This may be important to you.

From now on, I will make my trip/protest/etc. updates to rovingmadness. I invite all of you and all your friends to follow that journal. My most recent post appears there now, and additional entries will come semi-regularly.

This journal will be kept, but I'm unsure what form it will take. This move is happening so I can share updates with non-LJ members without fear of them perusing my personal posts.

That's all for now. :-)

Today is my second full day at the Crawford Peace House, supporting Cindy Sheehan in her effort to ask George Bush what was the noble cause for which her son died.

We all remember the answers: they hate our freedom, they're evil, and so on.

Imagine for a moment, drawing that connection. Imagine telling your neighbor, your boss, your mailman-- Your son is dead because they hate our freedom. You will never see his first child, you will never welcome him home, you will never, ever meet the woman he loves, because of those evil folks. Could you say that with a straight face? Those are the best excuses we ever got, and even they grew stale before the Iraq invasion began.

I can understand Bush not meeting with Cindy. Cowards run from the strong like cockroaches run from the light, so I expect Bush to avoid Cindy indefinitely. What I can't understand is the reprehensible behavior of Bush's supporters.

This evening, I was helping people park correctly. It's a constant battle. As I listened to Deborah the Parking Goddess tell me about local parking rules, a fellow volunteer approached us. He said, "Someone drove over the crosses."



Both Deb and I stared. "Come again?" I said. "The crosses at Camp Casey, Arlington West," he said. "Some guy in a truck drove over them."

At roughly 10pm local time tonight, a pickup truck drove toward Camp Casey along Prairie Church Road, for which Bush's Prairie Church Ranch is named. Just before the truck reached the beginning of the ever-growing rows of crosses, Stars of David, and crescents that make up the Arlington West memorial at Camp Casey, the driver stopped, got out of the truck, and attached a steel bar to the back with a chain. The chain was long enough that the bar dragged on the ground behind the vehicle.

The middle-aged driver re-entered his vehicle, and deliberately drove into the memorials. Where his tires failed to erase a name, the steel bar certainly succeeded. He swerved along the side of the road, into and out of the rows of solemn symbols multiple times. Hundreds of memorials were destroyed over the Bush supporter's roughly 100 yard path of desecration.

Courageous patriot that he surely is, he turned tailgate and drove off before coming within clear view of Camp Casey itself.

I looked at some of the aftermath up-close. One fallen cross read Jason... something. I couldn't make out the last name. Another was Mr. or Ms. Taylor. Two dead people, who like Casey also gave their lives for platitudes and lies. Two dead Americans, two dead soldiers, two dead kids. Now, thanks to a faithful Bush supporter, I can't even read their names.

Some of the mowed-down crosses appeared mostly intact.



I have no explanation. Many people will blame heartlessness, or stupidity, or un-American-ness, or something else. The offender is an American, though. He was nurtured by this nation as surely as I was. I see no evidence that he acted out of anything but sincerely held beliefs, just as we are all acting.

His support for war, death, and Bush lead him to this. He is part of Bush's base. This act was done in support for your president.

Come here, no matter what side you're on. Be a part of this. If you support war, influence your comrades to behave a little better (or continue to destroy, if that's what you need to do). If you support peace, come be part of the movement, and work with some of the most committed and caring people you'll ever know.

Lots has been going on recently. At the beginning of the month, I left Austin on a bicycle loaded with gear. My apartment lease was up, I'm not in school anymore, my only romantic tie is non-binding, and I'm not working, so I thought it's a good time to have an adventure. I've slept in a couple of motels, under a couple of bridges, and I've been rousted from a trainyard by police. I spent a few days in Temple, TX to resupply and such. While I was there, I caught some news, and saw the protest going on in Crawford (one hard days' bike ride from Temple).

So now I'm in Crawford, helping with the protest. I got in on Saturday afternoon, but the 'net connection wasn't really in good shape until late last night.

