tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71407301457149371662024-03-21T10:27:15.617-07:00Death By 1001 PapercutsMondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-79164065739339687582013-05-25T23:37:00.000-07:002013-05-25T23:37:16.124-07:00End Times Prophecy Report: Bible Prophecy Site Now Open<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgomL3M9uwfZt0rnfVy5PfAz2EqfJU9pHdE7oL9wJ6J85C4-INoClH8p5piDRYEa_Pm81e4QdrhyyFc66QNP_MugU-uqOlJHFinzJtReYOX2Y7Lw9C9Sd5YKLDYghQvaWVmAwDiG6ObcZGi/s1600/end-times-prophecy-report-head2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="57" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgomL3M9uwfZt0rnfVy5PfAz2EqfJU9pHdE7oL9wJ6J85C4-INoClH8p5piDRYEa_Pm81e4QdrhyyFc66QNP_MugU-uqOlJHFinzJtReYOX2Y7Lw9C9Sd5YKLDYghQvaWVmAwDiG6ObcZGi/s320/end-times-prophecy-report-head2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://endtimesprophecyreport.wordpress.com/" title="End Times Prophecy Report"><b>End Times Prophecy Report</b></a>, a new WordPress site, is now up and running.<br />
<br />
The site features headlines, news and commentary as it pertains to
the times in which we live. According to the site’s editor, Jeremiah
Jameson, it will also focus on:<br />
<br />
<i>“End Times Bible Prophecy and News, End Times Deception, Societal
Collapse, Apostasy, False Teachers, Mass Hysteria, Demonic Attacks, War,
Rumors of War, Famine, Pestilence, Salvation through Jesus Christ,
Earthquakes, UFOs, Earth Changes, False Christs, All Roads Lead to Rome,
New World Order, Conspiracies, and GMO Frankenfood.”</i><br />
<br />
<i>“We plan to emphasize news and commentary as it pertains to Biblical prophecy and the times we are living in.”</i><br />
<br />
The site’s plans are to update daily and to add writers as they grow.<br />
<br />
<i>“We’re in the middle of putting everything in order, what everyone
will be writing about and even the entire list of topics we plan on
covering,” </i>Jameson offered. “Check back often to see what we’re up to!’<br />
<br />
This writer will be an occasional contributor to <a href="http://endtimesprophecyreport.wordpress.com/" title="End Times Prophecy Report">End Times Prophecy Report.</a><br />
<br />
Any writer interested in contributing can contact James at jeremiahjames2014@wordpress.com.Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-20281543726060559272008-03-07T09:20:00.000-08:002008-03-07T09:21:31.338-08:00DBKP New Site Now Up and Running<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxV4uCxBLu94uW29qMHRR5hLKKh9dixrSsJRrIhZG-wfK5f9KzAlmsABBtYaJOBVBOO9nqaEs-GIM0PfZso12wpz34nLE1eXUGvluMi3LERiXhGg7-BinqGztItd-49ME1Fcb3iPoN3Y/s1600-h/DeathBy1000Papercuts.7.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxV4uCxBLu94uW29qMHRR5hLKKh9dixrSsJRrIhZG-wfK5f9KzAlmsABBtYaJOBVBOO9nqaEs-GIM0PfZso12wpz34nLE1eXUGvluMi3LERiXhGg7-BinqGztItd-49ME1Fcb3iPoN3Y/s400/DeathBy1000Papercuts.7.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5175048903491145730" /></a><br /><br />Our new site, <a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.com/">Death By 1000 Papercuts.com</a> is now up and running.<br /><br />We will still continue to maintain all of our Blogger sites, like this one--at least for the foreseeable future.<br /><br />And we've got some new software coming. Some of it has already arrived, actually.<br /><br />Check it out.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">by Mondoreb</span><br /><br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.com/">DBKP.com</a>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-60719063538068932032007-12-02T23:34:00.000-08:002007-12-02T23:40:24.181-08:00Luscious P UNDERCOVER: Part Seven Sockpuppets!<meta:"lusicous p, sockpuppets, second life, new life, virtual lives, adventures, part seven"><br /><table border="1"><br /><tbody><tr><br /><td><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh02jbSl8KJz2pszdoq0yEUAv1gmk3V5sX9zTCHE_1S8Q3DzcYQ5pwTEpbz2UoCER7fQ7dIHtBp-TPQAYk9gHvmaRo68hkbagnh0x_KRfKqUOuQwNQqGfnAHc7NRAofp1-OxpFKx4Zwri0/s1600-h/copy_LusciousPslegs52708.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136250673760549506" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh02jbSl8KJz2pszdoq0yEUAv1gmk3V5sX9zTCHE_1S8Q3DzcYQ5pwTEpbz2UoCER7fQ7dIHtBp-TPQAYk9gHvmaRo68hkbagnh0x_KRfKqUOuQwNQqGfnAHc7NRAofp1-OxpFKx4Zwri0/s400/copy_LusciousPslegs52708.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>NEWLIFE PART 6<br /></strong><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Luscious P continues her tour through the NewLife Site, where millions build virtual people, have virtual lives and conduct virtual affairs.</span><p></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br />They seemed like the nicest cops in the world. “Sure,” I said. I followed the two cops through the dancing crowd. I felt sooooo good as if I could dance my way to the cop station. Someone grabbed my arm. It was the missing Godfrey.<br /><br /><br />“Watch out,” he said then he disappeared back into the crowd.<br /><br />The cop shop was just a hop, skip and a jump from the club. The sea of nightlife avatars parted for us as the two escorted me down the brightly lit sidewalk.<br /><br />Inside the station it was quiet as if the walls muted all sound. We went down a subtly lit hallway and then into a neat looking chrome and smoky glass room.<br /><br />“Have a seat,” the woman cop gestured across the sleek dark table. Her partner had disappeared; it was just the two of us. I sat down and crossed my legs. She was incredibly buff, I wondered if she had a six-pack under her black NewLife uniform.<br /><br />“Nice rack,” she said as her partner walked into the room. When he sat down I could see my reflection in his mirror sunglasses. He looked down at the PDA he had in his hand.<br /><br />“It says you’re new here at NewLife.” He looked up and stared at me. “You are “new” aren’t you?”<br /><br />I shook my head. “New?”<br /><br />“First timer,” the woman cop said. “By the way, I’m Officer Harry and this is Sergeant Dick.”<br /><br />“Harry and Dick, got it,” I said. “Why did you ask if I were new?”<br /><br />Dick gave me a cool look. “You’ve never registered at NewLife under a different nic?”<br /><br />“No I haven’t,” I said, thinking, this was getting kinda weird. I looked at Dick, “what makes you think I’ve been here before?”<br /><br />“You have that “sockpuppet” look to you.”<br /><br />“Sockpuppet? What the heck is a sockpuppet?”<br /><br />“It’s someone who comes here and registers under a different nic after they’ve been banned.”<br /><br />I shook my head. “Banned? What’s banned?” I didn’t recall hearing the term, banned, at Orientation or reading about it in the cyber-brochure.<br /><br />They glanced at each other. “NewLife,” Officer Harry said, “has a policy of banning members who fall under certain criteria of behaviors unacceptable to the community.”<br /><br />“What kind of “unacceptable” behaviors?” I was intrigued.<br /><br />Sergeant Dick folded a pair of muscular forearms across his chest and looked at me. I wished I could see his cyber-eyes under the mirrored glasses.<br /><br />“Unacceptable behaviors are behaviors NewLife finds unacceptable.”<br /><br />“Oh yeah?” Man, that clarified it. Not.<br /><br />“Unacceptable behavior has been classified as behaviors which are deemed to be immoral, unethical, or illegal,” Officer Harry said.<br /><br />“I see.” I was now curious about those who had been “banned”. “How many have banned from NewLife?”<br /><br />Dick shook his head. “That’s classified info.”<br /><br />“Well,” I said, “is banning, permanent?”<br /><br />“Once a member is banned they are no longer welcome at NewLife,” Harry said.<br /><br />“Are these “sockpuppets” members who were banned?”<br /><br /><br />“Yep,” Dick said. “The bastards were banned but keep finding ways to slip back in.”<br /><br />I looked at Harry. “What happens if you find out someone has been previously banned? You just “ban” them again?”<br /><br />“That’s about all we can do,” Harry said.<br /><br />Dick shook his head. “You just keep kicking their sorry asses out. They’re pretty wily. New permanent email addresses, stolen credit cards, or if they’re desperate, they’ll steal someone’s identity and slink back in.”<br /><br />The door opened and a good-looking man entered the room. Everyone, it seemed, in NewLife was very attractive to the point were they had all begun to seem “average.”<br /><br />He looked at Dick and Harry. “Our Iggy Pop was a sockpuppet.”<br /><br />“Yeah,” Dick said. “So why am I not surprised?”<br /><br />“Not just any sockpuppet,” Dick. He was a HalfLifer.”<br /><br />“That bastard!” Dick said. “They’re infiltrating us, big time.”<br /><br />“Halflife?” I’d never heard of that online community.<br /><br />“Interview’s over,” Dick said as he stood up and nodded at Harry. “You’re free to go.<p></p>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-25392452367020965192007-11-24T10:00:00.000-08:002007-11-24T15:46:44.991-08:00Luscious P Undercover: Part 6 - Iggy Pop is Dead, Baby<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4uWEF4TYoMieZ6-vdALayP9A1eVRxP5GM5TaXln2lzEhakmlSEsQq03dhHWR45g0H81gQuHpxPut0GqjoJNV1Qa1WE1LCu0rxB47JhFMcpmcYqIhRIBGiWuIgr-HHIT1lM1IJXZbrw3IU/s1600-h/legs52708-1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4uWEF4TYoMieZ6-vdALayP9A1eVRxP5GM5TaXln2lzEhakmlSEsQq03dhHWR45g0H81gQuHpxPut0GqjoJNV1Qa1WE1LCu0rxB47JhFMcpmcYqIhRIBGiWuIgr-HHIT1lM1IJXZbrw3IU/s400/legs52708-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5136468677710559938" /></a><br /><strong>NEWLIFE PART VI<br/></strong><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Luscious P continues her tour through the NewLife Site, where millions build virtual people, have virtual lives and conduct virtual affairs.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Iggy Pop Is Dead, Baby</span><p><br /><br />I was shaking my cute little bootie when an avatar dressed like Iggy Pop bounced into me then bounced into me again. It was after the fourth time that I took a better look at him.<p> I reached up with my hands and when he crashed into me I pushed back, politely of course. He fell to the floor and thrashed around then lay still. The strobe lights played over us and the other avatars kept up their performance art dancing as I kneeled down beside him.<p> His eyes were closed and he lay very still. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Avatars didn’t have a pulse so it would have been silly to feel for one. I looked up for Godfrey but he had disappeared.<p> The music suddenly stopped and the avatars ground to a halt. As if en masse they all turned and stared at me and the now rigid Iggy Pop look-alike sprawled across the cyberdance floor.<p><br /><br />“Good God!” An avatar that looked like Cindy Crawford screamed. “He’s dead!”<p> <br /><br />I looked down at the “dead” Iggy Pop avatar. He looked so peaceful. A tall dark handsome avatar slipped his digital arm around me.<p><br /><blockquote><br />“He looks so peaceful,” he said as he looked down at the “dead” Iggy.<p> <br /><br />“Ah, he looks happy,” said the now calm Cindy Crawford clone. She smiled at the other avatars. The music, a “chill” tune started back up. “Come here,” she said to me, “and hug me, baby.”<p></p></p></blockquote><br />It seemed like such the right thing to do. I hugged her angular curves while other avatars began to once again dance around the room. “He’s dead, baby,” she said. “Isn’t that cool?”<p><br /><br />It is kinda cool, I thought to myself while that pesky voice in the back of my head whispered: “come on, it’s the Simulated X talking.” <p>I shook my head. “But he looks so peaceful, so happy,” I told my pesky brain voice. “And dead as a doorknob,” my conscience reminded me.<p> <br /><br />The crowd parted like a wave as the NewLife cops arrived on the scene.<p> <br /><blockquote>“What do we have here?” said the cop with the model looks. He looked at me. “You know this guy?” He pointed at the Dead Iggy lying prone on the club floor.<p></p></blockquote><br />I shook my head. His partner, a very buff woman, walked around the deceased while she spoke into a small headset. “Subject is a Iggy Pop Avatar.” She squatted down next to him then put some sort of cursor on him. His body began to fade then completely disappear. “He’s deleted,” she said into her headset then she stood back up. “You know this Iggy?”<p><br /><blockquote>I shook my head. “This is the first I saw him.”<p> <br /><br />The male cop smiled at me. “You’ll need to come with us.”<p><br /><br />“Why?”<p> <br /><br />“We’ll need to get a statement.”<p> </p></p></p></p></blockquote><br />They seemed like the nicest cops in the world. “Sure,” I said. I followed the two cops through the dancing crowd. I felt sooooo good as if I could dance my way to the cop station. Someone grabbed my arm. It was the missing Godfrey.<p><br /><blockquote>“Watch out,” he said then he disappeared back into the crowd.<p></p></blockquote><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-world-of-second-cyberlives-by.html">Part One</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/luscious-p-undercover-part-deaux.html">Part Deaux</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/10/luscious-p-undercover-newlife-part-iii.html">Part III</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/10/luscious-p-undercover-part-iv.html">Part IV</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/11/luscious-p-undercover-part-5.html">Part 5</a>:<br/><br />Simulated X<br/></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-65417587604231392342007-11-08T10:09:00.000-08:002007-11-24T15:45:42.971-08:00Luscious P UNDERCOVER Part 5:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s1600-h/legs52708.jpg"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113517906321718914" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s400/legs52708.jpg"/></a><br /><strong>NEWLIFE PART V<br/></strong><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Luscious P continues her tour through the NewLife Site, where millions build virtual people, have virtual lives and conduct virtual affairs.</span><p><p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Stimulated X</span><p><br /><br /><br />I noticed how Godfrey’s avatar had begun to look quite a bit more alluring. In fact, the words that came out his mouth seemed all the sudden, fascinating.<p><br /><br />“Simulated X? As in simulated ecstasy?”<p><br /><br />“You got it, baby,” he said. “Let’s dance.” He sidled up and put his arm around my waist.<p><br /><br />“There’s no music,” I said. <p><br /><br />“Who needs music,” he said, “when we can make our own.”<p><br /><br /><blockquote>I begin to feel good. Really good and I suddenly felt like dancing. “Let’s go back into the club.”<p><br /><br />“No, no,” Godfrey said, “I know an even better place to get down.”<p><br /><br />I looked at his flat avatar face, his angles looked incredibly devilishly handsome. How did I miss this about him earlier? “Sure,” I said. “Lead the way.” </p></p></blockquote><br /><br />He smiled. “Follow me, Amelie, follow me.” <p><br /><br />“Okay,” I said. I laughed. “I feel like a butterfly without the sting of a bee.”<p><br /><br /><blockquote>We went through a beaded lights curtain into a room where avatars danced and spun around. The pull to join them was overwhelming.<p><br /><br />“Feel good?” Godfrey said.<p><br /><br />“I do, I do!” I said. “Amazingly so.”