fears that spread death

in the november 27th to december 3rd, 2004 edition of the economist, an article entitled, "the fear that spreads death" proclaims that aids/hiv is rampant in jamaica because of fear of prejudice rather than fear of the disease itself:

and fear there is aplenty. powerful evangelical churches spread an unforgiving gospel; and while they promise sinners suffering in the afterlife, others are more than ready to offer it in the hear and now...(p 42)

in this article, this is the only time that evangelical churches are mentioned. not one church is identified, and not one example is provided of the church's offering of suffering in the here and now... instead the article delineates police examples, healthcare examples, reggae dance hall examples and even labor party examples of hatred, violence, and prejudicial behaviors against those with aids, whether homosexual or heterosexual victims...

once again, a reporter has failed to be objective about christians...

pruning

pruned my blogroll this morning not because i did not care for a particular blog, but because i found myself returning to the same blogs repeatedly...additionally, i discovered many blogs on my rolling list were not being updated regularly...

therefore, i have started a "favorites" list... remember, also, pruning spurs growth...

check these out; each one is unique, has a special voice as well as ideas, views, opinions, information to communicate...

personal savings accounts vs. traditional social security

intriguing information from freedom works debunking myths associated with personal savings accounts that are designed to "save social security"...

(a tip of the hat to sean duffy's THE RIGHT WORD)

praise, confess, remind, ask; then work with all your heart

nehemiah was not ashamed to show on his face his "sadness of heart" even before someone in authority over him... he was the king's cupbearer...

nehemiah was in pain that the walls of jerusalem were destroyed by fire; therefore he "mourned", he "fasted", and he "prayed"...

in his prayer, he praises God, he confesses his and the people's sins, he reminds God of His covenant-promise, and he asks for success...

then God works through the king to send nehemiah to jerusalem where he waits three days... during those days, nehemiah tells no one that God has told him to rebuild the wall... he examines very thoroughly the damages... only then does he tell the jews...

the people respond, "Let us start rebuilding."

nehemiah says, "The God of heaven will give us success."

turns out that "the people worked with all their heart."

"Don't be afraid...Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

brad bird's THE INCREDIBLES

brad bird writes with the conviction of the right in his latest screenplay THE INCREDIBLES...

this delightful, animated pixar flick explores roles within the family vs. within society, unashamedly revealing that mrs. incredible does not mind vacuuming the floors while mr. incredible looks for thrills of the past while "missing" the best parts of his family life... turns out mrs. incredible is the more talented of the two...

the screenwriter also pinpoints the frivolous, destructive lawsuits rampant in our society, the role of the government in protecting individuals often at great cost, the avarice of insurance agencies who look for profits at the expense of their clients and of weapons' developers who grow rich but "keep the best ones" for themselves, and finally the strong tendency toward mediocrity in our schools and jobs based on the false belief that everyone is ultimately the same... so that "everyone will become super so that no one will be" as the villain, SYNDROME states as a threat to the audience...

in the end, however, THE INCREDIBLES show that as a family, they are unique... and valuable to each other as well as to society at large...

jefferson's letter re: separation of church and state

an article worth a close read about the question of the separation of church and state...

in brief, the author discusses letters exchanged between the baptist association of danbury, Connecticut and the newly elected president thomas jefferson... the first, dated 10/07/1801, was a letter from the baptists congratulating jefferson with concerns that their religious privileges, under the constitution, were "favors granted, and not...inalienable rights". jefferson's response showed that he objected to a federally established denomination; and in his letter, he reiterated that religious privileges are "natural" or God-given rights...

definitely worth your time...

"mystery is gone"

ny times reports finds of 60 + bodies of murdered iraqis in old mosul this past week, but also reports, toward the end of the article, the following about capt. bill jacobsen:

"But to everyone's surprise, not a shot was fired, save for a few standard warning shots...

For soldiers like Captain Jacobsen, the fight here has become a painstaking labor to shake bits of information out of residents...

