A guy friend of mine said to me not long ago, “Even when I’m falling in love I’m still aware of the rational assessment I am making.” Really? I’m sure I’m wrong but it seems to me that rational thought and love are polar opposites…unable to understand each other…mortal enemies even. Isn’t love supposed to be an affaire de coeur? Isn’t the rational mind supposed to be balancing the checkbook in the next room while the heart pursues its passion?

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No, this is not about ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, but about Microsoft and WalMart instead. Every year Forbes Magazine does its glowing presentation about the super-rich who rule us that really should be better called ‘Pirates of The United States of America’. Replace Johnny Depp with Bill Gates, perhaps, and have a great flick! Actually, a lot of liberal Democratic Party romantics already really seem to find him sexy, and if they flutter over Al Gore’s movie then certainly Bill Gates as pirate would be a blockbuster for them, if made into film. And YES go figure about some liberals’ personal taste? Throw in Hillary with Bill for yet more romance amongst the pirate super-rich. And the Democratic Party faithful will swoon.

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BBC news has an interesting report about the true history of ‘Tokyo Rose’ on its site right now. Many of the youngsters out there might not remember who she was, so I’ll try to sum it up some. Basically, she was the combination Osama bin Laden/ Jane Fonda hate object for the gungho American militarists belonging to the WW2 generation. An uppity woman and an uppity wayward terrorist mercenary in one bundle!

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Ah, the smell of Napalm on the internet.

THIS MORNING I read about Congressman Foley having sent emails to an ex-congressional page. Not his page, but a page he missed. The overly familiar tone made the 16 year-old recipient feel icky. Foley mentioned another page, “and he’s in really great shape.” A further request for a photo was interpreted by the boy as sick x 13.

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I caught a little of National Public Radio today. Here’s what I heard: A news story about a new program of repatriating illegal immigrants: by flying them back their ancestral homes, away from the Mexico-American border. It’s working rather well administrators say. The program interviewed a freshly apprehended Mexican who has been returned to his $12 a day parking lot attendent job in Mexico City. He said through a translator that he is likely inclined to give up his dream of reaching El Norte.

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This September has been the most fatal month for Canadians in Afghanistan. The number of Canadian soldiers killed peacekeeping for NATO has been accelerating of late and now stands at 37. It would stand to reason that Afghanistan would make the news.
 
Amy Goodman’s Independent Media in a Time of War examined the difference between the Iraq war coverage on CNN versus CNN international. Not the difference between Fox-News and the BBC, just the difference between in-house news departments of the same company.
 
What explains the decision to have a different cover story in this week’s domestic issue of Newsweek? Losing Afghanistan everywhere else, Annie Liebowitz: My Life In Pictures here.
 
The War in Afghanistan has become the forgotten war, due in large part because it is also kept an invisible war.
 
It serves to remember that regardless of the occasional expose, our press is neither vigilant nor asleep. More precisely, their vigilance attends to guarding we don’t lose our sleep.
 
I have to remind myself, after reading any story critical of the war, that our press is not critical. The Wall Street Journal are terrible Neocon war mongers. The Washington Post, cynical war mongers. The Los Angeles Times, bandwagon war mongers. The New York Times, gatekeeper war mongers. Fox, MSNBC, of course cheerleader war mongers. CBS, ABC, war monger wannabees. Disney, war monger profiteers.
 
Recently fans are rallying around Keith Olbermann and his recent tirades against this administration. I agree we should support his speaking out, but Olbermann’s got a long way to go before he atones for his full throttle support in the lead-in to war.

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I don’t think so.

This headline, like that of the New York Times is making hay of the CIA leak that the Iraq War has heightened the threat of terrorism. But we all knew that, didn’t we?

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Let me tell you how to spot an addict: their singular focus on drugs. Every pleasure with an eye on the next hit. That’s an addict.

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In the last couple of decades, the US Empire has developed a fondness for using show trials following its own violations of international law. The cardinal foundation of international law is that one nation does not have the right to militarily attack another. And of course we know, that the US has violated this maxim time after time. In fact, no other nation can even come close to the US’s sorry record on this account. I believe that even the Hungarians would certainly agree with this statement.

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What kind of christianity is it we’re practicing with our tortures and war?

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I once had to break up with a perfectly good boyfriend. He was 6′5″, 240 pounds, Denver Broncos tight end, straight-A student, fast car, cool apartment….blah, blah. We had dated for two years, discussed marriage and children, a serious deal. But I knew that it was time for me to pull the plug. Why, you ask? Here’s the honest truth. He thought the Three Stooges were HILARIOUS.
 
This may seem a ridiculous reason but, really, when your man is curled up in a fetal position night after night, laughing convulsively at Larry, Curly and Moe, a feeling of separateness, a moat that no drawbridge can span, envelops you and leaves you completely alone, bereft, devoid of vision and hope.

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I’m working on an address to our city council. I only have three minutes:

Mr. Mayor, distinguished members of the City Council: as a member of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, I’ve come once again on their behalf to ask the City Council for your support of the traveling Iraq War Memorial, known as Eyes Wide Open, which is coming to Colorado Springs on October 12 and 13.
 
Two weeks ago, at the previous opportunity to address the council, the Justice and Peace Commission asked for the use of Memorial Park as a fitting site for a memorial. We also asked the City of Colorado Springs to adopt a resolution similar to that of the City of Baltimore, proclaiming the two day visit as “Days of Reflection on the Human Cost of War.” To this day we’ve received no formal response from the council. I’m here today to repeat our requests.

