IF ANY OF YOU CAN READ THIS ITEM, please let me know.

For some reason or another, one posting as was intended for yesterday has not posted timely into this space, despite repeated contacts to Technical Support @ Blogdrive.

I hope this will serve as remedy.

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AS IF THAT WEREN'T GET-ALL, Your Correspondent understands where virtually all the participants @ a spontaneously-called-for rally in Seoul against reallowing imports of American beef after a five-year ban on same because of "mad cow" fears were middle-school students rather than typical Korean consumers and livestock producers.

You read right--middle-school students influenced by local websites and youth magazines into all manner of scare paranoia about the supposed effects of American imports upon their bodies and thought-processes.

And we all thought where, back in the 1960's, fluoridation of drinking water supplies was part of a Greater Communist Plot to weaken and undermine the American thought processes! (IIBC, I am not aware of any evidence showing an interconnexion between fluoride used in drinking water and brain damage, indirect or otherwise.)

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NOW TELL ME IF THE FOLLOWING PICTURE (THANKS TO DOWN WITH TYRANNY) of a billboard outside the American Embassy in the former Myanmari capital of Yawgon reflects not so much the "desire" of Myanmar as those of the so-called "right-thinking Americans" hard-wired into accepting Fox Prolefeed as "fair and balanced" TV news:

(Or is it?) 

A SHORT APOLOGY IS IN ORDER FOR THE DELAY IN GETTING THINGS POSTED TO THIS WEBLOG TODAY, in that Your Correspondent had to download WindowsXP Service Pack 3 onto his computer--in the process, reducing available free space on his hard drive to less than half that which is available.

(And all the while thinking that such an update would supplant Service Pack 2 to the point where such would be deleted without performance-related problems.)

In any case, if you think such is a clear sign that the computer needs a tune-up, those of you in the geek fraternity as are "in the loop" on things of this sort will please let me know.

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TORNADIC ACTIVITY YESTERDAY ACROSS THE MIDWEST MAY HAVE BEEN ENOUGH TO FURTHER DO IN THE NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA LEAD- AND ZINC-MINING TOWN OF PICHER, about halfway between Tulsa and the Missouri line as the crow flies: It just so happens that Picher, which just celebrated a somber 90th birthday celebration, is being targeted for a Federal buydown thanks to pollution aggravated by years of lead and zinc mining activity in the area.

Which, in its turn, translated into pollution aggravated by years of:

• release of airborne contaminants from the local lead smelter;
• piles of waste rock carrying its own brand of contaminants and carcinogens; and
• the whole translating into an abnormally high rate of lead poisoning which, in turn, aggravates developmental and learning disorders in younger children.

Quite the change from some 50 years ago, when Picher was about Winona's size (around 25,000) in the population department and rather lively, especially on pay nights when it was not uncommon for miners to blow their cheques on wine, women and song--and have the scars to show for it thanks to Saturday-night brawls which could be incited with little or no provocation.

And all too often, about the only career options boys in the area had on leaving high school was either work in the mines, or leave town.

So, it looks as if Picher may be about to yield up the ghost, with last night's tornadoes pretty much the "last nail in the coffin," so to speak, on top of the Federal Superfund buydown.

But then again, the old saying hath it that disasters come in threes....

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"THE DIRTY DIGGER" HAS BEEN REBUKED FOR ONCE:

News America Corporation has withdrawn its offer for Long Island's "respectable" tabloid Newsday, leaving the only serious bidders left for same Mortimer Zuckerman (as owns the New York Daily News) and Cablevision Systems, which dommos cable TV in Nassau and Suffolk counties--traditionally considered "Long Island" in the context of New York City, never mind where Queens and Brooklyn, both boroughs of New York City, are on Long Island themselves.

(Technically, Brooklyn is officially known as Kings County.)

Not to mention where Keith Rupert Murdoch may be under orders to testify in a piracy trial involving the manufacture and sale of "test cards" whereby one could get (in theory) free satellite TV.

A CONSTANTLY-REPEATED, AND RATHER PATHETIC-SOUNDING MEME, CERTAIN SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER will enjoy spreading is excusing the cause of hate, bigotry and intolerance as essential to the defence of America's "antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity," forever seen by that ilk (and their droogs) as "under constant threat from the New World Order."

Not to mention a somewhat related meme suggesting that the defence of American "soverignty and soverign identity" is that of free-market capitalism with American characteristics--which, consistent with conservative thought patterns, they see as reversible if and when the need requires this.

