Once she has reached the Equator, she will head southeast towards the South American west coast. But first, she has to cross the Equator and her team predicts that it will be on, or about, the 18th of November 2009.
As with any vessel dependent on the wind, she has had some great days with speeds reaching 10-12 knors, and bad days, where she was stuck at only 1 or 2 knots. But, according to her blog and her family, she is holding strong, and loving every moment of her adventure.
She still keeps in contact with her family and friends daily via radio and internet, so that is undoubtedly helping to keep her on an even keel. But still, being so far from home with only a radio and a computer to talk to people must be a bit tough on her.
Or, maybe not. Most teenagers her age(16) mainly use cellphones and computers to chat with friends and family anyway. So she's probably feeling right at home.
All joking aside, this young woman will go far, I believe. Already circling the globe in a sailing yacht? If she's able to pull this off, she may be in for great things. She will have already proven herself to her family, friends, country, and to the world as a whole. After this, everything will be open to her. She will only have to apply herself as she is doing now, and she will do great things.
Until next time...
-Wil
it is possible I'd seen stand-up before watching Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip, but if so, Richard made me forget about it. RPLotSS was one of the first shows that incorporated performance into stand-up
Richard covered a lot of ground in 80 minutes. a meditation on love, loss and the difference between men and women:
about his near-death from an explosion while freebasing cocaine. merciless
NOTE: I feel silly even mentioning this, but just in case. This is RICHARD FUCKING PRYOR peoples. offensive language is a given. do not listen at work or at grandma's house.
Walt Kelly and his friends Pogo and Porkypine still say it best:
"Y'know, it seems to be me this is all backwards....
We, Ever'body, ought to keep our big mouths shut all the
whole year long so's we'd have time to think of two minutes worth of
somethin' to say on the eleventh day of November."
to all veterans and their families, thank you.
Marc Mutty - the picture to the left - reported to the Police Department in Yarmouth that his campaign headquarters recieved a threat via phone message Monday morning. One woman left a message: "You will be dead. Maybe not today, not tomorrow. But soon you'll be dead." And that was just one such call.
Another in Augusta - Maine's capitol city - was left with Michael Heath, former leader of the Christian Civic League of Maine and its successor the Maine Family Policy Council. Someone who wasn't even in the campaign against Gay Marriage here in Maine. It was targeted simply for the organizations he once lead, the fact that he was a Christian, and was involved in three previous campaigns against Gay Marriage, and probably because of his religious convictions.
Marc Mutty said that they had received threats before, but not as direct as this one was.
It should be noted, however, that not all Gay Marriage supporters are like the examples above. In the article it says that there have were also civil, and peaceful, protests infront of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Portland - who's bishop urged his church members to vote against Gay Marriage.
Too bad all protests couldn't have been like the one above. Calling and threatening someone based on their opposition/support of a particular referendum just isn't right. There is no justification to threatening to kill someone because their religious convictions are different.
The idea that someone would do this is disturbing. I'm no Christian, not by a long shot. Honestly, I think it's done more harm that good throughout human history, but everyone has the right to believe as they wish here. To pray to whichever God or Goddess they wish. Or, as in my case, not to pray to a God or Goddess.
To threaten someone just because your side didn't win this time around doesn't help your cause any, it just helps the otherside who can just point to your dumbass phone-call/threat as an example of why not to allow equal under Maine's Marriage Laws. Not to forget that threatening an opponent of a referendum you support/oppose is just assinine.
Grow to hell up people. Gay Marriage Supporters lost this time. Get over it already and lets work towards passage next time. These antics just hurt the Cause.
Until next time...
-Wil
before he became a caricature in Meet the parents and Meet the parents II, Robert DeNiro was actually very funny in the 'comedic thriller' Midnight Run. (NOTE: how do you know you are old? old old? when a movie you watched when first release is touted as a classic. teh ouch. if Midnight Run were a college students it'd be finally drinking legally)
whatever a 'comedic thriller' is supposed to be, this movie was it. cant' think of any other movie that qualifies.
and to think it almost became a-for-sure-train-wreck. check it
"one of the studio (Paramount) proposals for the role of Jonathan Mardukas was Robin Williams*, who agreed to audition <shudders> meanwhile, the director, Martin Brest, had auditioned and cast Charles Grodin in the role, which lead Paramount to drop out of the production and sell the rights to Universal."
* Robin Williams! ack, ack, ack.
besides being a 'comedic thriller' Midnight Run is also a 'buddy movie', a 'road movie', and others. it is also hilarious.
trailer
did you catch the bit about "fistophobia"? here's the entire exchange:
Jack Walsh: I can't keep you cuffed on a
commercial flight, and I gotta check my gun with my luggage, but you fuck with
me once and I'm gonna break your neck.
Jonathan Mardukas: I can't fly.
Jack Walsh: What?
Jonathan Mardukas: You heard me, I can't fly.
Jack Walsh: No, no, no. You're going to have
to do better than that, pal.
Jonathan Mardukas: No, I don't have to do better than
that, because it's the truth, I can't fly: I suffer from aviaphobia.
Jack Walsh: What does that mean?
