Wōden the Wanderer
Those of us who practice that “old-time religion” know that today was named for the Anglo-Saxon god Wōden. He is the pagan god of death, battle, wisdom, discoverer of the runes and leader the Wild Hunt.
Senate Passes Pentagon Budget, War Funding
Senate on Tuesday passed a bill bringing total U.S. tab for the Afghan war to about $300 billion.
Paralysis in the Debt Markets Is Deepening the Credit Drought
A year after Washington rescued the big names of American finance, it’s still hard to get a loan. But the problem isn’t just tight-fisted banks.
The continued disarray in debt-securitization markets, which in recent years were the source of roughly 60 percent of all credit in the United States, is making loans scarce and threatening to slow the economic recovery. Many of these markets are operating only because the government is propping them up.
High Court Takes Up Case of Cross on Public Land
The cross, located on a rocky outcrop in the Mojave Desert, has been covered in plywood for the past several years following federal court rulings that it violates the First Amendment
Two Americans, Israeli win 2009 chemistry Nobel
Two Americans and an Israeli shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for chemistry for showing how ribosomes function, work that has important implications for antibiotics, the prize committee said on Wednesday.
For antiwar protesters, the cause isn’t lost
But will Washington, D.C., rally spark a groundswell?
‘Code Pink’ rethinks its call for Afghanistan pullout
Code Pink, founded in 2002 to oppose the US invasion of Iraq, is one of the more high-profile women’s antiwar groups being forced to rethink its position as Afghan women explain theirs: Without international troops, they say, armed groups could return with a vengeance – and that would leave women most vulnerable.
Though Afghans have their grievances against the international troops’ presence, chief among them civilian casualties, many fear an abrupt departure would create a dangerous security vacuum to be filled by predatory and rapacious militias. Many women, primary victims of such groups in the past, are adamant that international troops stay until a sufficient number of local forces are trained and the rule of law established.
‘Art theft’ smells fishy, investigators say
It was reported as one of the biggest fine art thefts in history – $80 million worth of paintings by Jackson Pollock, Vincent van Gogh and other masters spirited from a seaside home in Pebble Beach by a burglar who left a note demanding a ransom and threatening violence.
But the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that the Sept. 25 heist appears to be something else: a scam by one or both of the alleged victims, an aspiring lawyer who once sold puppies and a retired Harvard Medical School professor.
Is the Bible too liberal?
Conservapedia’s attempt to weed out “liberal bias” from modern Bible translations
(I guess nobody told them that Jeebus was a DFH moonbat librul)
Lawmakers slam Schwarzenegger over veto threat
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature could be headed for a high-stakes game of chicken as the deadline approaches at midnight Sunday for the governor to sign or veto more than 700 bills that are on his desk.
The governor has made a veiled threat to issue a mass veto unless lawmakers reach agreement on an overhaul of the state’s water system. A mass veto, legislative leaders said, would be both “silly” and inexcusable, and it would effectively wipe out nearly all the work done by the Legislature the past 10 months.
Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn
Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn — one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.
Stone circle suggests Stonehenge was part of funeral route
Archaeologists have unearthed a new stone circle near Stonehenge that lends credence to the theory that the famous prehistoric monument in Britain was part of a funeral complex.
"Are Girl Scout cookies made out of real Girl Scouts?"
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The Confluence 
Good morning, myiq2xu! What a great lineup of stories. I’m going to read the ones about the art theft and conservatives removing liberal bias from the bible first. I wonder if they think even the old testament is too liberal?
Maybe they can get CNN to do some ‘fact-checking’ on the bible? After SNL that seems to be the right set of priorities.
Yeah. That talking goat and burning bush need a real take down.
Oh dear
So Code Pink is trading in their pink t-shirts for camo?
Code Camo?
From the Code Pink article
Geebus. It seems like everyone that has a “sit down” does a 180 afterwards.
Twilight Zone theme music anyone?
Maybe Obama really does use NLP and hypnosis like the conspiracy theorists claimed last year.
I guess they don’t teach NLP techniques in east coast colleges. Or how about deconstructing the cult mumbo jumo– probably not taught in the east coast colleges either.
