Monkey

illrogue62 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:58:17 GMT

Okay, folks need to know about this:

LJ is going to be collecting site stats on individual journals via Omniture.

This is an OPT OUT thing, not opt in. To opt out, go to the Admin console and type in "set opt_exclude_stats 1" (without the "").

If you want to opt out any communities you own, type in "set for nameofcommunity opt_exclude_stats 1" (without the "").

It was only announced to lj_biz, so pass the word along to everyone so they have the option of opting out!

Especially for Ohio residents!

illrogue62 — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 17:22:49 GMT

Ohio's legislature has almost passed a foul bill which will make voting much more difficult for many Ohioans, will make it easier for those in control of voting machines to manipulate election results, and will make it more difficult to challenge election results. The bill is currently in conference committee between the Ohio State Senate and Ohio State House of Representatives. The following link is to a petition asking Governor Taft to veto the bill. Please sign on!

http://jenniferbrunner.com/petition.asp

Shamelessly yoinked from the girlfriend

illrogue62 — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 18:13:49 GMT

Here, is the only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its
subject...

Moderator: We're here today to debate the hot new topic, evolution
versus Intelligent Des---

(Scientist pulls out baseball bat.)

Moderator: Hey, what are you doing?

(Scientist breaks Intelligent Design advocate's kneecap.)

Intelligent Design advocate: YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH! YOU BROKE MY KNEECAP!

Scientist: Perhaps it only appears that I broke your kneecap. Certainly,
all the evidence points to the hypothesis I broke your kneecap. For
example, your kneecap is broken; it appears to be a fresh wound; and I
am holding a baseball bat, which is spattered with your blood. However,
a mere preponderance of evidence doesn't mean anything. Perhaps your
kneecap was designed that way. Certainly, there are some features of the
current situation that are inexplicable according to the "naturalistic"
explanation you have just advanced, such as the exact contours of the
excruciating pain that you are experiencing right now.

Intelligent Design advocate: AAAAH! THE PAIN!

Scientist: Frankly, I personally find it completely implausible that the
random actions of a scientist such as myself could cause pain of this
particular kind. I have no precise explanation for why I find this
hypothesis implausible --- it just is. Your knee must have been designed
that way!

Intelligent Design advocate: YOU BASTARD! YOU KNOW YOU DID IT!

Scientist: I surely do not. How can we know anything for certain?
Frankly, I think we should expose people to all points of view.
Furthermore, you should really re-examine whether your hypothesis is
scientific at all: the breaking of your kneecap happened in the past, so
we can't rewind and run it over again, like a laboratory experiment.
Even if we could, it wouldn't prove that I broke your kneecap the
previous time. Plus, let's not even get into the fact that the entire
universe might have just popped into existence right before I said this
sentence, with all the evidence of my alleged kneecap-breaking already
pre-formed.

Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullshit sophistry! Get me
a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how
that plays in court!

Scientist (turning to audience): And so we see, ladies and gentlemen,
when push comes to shove, advocates of Intelligent Design do not
actually believe any of the arguments that they profess to believe. When
it comes to matters that hit home, they prefer evidence, the scientific
method, testable hypotheses, and naturalistic explanations. In fact,
they strongly privilege naturalistic explanations over supernatural
hocus-pocus or metaphysical wankery. It is only within the
reality-distortion field of their ideological crusade that they give
credence to the flimsy, ridiculous arguments which we so commonly see on
display. I must confess, it kind of felt good, for once, to be the one
spouting free-form bullshit; it's so terribly easy and relaxing,
compared to marshaling rigorous arguments backed up by empirical
evidence. But I fear that if I were to continue, then it would be
habit-forming, and bad for my soul. Therefore, I bid you adieu.

