If You Lay With Pain
I must say, I almost find it amusing the way gay Republicans are concerned over Bush's stance on gay marriage. This AP article via ABCNews nearly makes the Log Cabin Republicans sound surprised about...
View ArticleTruly Disturbing
It pisses me off when a kid is persecuted because of his or her imagination. I've spent years in school turning in messed up, sometimes disturbing, fictional stories to teachers and, luckily, none of...
View ArticleDisaster (Possibly) Averted In Iraq. Najaf Next?
It would seem that we've managed to avert a disaster in Fallujah, at least for the time being. Yesterday, L. Paul Bremer--who leads the American occupation--said that the situations in Fallujah and...
View ArticleWe Will Not Die For Lies
As the situation in Iraq deteriorates, we are starting to hear some calls for a return to the draft. This is not the first time such calls have appeared, but they are getting a bit more notice now....
View ArticleA Common Cause - A Proposal For John Kerry
We need a common purpose in this country and John Kerry needs to recognize that and give us a program to work with. That is the simple truth. After enduring a couple weeks of absolutely horrid news,...
View ArticleA Common Cause - A Proposal For John Kerry
[I posted this diary in the very early hours of this morning already, so I realize I'm breaking the rules. I hope I am forgiven. I don't think many people saw the diary and I'm going to try it once...
View ArticleBush Thinks Everything Is Free
The Bush administration seems to have a serious problem with telling the public and even the members of Congress the true costs of its policies. This has become a definite pattern. Consider, first...
View ArticleThe Costs Of War - Pictures From Iraq
So often in war, we don't seem to see the real sights of the carnage. We here in America are shielded from the violence that takes place. The media is all to happy to show us grainy, green night...
View ArticleThe Continued Assault On Women
This does not surprise me. In fact, there is nothing new in this article. Goddamn it, though, this Washington Post article pisses me off: The nation's major organizations of doctors who treat women...
View ArticleThe FDA Can Go To Hell
Goddamn it: The government rejected over-the-counter sales of morning-after birth control on Thursday because of concern about young teenagers' use of the pills. But regulators left open the...
View ArticleWe Should Be Enraged
There are somevoices out there who seem to be advancing the notion that certain Americans are being disingenuous with their outrage over the Abu Ghraib torture scandal because they did not express an...
View ArticleThe Liars Are Lying About The Lies
(Promoted from the diaries. Make sure you click through to read the full post -- kos) So now that Bush's campaign is lying about the Washington Post reporters that put together the article on Bush's...
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Florida is Being Rigged Again
Remember back in 2000 when Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris teamed up to purge thousands of names from the Florida voter roll? Remember how it turned out many of those names were African-Americans, who...
View Article"Pause To Do Them Injury"
I'm not sure how it is that Reagan's death sent me into a depression on Monday morning, but it did. It's not that I mourn for Reagan. As I wrote in my previous post [on my blog], I really have little...
View ArticleThe Coming World Oil Crisis
One of the greatest wildcards in the future of United States politics is the world oil supply. Simply put, America has long since hit the peak of oil production and is now in decline. World oil...
View ArticleThe Totality of Bush's Jobs and Economic Performance
The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday that July saw a gain of a mere 32,000 nonfarm payroll jobs. This was far below the predictions of various experts, including the Bush administration....
View ArticleRep. Alexander Still On Ballot; Sign-Up Reopened
Louisiana Representative Rodney Alexander may have tried to screw over the Democratic party when he switched to the Republican party earlier this month at the ballot deadline, but a judge in Louisiana...
View ArticleHow To Vote In WA State Primary?
I received my Washington State Primary ballot today in the mail. Is there any Washington kossacks here who would like to help me out with my decisions? I'm in the 17th District. I already know that...
View ArticleBreaking The Backs America Is Built Upon
I'm sick and tired of being told that businesses simply can't afford to pay workers decent wages and still make a profit. I'm sick and tired of workers being sacrificed to increase "shareholder value"...
View ArticleKerry Takes Offensive--Clears Way For Us
We're in the final stretch now, folks. Accordingly, Kerry has gone on the offensive and is clearing the way for a final huge push. However, this isn't just about the actions of his own campaign--it's...
View Article"Kerry Wins In A Blowout"
I did some searching and didn't see a diary on this article at all, so hopefully I'm not reproducing something. Salon has an article up at the moment from Kevin Criss, who is a 21 year old African...
View ArticleViolating the Geneva Convetion in Iraq
How bad is Iraq? At this point, I don't see any other option than pulling out. I hate to say that, but I'm getting to the point that I simply cannot see any way that we will make things better in the...
View ArticleWashington State Dems Ask For DNC Feedback
I don't believe anyone has posted this in a diary yet, so I thought I would throw it out there. The Washington State Democratic Party is actually asking for feedback from us regular folk about who we...
View ArticleBattle Objective Journalism
Back in the day, the old Iron Blog was a great place to have a political debate. Larime Taylor ran the site and each week--barring any complications--two bloggers typically of differing ideologies...
View ArticleAn Open Letter to Senate Democrats: FILIBUSTER EVERYTHING
To Senator Harry Reid and all Senate Democrats: The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina still haunts this nation and will continue to haunt all of America for the foreseeable future. We have watched as...
