So you want a family/friend game night, but "Sorry," "Life," & "Monopoly" will make your head esplode

When I was growing up my family held a family game night on Saturday night. It was one of the few nights of the week we were all together and Dad didn't have any night classes to teach.

We had about 15 to 20 board and card games to choose from. That was a decent selection, but ours was nothing compared to my aunt and uncle. They were a very conservative religious family and had banned tv from their home. Instead they had a music room and a converted pantry off the kitchen devoted to holding their games. Top to bottom on all three walls, on every shelf there were board and card games.

Call me a "geek" (I'm proud of the label, btw) but I thought it was heaven.

You may have thought about beginning a "game night" for your family and friends, but are either non-plussed by the games available at Toys-R-Us, Walmart, Kmart or Target. Or you want to expand from the games you already have. Follow me over the fold for suggestions of games you've probably never heard of and a brief introduction into a subculture you may know little to nothing about.

There is something about face to face gaming that you can't get playing on a computer, either with the computer as your opponent or on-line with humans as you opponents (even if you have headphones and a mic and interact with others). It's the many levels of socializing that occur when your sitting across the table with someone. One learns to tell what is nuance, sarcasm(snark), humor and body language and balancing that with what one actually says.

Gaming is also a non threatening way to engage your tween and teenagers.

Besides they are cheaper than tickets to the movies. )There are reasons poor college students form gaming groups.) A $30.00 game can be brought out many times. Plus sometimes there is no better way to spend a winter's day, time in an airport during a long layover, or stuck in a camper while it's raining cats and dogs outside.

You may have once liked games and may still feel like playing a game with friends and family, but the thought of playing the board games from your youth leave you a little cold.

Three day monopoly games and constant cries of "let's play Sorry" from you little sister (for the 1,255,357 time) can do that to you.

I can actually see it in people's eyes when I mention that I'm a gamer. They reach back in their memories to Clue, Life, etc. that they overdose on, were forced to play, or simply didn't like the selection, and you can see their edges start to turn a sickly shade of green.

They even express surprise that board and card games are even being made any more.

But wait! There are more games than what you find at Toys-R-Us, Walmart, Kmart and Target. And more board and card game companies than just Hasbro (who bought up Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers).

A Short, Brief, Minuscule, Intro into the Gaming Subculture

These board and card games and there companies offer a greater variety of the type of game and the strategy needed to win. These are companies with names like Face 2 Face Games, Z-Man Games, Cheapass Games, Rio Grande Games, Game Wright, and Days of Wonder, to name a few.

These games can be found a niche game stores all over the US. Here are examples from three states Danger Planet, The Compleat Strategist, Rivendell Books and Games, Game Keeper (which is the company store for Face 2 Face Games), The Wizard's Chest, and Bonnie Brae Hobbby. I don't know where or if there is a list of these niche game stores across the US, but asking about it on the Game Groups Forum at BoardGameGeek should help point you in the right direction)

What's neat about these niche game stores is that they are a focal spot for the gaming community. Not only to many teach games, but they provide space to pay games. You can also find flyers for active gamin groups in your area (you are generally happy to teach games), and flyers for local, national and international gaming conventions (that's a whole nother diary), they teach games there too. And if you can't find the game you want on-line or on ebay, you can purchase games on-line from many game stores and have them shipped.

I guess at this point I should tell you that I have taught games in after school clubs and summer camps for a few years now.

It also may not hurt to tell you that my little girl wish came true. We are a gaming family (all 6 of us) and have about 100 games (that's nothing a friend of mine has 300).

The following, without further ado, are 10 games that I can recommend. They are fairly easy, and I will explain them and give a sense of the minimum age that enjoys them. I am hoping I will be able to write a few more diaries on this, the why of games, games that teach, games that allow people to understand politics, how games help us at all stages in our lives and yes, recommend more games.

But for now, here's my first 10 recommendations:

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1. Blokus

The pieces of this game look just like they belong in Tetris. Each person has their own colored peices (four colors) and must place as many of them as they can on the board. One piece per turn. If a player cannot place a piece during their turn they are out.

Each of a players pieces must touch at least another of their pieces, but ONLY at the corner. Two (or more pieces of the same color) cannot touch anywhere but a corner, straight edge touch is disallowed.

However two pieces of different colors may touch along the straight edge.

up to four players, can be found at Toys-R-Us and niche game stores
helps with spatial relationships
minimum = 1st grade (though I know kindergartners who like this game)

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2. Ice Cream
This is essentially a matching game and girls really, really love it. I didn't believe that claim at first but saw it time and time again.

The game begins by everyone getting a "pint" of ice cream card. There are different "flavors" of ice cream and the object is to collect as many scoops of ice cream as you can to fill your pint of the same kind of ice cream.

You score points by how much ice cream you get in the pints during four rounds.

After players have received their first pint, players then take turns making ice cream cones. No cone can have more than four scoops, but scoops can be any flavor. The only limit to the amount of ice cream cones that can be made is limited by the number of ice cream cone cards.

After all the scoops are on the cones, players are dealt another pint card.

Then taking turns each player can either "take a cone" or take another pint card.

If they take a cone they must be able to put the majority of scoops into the matching pint(s) they hold in their hand. What scoops they cannot use from the cone is put into the discard pile.

Points are award by how many pints have scoops "in" them.

At the end of the round gather up the scoop cards, shuffle and do it again.

That's the major gist of game play. Face to Face games has a pdf of the rules on it's website.

minimum = 1st grade
matching
game stores

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3. Guillotine
This is a game set in the French Revolution (in fact my middle son brought it to school so they could play it while they were on the section about the French Revolution)

On one end of the table the stand up cardboard picture of a Guillotine is placed. Then the cards of 12 nobles are placed in a straight line leading to the guillotine.

Players earn point for the nobles that reach the guillotine (earn more points for those in a certain group), lose points for every innocent to reach the guillotine and play cards that rearrange the line order, give one a point advantage, etc.

There are three rounds (days). The end of the day is reached when there are no more cards in line to the guillotine. However if Robespierre reaches the guillotine the day is over no matter how many cards are left in the line.

minimum = elementary
game stores

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4. Tsuro

In every aspect Tsuro is a beautiful game, from the artwork to the simplicity of play.

Each player picks their pawn (looks kind of like a worry stone) and places it somewhere on the board edge at the various "start" ticks (yellow lines).

Then three tiles are dealt to each player. The first player (and then each player afterward) places his tile in front of his pawn and then move the pawn along the "road" to the edge of the tile.

Once a tile is placed a new tile is drawn, until the dragon tile is reached. The next person to go out once the dragon tile is out hands remaining tile to the holder of the dragon tile.

That player chooses the tile he/she wants and places the remaining tiles into the new draw pile, with the dragon tile on the bottom.

Ways to go "out"
The path created for the pawn leads them off the board = out
The path leads to two pawns on the same path (that's a "crash" as I've told the kids) = out

A player can only place a tile in front of their pawn. However if that tile creates an extension of the path in front of another players pawn, that pawn has to move along the new path too. (you can cause someone else to go out)
Pawns may not make right angle turns. They can only move straight along the path before them (or along it's curve).

minimum= kindergarten
game store
more info

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5. Zeus on the Loose

As long as someone you can add and subtract up to 100 anyone can play this game.

