tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97032212024-03-07T23:02:51.261-05:00Power to the Pandas !zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.comBlogger247125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-91088210436790634002007-01-31T19:27:00.000-05:002007-01-31T19:28:27.020-05:00RIP Molly IvinsA gifted <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/obit.ivins.ap/index.html">writer</a>, who will be missed.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-75741490785676198802007-01-31T18:19:00.000-05:002007-01-31T18:35:08.097-05:00Web Notes, Blog Finds ...<ul><li>For those (like me) addicted to fonts comes <a href="http://www.100besteschriften.de/">a Top 100 font list from Germany</a> (I would have ranked Kabel, which is beautiful, much higher) and <a href="http://www.manic.com.sg/blog/archives/000016.php">a post from the Snog Blog</a> chock full of links to freebies & font info</li><li>Via <a href="http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/">TPMMuckraker</a>, a link to a neat site called <a href="http://www.legistorm.com/">LegiStorm</a> which tracks congressional staff salaries</li><li>Via the lovely & talented <a href="http://tbogg.blogspot.com/">TBogg</a>, meet <a href="http://www.banksy.co.uk/indoors/index.html">Banksy</a></li><li>Filed under "Just when you think you've seen <span style="font-style: italic;">everything</span> ..." comes <a href="http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/2007/01/are-you-ready-for-condi-couture.html">Condi Couture</a>, by way of <a href="http://sparklepony.blogspot.com/">the wonderful Princess Sparkle Pony Blog</a></li><li><a href="http://waldenswimmer.blogspot.com/">Waldenswimmer:</a></li></ul><blockquote>I'm not so sure in W's case, although this may simply result from Bush's position outside the bell curve of normal human stupid-variation. He's always talked nonsense about Iraq. "It's the central front in the war on terror," "we fight them there so we don't have to fight them here," and so on. Always, always I get the sense that Bush, confined as he is to the emotional age he achieved before descending to the bottom of countless whiskey bottles, thinks like a 9 year old, and not like a precocious 9 year old. More precisely, like a 9 year old cribbing a social studies paper on Iraq from the I-J volume of the World Book Encyclopedia, <span style="font-style: italic;">circa</span> 1955. What distinguishes the truly simple mind from the discerning mind is the inability of the former to think in terms of simultaneous complex variables, and the tendency of the simpleton to use "concepts" instead of "facts." Facts are hard to deal with, because you have to read, think and synthesize them into a pattern with other facts you have learned the same way. This is what really smart people instinctively know, and always do. They know there are never any shortcuts to understanding anything. Bush doesn't do things like that. He grabs at the broadest generalities he can find and settles there, permanently.<br /></blockquote>zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1169127819512445042007-01-18T08:38:00.000-05:002007-01-18T08:45:09.063-05:00Giant Panda News<img src="http://zhakora.com/blogpics/chuang-chuang-lin-hui.jpg" alt="Giant Pandas" /><br />Chuang Chuang & Lin Hui (photo from China Daily)<br /><br />From <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2007-01/17/content_785583.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;">China Daily</span></a>:<br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11;" ><p></p><blockquote><p>Bangkok - Chuang Chuang the Panda is just too heavy to have sex. Thai authorities have put him on a strict diet as part of a long-running campaign to get him to mate with female partner Lin Hui at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand. </p><p>"Chuang Chuang is gaining weight too fast and we found Lin Hui is no longer comfortable with having sex with him," said the zoo's chief veterinarian, Kanika Limtrakul, adding that Chuang Chuang weighed 331 pounds while Lin Hui is only 253 pounds. </p><p>As a result, zoo authorities are cutting out bamboo shoots in the daily meal for Chuang Chuang and giving the obese bear only bamboo leaves, Kanika said. </p><p>The diet plan is the latest in an unsuccessful and often strange campaign by zoo officials to get the two bears to mate. </p><p> They have held a mock wedding, announced plans to separate the two to spark a little romance and even talked of introducing panda porn, videos of other pandas mating, to get the pair in the mood. </p><p>Thailand rented Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui from China for $250,000 in October 2003 for 10 years. They are expected to generate millions of dollars in revenues from Thai and foreign tourists. </p><p>There are as few as 1,600 giant pandas in the mountain forests of central China, according to the zoo. An additional 120 are in Chinese breeding facilities and zoos, and about 20 live in zoos outside China. </p><p>Pandas are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching and a low reproduction rate. Females in the wild normally have a cub once every two to three years.