Seeking the Definition of Self

05:06 pm - Propositions 8 and 9 pass

The proposition system is completely and utterly broken and absolutely devoid of any redeeming qualities. The california constitution is a worthless document not worth the paper it is printed on.

Both of these propositions share one, singular quality: the majority doing their absolute best to strip rights from a unpopular minority. Eight is the more disgusting, but to my mind only marginally, given that I know from first hand experience working for CDCR just how incredibly poorly prisoners are treated, to the extent of death from easily treated illness, and how absolutely draconian and ridiculous Proposition 9 is.

Other nations on this earth and other states in this union understand that for democracy to be a useful and just tool of government, there must be safeguards against the rampant bigotry of the majority. Sadly this state does not believe in democracy and would be clearly the worst state in the union if Alaska was not about to re-elect a senator convicted of felony corruption.

06:12 pm - The Greatest Excess of the 20th Century

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." -President Eisenhower

07:53 pm - Jorb

I will admit I was not expecting eight hours of lifting boxes when I accepted a job as an Office Assistant (Typing), but frankly that isn't even as annoying as the ass-long commute. I wake up at 5:30 in order to get to work by 8, then get home by 7:15 at night...before I go to bed at 9:30 to 10.

Really looking forward to having more than two hours of time to do stuff on the weekend let me tell you.

02:03 am - California court forces Wikileaks off the Internet

You might not have heard of Wikileaks before now. It is a wiki that allows people to anonymously upload documents to expose them to global scrutiny and their main domain name was just enjoined by a California court because of a lawsuit filed by a Swiss bank to hide documents proving they were aiding massive tax evasion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7250916.stm

03:30 pm - WAAAAAAAAAAAGH

05:37 am - A Question

Why is the aesthetic valuable?

07:51 am - Ron Paul Time Machine October 11, 2001- PIRATES, HELL YEAH

http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2001/pr101101.htm

Washington, DC: Congressman Ron Paul today presented Congress with the "Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001," legislation designed to give President Bush an additional tool in the fight against terrorism. He also introduced legislation that changes the federal definition of "piracy" to include air piracy.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to issue letters of marque and reprisal when a precise declaration of war is impossible due to the vagueness of the enemy. Paul's bill would allow Congress to authorize the President to specifically target Bin Laden and his associates using non-government armed forces. Since it is nearly impossible for U.S. intelligence teams to get close to Bin Laden, the marque and reprisal approach creates an incentive for people in Afghanistan or elsewhere to turn him over to the U.S.

"The President promised the American people that the federal government would use every available resource to defeat the global terror network," Paul stated. "Congress should immediately issue letters of marque and reprisal to add another weapon to the U.S. arsenal. The war on terrorism is very different from past wars, because the enemy is a group of individuals who do not represent any nation. Western intelligence in the Middle East is exceedingly limited, so we should avail ourselves of the assistance of those with better information to track, capture, or kill Bin Laden."

The Act allows Congress to narrowly target terrorist enemies, lessening the likelihood of a full-scale war with any Middle Eastern nations. The Act also threatens terrorist cells worldwide by making it more difficult for our enemies to simply slip back into civilian populations or hide in remote locations.

"Once letters of marque and reprisal are issued, every terrorist is essentially a marked man," Paul concluded. "Congress should issue such letters and give the President another weapon to supplement our military strikes."

04:05 am - The call themselves 'anonymous'...

Truly epic lulz.

02:51 pm - Good News about Something Important; Experts Indicate Infernal Temperature at All Time Low

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/13/teen.sex.ap/index.html

"In 2005, 47 percent of high school students -- 6.7 million -- reported having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex has remained the same since 2003.

Of those who had sex during a three-month period in 2005, 63 percent -- about 3 million -- used condoms. That's up from 46 percent in 1991.

The teen birth rate, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15-17 in 2005 -- an all-time low. It was down from 39 births per 1,000 teens in 1991.

More youngsters are getting reading time. Sixty percent of children ages 3-5 (and not in kindergarten) were read to daily by a family member in 2005, up from 53 percent in 1993.

More young people are completing high school. In 2005, 88 percent of young adults had finished high school -- up from 84 percent in 1980."

08:33 am - LJ folks searching for a refreshing candidate, do not vote for Ron Paul, the hype is a lie

"...The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life.

The Founding Fathers envisioned a robustly Christian yet religiously tolerant America, with churches serving as vital institutions that would eclipse the state in importance. Throughout our nation’s history, churches have done what no government can ever do, namely teach morality and civility. Moral and civil individuals are largely governed by their own sense of right and wrong, and hence have little need for external government. This is the real reason the collectivist Left hates religion: Churches as institutions compete with the state for the people’s allegiance, and many devout people put their faith in God before their faith in the state. Knowing this, the secularists wage an ongoing war against religion, chipping away bit by bit at our nation’s Christian heritage. Christmas itself may soon be a casualty of that war."

-Ron Paul, "The War on Religion", 12/30/03

07:40 pm - Report

One of us happened to have a telescope and we got it set up in time to see the explosion. A naval cruiser just detonated in Sacramento harbor. We're not sure why or how. Judging by the smoke, a good portion of Sacramento is on fire, now.

