I wonder who???
PS. That's our Black-Capped Lorikeet, Miss Bird, the Queen and Ruler of the household!!!
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Judy's on the Mend
Last Tuesday, Judy had her back dew claws removed. This pic was taken the day after the surgery, and she was still a bit groggy from the sedative. Her back feet were taped up, and if you look closely, you will see sandwich bags covering her bandages. That was our idea as the vet warned us that we needed to make sure her bandages stayed dry. After a few days, she was walking around without too much trouble, though you could hear the pitter-pat of her bagged feet when she walked. It was very cute. She got the bandages off today and has been quite happy about it. I must say she is a very well behaved dog, even the vet says so. He also admired our sandwich bag prophylactics, if you can call them that.
The State of Government $$$$
Pork Busters is an attempt by many in the bloggisphere to bring fiscal sanity back to Washington DC. As you scan the site, notice how few senator / representatives have identified budgetary pork they are willing to sacrifice. To make things easy, scroll down and you can look up responses by state to see how your reps are responding. Mine in California are abysmal. How is it that Nancy Pelosi (props to her) is the ONLY politician so far in this state willing to put stuff on the chopping block?
Monday, September 26, 2005
Trees Fall, Make Sounds
Someone else FINALLY reported Tony Blair's move away from Kyoto. The picture of Blair looks a bit sinister though. He looks like he is about to snatch a child or something.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
'Cause In Space, No One Can Hear You Curse!
I was exchanging comments with Robbie at Prism Warden, and got into a convo about political / blog cursing. It seems liberal bloggers are much more adept at it than conservatives. Then I remembered seeing this on the web at Digg.com. Maybe because libs seem to approach things from a more emotional POV, that they are more prone to tap into their primal emotions when expressing themselves.
Primatives!
Just kidding. We all curse. Even my dad throws a naughty or two. Of coarse my mom, 1/2 Sicilian, throws the "F" bomb as if she's auditioning for a Mamet play. Taught me every "f"ing thing I know.
PS. I kinda like some of the sci-fi space cursing. You had "Frell" in Farscape (great show), "Frag" in the new Battle Star Galactica (even better than previous), and some unpronounceable Chinese expletive in Firefly (can't wait for the movie in a couple of weeks). Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I don't like the Star Trek Next Gen stuf as much - no cursing. Though there was no cursing, I do favor DS-9. It had a darkness that the others lacked. Oh, and I don't recall if there was any cursing on Babylon-5, but between the Narn fighting the Centauri, the invasive Psi-Corps, and Garibaldi endlessly getting screwed by life, there must have been some cursing somewhere. Besides, the Vorlons and the Shadows were way, way cool!
Primatives!
Just kidding. We all curse. Even my dad throws a naughty or two. Of coarse my mom, 1/2 Sicilian, throws the "F" bomb as if she's auditioning for a Mamet play. Taught me every "f"ing thing I know.
PS. I kinda like some of the sci-fi space cursing. You had "Frell" in Farscape (great show), "Frag" in the new Battle Star Galactica (even better than previous), and some unpronounceable Chinese expletive in Firefly (can't wait for the movie in a couple of weeks). Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I don't like the Star Trek Next Gen stuf as much - no cursing. Though there was no cursing, I do favor DS-9. It had a darkness that the others lacked. Oh, and I don't recall if there was any cursing on Babylon-5, but between the Narn fighting the Centauri, the invasive Psi-Corps, and Garibaldi endlessly getting screwed by life, there must have been some cursing somewhere. Besides, the Vorlons and the Shadows were way, way cool!
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Blair @ CGI
"I think that – three points I would like to make here. The first is that I think, whether for reasons to do with concern over global warming or for reasons to do with concern over energy security and supplies, I think this issue is coming together in an important way. It’s there now on the agenda and I’m pleased about that. I think it’s very important.
The second thing, though, is that I think – and I would say probably I’m changing my thinking about this in the past two or three years. I think if we are going to get action on this, we have got to start from the brutal honesty about the politics of how we deal with it. The truth is no country is going to cut its growth or consumption substantially in the light of a long-term environmental problem. What countries are prepared to do is to try to work together cooperatively to deal with this problem in a way that allows us to develop the science and technology in a beneficial way. Now, I don’t think all of the answers lie in just – in developing the science and technology, but I do think there is no way we are going to tackle this problem unless we develop the science and technology capable of doing it.
And that really brings me to the third point, which is I think the point that you were really raising, which is, well, how do you create the forces that drive people then to develop the science and technology?... "
(entire text of conference found Here)
Blair is admitting that severely cutting CO2 emissions hampers economic growth. This< I contend, is one of the reasons for Europe's lagging economy. Here is the most recent data I could find on their economy as a whole. Compair those stats to ours.
OK. So all you who derided Bush because he didn't sign on to the Kyoto Protocol for these reasons, will you now admit he was right after all on at least this point. Here is some info on the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which includes the US, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Expect more nations to sign on. Also expect no credit being given to Bush for recognizing the fatal flaws in the Kyoto Protocol, which was in essence nothing more than a national money and enegry drain for almost any country that signed on... except Russia. Did anyone besides TSC notice the potential financial bennefits outwieghted Russia's scientific rejection of the thing???
The second thing, though, is that I think – and I would say probably I’m changing my thinking about this in the past two or three years. I think if we are going to get action on this, we have got to start from the brutal honesty about the politics of how we deal with it. The truth is no country is going to cut its growth or consumption substantially in the light of a long-term environmental problem. What countries are prepared to do is to try to work together cooperatively to deal with this problem in a way that allows us to develop the science and technology in a beneficial way. Now, I don’t think all of the answers lie in just – in developing the science and technology, but I do think there is no way we are going to tackle this problem unless we develop the science and technology capable of doing it.
