A Tiny Victory

This is a good story.

An upset victory produces a rare moment of unity in Iraq

"... As the Iraqi players wept and danced with joy on a soccer pitch in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, their countrymen rejoiced at perhaps the rarest of Iraqi experiences: a happy ending."

It would be interesting to do a study of the things that actually produce value and positive humanistic qualities in society. I suspect politics and in particular the politics that reflect the Republican Party are extremely low on that study's list of what is beneficial.

The news from Iraq is so utterly bad that we find the tiniest glimmer of hope in this brief elevation of the Iraqi spirit through soccer.

The poignancy is felt intensely.

Excellent News

This is the best news of the day - hands down!

Anxious Republicans fear another beating

Nine months after Republicans were routed in the midterm elections, campaign observers, K Street lobbyists and political experts say there is little evidence the party can rebound in 2008.

The party that has stood behind the worst president producing the worst policy for Americans certainly in my lifetime, is not where America or Americans are at.

Throw these bums out on their nether regions. Force the Daddy War Party to revamp and learn anything about the notion of humanity.

Schumer is Full of It

Chuck Schumer is full of it.

In this article Chuck Schumer is talking tough about the extremist judge nominees that Bush has put forth for approval including Alito and Roberts.

Democrat charges U.S. justices "duped" Senate

"Were we duped?" he asked.

"Were we too easily impressed by the charm of nominee Roberts and the erudition of nominee Alito?" Schumer asked. "Did we mistakenly vote our hopes when our fears were more than justified by the ultraconservative records of these two men?"

"Yes," he said.

For the record, Schumer is trying to back away from his own clear and crappy decision, in order to wipe his political hands clean and gain political leeway.

Anybody on the progressive side of the aisle who was familiar with the records of those two clear and obvious extremists, Alito and Roberts, could see the writing on the wall about ten miles away. I mean Federalist Society, Bork, give me a break please.

Schumer continues to un-impress.

Bush Fatigue

Help!

Bush has the anti-Midas touch, everything he touches turns to ruin. I'm beginning to think that the approval polls are not asking the right questions.

More questions need to be included on any revised polls about Bush's approval. For example:

- Are you utterly sick and tired of George Bush and all aspects of his administration and political party?

- Do you believe anything that comes out of Bush's mouth?

- Has the steady stream of jaw dropping/ head slapping news resulting from this president's administration created a well of contempt for Bush, neocons, and extremist fundamentalists?

These questions are closer to the pressure that has built up out there.

Bush fills the role of the authoritative father who consistently and deliberately urges his children onward except in reality, dad is walking in the dark and his flashlight is stuck in his nether region.

What human being could live in Iraq at this point in time. The country is in shambles, the violence is so bad that it verges on having no understandable reason for why it is being perpetrated, and the Iraq government, that bastion of neocon democracy, is a hair width away from collapsing.

This hasn't stopped George Bush one tiny iota from going out there and ramping up what has become his personal obsessive fixation, a fixation which has lost its meaning and is now blurred into gibberish.

America is suffering from Bush fatigue. The words "disapproval rating" are merely tissue paper. The present they wrap is much deeper and much uglier.

BMI

This is a fascinating chart that shows how much the American waistline has increased over the past 20 years.

Fit Nation

People are getting heavier and obese. In this case, obese means a body mass index (bmi) that is over 30.

If you don't know your bmi - you can calculate it very easily at this site.

BMI

All you need to know is your height and weight.

Sande has a bmi of 23.5. That number falls in the regular range which is between 19 and 25.

Apparently most people have not heard about a low glycemic diet

This is a diet where you eat only the good carbs, plus protein and good fats. The glycemic index shows you which are the good carbs and which are the bad. One of the worst carbs - white flour.

Military in Iraq

As the Iraq occupation/civil war drags on and on, we've got to feel bad for these young people stuck in a hellish limbo.

The death toll is heavy. I just read 5 deaths today. Soon the total count will hit 4,000, who doubts this will happen. Its only a matter of when.

We really don't see the way that these soldiers are being killed. All that stuff is completely sanitized for the culture that has its nose in the affairs of movie stars and acquisition of future garage sale objects, thanks to a corporate controlled msm.

The vehicle goes over a bomb that blasts the occupants to kingdom come. Limbs get severed, bones crushed, gaping wounds, its very brutal and very harsh. Words can't convey the hot roasting flash, chaos, sound, and destruction.