Play number cards to add up to 100. Play the lesser god wamy card that can reverse the number reached (73 becomes 37), skip someones turn, steal the Zeus figurine.

Players get Zeus by making the numbers in play add up to a multiple of 10,playing a card that is the same number as the one before it, or using a lesser god card that allows the steal.

The person who has Zeus once the cards/numbers in play add up to 100(+) wins. (It may not be the same person who brought the cards/numbers in play to 100)

minimum = must be able to add and subtract 2 digit numbers
game store
rules on line


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6. Mag·Blast Third Edition

Pick your alien space faring race, and ships that will guard the mother ship/planet. These ships can also "fire" on your opponents guarding ships and mothership/planet.

However attacks can be repelled completely if the attacker fails to make the necessary space weapon, explosion sound OR if the sound made is not determined good enough by the other players. (oh yes it does happen)

Fire from one ship can only hit the same side of the other ship (left to left) unless an all encompassing weapon card is used also not all weapons can be used on all ships (an orange weapon will not work on a green ship).

minimum= 8 years old
game store
more info

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7. Can't Stop

You may have played this game as a kid, well it's back!
from boardgamegeek:

In this Sid Sackson classic, there is a board with all the possible results of two six-sided dice: two through twelve. The object of the game is to move a little marker to the top of three columns by rolling that result, but you need many more sevens than you need twelves, based on the likelihood of each result. During your turn, you roll the dice and place temporary markers onto the board. You can continue moving these markers until either none of your dice match (your turn is over and all progress you've made is gone), or cut your losses and end your turn (placing a permanent marker in your rows). Nice light filler for opening or closing a session.

You can totally find out how risk adversed you are.

minimum= 6 years old
game store
more info

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8. Liar's Dice
from wikipedia:

Five six-sided dice with traditional dot faces are generally used per player, with dice cups used for concealment. Poker dice can also be used, but some systems for bidding become difficult or impossible to use.

Each round, the players roll their dice while keeping them concealed from the other players. One player begins bidding, picking a quantity of a face 2 through 6. The quantity states the player's opinion on how many of the chosen face have been rolled in total on the table. A 1 ("ace") is often wild and counts as the stated face of the current bid, however the game can also be played without wilds (see variants). In a five-dice, three-player game with wilds, the lowest bid is "one 2" and the highest bid "fifteen 6s In turn, each player has two choices; believe the previous bid is true and make a higher bid, or challenge the previous bid as being wrong. Raising the bid means either increasing the quantity, or the face value, or both, according to the specific bidding rules used. Different bidding rule sets are described below.

If the current player thinks the previous player's bid is wrong, he challenges it, and then all dice are revealed to determine whether the bid was valid. Revealing the same number or more of the relevant face than was bid is a successful bid, in which case the bidder wins. Otherwise the challenger wins. A challenge is generally indicated by simply revealing one's dice, though it is customary to verbally make the challenge, by saying "I call you up", "I call", "You're a liar", or simply "Liar".

* Example: if a bid of "seven fours" is challenged, the bid is successful (and the player who made it wins) if there are seven or more fours, or less than seven fours but enough wild aces (1s) to total seven or more fours and aces (four fours and three aces, or five fours and two aces). The bid fails (the bidder is a Liar and the challenger wins) if there are fewer than seven total fours and aces combined (or if aces are not wild; see variants).

You can make this game yourself. Just do to a game store and buy 5 - six dice for each player (for 4 players you need 20 six sided dice) and tumblers like you can find from tupperware or cheesex dice cups (you can buy six sided dice there too).

(this was also "Pirate Dice" from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" )

minimum age = 8 years old
boardgamegeek listing
ehow to play
Wikipedia - Liar's Dice

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9.Carcassonne

This is a tile game set in medieval Europe. (There is actually a town/village of Carcassonne in France)

First players pick their pawn color. By the game playing public these pawns.playing pieces are called "Meeples" (they look like little wooden people).

Players randomly draw tiles (usually from a bag - I've bought many Crown Royal bags from Crown Royal drinkers for this purpose) and place them next to each other. Then the player who places the tile can claim something on the tile by using their meeple. Those "somethings" can be a road, a city, a monastery or a field.

Tile placement must make sense. for example: a road cannot end in a field )

You gain points by completing roads, cities, monastery grounds and how many cities/villages your farm supports. The person with the highest points wins.

mimum age = 8 years old
game stores
rules and more info

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10. Fluxx

Oh there are many different versions of Fluxx but they all have one thing in common, there are no set rules.

The rules change with every play of the hand as set for by the cards players lay down. One moment you think your about the win because you have laid down all but one of the "keepers" required for the goal. Then someone changes the goal.

I can't explain the game better than that. Here's what boardgamegeek said:

A card game where the cards themselves determine the current rules of the game. By playing cards, you change numerous aspects of the game: how to draw cards, how to play cards, and even how to win.

If your still confused (or you think this might be really fun) look at the picture below.

Though I do recommend playing Family Fluxx as regular Fluxx game deck is quite a bit bigger. (there is also "Stoner Fluxx," "Eco Fluxx," "Monty Python Fluxx," religious Fluxx and blank cards so you can make your own rules and keepers and such.

Minimum - 8 years old
game store
more info



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All pictures from BoardGameGeek

More games next week.

Republicans PUNKED by Liberal Talk Show Host

Crossposted on DailyKos

March 3, 2009 on Larry King liberal talk show host, Stephanie Miller said:

MILLER: Nancy, you are right about one thing. We love this episode of Republicans eating their own. It's delightful and it's not solving any of the serious problems that the country is facing. You know who is it good for? Rush Limbaugh. He loves this attention. If I could say something tonight that gets me that kind of attention, like maybe: Rush Limbaugh should be executed for treason. How about that?

it's at about 1:15

Thursday afternoon Noel Sheppard picked up on it, Lib Talker: 'Maybe Limbaugh Should Be Executed For Treason'

Predictably Miller's email box began to fill with right wing hate mail. (Friday morning she read many on air throughout the show.)

Then around 1am EST March 6, 2009, World Net Daily picked up on it. Execute Rush Limbaugh for treason? That's what Obama-loving talker suggests on CNN

Hot Air also picked it up. It may be hitting right wing websites like a metal ball in a pinball machine.

This is exactly what Stephanie Miller stated she wanted on yesterday's program. They are making her day!

What is funny is that the transcripts on both Newsbusters, Hot Air are WRONG and incomplete in regards to what Stephanie Miller actually said. (the quote above IS correct) Funny, but not surprising.

Miller was clearly joking, but many conservatives haven't picked up on that fact.

I wonder if Rush will comment on it today or "wait" for a caller to his show to bring it up today.

Still waiting and watching Drudge.

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UPDATE: Freepers got it too! Interestingly enough their transcript has the same omissions and mistakes. Hmmm you think they are copying and pasting the purported "transcript" without looking at the video? /snark

I've been out and have so idea if Rush answered this.

