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December 31, 2005
Top 10 Things that Need to go Away in 2006!
In keeping with last year's tradition I give you the Top 10 Things that Need to go Away in 2006!
10. Lindsey Lohan, the Hilton sisters, Jessica Simpson, Mischa Barton, Nicole Richie and any other "starlet" that "looks good" but is dumb as dirt. Do something that is really worth while and then you can be lauded, until them get to stepping!
9. Tom "I'm a gay man trapped in a freakoid body" Cruise! You aren't fooling anyone. You're mean, you're rude and you need to stop brainwashing Katie!! Find a man and stop running off at the mouth constantly about things you don't even begin to understand. While you're at it maybe you should be deprogrammed too.
8. Anne Coulter. You're mean, you're rude and you haven't a clue what you are saying about anything! Shut the hell up already!!
7. Bill O'Rielly. See comments for Anne Coulter. And I'll add this, you scream awfully loud about things you must be guilty of. And deleting something from your transcripts because you went a little too far doesn't mean you didn't say it...it just means you aren't man enough to stand behind your words.
6. Neo-con Republicans. This election do the right thing...vote out the Neo-cons!!
5. Tax cuts for the rich. I think you've given your buddies enough tax breaks. Please explain to me how you can give more tax breaks with record billion dollar deficits? You guys need to go back to school and learn some real math and economics!
4. The Bush Administration. Clinton may have lied about getting a blow job (oh the horror!) but when you guys lie (and you do it often) people die. You should be ashamed of yourselves! Impeachment to all of you! Your sorry butts need to be thrown in jail!!
3. Blind faith in something just because it's what you desperately want to believe. Just because someone tells you something is red it doesn't mean it is actually red. Use your OWN eyes, your OWN ears, your OWN brain and figure out what is right and what is wrong. Neo-con talking points aren't helping you. You're smarter than this!! Stop drinking the Kool-Aide!
2. Fox News! See 3-8. Enough said!
And finally good old #1!
1. Intolerance. Let's stop worrying about whether we're green, purple, red, yellow or blue and just be human! We all share this planet, let's try and get along just for a year and see how it goes. I think you'd be amazed at how much better this world would be. It won't be easy, but then again nothing worth having ever is.
Posted by Daffodil at 12:48 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 30, 2005
And They Say Young Children Don't Remember Things
As I mentioned earlier we went over to have lunch with Jamison. We went to Don Pablo's, which I love and Jamison usually vetoes. Back in September we went there after church one Sunday when Joesf and Hana were here visiting us. Alexis got a little antsy so I took her outside to walk up and down the sidewalk and blow off a little steam and as you can see in the link she insisted on carrying my Pooh umbrella to block the sun. Today as Jamison was paying the check, Alexis and I went outside because she was a little antsy again and as soon as we started walking up the sidewalk she told me "Mommy, I need Pooh Umbrella!" Sadly I didn't have it with me, but we took a walk anyway. Who says kids don't remember things from months ago?
Posted by Daffodil at 5:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Get The IRS Out of My Church
Bradley Whitford has a great post over on Huffington Post. This focused attack by the Republicans on liberal churches is hilarious to me. Every Republican sitting in a pew was being told to vote for Republicans or they would be left burning in hell. I mean there were churches kicking people out for suggesting that they shouldn't be doing stuff like that. Republican churches were giving away their membership lists to the RNC and the Republicans say there is nothing wrong with that...Just religious people doing their part to follow their beliefs. Yet a liberal church actually does a truth comparison of both candidates and finds both of them lacking and deserves to be punished? Excuse me? That's rapidly approaching fair and balanced, not in the Fox News of right wing hate speech, but in the sense of a fair comparison of both candidates. No one gets more nervous when religion and politics gets mixed than me because politics is based on lies and deception. Religion is supposed to be free of those things. I feel it demeans religion to involve itself in politics. That's not to say the religion doesn't effect your politics, it's just to say that we should all avoid anything political in that relationship. I know what you Neo-cons are screaming...but Jamison my racist hate religion mates perfectly with my racist Republican hate ideology. True, but that doesn't mean that we should risk the free exercise clause because you're a racist. Everyone would just be a lot better off if the mixing of the two would just stop. The next thing that always spews from a racist Neo-con's mouth is that the black churches were doing it first. And I will answer the same way I always do...if the black churches ran and jumped off a cliff would you? And if they were breaking the law, why didn't someone report them? Or is it that you THINK that black churches were doing it, but you don't know for sure. See that's the problem when you're dealing with people with paranoid delusions...what they think is happening is seldom what is actually going on in the real world. As my mother used to say when my brother and I would be fighting, I don't care who started it, but it all stops now!