<p><br /><br />“It’s the Simulated X.” </p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I looked at him. “How do they do that? Make us feel like we’ve done X?”<br/><br />He giggled. “It’s a secret but since I like you, I really, really like you, I’ll tell you.”<br /><br /><blockquote>My heart warmed to him. What a lovely guy, I thought, but in the back of my mind a tiny voice spoke up. It’s the X talking… I shook my head. Be quiet,” I told the irritating voice, this is too much fun! I smiled at him. “What are we waiting for? Let’s dance!”</blockquote><br />“Yes! Let’s dance,” He did the short version of the Paso Doble. “It’s in the rhythm, Amelie, feel the rhythm.”<p><br />We spun and danced around with the other avatars. It was some new-fashioned love-in even when someone bumped into me or stomped on my toes. Evidently good dancing skills didn’t translate onto cyberworld.<p><br />I was shaking my cute little bootie when an avatar dressed like Iggy Pop bounced into me then bounced into me again. It was after the fourth time that I took a better look at him.<p><br /> I reached up with my hands and when he crashed into me I pushed back, politely of course. He fell to the floor and thrashed around then lay still.<blockquote><br />The strobe lights played over us and the other avatars kept up their performance art dancing as I kneeled down beside him. His eyes were closed and he lay very still. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. Avatars didn’t have a pulse so it would have been silly to feel for one. I looked up for Godfrey but he had disappeared. <p><br /></p></blockquote>The music suddenly stopped and the avatars ground to a halt. As if en masse they all turned and stared at me and the now rigid Iggy Pop look-alike sprawled across the cyberdance floor.<p><blockquote><br />“Good God!” An avatar that looked like Cindy Crawford screamed. “He’s dead!”</blockquote></p> <p><p><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-world-of-second-cyberlives-by.html">Part One</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/luscious-p-undercover-part-deaux.html">Part Deaux</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/10/luscious-p-undercover-newlife-part-iii.html">Part III</a><br/><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/10/luscious-p-undercover-part-iv.html">Part IV</a></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-48172302919202581402007-10-22T00:19:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:20:48.282-07:00LUSCIOUS P Undercover: Part IV<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s1600-h/legs52708.jpg"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113517906321718914" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s400/legs52708.jpg"/></a><br /><strong>NEWLIFE PART IV<br/><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Luscious P continues her tour through the NewLife Site, where millions build virtual people, have virtual lives and conduct virtual affairs.</span><p><br /><br />The room was huge… the size of a football field, bathed in luminescent strobe lights and packed with avatars gyrating to the thump, thump, thump of the techno groove music. <p><br /><br />“Godfrey,” I shouted at him, “this is what you wanted to show me? I can go to clubs like this any day of the week.”<p><br /><br />“No, no,” he said, “just follow me.” <p><br /><br /><blockquote>We weaved our way through the crowd. I felt a few digital tweaks on my butt and a couple of the avatars called out to me. We made our way to the opening of a long corridor lit with footlights then followed it past a series of doors. The noise of the techno club faded behind us. He stopped at a door that was black, shiny, and smooth like marble. He placed the palm of his hand against a small panel by the side of the door. A muted beep then Godfrey turned to me. “After you.”<p><br /><br />I looked at the door. “Once it’s open?”<p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />He laughed. “Touch it.”<p><br /><br />I looked at him. “I don’t think we’ve known each that long, Godfrey, for me to touch it.”<p><br /><br />“The door, Amelie.” He nodded towards it.<p><br /><br />I reached out to touch the smooth shiny door, my hand slipped through it. I looked back at Godfrey. “Cool.”<p><br /><blockquote><br />“Yeah,” he said. “After you.”<p><br /><br />“Okay.” I felt a slight pull on my pixels as I stepped through the door.<p><br /><br />It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the ambient light of the room and the fact that there were neither discernable corners nor visible ceiling. I turned and looked back at Godfrey. “Where are we?”<p></p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />“It’s the Simulated X room,” he said. <p><br />I noticed how his avatar had begun to look quite a bit more handsome. In fact, the words that came out his mouth seemed fascinating all the sudden.<p><br /><br />“Simulated X? As in simulated ecstasy?”<p><br /><br />“You got it, baby,” he said. “I feel like dancing.” He sidled up and put his arm around my waist.<p></p></p></p><br /><br /><blockquote>“There’s no music,” I said. <br /><br />“Who needs music,” he said, “when we can make our own.”<p></p></blockquote><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-world-of-second-cyberlives-by.html">Part One</a><br /><p><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/luscious-p-undercover-part-deaux.html">Part Deaux</a><p><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/10/luscious-p-undercover-newlife-part-iii.html">Part III</a></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></strong>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-11417266512936060922007-10-05T18:47:00.000-07:002007-10-05T18:48:03.586-07:00Luscious P UNDERCOVERNewLife Part III<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s1600-h/legs52708.jpg"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113517906321718914" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s400/legs52708.jpg"/></a><br /><strong>NEWLIFE PART III<br/><br />Luscious P continues her tour through the NewLife Site, where millions build virtual people, have virtual lives and conduct virtual affairs.</strong><p><p><br /><br />It was fun chitchatting with my two new pals but I realized it was time to scope out more of NewLife and sitting on my cute little butt wasn’t going to cut it.<br /><p><br />“It’s time for me to scoot,” I said to Ronnie and Godfrey.<p><br /><br />“Why?” Godfrey said. “You just got here.” <p><br /><br />“Hmm,” I said, “I know, but I have places to go, things to see. Can’t do that sitting in here no matter how delightful the company.”<br /><blockquote>“Oh, isn’t she sweet, Godfrey,” Ronnie said. She gave me another one of her chilly smiles. <br /><br />“I have an idea,” Godfrey said. “Let me show you around, Amelie.”<br /><br />“Godfrey can show you quite a few things,” Ronnie said as she pulled another long tip filtered cigarette from its pack. </blockquote><br />I looked at Ronnie. “Like his plumber’s snake?”<br /><br />“Come one, Amelie,” Godfrey said, “let me show you around NewLife City. It’s a happenin place!”<p><br /><br />“Well, since you put it that way, sure.” Might as well, I thought. I could grill him at the same time; find out what the attraction was to submerse oneself in a new cyber-identity on a fake world cyber site. <p><br /><br /><br />The neon lights and glittery signs of various clubs lit our way as we strolled down the street.<br /><br /><blockquote>“So are you really a woman?” Godfrey said. <br /><br />“Are you really a man?” I said.<p><br /><br />“I’m a man,” he said, “and I hope you’re a woman.”<br />“I am,” I said as two very good-looking women strolled by. In fact, most everyone was attractive. <p><br /><br />“What would you like to do?” Godfrey said.<p><br /><br />“Well,” I said, “this part of NewLife reminds me of the Vegas Strip, a very clean Vegas Strip.”</p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />“Yeah,” he said, “I know what you mean.” <p><br /><br />“Are there any places in NewLife where one can go, you know, to have a bit more fun?” <p><br /><br />He stopped and looked at me. “You mean, fun fun?”<p><br /><br />I looked at him. “Ahunh, fun fun. That kind of fun.” I hoped he would take me to parts of NewLife that were in the shadows, below the radar, so to speak.<p><br /><br />“How much fun did you want?” He said. <p><br /><br />I smiled at him. “As much as I can take.”<br /><br />He smiled. “You don’t beat about the bush, do you?”<p><br /><br />I shook my head. “No, I prefer to cut right to the chase.”<p><br /><br />“Where we’re going it isn’t PG rated. Are you sure you’re up for it?”<br /><br /><blockquote>“Do I have to sign a disclaimer that I’m over twenty one?”<p><br /><br />“I just wanted to make sure,” he said, “that you know what you’re getting yourself into.”<p><p><br /><br />“How would I know,” I said, “if I hadn’t done it yet?”<br /><br />“Good point,” he said.<p><br /><br />“Don’t worry,” I said, “I can take care of myself.”</p></p></p></p></blockquote><br />“For some strange reason I believe you,” he said. “Ready?”<p><br /><br />I smiled. “Ready.”<p><p><br /><br /><strong>NEXT WEEK: Luscious P continues her report from NewLife</strong><br /><p><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-world-of-second-cyberlives-by.html">Part One</a><br /><p><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/luscious-p-undercover-part-deaux.html">Part Deaux</a></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-45051760389117609342007-10-05T18:45:00.000-07:002007-11-24T16:00:14.665-08:00Luscious P UNDERCOVERPart Deaux<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s1600-h/legs52708.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKob898rkexgHpBtfkyxp6FQbJVmwDidOXuLCuzsPVcKpLpKinnCgwF02IWZQQudSMdgUlXhDhyoK3li50y_YRIRlBic3ZuizHxkiwMynVkXFXhQ5zXfBchjMckXVZzj5uILbQ86ZhR_o/s400/legs52708.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113517906321718914" /></a><br /><blockquote><strong>NEWLIFE PART DEAUX<p><br />Luscious P continues her tour through the NewLife Site, where millions build virtual people, have virtual lives and conduct virtual affairs.</p></strong></blockquote><br />I swirled the mixture of melted ice and the dregs of whiskey in my highball glass. A new couple dressed in 1940’s getups did the foxtrot out on the dance floor, a tiny little chick glued to a tall man. <p><p><br /><br />“So tell me, Amelie,” Godfrey said, “what made you decide to come here to NewLife?” His manner was very relaxed with his digitized legs crossed while he sipped on a Cosmopolitan. Ronnie sat across from us, lighting up another long tipped cigarette.<br /><br /><blockquote>I shrugged my shoulders, which wasn’t as easy as it used to be with the heavier breasts. “I heard about it and thought, what the heck, why not go check it out. It sounded like fun.”</blockquote><br /><br />“Oh it’s fun all right,” Ronnie said. “It’s so much fun to some it’s addictive.”<br /><br /><blockquote>“It’s so much fun it should be against the law,” Godfrey said. “At least in forty nine states, Google, and Yahoo.”<p><br /><br />“Why did you decide to join NewLife, Godfrey?” I said.<br /><p><br />He looked at me. “Do you want the “spin” or the unvarnished truth?”<p><br /><br />“Surprise me,” I said.<p><br /><br />“Godfrey’s the kind of person who needs mental stimulation,” Ronnie said. </p></p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Godfrey laughed. “And what about you, Ronnie? Why do you continue to haunt NewLife?”<p><p><br /><br /><strong>Haunt was an apt description. She had a hint of vampire about her. She took a drag off her cigarette and then let the smoke drift back out of her lips. “I suppose I’m at a place like NewLife because essentially the real world is so… excruciatingly boring. You can change your avatar whenever you feel like it whereas in real life you actually have to work at it.”</strong><p><br /><br />“What do you mean, work at it?” I said. <p><br /><br /><blockquote>“Think about it,” she said to me, “you can come here and voila, with a few strokes on a keyboard and a some plastic cash you can be whatever you want, look however you want. Erase those wrinkles, extra pounds, bald palates, big noses, or flat chests. You can pretend you’re single, another gender, or a Senator. You can go from a plumber in real life to a prince from a foreign country like Godfrey.”</blockquote><br /><br />Godfrey laughed.<p><br /><br />I looked at him. “So you’re Roto Rooter by day and Italian prince by night?” <br /><br /><blockquote>“Well, yes, I am,” he said, “but I try not to bring into the conversation unless it’s relevant.”<br /><br />“Do you keep your crown in your pocket?” I said.</blockquote><br /><br />Ronnie smiled at me. “Godfrey’s rather unassuming for a man who speaks seven foreign languages and has several degrees from rather impressive institutions of higher learning.”<p><br /><br /><strong>“And carries his own pipe wrench, plumber’s snake, and royal edicts?” I said.</strong><p><br /><br />“Appearances can be deceiving Amelie,” Ronnie said. “I mean, how do we know you’re really a woman? Maybe you’re some big fat hairy guy who always wanted to pretend to be a sexy woman?”<p><br /><br />I shook my head in wonder. She was right! I could be anyone or anything but then again, so could Godfrey and Ronnie. Just thinking about it made my head spin and a sudden craving for a fresh whiskey on the rocks. <p><br /><br /><blockquote>“How about another sugar?” I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was the waitress. What was she, psychic?<br /><br /><br />“Sure,” I said. “One more for the road.”</blockquote><br /><br />“Hello Doll!” A tall man with a pencil thin mustache and zoot suit showed up at our table. He reached out his hand towards me. “Name’s Rube and I’m into boobs, big beautiful boobs that is.” We shook hands while I made a mental note to find the restroom as soon as possible. “What size are those puppies?” he said with a leer. “You like poles?”<p><p><br /><br /><strong>“Poles?”</strong><p><br /><br />Ronnie snickered and Godfrey laughed. <br /><br />“Pssst, Amelie,” Godfrey said, “as in pole dancing.”<p><br /><br />“Oh, I see.” I said to Godfrey. I looked up at Rube. “No thanks, I’m not into poles.”<p><br /><br />“Well, baby,” he said as he pulled a card from his front suit jacket pocket, “If you change your mind here’s where you can reach me.”<p><br /><br />I took the card from his long fingers, a diamond flashed from the pinky ring on his left hand. The card read “Rubes Beautiful Boobs A Go Go.” I laid it on the table. I couldn’t wait to find the restroom and wash my hands. <p><br /><br /><blockquote>“Beat it, Rube,” Ronnie said. <br /><br />“Aw shucks, Ronnie, you just want Amelie all to your selves.” He looked at me, “Listen good looking, if I was you I’d watch out for these two. Appearances can be decevin.”</blockquote><br /><br />He was right about that. “Thanks Rube, I’ll remember that.”<br /><br /><blockquote>He smiled at us. “Then I’ll scoot.”<br /><br />“You do that, Rube,” Ronnie said. “Scoot!”<br /><br />He bowed slightly to her, “Yes, Ma am!” Then he strode away into the clouds of blue smoke.</blockquote><br /><br />“A lot of nerve that Rube has,” Ronnie said. “Thinks he can smooze whomever and wherever.” She took another drag off her cigarette as a rather non-descript woman walked over from the bar and sat down at the table next to us.