AFTER A SOMEWHAT SUNNY MORNING, SKIES OUT THIS WAY ARE STARTING TO CLOUD OVER, AS IF RAIN COULD BE ABOUT TO START any minute now in this the Minnwissippi.

Which is what the forecast calls for into the evening, and with conditions improving in time for the Memorial Day long weekend.

No doubt the farmers and planters want some seriously dry conditions for once....

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IF YOU THINK THE "MORALLY SUPERIOR" AMERICANS HAVE THE GLOBAL MONOPOLY ON COMPLAINTS AND GRIPING ABOUT FOREIGNERS "STEALING" JOBS from the native-born, in the process worsening already-serious unemployment levels ... consider the plight of post-apartheid South Africa.

There, over the course of the last few days, violence against foreigners--mostly Zimbabweans fleeing the breakdown of the Robert Mugabe regime--has reached chaotic extremes, especially so in and around Johannesburg, where the lion's share of refugees migrate to to find decent jobs.

And as was the case in Kenya following disputed Presidential elections over the holiday season last year, refugees are finding where churches are not exactly safe places of refuge from the ultraviolence: Several churches where refugees have taken shelter were themselves attacked by goon squads blaming the foreigners for high unemployment, chronic housing shortages and criminality.

(Sounds almost like certain elements here in the "morally superior" United States Who Should Know Better, no?)

But then again, let's not forget where the apartheid regime sanctioned the wholesale import of black "guest workers" for mining positions from across Africa, reinforced by the likes of influx control, the pass laws and the beerhall system to keep black workers all the more in deliberate poverty and ignorance...

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HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE FOLLOWING GRAND DELUSIONS OF NEOCONSERVATISM aren't really coming by way of the influence of Al Cohol, let alone Serious Mental Disorders which the messengers thereof are reluctant to face?

1. The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang suggesting @ the weekend that America is turning all the more conservative, and will remain conservative (as it were) "now, tomorrow, forever."
   (Even if it means perverting Holy Scriptures to justify a connexion, howbeit faulty, between Low Church Christianity and free-market capitalism as Great White Father.)
2. The Neoconservative bumper-sticker slogan-cum-article of faith "Government is not the solution; government is the problem."

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AND HOW IS IT POSSIBLE FOR HIS FRAUDULENCY TO ESCAPE CHARGES OF DOUBLETHINK over energy policy (let alone its cousin of blackwhite) considering where:

• on the one hand, he unsuccessfully called upon Saudi Arabia to increase export oil output heading into the summer Busy Season in the "morally superior" United States; but,
• on the other hand, he suggested to the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh days later that the increase in Saudi oil output which he had requested (howbeit unsuccessfuly) would have actually been inadequate to meet American energy use requirements?

(Not to mention still insisting that as-yet-untapped oilfields in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge along Alaska's North Slope can help meet the Lower 48's oil and gas requirements, notwithstanding where getting these same fields into production will take about 2-3 years time to permit the installation of requisite infrastructure ... and even then, said oil reserves are unlikely to meet American energy requirements beyond the proverbial drop in the bucket.

(Isn't he, perhaps, forgetting about the capped-by-deliberate-design wells in the Williston Basin of North Dakota? What would it take to have those wells uncapped and brought into production short of further tax "incentives" which would only worsen the National Debt?)

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AND SPEAKING OF THE BUDGET DEFICIT, the "official" Government estimate, based on "careful and cautious estimates" (read: deliberate accounting tricks serving only the Great Within and their droogs among Neoconservatives generally) is $162 billion.

USA Today, for its part, begs to differ: Using generally-accepted accounting procedures--the same ones followed by the Fortune 500 and the Inc. 250, as a matter of fact--the same deficit turns out to be a massive (now don't laugh) $57.3 trillion (which, itself, may be a bit misleading as such includes Social Security and Medicare obligations for the next generation in the calculations).

Guaranteed to be a propaganda talking point by the Ron Paul crowd in calling for the "complete and final reinstatement of sound money policies;" i.e., returning to pre-1933 monetary policies as required the dollar's linking to gold @ a rate of $20.67/troy ounce @ 20 dwt. (pennyweight) or 480 grains to the ounce.

Making the "gold dollar" worth 1.0335 dwt./24.804 grains (there are 24 grains in the pennyweight, know).