You can't win if you don't play

For the past two decades this country has been treated to the rantings, ravings and, what passes for deep, thoughts of Rush Limbaugh.  Despite what you might think of him, he has been an absolute genius of cornering, marketing and imaging making of talk radio.  I first heard of him as the subject of a newsgroup title on usenet.

It was kind of strange seeing a newsgroup devoted to discussing and disseminating his teachings as if he were a prophet from God, his or herself.  He had a following even then and quite a few detractors.  But that newsgroup and others about him that followed, were the bellwether to not only his talk radio dominance but of the successful  use of mass media to promulgate the neo-con message, dog whistles and furtherance of it’s oft hidden agenda.

We laughed and underestimated and we lost the ability to play.

Liberal and progressives have had to play catch up. Even as Clear Channel and other mass media companies grew in size and power and little local stations were gobbled up and cast aside, we woke slowly. We either did not understand the threat of being defined by those that oppose us, or what the cost of the loss of the microphone, any microphone, would do to us. In that failure we did not move to protect assets, like small radio stations, or pick up a network on the nascent cable (network explosion) when it was much cheaper to do so.

So we sit here now. After years upon years of hard work to gain some of our democracy back we have:

1. We are only now showing a benefit to programming progressive television talk and opinion shows. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have the only two shows of this type that are exceeding their market projections and helping MSNBC to finally, steadily, march up the ratings in the key demographic (sorry BillO you need to look at the whole book not just the demographic of 70 to dead)

With those positives why has it been so hard to get MSNBC to program more progressive political talk shows? There is a market, and it is growing. Now I know there are rumors that MSNBC is looking for another progressive talker to host a show and names have been flying, Aaron Brown, Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartman, etc.

To those who want to get the gig I say look at what Rachel Maddow did prior to her show. Her “Campaign Asylum” vids on youtube are essentially audition tapes. She showed that she has camera presence. She spoke directly to the camera, no interviewer, no interviewee, no audience, just her. Currently Cenk Uygur is doing much the the same thing.

2. We still haven't been able to get MSNBC on to basic cable packages to compete with Fox News. What's good about that is that even with an artificially engineered decrease in viewership opportunities, Keith and Rachel's shows are growing.

What's bad, well that's obvious, there is no counter message to Fox News. In a democracy, more than one side of the political spectrum must be represented. The right will yell that the left has PBS. They know it's comparing apples to oranges, commercial and public TV are not the same thing.

It's also pretzel logic because they want it both ways. They say liberal thought can't exist but on public tv/radio no one will pay for it, but then say we can't demand a commercial station because we have public radio/tv.

When I was in Pakistan I also learned that MSNBC had been made unavailable on satellite packages. As in it WAS available, but now it's not. Fox News, however, was still available. So overseas only one side of our political discourse is being heard. With that kind of news it is no wonder their view of us has tanked even lower.

3. We have Democratic Senators and Congresspeople who still don't understand or care that part of the 2006/2008 success is due to the free exchange of the internet. It has been one of the only avenues available to project progressive/liberal thought, to connect liberals and lead them out of the right wing imposed cone of silence, is the internet.

Without the internet, the web, liberal blogs, on-line magazines, live streaming of radio, we would not be as far as we are in coming back. Net neutrality is a big part of that.

If big Republican owned companies can tier the speed of which web sites get loaded onto a browser the fastest, based (they say) on payment from the site to get into the fastest tier (like the difference between 1st class and coach on an airplane) who do you think will go to the end of the slow tier line?

Like it or not, the internet has made us rather impatient. If a site takes too long to load (in a person's mind) people will move on to another site. Opposing ideas to conservative/Republican/neo-con speak will be lost, and we will go back to being isolated.

Net neutrality is very important to us, and it is one of the reasons they push so hard to end it.

Make sure our senators and congresspeople know and understand it.

4 Liberal Talk Radio.

Liberal talk radio has been credited with greatly assisting our wins in 2006 and probably 2008.

For years Rush Limbaugh et. al. have pushed the idea into the American collective thought that liberal talk radio isn't on because it is not commercially viable. This thought persists and is championed by the right even though it goes against every idea of capitalism; find an unmet need, fill it, be successful. The right wing used to say that there weren't enough pockets of liberals to make it economically feasible, except:

A. there have always been states and large cities that have always voted for the Democratic candidate.
B. people of like minds like to meet with and talk to each other
C. there were no liberal talk stations in these place to give them the opportunity.

Now I don't think it's to hard to understand why the Republican leadership would not want there to be liberal talk radio even though it goes against their vaunted laissez-faire capitalism (hell, these people will tank/crater/dismember an entire national economy and risk the international economy, thousand and millions of lives just rid the US government of the ability to offer safety nets, provide for education and infrastructure and to make themselves even more obscenely wealthy)

But the disconnect of average people have from saying they believe in capitalism , to looking but not seeing the evidence before them, to spouting the right wing bull shit is amazing. Now, despite more states turning purple and blue, the right still says uses these talking points, though their reasons are more transparent.

They point to Air America going bankrupt, saying that it totally failed. Even though they started saying that the day AAR started (they were a failed concept even before words were spoken into the microphone of the first AAR show). They totally ignore that AAR was on an advertisers blacklist. It's now out of bankruptcy.

They try and say that all progressive/liberal talk show hosts are from Air America (there fore they by extension must be failures). Only a fraction of liberal talk show host are with AAR now, but we also propagate that lie by thinking hosts like Ed Schultz, Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, etc. are with AAR.

Progressive Liberal Liberal talk radio is now more diverse in talent and in management.

While some progressive talk radio stations were created by companies like Clear Channel, they have also changed more progressive talk radio station formats away from it. Sort of like giving someone a lollypop just to shut them up and then taking away because it was too successful.

Even progressive talk radio stations that were once thought of as "safe" have been turned to music or sports formats.

Often times the changing of formats defied reason. Take Boston for example. The radio signal Clear Channel had given it's progressive talk station was a crappy daytime signal. It wasn't very powerful and if you were lucky to get it, you lost it at sundown unless you lived IN Boston itself.

The station was also run on autopilot. There was no local talent on weekly, just national shows which switched between offerings automatically (Rachel Maddow (then Young Turks), to Stephanie Miller, to Al Franken, to Ed Schultz to Randi Rhodes, etc.) and there wasn't a sales department. Really, a commercial radio station with no sales staff, in short, a lollipop.

When Clear Channel switched the format to salsa music (the 5th such station in the market) they also upgraded the signal (which we had long pleaded for) and got local on air talent and a sales staff..... ooh looky there!, and actual radio station with desires to actually succeed.

Despite that their ratings for many quarters did not come close to or much less meet the ratings they had with the crappy signal autopilot progressive talk station, they never turned back. The argument that this is a money making decision is laughable.

(update from trojanrabbit: the Boston salsa station that WAS Boston Progressive Talk Radio has "disappeared off the chart for the latest Fall ratings book." )

Many progressive talk radio hosts have said this is all about ownership, and they are right. As John Mayer sang "when they own the information they can bend it all they want." But for the Drobneys attempts to organize to start buying stations I've not seen much in that area, it seems that many progressives want to abandon terrestrial radio all together.