An email from Congressman John Conyers

illrogue62 — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 18:16:11 GMT

100,000 Signatures Needed on Downing Street Letter
Please forward widely!
by Congressman John Conyers
http://tinyurl.com/76b5r - direct link to sign the letter.
I have written to you in this space on a number of occasions about my
profound concern about the implications of the "Downing Street Memo,"
which actually consists of the minutes of a July 2002 meeting between
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers. During this
meeting, Blair and his advisers reveal details about conversations
with their American counterparts. These details cast substantial
doubt on the honesty of contemporaneous claims made by the
Administration to Congress and to the American people about the Iraq
war.
First, the memo appears to directly contradict the Administration's
assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust
all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July
2002, the Administration had already decided to go to war against
Iraq.
Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year
and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that
falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a
mere "failure" or the result of intentional manipulation to reach
foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo
appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United
States the intelligence and facts were being "fixed" around the
decision to go to war.
These are not routine questions within a partisan give and take.
Under the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8), the
Congress has the sole power to declare war. If the Executive Branch
deceives the Congress in this duty, it represents an attack of our
democracy of the most serious nature. These Constitutional questions
are not going away and must be answered forthrightly and completely
by this Administration.
I and 88 of my colleagues (that number is growing - more on that
soon) asked the Administration to come clean about these troubling
allegations. Our inquiries have been met with silence.
The press has also been negligent in giving this matter the attention
it deserves.
I am committed to seeing this through until we get the answers we
deserve. But I need your help.
The conventional wisdom, which unfortunately governs Washington's
political discourse, hold that the American people have long ago made
peace with the mistakes or deceptions which led us into war. Help me
prove them all wrong. I want to show the White House, the Press and
my congressional colleagues that nothing could be further from the
truth.
That is why today I am giving you the opportunity to sign on to a
letter asking the same questions of the President that now nearly 100
Members of Congress have asked. If I get at least 100,000 signatures
on this, I will personally deliver the letter to the White House.
If you want to sign on to this letter, go to my website:
www.johnconyers.com
I also want you to know that I am exploring many, many avenues to get
to the truth about this matter.
Thank you in advance for your help and assistance.
http://tinyurl.com/76b5r - direct link to sign the letter.

illrogue62 — Mon, 02 May 2005 19:45:44 GMT

Maybe things aren't quite as bad as I thought.

Also, here is a link to a petition to have an outside counsel appointed to investigate Tom DeLay's ethics violations. I signed it.

http://www.commoncause.org/DemandOutsideCounsel

illrogue62 — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:10:23 GMT

Hostile Information
By William Rivers Pitt

Wednesday 27 April 2005

In this mean and meager time of pre-packaged, pre-processed,
corporate-controlled infotainment that passes itself off as 'news, it
is a rare and refreshing experience to see and hear a true journalist
reporting the facts. I was privileged on Monday night to share a
stage in Boston with Dahr Jamail, the intrepid reporter who could not
stomach the biased non-news coming out of Iraq after the invasion,
and went over there to see and report on what was happening himself.

Jamail, an unassuming spectacled man in his mid-30s, spoke in a
calm and precise manner on what he had seen while in Iraq. His words
carried the weight of witness, but more devastating than what he said
was what he showed the crowd. For an hour, Jamail flashed photograph
after photograph from Iraq on a large screen. It is one thing to hear
the truth. It is another again to see it, in slide after slide,
through the eyes of a man who was there and returned to tell the tale.

Jamails photo essay described the current situation in the
starkest of terms. Buildings that had been bombed out during the
invasion remain today blasted and unusable piles of rubble. One photo
showed a blown-out supermarket with a collapsed roof. He took the
picture in 2003, but showed it on Monday night because it looks the
same today as it did when the bomb first fell. There are many times
many such damaged buildings. The ones that remain standing are often
pockmarked from machine gun fire.

In a nation with the second largest proven stores of petroleum on
earth, there are today gas lines that make the American gas-line
experience of the 1970s seem a picnic by comparison. Iraqis must
spend two days in their cars, sleeping in them overnight, to get a
rationed 7.5 liters of gasoline, provided the station does not run
out before they get to the pump. Jamail interviewed a high-ranking
member of the Petroleum Ministry, who reported that the oil
infrastructure is stable enough to provide gas to the country. That
gas is not being provided, said the Minister, because the Americans
are not pumping it, but sitting on it.

