Turn around is fair play

Okay so I just referenced Obama getting bitch slapped by the CIA and lo' and behold suddenly the President decides it's NOT in the countries best interest to dig around in the past...
In a dramatic and high-profile reversal for his young administration, President Barack Obama is seeking to block the release of 44 photographs depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Justice Department had already agreed to release the photos by May 28 in response to a lawsuit, but Obama is shifting course.

“Last week, the President met with his legal team and told them that he did not feel comfortable with the release of the DOD photos because he believes their release would endanger our troops, and because he believes that the national security implications of such a release have not been fully presented to the court,” said a White House official who asked not to be named.

“At the end of that meeting, the President directed his counsel to object to the immediate release of the photos on those grounds,” the official said.

Truly funny but sadly revealing as to the presidents uncertainty. Apparently he doesn't realize that making declarations and such actually create the judicial situation that will eventually get his decision over turned. The president can't say one thing one day and another the next without causing rocking the foundations of his authority.

I wonder what the NPR staff think about this after their long news article touting the President's debates and how he had his cabinet divide up into groups and debate the pros and cons of releasing the photos. Than he weighed the options and decided to release. whoops guess that was a bad call.

Color me not that surprised

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today indicated that President Obama will not intervene to keep gay servicemembers from being dismissed from the military, despite his vow to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Gibbs said "the policy isn’t working for our national interests," but added that ending it will "require more than the snapping of one's fingers."

"To get fundamental reform in this instance requires a legislative vehicle," Gibbs said. "The president made a promise to change this policy; he will work with the Joints Chiefs of Staff, the administration and with Congress to ensure that we have a policy that works for our national interests."

Noted a reporter at the briefing: "He is the Commander-in-Chief. I mean, if the president and the Secretary of Defense can bring about a new leadership in Afghanistan, replace the commanding general there, couldn't the president and the secretary of defense delay any more people getting fired under 'don't ask, don't tell'?"

Responded Gibbs: "Well, there have been discussions about the best way to move forward, and the only sustainable way to do that is through -- sustainable and durable way -- is through legislation, which the president has promised and has continued to work for."

No of course he won't get involved, he doesn't trust himself in a battle with the Pentagon, and and has already been smacked about by the State Department when he sold the CIA down the river over torture. It's just not that big an issue to him.

The New Old Star Trek

First of all it was a great movie, fast paced, well acted, cheesy and great graphics. I think everyone involved should be congratulated. Except JJ Abrams, after mulling it over for three days I have to say that creating an alternate universe Star Trek is a cheap way of clearing the slate and allowing his characters a shot at doing whatever. The one thing I loved about Star Trek was the history, it had a clearly delineated time line and huge blank spots where people could do anything they wanted. Remaking the crew of the Enterprise is a bunch of cheap hollywood flim flam to cover the fact that they can't think of anything new.
But this all goes back to my problem with the current string of "re-imaginings" is it so hard to come up with a new idea when an entire universe already exists and quite literally they have a galaxy to play in. What about a new ship? what about covering an aspect of the Federation that does something other than fly around and deal with the romulans? I have the same issue with the new Dr Who, an absolute great series stuck in a rut and unable to imagine new opponents, time troubles or even why all the time lords died but the daleks seemed to have come through just fine, MULTIPLE TIMES!!!

But this should not be thought of as a denouement of the current star trek movie, it's really good, everything you could ask for in a summer flick, except originality.

Tales of the new Sun

Read this book!
The Book of the New Sun

I think the premise and the execution are better than almost anything I've read in a decade.

That is all.

Plus drop the friend who recommended it to me a line and tell him to post again!

I'm thinking of my skinny friends

Back to the starry nights

Well bitches, I've been shitty for the past four weeks and haven't updated. I think about it every day but than I don't typical me I suppose. But I have booked a trip back to England! Yay me. I'll see Ian, and Stuart, and who know who else, maybe some of the twitter folk I see around the web. May 29th though June 7th! Let me know if you live in the London area and if you want to meet up. Boo can't come as he is finishing graduate stuff and changed tacks and now has three months of work to complete, so I'm going alone again. Which is cool and sad at the same time.