</p></blockquote><p> </p></span>zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1167990689676073292007-01-05T04:46:00.000-05:002007-01-05T04:51:29.690-05:00At Least Bush Got Saddam's GunNaturally there is no question that justice and justice alone was behind the totally legal execution of Saddam Hussein.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:85%;color:#000000;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:85%;color:#000000;"><a href="http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait/Viewdet.asp?ID=9485&cat=a">KUWAIT CITY</a>: A well-known Kuwaiti businessman is negotiating hard to own the noose which hung ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to death.<br /><br />Reliable sources say the businessman's representatives have asked the Iraqi Ministry of Interior Affairs to sell the rope to them.<br /><br />The businessman is apparently ready to pay any amount of money for the noose. According to sources, it is with Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr and the businessman's representatives are negotiating with him.<br /><br />The businessman had earlier purchased the vandalized statue of Saddam Hussein which stood at Al-Firdous Square in Baghdad. Sources say he obtained the statue through American representatives and exhibits the head of the statue in his diwaniya (sitting room).</span> </blockquote>zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1167776556134320762007-01-02T17:21:00.000-05:002007-01-02T17:23:17.446-05:00New Presidential Website?<a href="http://www.smallpenispride.com">W's personal page,</a> perhaps? (NOT WORK FRIENDLY!!)lizmclhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13344306329068247668noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1166958632249468682006-12-24T06:07:00.000-05:002006-12-24T06:10:32.273-05:00Does John Waters Know?The <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-10/2006-10-30-voa42.cfm?CFID=87159063&CFTOKEN=48118884">pink flamingo</a> is endangered.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1166718251321797182006-12-21T11:21:00.000-05:002006-12-21T11:25:33.186-05:00Turns Out, You Have To Worry About More Than Going Blind<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/20/uk.komodo.reut/index.html">Flora the dragon</a> is going to have a bunch of little dragons.<br /><br /><img src="http://zhakora.com/blogpics/flora.jpg" alt="The Virgin Flora" /><br /><br />She looks awful pleased with herself, doesn't she?zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1166591437790993382006-12-19T23:59:00.000-05:002006-12-20T00:10:37.806-05:00Come on kids, clap your handsDoes Bush have any credibility whatsoever with anyone? Anyone reality-based & sane, I mean?<br /><br />From the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121900880_pf.html">Washington Post</a>:<br /><br /><p></p><blockquote><p>President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the "stressed" U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.</p><p>As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has now adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. "We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, "Absolutely, we're winning."</p><p>...</p><p>Asked yesterday about his "absolutely, we're winning" comment at an Oct. 25 news conference, the president recast it as a prediction rather than an assessment. "Yes, that was an indication of my belief we're <i>going</i> to win," he said. [emphasis in original]<br /></p></blockquote><p></p>I'm surprised anyone in the media bothered to ask the question in the first place but not at all surprised that Bush "recast" his previous remarks to mean something different from what he said.<br /><br />There's a big difference between "absolutely, we've won the lottery" and "my belief is we're<span style="font-style: italic;"> going</span> to win."<br /><br />Maybe someone should tell President Tinkerbell.