A River's water of thoughts

handling my degree program issues

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:08:28 GMT

In my long rant of my life and why I suck, I mentioned I was having issues with my degree program plan.

Here is my letter to the the director of the Publishing Program and currently my boss (Independent Study/Internship in publishing).

Dr. Williams:

In about a week registration will begin for the Spring semester. I had been thinking about my degree and what courses I needed to take. I had contacted my advisor to check up on things.
In this process I mentioned that I was thinking of applying for the M.S. in Publishing in addition to accomplishing my MAIS in Publishing and IDS. The reason being for this is that I am so close to accomplishing the full requirements of a MS in Publishing, because of the way my MAIS is set up.

Dr. Williams, I have wanted to be in the Publishing program since I first heard about it in the summer of 2008 and was informed that the program would be starting up in the Fall of 2008. I had contacted the University and asked about the program and how to get in. I was, at this time, looking to get back into school since I had trouble finding a job since graduation. However, I was informed that the program was not starting up for the fall 2008 semester but would instead be starting up in the spring of 2009.

I was informed that I could apply to the University in a status in which that I would be allowed to take courses up to 12 hours before I have to fully apply to a program. It is a type of deferment enrollment. I am familiar with it because the first Grad School I applied to after graduation had a similar program set up so that students could enroll for a program now and take the GRE's or send in the rest of the requirements later on to formally enroll into the program.

I was thinking of doing this to try to get some classes done and be enrolled in the publishing program. At this time, on the UHV Arts & Sciences page they had the full requirements for the MS in publishing listed. So I knew what courses I would need to take. I noticed that there was courses listed for the concentration that were not exclusively tied to the publishing courses and that I could take them for the semester.

I was unsure that I wanted to go this route because of the limits I could take on the courses and not being formally into a degree program. I inquired if I could instead apply for a masters program similar to what I wanted and then after the Publishing Program started up in the Spring that I could then switch to it. Since the MAIS was a less stringent degree program that I could apply for, I decided to formally apply for the degree program with the full intention of taking the IDS courses I needed for the concentration part of the Publishing program and switching programs later on.

I ran into a snag when I noticed that only two IDS courses were available for the fall 2008 semester and my student loan requires me to be a full-time grad student so I picked up the English course as well. At this point I was an MAIS student with concentrations in IDS and English. So it fit my requirements for the moment.

When the end of the Fall semester came I started to inquire about the publishing program and when it would start and so forth. I was informed that the program had been pushed back another semester and that instead of being a full masters program anymore it was downgraded to a certificate program. However, I was informed about an internship that I could apply for that was part of the publishing program.

I had printed out the requirements for the publishing program from the Arts and Sciences website and I knew that for the publishing degree that I would need two semesters of an internship in publishing. I thought that this would be a good thing. Sure, the program hadn't started up yet but the internship was up and I could use that for my degree. At that time, I'm sure I recalled the film course being cross listed as a graduate course in IDS and that I could use that for the IDS part of the MAIS degree.

Since the publishing program has been pushed back to a certificate I saw that besides the core publishing courses was the management and marketing courses. The internship and concentration courses were not requirements of the certificate. It was at that point that I realized that I was going to be a year in, in effect half-way through, with the MAIS degree before the publishing program, which was just a certificate program now, was up and running.
I realized that it might not be worthwhile to try to switch programs from the MAIS to the publishing. So I inquired as to whether or not publishing could be added as a concentration to the MAIS degree since I was determined to study publishing. And in April of this past year I switched my MAIS concentrations from IDS and English to Publishing and IDS and using my English course as an elective.

While doing this I kept thinking about how close the MAIS degree plan I set up is to the MS publishing degree plan. I realized that if the MS publishing program ever got up and running that I would only lack two extra courses, the management and marketing courses, from fulfilling the full requirements of the MS publishing degree.

All the way up to the beginning of this semester I was informed, when I inquired, that the publishing program was still in the process of being set up but that nothing was settled. I was not even sure that I would be able to take publishing courses this semester and so I worried about what to do if that was the case.

It was not until the beginning of this semester that I was informed that the full MS publishing program was up and running. At this point I was not sure what I wanted to do. I had put so much hard work, time and money into the MAIS degree that I didn't want a full semester of courses to just be worthless. So I decided to stay where I was at for the moment. I inquired about the other internship and planned on working on my courses needed for the semester while I thought about whether or not I wanted to go for the full MS in publishing.

It was as I realized that the spring registration was coming up that I decided to figure out what to do with my degree plan. First I needed to make sure that everything was on track. It was here I learned that the screenwriting course I took was not, as I had thought, an IDS course but was instead listed as a FLM course. Because of this I would have to take an extra IDS course. I also learned, as I checked the course listing for next semester that only two publishing courses are listed instead of the three that I needed. In addition to that, I was informed of what requirements I would need to apply formally to the Publishing Degree Program.

Alma informed me that she would ask you if she could list the FLM course as IDS and I assume she also inquired about me applying for the MS publishing program as well. Since when I received notice of the FLM course being counted as an IDS course - and I do thank you for that, especially, since I learned from the course listing that there was no IDS course I could take next semester - that you did not approve of the double major.

Since I received notice of such I have pondered on how to express why I wish to do that so that you might understand where I am coming from.

For months, I hounded Alma on the program before the Fall 2008 semester even started. For a year, I took courses in a degree program hoping that the real program I wanted, Publishing, would start soon. When I learned that the program was downgraded to a certificate, I had inquired if it would be worth it to try accomplishing both the MAIS and the Certificate in Publishing. I decided, since I had heard word of how difficult the extra courses in question, management and marketing, are, that it might not be worth it to put my GPA at risk. I had decided that if I could get a degree in Publishing, then I would make my MAIS degree in essence equal to the proposed MS publishing degree based on the requirements needed for it that I had printed out back in the Fall of 2008.

Now that the program that I had wanted to enroll in is finally up, I realize that I will be only a semester short of fulfilling the requirements needed for a masters in publishing. Everyone that I have inquired advice on what to do has suggested to me that since I am so close that I might as well try to get the second degree.

It was not my intention to do so. I just applied to the University for the Program a year early because I was told that the program would happen within a semester. I was told that it was in the works and that I would be fine. When the situation changed I decided to adapt and try to accomplish finishing up the degree.

This is my MAIS degree plan:

Core courses: Intro to IDS 6312, Ethics 6324, and Social Philosophy 6326

Publishing courses: Intro to Publishing 6310, Publishing Design 6312, Legal Environment in Publishing/Contract 6313, Style and Editing 6314, and Advanced Publishing 6315

IDS courses: IDS 6302 (internship), IDS 6302 (internship), IDS (FLM 6300)

Electives: ENG 6330

This is the Publishing Degree plan:

Core courses: Intro to Publishing 6310, Publishing Design 6312, Legal Environment in Publishing/Contract 6313, Style and Editing 6314, Advanced Publishing 6315, MGT 6351 and MKT 6352

Concentration: Intro to IDS 6312, Ethics 6324, and Social Philosophy 6326

Internship: PUB 6305 I, PUB 6305 II

Dr. Williams, I appreciate all the help you have provided and how much I have asked of you to get me into the independent study courses for the internship.

I understand that I have asked a lot and perhaps it is because of this or because I am getting a MAIS in Publishing and IDS which is one of the reasons you do not like the idea of a double major, whichever that it is, I just want you to know that it was my intention to get a MS in Publishing from the beginning and circumstances prevented me from doing that so I adapted in the best way that I could.

Whatever your decision is on whether or not you think I should apply for the MS Publishing Program, I will abide by. I just wanted you to know what I have done in my aim to get into the publishing program and how much work and maneuvering that I have had to do.

