FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Today is National Pancake Day
Wikipedia link HERE
And ALLRECIPES has a link to every pancake recipe known to mankind...or who link to it's site...
My recipe is: Open pancake mix. Mix. Cook. Serve.
And since we are discussing Religious feasts, I bet you don't know that yesterday was the feastday of St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful mother...
You probably don't know him, and his "saintly" pictures usually turn your stomach, but actually he is the patron saint of handgunners.....because he chased some thugs from a small town singlehanded...
The mercenaries' leader told Possenti that it would take more than just one monk with a handgun to make the mercenaries leave town. The saint pointed out to the mercenaries a lizard which was running across the road. Possenti shot the lizard right through the head, at which point the mercenaries decided that discretion was the better part of valor; they obeyed Possenti's orders to extinguish the fires they had started and to return the property they had stolen. They then fled the village, never to be heard from again.
Hell freezes over alert
Will wonders never cease? Next thing you know, Mary Matlin will marry Jim Carville...
Before he turned water into wine, he needed another miracle
Via a CatholicTeenagersBlog...
heads up from the Angry twinblog...
And theAngryTwin also has your Bible Verse for today, complete with photo:.
"They have ears, but cannot hear
noses, but they cannot smell" [Psalm 115:6]
WTO, Farmers, rice, and Korea
So they asked me to google Korea...
Ah, remember back when the WTO was meeting in HongKong, that aside from the usual moonbats and anarchists, there were a lot of polite Korean farmers there demonstrating?
Well, although CNNI showed lots of nice films of the demonstrations, they didn't put it into context.
What was going on is that the WTO doesn't allow protectionist...So the Korean gov't can't subsidize their own rice farmers...and of course this means that these farmers will go broke because Thailand and Vietnam will now export their cheap rice to Korea.
Is this good or bad? Well, destroying one's farm industry is bad...But I'm an Okie...One of these days watch Grapes of Wrath, about the Okies displaced by...catepiller and other machinery during the dust bowl days of drought...that was bad...but fifty years later, it was good....because their grandchildren no longer are forced to plow behind a mule 15 hours a day, but live in condos in California...and the local farmers have more efficient farms...
But globalization is hard for the people displaced by change...Here in the Philippines, our local chicken raising farm never made a profit thanks to cheap imports from Vietnam...(well, we still have chickens...It breaks even because we sell the manure for fertilizer)...
The problem in the Philippines is that we have a higher standard of living...(another thing rarely discussed: The exploitation of the average Chinese worker...because they are very poorly paid...however, their pay and work is better than working like their peasant grandparents)...
Because of the low wages in China, much of our manufacturing has gone to China, (partly due to local corruption and instability too, of course).
As for rice: We live in the rice bowl area of the Philippines.
Alas, there is no way we can export mere rice to Korea and underprice these poorer countries...but we might be able to get a slice of the gormet/natural rice market...(No artificial fertilizer, no chemicals, no herbicides)...
Monday, February 27, 2006
Local news...nothing...
Right now, all the fuss seems to be in the courts and will be in Congress...
BBC LINK HERE
The newest Jewish Conspiracy
Prof. Hasan Bolkhari, a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, delivered the news last week on Iran's Channel 4...
"The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon," said Bolkhari. "It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse – especially the mouse.
Ummm....MickeyMouse call your office...
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Mosquito borne virus hits France
I posted on this earlier: Here is the link to my post
BuggyCreek fever LINK
Local news
The news is that therehave been several arrests and more are coming...
BLogger ManuelQuezonIII has an editorial HERE
What is interesting is that Friday, ABSCBN news covered it live, "fair and balanced"...yesterday, lots of discussions, but the film seemed to be old (little on the scene reporting about new demonstrations...yet locals from here went down...did they demonstrate? Did they get stopped at roadblocks? Inquiring minds want to know...will check palenke rumors tomorrow)...
The politicaly concensus is that GMA over reacted...three ex presidents oppose her actions, which seem more to be aimed at peaceful demonstrators and political opponants than at violent coup planners...and the press is cowered...ABSCBN news channel is showing a religious film...hmmm..