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I remember a ProFiles Magazine story published twenty years ago called Mouse Trap, about a fictional computer program developed to differentiate individual users based on their keystrokes, by identifying the pattern to the rhythm of their typing.

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When did message crawls start happening to the bottom of TV screens? Whether for breaking news or a weather travel advisory or the upcoming televison series, I have noticed that they interrupt only programming, never the commercials. The National Weather Service may think a thunderstorm warning is important, but Chef Boyardee doesn’t.

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Jon Stewart parodied the Bush-Ahmadinejad face off at the U.N. on Thursday, characterizing George Bush’s address as a Mafia don trying to intimidate his subjects.
 
In this light, the significance of Bush holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah earlier this year finally hit me. Bush is probably taking out on us what he’s getting from his masters. The public hand-holding was none other than a show of fealty.

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Do we assume because John McCain suffered mistreatment at the hands of the Vietnamese, that he empathizes with victims of torture? By presenting a false alternative to Bush’s torture bill, McCain is showing he may just want payback.

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Not to worry, not to worry. The Bush and GOP plan to indemnify themselves from responsibility for their war crimes will be to scant avail. Let them pass whatever bill they want.

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Hizb’Allah leader Hassan Nasrallah presided over a Hizb’Allah rally in Beirut today. Was that the headline?
 
Despite Israel’s expressed intent to assassinate Nasrallah, and despite Israel’s ongoing missile strikes on Lebanese and Palestinian political targets, Hassan Nasrallah appears before record breaking numbers of supporters at a victory rally for Hizb’Allah. That’s the headline.

We’re going to see the dinosaur tracks in Pinon Canyon this weekend. We’ll hike along the Pergatoire River which runs through southeastern Colorado and retrace a quarter mile long trail left by a brontosaurus.
 
At issue for my companions is what to make of theologians who would like us to believe that the Earth is only as old as The Bible says, something like 6,000 years. I’d like to contemplate that idea from the perspective of standing in a footprint made 150 million years ago. Supposedly.
 
Is carbon-dating flawed? Are scientists misleading mankind? It only matters if you want to believe that the christian bible is literally true. If the bible represents truth in the context of man’s understanding of the natural world at the time, then our new scientific understandings are not really suspect at all.

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Can you make the argument that Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Charles Rangel are above all politicians, or diplomats shall we say, who like their political discourse to be civil? Hugo Chavez referring to Bush as a devil who behaves as if the world belongs to him may have been, in their minds, undiplomatic, shall we say?

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I sympathize with parents who have a child on drugs. I’m thinking not so much about the child who’s doing fine in school, or has ambition and is moving forward. I’m thinking more about the kid who isn’t, who’s discovered a rut of drugs and complacency and nothing but drugs and instant gratification. I’m thinking the two are mutually exclusive, but that may be my prejudice.

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Having a predeliction for juices and jams, I thought I’d read about berries. Here are the edible berries in relationship to one another, approximately:
 
RUBUS: (Bramble berries)
Blackberry     Chehalim
    Loganberry   Phenomenal Berry   Black Logan
Red raspberry     Marionberry
    Nessberry     Olallieberry
Dewberry     Boysenberry     Youngberry
    Tayberry
Raspberry Gold   Fall gold
Black raspberry/Blackcap Mysore/Hill
Artic raspberry
Cloudberry
Wineberry/Wine raspberry
Salmonberry
Thimbleberry
Whitebark raspberry/Blue raspberry/Blackcap raspberry
 
MISC.:
Wolfberries/Goji berries
Nannyberry/Sheepberry/Sweet Viburnum
Honeyberry/Blue-berried honeysuckle/Sweetberry honeysuckle
Pyracantha berries
Elderberry
Hackberry
Barberry
 
RIBES: (Ribena!)
Blackcurrant   -illegal to grow in US until recently
Redcurrant
Whitecurrant
Gooseberry
Zante currant   -actually a dried grape
Ocean Spray “Currants”   -actually dried cranberries
 
VACCINIUM:
Cranberry Southern Mountain Cranberry/Bearberry/Dingleberry
Blueberry   Northern Highbush   Rubel
    Southern Highbush/Darrow’s/Evergreen
    O’Neal Cape Fear Blue Ridge Georgia Stem Legacy Summit Ozarkblue
    Lowbush
    Rabbiteye blueberry
    Sparkleberry
    Elliot’s
    Canadian/Sourtop/Velvetleaf Huckleberry
Bilberry/Whortleberry
    Blaeberry Whinberry Myrtle blueberry Fraughan Black-hearts
Lingonberry/Cowberry/Partridgeberry/Mountain cranberry
Crowberry/Rockberry
Bearberry Alpine/Red Arberry Foxberry Kinnikinnick Mealberry Sandberry
Huckleberry Red Huckleberry Box Huckleberry
 
A Box huckleberry plant in New Bloomfield PA is the oldest living thing in the world. Locals call the nine acre colony the Jerusalem Huckleberry and it is estimated to be 13,000 years old.

The Bush morning press conference. The gloves are off.

It’s true Bush is a diminutive pugilist, and he’s wowing no one with his wit. But he’s talking a stand, flat-footed, cornered and he’s got a temper.

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How many ways can you sabotage an activist effort? Until the government’s playbook is published, let’s use our imagination to ferret out saboteurs.

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While everyone was looking for Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to seize the headlines, our Chimp-in-Chief receives a dressing down from Venezuelan upstart Hugo Chavez like no one has ever dared address the Emperor before. Not just calling Bush the Devil, but fleshing it out, “it still smells of sulphur in here.”

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