Thankfully I went to a WEST coast college where we studied the mind games used by cults and politicians. NLP is real — it started in a very upscale suburb of S.F.
The world will be safer when the west coast breaks away from the idiot half of the nation.
/snark
When I lived in the east coast years ago — I was rather shocked at the endless hate articles aimed at the west coast. It was obvious that the “reporters” had never been outside of LA — and knew nothing at all about the west coast.
0zero was marketed using techniques developed by “Madison Avenue” — which borrows traveling preacher type propaganda. NLP is just one of the early group mind manipulation commercial firms. Many of the huge corporations hired these “feel good” group facilitators to motivate managers etc. But then most of these consultants were west coast based — and the eastern college psych dept. & profs were ignorant of what was happening out west.
This same NLP (real or imitation) crap was used in the caucus by creeps trained at camp obama. I may not have a phd — but I do have a M.A. in group dynamics — so this was my focus and I recognize the techniques — they are ancient.
please do a post on that northwestrain!
Here is more in-depth info on the recently released video of Anne Frank, including an interview with her father.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/a-brief-glimpse-of-anne-frank-on-film/
Top of the Wooden day to ya! Poor Obama – people don’t get him like they used to – it’s becoming hard WORM
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/getting-obama/
Andrew Sullivan is such a jerk:
In some ways, Obama’s fealty to the big gay lobby rather than to the real gay community is testimony to why Democratic party politics remain repulsive to me. HRC has achieved nothing substantive for gay equality on a federal level in the twenty years I’ve been observing them.
…
If Obama wants to support gay equality, he knows what to do…. So spare us the schmoozing and the sweet-talking and do it. Until then, Mr president, why don’t you have a nice steaming cup of shut-the-fuck-up?
Sully could use a cup or two himself.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-25466-DC-Independent-Examiner~y2009m10d6-Bill-Ayers-admits-writing-Dreams-to-conservative-blogger
I read somewhere last year that it was likely B Ayers authored it given the apparent similarities in writing style.
Joseph Cannon pretty much demolished that “evidence.”
I read Jack Cashill’s study of the similarity in style. It’s interesting. I don’t know who wrote those books, but I don’t believe BO did.
well – did BO every do something?
I don’t believe he did it without a lot of help, that’s for sure. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Ayers helped.
I don’t know. It kind of sounds like Ayers could have been joking. I wouldn’t be all that surprised if he did help a lot with the book though. It is much better written than Audacity of Hope is. The story all along has been that Dohrn did plant the bomb in SF.
But the writer of that piece sounds like a real right wing nut.
Ayers is a leftist. Leftist, despite what people think, are not just more liberal liberals. Ayers may very well be very right wing in some of his thinking. In fact real leftists hate liberals, believing that they are what stands in the way of people being miserable enough to be easy marks for socialist revolution.
This may be the reason that Obama seems to despise liberalism and to be so far to the right on some things.
Think of it this way: liberals are usually pro-choice, pro-free speech etc… Socialist countries, real ones are mostly led by authoritarians who do not believe in individual freedoms.
Ayers is a leftist… he is a scumbag, his ideas about education, idiotic and untenable.
Nader is a leftist.. a egotistical asshole who doesn’t believe in Choice and thought he could punish America by making Bush president. He is NOT a liberal and that is why he could sit laughing about the election with Katherine Harris.
When people, in an attempt to describe themselves as very liberal, say they are leftist they are making a big mistake.
Just to be clear, when I said the writer of the piece was a right wing nut, I meant the guy who wrote the article in the Philly Examiner.
I agree with Ayers has an authoritarian streak–you can tell that from the way the Weather Underground operated. But my guess is Ayers is probably not very happy with Obama as President.
Sweden is a socialist country, and they have freedoms. Socialism is an economic system, not a system of government. It can work quite well with democracy.
that is why I said “mostly” because I did not mean all socialist countries, But then again Sweden is not so much socialist as a social democracy. And while socialism and communism are economic systems, they are also types of government.
For instance, Cuba plays at being a democracy just like the soviet union did, but in both cases it was/is a joke. Only one party ever won an election and that is the communist party.