There are several problems with this idea.

We cannot keep, maintain, or turn red to blue if we cede the terrestrial airwaves to right wing radio. In doing so we will fail to reach with our message those who cannot afford satellite radio. We will in effect give our message only to the first class passengers and give the finger to the majority in coach.

The right wing will again get to define what and who we are. And we could begin to see our gains slip away.

We will confine ourselves to a smaller number of media options, with less flexibility to meet challenges, changes and risks. What happens if space debris takes out the satellite? It's not as far fetched as you might think.

We must maintain if not expand ourselves on terrestrial radio. We have the means to start buying stations, we have wealthy progressives/liberals who could invest and thousands upon thousands of liberals who could give $5.00 to an actblue type effort. Starting with the newly blue and purple states/cities we should be buying troubled stations (don't think the Republicans are waiting to gobble up more land, assets, media, etc. whose owners are in trouble, they are it's part of Disaster Capitalism.)

Then move either to red states/cities to start chipping away at it. Or go to blue cities and states to maintain and reward, I'm not sure what order is best for 2 and 3 or even a sort of alternating approach 2,3,2,3,etc.

In short, of this long winded diary, we must do, it is imperative that we compete in all forms of media, just as we have competed in all states. To cede any media is to let the right wing have a chance, and an opening to define what we are. We've seen the disastrous results.

When we compete in every state, in all media, we win, on our ideas alone.

Without gadgets James Bond is Jason Bourne

Last weekend I finally saw "Quantum of Solace" the new James Bond film.

I have never really seen Daniel Craig as James Bond. He is a good action hero but he lacks a lot in the suave mystique area. And that area is very much a part of James Bond. If they are going to insist on Daniel Craig as James Bond, with that loss, then they need to bring back Q. Q is the branch and person where James Bond gets all his nifty and sometimes imaginary gadgets. Spies always have gadgets, but for some reason they have decided to do without them in the last to Bond films staring Daniel Craig.

Oh yes he has had gadgets but they are really nothing more than what anyone else can get. A portable defibrillator? Airplanes, sporting events, entertainment venues, even private citizens have them. A cell phone with maps and navigation? Seen the latest Verizon commercial?

Even the homing tag/chip under his skin isn't that far out. We already chip pets with all their information. With the fact that that technology is already part of cell phones, I don't find it that fantastic.

Guns as part of canes and umbrella poles, watches that can do this that or the other thing, cars with secret weapons, THAT'S James Bond! The absence of such, and the beloved Q character makes this feel like Dr. Who with Peter Davison (5th Doctor).

(He came in as the Dr. minus all gadgetry after very popular (and gadget heavy) Tom Baker's "Doctor." Davison's version of the Doctor and his popularity suffered. One of the reasons was the loss of the gadgets. )

Unless they are saying that there is nothing that Q can invent, or 007 can have that won't seem part of the "fantastic" now - James Bond is missing a vital piece of his "world."

I didn't realize how big a piece of his world was missing until with watching "Quantum of Solace" I was struck by deja vu. In the movie 007 is chasing the bad guy over parts of an old European city. He is running on roof tops and jumping from balconies to open windows, etc. and it hit me. I've seen this before in The Bourne Ultimatum. (except the setting was an old section of a Middle East city)

I didn't say anything about my revelation. As we walked out of the movie my husband said "I felt like I was watching Jason Bourne."

"OMG! You too!" came my response.

And we both agreed, in 007 current form he's little more than Jason Bourne with an English accent. And the original Jason Bourne is better.

(And btw while I do appreciate the touch screen conference/display table was really cool. I find it hard to believe that M would not have an actual office. What I guess was supposed to be her office was a high tech large room with either halo, smart technology or jumbotron, display while speaking with Bond. But I've ready seen this before.)

We are even behind Pakistan!

I was watching the tv this weekend, when a commercial from Shell came on.

The commercial spoke of Shell’s commitment to finding alternative energy, and it spoke about CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). It was the standard, “look at what we are doing, we have a commitment to the environment and to getting America off foreign imports” yadaa yadaa yadda

It touched a little on the fact that we have loads natural gas right here, in the US.

No kidding! I used to see the natural gas burn off from refineries as we drove from Denver to my grandparents in KS along Kansas Highway 96. And even as a child I wondered “WTF? Why aren’t they using this for power instead of burning it away?”

Okay I didn’t say WTF back then, as a child in the 60’s I think my strongest word was “doggone it.” But “WTF” now, more accurately represents how I felt back then.

And then came our gas crisis in the 1970s and still, driving back to both sets of grandparents there was the natural gas burn off at the oil refinery we passed. You could see it for miles on a clear Kansas night and again my response “WTF?” and it was even stronger.

So now I’m watching this commercial and they said something that set me over the edge... something so sleezily dishonest but so soothing for those who’ve never been outside the country that they can try to look like good guys now.

The commercial said that Shell was “developing” CNG.

Developing . . . as in still working on it,

Developing . . . as in still perfecting it,

Developing . . . as in it’s just right around the corner,

Developing . . . as in one or two more passes on the merry go round we’ll get to touch the brass ring...

Developing . . . !!!!!

Except:

This is a Shell station in Islamabad, Pakistan. If you can’t see the back two pumps (5 and 6) let me move in a bit.

I took this picture and what follows, when I was in Pakistan in August 2008.

Shell already HAS CNG developed.
Shell already HAS pumps for dispensing CNG.
Shell already HAS CNG stations.

And these stations serve both CNG cars and petrol run cars. There are also stations in Pakistan that are solely CNG or soley petrol. In fact in Pakistan there are more CNG stations than there are petrol stations.

More cars and more buses are run on CNG. Hell, they can even convert them!

But thanks to Oily Bush and buddies we are further behind PAKSITAN in developing, using and converting cars over to CNG.

In this instance, a country in the developing world is MORE developed that the Lone Super Power. More developed than US.

Still Shell puts out an ad saying “we working on it, be patient.”

Be patient ....
be f*cking patient while we grab all that we can- hoping that you never know that we already sell and service CNG . . .and even if you do, what are you going ot do about it?

How long would it take Shell to begin selling CNG?
It's the end of November right?
I've been back home for 3 months
. . . not even that long.

Shell could have put some people back to work building the plant, converting/upgrading stations, etc. etc.

But never fear, Shell is "working on it."

Because they know most Americans don’t know that the technology is already here. Because they know most Americans don’t know that the world already uses it, including troubled Pakistan. It's still promoted as a novelty here!

Meanwhile, while the only work that needs to be done for CNG is this country is building the plant (they don't have to start from scratch - it's already up and running somewhere else), bring in and set up the equipment, upgrading filling stations, and offering conversions.

And also meanwhile Bush is trying to ram through regulations to weaken environmental and endangered species protections so his buddies can drill for more oil. And they will still have to build the derricks and the platforms and put in the pumps ... for oil that won’t be enough, and won’t be ready for use for 5 to 10 years.

We feel all warm and fuzzy when a state vehicle passes us and it said "powered by natural gas."

