54 Percival: Seasonal Update

Taken with the cell phone camera shortly after shoveling out, it kind of appears as a representation in impressionism. You can almost make out the lights on the Christmas tree in the window.

54 Percival Street: Open for Visitors

After parking, bring marshmellows in back for the chiminaea:

Have a seat!

Compost is functional:


No more cucumbers, however.

Tomatos have almost run their course:

But if you peek through, you can see a couple trying to escape:

Exit through the grape vine:

It's a Good Read!

Ghetto Nation

Isn't multi-culturalism wonderful?

Once upon a time, ignorant, uncouth behavior was something that we used to see and silently shake our collective heads at people doing stupid and self-destructive things.

Today, that same behavior (obnoxious swearing in public; baggy jeans hanging off your ass; rude, unwelcome, attention towards women) isn't only tolerated... it's celebrated. Cultural critics have been so completely cowed that they say nothing about ghetto behavior for fear of being labeled racist.

At least some maintain a sense of humor about it:

"I can't control my soldiers."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/18/congo.theobserver

If this were an operation conducted by joint Iraqi and American forces, we’d be saturated with comparisons to My Lai and calls for an immediate war crimes tribunal.

So where was the vocal outrage and condemnation by the One Worlders? The question becomes then and now: why the double standard, and in this case who has to gain by applying one?

Emergency Broadcast System

Look there, he's coming!

All in a Weeks Work

These are some of the more astounding pictures I’ve come across from the recent shuttle mission delivering the European Columbus Lab to the ISS:

I hope commercial spaceflight gets its act together before I kick the bucket because this would be one hell of an inspiring view to see in person.

High Flight

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.

Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Seller Beware

So, I’ve been advertising this extra kitchen cart we have on craigslist. Anyone interested? Perhaps you there, with that butchers block, and handful of kitchen utensils with nowhere to go?

Our story begins when I got this response to the ad from Sarya yesterday:

“is this item still available? I can pick up tomorrow”

My follow up: “Hi Sayra, yes it's still available though there are several interested people. What time would you like to come tomorrow?”

Sarya: “does 5.30pm work for you??”

My reply, which makes clear that any commitment from her effects my own time and schedule: Yes, that works, but it can't be too much later than that because I'll need to leave the house around 6:30, at the latest.

Here's the address:

5000 Percival Street, 1st floor, Dorchester

Phone: 617.555.2009

If you can't make it or encounter a problem, please give me a call. I don't mind rescheduling for another time. And just as a reminder, I'm only interested in a cash sale.

Curiously, I didn’t receive a response to the last detailed email, so I issued a checkup on our date this morning:

"Hi Sayra, just confirming our meeting at 5:30?”

And her prompt confirmation: “yes, i'll be there”

Ok, great, someone that says they can do something and hopefully follow through with it. Because as we know, making a commitment that involves other peoples time and effort… well, I won’t go there, I’ll assume the best in people.

5:30 comes. And goes.

5:45

6:00

6:30

Did she show you ask? No. Better yet, did I receive a simple courtesy call? No, of course not. Because relations over the internet means never having to say you're sorry. People are suddenly just text on a screen. These are the joys of dealing with internet anonymity and its corresponding accountability void.

The lack of punctuation and capitalization should have been the tip-off to me that this selfish person isn’t too concerned with formalities, written or scheduled.

Gaza Strip Tease

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gaza_explosion

Note how the article perpetuates the obfuscation of reality by referring to the dead as an "Islamic Jihad activist" instead of what he is, a terrorist.

What twist of reason is necessary to label as "activists" those that seek "reprisal attacks against Israel" for an event which was very likely the result of an accident that occurred producing home-made rockets used indiscriminately against the Israeli population?

Here is not here. Up is down. Nuanced nuance.

Perhaps the the Jew eating Hamas bunny Assud will help explain it all:

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1679.htm

Egypt-Gaza Border

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_egypt_border

Some highlights:

“On Saturday, Egyptian security forces arrested two Palestinians carrying a bomb in el-Massoura, a village about 2.5 miles west of the border with Gaza, a Sinai security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.”

“On Friday, a Sinai intelligence official said Egyptian security forces were looking for four Palestinians who slipped into the country from Gaza and were suspected of planning suicide attacks against resorts.”

“At least 17 Palestinians have been arrested in the past days carrying weapons and explosives near the border and other remote parts of the Sinai desert.”

“Earlier this week, Egypt and Abbas endorsed restoring a 2005 border arrangement in which European monitors were deployed on the Palestinian side to prevent smuggling of weapons and militants…”

What a joke. If these “monitors” observe smuggling of weapons and militants, what are they prepared to do, write a letter of condemnation to the UN Committee of Serious Concern?

An "Independent Non-profit" Study

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, ourpurpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

So, you're sitting there as President, you're reeling in the aftermath of this (9/11 attacks), so, yeah, you want to go get bin Laden and do Afghanistan and all that. But you also have to say, well, my first responsibility now is to try everything possible to make sure that this terrorist network and other terrorist networks cannot reach chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material. I've got to do that. That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for. So I thought the President had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, "Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process." You couldn't responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks. I never really thought he'd [use them]. What I was far more worried about was that he'd sell this stuff or give it away. Same thing I've always been worried about North Korea's nuclear and missile capacity. I don't expect North Korea to bomb South Korea, because they know it would be the end of their country. But if you can't feed yourself, the temptation to sell this stuff is overwhelming. So that's why I thought Bush did the right thing to go back. When you're the President, and your country has just been through what we had, you want everything to be accounted for. –Bill Clinton, 2004

* * * * *

All told, I think I count at least 7 false statements in the above 2 quotes implying the threatening existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If we were to go back over the entire presidency of Bill Clinton and review all of his his public statements, it's quite conceivable that we could come up with tens, if not hundreds of similarly false statements.

It is therefore the conclusion of this study that these false statements --along with similar statements by a majority of democrats who voted for war authorization-- were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

Operation What and Huh

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Briefing/2008/01/16/phantom_phoenix_shows_progress/4633/

What's a Phantom Phoenix? This operation has received little coverage in the regular press. I guess that's why it's a phantom operation.

Or: must not exist. And if it does, it surely isn't worth reporting about in any prominent way to the American public.