Oh well heres to the Drinking and the History!

Black Chargers of the Night

I think I'm going to stop talking about the govt and the "troubles". It's just to easy to get worked up over something that realistically I don't have the energy to affect. That's not to say I couldn't make a difference, I just don't want to have to endure the media scrutiny, the constant search for campaign money, and the inevitable drama that being gay in this state entails.

So on to a different note. movies. Been on quite the roll lately, Saw. "Watchman" and "Twilight". Oddly enough Twilight was the better edited and directed movie regardless of the paucity of the 'message'. Watchman had good material but failed to translate that effectively into a tight script. By staying so close to the comic they left out the all important 'WHY'. Movies of this nature are suppose to tie things together but it really only left things open to more questions without the promise of a sequel. Still the premise was so good that you could forgive a lot, the character development for Rorschach was so amazing that you just wanted to keep watching him flip out one liners and killer jail bugs. The context of this I suppose is that the original premise on the comic was to use artificial threat of
alien invasion to unite the Earth. Oddly enough I had the same idea when i was 16, by giving a greater threat and goal, you could quell most rebellions with tacit population support, in an effort to prepare for a greater threat. heh, I was such an ambitious little dreamer. Alexander was my hero too...

Twilight did a good job though and I'm actually looking forward to the future installments.

Ta for now

Oh look responsible journalism!

People do realize that we own AIG now right?

Gah the latest round of populist politics and journalism has made me sick. People at AIG actually working and doing the right thing, smashed in the face for continuing to work and close out a trillion dollar book of business. But no let's all jump on them for bothering to get paid!!

Grandstanding congressmen, the President himself, joe schmo's all calling the them greedy and self serving. Fuck them, have them quit, than watch the loss's balloon, your still going to have to bail them out! AIG's insurance division, backs whole governments, and they've already let it be known what they will do if they are left swinging in the wind.

To the North lie the ruins of the First ones

Business is starting to slow down, and despite my competitors lies to the the contrary, I know they are slowing down too. (vendor contacts) Inflation is already hitting our bottom line and slowly getting pushed over to the customers. Certain sectors are tightening faster than others. My paycheck is probably going to be A LOT smaller this month. Still I've done fine the last few months and that won't hurt. Still the urge to horde money is Very strong, I'm trying to resist however.
Boo's birthday is Saturday, and I have no idea what to get him, or where to take him... Ideas anyone? he's a 24 year old grad student who loves German stuff. The cake is ordered, I'm still looking for a night out hopefully with friends, if not stashing the dog at a friends and heading to a bigger city. I'd love to do a nature trip but the weather is suppose to be horrible, so I'm not sure I want to be on a mountain side during a tornado. That leaves sudden travel plans, a nice hotel, a spa trip. hmm after calling around I'm not sure about the spa trip.

Well any ideas are welcome!

Not a moment to soon!

So years after scientists have figured out how to make stem cells from just about everything, Obama rides to the rescue to unclog the stem cell research ban!
Only one problem, he attaches a provision that messes with gay people reproducing, and my future plans of galactic race spawning....grumble grumble... I bet the Chinese will let me make clones...

"President Barack Obama says human cloning is "dangerous, profoundly wrong" and has no place in society.

Obama made the comments as he was signing an executive order that will allow federal spending on embryonic stem cell research.

Some critics say the research can lead to human cloning. Obama said the government will develop strict guidelines for the research because misuse or abuse is unacceptable.

He said he would ensure that the government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. "

The truth is simple, Obama hates clone people...

Update:
And Congress bans stem cell research again...
Does anyone read these Bills anymore?

