Iraqi Oil-Revenue sharing

So the Iraqis are going to share out oil revenues. The idea is that the entire country will then have a vested financial interest in peaceful production of oil. I'm fine with whatever works, but it seems strange to me that so many conservatives are on board with this.

I mean you have a nation selling oil and sharing the profits with it's citizens...doesn't that sound like communism?

If a Democrat started a humanitarian war that resulted in a theocratic communism, holy shit, these people would be pissed.

Obama and black voters

From CNN's main page today, I followed this link:

"Black America cool on Obama" to the article titled:

"Obama getting a cool reception from Black America"

To me those say opposite things...but whatever...

This line brings says it all.

Obama suffers, in part, because voters are not familiar with him and there is doubt whether the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, who was raised in Hawaii and educated in elite schools, can relate to the black American experience.

I'm no expert on African American culture (not even with 5 years in Philly), but that rings true to me.

On the other hand, this is politics, and the current image matters way more than the reality (ie: a Yalie cheerleader wealthy Connecticut boy half-convinced voters he is a Texan Cowboy). My guess though, is Obama is going to hold Black Culture at arm's length. He'll probbaly act like every other modern presidential candidate.

YouTube, the War, and Music

Isn't YouTube awesome? Someday I'll learn to embed these, but for now here's 3 music videos for your contemplation.

The first focuses on American troops and liberating Iraq from Saddam. It's pretty graphic and relatively pro-war. Of course, anything set to set Johnny Cash's Hurt, is going to portray painful reality of war.

The second is distinctly anti-war. Same song, different perspective. It gets crazy with the Bush-Hitler stuff, but it's still a powerful expression.

The final is Dylan's Masters-of-War. About as anti-war as things get, as sung by a master of anti-war. Watch at your own risk.

For all that people talk about Iraq while wearing suits on Sunday morning talk shows and evening news, I feel like most of us are fairly divorced from the reality of the war. We aren't paying for it with increased taxes (yet) and we don't have rationing. There isn't a depletion of able-bodied men like in WWII or a draft like Nam. You could almost ignore it entirely if you wanted. Some people do.

Any one of these videos is liable to make you think (a hell of a lot harder than Wolf Blitzer will). It's a powerful medium. Think carefully.

Fun Site of the Day: CONSERVAPEDIA!

Built to conteract the evil liberal bias of Wilipedia, Conservapedia is an online resourse for conservative thinkers! From the main page:

Conservapedia is an online resource and meeting place where we favor Christianity and America. Conservapedia has easy-to-use indexes to facilitate review of topics. You will much prefer using Conservapedia compared to Wikipedia if you want concise answers free of "political correctness".

Political Correctness? Maybe even free of correctness altogether!

Here's an example at random (seriously, the first thing I thought of) : Galileo

1564-1642 Italian astronomer who perfected the telescope and was persecuted for adhering to the theory of Copernicus. In 1609, Galileo perfected the telescope. It was modeled after other telescopes made in Europe. With it, he was able to witness a supernova, observe our moon, and document the phases of Venus. He also located sunspots. These discoveries helped support the Copernican system.

[Hey that's not too bad...say...how did that Copernican theory turn out anyway? Also, who persecuted Galileo? Probably Muslim terrorists or something. Who cares though...all he did was copy other people's telescopes.]

Here's Wikipedia's version. See how biased it is?

Link credit to Sadly, no which takes a few shots, and had the patience to find a doozy. A teaser:

The existence of unicorns is controversial. Secular opinion is that they are mythical. However, they are referred to in the Bible nine times,[1] which provides an unimpeachable de facto argument for their once having been in existence.

Free of bias and perfect for homeschoolers!

PS:

Post-Noachian references[1] to unicorns have led some researchers to argue that unicorns are still alive today. [btw, post-Noachian means after Noah. fyi, Noah was a guy in the Bible]

I so wish my research involved unicorns. Maybe I'll try for a unicorn studies grant...

Iraq War makes more people vote Conservative

No, I didn't forget the beating Republicans took in 2006.

I mean the Tories and Labour.

I cut myself today, to see if I still feel...

I've been playing with some music sites, like Pandora and Rhapsody. Pandora's got a real interesting deal where it matches similar songs into a personalized radio channel. Rhapsody is kinda like iTunes, except you get 25 free songs per month. Both are neat sites to check out.

One of my favorite musical themes is covers. U2 has the best Helter Skelter, and if you can find it, Indigo Girls do a great Watchtower. I even like Puff Daddy's Kashmir and Madonna's American Pie.

A short while back there was a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song, "Hurt", by a fellow named Johnny Cash. It's a rare 70-year-old who even listens to a heavy metal song, let alone cover it, but Cash had the talent to know talent. Not surprisingly for a song named "Hurt", Trent Reznor wrote a lonely, painful, bitter song. Cash remade it: lonely, painful and bittersweet. He took it acoustic, dropped out the drums, slowed the tempo and softened it. Reznor's lyic "I wear this crown of shit" gentrified into "crown of thorns". It was mostly faithful to the original, but a solid new work in it's own right. Without Reznor's angry energy, the same lyrics are transformed from a angstful rage to a story about the passive deadening and pains of age and loss. It was on the last album Cash put out before he died.

Accordingly, Cash got his props back from the meathead rocker community. Sevendust is one of those bands that headlines the kind of concert where you can surf a mosh pit (story for another day). It turns out, they cover Hurt too. But they don't do the hard-rocking NIN version: they do it the way Cash did. The rockers stop crowdsurfing, and listen to the slow steady tribute. I kind of doubt this link will work, but if you're into this kind of thing try to find Sevendust's "Hurt (dedicated to Johnny Cash)" from their album Southside Double. This 3rd rendition is still a sad song, but now it's a song about the loss of a man who we're still proud to remember.

Back from vacation - some personal navelgazing

Back from a beautiful vacation in Colorado. It was a great break and it was good to spend time with the fiance and her family. It was also startling to hear that the future in-laws at least occasionally read the blog! Uhoh! I've heard people suggest you never write anything you wouldn't want your mother to read, but how about your mother-in-law? Some of the things I've written...I shudder to think. (Good thing she's not Republican.) Anyway, I might have to change my tone some, or get an editor something... Nah, fuck it, the cat's out of the bag. (Sorry K!)

Speaking of cats, it's good to be back home with mine. Yes, for anyone who didn't know, I have cats. I don't Friday cat blog, because for the most part people don't care about my cats. Also they value their privacy. Besides, they're unclothed and under 18, so no photos (and stop asking you pervert). Moving on now...we hit cats, how about a story about a dog.

The story goes something like this: an elderly family friend has diabetes, and also had some sort of foot injury. The wound became infected and had to be amputated. That's pretty sad, as my own grandfather had a very similar situation before he passed away. Fortunately, the family friend has largely recovered, and gets around on a prosthetic or on a electric scooter. Which brings me to the dog. I'm not sure exactly what kind of breed Skippy is, but I'm picturing a 20lb spaniel-type thing. Skippy's getting on in years himself and doesn't have all his teeth. It must hurt the poor little thing to chew hard things like dog biscuits. Anyway, Skippy found himself a solution to that problem. These days when he gets a dog biscuit he puts it behind the wheel of the electric scooter, knowing that when the scooter runs it over it will be crushed and he can eat the pieces without having to chew so hard.

And they say old dogs can't learn new tricks...