:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Saturday, July 20, 2002 ::

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war...and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." --James Madison, April 20, 1795

:: Jim Nichols 7/20/2002 04:33:00 PM [+] ::
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"[T]o those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends." --U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, December 6, 2001

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's analysis of USA PATRIOT

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): "USA Patriot Act Boosts Government Powers While Cutting Back on Traditional Checks and Balances"

:: Jim Nichols 7/20/2002 04:11:00 PM [+] ::
...

“The modern Christian ‘fundamentalist’ who bravely continues to ‘believe’ in a real star of
Bethlehem or an actual Garden Tomb in Jerusalem from which Jesus rose from the dead is
making the same unimaginative mistake as Heinrich Schliemann when he dug in the sands
of Hissarlik and thought he was finding Homer’s Troy. Troy is in the Iliad, not in the
sand. And because of Homer, not because of the sand, Troy exists in the collective
consciousness of the human race.” --A. N. Wilson “Paul: The Mind of the Apostle”

:: Jim Nichols 7/20/2002 09:21:00 AM [+] ::
...

“The modern person can be dismayed as well as puzzled by what Paul has done. ‘None of
this happened.’ In a sense, such a sceptic, viewing matters (as Paul would say) ‘according
to the flesh’, is in the same case as the gallant modern ‘believer’ who would try to
assert--’Yes it did happen.’ Both believer and unbeliever would be trying to apply
post-Enlightenment standards of verisimilitude to stories which grew up in a different
imaginative world; and therefore the modern student of the New Testament finds herself
reduced to the absurdity of asserting the bodies really did come to life or float through the
clouds.” --A. N. Wilson “Paul: The Mind of The Apostle”

:: Jim Nichols 7/20/2002 09:15:00 AM [+] ::
...

Summer at 12: The Pool Grows, the Mystery Deepens
By SARA RIMER

I just thought this piece was absolutely brilliant...

:: Jim Nichols 7/19/2002 08:07:00 PM [+] ::
...

This was funny The New Bull Market by Michael Kinsley

"President Bush, who spent 56 years on this earth without revealing the slightest passion for corporate reform, now says life will be intolerable if he doesn't have a bill to sign within a couple of weeks."

"The politicians are only trying to ride the wake of popular outrage. But this public outrage is also a bit stagey. It seems that average citizens are so emotionally invested in the conventions of financial documents that discovering the cost of stock option grants in a footnote, rather than in the profit-and-loss statement, itself is enough to destroy their faith in the economy. Who knew?"

:: Jim Nichols 7/19/2002 07:11:00 PM [+] ::
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"We don't need more leaders. We just need people to inspire each other." -- Dennis Lyxzén of The (International) Noise Conspiracy

:: Jim Nichols 7/16/2002 08:00:00 PM [+] ::
...

Thank you Cramyou have no clue how happy this makes me.

Read this one Jim, it's for your birthday! Excitement!
by Cram Anagram
Mon Jul 15 04:21:34 EDT 2002

I'd like to celebrate your birthday
but I'm not sure that I can,
another year of misery
is more than I can stand.

But I don't know if I'll be here
to wish to you again
so I'll wish you happy birthday
before my soul's condemned.

I'd like to get you presence
but I can't neglect the past
and I forebode the coming future
so let's both get real trashed.

Happy birthday to you
now that you're twenty-two
you're always so pissed
so stop reading the news.

It's now another anniversary
but one you won't forget
rhyme like in a nursery and plan out your regrets.
You've got alotta blessings
and lucky stars to thank
so pass the bottled Vendenge
and we'll both get real tanked.

Happy birthday to Jim
life's looking so grim
you're closer to death
than when forced to begin.
There's homeless in the gutters
starving children in the street
politicians in the White House
getting eight hours of sleep.
There is no God in Heaven
life's a reactionary fluke
that birthdays commemorate
to distract you from the truth.

We're breaking China's treaty
they're making nuclear bombs
force shields aren't gonna save us
the day reality finally comes.

How many clinics are we bombing
how many children have we raped
since we can't count all the bodies
count the candles on your cake!

There's garbage in the water
poison in the sky
it won't be very long until
we're all gonna die.

:: Jim Nichols 7/16/2002 05:53:00 PM [+] ::
...