Math exercise

646 Billion dollars divided by ten years
64.6 Billion per year
Divided by 300 million
215$ per person

tax rebate $400.00 or $7.69 a week good thru 2010
after that the every person in the US would be expected to chip in an extra $51.25 per month to pay for the Cap and trade carbon tax after they loose their "tax rebate". That is of course if every person paid their electricity. The average wage hit people will take after the rebate expires is $790.99 or $65.92

This doesn't take into account any extra tax burdens the gov't will have to add to business's or the middle class to pay for the new spending. My guess is after 2010 the average tax increase for the middle class payer will be roughly $2000 which would only raise an extra 300,000,000,000 billion per year. Which would just about pay the for the previous administrations spending habits. The current administration is convinced for not particular reason that massive debt will be the answer to massive loss. Do any of them consider that they should in fact be rewarding innovations that might bring in new revenue rather than taxing the old to death? The law of diminishing returns will eventually make the new tax burdens bring in less than needed. After that the search for money will be the name of the game.

Update
The number today has moved to 80 billion dollars a year sorry!

One hates to mention

(TN was Boring)

One hates to mention when the maps we are fed are wrong but can anyone see whats wrong here?
Could it be that the entire western coast of Canada is said to be ice free? Now one would hate to tell these nice people at the NOAA that take all our money and feed us back supposedly good information, that their program to read sea ice is wrong but perhaps this small picture can help them correct their error.

Webcam Location

Webcam picture
Maybe I'm insane but that does not look like open water to me. (yes it's suppose to be breaking up but it is there

DC to TN

I flew out to DC Friday the 13th, (woot!) and got to DC without incident and early by like 4 hours. Met up with E and had dinner than hit the hay. The next day was the big collection of Memorials and monuments, The Washington monument was bigger than I remembered and the walk was further than I remembered. Lincoln's temple (it's hard to call it anything other than that) is so moving, it's beautiful and elegant, everything you would want in a memorial to a man who endured what he did. I have to admit that I find it harder to ignore the death count this time, the true number of people who perished for ideology. I guess that's the Humanist growing in me.

Than we walked over the the Smithsonian Air and Space and ogled the rockets and planes. E's big dream was getting pictures of the moon lander, which we did, and I loved the pictures of the planets from the various satellites that we sent out. After that a trip back to the hotel, (we stayed at the GWU Double Tree which was really nice and inexpensive) took a nap than headed out for sushi, a dessert and a cool book store than gay'd out at the DC Eagle. I had a bit to drink and E claims I was too handsy :-) but my defense is that we were at the DC Eagle!! We also went to JR's which I really liked but E hated, and than walked up and down their gay street but ended up back at the Eagle, which all said, was a pretty nice place.
Sunday we split up for the morning and got back at lunch, after pictures at the white house, figured out there was no way we could see Avenue Q and the theatre, and
did the Arlington tour which was always impressive, somber and beautiful. Had dinner at Bistro Francias, which was delicious and spent the rest of the evening doing ...stuff : )

Okay than the next morning I went to Tennessee, which shall be the next post.

This is Me!

From the nice Tim at Ctr-alt
I'll post more on my trips here in a bit. Didn't felt very bloggy last week.

On traveling

Am traveling this week, after a long weekend with E in DC, it was a really nice Valentines weekend, in fact one of the best i've had. I'll post pixs when I get back home. TN is nice though chilly. And so far have had a good biz trip.

Okie Winds or Why I love this state some days

Had our first serious storm of the year, huge lightening a couple of tornadoes, lots of rain and some serious wind. A Chuckie cheese location had a wall collapse, so you'd think it was serious however the plant nursery that was next door had limited hail damage and lost a few plants. Lesson? Chuckie Cheese paid off their building constructor to use cheap stuff, so don't take your kids there!!

The stimulus pork pie is winding it's way through congress, even though I hear news report after news report lauding my customer base as the only safe industry, i still worry that the blow back is going to have serious repercussions on my life. first deflation, than massive inflation. sigh it's enough to make me want to move to an island and ride the whole thing out. To bad Boo wants to live some where cold.*grumble* First TurboTax Timmy wants us to believe that he had nothing to do with the first TARP, which he did, Second that his plan has nothing to do with the old plan, which it does, not only does the only parts of the "plan" that is real include sinking money into banks as their balance sheets get precariously short, but the parts that are 'new' are the same ideas that Paulson floated and just didn't have enough time to create.

