FOX News and the McCain folks are still going on about ACORN. Are they that certain that Micky Mouse is going to vote. Is it that hard to understand that ACORN had to turn in every voter registration card handed to them and that they flagged the suspicious ones? Are the people running the FOX News and the McCain really that dumb or do they just think that they're supporters are? Or is it something more sinister?

The FBI has been investigating ACORN and is trying to get all new voters registered by ACORN disenfranchised en masse. The FBI is part of the the Justice Department where firings and hirings are based solely on a willingness to do Bush's political dirty work. They know full well that the suspicious voter registration cards are known about because ACORN itself flagged them as suspicious before turning them in. They know full well ACORN is required to turn in all voter registration cards by law, even cards that were filled out as an obvious joke by some fool. They know that ACORN has complied with the law. They just don't care because they aren't motivated by justice, they are motivated by the political agenda they were hired to carry out.

This is a voter suppression campaign, pure and simple. The Republican leadership feels the need to do this because they aren't sure if there are enough tainted Diebold machines to rig the election this time around: the margin is too large and they need to go the extra mile.

The corruption charges against Ted Stevens are likely to be dismissed later this afternoon because of an "oops" by the federal prosecutor. With all the corruption and political-based hirings and firings at the Department of Justice lately, it isn't much of a stretch to wonder if this wasn't a "gift" to a longtime loyal Bush ally. "Sorry, your honor, I 'accidentally' forgot to disclose the material to the defence. I guess you'll have to dismiss the charges now. Shucks." Does anyone actually trust the Department of Justice enough at this point to think that this isn't a real possibility? If this wasn't deliberate, what does that say about the quality of our federal prosecutors?

What compels me to look at the MWMF boards? It must be some sort of masochistic tendency — and not the fun kind.

Reading that forum makes it crystal clear the bullshit about "intention" and "shared experience" is just that: bullshit. The anti-trans policy is about hatred of transsexuals. That is the sum total of it. The only thing I don't understand is why a transsexual want to be included in a gathering with such venomous hatred at its core. It is akin to complaining that the Westboro Baptist Church won't allow queerfolk to join.

i think i was wrong about my toe being broken
i think it is just badly sprained
not that the swelling has gone down
it is easier to tell
that is good
though it still hurts to walk
and running is out of the question
but it will heal much faster
not that i am planning to do much running in the near future

i feel a bit embarrassed about the confusion
but it's really not a big deal
i always feel as if i've failed when i'm wrong about something
i need to let myself be human
even if being human makes my skin crawl a bit
a bit of internalized anthropophobia

tonight was the last night of the bird meds
i am glad
tomorrow we will find if dubbins is better
i am worried

tomorrow is also paddington's grooming appointment
i moved it to tomorrow so lake could drive
because i had a not-broken toe
a strain would have stopped me to
so either way
tomorrow
which might be today by some people's estimation
but i don't change the day until neitherday has passed
the penny plan goes through neitherday
the day changes at 4am

i am tired
i must be up early
i should go to bed now
but i probably won't

LiveJournal has secretly removed basic (free) accounts. Even brad is openly pissed about this one.

Even if I thought was a good decision, the lies of omission does not promote a trusting relationship between the SUP and their users.

Whenever there is a Republican sex scandal, every media mention of it will be sure to specify "Republican Senator Blah Blah". However, the majority of the coverage of the Spitzer scandal neglects to label him as a Democrat. It might be tempting to point to the hypocrisy bias of sex scandal impact, but with his pride in his prostitution prosecutions as Attorney General of New York, his hypocrisy level in this is as high as any Republican that has been involved in a sex scandal. Republicans have been implicated in more sex scandals lately, so one could hardly argue that Democrats were the default. So, why obscure his party membership?

What is widely seen as paranoia or laughable conspiracy theories can quickly transform into fact. Just take these recent news items:

Vaccines containing mercury can be linked to "autism-like symptoms" in children.

There are drugs in the water and this has kept secret from you for fear that you "might be unduly alarmed".