Thank you for all the hard work you have done on my behalf and for finally getting the publishing program up and running.

Sincerely,

P.S. About the Legal Environment in Publishing/Contract 6313 course, I checked the course listing the other day in preparation of applying for my classes next semester and I noticed that it was not listed. Does this mean the course is not going to be up next semester? Or that it is too soon to tell? Or that no one has been hired to teach it yet?
I ask because, as far as I know, it is the last course I need for my MAIS degree and it would put off graduation for a while if I cannot take it.

So do you think I made my case?

Mom thinks that I should be a writer writing novels because of how good this and other papers I've written are.

People reports on Daily Mirror calling Daniel Radcliffe a pothead

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:22:48 GMT

BUZZ: Daniel Radcliffe Plays a Pothead?

Under the headline "Harry Pothead", Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe's mug is splashed across Friday's front page of a British tabloid – showing him in what can only be described as high-spirited party mode.

In the blurry photo, the actor is smoking what the Daily Mirror describes as a "spliff."

But Radcliffe's rep insists he's not smoking what the paper says he's smoking. "We categorically deny the allegations regarding Daniel Radcliffe published in today's Daily Mirror," the rep tells PEOPLE. "Daniel does smoke the occasional roll-up cigarette, but he was not doing anything more than this. We are considering our position and will be taking all necessary action in relation to such allegations."

The photo of the bleary-eyed Radcliffe, 20, also show him with an elaborate, elongated mustache painted on his face.

Party pal Wadia Tazi, 26, tells the Mirror: "Daniel was laughing and seemed to find it funny. But he didn't really look like he knew what was going on."

The paper says the party took place in a North London high-rise and was hosted by a friend of Radcliffe's sometimes girlfriend, actress Laura O'Toole.

Daily Mirror's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stoned

bad omen

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:27:54 GMT

My car is trying to kill me.

My car is an oldsmobile alero and unlike the Toyotas there is no recall on it.

However, yesterday my mom was driving it and the accelerator got stuck. She put it into neutral and pulled off to the side and was able to drive it home.

I got in it and the fucker revved up to 2rpm while I was in PARK and then when I slammed on the brake it didn't get below 1rpm. I was luckily still in park and thus hadn't crashed into anything.

I turned off the car and came in and told my mom. She test drove it. It was fine. I got into the van (that still has the desk I went to College Station and picked up in August) the shocks are shot on the fan so I have to take it easy. As I got in I noticed that the top to the desk is falling apart and as I was driving it down the driveway it got worse.

This on top off all the other shit going on (i.e. my mental break down and virtual cry a few hours earlier) and the fact I can't take the truck because the inside lights don't work and you don't know how fast you are going, I decided 'fuck it' this this is an omen.

All this bad shit.

I'm not going to go class in which all we are doing is work I can do from home. Fuck it.

So I sent off an e-mail informing my professor of what happened. I might have a used a bit of hyperbole in order to make the situation sound a little more worse.

Oh btw, my car is still smelling like gas. So we know I have a leak somewhere but we can't find out where! In addition to my cruise control and various shorts in my car.

In other words, my car is trying to kill me.

p.s. Mom informs me it did not happen when she was driving but when she was moving the car from drive to neutral to park in the driveway as she was parking it.

Oh well.

I still think my car is trying to kill me.

And thus, tomorrow, on my great 26th birthday, I will driving my car to the mechanic's.

just another day

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:02:16 GMT

This is real life stuff and for those of who read this or care to read this journal anymore, I thought I should just let you know.

So I'm cutting this.

Tomorrow is just another day. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day my parents married and the day I was born a year later.

Things aren't exactly going well for me.

I'm about a semester away from graduating with a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Publishing and IDS. I wanted to get into the Publishing program ever since I heard about it two years ago after I got my denial letter from UT and was informed I was not wanted there. I didn't know what to do. So one day I was watching the news and word came about this Publshing program at our local University. I was intrigued and started to ask questions and e-mail people.

I learned that the program wouldn't start that year. Time was running out on my derrferrment. I couldn't get a decent job with the two degrees I had and the only job I had was a part-time (but I was working full-time) at a sports store as a cashier. No one else would hire me because I was planning on working part-time while I went back to school.

I finally got into grad school under the MAIS program. It was IDS/English as my concentrations. But that was supposed to be temporary as they got the program running. Last semester I worked out an Internship as an Independent Studies in IDS. This semester I did the same.

The basic thing you need to know is that I was dogging the people in charge of the program about when the program was starting and when I could get in. First it was supposed to be a full masters program then it dropped down to a certificate. I had worked my degree plan in such a way that I was in effect following the full masters program. The masters program core has five classes, Intro to Publishing, Publishing Design, Contracts, Editing, and Advanced Publishing. Then there is three courses in a concentration such as IDS, English, Communications, History, etc. Finally there is the full year internship (two semesters) and a course each in Marketing and Management.

My MAIS (IDS) degree got me the three concentration courses, my IDS independent study got me the full year internship and my Publishing concentration was taking care of the core classes. I had in effect worked out it out so that I was getting the requirements done for the degree. I did this because it was uncertain that the program would happen.

Last semester it looked like the full program would not happen. The certificate for Publishing only required the core Publishing courses and the mangament and marketing courses. I had talked with a fellow student who looking into getting into the program and who was a tutor about what she thinks I should do. It looked like the program wasn't going to happen and the two extra courses from the core would not work in my degree plan for MAIS. I was thinking of just finishing off the MAIS degree.

I took a break during the summer because I could not afford to pay summer tution for the internship nor was there classes I could take. I had finished up just about all I could of the IDS part of the MAIS and I was just waiting for Publishing to start. In fact, it was starting to look like the Publishing program might not start at all.

Come this semester the program is in full swing. I'm taking Intro to Publishing and Publishing Design right now while taking the last semester of the Indepedent Study that is the internship for Publishing.

Registeration for the spring is coming up in two weeks and because of that I've started to think about those two extra courses that could net me a full 'nother degree.

Yesterday I had a phone call advisement with my counsler and talked to her about my plans. One of the courses I took last semester, which I recall being an IDS course was instead a FLM course and looked to make me take another IDS course. She talked to my professor of the course and the person in charge of the Publishing program and got it to count as an IDS course. But she mentioned that he was not happy with the idea of a double major.

So I'm a bit upset and thinking about to talk to him about it. Because I was getting up the guts for fully apply for the Masters of Science in Publishing degree program and the requirements of which I need to do to get in.

Now I'm hitting this roadblock. And it's like...

I'm scared.

That means that I will basically be graduating next semester if all I do is the MAIS. This isn't exactly the best time to get into the job market. Especially if all the experience you have are seasonal jobs and no one wanted to hire me BEFORE the recession hit.

I'm worried about the house. Because of the leaks and the constant fear some is going to turn us in and try to get the house condemned. I'm scared of what my life is looking like. I'm turning 26 in one day. I still live with my mother. I don't have friends. The only person I talk to is my mother and step-father. I'm a closed person who is friendly but that no one really likes. I'm the type of personality that people think is of a good friendly nature but that they never take the chance to get to know me.

I'm constantly thinking about how I try to provide for myself when no one wants to hire me, living with my folks in a house that should be condemned (or at least part of it torn down and sealed off), money being super tight, my folks being in their late fifties and early sixties, medical insurance (I don't have any), how I desparately need to see a dentist, about how I'm worried about that spider bite that never went away and that it might be something that a specialist should see, about how lonely I am in my life, about how useless I am, about how much like a hermit I have become, about what kind of life I'm leading and wondering what the hell I want to do with my life and how I can try to make some income because money is so very tight.