Hospitals in Iraq are in utterly deplorable condition, with few
specialists to treat common illnesses and the wounds inflicted on
civilians by the bomb and the bullet, and almost no medicine. Almost
all the best-trained and highest-ranking medical professionals have
fled the country because they are targeted by criminal gangs seeking
to extort money from them, leaving undertrained Residents to handle
the load. A Health Minister interviewed by Jamail said Coalition
officials had promised $1 billion in medical aid. To date, almost
none of that has been provided.

The sanitary conditions are almost beyond description; one photo
showed a hospital bathroom that was filled from wall to wall with
urine and feces, because the plumbing does not work. To make matters
worse, ambulances are targeted by American forces because they fear
the vehicles are being used by resistance fighters. Jamail showed a
photo of one such targeted ambulance that looked as though it had
been driven through a blast furnace.

In the best Iraqi neighborhoods, there is electricity available
for eight hours a day. The rest of the nation gets electricity for
perhaps three hours a day, if at all. At least two car bombs a day
can be heard and felt, and the supposedly-safe Green Zone constantly
comes under bombardment. Dead and bloated cattle line the roads, said
roads existing in profoundly damaged condition.

Some 70% of the population is unemployed, leaving a great deal of
spare time for despair and rage to take root. A good portion of the
violent resistance, reported Jamail, is being carried out by foreign
fighters, Baathist holdouts and former Iraqi military personnel. But
more and more, everyday Iraqis are picking up guns, he said, because
conditions are so deplorable.

The heavy-handed tactics of the American occupation force,
reported Jamail, have also fed that rage. Jamail stated that the
Americans have taken to using 'collective punishment against large
segments of the population to try and dampen the violence. In one
instance, a road leading out of a remote farm community was blown up
and blocked to punish the residents, and the only nearby gas station
was machine-gunned and blasted by a tank.

The most glaring example of collective punishment took place
within the city of Falluja. You will clearly recall the events of
March 31, 2004, when three mercenary contractors from Blackwater were
pulled from their car, butchered, burned and hung from a bridge in
that town. The American corporate news media carefully described
these four repeatedly as 'American civilians, failing to note that
some 30,000 highly-paid military mercenaries just like these four are
operating in Iraq, beyond the laws and rules of American military
justice. These mercenaries stand accused by the Iraqi populace of a
variety of crimes including rape and theft.

It was a despicable and horrifying act of violence, to be sure.
Yet the American populace was left with the impression, reinforced by
the media, that these 'civilians' were targeted by the entire city of
Falluja. In fact, the act was committed by perhaps 50 people, and the
Imams in the mosques spoke with one outraged voice against what was
done to those four.

This did not matter. The collective punishment of Falluja began
days later. Civilians were targeted by snipers. Helicopters and
bombers rained fire and steel indiscriminately on the city. After a
while, a truce was called so the city could bury its dead, and so
medical supplies could be brought in. No supplies made it into the
city, but the casualties were entombed in soccer fields that were
renamed 'Martyr's Graveyards.' Jamail photographed the fields of
burial mounds, and translated the names on many of the headstones. A
majority of those stones bore the names of women and children.

In the lull between attacks, the citizens of Falluja flooded the
streets in a massive victory celebration, unaware that the worst was
yet to come. The rage they vented on the Falluja streets was proof
enough that American tactics are manufacturing resistance fighters
every day. Not long after, the second phase of the punishment of
Falluja began, this time as an aerial bombardment of the city that
left thousands dead and wounded.

Bodies remained unburied in the streets to bloat in the sun and
be gnawed by dogs. One Jamail photo from Falluja showed the
shattered, rotting corpse of a man lying next to his prosthetic leg.
It seems this one-legged man was an enemy of freedom, a feast for
dogs in the hot Iraqi sun.