A 31-year-old devout Mormon who enjoys an easy rapport with his troops, Captain Jacobsen tries to put Iraqis at ease - a difficult task for a 6-foot-5 soldier outfitted with a helmet, ear protectors, body armor, a pistol and an M-4 assault carbine.

"I'm this thing walking into their house," he says. "When I go in, I want to sprinkle some reality in there, like, 'Hey, I've got kids, like you.' "

Although the afternoon raid did not produce any contact with the enemy, it served a purpose, Captain Jacobsen said, by establishing a presence in Old Mosul and planting in the minds of his troops the belief that the area can be tamed.

"The myth was that this was an impregnable fortress of insurgent activity. But the mystery is gone," he said. 'We can operate there.'"

captain jacobsen says it all, i think. what is true of old mosul is true of the whole of iraq... the mystery is gone; we can and must operate there. we must believe that the insurgent activity is not impregnable nor a fortress... support our troops; have faith...

one for the security exchange commission

the original letter from corning was dated 10/29/04... the letter from our broker, harris direct was dated 11/01/04... the envelope bore no cancellation date from the us post office... the expiration date for the offer to participate in what seems to be a commission free opportunity to buy or sell shares, was 11/23/04 according to harris and 11/29/04 according to corning... and the letter arrived in our mailbox on 11/24/04...

now, is this not suspicious?

the 4 of us for thanks giving

here we are in our s.c. living room... one of us studying cannibalism in crustaceans, another reading usa today and drinking a petite syrah bottled by bogle, another watching the world is not enough on satelite tv while ham bakes, sweet potatoes bake, roasted potatoes roast, broccoli steams, and pumpkin pie awaits...

meanwhile, i think i have an influenza bug attacking... or, i am allergic to chai tea... the only new food item added to my pantry...

happy thanksgiving... yes, we are celebrating a day late... because my other/better half worked the holiday...

lucky man, he was priviledged to drive into pittsburgh through a blizzard without any traffic to dodge or any other traveller at the security gate... even one of the vendors at the airport gave him a free pizza...

happy day after thanksgiving... and God bless us everyone!

more persecution in our schools

maryland public schools are not allowing teachers to teach the truth of historical events in which whole communities existed primarily to worship and serve god!

"Teaching about a secular Thanksgiving counters the holiday's original premise as stated by George Washington in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation: "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor."

Such omissions also deny the Pilgrims' religious fervor in the celebration of Thanksgiving, as related by Harry Hornblower, an archaeologist who spent years researching the history of the holiday.

According to the Web site Plimoth.org, dedicated to Mr. Hornblower's research, the Pilgrims, "fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean."Thanksgiving, the site said, derived from their belief that "a series of misfortunes meant that God was displeased, and the people should both search for the cause and humble themselves before him. Good fortune, on the other hand, was a sign of God's mercy and compassion, and therefore he should be thanked and praised.""

amen! and thanks to grumpy old man!

urban tactical planner vs. fat crayons

the nytimes reports today that u.s. soldiers now have a new weapon at their disposal in iraq...the urban tactical planner provided a:

three-dimensional virtual tour of a mazelike section of Mosul before the
first troops from the First Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, and the Iraqi
National Guard began capturing insurgents last month.

Not
only did the commanders simulate flying overhead to practice
air or ground
approach routes, but by zooming down they also saw buildings and streets and
spots where soldiers could assemble with some protection from sniper fire.

The images are not clear enough to make out people. But schools, mosques
and other important buildings were highlighted. Even ditches or other barriers
that might slow down an approach were marked.

The Urban
Tactical Planner is just one of a number of military and
intelligence tools
that use high-resolution commercial imagery. From relief efforts in Sudan, to
mission planning for Air Force flights and Navy ship movements across the world,
space-based imagery by private companies is now playing an essential role.