Read more over at Huffington Post.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Black Lawmakers Vow to Repeal Georgia Voter Law
Republicans and racism go hand and hand. I went to high school in Georgia and I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that racism is alive and well down there. Republicans have totally embraced racism as the core tenant of their party as a part of the "Southern Strategy". So seeing them getting something like this implemented is not surprising at all. It's all a part of the Republican plan to create a permanent lock on the Southern states in their hopes of creating a right wing theocracy in Washington. It also doesn't surprise me that this effort got so much support from the Republican Controlled Justice Department over the objections of the staff of lawyers that work there. The Republicans have been running rough shot over them for years now in hopes of creating a Republican majority by any means necessary. And I hold out no hope that the Supreme Court, which is nothing more than a Defacto Republican party branch at this point, will do something about this. And even if they were the Republican party wouldn't enforce their will anyway, so there is no point to the exercise. What I think should be done is a national campaign against Jim Crowe like we did in the old days. Decent people are going to have to drive down to the racist Republican hotbeds in the South with money and help get people get registered to vote.
There is zero chance that they will get national guard support from the feds so I would recommend they be well armed individuals given the lax gun laws in red states. Basically organizations need to give these individuals the national groups credit cards and go to town getting everyone an ID. And carry around video cameras to record the Republican thugs reactions. The internet will be key to this because the videos have to be uploaded instantly and made available to the public because it's going to make the 1960's look like a joke. The South has institutionalized all racism and they will not let their racism go after they've gone to so much trouble to hide it from the world. Trust me in a matter of weeks you'll see the same Republican legislature talking about outside "agitators" and passing laws making it illegal for someone else to pay for your ID. Then we will switch to giving people cash and they will start having our people shot in "robberies". The standard Republican methodology from their Klan days. It's going to get ugly. The point is we need to start today.
Read more over at Yahoo News.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Predictions for 2006
Evidently this year there is great effort to predict the future. I'm not sure what to think of all it. I went over to the hate group RedState.org to check out their predictions and they must be free basing coke or something over there because they've got some crazy stuff on their site. I really would love someone explanation about what Howard Dean did to them personally to deserve such hate. I'm not sure about such predictions, there are so many variables to calculate into make accurate predictions. I think I can make some basic ones, but my instinct is to add caveats because there is nothing for sure these days.
My Predictions:
Democrats will take an additional 2 to 7 seats in the Senate.
Democrats will take an additional 5 to 35 seats in the House.
Democrats will take an additional 3 to 9 governorships in the US.
Alito will be confirmed with a 51 to 50 vote. He will go on to be the most evil Justice in American history, setting back the American justice system 100 years.
Howard Dean will be DNC chief for as long as he wants to be.
Arnold will lose his reelection bid in California.
Ehrlich will lose his reelection bid in Maryland and may not even make it out of the Republican primary fight after being challenged by a relative unknown.
Steele will lose his Senate bid in Maryland by a terrifyingly wide majority.
The Abramoff scandal will gut the Republican's ability to compete at every level.
The Republican party will allow a well timed terror attack against Americans somewhere in the world and it will backfire on them.
Bush will be impeached, but that'll happen in 2007 since we know Republicans couldn't go after one of their own.
Read more over at MYDD.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Iowa Klansman wants protest of gay marriage
Somebody should tell the Republicans they don't really want their base out in the streets like this. It's been long ago exposed that the Neo-Christians and the Christian Identity movement are basically the same group and they are the base of the Republican party. But the Republicans main strength has been their ability to hide their agenda behind the cover of what the Republican party used to represent. All the Republican pillars of thought have been turned into code words for their base. When they say smaller government that's code for less social programs for minorities. When they say strong national defense it's code for keeping Hispanics out at the border. When they say moral values it's code for isolating and punishing all of their undesirables. The entire Republican party platform is nothing more than a hate group check list now. I wonder if the split is occurring that I predicted? I wonder if the racist core of the Republican party will no longer tolerate being ignored in the name of gaining more power for the Republicans? They are going to finally stand up and demand that their hate ideology be implemented immediate across the entire government. It wouldn't surprise me at all. Of course there are going to be some red faced Republicans that didn't realize that they were actually parroting the talking points of hate groups over the years. Somehow I don't think that they didn't know, but they will act like it's a TOTAL surprise. All Republicans are hypocrites.
Read more over at America Blog.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Republicans begin next big cover-up operation
What I find amazing about the Republican party is that they don't really care that they broke the law, that never for a moment crosses their minds. They are criminals and criminals are suppose to break the law. Their only concern is how the rest of us found out about the law being broken. That's right folks, the President spies on Americans without any legal right and the problem isn't that he broke the law, it's that we found out about it. I don't think you can do much more to define the inherent immorality of a Republican than to look at this situation. They are only focused on covering up the efforts to report their un-American behavior, they have no moment of concern about the fact that they themselves are un-American. They know they hate America so it's not some surprise for them. Everyone's New Years resolution should be to make sure that no Republican is able to get in or stay in office in the new year or any year that follows. It's time for a change folks.
Read more over at America Blog.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Alexis Still Hates Riding In The Car
I just spent the better part of 30 minutes listening to Alexis whine and cry because she hates riding in a car. We went over to eat lunch with Jamison and the ENTIRE ride back she pitched the mother of all fits. And when we arrived in the driveway and I opened her door she hurled my cell phone with all her might across the driveway were it landed with a dissatisfied thud on the concrete. I was LIVID!! Luckily she didn't destroy my phone, but I told her if she did I was taking money out of her savings account to pay for a new one, to which she asked me "Mommy, phones cost money??!?" in the most incredulous voice you've ever heard. I was torn between laughing my head off and screaming from the sheer torture of it all. She is currently pretending to nap while I catch up on email. I definitely feel a Lemon Drop coming on when Jamison gets home from work. On days like this I've more than earned one.