For the record I think besides preventing runs on banks they should have let most of the big banks fail. Propping them up is no different than the slow and expensive disintegration of the auto industry that 'surprise' we are also supporting with no end in sight. When there is no consequence to failure, there is no need to succeed.

Ugh I know in the end we will survive it and float back to the top, I am just not looking forward to our lost decade as politicos steal while calling it necessary, all the time lining their pockets as their citizens go bankrupt. I have travel plans...

good news...hmm need to finish this off on a up note.
I have a sweet tax return, two months of commission checks and a ticket to DC with E for Valentines day. Than three days of travel in TN visiting customers and kissing babies. Things could be worse.

Guess who's still a douche

Sally Kern
Also I would like to make another plea to her son that moved to Iowa and swears that he is abstinent now, please smack your mother.

you know you want to touch the button

Antibiotics and two trips to the doctors

I'm still not sure i want to write about this it's kinda gross. But i suppose in some way this is all catharsis or what not.
So I worked out M,T,W, and F of last week, Saturday comes around and I'm a little sore but in a good way, or so I thought, I was definitely feeling it around the naval (I'm not going to type belly button I'm just not going to do it)which is pretty normal for me. I spend the whole day cooking and and on my feet and I'm pretty exhausted at the end of the day. I'm still a bit sore but think little of it. Sunday rolls around and I'm still sore, I start to think it's odd but wonder if my belt jammed up in my naval or something, I'm starting to keep an eye on it. I spend the night at E's and drive back in the morning. My naval region is still sore, big warning sign for me and it hurts every time I sit or stand. I'm starting to get concerned when i pull up my shirt and see that it's all red and hot to the touch. That's not normal. So after work I head to the doctors, the urgent care centers in OK, rock and despite the fact it's standing room only because of a huge amount of flu cases I'm in and out in an hour and a half and total cost with medicine was $28.50. The PA in residence has decided that it's cellulitis and entered thru my naval. gosh that's just great, it really hurts AND it's totally disgusting. The next day was the worst though, though there were no obvious wound or entry point the internal pus leaked out (this is actually a really good thing) and I had to clean it out and saline the area. for the record I totally used the little switch in your head that you have to use when it's just to much to think about. The thing has been better since than, the swellings gone down, the redness is fading, and it's only a tad painful. I'm just thankful to be on the tail end of the experience and that everything is healing properly.
My nurse friend surmises that I probably picked up the nasty at the gym and that it's just been hanging around waiting for an opportunity. I buy that and realize the many vectors that could contribute. I don't think I'll change anything in my routine just yet, though I might wash out my naval with saline from time to time out of simple fear and loathing. Washing your sheets more, trying not to reuse gym cloths. I might look into and anti bacterial laundry soap as well.


Okay there is my tale.

Taxes

Does anyone in government pay taxes anymore?

Food, Food, ever where but not a bit to eat

so in an effort to feed the man friend during his final week of studying I worked Saturday and sunday to cook a week of meals and such for him. Than went up and stayed at his place Sunday. We cooked the final proteins (chicken) up there and munched on rice and freshly made hummus. his bedroom is frigid, I don't think there is any insulation in the walls so we ran a space heater and an electric blanket. Not that one would need it after he gets in bed, he's pretty warm blooded and sweats in even cold temps. So lets see this weekend I made

Seafood Salad
A huge batch of Tabouli
Baked Fish Putanesca
Red Dal with Chilies
sauted peppers with onions (side dish for the Chicken)
Hummus and rice
Peeled and cleaned two grapefruits
Cleaned grapes
portioned out Crackers

Hopefully this will keep E feed and healthy and cut back on his midnight fast food runs which I think is contributing to some fatigue and general malaise.