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1163016229818751052006-11-08T14:56:00.000-05:002006-11-08T15:03:49.846-05:00As NH Goes, So Goes the NationIn 2004, New Hampshire was the only state to change its color from red to blue in the presidential election. Of course, NH is a small state in terms of both size and population, but we've been a political bellwether since before the United States existed. I'm delighted to say that my personal disenfranchisement, categorized by having Jeb Bradley be my "representative" officially came to an end last night, with <a href="http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Shea-Porter%2c+Hodes+dump+incumbents&articleId=48693d23-9050-40b4-a5dc-1294748171a0">Bradley's defeat at the hands of Carol Porter-Shea</a>.<br /><br />Given what happened in yesterday's elections here in New Hampshire, I would say notice has been served: we are a state of stubborn, traditional moderates to conservatives; very few of us would call ourselves liberal. We're also mad as hell and fed up with the infantile pabulum being fed us by the current Republican regime.<br /><br />I can only hope that my state's senators, neither of whom was up for re-election yesterday, will take the notice that has been served them.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1162855089978566172006-11-06T18:15:00.000-05:002006-11-06T18:18:09.993-05:00RobocallingShameless <a href="http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061105/REPOSITORY/611050397">dirty tricks</a> from the Republicans.<br /><br /><a href="http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO33180/">Disgusting</a>. <br /><br />I hope New Hampshire voters turn out & vote Democrat tomorrow. I know I shall be doing so.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1161710323102770002006-10-24T13:17:00.000-04:002006-10-24T13:18:43.126-04:00My cat says "Go ahead MAKE MY DAY!"<a href="http://www.shoppingblog.com/cgi-bin/sblog.pl?sblog=1023061">What a terrific idea!</a>zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1159143579271736282006-09-24T20:06:00.000-04:002006-09-24T20:19:39.286-04:00IraqFrom today <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/opinion/24sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">New York Times</a>:<br /><br /><p></p> <blockquote> <p>In the real Iraq, armed Shiite and Kurdish parties have divided up the eastern two-thirds of the country, leaving Sunni insurgents and American marines to fight over the rest. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his “national unity cabinet” stretch out their arms to like-thinking allies like Iran and Hezbollah, but barely lift a finger to rein in the sectarian militias and death squads spreading terror across Baghdad and the Shiite south.</p> <p> The civilian death toll is now running at roughly 100 a day, with many of the victims gruesomely tortured with power tools or acid. Over the summer, more Iraqi civilians died violent deaths each month than the number of Americans lost to terrorism on Sept. 11. Meanwhile, the electricity remains off, oil production depressed, unemployment pervasive and basic services hard to find. </p> <p>Iraq is today a broken, war-torn country. Outside the relatively stable Kurdish northeast, virtually every family — Sunni or Shiite, rich or poor, powerful or powerless — must cope with fear and physical insecurity on an almost daily basis. The courts, when they function at all, are subject to political interference; street-corner justice is filling the vacuum. Religious courts are asserting their power over family life. Women’s rights are in retreat.</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> I know there are a lot of deluded people out there who think Dubya & his regime are doing a bang up job of bringing democracy to the Middle East. Little somethings like facts aren't going to get in their way of their worship of their hero. This never was about bringing democracy to the poor huddled masses (hint: you can't <span style="font-style: italic;">force</span> a democracy at gunpoint on anybody, it's kinda counter to what <span style="font-style: italic;">democracy</span> is all about). It's always been about oil. For that oil, the United States of America has willingly abrogated its own Constitution and its place as the moral leader of the world. A person like me has no representation whatsoever, despite those fancy words put to parchment by brave men a long time ago. In their stead have come other men (& Condi), who are neither brave nor honorable but who are instead venal and morally repugnant: people who, if there were any justice in this world, would be sitting in dock at the Hague. The destruction of an entire sovereign nation, the forced and dangerous instability of an entire region, the death of God knows how many people, most of them innocent of anything except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. All for the oil. And now we're getting ready to place the cherry on top of this noxious dessert & make torture legal.