RelentlesslyOptimistic

Victims of an angry fetus

The blame game has already started. One of the worst qualities of the hard right is their tendency to turn every possible event into an example of their victimization at the hands of the liberals. There are undoubtedly liberals blaming the right for Katrina this morning, but as a progressive I'll just cover the looniest of the right wingers. In this case, Pandagon reported that Eve's Apple received an email from Columbia Christians for Life which said, in part:

The image of the hurricane...looks like a fetus (unborn human baby)...in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation...Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers - FIVE are in New Orleans

God's message: REPENT AMERICA !

Anyone seen any other examples? Leave them in the comments!

Horrifying. Unimaginable.

The scale of damage from hurricane Katrina is hard to imagine. Even before the New Orleans levies were breached entire cities had been nearly destroyed. New Orleans' plight increases the scale beyond belief.

It's hard to fathom what happens when most of a city is flooded. Those who could afford to evacuated, and are now trapped away from home with only what they could carry. Many have no homes to which they can return. They also often have no jobs, no income and no prospects for the short term. This photo was one of many great ones at WWLTV.com.

Those who could not afford to leave are in worse shape, if they survived. ABC News said that "In New Orleans, a third of the residents live below the poverty line. The very poorest live on the lowest land, south of Lake Pontchartrain, where the flood water is now up to their rooftops."

BoingBoing posted an email from a New Orleans rescue worker that said "Forget the sanctimonious bullshit about the bullheaded people who wouldn't leave. The evacuation plan was strictly laissez-faire. It depended on privately owned vehicles, and on having ready cash to fund an evacuation." The same email said that "Entire teams are working on nothing but evacuating the hospitals. All four of the major hospitals are beginning to flood. Critical patients have to get out or surely they will be lost."

I can't easily afford to donate right now, but figure that I'm so much better off than even those who left that I have given more than is comfortable. Please give what you can. Reportedly the American Red Cross donation page is working slowly, but you can donate to Red Cross via Network for Good with no delays.

Don't send clothes! Several years ago friends were sent as part of an Americorps/VISTA disaster response team, and reported that clothing and other donations hinder rescue efforts because people have to manage and process the items given. At later stages clothes might be helpful, but right now cash is the best thing you can send.

First and third photos from NY Times.

"my sodium party has generated...interest from people not normally interested in chemistry"

Chemical reaction: take sodium, water and alcohol (implied). Result: Sodium Party!

Sodium is a dangerous metal that reacts explosively when it contacts water. As a result it's great fun. Theodore Gray, maker of wooden periodic tables, does it right: three and a half pounds of pure sodium, plenty of water nearby, a remote device to drop the sodium into the water, and a video camera to document the fun results.

Explosions! Big Explosions! Fire! Brimstone!* Butterflies! [emphasis added]

*Brimstone is actually sulfur, but the connotations were too rich to ignore, and there were sulfur butterflies, which should count for something. Via Good Morning Silicon Valley.

Great News: Study Finds Coffee the Richest Source of Antioxidants

DNC: Health News - Study Finds Coffee the Richest Source of Antioxidants.

Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the American diet, according to a study released Sunday.

The outcome is based on an "average" diet. Your results may vary.

Today's SkyCast

Sharp-eyed repeat-visitors will notice a new logo on the top of the right sidebar. Mid-America Regional Council publishes the daily Skycast air-quality predicition on their website, and made this script available to enable the automatically-updating logo to be added here. Email or comment for help in how to use the script.

Kansas City just barely missed being declared out of compliance last year, which would have triggered several restrictions and new requirements by EPA to lessen air quality problems. The restrictions on new industry and industrial expansion could have cost the region hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development, and affected tens of thousands of people's health.

We lucked out because last summer was far milder than usual, but the basic air quality problems remain, so if we don't make changes, we'll be facing non-compliance and restrictions again in a few years. So if you see that the SkyCast is up into Orange or Red, try to avoid driving, don't fill your car with gas until evening, and avoid running lawnmowers (an excuse not to cut the grass - how terrific!). Visit MARC's Air Quality page for more information on air quality, air pollution, and what individuals and businesses can do to help.

America History Sunday

Harper's Index for July 2005

• Rank, in the current line of succession to the U.S. Presidency, of the first non-Christian: 16 (by my count that would be the Secretary of Veterans Affairs)
• Number of America’s nine “Founding Fathers” who denied the divinity of Jesus: 7
• Minimum number of illegitimate children had by the nine: 9

 

"It'd be a shame if we was to 'accidentally' release youse guys' data; buy our insurance to keep it safe"

Our wonderful friends at ChoicePoint, serial data losers, black felony voter list cleansers, possible no-fly-list managers,  are now offering to protect some of the victims of their incompetence for a price.