I think at times that I'm severely depressed. All I want to do is cry. I think of times how much easier things will be if I didn't exist.

The family reunion/grandparents anniversary party, I got upset and left. No one noticed. I didn't have a watch on me or my cell phone so I didn't know the time. I just left. I was gone maybe a half hour to an hour and no one came. No one noticed either. The whole time I was gone I was thinking if anyone would notice. I thought about what if I just went away and never came back. Would anyone care? Would anyone notice? How long would it take for someone to notice that I was gone? When I came back to the party I never got a question of where I was at. I never got asked why I left and I realized that no one noticed. No one cared. And for some reason I didn't care.

It wasn't the first time I've thought of things like that.

I constantly wonder if anyone would care if I just left. I constantly wonder if anyone would care.

Because no matter how much I tell myself I'm content with things with my life, I'm not. I'm not happy. I'm worried about the house. I'm worried about money. I'm worried we might lose the house through not being able to pay for the mortgage. I'm worried that my step-father will finally have enough and just decide to leave. I'm worried that my mom might die. I'm worried that if that does happen about what I'll do. She has no life insurance. Everything is in her name. I have no job. I'm worried we will lose everything and I will be left homeless. I'm worried about my step-father's health because he has diabetes and is the breadwinner in the family.

Everything it seems is tied to money.

Everything except for low self-esteem and self-worth.

I want to write. But I don't think I'm good enough, I don't think I will be able to make enough to live one. No one will hire me because I don't have experience and so my degrees are useless.

I feel at times like I'm suffocating under the stress of things.

I feel as if I'm not a worthy human being. Or a feminist because what I want is someone to love me. But I always feel as I will never be loved.

I think I've come accept the fact that I will never have a special someone in my life or friends. That all I will have is my parents. My siblings don't really care much for me. They are all guys and we differ so much that we never talk. Not even on birthdays. The only times I get phone calls from my brothers if they want to talk to mom. Two of them are older, in their late thirties and have families of their own and busy jobs.

But the younger brother...at times I feel like he never cares for me.

I crave his attention. Because when we were younger we were the closest of playmates. We hit one another for sure and hated each other at times. But I thought we were close.

Now I more in common and talk more often to strangers than I do my own blood kin.

And when he does visit or does talk to me he is always harping on me about my life. How useless my degrees are in trying to get a job. About how I need to get out of the house and make friends. That I should go to bars. That I should date. That I need to make something of my life.

It's got to the point that even though I crave his attention...I don't want anything to do with him either.

Mainly because he is echoing everything I'm saying about myself.

I tire of this lonliness but I don't want to go out to bars to meet people. I want to start back in taking martial arts but the money and gas...it's expensive.

Do I keep up making these excuses or are they are real problems? I don't know anymore.

When I was younger I used to tell people weeks before my birthday that my birthday was coming up.

Now, I don't even mention it to anyone.

It's not a day of celebration for me. It's not a day or happiness or even of presents to unwrap.

It's just another day. Another day in which I can't ignore the fact that I'm doing anything worthwhile with my life. Another day in which I can't ignore the fact that I have no one to celebrate this day with. Another day in which I come closer to the dreaded thirties, the age in which we are supposed to be on the way in our lives, an age when we are supposed to know what we want and on the way to accomplishing it, an age when we are supposed to have families. Another day in which I come closer to time when my parents will leave me and I will left alone in life. I have family, lots of family, but there is no contact between them and me. I feel unwanted, unneeded, useless, worthless, and that I will be better off and that everyone else will be better off if I just didn't exist. And on my brithdays, that is when I feel it the most. Especially this one.

I'm turning twenty-six, but it's just another day.

woman's vagina falls out

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:06:17 GMT

I posted this at ontd_p and I got many a horror scream from women who didn't know this actually existed and is something they should KNOW about.

I think we have finally found the female version of a ball kicker story.

Woman's Health Horror: 'My Vagina Fell Out' (November 06, 2009 - Sphere.com - Buck Wolf)

(Nov. 6) -- Allison Henry isn't the first to suffer from a horrifying medical condition that few women talk about. But her case was particularly bad, and she's just one of the few brave souls willing to come forward so that others will have the courage to seek help.

To put it bluntly, as Henry does: "My vagina fell out of my body."

The 39-year-old school psychologist from Kenmore, Wash., suffered from a rare combination of disorders that began when she was pregnant with her son, Kirian, and she writes an amazing account of her bizarre medical condition on MomLogic.com.

"I know it sounds like a science fiction movie," she told Sphere.com. "Every time I retell this story, I still tell myself, 'I can't believe this happened to me.'"

It began five years ago, when Henry was in her 10th week of pregnancy with Kirian, her second child. She had vowed that she wouldn't gain 60 pounds this time around, and she was practicing prenatal yoga in her home when she felt a sudden pain.

"It felt like someone rammed a pitchfork up my butt, so I stopped," she writes. "It was an intense, sharp pain, but it passed."

Later that day, while giving her daughter lunch, she ran to the bathroom, thinking she had to urinate, and found blood gushing instead. "It was the biggest scare of my life," she writes.

Her OB/GYN couldn't figure out what was wrong, and she kept bleeding. "I'd bleed through a maxi pad in 30 minutes," she says.

In her 25th week, she was put on bed rest in the hospital, where she stayed for three weeks. When she finally went home, she started bleeding again and had to go back.

"My husband and I were so worried," she says. "My son was born 6 1/2 weeks early. Thank God, he's OK now."

Doctors found that she had developed a hematoma outside her placenta, and they thought that was the root of her problem.

In fact, her problems were just beginning.

'My Insides Were on the Outside'

"One day in the bathroom, I felt something kind of strange when I was wiping," she writes. "There wasn't really a hole there -- it felt kind of flat. I thought it was a little weird, but I had a 19-month-old and a newborn to care for, so I brushed it off. I wasn't bleeding, I wasn't in pain, so I didn't address it."

What Henry was describing was the beginning of a vaginal prolapse, a condition in which the vagina, uterus, rectum, bladder, urethra and small intestine shift and -- in severe cases -- innards may protrude from the body.

"Women will suffer for years and not tell anyone," says Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, a gynecologist in Los Angeles. "They'd rather tell their doctor they have a sexually transmitted disease than say that something is hanging out of them."

"Allison Henry clearly had an extraordinary, horrible case," the doctor says. "But it's widely estimated that 30 percent of women or more suffer some degree of prolapse in their lifetime."

Instead of dealing with her health problem, Henry turned her attention to raising her children. She also had to have an appendectomy, which consumed much of her time over the next year.

Still, each time she went to the bathroom, she noticed her problem was getting worse.

"One night, I took a look down there, and it was like my insides were on the outside and they were coming out," she writes. "I knew I couldn't put this off any longer. I went to my doctor and said, 'My vagina is falling out of my body!'

"I was referred to a pelvic floor specialist. She took a look and said, 'Holy crap -- your vagina is falling out of your body, and it's dragging your bladder and your rectum along with it!'"

In addition to a uterine prolapse, Henry also suffered rectocele -- a condition wherein the rectum pushes into the back walls of the vagina. "That explained why I had been constipated for months," she says.

Henry also suffered from cystocele, a condition similar to rectocele, only with the bladder.

While the normal uterus is 8 to 11 centimeters inside the vagina, hers was only 3 centimeters up, and when she was standing, it was sticking out at least 5 centimeters.

After confronting the problem, Henry was able to undergo a series of surgeries to restore her vagina, untwist her bladder, and push her rectum back into place.