Everything is going well here. The guy who was firing off his shotgun yesterday was a bit of an ass, but he's at least a non-partisan ass. He's just as upset at the Secret Service intruding on him all the time as he is about the protest near his property. We had 800-1000 people at Camp Casey yesterday, as well as about 100 more working and visiting around the Peace House (local HQ). The handful of counterprotestors have (almost) all been entirely civil. For one thing, I haven't seen more than a dozen in one place, so they might feel a little unsure about doing anything unkind. For another, we've been giving them water and sunscreen, and access to toilets, so they're a little dependent on our hospitality. Most of the rudeness has been from a tiny handful of locals, honking horns at us at 3 in the morning and yelling at us as they drive by. Even so, there are only about 450 residents here. If they *all* came and were rude, we'd still outnumber them 2 to 1.

Secret Service and police have been cordial. A couple of cars have been towed, but not without warning, and only if they were parked incorrectly. That's the worst of legal problems here, as far as I've seen. We've heard some reports that police refused to give directions to either the protest or the Peace House, claiming they didn't know they way. Any cop that doesn't know where hundreds of people are gathering on the *other* road in town is exceptionally oblivious.

The pseudo-news has picked up some nonsense about Cindy refusing to pay taxes if we continue to support Israel or something like that. It's a complete crock. What happened was a reporter asked her whether she thought military force was ever appropriate, and she said that using taxpayer money to fund unwanted military occupation is wrong in a nation that is ostensibly a democracy. Somehow they twisted that into knots. A good rule of thumb is, if it sounds crazy and off-the-wall, it's probably because it's not correct.

People are here from all walks of life. Ex-hippies, reformed Klansmen, fifteen clergy or so, and several dozen Vietnam and Iraq vets, but mostly just normal people who couldn't sit down and turn away anymore. There's so much goodwill and collective effort here that things are running smoothly, even with the logistical problems of dealing with hundreds of volunteers.

Two people just arrived, one from Tokyo and one from Berlin, who came in the same plane from Chicago. Sounds like they found each other and shared a car here. They're just here to help. :-)

I want to get to work, so I'll write more later. Hugs to everyone.

A few years back, I heard a news story about some doctors who got into trouble for offering different prices for insured and uninsured patients. The gist was, dealing with insurance is a major drain on the finances of an office, and patients who A) cost them least and B) pay the most out of pocket, deserved a little break.

Insurance companies, and thus state regulatory bodies, went mad. You can't charge lower prices based on a lack of insurance, because that amounts to overcharging the insurance company. It seemed irrelevant that the exact opposite of that was the whole point.

My eye doctor is doing something clever, though. Instead of a "no insurance" discount, he's offering a "same-day pay" discount. This dosen't discriminate against insurance companies because, presumably, if they improved their processes to the point that they could pay the office same-day (rather than weeks later), they would also get the discount.

You might suggest it to your doctor's office.

Clearly, the highest levels of every branch of our political system are corrupt. The agencies the administration controls participate in ever-more questionable activities, from torture overseas to using anti-terror resources (via USA PATRIOT) to shut down Tommy Chong's pipe shop. Now, it looks like the Deputy Chief of Staff committed a felony, and continues on his merry way. (Let's not even start on national finances or the handfuls of new wars and enemies.)

This ought to be a crippled administration. With this much obvious malfeasance, they should be lining up to resign before they are impeached, if not tarred. And yet, they sip latte over briefings.

Karl Rove doesn't matter, because he's only one cell in the tumor 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has become. Unless you excise the whole thing, it will remain malignant and bleed us all dry. Some more literally than others: check today's Iraq news. We must remove the entire administration. Anything less is irresponsibly short-sighted.

Democrats will continue to suck hind teat in the national arena, because the best offensive they've come up with to deal with a criminally culpable administration is to say "But, a while back you said you'd fire someone. Please?" Any competent political party would have significant progress toward a solution by now. They've had years-- YEARS!! to come up with something. Here we are, and they're begging the Republicans to attack themselves.

