Obama is sending US troops to Afghanistan - what a total FAIL, We handed that responsibility over to NATO,and the fact that the threatened European nations can't find 30,000 soldiers to "fight terror in their backyard" ought to have been a clue.

Bill Holmstrom was the state rep for Astoria, Oregon when I lived there, and his crusade to get a recycling law into place earned him the title "Bottle Bill".  The bill passed in late 1971 and I moved to Astoria at the start of 1973.

Sen. Holmstrom had some catchy slogans for the bottle bill, and while I can't recall them at the moment, what with the passing of the decades and a memory like a colander, I know all of them had to have been better than California's amazingly lame "It's good for the bottle, it's good for the can". 

Every time I see that slogan (and it is at the entrance to every grocery store and any other place bottled or canned beverages are sold), I get the urge to hunt down the person who thought it up, and rinse his/her/it's mind out with soap. Obviously the lobotomy was a success. Because when you stop to analyze this slogan, not only is it awkward phrasing, it's wrong. Recycling destroys the bottle. It destroys the can. Okay, so some of the bottle is made into another bottle, maybe, and some of the can may become another can. But that's not what the slogan says.
      

In the spirit of constructive criticism, I suppose I should propose a better recycling slogan. More than one. And invite you to vote on them and make your own suggestions.

So twist my arm, why don't you?

Poll #1490919 In Hoor of "Bottle" Bill Holmstrom
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 0

Check the ones you like

View Answers

Get off your can and recycle
0 (0.0%)

Don't mess with California
0 (0.0%)

Recycle: It isn't taxing
0 (0.0%)

Yes we can (and bottle, too)
0 (0.0%)

Ready for change? 5¢ for small 10¢ for large containers
0 (0.0%)

Poll #1458653
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 1

Which one of these is closest to what you believe?

Which one of these is closest to what you believe?

Which one of these is closest to what you believe?

Which one of these is closest to what you believe?

Couch surfing this afternoon brought me to the "We" channel, and an episode of Bridezilla which made me wonder why the homicide rate isn't sky high among fiancés. And it made me wonder about marriage, which led me to ponder the gay marriage thing.

What I believe:

1. Marriage is personal, a matter of the heart
1a. Legal marriage is mostly an artifact of religion.
2. Anyone should be able to marry anyone. Singular or plural.
3. The government should make no laws respecting marriage or the freedom to marry.
4. The government should get out of the marriage business entirely.

There is nothing which marriage laws cover which are not covered somewhere else in the law, except  tax tables, which shouldn't discriminate against people on the basis of marital status anyway. I'm surprised the "married filing jointly" loophole has lasted this long. Where's the ACLU when you really need them?

Let's guess. Sarah Palin quit because:

Poll #1425116
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

She's a quitter

She was blackmailed by the Lt. Governor

She is about to be arrested

She's pregnant

She has cancer

Todd wants a divorce

The voices in her head told her to

She has landed a spot on The View

ADD

On someone else's journal a couple of nitwits are arguing with me about McCain's record of public service, countering with the laughable claims that (a) military service isn't public service and (b) Obama left a lucrative career for one in public service. One of them whines about having given many months and dollars to get Obama elected, and asked what I did, as if I supported either candidate, which I did not. For the record, though, I supported Chris Dodd for as long as he stayed in the race.

I am appalled that anyone would say enlisting in the military and risking death to defend one's country is not public service. Obviously these are people who have never put their lives on the line for anything. I've been there, most of the men of my generation have been there. I'm not a fan of the military, or of war or violence. I don't "support our troops" when they don't refuse to fight an illegal war or perform illegal acts. But whether you think John McCain is a hero or a poser, the fact is he enlisted voluntarily, he flew combat missions which put his life on the line, and was shot down and served 6 years in a Viet Cong prison camp as a result. Regardless of how shamefully you may think he was treated there, that's 6 years of his life he is never getting back, and 6 years more than you wimps will ever sacrifice as a result of serving your country.