<br /><br />“Another Blander,” Godfrey said. <p><br /><br />“Blander?” I said. He was right. She was rather bland. Her clothes were straight off the Liberal Librarian rack, Birkenstocks, grey jumper over a matching turtleneck.<br /><br /><blockquote>“Blanders are either too cheap, too broke, or want to blend in,” Ronnie said. <p><br /><br />“Oh yes?” I said. I knew that in order to upgrade your avatar you had to “purchase” such “perks” as my 34DDD boob job. <p><br /><br />“They might just be here to observe, Ronnie,” Godfrey said. <p><br /><br />“Being purposely bland on purpose,” I said as I wiped some of the sweat off my glass with my finger. </p></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />“That’s right,” Godfrey said. <p><br /><br />“Or too cheap or not enough money to shop at CyberGalleria for a makeover,” Ronnie said.<p><br /><br />“She’s probably writing some sort of thesis on cyber lives,” Godfrey said.<p><br /><br /><strong>I smiled in my drink. “Or doing the Ugly Duckling, you know, love me for my intelligence, not for my looks?” I said. I laughed. “Why don’t we just ask her instead of sitting here speculating all night?”</strong><p><br /><blockquote>“You might be on to something, Amelie,” Godfrey said. He looked over at the Blander woman, “Miss, would you care to join us?”<br /><br />She looked back at us. “Mind your own business A-Hole.”<br /><br />“Well!” Ronnie said as we all started to laugh.</blockquote><br /><strong><p><p><br />NEXT WEEK: Luscious P continues her report from NewLife</p></p></strong></p><br /><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-world-of-second-cyberlives-by.html">Part One</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Citations:</strong><a href="http://tailrank.com/posts/source/2533274790462792/deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com">Tail Rank.com</a>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-40153492150604843192007-09-28T06:14:00.000-07:002007-09-28T06:36:58.299-07:00--continuedThe Medthodist and the Caterpillar<span style="font-weight:bold;">by Little Baby Ginn</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">--continued from Interfaithfast.org</span><br />Why:<br /><br />This war must end!<br />We must end the shattering of Iraqi and American lives by offering American generosity and support ? but not control ? for international and nongovernmental efforts to assist Iraqis in making peace and rebuilding their country, while swiftly and safely bringing home all American troops.<br /><br />Just as Isaiah called the People Israel to hear the Yom Kippur fast as God’s call to feed the hungry, just as Jesus fasted in the wilderness, just as Christians through Lenten fasting and Muslims through Ramadan fasting have focused on spiritual transformation, just as Mohandas Gandhi, Cesar Chavez and others drew on fasting to change the course of history, so we call on all our communities of faith to draw now on fasting as a path toward inner spiritual transformation and outward social transformation.<br /><br />American culture, society, and policy are addicted to violence at home and overseas. In our time, the hope of a decent future is endangered by an unnecessary, morally abhorrent, and disastrous war.<br /><br />Ending this war can become the first step toward a policy that embodies a deeper, broader sense of generosity and community at home and in the world. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">“CALL TO FAST"</span><br /><br />Religious leaders from several traditions invite you to join with millions of other Americans participating in interfaith events in your local community on October 7 and 8th, for the breaking of bread, fasting, and breaking our fast together as we covenant together to live out the deepest calling in each of our traditions - the desire for justice and for peace for all people.” <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">I noted on the Interfaithfast site the presence of Dr. Sayyid M. Sneed of the Islamic Society Of North America and his open letter to Islamic leaders regarding the upcoming “Interfaith Fast.” </span><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">A Call to the Islamic Leaders </span><br /><br />Dear Islamic Leader:<br /><br />Assalamu Alaykum,<br /><br />Once again the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting is coming with all the blessings and favors from Allah Almighty. Particularly, around Oct 8, we will be looking for the Night of Power that opens the doors of Allah’s mercy, forgiveness and spiritual enhancement, praying during that one night is equal to praying for a thousand months. <br />From <a href="http://interfaithfast.org/a-call-to-the-islamic-leaders/">Call to Islamic leaders</a></blockquote> <span style="font-weight:bold;">It didn't take much digging to discover Daniel Pipes has more info on Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed: <br /></span><br /><blockquote>Secretary General - Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed - On ISNA's support [providing booth space at its annual conventions and fundraising activities] of the faux Islamic charity the Holy Land Foundation, now under Federal indictment - "We have helped in the past to establish these charities and relief organizations...They are not legally part of us."<br /><br />Previous to his association with ISNA, Syeed was the Director of Academic Outreach for the International Institute of Islamic Thought [IIIT], an Islamist think tank in Herndon Virginia. The IIIT has been raided as part of Federal terrorism investigations, at least once in regards to the prosecution of Sami Al-Arian [Al-Arian is currently on trial in Florida for establishing a funding network for the terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad] whom ISNA and Syeed have defended.<br /><br />During the time Syeed was at IIIT they made contributions to Sami Al-Arian's Quranic Literacy Institute. Of those contributions Syeed now says - "It was a surprise for me, a shock for me." <br /><a href="http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=isnabush.htm ">PipelineNews</a></blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">Back to the United Methodist Board: </span><blockquote><span style="font-weight:bold;">Word From Winkler <br />Out Now!<br />by Jim Winkler</span><br /><br />The 3000th U.S. soldier has died in Iraq. What a terrible tragedy! Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis1 have also died in this needless war. No one responsible for initiating the illegal invasion of Iraq has been held accountable in a court of law for this turn of events.<br /><br />Saddam Hussein has been hanged. Most of the civilized world laments his execution because, like The United Methodist Church, they have long ago concluded the death penalty is morally wrong. (Read more on the Church's view .) I believe a significant reason why the United States wanted Saddam dead is because, as Iraq spins ever further out of control, it feared somehow Iraqis would begin to demand the tyrant be returned to power. No matter how badly George Bush has bungled the invasion and conquest of Iraq, having Saddam back in charge would have been the mother of all disasters for the United States.<br /><a href="http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=fsJNK0PKJrH&b=969371&content_id={1969DA7D-E81E-4D86-BDE2-EB89A71716BE}¬oc=1">Winkler</a> </blockquote> <span style="font-weight:bold;">After perusing the United Methodist site I wondered who is Jim Winkler as he had written most of the articles. Turns out Jim is the General Secretary of the Board and also a Methodist pastor. Jim’s been fairly busy. </span> May 23, 2006)--The United Methodist Church's chief social-issues spokesman, the Rev. Jim Winkler, says Congress should impeach President Bush "to advance the kingdom of God."<blockquote>Winkler proposed that during the annual "Ecumenical Advocacy Days," attended by delegates from his church and other denominations, most of them members of the National Council of Churches.<br /><br />In his view, "there was nothing Christian" in President Bush's response to the 9/11 attacks.<br /><br />The Methodist church's official Social Principles declare, "War is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ," and reject war "as an instrument of national foreign policy." <br /><a href="http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/2856006.html">More on Winkler</a></blockquote> <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Methodists are appalled that the Caterpillar Company is selling bulldozers to Israel. So shocked they are washing their hands of them. But the Methodists see nothing wrong with the declared terrorist at HAMAS, it's fund-raising arm at the indicted Holy Land Foundation and apologist buddy, Sayyid M. Syeed.<br /><br />A strange case indeed.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com">Back to FRONT PAGE</a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">From the Front Page:</span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">If a Liberal tells you that the “Christians” support Bush you might want to point out the position of the United Methodists. The third largest religious body in America their membership is 7.9 million. They are anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War and have a relationship with the Islamic Society Of North America.</span> <blockquote>According to this release the United Methodist Lobby will be voting next April on whether to divest their 5 million dollars of Caterpillar, Inc. stock because Caterpillar sells bulldozers to Israel and that this action facilitates “Israel’s destruction of Palestinian property.” <a href="http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/553094304.html">More here</a>.</blockquote>Over at the United Methodist’s General Board And Society Site was a notice for an “Interfaith Fast To End The War In Iraq, October 8, 2007.” <br /><br />Who is this Interfaithfast.org? Below is an excerpt from their site. Curiously it is rather poorly written and also seems to be anti-Iraq war. From their website:<blockquote>We call on all Americans to join in fasting from dawn to dusk on Monday, October 8, to call for an end to the Iraq War. On this day, people of faith in local communities across our nation will act as catalysts to transform the meaning of the day from one of conquest to community and from violence to reverence. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Why: This war must end!</span><br /><a href= "http://interfaithfast.org/about/">Interfast info</a> </blockquote>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-5724955732771600582007-09-23T15:09:00.000-07:002007-09-23T15:34:22.926-07:00Dan Rather $70M Suit:THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTCOMPLAINT:Supreme Court Of The State Of New York<strong>by Little Baby Ginn & Mondoreb</strong><br />[The following is link to a copy of the original complaint filed by Dan Rather in his $70 million lawsuit against CBS Corporation, Viacom, Inc., Leslie Moonves, Sumner Redstone, Andrew Heyward]<br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20906191/site/newsweek/">Copy of Original Court Complaint</a><br /><br />NOTE: It's in Adobe Reader format. Document can be downloaded from site]Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-6811424745327249602007-09-23T14:47:00.001-07:002007-09-23T14:49:49.363-07:00Luscious P UNDERCOVERThe Adventure Begins<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitXOjMF5VB8rn7Y0U1kXECoKnaBn1V8kItUbpPaiegzTF3N8FZux8nLEEEA-W1ylQuCJtz3T-hW6GJ8h5qM0G_2ogL_qiBRxven0SPv-w1O5QfoqGrvs8yBpEJsATRSYe8Td_047NTgO0/s1600-h/legs52708-2.jpg"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106470149628730162" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitXOjMF5VB8rn7Y0U1kXECoKnaBn1V8kItUbpPaiegzTF3N8FZux8nLEEEA-W1ylQuCJtz3T-hW6GJ8h5qM0G_2ogL_qiBRxven0SPv-w1O5QfoqGrvs8yBpEJsATRSYe8Td_047NTgO0/s320/legs52708-2.jpg"/></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>THE SECRET WORLD OF SECOND CYBERLIVES</strong><br /><em>by Luscious P</em><br /><p><br /><br /><br />Hi everyone, I’m back from my latest cyberadventure.<p><br /><br />I’m sure some of you have noticed that I, Luscious P, have been AWOL for awhile. My assignment has been to scope out one of those “second” life cybersites. So I packed my little overnight cyberbag, put on my little red skirt and white silk shirt, slipped on the red stilettos, did my hair in a French twist, you know, to look “classy.” A dash of Glossy Red lipstick and I was ready to go.<p><br /><br />For once the Cybertrain was on time. I was quite surprised at all the people at the station who had the same ticket as I. People of all ages, most I’d have to describe as nondescript, a couple though, were attractive.<p><br /><br /><strong>As we headed down the cyberrail I checked out some of the other passengers. A man smiled shyly at me. Partially balding, kinda pudgy with a sweet cherubic face, everything item of clothing he wore… a shade of brown. I caught a woman staring at me. Tall and thin with pinched features, she wore the latest Anne Klein and I know for a fact that she paid at least six hundred smackeroos for the oversized gaudy purse she carried.</strong><p><br /><br />We pulled into the station and then I traipsed up the stairs of the Cybersubway to CyberCity then down Cyber Way to where I could see the large sprawling building with the blue neon sign, “NextLife,” that glowed in the computer-generated darkness.<p><br /><br />All us “newbies” sat in a darkened auditorium for the NextLife orientation. We were instructed on how to choose an “avatar.” The avatar was to be our new “NextLife” identity. We could pick and choose who and what we wanted to be. We could change anything we wanted. Be taller, thinner, different color hair or just hair for those bald guys that never checked out Bowsley’s Hair Club For Gullible Men. Heck, I thought, I could order up some 34DDDD boobies if I wanted. But I have to tell you having a pair of giant knockers has never been on my wish list… Hey, wait a sec, I thought, why not? I always wanted to know what life was like for a chick with massive mammaries and here was my chance!<br /><p><br />We were given a map of NewLife City and a Search Menu then instructed on how to right-click on someone’s avatar and view their “profile.” Then we were given discount coupons to several of the Nextlife restaurants and clubs plus a free facial and makeover at one of the NextLife “glamour” studios.<p><br /><br />It was too much fun picking my avatar. I kept my same weight, a hundred and twenty two pounds, height, five foot seven. Same facial features, green eyes, perfect lips, high cheekbones, long hair but I changed my color to raven black. I chose a virtual outfit that matched mine even though I kinda contemplated the little black leather skirt and bustier a little longer than I should have, then I was ready for my “NextLife.” Or so I thought.<p><br /><br />I gathered up the Map and Search Menu and headed out. Right off the bat a very good-looking--but too pretty--man approached me. He greeted me then asked if I would like for someone, (him), to show me around. I thought, hmmm, should I hook up with someone right away?<p><br /><br />“No thanks,” I said. “I think I’d like to mosey around by myself for a while.”<br /><br />“Be that way,” he said then he slinked off.