It's like the country is holding it's breath waiting for GMA to report to congress next week...unless she over does the arrests, and then a lot of people here have had it...of course, her support in Manila is higher than in the provinces...
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Update 7 pm
There is a big crowd at the local marine base, with one general resigning and a col. being "relieved of duty"...and lots of civilians as human shields...lots of talk but still confused to what it means...maybe nothing...
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ABSCBN mentions that someone has told them that the press should not cover this because it's not news, and it will only embarass the country....
I am going to shut down the computer, but if you want to keep up, check the link...
And where else but the Philipines can you find this type of story:
Feb. 26, 07:29pmRosary temporarily stops dispersalBy INQ7.net MANDALUYONG CITY--Crowd dispersal units have started driving away civilians from Gate 3 of the Philippine Marines headquarters in front of the Philippine Navy Sports Club.
The riot police, however, have stopped dispersing the crowd as priests and nuns from the La Salle Brothers have formed a small group praying the Rosary in the middle of the street.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
News Update
And the rumor in the Palenke is that there will be a big rally this afternoon...
But here it is peaceful...Saturday is a work day here...and we spent most of the day so far at the farm...
We have a small house there, and are cleaning it up...
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Update: No news...things still quiet in Manila...
Congressman Beltran arrested for ....something he did in 1985...
Hmmmm...wonder if I paid all my parking tickets in 1985....
Friday, February 24, 2006
Civil war, guerilla war, coups, and anarchy
However, this is the first time I've watched a free press and a democracy cover a possible coup...right now the government has told the press they have to cover both sides or shut down...and the press is discussing this...in detail...(Hmmm...wonder if they read blogs...to whom it may concern: My husband is partisan, but I am not...just reporting)...
Well, anyway, what we have is no fear...merely people told there is a curfew but still on the street of Manila....but some of the coup leaders have been arrested without a warrant...
Quite interesting.
But this is different than living under a tyranny...
In a tyranny, the press is muted...the people are afraid to go on the streets...people disappear...missionaries report unimportant people mistreated by the army, police etc. who now know they have power, and the bad apples of any organization without good discipline break the rules ...
Usually when people can't make their voices heard, there will appear guerilla warfare...think Mafia...who revenge the powerless (and end up killing a lot of other people to make money)
You can control this by giving the people what they want while getting rid of the hard core cases...
But all of this is not as bad as anarchy. In tyranny, if you keep your head down, you are left alone. In a guerilla war, you merely have to do a little bribery and treat your workers well...but in anarchy, you never know who will stop and kill you...
So what we see here in the Philippines will make a lot of headlines, but we are safe...
Blogger links to the Philippines
Philippine commentary discusses it and Political junkie has links
BBC says they have blocked roads to Manila...and the big rally is to be held tomorrow...hmmm...
Geee....good thing Lolo got his tooth fixed yesterday...
The usual protest is to go out in the street and bang pots and pans and honk your horn...we'll see if this happens tomorrow.
As I have said earlier, Gloria is not popular here in our area...so the staff is listening to talk radio...and the local TV news in English is saying that the press might be censored...and they are upset too...
Another attempted coup....so what else is new?
And came back to find there are going to be more arrests of those attempting a coup...
The big rally is tomorrow, and there were rumors even here in the rural areas that those attending the "people power anniversary" would demonstrate against Gloria.
There were small (10 thousand is small here) demonstrations yesterday, but Gloria felt she had to go to visit the landslide victims. HOOOW convenient.
So now, there is a state of emergency, and Cory is telling Gloria to go...
Gloria reminds one of Clinton, except there are "hello garci" tapes instead of a blue dress...and just think, if Clinton had resigned, Gore would have been president and probably would have had the guts to get BenLaden in 1999...
Here, the problem is that the economy is in shambles as long as there is political instability...however, the bureaucracy is operating normally...it's just a feud between the elite oligarchy that rules the Philippines...
And doesn't affect the rice harvest...so it's not important here.
Katrina update
A lot of conventions are not going there, including my AAFP Uniformed Services convention, which changed to Chicago...