It's amazing. If a week ago I had said that were drugs in my tap water, I would have been labeled as schizophrenic. If I say the same thing today, I'm just someone who reads the news. However, I would have been just as right a week ago or even a year ago. It goes to show the truth in that old saying: "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you".

all is as it should be, even when it isn't.

there are infinite possibilities
but at this time and in this place
this is the only way things could be
if things were different, we'd be somewhere else

the universe is here because it is
as the angles of a triangle in a euclidean space always add up to half a circle
it is object fact that never changes
this universe is a fact outside of its own physical reality
it is a truth and that is enough

The economic stimulus deal has convinced me that there is no hope for United States politics. Let's collectively borrow $146,000,000,000 and have ourselves a great little shopping spree! That'll fix everything! It's like looting the safe while the ship is sinking: you're going to miss the lifeboats.

I don't think I'm going to vote in the upcoming election. I just don't see the point. It doesn't matter who wins, the Democrats and Republicans pull the same crap and the only difference is the spin they put on it. The system in the United States is broken, it's only a matter of time until it implodes.

If you use X to insult someone, you aren't just insulting that person — you are insulting X. You are saying that X is something worthy of being insulted. It doesn't matter if you think they are a horrible person. If you don't think that X is something horrible about them, then insult the reasons you do think they are horrible.

I've seen far too many homophobic, racist, misogynistic, misandristic, transphobic, sizeist, anti-disabled and anti-semitic slurs "justified" by assertions that person being insulted doesn't personally deserve respect or that they fit some bad stereotype. Use something as an insult and you are saying that it is something worth of admonishment. Your words can say a lot more about what you think than you intend them to.

Mental illness has become so loosely defined that in 2005 the National Comorbidity Survey found that 25% of Americans had a diagnosable mental illness withing a timespan of one year and half of Americans had a diagnosable mental illness at some point in their lives. When we're talking about numbers like on fourth and one half, we're no longer talking about "illness"   we're talking about natural variation. A lot of people are being misdiagnosed, when what they really have is BAD.

Dear Human Rights Campaign:

Congratulations on getting ENDA through the House of Representatives. I forgave you the last time you betrayed the transgender community. Many of us did. We believed that your organization had changed. We gave you the benefit of the doubt. We were wrong and we won't make that mistake again.

If by some chance you manage to get the trans-excluded ENDA through the senate, President Bush is almost guaranteed to veto it. You sold out the transgender community for nothing. Nothing. You are not going to get ENDA &mdash all your going to get is a split and angry queer community, a queer community in which many do not and cannot support you, a queer community in which many actively despise and oppose you. That is what you've won, enjoy your spoils.

By the way, I fixed your logo for you. You should really consider changing it:

Today marks 2 years since I was released from Cahill 3, the last time I was on a locked psych unit.

For years, I was constantly in and out of hospitals. Throughout that time I was put on various medications: prozac, geodon, seroquel, zyprexa, depakote, lithium, ativan, klonopin, celexa, zoloft, and too many others to list here.

At times, the medications seemed like it was helping, but what it was really dong was preventing me from getting better. It wasn't until I stopped taking the medications that I started truly improving. It wasn't until I stopped taking the medication that I was able to stay out of the hospital.

Mental problems need a mental solution. Mental "illness" is not like diabetes or cancer. The speculation that mental "diseases" are biologically based is just that — speculation. There is no evidence to back it up, but the idea is treated as gospel. It is more religion than science.

Without the medications obscuring my real issues or slowing my brain down to the point that thinking was a labourious activity, I was able to directly address my problems and I was able to make myself better. I've been out of the hospital for 2 years and I'm sure that if I had continued to take their drugs, I wouldn't be able to say that.

From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Guano — test for its purity. — The weight affords the easiest test for the purity of guano. A bushel of pure Peruvian guano, according to most authorities, should weigh almost exactly seventy pounds. If heavier than seventy-three pounds, it is adulterated with clay, sand, marl, or some other impurity

From the The Universal Household Assistant or What Every One Should Know (1884):