<p><br /><br />People milled around. Funny, none of them were fat nor what you would call, unattractive, or as my friend, Tony, would say, 'dogs'. Most were good looking, but what some wore ran a fantastical gamut of epicurean imaginations gone wild. The streetlights glowed a golden yellow, while various kinds of music blended together from the clubs that lined both sides of the street. It sorta had a Bourbon Street feel to it, but with a Sci-Fi Harlequinnish twist.<p><br /><br />I spotted a little bar tucked in between two clubs. The sign in neon red, “The Big Sleep.” A band played jazz from somewhere in the rear. I made my way through thick blue clouds of smokey darkness and the people, or “avatars” that sat at tables or the booths that lined one wall till I found a little table near the bandstand. The musicians played a slow sexy tune for a couple that swayed around a tiny dance floor set in black and white tile.<p><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0IPmwvMQX7ggdKPgKfMPPy0zYFWoaAeI8a8sevamIjknpjEnMmqFZUvBw7ioN0DMmEu2Bympwg5SgTXj5Xx6FVr5D4JdftO8H_EOXdSYFrXMArEMCNrvt0Pmt_tQvLcWYN_vNx_q5go/s1600-h/secondlife2-484518669_f891361641-2.jpg"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106471103111469906" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq0IPmwvMQX7ggdKPgKfMPPy0zYFWoaAeI8a8sevamIjknpjEnMmqFZUvBw7ioN0DMmEu2Bympwg5SgTXj5Xx6FVr5D4JdftO8H_EOXdSYFrXMArEMCNrvt0Pmt_tQvLcWYN_vNx_q5go/s320/secondlife2-484518669_f891361641-2.jpg"/></a><br /><br /><br /><br />“Can I get you something, honey?” It was the waitress. Her bright orange lacquered beehive was at least eighteen inches high, vivid blue eyes peered through thick cat’s eyes glasses.<p><br /><br />“Whiskey on the rocks?” It felt good to sit down and chill to some excellent music while I planned my next move.<p><br /><br />“Sure, honey, coming right up.” She smiled at me with over painted ruby red lips then sashayed back to the long wooden bar where a muscled bound Greek god mixed drinks.<p><br /><br />I leaned back and crossed my legs and watched the band play.<br /><p><br />“Cigarette?” A woman stood at my table. She was dressed very nicely, a designer suit, her skin glowed and her shiny dark auburn hair was cut in a pageboy.<p><br /><br />“Sure,” I said. “I’m surprised to see smoking is still legal.”<p><br /><br />“May I join you?” She had a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes.<p><br /><br />“Sure, have a seat.”<p><br /><br />“Thanks,” she said as she sat down then slid two slender cigarettes between her raspberry lips. She held a silver plated lighter under the tips then when they glowed bright orange she handed one to me. “I read in the NextLife Daily Herald that the Nextlife City Council is considering an ordinance that would ban smoking in public places.”<p><br /><br />I took a drag off the cigarette then shook my head. “Damn, not in cyberworld too.”<p><br /><br />“Cyberworld is not immune from busybodies and do-gooders.”<br /><br />“But still, this is cyberworld, I thought we had more latitude to “express” ourselves here.<p><br /><br /><br />I leaned back and crossed my legs and took another drag off the cigarette. “Have you been at NewLife for very long?”<p><br /><br />“This is my second year here. You’re new right?”<br /><br />“Ahunh, I just walked into my new life today.”<p><br /><br /><em>Smoke drifted from her lips. “So what do you do for a living?”</em><p><br />Oh no! I had forgotten I’d need some sort of “profession.” I needed to pick something that any dummy could do. And fast!<p><br /><br />“I’m a psychologist,” I said. “And you?”<br /><br />She gave me another one of those curiously flat smiles. “How interesting, I’m a psychoanalyst.”<p><br /><br />“That is interesting,” I said. Good grief, I thought, now I have to act all brainac around this woman.<br /><p><br />“What area of psychology are you in?” she said as the waitress sat my drink down on the table in front of me.<br /><p><br />“Sex Therapy,” I said. “How much is the drink?” I asked the waitress.<p><br /><br />“I started a tab for you, Sugarlips.” She looked at my new companion. “Anything for you, Ronnie?”<p><br /><br />“The usual,” Ronnie said.<br /><br />“Right, the usual.” She winked at Ronnie then left.<p><br /><br />“So you’re Ronnie?” I said.<br /><br />“Yes,” she said, “and you’re?”<p><br /><br /><em><strong>Not your type, I thought. “I’m Amelie. Nice to meet you Ronnie.”<p></p></strong></em><br /><br />“Nice to meet you, Amelie.” She took a long drag off her cigarette and gave me another one of her smiles. Feral, I thought. She’s feral.<p><br /><br />“Hi Ronnie, hi new NewLifer.” One of the musicians from the band stood at our table.<br /><br />“Godfrey, come join us,” Ronnie said.<br /><br />“Don’t mind if I do,” he said as he pulled out a chair.<br /><p><br />He was a bit over six foot tall and had the features of an Italian. The dark hair, beautiful golden brown eyes, very nice lips, a ready smile. The much bigger boobs I had chosen made it a little harder for me to breathe. I wished I could just lean forward and let them rest on the table to give my back a break from carrying such a heavy load.<p><br /><br />“So you two know each other?” I said to Ronnie and Godfrey.<br /><br />“We do,” Godfrey said. He stuck out his hand, “and you are?”<br /><p><br />“Amelie,” I said as I shook his hand. His grip was nice and warm.<br /><p><br />He smiled at me. “Nice to meet you, Amelie. I think we’ll all get along quite famously.” He smiled at Ronnie. “Don’t you agree, Ronnie?”<p><br /><br />Ronnie smiled her little feral smile. “Why yes, Godfrey, I believe we will.”<p><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVogiHTpvrnBnlpdxFadDiGxHokQtkRwVJd14Ku6-_YxTt35JkqLdEyv6_GRkbc5uoNXXsS7OzIb7Nw9Hm2ggJDswb8pwOjKE-53MPNnSsPp5rVZUiqwdawSmCftzjPpMRaMqD9xdtre4/s1600-h/avatar373873497.jpg"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106471481068591970" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVogiHTpvrnBnlpdxFadDiGxHokQtkRwVJd14Ku6-_YxTt35JkqLdEyv6_GRkbc5uoNXXsS7OzIb7Nw9Hm2ggJDswb8pwOjKE-53MPNnSsPp5rVZUiqwdawSmCftzjPpMRaMqD9xdtre4/s320/avatar373873497.jpg"/></a><br /><br /><br /><strong>Next: Luscious P continues her explorations through the world of Second Life.</strong><br />Luscious P UNDERCOVER <a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/2007/09/luscious-p-undercover-part-deaux.html">Part Deaux</a>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-28581474513449141542007-09-19T19:26:00.000-07:002007-09-19T20:13:05.455-07:00DAN RATHER SUES CBS NEWS--continuted from Front Page.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJ7BTSUEe6x592WMuIKxuPJGJQOZi-hKF4tKFnv-pSClWrYzDqLMGXDrleIUUg-SNbyIn-4mwCd5wQA48y3h1zoUkIcxCdtzZ_tIMtDO7johtUe6s1e4UWHxNXTg3eyhbiyxg4Zpc3WE/s1600-h/DRatherhead224793159_0c0d1e36a2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112098882155520354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJ7BTSUEe6x592WMuIKxuPJGJQOZi-hKF4tKFnv-pSClWrYzDqLMGXDrleIUUg-SNbyIn-4mwCd5wQA48y3h1zoUkIcxCdtzZ_tIMtDO7johtUe6s1e4UWHxNXTg3eyhbiyxg4Zpc3WE/s400/DRatherhead224793159_0c0d1e36a2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn</strong><br /><br /><blockquote>"<em>This race between Dick Swett and Bob Smith is hot and tight as a too-small bathing suit on a too-long car ride back from the beach."<br />--Dan Rather, Election Night 1996</em> </blockquote><br />Dan Rather was <em>CBS Evening News </em>anchor for a long time. So long, in fact, that he accumulated a lot of baggage: a lot of bizarre quotes, actions, sayings, and finally, a story which was patently false. It was this last item which finally got him fired from CBS.<br /><blockquote>Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit Wednesday against CBS, alleging the network made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service.<br /><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/19/tv.ratherlawsuit.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest">CNN story</a>.</blockquote><br />Rather insists he is the "scapegoat" even though he publicly apologized for the story, which presented documents right before the 2004 election, which later proved to be false. "Scapegoat Dan" was a victim, even though others expressed doubts about the documents' authenticity.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhveal8bYcEY2GnDFVg-Tt4RrQa_cyVS3qbyQxjdYXo0NzyVsfn3385OMg4mU159ndh2UNnV7p01lwzP29ng1eXfaPVpQ_79-xSOXfsyVkRbl0YnS1i4JI2Wr2RNVzGKhkuKi51pxPP6zI/s1600-h/DanRatherfinger.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112098980939768178" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhveal8bYcEY2GnDFVg-Tt4RrQa_cyVS3qbyQxjdYXo0NzyVsfn3385OMg4mU159ndh2UNnV7p01lwzP29ng1eXfaPVpQ_79-xSOXfsyVkRbl0YnS1i4JI2Wr2RNVzGKhkuKi51pxPP6zI/s400/DanRatherfinger.bmp" border="0" /></a><br />Rather is a victim--even though he insisted, long after the documents proved to be false, "that he believes this story to be true". Rather is a victim, even though he has no evidence to support his beliefs. Rather is a victim--even though he continued to stonewall, long after the documents were proven to be flimsy forgeries.<br /><br /><strong>Dan Rather <em>is</em> a victim. He's a victim of his arrogance, hubris, and condescending attitude towards those with whom he disagreed. He's a victim of a world which shifted underneath his feet while he remained unaware. He's a victim of exploding information, of which he is no longer a gatekeeper.</strong><br /><blockquote>"<em>Folks, let me point out something to you, because for a lot of people in Washington, they could not be more surprised if Fidel Castro came loping through on the back of a hippopotamus."<br />--Dan Rather on Election Night, 1998.</em> </blockquote><a href="http://deathby1001papercuts.blogspot.com/">Read the rest of story<br> <strong>PLUS!</strong> Dan Rather's Strange Quotes!</a><br /><blockquote>Larry King asked Dan Rather if he was concerned about the Internet:<br />"No. I think it's a great new addition. I don't think it's going to replace radio, television or newspapers, but it will increase the flow of information.... I'm so excited about it I have a 3,000-calorie attack about every half hour thinking about its potential."<br />--Dan Rather on Larry King Live, April 19, 2000.</blockquote><br /><strong>Dan Rather was brought down by bloggers. Especially <em>Little Green Footballs' </em>Charles Johnson. Johnson had the idea of matching up the forged documents Rather greenlighted with one produced by a Microsoft program years after the original document had supposedly been made.</strong> <br /><a href="http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12526&only">The Original Little Green Footballs' blogging that brought Dan Rather down.</a> <br /><blockquote>"...but that's not going to happen. You can sooner expect a tall talking broccoli stick to offer to mow your lawn for free."<br />--Dan Rather, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1996. </blockquote><strong>So now Dan Rather is going to sue CBS News for $70 million. Because he was made a "scapegoat". Because he was a victim.</strong><br /><blockquote>"'I know a lot of people think I've got the CBS eye tattoed on my ass,' Dan Rather says, conceding his public image as a tough, hard-charging telejournalist."<br />--Dan Rather, quoted in Edwin Diamond's 1991 book, The Media Show.</blockquote><br /><strong>Poor Dan Rather. Life just isn't the same now that he's not at CBS. His life is a mess. $70 million will help ease his pain.</strong><br /><blockquote>"The reelection of Bill Clinton is as secure as a double-knot tied in wet rawhide."--Dan Rather on Election Night, 1996. </blockquote><br />Poor Dan Rather. He talked to Presidents, chatted with politicians, yakked it up with captains of industry. They don't have him on speed-dial anymore. He's sad.<br /><blockquote>Dan Rather spoke to college students at Boston University who were considering reporting careers:<br />"Be careful. Journalism is more addictive than crack cocaine. Your life can get out of balance."<br />--Quoted in the Boston Herald, October 22, 2000. </blockquote><br /><strong>Poor Dan Rather. He doesn't get to pontificate. At least not when anyone is listening. No one listens to Dan anymore. I hate to break it to him: a lot of us didn't listen to him then.</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLq2R0-qCfz9ZVhnX4YJCggeKeCeBb5f8PhIr_5SPBrfYE2H7cnz4S4vFzgLHeQQQP-ha0MspxG9kNGKmXC3GV20Ie-mP9CTJYlVB1VunH9EnlRuI4wDkD-tYv2JQkfqdZxFH5qoKQSL8/s1600-h/DRatherthisbig.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5112099144148525442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLq2R0-qCfz9ZVhnX4YJCggeKeCeBb5f8PhIr_5SPBrfYE2H7cnz4S4vFzgLHeQQQP-ha0MspxG9kNGKmXC3GV20Ie-mP9CTJYlVB1VunH9EnlRuI4wDkD-tYv2JQkfqdZxFH5qoKQSL8/s400/DRatherthisbig.bmp" border="0" /></a><em>[above: Dan Rather, telling the story of how long his nose grew, as he was telling the world on CBS News about George W. Bush and the Texas Air National Guard.]</em><br /><br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com/">Back to <em>Death by 1000 Papercuts</em> Front Page</a>.Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-32947628935158641232007-09-19T05:57:00.001-07:002007-09-19T06:54:00.921-07:00Hillary Care 2.0--continuted from Front Page<blockquote>Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) unveiled her long-awaited healthcare plan Monday, triggering immediate criticisms from her Democratic and Republican rivals and subsequent counterattacks from the former first lady. </blockquote><br />So it's just not the usual defenders of the free market Capitalist Tools who are criticizing her plans.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=ac58fb30-9e1e-44e8-a1c7-75f3cef68095&k=55585">Canada Now</a> sounded a little put off that Hillary's last attemtp at "Candadian-sytle health care" failed. <strong>The question remains then: where would Canadians go to get US health care, if the US were like Canada?</strong><br /><blockquote>WASHINGTON — The last time Hillary Clinton came up with a plan to provide universal health care in the United States, it died amid an onslaught of opposition from critics who accused her of trying to ram Canadian-style socialized medicine down the throats of free-enterprising Americans.<br /><br />More than 13 years since the demise of “Hillarycare,” the Democratic presidential candidate has waded back into the politically charged debate over health care reform with a new proposal to cover 47 million Americans without health insurance.</blockquote><br />Hillary still longs for the caress of government health care in the morning. For the tender touch that only comes from telling someone else what to do, where to go. She'll try to make her innermost dreams come true with this HillaryCare plan.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnpk98F7L8WG1w5yh4UOEgIUmGx9hpjULUIfNVogxKpCJczGlIxDOOTgvGVkHUZXmdikU9TsODIfAXmAGCoz4dXBnWfZ7Yv-bn_JuR9vr4lgoE4ixLnwnczrgib0CTHCTipyV4eTTOl_x/s1600-h/Weird+Tales+Cover+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnpk98F7L8WG1w5yh4UOEgIUmGx9hpjULUIfNVogxKpCJczGlIxDOOTgvGVkHUZXmdikU9TsODIfAXmAGCoz4dXBnWfZ7Yv-bn_JuR9vr4lgoE4ixLnwnczrgib0CTHCTipyV4eTTOl_x/s400/Weird+Tales+Cover+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111913111935066386" /></a><br />[Graphic at top of story by RAPH]<br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com/">Back to Front Page</a>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-52697294812570846952007-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:002007-09-16T09:11:29.430-07:00Saudi Fund War on US--continued<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo3_IaLiWBHCRjebt0trEgo0zWCO4XmCV56y3-RisOV0p3Qb1qTJCMcWLpMk_mb8Bburqw3XryY3zaojixP4OZqBCoydQZF55BdA_JD4i3cQ5nZA1PzDrzyZHULIlqJeNxP4N8zyUTnwAK/s1600-h/ISLAMWATCHING.