They are stuck in a cycle that keeps turning out this scenario every day. The psychological stress and toll is enormous. who could endure this, and remember some of these people are barely out of high school.

The President continues to tell yarns. The nation has become tone deaf to Bush. The soldiers endure the extreme stresses of war, we endure Bush. Its tragedy on both ends.

Earth to White House

I can't recall a recent time when there was such a vast distance between what is coming out of the White House and what Americans are calling for and want.

Bush is vetoing potential improvements in health care coverage to millions of children, something that 90 something percent of the population want, yet he is gung ho for a war effort that the majority want to see end sooner than later.

Has there ever been a more inflexible and deaf president? Does the word arrogant fit on Bush?

I was reading an article on the President's most recent approval rating poll. The presidential spokespeople blamed the low numbers on the left wing web blogs.

Earth to White House, your policies are a disaster. Your policies hurt the vast majority of Americans. Your international policy of war making first is unconscionable. Your list of disastrous national policies is so long and so extensive, that most Americans are in shock.

We want you to go. You have created a massive black cloud over this country.

Bill Richardson

Richardson speaks on health care.

Heckuva Job!

Come on now, you expect me to believe that 25% of all Americans approve of Bush! Seems a little high to me, so take away FOX News and the number is almost 0%. - Bush falls to a record low approval rating of 25%

The Great Denier

It is Mr. Bush who has denied the military what it needs, first by shortchanging the Pentagon on troops and armor and then by stranding American forces in a civil war with no achievable military goal and evaporating political support. Mr. Bush denied Americans a serious debate about starting this war. It’s far past time for a serious and honest debate about how to end it.

The elective invasion of Iraq has created the conditions for Al Qaeda not only to actually exist in that country, but to also increase in size and power. As I like to mention, for this Americans are supposed to be grateful to George Bush.

The articles are coming out in a steady stream that point to the capacity of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq gaining in power, sophistication, wealth

The war in Iraq has transformed the Al-Qaeda affiliate into a battle-hardened organization with piles of money, sophisticated recruiting networks and some of the world's most experienced and innovative bomb makers, officials and analysts say.

Back in the era of President Reagan, Al Qaeda came into being with US support, in order to fight the Russians in Afghanistan.

Now with Bush, the organization has gained a growing foothold in Iraq and is considered a greater threat than it was at the time of 9-11.

This reflects on the policy failures of Republican administrations. Is anybody actually thinking in this administration? Or is it just all bluster and emotion?

Political Humor

I saw this on Crooks and Liars . Very funny



I fell in love with this guitar. Guitarists take note, the Epiphone ES 295 is outstanding, full 3 inch deep hollow body, two p-90 pickups, bigsby, and a lot of funkiness.

Arrogance

noun: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions.

"I'm honored to be here with the eternal general of the United States, mi amigo Alberto Gonzales." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 4, 2007

(Presumptuous - adjective: failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate)

"...The arrogant assumes his views and opinions are The Truth. In arrogance, natural confidence goes sadly awry. Rather than the self-assurance born of knowing his own strengths and limitations, arrogance admits no limits. The arrogant brooks no weakness in himself and may even secretly rejoice to find flaws in others... Fearing exposure, haughtiness forms a hard shell masking inner emptiness."

"My job is a job to make decisions. I'm a decision -- if the job description were, what do you do -- it's decision maker." --George W. Bush, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

The term "plutocracy" is formally defined as government by the wealthy, and is also sometimes used to refer to a wealthy class that controls a government, often from behind the scenes. More generally, a plutocracy is any form of government in which the wealthy exercise the preponderance of political power, whether directly or indirectly.

"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." —at the President's Economic Forum in Waco, Texas, Aug. 13, 2002

July 17 Executive Order

Bush has issued another Executive order.

Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:

(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or

(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;...

Correct me if I am wrong here, but this is starting to sound like, if you oppose my war in Iraq, then I can have your property seized.

Now this is curious - "(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq..." correct me if I am wrong here but didn't the invasion of Iraq threaten the peace and stability of Iraq. Also I was not aware that there is at present any stability to threaten.

So Bush is calling the present situation in Iraq stable, when it is in fact chaos, and consequently will seize your property if you disrupt the present stability which is actually chaos.

Houston, we have a problem.

The Dalai Lama in Woodstock NY

Anguish

Strike Against Terror by Thich Nhat Hanh

"Terror is in the human heart. We must remove this terror from the heart."

George Bush is gung ho on Iraq.