Posted by Daffodil at 1:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
We Have Zeta
We now have Tropical Storm Zeta! That's right Z-E-T-A!! But hurricane season is over you say and there is no global warming you insist. What will it take to convince you idiots? A Mega Hurricane sweeping through your neighborhood? The Polar Ice Caps completely melting and wreaking utter havoc on our planet? You laugh now, but it's starting to happen and it might not happen in your life time, but your grandchildren and your great grandchildren will surely see it up close and personal. This is but a mere sampling of what is to come and I'm sure when things get worse you'll still hold to your outdated, moronic assumptions that you know everything and the rest of us are wrong. Oh well. There's not much I can say or do to convince you so let's let nature give you a show you won't soon forget.
Read more at the National Hurricane Center.
Posted by Daffodil at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nelson Smiling
Posted by Daffodil at 12:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 29, 2005
What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?
| Your 2005 Song Is |
 "But since you've been gone I can breathe for the first time I'm so moving on" In 2005, you moved on. |
Funny enough I actually love this song. I like Kelly Clarkson in general for that matter. My favorite song of hers right now is Because Of You, but this one is good too. :o)
Posted by Daffodil at 5:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Thinking
Paula Deen is making coconut shrimp on her TV show Paula's Home Cooking and I have to admit I've never had coconut shrimp. While I love shrimp (steamed or sautéed) and I love coconut, the thought of the two together does not sound appetizing to me. First off I can do without even plain fried shrimp and secondly when I think of coconut I think of dessert, not the main course. I wonder who ever thought to put the two together?
Posted by Daffodil at 4:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Kos-Eye View
All I can say is ! I can't believe they printed something that close to the truth in an American magazine. The folks at Newsweek must be trying to get on the Republican hate list or something. As always Markos is dead on with his analysis. Mind you there are still a few things we disagree on, but as a whole I'd love to see this kind of truth to be my starting point most days. I really agree with him that Bloggers are a bad source for fund raising. It costs money to run a blog and we don't have a lot extra usually laying around to fund political groups. We can lead people to funding choices, but the reality is that we don't have anymore influence than that. The one place I have to disagree with him on is the 2006 race. I'm still leaning towards a shift in at least one house of Congress and he doesn't buy that. I understand his cynicism on the subject because the American people have betrayed themselves before and there is no reason to think that good sense will suddenly overtake them this election especially with the Republicans "counting" the votes. But I think he's underestimating the entire picture of what's happening in this country right now. The American people are angry and they are looking for the source of their rage. They've stopped trusting their normal outlets of information and are looking for someone to lead them. I think that's where the blogsphere will be able to play an important role in the next election. Next year will be filled with scandal and corruption coming out of every pore of the Republican party. The party's condescending platitudes of "trust us" just doesn't ring true to even the most devout Republicans. They are starting to feel like they've been taken for fools. There is the core 20% or so that would never flinch if the Republican party got on national television and explained they were the minions of Satan, but the rest of the party want to view themselves as reasonable and intelligent people and they looking for an excuse to join with the rest of the country that has been alienated from them and get America back on course.
To end on a positive note, I have to agree with him that Warner is the presidential candidate to watch in 2008. I don't know what Hilary's plans are, but just the suggestion that she might run ties down Neo-con resources trying to defame her and that's good for everybody. If you get a chance go over and read Markos' insights on the political future of this country. And if you get a chance pick up his new book.
Read more over at Daily Kos and Newsweek.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I'm Excited!
It's official...we're going back to the Outer Banks in September. I booked the house yesterday! I can't wait! We booked a different house this time a little further south, with a view of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Alexis is already excited and can't stop talking about the pool and teaching Nelson to build sand castles, which is funny if you think about it since all she does with the sand is pour it out, but it's cute none the less. The house has a gourmet kitchen set up, which makes me happy and Wi-Fi access and a home theater with stadium seating, which makes Jamison happy. The house even has an elevator so no slumping luggage, kids and groceries up 3 flights of stairs! My best friend Darlene is going and I haven't seen her in ages so we'll get to enjoy each other's company. It should be a lot of fun.
Posted by Daffodil at 12:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The New Dad
Posted by Daffodil at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Curse Word! Curse Word! Curse Word!
I just broke ANOTHER glass pitcher! That's the second one I've had that has been broken. This one died horribly when a glass bottle of ginger jumped from the cabinet as I was trying to get to the nutmeg and crashed into the side of the pitcher which was sitting on the counter full of blueberry tea. Curse Word! Curse Word! Curse Word! Not only did I really like that pitcher, but now I've got to make some more tea! Drat!
Posted by Daffodil at 11:49 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
He's Back
Sebastian literally materialized out of nowhere. I'm not sure where he was hiding, but where ever it was it was a very good hiding place!
