sun and moon

promised myself i'd put these two photos up. the first is the space station and the space shuttle framed against the sun. notice how the shuttle is pointed up from our viewing aspect and the station may actually be upside down. the second is a color composite of the moon. yes, the moon does have these colors if you own access to a telescope powerful enough and patience beyond the longest shutter stop. i will see neither of these like this in my lifetime without the help of others.

it's nice to know that someone who can will share:

GetYourWarOn

my goodness i've been lazy. about 9 new pages of getyourwaron are available. so sorry. and if you don't know what getyourwaron is i advise starting from the beginning (as in page 1) so you can stop staring at my manly tee shirt in real wonder and start staring at my manly tee shirt, because i have great boobs.

Just a comma...

(on a seriouser note)
today over at kien's music site he plays one of my faves. check it out, spread it around.

Spot The Elephant

(YOU tell me what's wrong with this email i received today)
JOEL,
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Help out your fellow customers by submitting a review of the product you purchased. It is simple and quick, go to http://www.tigerdirect.com/, navigate to your product page, then click on the "Submit Review" link.
For your convenience, I've also included some of our latest tech deals below. Again, I want to personally thank you, Deneke, for being a loyal TigerDirect customer.I look forward to serving you again in the near future.
Regards, Carl Fiorentino President
TigerDirect.com

my friend lecram sent me this link. he thought it might be something i would find interesting. indeed. not only interesting, but riveting, thought provoking and i could could only say a hearty "thank you, brother" afterwards. if you find keith olberman to be the devil or the antichrist or (worse) an appeaser or terrorist sympathizer and you would rather listen to the vile spew of ann coulter or rush limbaugh or bill o'reilly (because you care not for truth and decency and the american right to dissent), then move on to someone else's blog.
if you hate politics and the very thought of thinking outside your protective little bubble of ignorance, then you, too, should walk to the next window.
if you are so deadset against anything president bush has done or not done or stands for or doesn't stand for and can't for one millisecond suspend your hatred for him or those he chose to prop him up for the last almost seven years, then you as well might want to click out and on.
for keith olberman gives a damning and sobering commentary on the state of our ground zero, our nation and our very existence as we advance to the future on the shoulders of those giants who helped create this very country, whose visions we reap the benefits of.
but if you still give a damn about us, about our nation, about our history, present and future, then perhaps you might give this link a listen.
in the end you may still feel as you did before (agreement or no agreement).
in the end, you may curse keith olberman. you may curse me for getting you to listen to him. you may banish my blog and never visit it again. but it would be worth that small price if only to have you listen to what he says and maybe (just maybe) consider that there is a truth here that exists outside what we are told to believe by our government and by the majority of the large media and that there is a man who is not afraid to say it.
however, this post is not about keith olberman. it is, rather, about the words and ideas he expresses in this most poignant and pointed commentary. words and ideas delivered without partisan rancor, without personal attack, without reduction to libel and innuendo. it is emotionally charged, personally felt and judiciously laid out in a professional and reasonable format. but with no quarter given.
click on this, give it a watch and a listen, then keep on living with or without the message he imparts. for this is what it is to be free.

as an addendum, i found this quite lengthy editorial round-up in the washington post, which gives a rundown on what really went on as the republicans wrangled over the new terror torture legislation. and a tidbit about karl rove promising an "october surprise". as we should all know by now, that phrase when uttered by rove means something very unpleasant and most likely untrue in order to scare our populace into voting for his party.
oh, and it's been leaked that our military has been alerted to a deployment in or by october to iran in order to start a blockade of that country.

Twist Me Up And Smoke Me Out

"I am not going to dignify a comment by the Venezuelan president to the president of the United States," Rice told reporters in New York. The main U.S. seat in the assembly hall was empty as Chavez spoke, though the U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told The Associated Press that a "junior note-taker" was present, as is customary "when governments like that speak."