Prior to the elective invasion of Iraq, Al Qaeda did not exist in that country. There were no links, repeat no links, between Iraq and the 'Al Qaeda' 9-11 attack.

The failure to adequately plan for a post invasion Iraq, has created the conditions where Al Qaeda is now in that country. In his rhetoric Bush of course, never mentions that it was, and continues to be, his own failure to produce any sound policy that has brought Al Qaeda to Iraq. Bush created the conditions in Iraq that have spurred on Al Qaeda. And for this Americans are supposed to be grateful and supportive.

Instead Bush is now flapping unstoppably about the Iraq Al Qaeda threat. Is there a word that can possibly describe this level of unconscionable behavior particularly coming from a President? We expect this from the right wing hate mongers, they are alas pathologically unconscionable, but we are aghast at the so called president's lack of non-truth restraint.

The Iraq people are now regarded as the enemy. The recent disclosure that all male Iraqis were the probable enemy and consequently needed beatings, is perhaps the ultimate tragic "Catch 22." The level of absurdity is hard to fathom and stomach. Apparently from the Pentagon's point of view the only solution to Iraq is the old 'final solution.' No doubt someone in that lofty perch is preaching this insanity. If you doubt this, recall all of the sadistic torture and binds that have been enacted under the guise of freedom and democracy. The characteristic of perverting words and their meaning is the hallmark of the neo-conservative cadre. What is far more frightening is that it goes way beyond words. So goes our democracy.

Tesla Electric Supercar

Dissent

There are many aspects of the George Bush presidency that reflect a movement away from democratic principles that Americans view as fundamental to our freedom.

We were extremely alarmed at the way dissent was being attacked with the run up to the electively undertaken Iraq invasion. Dissent was not allowed.

Here is the plan that the White House was using to quell dissent and secure a speaking event for Bush that would not include war protesters.

White House Policy Illegally Silences Americans Critical of Bush, ACLU Charges

"The White House has gone too far in its attempt to make dissent invisible," said Chris Hansen, a senior ACLU attorney who is lead counsel in this case. "When taxpayers foot the bill for a public event, the president does not have the right to use a partisan litmus test to stack the audience with his political supporters."

Bush Gone Amok

Bush and Cheney continue to outright lie to the American people about the role of America in the Iraq occupation and civil war.

Cheney continues to lie about connections between Saddam and 9-11. He is unconscionable. No President and Vice President have ever sunk to the low that these two explore so vigorously. Continue to press your elected officials for impeachment of these two scoundrels.

The American people know better. Even though they are fed nonsense, are constantly blind sided by erroneous and fluff "news", they know there is something more than rotten in the White House.

There is a level of alarm arising within the Republican base that whole heartedly embraced Bush. The real stories that come from Iraq through the soldiers that have been in the thick of it, are making the rounds. People are aware of the atrocity created by Bush and his neo-con junta. Military families in growing numbers want out of Iraq.

Even as Loved Ones Fight On, War Doubts Arise

...Skyler, 24, an infantryman on his second tour of duty in Iraq. “Mom, we killed women on the street today. We killed kids on bikes. We had no choice..”

The same week, she said, her son told her he thought he had seen the worst when he had to pick up the body parts of his dead buddy, but then he saw an Iraqi boy picking up what was left of his dead father."

Experts cite three causes of eroding morale among military families: longer and multiple deployments, the continued chaos in Baghdad, and the growing death toll — April, May and June were the deadliest three months for American troops since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Midwest Towns Sour on War as Their Tolls Mount

Deep into a battle with no visible end, many Republican and Democratic voters here say the cause is no longer clear, the war no longer seems winnable and the costs are too high.

"It's time to get the hell out. It's a holy war, and you're not going to win it, no matter what you do."

One thing is completely clear about Iraq. The sadistic nature of the Bush administration permeates the war.

Marine says beatings urged in Iraq

"We were told to crank up the violence level," said Lopezromo, who testified for the defense. He indicated that during daily patrols the Marines became much rougher with Iraqis. Asked by a juror to explain, he said, "We beat people, sir."

He added that Marines, in effect, consider all Iraqi men as part of the insurgency. "Because of the way they live, the clans, they're all in it together," he said.

How can there possibly be any rationale whatsoever for staying in Iraq. All the male people in Iraq are now regarded as the enemy! This is pure insanity. This is a continuation of the Bush signature in Iraq.

