US anti-war mother ends protest

5.29.2007
from the BBC:

Cindy Sheehan, the bereaved mother who became a figurehead for the US anti-war movement, is abandoning her fight after growing disenchanted with the campaign.

She has camped outside President Bush's ranch since 2005, demanding a meeting over the death of her son in Iraq.

But announcing the end of her campaign, she also hit out at Democrats and anti-war campaigners who put "personal egos above peace and human life".

She said she had sacrificed her health, her marriage and her finances.

In a letter on the Daily Kos website titled Good Riddance Attention Whore - a reference to the abuse she says she has suffered, Ms Sheehan said: "I am going to take whatever I have left and go home.

"I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost."

'War machine'

Cindy Sheehan became a "postergirl" for the US anti-war movement after she set up her protest camp outside the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas in August 2005.

She said she has spent all the money from the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and everything she earned from speaking and book fees and that she owed large hospital bills.

"I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times."

She said her son Casey, who died in Baghdad in April 2004, was "killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think.


Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol
Cindy Sheehan

"Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.

"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."

Ms Sheehan criticised the US anti-war movement for often putting "personal egos" first.

"It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions."

She said that one-time allies among the Democratic Party had turned on her when she no longer limited her protests over the Iraq war to the Republican Party.

The US will rapidly descend into "a fascist corporate wasteland," she said, if "alternatives to this corrupt 'two' party system" are not found.

Ms Sheehan said she was resigning as the "face" of the US anti-war movement.

She said she would "never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system."

Watchmen casting

5.22.2007

AICN is reporting that offers has been sent out to a host of actors to join 300 director Zack Snyder in August for filming the long-in-development, Watchmen adaptation. Keanu, Jude, Patrick, and maybe Jackie Earl are the actors, read about which roles they might or might not have been offered...

presentation is everything

5.20.2007

i simply had to

5.19.2007

you can never have too many hats or ranch hands...

new at corbin fisher

Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS

5.18.2007

TRANSFORMERS


Watch the new exclusive trailer for Michael Bay's

'TRANSFORMERS.'

aquarium lifestyle designs

5.14.2007


feel free to copy / paste my logo to your web site, news group, blog or your myspace page. if you could please include a link to the aquarium lifestyle blog page, I would appreciate it!

http://aquariumlifestyle.blogspot.com/

THE LAST SEASON FOR 'BATTLESTAR GALACTICA'

5.12.2007
THE SKINNY: iF MAGAZINE was on the red carpet covering the Saturn Awards at the Universal Hilton this evening and talked to several interesting people from all walks of Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror. One of the most interesting things was our conversation with Edward James Olmos, Admiral Adama, from the SCI FI Channel series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Olmos told iF that this is the final season for the show and what fans can expect to see in the two-hour movie filling the gap between seasons three and four. More @ iF MAGAZINE

Tim Roth aka Abomination

5.11.2007
read this...

Tim Roth Will Play 'Hulk' Bad Guy, Abomination

Posted May 9th 2007 2:34PM by Ryan Stewart

The major roles are now cast. Edward Norton is the gentleman-turned-giant Bruce Banner, lovely Liv Tyler will play his long-time love Betty Ross, and now Tim Roth has been cast as the The Incredible Hulk's nemesis, Abomination as well as his alter-ego Emil Blonsky. Variety notes that Roth's deal is still being negotiated, but it's apparently close enough to being sealed that they felt confident in declaring that this thing is a lock. Blonsky is a KGB agent who is exposed to the same gamma rays that turned Bruce Banner into the Hulk, but things get screwy with his transformation and he's unable to revert back to human form. He is, however, still able to retain the mental faculties of a human, according to a handy bio of the character on Wikipedia. His other powers include being able to hop long distances like the Hulk, as well as having healing powers and -- I'm not making this up -- being able to hold his breath for a long time. I seriously hope that comes into play in the film, otherwise I'll feel cheated.
Variety also notes the apparent upswing in Roth's career as of late, since he's also going to be starring in Francis Ford Coppola's comeback pic, Youth Without Youth and is cast alongside Naomi Watts in Funny Games, from Warner Independent. Roth's IMDB page is littered with other solid and not-so-solid projects including Inglorious Bastards, Six Bullets from Now and The Death of Harry Tobin. The Incredible Hulk, from director Louis Leterrier and scripter Zak Penn, is scheduled to hit theaters on June 13, 2008. I still say they should have brought Jennifer Connelly back, but that's just me.

this song, elton john's, love song

5.03.2007
I've spent the past few hours thinking, smoking, dancing and thinking while listening to some favorites from times that mattered. one song in particular from elton john, "love song", took hold again...


