GATHER GLBT Support Group

From Molly:

Hi Gather,

We will be starting a support group on

Tuesday September 27th from 5:30-6:30pm in the GLBT Resource Center

If you have any issues relating to your sexuality, are questioning, generally dealing with life, coming out, family, or anything else , please come! Everyone is welcome! This is a great chance for you to confidentially talk with other people in your situation (No, you are not alone!) If you are interested you can email, show up, or meet with me before the meeting.

What to do?

Firstly, I thought I'd say that, while I was in lab yesterday, a couple of the others who were there were discussing what would win in a battle of the states of matter.

Just thought it was amusing :-).

It appears that there's an Anarchist general info meeting tonight, on campus, which is interesting, because I didn't know there were any anarchists on campus besides me. I want to go, but I have dinner scheduled with Scott and Chris. Grr. And I don't know how to contact the group to find out when the next meeting will be. Maybe I'll reschedule with Scott and Chris. :-/

And I have just had a conversation about Prescilla, Queen of the Desert and "Ping-pong Pussy."

Also, Hugo Chavez was on Democracy Now! this morning, which was interesting.

Canadian Terrorists: Dropping the Eh?-bomb

Scott came up with the title for this post.

Brief update. Last night was Kyle's 21st birthday... and he got really really smashed. Hehe. Would've been better without the getting sick part, but you know how those things go.

Things are going well in general, though I'm busy with work, school and homework, as usual. I've been playing with the mediawiki, and it's mostly nice but there are some important features missing, like a calendar and better uploading capabilities.

Radgeek has announced another holiday, International Ignore the Constitution Day.

Oh, and the German elections didn't turn out with a clear winner (unsurprisingly), so that means it's probably Grand Coalition time... a joint German government of the two large centrist parties that claim to hate each other but only differ slightly in views and won't actually end up changing much. Oh, was anyone else frightened by Angela Merkel's claim to a "clear mandate", even though preliminary results showed 35% to 34% for the leading two parties? Sound familiar?

So much more to say, but so much homework to do, so ta for now.

Quotage

"Dick Cheney... that's, like, his job! To suck people's souls!" -- Bryce.

Why do I have to go to Chem recitation?

Grr... so, today I had an extended recitation for my chemistry class. I had thought it was going to be an actual lab today, but, no, instead it was three hours of wasting my time. Why do I need to go to this sort of thing?

Dark Pink Rose

Dark Pink Rose
Originally uploaded by emeraldimp.

So, apparently I need to go to the library more. While we were out chalking for DLP today, I came across these rose bushes next to the sundial. In the failing sunlight, I snapped a picture.

President Bush declares 'War on Weather'

This post is fictional (well... mostly) and intended as amusement only. Probably the people mentioned haven't said anything of the kind.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a move that Republican leaders called, 'decisive,' and, 'the mark of a true leader,' President Bush declared in a short speech today the beginnings of a new "War on Weather" in response to Hurricane Katrina:

"America will not stand for this kind of tragedy on American soil. The big boys of Weather have got to learn that you Don't Mess with Texas."

When reminded that Hurricane Katrina hit largely Louisiana and Alabama, the President responded, "When you mess with any part of the U.S., you mess with Texas."

"I call the nation and, most especially, the Congress to band together in the aftermath of this terrible act of destruction, and authorize a new Department of Homeland Weather Security to ensure that we can stamp out all those storms that seek to destroy our way of life here in the U.S."

The new Department of Homeland Weather Security was introduced to the Congress in March, 2005, under the title, "Weather Modification Operations and Research Board," passed out of committee in both the Senate and the House, and was passed unanimously, under the urging of President Bush, and will take effect starting October 1, 2005.

Critics of the President's plan call the Department, "impossible," and, "a huge waste of money," to which the President responded, "Which is a bigger waste of money, the hurricane or the department?" Critics had no response.

The purpose of the department will be to carefully monitor all meteorological activity inside the United States and near its borders, and detain or deport those storms that may pose a threat.

Mark Udall (D-Colorado), House sponsor of the bill, said in a statement following the president's speech, "The breadth of this department is wide. It will cover not only hurricanes and other tropical storms, but also tornadoes, floods and blizzards. This is the beginning of a new era of stratospheric peace, though the road may be long and difficult."

I Drew This: the Incompetence of King George

Normally, I would just post a link to I Drew This and have you read it yourself, but I think that D.C. Simpson is right on, and it's important that you read the whole thing. So, and please forgive me, D.C., here is the full text from I Think This from September 1, 2005:

The irony is enough to make you vomit.

Today, September 1, the Department of Homeland Security launched National Preparedness Month.

