9/11 Families Outraged

“Family members of people killed on September 11 and in other terror attacks say they are outraged by President Obama’s draft order calling for the suspension of war crimes trials of prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay.”

“We seem to be more concerned with the rights of detainees than we are with the justice that is being denied to my sailors that were killed.” said former Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who lost 17 sailors during a suicide bombing attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

That’s right, Cmdr. Lippold, because we live in America, where there IS SUPPOSED TO BE more concern for the accused than for the victim. THAT IS WHY the accused is “innocent until proven guilty”.

If you want to live in a country where there is more concern for the victims, you might wish to consider moving to a Socialist country where the accused is guilty until proven innocent.

9/11 Families Outraged

“Family members of people killed on September 11 and in other terror attacks say they are outraged by President Obama’s draft order calling for the suspension of war crimes trials of prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay.”

“We seem to be more concerned with the rights of detainees than we are with the justice that is being denied to my sailors that were killed.” said former Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, who lost 17 sailors during a suicide bombing attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

That’s right, Cmdr. Lippold, because we live in America, where there IS SUPPOSED TO BE more concern for the accused than for the victim. THAT IS WHY the accused is “innocent until proven guilty”.

If you want to live in a country where there is more concern for the victims, you might wish to consider moving to a Socialist country where the accused is guilty until proven innocent.

Twin Towers – Jan 20, 2009

As two of the longest serving senators
in US history
collapse at the inaugural luncheon
I worry about terrorism.
When will my thoughts
at times like this
be different?

(The problem with writing poems as the news is reported: Between writing the poem and posting it here, it’s been reported that Sen Robert Byrd left the luncheon due to ‘becoming emotional’ and not due to ill health. Sen Ted Kennedy left after having seizures. Both were sitting at the same table as our new Vice President, Joe Biden.)

Why We Should Not Read WH Auden

A poem written and performed by John Newmark

Guess what toy I got for my birthday!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those five lucky “victims.”

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
– I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
– what I create will be just for you.
– it’ll be done this year
– you have no clue what it’s going to be. It may be a poem or story. I may make something all craft-y like. It could even be a CD.
– I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this on your site as well, if you expect me to do something for you!

We’re curious who the five will be – and even more curious what we will receive from Christy.

Pick the month you were born:

January——-I kicked
February——I loved
March——–I karate chopped
April———-I licked
May———-I jumped on
June———-I smelled
July———–I did the Macarena With
August——–I had lunch with
September—-I danced with
October——-I sang to
November—–I yelled at
December—–I ran over

Pick the day (number) you were born on:
1——-a birdbath
2——-a monster
3——-a phone
4——-a fork
5——-a snowman
6——-a gangster
7——-my mobile phone
8——-my dog
9——-my best friends’ boyfriend
10——-my neighbour
11——-my science teacher
12——-a banana
13——-a fireman
14——-a stuffed animal
15——-a goat
16——-a pickle
17——-your mom
18——-a spoon
19—— – a smurf
20——-a baseball bat
21——-a ninja
22——-Chuck Norris
23——-a noodle
24——-a squirrel
25——-a football player
26——-my sister
27——-my brother
28——-an iPod
29——-a surfer
30——-a homeless guy
31——-a llama

What is the last number of the year you were born:
1——— In my car
2 ——— On your car
3 ———– In a hole
4 ———– Under your bed
5 ———– Riding a Motorcycle
6 ——— sliding down a hill
7 ——— in an elevator
8———- at the dinner table
9 ——– In line at the bank
0 ——– in your bathroom

Pick the colour of shirt you are wearing:
White———because I’m cool like that
Black———because that’s how I roll.
Pink———–because I’m NOT crazy.
Red———–because the voices told me to.
Blue———–because I’m sexy and I do what I want
Green———because I think I need some serious help.
Purple———because I’m AWESOME!
Gray———-because Big Bird said to and he’s my leader.
Yellow——–because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange——–because my family thinks I’m stupid anyway.
Brown———because I can.
Other———-because I’m a Ninja!
None———-because I can’t control myself!

The sentence you make is the title of your blog post if you choose to continue this meme.

Arthur Davidson, died and went to heaven.

At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, “Since you’ve been such a good man and your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven.”

Arthur thought about it for a minute and then said, “I want to hang out with God.”

St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room and introduced him to God. God recognized Arthur and commented, “Okay, so you were the one who invented the Harley Davidson motorcycle?”

Arthur said, “Yep, that’s me.”

God said, “Well, what’s the big deal in inventing something that’s pretty unstable, makes noise and pollution and can’t run without a road?”

Arthur was apparently embarrassed, but finally he said, “Excuse me, but aren’t You the inventor of woman?”

God said, “Yes.”

