third world county

This week’s Guard the Borders Blogburst is from MinutemanHQ:

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MINUTEMAN CIVIL DEFENSE CORPS
ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE ‘SECURE OUR BORDERS’ OPERATION FOR APRIL 2006

(PHOENIX, AZ) February 16, 2006 – Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”), today announced plans for the group’s nationwide “Secure Our Borders” campaign in April 2006. Simcox also announced a new operational structure for the original Minuteman Border Project to meet the growing needs of the continued expansion of Minuteman border security operations.

Thousands of MCDC volunteers, augmented by the new national support team, will hold border watch patrols in northern and southern states along an estimated 800 miles of international borders during the month of April. The Minutemen will observe and report suspected illegal border crossings to the proper authorities. As always, they will maintain a “no contact” policy with the exception of providing emergency water to those illegal aliens found in distress in the wilderness.

Last year, MCDC revolutionized the national debate about border security and illegal immigration by focusing the nation’s attention on the dangers of America’s wide-open borders in a post 9/11 world. The Minutemen have demonstrated that the borders can be secured with sufficient political will and dedication.

Since the MCDC 23-mile border watch in April, 2005, interest in joining and supporting the Minutemen has exploded nationwide. MCDC chapters have been formed in southern and northern border states, as well as interior states. To date, 6,500 men and women have passed the required background check and interviews to qualify to become official Minuteman Border Project volunteers – with more waiting in the queue for approval. Over 120,000 people have become friends of the Minutemen through their support and volunteer work.

Given the success of the Minuteman Border Project efforts, and two successful month long 24/7 operations conducted in April and October of 2005, a new national volunteer operational structure has been launched to support the Minutemen. The new structure is necessary to respond to these thousands of volunteers and supporters asking what they can do to help.

MCDC has asked for and accepted the help of experienced border volunteers who have been on the front lines, some for as long as four years. With this expansion we will be ready for the thousands of volunteers who will participate in the “Secure Our Borders” operation in April 2006. This expansion further solidifies MCDC’s ability to continue the largest neighborhood watch effort in American history. The Minutemen will continue their civil defense operations assisting authorities in securing the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada until properly relieved.

Contact MCDC at (520)829-3112 or info@minutemanhq.com

For more information about MCDC: www.minutemanhq.com

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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terrorism. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.

Blogs already on board:

Euphoric Reality	Curley’s Corner	TMH’s Bacon Bits
Part-Time Pundit	The Right Track	Cao’s Blog
Mover Mike	In The Bullpen	Stuck on Stupid
NIF	Kender’s Musings	Freedom Folks
Parrot Check	Gribbit’s Word	Right on the Right
Team Swap	Gina’s Rantings	The Irate Nation
Publius Rendezvous	Watchman’s Words	Bear Creek Ledger
Something and Half of Something	Ogre’s Politics and Views	Independent Conservative
The Neo-Con Blogger	Ravings of a Mad Tech	Third World County
A Lady’s Ruminations	Mensa Barbie Welcomes You	Intergalactic Source of Truth
Woman Honor Thyself	Adam’s Thoughts	Amboy Times
Gun Toting Liberal	Right on! Blog	American Daughter
Right Truth	Universe and Other Things	A Tic In The Mind’s Eye
Jarhead’s Firing Range	Nova Townhall Blog

I may well be preoccupied all day today, so link here and track back. I’ll need links to some good reads this evening, ‘K?

If you really need a laugh, CLICK on over and read

Dogs in Elk

It’s an oldie but goodie, and it never fails to crack me up.

🙂

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at

Linkfest Haven.

Ancient Recording?

“Belgian researchers have been able to use computer scans of the grooves in 6,500-year-old pottery to extract sounds made by the vibrations of the tools used to make the pottery.”

?!?!?

Maybe… This is about the time of year for another French prank. My French is really rusty, and I would have had a little difficulty following well even when I was relatively fresh in the language (reading other languages has always been a bit easier for me), but I have read an English translation of the interview here. As followed up at that link… Maybe not…

The video comes from the web site of Zalea TV (“Le Vase” http://www.zalea.org/article.php3?id_article=496). This is a TV dediated to humor and spoofing, and it has been around since at leat December 2005.