"It is the encyclopedia for minutia of Mosul," Mr. Feser
said in
a telephone interview from Iraq, after he used the imaging system to help his
brigade prepare for its mission in Mosul. "Before what we had was a map with
markers and acetate. It was like being a kindergartner with fat crayons."

well, the nytimes quote has formatted as a poem, and perhaps it is...

just meanderings

"lathered-up left"

per the right word, a well-written post on prejudice against the evangelical christian...

tell target to allow bell ringing

most oddly, target has decided to ban the salvation army bellringers from its storefronts...you may want to read, sign, and distribute the petition...and/or refrain from shopping at target this holiday season...

sadam hussein defended

see some of the french in action...

In a newsletter (dated simply 2003) lacking the State of Iraq's Cote of Arms (state symbol), which appears on subsequent releases, the authors declared in an exhortative language:

"We are numerous everywhere in the world, and particularly in the French-speaking space, to wish not only the end of the Yankee's occupation in Iraq, but more the victory of the Ba'thist resistance, which claims itself of Saddam Hussein and which is organized in the Movement Resistance and Liberation [poor translation from the original in French, meaning the Resistance and Liberation Movement] of Iraq."

humanitas publishes my story

i am happy to report... that my short short story, RETRIEVAL, is published in MUSC's literary magazine, HUMANITAS... look for it on campus in downtown Charleston...

off to class

my son off to class at college...

a narrow way through pa.

a narrow road in upstate pennsylvania, taken by my better/other half...

behind the camera

my son smiles at me...

taking a ride

my bichon loves to go "bye-bye" in any one of our cars... here she is taking a look...

a silent week

amazed to discover this morning...that i have not posted in a week!

this may be due to our psychotic cat going even more psychotic... what to do... poor thing...

or perhaps due to this having been my communication sciences and disorders (yes, i am afraid so; it is indeed csd) graduate student's last week with me at the hospital...

or due to the fact that i have been extraordinarily busy both at work and at home...

at any rate, the lame do walk
the dumb do speak
and the swallow-disordered do swallow...

thanks to god in his great mercy...

dangerous cartwheels in school administration's heads

here is a sad tale of schools gone beserk...

iraqis prepare to vote

look for the post on election fever in iraq...

atheist vote

the atheist vote pushed president "w" over the top in the 2004 election...

retroflexus three

retroflexi mako shark teeth...

puffer "faces"

the adorable, plentiful pufferfish gill plates... found in lee creek phosphate mine...

my first find

the very first shark tooth that i ever found digging at lee creek phosphate mine in no. carolina...

another summerville meg

another megalodon found in summerville, so. carolina underwater...

feeding damage ?

what looks to be feeding damage on the root of this shark tooth...

a summerville megalodon

megalodon found in summerville, so. carolina...

fossilized fern

a fossilized fern from no. carolina

big lies

Larry O'Donnell's unproductive meme

It is a melancholy reality that big lies are harder to refute than small ones. So it is with Larry O'Donnell's pet theory that last week's presidential election results represent a victory of the less productive states over the more productive ones. That narrow claim itself is not exactly a lie -- the blue states are wealthier as a group than the red ones. The lie consists of the implication that the election was a victory by the relatively non-productive elements of society. And that is surely what O'Donnell is implying; otherwise, what's his point. If O'Donnell is saying something interesting, he must be saying that power has fallen into undeserving hands (the hands of those who are not that productive) and/or that those who want to curb federal taxing and spending are those who benefit most from it. In this way, O'Donnell gets to attack Bush voters as backward, unworthy, greedy, and too stupid to understand what's in their interests. And since he's a liberal, the fact that he purports to take the side of the wealthy goes overlooked.

Unfortunately for O'Donnell, however, there is no evidence that the most productive elements of our society favored Kerry over Bush. The president captured 51 percent of the vote. Does O'Donnell think Bush did that well among unemployed voters? Among the increasing number of voters who pay no federal income taxes? Among government workers? Among those earning below average incomes? Unless he is prepared to make these highly implausible claims, O'Donnell has no basis for implying that Bush's victory represents the triumph of the less productive elements of society, or that the voters who re-elected Bush, as a group, were voting against their economic interests.