now, correct me if i'm wrong, but is this the tone we as american people want our leaders to take concerning government leaders of other nations who stand opposed to our actions and stances? while i find chavez's rhetoric to be just that (words to whip up the emotions of those already allied with him) i find it hard to accept that our representative would not even be present for the speech. i could understand walking out in protest if the language turned violent or juvenile (as it obviously did). but isn't bolton paid to attend UN meetings? and isn't he in a sense acting just like those our government dismisses out of hand? it doesn't say much for our maturity, diplomacy skills or respect for international bodies to just refuse to show up during the working week. perhaps, tomorrow i'll refuse to go to work, because it's krispy kreme donut day and i only like the ones that come in the pink boxes.
seriously, though, we act as if the UN exists solely to follow our every whim. yes, their headquarters reside on our soil (which i think is a good thing for the general physical safety of the building and its delegates...for the time being), but they do not answer to us, never have and never should. so, why does our administration get away with this type of 10th grade attitude? why aren't we getting so pissed that the national polls show us ready to vote for anyone not an incumbent in order to make our government act more in line with the rest of the world or even our popular thought (which has nothing in common with what our government has been about for the past 5 years)? i don't ask these questions, because i'm naive. i already know the answers. i'm just curious if any of you have thoughts about this that might make me think a bit sideways about the issues.

p.s. and, because katie never saw this video, i'd like to repost its link now and may she have sweet golden slumbers after viewing it (once you're at the link, click on "the big finale").

Quickie Dickie

i was hemming and hawing about putting this link on my site for a while ( read: 10 hours), but i feel i have to. if you have the stomach, click on this and read the article. then click on the video portion that accompanies it. kids for another crusade.

Thanks For Little Things

for the past few months since i've been back in the state and at my old lab i've been noticing that all of my old lab mates (but one) have picked it up interms of work output, professionalism and willingness to learn new things. yes, i said all but one. and we will be calling her "But One".
when i left the state for greener and more lucrative pastures back in december of last year, But One was my heir apparent. i began to hear a bad thing or two about her as i attempted to run my first lab all on my own. stuff like "a bit lazy", "arrogant", "not keeping up with the workload". i paid it no mind until i decided to move back and return to my old lab.
that's when i got an eyefull and earfull from the labmates about what she had done to my old department.
i have to admit i was somewhat dumbfounded at the pigsty it had become, but i was taking over a new department within the lab and wasn't too concerned. not my problem. after a month of watching But One i began to get irritated. not so much at what she had done to destroy the clean, efficient area i had left her, but at the snail's pace at which she worked. and the backlog of pending work she had created. and the half hour conversations she would have with people about how backed up she was. and the disappearing acts. and the swagger. and the absolute unwillingness to work overtime. and the lack of reaction by management to this mess she had made and was getting away with not fixing.
after two months of my being back she gave her two weeks' notice. she had accepted a job with a competitor and even went through their required physical. management panicked, because she held almost enough state certifications (wasn't lazy in that regard) to certify the lab. management talked her into staying, even though when polled we (as the lab) stated that we were fine with her leaving and that it wouldn't affect us. she was given a sizable raise and unspecified incentives. she agreed and didn't leave. it had become a soap opera by that time and the lab in general wasn't too pleased by all of the hoopla. i, in particular, was blown away by how she manipulated the system (whether on purpose or not is a question not for me to answer) for a large raise and other stuff even though she was seen by the lab as a liability.
since then, she has fallen even further behind in her work and not stopped any of her bad and lazy behavior. management has asked repeatedly for me to step in and help her (to the point have suggesting that i work night shifts), but my manager has replied every time that i am not in that department anymore and my work is ever ongoing. for me to step away from my work would result in my department falling behind (my work comes in 365 days a year as opposed to hers, which is off and on).
well. today, not more than 5 weeks after the dust settled on But One's last "i quit" episode, comes news that she has given her two weeks' notice yet again. this time, i think, she will not be argued with. this time, i think, she will be allowed to leave. this time, i think, the core lab folks will get their wish that she be let to ride off into the sunset as quickly as possible so that we might clean up the pile of horse manure she built. so that we might rid ourselves of a noxious presence that poisoned the very air about her with her poor-me atitude, with her apathy toward her responsibilities, with her nonchalance about deadlines and turnaround time. and with the delicate manner in which management handled her by not holding her to the same standards the rest of us were.
i had actually gotten to the point where i refused to help her. she has been in that position longer than i had and was still coming to me with stupid questions that only helped to highlight her laziness. within the last three weeks i began to look at her and say "i don't know" to her queries, because i was sick and tired of her not doing her own research or even thinking out the logic of the question.
and, now, she is leaving again. and this time i think it will stick. and i am thankful for that. because no lab runs well when one person is allowed to get away with not carrying their weight. it builds resentment and resentment creates laziness in others as they see the one get away with floating. our lab has a lot of perks and flexibility, because we produce in a big way. we can take a few longer breaks, catch a couple more quick smokes, stop to chat, take a longer lunch, arrive late or leave early for personal reasons, create our start times based on the need we see. it's a great environment. but it only takes one lazy person in a critical position to take it all away. so, she can and must go.
as for fixing what she created, not a problem. we'll be caught up and on schedule within two months is my guess. hopefully, we save all of the contracts and clients that are currently in jeopardy.
as for lessons learned, probably not. that's a management issue and i think we all know that bad management is the only thing that's not better than no management at all and the only kind of management that most of us will ever see in our lifetimes.
(which would be part of the reason i moved back to this state and gave up my management position. there is a certain mental nerve ganglia that upper management expects you to cut out in order to rule over that which you just belonged to.)
so, long wind and strong wind in order to make the simple statement that i am happy for the little things: like an abcess about to be cut away from the otherwise productive and fun body of a lab.