Worms — treatment of. — Some members of the profession still cling with bull-dog tenacity to the opinion that worms do not affect the health of children, and that they are natural to them. The latter may or may not be true, but when they accumulate in the intestines, they produce the same disturbance that any foreign, indigestible substance would do. We find the picking of the nose, swollen lower eye-lids, restlessness in sleep, groaning, gritting teeth, starting, and lastly, spasms.    Worms kill more children than teething*; and when you find the above symptoms with a strawberry tongue and a fever, which will attack several times daily, going off as frequently in cold sweats, you can swear that you have a case of worms, and had as well prepare and attack them.    Now as to the best means of getting rid of them. I use the fluid extract of senna and spigelia in teaspoon doses for patients of eight or ten years of age, and less in proportion, night and morning, for three nights and days, following this up each morning with a good dose of castor oil, provided the senna and spigelia does not act. Then wait three days, and again institute the same proceedings, and for the same length of time.    This treatment is for the lumbricoid. For the oxyuris, or "thread worm," I see any bitter infusion by enema, sulph, quinine, followed by an enema of common salt and milk-warm water half an hour afterward, which will destroy and expel them.    The symptoms of the presence of the worm are the same as the scratching of the anus. If every practitioner will use these he will be gratified by the restoration to immediate health of many a little sufferer, who would otherwise linger in sickness for many months and perhaps eventually die.    Worms in Horses — to cure. — A remedy for worms in a horse which has never failed of a cure is to take half a cup of pure, hard wood ashes, finely sifted and mixed dry with the mash or food. If one dose should not prove sufficient, repeat it after a day or two.    Worm Lozenges. — Powdered lump sugar, ten ounces; starch, five ounces; mix with mucilage; and to every ounce add twelve grains of calomel; divide into twenty grain lozenges. Dose, two to six.    Worm Medicines. — 1. Two tablespoonfuls of pumpkin seeds peeled and pulverized, or given to a child who will chew fine. The seed does not kill, but stupefies the worm. The next day give castor oil or any other cathartic, and if the worms are present in the system they will pass off.    2. Make an infusion in the proportion of one pint of boiling water to one ounce of dried hyssop flowers; let it stand ten minutes; pour it off into a wine bottle, and take a wine-glass, or rather less, according to age, two or three times a day.

* Teething was thought to be a common cause infant mortality in the 19^th century, however most "teething deaths" were actually caused by opium poising from the opium and morphine teething infants were treated with.

I've been on the side of the police in the recent bomb scare incidents in Boston. The police were unfairly blamed for doing their jobs and doing their jobs well in those instances. That does not mean, however, that I believe the police can do no wrong.

In fact, there are many recent incidents that show there are real and significant problems with the police, including (but far from limited to) the Jena Six, the tasering of the student at John Kerry's speech, campus police breaking a high school student's wrists over crumbs, racial profiling, overuse of heavily armed SWAT teams for what used to be considered relatively minor drug offences, and police outright threatening to make up crimes.

We have secret prisons and the right to habeas corpus has been revoked. The police believe they can behave with impunity, because much like the soldiers responsible for the massacre at Haditha or the Blackwater employees slaughtering civilians in Iraq, the police within the United States are generally allowed to act with impunity when dealing with those outside the power structure &mdash they know they will not be held accountable for their actions.

That is why I get so upset about the whining that occurs in Boston whenever the police do what they are actually supposed to be doing — it draws too much attention away from the real problems.

The information coming out about Blackwater just keeps getting worse and worse.

A few weeks ago, we hear that Blackwater massacred at least 11 Iraqi civilians.

Then we find out that there were 6 other Blackwater shootings this year.

Then we find out that a Blackwater employee drunkenly shot and killed one of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi's bodyguards last Christmas Eve, only to be silently whisked back to the United States by the State Department — never to be held criminally responsible for the murder.

Then we find out that Blackwater (not Iran) has been arming the Iraqi militias.

Then we find out that there have been 195 Blackwater shootings since 2005, and in 162 of them Blackwater fired first.

Blackwater has been operating above the law, not accountable to anyone — and the State Department has been complicit in their actions. The Iraqi government has asked that Blackwater leave the country, but the U.S. State Department told them that is not possible. As a result, the Iraqi government has accepted the foreign-hired mercenaries will stay and that it is powerless to do anything about them. Is that how a sovereign government behaves? Powerless to prosecute, expel, or even question foreign mercenary groups that prey on it's citizens?

The Iraqi government is in not sovereign, its actions have to be approved by the United States, it is nothing more than a puppet. When Americans complain about the Iraqi government being ineffective, they are really complaining about our government's puppeteering being ineffective.

One of the keys to understanding the nature of things is to let go of the dichotomy of true and false. Just because something is a lie or is false does not make it any less true. Just because something is the truth does not make it any less a lie. That which has never been has always existed. Paradoxes are not paradoxes when one sees that truths can contradict each other because they are also lies.

Today, I met a nuclear physicist who talked of the spiritual truths that can be found in the dance of protons and neutrons.