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo3_IaLiWBHCRjebt0trEgo0zWCO4XmCV56y3-RisOV0p3Qb1qTJCMcWLpMk_mb8Bburqw3XryY3zaojixP4OZqBCoydQZF55BdA_JD4i3cQ5nZA1PzDrzyZHULIlqJeNxP4N8zyUTnwAK/s400/ISLAMWATCHING.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5110833660388374034" /></a><br /><strong>by Mondoreb</strong><br /><br />Freedom House Muslim volunteers collected printed materials and pamphlets at the mosques. The following is a sampling:<br /><blockquote><strong>Reject Christianity as a valid faith</strong>: Any Muslim who believes "that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel."<br /><br /><strong>Insist that Islamic law be applied</strong>: On a range of issues, from women (who must be veiled) to apostates from Islam ("should be killed"), the Saudi publications insist on full enforcement of Shariah in America.<br /><br /><strong>See non-Muslims as the enemy</strong>: "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law."<br /><br /><strong>See America as hostile territory</strong>: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways."<br /><br /><strong>Prepare for war against America</strong>: "To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government."<br /><a href="http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2384">Freedom House Report on US Mosques</a></blockquote><br /><br /><strong>When people oppose the education of any US children in this hate, they are branded neo-Nazis, bigots or worse. Keep that in mind as the MSM continues to break nothing newsworthy on the Saudi funding of hate in the US. It's just more in their on-going silence in the War on Terror.</strong>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-29698614284866848662007-09-12T12:48:00.000-07:002007-09-12T12:53:39.607-07:00THE GO-TO GUY:Rock Star Behavior = Rock Star Results<strong>by Trigger Girlie</strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfpf3UJ2MfXuGkgohoXM3KbfiuLC4Oo_ZJMYuUFLGM3HadJSRWQh9u_9jaqwCnY3o5lxMdbMj87JQHLB0o7Nloov1e4Y7vjdIoMcE1ENwntJrjG0O3CSYA3bfIWZDHwPHXG9dDCGMIEVaV/s1600-h/cowgirl2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfpf3UJ2MfXuGkgohoXM3KbfiuLC4Oo_ZJMYuUFLGM3HadJSRWQh9u_9jaqwCnY3o5lxMdbMj87JQHLB0o7Nloov1e4Y7vjdIoMcE1ENwntJrjG0O3CSYA3bfIWZDHwPHXG9dDCGMIEVaV/s400/cowgirl2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109407735541068802" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Today I was checking my email when something caught my eye. That something was a Yahoo News article titled "Study: Rock Stars Actually Do Die Young." My initial reaction was: "Really!" (OK, it was a little different, but you catch the drift). <br />So: indulging in obsessive behaviors such as excessive drug and alcohol use, unbalanced diet, and having more sexual partners than an African Silverbacked gorilla will actually speed up one's demise?<br /><br />Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!<br /><br /><strong>Apparently it took a whole team of scientists to determine that all those above mentioned things--especially if used all together--WILL mess you up in the long run and cause you to kick the bucket before your time.</strong><br /><br />The study also shows that "British and US rock stars are two to three times more likely to die young, primarily of drug and alcohol abuse…" Three times more likely than WHOM? Rock stars from Pakistan or Zimbabwe? The whole statement is akin to saying <blockquote>"People who lay down on railroad tracks are more likely to be hit by a train."</blockquote><br /><br />Do we need studies to prove that when you combine obsessive behaviors (aspirations of becoming a rock star, getting laid) with the usual rock star perks(read: drugs, girls, and money, which those people are chasing to begin with), you get a drug addicted, irresponsible moron on their way to rehab and eventually to his/her grave?<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs3MBisgEoJO2PZ9mnYEEuY6YodWSbWKLnjbqlJlVxAybFS3RFodv7Cd72s22FJJQYhoc7idfXNC6TG51t5rvVHARUyrN4Y08CRabheW__Z0yCwdtKLVtN1Qy2d7xc-a-n9grrgu7G1jre/s1600-h/rockstar4266267991.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs3MBisgEoJO2PZ9mnYEEuY6YodWSbWKLnjbqlJlVxAybFS3RFodv7Cd72s22FJJQYhoc7idfXNC6TG51t5rvVHARUyrN4Y08CRabheW__Z0yCwdtKLVtN1Qy2d7xc-a-n9grrgu7G1jre/s400/rockstar4266267991.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109407430598390770" /></a><br /><strong>Now if these studies involved taking a couple of specimens like Britney, Courtney, or Cindi, locking them in a cell for 15 years while injecting them with all sorts of chemicals, then watching the train wrecks unravel before they came to a halt, it would be fine in my book. But those "scientists" get paid big bucks to tell us that the earth is round, the grass is green, and Howard Dean has mental problems.</strong> <br /><br />There is a list of Rock Stars that died before their time, among them: Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, and Jimi Hendrix. It took a scientist to determine that Presley's food binges took him to an early grave via a massive heart attack? Or Cobain's marriage to the beast(no, not Courtney Love)that was heroin made him pull that trigger? Or that Jimi's cocktail of sleeping pills and wine caused him to choke to death on his own vomit?<br /><strong>Actually, it did take one scientist. His name is Mark Bellis, who specializes in the effects of alcohol, drugs, and violence on public health. In other words: if you want to know whats going to happen if you pop PCP, drink a bottle of grain alcohol, then take an axe along while grocery shopping, Mark is your go-to man.</strong>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-41890223873326954162007-09-12T11:18:00.000-07:002007-09-12T11:21:55.707-07:00Papercut Poll Results:Have You Ever Slept with a Liberal?<em>August 28, 2007</em><br /><br />Maybe. If I were high enough. (33%) <p><br />No. But I might . (20%) <p><br />Hell yeah., Bring 'em on. (16%) <p><br />Never in a million years. (16%) <p><br />I'm into figurative, not literal sex, man. (16%)<p><br />Yes. And I'd do it again (12%) <p> <br />Yes, but I fell on the grenade for my buddy. (8%)<p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-79544442805050941072007-09-12T10:37:00.000-07:002007-09-12T10:39:55.974-07:00It's Because of Them<strong>--continued</strong><br /><br /><blockquote>““We think a bomb hit here. I’m having a hard time breathing. I probably won’t make it out of here. I just want you to know I love you.” </blockquote><br /><strong>Peter Mardikian, victim of the North Tower on 9/11 spoken to his wife Corine on a cell phone</strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Cpd_VFAPYhNvTSLqOYlxo8-5lJjLGj3GRdDDnluRTzoxUIHiTkXqoPJ6oy4_GJlA33mV3mO8rrou7Do4I-vAN9xuZrdA5zdzOoatfwzRp6QPQyzbP9g9XZThmsWqwxkS7jtpg3UVuDk/s1600-h/victims2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Cpd_VFAPYhNvTSLqOYlxo8-5lJjLGj3GRdDDnluRTzoxUIHiTkXqoPJ6oy4_GJlA33mV3mO8rrou7Do4I-vAN9xuZrdA5zdzOoatfwzRp6QPQyzbP9g9XZThmsWqwxkS7jtpg3UVuDk/s400/victims2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109372542579045346" /></a><br /><blockquote>“ On the Sunday before 9/11, Kevin put the boys on the phone with me, and that is the last time I spoke to them. Kevin was my only child. I lost him, and now I’ve lost my grandchildren.”</blockquote><br /><strong>Mother of Kevin Bingley who was killed in the South Tower on 9/11</strong> <br /><br />Yes, it’s because of them. And thousands and thousands more <strong>JUST</strong> like them. The hurt, the wounds, the grief never seem to end. And neither does the fury in many of us. We are in Iraq to defeat the Evil that has hurt so many, many innocent people. We are in Iraq to finally say <strong>“enough is enough.” </strong>We are in Iraq to rid the World of these animals. And most importantly, we are in Iraq….because of <strong>them.</strong>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-66495160234690743982007-09-10T07:20:00.000-07:002007-09-10T08:22:43.703-07:00RADICAL IMAMS HOME-GROWN WEEDS --continuation of front page<blockquote>Intended for a Muslim-only audience, they reveal a deep-rooted hatred of Western society, admiration for the Taleban and a passionate zeal for martyrdom “in the way of Allah”.</blockquote><br />And some instructions for the kiddies or those possibly thinking of their "Britishness".<br /><blockquote>One sermon warns believers to protect their faith by distancing themselves from the “evil influence” of their non-Muslim British neighbours.<br /><br />“We are in a very dangerous position here. We live amongst the kuffar, we work with them, we associate with them, we mix with them and we begin to pick up their habits.”<br /><br />In another talk, delivered a few weeks before 9/11, he praises Muslims who have gained martyrdom in battle and laments that today “no one dare utter the J word”. “The J word has become taboo . .. The J word is jihad in the way of Allah.”</blockquote><br /><strong>England is under attack. The people in the streets seem to know this; it's one reason upwards of 1 million British have fled the country in the last three years. The government is oblivious, paralyzed by a fear that they'll lose control of power if large blocs of British Muslims turn out to vote against them.</strong><br /><br /><strong>It's time for the government to step in and take steps to secure Britain for the British. Their enemies are on the move while they fiddle. The British people and and nation need a leader; the times demand it.</strong><br /><br />Does Britain not have a Nelson for the 2000s? <p>Does a new St. George exist in the Isles? <p>Cannot even ONE Churchill be found in England?<br /><br /><strong>Who will step up for Britain?</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/topNews?type=topNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B9KobpniDQffCOR77fHrDXw&src=blogBurst_topNews&bbPostId=Cz5PcMtK6lDslBC7i3RLpJCBdCz3feMtb2eYTPBzbKLrOGZoa7&bbParentWidgetId=B7qp5dlHYnIr2YRoUoOjnxK">READ MORE</a><br /><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2402973.ece">READ the TIME(UK) investigation</a></p>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-4526436727956530552007-09-10T05:14:00.000-07:002007-09-10T05:15:06.415-07:00BLOG OF THE WEEK<strong>NOTE:</strong> Every week <em>Death by 1000 Papercuts</em> will be reviewing a site that we feel is the sort us "Rightwing Madmen" would enjoy taking a look at.<br />This week we look at BabbaZee's. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh16IbOoW8Gc_ibQrF1P8CoX_tbZjUf58-AkHaWUPbnEHhE_mIFy4v3Ddn5WUSPdPtjmP3CGjMtVkpzeXOAfEs4zBHAd6mZeOU7c0-Bny79EFIZ85lZPHmh4AhCECNHR-ERg2aJoSg344I/s1600-h/gse_multipart24315.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108537497776922290" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh16IbOoW8Gc_ibQrF1P8CoX_tbZjUf58-AkHaWUPbnEHhE_mIFy4v3Ddn5WUSPdPtjmP3CGjMtVkpzeXOAfEs4zBHAd6mZeOU7c0-Bny79EFIZ85lZPHmh4AhCECNHR-ERg2aJoSg344I/s400/gse_multipart24315.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong>BLOG</strong>: <em>The Outraged Spleen of Zion</em><br /><strong>REVIEWER</strong>: Little Baby Ginn<br /><strong>READ IT YOURSELF</strong><a href="http://babbazeesbrain.blogspot.com/"> HERE</a><br /><br />In cyberworld everyone has their favorite blogs, you know the ones that light that particular fire and dazzle those neurons. <strong>Babbazeesbrain</strong> is the crËme de la crËme for yours truly, <strong>Little Baby Ginn</strong>. <br /><br />I spied<strong> Babbazee </strong>over at Little Green Footballs, Little Baby Ginn’s favorite blog of all blogs. This little chickee blew my mind from the get-go. A woman of considerable talent, Babbazee is someone I would join forces with in a heartbeat. This woman is a full force Radical Conservative, an intellect and wit that dazzles Little Baby Ginn from beginning to end.<br /><br /><br />From Babba’s Blog: <br /><br /><blockquote>Shalom and Salute, Infidels, Crusaders and Paisnowitzes! Welcome to the Zionist Hobby Center. Peer into the impervious Zionist Hair Rays of BabbaZee. Behold, she casts out Brigades of Gramscian Whores and the ravening Beasts of Islam, delivering them into the Mighty Right Hand of the God of Israel, to be utterly destroyed. Granmsci Crackers and Goat Milk will be served in the lounge after the smitings. Try some of our nice Zionist Occu-Pie.<br />L’Chaim!</blockquote><br /><br /><br />To those who haven’t been over to <strong>Little Green Footballs </strong>this may sound like gibberish but it is in fact, genius wrapped up in a beautifully neat little package.<br /><br />Babba and I are members of the <strong>Panty Smoters Guild</strong>. It’s been a long time since God chose to smite someone so we decided it was time to take up smiting again, this time using panties as our weapon of choice.<br /><br /><strong>The Zionists Hair Rays</strong>… a very cool inside joke. <br /><br /><blockquote>We are infidels, just ask the Islamists and we’re Crusaders too. Again, just ask the Islamists who haven’t gotten over the Crusades. Don’t be surprised if the word, Crusaders, disappears from the books, while Intellectuals attempt to shame us into deep sixing it because Muslims are “offended.”<br /><br />The Gramscian Whores are the Multiculturalists who seek to destroy us from within. The Politically Correct, the “Thought Police.” The scourge of “Intellectualism.” </blockquote><br /><br />Gramscian originated with Antonio Gramsci, an Italian writer, politician, political theorist and Marxist philosopher. Born in 1891 he was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy. He is renowned for his concept of cultural hegemony where a diverse culture can be ruled or dominated by one group or “class.” That everyday practices and shared beliefs provide the foundation for complex systems of domination. In simpler terms, Communism. In new terms, Multi-culturalism.<br /><br />From the Ayn Rand Institute:<br /><br /><blockquote>Multiculturalism is a growing force in America’s universities and public life. In brief, multiculturalism is the view that all cultures, from that of a spirits-worshiping tribe to that of an advanced industrial civilization, are equal in value.<br />Since cultures are obviously not equal in value—not if man’s life is your standard of value—this egalitarian doctrine can have only one purpose: to raze the mountaintops. Multiculturalism seeks to obliterate the value of a free, industrialized civilization (which today exists in the West and elsewhere), by declaring that such a civilization is no better than primitive tribalism. More deeply, it seeks to incapacitate a mind’s ability to distinguish good from evil, to distinguish that which is life promoting from that which is life negating.</blockquote><br /><br />http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=media_topic_multiculturalism&JServSessionIdr007=dirx0604i2.app1a<br /><br />It’s Marxist dogma prettied up by a new fancy-schamchy label, Multiculturalism, perpetuated by the Gramscian Whores.*<br /><br />*Gramsican Whores<br />Babbazee’s dead on observation of Multiculturalists and their ilk.<br /><br />“Gramsci Crackers and Goat milk” No need to explain, this is what dazzles me about Babbazee, well, one of many, many things that Babbazee brings to my world.