And among the arguments these weird and unwholesome elements will use to excuse a "patriotic" hate being "essential to the defence of America's traditional soverignty and soverign identity" is their citation of the infamous Dred Scott v. Sanford ruling in 1857 as upheld slavery and, with it, the enforced second-class status of blacks and others deemed to be "inferior peoples" inasmuch as they

are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.

Which, to such a weird and unwholesome element, belongs only and exclusively to white male Christian (preferably Low Church) freeholders (especially so such with "free and clear" title), though not expressly implied in the Constitution.

To further such an argument, these comments from Dred Scott are also likely to be thus invoked (emphasis added):

[The Constitution] must be construed now as it was understood at the time of its adoption. It is not only the same in words, but the same in meaning, and delegates the same powers to the Government, and reserves and secures the same rights and privileges to the citizen; and as long as it continues to exist in its present form, it speaks not only in the same words, but with the same meaning and intent with which it spoke when it came from the hands of its framers, and was voted on and adopted by the people of the United States. Any other rule of construction would abrogate the judicial character of this court, and make it the mere reflex of the popular opinion or passion of the day.

In effect, excusing racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and intolerance in general as "Constitutional" is "American."

And such elements will love to stop @ nothing to reinforce such sick and illogical interpretations.

Interpretations which need to be challenged @ every opportunity.

THE TITLE OF THIS ESSAY ALLUDETH, DEAR READERS, TO A RUNNING GAG which the British satirical troupe Monty Python had in their third (i.e., 1972) series of Monty Python's Flying Circus on the BBC.

Which, in its turn, inspires Your Correspondent to take "lemon curry" a bit on the literal side--as in adding some curry powder to the rice-and-seasoning blend of Campbell's Supper Bakes Lemon Chicken with Herbed Rice mix; the better to add a little flavour (and colour) to the rice.

Remember, though, "a little goes a long way" with the curry powder. I prefer adding it to the rice and seasoning mix before the hot water is added, blended all the while. (And for you neophytes, I would recommend the mild form of curry powder for starters, rather than the Chennai-stylee hot curry powders as have given curries a nasty reputation in certain circles.

(Those who prefer the Chennai-stylee such may want to use caution, particularly so @ first. But I'd stick with mild curry powder, if I were you.)

(BTW: Chennai was known as Madras until recent years; for its part, Chennai/Madras curries were particularly spicy to the point of intense, with those from the former Portugese colony of Goa running close behind for intensity. Now you know.)

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND IS HERE, AND IN THE MINNWISSIPPI, IT'S CLOUDY, BY AND LARGE. With maybe some rain possible heading into the evening.

Which the farmers and planters would rather not have any more of so they could get the spring fieldwork done for once. And seriously, even if they're hesitant about planting corn or soybeans because of high fuel and fertiliser costs.

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STARTING IN THE MID-1970'S, MANY SOFT DRINK MAKERS SWITCHED OVER FROM SUGAR TO CORN-BASED SWEETNERS to cut costs and keep prices down.

Now, with so much of the corn being diverted to biofuels, it looks as if many soft-drink makers are about to return to real sugar before the summer is out. Which could be a blessing in disguise, what with much of the complaints about obesity aggravated by soft drinks having come since corn sweetners began to be in widespread use.

As for biofuels, sugarcane waste is a pretty reliable source--particularly so in Brazil.

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SOME OUT THERE HAVE BEEN WONDERING IF THIS SUMMER MAY SEE SOME CLASS OF AN INFAMOUS TERRORIST ATTACK WHICH COULD THEN BE USED by His Fraudulency's Great Within to justify extending the Iraqi Theatre of the ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism into Iran.

As was the case with Iraq, the justification therefor being based on flimsy or incredible evidence.

How do we know this "terrorist attack," if it comes off, won't really be some class of a "false flag" action which the Great Within can cook up to whip up another round of the crudest in forced patriot love not seen since the Unfortunate Events of 9/11, especially when a "redemption for value" blackmail scam vis-a-vis illicit "militias" and "lone wolf" sleeper cells can be deployed for deceptive purposes?

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NEWEST TARGET OF THOSE IN THE ELMER GANTRY CAMP WHO LOVE TO THROW OUT THAT SINGSONG MEME OF "CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION! CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION!" for no purpose other than selfish vanity and warped patriotic delusion, by way of the LaCrosse (WI) Tribune (ultimately via the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison):

NECEDAH, Wis. — Two people have been charged after a Juneau County sheriff's deputy found a family living in a home with the body of a 90-year-old woman decomposing on the bathroom toilet.

Tammy D. Lewis, 35, and Alan A. Bushey, 57, both of Necedah, each were charged with two felony counts of causing mental harm to a child, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. Lewis also faces one count of obstructing police.

