Friday, January 19, 2007
Poem: Changes 25/The Unexpected
He develops
The reverse Midas Touch
Under heaven
Thunder rolls
Thus the old kings
Fostered everything
With a heartbeat
We cannot lose
What really belongs to us
Even when we throw it away
The gathering winds
Blow through my heart
Reverberating in the echo chamber
Of regret.
---o0o---
Alien Lore No. 97—Air Force Colonel Sees A UFO In Arkansas
photo by Col. Brian Fields - click to enlarge. The yellow lights in a
triangle were seen on Jan. 9 near Van Buren, Ark. The red lights
are from a local radio tower
WorldNetDaily.com has reported a retired Air Force Colonel, Brian Fields, spotted a UFO in Arkansas last week. This UFO sighting follows closely on the heels of the very recent Chicago sightings.
"I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward," Col. Brian Fields told World Net Daily. "I have no idea what they were."
Just before 7 p.m., on January 9th, he saw two bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon.
"At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes."
Fields' wife thought the lights may have been ground-based, but Fields says he's certain they were airborne. The retired colonel spent close to 32 years in the military, flying F-16s as a member of the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard.
"I'm certain it wasn't an aircraft [from Earth]," said Fields. " Click here to read the entire story on WorldNetDaily.com.
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Poem: Changes 28/ Ta Kuo—Preponderance of the Great
1
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point
The wood is stout
At the center of gravity
But the pressure
Is at the margins
You cannot change the pine
Because it is what it is
So you must change
The triggering condition
But you
Are not
God
2
The lake rises
Over the treetops
Caution 'though it seems exaggerated
Is no mistake
The enterprise cannot succeed
Without caution
In laying the foundation
And bracing
The ridgepole
3
You must go through the water
Even when it goes over your head
Even when you surrender life
So goodness
And the right prevail
There are things more important
Than life
Or so they say
But I can't think of what they might be.
---o0o---
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Is this cool or what? 4D scanning...
Triplets: in utero
A new, highly developed form of ultrasound is allowing us to see things we've never seen before. The fascinating article, with picture gallery is here.
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The majority of women are now living without a spouse
According to a New York Times analysis of census results, in 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.
"In 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.
"Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom. "
As Aimee Mann wrote:
"You fucked it up
You should've quit
Till circumstances
Had changed a bit
You fucked it up
You jumped the gun
I swore you off but
You climbed back on
And when you said
Of course you know
Could I be blamed
If I'd wished it so
I don't think so."
---o0o---
Monday, January 15, 2007
The C.I.A. and the creation of Osama bin Laden
Is this statement from a bin Laden fatwa, or from the Taliban? Not so much. This encomium of the terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban stooges was uttered by President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985. The “evil empire” was, of course, the Soviet Union, and other Third World groups fighting US-sanctioned colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship. . .in the third world.“Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are on the defensive — on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the political and economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man — in the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters.”
We created the monster and we engendered the toxic fundamentalist theology that lead to the war in Iraq, the savage deaths of thousand of Americans, and has us waiting for the other shoe to drop. As horrorific as 9/11 was, it was just a ride on the tilt-a-whirl compared to what might happen next.
---o0o---
Sunday, January 14, 2007
President Bush's secret plan to go down in the history books revealed
A highly placed Administration aide told Ronson that the President told a group of advisors that if he couldn't be remembered as one of the great Presidents, at least he might be remembered as the worst. "OK, so things haven't exactly gone according to plan," he told the meeting of political aides, "well then we might as well be remembered as the worst." Two other White House personnel independently confirmed the tenor of that meeting.
"We'll give Grant, Harding, and Nixon a run for their money," President Bush said. "By the time I'm through, people will barely even remember those c***suckers!"
According to the leaker, White House staffers all agree the plan seems to be quite successful.
---o0o---
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Dave Stodden Takes Polygraph Test In The Murders Of His Wife And Daughter
Dave Stodden
According to The Seattle Times today:
"David Stodden has come to accept that Snohomish County sheriff's investigators might suspect he had a role in the slayings of his wife and an adult daughter while the women were hiking last summer near Mount Pilchuck.
Mary Cooper front, Susanna Stodden back
"Stodden, 58, knows that spouses are often the first suspect in homicide cases, which he says is why he said he never pushed detectives for more details about their investigation into the July 11 slayings. When he was asked in November to take a polygraph test, Stodden said, he was angry but eventually agreed.
"But now, after undergoing questioning by a polygraph examiner on Wednesday — the results coming back inconclusive — Stodden says his patience with the investigation's focus on him is wearing thin.
"Nonetheless, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart wants Stodden, of Seattle, to take the test again in hopes of obtaining a conclusive finding. But Stodden says he doesn't want to.
"I've done everything they've asked me to do, and I want the focus to be on the investigation and not me," Stodden said Friday. "I want them to solve the case. I think if I told them 'I'm not going to do this,' it could become their focus."
Earlier update: Detectives keep pursuing leads in hikers' deaths
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Friday, January 12, 2007
The Tears Of A President
click the weeping president to enlarge
What would cause The President to weep? Click here to find out.
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Thursday, January 11, 2007
Texas teacher charged with felony for zooming in on wrestler's nether regions
A Grand Prairie, Texas high school teacher has been charged under a Texas' peeping-tom law with videotaping girls' wrestling matches for sexual gratification. Sergeant John Brimmer claimed David Ware, 28, took numerous close-up shots of the wrestler's crotches.
"Improper visual recording" is punishable by two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The 2001 law is supposed to protect people from small cameras shooting in bathrooms or up women's skirts. Filming a person without consent for sexual arousal is a felony under the law.
Ware shot two hours of videotape, drawing the suspicion of a coach. Sergeant Brimmer claims the close-ups are "a purposeful act of zooming in." Ware's school was not entered in the tournament; his lawyer says Ware was just interested in girls 'rasslin.
It seems unlikely this law is constitutional. How DO you determine intention in a case like this? To prove sexual gratification would require the police to catch the culprit in flagrante, performing the gratification. And, in fact, schoolteacher Ware was not focused on the genitals at all, but the clothing covering those genitals—a maddening 1/4" beneath those tights.
Ware's attorney, Scott Palmer, asked "If you go to a Cowboys game and take a close-up shot of their cleavage, are you committing the same offense because you think that has sex appeal?" Would all the paparazzi in the world be guilty?
---o0o---