If there is no basic medical care, those sponsoring conventions will hesitate to book people...even if the hotels are open...
You heard of great balls of fire?
From DaveBarry, of course...
She walks in beauty like the night
She always has beautiful links...for example: LINK .you might want to check her out.
Fractals
"Our first design tool was developed for the "African Fractals" project (Eglash 1999). Mathematics teachers with large African American student populations reported that they could not use fractals -- there was too much pressure to conform to the standard curriculum -- and that they felt that many of the examples were too culturally distant from the students."
Ummm...fractals are advanced mathematics...by the time you reach that level, presumably teachers don't need to be condenscending to you...
And I wonder how they teach Fractals to students from India and the Philippines?
Or to students from Africa...where many tribes merely shave heads to keep down insects etc. and then wear a turban or scarf...
The Forgotten wars
Ah, but what if they gave a war and no reporters came?
That's what is happening in Africa...
At least Dafur's genocide gets attention on blogs...and in Christian churches.
And the cartoon violence in Nigeria got some attention, but without attention to the tribal aspects of interreligious fighting.
But once in awhile you see a note about central Africa where, despite 17,000 UN peacekeepers, people are dying...
Some 120,000 people have fled their homes in the remote Mitwaba area, where hundreds of women have been raped during fighting between the army and former pro-government militiamen that U.N. peacekeepers are unable to control, he added....Humanitarian crises elsewhere in the Congo, where aid workers say fighting and war-related hunger and disease kill 1,000 people a day, mean there are also only a handful of organizations looking after Katanga's displaced.
LINK
In what some experts call the deadliest humanitarian crisis of the last 60 years, an estimated four million people have died in Congo, mostly from hunger and disease, since civil war began in 1998. It ended officially in 2003, but deaths continue.
LINK
NYTimes has a story about Angolan refugees in Zambia...another "non story", since it was Cuban troops that kept the oil companies safe...
LINK
Anglican bishop notes the increasing persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
The Laws of computing
2. When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.
3. When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, it's probably obsolete.
4. The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.
5. When the going gets tough, upgrade.
6. To err is human... to blame your computer for your mistakes is downright natural.
7. He who laughs last probably made a back-up.
8. A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.
9. The number one cause of computer problems is computer solutions.
10. A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want it to do.
11. If at first you do not succeed, blame your computer.
From Thoughtcrimeblog
Family News
On the way home we stopped at Starbucks and had our Cappucino...
Once in awhile, we do like to splurge...
The Stiletto Workout
"...At a recent lunch-time session at Crunch gym near Times Square, dancer Amber Efe demonstrated how to strut like a cat-walk model, pivoting on six-inch heels that would challenge even the most ardent follower of shoe king Manolo Blahnik.... "
Shhhhhish. The "experts" think we need to have professional advice in order to do anything nowadays...
Shia and Sunni condemn bombing of Iraqi shrine
-Huge demonstrations in many of Iraq's provinces including Samarra and Mosul where thousands of people condemned the attack.-The top 4 Shia Ayatollahs hold a meeting at Sistani's home to discuss the situation.-The Association of Muslim scholars and the Islamic Party condemn the "criminal act".-Retaliatory attacks on reportedly 29 Sunni mosques and the Accord Front warns from the consequences of such violent reactions.-Jafari in a press conference calls for national unity and the leaders of the UIA hold a meeting. A press release is expected to come soon.-The Iraqi TV opened the phone lines to receive the reactions of the audience to the attack and hosts Sunni clerics and politicians in an attempt to relieve the tension.-Baghdad is in undeclared emergency situation, shops closed and streets nearly empty.
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LINK
Update
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When you hear the question asked: Why do they hate us? Maybe the answer is that it is because the government run Arab Iranian and Egyptian press lies.....
These governments use anti Jewish and AntiAmerican propaganda to divert anger against an outsider and away from their mismanagement and corruption....which is why AlJazerah is respected...it hates the US too, but at least it is allowed to do reporting with bias, not merely run the government's lies...
Ayyyy! The Robots are coming! The Robots are coming!
and other things to knit in your spare time...