<br /><br />All for the oil.<br /><br />Is it really worth it?zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1159142728402366572006-09-24T20:04:00.000-04:002006-09-24T20:05:28.420-04:00Global Warming & how it hits homeFrom the <a href="http://www.maineenvironment.org/sea_level_rise_maps.asp">Natural Resources Council of Maine</a>.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1157737339764173132006-09-08T13:17:00.000-04:002006-09-08T13:42:19.823-04:00That Coming Anniversary ...<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/08/after_911_a_squandered_role/?p1=MEWell_Pos5">Ellen Goodman at the Boston Globe</a> writes about how far we've come in the five years since 9/11:<br /><br /><p></p> <blockquote> <p>But here is something I never imagined five years ago: that America would lose our status as the good guy in the struggle against terrorism. I didn't imagine that our government would squander the righteous role won for us the hard way by victims falling from the Twin Towers and firefighters racing to their deaths.</p> <p>Al Qaeda was a uniter, not a divider. After the attacks, the whole world seemed to be on our side, with the single, memorable exception of Palestinians dancing in the streets. Some 200,000 Germans marched in solidarity. Flowers arrived at our embassies. Even the reflexively anti-American newspaper Le Monde proclaimed, ``We Are All Americans."</p> <p>When we went into Afghanistan in hot pursuit, the world stayed with us. But then we swung from a just war to a preemptive war, from a war on terror to a war of choice, from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein.</p> <p>``When we crossed the [Iraq] border, there was another great pause, then a transfer of sympathy," an American intelligence officer told Newsweek. ``The entire Islamic world took a step to the right." The Bush administration imagined flowers and rose water, shock and awe, mission accomplished. It failed to imagine civil war, and that step to the right.</p> We went from the Twin Towers to Abu Ghraib, from civil defense to civil war, from innocent passengers to soldiers in Haditha. <span style="font-weight: bold;">We blew it all on Iraq.</span> [emphasis mine -- zhak] In one poll, Europeans now find us more of a threat to world stability than even Iran. In a survey of 14 countries, none of them believe that removing Saddam made the world safer. And in Iraq itself, only 2 percent of the people now believe we invaded to liberate them from tyranny while 76 percent think we did it ``to control Iraqi oil."</blockquote>Bullies tend to pick on the weak. The bullies who are "leading" this country felt that invading Iraq, a country weakened by UN Sanctions and despotic rule, would be as near a walkover as made no difference and a win-win proposition: show all those Muslims the US is super tough and super strong, and gosh golly gee whiz, all that lovely black gold just there for the taking. The bullies leading this country knew they possessed no valid reason to invade a sovereign state, but felt that quick victory would come and pesky questions silenced. History most often lies in the hands of the victors, after all. In the ramp up to the invasion, I can recall having a discussion with a dear friend who bought the Bush regime spin hook, line and sinker. I pointed out my view, which was that we can't just go around invading countries. (I supported the offensive against Afghanistan. I would still be supporting it if I felt that the Bush regime were capable of actually conducting a war properly -- namely, go in, defeat the enemy and any specific objectives (Osama, anyone?), keep civilian casualties to a minimum while you're doing that, and then clean up the mess you've made.) I said to my friend that while there could well be WMD in Iraq, we simply had <span style="font-style: italic;">no right</span> to invade them, because they had not attacked us. The United States of America should not attack first. We're supposed to be the good guys. And my friend said to me, "let me ask you this, would you rather fight them over there, or over here?" My response was that I didn't want to fight them in either place, unless it was absolutely inescapable.<br /><br />The invasion of Iraq was supposed to show the rest of the world that the bully-boys who are "running" this country are tough & have big brass ones & not to mess around with the red, white & blue. North Korea & Iran were supposed to see this display of might & shock & awe and be sufficiently shocked to be scared to death henceforth that they would be next.