After 50

Just for the hell of it...

h/t z

HaloScan Demise

HaloScan flew the coop!

Sorry folks... I've unfortunately had to dump HaloScan as my commenting widget and revert to the Blogger default. This has caused all the comments here to disappear. I have exported and saved the old HaloScan comments but at this point am unable to import them.

350

350.org

We've been duped!

Way more!

RETHINK!

It's Obvious

[click cartoon to enlarge]

Non Sequitur

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An Unacceptable Truth

[click image]

No. Really.

READ IT....

change of scenery

My but this lair looks dashing lately, does it not?

Just thought I'd pop in to show signs of life....

The Five Steps to Tyranny

Urban Farming Lend a hand

From Grist

...in the early 2000s, ... Mayor Giuliani essentially issued a fatwa against community gardens, declaring them “communism.” He tried to sell them off for development; citizen activism, with a major assist from then attorney general Elliot Spitzer, for the most part stymied the small-minded mayor’s designs, though he did manage to pave dozens of gardens in some of the city’s lowest-income areas.
........
...like a zombie, Mayor Giuliani’s discredited garden agenda has popped back up again in Brooklyn’s glorious, storied Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where developers are scheming to bulldoze a highly productive community garden called Bed-Stuy farm.

h/t 99

More
Sign Petition
Soul Food Farm. Bay area community comes together to save the farm.

toy guns to trees

This clip is jam-packed with really good ideas!

Let's do 'em!

you make me feel brand new

[click image]

Buy Nothing Day

[click photo]

From Adbusters' Blog:

Buy Nothing Day was a radical concept when we first introduced it 20 years ago. It struck a blow against the very heart of our consumer culture. For the first decade of its existence it had a profound and sweeping effect, shining a light on the dark side of consumerism at a time when the world was largely oblivious to its insidious effects. Year after year it fired up the world’s imagination – inspiring its fair share of sympathy and solidarity, resistance and mockery. I remember people laughing their heads off at the sight of my BND button. But somehow, as the years wore on (and despite the fact that last year it was celebrated in 65 countries around the world), the day seems to be losing its edge. Now, as humanity faces crises of ecology, psychology and faith, the time has come to rethink the day, to reanimate it with new intensity, purpose and scale.

This year we’re calling for a wildcat general strike. On November 27/28 we’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt. We want you to shut off your lights, your televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off your computer for the day. We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset, we abstain en masse. Not only from shopping but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.

Instead we’ll feed our spirits and minds with a feast of subversive activities: pranks, shenanigans, credit card cut-ups, bicycle swarms, mall invasions and all manner of culture jams and creative détournements … and some of us will take things even further with sit-ins, demonstrations, passive resistance and acts of nonviolent defiance, anarchy and civil disobedience. If we can create a big enough ruckus on November 27/28, then we may be able to catalyze what the Situationists tried to set in motion half a century ago: a chain reaction of refusal against consumer capitalism … a sudden, unexpected moment of truth … the first ever global revolution.

[h/t ANN]
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OrionMy Winter Friend

Last night I walked out on my deck, and looking east I found my winter friend rising above the horizon. Orion, I greet thee...


This deep field image, from the Hubble Space Telescope, is oriented as Orion appears when overhead, as opposed to the photo above as he appears when rising.


An Orion star map:


The Orion Nebula, consisting of Messier Objects 42 and 43 (M42 & M43) resides in the sword tip below Orions belt.


The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) sits just below Alnitak at the left end of Orion's belt.

Orion is the master of the winter skies. He lords over the heavens from late fall to early spring, with his hunting dog Sirius trailing at his feet.

The mythic tales of Orion go as far back as the Hittites, who flourished from the Second Millenium BC to around 1200 BC.