Headsup from cute overload...
and the link for how to knit a cute bunny is HERE
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Dietary advice
photo Via grouchyoldcrippleblogDiet excuses:
| But the doughnut was calling my name. | |
 | But it was my birthday, so I had to eat the whole cake. |
| I had to get the bitter taste out of my mouth from eating the so-called dish, so I had an ice cream. |
| If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories. |
| If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are canceled out by the diet soda. |
| If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner. |
| Cookie pieces contain no fat -- the process of breaking causes fat leakage. |
| Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are peanut butter on a knife making a sandwich and ice cream on a spoon making a sundae. |
| Only eat things that have been broken into pieces; that way, all the calories fall out. |
| Chocolate is a vegetable. How, you ask? Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived from either sugar CANE or sugar BEETS. Both are plants, which places them in the vegetable category. Thus, chocolate is a vegetable. |
Good news is no news
A pointless exercise in Pollyannaish thinking? Hardly. ...
That is, what you see each day on television, read about in the newspaper or hear during those 22-minute segments in which all-news radio stations promise to deliver "your world" is not, in fact, your world.... It's intellectually dishonest....
From the LATimes, of all places...read the whole thing...
Retro Art
(via Ursiblog)America Art Archives has lots of old magazine covers and ads...
Remember the good old days?
When all you had to worry about was being Nuked?
Shrimp to the rescue
BlackfiveBlog reports that since 2005,the Army has been issueing their new first aid kit since the Korean War...LINK2
It includes an automatic tourniquit (in civilian practice, tourniquites are no no, but if your leg is blown off it comes in handy)
And it included a new clotting compression bandage.
I wrote about this in my old blog, since I first learned about it in Sept 2004 Field and Stream, not in my medical journals.
It has long been known that fine particles will cause blood to coagulate (American Indians used puffball powder or dirt to stop bleeding)...but now these dressings include coagulants to stop bleeding.
There are three main types. One is the old fibrin impregnated dressing...expensive...then there is Quickclot, from zeolite volcanic mineral granules...then there is HemCon, from lobster and prawn shells...
LINK is to a Baltimore sun article about it (RegReq) and the pros and cons of two different dressings: the more efficient one (quickclot) can cause burns..the Marines, Navy and Airforce prefer this one...but the Army wasn't as impressed, so prefered HemCon which is in a dressing rather than a powder and is safer...PDF ARTICLE ON USE HERE
Abstract HERE
HERE is an Aussie article on all this...discusses all types of field dressings...
Since I haven't done emergency room work for five years, and no work in a major trauma center for 20 years, I really don't have any experience in this...
Comments, anyone?
HemCon is made from chitosan, i.e. shrimp shells...and if the word Chitosan sounds familiar, it is also the ingredient in fat absorbing diet pills....
20th anniversary of EDSA revolution
Heads are held high,
eyes alert to all evil,
ears perked to all aberrance.
Sleepless for days,
not minding sun's vehemence,
not minding thirst, hunger,
but ever alert to dissonance,
to preclude, conclude
immoral proclivity, depravity.
Not a single bullet spent.
No blood spilt. No lives fallen.
They reclaimed country's integrity,
the people's own supremacy.
Never a victory for so many.
Heroes all are!
There will be a big celebration for EDSA revolution day...alas, the end result is that the elite families still have a monopoly on the government, and corruption is still rampant...however, the heroism of the ordinary Philippino in standing up to Marcos in a non violent manner is something to be proud of...LINK2
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For some reason, Gloria is visiting the landslide survivors instead of atteding the celebrations...
The government has prepared a four-day celebration for the EDSA 1 rites, including a mass at the EDSA Shrine on Ortigas Ave., Quezon City and the traditional "Salubungan" ceremony.
The President however has limited participation in the EDSA celebration, which ends on Feb. 25, and will mostly travel to the provinces to bring the message of unity and hope to the masses.
Fashion statement
Photo title is: He's a good kid. We go to church with his mother.
Manolo says: Don’t forget to trim around the sidewalk before you go, Pixie-Goth Lawn Boy.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Landslides, stampede deaths, a possible coup, and now this
Luckily, we don't live near the Mayon Volcano...(we are actually closer to Mt. Pinatubo and the closest volcano Arayat, is inactive)
What kids say
These have to be original and genuine - no adult is this creative!!
MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she was so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, "If you don't remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six."
STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom goodnight. "I love you so much, th! at when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom window."
SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. "Please don't give me this juice again," she said, "It makes my teeth cough."
DI (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked: "How much do I cost?"
MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked his dad: "Why is he whispering in her mouth?"
JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: "The man named
TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for awhile and then asked, "Why doesn't your skin fit your face?
The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... this particular Sunday sermon..."Dear Lord," the minister began, with arms extended toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. "Without you, we are but dust." He would have continued but at that moment my very obedient daughter (who was listening!) leaned over to me and asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice,
"Mom, what is butt dust?"
The way of the warrior
He also has a photo of his trained dog...
And a photo of his Palm Pocket
And his redneck CAT CARRIER
And then there is THIS...
Some of his photos are not Workplace friendly or school friendly...and that means YOU LUKE
KittenWar!
May the cutest kittie win...
So far, ChesterChunks is winning...
Naah, my cat would never win...he's not cute enough...He has to work for a living... he catches lizards and mice and birds all the time...--
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Your quote for today
Philippine news
Yesterday, a garbage can exploded in the Presidential palace and it was claimed it was not a bomb...but rumors are flying...at least in the popular press....You see, the impeachment over the Hello Garci tapes was quashed (evidence could not be introduced because it was not introduced in time, so the trial fizzled out) Gloria is unpopular here...
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In the meantime, the US marines have arrived with K-9 dogs to search for bodies...especially the ones sending out text messages from cell phones, as the rumor went...then it was reported 50 people were found...alas, a false rumor. One girl was pulled out but later died...
And the government? Ah, it is planning to plot geological hazard zones...as for illegal mining, that is already illegal...."logging ban still in effect"...of course, illegal logging is still rampant...PODCAST HERE...
A lot of this reminds me of working for the US Government bureaurocracy: If there is a problem, you do an elaborate 100 page report to solve it. So we had an entire library wall full of government policy reports...that no one reads, of course...and of course, when hospital inspectors came, they always asked to see the papers that gave the hospital policies...never mind that the policies were written by one full time nurse, but rarely if ever read by anyone else...and had only limited connection with how the hospital actually worked...
Monday, February 20, 2006
Drug trafficers in Indian Country
"This is very serious and has created major problems in the community," said Clifford Martel, a former senior police investigator for the Red Lake Nation in northern Minnesota, who was fired in July and said it was because he had tried to rid that reservation of drug traffickers with close ties to powerful tribe members.
"The amount of drugs was really impacting that community, our community, just as if it were Chicago, and big loads were coming in all the time," Mr. Martel said.
For traffickers of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, painkillers and people, reservations offer many advantages. Law enforcement is spotty at best. Tribal sovereignty, varying state laws and inconsistent federal interest in prosecuting drug crimes create jurisdictional confusion and conflict.
The deep loyalty that exists within tribes, where neighbors are often related, and the intense mistrust of the American justice system make securing witnesses and using undercover informants extremely difficult. And on some reservations, Indian drug traffickers have close relationships with tribal government or law enforcement officials and enjoy special protection that allows them to operate freely, investigators say.
For the yuppies who think drug legalization would be better than the drug wars, I suggest they live in Red Lake for a couple months... the last time Red Lake was in the News, it was because a boy shot 8 in the school...and the PC types blamed Prozac...not noticing that his father committed suicide and his mother was no where to be found...essentially the kid was abused as a kid, and full of anger...and he didn't even attend the local high school, because of his emotional problems..
The number of child abuse, elder abuse, spousal abuse, teenaged suicides, DUI's and some pretty frightening murders that occur was not "cultural" as much as related to the widespread use of drugs, mainly marijuana, but also alcohol, crank, and Tyenol with codiene....
As for the note about "close relationships" making things difficult...well, we had a girl attacked by some dogs...when we finally got to call a jury of 8 out of a jury pool of 40, we couldn't find 8 people who weren't related to the plantiff, the girl's family, the judge, any of the court officials, or the police who were involved...