"Oh look," we say "We're going GREEN!". . . and we pat ourselves on the back. Good for US! [end snark]

Meanwhile we have an "s" load of natural gas beneath our feet. Gas that oil companies have been burning off for years as a waste product while they developed it in other countries.

Would the “drill baby drill,” “American exceptionalism” crowd really feel proud knowing how far behind we’ve fallen?

We’ve fallen so far behind in this area that even troubled, developing/3rd world Pakistan is beating US! (Don't get me wrong I love Pakistan, really I do, BUT come the f@ck on!)

And still there is Shell, who has everything already developed and at it’s disposal, LYING in advertising to the American people and NO ONE calls them on it!!!!!

UPDATE 1/11/09
A friend of mine emailed me that a fleet of trucks for Denver state government was converted to CNG.

Many state and local government vehicles have been coverted to CNG, BUT unlike Pakistan there aren't CNG stations or a push to covert cars to CNG for the average private citizen.

Pakistan does have government vehicles which have been converted to CNG too just like many of our state and local governments.

Until CNG is widely available for everyone in this country CNG will always be considered a novelty, Shell will continue to say it is "developing" gas to liquid technology like it's not already available.

And Pakistan will still be a head.

We now return you to your regular life

Some time last year I made a decision, to take the donation I make every month and give it too Obama's campaign.

My thought process was:

I have only so much I can give every month. There are a lot of worthy causes that need this money, people are hurting. BUT if Obama is elected less people will hurt in the long run.

So I made the decision to temporarily cease giving to my favorite charities in favor of getting Obama elected.

Now with that accomplished, it's time to get back to "regular life."



While I've been "away" from my charities several things have happened: The economy has gotten worse, more people are hurting, there is more need, fewer jobs and less money. And with less economic security, difficulty getting credit and student loans more young people are considering going into the military for some security. It always happens this way.

While people are cutting out spending, and cutting back, charities are feeling the pinch. While they can make do with less, they can't make do with nothing. Once I was told by a preacher than when you give what little you have to help someone else, it is returned to you 10 fold. His word for it was “blessings” another word for it is “karma.”

It’s time to turn our attention back to the causes and charities that need us.

Unfortunately our money pinch is effecting our soldiers. Mail and "care packages" to the troops are at their lowest level since we started in Afghanistan. They are feeling forgotten.

I don't know if you have ever been away from home in your late teens or early twenties, feeling a little alone, a little lost and a lot of homesick. Waiting for a letter, an email, a phone call from home. If you have you can relate, as I did, to our soldiers.

I was away in another state going ot college, it was my first time away from home. I loved getting Mom’s care packages. Unlike our soldiers though I could go home for Christmas, spring break and for the summer. They can't, and they are in Afghanistan and Iraq for a year or more.

They are feeling forgotten.

I heard a veteran say this morning that there is very little that is a greater feeling than to hear your name called at mail call, when you are far away from home. And very little that is a more desolate feeling when your name is not called.

I heard the same thing from my ex-husband, a Vietnam vet.

It has always done my heart good that one of the things liberals and progressives learned from Vietnam and have not, by enlarge done this time around, is to blame our soldiers for our governments policies. We have stood up for our soldiers and their needs during and after their tours of duty, and their new life outside the military. We have shown that “support the troops” can be more than empty words and symbolism.

With the war(s) not finished, the fear that Bush's last parting gift is a war in Iran, and more kids going into the military we need to be there for them even more.

So today I ask you, to set aside a little bit of money, maybe the money that here-to-fore would have gone to the Obama campaign, and let a soldier know that we still care.

Treats for Troops
Let them hear their name during mail call .

Thanks

Governor Palin do you oppose Alaska secession now?

When and what changed your mind?

Did anyone notice, we've already had a run on a bank?

From Marketwatch: Withdrawals by customers ultimately sank WaMu:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Washington Mutual (WM:
Washington Mutual Inc M 0.16, 1.53, 90.3%) customers withdrew $16.7 billion in cash from the thrift in the past nine days, a huge outflow that led to the largest bank failure in U.S. history, the institution's regulator said Friday.

Hello? !!! McCain fiddles, derails and changes the topic while we burn.

Fun with McCain Signs

I was watching Countdown and Rachel Maddow tonight when many things started to click in my head. To relieve all the energy the outrageous news provided, I decided to have a little bit of fun with McCain campaign signs.

There is a McCain sign generator already and I found a gem of a sign created by the generator at Post Punk Kitchen



There is also one by an obvious Stephanie Miller fan.



So I got to work. I didn't use the generator much. I'm one of those who contributes to "Photoshop Fun" on the Stephanie Miller website.

Given the story that the McCain campaign may well quash troopergate. People in Palin's administration have been told not to honor their subpoenas, I thought they needed a sign.



No. I'm NOT doing Bill Engvall.

I just thought that since I've seen so many "such and such for McCain signs" a truly justified sign was needed:



Free Dictionary defines the word this way:

scoff·law (n)
One who habitually violates the law or fails to answer court summonses.

Ding, ding, ding - a definition meant for the Bush/Cheney/McCain/Palin/Republican legacy if there ever was one.

Then there was news today ofPalin putting herself on the top of the ticket. So I thought I'd help the McCain campaign by correcting their signs:



(yeah I know, how "concern troll" of me)

But then something said on either Keith's or Rachel's show got me to thinking. Where have I read about Palin's type before?

Then "wham" I was bitten by a pitbull soccer mom wearing lipstick. I think I've figured out why McCain is so enamored with Palin (well other than him checking out her ass 15 times while fiddling with his wedding ring) . . . she reminds McCain of an old girlfriend:



or as he knew her by her maiden name:



But then we come to the biggest gaffe today.. which lead to this sign



Okay, yes, I'm a nerd, who likes to play on my computer. Sometimes it helps get over all the outrage of the day.

*****
Livia

Livia was the 3rd wife of Julius Caesar and a real piece of work. She is rumored to have helped do away with Caesar's older children so that her son, Tiberius, not even Caesar's natural child could assume the throne.

Generally considered power hungery and the real power behind the throne.

If Roman laws would have allowed her to rule, she would have in a heart beat.

cross posted at DailyKos

A Pakistani gift: Freedom from FEAR

I didn’t get to travel as much in country as I wanted (that will be saved and accomplished on future trips). But I was in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Wah Cantonment, Abbottabad, Manshera, Muree, Jhelum, Mangla Dam and Rhotas Fort.



I was passing the Ordnance Factory in Wah about 12 – 14 hours before the bomb that killed 70 people. I spent the Friday, after the Thursday blast, in deep reflection. A change of plan either by the bombers or by us could have put us in immediate proximity of one another.


I tried to find something I could relate my feelings to, beyond mourning for the dead. I found it remembering that many years ago a hug branch fell off a tree landing on a car behind us as I was taken my husband to the commuter rail one morning. There had been a drought in Massachusetts leaving many trees very weak. The branch gave way after we had passed underneath it.

Things happen like that.



I had a choice, let fear change my vacation plans or continue to live understanding, buy not cowed by the risks and fear. I chose to continue on, and in that choice felt a freedom and empowerment that I haven’t felt for years here in the states.

I was not scared.

