“Dark December” was inspired by my first visit to Brasov, Romania in 1999. I was 13 at the time and I thought it was the most inspiring scenery on earth; it felt like a dream. Its dark and gloomy streets and old architecture made it an experience I’d never forget. When the fog fell down over the old part of the city, I got a glimpse of what it would have been like living in Dracula’s Transylvania. Since then, I’ve always wanted to visit it during the winter months; “Dark December” is what I think it would look like.

With Calendar:
widescreen: 1920×1200 1680×1050 normal: 1600×1200 1280×960

No Calendar:
widescreen: 1920×1200 1680×1050 normal: 1600×1200 1280×960

Wake up America, the big 3 will not fall; not entirely. If we allow them to fall temporarily, we won’t loose millions upon millions of jobs; sure, people may become unemployed for a little while as the whole thing gets settled but no one in the right mind would let billions of dollars of capital investments in those plants go to waste. They’ll be back up and running in no time and all those people who lost their jobs will get them back probably under a new contract.

Oh, but dear Jesus, God forbid they have to renegotiate their contracts to about $10-$15 an hour lower. They make so little for how hard they work. Come on, it’s a factory job! If unions weren’t involved, you could easily find replacements for all of those workers at far less than $10-$15 an hour less than they currently get. Face it UAW, in spite of the fact that you are a socialist organization, GM, Ford, and Chrysler are capitalist companies and they need to turn a profit. Stop demanding things the companies can’t provide and you won’t ever be in a mess like this again.

http://view.break.com/567077 - Watch more free videos

Thanks Jawa, you made my day today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future.

I’m stunned - couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? I realize his advisers probably didn’t want a “mature” woman, as the Democrats keep harping on his age. But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

I watched the Fox News special on her tonight and saw a lot of women who came out and asked “How dare you ask how she can be Vice President and take care of her children at the same time?” I also heard Rudy ask the same thing when he gave his keynote speech, concluding that they would never ask a man that question.

No offense to Sarah Palin, who I think is a brilliant woman, but your children should take priority. And although you stand behind a banner that reads “Country First,” you should recall that one of the principals of this party is that you put your Country First by putting your family first. Dr. Laura says it well when she says:

Certainly, if a child becomes ill and is rushed to the hospital, and you’re on the hotline with both Israel and Iran as nuclear tempers are flaring, where’s your attention going to be? Where should your attention be? Well, once you put your hand on the Bible and make that oath, your attention has to be with the government of the United States of America.

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

Thank you, Google.

Careful, careful out there in the blogosphere. We should all take note.

MOSCOW - Russia’s president said Sunday his country will give military aid to the two separatist regions at the center of the war with Georgia — signaling Moscow has no intention of backing down in the face of Western pressure.

Dmitry Medvedev also warned that American domination of world affairs is unacceptable, though he insisted that Russia did not want hostile relations with the United States and other Western nations.

Medvedev’s decision Tuesday to recognize the Georgian breakaway provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent drew condemnation from the West. Though no other countries have followed Russia’s lead, Medvedev reaffirmed the decision on Sunday.

“We have made our decision, and it’s irreversible,” he said in a speech broadcast on Russian television.

Translation: Russia wants to be hostile without being hostile.

How can you say you don’t want hostile relations with us yet provide military support against our allies? Perhaps we should send in a little more than just the USCG Cutter Dallas with humanitarian to remind Russia that it was their iron curtain- and not ours- that fell.

I’ll also be the first to criticize Obama, but not when he’s doing something that Republicans and Democrats have normalized.

Obama Stage 2008

Bush Stage 2004

All I’m saying is that if you’re going to judge one side, judge the other.

BEIT AWWA, West Bank - A Palestinian couple locked their disabled son and daughter away for decades out of fear they would ruin the marriage prospects of a healthy child if discovered, police said Wednesday.

The case highlights the shame felt by families who have children with disabilities in Palestinian society — made worse because of poor services and the practice of marriages between first cousins.

It hurts me to think that people could do something like this. I’m not outraged by Gitmo or secret CIA interrogation camps or the prospect of torture or the death penalty because sympathy is something I reserve for the innocent. This man kept here for decades. DECADES! He’s not a murderer! He’s not a rapist! He’s not a criminal! He’s an innocent, disabled person. Guilty is the society he lives in that encourages intra family marriage; guilty are the Palestinian people who look down upon him. Finally, guilty is the AP writer who would indirectly criticize Israel by saying the problem is made worse because of “poor services.”

If you, Nasser the AP reporter, were on Jeopardy and chose Palestinian Issues for 200 and Alex said “This is what made this poor, Palestinian man disabled at birth” and you answered “poor [health] services” you would lose. If you’d lose in Jeopardy, why don’t you lose at the AP?

Moreover, the Josef Fritzl story made national headlines for a couple days when it was found out that he kept his daughter locked in the basement for 24 years as a sex slave. He’s now facing 3,000 rape charges:

Senior legal sources have revealed that he has admitted to sleeping with his daughter Elisabeth “two or three times a week” during the 24 years he kept her locked in a basement prison.

Let’s see how quietly this will go down. What? With the mainstream media’s love for the Palestinians and all.