"On top of this, I had a labia reduction, which was brutal," she writes. "All of 'Dr. 90210's' patients who say it doesn't hurt are lying. I'd rather get my teeth pulled out than do that again!"

Stable Mable Regains Her Humor

Her road to recovery has not been easy. At one point, she lost 30 pounds and had to return to the hospital several times to deal with complications.

"I had always been a healthy person, nothing so much as a yuckie pimple when I was growing up," she says. "And then, I was incapacitated for several weeks, many times.

"Among my friends, I was always the stable Mable," she says. "'I eventually started taking anti-depressants to cope with the chronic stress and I became so emotionally depleted."

Henry credits her husband for pulling her through. "He is the kind of man who doesn't need to be asked to do something," she says. "He just does it. It helps a lot that he was working at home most of the time this was going on."

It's now a year and a half since her last stay in the hospital, and Henry came forward to tell her story because she wants women to seek help if they have to face what she has gone through.

Uterine prolapse is most common in women following following menopause, childbirth or a hysterectomy, according to eMedicineHealth.com.

"Once I got past being mortified, I tried to keep my sense of humor. I can laugh about a lot of this now," she says. "But I also know what it means to not have your health."

Read Henry's full account on MomLogic.com.

Thoughts?

I warn you it's a bit graphic and you will scream in horror

A way to prevent ending up like the lady above is kegel exercises and GOING TO YOUR GODAMN DOCTOR WHEN THINGS ARE AMISS!

Shooting at Fort Hood Army Base

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:36:29 GMT

http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/4543801.html
http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/4544200.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/index.html

It's horrible.

Fort Hood is home to about 60,000 people. It is about the size of a city. It is the world's largest military base.

It happened in the solider readiness center which is the area where soliders get the last medical check-up before shipping out and coming in.

CNN is saying that ABC out of Waco (which is near Kileen) said the shooters named is major Malique Nadal Hassan.

There is 12 dead. 11 are victims. Of those 11 one was a civilian cop contracted as military police. One of those civilian MP's killed the shooter.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/reports-of-mass-shooting-at-fort-hood/?hp

Update | 7:41 p.m. Given that Thursday’s shooting spree took place at a readiness center, where troops were about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, the subject will certainly turn to combat stress. A description of the work of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, where Major Nidal Hasan, the suspected gunman who was killed on Thursday at Fort Hood, says this:

The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) addresses both the invisible and visible wounds of war through research, education and consultation. The invisible wounds of war include the mental health consequences of deployment. These can range from normal distress to the treatable mental disorders of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Warrior wounds can also involve health risks such as increased use of tobacco, alcohol and/or drugs that can result in violence to self, spouse and/or children.

Update | 7:22 p.m. Information about Dr. Nidal Hasan posted on a Virginia Board of Medicine Web site includes a note that he saw patients at Darnell Army Medical Center Monday through Friday.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2009/11/05/officials_shooting_suspect_dis.html

Officials: Shooting suspect discussed suicide bombings, other threats online
Thursday, November 5, 2009, 07:30 PM

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:

Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

“To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause,” said the Internet posting. “Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers.”

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2009/11/05/official_fort_hood_shooting_su.html

Official: Fort Hood shooting suspect not dead
By American-statesman staff | Thursday, November 5, 2009, 08:17 PM

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, has not been killed and is in stable condition at a hospital, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at a press conference at Fort Hood.

He is in custody at an undisclosed hospital, Cone said.

Three soldiers taken into custody after the shootings were released, he said. Investigators believe Hasan acted alone.

“Evidence does not suggest this was a terrorist event,” Cone said.

One of the first people to shoot Hasan was a civilian police officer who was shot but survived, said Cone, who added that earlier reports of a civilian officer dying were incorrect.

ACTA will put you in Jail

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:13:46 GMT

Global treaty could throw file-sharers off Internet after ‘three strikes’ (November 05, 2009 - Raw Story - Daniel Tencer)

File-sharers could be jailed under proposed ACTA provisions

Leaked details of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated in secret by most of the world's largest economies suggest Internet file-sharers could be blocked from accessing the Internet if they are repeatedly accused of sharing copyrighted material, say media and digital-rights watchdogs.

And the worst-case scenario could see popular Web sites like YouTube and Flickr shut down because of a provision in the treaty that would force them to monitor everything uploaded to the site for copyright violations.

Internet law professor Michael Geist published details of "leaked" portions of the discussions on ACTA on his blog Tuesday, as a new round of ACTA negotiations began in Seoul, South Korea. The US, along with all the countries of the European Union as well as Japan, Canada, Australia and a handful of other countries, are involved in the negotiations.

"The provisions would pave the way for a globalized three-strikes and you're out system," Geist blogged Wednesday, referring to a proposal from copyright holders to have Internet service providers cut off service to anyone accused at least three times of illegally sharing copyrighted material.

"This means that your entire family could be denied [access] to the Internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel," blogged tech writer and digital-rights supporter Cory Doctorow.

Doctorow also noted that another provision being proposed for the treaty would mean "that ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability."

And, as Geist noted in a follow-up article on Wednesday, the proposed treaty could end up seeing file-sharers jailed for sharing copyrighted material, even if they had no financial gain from the transaction.

Geist wrote that the treaty, as currently proposed, would "extend criminal enforcement to both (1) cases of a commercial nature; and (2) cases involving significant willful copyright and trademark infringement even where there is no direct or indirect motivation of financial gain. In other words, non-commercial infringement could lead to criminal penalties."

"The US government appears to be pushing for Three Strikes to be part of the new global IP enforcement regime which ACTA is intended to create -– despite the fact that it has been categorically rejected by the European Parliament and by national policymakers in several ACTA negotiating countries, and has never been proposed by US legislators," writes Gwen Hinze at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

ACTA negotiations were being held entirely in secret until this past May, when the Wikileaks Web site released a 2007 draft proposal.

The Obama administration has resisted attempts to make the negotiations public, though it did make an exemption for a long list of senior executives at major corporations.

In June, the administration announced it would continue the ACTA negotiations started under the previous administration.

The ACTA Treay and how it will take away your internet and land your ass in jail!!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:52:14 GMT

ACTA is being touted as an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. It's not. It's a vastly reaching copyright enforcement law that will be far more powerful, malicious, destructive than DMCA. This treaty is being designed in SECRET by members or people, whom we do not know their names because of "national security" as agents of our government and 40 other nations.

As a citizen of this nation YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY RIGHT TO EVEN LOOK AT THE WHAT THE TREATY IS PROPOSING! As a worker of any big company you do, but you have to sign a non-disclousre agreement in compesation of being able to read it.

Why? Because the Government, Bush and Obama, have deemed this as a National Security necessary secret.

Other Nations have sued or been given a look at the all powerful secrety treat that is still in the works. It's been in the works since 2007. But us? Oh no, we are given the National Security excuse and told that is all we need to know.

Now we know. Now we are pissed and now we are scared. Because now we know, through a leaked document, what this treaty is about to propose.

Have any of you EVER downloaded music, video, images, wrote fanfiction? Because now through ACTA if you have and if you have been given a take-down notice by the propose owners of the copyright material that you have SUPPOSEDLY violated, then after three times your ISP will be ordered by the GOVERNMENT to take away your homesteads internet service.

That's right, your internet service of your instead house/apartment, etc.

That means even if you yourself have NEVER downloaded ANYTHING at all and only use your computer as a means to surf the internt to check your e-mail but your kid or husband has then ALL OF YOU lose your internet.

This is also most likely going to be in addition of some fine for violation of copyright law and even possibly JAIL TIME!

