Raise your hand if this happened to you:
You had a notebook in school, or a binder or a scrap of paper.  You wrote something personal on it.  Maybe it was just a sentence, like "Chris Jones is a total fox." Maybe it was  the lyrics of a song stuck in your head, or a poem.  Maybe it was a scrawl of rage against a teacher or classmate.   And some kid saw it, someone you never meant to see it.  And they took it from you, or told on you.  And you were stuck there, ashamed, defenseless, violated.  And you learned that day to never write anything down:  not where they could find it, anyway.

(more musings to follow.)

[Llewellyn] Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is pouring millions of dollars into developing the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the firm that developed Disneyland. "The people need this kind of positive influence. It’s going to have a huge psychological impact," Mr Werner said.

(more after the fold.)

Sure, they are rioting for food in Haiti.  Yes, the melting glaciers are threatening fresh water supply.  But, did you know that the eternal Twinkie may soon be on the endangered list?

The Interstate Bakeries Corporation, based in Kansas City, Missouri, makes the Hostess products, including Wonder bread,  Ho-Ho’s, Ding-Dongs, Twinkies, and Cupcakes.  The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004 with the high price of flour cited as one of the reasons the company was struggling. The price of flour in 2004 was $4 a bushel.  As the company tries to get itself back on track, flour prices have soared to as high as $12 a bushel. More after the fold.

I finished reading Naomi Wolf’s The End of America:  Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot.   After reading the book I began to wonder what fascism would look like in America.

In this short, concisely presented book Wolf outlines ten steps that are the signs of a society in the process of closing.  Her writing has been diaried here by DebtorsPrison  and byVyan. Here is a longer article from AlterNet.

Wolf writes that it is important to consider that the subversion of Germany by the Nazis,  did not begin with Kristallnacht and people being packed into trains and sent to the death camps.   Those events were only able to happen after a series of incremental changes that took place in the preceeding years  Those incremental steps set the stage for the final takeover, which then occurred quite rapidly, with events spiraling out of control.   What will the culminating events look like in America?  Care to follow my musings?  Meet me below the fold.

"He says the Beastie came out of the dark."
"Then he couldn’t see it!"
"He still says he saw the beastie."
"He was dreaming!"
"He says he saw the beastie, and will it come back tonight?"
"But there isn’t a Beastie!!"
Jack seized the conch.
"Ralphs right of course.  There isn’t a snake-thing . . .but if there was we’d hunt it and kill it."
"But I tell you there isn’t a beast!"
from Lord of the Flies

Last week I sent a letter to Representative Cleaver urging him to co-sponsor the resolution to bring impeachment proceedings against Cheney.  Being a good Kossack, I double checked to make sure I was wording it right, so the resolution wouldn't be confused with the other one which has a slightly different title.  I included with the letter a text of the resolution, lest there be any confusion.  Here's my letter, followed by the response I got back in the mail:

This is the letter I will be sending to my Representative asking him to co-sponsor H. Res. 333.  I am posting it here in case anyone wants to use it to send a similar letter to their rep, and also for feedback (too long, too dramatic, bad grammar, bad spelling?)  The points I made in the letter come directly from numerous comments and diaries written on Kos, so thank you everyone for your intelligence and insight.

Enough talk of investigations and proceedings.  If it is true that Cheney and Bush are planning to attack Iran, then we are officially out of time.  They need to be stopped.  But think about this: we don’t need to impeach Dick Cheney, George Bush and their co-conspirators.  We have enough evidence now to have them both detained as material witnesses.

Phill Kline, Kansas’attorney general, filed charges against Wichita doctor George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country who will perform late term abortions.  Tiller and his clinic have endured decades of harassment from anti-abortion zealots.  Tiller was shot in both arms by a protester in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985.

Here’s the link to the Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

GAY clams?

This is a disgrace!  Something must be done to stop pollution now!  You see how the homosexual agenda has spilled over into our estuaries?"

Link to article