Posted by Daffodil at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Fish Tank Inhabitant Update
The two female beta fish are settling in very nicely. The like to herd the rest of the fish in the tank, which is funny when you think about it because they are tiny and even the HUGE angelfish cower in front of them. The male beta fish doesn't know what to do with them. He'll show them his fins and they just look at him as if "So what! You're not all that!" Then he'll cower for a while under the rock sculpture and come back later and check them out again. He doesn't attack them though and the guy at the fish store said he might so that's a good thing. That means he's accepting them even though they aren't of breeding age yet.
The crabs are doing well too. The only issue with them is that I can only find 2 of them in the tank. Either Sebastian is hiding really well or he's gone on the lam. Xamot and Tomax stick together for the most part like glue. They are either a mating pair or they just like each other a lot. I thought I had the tank pretty well sealed off and I can't find him anywhere in the house or around the tank so maybe he's in there somewhere, or maybe he's transubstantiated, but as of right now I can't find the little bugger!
On a side note I must give props to the fish store where we purchased the fish. After getting sick of having fish die immediately that came from PetsMart I decided to try a local fish store I had heard good things about. So yesterday afternoon we drove over to House of Tropicals in Glen Burnie. If you're in the DC/Baltimore Metro area I highly recommend this place. They have a HUGE selection and their fish appear to be very healthy and spunky. They even have reptiles (shudder) and small mammals. They had a bunny I fell in love with, but Jamison said no. Anyway, check them out if you get a chance, I think you'll be impressed.
For now I'm off to see if I can find Sebastian. He's got to be around here somewhere. I'll keep you posted.
Posted by Daffodil at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Conversation At Daffodil Lane After Being Up Much of the Night
"If you're going to take a shower before I leave you need to get up and do it now."
"What time is it?"
"It's 7:38."
"Give me two more minutes. Alexis is killing me with the no sleep, teething thing."
"I think we should have three more." (NOTE THE SARCASM!!)
"In your dreams book boy and in my nightmares! One's it baby!"
Jamison laughed.
"Alexis, if you want a brother or sister you need to start imagining one because it isn't happening. You'll have to make due with Nelson."
"Ok!"
Well that was easy. At least she doesn't care! :O)
Posted by Daffodil at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 28, 2005
The Stages of Religious Development
There are few things that are more annoying than being right and being told to change what you believe because the right answer doesn't fit into the narrowly defined hate ideology of the Neo-Christian right wing in this country. This holiday season not only my faith, but my patience was tested incessantly because I'm in a place spiritually that your average Neo-Christian hate monger can not, and will not, ever be able to understand. So I asked myself the question that most of us of faith ask ourselves when faced with those who are to shallow or mentally lacking in the ability to achieve the level of faith we have reached can...what do I do about this insanity? Now I know what you're thinking...Jamison faith is a binary state and if you believe that I can tell you who you voted for in the last election and that I'm more likely to find you at a Klan rally than a peace march. This entire situation reminded me of a conversation I had with Shawn, a guy I know that's in Seminary school on the subject. He pointed me to book by Chaplain Scotty McLennan called Finding Your Religion.
In that book Scotty details the 6 levels of religious achievement that a person goes through before reaching what I'm going to call "pure" faith. Now I'm a big fan of having things numbered and organized...it's the sociologist and engineer in me that wants to think in mathematical formulas that I can wrap my mind around and analyze. Below the fold I'm going to paste the 6 levels in and have a brief discussion about how they apply to my life.
Stage One (Magic)
1.) Is your world full of spirits and demons?
2.) Are fairy tales your favorite kind of literature?
3.) Do you think God makes everything happen, for good and bad?
Stage Two (Reality):
1.) Do you spend a lot of time trying to determine what’s real and what’s not?
2.) Are scriptures true in a concrete and literal sense, rather than being stories and maxims that may or may not be real?
3.) Do you feel you can influence God’s actions by being good?
Stage Three (Dependence):
1.) Do you have an important peer group or leader who is primarily responsible for shaping your faith?
2.) Is it important to you to understand and follow religious doctrine and moral rules?
3.) Is your main image of God that of a perfect parent?
Stage Four (Independence):
1.) Is your spiritual life unique and personal?
2.) Do you often find yourself wanting to demystify scripture?
3.) Do you think of God or Ultimate Reality primarily as an impersonal force or spirit (or as nonexistent)?
Stage Five (Interdependence):
1.) Do you find a spiritual community important to you at the same time that you maintain your own distinctive faith?
2.) Do you experience spiritual power in religious symbols and myths that you can also analyze objectively?
3.) Do you conceive of God or Ultimate Reality both as a person and as an impersonal force?
Stage Six (Unity):
1.) Do you sense yourself in community with religiously committed people of any and all traditions?
2.) Is your consciousness ego-free and beyond paradox and ambiguity?
3.) Do you often feel that God or divine spirit is in everything and that everything exists in God or divine Spirit?
First things first. For the Atheists out there, I don't know how the author deals with the notion of no faith at all. For the sake of consistency I would guess there is a Stage Zero in which you believe in none of these things. This is not part of my concern, so I leave such issues for you to address in your own free time.