<br /><br />Babbazee has turned out her own blog and it’s, well, it’s beyond cool. It’s Babbazee. A cornucopia of delight, insight, wisdom and unrelenting courage. <br /><br />Everyone now and then you run across someone, if you’re lucky enough to, like Babbazee. Someone whose life force is ten times that of mortal men, someone such as Babbazee.<br /><br /><strong>All Hail Babba.</strong>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-28611732842159013812007-09-07T02:25:00.000-07:002008-03-05T14:01:55.352-08:00Health Care: LittleBabyGinn Interviews JOHN EDWARDS?<strong>YOU SAY "MANDATORY", I SAY "NANNY STATE"</strong><br /><br /><strong>by Little Baby Ginn</strong><br /><br />I’m sitting here thinking about John Edwards and I’m thinking what the heck is he? I know for a fact that he’s loves to run for office, he’s turned his bid for the Democratic Presidential hopeful into his “occupation” and why not? He gets to go out and schmooze people while they fork over their money so he can keep going out and schmooze more people. A “perpetual schmoozing” machine with perhaps an Oval Office prize at the end. The press follows him around, the gullible fawn over him, and if for some reason Hillary and Obama were to fall out of the race, then, hey, who’s the Dems gonna call? <strong>Johnny On The Spot Edwards.</strong><br /><br /><strong>Avast ye, Johnny! Yarrr! I'll run ye through!</strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95iCpgHQCwP73MSp2D47bHsXyqokm1QG309yPdmiFVzKxDCn1pVuCsqWSZ5sOOgNhqlA6riPbRjlIVywQRtI8rdE9Rsho5Pl3nfDG9t7rt2K4AwdNHDS2qE29QfqHrMA8Tvlds4V-E2Q/s1600-h/Story%2520Book%252009050%2520Sexy%2520Pirate.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95iCpgHQCwP73MSp2D47bHsXyqokm1QG309yPdmiFVzKxDCn1pVuCsqWSZ5sOOgNhqlA6riPbRjlIVywQRtI8rdE9Rsho5Pl3nfDG9t7rt2K4AwdNHDS2qE29QfqHrMA8Tvlds4V-E2Q/s400/Story%2520Book%252009050%2520Sexy%2520Pirate.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106524682828487714" /></a><br /><br />So I wonder, here he is, out campaigning, and saying stuff. Is anyone paying attention? Did anyone happen to catch Johnny’s latest Deep Thoughts on “Mandatory Health Care.” Here’s what Johnny had to say:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>"It <strong>requires</strong> that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "<strong>If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."</strong><br /><br />He noted, for example, <strong>that women would be required to have regular mammograms </strong>in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.<br /><br />Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.<br /><br />"<strong>The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death</strong>," he said. </blockquote><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi142O_jOQxriaw0zaYeoyYw1lkw0PDd9Zij3BcoWmjcsHDVFBhXaScvtOaSGG5_N6N2tZMSBs7MZHMxboLSSZeTQcc1fnRHsrtNuJpAb-UrTSG-aZ9mYbOpQ5BBsMgFUFH3bZ8UrDM1ik/s1600-h/Edwards2-2131651279.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106515912505269266" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi142O_jOQxriaw0zaYeoyYw1lkw0PDd9Zij3BcoWmjcsHDVFBhXaScvtOaSGG5_N6N2tZMSBs7MZHMxboLSSZeTQcc1fnRHsrtNuJpAb-UrTSG-aZ9mYbOpQ5BBsMgFUFH3bZ8UrDM1ik/s400/Edwards2-2131651279.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EDWARDS?SITE=AZMES&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">More here</a>.<br /><br />I decided to sit down and have an imaginary question and answer session with Johnny Edwards.<br /><br /><br />Me: So John, I read your statement about your plans for a national health care system and all I can say is, cool beans, John!<br /><br /><br />John: Why thank you very much, Little Baby Ginn and I can tell by looking at you that you’re in perfect health.<br /><br /><br />Me: Why thank you, John Edwards, and yes, I am. Let me read what you said the other day. You said about your proposed national health care plan, “It requires that everybody be covered.” This is slightly different than say, everyone is covered, right?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Well, that’s not true, Little Baby Ginn, see, under my plan, everyone is covered, so if you get sick, you have medical care, the finest medical care.”<br /><br /><br />Me: “Well, that’s terrific but you also said this:<br /><br /><br />“If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."<br />That kind of sounds to me, you know, if you don’t choose a doctor then you’re out of luck?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: I wouldn’t put it that way, Little Baby Ginn, I said, you need to pick a doctor…”<br /><br /><br />Me: Yes, you said from “birth to death.”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: That’s right, from birth to death, the whole idea is continuum of care so that you will be able to prevent a future illness. Everyone has to be healthy.<br /><br /><br />Me: What if you decide you don’t like the idea of being forced to see a doctor? That you’d prefer to see a doctor, say, when you got sick?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Well, (laughs), that’s a bad decision, you need to have a doctor and see one regularly in order to prevent illness.<br /><br /><br />Me: Well, this, on its face, is true. But some would like to have a choice on whether or not they’d want to have to go see a doctor. To some, this smacks of Big Brother and the way I see it, you say that if someone doesn’t choose to see a doctor then they forfeit their right to health care.<br /><br /><br />Johnny: This is true, either you’re in the program or you don’t get the benefits.<br /><br /><br />Me: So if someone pays taxes which funds this program and they decide not to follow your rules then they will be locked out, right? Even though they paid for it?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: I wouldn’t look at it that way, Little Baby Ginn, that’s too cynical.<br /><br /><br />Me: But true, right? No follow your rules, no health care?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: No, not true, again you’re being misleading.<br /><br /><br />Me: Let’s make this easier. Your plan, if someone doesn’t sign up to see a doctor and prefers to see a doctor only when they get sick, then they are not allowed to be in the plan. Yes or No.<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Yes.<br /><br /><br />Me: What happens to them?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: What do you mean”<br /><br /><br />Me: What happens to the people who decide they don’t want to be “required” to be in this plan? How will they get medical care?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: (squirms in chair) Oh they’ll sign up, they’ll want to.<br /><br /><br />Me: What if they don’t want to?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: They will.<br /><br /><br />Me: Hmmm. Let’s just say, hypothetically, they don’t. What will happen to them when they need medical care?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Everyone will want to sign up so your hypothetical doesn’t apply.<br /><br /><br />Me: Would they go to prison, be charged with a crime, would you have the Medical Authority Police rifling through people’s medical records?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Little Baby Ginn, you’re a funny girl, damn cute, but funny.<br /><br /><br />Me: What about mental health care? Will this plan cover it?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Of course! Mental health is essential.<br /><br /><br />Me: Will everyone be required to see a shrink once a year or not be covered?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Something like that.<br /><br /><br />Me: Care to clarify?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: Haven’t got those details hammered out yet, Little Baby Ginn.<br /><br /><br />Me: So a shrink from “birth to death?”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: (laughs) Oh no, nothing like that.<br /><br /><br />Me: Mandatory Weight Loss Clinics? Will you close down all the Fast Food joints? Mandatory Exercise Programs?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: (laughs) Well, excess weight leads to all kinds of chronic illnesses and exercise and weight loss are crucial.<br /><br /><br />Me: So we might see “mandatory exercise” included in your plan?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: If it means good health, yes, I can see adding something like that.<br /><br /><br />Me: (laughs) Ahunh. Well, thank you Imaginary John Edwards for taking the time to discuss your “Health Plan.”<br /><br /><br />Johnny: The pleasure was all mine, Little Baby Ginn.<br /><br /><br />Me: Oh, just one more question if you don’t mind. What happens if the doctor I see is negligent? I mean you’re an expert on this, you made quite a bit of moolah as a malpractice attorney suing the pants off bad doctors and their insurance companies so you know for a fact that not all doctors, are good doctors. My question is this, if every single American, something like over three hundred million people, have to sign up with a doctor, doesn’t this also vastly multiply the potentiality of malpractice lawsuits for attorneys such as yourself?<br /><br /><br />Johnny: (looks at watch) I’m sorry, Little Baby Ginn, I see our time is up but maybe we can get together some other time.<br /><br /><br />Me: Of course, I’d love too.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">by LBG</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.deathby1000papercuts.com">DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!</a>.<br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com">Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page</a>.Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-83649332375606372432007-09-06T05:26:00.000-07:002007-09-06T05:37:59.566-07:00Islamofascism vs. Christian Fundamentalism: Which is the Greater Threat?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY349ophcVDbwsq0JlD-ioDlIEhKS8P2Nh3clu6X38giK5ctcy1lZcAapc9V1uxn_hJfgMYLKaQJUMnuEWfGSaB4mw5Om3WLrgnJ8QtDgkh-0m6aooDdic3p4aknhYgbHZv__kT_lyiHPv/s1600-h/YourBrain.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107068064910908642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY349ophcVDbwsq0JlD-ioDlIEhKS8P2Nh3clu6X38giK5ctcy1lZcAapc9V1uxn_hJfgMYLKaQJUMnuEWfGSaB4mw5Om3WLrgnJ8QtDgkh-0m6aooDdic3p4aknhYgbHZv__kT_lyiHPv/s400/YourBrain.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>by Salamantis</strong><br /><br />I view the contemporary Islamofascist memeset as currently more globally dangerous to freedom and tolerance than the Fundamentalist Christian one, for a number of reasons.<br /><br />1) Recent History<br /><br />The lion's share of mass-killing terror attacks in the past quarter-century have been perpetrated by these people, and not Fundamentalist Christians (although they, too, are on my "Danger, Will Robinson!" list). 9/11, London, Beslan, Bali, Madrid, the USS Cole, the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies, the Khobar Towers...the list could go on and on.<br /><br />2) Fundamentalist Literalism<br /><br />Christians believe that the Bible was written by human beings, under Holy inspiration, while the official position of Islam is that the Qu'ran (literally, the Recitation) was dictated to Muhammed, from Allah (God) by the Archangel Gabriel, and is word-for-word accurate and correct for all time. Thus, while there is a reasonable split between Fundamentalist Christians, who take the Bible literally, and the rest of Christians, who see parable, poetry, metaphor, simile, era-linked human prejudices, contradictions and inaccuracies in the Bible, no such split is officially possible within Islam. All observant Muslims are expected to submit to the literalist stance; in fact, Islam translates as Submission.<br /><br />3) More Violent Character<br /><br />While there are a half-dozen or so peace-and-tolerance passages contained within the Qu'ran, there are also more than a hundred vicious and violent passages to be found there. People say, well, the Old Testament is indeed itself to a significant degree a 'testament' to divinely sanctioned brutality, and this is true. However, most of that brutality was superseded by the pronouncements in the more peaceful and tolerant New Testament, while the Qu'ran is divided into the Meccan and the Medinan sections. The Meccan section, which came first, when Muhammed was militarily weak and was forced to placate his enemies, contains all of the peace-and-tolerance passages, while the Medinan section, which contains many (although not all) of the brutal and violent passages, was written later, and supercedes the more moderate Meccan section. It is as if, in the Bible, the Old Testament came later and superceded the New; if this were so, the majority of Christianity would most likely be much more brutal and intolerant than small sections of it (see the former Yugoslavia) are now.<br /><br />In fact, there is no such thing as enduring peace with infidel nations in the Muslim lexicon; instead, they employ truces (hudnas). These are, according to the Qu'ran, supposed to be offered when the Faithful are militarily weak vis-à-vis their adversaries, to give them time to increase their military numbers and augment their armaments. When the weak faithful become militarily strong compared to their adversaries, the hudna is to be unilaterally broken by the faithful, and jihad is to resume. Once one understands the conceptual character of the hudna, it becomes obvious that it is never in a nation's interest to accept one.<br /><br />4) The Examples of the Respective Primary Protagonists<br /><br />Jesus only once became violent in the Bible, when he whipped the moneychangers. Mainly, he preached faith, love of one's neighbors, and nonviolence. When one of his disciples raised a sword against and cut the ear off of one of the people sent to arrest him, he supposedly put it back on. Muhammed, on the other hand, was historically a warrior and guerilla fighter. His life was circumscribed by military conquest. The hadiths, which are records of occurrences in and commentaries on the life of Muhammed and records of his words (when they were not supposed to be dictated by the Archangel Gabriel), are nearly as important as the Qu'ran itself to them.<br /><br />5) The Confrontation with Modernity<br /><br />Christianity began to behaviorally moderate and domesticate itself around 500 years ago, due to the effects that the Reformation and the Enlightenment had upon it. Islam has yet to go through this confrontation; it is only now just beginning for them. However, in the present era, with the advent of global anonymous communications and travel, and with easy access available to both the materials needed to construct WMD's and the knowledge needed to properly employ these materials, this is a particularly dangerous time for fanatics to lash out from the growing pains. Giordano Bruno conceived of relativity 350 years before Einstein and was burned as a heretic for it, and rockets (fireworks) were already known to Europe by then, due to Marco Polo's sojourn in China; think of what it would have been like if the medieval world had had the option of ballistic thermonuclear conflagration (not to mention genetically engineered plagues and mass-produce-able deadly chemical compounds). There is the added factor that one of the Muslim death-penalty heresies (or shirks) translates as 'innovation' (Islamists are quite willing to appropriate death-dealing technology while rejecting the science behind it - a Pakistani 'scientist' actually wrote a paper that advocated solving his country's energy problems by harnessing djinn (genie) power!); thus it can be dangerous for Muslims to publicly embrace novel concepts - and this will only make it more difficult for Muslim adaptation of include accommodation to other perspectives rather than to simply be comprised solely of the Borgian assimilation, subjugation or elimination of all of their vectors.