Oh the Pakistani government helps in this regard. Hours and days after the blast, while other bombs were going off, while others were being maimed and dying, the government did not preach fear.

They could have, while they haven’t had one event broadcast over the airwaves and totaling 3,000 dead, they have had many more attacks. In many more places throughout the country, and many dead.



Sure there are unmistakable signs every where that this place is dangerous. Suicide bombers have hit hotels and resturants frequented by journalists and political figures. So many places have guards at the enterances. McDonalds in Rawapindi is behind a fence.

But there still was no message of fear coming from the government or the people living in the country. They were not force fed this unhealthy diet. They still go about their daily lives, working, shopping (and my gawd can these people shop - it ought to be an Olympic event), entertaining and enjoying life - a life that for many is very hard.



The atmosphere is different. What's lacking in the air is the government endorsed carcinogen, fear.

Yesterday Keith Olbermann reported on yet another Republican group using 9-11 and fear to stay in power. Spoon feeding the American public by words and images, fear. (video below)

I didn’t realize how sick this diet had made me until I lived without it for a few weeks. It's a pity that I had to go to another coutry to get the Rx for it but after 7 years of this snake oil, it's not surprising.

Before I returned to the states I was already aware of the cleansing that had taken place. I knew that fear had lost it’s hold on me, even as I am a progressive and know that the message is designed to keep Republicans in power, I didn’t realize how pervasive it was in my thinking and in my being. But what do you expect after 7 years of an unhealthy diet?

So when yesterday my mother asked me if I was ever afraid in Pakistan, I answered honestly, “No.”I truly wasn't, and it felt wonderful! And for that Pakistan, I thank you!



*****

The market pictured is a place called "China Market" which is where you can get a lot of stuff from China

crossposted at Dailykos

It's her birthday today

She is loathed to tell people now. They all give her this sad look and she has to remind them that the terrorists could have picked their birthday, but they picked hers.

It's not the first birthday she's had that turned into something horrible. She was 15 and waiting at home with our mother for my father and me to arrive. He was coming home from work and I was driving home from a tutor I employed to help me pass my math class. It was then we’d have our celebration.

As I was driving in my parent's little white VW Rabbit I noticed the cars on the right hand lane stopping. Then I saw a guy from the right hand lane backing into my lane.

WTF? I was upon him, sliding into his blind spot with my little car. I swerved to miss him, taking my car into the median. Then I swerved back into my lane, just in time for my lights to hit a bundle lying in the road.

I knew what it was. It looked like every scare film ever shown to us in Driver’s Ed. The bundle was a human body and I couldn’t avoid it. I can still recall every sickening bump as first one, then another, then the third, then the last tire went up upon the body then down.

I was 18, this was 28 years ago. I still remember.

I remember trying to pull my car out of the way of riding over this person. It didn’t work and my efforts actually caused the car to drive over him diagonally.

I remember screaming as I went over the body and then gathering my wits enough to brake the car just before it crossed out of the median and into on coming traffic. I even remembered to put on the hazard lights.

I remember stepping out of the car seeing the body and seeing another car drive over him. A suburban caught him and dragged him for a few feet as if he were a sack of potatoes. I screamed.

Then the cars stopped, there had been three others besides me who drove over him, I was the first. And people ran to his aid trying to pick him up. My first aid training kicked in just enough to yell to them “don’t move him.” And surprisingly they listened.

I went to the only pay phone on the street, a topless bar, to call my parents.

The rest of the night was spent with the police, and with my family to comfort me.

Before the accident the man I drove over had been kicked out of the topless bar. He had been too high and too drunk for them to serve. He then walked across 3 lanes of traffic and into the door of a car in the far right lane traveling east, and had fallen into my lane.

The car that he had walked into was the one backing into my lane. Trying to keep cars from driving over him. But I, in my little white Rabbit, slipped past all that.

The victim died.

No charges were filed against anyone.

I went through a lot of counseling.

I was allowed to heal.

But I can still remember every painful detail. I can still put myself back to that day. It doesn’t take much and I long ago surrendered to the fact that it would always be so.

The wound is not raw. It was not raw seven years after the event. It had healed.

Twenty one years later, on the exact same day, two planes would hit the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane would hit the Pentagon and the last plane would go down in a field in Pennsylvania.

I know where I was when the phone rang and I was told to turn on the tv. I know what I said to my husband who was the person on the other end of the phone. I know how I felt when I saw the towers come down.

Many in Massachusetts knew someone on one of the planes and/or people working at the WTC complex. So did we.

The planner of this horrible day that left 3,000 dead and hundreds of thousands scared for life has roamed free. Even when he was cornered, we let him go – leading many in the world to wonder if his freedom and likeness weren’t been used for political gain.

The day itself has been taken from a time of solemn reflection it should have been. A day to look at, remember, and congratulate ourselves for living past and through – It is now a political display, a horrific orgy of death and destruction to scare us into submission. They say “to remind us of what happened,” as if we’d ever forget.

Instead of allowing us to heal and move on, the wound is picked open every year, and every day during elections. Today feels like a million pounds of ick on a stick, a day you curse the sun for even daring to shine. To continue down this path is sickness and madness.

We have not been allowed to heal.

We have not been allowed to move on.

We have not been allowed to be healthy.

And if we allow the same political party to continue to use 9-11 as a political tool and to win with, we never will.

28 years ago today there was a car accident

7 years ago today there was a terrorist attack

Just as I can never forget the events of that day 28 years ago, we will never forget the events 7 years ago. We don’t need the constant fear, the constant the opening of wounds that should be healed or close to healing by now.

We will always honor this day and hold it sacred.

But some day, this day, will once again hold celebrations of life. A time when those born on this day will not hide their birthday. There will be a time when the sun will not be cursed for shining.

For any other event, any other death isn’t seven years of mourning, or being stuck “in” the event, of being forced to stay in the event, considered enough and even unhealthy?

Wouldn’t those who died that day want us to move on and live?

crossposted at Dailykos

Walls of a defacto prison, not soliders keep the Baghdad "peace"

What you are not going to see from the corporate owned media that thinks truth, actual journalism and the 4th estate is subservient to entertainment and the almighty dollar.

part 1


part 2


part 3


Our lack of planning, our lack of understanding, our arrogance has created more who hate us. What will the future bring?

Did you hear, there's a RABIES VACCINE SHORTAGE?!

Oh you didn't know? Well neither did I, until early today when I took my sons to our local travel clinic.

I thought my lack of knowledge may have been due to being on vacation visiting my parents in Denver at the end of June. When does one really stay as attuned to all the news that affects them when they are visitng family?

So I came home from the tavel clinic today and checked on Dailykos. The result, searching with the keyword either "rabies" or "Rabies" was zero. Nothing, nada, goose egg.

So I went to google news and searched using the words "Rabies Vaccine Shortage." There are, as of this writing, 38 stories written on this subect for the past month.

Newspapers like the Sioux Falls Argus Leader (Sioux Fall, SD), the Daily Camera (Boulder, CO), the Bloomington Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), and the Dallas Morning News.

