Rivals Say Halliburton Dominates Iraq Oil Work

:

“The Bechtel Group, one of the world’s biggest
engineering and construction companies, has dropped out of the
running for a contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry, as other
competitors have begun to conclude that the bidding process favors
the one company already working in Iraq, Halliburton.”

i’m going to the kucinich meetup in grand rapids tonight. kris is big into kucinich. i’m neutral at this point. the pragmatist in me doesn’t think he’s electable, despite the fact that some of his positions resonate with me. oh well. it should be interesting to at least get a glimpse of how the political meetup thing works in west michigan.

update:i’m back. although there were only a handful of people there, it was quiet informational since a member of the michigan kucinich grassroots campaign was there from kalamazoo. of course, the issue of his electability came up and i learned a lot. the evidence seems to indicate that it’s at least semi-plausable, if one ignores superficial issues such as the fact that he’s divorced and is living with his long-time girlfriend. i’m teetering on getting involved in a more direct way, so we’ll see what happens over the next few weeks.

i have a niece, ruby, who is the most well-adjusted, normal 1.5 year-old that anyone could ever ask for. she’s
smart as a whip, cute as a button, likes to give her uncle kisses
when he asks [ which makes him so very, very happy ], likes to
dance, likes to give her food to dogs and loves to take pictures.
ruby is all these things and much, much more; as uncle walt would
say, she is big
– she
contains multitudes

. it just so happens that ruby’s parents are lesbians. of course,
ruby doesn’t care, despite the fact that many other people might.

i’m very proud that ruby’s parent’s are featured in a

chicago tribune article on gay marriage

[ free registration might be required ]. it’s astounding to me in
2003 that sane people can’t differentiate between the religious and
civil implications of marriage:

“”Some people are upset because they see marriage as a
religious institution, and it is for many people, but it is also a
civil institution. The Pope decides what unions the Catholic Church
will recognize, and that’s fine. A same-sex marriage wouldn’t
change that. It wouldn’t force any religion to do that if it didn’t
want to.””

ruby has parents and a circle of support that
would make any child from heterosexual parents envious. gina and
diane should be allowed the same rights as any other couple and to
deny them those rights is unconscionable. if you think otherwise
you’re ignorant and support politicians who are practicing
ostrich
politics

of the worst sort and you should be ashamed:

“Ostrich Politics is about sticking your head in the
sand and refusing to view immoveable facts as a practical,
reasonable basis for policy. Will pushing abstinence by instilling
fear actually stop people from having sex? No, say the studies:
people are simply going to have sex. Except they might have unsafe
sex because the information about safe sex is not being made
available. Will refusing to recognize gay couples (10% of the
population) somehow make them go away? No, say the scientists.
Homosexuality is not a disease. It can’t be “cured,” and doctors
have known that since the 1970s. Homosexuality just is. It’s a
fact. Yet life-long homosexual partners are forced to live their
dedicated, loving relationship in a social no-man’s land, without
proper healthcare support, government benefits, or inheritance
rights.

Faced with facts they don’t like, Ostrich Politicians choose to
ignore them and enact policy that would make sense if these facts
never existed. Not only will this fail to achieve intended goals,
but the actual results are disastrous: more people having
unprotected sex, and more citizens ostracized by the government.
“

Outboard Brains for Mac OS X:

“Before you rush off to find your way to Hogwarts School, take some time to consider some of the brain assistants that already exist. This article is going to take a brief look at some applications designed to be digital brain-dumps; electronic Pensieves into which you can throw any information you want, knowing that it will still be there when you need it later.”

proving that he can deftly manipulate the press to his advantage, arnold announces he’s in the running for governor of california:

“”I decided that California is in a disastrous situation right now,” said Schwarzenegger. “The atmosphere is disastrous. There is a total disconnect between people of California and politicians…. The people are working hard … but the politicians are not doing their jobs. The politicians are fiddiling , fumbling and failing, and the man failing more than anyone is Gray Davis, and this is why I am going to run.””

i have no idea why, but i found cameron’s post on the “bacerial media” to be a fascinating study on the wierd world of the std psas:

“In the case of positive promotion of syphilis awareness, Phil the Syphilis Sore has been in the spotlight. He’s disgusting, hairy and angry-looking, and he conjures a queasy stomach by way of association with the real thing. But despite that he’s been featured in Newsweek, on various talk shows and other media apperances while the Health Penis has been restrained to mostly gay publications and websites.”

i’m almost embarrased to admit that i bought the new janes addiction album [sic] today. o.k. i admit it. i’ve of the age when “nothing’s shocking” was on permanent rotation in my sony walkman when it was originally released 15 years ago. so buying a reunion album is pretty much a blatant attempt to walk down memory lane and relive the salad days of yore.

what’s worse, is i bought it on the recommendation of rolling stone, which if you’re in the demographic of people who had “nothing’s shocking” on permanent rotation in 1988 is sort of like buying an album on the good word of the devil. flipside fanzine good. rolling stone bad. that’s the way it is.

so what brought me to this sorry state of purchasing affairs? a rolling stone review i read via their new rss feeds.

and the funny part? the album is great. it’s big fun to crank up to ’11’ while tooling around in my jetta tdi station wagon. such is life.