The Pentagon has a phrase for the photos and reports Dahr Jamail
was able to bring back to us from his time in Iraq. They call
it 'Hostile Information,' otherwise known as unassailable facts that
cut violently against the pretty portrait and non-news the American
people have been spoon-fed about our occupation of that country.

If you believed the situation there was bad, it's worse than you
can imagine, a war crime writ large, a grinding of a civilian
population that was no threat to America and is now caught between
hot steel and a cold grave. Dahr Jamail was careful in every instance
to point out that the civilian leadership issuing the orders, and not
the soldiers, are ultimately to blame for what is taking place.
Specific soldiers committing war crimes must be punished, he said,
but the ultimate responsibility for these acts belongs in Washington
D.C.

'Horror' is not a strong enough word to describe what Dahr Jamail
showed us on Monday night, what he saw with his own eyes, what almost
no American has been allowed to see because 'Hostile Information' is
not permitted in George Bush's America.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally
bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't
Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence. Join the
discussions at his blog forum.

illrogue62 — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 02:11:08 GMT

My mood will be better until about five minutes from now when I sit down to do some homework and realize how much I have. Le sigh.

I'm a politics geek. So sue me...

illrogue62 — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 19:32:12 GMT

...but this is fucking hilarious.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser in the Carter administration, said he did not consider [John] Bolton a good choice, but he added, "Maybe we're better off with him sitting in New York at the U.N. than with him having an important post either in the State Department or in the National Security Council in the White House, actually shaping American policy."

illrogue62 — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 21:22:55 GMT

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sibling Hand Grenade of Love and Mercy.

Get yours.

Sometimes I just want to kill

illrogue62 — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 23:09:56 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1079769,00.html

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

illrogue62 — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 11:10:38 GMT

Ganked from ladypimpernel who swiped it from cargoweasel, who swiped it from Jon Carrol of SfGate and chalice_circle

The following is the first communique from a group calling itself Unitarian Jihad. It was sent to me at The Chronicle via an anonymous spam remailer. I have no idea whether other news organizations have received this communique, and, if so, why they have not chosen to print it. Perhaps they fear starting a panic. I feel strongly that the truth, no matter how alarming, trivial or disgusting, must always be told. I am pleased to report that the words below are at least not disgusting:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with. Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity notes for the record that he does not have a moral code but is nevertheless a good person, and Unexalted Leader Garrote of Forgiveness stipulates that Brother Neutron Bomb of Serenity is a good person, and this is to be reflected in the minutes.

Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.

We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs as Xerox repair specialists. Demagogues of all stripes will be required to read Proust out loud in prisons.

We are Unitarian Jihad, and our motto is: "Sincerity is not enough." We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it's true doesn't make it true. Just because your motives are pure doesn't mean you are not doing harm. Get a dog, or comfort someone in a nursing home, or just feed the birds in the park. Play basketball. Lighten up. The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.

Brother Gatling Gun of Patience notes that he's pretty sure the world is out to get him because everyone laughs when he says he is a Unitarian. There were murmurs of assent around the room, and someone suggested that we buy some Congress members and really stick it to the Baptists. But this was deemed against Revolutionary Principles, and Brother Gatling Gun of Patience was remanded to the Sunday Flowers and Banners committee.

People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution. Startling new underground group spreads lack of panic! Citizens declare themselves "relatively unafraid" of threats of undeclared rationality. People can still go to France, terrorist leader says.

illrogue62 — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 03:35:05 GMT

This article was emailed to me through one of the Democratic groups I am in. Sorry if the formatting sucks.