According to the google news search, one or two local tv stations have added the story to their web sites and but for a few specialized news sources like American Academy of Pediatrics (subscription required) and Small Animals Channel the only national coverage has been a 5 paragraph article from United Press International (UPI)

For most of us in the USA our "contact" with rabies has been through the movies like "Old Yeller" and Cujo or have pets who need to be vaccinated, and it actual effects, are relatively small.

from Wikipedia

Rabies (Latin: rabies, "madness, rage, fury" also "hydrophobia") is a viral zoonotic neuroinvasive disease that causes acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in mammals. In non-vaccinated humans, rabies is almost invariably fatal after neurological symptoms have developed, but prompt post-exposure vaccination may prevent the virus from progressing. There are only six known cases of a person surviving symptomatic rabies, and only one known case of survival in which the patient received no rabies-specific treatment either before or after illness onset

snip

Any mammal may become infected with the rabies virus and develop symptoms, including humans. Most animals can be infected by the virus and can transmit the disease to humans. Infected bats, monkeys, raccoons, foxes, skunks, cattle, wolves, dogs or cats provide the greatest risk to humans. Rabies may also spread through exposure to infected domestic farm animals, groundhogs, weasels and other wild carnivores. Rodents (mice, squirrels etc) are seldom infected.

The virus is usually present in the nerves and saliva of a symptomatic rabid animal.[4][5] The route of infection is usually, but not necessarily, by a bite. In many cases the infected animal is exceptionally aggressive, may attack without provocation, and exhibits otherwise uncharacteristic behaviour[5]. Transmission may also occur via an aerosol through mucous membranes; transmission in this form may have happened in people exploring caves populated by rabid bats.

Transmission between humans is extremely rare, although it can happen through transplant surgery (see below for recent cases), or, even more rarely, through bites, kisses or sexual relations.

After a typical human infection by bite, the virus enters the peripheral nervous system. It then travels along the nerves towards the central nervous system. During this phase, the virus cannot be easily detected within the host, and vaccination may still confer cell-mediated immunity to prevent symptomatic rabies. Once the virus reaches the brain, it rapidly causes encephalitis. This is called the "prodromal" phase. At this time, treatment is useless. Then symptoms appear. Rabies may also inflame the spinal cord producing myelitis.

The period between infection and the first flu-like symptoms is normally two to twelve weeks, but can be as long as two years. Soon after, the symptoms expand to slight or partial paralysis, cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, terror, hallucinations, progressing to delirium.[citation needed] The production of large quantities of saliva and tears coupled with an inability to speak or swallow are typical during the later stages of the disease; this can result in "hydrophobia", where the victim has difficulty swallowing because the throat and jaw become slowly paralyzed, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. The disease itself was also once commonly known as hydrophobia, from this characteristic symptom. The patient "foams at the mouth" because they cannot swallow their own saliva for days and it gathers in the mouth until it overflows.

Death almost invariably results two to ten days after the first symptoms; the few humans who are known to have survived the disease were all left with severe brain damage, with the recent exception of Jeanna Giese

(embolden mine)

The whole article on wikipedia is an interesting read. It covers transmission of rabies through the typical animal bite to 3 organ recipients in the US in 2004, transmission through various corneal transplants all over the world and 3 cases of transmission in Germany in 2005, due to transplants.

You say tahmahtoe and I say tomato

We do not have a rabies vaccine shortage. But we are in a supply limitation situation where rabies vaccine supplies are less than ideal." - CDC rabies chief Charles E. Rupprecht, VMD, PhD (June 26, 2008, WebMD)

The shortfall or "supply limitation situation" happened when two events and maybe even four events coalesced.

The first was when French vaccine maker Sanofi Pasteur (IMOVAX) decided to renovate it’s rabies vaccine plant in 2007. Prior to taking the plant off-line Sanofi Pasteur stockpiled enough vaccine to meet the expected demand to the year 2009.

Sanofi Pasteur produces 50% of the USA’s rabies vaccine. The other 50% comes from Novartis who makes RabAvert(pdf) vaccine.

Everything was thought to be fine and everyone thought the world was set until the FDA discovered “manufactoring problems” with RabAvert. This sent the US market to depend on it's full 100% of it’s rabies vaccine need from Sanofi Pasteur.

Then the straw fell on the camels back.

There has been a steady and drastic increase in rabies exposure among humans world wide. Interestingly enough that increase could be one consequence of global warming. Rabies exposures typically increase in animals as well as humans during warm or "summer" months.

The good news is that the rabbies vaccine short fall/supply limitation situation/shortage does not effect animals. You can still get your animals vaccinated - and you should. Vaccinated animals is one of the ways the CDC is hoping the blunt the shortage.

The bad news is for cave explorers, veterinarians, vet staff, animal control workers, and world travelers, as they are being denied preventative Rabies vaccine. This is so that there is enough vaccine for those who have been exposed or possibily exposed to Rabies (as in cases where there has been a bite but the animal cannot be found).

It is also bad news for countries who vaccinate humans for rabies (because their uncontrolled animal population is too large). These are typically developing nations and they are holding the vaccine to post exposure cases only.

A stitch in time, saves nine.

For those countries, like India, this could prove devastating in the long run. India is one of the countries with an extremely high proportion of rabies in animals. With a human rabies vaccine shortage they may well have an increase in incidences of rabies infection in humans.

World wide 50,000 people die from rabies each year.*

For me, as a mother, who depended on at least my yongest son being vaccinated for rabies before we left on our trip to the developing world, I now have another worry.

This child is my "animal whisperer." He has always had an affinity with animals (he wants to be a vet). When a chick who may have fallen out of it's nest, and some how appeared in our garage, the baby bird would only let my son pick it up and then care for it. I fear that his need to be around animals and his desire to help those he sees as suffering will override all common sense. Getting this vaccination was to add to my piece of mind.

The CDC says the shortage will ease just a little as the FDA releases some of Novartis' vaccine in the coming days. More will be available at the end of July and August. But until supplies are back to normal (which hopefully means in ever increasing amounts to deal with the ever increasing exposures) everyone is encouraged to take the following steps

*Vaccinate all pet dogs, cats, ferrets, and other animals that have frequent contact with humans. Consider vaccinating horses and other livestock.

*Do not let pets roam free.

*Spay or neuter pets to reduce dog and cat overpopulation.

*Don't feed or water pets outside -- even empty bowls attract wild animals.

*Keep garbage securely covered.

*Do not keep wild animals as pets.

*Never handle unfamiliar or wild animals, even if they appear friendly.

*If you see a wild animal acting strangely, report it to animal control officials.

*Bat proof your home in the fall and winter.

(But remember bats are also a line of defense against another consequense of global warming; an increasing mosquito population due to the smaller and less severe killing cold snaps of winter)

I have struggled to decide whether to embed a video I found on the internet while reserching rabies, in this diary. It is of a 2 year old boy who has untreated rabies, his family in the Philippines could not afford the vaccination/cure. It is disturbing, so I will not embed it but I will link to it on both Metacafe and youtube

For more information:
CDC - Rabies
CDC Rabies Just 4 Kids
Rabies.com (sanofi pasteur)
WHO

*****

cross posted at DailyKos

Without Comment

Two Videos

One for Hillary is fun



One for McCain which is just plain baaaaaaaad

Some time with wild man, "racist," Rev. Wright

Christmas day 2007 sermon









Now that you've seen the whole thing in context - might it be possible that the sound clips were purposely cut to be inflammatory? Of course.