Now in my perfect world everyone at church would be forced to always have clearly displayed a card with the number of their current level of faith on their person. Mostly because I've found people at level 3 to be so backwards mentally that they should be avoided and be segregated off by themselves because they are so moronic that they aren't worth the effort to try and help them make it to the next level. Obviously you can tell I don't have my preacher hat on for this discussion. I'm talking about for me personally right now. If you've read the blog for any length of time you should know that I'm at a comfortable level 4. My faith is my own. I require no nanny God to Shepard me through life with the threats of death and destruction to be a decent person. I have internalized why I follow the rules and I follow them with little or no contemplation of the fact. When faced with a situation that is outside of my previous consideration I default to tolerance and understanding, then look for some religious precedent to fall back on. Which leads me back to the differences between people of varying levels of faith. I know many level 5 people and a few level 6 people, and I have to say it's never crossed my mind to try and drag them down to my level of spirituality. I respect that they are able to achieve something I currently just lack the ability to do. Some day I hope that I will be able to connect to a larger spiritual community and will be able to work toward common goals, but at this point that kind of community doesn't exist for me.
Which finally brings me to my original question. Should I tolerate efforts to bring me down to lower level of faith? Spiritually I can not bring myself to hate people that are different from me for that reason alone. If their actions do me no harm as a person, then their journey is their own. To me doctrine is the crutch of the weak minded fools who can't grasp principals of faith and goodness. So what is to be done to remedy the situation? Those that are permanently stuck at a lower level of spiritual development who lash insanely out at all who dare to travel further up the ladder of faith do themselves and their religions more harm than good. Mostly I pity them for their inability to grasp what kind of fools they really are. Then I try and put back on my preacher hat and ask the question...can they be saved from themselves? I mean if you have people so trapped in their own delusions that they aren't even aware how clueless they really are, how do you reach them? The easiest solution for everyone else is to isolate them and keep them at arms length, but there really isn't much hope for them with that approach. Normally I would expect that their ministers to step in and provide them harsh, but kind guidance away from their chosen path, but they seem to congregate in large masses of those who have no desire to grow spirituality just like themselves. The entire Neo-Christian movement in this country is just a glut of human apathy and ignorance spiritually. The notion of faith itself has been put in danger by those who lack the desire for anyone to gain higher and more mature levels of faithfulness and yet there doesn't seem to be any concern nationally about this.
I had hoped that this exercise would yield some insight into what to do about the problem, yet it has left me exactly where I was originally. I can already hear the radical hate mongering Neo-Christian response about how they aren't delusional, that the stages of faith are nothing more than a "liberal" construct to lead people away from their rigid hate ideology, but I think if they were capable of being honest at any level, they would have to admit the stages are legitimate, the real problem is with their lack of actual faith. Beyond some sort of broad revival of real faith in this country I don't see an easy way to solve this problem. The Neo-Christian hate ideology is just seeded way too deeply in this country. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm looking for a good answer.
Posted by ManDrake at 10:07 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
AFA Goes After Santorum
For those of you that don't recall the AFA is the hate group that threaten Ford and pretty much is leading a war against America trying to implement the Republican hate theology everywhere in Corporate America. What makes this all the more amusing is that Santorum is the poster boy for the Republican hate ideology, but given that he is so unpopular that it is unlikely that he could get elected as a janitor for the local school board he's suddenly "found" reality. Santorum is dumping the radical right wing Neo-Christian fanatics at the every level of the Republican party and has "suddenly" discovered that he's a "moderate". Anytime you hear a Republican talking about being a "moderate" that's code for I'm afraid I'm not going to get reelected so I'm going to pretend to be good so I can fool those stupid voters in my home state. Ricky hasn't changed at all...he is the most violent supporter of the radical hate ideology of the Republican party and no amount of back peddling is going to change that for anyone. Ricky wants to see women made into second class citizens and make radical Neo-Christianity the standard religion of the United States. He has not a single "moderate" bone in his body. All he has is his hate and contempt for the American people and the freedom that we enjoy. Like all other Republicans he wants to take freedom and democracy away from us. Sorry you little racist monster, the people of Pennsylvania are reviewing your book and your past statements and find your miraculous conversion a bit on the suspicious side. You were better off embracing the hate mongers in your own party so you could at least go down with some percentage of the vote. But without the local hate groups supporting you and no one in their right mind in the regular community supporting you, you can kiss your seat and your chance to destroy America goodbye. Better luck next time buddy boy, you lose.
Read more over at Dem Bloggers.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Corzine Forgoes Salary
Now that's what I'm talking about folks. Leadership. Corzine as you know is the new governor of New Jersey. Given the state's budget problems he decided that it was best that his salary as governor could be better spent on the people than himself. Too bad we can't see more of that kind of behavior going on with politicians in Washington. Maybe Corzine can start a trend among the rich guys that make it to Washington. Now I'm not going to begrudge people that aren't millionaires their right to collect a salary to stay alive, just the ones that don't really need it. The ones that make more in interest off their holdings than their entire congressional money.
Read more over at Dem Bloggers.