One story from this culture gives an interesting account of Orion's death. Here he is called Aqhat, and was a handsome and famous hunter. The Battle-Goddess Anat fell in love with Aqhat, but when he refused to lend her his bow, she sent another man to steal it. This chap bungled the job, and wound up killing Aqhat and dropping the bow into the sea. This is said to explain the astronomical fact that Orion and the Bow (an older version of the constellation) drops below the horizon for two months every spring.

Much More...

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Kakamega Rain Forest Battle for survival

One of the world's smallest rain forests, Kakamega Rain Forest of Western Kenya, struggles for survival.


[46:14] (The videos claim to have six parts, however it appears there are actually only 5.)

Kakamega Rain Forest Biodiversity
Impact of The Rain Forest Destruction on the Environment

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except you can't set it on stun

[click image]

The Power of Nightmares The Rise of the Politics of Fear

PART 1

[59:14]

PART 2

PART 3


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Is it LiveOr is it X-Box?

Then see this: third millennium reprehensible warfare
[click the photo there]

Read the comments on the film at Frontline

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As Serious As Committing War Crimes Is Covering Up War Crimes!

Dennis used the word ALMOST, I say it IS as serious!

[h/t Agent 99]

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no justice, no peace

My Way

[click for clearer view]

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Michael Pollan In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan: A Plant's Eye View

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Attention Deficit Disorder

[Rex Babin]

Ploy

Why is the U.S. Government trying to start a war with Iran?

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Oops!

.

I was putting together the video, which occupied this space last night, with the intent of watching the whole thing before posting it. I also was going to ask the illustrious Agent 99 to vet it for me.

While assembling the video, I caught four or five minute sections of each piece and found it to be interesting and important.

Then I got a phone call and had to rush out so I posted the video knowing Agent 99 would find it.

It seems I made a McCainism and never appropriately vetted the the thing, so in hindsight I have now removed the video.

However the question still stands.

Happy Birthdayday John

[click photo]

The Scourge of For-Profit Healthcare

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

Brave New Films

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The End of Town Hall Season

Non Sequitur by Wiley ......................................[click image for clearer version]

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LIES - the Current Political Norm

From Truthout by Henry A. Giroux

When lying and deceit become normalized in a culture, they not only serve as an index of how low we have fallen as a literate society, but also demonstrate the degree to which language and education have become corrupted, tied to corporate and political power and sabotaged by rigid ideologies as part of a growing authoritarianism that uses the educational force of the culture, the means of communication and the sites in which information circulate to mobilize ignorance among a misinformed citizenry, all the while supporting reactionary policies. Especially since the horrible events of 9/11, Americans have been encouraged to identify with a militaristic way of life, to suspend their ability to read the word and world critically, to treat corporate and government power in almost religious terms and to view a culture of questioning as something alien and poisonous to American society. Shared fears rather than shared responsibilities now mobilize angry mobs and gun-toting imbeciles, who are praised as "real" Americans. Fear bolstered by lies and manufactured deceptions makes us immune to even the most obvious moral indecencies, such as the use of taser guns on kids in schools. Nobody notices or cares - and one cause and casualty of all of this moral indifference is that language has been emptied of its critical content just as the public spaces that make it possible are disappearing into the arms of corporations, advertisers and other powerful institutions that show nothing but contempt for either the public sphere or the kind of critical literacy that gives it meaning.

Obama's presence on the national political scene gave literacy, language and critical thought a newfound sense of dignity, interlaced as they were with a vision of hope, justice and possibility - and reasonable arguments about the varied crises America faced and civilized. Such practices as Obama compromised, if not surrendered, some of his principles to those individuals and groups that live in the vocabulary of duplicity, the idealism that shaped his language began to look like just another falsehood when measured against his continuation of a number of Bush-like policies. In this case, the politics of distortions and misrepresentations that Obama's lack of integrity has produced may prove to be even more dangerous than what we got under Bush because it wraps itself in a moralism that seems uplifting and hopeful while it supports policies that reward the rich, reduce schools to testing centers and continue to waste lives and money on wars that should have ended when Obama assumed his presidency. Obama claims he is for peace, and yet the United States is the largest arms dealer in the world. He claims he wants to reduce the deficit, but spends billions on the defense industry and wars abroad. He says he wants everyone to have access to decent health care, but makes backroom deals with powerful pharmaceutical companies. Orwell's ghost haunts this new president and the country at large. Reducing the critical power of language has been crucial to this effort. Under such circumstances, democracy as either a moral referent or a political ideal appears to have lost any vestige of credibility. The politics of lying and the culture of deceit are inextricably related to a theater of cruelty and modes of corrupt power in which politics is reduced to a ritualized incantation, just as matters of governance are removed from real struggles over meaning and power.