Also watched most of the original "Kindred" series on the Chiller network sunday while cooking. You know for all it's weakness it wasn't totally a waste. I think properly handled it could have had a better life span but I don't think network TV was the best way forward. Trying to explain about Vampire clans and why they only burst into flame when their blood points went low was just too much for the Fox writers.

The snow in the Plains falls mostly as Ice

Had an ice storm this week in the 405 it was kind of crappy and the roads were slick as shit because of the way the first assualt came as freezing mist than rain. So most activities have been indoors. Couldn't stay home and only got to the gym yesterday for the first time, that kind of sucked but on the upside E is coming down tonight and can keep me warm! yeh! mobile heat stacks!! He's been swamped with upcoming test so it will be nice to put a face to the name for the first time in two weeks.
Not much else is going on, I get pretty down trapped in my house during snow storms. Something about the empty cold I suppose. My meals have pretty much sucked and I need to focus on them if I'm going to loose the next round of weight for my goal. Hmm not sure if I'll cook tonight or get some iranian take away. Less clean up more time with boo.

Still no decisions on vacations, I get my tax refund and am trying to decide if the coming inflation means I should spend big this year or sock it all away.

How you can tell the media wants a hand-out

and when I say media I mean the folks who are loosing their jobs to the internet.

Headlines On This Date 4 Years Ago:

"Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops Die in unarmored Humvees"
"Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times"
"Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, Ordinary Americans get the shaft"

Headlines Today:

"Historic Obama Inauguration will cost only $120 million"
"Obama Spends $170 million on inauguration; America Needs A Big Party"
"Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate"
"Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama Inauguration"

things I need to do

-get a new garage door opener
-more memes
-Find a way to do more with the manfriend
-start really planning out a vacation, one that stirs the soul yet comes with drinks included.
-apologize to Fawksy...it would of course be easier if he told me what for.
-destroy at least two up and coming galactic powers before they discover the secret of the "Stolen Suns."
-eat more veggies and pure protein
-visit more relatives before they die
-hang my "new" front door
-find at least two new friends this year.
-take back my back yard.
-hang more art that i bought
addendum
-Find a way to do more with the manfriend
-read more technical manuals
-go camping and fishing
-stay tanned
-learn a language so E doesn't stare at me disapprovingly when we go out.
-make love on a heart shaped bed while holding a fish in one hand and an apple in the other. (helps insure a male baby!)
-consider property in a secluded location.

History is a funny thing..

Okay two things, first freaky dream moment, I woke up at five in the morning, coming out of a dream in which my little brother and my mom were rushing to get out of the house early. They were taking part in some kind of community event (sponsored by a radio station)that was all about waking up and getting out of the house by 6 in the morning. The freaky thing is it woke me up at 5 in the morning, but my mom and little brother are on the east coast so they are an hour ahead...."dum dum duummm"

Okay second thing since i was early for work I was listening to NPR talk about the pre-inaugural concert that they had at the Lincoln Memorial last night Sunday, Jan. 18th. No big whoop, I mean sure they are spending over 100 million dollars of tax payers dollars just to swear a man in so he can tell us that we have no money with a charming smile but whatever, we'll print more. The funny thing is, and forgive me for this total nerd moment is that they closed the concert with this rousing song, "This Land is Our Land", Now this little song was written by the late great Woody Guthrie, who is also from my adopted state of Oklahoma. However this is hardly a song of unity and I suspect a great many Indians are grinding their teeth this morning. They HATE that song. It's so like the biggest slap in the face to them and I've seen grown men reduced to frothing rage trying to explain it. It's like the English talking about Bonny old England stretching from Wales to Westray, Scotland. Or Russia talking about stretching from the Kamchatka peninsula to Poland. Hilarious stuff and when viewed thru the lens of history a literal mine field of conquests and Manifest Destiny... whoops not allowed to use that phrase anymore... :) Unity gotta love it. Somehow I suspect the Indian delegation is hitting the fire water a little early this morning as they see the chances of any change dry up, lost in nuance and nationalism. To me it's all kind of hilarious, but I laugh at all the wrong moments.