Body Double
By Chris Floyd
03/25/04 "Moscow Times" - - Far from the hurly-burly in Florida,
where the Bush brothers and their shameless minions have sought to
milk maximum "political capital" from the ravaged body of a brain-
dead woman, the true moral values of these gilded hypocrites were on
stark display last week in a quiet corner of the Bushes' adopted
homeland: Texas.
This week, U.S. President George W. Bush melodramatically cut short
one of his innumerable vacations and flew back to Washington to
intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo when a Florida court granted
her husband's request to cut off her life support after she had spent
15 years in a vegetative state. But days before, even as the
president was supporting his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, and
congressional Republicans in "defending the culture of life" in the
Schiavo case, doctors in Houston were pulling the breathing tube from
the throat of an ailing infant. The boy suffocated within seconds,
legally killed -- against the wishes of his anguished mother -- in
accordance with a draconian law signed as a "cost-saving" measure by
the state's former governor: George W. Bush.
There were no frenzied protests, no camera-friendly prayer vigils, no
preening politicians at Texas Children's Hospital when 5-month-old
Sun Hudson took his last breath. There was only his mother, Wanda,
holding him in her arms as he died, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Sun suffered from an extreme form of dwarfism, which is incurable and
usually fatal. Early on, doctors recommended cutting off the
breathing tube that kept his undersized lungs working. He was inert,
they said, unresponsive -- essentially comatose.
Wanda Hudson disagreed. "I talked to him," she said. "He was
conscious." Moving, looking around, he responded to her. Although the
odds were long, she wanted to give him more time to develop, not give
up on him after just a few months. Wishful thinking, a despairing
parent's denial? Perhaps. But the law signed by Bush in 1999 took the
decision out of her hands and gave it to hospital bureaucrats,
allowing them to shut down a patient's life support -- even against
the wishes of the patient's family or guardian -- if the medical
brass decide that treatment is "nonbeneficial," the Chronicle noted.
Indeed, why throw away good money pumping air down the gullet of some
defective infant, just to mollify his nobody of a mother? For, unlike
Schiavo -- a nice middle-class white woman, a political marketer's
dream -- Wanda Hudson was just another worthless black woman living
in poverty, unable to afford prenatal care. Who would waste a dime on
trash like that? It's much more beneficial to funnel that cash into
the coffers of your political patrons -- like George and Jeb, now
wallowing happily in the swamp of campaign grease they get from giant
medical corporations. In return, they push government policies
designed to keep Big Medicine's profits sky-high while gutting public
obligations to provide health care for the hoi polloi.
So the hospital invoked the Bush Law on Sun Hudson. Just as in
Florida, a local judge ruled that life-support systems must be
removed, and the patient allowed to die a natural death. But
strangely enough, the Texas judge was not reviled in the halls of
Congress as a would-be murderer, as was his counterpart in Florida --
even though the latter was carrying out the wishes of Terri Schiavo's
husband, her legal guardian, while the Bush Law used state power to
override a mother's choice. Nor was the Texas judge subjected to
death threats like the ones the Florida judge received from
Bush's "armies of compassion."
No, Sun's mother stood alone. Those compassionate armies and
congressional kibitzers failed to materialize on her behalf.
President Bush -- usually so eager to wade in a with a few scripted
words of pursed-lipped piety about "family values" and "defending
life" -- kept his big mouth shut. The hospital would not allow the
media to see Sun or interview Wanda Jackson -- again, against her
wishes. "I wanted y'all to see him for yourselves," she told the
press after Sun's death. But so what? When nobodies die, nobody cares.
Why the stark contrast between the two cases? Simple: There was no
political hay to be made from Sun Hudson's plight. Spotlighting his
situation might reflect badly on the Dear Leader -- and on the
religious extremists now banking millions in contributions from their
slick campaign to "save" Schiavo. For it turns out that the spearhead
of Bush's Christian army in Florida, the "Right to Life"
organization, actually helped Bush craft the 1999 law that took Sun
Hudson's life, the Chronicle reported. The family-bashing measure was
drawn up in backroom sessions between the Right-to-Lifers, Bush
staffers and Big Medicine. It seems the "culture of life" ends where
power politics and corporate money begin.
Bush doesn't care if Schiavo lives or dies. Her body -- like the
bodies of the 100,000 Iraqis he has killed, like the bodies of the
American soldiers being chewed up every day in his Babylonian
conquest, like the bodies of the poor and working people whom he is
methodically and remorselessly cutting off from medical care,
financial protection against catastrophic illness, and legal redress
against corporate predators -- is just a means to an end, the only
end Bush cares about: increasing the power and wealth of his own
rapacious circle of privileged elites.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, he will not do to serve this
end. He'll wage war on false pretenses, he'll pervert the democratic
process, he'll spit on the Constitution -- and he'll exploit the
private suffering of families facing hideous dilemmas of life and
death. There is no honor, no morality, no values in his "culture."