The two, who are also known as Sister Mary Bernadett and Bishop John Peter Bushey, along with the dead woman, Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth, were part of a small Bible-based church led by Bushey, Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson said.

Investigators are trying to determine if they were defrauding Middlesworth, Oleson said, and additional charges against the two are "a very real possibility." He said there is evidence Middlesworth provided financial support to the church and to Lewis and her family.

Lewis and Middlesworth were not related, he said, but had been living together with Lewis' 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son about 3 1/2 years.

Oleson declined to call the church a cult but said "I guess in my mind I don't know of any faith that sanctioned his teachings."

Bushey had been living in the area about 11 years, Oleson said, did not have outside employment and had built a chapel on the back of his home, which is about a half-mile from where Middlesworth and Lewis lived. He said Bushey's church had few members; only eight were at a Mass about two months ago.

He said Bushey's church was not affiliated with the Queen of the Holy Rosary Mediatrix of Peace Shrine, which is less than a mile from Middlesworth's home. The shrine itself is not a recognized part of the Catholic Church.

[***]

According to the criminal complaint, the sheriff's office was asked Wednesday to check on Middlesworth's welfare by her sister, Bernice Metz, because Metz had not heard from her in "some time."

Lewis initially told a deputy Middlesworth was on vacation, but after the body was discovered admitted she had been dead for about two months, according to the criminal complaint.

Lewis said she had been helping Middlesworth put on an undergarment when she passed out in her arms, then left the elderly woman propped on the toilet after Bushey, whom she referred to as her "superior," said to leave her there and pray.

Lewis claimed to authorities that "God told her Alvina would come back to life if she prayed hard enough." Bushey told the deputy "Lewis was obedient and served the Lord just as she should."

The complaint states incense was used to cut down on the stench in the home, and Lewis said she and her children were using a bucket in a closet as a bathroom.

The 12-year-old boy later told investigators that after Middlesworth died, Bushey told him her appearance "was the result of demons attempting to make it appear that Alvina would not come back to life."

The boy also reportedly said Bushey told him if Middlesworth's death was discovered, he and his sister would have to go to public school and get jobs because the woman, whom the boy referred to as his "grandmother," paid the bills.

The girl made similar statements to investigators, according to the complaint.

Both children are in protective custody, Oleson said, and physically healthy.

In court Friday, bond was set at $50,000 cash each for Lewis and Bushey, and they were ordered to have no contact with the children or each other.

(BTW, the Queen of the Holy Rosary Mediatrix of Peace Shrine is connected to the schismatic American National Catholic Church, an Old Catholic group whose supporters--mostly poor, undereducated and easily-influenced--contend that one Mary Ann VanHoof saw Our Lady in the summer of 1950, and in the process supposedly received messages warning that the Soviets were preparing to set off World War III within measurable distance via the Pacific Coast. Messages as were quickly dismissed by the Roman Catholic Church as "insincere" and designed solely to attract the tourist trade, even if substantial crowds arrived in Necedah on August 15th that year to see the supposed apparitions, which were dismissed as little better than a bluish haze.

(By that fall, Miss VanHoof began losing substantial support, especially after she collapsed and hit her head on a statue of Our Lady of Fatima during a Rosary procession and radio stations in Milwaukee were asked by Church authorities to stop carrying VanHoof's broadcasts. In 1975, her supporters were placed on interdiction, one step short of out-and-out excommunication in terms of Church sanctions, meaning they could not receive any Church sacraments save that of pennance.

(Miss VanHoof herself died in 1984, heretic to the last.)

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HAVE YOU SEEN THOSE COMMERCIALS FROM THE SO-CALLED "AMERICAN COALITION FOR CLEAN COAL ENERGY" DEPICTING SUPPOSED AVERAGE JOE/JANE TYPES voicing their "support" for energy self-sufficency based on increased construction of power stations using so-called "clean coal technology"?

I, for one, would have to treat such as suspicious, especially when you consider these supposed "True Believers" are really actors coached into reading from carefully-nuanced scripts (in which case FTC requirements, under more conventional circumstances, would require the on-screen disclosure "actor portrayals" or suchlike).

Not to mention this same "American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy" being another guise for the equally-so-called "Americans for Balanced Energy Choices," identified as an industry front group with intent to mislead or confuse.

In view of where both the National Advertising Division (a consilium of the Council of Better Business Bureaux and major advertising-industry groups) and the FTC regard issue or advocacy advertising as outside their purview because of possible First Amendment conflicts, perhaps it was time for the Secular-Progressive Blogosphere to raise their objections to the ACCCE's advertising because of the deception issues I have just addressed.

