If you tell the truth . . . you are liberal. (You may be elitest, islamic-commu-terrorists too.) I used to have a friend who said he was a Baptomethapalianpresbygationist.

Liberal media . . . those are the guys and girls who just report what is going on. The conservative side has "defined" what liberal means. They say that the truth is news that flatters the Republican Party, the preznit, and his buddies. Anything that doesn't flatter them, or that reveals the secrets of this administration, which are legion, well that is "liberal" media. Liberal media is proclaimed to be evil, terror-sympathizing, weak and cowardly, educated elitist. Hmmm. So telling the truth gets a lot of adjectives thrown at you. Takes me back to elementary school when the bullies ruled the playground. It feels the same now. Dick Cheney is that older kid who has been kept back twice and spent 6 months in reform school. He'll sucker punch you in the stomach if he thinks you looked at him funny. And he's paranoid so watch out.

I was just reading an article in the Washington Post about people in a mid-American city who just can't vote for Obama because . . . he was born in Africa, he's a gay muslim, he won't wear a flag pin, nor say the pledge of allegience. No matter that those "rumors" are bunk. The 28%ers are sending it round and round the internet, "and with all those good patriotic Americans forwarding the information, it must be true." Of course the Liberal media says Obama is a self-made American, with war hero grandparents, who went to Harvard, loves America and the flag and is a committed Christian. That PROOVES that Obama is false. The Liberal media lies about everything. Or . . . not. Reread the first sentence of the blog.

So what is truth these days. Don't the Supremes decide the truth? (The Supreme Court). Then why is it that almost every decision is 5 to 4. The conservative 4 always vote against the liberal 4, on every issue, no matter what. Justice Kennedy always makes the difference. He's the decider (Don't tell George Bush). I wonder why they all don't have more independent judgement. Why the make up of every decision doesn't come out with different combinations of judges on every vote. But every vote seems the same. How can that be? The only way that can happen is that the decisions are made before the cases are tried. Sheesh! The Supremes are a kangaroo court. If only they were as funny as the Braves Kangaroo court.

A question for Kent or Sarah. When I jump into the air, at the point where I am at the top of the arc, neither rising nor yet falling, am I experiencing zero G? Am I floating?

To see jumpers as I am describing, view this website:

http://www.jumpbecause.com/

One of my favorite blogs to read is http://www.mildlymelancholy.blogspot.com/, written by Susie Julie, a 28 year old middleschool teacher in Manhattan. I've been following her since her first year teaching. She is interesting. It's a bit like following Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. At somepoint I became aware of her photo journalism as well and I like to look at her photoblog too. I think that I need to start a photo blog. It seems very cool and is both a form of information and artistic expression. Some bright technological wizard should help me do that. Julie's photo blog is located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/susiejulie/ .

She's trying to decide whether or not to return to teaching next year. That is where they usually drop out. Right about 5 years.

I suppose that one day her blog will just disappear from the net. What a sad day that will be.

They're back. The U.S. oil companies that were kicked out of Iraq when Sadaam Hussein nationalized the oil production. The preznit is on the verge of giving no-bid contracts to the same companies to "service" the oil production in Iraq. In case you were wondering why all the people needed to die. Oh and we'll need 58 permanent military bases in Iraq to protect our oil production.

The war is not about oil?

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2008/06/20/tucked_0622.html

Been reading the new Scott McClellen book. It's a wonder that he hasn't been murdered--either by the administration or by a radical 28%er (now down to 24%) that thinks the shrub is a great prez.

There is nothing new in the book. He just confirms what we already knew was the truth. The preznit is a criminal.

Has occurred to you that the Repub party has been wailing about opening up drilling all over the Atlantic coast and in Alaska for years, never worried about despoiling American beaches, tourism, animal and plant life, the economy of the beaches. And too bad about the wilderness of Alaska. Wilderness is overrated anyway don't you think?

And we have a preznit who cuddles up with the oil industry for 8 years, letting them set policy for America's energy. Mysteriously, the price of oil triples, crippling the American economy. The solution, let us drill those wells. Wells that will have no impact on gasoline prices for a decade at best, still with all the downside that I have already mentioned.

Even Newt Gingrich suggests that we "transistion" to Hydrogen cars. He suggests it will take many years. Meanwhile the Japanese are already rolling out Hydrogen powered cars. About 5 grand more than our current models, but hey, no polution, no dependence on foreign or domestic oil. Hydrocarbons no longer needed. Arabs go broke. Only problem in the U.S. is no hydrogen stations. Couldn't we take the subsidies we are giving to the oil industry and build hydrogen plants and stations with that money? Oh right. The preznit is in bed with the oil industry.