The words I have to say
May well be simple but theyre true
Until you give your love
Theres nothing more that we can do

Love is the opening door
Love is what we came here for
No one could offer you more
Do you know what I mean
Have your eyes really seen

You say its very hard
To leave behind the life we knew
But theres no other way
And now its really up to you

Love is the key we must turn
Truth is the flame we must burn
Freedom the lesson we must learn
Do you know what I mean
Have your eyes really seen

Music and lyrics by leslie duncan
Available on the album tumbleweed connection

save money, roll your own

5.02.2007
the idea here isn't necessarily to promote a "bad habit" but to share some information that could turn one into a "cheaper bad habit".

yes, i smoke (parliament lights) and have been for longer than i can remember. i know it's "bad" for me and i also know about several hundred other things we do that's bad for us as well; like pay taxes, going to war, not using a broom, working all our lives or men! anyway, the cost of this habit of ours is expensive and doesn't seem to ever get cheaper. sure some of the big guys like phillip morris offer "deals" from time to time like buy one get one free. other company's are now also producing "cheaper" cigarettes like bronco's or usa gold. the cheaper price per pack versions have a cheaper grade of tobacco in it, therefore the price is less and the taste is almost foul by comparison. so we all decide whats best in price and or in taste.

one thing we seem to forget is that there are other options beyond pumping millions of dollars into the wells of these far too rich big tobacco companies. yes the options are slim by comparison and require a little extra time and patience but in the end the out of pocket expense is drastically less. i am of course talking about rolling your own cigarettes.

here are some things to consider... lets say you smoke one pack a day (brand name) , average price per pack $4.50 (20 cigarettes). that will then run you $31.50 a week, $126.00 a month and $1512.00 a year. all this by choosing a name brand and or a premium blend.

here's an alternative , rolling your own. a small bag of rolling tobacco averages about $1.30 for a descent blend / brand. yes there are other a little cheaper and a few more expensive. that one pouch of rolling tobacco will yield about 30 cigarettes. the empty cigarette tubes average about $1.25 for a box 200 (varieties like full flavor, lite and ultra lite). again they to vary depending on the brand name and quality. last but most important is the rolling mechanism. there are a variety of "hand held" models (mostly plastic) $5-$8 or the automatic hand crank models (mostly metal) $20-$50. there are electric models made but they are far too expensive in my opinion.

drum roll please... the over cost of rolling your looks sorta like this, smoking one pack per day. it's about $1.00 a day, $7.00 a week, $28.00 a month and $336.00 a year. a savings of about $1176.00 a year!

a few things i've learned since i started rolling my own: the hand held models are pretty good and take a little time in getting used to; technique. the higher priced crank models are the easiest to use and produce far more in less time but agian they cost more. i purchased the zig zag hand rioller to start and found it didn't fill the hollow tube too tightly so i went looking for another model. i found the bugler brand hand roller to be the best over all for $7.00. as for the tubes it's anyones call on choice. i tried a few different companies (zig zag, tops, premier) and in the end decided on the gizeh (imported) to be the best especially because they are the only manufacturer who offers a charbon added filter inside the main filter. the tobacco choice is a tough call; everyone has specific tastes they look for. the choices are a plenty, featuring turkish or american blends along with a few other mixs of sorts. so far for me the bugler mellow gold and the bali shag light are my personal favorites. with the cost of the pouch tobacco being so cheap, it's easy to try a few different brands without spending a lot of money.

make sure you competitive shop for brands and prices, there are differences out there both on line and locally. one of the largest on line stores is roll your own

a short holiday

5.01.2007

i'm long over due for a break from the life i know here. this weekend i'll be in philly on holiday with sin and regret. oh, yes i mean dan & kaj! a clue...only one of them likes A LITTLE Dark chocolate!

it's my fist time seeing donna designers lair of data tracking & action figure collecting! to understand the true ways, one must visit the temple. surfaces darling, surfaces!

can you believe, she has a garage of her own!

it's also the first time that dan & i are in philly with kaj! i can't wait! YES, YES PLENTY OF PINK LITTLE PILLS DARLING FOR THE PARTY! the plans thus far are flexible but IKEA, spider man 3 and a little clubbing are a definite. long gone are the days when we were "ladies of the night" now it's just 3 bitches in the dark who know... we are fabulous!

a day with mom


so, last week i made my usual trip to berwick to celebrate sandy's birthday. i drove in the night before so we could snack out & watch a movie!

safe to safe, she and i are definitely getting "older".

we had all the best snacks and a great movie so how did we fall asleep after the first hour? once the morning came, we got our selves around and spent the entire day together! towards the end of our conquest for bargains, we stopped by the local laundry mat so i could wash up a few things i brought along.

i decided last week to wash my queen size comforter while i was in, visiting mom. berwicks a pretty safe, mellow town with a clean laundry mat. the thing was so big i had to use a tripple loader which ran about $4.75 just for the wash! i sat till the end of the wash cycle, sorted things out and loaded up two dryers. timers set for 40 minutes and i'm off, back to moms for dinner. i had finished eating just shy of 35 minutes, gulped a glass of water and headed back to the fluff & fold.

for the first time, in all my years, somebody stoled my load! of course they left behind the smaller miss match of items in dryer 13. certain to say their eyes we on the prize, # 11 with my $100 queen size comforter! sons a bitches!!! well, i was only angry for a minute or two then folded the remains and went back for desert...homemade lemon cake!

as you get older, you have to learn to let go of things, especially anger.