Don't believe me? Think I'm just over reacting to things?

Then read what the experts are saying:

* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html

Secret Copyright Treaty Will Ruin the Internet (November 04, 2009 - The Atlantic Wire - Carl Franzen)

Leaked details of a proposed international Internet treaty have tech bloggers throwing fits. Negotiators from the U.S. many other nations are meeting behind closed doors in Seoul this week to hammer out the details of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The pact is designed to clamp down on the Internet's multifarious illegal file-swapping community by holding service providers accountable for their users' activities.

Bloggers are blasting the treaty, as you'd expect, but are also fulminating against the government's opacity, the companies' cooperation, and big news organizations for failing to sound the alarm:

* Patricio Robles, Econsultancy: "ACTA could be the worst thing for the internet- ever…Not only would ACTA be bad for citizens of the member nations, it would put businesses in those member nations at a significant disadvantage."

* Mike Masnick, Techdirt: "There is simply no reason for ACTA, at all. It is nothing but an attempt by the entertainment industry to put massive restrictions on the internet, place liability on lots of third parties, and do nothing to push themselves to adapt to a changing marketplace with new business models."

* Jolie O'Dell, ReadWriteWeb: "Are international treaties governing Internet content and intellectual property even necessary? Insofar as they fly in the face of normative cultural practices and contradict or tighten existing national laws, we find these suggested measures inflexible and unrealistic."

* Nicholas Deleon, CrunchGear: "Everything’s very hush-hush, of course, and you don’t hear a damn thing about it on TV, no. No, that’s filled with crackpots on the left and right claiming that health care will fix everyone’s problems automatically or destroy the country as soon as it’s signed into law. As if things this complicated could be debated in 30-second segments."

* James Love, Huffington Post: "At this point, Congress needs to stand up and put an end to this appalling spectacle of secret legislation on a global scale. How can politicians claim to be all for transparency, and allow this indefensible violation of the public right to know proceed?…Earth to politicians -- you work for us, not the International Chamber of Commerce. Make this negotiation public!"

* Glyn Moody, Computerworld UK: "The whole ACTA saga is one of the most nauseating demonstrations of the contempt in which the Power-that-Be hold ordinary people and their interests. Sadly, it is not clear to me how to fight it…Any suggestions not involving insurrection?"

ACTA -- A Patriot Act For the Internet (November 04, 2009 - HuffPo - James Love)

This week 40 or so countries are meeting in South Korea to consider text for a new international agreement on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. It is called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The term "counterfeiting" is designed to demonize the agreement critics as friends of organized crime, much like the name of the Patriot Act seemed better than the "Elimination of Civil Liberties Act." It is really an agreement that addresses a wide range of intellectual property enforcement issues -- involving patents, copyrights, trademarks and other IPR. (Details here)

If you are a lowly member of the public, the text is secret. The names of persons who attend the meetings are secret. The titles of the documents are secret. If you represent a big firm or law firm -- pretty much any big firm it seems, the U.S. government will show you documents after you sign a non-disclosure agreement - curbing your right to speak out on the contents of the documents you see.

Some details of the negotiation have leaked out, most recently from a memo by Euopean Union describing the Obama Administration proposal for a new global system of Internet controls and liabilities. Michael Geist, Gwen Hienz of EFF, and a few journalists -- most living outside of the U.S., have written about ACTA.

The entire U.S. tech sector has been publicly silent, as the Obama administration has co-oped them into trading silence for access to the secret documents.

At this point, Congress needs to stand up and put an end to this appalling spectacle of secret legislation on a global scale. How can politicians claim to be all for transparency, and allow this indefensible violation of the public right to know proceed?

A large number of organizations and people have written President Obama asking that he end the secrecy of the negotiation. It is doubtful this will happen unless newspapers write about the issue (aren't they big advocates of the right to know?), members of Congress weigh in, or if the critics of the secret negotiation can mobilize public opinion.

There is a lot at stake. Civil rights, privacy, rules for injunctions and damages against businesses and individuals, chilling of speech, the first sale doctrine, the global movement of medicines and other commodities, etc, will all be impacted by this ridiculously secret negotiation.

Earth to politicians -- you work for us, not the International Chamber of Commerce. Make this negotiation public!

The language in the Sept. 30 memo shows the United States wants ISPs around the world to punish suspected, repeat downloaders with a system of “graduated response” — code for a three-strikes policy that results in the customer eventually being disconnected from the internet with the ISP alone deciding what constitutes infringement and fair use.

While the proposal specifically says that three strikes wouldn’t be mandated, it might as well be. That’s because companies that refused to implement the policy would be ejected from the “safe harbor” that otherwise protects them from copyright infringement lawsuits over the actions of their customers.

Currently, the DMCA grants immunity or a “safe harbor” to internet companies that promptly remove allegedly infringing content at the request of the copyright holder. Only if they fail to do so can they be held liable in court, and face up to $150,000 in damages per infringement.

Under the U.S. proposal described in the memo, removing infringing content would no longer be enough to qualify for safe harbor. Companies would have to actively work to combat the flow of unauthorized copyrighted material through their pipes, and specifically implement the “graduated response” program.

Here is the key paragraph:

“On the limitations from 3rd party liability: to benefit from safe-harbours, ISPs need to put in place policies to deter unauthorized storage and transmission of IP infringing content (ex: clauses in customers’ contracts allowing, inter alia, a graduated response). From what we understood, the US will not propose that authorities need to create such systems. Instead, they require some self-regulation by ISPs.”

Threat Level obtained the document on condition it not be posted, and we haven’t independently verified its authenticity, or that it accurately reflects the positions of the U.S. trade representatives. The document indicates the U.S. refused to turn over anything in writing itself, and briefed EU representatives on the plan orally in the hope of avoiding leaks.

The Obama administration has been obsessively secretive about the draft ACTA treaty — even, at one point, claiming national security could be jeopardized if the proposed treaty’s working documents were disclosed to the public. Now, it seems, we know what the administration is hiding.

Obama hasn’t asked Congress to implement a three-strike policy, which could anger consumers and watchdog groups. But if the administration gets three strikes written into ACTA, and the United States signs and ratifies the treaty, Congress would be obliged to change the DMCA to comply with it, while the administration throws its hands in the air and says, “It wasn’t our idea! It’s that damn treaty!”

That practice is common enough to have a name: policy laundering.

~

The three-strike language would be gold to companies like MediaSentry, which browse peer-to-peer networks for infringing content, and identify a user’s IP address and ISP. MediaSentry’s work was crucial in the RIAA’s 6-year-long litigation campaign that amounted to about 30,000 copyright lawsuits against individual file sharers using Kazaa, Limewire and other services.

LINKS on what ACTA is:
Lawfont.com: ACTA: here we go again? (Australia)
Lawfont.com: Geist on ACTA (Australia)
Electronic Frontiers Australia (Australia)
InternetNZ alarmed by latest ACTA leaks (New Zealand)
ip-watch.org
WikiLeaks: ACTA search
Wiki Leaks: Talk:Classified US, Japan and EU ACTA trade agreement drafts, 2009
Wiki Leaks: Classified US, Japan and EU ACTA trade agreement drafts, 2009
Petition to Obama - keionline.org
The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together
ACTA Negotiations, Day Two: What's On Tap
ACTA Internet Chapter Leak Signals Far-Reaching Copyright Policy
Leaked ACTA Internet Provisions: Three Strikes and a Global DMCA
ISPs Soon Forced to Police Your Internet Behavior?
Secret Anti-Piracy Treaty Turns ISPs into Pirates
EU Breaks Deadlock in Debate Over Right to Internet Access (November 05, 2009 - PC World - Paul Meller, IDG News Service)

That is it. I've had it about these fucking companies influencing laws and governments and getting their fucking way. I've had it.

