Mmmm.....Meaty!

George Carlin: A Genius

George Carlin passed away today. He was 71.

George Carlin was one of the greatest comedians ever. His views of the world will be missed.

“I don’t have any beliefs or allegiances. I don’t believe in this country, I don’t believe in religion, or a god, and I don’t believe in all these man-made institutional ideas,” -- George Carlin

Here is a clip of one of his bits. It ties in nicely with my blog post from the other day.

787: Episode 5

This week we met a major milestone in the 787 program: the airplane's systems were fully powered on. Next, flight tests. Stay tuned.

BS: Creationism

A few weeks ago I saw a documentary called Jesus Camp which is about a fundamentalist Christian group (aka cult) that has an annual summer camp in Devils Lake, ND. It was a chilling depiction of the overt indoctrination of America's youth to become holy warriors with the ultimate goal of taking America back for the fundamentalist right and prevailing in a conflict against the religious zealots of other faiths and atheists. It was absolutely crazy. Young kids were literally convulsing with tears and screams as the power of Jesus flowed through them. I was shocked that some parents are so willing to give away their kids' minds so easily. If they gave their kids a lifelong supply of methamphetamine, you might not notice the difference. Here is the trailer:


So if you want a good scare, check it out. You might need to look in the horror section of your video rental store to find it.

So in response, here is an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! where the topic is creationism. I highly recommend P&T and look forward to your feedback.

Sheep!

C'mon people! This is embarrassing.

Camping recap

Deception Pass: Thumbs way up














Cold beer: Thumbs up

Sunburn: Thumbs down (damn sun!)

Ambient lighting of the campsite: Thumbs up

Batter Blaster: Thumbs up














Aerobie: Thumbs up

Throwing rocks at rocks: Thumbs up

Champagne in camping flutes: Thumbs up














Car horn blaring early in the morning: Thumbs down, way down

Darn-goods: Thumbs up

Sitting on the beach: Thumbs up














Walking to the comfort station: Thumbs down

Trader Joe's S'mores: Thumbs up

Camp potatoes: Thumbs up

No bugs: Thumbs up

No rain: Thumbs up

Playing catch with b: Thumbs up














Pie-iron pizzas: Thumbs up

Final score
Thumbs up: 15
Thumbs down: 3

Yup, it was a good weekend.

Deception Pass

Well I'm going camping this weekend. b, myself, and rachelle are going to Deception Pass State Park for a couple nights. I can't wait! Here are a couple pictures of the area I took when I was up there last year with Andy.
Have a good weekend all!

Seattle Works

Saturday b and I spent the afternoon participating in the annual Seattle Works volunteer project. It's an organization that gathers local business sponsors to fund a multitude of community improvement activities; both Boeing and Microsoft are large contributors. We were on a small team that worked with the Seattle Park Service to remove intrusive, non-native plants from a greenbelt in a public park.

While I really like to snack on the black berries, the bushes that they grow on are not native to the area and can quickly overgrow the native plants and trees. The Himalayan Black Berry bush is viewed as a menace to local parks and greenbelts. The other plants we focused on removing were ivy and holly. Ivy has a tendency to creep across the ground and climb trees. If growth is left unchecked, the ivy will kill fully grown trees and consume any other ground cover.

All volunteers were invited to a packed after party at the Seattle Center. There was 2 or 3 bands, free food, and free beer. And I don't mean free lite beer, it was 2 varieties of Pyramid brews. That was very cool. Anyway, it was 3 hours of hard work but it felt great to take part in the event. I'll be doing it again next year to do my part to keep Seattle a great city.

787: Episode 4

Amazing Grace

Political history has been made. Barack Obama has a very good chance to be elected President of the United States of America. Although it is historic in the same sense that Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks are historic figures, I am not referring to ethnicity. Barack Obama's campaign for President is historic because he does not acccept donations from lobbyists or Political Action Committees (PACs). Since their existence, lobbyists and PACs have had free reign on our politicians. Lobbyists have been writing national policy for years. That ends with Barack Obama. I think accepting lobbyist and PAC funding for political campaigns is the single largest threat to our democracy. And now that he is the Democratic (presumptive) nominee, the DNC will no longer accept lobbyist or PAC donations. I am very proud of Obama's willingness to put an end to this form of corruption. His vision takes the country from corporations and returns it to the people. But that isn't the only reason I believe Obama will make a great President...perhaps the greatest in modern times. Here are other reasons that come to mind:

1. He plans to implement an internet-based tool that will allow anyone to easily see where federal money is going. It will track the recipients of grants, loans, contracts, and earmarks. The database will disclose how much federal contractors spend on federal lobbying, what contract they are getting, and how well they complete them. Any contract over $25,000 cannot be awarded unless it is bid upon by more than one contractor.

2. He advocates transparency. All policy-making decisions between the people outside of government and the White House will be made public. Appointees who lead Executive branch departments and rule making agencies will conduct its significant business in public. Any citizen will be able to attend in person or watch on the internet.

3. Health care coverage similar to the plan available to members of Congress, FEHBP, will be made available to non insured citizens.

4. Obama is an advocate of Fair Trade policies. His policies will open foreign markets that support good American jobs. He will implement trade agreements that spread good labor and environmental standards around the world. He will continue to oppose agreements like CAFTA and will pressure the WTO to enforce fair trade agreements.

5. He has a comprehensive energy independence and climate change plan. He will boost renewable energy standards that put America on the path to generating 25% of its energy needs through renewable methods by 2025. This plan will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

6. Obama will raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation. It's completely ludicrous that the minimum wage only increased from $5.15 in 1997 to $5.85 in 2007. $5.15 in 1997 was worth anywhere from $6.85 to $8.58 in 2007 depending on the inflation indicator used. That's shameful.

7. Barack Obama is committed to protect Social Security and is opposed to increasing the federal retirement age. He will encourage employers to set up IRAs for their employees to invest in for retirement if they choose.

8. Obama advocates a tax credit for tuition to community colleges which will make them completely free and will pay for up to 2/3 of tuition at a 4-year university. No Child Left Behind is leaving too many children behind (no one can do math anymore). It will be reformed. Math and science education will be a national priority, as it should be.

9. Any federal budget increases will need to be offset by cuts in other areas of the budget. Income taxes will be increased on incomes over $250,000. Tax haven abuse will come to an end.

10. Obama will protect the family farms by implementing programs that provide stability and predictability. He will close loopholes that benefit large corporate farms. He will promote organic and regional food systems as well as country-of-origin labeling.

11. Obama will fight for pay equality for women and protect their right to choose.

12. Barack Obama will bring military forces in Iraq home as soon as possible. He recognizes that the Iraq debacle has made America less secure and is committed to restoring America's image around the world. He will use diplomacy as a tool to attain this goal.

And I could go on. If Barack Obama makes true on half of the items on his plan, the next 4 or 8 years will go down in history as one of the most productive administrations this country has ever had. We are on the precipice of a defining moment in history. Take notice.