I haven't seen any emergency crews out here. I've heard sirens from far off, but nothing over here. Its like we're alone in the world.

05:48 pm - I'm on the roof, now, watching the end of the world.

There hasn't been much to do, so I've been fiddling with the equipment I have to get online, and I just got it. They undead aren't coordinated enough to jump up to grab a ladder, so I'm safe. Its hot, though. I have as much water as I could get, thanks to empty two-liter bottles, but I'm not a fool. Even under ideal conditions it simply will not last me for that long, to say nothing about my food.

But I think the worst thing is the boredom. There's simply nothing to do up here. I have my computer for as long as the electricity stays up, but once that goes...

The zombies are the risen dead, I think, or at least that was the origin. I heard about it on the internet before they got anywhere near here, which is why I'm up here, and not down there. The zombies have been migrating across town and while they aren't very thick, I can see one or two. I could probably get back in my house, but it'd be a risk, now. I'm not the only one up here. A couple of people from the complex came up too. I didn't even know their names before today, but the end of the world, or at least the end of a world, is a bonding experience.

The hordes haven't gotten here yet, but I can only assume they'll be here. I suppose for once I'm grateful for living miles away from anything but houses. I don't see the world ending, per se, I presume that mankind will recover in some form, and likely even many of the current governments will remain intact. But equally likely the dead will number in the billions. I feel much worse for people in other countries. The US is the ideal place to survive this sort of disaster. There are huge swaths of empty land to escape into and most people have cars. The Interstates are probably lifelines right now, if our emergencies services can keep the accidents from stopping them up.

From here, all I can do is watch out over the city, and read what happens elsewhere, until the power goes out. I'll survive for a while, but there isn't much we can do.

That might be the most frightening prospect of all.

03:59 am - Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney: May 6, 1857

"The legislation of the States therefore shows in a manner not to be mistaken the inferior and subject condition of that race at the time the Constitution was adopted and long afterwards, throughout the thirteen States by which that instrument was framed, and it is hardly consistent with the respect due to these States to suppose that they regarded at that time as fellow citizens and members of the sovereignty, a class of beings whom they had thus stigmatized, whom, as we are bound out of respect to the State sovereignties to assume they had deemed it just and necessary thus to stigmatize, and upon whom they had impressed such deep and enduring marks of inferiority and degradation, or, that, when they met in convention to form the Constitution, they looked upon them as a portion of their constituents or designed to include them in the provisions so carefully inserted for the security and protection of the liberties and rights of their citizens. It cannot be supposed that they intended to secure to them rights and privileges and rank, in the new political body throughout the Union which every one of them denied within the limits of its own dominion. More especially, it cannot be believed that the large slaveholding States regarded them as included in the word citizens, or would have consented to a Constitution which might compel them to receive them in that character from another State. For if they were so received, and entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, it would exempt them from the operation of the special laws and from the police regulations which they considered to be necessary for their own safety."

It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies, without pass or passport, and without obstruction, to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased at every hour of the day or night without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for which a white man would be punished; and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went. And all of this would be done in the face of the subject race of the same color, both free and slaves, and inevitably producing discontent and insubordination among them, and endangering the peace and safety of the State."

10:37 pm - The Original Gundam, perfectly summarized

12:29 pm - Marvel, you assholes

Joe Quesada is a jerk-face and Mark Millar licks goats. You don't get to do this for quick-buck political messages.

Current Mood: angry

10:04 am - Fucking ow

Two days ago my shoulder ached a bit and I figure I slept on it wrong. Yesterday it stung if I put it in the wrong position, and again I figure I had just slept on it wrong.

Now it hurts sufficiently to prevent using my shoulder at full speed or strength and does so no matter what I do with my arm. Must have pinched a nerve or something?

Whatever it is, argh.

05:49 pm - A most interesting blog

I know its against some sort of internet etiquette to post a blog on a blog, but this is a pastor's point-by-point response to Left Behind and how it is not only a terrible book series stylistically, but also fosters terrible and twisted morality.

http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/index.html

02:11 pm - I've been waiting for this moment since I was eight

Twelve years ago I accompanied my mother to the DHQ in Sac for my first real involvement in an election. Twelve years ago was, of course, 1994, and I got to see the forces of evil sweep the entire country under the power of Gingrich's 'Contract with America'.

I've followed every election since, looking for hope, and a turnaround and I finally got it. There's almost no chance that a recount will change over eight thousand Virginian votes, so the final total will be 49D to 49R with 2I...but the Independents have both stated they will caucus with the Democrats, giving them a 51-49 majority in the Senate.

And there's simply no hand-wringing to be done, the Democrats are in control of the House, flat out. Its a complete rout, an entirely unexpected turnaround. GG, the Good guys win and I'm finally feeling like dancing after six elections.

05:53 pm - Vote you suckers

There are still two hours before the polls close and if you aren't registered you can fill out a provisional ballot anyway, so there's no excuse!

Go do your civic duty!

02:52 am - Why I am doing this

Instead of going to sleep I signed up for the national novel writing month and started a ridiculous near future noirpunk detective story.

Yes, I just made noirpunk up.