As Napoleon Dynamite might say...

Luckyyyy! If the wind was blowing, surges might have destroyed every bridge, dike and levee within miles of Sayre, PA. I drove from Bloomsburg through Danville and Sunbury, then down US 15 and you notice the levees when you can see the river peeking over the top. Should New Orleans, Athens and every other burgh built below river level adopt a "planned shrinkage" strategy in response to inevitable flood devastation? Whether or not we commit to maintaining levees, we should not trust the US Army Corps of Engineers with responsibility. Here's more good reading, but only if you are unemployed.

As Robert Plant might say, when the levee breaks we'll have to stay up Litchfield.

-- Trudat Doubletru

25 Years and One

For 25 years, the world has dealt with the AIDS pandemic. There is much to celebrate. Many people are treating HIV infection as a chronic condition through life-saving drugs. For countless others, however, primarily in the developing world, HIV/AIDS will continue to kill half a generation. As someone said recently, "We are still losing the battle, only more slowly." Kofi Annan or Peter Piot, head of UN AIDS?

For information on how to encourage the US to use our power and wealth to save a continent instead of destroying nations, visit the ONE Campaign.

The Mark of the Least?

Anyone see Gregory Peck wandering around today with a weird looking little kid?

According to Rapture Ready, the REAL date is 616! We can sit here and wait.

According to biblical scholars, the reference to 666 in Revelation may well have been based on the contemporary use of numerology to denote names. 666 (or 616, whichever you prefer) is thought to denote the Emperor Nero. Seems the old pyro was brutally persecuting Christians when Revelations was written. Look it up.

BetUS took over 200 bets that the world would end today. Of course they had a plan to pay off the Yes's. Come rain, sleet, rivers of fire...

The relevant passage: Revelation 13: 16-18:
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,

and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

Maybe that mark isn't a wart on my right hand!

Did It Happen Again?

The Rolling Stone/Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigation claiming proof that the 2004 election was as tainted as 2000. I fear that without video of Karl Rove burning ballots or bashing voters in Cleveland, this report will be dismissed as a) sour grapes; b) too little too late; or c) too bad.

It is difficult to imagine that the most basic function of our democracy, a citizen's right to vote is so mismanaged at the least, or criminally corrupt at worst, that we cannot have faith that the votes of the majority will be honored. Alternately, people believe that their government is so corrupt that this won't surprise them, that corruption being equally distributed between Dems and R's that it comes out in the wash.

As Jay says:

I still wonder...if we can't count on the press to chase stories with Carl Bernstein-type verve(especially while wearing tweed jackets and wide ties), then we might as well give up. I'll need to find a different profession. (Note: Jay is a great journalist).

I believe people are willing to accept being misled, I assume even I am to a point. What's the saying? American minds are malleable but not self-malleable? Fine.

But with Bush, it's strange, it's almost zombie like. If I believe even shreds of the "conspiracy theories" of 9/11, of Iraq, of Nov. 2004, then the "misleading" being done by the current administration grossly outweighs what we'd term "normal cheating." It's the scope of the misleading that makes it unbelievable. So, I guess then, people don't believe it. You'd like to think as the species evolved, it'd get smarter. Nope. Who knew?

So, ok, he cheats to get more time in office. Then, under the guise of protecting us, he gets to run his own agenda. To what gain? Personal wealth? ( I think Oil, Iraq reconstruction). So it's all motivated by greed? While it is one of the seven deadly, you'd hope they could throw a few more big sins for good measure. Even Clinton had gluttony and lust.

I'm also kinda sick of hearing, "well Clinton was no better, he got bjs in the Oval Office." Yeah. Unless you're a metro DC drycleaner, I don't think that stuff impacted you much. egh

Jay's Blog

Check out the web by my friend Jay, who produces a smart and insightful blog, despite his inferior State College education (Dadadadadadada Penn State Sucks!)
See JayCast at right.