Oh. Well. It would have been nice. Maybe is is real. But it’s not looking espeically promising.

h.t. The English Guy, where I first saw this.

OK, I admit it. In spite of the ton of silly anachronisms, I rather enjoyed The Mask of Zorro. I mean, Anthony Hopkins, right? And the “new” Zorro role suited Antonio Banderas to a T. Catherine Zeta-Jones was eye candy enough (even with her atrocious accent), and the swordplay/fight scenes were pretty good.

Contton candy, but not so bad the tons of anachronisms couldn’t be ignored in some plea by my suspension of disbelief assuming some sort of alternate reality or something.

But not even Banderas’ suitability to tghe role, Zeta-Jones’ still screenworthy eye candy or even young Adrian Alonso’s delightful portrayal of Joachim, son of Alejandro and Elena, and some really great choreography (fight scenes)—heck, not even a gorgeous, well-trained horse—could overcome the weight of anachronisms.

*sigh*

This was a movie written by, produced by, directed by and for subliterates.

The movie is (amorphously–there are continuity problems between this movie and The Mask of Zorro, many of them) placed in 1850, and the setting of California gaining statehood is established.

But… the first action sequence in the film involves a Henry lever action rifle—prominently placed in the villain’s hands. Let’s see… Henry got the patent for that rifle design in… 1860, as I recall.

Not an auspicious beginning.

An important plot device in the movie is nitroglycerin, presented as a brand new, “secret weapon” developed by a secret cabal to be used in the destruction of the United States. Works fine, except that nitro was invented in Italy in 1846 and was widely known by 1850.

Then there’s the plot to use the railroad to distribute nitro throughout the U.S. for use in destroying… what? Silly plot device compounded by the railroad scheme. Where was this non-existant railroad distribution system for the California Gold Rush, 1849~1854? Uhm, nowhere. That’s because the distribution system wasn’t even in existance in its most basic form until 1869 with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Shall I go on to speak of a modern California-style “quickie divorce”—by a wife shedding a husband, no less!—in 1850 California? Or the simple fact that the Pinkerton Detective Agency was barely getting started and we’re to expect it was involved in skullduggery (and profound ineptitude) in the California statehood question? Silly. Should I speak of Southerners in mock Confederate uniforms? Or Abraham Lincoln in full “presidential garb” as background fluff?

Aw, gee… Is there nothing to save this flick?

Well, surely not a plot that makes any sense (FULL of holes) or witty dialogue or credible character development (apart from young Joachim, to the degree the plot allows).

All it has going for it are the aforementioned action sequences, competent (though pedestrian) performances by the leads, a really fun child actor (who, frankly, filled Anthony Hopkins shoes as the real actor in the show) and a horse.

Not enough to outweigh an assinine plot and a p-potful of anachronisms (I only scratched the surface there).

*sigh*

And I had so hoped for something inoffensive with anough romance for Wonder Woman, enough swordplay for me and enough credibility to at least allow for suspension of disbelief.

Nope. Not in The Legend of Zorro

Oh. Well. Written by and directed by subliterates for subliterates, I suppose.

Just the way it goes…

Submitted to The Critics’ Corners at Is It Just Me?, NIF.

An email exchange with The English Guy riffing off the “Seven Songs” meme pool game led me to recall one of my very favorite voices—not that it took much. heh. Anyway, Rich, The English Guy, reminded me of his preference for Mozart over Beethoven, which popped this into my mind’s ear:

Mozart: Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute]

Now, I’m not a huge opera fan, although arias and chorus pieces and instrumental preludes, interludes & etc., all find their way to my listening from various operas pretty regularly. But of all the operas I’ve been exposed to or associated with in the past, Die Zauberflöte is one I could sit through very gladly. Mozart at his light-hearted best, IMO. And listening to a recording directed by Karl Böhm with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing the Papageno role? Ah, I could listen to that for hours. Just the single finest lyric baritone voice ever recorded, IMO. Even in the very brief excerpt linked (no, not posted here) below, the wonderful quality of his voice shines. *sigh*

And when Fischer-Dieskau sings lieder, ya get a chance to hear what Schubert or Schumann must really have been hearing in their own minds’ ears.