p.s. aughra's about to "give" birth in the next who knows how many hours (c section). go and let her know she's got support for a difficult journey.

another small pictorial with no editorial. you rascals know who you are, where you were and what i think of you:

Saturday Night the 9th

on this particular night about two of them ago i went to a gig at the starline put on by Ticket To Ride. got there early as usual and set up camp on the wallbench. it was 8:45 and no one was there yet. about 25 people, but no one i knew. i took a walk and wound up in front of the stage. this is what i shot:

very soon after, the friends i was expecting arrived. not all at once. and not at all together. drinking ensued as did tactless jokes:
somewhere (in all of the joviality) the band showed up:
then the drunk brit exposed himself, wet all over the bar and performed the most herculean projectile diarama i have ever seen:
he was subsequently invited up on stage to reprise his cameo with the band:
after that, well...we had us a beatle rave. or a bugrant. whichever y'all wanna call it:
except for stan who never raves or rants. he is an island in the sea of chaos:
however, chaos soon reintervened:
women were talking to men, men were listening, drunks kept being drinked, a camera's flash wasn't on, and liaisons erupted like pimples on a cold sore (have no idea who is in this picture, but, shit, it looks sexy, don't it?):
finally, it got bad. everyone was feeling blurry. but still dancing and carrying on as if it was the end of the world...(which it could be, i suppose...if i hadn't just sent $100 to pat robertson to save the souls of the jews and get him to tell God that i really am wealthy and ready to ascend after the Fresno Fair):
and that's what i remember. i do not remember leaving early, because my blood sugar had dropped precipitously. i do not remember waiting at the checkin at lipari's for 5 minutes and then leaving. nor do i remember going to livingstone's and sitting, ordering and waiting for a chicken salad. i don't remember getting up and asking for the chicken salad to be boxed. i didn't know i wouldn't go back to the club to tell people i had to get home and eat NOW! i do remember someone getting home later and asking me what happened and being okay with it.

i got even by kicking her out of bed in my sleep.

update (9:55 pm): yahtzee is a fun game and was just played to christen my oak table.

i'm pretty sure katie cheated. i don't think you're allowed to roll four 2's and a 4 and call it six of a kind the hard way.

Amazing What Friends Will Send Me

i received the following missive in my email inbox today. normally, this emailer sends "jokes". i just thought i would share it with you, because it made me reflect on the importance of only exalting God so that i might live forever (and i mean that in the corporeal sense based on the following):

NEVER MOCK GOD!
Make a personal reflection about this.
Very interesting, read until the end.It is written in the Bible
(Galatians 6:7): "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Here are some men and women who mocked God:
JOHN LENNON:Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said: "Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, Today we are more famous than Him" (1966). Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.

TANCREDO NEVES (President of Brazil):During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being ma de President, then he died.

CAZUZA (Bi-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):During a show in Canecão ( Rio de Janeiro ), whilst smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said: "God, that's for you." He died at the age of 32 of AIDS in a horrible manner.

THE MAN WHO BUILT TITANIC:After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe he said: "Not even God can sink it" The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic.

MARILYN MONROE:She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said: "I don't need your Jesus". A week later, she was found dead in her apartment.

BON SCOTT:The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang: "Don't stop me, I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell". On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit.