Posted by ManDrake at 8:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Welcome To Daffodil Lane
We have 5 new arrivals here at the Daffodil Lane fish tank...2 female beta fish (named Niobe and Trinity) and 3 fresh water crabs (named Sebastian, Tomax & Xamot). As you can see Jamison had a lot to do with the naming. ;o)
Click on the extended entry below to see the new fish tank inhabitants.
Niobe
Trinity
Tomax & Xamot
Sebastian
Posted by Daffodil at 6:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Snug As A Bug In A Rug
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Where's Nelson?
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Nelson and Pop
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Top Texas Criminal Court Will Hear DeLay's Bid for Speedy Trial
Just goes to prove that there are two justice systems in this country...the one the rest of us get and the ones that crooked Republicans get access to. I mean can you imagine if a normal person demanded the quick resolution of a trial because they might lose a promotion?? I mean a judge for you and I would declare us guilty of all charges on the spot and throw us under the jailhouse. But this is Texas where corruption and criminality is king. We will likely see a Kangaroo court rush through a not guilty verdict and rush the radical Republican Representative from Texas back to the Washington where he can lead the fight against the poor and helpless for the Republican party. It's a sickening thing to watch. Luckily the other charges likely to be filed against DeLay in federal court will not be brushed under the rug so quickly. So DeLay may jump out of the pan and into the fire with his worthless anti-America self.
Read more over at America Blog and Bloomberg.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wiretaps fail to make dent in terror war
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Anyone with better than a 3 IQ could have figured out this wouldn't work. It appears that while the Republicans were spying on Americans for no readily apparent reason, Al Qaeda had stopped using the methods that would have allowed spying on them in the first place years ago. The only people that the Republicans are catching are normal Americans that are protected by the 4th Amendment of the Constitution. Oh wait...when worthless pieces of human trash like the Republican party are in charge the Constitution means nothing. This is nothing more than a political tool used by the Republicans in hopes of getting damaging information on their enemies inside the United States instead of real terrorists. And no, the imaginary enemies that the Republicans see around every corner aren't there.
Read move over at Insight Magazine.
Posted by ManDrake at 5:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fake Out
This morning when Alexis woke up the first thing she said to me was "Mommy my ear hurts" while pointing at her right ear. Although she didn't show any other signs of being sick I decided to give Dr. West a call anyway because last time she told me that we ended up at the doctors office at 7:00 at night. Dr. West wasn't in today, but Dr. Schaeffer was so we set up an appointment for 9:50. It turns out it wasn't her ear, but she's cutting another 5 year old molar on the other side! Her jaw is sore and that was her way of telling me she was in pain. So luckily we didn't have an ear infection, just new teeth. We gave her some Motrin, rubbed her gums down and let her eat some ice. She's currently in her bed and hopefully will take a nap soon. The other molar is all the way in and this one is 3/4's of the way in. I'm expecting the top two to make their appearance in the next few weeks as well. I guess in a way it's a good thing to just get them through and be done with it. Good thing she loves brushing her teeth.
Posted by Daffodil at 11:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What's The World Coming To?
What's the world coming to when 10 year olds have cell phones? And what kind of mother dumps her kid off at Pizza Hut by HIMSELF with another little friend? I guess that's why he has the cell phone, but come on! At least make it a cell phone where he can only call his mother or father and no one else. The little TAP called 3 girls and had a call from another little girl within a 15 minute period. Did I mention 10 year olds do not need cell phones???!!??!? And where the hell did said 10 year old learn to say to a little girl on the other end of the phone "Hey sexy!" You're a CHILD!! Whoever told you it was ok to talk like that to another CHILD needs serious help!! Some people don't need to be parents, they obviously aren't responsible enough to manage the task!!
Posted by Daffodil at 11:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Faeries
As of late I've been utterly captivated by faeries. I can't get enough of them! I've got books about them, I've got books about how to draw and paint them, there are faeries in my book I'm writing and I decided to see if I couldn't find some sort of jewelry that was fairy related that I really liked and used some of my Christmas money to purchase something.
I found this antique fairy pendant on EBay:
And I'm happy to say that I actually won the pendant! Opals are my birthstone so it makes it even more special. It arrived yesterday from Darlington in the UK. I couldn't be happier! :o)
Posted by Daffodil at 9:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 27, 2005
Boomers don't trust direct deposit
This is something I've never understood. My mom has talked about this stuff and I'm always baffled. Why not use direct deposit? It's the greatest thing since sliced bread! I go to the actual bank less than 4 times a year. I don't even think about it at this point in my life. If I could find a way to do personal direct deposits I'd do that so I could avoid doing any sort contact with the bank folks at all. I've never heard of anyone that liked going to the bank. I know people that work at banks that don't even like to go there so why would I want to do it? I don't worry at all about them stealing my money, mostly because it's not like seeing me in person is going to make them any less likely to steal the money anyway. I mean we live in an age of rampant corruption with the Republicans promising corrupt business types no repercussions for stealing from customers. It's not like it would change anything if they do it electronically or hold a gun to your head. They aren't going to get in trouble for it. So why waste your personal time bothering? And I'm not made any more assured when I see the physical check either. I believe next year I'll be able to turn that off and I happily will. I already don't receive physical bills for the vast majority of my bills, instead I get email versions or email reminders to go onto their website to look at my bill so I can pay it. And that's just fine with me. Same principal, I know what my bills are and when one of them doesn't come I go to the site to find out what's gone wrong. I'm not going to lose sleep about missing an email because I'm pretty much organized at this point. Dianne has to work pretty hard to mess up the warning systems we have in place. Sorry mom, but I vote we just force all government related stuff online and into electronic formats. Either go electronic or lose your government benefits. But that's just the kind of guy I am.