View ArticleOR-Sen: Smith Gets a Challenger - Novick Announces
At noon on Wednesday, Gordon Smith will finally get a challenger for his seat in 2008. Steve Novick will be announcing his candidacy in Portland at the ILWU Local 8's hall at noon, and then will be...
View ArticleToday I Nearly Died, Worked at Many Jobs, and Glimpsed the Future
Today, I worked at many jobs. I woke early in the morning, in a freezing cold yurt under a pile of bedding, and allowed the alarm clock on my cell phone to ring multiple times. Eventually--knowing I...
View ArticleA Dumbfounding (Lifelong) Moment
Someone seems to have gifted me a lifetime subscription to Daily Kos.It took me a few minutes to comprehend this. I had noticed there was a subscription drive going on here and a rally around giving...
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Why I Hiked Neahkahnie Mountain Instead of Shutting Down the Port
I've been buoyed of late by the Occupy movement. Having joined the kick off march and rally for Occupy Portland, participated in the October 15th global day of protest, and closely followed OWS for...
View ArticleSome Thoughts on Making a Living
Something that, over the last few years, I've seen as odd in our society is how common it is to interchange the idea of a job and the idea of making a living. Life in our industrial, capitalist economy...
View ArticleResilience and Stealth Infrastructure: How the Occupy Movement Could Change...
A Need For ResponseFor those familiar with my recent writing (which is probably approximately none of you reading this, admittedly) it's likely become clear that I don't expect our society, economy and...
View ArticleA Matter of Responsibility
I love snow. It's something we don't get very often here in the Northwest. When we do get it, it tends to be of the hit-the-ground-and-melt variety. An inch or two is significant for us---this isn't...
View ArticleWhen Money No Longer Gets Money
An entry in the How To Be Poor series on voluntary povertyFriday morning, I found myself sitting on the back patio of the town house my mother's rented here in Sedona, Arizona, basking in a warm...
View ArticleThere are No Vegetarians in a Famine
An entry in the How To Be Poor seriesTo better understand the distorted viewpoint of our culture that I wrote about in the last post, I want to talk about food and diet. As I tend to reference my own...
View ArticleThe Household Economy: A Potential Power Grab
An introduction to The Household EconomyAs I write this, the smell of fresh, baking bread is wafting from the wood stove here in the farm’s main, communal house. The bread is one step in my attempt to...
View ArticleEnding Our Exuberance
An entry in the How To Be Poor series on voluntary povertyIn my previous diary in the How To Be Poor series on voluntary poverty, I argued that many people's dietary choices reveal the sort of luxury...
View ArticleThe Desert Tells
An entry in the Encounters seriesSix weeks ago, I walked amongst the red rocks surrounding Sedona, Arizona. I was in Sedona after having driven my mother there and was able to take a few days to enjoy...
View ArticleConsidering Butter: A Philosophy of Homesteading
An entry in The Household EconomyA few months back, I read a Sharon Astyk post in which she wrote about a new cookbook of sorts, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese. In the book, Reese...
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How To Make Butter
An entry in The Household EconomyI love butter. I grew up eating margarine, but those were dark days indeed and I try not to think about them now. Instead, I think about butter, and I eat it. I slather...
View ArticleWhy I'll Pay $10 for a Gallon of Milk
When I lived in Portland, I paid $10 for a gallon of milk.This wasn't store bought milk, of course, but raw milk. It came from a farm south of the city--a piece of land leased by two wonderful women,...
View ArticleThe Circus Comes to Town
An entry in How To Be PoorAs has likely been noticed by regular readers (and unnoticed by approximately the entire world) the How To Be Poor series on voluntary poverty has not seen a new entry in over...
View ArticleThe Soil's Gifts
There's a bacteria in soil that has been shown to make humans happy by triggering serotonin production in the brain.But there must be more to it.—∞—The garden has made me happy. I've spent a good...
View ArticleThe Privilege of Empire
I lived in the White Mountains of Arizona throughout my sixteenth year. My mother owned a coffee shop there, in the small town of Pinetop. Visiting one summer, I fell in love with the area and decided...
View ArticleThe Reductionist Trap
An entry in the How To Be Poor series on voluntary povertyOne of the primary troubles with living well in a time of peak oil and deindustrialization is the tendency in our society to think in...
View ArticleWork Made a Farmer
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the...
View ArticleLive in the Margins
An entry in How To Be PoorIn the previous entry in this series, The Reductionist Trap, I wrote about a possible diet I could eat that would seem to be sustainable and practical, given my circumstances...
View ArticleLet Us Please Not Make It Worse
It happens often. A large job waits for me, and for a moment it seems almost impossible. Or, if not impossible, at least quite daunting and far more than I want to tackle. It might be planning and...
View ArticleTree Hugger
An entry in EncountersOne of the challenges of attempting a life in the margins is the sense of alienation it can, at times, produce. Granted, a life lived within the confines of society's dominant...
View ArticleThe Long Game
An entry in The Household EconomyLast year, I started on the garden late. Aside from sneaking in a small potato patch in April, I didn't really get going until late May and early June. I had some...
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