Just awesomely good stuff.

And reading Romeocat’s songlist (see below), reminded me of this, which, although it’s at too slow a tempo for regular use and I dislike some of the vowell choices, is nevertheless a beautiful and moving performance of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (NETTLETON)… and reminds me yet again what a culturally subliterate society we’ve become.

What? Yep. The second verse of the song starts, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer/Hither by Thy help I’m come… ” which many churches are removing or modifying because… well, almost nobody has the foggiest idea what that means.

*sigh* For the darker side, Continue reading “I just love this stuff”

Bou tagged me with another so-called meme (yeh, the link’s to a real definition of the term. So sue me. :-)). Now, I know some folks don’t like to play these blogosphere meme pool “marco polo” games, and many claim to not like playing them (they lie, but just like to grumble), but not this boy. I figure it this way: folks who really don’t wanna play are probably just taking themselves too seriously. (Besides, in this case, well, anyone who knows Bou knows only a really gnarly curmudgeon would turn her down, right?)

Hey, y’all! Lighten up.

Here’s the deal she tagged me with:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Now, that’s not really all that easy. Have to cull the herd a bit, as it were… Besides, songs I am “into” right now are as likely to be things I’m listening to in my mind’s ear or whistling or singing or (when no one else is around to be tortured) playing as listening by means of some mechanical playback device…

So, in no particular order, although one will be pretty obvious from the sticky post at the head of twc, here are seven songs that are speaking to me a lot recently:

Shall We Dance? From The King and I, as sung by Marni Dixon (dubbed in for Debra Kerr in the 1956 movie version ). The reason for this one’s obvious. heh

All My Life’s a Circle, Harry Chapin. The lyrics are a little pseudo-profound-sophomorically silly, but the thing’s just so well-crafted musically that it’s almost hypnotic. I have sometimes, recently, had it simply looping in the background while I blogged or played a lil “Zen Freecell” (score currently stands at 7981/0–don’t ask me how, cos I dunno) to relax a bit.

There’s a piano piece by Rachmaninoff on a theme by Paganini that isn’t a song, but I can’t get the darned thing outa my head at times, recently… So it’s not a song. Whadda ya gonna do? Sue? Blood from a rock, friends. 🙂

“Lord Have Mercy” sung by David Proffitt, a setting of Psalm 136 (Thanks Romeocat for introducing me to this song.) Melodically, it’s very repetitive, but it works well for the piece, and the lush instrumental and vocal arrangement lends texture. A powerful bridge/release and an interesting turnaround/tag add a great deal of musical interest to the off-repeated hook: “Lord, have mercy.”

The “an die freude” section of Beethoven’s 9th in particular (since it’s the “choral” section), the last movement more generally and the entire Ninth as a whole. I’m not going to develop comments on this, cos if I did, the whole rst of the post would be eaten up with them. Just do yourself a favor and spend some time learning Beethoven’s musical language. Buy copies of all his symphonies, a few of his piano and other works and just listen. And again. Until you get it. It’ll change your mental musical ears forever.

(Oh, I could say the same of some other composers, but Beethoven’s a good place to start, IMO. Or Sibelius, perhaps.)

Recently, “Deportee”—a Woody Guthrie piece I hear in my mind’s ear sung by Pete Seeger—has been playing pretty regularly. Why? Not sure. It’s a remarkably strong song, structurally, lyrically and emotionally. I have little sympathy for the political viewpoint it espouses, but it’s just so darned strong a song…

“Anywhere the Wind Blows”, as sung by Melora Hardin. The lyrics are nearly babble (oh, they string together in recognizable concepts, but the concepts are mush), but the music is very good and Hardin’s voice is pure honey. She sings it much better than Lauren Christy (who wrote it and does a very creidible rendition), and really sells the song. But mostly, I just love Hardin’s voice.