Read more over at CNN.
Posted by ManDrake at 3:45 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Diebold Pulls Out of North Carolina
Scary isn't it? The law in North Carolina required the companies that made voting software must provide the source code for review by state election officials or they couldn't be in the state. Diebold's response was that the law needed to be rewritten because their counting code was proprietary. Interesting...what about counting is so complicated that it can't be reviewed? What about it is so special that it can't see the light of day? Well after seeing Diebold machines get hacked with no trace the reasons have become readily apparent. The Diebold folks have been working closely with their friends in the Republican party to make sure that those pesky voters votes get counted in a way that's always favorable to them. I'm glad to see my donations are going to make this country a better place by making sure worthless human trash in the Republican party aren't able to change my vote to a vote for them and their vile hate ideology.
Read more over at the EFF.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
If you cherish your rights, this nominee bears questioning
It's a great op-ed piece on the utter lack of any grasp of reality that Mr. Alito might have. I can't decide which one of his insane rulings to take away our fundamental rights as American's enrages me most. The leading one right now is his ruling that it was ok for the police to strip search a 10 year old girl and her mother with a warrant that was for her father who wasn't on premises. But he's got a lot of other rules that are equally as bad. Basically like all America hating Republicans he hopes to turn the clock back to "happier" times. Unfortunately in Mr. Alito's case it's the time before we were a country and under the rule of a radical king also named George and we had no fundamental rights and freedom. The job of the courts is to protect us from our governments excesses not to encourage them, a fact that's completely lost on your average worthless piece of human trash in the Republican party.
Read more over at Yahoo News.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Bush Hoping to Win More Battles in 2006
He can hope all he wants. Actually all you American hating Neo-cons can hope and pray all you want. The reality is that you are on the wrong side on this one. You went so far right of crazy that you now are out there in the ether of evil and corruption. I was really amused with the last line of the article "Georgetown University political scientist Stephen Wayne, suggesting that to turn things around, Bush should reach out to Democrats." Hello??? Republicans are too stupid to reach out to Democrats in any meaningful way. Remember the last time the President "reached" out to the Democrats. He told them they would follow the hate ideology of the Republican party or die. The Democrats said fine and the following year has embodied how successful the Republican ideology is when they are allowed to implement. 2005 has been the Republican ideologies finest hour. This is the best they can do on their own. They finally screwed up what the Democrats had put in motion to the point that the real effects of Republican leadership finally started to leak into all levels of our society. And their failure just grew and grew, Neo-conservative philosophy is an abject failure and all who follow it are nothing more than ignorant automatons. I read a good evisceration of their "economic" philosophy. It's more of an abject failure than their "moral" philosophy which makes Clinton look like a saint in comparison. I say 2006 is going to be more of the same for the Commander in Chief Crackhead. Hopefully his presidency won't make it to the end of the year for all of our sakes.
Update: I was thinking about it all last night or maybe dreaming about it. A funnier way to review all of Bush's failures this year is by watching the JibJab cartoon on the subject.
Sadly I think it's really the best any Republican can do. It's time for a change folks, it's only going to get worse from now on.
Read more over at Yahoo News.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 26, 2005
Alexis, Grams and Nelson Together
Posted by Daffodil at 8:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Thinking
Posted by Daffodil at 8:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Meeting Nelson
"There's toes in there!"
"Hi my 'Melson'!"
"Baby has a 'bop' too!"
Kisses
Posted by Daffodil at 8:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Clinton's Lighter Side Available on DVD
I love the modern age, hear something you like and people will make it available to you. Of course anything that puts Billy back in the headlines. So just to help boil the blood of all the Neo-con America haters out there let's make sure everyone knows where they can get the latest video from the Clinton library!!
Remember it's never too late to give the America hater on your list a Clinton comedy video.
Read more over at ABC News.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Strategic Holiday Reading for Left-Wing Sons-in-Laws with Right-Wing Fathers-in-Law
I personally have this very problem. I've long since given up trying to try anything approaching reason. One book that I found to be another good bridging book, if you want to bother with such insanity, is believe it or not the Pat Buchanan book. It's a good choice.
Mind you it's filled with the insane drivel that has come to define the radical right, but what it does is create a wedge between the most insane in the party and those that are just greedy and stupid which make up the rest of the party. The book has just the right mix of racism, ignorance and foolishness to appeal to radical right, while at the same time leaving you with the sense of good you've done by introducing doubt into the hate machine that is the Republican party. Danielle's suggestions might be good too, but I'm a more a juggler aiming kind of guy.