Might it be possible the other clips were also cut as to be inflammatory? Of course.

I cried from my bed, "Tuskegee!"

crossposted on DailyKos
*******

For the past week and a half I have been on bed rest as I recuperate from surgery. I have snuck down occasionally to read DailyKos and other blogs, and print out various posts to read while in bed. (Someone ought to do a study of what happens when a political junkie gets sick. It isn’t pretty.)

Since the Rev. Wright controversy began in earnest I have been watching and reading and wondering why “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” clinical studies from 1932 to 1972 are not mentioned more.

Strike that. I have wondered why the experiments aren’t brought out immediately, whenever someone mentions Rev. Wright’s beliefs about HIV/AIDS.

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" was a clinical study conducted between 1932 – 1972. It’s subjects were 399 poor and mostly illiterate African American sharecroppers in Tuskegee, Alabama, who had Syphilis.

They were systemically, and for 40 years, denied and even blocked treatment for Syphilis, even when safe and effective treatment was available. Told only they had “bad blood,” they unknowingly infected their wives and their children.

The study itself was unethical. Even if has stayed with in it’s initial purpose, a 6 month study to see if non treatment for Syphilis was better than the toxic treatments (available in 1932), it's participates did not have or give informed consent.

To suffer and to die from Syphilis is horrific.

To read the CDC produced time line, makes the mind swim.

Our own government did this to it’s citizenry. That fact and that fact alone may be keeping many whites from believing or even remembering this dark chapter in this country’s history. It is hard to come to terms with.

But that fact and that fact alone is why many African American’s believe that our government created the AIDS virus to kill the African American community in micro and the African community in macro. Even the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) report found that among the 1056 African American member churches 1/3 of cogregants felt that that AIDS was an artificially engeered virus, and 1/3 believed that is was a form of genocide.

Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study remains one of the most outrageous examples of disregard of basic ethical principles of conduct (not to mention violation of standards for ethical research). In 1976, historian James Jones (1981) interviewed John Heller, director of the Venereal Diseases unit of the PHS from 1943 to 1948. Among Heller's remarks were the following: "The men's status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people" (p. 179).

The suspicion and fear generated by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study are evident today. Community workers report mistrust of public health institutions within the African American community. Alpha Thomas of the Dallas Urban League testified before the National Commission on AIDS: "So many African American people I work with do not trust hospitals or any of the other community health care service providers because of that Tuskegee Experiment" (National Commission on AIDS, 1990).

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), one of the country's major civil rights organizations, has been providing AIDS awareness education through a program called RACE (Reducing AIDS through Community Education). In 1990, the SCLC conducted a survey among 1056 African American Church members in five cities. They found that 34% of the respondents believed that AIDS was an artificial virus, 35% believed that AIDS is a form of genocide, and 44% believed that the government is not telling the truth about AIDS.

That’s only 1056 of the African American Christian churches and mosques of the many thousand in this country, in 1990. That does not take into account other religions that are predominately African American in this country like Santeria and Rastafarianism.


The 2000 census gives the African American population in this country at 36.4 million, or 12.9% of the total US population (281.4 million). This includes people who "reported Black as well as one or more other races." Could 1/3 of this population, or 4.3% believe, to this day, that the government is behind HIV/AIDS?

That's not a small number; one third of an entire minority population.

So why among all the shows I watched yesterday was Tuskegee only brought up as an answer to Rev. Wrights beliefs about HIV/AIDS on Chris Matthew's "Hard Ball?" Why was Tucker Carlson allowed to keep bringing it up, without any response, on Dan Abram's “Verdict” last night?

It is what I, as a 45 year old white American woman, screamed, cried, bellowed, impotently at my TV last night. “It’s Tuskegee!”

It’s not ancient history. The study only ended after whistle blower, Peter Buxtun, went to the Washington Star in 1972. The story was published by that paper on July 25, 1972. The next day it was the front page of the New York Times .

Rev. Wright was 30 years old.

On May 16, 1997 President Bill Clinton apologized for the Tuskegee experiments.

This is not ancient history.

To think that it would be easily wiped away from the minds of a community so used and abused is naïve.

For a right wing conservative pundit to harangue that community for not trusting their government, is absurd. To have that same conservative pundit go on and paint those who believe that the government has something to due with HIV/AIDs, as crazy at best, or fostering a lie, at worse, is to draw out, in the starkest detail the disconnect within the white community.

It’s easier to sweep it under the rug and try to forget. I think the white community has by and large, forgotten or tried minimize the lasting effects of the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.”

But we need to remember.

“It’s Tuskegee!,” should be the central and continual answer when any and all pundits bring up Rev. Wright’s beliefs about HIV/AIDS. It's an answer that should be given forcefully and loudly, even if one has to interrupt.

Otherwise it is tacit approval to minimize the lasting effects of an unethical experiment that was only haulted because of a whistleblower. Without Peter Buxtun, the CDC would have allowed it to continue until the last infected African American male in the study died.

Without answering that charge it tacitly minimizes the African American experience.


Americans and their government are like twelve steppers. Every once in a while they need to do, they must, take an inventory.

*****
Bib.

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male

U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee

Remembering Tuskegee

The Presidential Apology

2000 census

Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Updated: I forgot to add that an addtional 201 poor and mostly illiterate un-infected African American sharecroppers in Tuskegee, Alabama, were in cluded in the study as controls.

Hillary Clinton Endorses McCain

Rachel Maddow can barely disguise her disgust:



Hillary is using scorched earth policy and thereby disqualifies herself as deserving the Democratic nomination.

I'm really at a loss. If she does ge the nomination, which I can't see how she can, but if. . . is my fear of a conservative SCOTUS enough to get me out to vote for her? Or has she made it physically impossible for me to vote for her (as in I get ill, knots in the stomach, etc. just thinking about it – so I can’t even make it into the polling place)?

Here is the whole segment:


John Aravosis (Americablog) says that there is dirt on her that he will launch to save the party if she doesn't pull out tomorrow. Seeing how she can be, John be careful.

I laughed and laughed and laughed

My favorite line:

"You look them in the eye and say, 'the world is a tough dangerous place, it always has been. It's no reason to reupholster the inside of your trousers and vote like a moron every time they say boo.'"

This is why we must defeat McCain

(So sit down Nader and shut up! People are beginning to think that since you do nothing to create a third party in the intervening years of a presidential race, you are a Republican stooge sent to take votes away from Democrats.)

So how long did Exxon sit on this waiting for a Supreme Court stacked in their favor? How do you think they will rule in favor of the oil company or the little people?

Supreme Court hears Exxon Valdez case


If McCain wins, he will put more justices on the SCOTUS that are further to the right than Roberts. He has said so and promise this to the Republican far right Christian base.

How do you think a women's right to choose will fair if that happens?

A vote for Nader is a vote to end pro-choice and force pregnancy and birth on all women. (These folks have said they will go after birth control too)