I'm emailing my congressman. I'm linking to these articles. they have got to know this isn't about piracy anymore this uninforcable and its trying to censor the internet!!

I'm going to write out a long e-mail to my local newspapers.

It is time that we stood up and told these fuckers, no more. Just because I do a little downloading here and there does not mean I am not entitled to my rights as a human being.

this law will make it to where the burden of proof lies on me that I didn't break the law. It is almost impossible to defend against this law. They could say I illegally downloaded music when maybe I just ripped a cd I bought to play music on my computer.

Or about webpages or youtube. They could say that all the film about the Iran Riots and Protests is copywrited and if I uploaded any of it that I'm a pirate.

This, this is fucking insane.

The results

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:23:50 GMT

Well we all know how Main's Prop 1 went. 87% of it counted and it went to the YES. I call voter fraud and a recount. Nate said it would be NO by 70%. Something is wrong here.

Oh btw, Main passed the medical marijuna distributing bill. So they get their dope but no gay marriages.

Houston is most likely going to have a gay Mayor.

New York City elected two Asians to office, one citywide as comptroller and the other in Manhattan as councilwoman.

Boomberg wasted a lot of money to get his squeaked by win. Which is pissing off the Democrats because the Democratic Party didn't even campaign hard for their guy.

Washington is about to extend domestic partner benefits to same sex parters. In essence they are getting the separate but equal clause of 'gay marriage' not in name. Nate Silver is suggesting that maybe the GBLT should focus on this a compromise to get the benefits to same sex parterns. But we all know that once it gets passed (Nationwide) it will eventually get challenged in the Supreme Court because separate but equal is unconstitutional in all regards.

It seems that Austin passed it so that it is expanding COBRA+ to domestic partners. Since you know in 2006 Texas made the constitutional amendment where Gay Marriage and Civil Unions are not ALLOWED or RECOGNIZED.

And ALL 11 propositions passed in Texas.

Highest in the world!!!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:45:32 GMT

No wonder our system is so damn broken. they our robbing us blind.

U.S. Medical Prices Highest In the World
Posted by: Cathy Arnst on November 02

There is a set of charts flying around the policy blogosphere today that starkly illustrates why the U.S. devotes almost 18% of its gross domestic product to health care spending, while other wealthy nations spend no more than 10% or 11%: Because we pay far, far more per unit of care than any other country.

The 36-page document was put together in September by the International Federation of Health Plans, which represents 100 insurers in 31 countries. It consists of a number of charts that show the difference between what the U.S. pays for any number of medical services, and what other industrialized countries pay.

Voting

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:38:16 GMT

Tomorrow is election day in some states. Some for Governors others for Mayors.

For us in Texas we have 11 Constitutional Amendments going up for vote.

The Burnt Orange Report has a great lowdown on what they are and what major newspapers are endorsing and their own endorsements.

Me, No on Prop 1-3, Yes on Prop 4-8, No on Prop 9-11.

I know a lot of people support Prop 9 (Open Beaches Act) and Prop 11 (Eminent Domain) but I'm against them. First, 9 is taking people's property away from them in cases of land eroison that cause public beaches to become private property. And 11 is just going to screw up the emminent domain laws more than what it is already is and will not FIX/REFORM them. Not to mention that Governor Goodhair (Perry) and Hutchinson and the Texas Tea Party LIKE it!

And seriously there are some amendments here that are ridiculous. Did Prop 5 and Prop 7 really have to exist? Seriously, couldn't we have made LAWS and not constitutional amendments? I know 7 is to add the National Guard to exempt that already has everyone else added...but couldn't we have just tossed the old amendment out and just made a new LAW that did the same thing?

What about Prop 5? A constitutional admendment to dictate how apprasial boards work in concert with each other?!

And Prop 10?! "Proposition 10 would ... allow members of governing boards of Texas emergency service districts to serve terms not to exceed four years." --League of Women Voters Guide

Austin Chronicle: YES. "But trivial, and this belongs in ordinary legislation, not the state constitution."

El Paso Times: YES. "This would provide more continuity and experience on the boards."

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: NO. "This is goofy. There's no good reason why board members of obscure districts in Harris County should have longer terms than members of the Texas House."

Houston Tea Party Patriots: No Endorsement.

Sen. Kirk Watson's "Watson Wire:" YES. It "would lengthen the term of emergency services district board members from two to four years."

*sighs* *shakes head*

Oh for god's sake why can't Texas do something logical for a change!!!

an absolutely beautiful music video (in Korean)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:46:20 GMT

Can anyone tell what he is singing?

creeped out

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:49:42 GMT

There is something on my roof. I can hear it. It walked across my roof. A drops of something fell in from a leak but there is no rain, no water.

I heard it move from like directly over me across the room, over the kitchen towards anothing room.

It had been making noise for like thirty minutes. So I had enough and got my flashlight and got some shoes on and went outside. I was afraid that the dog would scare it away so I left the dog in the house. I went outside and you could HEAR it moving. It was like branches of a tree smacking across the roof but the wind was still and we cut back the branches.

I thought it might be racoons (as a couple times we hear the noise on the roof and then they appear in the damaged room) but they usually go to the damaged room and not across the whole roof. This was something new.

And it really freaked me out when I heard droplets of rain coming in or dripping as if a little block in the leak had cleared and it just comes in a line and then it drips the rest out. But there was NO RAIN in the sky. There was no DROPLETS either. I could hear it but I couldn't see it! To be fair there is a giant ass piece of plywood blocking me from seeing perfectly in that direction but - oh shit it started again. I moved around a bit of the plywood. still no leak. wtf?

It could be mist...or dew or something....but there is no evidence. Just the drip drip drip sound.

So after a while I went out to see what it was. I could hear it. But I couldn't see anything. It wasn't over the kitchen anymore. So I thought it was on the other room. So I looked around the pitch that I could see of the roof but there was nothing. Still that noise persisted. I should have seen something, right?

So I went to my car and got my big ass black metal cop flashlight - that damn dripping noise is still happening...only slower now. So I got my flashlight and I went around to look at the other side of the other room and still nothing. But still that noise persisted.

I was just about to get off the sidewalk in from of bend driveway (we have u driveway the first entrance is grass and the second is gravel).

Now I'm bit worried as I hear the noise and still can't see anything. What if it is a possum or something? I was trying to look in front me so I wouldn't step in any fire ant beds or snakes or mice.

I saw something in the corner of my eye. I thought it was a leaf in a spider web or something. I turned the flashlight and it was something flying. Okay maybe it's a moth or a butterfly. But it had glowy eyes from my flashlight. That means a bat right? It's a bat, right?

I continue on to look and I see nothing but I still hear that noise. As if something is pounding on the roof or stepping across it or...or scratching it. As if to get inside.

It's cold. 40 something in Texas is cold. I'm all alone in my pjs with two flashlights. Granted one of them could kill a person...or animal but still I'm alone with no real weapon and it's dark as pitch outside. After all it is 5:30 in the morning with the time change since daylight savings is over.

And the noise is starting to get to me and then there is that bat just hovering there in front of me (okay ten or so feet in front of me) just staring at me and it's the morning after Halloween. I freak and take off inside.

No more noise. Except for that damn dripping.

Got any ideas as to what it was?

found this

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:10:48 GMT

headdesk

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:54:43 GMT

I friended my mom's cousin on Facebook and I called mom to get a check-up on grandpa. He's doing much better and they think they got all the cancer cells out just awaiting tests to see what type of cancer.

