FOR the 300 mourners, it was just too much to bear. As the poignant words of a ten-year-old girl remembering her dead father echoed around the church, tears flowed like rain. Athena, the daughter of Flight Lieutenant Gareth Nicholas, who died in Afghanistan, said goodbye in a beautiful poem, called simply My Dad. (more)
MY DAD
He was a great father
for every good reason
I wish he was still alive
He would still be with me
if it hadn’t gone wrong
I wish he had survived
I feel like it was all a dream
But it’s not what it seems
That he’s still with me in my heart
And in my sad sad dreams
I’m crying at this moment
But I can’t stop now
I wish he was still with me
And he’s whispering
in the clouds:
‘I will visit you in your dreams
And we shall roam free
Playing in the grassy fields
Definitely You and Me’
Athena Nicholas
The second book I have any real memory of reading was Mr. Williamson's The Humanoids. I had just read the first, Isaac Asimov's David Starr, Space Ranger, and the one/two punch of these books made me, at age 9, a lifelong passionate reader of science fiction . I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Williamson several times. At the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston I had a long conversation with him and was able to express my enormous gratitude for what his writing had meant to me. The LA Times
Clovis News Journal
from Locus:
SF Grand Master Jack Williamson, born 1908, died this afternoon at his home in Portales, New Mexico, at the age of 98. His first published story was "The Metal Man" in Amazing Stories in 1928, the beginning of a writing career that spanned nine decades. His work ranged from early space opera series The Legion of Space (beginning 1934), werewolf SF/fantasy Darker Than You Think (1940), thoughtful SF classic The Humanoids (1948), Golden Age antimatter tale Seetee Ship (1951 as by Will Stewart), and time travel series Legion of Time (1952). Later works included Hugo and Nebula Award winning novella "The Ultimate Earth" (2000) and its novel expansion Terraforming Earth (2001), winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He won a Hugo Award in 1985 for autobiography Wonder's Child, and his career honors include a Pilgrim Award for his nonfiction work including H.G. Wells: Critic of Progress (1973), SFWA's 2nd Grand Master Award in 1976, Life Achievement World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards, induction in the SF Hall of Fame in 1996, and Grandmaster of the World Horror Convention in 2004. The Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library was established in 1982 at Eastern New Mexico University, which for 30 years has hosted an annual Lectureship in honor of the writer. Williamson's last novel was The Stonehenge Gate (2005).
from TPM:
"Republicans may want nothing more than to go home and nurse their election wounds, but the lame-duck Congress has lots of work ahead.
"Items at the top of the list are reviving several popular but expired tax cuts, confirming a new defense secretary and keeping most federal agencies in operating funds....
"President Bush met on Thursday with GOP congressional leaders and came up with a similar to-do list. He added a Vietnam trade bill and legislation giving legal status to his warrantless domestic eavesdropping program....
"The eavesdropping measure has stalled in the Senate because of a Democratic filibuster threat." (AP, NYTimes)
Yep, we can "work" with these assholes. Sure we can.....
Rumsfeld responds to a pointed question during an appearance at the University of Kansas.
Many thanks Dr. Dean. You were right about the 50 states strategy and you held to your guns to implement it. We are lucky to have you chairing the party. Now, lean on those we elected and help them do their jobs investigating these Neocon pukes. Well, having nefariously gained power in Congress through the deceptive lawful tactic of using the Constitutionally protected liberal power to vote, we on the left can at last reveal our secret hidden agenda to enslave the rich, indoctrinate the young in our progressive reeducation camps and feminize all macho men in America by stealing their guns and forcing them to wear pink tutus in the workplace.
Read on, you great Neocon unwashed , and tremble before the wrath of the Unitarian Jehad.
Now that the election is behind us, and the Democrats control both houses of Congress, there's no reason not to admit it: the Right was right about us all along. Here is our 25-point manifesto for the new Congress:
Add your own post: http://right-was-right.blogspot.com/
1. Mandatory homosexuality
2. Drug-filled condoms in schools
3. Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act
4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses
5. Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State
6. Withdraw from Iraq, apologize, reinstate Hussein
7. English language banned from all Federal buildings
8. Math classes replaced by encounter groups
9. All taxes to be tripled
10. All fortunes over $250,000 to be confiscated
11. On-demand welfare
12. Tofurkey to be named official Thanksgiving dish
13. Freeways to be removed, replaced with light rail systems
14. Pledge of Allegiance in schools replaced with morning flag-burning
15. Stem cells allowed to be harvested from any child under the age of 8
16. Comatose people to be ground up and fed to poor
17. Quarterly mandatory abortion lottery
18. God to be mocked roundly
19. Dissolve Executive Branch: reassign responsibilities to UN
20. Jane Fonda to be appointed Secretary of Appeasement
21. Outlaw all firearms: previous owners assigned to anger management therapy
22. Texas returned to Mexico
23. Ban Christmas: replace with Celebrate our Monkey Ancestors Day
24. Carter added to Mount Rushmore
25. Modify USA's motto to "Land of the French and the home of the brave"
As we see, the Democratic seats gained in the Senate do little for people needing a truly progressive, Liberal approach to government. The majority of Dem pickups are hard-right leaning DINO's. Not an unbleak picture.
The House shows better results, but still not great. Of the 28 seats picked up, nine of those have gone to conservative Democrats who would look right at home in a Reagan or Bush 41 GOP. But there are enough "true" Liberals in the pack to make me a bit happier about the House results over those in the Senate.
In short, however, a review by positions instead of Party affiliation reveals to us what won't be happening any time soon, under this "Nude Erection" brought in by voters:
- There will be no living wage. You might get a symbolic minimum raise hike, but nothing to break the poverty level.
- Immigrants will still be shit on and labeled a "threat."
- There will be no movement whatsoever to crack down on corporate fraud, or corporate control of government.
- There will be no change in the country's hardline position supporting Israel at all costs.
- There will be no change in the country's treatment of Islamic nations as threats by default.
- Abortion rights will still be very much at risk.
- Race relations will not improve at all.
- Education will not improve significantly, if at all.
- Poverty -- which was addressed by virtually no candidate listed above! -- will not be reversed.
- Veterans services will not improve significantly, if at all.
- Labor union rights will continue to be trampled.
- Third parties will continue to be effectively illegal.
- Rhetorical patriotism will continue to trump logic and discussion.
Rick Santorum (R, Sanctimonious Little Prick)
from the WaPo:
GREELEY, Colo., Nov. 4 -- During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush and his aides sternly dismissed suggestions that the war was all about oil. "Nonsense," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared. "This is not about that," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
Now, more than 3 1/2 years later, someone else is asserting that the war is about oil -- President Bush.
Told you so. Told you so. Neocon scum.