..................................................................

Democracy is fragile, and its fate is always uncertain, but during the last decade we have witnessed those in commanding political and corporate positions exhibit an utter disregard for the truth, morality and critical debate. The Enron template of lying and deception has turned an ethos of dialogue and persuasion into its opposite: dogmatism and propaganda. In doing so, the American public has been bombarded by a discourse of fear, hate and racism, coupled with a politics of lying that undermines any viable vestige of a democratic ethos. We now find ourselves living in a society in which right-wing extremists not only wage a war against the truth, but also seek to render human beings less than fully human by taking away their desire for justice, spiritual meaning, freedom and individuality.

h/t Agent 99 & Old Uncle Dave

Read the whole article HERE your future and the future of this country depend on it!


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The Need to PurgeMeet me in the vomitorium!

WHY IS THIS MAN ON TELEVISION INSTEAD OF PRISON?

The Tom DeLay Scandals

OH THAT'S RIGHT, IT'S FOX NETWORK, HOME OF FAUX NEWS!

OUTFOXED: RUPERT MURDOCH'S WAR ON JOURNALISM

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Mary Travers R.I.P.

[click photo]

Mary Travers of Peter Paul & Mary has passed away after her battle with leukemia.

Please visit the PP&M website for tributes by her band mates Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey.

Rolling Stone Magazine's tribute

I will miss her.

crass capitalism and a glimmer of justice

[click image]

Vicious vampire capitalism as a way of life, but possibly a less vicious U.S. detention policy....

One does not compensate for the other, but... by now... better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

put on the ritz

[click image]

Didn't she just get paroled after 30 years for a similar stunt?

[click image]

Do we wait for an assassination
before we do something about this?

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sing it, dennis!

[click image]

breaking: 99 links groupthink twice in one day

[click image]

So you want quality, low cost healthcare?Meet the obstructionists!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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mOOn

[click photo]

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War - Just Another Day at the Office(If you're on the right side)

"You could drop off your kids at daycare, go to work, fly your UAV, drop bombs on some insurgents or what have you -
then come back at the end of the day, pick up your child, go home and fix supper and it's just another day at the office."

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yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa!

[click image]

A Brief History of Tent City

Rex Babin

More on Tent City at the Lair - Link

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Emmitt TillA final Insult

[click photo for more about Emmitt]

This past weekend it was discovered that the out of state owners of Burr Oak Cemetery, a historic African American cemetery near Chicago, have for the last year been excavating existing graves and dumping the remains in order to resell the plots. In some cases the the existing remains were simply pounded down into the ground to make way for new occupants.

The Raw Story reports:

Grave robbers stripped at least 300 plots at a historic black cemetery outside Chicago, dumped many of the bodies and then resold the plots for a profit, officials said Thursday.

The years-long scheme was carried out by the cemetery's manager and three gravediggers who sold the "used" graves so they could pocket the fees rather than pass them along to the Arizona-based owners.

"This was not done in a very delicate way," Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said at a press conference.

"They would excavate a grave, excavate the entire site and then they would proceed to dump the remains wherever they found a place to do it in the back of the cemetery."

....

Burr Oak is one of Chicago's oldest predominantly African-American cemeteries and is home to a number of historic figures, including Emmett Till, whose 1955 murder galvanized the civil rights movement.