(But then again, one contributing factor to the notorious German hyperflation following World War I was the Allies having seized much of the Reichsbank's gold reserves for war reparations, so forcing the Germans on paper currency as would eventually become worthless.)  

more cat pictures

FOR SHEER CRUDITY OF PARANOIA ABOUT THE LOSS OF "ANTIENT AND PECUILAR RIGHTS, PRIVILEGES AND POWERS" ENTITLED RULING ELITES in certain regimes, natural disasters seem to bring out the worst in regimes.

Which, come to think of it, reflects the situation in China and the so-called "Union of Myanmar" following a recent earthquake and cyclone, respectively, with wholesale death and devastation.

Or so Naomi Klein explains for The Nation, which you can read about right here.

And which could provide some worthwhile lessons for we "morally superior" Americans heading into Indecision 2008.

FOR YEARS, ALL THE MAJOR DONUT SHOP CHAINS--among them Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Mister Donut and Tim Horton's--have taken much pride in the coffee they serve along with the donuts.

In some cases, inspiring plenty of weird stories and urban folklore in the Carl-and-Hoodsey vein about said donut shops adding some class of drug or suchlike to keep their regulars addicted all the more to their coffee. (In Tim Horton's case, they wish it to be known that nothing untoward has been added to their coffee blend.)

Still, though, in case coffee prices get to be rather pricey to the point of having to pass through the added costs to consumers, said shops may likely consider adding chicory to the coffee to pad it out and mellow the taste.

But will the donut shop crowd likely buy into the tactic, even if coffee and chicory blends turn out having a rather mellow taste with less caffeine in the bargain? 

GENERAL ADVICE WHEN IT COMES TO DEALING WITH JUNK E-MAIL, COMMONLY KNOWN AS "SPAM," SUCH AS WE ALL RECEIVE is to not fall for any "remove me" links some spammers include in the belief that such will result in removal from "sucker lists" used among "spammers." On the contrary, "remove me" drops have actually been connected to "harvester" or "extractor" programmes as collect e-mail addresses for further resale among the weird and unwholesome element known as the "spammer" community.

An electronic form of the "sucker lists" commonly used by dishonest businesses, as it were, with significant and measurable profits likely ensuing from their resale--not just the lists proper, but also in "reseller rights" to the same.

Which begs the question of whether "junk fax" bombers are properly using removal services for their transmissions as required by law; i.e., actually honouring, and within timely limits, requests to remove fax numbers from robodialler lists for "fax-bombing" campaigns, and instead selling such fax numbers so collected to especially "war-room" operators using robodiallers to blast junk faxes for "association health plans" and cheap Orlando vacations--which seem to be the hot "junk fax" offers of the hour.

And just in case, imagine those involved pleading their usual platitudes and bromides about "unlawful interference in interstate or foreign commerce," "unlawful restraint of commercial free speech," usw., in case push comes to shove. (Especially where Section 6 of the Sherman Antitrust Act is invoked; but then again, the courts would likely dismiss such claims as "frivolous, malicious or vexatious" for the sake of litigation.)

In any case, maybe it was time to start enquiring whether the "remove me" numbers used in connexion with "fax bombing" ad services are being improperly used or otherwise perverted.   

READERS, TELL ME HONESTLY IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE KIND OF "HERO" THAT "PATRIOTIC" ISLAMOPHOBES in the vein of Michael Savage, Rev. John Hagee and Rev. Rod Parsley would be glorifying, let alone racists, white supremacists and die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur rather than Disneyland and Walt Disney World (via the BBC):

An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad, the US military says.

The Muslim holy book was found riddled with bullet holes last week by Iraqi police, who also discovered offensive graffiti inside its cover.

A US military spokesman said the soldier had been removed from his unit, sent home, and would be disciplined.

He was unnamed, but was reportedly a staff sergeant in a sniper section.

US military spokesman Colonel Bill Buckner said the incident was "both serious and deeply troubling", but stressed it was an "isolated incident and a result of one soldier's actions".

The US army's commander in Baghdad, Major-General Jeffery Hammond, made a personal apology to local Sunni Arab leaders in Radwaniya, CNN reported.

On arrival, he was met by hundreds of protesting tribesmen.

"In the most humble manner, I look into your eyes today and I say, please forgive me and my soldiers," Gen Hammond said, according to CNN.

The military presented the elders with a new copy of the Koran.

An Iraqi community leader said Sunni Arab tribal units who fought alongside US forces had threatened to quit, but that the US apology had assuaged their anger.

"I was feeling bitterness, but as long as they apologised we are okay with them. Our anger has cooled," Saeed al-Zubaie told Reuters.