yourself, love your life
— John Dryden
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
Go and dare before you die.
Something mighty and sublime,
Leave behind to conquer time.”
–Goethe
— Mark Twain
— Homer
— Friedrich Nietzsche
— Friedrich Nietzsche
04
Dec 02
US Occupation in Afghanistan
Our interests are not served by oppressing an entire people. Now we’re spreading out into other parts of Afghanistan not controlled by the American warlord ‘President’ Hamid Karzai.
US plans security enclaves in dozen Afghan cities: Report:
The Pentagon has decided to create security enclaves in a dozen or so Afghan cities instead of being confined to Kabul in order to let American military and aid officials operate safely in the war-ravaged country.
US engineers, diplomats and aid workers protected by American and British troops will deploy this month in Gardez in Eastern Afghanistan to set up the first of several enclaves intended as hubs for reconstruction efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
According to the daily, some State Department officials suggested that if successful in Afghanistan, the approach could be used in Iraq in the event of a regime change there.
03
Dec 02
What would I do without Infowars.com?
For example:
Violence Against Police Hits 4-Year High — Using Fear to Militarize the Police and Designate American People as the Enemy. Here’s the truth in their own words, “Fewer police are being killed in the line of duty than there were 30 years ago,” Floyd said. “We’ve got more police on the street than we’ve ever had.
C’mon America, I know we can do better than that. But seriously, what they don’t mention in that headline, irresponsibly I think as Infowars points out, is that many of these cops died in automobile accidents.
03
Dec 02
Home Depot: Wage-slaves to be replaced by consumer drones
Via Infowars.com CNN: Check yourself out at Home Depot:
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — The Home Depot’s do-it-yourself clientele can now do it themselves at the checkout counter as part of a technology upgrade the company promises will make for shorter lines and faster service. …
The technology also could help Home Depot with a proposal it announced earlier this year to shift more employees from full-time to part-time status, Lewis said.
Four self-service checkout terminals are being set up in about 800 city locations to replace two or three employee-operated stations. The company also is buying performance software to assess cashiers’ skills.
Sixty percent of Home Depot staff are full-time. The other 40 percent are part-time.
Company spokesman Don Harrison said the retailer’s move to self-checkout is not an attempt to cut staff.
“Nobody is losing a job or being displaced as a result of this,” he said. “We can always use help back in the aisles waiting on customers. Will it mean a shift toward more part-time work? I don’t know.”
At one Atlanta Home Depot store, restaurant manager Mike Clark, 35, used the self-checkout to buy a snow shovel and a rake in less than three minutes.
“I look at it like you are getting four machines for the price of one employee,” Clark said. “It’s very efficient.”
Part-time work is good for corporations, no benefits to pay for. And shoot, in most of my many part-time jobs I was forced to work nearly 40 hours a week. The only difference is I didn’t get health or retirement benefits and my hours could be cut if they didn’t need as many people. Most people who work part-time have either another full or part-time job.
03
Dec 02
Equilibrium
Ever get the urge to overthrow your corrupt, oppressive government? Ever feel like you’re being trained to be a drone instead of a human being? Root for the underdog but don’t know why? Have you read and enjoyed 1984? If you answered yes to any of these questions you will probably enjoy the movie, Equilibrium, which comes out this weekend.
Equilibrium (2002)
Synopsis: In the nation of Libria, there is always peace among men. The rules of the Librian system are simple. If you are happy, you will be arrested. If you cry, the law will hunt you down. If you read a contraband book or so much as look at a smuggled painting, you’ve committed a crime. To keep the peace, citizens must take their daily doses Prozium, a powerful designer drug that stops feelings dead and keeps everyone on an even keel. Refuse to take the drug and special police will find you. Up until now, top-ranking government official John Preston has believed in this system, has upheld the system as a highly-trained “Cleric” who seeks out and destroys those who don’t take their pills. But then he skips his own dose of Prozium–and discovers an incredible new world of sensation that gives him the passion to fight for freedom.
You can view the trailer here. You know I’ll be there. The movies are the only place I get to see caps peeled off on fascist cogs.
Oh yeah, I liked the movie poster. “In the future where freedom is outlawed, outlaws will become heroes.” What do they mean in the future?