<br /><br />But you cannot force a country to accept democracy at gunpoint. The idea that anyone should even think such a thing is possible is ludicrous. Democracy is all about choice, isn't it?<br /><br />And North Korea & Iran, far from being shocked&awed, are instead well aware that the mightier they are, they less the likelihood that the bully-boys will go after them, however much they really really want to. I fully expect the Bush regime to continue their bullying and to continue messing up everything they touch. They are literally incapable of doing anything right because they cannot learn from past mistakes -- or even admit to past mistakes. The only real question at this point is whether the bully-boys can be contained somewhat (here's hoping the American people recognize what is going on in this country & vote Democrat in November) and thus whether the damage to this nation and the world might also be contained.<br /><br />Are we smart enough to do that?zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1156889039470568682006-08-29T17:56:00.000-04:002006-08-29T18:03:59.490-04:00Who Does Your Representative Represent?I was already aware that my representative didn't represent me or most people I know and talk to around this part of the country. The needs of the people in this state are largely seen to at the town level, rarely but sometimes at the state level, and almost never at the federal level.<br /><br />All this "by the people" and "for the people" stuff is so yesterday, don't you know? Besides, the current breed of Republican (who currently have Lincoln spinning like a top in his grave, I have no doubt) pays no attention whatsoever to things like the Constitution or individual rights. Those documents created when the United States was shiny and new are, like the Geneva Conventions, <span style="font-style: italic;">quaint</span>. Where have I heard that before?<br /><br />So who <span style="font-weight: bold;">does</span> my representative represent?<br /><br />My representative is Jeb Bradley and apparently he represents ... <a href="http://www.harpers.org/sb-jeb-bradley-invested-1156785610.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Jeb Bradley</span></a>.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1156885593090069942006-08-29T16:56:00.000-04:002006-08-29T17:06:33.103-04:00Free FallThis hasn't been a good summer to be a New England baseball fan, especially not over the past month, which has left we of the Nation feeling like we'd been taken out behind Gate D and worked over with a sock full of Mannies.<br /><br />Or something. Even the clever metaphors fail us now.<br /><br />Usually around this stage of the fold, you start hearing the axe being sharpened and readied for the hapless manager's neck. The tumbrels might well have started rumbling long about the time of Boston Massacre '06, when the Yanks came thru and took five straight -- but interestingly, the Sox Faithful seem quite willing to cut Our Man Francoma a lot more slack than lesser men in the same position have earned over the years. Even the Boston Globe, which ordinarily would be rattling around the kitchen drawer looking for just the right knife, has acknowledged it's not Tito's fault the whole team has fallen apart. As Nick Cafardo points out in <a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/08/29/the_situation_is_unmanageable/">today's</a> issue, the blame can be found upstairs.<br /><br /><blockquote>Francona didn't get dumb this season. He manages and prepares the same way he always did. Instead of writing in Damon's name, he puts down Coco Crisp, a player who can barely throw the ball back to the infield. Instead of trotting out Pedro Martínez or Derek Lowe every fifth day, it's been Jon Lester, a 22-year-old rookie who went on the disabled list yesterday, and Kyle Snyder and Jason Johnson and Kason Gabbard. Yikes.<br /><br />Management let Francona down, and he hasn't made a peep about it.</blockquote><br /><br />So, Theo, how about it? Making plans for this winter? 'Cause you're sure gonna have a boring fall.lizmclhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13344306329068247668noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1156776155239957112006-08-28T10:38:00.000-04:002006-08-28T10:42:35.263-04:00Kelly Macdonald's a Winner ...