Obama left a job on Wall Street which may or may not have been lucrative. Junior brokers are a dime a dozen, and turnover is high in that high-pressure environment. In his first book he says he felt uncomfortable as a colored person in a white world, but he was there during the height of Affirmative Action and a general opening up of the finance community to people of color, so I don't really buy that story. Regardless, I would not compare his minor financial sacrifice of working as a small-time, not particularly successful, community development worker with disinterested church groups to McCain's volunteering to get into a uniform and dodge bullets for a living. Or working in the US Congress for 27 years.

Both men have their good and bad. What I hate most about the cretins is they want to paint their hero as all good and his opponent as all bad. Both men have done heroic and despicable things during their lives, and we owe it to them and ourselves to laud the good while acknowledging the bad.

Special Election in Cali today, I voted on my way to work. I was the only one voting, outnumbered by friendly, smiling poll workers 8:1.

Elections cost a lot of money, and the irony of a special election to vote on new ways to fudge the budget with smoke and mirrors...

What we should have been voting on was abolishing the party system in statewide elections. ( Read more... )

But I digress. I voted for A and B, which seemed to be acceptable amounts of smoke and shiny enough mirrors to maybe help smooth out the spikes of famine and plenty which California has had lately. Also voted for F, which is also the grade I give to the greedy legislators for not limiting their own salaries while harpooning the rest of the budget.

C robs from the schools and borrows against an uncertain future, and is a blueprint for disaster on way too many levels.
D and E rob two programs which need more funding, not less, and Arnold should be ashamed of himself for proposing such measures.

President Obama signed an executive order today striking down a rule prohibiting U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services. Yay!

Caroline Kennedy "withdrew" from her campaign to be appointed NY Senator to replace Hilary. Hah! As if she was in any way qualified. Today someone who does appear to be, Kirsten Gillibrand, was named to the seat. She's from upstate NY, not the city. Not Arkansas or Massachusetts. Yay!

Edited to add links, because CNN's embed code isn't working with LJ's

Obama just signed an order to close Guantanamo within a year. Yay! He has issued an order to the CIA telling them to stick to the Army Field Manual's interrogation techniques. Yay!

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2009/01/22/sot.obama.executive.order.cnn

Obama is left-handed. How did I miss that?

Hilary told her assembled staff she wants them to "think outside the proverbial box" and that she wants to hear advice from all who wish to offer it. "We need to collaborate. We need to have a sense of openness and candor witrhin this building" she said. Yay!

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2009/01/22/sot.clinton.state.dept.pool.cnn

The view of all those people was breathtaking. I also enjoyed watching Perlman and Ma playing off each other toward the end of John Williams' composition, and was thrilled with the playing of clarinetist Anthony McGill. He gets an amazingly pure tone out of his instrument. And what I could hear of the US Navy Band playing Sousa marches after the ceremony was so good - I hope someone is making a CD. The 21-gun salute with artillery instead of rifles took me by surprise, and was pretty impressive.

Other than that, it was pretty blah for me.( Read more... )

The full text of Obama's speech is here on Yahoo News. Details about the pre- and post-game show participants are on about.com's music section.

Now that we know Obama is not as pro-choice and pro-gay-rights as everyone assumed he was (everyone who forgot he converted to deepest darkest Christianity despite having the advantage of being raised without religion), the 2008 ballot is not looking as appealing.

For those of you who have come to the conclusion that neither party's candidate is the best choice, and voting Green or Peace and Freedom is too pinko hippie for you, may I suggest you write in my name?

I'm qualified, being over 35, a native citizen of the United States with no criminal record. Not even a traffic ticket. I'm single, never married, never had an adulterous affair, have no children, and am beholden to no special interest groups. As a former Peace Corps Volunteer who has lived in three countries I have more international work experience than either major candidate. I am also a true Washington Outsider, although I do have federal government job experience in Seattle with NOAA and the US Fisheries Service.

My platform:
( cut because I care )