time for some campaignin'

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a real downer of a conference

The world's experts are meeting at Oxford University on Thursday to attend the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference. A few of the happy subjects being covered: "What to do if a large asteroid were to be on a collision course with our planet", "The unintended consequences of new technologies, such as superintelligent machines that, if ill-conceived, might cause the demise of Homo sapiens" and the "Movement towards the merger of man and machine". Oh to be a fly on the wall at their after-conference social mixers.

What up?

Greetings, friends and neighbors! Melissa, in her infinite wisdom, has asked me to be a contributor to her blog. Being an opinionated female, I could not refuse. I was just complaining to her that I am bored. She said, "Post something on my blog!" And so, gentle readers, here we are. I can't think of anything particularly interesting to say at the moment, but when I do, I'll be sure and fill you in. For now, peace out! ---Alicia

The PickensPlan

I don't care for his politics, but I like his plan.

McCain = Bush

John McCain’s campaign is so eager to distance themselves from George Bush that they’re willing to use taxpayer money to have the Secret Service carry out their mission. McCain gave an ‘open townhall meeting’ in Denver, and his Secret Service informed the local police to remove any protesters from the area. The local police removed a 60 year old librarian from public property because she was holding a sign that read ‘McCain = Bush’

Sounds like McCain’s campaign is operating more like Bush’s campaign after all.

Video of the Denver Police removing the 60 year old librarian and giving her a court date

Bush also used the Secret Service to remove protesters

i wish he were still alive today...

I reread an essay by Kurt Vonnegut, Cold Turkey, and came upon a section that reminded me why I loved him so much:

My government’s got a war on drugs. But get this: The two most widely abused and addictive and destructive of all substances are both perfectly legal.

One, of course, is ethyl alcohol. And President George W. Bush, no less, and by his own admission, was smashed or tiddley-poo or four sheets to the wind a good deal of the time from when he was 16 until he was 41. When he was 41, he says, Jesus appeared to him and made him knock off the sauce, stop gargling nose paint.

Other drunks have seen pink elephants.

And do you know why I think he is so pissed off at Arabs? They invented algebra. Arabs also invented the numbers we use, including a symbol for nothing, which nobody else had ever had before. You think Arabs are dumb? Try doing long division with Roman numerals.

We’re spreading democracy, are we? Same way European explorers brought Christianity to the Indians, what we now call “Native Americans.”

How ungrateful they were! How ungrateful are the people of Baghdad today.

So let’s give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That’ll teach bin Laden a lesson he won’t soon forget. Hail to the Chief.

I wish he were still around, I think he'd be happy to see this election year play out.

deaths by firearm

an interesting fact has emerged in light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling on Washington DC's handgun ban, according to CNN.com:

Suicides accounted for 55 percent of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I'm personally not comfortable with owning a gun, I try not to judge others who chose to do so, but it is alarming that most firearm deaths are self-inflicted.