CAMPINAS/SP IN 2005 In Campinas, Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend. The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter - holding her hand, who was already seated in the car: "MY DAUGHTER, GO WITH GOD AND MAY HE PROTECT YOU."She responded: "ONLY IF HE (GOD) TRAVELS IN THE BOOT, CAUSE INSIDE HERE IT'S ALREADY FULL"Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the boot was intact. The police said there was no way the boot could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the boot was a crate of eggs, none were broken.....Boot means trunk.

Many more important people have forgotten that there is no other name that was given so much authority as the name of Jesus. Many have died, but only Jesus died and rose again, and he is still alive. JESUS!!!

P.S: If it was a joke, you could have sent it to everyone. So are you going to have courage to send this?. I have done my part, Jesus said "If you are embarrassed about me, I will also be embarrassed about you before my father."What benefit does it have, if a man gains the whole world but loses his soul? What can man give in exchange of his soul? (Mathew16:26).

Vote For Evans Or The Librul Might Win

DeLay no 'Idol' threat
Former majority leader urges Republicans to vote for 'Dancing' contestant

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Tom DeLay once twisted arms for votes in Congress.
Now the former U.S. House majority leader is rounding up votes for ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."
That's right. DeLay has e-mailed his supporters urging them to vote weekly for contestant Sara Evans, a country singer who sang at the 2004 Republican convention because she "represents good American values."
It wouldn't be DeLay if he didn't find a cultural split among the contestants.
"One of her opponents on the show is ultra-liberal, talk-show host Jerry Springer," DeLay wrote. "We need to send a message to Hollywood and the media that smut has no place on television by supporting good people like Sara Evans."
Will political scientists track Evans success or failure as a harbinger of the mid-term Congressional elections?
Who's next on DeLay's radar: "Survivor" or "American Idol"?
Admit it: You'd watch a smackdown between DeLay and Simon Cowell.

(the above is from the Statesman and I can't vouch for its authenticity, although it sounds exactly like something the "Hammer" would pull...or pound...or hit on...)

some quotes from the news today:
On Tuesday, kicking off the mid-term elections campaign, Bush delivered a speech that cited Bin Laden's screeds, Lenin's What Is To Be Done? and Hitler's Mein Kampf, and promised "complete victory". Rice contributed her own comparison of the "war on terror" to the American civil war. "I'm sure there are people who thought it was a mistake to fight the civil war to its end and to insist that the emancipation of slaves would hold," she said.
But the more delirious the rhetoric, the more hollow the policy. "There is no plan for Iraq," a senior national security official with the highest intelligence clearance and access to the relevant memos told me. "There is no plan."
· Sidney Blumenthal is a former senior adviser to President Clinton

Newsman to Tony Snow (Bush's Press Secretary during a press conference):
"Don't point your finger at me".

Richard C. Woollam, who was transferred to BP's Houston offices in 2005 amid concerns that he intimidated potential whistleblowers, invoked the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution in refusing to answer all questions from a House subcommittee.

Oil services contractor Halliburton Co. said Tuesday it has received a contract worth more than $70 million (€54.6 million) for cementing and related services from the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Production.

Bin Laden Got Back

from ABC News.com (that vital so non-partisan bastion of a free press that's also broadcasting the 9/11 docudrama that blames former president clinton for not killing bin laden and thereby causing 9/11 to happen) comes this little not a bombshell bit of news:

Bin Laden Gets a Pass from Pakistan
September 05, 2006 5:41 PM
Brian Ross and Gretchen Peters Report:
Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a "peaceful life," Pakistani officials tell ABC News.
The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part of a "peace deal" with the Taliban.
If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden "would not be taken into custody," Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, "as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen."
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, but U.S. officials say his precise location is unknown.
In addition to the pullout of Pakistani troops, the "peace agreement" between Pakistan and the Taliban also provides for the Pakistani army to return captured Taliban weapons and prisoners.
"What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director.
The agreement was signed on the same day President Bush said the United States was working with its allies "to deny terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned areas across the world."
The Pakistani Army had gone into Waziristan, under heavy pressure from the United States, but faced a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.
"They're throwing the towel," said Alexis Debat, who is a Senior Fellow at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant. "They're giving al Qaeda and the Taliban a blank check and saying essentially make yourselves at home in the tribal areas," Debat said.

p.s. check this video out (may have to wait through the ad) for the most pissed off cat i have ever seen. i would adopt it in a heartbeat.