O'Donnell's theory gains its superficial plausibility by viewing a national election in state terms. And O'Donnell's hook for trying to make people think about the election that way is his talk of secession. Apparently O'Donnell is willing to give voice to a treasonous position in order to set himself up to take shots at Bush voters. But while we're on that subject, I'd like to know how many states would remain in the blue column if one excluded the votes of those who pay no federal income tax and those who work for the government. It seems likely, at a minimum, that states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin would turn red in that scenario. Obviously no such scenario is in the cards. But, in the hypothetical event of secession, I would expect many of the most productive members of all blue states to peel away and cast their fate with "Jesusland." Even non-believers might participate in the exodus, on the theory that tax relief and a strong defense are "worth a mass."

posted by "deacon"

bison and horse

not totally sure, but i understand that the tooth to the left is probably bison while the one to the right is definitely horse...

grasshoppers incubating

my son... is working out a radiator system within his terrarium to keep his grasshoppers warm as the temperture drops outside... the first idea that worked was to bring water to a brisk boil, pour it into a glass jar, place the jar into the terrarium and cover the entire "cage" with canvas to insulate the grasshoppers from the cooler air circulating outside...

but, as he reminds, this is not a permanent solution in that the boiled water soon cools and no longer radiates heat to the grasshoppers...

we are debating whether hanging a lightbulb down into the terrarium will provide enough heat for the bugs...

gavialosuchus americanus

wonderful images and information re: gavialosuchus...

therapod body temperature control

science news brief article on warm-bloodedness in therapods...

gavial-type crocodile jaw with teeth

from news of fossil trips in aurora, no. carolina phosphate mine:
"Nov 5, 2004
Correction

In the October, 31 'News', we reported that Rita McDaniel had found a Squalodon jaw fragment. That evening, several DVPS members and Rita had the chance to more closely examine the then cleaned specimen.

John Keklak presented the evidence for the specimen actually representing a gavial-type crocodile jaw.

"This was based on the following anatomical features: 1) the arterial scarring on the external bone surface is typical of crocodilian jaws, 2) the cross-sectional anatomy of the jawbone is more reptilian than mammalian in structure, 3) the bone is very dense (again more reptilian), and 4) the tooth does not project vertically from the jaw but at about 35 degrees from the vertical to the outside of the mouth. Furthermore, on this later point, the jaw section contains an adjoining socket for a second tooth. This socket indicates that the tooth projected at about 35 degrees in the opposite direction (i.e., toward the inside of the mouth). There is also a gap between the teeth to allow the teeth from the other jaw to mesh with them. This arrangement is consistent with what you have with the fish-eating crocs like Gavialosuchus. When their jaws are closed, the teeth are visible on the outside of the jaw, and alternating, corresponding teeth similarly project inside the mouth. The teeth also have a very pronounced curve toward the rear, again consistent with fish-eating crocs.""

Go to the site to see the photograph for yourself! Wow.

snowing cottonwood

snowing in pa. per my other/better half...he says it is a winter wonderland... here in so. carolina, it is "snowing" cottonwood in 46 degree weather... a lovely, fall day with bright, blue carolina skies and mountains of cloud along the ocean horizon...

mako shark teeth

3 mako shark teeth

the american way

sorry, i guess i am back to the political arena momentarily... ron hayes, a self-described exasperated liberal, asks in a comment if i would define, for clarification, the american way...

to clarify, at the time of that post, i was thinking about the drive to the voter registration office in st. george, our county seat, a small town that i have driven through perhaps once in the 12 odd years that i have lived in so. carolina...

i was thinking that i was trusting that the young woman to whom i gave my other/better half's absentee ballot would not discard it, but process it properly... (by the way, he is in pennsylvania right now...)

and i was trusting that the distintly american election process would prevail...

hope this clarifies that i was neither thinking about nor talking about superman...

stingray dermal plates

two dermal plates from a ray...found in summerville, so. carolina...