Context: am history buff, irony is the true humor, and I grew up learning multiple sides to every story.

Update I am not alone in this! my boss heard about this and had me laughing so hard I was almost crying, singing, "this land is your land, this land in my land...but mostly it's my land, now get the hell off"

2ND UPDATE The inaugural cost is now sitting at 170 million, my bad. However the possibility of private donation is of course growing...to put this in prospective, Bush's last one cost 45 million and Clinton's cost 33 million.

Haunted nether bits

Occasionally one discovers a line so perfect so succinct you just have to blog about it, and this truly is one of them. Thanks to "Chris's Invincible Super Blog" for the pic
Context: also this is, along with Vagina Dentura, An excellent reason to stay gay

Update I Forgot a hat tip to Frank! Sorry about that Frank, keep on blogging! Oh and get a boyfriend already.

AT&T is weird

So I went to pay my bill online with the ATAT and I typed in my password wrong once, THEY LOCKED MY ACCOUNT!!! What the hell is up with that?

context: I only hate cell phone companies when i have to deal with them directly

*also I cannot spell correctly to save my life

On what the christian religion has cost us

When the christian church consolidated it's teachings and expanded it's holdings to include most if not all of the former Roman Empire, they began to teach that all the bible was complete, and that all necessary knowledge was found in the scripture. They used poems and verses from the bible to dictate what was "real" or false and they forbade the search for additional knowledge as heresy. Though I'm sure the graph is easy enough to understand and that many of it's underlying numbers have been smoothed the over all trend is pretty clear.

Spirituality or why it's not what you think

hmm looking over the last few months of posts one might think that i am a spiritual person, or believe some hokey new age mysticism.

This is not the case.

Context: Despite my use of the word 'spirit', I am at most a Taoist,and at least an atheist. As a humanist, I believe that religion should never hinder or retard growth or exploration. I am not a christian, satanist, or someone who cares to define morality by any scripture. When I use the word spirit I am referring to that inner sense of oneself that can be happy or sad, that is something more than chemical response and can be manipulated through meditation. As I recently wrote elsewhere, "Maybe to those who see the church as a path to enlightenment it is. However I see it as a philosophical dead end that while maintaining spiritual warmth, fails to explore the cold world and universe beyond and come to terms with the need to dramatically expand the scope of our ambitions." I think that pretty much sums it up.

Cthulhu F'thagn

okay I know it's a little late for christmas, but it's right on time for Cthulumas, that joyous annual holiday when you gift your fellow cultists with awesome new idols of the Great and Deep Ancient ones! So in the spirit of the holiday, this is the little guy I have my covetous eye on this fishy holiday! The 3rd edition Legrasse!

If I get it I promise to love it and feed it and keep it in a wet dark grotto!!

Of course someone could also get me, and I'm looking at you Dagon! could get me a gift card for the new gay version of Lovecraft's Cthulu Sigh who would have thought a hundred years on the Ancient ones would have so much presence in our media driven world!

That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die

Odd

I haven't been blocked for some time, still feels odd. meh, than again maybe it's just cause high school was so long ago.

January gym crowds

While trying not to be snobbish, I recently had to direct two men to the locker room in my gym, this despite the fact that the doors were clearly marked with signs over top. The gym was of course crowded. The only upside to the whole thing is that there is at least a bit more eye candy to look at while waiting for equipment.

So far so good, E is busy with school stuff but we had a nice date Friday night, I admit we have failed to do "date nights" as often as we should. Something I will try to remedy. OKC has some nice places to visit, though apparently they have decided to charge 25% tax? Either that or the bar phased in a tip and thought I shouldn't notice.

I am still hoping to take a spring holiday, I would love to (and expect to) go with E but his graduation schedule has been moving around a lot. I don't want to put any pressure on him over it though, students don't make a ton of money. Maybe he will have to apply for jobs and they will fly him around the world and I can tag along?? Well I can dream can't I?

Post New Years wrap-up

New years was fun, the day after could have gone a lot better.

No resolutions..