Can we think back to a situation where the native inhabitants of a land were regarded as the enemy that needed to be extermintaed? This is what America has become under Bush. This is sickening.

Chris Isaac 'Wicked Game'

I love this tune

Resign Bush, Resign.

The factual news coming from Iraq is very bleak. We must make a distinction between the factual news and the imaginary news about Iraq. The Iraqi people are suffering immensely. The notion that they are ungrateful is absurd. Bush and his junta forced this war and occupation right down their throats.

Listening to Democracy Now on Thursday July 12, one heard the stories about the occupation from the soldiers themselves. The stories were blood curdling. Kicking down doors late at night, separating innocent families, herding people into rooms with rifles pointed at their heads, hauling innocent people off to be tortured, bagging someone's head, all this terrifying women and children, violating all moral standards of the Iraqi people or any people for that matter, it was a disgusting oral history of how the occupation has proceeded. It was also telling in exactly where the insurgency comes from. The anger of these violations produces a need for revenge, they have nothing to lose because all dignity has been mechanically and violently removed. No soldier, excepting those who are truly without human emotion and a human conscience, could participate in that degree of brutality without themselves suffering. American soldiers pay a heavy price.

All of this misery and suffering is the responsibility of George Bush. The buck stops at George Bush.

And what does George Bush do in response to all of these revelations and facts that come forward? What does he do with the fact that the vast majority of Americans now oppose any more wasting of blood and blood money? He spins, and he spins his words, all so calculated and imperialistically approved. He twists the truth, invents fairytales, and spews a stream of convenient and topical lies which when seen side by side are inconsistent. He needs more time, he needs more sacrifice, he needs your nerve, its really improving, it really is. This is Bush truth. This is the imaginary news

I have no respect for George Bush. He is now a small person, not a remarkable leader or wise and dignified old soul. He is power drunk and consequently delusional with some tragic sense of self grandeur and omnipotence. How classic, the fundamentalist president is fundamentally unfit, fundamentally corrupt, and fundamentally disastrous to the country and the world.

End this occupation now. Resign George Bush, you have lost all of our intent, you are despised. You make the world cringe.

January 30, 2003 Bush said ...Saddam could use al Qaeda as a "forward army" that could attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction "and never leave a fingerprint behind."

August 21, 2006 Bush said, "Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq"

July 12, 2007 President George Bush says, "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th..."

Cheney

This is an excellent article on Cheney. Its a must read: Dick Cheney's Psychology | Part 2: The "Attendant Lord"

"Bluffing, which comes from Cheney's passivity, was a characteristic noted by his Yale roommates. Biographers and profile writers cite many instances of Cheney's lies and deceptions. They construct the reality his patron wants to hear. But Cheney's lies begin at home. The whole structure of his dependent relationships involves lies. He can't tell his dominant partners what he's really feeling, or even what he's really doing. He is an amoral public official. He will say or do almost anything that serves the purposes of the symbiotic relationship. The patron's needs are the greater good which justifies any means. Then Cheney's anxiety, aggression, silence and emotional detachment (one associate described him as "the coldest fish there is" ) come into play in achieving the ends."

Fundamentally Disgraceful

Christian fundies disrupt the Senate prayer invocation given by a Hindu.

Giuliani

Republican Senator Gordon Smith on Iraq

He wants out of Iraq, his reasons are way off the mark but who cares.

"...pursuing a policy that cannot succeed..."

Conservatives and Chaos

Are these wild times or what?

Iraq is crumbling. The President is as entrenched in Iraq "policy" as an 80 year old victim of constipation, no movement whatsoever.

Bush Says No Iraq Shift; Criticism Rises

The Bush administration ruled out any quick shift in military strategy in Iraq on Tuesday, despite growing bipartisan calls in the Senate for a troop withdrawal and sharp criticism of the Iraqi government.

We are into the in between times. The old policy is a bona fide failure, nobody is in a position to effect greater leverage. The American people are in a heat wave daze, everbodys' brain is bubbling, baseball sucks, and progress is offensive to conservatives.

We are heading in three directions at once. Conservatives are retreating into the old ways. Where are the bonnets? Even conservatives are bickering. The new Pope seems like a blast from the past, about 842 AD.

Pope: Other Christians Not True Churches

...other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

On Saturday, Benedict revived the old Latin Mass - a move cheered by Catholic traditionalists but criticized by more liberal ones as a step backward from Vatican II.