Just like here in the Philippines, family connections are more important than justice...
Now, drug abuse is not an ethnic problem...I saw similar problems in whites in Oklahoma...and the upper class abuse of drugs in Pennsylvania yuppies merely led to a different kind of abuse...neglect of children, indifference to society around oneself, and an arrogance toward the less fortunate.
Personally, I preferred the families of Red Lake to the proud and hoity toity elites...
You know, NO ONE in Red Lake hospital or nursing home died alone and neglected...
Want to drive your pet bats crazy?
Narcissitic boomers congratulate themselves
Mark Steyn's comments about the press seem to fit this fluffy piece: It's easy to be tough about nothing...
Better late than never
JAPAN'S ambassador to the Philippines today apologized to the nation for the destruction of Manila towards the closing stages of the World War II.
Ryuichiro Yamazaki spoke at a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 61st anniversary of the Battle for Manila that left over 100,000 Filipinos dead and destroyed the city once known as the Pearl of the Orient.Few in the US even know of this atrocity...Many were killed in the shellling/crossfire, but many more were deliberatly massacred by the departing Japanese soldiers...one of the rarely mentioned atrocities of World War II...
Another story unknown in the West is the terrible story of those Japanese soldiers...who were killed by local people in revenge, and who fled to the jungles and starved...
Several of Endo's less famous writings, and Ichikawa's movie Fires on the Plain tell this story; Endo's books use the theme to stressthat God can forgive even the unforgivable...Ichikawa stresses the evil of war from a pacifistic point of view...
Philippine mudslide victims are buried
Hopes ran high as rescue workers frantically dug through tons and tons of mud on reports by some officials and residents who claimed to have received text messages from people trapped underneath.
Reports said buried children and teachers had been sending text messages calling for help.
The messages then stopped, sending rescuers on a frantic mission to race against time digging into the muck despite miserable weather conditions.
If you read the story, you will note they requested US helicopters. and indeed, the Marines are on the ground...
There was a bomb in Sulu, but when the Marines started helping, the local NPA promised to leave them alone:
Security is a concern for the Marines because communist guerrillas are active on Leyte island. The New People's Army rebels, who have been waging a Marxist rebellion since the late 1960s, are on U.S. and European lists of terrorist organizations.
The rebels said Sunday they won't attack the American troops, but warned them not to stray into rebel zones or commit provocative acts.
Mudslides have been occuring all over, even near here (although not as bad as the ones two years ago)...The problem is more rain than usual during the usually dry season, but it is also because of illegal logging...
Again, corruption allows illegal logging to occur, and the local poor people don't understand the danger: they see the logging as a way to feed their families...
We usually buy used wood for our projects, but you can still find illegal wood being sold under the table...and a lot of times, what happens is that the wood is shipped elsewhere: The ships show up, the lumber is loaded, and the ships leave...yes, it's illegal, but a little bribe money will do wonders in the Philippines...
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Why worry about the NSA when big business has been doing it for years?
I suspect that the NSA isn't this good.
Cats in Sinks!
On the other hand, there is NO WAY I can get my cat in a sink...
God and the Philippines
So it go me thinking if we too have God in our constitution, and sure enough:
We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.
Yup. Gloria's okay. Nothing in the Constitution against stealing elections or diverting Agriculture funds from poor farmers to her election campaign...
(heads up from RIghtfaithblog).
The Republic of Peralandra?
But he has a blog.
Today's entry is about sovereignty and loopholes in the UN Space treaty...
Theoretically, Richard Branson's group could colonize Venus and declare independence...voila: The Republic of Peralandra...
Jack Lewis, call your office...
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Blackie is unhappy
Blackie is back from the vet, with her broken leg in a cast...she is unhappy and keeps trying to take the cast off, so we have her in a collar to keep her from doing this...she is very unhappy, but otherwise ok after being hit by a jeep two days ago... 
At least he doesn't have to put up with stuff like THIS
Lolo's old girlfriend
Lolo's friend from Medical school visited here for two days...