Annotations
Baby Dies After Hospital Removes Breathing Tube
Houston Chronicle, March 16, 2005
Right to Life Group [Backed Bush 1999 Law]
Houston Chronicle, March 10, 1995
Republicans Circulate 'Talking Points' on Political Gain From Schiavo
Case
ABC News, March19, 2005
Congress Steps in on Schiavo Case
Washington Post, March 20, 2005
Trial By Legislation
CBS News, March 20, 2005
Health and Safety Code, Chapter 166 [The 1999 Bush Law]
Statutes of the State of Texas, Sept. 1, 1999
Law Bush Signed as Governor Prompts Cries of Hypocrisy
Knight-Ridder, March 21, 2005
The Days of Our Lives
Hullabaloo, March 20, 2005
Jeb Bush's Expert Undercuts [Republican] Case on Schiavo
David Corn.com, March 22, 2005
How Family's Cause Reached the Halls of Congress
New York Times, March 22, 2005
MI6 Told Blair: US 'Fixed' The Case for War
The Times, March 20, 2005
BBC: MI6 Chief Told Blair That U.S. 'Fixed' the Case for War
BBC.com, March 20, 2005
Arab American Publisher Says Bush Told Him in May 2000 He Planned
to 'Take Out' Iraq
Democracy Now, March 11, 2005
Secret US Plan for Iraq's Oil Revealed
BBC, March 17, 2005
Senate Passes Bill to Restrict Bankruptcy
Washington Posat, March 10, 2005
The Gospel of the Rich and Powerful
Salon.com, March 11, 2005
Bankrupt of Compassion
L.A. Times, March 9, 2005

illrogue62 — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 13:03:17 GMT

Jessa and I broke up yestereve.

illrogue62 — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 21:21:08 GMT

Mad props to Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware for telling it like it is.

illrogue62 — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:08:34 GMT

Anyone interested in some, oh, I don't know, ACCOUNTABILITY?

http://www.johnkerry.com/replacerumsfeld

Blarg! Why, God, Why?

illrogue62 — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 03:08:06 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/16/hersh.iran/index.html

Why my friends rock, vol. 1

illrogue62 — Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:54:08 GMT

These will be done in the order in which they were requested on my LJ.

For those of you who don't know, Jessa=faerykat=my girlfriend. For those of you who do know, I like telling people, so you can suck it up and read it anyway. In fact, just because it makes me happy: Jessa=my girlfriend.

My feelings for Jessa begin with respect and admiration. She's undergone a lot of emotional growth and maturation in the past few months. That's one of the things that first attracted to me to her. Of course, I've had to watch from afar, to a large extent, since we have been three hundred miles apart for the past several months. But she wrote some long LJ posts about the changes she went through and her thoughts on these changes, and they caught my attention. We started emailing and IMing and leaving posts for each other on LJ, and started to get to know each other. We'd been friends at least peripherally for about two years at this point (early October), but suddenly, the way I thought about Jessa went from "cute, quiet and nice, but more a friend of friends" to "this person is so interesting and passionate and brilliant and sexy, how the hell has she basically flown under my radar for two years?" Every time we communicated, I seemed to discover something new about her that I liked or admired: her passion, her intellect, her commitment to self-improvement, her desire to help people, her love for helping people as an educator, her political values, her sense of humor, her family, her beliefs about family...everything. I'm sure I'll find things that get on my nerves. That's inevitable. But I'm not worried, given the conversations we've had about communication and how much we agree on that. I could go on more, but I think people are starting to drown in my gushings.

