we won't be pwn'd again

Hoping I am not one of these merchants of gloom or persistant naysayers (though I am very quick to criticize US policy), I cannot see there was much good news for the Obama administration during this past week.  After the end of the Kennedy dynasty, the Supremes were quick to follow with another blow, relaxing campaign finance reform and reversing the goals of McCain-Feingold.  Politicians are already tools of corporate interests and their cherry-picking of candidates that will support their agendas should not be made any easier, and now the opinion of a gaggle of investors, stakeholders is on equal-footing and apparently just as sacrosanct in terms of First Amendment Bill of Rights™ protection as any individual voter.  That does not bode well for America's credibility or sincerity.  Mixed signals are abundant with the call for taxing the bohemoth banks and tripping over healthcare reform.

skimming with sharks

Overshadowed by the super-loss of their super-majority and other kinks in the process of cauterizing state-run health-care, there was a second news item (the story is no longer available) concerning nationalization of the multi-billion dollar student loan industry.  SallieMae was always a strange sort of quasi-governmental agency with a weird and shadowy sort of authority and potential to do its worse.  I wonder what it means for my Diploma Mill University, which was just re-accredited by the association of reputable accreitors, thank you very much--which I am sure were reliant on a lot of free and easy federally subsidized monies that seemed to be granted like wishes, or for those loan agencies that operated under the same federal umbrella.  I am not sure what this news could mean.

beating ploughshares into swords

Here's some disturbing reporting from ABC News--

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifles and sights provided to the US military by Michigan company, the 18 January report reveals. The sights are used by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of native soldiers.  The maker, Trijicon, has a $660 million, multi-year contract to provide 800,000 sights to the Marines and Army.  Rules prohibiting proselytzing any religion in Iraq and Afghanistan were specifically drafted in order curb criticism that the US was engaging in a religious crusade.  One of the inscriptions read 2COR4:6 and apparently references 2nd Corinthians 4:6, which reads "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face or Jesus Christ."  There are more inscriptions citing the books of Revelations, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as the light of the world.  John 8:12, appearing on the gun sights as JN8:12 says, "Whomever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life."  The report goes on to say that it allows al Qaeda and the jihadists to claim that they are being shot by Jesus rifles.  I wonder how exactly this report came to be--it's like some rudimentary, evangelical version of the Da Vinci Code combined with bombshell art, taking swipe at the military industrial complex for dragging its feet on the issue of a crusade.

capricorn

I've noticed, that either through intent or accident, we have a lot of goat-themed decor about the house--from the Picasso to the great-horned lamp.

jamming good with Weird & Gilly

Last week NASA released some photographs of the Martian terrain on sand dunes that look like they are covered with sagebrush.  This, however, is the result of shadows of sublimating crystalline pillars of dry ice frost now that it is spring time on Mars.  Even if it is sort of an optical illusion, it far surpasses the shadow that looks like a human face on Mars or a contrived Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich.  It seems a shame that there is all that unused real estate, by man or beast or sometging unimaginable on the other planets.  The only news on Mars, we would say, is when we send out rockets and robots there, or when those comets hurled into Jupiter.

Hoodoo

The people of Haiti are in trouble.  Please send help if you can.  Artze ohne Grenze.

baden baden

On these cold winter weekends, nothing could be finer than an afternoon spent at the spas.  Bad Kissingen, Bad Neustadt, Bad Bocklet, Bad Karma.  For the brave or the fool-hardy, some even have a chute from the inside to the outside pool, thick with a bank of lazy steam tampt down by the cold, cold air.  From the envelope of warmth, the fragile currents above the waters look deceptively inviting.

nomenclature

The wintery storm was not a total bust, as we await early dismissal, but the Germans seem to have developed a sort of naming-envy, American-style.  The weather men have called this depression Daisy, as one would name hurricanes or cyclones.  H says they used to just call it winter.  I am afraid they might take it to a further extreme and pop the suffix -gate on it, like the US has done with every political scandal or hissy-fit since Watergate.  Monica-gate, Finance-gate, Climate-gate.  Giving something a name has become more than just short-hand for the weather system that made a mess of the roads during a certain time, it gives it a personality like El Nino or La Nina, which one does not hear so much about these days--possibly non-compliant with global warming.