galeocerdo cuvier teeth

4 common tiger shark teeth
today, the tiger shark can grow to be approximately 14 ft. and is considered a fierce predator...

no carolina museum of forestry

on friday, i drove to whiteville, no. carolina... checked into a really nice little best western in town, crashed... got up too early the next morning, went back to sleep, got up too late... managed to find the museum, set up fossils... then go get some interesting breakfast at a local drive through call "the 701"... just about as greasy a scrambled egg as i have ever had...

the fossil fair was wonderful... and busy! so many little hands wanting to hold fossils... i carefully let them feel the serrations of an auriculatis, the smooth heavy 10,000 year old rib of a manatee or sea cow, the rough top of a large dermal plate of a stingray, and the heaviness of a sperm whale tooth... i showed them how the teeth were gone from the piece of a porpoise jaw and how the vertebrae was part of the back of the animal... it was easy to share with the children, because i usually knew more than they did... as i know much less than most of the other displayers/presenters...

i was honored and lucky to be in such company... and i had a grand day...

fossil fair

the no. carolina fossil club's annual fair is being held in whiteville, no. carolina this weekend on saturday, november 6th at the museum of forestry...

i will be displaying fossils as will many other more qualified amateur paleontologists, i am sure...

4 more years! kerry concedes

john kerry does the gracious thing - he concedes the election to g.w...

"w" 2

"w 2" in 11 days... four more years!

last night, my son and i drove approximately 45 minutes north to the county seat of st. george, so. carolina to deliver my other/better half's absentee ballot to the board of voter registration...

thanks to a group of middle-aged and older americans meeting at a local karate club, we managed to locate the building down a dark, tiny paved street...

we found a polling place; then were directed down a maze of a hallway, up and down stairs to a small office that was - thank god - still open...

we delivered the ballot... laughed at the time... it was about 6:37 p.m...

then drove home to watch the returns...

grasshoppers at home

grasshopper terrarium created by and cared for by my son... his grasshoppers love potatoes cut in half..

no time for exit polls

today, while at work, i was so busy that... i luckily missed all the exit polls that appeared to indicate that kerry was winning the election... at this point, before crashing for the night, it appears that bush may very well take the electoral college out for a spin... i go to bed to rest easy...

i cast my vote for "w"

early at the polls in so. carolina this beautiful, blue-sky morning, i cast my vote for the president, "w"... as well as for deMint for the u.s. senate seat once occupied by fritz hollings...

via cell phone, my other/better half in pa. told me that the no. east section of the country will be soaked today by torrential rains... even with thunder...

still, everyone should vote... so, get out there...

one last thought before sleep overtakes

steve moore of club for growth writes in an email sent to members tonight,

"And last but not least, please be sure to VOTE. Don't forget to take your friends with you to the polls, too. We know that the Democrats are frantically registering dead people. Let's hope they have the good sense to vote Republican."

black day 09.11.01

black day

an evening sky over the atlantic

an absolutely gorgeous photograph taken on cherry grove beach by my other/better half after our fossil hunting trip to lee creek phosphate mine...

vote!

vote!

be heard!

choose!

go to the polls on tuesday... they open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
be like the mailman; let neither snow nor rain keep you from your appointed task...

eating chocolate, drinking a merlot after dinner

sitting here in the kitchen at my computer after... cooking and eating a lemon and pepper shrimp, rice, broccoli and cauliflour dinner with my son... drinking a glass of merlot and eating a leftover halloween snickers mini-bar... this chocolate, caramel, and nut combination with a rich red wine is something else, by the way...

i am so looking forward to voting in the a.m. with my son, who votes this year for the first time... as does my other "child" who is away at college...

i am excited about the entire process... trusting that the american way will prevail again...

dishonorable discharge for kerry?

surprising news of kerry possibly having been dishonorably discharged from naval service...

conventional wisdom is not always wise

spook ban at school

seems a public school board banned halloween costumes because... of fear of insulting "wiccans", you know, witches...