Next up: joshuapanther.

Merry Christmas! (To those of you to whom it applies.)

illrogue62 — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:12:16 GMT

Happy birthday to Jessa!

illrogue62 — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 13:15:01 GMT

Got my grades. I got A's in both classes. If my mother "happens to mention" that I could transfer to Loyola one more time, I'm going to tell her to get me an application, and then I'm going to tell her exactly what she can do with it.

I am officially registered for 11 credits at Oberlin at the moment, and I have the professor's guarantee for another three-credit course. I am registered for an intro to American politics class, a class on the role of the Supreme Court in American government, Number Theory, and the Practicum in Autism. homais is taking the Supreme Court class, which is really exciting. I've wanted to take a politics class with him since the beginning of last year. Woo! I will also be taking a course on American policy-making. Notice a theme, anyone?

And I found my Breaking Benjamin CD, which had been missing for about a week. Woo! Such a good CD. So good. Not as good as Jessa, but she's not a CD, so it's different.

And I went to the second meeting of the steering committee of the grassroots group that I joined. It was much better, probably because there were fewer people and greater unity of vision. We were productive. Yay for productive! There is hope yet. We adopted a working mission statement, and I had a large hand in developing the language. It goes thusly: "Grassroots Democracy is an organization composed of Democratic activists and others determined to revitalize the Democratic party. Our goal is to return political power to the American people by building a network of local grassroots movements. We welcome all committed to progressive ideals." We have a draft of a strategy statement, too, but that's a lot longer.

And I get to run Aberrant tonight. Rock!

illrogue62 — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:00:46 GMT

While I am doing surprisingly well for a Monday, and actually for a workday in general, one of the people who works in the coffee shop in my building seems to be having a shitty day. I think I'll try and toss a joke or two her way later today, but I'm not sure if I know enough one- or two-line, inoffensive jokes to be sure I won't offend her. If you know any, feel free to post them here.

Names removed to protect the stupid

illrogue62 — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:02:30 GMT

::phone rings::
Me: Hello, [name removed]'s office. Can I help you?
Client (in drawl): Yes, I'd like to speak to Atty [name removed].
Me: I'm sorry, Mr. [name removed] is unavailable at the moment, but I can take a message for you and pass it along to him.
Client (expectantly, still in drawl): No, I'd like to speak to him.
Me: Well, I'm sorry, sir, but he's unavailable at the moment. I can take a message, though, and he should be able to get back to you by the end of the day.
Client (still in drawl): I'll get ahold of him later.
::client hangs up::

Literally two minutes later, the client calls back and gives me his name and number so my boss can call him back. This is a client that calls every day, despite the fact that he is told every day that cases such as his take time and we will call him when we know anything.

In conclusion:
"My boss is unavailable, but I can take a message" does not mean "Ask me again and maybe I'll let you talk to him, you inbred son of a sheep-fucked redneck." ::sigh::

For the love of god and all that is holy

illrogue62 — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 07:48:06 GMT

According to www.weather.com it is 16 degrees fahrenheit and feels like 0 in downtown Chicago. I hate taking the train to work.

"Why my friends rock" updates will becoming this week, freaking finally.

Two more eruptions run, and they both rocked, too. Now I just have to take care of briannaangel's and I'll have five players! Assuming she can ever show up, anyway. Thbbbbt.

Random thought of the moment: very few things provide motivation to halt one's current activities, whatever they may be, like a painfully full bladder.

Xerox blows fat, hairy, dead goats.