Blues legend Dinah Washington and boxing champ Ezzard Charles are also buried at Burr Oak.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson had this to say:

"There should be a special place in hell for these graveyard thieves who have done so much to hurt these families"

As a final insult cemetery manager, Caroyln Towns, is also accused of pocketing cash from a fund she set up to build a memorial museum for Till.

Cook County prosecutor Anita Alvarez sums it up:

"This crime is a whole new dimension that shows us what lengths people would go through for financial gain,"

More from Raw Story

Yesterday the site was shut to relatives who had been coming to look for the remains of their family members. The site is now considered a crime scene as additional bones are being discovered. MSNBC reports:

ALSIP, Ill. - Authorities are closing the grounds of a historic black cemetery near Chicago where four employees are accused of digging up bodies to resell plots after more bones were found on the property.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Friday that families can no longer wander through Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip to check loved ones' graves because more of its 150 acres are now considered a crime scene.

Dart says law enforcement and families alike have found more bones while walking around the cemetery.

More from MSNBC

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Cynthia McKinney Returns Home -Released After 6 Days in Israeli Prison

Yesterday Cynthia McKinney returned after 6 days in an Israeli prison. Here crime? Attempting to deliver medical supplies and toys - crayons, water colors and coloring books, to the people of Gaza.

The following is a collection of videos of her return. (She should have had a big crowd welcoming her as a true hero! I guess they were all at Michael Jackson's funeral...). It begins with a news report from The Global Report telling the circumstances of her arrest followed by a second report from the same source regarding, U.N. Human Rights Investigator, Richard Falk's declaration that the seizure of the ship was a crime and the situation in Gaza is a continuing Human Rights violation. After that is a phone call Cynthia made to WBAIX.org describing the arrest and treatment under the Israeli Navy and prison guards. The conclusion is an interview Cynthia gave with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.

[approx. 25 min.]

DU and You

[click photo for more on the subject]

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

[approx. 57 min.]

Click for more on DU here at the lair.

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Anthrax Wars

In July of 2003 British weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly was found dead in the woods. Although his death was ruled a suicide, many questions surround his death. Dr.Kelly was writing an expose on the non-existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq as well as his dealings with Anthrax in the apartheid South Africa where Anthrax was used against members of the black population. In fact he was even quoted by British ambassador David Broucher as saying “I will probably be found dead in the woods”. Link

Now this film by Bob Coen sheds new light on the death of Dr. David Kelley and other top Anthrax scientists, among them Soviet defector Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, and Dr. Bruce Ivins who is claimed by the FBI as the sole person involved with the Anthrax attack on the US. The film "Anthrax Wars" is debuting in London six years after Dr. Kelly's death. It has previously been released in Canada.

From the description accompanying the film segments at YouTube:

An investigation into the deadly world of germ weapons, Anthrax War begins in New York in the days following 9/11. Anthrax-laced letters, mailed to media and U.S. senators, killed five people and spread fear and panic throughout the nation.

For filmmaker Bob Coen, who was raised in Zimbabwe where the former white regime has been accused of unleashing anthrax against the black population, biological weapons have a deep personal meaning. He embarks on a journey that raises troubling questions about the FBI's investigation of the 21st century's first act of biological terrorism.

Coen's investigation takes him from the U.S. to the U.K. and from the edge of Siberia to the tip of Africa.

More from Agent 99 over at neufneuf.

Workers of the World---RELAX!

Founder of the Work Less Party, legendary Vancouver activist, filmmaker and author, Conrad Schmidt presents a mini-doc based on his book of the same title.



Workers of the World Relax

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On Humanitarian Mission to GazaCynthia McKinney Captured by Israeli Navy

From Green Party Watch:

[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] - Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

LINK

More here with loads of contact information: LINK

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no more excuses

Disbar Torture Lawyers Press ConferenceNational Press Club Washington D.C.