"But but... majorities, and minorities, and mid-term elections, and some other excuses!"

Uh huh. It's just out of their hands, isn't it? I mean they could try to do the right thing, but they'd probably fail, so what's the use? Sarcasm aside, they really would fail, because at its core the Democratic party is just as corrupt.

Here's the real truth: Rove doesn't matter, and Democrats will continue to suck, because neither represents the people of the United States. Talk to a person on the street, and you will likely find that they are thoughtful, insightful, respectable, and passionate. You'll find they care more about their family than their job, more about their own integrity than a buck, and more about doing good than doing well. That description fits some small fraction of elected Federal officials, but none of the most powerful.

Both parties are travesties because they don't represent America, and they don't represent America because most of them don't demonstrate the decency present in most of us. If we want good government, we must take it out of the hands of the elite, the comfortable, and the criminal, and give it back to the people.

I am watching four ants talk to each other. One appears to be calling others to a spot. The one that's "calling" is making a complex front-leg movement repeatedly. One by one, the other three ants arrived. They have their front ends pointed down at the table, and their back ends slightly upraised.

Holy crap! I fifth one just showed up.

This is fun. :-)

It's 8:25pm. 100 degrees F., 37+ degrees C, down from 104/40 earlier. We have lightning, rain, growing wind, and dust. Rain and dust, and 100 degrees at bloody dusk. This shit needs to be in the Bible.

My torch for her is finally out. The champagne that was to toast our honeymoon night was instead a magnificent accompaniment to delivery spinach lasagna after a hard day's cleaning. Irregular care has changed the flavor over the years. It's not as gently fruity as it was, it has a playful acidity that begs for sweets. The final bottle ((first?) child) must be served with chocolate.

The apartment project started in January is finally beginning to wrap up. I have about 90 cubic feet of stuff designated to be out of my place by Friday.

Here's the important bit:

Some of this stuff may belong to you, if you live in Austin or the surrounding area. If I have borrowed something from you, or something of yours got left with me, or whatever, please please please speak up now. I honestly don't remember, and I want to get your stuff back to you. Books, kitchen utensils, clothes, whatever. If it's unclaimed, it's going to Oz to be relief for munchkins displaced by militant guerrilla flying monkeys demanding independent rule.

After that load is safely disposed of, and the furniture it's occupying goes with it, I will have two obstacles to being sufficiently unencumbered: One, I am in possession of a chair and ottoman that my mother would murder me if I gave away or tossed. I should get it back to her, as she cares more about it than I do. Two, my other project is nowhere near complete. A week should show excellent progress on that score.

I know I've been quiet for some time. How are you?

I wonder if there's an academic theological perspective on the wacko cat-hating, breast-draping, crusade-announcing folks at 1600 Penn. Is there published professional literature for theology?

I started a new project, one that will have... ramifications. I wondered if I was doing the right thing, but I proceeded anyway. First step: Supplies. That means Ebay.

So, on Ebay I found some stuff I'm going to need or really want for my project. I made bids in a round dozen small auctions, hoping I might catch a discount on those 0-25% of the things I bid on that I actually win.

I won all twelve auctions, all cheap.

I'm taking that as an endorsement from... whatever. :-)

Building computers for relatives means that you offer 24/7 tech support.

7am Sunday morning, I get a call from my mother. "My computer is crying!" she says. It did something funny on boot. It beeped at her a lot.

She tried to unplug it, and just got more beeping from the UPS. She was envisioning all sorts of horrors, none of which she could name, which makes them all the worse. So she called her ISP, who were evidently polite in telling her to buzz off.

She calls up, not quite crying, and asks me what to do.

I taught her to hold the power button to turn the computer off. She'd never seen that. Her last computer had a real power toggle, and a turbo button.

