Friends

...how many young minds I get to blow with this speech at college.

"The patriot act. The most abominable, unconconstitutional, *hateful* from the point of freedom piece of legislation since the alien and sedition acts in 1798."

Most folks who arent completely gone into thinking about where there going to get their booze (or other recreational substance) for this coming weekend normally want to immediately dismiss the speaker based on whom he does consultant work for, but the law is the law.

And quite a few of them turn white as a sheet when they get to the federal law enforcement "sneak and peak" legality. (the ability of the FBI to break into your home and make it look like a burglary, taking what they want and planting surveilance if they wish)

Friends, countrymen and women, lend this speaker your ears as he tells you the insidious laws hatched upon us over the past presidencies (focusing on Bush Jr.). See past his love for RP, he gushes quite a bit.

Highlights: Alien and Sedition Acts** Stamp Act 1765** Writ of assistance** US Constitution** Espionage Act of 1917** Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)** Right to Financial Privacy Act (Self written search warrants)** USA PATRIOT Act Intelligence Authorization Agreement of 2004 (the renaming of "financial institutions" to include your doctor's office, insurance company, deli, bodega, hospital... etc)** Military Commissions Act of 2006 (holding you indefinately even if you are aquitted)

"December 13, 2003 George Bush knew that something happened ten thousand miles away such that if he put his signature on that document that day nobody would notice it. It was the day we captured Saddam Hussien. Who the heck is going talk about a dreary appropriations bill that the president signed when everybody was talking about swabbing the inside of Hussien's mouth on NBC news."



*****

See, there's still a fire in the belly for law...... its just a reeeeeeally long road....

Enjoy if you dare.

Hello, everyone!

Just wanted to let everyone know two things:

1) We're slowly moving Missile Command's news over to a Wordpress Blog. This will allow all the members to post to it, and more opportunities for our friends to reply. The blog is at http://www.missile-command.net/blog
We've set up an LJ Syndication Service for it, so, please add mchq to your friends list. The blog will be the first place that news will appear from here on out, so, if you're a fan of Missile Command, please add it. If you're finding yourself more on Twitter than LJ, then you can be alerted to new Missile Command blogs, as well as get random Tweets about show times (because we never know until we show up), and other neat things. You can join our Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/mchq.  If you have friends that are fans of Missile Command, spread the word!

2) We're playing on Friday! Hope to see everyone there. This is going to be a fun show, as well as something new for us. For the first time in Missile Commandom, all the members will be on stage for the whole show! Those lazy reprobates have full-time stage jobs now! Here's a flyer:

That's all we have for now. More exciting announcements soon, including our upcoming METAL SHOW!!!!\m/
Have a great week! 

-=Missile Command=-

I'm hoooooome!!!!

The first order of business was to strip down and get a nice hot shower. Then it was off to a big dinner of french onion soup and a big fat cheeseburger! I am exhausted! But I had a great time in spite of this:



I'll tell you why later. I figured y'all would like a movie preview. :) Now I'm working on photos, then I'll work on the trip and gear review!

For several years now, I have felt more and more at home amongst the skeptical movement. Embodied by larger-than-life personalities like Adam Savage, Penn & Teller, the SGU, and the incomparable James Randi, the skeptical movement has gained considerable traction in the last decade, though it has been around since the days of Carl Sagan. It is a home for those interested in hard science and those who are unswayed by widespread beliefs in the supernatural or pseudoscientific. While there is an organized skeptical movement that just finished holding one of its annual conferences in Las Vegas, one does not have to be a member of this group to be a bonafide skeptic. All you need is some critical thinking, a willingness to question your own beliefs, and the eagerness to shine an unbiased light on the strange.

Unfortunately, there is an unpleasant side effect. For every pseudoscience or alleged supernatural phenomenon, there is a horde of true believers, people so dedicated to an unprovable belief that they will hate you for questioning it. If you confront somebody who believes they have been abducted by aliens and recovered the memory of it through hypnotic regression therapy, for instance, there is almost nothing you can say to that person to get him or her to question that belief. Similarly, if you confront somebody who is absolutely dedicated to the notion that evolution is false and that pure creationism is the only alternative, you'll be wasting your breath. However, at the same time, you have to resist the temptation to become a true believer yourself, someone who absolutely refuses to believe that anything supernatural or unprovable is at work in the universe.