Palestinian Basam Musalmeh, 38, stands behind a locked metal door leading to the room where he was locked up since he was a child, during a police raid in the West Bank village of Beit Awwa, near Hebron, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. Police discovered a mentally disabled brother and sister in the rooms they were stashed away in for some forty years, during a raid in their southern West Bank town overnight Tuesday. The case has dramatically highlighted the shame thrown upon families who have children with disabilities in Palestinian society, made worse because of poor services and the practice of first-cousin marriages in Palestinian communities.
(AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

On a final note, I always thought she looked like a hyena from the Lion King. Here, have a look:

Oh and check out the AP’s lovely caption:

Children play in Tskhinvali, capital of Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. On Tuesday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized two Georgian rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, prompting harsh criticism from Western nations.
(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

I guess they’re just playing; Thanks AP, you really know what calms me down.

The National Fleet concept, signed in 1998 and revalidated in 2001, speaks directly to Coast Guard-Navy integration. It is a cornerstone document that reaffirms the service’s expeditionary capability and the immediate need for a modernized fleet to replace ships such as the Dallas, commissioned in 1967.

Moreover, according to numerous reports on the Navy’s News site, the cutter Dallas has been running training operations in Africa! Russia sent a missile cruiser and two other ships in response to aid arriving on an outdated ship whose biggest action was capturing Saddam’s fugitives in the early days of the Iraq war.

All I gotta say is really Russia? A missile cruiser? Come on Putin & Co, what’s all this saber rattling really about? I mean, if this was the USS Dallas rather than the CG Cutter Dallas, maybe I’d understand.

UPDATE: Ah. It seems he was trying to say clear grasp. I was only half listening and heard “queer” and “firm” in the same sentence and thought that Slick Willy was bringing new talking points to light. Here’s the video (My PVR is working now.. Yay!):

“Whether you voted for me or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose,” said Clinton in a speech Democrats hope will end a lingering party rift left over from their bitter nominating fight.

It goes to prove that she’s nothing but a shrewed politician. I wonder how Obama got her to agree to give such a compelling speech. I guess Bill isn’t too happy about it though: he’s not showing up to Obama’s speech.

By the way, watch about 0:27 into the video below. Is it just me or did she really have to force out that whole bit about Michelle Obama? Anyone else sense a bit of that intra-woman superficiality? Could just be me. I’m just saying.

This new theme is mostly courtesy of Derek Punsalan from 5ThrityOne with a few of my own tweaks. I think that this new theme really forecasts my direction for the site. I want to focus more on reading between the lines and dispelling some of the idiocy that is out there.

I’ve neglected my midterms for long enough; I’ll have to finish the job at another time but I think this is a logical stopping point.

Cheers!
Bava

Status update (August 2008):

UC Davis to provide Gmail service for students starting this fall

UC Davis will begin to move forward with a plan to transition all UC Davis students to Gmail this fall. The transition is scheduled to begin the second week in October with the intent to be completed by the end of fall quarter.

A system-wide UC contract with Google Inc. was developed to ensure protection of student privacy and the campus’ ability to retain exclusive control of UC Davis email accounts. The campus retains the right to back out of the relationship at any time. This plan will not affect School of Medicine students using UCDHS mail systems. While faculty and staff are not included in the current implementation plan, UC Office of the President (UCOP) has structured the basic agreement with Google to allow for them to be included on an “opt-in” basis once appropriate consultation takes place.

Endorsements and/or support came from ASUCD, Alumni Relations, development officers in academic departments, the 300+ students who participated in the pilot, and the broader community through the vetting process pursuant to PPM 200-45. IET will continue to work closely with University Communications and with Student Affairs to ensure the partnership with Google continues to be beneficial to the campus.

The Pilot Advisory Group—which included representatives from Student Affairs, University Communications, graduate and undergraduate students, among others—helped guide the pilot to a successful completion in March 2008. Questions and issues identified during the pilot period were reviewed with campus constituencies, including the Campus Council for Information Technology (CCFIT), the Deans’ Technology Council, the Technology Infrastructure Forum, campus counsel, and an ad hoc committee of campus privacy specialists.

Information and Educational Technology (IET) would like to thank the students who participated in the pilot and the members of the campus community who ensured we have the best possible plan going forward. We also recognize the work of the UCOP in contract negotiations on behalf of Davis and other campuses.

Questions? Contact us at ucdgmail-pilot@ucdavis.edu.

“We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path,” Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, told The Associated Press. “This is the last chance.“

This is such a spineless position. It’s easy to see why the opposing position is harder to stand up and proliferate. If you’re a scientist on the Global Warming side, you can keep spewing your “research” and scarring people on to your side. When governments around the world join to spend billions, if not trillions, on research and development in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, you can sit there and baste in your glory. If everything goes well, as it likely would have even without any intervention, everyone will sing your praises. If not, you can sit there and tell everyone they didn’t act fast enough. Either way, when it comes to government contracts you win.

If you’re on the other side, what incentives do you have to speak out? You’re vastly criticized despite your research and specialization; despite your dedication and hard work. Your opinion is not profitable. This is why your arguments will never gain any traction.