The Amazing Levitating Pith Post HNT

Some of you may know about the Almighty Pith and the way in which i loved it up in my last HNT. Some of you may know that it belongs to Lecram. Some of you may know that lately Lecram has been leaving his helmet behind when making a grand exit. none of you, however, know (until now) that I have unlocked its magical powers. I, yes I, have opened its little box of fairy dust and managed to create........The Levitating Pith!
Here in picture #1 you see me caressing its contours in order to coax out its witchy potential:

After a few minutes in which I called on the supernatural powers to help and guide me in my most mysterious and arduous task I was able to release the Pith and let float gently on the wings of my wind:
And, finally, I was able to recline and enjoy the awe of magic well done. Now you might be thinking I used some earthly mechanism to prop the pith aloft. Verily, though, i say to you that this pith touched not my body in any fashion. It is truly magic:
Thus ends this week's HNT. Thus continues the defiling and desacration of Lecram's Pith. Happy HNT, everyone!
P.S. According to a recent HNT post of Katie's I will only get my hat back if I do a full frontal HNT. I believe that this should qualify. What say all of you?

it's funny how when i start thinking of changing companies in search of better financial security my guts get all wiggly. but i sent out the emails with my resume that i needed to. now i only hope it isn't seven months before they even consider me. oh well. my current job isn't so bad as they go. it just doesn't pay very well for the skills i possess. certain among you may be used as references. so let me know now if that isn't a good thing to do. other than that, i got nothing. so i'm outta here.

WARNING!WARNING!WARNING!

did donald "the fuck" rumsfeld just call me an appeaser? because i think this so-called war in iraq is a fuckup of the nth magnitude? because i think that invading iraq was something that was on the table long before 9/11 even happened? because i was yelling about the fact that none of the bush administration's arguments for invasion actually squared with the information coming out of any of the intelligence agencies? because, while i had nothing against going into afghanistan to root out al quaeda (since they were nested there and the taliban had publicly proclaimed its support for the group), i had just a teensy weensy little problemo with taking out saddam hussein under the totally crap guise of destroying his WMDs? which didn't exist in the first place and EVERYBODY in the intelligence community knew it? because i think that donald, dick and george don't care about stopping terrorism so long as it makes them and theirs lots and lots of money? because i'm convinced that george believes he is doing God's will by bringing about some kind of Armageddon in his lifetime? because i believe that adding "by killing people" to everything these "neocons" say makes what they say the truth (got that from jag)? because i believe that $212 million and more could be better spent securing our country than it could bombing and shooting iraq back to whatever came four ages before the Stone one? because i believe that power is first and foremost in the minds of these thugs who rule our country and couldn't care less about the concept of governance?
remember that those who rush to war and call others appeasers are usually, in fact, the very ones who should be feared the most.
do we need to protect ourselves from harm at this time in history? you bet. but at what time in history shouldn't we have? at what time in history did we not have enemies who would destroy our way of life given the chance? never. as soon as we declared independence from the english we had an enemy dedicated to our quick demise. as soon as we began landgrabbing we had enemies in the french and germans, then the indians and mexicans. any and all of them would gladly have slit our throats in order to rebalance the board as it were.
now we have an enemy who has decided to fight us here rather than over there (if you believe our administration) so we must fight THEM over THERE instead of here.
but we can't even take care of ourselves. we can't even stop fighting with ourselves over healthcare, gay marriage, hurricane katrina, south of the border immigration control, voting irregularities, alternative fuel sources, global warming, the minimum wage, race relations, blahblahblah...
if you want a country unified against a common foreign enemy, then unify it by coming together on those things that affect it in its daily life. come together in the spirit of everyone belonging to each other. come together, because we're all we've got when we get up in the morning and walk out our doors. we are all different, yet we all are the same. we are the same in our basic needs. we are different in how we approach them. we are the same in bits and bytes and stems and seeds. we are different in how we smoke it. we are the same in wanting the high that comes with being american and human.
so, donald, don't call me an appeaser. call me your brother who wants to walk a different path to the same destination.
you fuck.

A Moosical Post

"Cows have regional accents, a group of British farmers claims, and phonetics experts say the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds."
i believe it. after all, new york birds say "choip" and new york pigs say "ernk".

update: a friend sent me this picture and i thought i should share it with you: it's a male camel toe. what accent do YOU think it speaks with?