Time to roll these boys out of bed.

It is great to be present when a voice student turns a corner. It happens like this. They are doing well, but working too hard. The muscles in the back of the tongue and jaw are tightening as they rise up higher in the voice and they choke themselves as they come to the upper passaggio. But when they make that transistion to the upper voice, the jaw relaxes, the back of the tongue and the larynx stay low and the voice floats up into a new resonance in the head. They are both delighted and startled by the change. Suddenly the voice is "on the breath." And it turns them instantly into a diva.

I've been working hard with Ashley for years. She has always done her part and made steady progress. She's in the summer of her 17th year. Today she turned the corner into the upper voice and became a diva. Suddenly a huge resonant, easy, beautiful, perfectly in tune sound. She could not do it every time at first, but she did it over and over again. Amazing how simple it is once you figure out what to do. It's like stepping over the threshold onto the stage. You just go through a door and there you are. There is still plenty to work on, but you are in the room with the big boys and girls. And you belong there.

The "do nothing" democratic congress? Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has placed holds on EIGHTY bills in the senate. The republicans can use various strategies to keep any of these bills from coming to a vote. These are controversial bills like: establishing a national registry for Lou Gehrig's disease, designating new national parks and scenic areas, to expand research for paralysis, and to provide grants for close captioning of broadcasts. If Coburn doesn't like it, he takes it upon himself to stop it rather than letting the congress vote. EIGHTY bills. Can Oklahomans be proud of this guy?

This speaks more and more of the need to have an overwhelmingly democratic senate in order to pass legislation that is good for the country. The GOP has decided that bipartisan means democrats agreeing with them. They don't believe in compromise to move forward on legislation, any legislation. Even when in the minority they have decided to be obstructionists. What horrible people.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002898898&cpage=1

Tim Russett died today. He was a news commentator, a senior vice president at NBC and hosted the program Meet the Press for longer than any one else ever has, 17 years. I watched him regularly and respected his reporting. I will miss his insight as we go forward in these difficult political times. He was my age.

Don't you think that McCain is the Republican candidate because the really good choices of Republicans wouldn't think of competing for this election because they saw it as a likely landslide for the democrats?

I've been hearing the "experience" argument against Obama. Listen, he's not 22. And he's brilliant. A tired old guy, past the manditory retirement age for every academic institution, or a brilliant young lawyer/senator? Plus, you don't do the job by yourself. He will have an experienced team.

Oprah Winfrey is 54, two years younger than I am. She has a net worth of $2.5 Billion dollars.

Angelina Jolie and Tiger Woods are the same age as my oldest child.

Okay. I've been to college, and been to college, and been to college. That's what you have to do to get a doctorate. I've met people with doctorates who I felt couldn't communicate clearly (that is, they couldn't give directions to the corner store). I've met people with doctorates who seemed bumfuzzled. If they understood what they were saying, good, but it was way way over my head. I know the cliches about having "book sense" but no "common sense." There are enough absent-minded professors to keep that going. I've met people with doctorates who had so many personal problems that they couldn't really function in society.


However, on the whole, people with this much education tend to be pretty sharp people. They can analyze, synthesize, interpret, communicate, illuminate, teach. They are scholars--they can do research and discover "new" knowledge. These are the kind of people you want to run the country--not "C" students who barely escaped college with undergraduate degrees. I went to college over and over, without ever making a "C." I either made an "A" or almost made an "A" in every class. "C" students have the same number of "D"s as "B"s and as many "F"s as "A"s. George Bush was a "C" student. John McCain is a bottom of the class guy. To get grades like this you have to have some problems. Either you are: dumb, drunk or stoned most of the time, totally disinterested in learning anything, expecting something for nothing (a degree for no work), too immature to live on your own and take care of your life, or mentally disabled. I can't think of any other choices.

The newspapers say that America wants a "regular guy" to be president rather than some elite ivy league graduate, surely not the editor of the Harvard Law Review. To that I say, "Wake up and smell the coffee, America." The good ole boy, shotgun toting Texan, with bad manners and no smarts has not been good for us. It has set the country back to have gone into needless war because of our pride and bravura. We needed to beat someone up because we had taken a beating. We needed to kill lots of Arabs. A disaster. Our economy is a shambles, our infrastructure crumbling, pension plans disappearing (invest in the stock market--right!), social security unfunded, the national debt overwhelming and sold to China, security remains lax, regulatory agencies stripped of power, our armies depleted, our veterans abandoned, our schools overwhelmed and underfunded. Eight years of neglect.

This time let's elect the smart guy.