She rebooted, got a "press X to use last known good" message, and pressed whatever X was. It booted. I told her to shut down and restart again, and this time it did what she expected. Light came back into the dim, dark, cold and lonely place the world had become in the few hours without recipes, chain letters, Daily Kos, and online horoscopes.

Vioxel's tech support. Always on, even at 7am Sunday morning. If you've given birth to me, that is.

I'm trying to come up with a statement of economic ethics. I'd like some critique of this work in progress.

Each individual is entitled to a fractional portion of total available wealth commensurate with their contribution to the well being of others, such fraction to in no case be less than a certain minimum for providing safe, healthy living conditions.

It's not quite a first attempt, but it's the first one I'm seeking comment on. Any thoughts?

(crossposted a bit)

I want chocolate cake. And I want to *not* want chocolate cake.

Deliberate sublimation feels like self-deception. Self-denial feels like perfectly useless asceticism. Giving in to chocolate cake urges feels like weak-willed gluttony. Angst over baked goods feels like the silliest way to give myself a headache I've ever devised.

I doubt chocolate cake ever has mental contortions like this.

"You are not your job.
You are not how much money you have in the bank.
You are not the car you drive.
You are not the contents of your wallet.
You are not your fucking khakis."
-Tyler Durden

Nice sentiment. A little mundane, but certainly a trend in the right direction. Let me append.

You are not your name.
You are not your social security number, or your birth certificate.
You are not your credit score.
You are not your transcript, or your resume.
You are always, and only, exactly what you are doing right now.
You are nothing else.

As far as singing and dancing-- these things are sacraments that I don't fully understand yet. I know a butterfly is singing, because I heard one once. I haven't yet figured out what isn't dancing, so I'm not quite sure what it is.

And the crap of the world? Sure, we're all that. But no more than we are the royalty of the universe.

Create an open-source bank account, free to deposit CREDIT TRANSFER ONLY, and to withdraw. At the end of each day, left over balance is donated to a randomly selected school. Centralize distribution of absconded debt, and keep all records completely open. Ban abusing participants as needed.

This way, there is less privacy for consumerist impulse, more obviousness of good works, even if they are anon. in terms of actual people. It will be clear the mass action is honest, non=profit, dedicated. Also tracks total debt transfer as time goes on.

Publish username, password of main account. Track records on web page, allow login for verification and contribution.

k, going back to sleep now.

Note to the file-sharing world- renaming Italian art house porn flicks so they appear to be Fraggle Rock episodes is NOT COOL.

I have nothing against porn, or even wannabe Fellini porn, but have a little courtesy. When I want high-budget fluid exchange, I'll ask, I promise.

*sigh*

I have an idea. It's still in the infant stages, but the working title is "The Judo of Economics." The basic principle is, our current system saddles us with massive debt, and then drives us to fight against it by working ourselves to death. We work and slave for one rich master, so we can pay another. Only the wealthy benefit, everyone else gets nowhere.

The Judo of Economics says, use the system's attacking force against itself. Embrace debt. Accept *all* the debt the system wants to push onto us, even knowing we cannot pay it. Make no effort to pay it! Take their barges, and refuse to tote them. Take their bales, and refuse to lift them. When the system pushes so hard, and we all yield to it, it will fall over.

At first sight, this might seem catastrophic, because we have been so well trained to believe that we *must* rely on this system- the same system that makes us de facto slaves- to survive. Consider the full ramifications, though. The masters depend more on the continuance of this system than we do. Without our cooperation, they cannot maintain ownership of everything. Once those who have claimed ownership of the world can't maintain it, we will be free (free at last!) to create a new system based on social justice, instead of corporate greed.

Those are the broad strokes, anyway. What do you think?

Some ideas are just so beautifully simple. More in a bit.

*Skips away to do a little writing*

Okay, I must be losing my mind. Either that, or a significant portion of the world is doing so, all at the same time.

This conversation took place earlier today (Saturday). One of the two of us is way, way off base, and I need to know which.
( Conversation behind the cut )

The Creation Debate Continues.