Well, he said it...finally. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. And when did we come to have a "freedom agenda"? Seriously, Bush admits that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and who's going to call him on all of the crap propaganda his administration was trotting out in the run-up to our invasion concerning Iraq's ties to al-quaeda and its backing of the group? Watch the video and listen for yourself to his bluster, defensiveness, dismissal, and condescension. Right there and then is the bullet by which he should be brought down.

Rantless Thursday

Note to Steph: why should I go on a rant about the Jon Benet Ramsey case? Why should I care? Thousands of little children are murdered each year. The majority of them are not white and garner no attention from the Press, national OR local. So, a blue-eyed, blond haired dress-up doll was brutally victimized by someone (we still can't be sure even with a professed confession). So what? It's not the murder that is so heinous as it is the manner in which she was being raised by her parents. Do you remember the photo stills that made her to look as if she was giving a come-hither pose? Do you remember the pageant videotapes in which she flirted with the camera as if she were ten years older (which still would have left her a minor)? Do you remember the parents who wouldn't allow police access to certain parts of their lives, documents and interviews while claiming the whole time that they were innocent? What did they have to hide? What was so shameful that they couldn't speak to the police in order to help find her killer? It's not her death that I find despicable. It's the manner in which she was led to it by parents who cared more for the glamour she brought them than the light she carried within. This was not a financially strapped family hoping to enrich an otherwise bleak future with her possible success in the modeling field. This was a family obsessed with caste, not cash. This was a pair of parents who looked outward to others within their social class and decided for their child what she would do and become. Jon Benet was a Barbie in every sense of the word, dressed and made up and told who she was at all times by the very people she trusted to take care of her and allow her to grow up as an individual. I think of her and Paris Hilton comes to mind: vapid, vaccuous and inured to the realities of the everyday world by money and manipulation.
Perhaps, they have found her killer. In my mind, though, that does not exonerate her parents one whit. They lied to the police, they refused to cooperate with the police, they hired lawyers to shield them from the police and they accused the police of targeting them (which all police do in this situation, because most often it is a family member or family friend who did the deed). They used this little girl for their ends. They made her up to look like a tart, then basked in the glow of her lolita-esque success. They claimed there was nothing wrong with what they did, that beauty pageants were good, clean, wholesome fun for little girls. They would not "see" what she looked like as she pranced around on stage and made suggestive dance moves that adult males were watching. They were creating a Madonna/Whore. Innocent, yet seductive. Chaste, but naughty. And all for the almighty dollar. All for the vicarious thrill. All to kick sand in the faces of the Joneses. All because they could not do it themselves.
That's the tragedy of this. Not that she was murdered, not that she never had a chance to grow up. But that this happened to her, because the very people she should have been able to trust with her life chose to use her in an absolutely indefensible and disgusting way to fulfill some neglible void in their neglible lives and it incited someone else to kill her.
And that's why I won't write a rant, Steph. Because it would (in my mind) just add more attention to a family that deserves none. Jon Benet was not a real girl like the ones we see running to school every day. She was a plastic figurine her parents bent into a new shape every day as it suited them. They did not give birth to a real child. They ordered one from Mattel. And they incited lust within the bodies of grown men by dressing her up as a prom queen and coquette every chance they had. So, fuck them.
By the by, they've made quite a bundle from their interviews with the press and the books they authorized to be written, yes?
Oh, and I know the mother died recently. But I don't care. The fact that she died doesn't make up for what she did to her child before then.
So, no rant today from me, Steph. Sorry.

5.1 Surround Sound System

i don't know about you, but after a long night of drinking with friends down at the local watering hole it's nice to come home, open the box containing my new surround sound speakers that i got for 1/4 of the price circuit city was asking ($200), hook it up and experience massive noise fulminating from my wall. previously, i had two altec lansing speakers doing the bidness for me (and they do rock), but my wall air conditioner made them sound like two week old pussy kittens mewling for an extra bit of milk. now, i am concerned that my neighbors will never sleep again. i know i won't. i know i don't want to. music is good. loud music is better. pissing off the neighbors is bestest. plus, they're having a party tomorrow night and i will not sleep until they are done. good thing i'm invited. good thing i invited my own peeps. good thing i have booze stov=cked. good thing i own a gun. oh, shit. i sold it. good thing i own knives. good thing i'm a pacifist. good thing i like to drink. see you there. or here. or in between. you're all invited. if you know how to get here. up to you, not me.