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11/06/2004: "Summertime.."

When I was a boy, Larry Yelnick's mom used to play Janice Joplin's "Pearl" at top volume during those hot summer days in Las Vegas. The blacktop would burn your feet if you dared cross the street without shoes, and the sound would melt over the neighborhood like a chocolate bar left outside. I remember the occasional view of the war on TV, but it never gripped me. Even when the son of someone we went to church with failed to return alive, it was all something remote and distant.

This one's from Cheap Thrills

Your daddy’s rich,
When your ma, oh honey thinks she’s mighty good-looking, babe.
I said she’s looking pretty fine to me right now,
Don’t you know she is.
Whoa, hush, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
No, no, no, no, no, don’t you cry.
Oh honey you’d better not cry
’cause they’re gonna kick you up if when you want to do nothing,
Take it from me!
Cry.

Whoa, one of these mornings,
Child, you’ll rise up singing, baby, oh.
I said you’re gonna wanna go, honey, spread your wings,
Yeah, child, you take, take to the sky,
Lord, the sky.

Until that morning,
Honey, no-no-no-nothing’s going to harm you, babe,
I said honey nothing’s ever gonna let you down,
’cause I just wouldn’t let them do it , no, no, no, no, no,
Hush, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby,
No, no, no, no, no,
Don’t you cry, oh no,
Cry.


Doc posted something that I had IM-ed to him, and then got chided and retracted. Perhaps I wasn't clear, here is what the doc I sent to Doc says:

In addition, Section 12(f)(2) of the Military Selective Service System Act specifies that any person required to present himself for and submit to registration under Section 3 of the Military Selective Service System Act must file a statement with the institution of higher education where the person intends to attend or is attending that he is in compliance with the Military Selective Service System Act.


Only thats not what the actutal text of the act says:


In order to receive any grant, loan, or work assistance under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq. (and 42 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.)), a person who is required under section 3 (section 453 of this Appendix) to present himself for and submit to registration under such section shall file with the institution of higher education which the person intends to attend, or is attending, a statement of compliance with section 3 and regulations issued thereunder.


See, the act says you have to do it if you get federal assistance under title IV of the HEA. The document I sent to Doc says nothing about such action being required to get financial or assistance, but rather only that it is required.

BTW, that last post wasn't mean to call 53 million people dumb... not exactly. But y'all did elect his ass twice, right? The intent was that this is how the world views the US, and it is how they view us. This is very dangerous, we could wake up soon to find the entire world arrayed against us, closing their markets and borders and turning their backs.

There is no "Coallition of the Willing". Nicaragua, Spain, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and New Zealand have all quit. Poland and the Netherlands are pulling out by March. Ukraine, Moldova, Norway, and Bulgaria are trimming to fewer than 20 troops each. We're going to end up alone, naked and cold in the desert.

Vietnam had trees, at least.

This is the "land of the free", they say. They know. They taught you that in school, remember? The land of the free is also the land that its visa regulations so that journalists from foreign countries cannot use the visa waiver program, but rather have to go to a US consolate in their countries and submit forms and fees to obtain a 'journalist' visa. There are only a few others countries in the world that require a special visa for journalists: China, Indonesia, Cuba, Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Actually, as of May, you can get out of jail free. Once. Maybe.

What's wrong with requiring foreign journalists to have a special press visa, you ask? Why shouldn't they have to show that they are here for good and benign reasons? Well, for one thing, we don't require most tourists from these friendly nations to obtain visas.

Whatever happened to:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

WTF, Over?

I believed in the people of this country. I believed that most of the people of my country, and yours, are good people. I believed that most of us are ashamed for what 'our' government is doing. We love this country, we love the ideas and ideals it was founded on, ideas that are the foundation of one of the most long-lasting constitutions in the history of governance.

I believed that the Bush administration were a bunch of abusive criminals. I lived in Texas with Shrub as Govenor. During the 2000 election, Shrub did not carry Austin, Nader did. I believed that after four years that the citizens of my country would clearly see what the residents of Austin had. I believed in those bumper stickers that read "regime change begins at home".

I hoped for these elections to say a collective, "we are sorry, we made a mistake, we are correcting it now" to the world. that would have stopped terrorism more than anything the administration has done. That would have shown humility and recognition and a bit of vision, instead of the obnoxious cockyness that Americans are painted with when abroad. Voting Shrub and his oil-filthy buddies out would be a sign that the nation is watching, that those actions were due to an evil administration and were not the will of the people.

I was wrong. The majority of the citizens of the United States of America approved Bush's conduct and awarded him with an even stronger administration. Rhenquist is dying, and will be replaced either with someone who makes him look like a left-handed peacenik, or someone with even less spine than Thomas. There goes the Supreme Court.

sigh