Preparedness for what? The display of unpreparedness going on in Louisiana is greatest human tragedy on American soil in my lifetime so far. How dare these people talk to us about preparedness. People are dying amidst disease, squalor and misery because of their unpreparedness.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm sorry. I'm really angry.

What we keep hearing, from the administration but also from people who should know better, is that this is not the time to "play politics" with the disaster.

Well, first of all, who's playing? I could not possibly be more serious.

And second, why do so many people have this idea that politics are a game? Some sort of popularity contest, unrelated to people's actual lives? I have news for you. Politics are the means by which we select the leaders who will, in turn, make policy. Policy affects your life. At times like these, policy can be the difference between life and death.

Poll after poll shows that people agree with the Democrats on almost every major issue. We would be a liberal country if we voted for the leaders who would actually enact policies we agree with. But we don't vote that way for some reason. You saw it in the last election. It was all "I'm going to vote for Bush because you know where you stand with him." And "I'm voting for Bush because he makes me feel safe."

It is not the quality of a leader's Clint Eastwood impression that keeps you safe, people. It is the quality of his (or her) policies. And this administration's policies are terrible. Al Gore's would not have been. John Kerry's would not have been. You would have agreed more with their policies and priorities. They would not have been asleep at the switch. America, your nearsightedness in returning this man to power made this crisis worse. It made people die.

George W. Bush said on "Good Morning America" that no one anticipated that the levees might break. That is flat out false. In fact, many people anticipated it. FEMA, in 2001, identified a category 5 hurricane destroying the levees and flooding New Orleans as one of the three major disasters most likely to befall the United States. One of the others was a terrorist attack on New York.

Well, guess what? We've had both. Guess what Bush did to prepare? Nothing. Then the administration looked us straight in the eye, both times, and said no one could have anticipated that this would happen. Well, bullshit, George. It's bullshit and I don't think you care.

This one is even worse, because in 2003 and 2004, the Bush administration specifically cut the funds for strengthening those specific levees, because it needed the money for Iraq. It's ironic that we were told, ad nauseam, that we had to invade Iraq because it posed a real threat to our safety and we had to be proactive. So, in the name of that, the administration took away the funds that might have prevented a far more likely tragedy from claiming so many lives, as it is now in the process of doing.

And who normally deals with these tragedies? Well, the National Guard. That's why we have a National Guard. It isn't designed to fight wars. It's designed to deal with domestic disaster scenarios. But nearly half the Louisiana National Guard is in Iraq.

George's vanity war and his neo-imperialist fantasy of remaking the middle east and his obsessive desire to slash his friends' taxes all came before these people's lives. And now they're dying. Old people. Children. Sick people. Mostly poor people, who couldn't escape, and, when the hurricane was bearing down on them, got no governmental help in doing so. And now they're dying, George. Dying.

Playing politics? George, you've spent your whole presidency invoking 9/11. You've spent your whole presidency trying to claim anyone who doesn't support your policies doesn't care if 9/11 happens again. This despite the fact that the other side tried to stand with you right after that tragedy happened. They ignored your policy failures; the fact that Clinton's National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger, gave you specific warnings about bin Laden and plans for dealing with them; FEMA's warnings that such an attack would be a huge disaster; and the fact that Hart-Rudman warned explicitly in Spring 2001 that one was coming. And you did nothing, but the Democrats let it slide because no one thought it was the time to dwell on past failures.

Well, now we're in it again, and in a lot of ways this one is even worse, and you not only did nothing to prepare, you impeded others' ability to do so. And again we're being told this isn't the time. Well, when is the time? How many times do you have to get people killed before we're allowed to talk about it? How many dead babies do we have to see on TV before criticizing the people who let it happen stops being "shrill"? I've had enough.

America, to you I say, this is proof that your policymakers should be people who are competent and whose policies you actually support. If you install a government because, gosh, they look likable and macho on television, you're going to get lousy policy, and people will suffer and die. It is not a game, it is not an abstraction, and you need to stop treating it so casually.

George, to you I say, we are not playing politics. You're the one who's playing. Playing golf, playing guitar in photo ops, acting like nothing was wrong the day after Katrina hit, the day the levees broke and New Orleans started to disappear. Giving speeches comparing yourself to FDR while lives were being washed into the Gulf of Mexico. You're the unserious party here. You don't get to base your whole career on playing politics, then urge others not to do so the moment politics becomes inconvenient.

People are dead because of your policies. If you really do talk to God, I hope he gives you an earful for this one.

Let me reiterate...

I love my TDI Golf.

Gasoline (the lowest octane) was $2.899/gal tonight. Diesel was $2.799. Plus I get 40mpg.

We made the right choice.