A day at the Beach

On the News:

Powell is latest loss to Cabinet
Rice named as successor at State Dept. WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his resignation Monday, ending four years of battles with Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the course of U.S. foreign policy.

And…

After day of cabinet resignations, many fear a shift to the right
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Secretary of State Colin Powell's resignation and a flood of high-level departures at the State Department and CIA remove the cautionary voices that had often acted as a brake on President Bush's aggressive foreign policy.

After the loss of the one person in the administration I respected (hey, I used to work for the man) the purge is complete. Now Steel/Steal Dick has complete control. Dear friends, be afraid, be very afraid.


Shake-up, turmoil under way at CIA
WASHINGTON– Hours after the two top clandestine service officers at the CIA resigned Monday, Director Porter Goss asked employees to remain loyal to the agency and rebutted allegations that he had a partisan agenda.

Gee, sensing a theme here? “Truth be damned, we have an agenda.”

Hostettler mounting campaign to change the name of Interstate:
John Hostettler, the Congressman representing the 8th district of Indiana, has been convinced by local religious groups to introduce legislation in the House that would change the name of an Interstate 69 extension to a more moral sounding number.

There are plans to extend the interstate from Indianapolis through southwestern Indiana all the way through Texas into Mexico in the coming years. While most believe this highway will be good for the state’s economy, religious conservatives believe “I-69” sounds too risqué and want to change the interstate’s number.

Hostettler, a proponent of the interstate extension, agrees. “Every time I have been out in the public with an ‘I-69’ button on my lapel, teenagers point and snicker at it. I have had many ask me if they can have my button. I believe it is time to change the name of the highway. It is the moral thing to do.”

Got to love Indiana politics. Thank God! John is fighting for my decency.

New Haven woman given 10 years for molesting girl, 13
A 26-year-old New Haven woman who admitted to performing a sex act on a 13-year-old girl during visits at her Moeller Road home last year and earlier this year was sentenced Monday in Allen Superior Court to 10 years in prison.

Just had to put this in, it goes in my win column.

Pentagon tells bases to cut ties with Scouts
The Pentagon has agreed to warn military bases worldwide that they should not directly sponsor Boy Scout troops, partly resolving claims that the government has improperly supported a group that requires members to believe in God.
The settlement, announced Monday, came in a 1999 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which says American military units have sponsored hundreds of Boy Scout troops.

Ok, over the fucking board. You ever wonder if your being pimped, just to get a reaction?

Student Art Nets Protest:
ALBION — A Central Noble High School student who painted anti-war quotes across an American flag for an art project has angered some of his classmates.
The flag was displayed for several days at the bottom of a display case in the high school’s main hallway before it was removed last week along with the rest of the artwork in the display.

Well, freedoms hard fought for are easy to lose. Tasteless yes, but enough with the knee-jerk reactions.

Vets hold peace rally
The vigil by the VA hospital was small, but got cars honking
On Thursday, about 65 people joined in front of the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System along Lake Avenue to protest treatment of veterans, support troops who are fighting and call for an end to wars.

You know a lot of people flipped them off etc… But, out of all the fucks out there waving signs, Veterans get my respect and my ear.


Indiana University study: “Dave” worst baby name
The social psychology department at Indiana University-Bloomington recently released the results of a twenty-year study of the effects different first names have on the psychological development of human males. The results were published in the December edition of Psychology Today, a leading magazine in the field.

In 1983, IU psychologists began studying eight year-old boys in Indiana of the same race, religion, family structure, and socio-economic status in their attempt to determine if a person’s name was a major factor in their psychological growth and development. The study ended in February. All the boys observed as part of the study are now 28 years old. After several months of looking at data from the study, researchers say evidence shows that certain names almost always doom a child to mediocrity.

It seems that “David” is not a bad name if one can keep it from being shortened to the shorter “Dave” version. “Our research has shown that the friends of young men named ‘Dave’ add an insulting adjective prior to the name over 72% of the time. This has made our state, and I imagine the country as a whole, full of boys named ‘Crazy Dave’, ‘Dirty Dave’, ‘Drunk Dave’ or ‘Dumb Dave’. These boys, all of normal intelligence and good family backgrounds, unconsciously live up to these destructive monikers,”

People named “Dave” had more traffic accidents, drinking problems, arrests, and exhibited juvenile behavior more often than boys of any other name during the twenty-year study. They also performed poorly in school and on standardized tests, limiting their choice of colleges and their future earning potential.

Shireman encourages all parents to think long and hard before choosing a name for their babies. “Avoid the name David at all costs unless you want to set your child up for failure.” Other names Shireman warns against are Dick, Darryl, Dirk, Daniel, Robert, Kevin, George and Bruce.

Your tax dollars at work. Damn, I wish I would have written that grant proposal. Did you notice that John Q. Public is not on that list?

On November and Shadows:
“The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.” (Wild Bill). November is the time of year when the shadows grow. I am reminded of the 40’s radio show “The Shadow” and the lead catch line “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, the Shadow knows” .

You know it’s been a hard past few weeks and I have never enjoyed November. Problems I have encountered included: interpersonal/relationship issues (on many levels), grief and mourning, health and welfare, global/state/local politics, command and control problems, warfare, whole-sale disregard, relocation, home remodeling and the fact that I lost my place in the current book I am reading. (you ever lost your place in a History of the Russo-Japanese War, it sucks.) Over all it’s not a lot of fun for anyone who is not a masochist.

In my morning reading, (yes, I am one of those people who read 10 newspapers a day) I found this thought on shadows, and being as its November and its raining I found it appropriate: “Shadows a bad thing...not at all; you may well find that having a few shadows among the highlights adds a sense of depth and character that wasn't there before.” I however think I prefer to strike a match. Burn Baby, Burn!

Today’s word:
Fingertrix: Verb; an act proclaiming superiority or victory over the lesser man. It is in common Swedish usage but has been used in English too.
Karl fingertrixes when he realizes Fredrik fell down the abyss.
This war is a fingertrix for all parties.

Phrases for the Day:
“Buck Wild on the Rilla”: To act wild and crazy (on the rilla means" really").
(and)
“Toe up from the floor up”: To be really messed up (like from a hangover). Sometimes abbreviated to simply "toe up."

Today’s Bill:
Come, let's away to prison; We two alone will sing like birds I' th' cage."
--From King Lear (V, iii, 6-8)


Quote of the Day:
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.
-- T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Rigid and Merciless I remain,

John Q. Public