Monday, August 31, 2009

Friday, August 28, 2009

Whole Foods



why i will not be shopping at Whole Foods.

thanks, mr. mackey (CEO of Whole Foods) for sharing your views on
President Obama's health care reform with the Wall Street Journal:

“The last thing our country needs is a massive new health care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health care system,” Mr. Mackey wrote.

i completely disagree.

"the last thing our country needs" - medical debt is the single biggest cause of bankruptcy in the world's richest nation. what exactly is so great about that, mr. mackey?

i will be shopping at Trader Joe's.

see:

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Ted Kennedy dies and microsoft manages this:


a champion of civil rights, advocate for the poor, race relations, and a fierce believer that health care is a right for all americans, including children...

perhaps congress shpould consider the wider issue and not their own interests, and those of the insurance companies.

no wonder the republicans hate liberals.

astonishingly, on the same day, microsoft manages to get in the news with this gem of a photoshop job and issues an apology:


Empower your people

unless they're black...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

my 1,270th post is the 400th anniversary of the birth of modern science.




on august 25th, 1609, observational science, not religion, ushered in a new way of understanding the world around us.

what reward did this individual receive for such towering achievements?

house arrest by the catholic church. his crime? by stating that the sun is the center of the solar system, not the earth was "false and contrary to scripture".

and contrary to popular belief, galileo DID NOT invent the telescope.

excellent wiki page can be seen here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

amazing that 400 years later, i am writing and posting this blog using a computer that operates under the absurd 'reality' of quantum mechanics.

400 years ago there were no lighbulbs, no electricity, no tv's, no cars, no cell phones, no computers, and not even a fucking pen that you didn't dip in ink. and no internet! imagine the horror if we were disconnected from the internet for even a week...

no fast food, no fast-food chains, no burgers or hot dogs, no supermarkets, no gasolene, no united states of america, and no motorcycles. no plastic, no human-induced climate change, and 50,000 people didn't die each year because of guns.

it's quite impossible to imagine living in such a world, although i would happily like to see a night sky free of light pollution. i would also like to live in a world without guns, but that is a daydream. luckily, i can ride my ducati, and i have no thoughts of killing anyone because they differ from me.

there was plenty of culture 400 years ago though, and italy was dripping with it.

i spent the morning in rockville, today, and it has none whatsoever.

such is 'progress'.

Monday, August 24, 2009

the biggest problem with moral authority





is when you don't possess any...

and americans are outraged over the release of the lockerbie bomber. who has cancer.

exactly what moral authority is it that the united states demonstrates to the rest of the world?

actions always speak louder than words.

strange that a nation with such strong 'christian' beliefs so quickly refuses to show any mercy to a man that was convicted so conveniently readily.

i actually drove past the crash site not long after that terrible event.

Monday, August 17, 2009

definition of an idiot


Certainly not Stephen Hawking...

... but someone who writes the editorial page at Investor's Business Daily:

“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless,”

UPDATE: Investors Business Daily has corrected its editorial, removing all mention of Stephen Hawking. And Hawking himself has responded, telling the UK’s Guardian:

Stephen Hawking:

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told us. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

Perhaps the Investor’s Business Daily has the same sort of prophetic insight on health care reform as they showed leading up to the financial collapse…

Where did they think he lived, Cambridge Massachussetts?

and the best bit is that anyone living in britain suffering the same disease, who was not stephen hawking would receive exactly the same medical treatment.


our next new home...




is currently some uneven dirt...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

and what you won't be seeing tonight if you look up...




...you won't be seeing the annual perseid meteor shower - because it's fucking cloudy.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

the definition of economic prosperity




human beings (the better off ones) consuming resources, destroying their habitat and that of others for self improvement, and leaving the consequences of their collective actions to the poorest and future generations.




i wonder what the world in 2050 will look like.

Friday, August 07, 2009