From The Raw Story:

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, former Reagan administration Associated Attorney General Bruce Fein lamented President Barack Obama's decision to shut his eyes to open confessions of war crimes by members of the prior administration.

"It's at the highest levels that the rule of law finds its greatest majesty," he told reporters. "That's why the United States was so idolized after Nixon left. We said that the most powerful man in the world is subject to the law. He cannot defy it."

Fein was making the historical argument with respect to the Obama administration's continued refusal to investigate the Bush administration's torture program, which was designed and specifically authorized by high-level officials.

"[Today] we have an instance where the President of the United States -- Harvard Law Review, a Constitutional Law professor who knows what the law is -- shuts his eyes to open confessions," he said. "We authorized torture, for which there is no exception."

Fein was speaking on behalf of Velvet Revolution, a coalition of over 150 peace and religious groups, that is leading the charge to get attorneys involved in the Bush administration's torture program thrown out of office and the legal profession.
Link

Bruce Fein is joined by Velevet Revolution lawyer Kevin Zeese and others in the following video of their presentation.

Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story reports here with links to the complete complaint. (MS Word Document)

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GOP Family Values

[Rex Babin]

The first good news in a while

[click photo]

First human trials of prostate cancer drug shock doctors

[image BB2]

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What road...

are we heading down?

[click photo]

Also consider this and this.

There is indeed a Ghost in the Machine!

[click photo]

[images by BB2]
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Rethink Afghanistan!

Become a Peacemaker
[click]

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Change?

Rising or Setting?

TWO PEAS IN A POD

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Hang On!The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class

57:37

rachel maddow with sheldon whitehouse

WHALE WARS

WHALE WARS RETURNS

[click photo]

Captain Paul Watson and the crew of the Steve Irwin take on the Japanese whaling fleet.

Larry King interview with Paul Watson and several crew members

"Whales Are Dying" Music Video from The Red Paintings on Vimeo.

Orchestral art-rock band, The Red Paintings, collaborated with
Sea Shepherd to record this song the night before the Steve Irwin
left Australia for the latest campaign in Antarctic waters.
Lyrics were written by lead singer, Trash McSweeney in conjunction
with the Sea Shepherd's founder and president, Captain Paul Watson.

Whale wars is returning to the Animal Planet cable network this Friday June 5th at 9pm E/P.
Check your local listing for show times.

If the show is published to YouTube, as it was last season, I will post the videos here. Check back early the following week after each show to see if I have found them.

As last season, if I do find the shows, I don't expect them to last forever.

MUSIC VIDEOS

SONG OF THE WHALE - TANGERINE DREAM
Videos of whales set to the music of Tangerine Dream

WHALE RIDER - ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER
Scenes from the movie Whale Rider tell the story of the coming of age of a young Maori girl.
Music by Andreas Vollenweider.
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Saturday Night Music Videos at the Vault

Crank it up to 11 and groove on some delicious blues with

The DEREK TRUCKS BAND

[click something]

Daryl Dave

One day in the summer of 1976, about a month after arriving in Sacramento, I decided to go and check out a local bar. It was called The Zoo, so of course it caught my attention.

As I approached the door the sound of laughter and a juke box flowed from the door.
Upon entering I found that indeed the name was fitting. The crowd ranged from rice farmers to motorcycle gang members, college preppy folks, sports fans and even a Go-Go dancer on a small stage. (It eventually became known that she was a transvestite).

I began frequenting the place and made a number of friends there. At one point, before I had found a job, feeling I was overstaying my welcome at my cousin's house, I lived in my van in the parking lot. I paid off my bar tab by working there, cleaning etc. during the day, before it opened.