Read more over at Huffington Post.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:43 PM
December 25, 2005
Merry Merry Merry
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. Alexis was tucked all snug in her bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in her head.
Click on the extended entry below to see Christmas at Daffodil Lane.
The Goodies
Look Daddy!
Cool!
Elmo!
My New Flashlight
Strainer
Listening to Elmo's Heart
Snowflake Girl
Umbrella Girl
Scoop
Presents
Christmas Cutie
Let's ride Daddy!
Dollhouse
Blocks
Remodeling
Building a wall
How do I get out?
Posted by Daffodil at 4:20 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
Happy Anniversary and Birthday Mama!!
My mother had a bummer of a birthday and then she got married on the same day too to compound her troubles. So Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, and Happy 35th Anniversary!!
Posted by ManDrake at 9:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Dianne will be on later with all the pictures. So far the highlights of the morning have been when Alexis' programmable talking Elmo said her name she looked at him and said "huh!!!" Now she's riding around in her wagon unhappy because we aren't going fast enough. Of course no morning would be complete without her ending up in up in timeout. Good times folks! :) I hope all you are having a happy Christmas morning.
Posted by ManDrake at 8:28 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 24, 2005
Christmas Eve Santa Firetruck
As I mentioned last year Santa comes around our neighborhood every Christmas Eve on a firetruck. Here are a few pictures from this year. Enjoy!
"Mommy Santa's on a Firetruck and he went to Starbucks!"
Click the extended entry below to see more pictures.
"Santa! Where are you? Where are you?"
"Santa! There you are!"
"Candy canes!"
Sleepy Candy Cane Girl
And Santa's Elves gave out candy canes and Alexis just had to put all of ours on the tree.
Happy Christmas Eve to everyone! May Santa bring you everything you might wish for!
Posted by Daffodil at 9:16 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
More Nelson Pictures
We left here this morning at 3:45 and arrived in Bethesda around an hour later. Nelson was born at 5:17 am. He's a cutie! Katherine had a few complications so she had to be transferred from the birthing center to the hospital, but everything is ok now and she is now at home asleep in her own bed. I spent the afternoon looking after Nelson and let me tell you...I'm hooked! This boy is a heart breaker mark my words! Welcome Nelson! Aunt Dianne already loves you beyond words and I know you'll take the rest of the world by storm too.
Nelson and Aunt Dianne
Click on the extended entry for more pictures.
Weighing In
Nelson and Grams
Aunt Leann wears Nelson's hat
When Katherine was admitted to the hospital Nelson hung out with me in Mom's room. Katherine was a patient, but Nelson was just visiting. This is not long after we arrived in Katherine's room.
Baby feet!
Hiding
He's a heartbreaker I'm telling you...watch out girls! Nelson will steal your heart!
Nelson and Mom
Posted by Daffodil at 8:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Billionaires for Bush
Now this turned out to be a very interesting site. A realistic look at the economic numbers in our country and how the Republican party is attempting at every turn to fool people into believing that the economy is doing good. They even made the joke about defunding the budget so that way the economy would be on the verge of collapse so the Democrats are forced to raised taxes so that the Republicans have a new talking point. Tragically that is exactly how the Republicans have been working for a long time. They implement their hate based ideology and then run the coffers close to empty, then the American people get angry about it and vote in someone else, they get the economy going well again, and then the Republicans claim that they can increase the quality of life and fools jump on board. I highly recommend you give the show a watch. It's sadly closer to the reality of how Republicans see us than it is to being a comical satire of their hate ideology.
Read more over at Billionaires for Bush.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Netflix wins first round in online DVD rental war
I'm not surprised at all. Actually I'm still kicking myself over not buying their stock when it was cheap. I had some money in my brokerage account that I was thinking about using to buy them, but then I got busy and the next thing I know the stock has doubled. Missed my change to make it rich. Anyway, they are crushing everyone in the marketplace, Wal-Mart got scared off by them, Blockbuster is hemorrhaging money all over the place, and Amazon is thinking about staying in England. The stock guys claim that it's going to be a 40 dollar stock. I think that's a little high, but it's always nice to dream. I'm more excited that they might be able to pull TiVo up with their partnership to allow me to download my NetFlix movies instead of having to use the postal service. That will be freaking awesome. I can't wait to try that out.
Read more over at Reuters.
Posted by ManDrake at 1:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Microsoft Uses Firefox's RSS Icon
This makes me extremely uncomfortable for the future. Micro$oft's state strategy has always been embrace expand extinguish. They've done it to the Mozilla folks in the past, so you'd think they would be a little bit more on the ball. The IE programmers are now working on stealing the best features out of the Firefox and putting them into their crappy product. And when you make agreements with the enemy that allow them to make it look more like your product your definitely on dangerous ground. I'm afraid that we are going to be looking back from this point in the future and realizing that it was on of the seminal mistakes made that lead to the weakening of Firefox's market share.
Read more over at Yahoo News.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
OpenOffice Updated To Fix Bugs in 2.0
I love to see technology moving forward so fast. The OpenOffice project has put out a new release of their product to incorporate problems found by customers in the field. What makes this impressive to me is that the fixes seem t