Jonathan Mardukas: It means I can't fly. I also
suffer from acrophobia and claustrophobia.
Jack Walsh: I'll tell you what: if you don't
cooperate, you're gonna suffer from "fistophobia".
Mardukas must be faking, right? good thing Walsh saw right through that.
a lot can go down between thursday and saturday..
the first time I saw Friday, one of the reasons it made me laugh is because Ice Cube's character, Craig, looked and had expressions exactly like my brother. by now neither mr. Cube nor more brother look much like each other or their younger selves.
set in one of the same neighborhoods that three years earlier had been the site of riots made this light coming-of-age comedy feel hopeful.
the characters of Friday :Craig, Smokey, Deebo, Debbie, are the best thing about it. as memorable, as, say,those of Fast Times at...
the time frame of the movie is the "Friday" of the title. Craig, who still lives at home (much to the dismay of his parents), has just lost his job. as he figures what comes next he becomes involved with his friend Smokey's schemes and troubles. most of the action takes place in and about the front porch of Craig's home
trailer
"you are fuckin' the rotation!" Smokey schools Craig on the etiquette of joint-sharing
Friday's soundtrack feature the biggest hip-hop starts of the mid-1990s. the 'theme' song by Ice Cube
the outstanding track, Dr Dre's Keep their heads ringin
'
there are two movies follow up to Friday: Next Friday, with most of the same actors and crew, and Friday After Next, without. I haven't seen either, but I've heard that Friday After Next is worth watching.
I'm going to use this space to watch librarians and make travel plans.
Barcelona
New Orleans
Ireland
In the second novel, the Yankees and Rus had already shattered the Tugar Horde in the first novel, which allowed the Roum - decendents of the old Romans to the east of Rus - to drive away what little remained of the Tugars. Sparing the Roum from having to give the Tugars two out of every ten of their citizens as food.
The Merki - the larger Horde of the same species as the Tugars to the South - learn that their ancient foe, the Tugars, had been defeated by the lowly cattle of the North. And the leader of the Merki Horde, Jubadi, has decided it is up to him and his Horde to put down the cattle that dared to rise up against the "Chosen Race".
Jubadi then summons Mutza - the Tugar Leader - to come before him to talk of what to do next. Jubadi now considers the leader of the broken horde to the north as his puppet. With most of the Tugar warriors dead, and the rest busy hunting to provide for the civilian population, Mutza is a leader with few choices. And Jubadi knows this, using it to force Mutza to do his bidding. With little choice in the matter, Mutza promises his two remaining Umens - equal to division size combat unit in the United States Army - to Jubadi in return for food.
There are plans within plans for both Mutza and Jubadi. Each wanting to protect his own, and see the other smashed.
However, for now, they are on the same side, and Jubadi shows Mutza what his cattle have been building for him. Two of the Yankees deserted and are now helping the Merki arm the Cartha - descendents of Carthage - with Civil War era weapons - cannon, ironclad ships, muskets, all the tools they believe they will need to wipe out those to the north.
Once armed, the Cartha sends a fleet of armed cattle to attack the city of Roum. No one is to know that it isn't the Cartha behind the attack, but the Merki. Things go according to plan at first. Cartha attacks Roum. Roum calls upon the Rus to send aid as per their military pact. Rus sends much of its army to Roum upon the recently built railroad.
Admiral Tobias Cromwell, the Yankee who deserted the previous year from Rus, leads the Cartha against Roum. Besieging the city of Roum for days, as the Rus Army force marches the rest of the way to Roum. When Cromwell learns that the Rus Army and his nemesis Colonel Keane are almost to the city, he pulls his forces out and proves how fragile an Army dependent upon a rail line truly is.
Cromwell sends a small force of a thousand men to tear up track and to turn rail into Sherman pins - that's where you heat the rail until it is white hot in the center, then rap it around telegraph poll. General Sherman did it on his campaign during the American Civil War.
Anyway, once the line was cut, the army was trapped 500 miles away from home with no way to get back as Admiral Cromwell and the Cartha move to take Rus by sea. Checkmate.
To find out what happens, you'll have to read the book. =P But, I highly recommend this series of novels for those who love a good yarn, military history, the American Civil War and its tactics, alternate history, and fiction. I don't think you'll regret reading these novels.
Until next time...
-Wil
http://www.crikey.com.au/
5 . Rundle: a win to Obama, but the Senate battle awaits
Guy Rundle writes:
President Obama has won a first, though hardly decisive, victory in the health care campaign, with the passage of HR 3200, the Affordable Health Care Act 2009, through the US House of Representatives.
Passage of the bill is the first stage in reforming the US non-health care system. Importantly, it contains the all-important "public option" -- a state-owned health insurer which can offer coverage at lower rates than the private carriers, thus forcing their exorbitant premiums down.
Other provisions within the 2000-page bill include a ban on excluding people with pre-existing conditions from health insurance, new controls on provider (ie doctor and hospital) charges, huge funds for integrating and computerising health care records across the country, and much more.