One of the people I met there was Dave - Daryl Dave. (more on the Daryl part later) Dave worked doing construction site cleanup and his girlfriend of the time worked at the bar. One weekend Dave invited me to his house for a party. There I met his circle of friends and was soon taken into the fold. Before long a room became available at a house were several of the group lived, now having a job, I moved into what became a major party house. Anything was an excuse for a party and weekends called for a keg or two. You could always tell when the garbage truck got to our house. Every stop down the street yielded thumps when the cans were dumped into the truck. At our house it was just the clinking and clattering of beer bottles and Southern Comfort bottles.

Eventually it boiled down to a group of about a dozen friends spread between three houses with a party going on at any given time at one of them. One day we were sitting around, totally hung over, and Dave made a comment about what a bunch of derelicts we were. After that we amended our names with the surname Daryl, hence Daryl Dave. The moniker didn't work so well with the women of the group so they became Hosetta, a slight modification of Hoser from the Second City TV characters Bob & Doug McKenzie.

One of the more memorable moments I have of Daryl Dave was the Stinkin' Lincoln!
A mid '60s Lincoln Continental. A huge beast of a car. Suicide doors, spare tire in the trunk lid, kazillion horsepower engine! Dave had so many tickets and overdue registrations on it that they totaled more than the value of the car. Not wanting to just haul it to a junk yard he entered it in the demolition derby at a local county fair.

So we had a party and took out all the glass with a sledge hammer, tore out the interior except the driver's seat, replaced the fuel tank with a little 3 gallon tank, welded the doors and hood shut and other sundry things to prep the car.

The derby is held in the center of the oval track, a track with steeply banked turns at the ends. The pit for the derby was at one end of the track, beyond the banked turn.

Dave did pretty well during the first round. He had been hit a few times and was getting up the nerve to start ramming the other cars. After the first round horn sounded all but one car left the ring. The Stinkin' Lincoln drove off, wobbling a little in the rear.

After a short period the cars came back into the ring and lined up for the start, but no Stinkin' Lincoln! The second round started and we were all bummed out that he hadn't made it back in, when suddenly...

Over the top of the embankment, came the Stinkin' Lincoln at about 25 mph BACKWARDS!
Airborne over the track, it landed with a big cloud of dust in the derby ring. Then with the pedal still to the metal Dave drove right up on top of an old Thunderbird. Stuck there, he sat burning his tires off on the T-bird's roof in a big cloud of smoke until knocked off by another car. Dave and the Stinkin' Lincoln didn't win that night, but he sure had a great time. So did we!

As time went by, people moved away and or apart. Most of the people matured, got steady jobs, started families. A few just couldn't break away from the alcohol. It kept its grip, dragging down their lives, ruining their dreams.

Unfortunately Daryl Dave was one of the latter. I last saw him about five years ago and his health was suffering already at that time. He had a hard life, several broken relationships, minor run ins with the law and failing health.

I received a call last night from a mutual friend who informed me that Daryl Dave had passed away Super Bowl Sunday, just before the game. Initially it was thought he had a heart attack, but the official cause was cirrhosis of the liver.

This weekend the old crew will be gathering to spread his ashes and celebrate his fifty three years on this earth.

May you rest in peace my friend.

SPLASHCAST DEMISE

This past Sunday evening, when I checked my email before going to bed, I found:

The Letter

Most of the videos linked here were created using the SplashCast interface. They were built of links to YouTube videos assembled into a player which had the ability to play the videos sequentially.
SplashCast has yet to answer my question of what will happen to my videos, but I figure they will be lost after June 1st.
I hope that in time I can re-establish the links or find new relevant links.

CRIMINALS

Two from Keith

Going UnderRising Sea Levels Threaten Island Nations

[click photo]

or copy to your address bar
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2008-10-01/Climate-Change-Disasters-Security.aspx?page=1

RISING SEA LEVELS AT THE MALDIVES

[click to enlarge]

SAVING THE MALDIVES

ever wonder why agent bb2 posts so rarely?

[click image, h/t Old Uncle Dave]

The Obama Mantra

Non Sequitur by Wiley