Poor Jeffrey

illrogue62 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 23:06:40 GMT

Things were going so well for him for a while there, and now he's back to being frustrated and depressed. Fucking Paul, and fucking Katja. The only other Kindred in Chicago that Jeffrey gives two shits about is a Nosferatu. There's one Brujah who he thinks is not completely worthless, and all the rest of the city could fall into the ocean and it wouldn't really bother him, including the Brujah. Especially the Brujah. Fucking Paul, and fucking Katja. And fuck that little nitwit Tony for being a dumbass. Now Katja thinks Jeffrey is trying to take over as primogen, and she's wrapped around Paul's little finger, so she's going to take Paul's side in everything. There might be a couple Brujah in Champaign (southern Illinois) that are worthwile. Jeffrey is going to have to get to know them better. Ah, the drama. I get mine in roleplaying, rather than in real life. Jeffrey will be soooo pleased to go back to Cleveland. Ohio has become this sort of paradise in his head, because there are people there he can trust. Fucking Brujah.

illrogue62 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:13:36 GMT

::breathes out a long sigh of relief::

My semester is done. Of course, turning in the paper was a little rocky, and I won't know for at least a day or two if it worked, but I have done all I can. See, when I tried to turn the paper in, I was in the wrong building, so I couldn't find the professor's office. I called her at 6:31 p.m. (the paper was due at 6:30), and she told me to meet her around the elevators in the lobby of the building. So I went to the lobby of the building I was in, still thinking I was in the right building, and she didn't show. Then I started to wonder if maybe I was in the wrong building. Turns out I was, but my dash to catch her before she left the other building came too late. I ended up leaving a copy on her desk and sending her an email with the paper attached and telling her what had happened.

I have LARP tonight, and there's going to be lots of exciting things going on, and it will be great stress-relief, but I don't want to go right now. Blarg. That might have something to do with the fact that I wanted to be there early tonight, but will instead be just as late as if I had had class. Sons of monkeys.

Oh, well. It's weird thinking that I'll be able to read whatever I want on the train tomorrow. Happy, though.

It has been proven that Jessa can cheer me up in no time flat from any mood, regardless of foulness.

A raunchy good time, as usual

illrogue62 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 10:09:02 GMT

Jonah1109: i hate data entry
Jonah1109: i'd much rather be home watching tv
illrogue62: lol
Jonah1109: yeah
illrogue62: yeah, vegetating sounds good right about now
Jonah1109: or at least having sex
Jonah1109: or playing aberrant
Jonah1109: oo oo... playing aberrant while having sex
Jonah1109: yes. that's the ticket
Jonah1109: just not with you. sorry..
Jonah1109: errr... the sex part. i don't wanna have sex with you. just play aberrant
illrogue62: lmao
illrogue62: but jonah, ::sniffle:: i thought you loved me!
Jonah1109: not to say i don't... i just don't wanna have sex with you.
Jonah1109: it's not that kind of love
Jonah1109: it's an "i love you in so much as you keep your clothes on and your naked ass off my couch."
illrogue62: roflmao

Rich Ranallo is one of the ST's for the Chicago game. He ended one of his emails with the following: "I don't think we need to require people to check their sense of humor at the door just yet."

So I replied with: "::shrug:: Wouldn't affect my character anyway." For those of you who don't know, my character rarely shows much emotion. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few Vulcan or True Brujah jokes circulating CDR (Chicago: Dark Requiem) with him involved.

Yesterday, one of the other players, John, fired back, "hey jeffery is mr personality #1."

Being who I am, I couldn't let that lie, so the most recent salvo, fired a few minutes ago from my broadsides, was: "I'd ask what you're smoking, but I already know. Like I told you, John, when the guy's asking price is a blowjob, it doesn't matter how much he swears that he's peddling "really good shit." He's lying to you.

And it's spelled J-E-F-F-R-E-Y, cupcake. :-p"

In other news, I'm pretty sure the politics final I took this morning is going to be leaving bloody stains anywhere it sits down for some time in the future.