This is kinda funny. I like seeing conservatives get rough with one another. On the other hand I truly like Latin, agricola, sum es est. My religion is the only religion, the only true religion, truer, and truest. You're religion might be the truer but mine is more symbolically resonant. I like inferior religions. Its hard being in an inferior religion. Its about setting the spiritual bar low. You won't go to heaven but maybe you'll be able to resist cheesecake.

You don't know what to expect. I mean this is bad news for Bush. That phrase "bad news for Bush..." Freudian?

Who knows what will happen, maybe South Carolina will invade Vatican City. Fundamentalists, what a pain in the ass.

MYWAY

Miles and Coltrane 'So What'

P.O.'d Rant Number 1000

The call to remove all US troops from Iraq is as loud as it can possibly get.

George Bush is not qualified, in even a remote way, to provide clear vision on matters of simple public policy. How can he provide leadership on a matter of war, something which is vastly complex?

He can't. He has no plan of any consequence except a plan for continued failure. He never had a plan, he never will. George Bush remains the coddled golden child pampered throughout his life on a fluffy love kissed pillow held aloft by a series of deluded sycophants bought and sold as their usefulness ascends and eventually wanes. Whatever Georgie wants to try, Georgie gets.

A series of strategic attacks on the American political system funded by a degree of porcine greed and hypocrisy that has no precedent in human history, resulted in bringing the likes of George Bush into political power. He is the supremely unqualified president. His fundamentalist box is poisonous to America and the freedoms that this country stands for. This of course, would never stop the same greed grubbing elite from repeating this exercise in power mongering.

I opposed the Iraq invasion from the beginning. Anyone who spent a few simple hours of fact based research, not fantasy based research, on the topic would also have opposed it from the very beginning.

The neo-conservative cadre of charlatan intellectuals and inflated self congratulating chicken hawks that created this disaster through a propaganda assault on a notoriously ill informed American public belongs in jail. Their illegal abuses of power are beyond contemptuous. The fumbling sloppy mainstream media bought and sold by the same corporate greed must tighten up their lazy act.

It amazes me that George Bush can't manage to produce poll numbers that are in the 50% approval range at the minimum. Even an American public, mainlining engorged helpings of nonsense 'news' involving neurotic stars and Rupert Murdoch's hell vision, knows that George is not prime filet but some cheap hamburger helper. What a joke. Bush even screwed up his own propaganda effort with a deck so stacked there was nothing for the other side. He had all the branches of government, the media, the military, Wall St, and devastating propaganda, and even armed with that he ran the thing into the dumpster.

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi - Life in Iraq Under U.S. Occupation

Impeach Cheney

Bush and Cheney need to be unceremoniously dumped.

Fly in Your Face

Senator Joe Biden was quoted as saying that Bush is brain dead. He is referring to the commutation of neo conservative, Project for a New American Century fraternizer and protagonist Scooter Libby's 30 month jail sentence for aiding in the act of committing treason.

Biden goes on to call this commutation something that flies in the face of the American people.

Perhaps the Libby case has somehow gained more notoriety with the American public because in reality practically every act by this so called President has flown in the face of the American people.

The only difference is that the propaganda used to do things like invade Iraq and subject millions of people to either death, injury, exile, torture, or some other hideous loss, was significantly better.

Bush has long lost the propaganda war from the point of view of the majority of Americans. This is a significant and amazing loss because Americans are about as politically informed as a corn dog.

The point I want to make is that if all Americans were pointedly informed about this so called President's activities, his popularity not withstanding his crackpot radio thug chicken hawk cheerleaders, would be around zero. Bush is falling into the territory where he is as popular as he would be if he didn't even exist.

The Neo-Conservative Pardon

Scooter Libby is a key signee of the salient document 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' produced by the ultra militaristic, neo-conservative think tank known as The Project for a New American Century.

This document is the cornerstone of the Bush administration foreign policy. From invading Iraq, to the fervent wish to invade Iran, Syria, and North Korea, to renewed interest in escalating the production of atomic weapons thereby restarting the nuclear arms race, to the new breed of private military 'contractors', to placing unilateralism in the forefront of non diplomacy, to increasing military spending ad infinitum, to degrading the role of the United Nations in world matters, and much more, its all found in this document.

The document was delivered to the White House in September of 2000. Seven years later and what has the thrust of that policy created by the neo-conservative cadre yielded for America and the world?

