I'd like to know completely
what others so discretely talk about


green sprial, by dronepop.

* Top ten conservative idiots. excerpt:

"10. Fox News

"And finally, it seems that the stock market hasn't been doing so well recently, but never fear! The folks over at Fox News have figured out a way to get the Dow Jones Industrial Average moving again. It's simple, really: Bomb Iran.

"During the June 5 edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto, Jonathan Hoenig (a member of the Fox News 'Cashin' In' crew) said, 'if you want to see the Dow go up, let's get the bombers in the air and neutralize this Iranian threat.'

"There it is folks: the conservative idiot's economic agenda to get our country moving again. Apparently managing the economy really isn't that difficult. Don't worry about all that complicated liberal mumbo-jumbo about deficits and taxes and regulations and wages and all that. Whenever there's a downturn, just dump a few thousands tons of live ordinance on some brown people halfway around the world, and the Dow will shoot right back up!"

* How we treat our soldiers:

"PFC Judson Parkin received a Purple Heart Medal for his service in Iraq. His first lieutenant wrote about him:

"'He performed his duties in an outstanding manner and never wavered under fire. He upheld the Marine Corps tradition of bravery, risking his life...'

In fact, Parkin was rewarded with seven medals and ribbons in three years of service.
One little problem: right before his deployment to Iraq, they found less than a gram of marijuana in his room. This didn't prevent them from shipping him out, but after he returned...

"As the time passes, his ordeal looks more and more like a quote from Kafka, with endless circling of a bureaucratic machine around and around the same issue, never moving an inch ahead, multiple punishments for the same insignificant crime and growing numbers of official letters confirming the receipt of a complaint, but never bringing any solution.

"'During Private Parkin's deployment, he was not recommended for promotion because of his past drug abuse,' wrote Major J.R. Jurgensen of the U.S. Marine Corps Office of Legislative Affairs in December 2005 in response to Senator Feinstein request about Parkin's fate.

"Not recommended for promotion? That's punishment number one.

"'His punishment included reduction in rank...' That's punishment number two. '...the recommendation for an Other than Honorable [discharge] (OTH).' And that's punishment number three.

"'If the Marine Corps discharges me as OTH,' wrote Parkin to Jeff Goldstein, his history teacher in high school, 'I will lose ALL my benefits, including the GI Bill and my veteran medical benefits.'

"Scary as it sounds, Parkin prepared for the worst, but he could not imagine that yet another punishment, arguably the most severe one, was in store for him.

"Since September 2005, when his commanding officer at the time, J. M. Odonnell recommended OTH, Parkin was left at Camp Pendelton as a Remain Behind Element (RBE) to wait for a decision made on his behalf.

"In the time period, his papers got lost several times, his chain-of-command officers cannot give him any time frame of the upcoming decision or tell him when his punishment number four will be over, so he spends his days tending to miscellaneous chores -- from gardening to heavy lifting -- and basically rotting away."

"This is unbelievable.

"I can understand the military having rules about the use of drugs and alcohol (and particularly having time and place rules), but this kind of stupidity in our government is harmful. If his infraction was really that serious, they shouldn't have let him go to Iraq."

* "Poetry and painting are done in the same way you make love; it's an exchange of blood, a total embrace--without caution, without any thought of protecting yourself." -- Joan Miro

* World Cup: Czech Republic v. United States 12:00pm