Majikthise

Get Your War On (video)

Via Raw Story.

Happy Holidays

Greetings from Vancouver.

The normal posting schedule will resume soon. 

From the road

I wanted to help fill in while Lindsay was gone, but I've been gone too.  For the past ten days I've been in Galapagos (that's how the locals, and natives refer to the islands and I've picked up the habit, I'm not sure if it's affectation, or just proper speech, but there it is).

With luck (and perhaps some perserverance) this won't be a once in a lifetime thing, because we weren't here long enough (I'm not sure I can afford long enough, but a month might be acceptable).  If you can find the time and the money, it's worth it (for those who have any interest in "natural philosophy" as what we now call natural history/science was once called). 

There is no way to get to the various islands but by boat, which is an adventure.  The landscapes are severe, and lush.  Radically different with the smallest of elevations.  The swimming is ok, the snorkeling incredible.  Diving is probably as much better than snorkeling, as snorkeling is to swimming, but we didn't do any.

Ecuador is serious about protecting the islands (rumors are that they may be closed to tourism, or the access greatly restricted) so all but a very small fraction are closed to traffic (though most of the islands have paths) and a guide is required to make a legal landfall.

Right now I am enjoying my breakfast in Quito, before I take my taxi to the airport and make my way home.  A more detailed account of the trip is under way on my blog Better than salt money , and will continue for a few days until I've caught up.

Right now the photos I wanted to post (out of some 40 gigs of files) won't go.  I'll try again at the airport (Quito is a tolerably well wired city).

Bay Ridge tornado, via Bejing

The Phantom is in China this week.

While he was away, a tornado struck his block in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

He's still abroad, but he's covering events in his own neighborhood from Bejing.

Guest Blogging: Bug bites and the corruption of language

As most of you by now know, Lindsay and I work together, mucking it up even. As a result, we have forced one another to visit each other's blogs - demanding that the other guest post of all things. So here I am blathering on because frankly, I have spent the last week on assignment in a third world country, and am now sadly nursing my many and various bug bites.

I am sure I will find something of interest to blog about, but at the moment I am entirely lost in the drama of itch and scratch. I did, however, want to mention that while awaiting my flight back to the United States, I learned from an airport TV that our supreme court basically told the women of this nation to sod off, using a fabricated concept called the "partial birth abortion" (a Luntz verbal product sold and apparently bought for political use). I firmly believe and as history has demonstrated that the easiest way to destroy the nation is to corrupt the language by which people can freely exchange ideas, creating some sort of oral-gami in which facts can be submerged under the veneer of opinion or byte sized slogans. The corruption of language has taken away our ability to have any real and honest debate, because the language we are forced to use is artificially created in order to manipulate our emotions.

So a "partial birth abortion" cannot be addressed as is, because such a concept is a fallacy. How then do we move forward on this issue and discuss it meaningfully? Thoughts? In the meantime, I am going back to bed from where my epic itching and scratching marathon will no doubt continue.

LA