Computer is still making noise. I took the case off and sprayed canned air inside and cleaned most of it up. But it's still making that noise. It does sound better. I have two fans in there plus the ac cooling one. I'm thinking the middle fan is the one making the noise. I just hope this is easily fixable.

My school and work depend on my having access to a computer.

Does anyone know how to save your booksmarks to a portable drive? I copied my desktop, program files and my documents. But I don't know how to save my bookmarks. I have Chrome, IE, FireFox, Safari and Opera.

Now back to the cousin. I posted an update mentioning that I was frustrated/upset about my computer, grandpa, my step-dad being an ass. You know, typical venting stuff hoping that someone will send a virtual hug. Nothing happens, as usual.

But my mom's counsin blabbed about it to my mom and grandma. Cousin mentioned that I was upset. Mom was taken aback and didn't know what cousin was talking about. Cousin mentions that it most likely had to do, since I mentioned it, about grandpa's surgery. Grandma flipped her lid, "she better not have mentioned any of our names on that. I will stop that right now..blah blah blah." Cousin mentioned I didn't mention names. Still grandma upset.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to 'quiet' the cousin from reading my posts. I don't want to unfriend her because she's family and a blabber...but this is one of my conservative members of the family and other four I have on my friends list are quiet and don't say shit so I never expected for cousin to talk about my stuff.

Now I'm worried about all the stuff on my profile. I'm a flaming liberal and mom was laughing that if cousin kept talking about stuff (mom will talk to cousin about not sharing with grandma my posts and we will see if she keeps word and if not...unfriended she will be) that pretty soon I might get asked by grandma if I'm gay because I put a lot of articles and stuff for lgbt rights and stuff.

*sighs*

Not that I care if I'm asked. Which I'm not...at least I don't think so. It's just FAMILY DRAMA with the conservatives. Being liberal is being a minority in my family.

*listens to her computer grind up and down like a fan dying* *sighs*

My fandom in my politics? Loving the lulz...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:31:16 GMT

You know what is so cool? Having our Reps and Senators call out people as characters from our favorite books series.

Homeland Security Committee hearing last Thursday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) likened Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck to Voldemort, a diabolical character in the Harry Potter series. The hearing focused on the numerous policy "czars" that have been named by President Obama, an issue that has been a frequent topic on Beck's program.

The full article

And of course ontd_p has their spin on things.

Here are some of the better ones.

Does this make Obama Harry potter?
I can dig it.
Ew, no. He might not be a ~Dumbledore~ but he'd be at least a Lupin or a Sirius...

Cheney is voldemort pre-book 4. That ain't no human, even one with its soul chopped up.
AND THE WMDs ARE HIS HORCRUX AND WE WILL NEVER FIND THEM.
If we find some empty nuclear power station with a note from R.A.B. I'm going to have to cut a bitch.

I'd almost say he's a Peter Pettigrew with more gall.
Ingratiating himself to power when it's plain he's just a sad, skeezy little man? I can see that?
yeah, that's it
he even kind of looks like a rat.

It really is amusing to think about how much Harry Potter has infiltrated American politial discourse. Especially the "REPUBLICANS FOR VOLDEMORT" bumper stickers I keep seeing. And weren't people calling the brownshirt segment of the GOP "Death Eaters" at one point?

Biden can be Neville! :D

Rahm is such a slytherin though. Totally in a good way.
in that case...he can be blaise zabini. the only slytherin i can tolerate
isn't he nasty though in the slug club chapter?
Rahm is a slytherin in the way Luna is a Ravenclaw.

I always thought they modeled the VPs on the West Wing after the Ministers of Magic.

Does that mean Claire gets to be McGonagal? I think the comparison is apt. Smart, no-nonsense women that don't take crap from anyone FTW!
bitch plz, Hillary is McGonagal

Bets as to how long it takes for the far right-wing to start denouncing this woman as a heathen for reading the "satanic" Harry Potter novels?

Ok, We need to figure out who is what character.

If Obama is Potter .... Who is Snape, his protector with a bad ass attitude- Rham Emanual perhaps? I don't know.
I can think of so many Umbridges- Palin is the best one for right now. "Sweet" and fiercely dangerous.

That Beck is even being included -- named or not -- in a Senate Homeland Security Committee discussion about constitutional law is so depressing.
have issues with Obama being Harry, for one reason only:
Book 5.
If anything, Glen Beck's crazy, over emotional, melodramatic ass is more like book 5!Harry.

O hellz naw, I hope Obama doesn't have those giant hissy fits and turns into a total dickwad to someone close to him.
STILL not forgiving Harry for what he said to Lupin, NOPE.

Grandpa's Surgery

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:55:35 GMT

My mom went to Kerrville Monday because my grandma was having surgery on Tuesday.

My grandpa had checkups and a colonoscopy a few months back and they removed some pallups(?) and discovered something in his stomach. It turned out to be a tumor so they scheduled a surgery to remove it before it caused cancer.

The surgery was supposed to be early Tuesday morning but because of setbacks, being overrun with other issues and stuff the surgery didn't take place until 5:30pm.

Mom called me and the surgery went good and he went into recovery. This afternoon I called to see how things went. Last night was bad. He was in a lot of pain because of the bloating/gas that they did because of the type of surgery?

Mom and grandma had stayed at the hospital over the night and they got up and walking to help expell things.

I just got off the phone with mom and he is doing better...but still this was major surgery, even if it was done larscoptically, and he is 81 years old. Grandma is staying with him in the hospital and mom went to their place to sleep.

Good news is that my mom's sick computer got fixed by the marine buddy of my brothers AND he's offered to put the ram into my computer if I buy it.

It finally PASSED!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:41:15 GMT

Today our most awesome president ever has signed into law the Matthew Sheppard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Bill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard_Act

This is what the Matthew Shepard Act does:

It expands coverage of the already existing Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

And

The bill also:

1. removes the current prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally-protected activity, like voting or going to school;

2. gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;

3. provides $10 million in funding for 2008 and 2009 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;

4. requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people (statistics for the other groups are already tracked).

The Matthew Shepard Act is the first law in the history of the United States federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons.

The K-Street Whore debacle

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:43:33 GMT

People are upset at a comment that Alan Grayson (who lately has been badass at his criticism of the GOP "die quickly" health plan) made a comment a few months back that has been dug up.

He called a woman who had been recently hired to be a lobbyiest for the federal reserve a "K Street whore." Now women are all upset about it because of the connatations that the word has had to women.

But considering who this woman is...I think the definition might be fitting. This woman, Robertson, was the head of the lobbying arm of Enron.

Some are wondering if the blacklash is not due to her being a woman being called a whore but because of what it means to label lobbiests as whores.

Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) took Grayson's remark quite personally-- and for good reason. Shrieking that Grayson "is out of control"-- one of the reasons why so many Americans love him-- she didn't mention that she sits on the Committee on Natural Resources (and it's subcommittee on water and power) and has solicited immense sums of money (thinly veiled bribes) from forest products companies, oil and gas companies, and electric utilities and, coincidentally, I'm sure, always votes in their interests and against the public interest. And if people start calling lobbyists like Linda Robertson whores, how long before they start realizing that the Honorable Congresswoman from Spokane is also a whore-- as are almost all of her colleagues.

Perhaps he should have used a different word since 'whore' has that special connatation of hurt associated with it towards women. But the defintion he was using was correct.