READ MORE...

I hate this.

orbolus does not speak for me. orbolus is and has been banned from this journal for many months, from the moment her/his intentions became obvious. orbolus is a stalker and troublemaking sockpuppet trying to create Drama between other parties and me of the "let's you and him fight" variety. I don't know what the other parties are saying behind Friend-lock. It's irrelevant. I'm not playing.

I dislike intensely having to make this public post, particularly since I doubt I will be believed by those who most need to hear it.

orbolus, GO AWAY..

This is all I will be saying on this subject.

U.S. budget deficit rises above $1 trillion
Outlays, receipts both rise in June; monthly deficit $94.3 billion

By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. recorded a federal budget deficit of $94.3 billion in June, pushing the cumulative deficit so far this year to a record $1.08 trillion, the Treasury Department reported Monday.

Outlays rose in June to $309.6 billion, while receipts climbed to $215.3 billion in the month.

Among the outlays for June is $11.3 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, the bailout program for banks and U.S. automakers.

At this time last year, the cumulative federal budget deficit was just $285.8 billion.

The Obama administration expects a deficit of $1.84 trillion for the full fiscal year, which ends in September. However, that number is likely to be revised higher later this month, since the economy has been much weaker than when the original estimate was made.

The budget deficit for June is down from the $189.7 billion figure in May but was still enough to push the fiscal year-to-date deficit past the $1 trillion mark.

For fiscal year 2010, which begins in October, the administration is projecting a $1.26 trillion deficit.

Robert Schroeder is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.

Charles N. Brown, editor and publisher of Locus, the professional newsmagazine for science fiction for over forty years, has died.


(Thanks to kevin_standlee for the link.)

Did you guys see this great article Wham Bam Pam did with one of my favorite blogs?
If not, please check it out and leave her a nice comment!

http://beingtotallysweetinchicago.blogspot.com/2009/07/wham-bam-pam-bares-it-all.html

xo

Annie

1. I finally used the canning equipment my MIL gave me. I canned 7 small jars of blackberry jam. I am officially hooked.
2. 2 quarts of no-refined-sugar blueberry sauce, made with agave nectar.
3. 2 quarts of goats-milk yogurt. Not sure if the culture "took" yet, it was pretty thin this morning when I took the jars out of the warm water bath.
4. I bought a bicycle for me
5. Another coat of paint on the drawers of the nightstands
6. A small amount of sewing... not much, but it's a start
7. Attending a good party for a co-worker who's leaving.

Otherwise, this weekend was one big fail. I'm feeling angry and frustrated and that's spilling over on work, too.

I have met someone. Someone who really seems extra special and could turn out to be a long term relationship. Actually, we haven't met face to face yet, but I'll be driving out to Columbus for a couple days next week. Never thought that would happen. But this one seems to be worth it.

More as the situation develops.

http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesDailyArticles/~3/mjhACadHG7Y/3474

I turn your attention to one of the shortest of Mises's works: Interventionism: An Economic Analysis. It can be read in an evening. Mises offers solid evaluations and critiques of different types of interventionism.

http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesDailyArticles/~3/M2T1nP3B9Hw/3541

We who are advocates of sound, free-market money need to get our story straight. Are we predicting hyperinflation or massive deflation? Personally, I am much more worried about the former problem.

http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesDailyArticles/~3/5MHjjrbtcdM/3562

Reading about Hoover's and FDR's mistakes and the coming Obama miscues won't make the economy any better and may not make you feel better. But at least you'll know why this depression will last a long time.

I bought Michelle B. brunch at Johnny D's, in payment for her reviewing the first draft of my second novel and giving me feedback. She teaches at a public high school similar to the one my novel's set at and I needed her help on verisimilitude. I captured the attitude of school kids very well, she said, but could probably dial back the swearing.

"Kids are very conscious of where The Line is," she said, "and will dance all the way up to it without stepping over. Unless they want to get kicked out. So in this section here, where Roland says, 'Suppose you suck my dick, bitch,' he might say ..."

Next: haircut at Franco's in Inman Square. I come here often enough to be considered a regular now by the staff. First thing Mike did when he sat me down was ask, "How was the wedding?" So I told him about the Liberty Hotel and officiating a wedding behind Storrow Drive and Clink and all the rest. He did my hair up shorter than usual, at my request. I trust the man implicitly.