<img src="http://zhakora.com/blogpics/kelly-emmy.jpg" alt="Kelly Macdonald" /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The lovely & talented Ms Macdonald, proving there is at least some slight justice in the world. (Wireimage photo)</span><br /><br />... and so is <span style="font-style: italic;">The Girl in the Café</span>. I really loved that movie (& have been a staunch admirer of Kelly Macdonald's for years) and was thrilled to see it win for best made for TV movie. It's sort of a little movie that could, given that though the backdrop is global in scope, it's a very intimate story of romance between two lonely people. And it's marvelous. Richard Curtis crafted a lovely script and the leads ran with it all the way to the finish line without taking the slightest mis-step. Bill Nighy (who should have been nominated -- and should have won) and Kelly Macdonald created a wonderful & unique chemistry in their portrayals of two lonely souls who meet by chance, and find some emotional kinship even as they lack any common ground whatsoever.<br /><br />Macdonald was up for Best Supporting Actress in a miniseries or movie, though by rights she should have been up for Best Actress. I hadn't given her a chance in hell of winning, because she was up against a formidable array of talent (3 Oscar winners and an Oscar nominee). I was so very pleased that she won. (Even if she herself was not, saying afterward that she'd hoped someone else would win because it's all so "nervewracking.") For ten years, this woman has given a series of terrific performances, several standout performances (including her first role, as Diane in <span style="font-style: italic;">Trainspotting</span>, and in the under-appreciated but absolutely charming <span style="font-style: italic;">Two Family House</span>, amongst many others), and one absolute knockout performance (<span style="font-style: italic;">Stella Does Tricks</span>). It's high time that she got a bit of acknowledgement for it.<br /><br />In case you don't know, Macdonald is a petite Scottish actor from Glasgow who landed her first part via an open casting call. Playing Ewan McGregor's club pickup who turns out to be a schoolgirl, she has very little screen time in <span style="font-style: italic;">Trainspotting</span> but gives such a remarkable performance that she's one of the things you remember most about the movie after the fact (her & the Worst Toilet in Scotland ... hmm ... well, anyway ...). She turned 20 the day the movie opened & has a talent for not just giving exceptional performances but also for choosing exceptional material, often very quirky material (the charming<span style="font-style: italic;"> House! </span>springs to mind), that ends up becoming a compelling finished project: <span style="font-style: italic;">A Cock & Bull Story, Tube Tales, Some Voices, Gosford Park</span>, the superb television drama <span style="font-style: italic;">State of Play</span>, to name just a handful.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1154740571461437742006-08-04T21:12:00.000-04:002006-08-04T21:16:11.473-04:00Friday Dragonfly Blogging<img src="http://zhakora.com/blogpics/calico-pennant.jpg" alt="Calico Pennant Dragonfly" /><br /><br />This poor little fellow was trying to beat the scorching heat here in the Northeast Wednesday by non-stop obelisking. Given the stiff breeze it wasn't always easy.<br /><br />A Calico Pennant (male) taken with a Canon Elph series camera.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1154697082237476212006-08-04T09:00:00.000-04:002006-08-04T09:11:22.256-04:00From The Grassroots...Forget the big-time national pundits -- the real opposition to The Decider can be found at the grassroots, in the small towns and cities where more and more eyes are (finally) opening. <a href="http://www.freepressonline.com/article.cfm?adid=1">This</a> column in one of my local papers is a prime example.<br /><br />Best quote -- <br /><blockquote><br />Quite apart from what Bush’s actions say about the hypocrisy of his bombastic Christianity — a man who would “save” a bunch of useless cells as if they were human lives while green-lighting the “only democracy in the Middle East” to kill some 500 civilians, create 800,000 refugees, and destroy much of the infrastructure of an embattled nation caught in history’s crosshairs — Bush’s refusal to seek an early ceasefire has, once again, strengthened our enemies, weakened our friends, and made the US, if such is possible, even more disliked and distrusted by both friend and foe.</blockquote><br /><br />The big-timers couldn't have said it any better.lizmclhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13344306329068247668noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1154122168194991132006-07-28T17:24:00.000-04:002006-07-28T17:29:28.196-04:00Friday Dragonfly Blogging<img src="http://zhakora.com/blogpics/blue-dasher-female.jpg" alt="Blue Dasher Dragonfly" /><br /><br />I think this is a female Blue Dasher (<span style="font-style: italic;">Pachydiplax longipennis</span>). Blue Dashers are very common hereabouts & this particular one seems to frequent the same post office I do.