<br /><br />6) The Evolution of Universality and Intolerance in Totalizing Memeplexes<br /><br />Mind viruses are unlike the viruses that plague our bodies. If a physically infectious disease kills its host too quickly, that host cannot serve as an infection vector (which is why AIDS is so much more of a global threat than the Ebola virus - the long, symptom-free yet contagious incubation period). This is also why deadly diseases demonstrate the historical propensity to become slower killers as time goes on. However, a different survival strategy presents itself for totalizing mind-viruses, which MUST be cognitively rather than physically communicated, and thus, if they are elaborate and/or involve significant behavioral changes, difficult to contract under the radar of one's attention: to kill and/or enslave all those who RECOGNIZE the attempted dissemination (proselytizing) and REFUSE to be infected (part of these memesets is invariably the inculcation of the desire and/or duty to infect others - this is how they propagate). This eliminates competition for cognitive residence from alternative memeplexes (the dead cannot communicate their competing vectors). Unlike physical diseases, where people may be infected with multiple differing phages simultaneously (like measles AND the flu), a totalizing memeplex must have SOLE possession of its niche, or it cannot be said to possess it at all. And in fact, to reject conversion to Islam is considered by Islamofascists to be an insult and attack upon it, punishable by death.<br /><br />Now, remembering that the historical function of tribal religion has been to enhance group cooperation and cohesion, thus giving religious tribes an advantage in warfare against tribes with less mutual commitment and more individualism (and most likely the pre-historical function, too - thus setting up a group selection which would tend to reproductively favor those who were increasingly susceptible to infection by religious memeplexes), let's take a quick look at the evolution of universality and intolerance in Patriarchal Monotheism.<br /><br />The memeplex of Judaism originally involved a divine gift of a particular parcel of land to a particular chosen people - Israel for the Jews (although, lately, converts to Judaism, although not sought, are accepted from every racial and ethnic classification). Thus the parameters for the growth of the Jewish memeplex were set by the nature of the memeplex itself - only within ethnic Jews, who were only promised dominion over historical Israel (most Zionists still think this way).<br /><br />However, with the evolution of Christianity from Judaism, the ethnic imperative and the geographical rootedness were pruned off, and all one had to do was to accept the memeplex. This allowed Christianity to spread to all sorts of ethnicities, and for them to take control of previously non-Christian lands, as their demographics grew to majority within them. It also had the advantage of spreading the genetic sacrifice idea beyond a tribe, so that multiple tribes sharing the same memeplex could band together and both protect each other and cooperate in the confrontation of common enemies (a feature that the Roman Empire put to conscous use when they adopted Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire). However, Christianity was written so it could be disseminated via persuasion - the Great Charter, which comprises the Christian memeplex's infection module, reads: "Go ye therefore and TEACH all nations". Of course, the construction of this module implies the conviction that the vector is offering a gift of knowledge to the ignorant, and for this reason many have been historically forced to adopt Christianity 'for their own good', even when they were too (willfully or otherwise) ignorant to recognize what their own good was, and sometimes at the cost of their mortal bodies, if in the process their immortal souls were saved.<br /><br />Still, the language of Christianity's proselytization module is persuasional rather than coercive, and this left room for the development of tolerance for other faiths, even while missionaries continue to be perpetually funded to 'spread the Good Word'.<br /><br />This is a weakness that the evolution into Islam has exploited. The Muslim memeplex explicitly substitutes coercion for persuasion. It is quite precise in what may and may not be done: all 'People of the Book' - that is, Jews and Christians (and I suppose Zoroastrians - they have a single holy book called the Zend Avestra of Zarathustra)- have the option to a) convert to Islam, b) be put to death, or c) live in Dhimmitude, a serfic, subservient state somewhere between slavery and second-class citizenship, characterized by less civil rights, the fact that any Muslim's word will always be legally favored over theirs in courts of Shari'a law, and the payment of perpetual monetary tribute known as the jizya. For all the rest - Buddhist, Taoists, Hindus, Pagans and Atheists - the options are only two: convert or die.<br /><br />Islam officially divides the globe into two camps; Dar-el-Islam (the World of Islam) and Dar-el-Harb (the World of War). This stance entails the conviction that the only means by which final global peace may be attained is the total elimination of the Dar el Harb, and the establishment of a Global Muslim Caliphate ruled by Shari'a law. Those who choose to embark upon Jihad (actually, it is described in the Qu'ran as a duty rather than as a choice just like Christian witnessing is in the Bible) and are killed (martyred) while engaging in it, are Qu'ranically assured of a Paradise in which they may perpetually and guiltlessly enjoy practically all of the pleasures that are religiously forbidden to living Muslims; those who live are Qu'ranically permitted to take possession of the spoils of war, be they the property or the women of the conquered and/or slain infidels. This stance is, of course, patently hegemonistic and militantly imperialistic, and becomes even more appealing to poor male Muslim youth, when they see their chances of having their own (appealing) wife as negligible (since the more wealthy Muslims are religiously free to marry as many as four of them each - as long as they can financially support them all). When one takes a look at the historical spread of Islam, primarily by coercion and conflict, from its inception in the Arabian Peninsula some 1300 years ago to its reach from Spain to the Philippines today, and one discovers that, of the forty-five military conflicts extant in the world today, Muslims are fighting on one or both sides of them all, it would appear that this particular module possesses great expansionistic efficacy.<br /><br />Supporting this memetic module are some others, such as the doctrine that all humans are naturally born as Muslims, and that those who profess other beliefs have fallen into apostasy (and thus must be rescued from their error or suffer the dire consequences), and the dictum that people are free to convert TO Islam - in fact, as we have seen, the 'inducements' are quite formidable - but that to convert FROM Islam to anything else (or, in the case of atheists and agnostics, to nothing) is a religious crime for which the punishment of death is prescribed. It is also better for one's assimilational purposes if one's infidel target is kept in the dark. Thus, Muslims are religiously free to both deceive infidels as to their intentions regarding them (taqiyya) and to misdirect their attention from those intentions (kitman), in the interests if the greater good - that is, in the interests of the expansion of the Ummah (the fellowship of the true believers).<br /><br />Now, I'm not saying that all Muslims, or even a majority of them, are inexorably drawn from live-and-let-live tolerance to Mujaheddin Jihadism in the service of the annihilation of the Dar el Harb and the establishment of the Global Caliphate (Daniel Pipes estimates the number at around 15%), but the vast majority those who are not so drawn are very quiet, because the message contained in the memeplex of Islam supports not them, but the militants, and they are quite reasonably frightened of suffering the Righteous Retribution of the Violent Faithful should they dare to attempt to speak out in dissent (Some exceptions are Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Taslima Naslim, and Ibn Warraq; these brave souls continue to suffer for their courage and integrity, and many of their outspoken brethren have been killed).<br /><br />Next, let us take a brief look at the particular strain that is presently so globally troubling.<br /><br />Imaam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab was born in and lived in eighteenth century Arabia (1703-1792), and promulgated the idea that Islam had fallen away from its seventh century roots, the Edenic era when Muhammed and the Four Great Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali) succeeded each other, and needed to return to them. This involved a Puritanical purging of all non-Muslim influences, the return of draconian enforcement of religious edicts against infidels, and the toughening of restrictions upon women. Wahhabism subsequently spread throughout most of the Arabian Peninsula and gained significant footholds beyond, but concentrated itself primarily upon the peninsula itself, as the defender of the purity of the faith in Muhammed's birth land, the Land of the Two Mosques. In the early 20th century, the House of Saud brokered a deal with the Wahhabists, and Saudi Arabia was born.<br /><br />Sayyid Qutb was a Wahhabist born in Egypt (1906-1966). He traveled to the US, and sojourned there between 1948 and 1950. This experience shocked and disgusted him. He was horrified by the presence of uppity and voting women, freedom of religion and thought, widespread substance use and rampant sexual licentiousness. He then put forth the idea that the US was the fount of Jahiliyya (a word roughly translatable as pre-Musim Paganism), and, as such, was a danger to Islam and must be forcibly subjected to Shari'a rule. He did not view the US as a military threat, since he believed that life in such a dissipative culture had weakened and softened its citizenry, but rather contended that its various freedoms and vices were slatternly temptations that could seduce the faithful away from the true path. Thus, for the good of both the faith and of all humankind, the US as it was must be destroyed, and Muslim piousness enforced there. He later generalized this view to include, first European, and later all non-Muslim societies.<br /><br />Notice that, without Qutb, Wahhabism would have remained directed inwards, and without Wahhabism, Qutb would not have had a pious and puritanical Islam with which to compare and contrast the US culture that he encountered. Together, their contributions combine to create the present Al Qaedan stance that the entire globe must be subjugated to a religious regimen that consciously holds itself in the seventh century. Interestingly enough, the head of Al Qaeda, Usama Bin Laden, came from Saudi Arabia (like Wahhab), while Al Qaeda's chief ideologue, Zawahiri, came from Egypt (like Qutb).<br /><br />Considering all of these points taken together, it is surpassingly obvious that, in the present era, Radical Islamism is a far greater threat to the continued existence of the secular, nonsectarian governance of open and constitutionally democratic societies than is Fundamentalist Christianity.<br /><br />How do we, as free, democratic and tolerant societies, deal with the aggressive encroachments of this virulent memeplex? I believe that we're already on the path to doing so, and this is why:<br /><br />The primordial form of government, one that long predated the advent of the written word, is monarchial, composed of royal masters, typically from a single family lineage that served as a simulacrum of the genetic heritage of the tribe, and ruled slaves, who owed the masters familial bonds of fealty. However, this form of government often entailed power struggles and intrigues by the royal relatives to either lay claim to or to seize the reins of succession during the authority change when the king, czar, pharoah or emperor would die, and this was not conducive to smooth and orderly transition and the smooth continuation of civil order.<br /><br />Spoken religious myths had most likely been invoked to legitimize royal rule for as long as humans spoke and gathered in tribes. However, with the creation of written language, it was possible to create a form of leadership that would not change or die like rulers did; blueprints - that is, sets of ideas - that could codify the regal rule as divinely sanctioned, serve as abstract monarchs with which to supplement the concrete yet generationally changing kings, provide a common glue which smoothed transitions and soothed the populace while transition happened, and, via the inclusion of explicit tribal history, the encoding of symbolic abstractions of important past tribal decisions within the religious myth, or the insertion of purportedly divinely communicated rules, provide both guidance as to how such transitions should be effectuated, and within what parameters a particular king should circumscribe his decisional alternatives. These blueprints are the holy texts of written religions.<br /><br />As time passed, certain written religions spread across several kingdoms each, and the kings themselves became in their turn ruled by their ecclesiastical authorities, who held sway over multiple kingdoms; as religion mattered more, royalty mattered less. In such a manner, genetic monarchies gradually evolved into, or were superseded and supplanted by, ideological monarchies, whose rulers were chosen from within the membership of the religion itself, the successor being decided, whenever a ruler died, via the consensus of the most influential members remaining.<br /><br />Where religious government was itself supposedly superseded, in most cases, its supersession was apparent rather than real. Thus with communism and fascism, the god of matter and labor, and the god of the spirit (geist) of the people and its will to power, replaced the transcendent god of heaven, mind and prayer. Still, however, the master and the slave remained; the divinely granted or prescriptively composed sets of ideas and rules were the acknowledged rulers, but the actual rulers were those who mandated to the general populaces what those rules meant. Hegel was the philosopher who first explicitly described this structure.