That’s seven of the pieces I’m currntly listening to/hearing in my head that speak to me for one reason or another.

Now, who to hit with this?

Lyn, of Bloggin’ Outloud (Lyn, I couldn’t even begin to guess your list!)

Rick, of The Real Ugly American. (Rick: please tell me The Marine hymn is one you’re listening to right now :-))

The English Guy (cos I really wanna know!).

Diane, of Diane’s Stuff (I KNOW there’ll be some classic rock and maybe jazz in the mix, right?)

Romeocat, of Cathouse Chat (Hey! I know you’re really busy, R’Cat, and you like to pretend these meme games are a bother, but we know better, don’t we? Hmmm? :-))

Kris, of Anywhere But Here, just to distract you from the art auctions and school stuff.

Mel, of I’m Just a Girl (eclectic, I’ll bet.)

Just link here and trackback when you make your list. Then follow the yellow brick road, as per the instructions handed me by Bou, above. (Oh, and tell the folks you tag to do the same so you can enjoy their posts.)

There, that was perfectly painless for me, at least, although several pieces are twittering at me that they shoulda been picked instead…

Updte: First up with his list is The English Guy, closely followed by Romeocat. Both very interesting lists of music. Check ’em out!

You may have heard through some media source the comment that Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt made this past Wednesday, February 15, 2006. Mark the date. It’s only 22 years later than George Orwell predicted in his classic novel, “1984“. Hurtt has been quoted as saying that he wants surveillance cameras on downtown streets, apartment complexes and shopping malls. When asked whether the need for cameras extends to private homes, he said,

“If they’re putting a burden on the criminal justice system and cheating the other residents of Houston, yes.”

Also:

“If you’re not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?”

Well for one thing you ignorant Neanderthal it’s against everything this country was founded on. For another I might not remember there’s some freedom sucking voyeur watching my every move and do something as illegal as getting undressed and giving you or whoever’s supposed to be watching these things the thrill of their lives. When you or they die of a heart attack by being totally overcome with my beauty then I’d end up on Death Row. It would be my fault right?

You know I’ve heard some stupid things in my time, I do after all have three kids and a husband, but this has got to top the list. What in the world makes you think that any one has the right to take my privacy away in a home I’ve paid for with my own hard work and sweat? What makes you think TEXAS citizens would allow this? If you want to catch this girl doing something illegal you damn well better catch me out in public because if you try to come into MY house with a camera to watch me there’s gonna be some discussion.

Give Me A BREAK!

[audio:http://fallcolors.fatcow.com/Stuff/everybreath.mp3]

Crossposted At:

Diane’s Stuff

No. “Weather” is not equivalent to “climate.” But still… one sure thing about both is that they have always changed in the past and will continue to do so.

Take our local weather. I shoulda known. My Wonder Woman has a “long weekend”—Friday through Monday—off work, which we planned to spend mostly at home just “being there” with each others’ company, with a little out n about thrown in. Weather all week had been Spring-like. Thursday, the highs were in the mid-70s.

By Thursday night, 19. (Gee, I bet my lil pot of Anasazi beans I started are glad I didn’t put ’em out “Cos the weather’s so nice” eh? Yeh, anthropomorphizing. So?) And now, our first “real” snow of the season: 4″ on the ground.

Wether changes. Climates change. And there’s just about nothing we can do about it. For a pretty darned sensible take on Global Warming/Climate Shift Chicken Little-ism, see Glacial Thinking, Let’s Create A Crisis There are more scholarly, intellectual treatments of the topic (Go to Jerry Pournelle’s place and search on global warming and climate for a few), but Creechman over at Clear Lake Reflections pretty well sums up some of the fundamental flaws in GW/CC Chicken Littleism. Read it. (Yeh, Yeh, I know I’m not the boss of you. So?)

h.t. Jerry Pournelle

It’s apparently in Danish (don’t ask me; how would I know?), but don’t let that stop you; you’ll get it.

CLICK HERE

heh