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COME TO THINK OF IT, THE EXAGGERATOR IS PROUD TO CONSIDER ITSELF part of the Secular-Progressive Blogosphere, never mind Bill "No-Spin Zone" O'Reilly's contentions about Secular-Progressives somehow in league with His Satanic Majesty.

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AND IT LOOKS AS IF THE GOP WILL LIKELY FACE SERIOUS CASH-FLOW PROBLEMS in trying to "swift-boat" Barack Obama's Presidential campaign, never mind where they claim to be acting for G-d and Country: Ongoing financial irregularities with the GOP could mean that broadcasters may require the GOP's campaign committee to pay for their ad time in cash, especially when it turns out that all except a hard-core "inside of the inside" can be trusted to keep the GOP afloat.

Until it emerges that they're probably a "fifth column" seeking to undermine the GOP from within.

In any case, perhaps it was time for the GOP to open its books for once and reveal the extent of its financial problems--especially before creditors demand cash payments (and no, they won't accept so-called "Liberty Dollars" "secured" by lead ingots from the Monongahela Metal Foundry spray-painted to look like gold or silver). 

RIGHT WING WATCH AND BRAVE NEW FILMS WOULD LIKE TO CALL YOUR ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING VIDEO of recent remarks from the "spiritual advisor" to The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang of Indecision 2008 (otherwise known as John McCain) as invoke His Name to discredit those on welfare, as well as imply that "no Good Christian would go on welfare," let alone put themselves @ risk of moral lapse if they went on welfare:

Which, methinks, is up there with a popular illogical fallacy of equivocation and begging the question commonly known as the "No True Scotsman" such, the workings of which Wikipedia thus explains:

Imagine Hamish McDonald, a Scotsman, sitting down with his Glasgow Morning Herald and seeing an article about how the "Brighton Sex Maniac Strikes Again." Hamish is shocked and declares that "No Scotsman would do such a thing." The next day he sits down to read his Glasgow Morning Herald again and this time finds an article about an Aberdeen man whose brutal actions make the Brighton sex maniac seem almost gentlemanly. This fact shows that Hamish was wrong in his opinion but is he going to admit this? Not likely. This time he says, "No true Scotsman would do such a thing."

—Antony Flew, Thinking about Thinking, 1975

Flew's original example may be softened into the following:

Argument: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."

Reply: "But my uncle Angus, who is a Scotsman, likes sugar with his porridge."

Rebuttal: "Aye, but no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."

In putting forward the above rebuttal one would be employing an ad hoc shift in argument. The proposer initially treats the definition of "Scotsman" as fixed, and says that there exists no predicated case that fall inside. When one such case is found, the proposer shifts to treat the case as fixed, and rather treats the boundary as debatable. The proposer could therefore be seen prejudicially not to desire an exact agreement on either the scope of the definition or the position of the case, but solely to keep the definition and case separate. One reason to do this would be to avoid giving the positive connotations of the definition ("Scotsman") to the negative case ("sex offender") or vice versa.

Formally the argument is an informal fallacy if the predicate ("puts sugar on porridge") is not contradictory to the previously accepted definition of the subject ("Scotsman"), or if the definition of the subject is silently adjusted after the fact to make the rebuttal work.

As another example, a layman may be debating the merits of different video camcorders. He might assert that: "Any video engineer will tell you that the Matsushiba KYX300 format is vastly superior to the Magnasonic VBX2000." If someone points out, many engineers are on record as saying that the VBX2000 is actually the superior system, the original speaker may modify his premise to state: "Any video engineer who knows what they are talking about."

This is really another form of begging the question. His assertion is essentially self-nullifying, in that, not being an engineer, he is hardly in any position to judge the credentials of people who are.

This is connected to the widespread attempt in debate to assert that positive terms (good, decent) imply, naturally or by definition, the characteristics argued for (opposition to capital punishment, pornography, smoking in public), rather than actually making an argument why they are connected. "No decent Scotsman" can be considered the moral (practical) equivalent of the theoretical "No true Scotsman".

For example, it may be asserted that "No decent person would support hanging", "watch pornography", or "smoke in public". This is an abbreviated form of the fallacy: compare "he may take salt in his porridge, but no true Scotsman would" and "(some people may support smoking in public), but no decent person would." Often the speaker seems unaware that he is, in fact, coercively (re)defining the meaning of the phrase "decent person" to gain tactical advantage in the argument. The use of this technique shifts the debate away from the merits of hanging, pornography, or smoking (or whatever controversial subject that may be at issue) by attempting to establish, without basis in logic, that anyone disagreeing with the speaker is, in fact, "indecent".