The bill seeks to limit the ballooning cost of health care by making cutbacks in "Medicare" -- the open-ended 65+ public care which half of the "Obamahitler" protestors are covered under -- and bringing in some controls on the ludicrous amounts big Pharma can charge the government for drugs.
However the bill only just squeaked through the House, with a majority of 5.39 Democrats voted against it, and only 1 Republican -- a Vietnamese-American from Louisiana, pretty much the unhealthiest state in the Union -- voted for it.
While getting any sort of a majority is seen as a triumph for speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the vote occurred on Saturday night after a week of near round-the-clock arm twisting -- there were serious misgivings about some of the deals that had to be made.
One in particular, which excluded abortion from public insurance or from any subsidies to private insurance, was an exceptionally bitter pill. Since non-emergency abortion is scarcely available under public provision currently, the amendment does not make coverage any worse, but it now makes termination an even more "special" case than hitherto.
Others are whackier still -- an amendment (supported by Republican Orrin Hatch and previously by the late Ted Kennedy, for negotiating purposes) that allows public funding for spiritual healing -- ie Christian Science intercessionary prayer at $20 a pop.
Mad stuff, but the bill is through, and as Mark Steyn notes -- ruefully -- that's the important thing. To get something passed in the House is further than Bill and Hillary Clinton's 1993 bill got.
Now however, there's the Senate. Pelosi had about 38 Democrats she could lose (with a 77-seat House majority), and some of them were released from the whip, so that their Big Insurance backers can be assured they got their moneys worth, but the Senate is on a knife-edge.
Ted Kennedy hasn't been replaced yet, and slimy Joe Lieberman, who usually votes with the Dems on social issues, has indicated he won't support a bill with a public option in it. He won't even support "cloture", the vote that prevents a filibuster, and allows the bill to go to a simple majority vote.
That leaves the Democrats with, at most, 58-41, against a filibuster, and needing a 60-40 split. Their best bet is to convince Maine's moderate Republican senator Olympia Snowe over, and one or two others from godknowswhere.
But that presumes a 100% Democratic whip, and that looks unlikely, with a half-dozen "blue dog" Democrats having already vowed to vote against a public option.
Should they be able to persuade the Blue Dogs to vote for cloture, and then against the bill, the bill will come to a majority vote and pass around 53-46, and the Blue Dogs' blushes will be spared.
But if they can't get them to yes on that, the Democratic leadership has another option, which is to make them perform an actual filibuster.
Currently, all you have to do to filibuster -- ie to prevent the bill from coming to a majority vote -- is for 41 senators to indicate that they would filibuster it if required.
That removed the need for senators to stay on their feet reading from cookbooks, Dickens, etc, with a series of explicit rules governing their behaviour (no leaning on surfaces, no physical support by other senators, no toilet breaks).
The automatic filibuster dramatically changed the nature of American governance, but by stealth -- the Senate became a de facto supermajority chamber, an inherently conservatising option.
However, at any time, by a simple majority vote, the automatic filibuster can be removed -- and the minority opposition would have to talk the bill out to the end of the current Senate session.
The advantage of this is that the US public would see the filibuster for what it is (the word comes from a dutch word for pirate or 'freebooter'), a mad obstruction tactic being executed by people desperate to hold back change.
Will the Dems go there? Or will they observe what has become a sort of collective Senate alignment against the House - that it is in the interest of all Senators to keep the automatic filibuster, and hence their vastly increased power within the bicamera.
The look-out is that they won't even let the bill come to the floor before the Senate breaks for 'the holidays', as the Christmas season is very multiculturally called. This will allow the Democratic leadership to craft a complex "trigger option" -- one where there is no public option immediately and lowcost health care is provided by non-profit insurance co-operatives effectively, big insurers pool resources to offer more basic coverage at cheaper prices, on a sliding scale that ensures near universal coverage of some description.
The problem with co-ops is that they would have no power to affect the prices health insurers set for their regular premiums so individuals and businesses continue to pay a mozza for cover. Worse, as Alexander Cockburn pointed out in Counterpunch, this would be combined with a mandating system, similar to car insurance, where you would be required to have health insurance -- effectively the state would be holding the gun while Big Insurance picks your pocket. Only in America.
The trigger option would allow for a rollout of a public option if, after three-five years, average premiums had not come down to set levels. Since they wouldn't, this is a public option by stealth. It would allow Republican Senators Snowe and Collins from Maine to support it, and one or two others, while able to save face with their constituents and soft-money corporate donors.
Should that fail, there is a final option, which is to abandon HR 3200, and roll it into the 2010 budget bill as a series of provisions -- it is then subject to a "reconciliation" vote, which is a straight majority in both houses, and guaranteed to pass. The White House could then argue that the will of the people was expressed in the HR 3200 and the Senate obstructed it -- reconciliation is then in the spirit of the original vote. Indeed, that may be the overall game plan.
Whatever the case, HR3200 is an enormous victory, the first serious universal health care bill to get through a House of Congress ever. The Senate will be tough, if not insurmountable, but this has months to run. Quite aside from the manifold improvements any sort of serious bill will offer in American life, it will give Obama a victory he can go back to his base with, and fire them up anew for the Herculean labour of making change in America.
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