VirusHead

Here are some more actions that you can take online. Pick a couple, or do them all!

• Sign up for the newsletter at FactCheck.org.
• Sign up for The Progress Report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
• Watch the video (or read the transcript) of Abu Ghraib whistleblower Samuel Provance speaking out on torture and cover-up, and then write a letter to your local newspaper.
• Watch the Wage Peace: The Cost of War video at the American Friends Service Committee site, and then do any of the related actions listed there.
• Check out WAND’s (Women’s Action for New Directions) listening guide to the State of the Union Address, listen to the President make the speech on Monday, then contact Congress with your thoughts and questions.
• Tell George Bush the REAL State of the Union (Democratic Congressonal Campaign Committee / Care2 Petition).
• Urge your Senators not to pass wiretapping legislation that violates our rights as expressed in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or that gives blanket retroactive immunity to the telecom companies who helped the Bush Administration commit violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Credo/Working Assets).
• Say No to the Homeland Security Department’s attempt to corrupt the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (Care2 Petition).
• Tell Your Representative to stop the Bush Administration from rushing through the sale of oil and gas drilling leases in Alaska’s prime polar bear habitat before it makes a final decision about protecting these imperiled bears under the Endangered Species Act.
• Send a message (before Feb. 8th) to the Bureau of Land Management to protest the Bush administration’s plan to sharply increase oil and gas development and off-road vehicle use over a full 11 million acres in Utah. This fragile land of ethereal red rock, rivers, and canyons (which I love), belongs to all of us and deserves protection, not exploitation (The Wilderness Society).
• The Fish & Wildlife Service has made it easier to kill wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region — even while they remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. Tell Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that this rule change is unacceptable (Defenders of Wildlife).

I was listening to some old comedy by the late Bill Hicks last night, and one thing he said had me on the floor laughing.

He was approached by some big, hulky guys after an engagement.

“Hey buddy. We’re Christians, and we didn’t like what you said.”

His response?

So forgive me.

Keep this in mind.

I have engraved it inside, and will call it out at every opportunity from now on. It will be a default, standard response to people who lack any curiosity, compassion or capacity for humility and humor, the ones who call themselves Christians, but have missed most of the major points of Jesus’ message.

I found one video that has a version of the delivery, but it’s not the one I heard last night.

Warning! Bill Hicks is pretty raunchy. Not for children or the sensitive.

Earthrise and Earthset over the Moon – wow.

These high definition pictures were released November 12, 2007 by the Japanese space agency JAXA.

The images were taken by the SELENE probe as it orbited the Moon at a distance of about 62 miles (100 km). These are the world’s first HD images of the Earth – from about 235,000 miles (380,000 km) away in space.

(Thanks to Sharon Puett)

(Ok, I really don’t like that song anymore. I find it incredibly sad. – cf. movie, Good Morning Vietnam)

Look at our beautiful world, and tell me we shouldn’t care for her.

We don’t own the earth. The earth peoples.

It is a wicked and stupid creature that chooses to destroy its own home, its own niche in the cosmos.

For what? Money? Money won’t buy you a new planet.

Where else do you think there is to go?

I’ve had the Tori Amos tickets since about an hour after they went on sale. Tori Amos and Kate Bush are my all-time favorites.

Two of the Tori Amos “dolls” of her multiple-personality “American Doll Posse” made an appearance at the concert she gave at the Fox Theater in Atlanta Wednesday night.

This concert was very different than Tori’s others. Less hypnotic reverie, more hard rock.

Evidently the songlist is affected by the selection of the semi-archetypal facets of her personality she chooses to perform with that night (“Pip”, “Santa”, “Isabel”, “Clyde” or “Tori”).

The “Santa” persona – a very saucy, rebellious creature – rocked the house. With bobbed platinum hair and a clingy, almost-not-there black dress, she belted out some of Tori’s most high-energy songs. This is the tiger.

Body and Soul

Seven devils bring them on
I have left my weapons
’cause I think you’re wrong
These devils of yours they need love

Come and kneel with me Body and Soul
Come and kneel with me Body and Soul
Body and Soul Body and Soul Body and Soul

The “Tori” persona stepped in later. Her long red-auburn hair set off the glittery, cling-tight american flag jumpsuit. Her movements reminded me of that “oh, wow” muppet.

Big Wheel

I’ve been on my knees
But you’re so hard
hard to please
Did you take me take me in
So you are a superstar
get off the cross we need the wood
Somehow you will rise
But without a tool
I know honey you’re a pro
But BABY I don’t need your cash
Mama got it all in hand now

These were both very fiery characters, and it was a great concert, but I missed hearing her more contemplative and moody songs. I would have loved to have heard more of the ballads – I missed songs like “The Beekeeper,” “Father Lucifer,” and “Mohammed My Friend.”

We had a great time, and I have to say that it was a much more interesting crowd than the audience that showed up for George Carlin. The people-watching was almost as fun as the concert itself.

And I even got a tee-shirt. I hardly ever do that.

Ben was very pleased to stay home with his first-ever at-home babysitter. She is very pretty, and she even played with him. This is the last bit of conversation I heard as I left the house: “But Batman isn’t blue!” “No, that’s just the bot. The real Batman is inside the bot.” I think he had as good a time as we did.

Here’s a video that gives a pretty good idea of how America is currently viewed in much of the world. It may have an unfamiliar flavor to an American audience, but it’s worth watching the whole song. The imagery is striking.

(Thanks to JR)

Don’t miss an American video response.