“Well,” said Arthur, “professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention:

1. There’s too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusions;
2. It chatters constantly at high speeds;
3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much;
4. The intake is placed way too close to the exhaust;
5. And the maintenance costs are enormous!”

“Hmmmmm, you have some good points there,” replied God, “hold on.”

God went to His Celestial super computer, typed in a few words and waited for the results. The computer printed out a slip of paper and God read it.

“Well, it may be true that my invention is flawed,” God said to Arthur, “but according to these numbers, more men are riding my invention than yours..”

Arthur Davidson, died and went to heaven.

At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, “Since you’ve been such a good man and your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven.”

Arthur thought about it for a minute and then said, “I want to hang out with God.”

St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room and introduced him to God. God recognized Arthur and commented, “Okay, so you were the one who invented the Harley Davidson motorcycle?”

Arthur said, “Yep, that’s me.”

God said, “Well, what’s the big deal in inventing something that’s pretty unstable, makes noise and pollution and can’t run without a road?”

Arthur was apparently embarrassed, but finally he said, “Excuse me, but aren’t You the inventor of woman?”

God said, “Yes.”

“Well,” said Arthur, “professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention:

1. There’s too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusions;
2. It chatters constantly at high speeds;
3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much;
4. The intake is placed way too close to the exhaust;
5. And the maintenance costs are enormous!”

“Hmmmmm, you have some good points there,” replied God, “hold on.”

God went to His Celestial super computer, typed in a few words and waited for the results. The computer printed out a slip of paper and God read it.

“Well, it may be true that my invention is flawed,” God said to Arthur, “but according to these numbers, more men are riding my invention than yours..”

My sister-in-law, who loves Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels, started reading her new SF novel, The Host during the holidays, and decided she just couldn’t get into it because there was too much Science Fiction in it. (Aliens and other worlds.) So knowing I love science fiction, she handed it off to me, and I started reading it on the plane ride home. I finished it last night.

I feel it may well be the best science fiction novel I have read in a decade. It’s definitely in the top five. I started thinking that maybe I should read The Twilight Series. I like vampire novels, and she is clearly a talented writer. Sure, all indications are that it is heavily targeted towards the female demographic (teen romance), but if the quality of writing is maintained, it might not matter to me.

I visited her website, and was stunned. At the top of her page for The Host, in large letters, is the promotional tagline,

“Science fiction for people who don’t like science fiction.”

Thus excluding all science fiction fans from her intended readership. (And the one non-fan I know who has read the book, didn’t like it, because it was too science fictiony.)

Maybe I won’t read The Twilight novels. I suspect she thinks they are vampire novels for people who don’t like vampire novels. And since I do, she doesn’t want me to read them.

***

I’d forgotten this quote from the August 2008 Ansible

Stephenie Meyer on her latest: ‘It’s science fiction because it’s about aliens, so there’s no other way to categorize it. And I like science fiction. But this doesn’t feel to me like science fiction; once you get past the basic premise, it’s just about being human.’ (Kansas City Star, 1 Aug)

[Betraying her misunderstanding of the entire point behind much of science fiction – talking about issues and concerns of present day humanity in an alien context.]

This post regards the etiquette, as I see it, of following on Twitter, the social networking phenomenon.

On Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites, people are constantly offended if you don’t “friend them” after they “Friend” you. It’s somewhat understandable since these sites are “Friend” based, and it seems to imply we don’t consider you our friend, so why should you consider us yours?

I’ve seen the same mentality on Twitter, where I think it is less warranted, as Twitter isn’t “Friend-based.” Twitter has been compared to MicroBlogging. Blog posts of 140 characters or less. Just because you are interested in reading the things I am saying on my blog/twitter, doesn’t mean I will be interested in reading the things you are saying on your blog/twitter.

Of course, if we ARE friends, that’s one thing. In that case, me not following you on Twitter suggests I don’t care about your current thoughts, which isn’t a very friendly thing to say. And I can understand how that might upset you a bit. If we are friends, and you are following me on Twitter, but I am not currently following you, it is likely due to me not recognizing the pseudonym you chose to Twitter under. Let me know who you are.

But, if we aren’t friends, for you to expect me to read your blog/twitter just because you’ve decided to read mine leads me to believe you started to read my blog/twitter only out of the hopes that you would gain another reader of yours. You don’t really care about what I am writing – you just want more readers.

Therefore, if you cease to read my blog/twitter when I don’t read yours, I don’t care one bit. Go ahead, unfollow me. Because I don’t really care that much how many readers I have.

I also don’t want anyone feeling they “need” to read my twitter or blog because I’m reading theirs. If that is the reason you’re doing it, go ahead an unfolow me, You should only clutter your mind with the words of those you want to hear. (And before anyone says it, yes I feel people should want to hear multiple viewpoints on political and social issues, but it is still up to the individual who they hear those views from.)