The word "real" may be substituted for "true" and still commit the same fallacy in different plumes. For example, when General George Patton said, "All real Americans love the sting of battle" to his soldiers, he was implying that they were un-American if they shrank from combat.

Which is enough to wonder if John McCain's attutude towards the Lower Classes is nothing but one of contempt and revulsion, preferably as objects of sick humour. And enough to start thinking about pushing mutual self-help initiatives as one towards helping these same Lower Classes help themselves against such a shift in welfare policy.

Unless, however, such can be shown as "perpetuating dependency" as opposed to "industry, self-reliance, personal responsibility, thrift based on cash economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life."

more cat pictures

BOASTING AND EXAGGERATION, PERHAPS UNDER AL COHOL'S NEFARIOUS INFLUENCES (THOUGH NOT ACKNOWLEDGING AS MUCH OPENLY), seem to be popular weapons in the arsenal of those Dark Satanic Mills of Conservative Propaganda.

Especially so that specialist in "winning of hearts and minds" to a xenophobic and isolationist agenda expected to be conditioned by an unyielding orthodoxy to free-market capitalism with American characteristics being the Great White Father (so to speak) of the Lower Classes as "are in clear and present need of empowerment towards industry, self-reliance, personal responsibilty, thrift based on cash economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life" after "generations of unhealthy conditioning towards Socialistic or otherwise un-American tendencies" through State welfare.

Case in point, thanks to ConWebBlog:

An April 25 WorldNetDaily article regurgitates the results of a "poll" by the right-wing American Policy Center claiming to find that "overwhelming majorities opposing the concept, plans and ideas" of the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Security and Propserity Partnership/North American Union. But it wasn't a real poll at all, despite WND's efforts to portray it otherwise as it cribbed from the APC's press release about it:

The poll of one million American households revealed that 58 percent of the households contacted had not heard of the SPP.

"It is important to note that APC did not select households that might represent specific ideological positions," the group said. "The chosen households represented neither conservative nor liberal positions. Instead the recipients were a wide [variety] of Americans who live in the direct path of the proposed Trans Texas/NAFTA Corridor, from Texas to Minnesota."

Normal polls don't contact "one million American households." What this tells us--though WND and APC don't explicitly bother to do so--that this poll was merely a mass mailing in which people had to respond to be counted--that is, an opt-in poll, which are notoriously unreliable.

The APC press release sheds a little more light on how the "poll" was conducted:

The survey, titled "Do Americans Support a North American Union" asked a series of questions concerning the SPP and the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). The survey package also included a four-page report prepared by APC entitled "NAU Fact Sheet," providing details about the SPP, the TTC and how these programs are being implemented quietly, behind closed-door meetings like the one just completed in New Orleans.

So the only information these respondents had at hand regarding the SPP/NAU was information supplied by the APC itself--which opposes the NAU. (APC chief Tom DeWeese belongs to the Coalition to Block the North American Union.) Nowhere that we could find does APC make public the materials it sent to those "one million American households," nor does it state what percentage of those households responded to the survey.

Which makes the survey's key claim--that 58 percent of those who chose to respond to the survey had not heard of the NAU prior to APC's mass mailing, but 90-plus percent oppose its provisions--even more bogus than the rest of the survey. The only thing that 58 percent had to make judgments on the issue was APC's "fact sheet" attacking it--which, by the way, concludes:

The SPP is an invastion of our culture and our economy. It's about the redistribution of American wealth and industry. It will represent the end of over 250 years of an historic experiment--unless Americans across the nation say no--now.

Given that, is it really surprising that 90-plus percent of respondents oppose the NAU? After all, angered people are the ones likely to be motivated enough to mail back the APC's survey.

Nowhere does WND mention that APC opposes the NAU; rather, it benignly portrays APC as "a grassroots activist group in Washington that asked a series of questions about the SPP, the Trans Texas Corridor transportation project and other issues."

But then again, there's always the possibility that the "survey" in question contained loaded questions tending to exploit latent prejudices and hatreds ... required receipents to pay their own postage to mail same back ... and were more than likely sent to lower-income or otherwise socioeconomically-disadvantaged ZIP+4 areas, the better to take unfair and/or unscrupulous advantage of the latent xenophobic feelings among the vulnerable.

And how could they have paid for the costs of printing, mailing and tabulation of "survey" results as above suggested?

One million Americans supposedly seeing themselves as "right-thinking" could be wrong, and not consciously know this for a fact.