Biffster’s World

A reminder to myself: I want to sign up for classes at the <a href=”http://www.colorado.usa.taoist.org/”>Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA - Colorado Branch</a>

“Officials say heating bills could rise from 30 percent to 70 percent more this winter compared to last winter (from 9news.com).” As if the current recession isn’t depressing enough. Looks like we are going to be broke throughout winter. And we’ll all be wearing a few layers of clothing, so we can keep the thermostat set a lot lower than normal. Unfortunately, by the time that Barack Obama takes office in Janaury, most of the cold weather months are behind us. And it’ll take another good 6-12 months before his policies start turning things around…

Stop the world and let me off…

The New Pornographers - “Myriad Harbor”

This has quickly become one of my all-time favorite songs.

I know that George W. likes to refer to himself as The Decider, but I think he is more The Contradictor. Or perhaps it is The Obfuscator. Whichever way you want to put it, Bush continues to mislead  the American public, even while being investigated for more nefarious deeds. For example, Bush decided to blame Congress for our current economic woes:

“Many Americans are understandably anxious about issues affecting their pocketbook,” Bush said in a White House news conference, held outdoors in an unseasonably cold and windy Rose Garden. “They’re looking to their elected leaders in Congress for action. Unfortunately, on many of these issues, all they’re getting is delay.” (via Yahoo! News)

Fortunately, some of the Democrats in Congress have realized they have absolutely no reason to put up with such crap from the most unpopular president in the history of the nation. Senator Harry Reid rightfully fired back:

“His call this morning for Congress to act is disingenuous at best,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of Bush. “Whether on energy policy, the housing crisis or our many other economic woes, this administration and its Republican allies in Congress offer nothing but the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place.”

It was, of course, pure hubris on Bush’s part to try and blame Congress for the current economic state. But that wasn’t the worst part of that news cycle. Instead, it was probably the best news coverage that the Bush administration received in the last week of April. The most damning - and the least covered - was a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stating that the Bush administration has been purposefully working against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)! Ayup, that one was hard for me to believe, too:

So apparently the Bush administration was not happy with castrating the EPA by turning it into an Orwellian department working against the protection of the enviornment. Instead, they also added unnecessary, informal roadblocks to any real work that migh’ve occurred at the EPA.

WTF?

Tags: dumbass

I registered a new domain to make it easier for y’all to track down this blog. From now on, you can use http://myperfectworld.info instead of the current http://aperfectworld.biffster.org to get here.

(via The Rude Pundit)

“We are the greatest military power and we don’t need to prove our military power. I think we are superbly well-placed, equipped to take the initiative in this and create the atmosphere for negotiations by ceasing bombings and some of the other things we are doing. Now if our nation insists on escalating the war and if we don’t see any changes, it may be necessary to engage in civil disobedience to further arouse the conscience of the nation and make it clear we feel this is hurting our country.”And I might say this is another basic reason why I am involved and concerned. It is because I love America. I am not engaged in a hate America campaign. I would hope that the people of this country standing up against the war are standing up against it because they love America and because they want to see our great nation really stand up as the moral example of the world.

“The fact is we have alienated ourselves from so much of the world and have become morally and politically isolated as the result of our involvement in the war…”

That quote sounds like it could apply directly to the current war in Iraq. But it was said almost 40 years ago by the Reverend Martin Luther King. The end of that last sentence is “…in Vietnam.” It is sad that, four decades later, those words are relevant once again.

I still don’t know whether I should feel sorry for church leaders who get busted for homosexual tendencies, or whether I should chalk it up karmic justice. Here in Colorado, there have been two church leaders in the past month (via 9news.com):

The church allowed our partner at the Denver Post to view a video tape Barnes made for his congregation, announcing he has experienced homosexual tendencies since he was a child. The married pastor appears on the tape alongside his wife.Another pastor, the Reverend Ted Haggard, created a national stir last month when he was fired from the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs amid allegations he engaged in sex with a male prostitute and used drugs.

I want to feel sorry for these men. Both have had to struggle their whole lives, not being able to admit that they are gay. Both tried to deny to the world (and probably to themselves) how they truly felt. Both were living double-lives, with all the fear and guilt and shame that comes with it. It would be easy to feel sorry for them.

But on the other hand, both men stood up in front of hundreds of people and talked about the evils of homosexuality. Both worked to restrict the rights of gays. In the case of Ted Haggard, he fought tooth-and-nail against marriage equality. In other words, both sold out homosexuals everywhere in a bid to hide their own homosexuality. That is pathetic, mean-spirited, selfish, and more than a little evil.

In my opinion, it is okay to hate something within one’s self. It may not be healthy, but it is okay. It drives some people to make changes to either come to terms with one’s self, or change. But it is not okay to force your self-hatred on other people. That is just plain wrong.

Remarks made by President Clinton at Georgetown University marking the15th Anniversary of the New Covenant Addresses as part of the Center for American Progress’s conference, Securing the Common Good: A Vision for America. (via www.americanprogress.org)

[...]

Now, this sort of politics – striving for the common good – for me stands in stark contrast to both the political and governing philosophy of the leadership in Washington today and for the last six years. The more ideological, right-wing element of the Republican Party has been building strength, partly in reaction to things that happened 40 years ago: to Barry Goldwater’s defeat, to what they saw as the excesses of the ‘60s. It got a lot of legs when President Reagan was elected, but this is the first time when, on a consistent basis, the most conservative, most ideological wing of the Republican Party has had both the executive and the legislative branch, with a very distinct governing philosophy and a very distinct political philosophy.

Where us common-good folks favor equal opportunity and empowerment, they believe the country is best served by the maximum concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the right people – right in both senses. (Laughter.) We believe in mutual responsibility. They believe that in large measure people make or break their own lives, and you’re on your own. We believe in striving at least to cooperate with others, because we think that there are very few problems in the world we can solve on our own. They favor unilateralism whenever possible and cooperation when it’s unavoidable.

This was fun and unexpected: I had to stop by the local DMV to renew my driver’s license this morning. In Colorado, you can register to vote at the DMV, so the counter person asked me if I wanted to register. I asked her if I could change my voter affiliation, and she said “yes,” but sounded kinda resigned as she did so. She asked what I wanted to change it to, and I said “Democrat.” She proceeded to pump her fist in the air and say, “Yeah!” We chatted for a little bit, both agreeing that this area is far too Republican, but that things were definitely changing.

That’s what I’m talking about!

I have completed the template changes to this blog (a perfect world). I am now quite happy with the look and feel here. I don’t plan on changing it anytime soon. I hope you all like it as much as I do. Feel free to comment on the new look.

One bit of trivia: The photo in our new logo was taken by my wife E. For those of you who don’t know the area, the pic is of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. E. has a great eye, and can take a fantastic photo. I was just sad that I had to crop out a lot of the photo to make it fit. Kudos, E., on the great pic, and thanks for letting me use it. I love you!