There was a mixup when they went to meet at the airport, so her neice picked her up and Lolo went the next day to the neice's house to visit and bring them here.
Friday, February 17, 2006
more mudslides in south
Probably a thousand killed...
Not near our area this time.
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Follow up: many sending help for the people...alas, most probably killed within minutes.
LINK:
Philippine military is helping, and coordinating with some US units that are here for military exercizes.
: Katrina post notes US diverting ships LINK
BBC LINK
Short FIlms
Or, if you are in a perverse mood, the Nutty Neocons at the corner provide a link to the Lumberjack song...
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Kim Chee air filters
Well, now they are selling Kimchee filters...
Wonder if they smell as bad as kimchee?
Headsup from BoingBoing
The Heroes of Hurricane Katrina
Popular Mechanics has several articles about Hurricane Katrina...and this link is to the article about the local heroes who helped out:"In the wake of Hurricane Katrina hundreds of volunteers rushed to New Orleans, bringing their own skiffs, airboats and helicopters. Working with local law enforcement, military units, even state wildlife officials, these ordinary civilians launched one of the largest ad hoc rescue efforts in U.S. history.
Photo:Seven days after Katrina hit New Orleans, an S-61 is still flying rescue missions. Civilian volunteers, working independently and with military and police units, saved thousands of residents.
The federal, state and local response to Katrina came in for immediate criticism and will likely be debated for years. But in the first days after the storm, the national press largely overlooked the heroic civilian reaction, and downplayed the role of military forces--including Navy, Coast Guard and National Guard assets--that were deployed mostly out of TV-camera range. The early fatality predictions were nearly apocalyptic--up to 10,000 dead. But the actual fatalities proved to be a tiny fraction of that figure, thanks mainly to the massive resources that were brought to bear. The Armed Forces Press Service would later report that various branches of the military rescued more than 14,000 people. And that doesn't count the people picked up by local medevac and sheriff's offices and hundreds of volunteers.
No one knows how many civilians came, but they did--in helicopters and airboats, fixed-wing airplanes and runabouts, from Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and New Orleans itself. The civilian effort represents millions of dollars in donated time, hardware, fuel and supplies. In Dillon's case, it costs about $250 per hour to operate the Blue Ghost....
Photo:Answering the Call: Hunting and fishing guide Michael Beeson (second from left) trailered his airboat 600 miles from Lake Texoma, Texas, to volunteer in the New Orleans rescue operation. Two city policemen are to the right; to the left, one of Beeson's guides.
Thanks to Popular Mechanics....Thank God SOMEONE is noticing the everyday heroes...
Hurricane Katrina: The Good news
Popular Mechanics will be reviewing the congressional review on Katrina...and questions why they finger point at certain leaders, when the real question is what exactly should FEMA's role in disasters should be...something I noted in my Katrina coverage, that the federal bureaucracy is slow by it's very nature, and that local responders are the answer.
But, as I also pointed out in my coverage of overlooked reports, there WAS a huge local responder involvement that got little coverage and little thanks by the networks...
As Popular Mechanics notes: "
The Committee report also criticizes the DHS and FEMA for not including the Department of Defense in their pre-storm and immediate post-storm planning. However, the same August 28 transcript shows that DoD was included from the beginning. In reality, despite organizational shortcomings, the rescue spearheaded by the National Guard and the Coast Guard turned out to be the largest and fastest in U.S. history, mobilizing nearly 100,000 responders within three days of the hurricane’s landfall. While each of the 1072 deaths in Louisiana was a tragedy, the worst-case scenario death toll would have been 60,000....
Like Garrison Kieller's criticism of Mr. Levy's "look at the weird stuff at America" that ignored the ordinary working American who quietly lives with their families, the press tends to emphasize "look at the BADBUSH, look at the terrible response" and not "look at the 100 000 normal everyday people who left their families to help prevent others from dying"...
And this doesn't even count the hundreds of thousands who took in displaced friends and relatives and even strangers into their homes and churches and schools to ride out the storm...
Full Article HERE
Family news
And the black puppy was hit by a car and has a broken leg.
Except for that, we are ok...better after having a case of the flu two weeks ago.