Nader doesn’t support Choice?
nope, he couldn’t care less and he told his supporters that the supreme court doesn’t matter. I believe he called talking about choice and gay rights, gonadal politics and he said he wouldn’t participate.
The new evidence we can bring to this debate is the reality that BO never shuts up long enough to write anything down.
The House work schedule goes from Tuesday night to Thursday evening. That’s just two full days per week. WTF?!
These people humiliate me as a democrat. How can they not be better than the last republican congress?
Women’s party anyone?
When Senator for Illinois, Obama was considered to be a “Tuesday to Thursday Man”.
He spent those days away from Chicago, networking on the golf course during the day, and playing poker with the big boyz at night- while regularly voting present when required.
That’s probably why a lot of Dems in Congress liked him. (HRC might have required them do something…)
The story about the paintings is really wierd, but interesting. I’ll be looking forward to finding out more.
I only get a white screen when I try to go to Hillary is 44. Is it my computer or has something happened ?
Maybe the site is just down temporarily.
Thanks, I’ll try it again later.
With all of the attention and energy focused on getting Polanski a free pass for his egregious exploitation of a child, no one in sparkle-city cares about these average Americans, spending years in jail for such heinous crimes as failing to complete the proper paperwork when ordering orchids, and failing to put the proper sticker on a package before mailing.
Criminalizing Everyone
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/criminalizing-everyone/
We are a police state now in some ways and have been for years. If the Feds want to put just about any of us away, they will find a reason.
It seem to have started with the militarization of police forces and has just been getting worse.
Eventually they will all learn what CA has learned: you run out of room and it is really expensive to guard those guys 24/7.
I only have so much tolerance for looking at how anti-democratic and anti-caring for the general welfare our nation seems to have become. I’m going to change the world – beginning with myself! h/t to someone I can’t remember at the moment.
Good morning all Conflucians!
Just took the dog out for a pee and found a thingy on the door knob from one of the local Bile churches. Only this time it’s for one of those get out of debt workshops.
One of those conservative things?
OT but DeLay hung up his dancing shoes. Turns out he has not one but TWO broken feet (stress fractures) & has to wear braces on them
oh well
I have to wonder, 15-20 years from now will Democrats blame Obama for “losing Congress?”
Approval of U.S. Congress Falls to 21%, Driven by Democrats
The “paintings” story that entertains me this a.m. is about the works selected for the White House by the Obamas. This one, in particular, seems appropriate.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/07/arts/design/20091007BORROW_index.html
From the NYT description of the painting…
“The White House released a list of 45 artworks that are on loan to the Obamas from several Washington museums. It is a big, broad selection, mostly modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures. Shown here, “I think I’ll … ” by the California artist Ed Ruscha. It deals with the subject of indecision.”
This should probably be installed either in the oval office or over O’s bed. Did Mechelle pick that one out for him?
Via Dr. Grumpy:
(the photo is priceless)
That is too funny. Priceless indeed.
I have one question though: How easy is it to get it off and use it as a face mask?
Oh – I have a few more questions:
What about cup size?
Is it hygienic to wear someone else’s bra cup on your face?
🙂
Krugman looks like he’s enjoying that just a little too much 🙂
Et Tu Dick?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091019/jones
As autumn sets in, the progressive agenda on which Barack Obama rode to victory last November has stalled, even with Democrats controlling every branch of government.
What agenda was that?
About that Saturnian ring: it occupies a huge volume of space, as you say. But the actual matter in it, the smoke-like dust particles, are spread so thin that it could all fit into a crater on Phoebe, which is the moon generating the ring.
The ring is only detectable with the Spitzer space telescope in the infrared, which is why it hasn’t been noticed before. It’s so un-dense that if you stood in the ring, you wouldn’t know it was there.
The only reason they noticed it now is because they were looking for it. Another moon, Iapetus, is splatted with black like flies on a windshield. Those “flies” had to come from somewhere, so they were actually trying to find that ring.
(Being a total nerd, I find all that stuff fascinating. I’ll go get back in my basket now.)
Berlusconi has just lost his effort to be above the law.
Italian talk shows are all over it.