Let's sum it up quickly and poignantly, it has yielded festering garbage - chaos in Iraq, a booming business in cemetery creation, billions and billions of dollars of wasted American taxpayer money, a presidency that will go down as the most disastrous inept divisive and out of touch ever foisted on the American people, the shredding of the US Constitution, a disastrous world image for the USA, the renewal of torture, and on and on, the list is nothing short of wretchedly stunning.

On top of all that failure and misery, we have a so called president that is as popular as the plague. A so called president who violates the constitution and the rule of law with as much disregard as one wipes their shoes on a doormat.

If their as any patriotism left in the country, patriotism that yields to the values of democracy and equal rights and opportunity, then use it to throw this bum out of office.

Pardon Me

Back on June 13th, I wrote the following in this blog. Here

Libby will not serve a second in jail. He is far too connected to the right wing pro war hard liners to have any risk of imprisonment for something so "minor" as aiding in the outing of a deep cover CIA agent for a political purpose. Something that in ordinary terms is called treason.

Think back to Iran Contra Gate. The chief criminals of that debacle are now creating policy for Bush.

Anyone who thinks there is an equal justice system in place that will take the well connected to the same place that the street punk goes, is dreaming.

Libby will be pardoned by Bush. I am also sure that the decision to do this has been in place for a long time.

Since that time I have found even more evidence of why this occurred. Why the pardon occurs. The biggest sign I found is this particular web page found on the White House website: Ask the White House Paul Wolfowitz

This page is a transcription of a 2004 interview given by the disgraced former Deputy Secretary of Defense, Project for a New American Century protagonist, Straussian ideologue, protege of Paul Nitze, right wing militant dream come true, Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz answers questions from the public about Iraq.

The words are classic in that they are completely wrong and cunningly deceptive, and yet retain all of the essential Iraq War talking points that this so called 'President' continues to spew. It should be a classic study in how propaganda is layered onto an unwitting population.

Yet, in spite of all these things, the page is active. Its active, its not going away soon. See for yourself. What does this say. Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, above all, you kiss my ass, I will kiss yours.

The Uighurs

A few weeks back, I did a short article on why Bush stopped off in Albania in his recent trip through Europe. In the investigation, I learned about the Uighurs and their subjugation by the Chinese.

Albania, The Uighurs, Terrorism, and Torture

As I was completely unaware of even the existence of this particular cultural group of people, I want to learn a bit more about them. After all, I believe we are all connected in obvious and in remote ways, so its important to know who is out there.

They say that only seven degrees of separation removes us from almost everyone. I don't know if this is true but it strikes me as plausible considering I know people that have done things like met presidents and other such dignitaries, and that's only two degrees of separation right there.

Being on a food quest as of late, the cuisine of the Uighurs strikes me as a good introduction.

Uighur cuisine

“Längmän” is the most favorite and popular dish of the Uighur cuisine. It includes long noodles prepared from thin strings of dough stretched from thick wisps served with a sauce. Every Uighur meal has its symbolism. This meal is referred to as a dish of love. Love should last as long as the noodles are.

Works for me.

Quinoa

Photo of "quinoa."

In the ever widening search for the best diet and excellent foods, we are starting to eat quinoa, pronounced keen-wa.

Quinoa

"...quinoa is an amino acid-rich (protein) seed that has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when cooked."

"Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard."

If you have never eaten quinoa, the description of it as a relative of spinach might be confusing. Its taste and appearance reminds me of couscous which is a very fine tiny pasta. Quinoa is also a complete protein, and this a great benefit because I'm trying to cut out meat completely.

Quinoa is also good for the heart as it is rich in magnesium and riboflavin.

It takes about 15 minutes to cook. It has a very light mild taste.

London Calling

This is a must read for anyone who thought the recent discovery of two cars filled with propane tanks and other "explosive" devices in London was some kind of major jihad plot carefully orchestrated by Al Qaeda.

Beavis and Butthead in London jihad

"Yes, it could have been a real horror. Only, the device could not have detonated. Not under any circumstances. You see, the terrorist wannabe clown who built it left out a crucial element: an oxidiser. The device was pure pre-teen boy fantasy."

"Oh, the Piccadilly fireball would have blown the car's windows out, and popped its doors open, and sent various bits like mirrors and so forth into the air at velocities possibly fatal to people nearby. It would have looked really cool, that's for sure. But an explosive event...a detonation? Not in a million years. Sorry lads: you failed car bombing 101; you did not attend a single lecture; you did not even open the textbook."

"You and I are more likely to have been killed accidentally by the lousy driver than intentionally by his Beavis and Butthead car bomb."