03
Dec 02
Mayberry Machiavellis
This was too funny. I have to start using this phrase. Of course, Ari Fleischer got his panties in a bunch. I saw some bullshit story about how women apparently find him very sexy. Gag me. He always has his mouth hanging open like some sort of waterhead. Remember, if you work for Hitler Jr. and his minions no criticism or you will feel Ari’s wrath. It’s a good sign that even many influential Republicans have little respect for the Bush gang.
Ex-Bush Aide Apologizes for Criticism
A former senior aide to President Bush apologized yesterday after being quoted as saying a band of “Mayberry Machiavellis” is running a White House in which politics trumps policy.
The Esquire magazine article — which extensively quoted John J. DiIulio Jr., the former head of Bush’s stalled effort to aid religious charities — represents a rare criticism by a one-time insider of a Bush White House that has placed a near-total lid on internal dissent.
01
Dec 02
Humorous selection from
Clarence Darrow, “How to Pick A Jury” (1936)
An Englishman is not so good as an Irishman, but still, he has come through a long tradition of individual rights, and is not afraid to stand alone; in fact, he is never sure that he is right unless the great majority is against him. The German is not so keen about individual rights except where they concern his own way of life; liberty is not a theory, it is a way of living. Still, he wants to do what is right, and he is not afraid. He has not been among us long, his ways are fixed by his race, his habits are still in the making. We need inquire no further. If he is a Catholic, then he loves music and art; he must be emotional, and will want to help you; give him a chance.
If a Presbyterian enters the jury box and carefully rolls up his umbrella, and calmly and critically sits down, let him go. He is cold as the grave; he knows right from wrong, although he seldom finds anything right. He believes in John Calvin and eternal punishment. Get rid of him with the fewest possible words before he contaminates the others; unless you and your clients are Presbyterians you probably are a bad lot, and even though you may be a Presbyterian, your client most likely is guilty.
If possible, the Baptists are more hopeless than the Presbyterians. They, too, are apt to think that the real home of all outsiders is Sheol, and you do not want them on the jury, and the sooner they leave the better. The Methodists are worth considering; they are nearer the soil. Their religious emotions can be transmuted into love and charity. They are not half bad; even though they will not take a drink, they really do not need it so much as some of their competitors for the seat next to the throne. If chance sets you down between a Methodist and a Baptist, you will move toward the Methodist to keep warm.
Beware of the Lutherans, especially the Scandinavians; they are almost always sure to convict. Either a Lutheran or Scandinavian is unsafe, but if both in one, plead your client guilty and go down the docket. He learns about sinning and punishing from the preacher, and dares not doubt. A person who disobeys must be sent to hell; he has God’s word for that.
As to Unitarians, Universalists, Congregationalists, Jews and other agnostics, don’t ask them too many questions; keep them anyhow, especially Jews and agnostics. It is best to inspect a Unitarian, or a Universalist, or a Congregationalist with some care, for they may be prohibitionists; but never the Jews and the real agnostics! And do not, please, accept a prohibitionist; he is too solemn and holy and dyspeptic. He knows your client would not have been indicted unless he were a drinking man, and anyone who drinks is guilty of something, probably much worse than he is charged with, although it is not set out in the indictment. Neither would he have employed you as his lawyer had he not been guilty.
I have never experimented with Christian Scientists; they are much too serious for me. Somehow, solemn people seem to think that pleasure is wicked. Only the gloomy and dyspeptic can be trusted to convict. Shakespeare knew: “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much; such men are dangerous.” You may defy all the rest of the rules if you can get a man who laughs. Few things in this world are of enough importance to warrant considering them seriously. So, by all means, choose a man who laughs. A juror who laughs hates to find anyone guilty. Never take a wealthy man on a jury. He will convict, unless the defendant is accused of violating the anti-trust law, selling worthless stocks or bonds, or something of that kind. Next to the Board of Trade, for him, the penitentiary is the most important of all public buildings. These imposing structures stand for capitalism. Civilization could not possibly exist without them. Don’t take a man because he is a “good” man; this means nothing. You should find out what he is good for. Neither should a man be accepted because he is a bad sort. There are too many ways of being good or bad. If you are defending, you want imaginative individuals. You are not interested in the morals of the juror. If a man is instinctively kind and sympathetic, take him.