Even though the weather was pleasant, I stopped off at Inman Oasis for a soak in the big hot tub, saying hi to Miss Cheryl at the front desk. Then I walked all the way from Inman back to Davis, burning off about a third of my brunch calories.

Serpico invited me out to watch UFC 100 at Sports Despot in Allston. We got there minutes before 10:00 just before the bar hit capacity. I like Sports Despot - crowded, sure, but it's a well-behaved crowd, and there's more than enough TVs. We squeezed in behind the Pop-a-Shot game and watched the bloody action on a flatscreen thirty inches from our noses.

Highlights:

• Akiyama v. Belcher: My favorite fight of the night. Two technically savvy, aggressive fighters trading blows and working angles. Still, this fight belonged to Akiyama - apparently nicknamed "Sexiyama" in his hometown of Osaka, due to his lucrative singing career - from round 1. Superior grappling and more acrobatic striking.

  Match Highlight: Two hundred and fifty men in an Allston bar groaning simultaneously when the clip of Akiyama taking a kick to the groin was replayed.
  

• Henderson v. Bisping: I haven't watched "The Ultimate Fighter" in over a year, so I had no idea of the bad blood between these two. So I leaned back to watch a suitable fight for the first round and a half. Then Henderson knocked Bisping out with a punch that got replayed at least six times. Left knee and low left uppercut to draw his block down, and then a right haymaker that slalomed Bisping's jaw. Henderson followed Bisping down to the mat, dropping an elbow on his face from his full height. Still not sure the man knows where he is.

  Match Highlight: Rogan asking Henderson afterward: "Did you know Bisping was out when you tagged him that second time?"

• GSP vs. Thiago Alves: Watching the U.S. Open at work a few months back, one of my colleagues wondered aloud if people watching Roger Federer play realized that they were probably watching the greatest male tennis player of all time - if they were conscious of the man's place in history. I don't follow tennis that close, but I feel the same way about Georges St. Pierre. He's incredibly competent at every aspect of fighting - superior hand strikes, superior kicks, superior grappling, superior submissions, etc. He's fast and he's powerful, an optimized fighter.

  I hoped for a knockout or a submission, but even Alves knew after Round 5 that he'd lost - he hoisted St Pierre's hand and retired to his own corner. Consider that GSP continued to dominate the ground game for the last two and a half rounds, even after pulling his groin, and join in my amazement.

  Match Highlight: The "twenty-one-year old" in the Metallica shirt who booed until his voice cracked every time St Pierre took Alves down. Which was at least three times a round.

• Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir: I hate Brock Lesnar. That doesn't make me special, of course; he's practically built to be hated. The man coasted into UFC from the pro-wrestling circuit, was handed title shots on the strength of his name alone, and has comported himself with bad grace throughout. Tonight's match was no exception: he refused to touch gloves with Mir in the warmup and downplayed his prior loss to Mir (via submission) in the pre-show interviews.

  And yet I have to acknowledge: Brock is good at what he does. He doesn't possess a lot of technical artistry, but he has size, aggression and a mastery of his limited range. Lesnar took Mir down, slowly turned his ground pin into solid control, then struck Mir until his head bounced off the fence.

  Match Highlight: The post-match interview with Rogan. "Keep it coming!" Lesnar yelled to the booing fans. "I'm'a go home, drink a Coors Light. A Coors Light," he repeated, pointing to the prominent Bud Light logo on the canvas, "because Bud ain't paying me shit. Hell, I might even get on top'a my wife tonight. Sarah? Where are you, honey?" The thought of that psychotic thug even simulating tenderness scares me.

Postscript: my first run-in with a crazy neighbor in thirteen months of living here. Given that I live in a brick walk-up for shut-ins, I'm amazed it took this long. At about 1:30 on Sunday morning, the guy in the apartment next to me (not Ryan; the other side) slammed something into the ground about forty times. He went on a screaming tirade throughout, indistinct over the slamming, that ended in "fucking upstate New York!" All quiet for another half hour, until he began a slurring rant about several people who might not have been present or listening. "And Joey? Fucking Joey? Fuck you, you fucking asshole! And Johnny? That fucking fag!" Etc. By the time I had resolved the debate on whether to call the cops or get dressed and knock on his door myself, he had stopped.

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