Monterey County Herald | 08/23/2005 | Double data whammy.
Elizabeth Rosen was plenty angry when ChoicePoint Inc. sent her a form letter admitting that crooks perused some of her most sensitive personal and financial data.

But the Los Angeles nurse was flabbergasted when the company, one of the nation's largest collectors of consumer records, also offered to sell her some of the same information so she could see what might have been compromised.

First, they accidentally release your data to identity thieves, then in the form letter notifying you of the loss, they offer a special price to show you some of the info they released!

The company responded that "ChoicePoint gives consumers the ability to see – for free – a search report of their own public records information." The report that they offered to sell in their letter goes "above and beyond this public record search report."

They go on to say that the product isn't new and they don't make much money from it anyway.

Oh. Well that's okay then.

Via Sunbeltblog

I'm in big trouble: Study Links Daydreaming, Alzheimer's

Yahoo! News reported on this Journal of Neuroscience paper that found a correlation between the areas of the brain used in daydreaming and the areas that show the earliest buildup of the plaques associated with Alzheimer's.

Tap your heels together as you say it with me: correlation is not causation, correlation is not causation, correlation is not causation.

Photo from Eide Neurolearning Blog, which has a great article on the brain while daydreaming, with links to far more than you wanted to know if you're not a neuroscientist.

Eco-humor

We environmentalists are often far too earnestly serious. Treehugger, the source for green lifestyle info, had this great use of humor in an ad. (Note: I am not getting paid to rerun this ad, and I don't know the bear).

George Bush: Promoting Democracy Theocracy at home and abroad

We've seen the reasons for the Iraqi war change repeatedly over time, as WMD's, terrorist flypaper and violent extremism all took center stage for a time. Now the Iraqi's are about to approve a constitution that includes the recognition of Islam as being above the rule of law. While many right-wing Christians would like to see the same sort of provision in our constitution, many Iraqi's are asking in vain for American help in preventing the enshrining of Islam in the constitution that the Americans have been pushing them to create.

In fact, the American leaders in Iraq are pushing those opposed to Islam's inclusion to compromise, in order to get a constitution, any constitution, by their self-imposed deadline. The Islamist constitution would effectively deny to women many of the rights they had under the reign of Saddam Hussein.

As Digby and Majikethis and some of  the conservatives at National Review have pointed out, it's hard to imagine that anyone would have supported this war if they knew that Americans were giving their lives in Iraq not to fight terrorism, but to establish an Islamic government equivalent to the Taliban we removed from power in Afghanistan.

Photo from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), where it is one of the less-disturbing photos of life under the Taliban.

"Bombs were never more than a hobby for me"

Patrick Hughes tells a story and throws a party like no one else:

“Ah, we got a bomb or something in this lady’s car. Which way is the bathroom?”
“A bomb? Shit, do we need to clear out?”
“Nah, y’all are good. Keep partying.” The cop grinned.
[...]
At one point I grabbed a passing cop. “Hey, what’s up with that bomb?”
“They just brought out a machine that’s gonna shake the car to try and set it off,” he said.
Man, that seemed like a really bad idea to me. But who was I? No expert. Bombs were never more than a hobby for me, so I said fuck it and had another drink.

While the comments don't have the cohesive linear flow of Patrick's story they are well worth reading.

Photo from Frogland. Really. Just not Patrick's Frogland.

 

Catblogging and dogblogging Friday: The cat is not a toy! Of course, the dog might disagree.

from Stuff On My Cat

and under the Equal Time Clause I should post a photo of a dog in a crab suit,
but to be honest, I didn't even look. From benimanzi via Flickerzen



and just because it's Friday, a photo I liked from FoundPhotos

Evangelical Scientists:"Gravity is just a theory"

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

Burdett added: "Gravity—which is taught to our children as a law—is founded on great gaps in understanding. The laws predict the mutual force between all bodies of mass, but they cannot explain that force. Isaac Newton himself said, 'I suspect that my theories may all depend upon a force for which philosophers have searched all of nature in vain.' Of course, he is alluding to a higher power."

Via Sisyphus Shrugged

There never is a good time, is there?

Defunktion hosts an exhibition of a few PostSecret entries.
via PostSecret

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over

Frank Rich spells it out for the President: 

In an interview with Tim Russert early last year, Mr. Bush said, "The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me, as I look back, was it was a political war," adding that the "essential" lesson he learned from Vietnam was to not have "politicians making military decisions." But by then Mr. Bush had disastrously ignored that very lesson; he had let Mr. Rumsfeld publicly rebuke the Army's chief of staff, Eric Shinseki, after the general dared tell the truth: that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq.
[...]
A Bush loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7.