<br /><br />(Photo taken with a Canon Elph series camera.)zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1154120901822450652006-07-28T17:08:00.000-04:002006-07-28T17:20:10.603-04:00A couple of things<a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1219325,00.html">Condi in Diplomatic Disneyland</a> by Tony Karon, about how the US is managing the impossible and making things <span style="font-style: italic;">even worse</span> in the war between Israel and Lebanon:<br /><br /><blockquote>The problem with boycotting regimes you deem unacceptable is that if they are able to influence events, you're forced to respond to their initiatives, often in dangerous crisis moments. The U.S. and the Soviet Union were implacable foes who knew they could not resolve their differences, yet they maintained communication and developed understandings that allowed them to <i> manage</i> those differences in the interests of global stability. It is time for Bush the Younger to grow up.</blockquote>Bush the Younger is sixty years old. At this point, it might be time to accept that he's a real world Peter Pan (only Peter had moments of selflessness & was at heart a good person) and is, alas, as grown up as he'll get, which is extremely bad news for anyone who cares anything about the United States or the world.<br /><br />We now know, however, what happens when the USA is "led" by a man with all the psychological earmarks of a ten-year-old schoolyard bully whose parents never said no to him. A fascinating experiment, no doubt, only it's a shame it has to accomplished at such a high cost, isn't it?<br /><br />The always entertaining & articulate <a href="http://progressive.org/mag_intv0806">Gore Vidal, interviewed by The Progressive</a>.<br /><br /><p><b></b></p> <blockquote> <p><b>Q:</b> In 2002, long before Bush’s current travails, you wrote, “Mark my words, he will leave office the most unpopular President in history.” How did you know that then?</p> <p><b>Gore Vidal:</b> I know these people. I don’t say that as though I know them personally. I know the types. I was brought up in Washington. When you are brought up in a zoo, you know what’s going on in the monkey house. You see a couple of monkeys loose and one is President and one is Vice President, you know it’s trouble. Monkeys make trouble.</p> <p><b>Q:</b> Bush’s ratings have been at personal lows. Cheney has had an 18 percent approval rating.</p> <p><b>Vidal:</b> Well, he deserves it.</p> <p><b>Q:</b> Yet the wars go on. It’s almost as if the people don’t matter.</p> <p><b>Vidal:</b> The people don’t matter to this gang. They pay no attention. They think in totalitarian terms. They’ve got the troops. They’ve got the army. They’ve got Congress. They’ve got the judiciary. Why should they worry? Let the chattering classes chatter. Bush is a thug. I think there is something really wrong with him.</p> </blockquote> <p></p>zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1150037828634911042006-06-11T10:54:00.000-04:002006-06-11T10:57:08.656-04:00The Immigration Problem...... is that it brings out <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/10/klan.antietam.ap/index.html?section=cnn_mostpopular">all the loons</a>.<br /><br />People who take a hard line on immigration have to get into bed with folks like this, which is one heckuva unappealing thought.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1148767157643197532006-05-27T17:58:00.000-04:002006-05-27T17:59:17.656-04:00New England Flooding May 2006<a href="http://zhakora.com/flood.html">Here</a>.zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1147824886597050112006-05-16T20:13:00.000-04:002006-05-16T20:14:46.610-04:00After the Rains Came & Went<img src="http://zhakora.com/blogpics/apres-deluge.jpg" alt="my driveway" />zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9703221.post-1147818763720785702006-05-16T18:29:00.000-04:002006-05-16T18:32:43.736-04:00Sounds Like A Plan!<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html">Froomkin</a>:<br /><br /></p><blockquote><a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-bushtalk1106may11,0,385416.story?coll=orl-home-headlines" target="">Stratton</a> of the Orlando Sentinel summarizes Bush's comments on the upcoming hurricane season: "Bush said he worried about the thousands of Gulf Coast residents now living in trailers. 'Let's just pray,' he said, 'there is no hurricane heading that way.'"</blockquote>zhakorahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03550880256872825237noreply@blogger.com0