And that really brings me to the third point, which is I think the point that you were really raising, which is, well, how do you create the forces that drive people then to develop the science and technology?... "
(entire text of conference found Here)
Blair is admitting that severely cutting CO2 emissions hampers economic growth. This< I contend, is one of the reasons for Europe's lagging economy. Here is the most recent data I could find on their economy as a whole. Compair those stats to ours.
OK. So all you who derided Bush because he didn't sign on to the Kyoto Protocol for these reasons, will you now admit he was right after all on at least this point. Here is some info on the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which includes the US, China, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Expect more nations to sign on. Also expect no credit being given to Bush for recognizing the fatal flaws in the Kyoto Protocol, which was in essence nothing more than a national money and enegry drain for almost any country that signed on... except Russia. Did anyone besides TSC notice the potential financial bennefits outwieghted Russia's scientific rejection of the thing???
Friday, September 16, 2005
No Liberal Bias alert!
Dateline: Friday Sept. 15. 2005
Is Kyoto protocol a Bust??? Today, Tony Blair admitted it at the Clinton Global Initiative. If you google it, not one MSM outlet covered this bit of news from the Clinton conference. Maybe it never happened. You know. Kind of like the saying that goes something like "when a tree falls in a forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound"? Except now it's " if a politician admits a major liberal policy is a failure but no one covers it, did the politician really say it"?
Meanwhile, THIS is somehow newsworthy.
Oh, and before I forget, there's this little exchange from Nightline last night after Bush's speech. The reporters questions were very leading, and he seemed desperate to find someone who blamed Bush for the Katrina aftermath. Not that there isn't room for criticism aimed at FEMA and Bush, that's a healthy process and can lead to better disaster relief efforts in the future. But soo many still want to paint this as solely as a Bush failure, when it seems a better example of what happens when state and local governments don't communicate or cooperate with each other, don't prepare well for probable disasters, and / or don't have competent leaders.
UPDATE: It's Monday. Still no confirmation that T. Blair made a sound.
Is Kyoto protocol a Bust??? Today, Tony Blair admitted it at the Clinton Global Initiative. If you google it, not one MSM outlet covered this bit of news from the Clinton conference. Maybe it never happened. You know. Kind of like the saying that goes something like "when a tree falls in a forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound"? Except now it's " if a politician admits a major liberal policy is a failure but no one covers it, did the politician really say it"?
Meanwhile, THIS is somehow newsworthy.
Oh, and before I forget, there's this little exchange from Nightline last night after Bush's speech. The reporters questions were very leading, and he seemed desperate to find someone who blamed Bush for the Katrina aftermath. Not that there isn't room for criticism aimed at FEMA and Bush, that's a healthy process and can lead to better disaster relief efforts in the future. But soo many still want to paint this as solely as a Bush failure, when it seems a better example of what happens when state and local governments don't communicate or cooperate with each other, don't prepare well for probable disasters, and / or don't have competent leaders.
UPDATE: It's Monday. Still no confirmation that T. Blair made a sound.
Why I Don't Tow The Party Line
When I first started this blog, I though I would write volumes about politics and the like. As I approach the one year anniversary of "Sonicfrog" in January, I am a bit suprized at how little my political views have ended up being expressed here. Maybe politics is boring in between election cycles. Maybe I understand that, due to time restraints, I don't do enough research to properly back up my assertions. I read and listen to a lot of political stuff representing different view points, but that is different from doing real, thorough research. Maybe I realize that other bloggers do it better. Maybe I just have too many other irons in the fire to get too caught up in politics.
Anyway, many of my gay friends (and my little brother) don't understand how I can be gay and replublican-ish (libertarian-ish really). How can I be so blind to the hatred spewed by the "R's"? This post, though not my words or my experience, mirrors my thoughts and feelings on the matter of political affiliation.
I don't know, but I keep asking myself this question about segments of the left: "How can a party who espouses such high ideals concerning civil rights feel that G.W. Bush is pure evil, and yet embrace the likes of Che Guevera and Fidel Castro"?
Hat Tip: North Dallas Thirty.
Anyway, many of my gay friends (and my little brother) don't understand how I can be gay and replublican-ish (libertarian-ish really). How can I be so blind to the hatred spewed by the "R's"? This post, though not my words or my experience, mirrors my thoughts and feelings on the matter of political affiliation.
I don't know, but I keep asking myself this question about segments of the left: "How can a party who espouses such high ideals concerning civil rights feel that G.W. Bush is pure evil, and yet embrace the likes of Che Guevera and Fidel Castro"?
Hat Tip: North Dallas Thirty.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Gay Marriage in CA - Are We Ready???
Greg and I have been debating this back and forth since it hit the news. Arnold has taken heat for vetoing the Gay Marriage bill... and well, just being Arnold. The standard defense for the veto has been that Californians already voted against gay marriage in 2000 when they voted yes on Prop 22. This is a legitimate argument. So isn't the legislature once again going against the will of the people (google California Drivers licenses for Illegals for an example)? I had been wondering though, what the pol numbers currently show concerning this issue. Do Californians still hold the same sentiments that they did five years ago? According to TCS writer Ryan Sager, the numbers are changing. I know my little bro hates this site as the views expressed are conservative, pro capitalism, pro industry and vocal Global Warming skeptics (partially funded by big oil... OoOoOooOo), but I have often found the site thought provoking even if I disagree with some of the premis's of the articles.
Hat Tip: Sully
Hat Tip: Sully
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Monday, September 05, 2005
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