As per TheFreeDictionary.com

whore (hôr, hr)
n.
1. A prostitute.
2. A person considered sexually promiscuous.
3. A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.
intr.v. whored, whor·ing, whores
1. To associate or have sexual relations with prostitutes or a prostitute.
2. To accept payment in exchange for sexual relations.
3. To compromise one's principles for personal gain.

lob·by (lb)
n. pl. lob·bies
1. A hall, foyer, or waiting room at or near the entrance to a building, such as a hotel or theater.
2. A public room next to the assembly chamber of a legislative body.
3. A group of persons engaged in trying to influence legislators or other public officials in favor of a specific cause: the banking lobby; the labor lobby.
v. lob·bied, lob·by·ing, lob·bies
v.intr.
To try to influence the thinking of legislators or other public officials for or against a specific cause: lobbying for stronger environmental safeguards; lobbied against the proliferation of nuclear arms.
v.tr.
1. To try to influence public officials on behalf of or against (proposed legislation, for example): lobbied the bill through Congress; lobbied the bill to a negative vote.
2. To try to influence (an official) to take a desired action.

pan·der·er (pndr-r)
n.
1. A sexual procurer.
2. One who caters to or exploits the lower tastes and desires of others.

se·duce (s-ds, -dys)
tr.v. se·duced, se·duc·ing, se·duc·es
1. To lead away from duty, accepted principles, or proper conduct. See Synonyms at lure.
2. To induce to engage in sex.
3.
a. To entice or beguile into a desired state or position.
b. To win over; attract.

sell·out (slout)
n.
1. The act of selling out.
2. An event for which all the tickets are sold.
3. Slang One who has betrayed one's principles or an espoused cause.

per·fi·dy (pûrf-d)
n. pl. per·fi·dies
1. Deliberate breach of faith; calculated violation of trust; treachery: "the fink, whose perfidy was equaled only by his gall" (Gilbert Millstein).
2. The act or an instance of treachery.

knav·er·y (nv-r)
n. pl. knav·er·ies
1. Dishonest or crafty dealing.
2. An instance of trickery or mischief.

char·la·tan (shärl-tn)
n.
A person who makes elaborate, fraudulent, and often voluble claims to skill or knowledge; a quack or fraud.

der·e·lic·tion (dr-lkshn)
n.
1. Willful neglect, as of duty or principle.
2.
a. The act of abandoning; abandonment.
b. A state of abandonment or neglect.
3. Law
a. A gaining of land by the permanent recession of the water line.
b. The land so gained.

mis·fea·sance (ms-fzns)
n.
Improper and unlawful execution of an act that in itself is lawful and proper.

shill (shl) Slang
n.
One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.
v. shilled, shill·ing, shills
v.intr.
To act as a shill.
v.tr.
1. To act as a shill for (a deceitful enterprise).
2. To lure (a person) into a swindle.

On the other hand...she may not be the whore but the madam of the house since she is the one not compromising her morals but inticing, inducing, persuading, lobbying others to do so. So it's the people who she's hired to seduce, the congressmen/women etc, who are the whores not her, right? She's just a shill selling her wares knowing what bad apples they are.

Billionars for Wealthcare strike again!! And it is made of win!

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:59:27 GMT

The Maddow tv version.

I just totally love that they were singing the song to the tune of The Sound of Music. The internet is the great equalizer. They make non-violent protesting so popular and powerful. Losing face is a great shame to any business that makes them bow down to our might!

Billionaires for Wealthcare
Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, HMO lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system.

We'll do whatever it takes to ensure another decade where your pain is our gain. After all, when it comes to health insurance, if we ain't broke, why fix it?

Oo

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:33:33 GMT

I just finished reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles in two days! My mind is...it feels like this:

I literally had to stop reading a few times to keep from bawling my eyes out.

God CLAMP, why the hell do you fuck with my mind like this and break my heart? I'm still dreading/hoping that you finish X/1999 I've already accepted that you are going to kill everyone off. Especially my favorite characters. But being the masochist that I am...I still gotta know what happens.

I hate and love you all the same.

The laments of Clamp

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:02:36 GMT

Why must you fuck with my head and break my heart?

*goes back to reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles' last 30 chapters*

Because Fox News is really Faux News

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:27:03 GMT

unnamed Zen AU fic - Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:37:01 GMT

Title: unnamed (I'm willing to take suggestions)
Author: akuma_river
Fandom: Katekyou Hitman Reborn! (read it here onemanga.com and mangafox.com)
Pairing: For now Hibari/Tsuna others will be added
Rating: Hard R?
A/N: This is an experiment. I've been having this idea revolving around my head for months. It came from three separate fics I read. One was a type of au where Tsuna belonged to Hibari. The second explored an idea of the bullying that Tsuna went through before Reborn came in his life. I took these thoughts and came up with this one incident that takes place pre-Reborn in canon time. However, I was split on which course to take. In one I could take it into an AU and change everything and that is very thought provoking to me. And in the other, I could make the pre-Reborn incident part of canon. Have it be exposed somewhere down the line in canon and blow up everyone's expectations. This is based on the third fic I read, it was a one-shot that alluded to a past shared with Hibari and Tsuna that had due with Hibari protecting an endangered Tsuna that led to Hibari's blood thirst showing why he would fit in the mafia so well.

I couldn't decide between the two. So I've decided to do them both. This is the AU version.

Disclaimer: I play in the sand box, but I do not own it.

There is a Zen saying or thought or belief that has to do with how interconnected with are with our lives and how quickly things can veer off path so drastically by one miniscule thing. It is that Zen garden thing where you have a pond of sand and a rock with ripples. Tsuna wasn't sure which he was, a rock or the pond of sand, all he knew was that it was odd how one tiny ripple could affect so much change. It was like that one movie - or was it a weather pattern theory? - about how a butterfly flapping its wings in one place can cause a hurricane in another.

All Tsuna knew was that at that moment he really wished that the water main one street over hadn't burst. It flooded the street and caused his normal routine to be messed with and now the street that he used to walk to school was closed and he had to take a detour.
Everything was going fine. It was a normal day in Namimori and Dame-Tsuna was on his way to another day in school at Namimori Middle School. It wasn't too hot or too cool which is why when Tsuna reached the point that the street he was walking on became blocked, he was confused when he asked an officer nearby about what was going on and why the street was closed and the answer was that a water main burst. Was the pipe old? Is that why it burst? It couldn't have been because the pipes froze over or anything of the like. But as he looked at his watch and saw the time the reason for why the pipes burst left his mind, he was going to be late.

Quickly Tsuna asked the officer if he knew a detour to get to Namimori Middle School. Once he mentioned his school's name the officer paled and stuttered out that he could take the next street over. It led in the same direct as the one that Tsuna was on and would actually get him to his school quicker because it didn't loop around a children's play park like this street did.

Tsuna thanked the pale officer and took off in the direction that the office pointed to. He never thought about why the officer's skin had paled at the mention of his school. He knew the cause of that. Everyone in Namimori knew about Hibari-san and his disciplinary committee that ruthlessly ran the school and the town giving out discipline to all who violated Hibari's laws.

Perhaps the moment that Tsuna most regretted was that he had been running at the time. He was glancing down at his watch to see how close he would make it to being late. This street was unfamiliar to him and while the officer said that it would be quicker Tsuna couldn't really see how he could make up the ten minutes he needed in order to be on time and avoid being disciplined by Hibari-san for being late.
It was an honest mistake. A casual bump in the scheme of things. It was just highly unfortunate for Tsuna that he ran into the worst person that he possibly could.
As Tsuna looked up from his position on the ground where he fell from running into the person, he really wished that the water main hadn't burst.

Opinions please.

Awesome Grandpa is Awesome

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:30:24 GMT

This is what a Republican used to be. In the good old days they stood for protecting people.