<br /><br />The Hegelian master-slave dialectic was composed of Masters (who were willing to risk death in order to rule) and Slaves (who were not willing to risk death in order to not be ruled), and Hegel did not present any manner by which governmental form could evolve past this basic inequity. However, in the past couple of hundred years, a synthetic new level has emerged, that of Free and Independent Individuals, who refuse to rule others, but who are willing to kill and die in order not to be ruled by others - that is, they are willing to, in fact, even desirous of, letting others rule themselves, and will even take pains to free enslaved others, but in return they insist upon the right to rule themselves also, via representatives who are neither divinely chosen nor doctrinally imposed by exclusive vote from within an ideological apparatus, be they priests or commissars, but are instead popularly elected by the populace at large, in accordance with a constitution that, in addition to codifying those ethical precepts contained within both holy and secular precursors which are genuinely ethical, mandates the existence, frequency, and structure of such a process. In a way, the principle of ecclesiastical or commissar vote was generalized to encompass the entire citizenry (just as, in prior times, the Gutenberg printing press wrested the holy texts away from their elite cadres and made them available for perusal and judgment to all literate citizens), and a new memeplex has thus evolved; the constitutional democracy memeplex<br /><br />In fact, evolution is an explicit module of this memeplex; whereas holy texts were forever frozen in their revealed forms, constitutions could be amended or modified by elected representatives responding to popular consensus in the face of changing circumstances, like species evolve in response to natural selection acting via changing environments. This capacity for evolution from within relieves pressure for revolution, as popular changes can be made to the established order without the need to overthrow that order in its entirety. However, so that the rights of minority citizens are protected from any oppressive 'tyranny of the majority', basic guaranteed civil and political rights for all are also included as a submodule qualification of the popular evolution module. This submodule grants and guarantees all of the memeplex's citizens equal rights and freedoms to individually pursue their own personal and economic well being. The interpreters of this constitution (the written and codified template of this memeplex) are appointed by the popularly elected representatives of the citizens, and those who amend it via legislation are separated from those who execute its enforcement and from those who interpret its meaning, as a barrier against groups of representatives collaborating in order to create and implement mutually self-serving rather than citizenry-benefitting changes, or issuing and enforcing self-serving interpretations, and to prevent the executors from authoring self-serving provisions which they then may enforce to their own benefit, or from interpreting existing provisions in self-serving ways. Of course, the concrete personal and political reality of a citizenry as codified in their constitution can never completely catch up to their abstract ideal, as this ideal is itself a moving target, in constant evolution in response to evolving and expanding potential rights, responsibilities, opportunities and choices, but, as noted before, their constitution can be continuously modified to progressively approach it.<br /><br />Competition between the governments and peoples of countries that embrace this principle, that is, competition between constitutional democracies, is removed from the politico-military sphere (democracies generally do not war with one another - it's counterproductive) and relocated in the economic sphere, comprised of international trade and the competition between producers for consumers via the manufacture of better and/or less expensive products. This competition of course financially and materially benefits the consuming citizenry, at the same time that it furnishes them with gainful productive employment by means of which they may self-support (self-support and self-responsibility being a necessary corollary of freedom and self-rule). Thus, the constitutional democracy memeplex is likely to appeal to a significant percentage of those who presently suffer political and personal oppression and economic privation under theocratic and totalitarian systems, and are prevented by such systems from having an electoral voice in their government's conduct, making personally benefitting economic decisions, exercising personal choice, or changing (or even advocating the changing of) the nature or rules of the system in order to permit themselves to do these things. This appeal renders it likely that the constitutional democracy memeplex can, by offering people the opportunity to achieve concrete and actual this-world economic benefits, expanded ranges of personal choice, and genuine political empowerment, successfully compete for their cognitive memespace with the abstract and hypothetical next-world paradisiacal promises and infernal threats proferred to them by the Wahhab/Qutb memeplex. The hope for the future of secular and tolerant civilization could well lie in this constitutional-democratic memeplex synthesis proliferating through the populations of the globe, siphoning a large enough percentage of their potential members away from the enslaving embrace of the Wahhab/Qutb memeplex that they are unable, after membership attrition via natural and jihad-related causes, to increase or maintain their acolyte population, and finally ridding the world, via democratic revolution (assisted where possible and necessary), of the remaining totalitarian and theocratic enclaves which continue to employ the oppressive master-slave dialectic, and maintain their citizenries in its stifling thrall.<br /><br />PS: Do not think that this is a racist stance which I am taking; I am expressing dismay at the propagation of a violent, virulent memeset that may cognitively infect any racial or ethnic classification, and trying to figure out what can be said and/or done to persuade Muslims to refuse to embrace it. In fact, there are quite a few non-Muslim Arabs, and the majority of Muslims are themselves not Arabs - the most populous Muslim nations are Malaysia and Indonesia, and their populations are East Asian, not Arab). Likewise, I am not criticizing Islam alone or in its entirety; the problem we face and the task set before us is to gain enough understanding of the workings of the Islamofascist memeplex to be able to memetically counter the propensity, a propensity particularly inherent in the Islamic memeplex but also present in the memeplexes of the other Patriarchal Monotheisms, to facilitate the spawning of intolerant and murderous mutational variants, such as, in the case of Islam, the Wahhab/Qutb Al Qaedan strain.<br /><br />Also do not think that I have written this analysis from the standpoint of a hidden Christian or Jewish agenda. Putting aside the fact that attacking the racial or ethnic membership or the religious affiliation of the author of a position, rather than critiquing the merits of the position itself by assessing the evidence presented and checking the logical links in the chain of reasoning by means of which the items of evidence are connected, is a 2500 year old Greek logical fallacy known as ad hominem, I am neither Christian nor a Jew, either ethnically or as a religious stance; I am English, Irish, Dutch and Native American, and consider myself to be a secular humanist with pagan overtones (I tend towards sympathy with both the gender egalitarianism and the ecologically friendly stance embraced by many pagan faiths and their adherents, as well as their typically tolerant and positive attitude towards the freedom of all to make uncoerced and unfettered personal choices for themselves in matters both political and religious, and their opposition to such matters being dictated by some for others). I am not a fundamentalist of any stripe.<br /><br />I do, however, believe that the one thing that tolerant people cannot tolerate is the coercive intolerance of others. Once people begin to tolerate such a thing, it is a short and slippery step for them to begin to share those others' intolerances, as well as the coercive manner by means of which they endeavor to force such stances upon people who would not freely embrace them (Tolerance: Between Intolerance and the Intolerable by Paul Ricoeur).<br /><br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com/">Back to FRONT PAGE</a>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-71841245101221983812007-09-06T04:52:00.000-07:002008-03-05T15:10:55.879-08:00The Biggest Bust: The War on Drugs<strong>By MONDOREB</strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOo-nRa4xYv0TJkkch68asNaA99l9IF5F7J_sXyc1VDELPzQT5oH_pKzm_nz1wR-NkDc9CLyfozCb0HYApOHwJ9RsJT6HzALarCbDz-SOV08x-FePvZ48knKRxn5JzzsOhhk5CYcD0Z8/s1600-h/pills2931800825.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106723033008151650" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOo-nRa4xYv0TJkkch68asNaA99l9IF5F7J_sXyc1VDELPzQT5oH_pKzm_nz1wR-NkDc9CLyfozCb0HYApOHwJ9RsJT6HzALarCbDz-SOV08x-FePvZ48knKRxn5JzzsOhhk5CYcD0Z8/s400/pills2931800825.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/lost-war----war-drugs/story.aspx?guid=%7B598FC5EE-1320-492E-B6DD-B91F8BC822EC%7D"><br />America has had a <strong>"War on Drugs</strong>" since the Nixon administration,</a> based on prohibition and criminalizing drugs. That policy has drained hundreds of billions from our economy, driven drug traffic underground, and raised the price on a commodity that otherwise would cost pennies. Domestically and internationally our "War on Drugs" policies are not only a dismal failure, they produce the exact opposite result.<br /><br />Paul B. Farrell wrote the above words in a MarketWatch piece earlier this week.<br />No matter where you turn these days, one can find an honest assessment of the<strong> War on Drugs.</strong> It's the longest-running war in USA history, surpassed in length and futility only by the equally-inane <strong>War on Poverty</strong>.<br /><br />With no end in sight, billions spent, thousands imprisoned and make-work jobs in the Federal bureaucracy its only victory, the War on Drugs is another stark reminder of a governmental nightmare in action. "Regulating U.S. citizens' chemical preferences" is just another example things government doesn't do well.<br /><br /><strong>Economist Milton Friedman</strong> made a similar point in a letter to President George H.W. Bush’s first drug czar, William J. Bennett: “Of course the problem is demand, but it is not only demand, it is demand that must operate through repressed and illegal channels. Illegality creates obscene profits that finance the murderous tactics of the drug lords; illegality leads to the corruption of law enforcement officials; illegality monopolizes the efforts of honest law forces so that they are starved for resources to fight the simpler crimes of robbery, theft and assault.<br /><br />“Drugs are a tragedy for addicts. But criminalizing their use converts that tragedy into a disaster for society, for users and nonusers alike. Our experience with the prohibition of drugs is a replay of our experience with the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.”<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1D67LRVvhpkM07g2J7Crw7qw4eFAZWtFhtcfouwFgNSZ6b-qNASKpBGhDBggzlGztY5w-i03hz0J8c06HLneNNwFGQcFnJnb9erUjZmzYsjN0C47vINcL-kvr4zLC7kG-sPJ7nXYWvJI/s1600-h/pot.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5106723161857170546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1D67LRVvhpkM07g2J7Crw7qw4eFAZWtFhtcfouwFgNSZ6b-qNASKpBGhDBggzlGztY5w-i03hz0J8c06HLneNNwFGQcFnJnb9erUjZmzYsjN0C47vINcL-kvr4zLC7kG-sPJ7nXYWvJI/s400/pot.bmp" border="0" /></a><br />Friedman isn't the only government policy heavyweight to outline the monstrous failure; Google "War on Drugs" and almost 49 <em>million</em> stories turn up. Most of those stories highlight the cost of a war far exceeding the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars combined, many times over.<br /><br />The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.<br /><br />The control-Nazis championing the War on Drugs are the same people leading the cheers for no-smoking anywhere laws, 0% alcohol tolerance laws, and a fat-free food environment. Their motto: "We know better how to live your life than you do."<br /><br />The next time someone is ranting about America's failure to win the War on Drugs, ask them who the enemy is. If they have any answer than "other Americans", they are just repeating the propaganda of another failed Federal boondoggle.<br /><br />Sources:<p> <br />* <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/lost-war----war-drugs/story.aspx?guid=%7B598FC5EE-1320-492E-B6DD-B91F8BC822EC%7D">War on Drugs: 30 years of Failure</a><br />* <a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3881.shtml">War on Drugs Victims</a><br />* <a href="http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm">War on Drugs Clock</a><br />* <a href="http://failedwarondrugs.blogspot.com/">The Failed War on Drugs</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.deathby1000papercuts.com">DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!</a>.<br /><a href="http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com">Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page</a>.Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7140730145714937166.post-23616472031992454502007-09-05T05:16:00.000-07:002007-09-06T05:56:44.579-07:00Lenses: A Love Song for Salman Rushdie<strong>by Salamantis</strong><br /><br /><blockquote>We are wanderers all<br />In the shapeshifting dunes of our days<br />Seeking amidst the sandstorms<br />The sight of a sheltered course<br />So we sift our pasts to cast our futures<br />And grind lenses to focus our lives.<br />Most are less than original<br />But each has its own eccentricities<br />Fitted for one eye, one terrain;<br />No lens is universal, and no path.<br /><br />Most of us hide our quirks of vision<br />From others, and even from ourselves<br />Lest some fatal slip should betray us<br />And hew to some hard line or other<br />Packed by souls of similar stripe<br />Who confuse the safety of numbers<br />With the security of a way well chosen<br />And who, fearing the walkers of other ways<br />As challenges to their own decisions' wisdom<br />Strive to herd those they must consider misled<br />Back to their proper route, or failing that<br />Seek to end their journeys.<br /><br />But some crazed few of us<br />Too honest for our own damned good<br />Craft our lenses from every gritty grain<br />Of the wide beach of experience<br />Fusing them carefully in insight's crucible<br />Until they crystallize clean and true<br />And then we wave them radiantly<br />Before the wandering world.<br /><br />These folks are followed, or killed, or both.<br />Poets and messiahs are the glaziers<br />Of living visions, and well wrought lenses<br />May powerfully concentrate the common gaze<br />Promising pathfinding clarity.<br />But- remember this:<br />Art is metaphor, and metaphors are chameleons.<br />They are colored by our journeys<br />As surely as they shape them.<br />Empty and aimless are those who lack lenses<br />If such pathless ones exist<br />But stumbling blind are those who<br />Given the lenses of others<br />Wear them as if they were windowpanes<br />And polish them not with their lives</blockquote>Mondohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14823296680977269849noreply@blogger.com0