As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth. ~ Boris Pasternak
Technorati Tags: Boris Pasternak,Myth Power & Truth
Saturday, August 08, 2009
We have a winner!
Mika proudly sports her first place ribbon (left) following her 1st place win in her first dock diving competition.
Mika is my daughter Shannon’s Malinios. Dock diving is not her only talent, as she has been trained to sniff out drugs.
Congrats to both Shannon and Mika!
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder
Posted to: Blackwater Military News
© August 4, 2009
Two men who worked for Blackwater allege in a federal lawsuit that Blackwater founder Erik Prince or his agents murdered one or more people who were planning to provide information to federal authorities about criminal conduct by the company and its operatives in Iraq.
The two are identified in court papers only as “John Doe #1” and “John Doe #2” because, they say, they fear violent retaliation themselves for making the allegations.
“John Doe #1” identifies himself as an honorably discharged U.S. Marine who joined Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company now known as Xe, and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel.
In his sworn statement, he says he observed “multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and unjustified deadly force.”
“John Doe #2” identifies himself as an American citizen who worked for Blackwater and affiliated companies for four years.
“On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince’s employ,” he says, “Mr. Prince’s management has personally threatened me with death and violence.
“In addition, based on information provided to me by former colleagues, it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct.”
In his statement, he says Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe. (click on link for entire article)
[these allegations are troubling but certainly I’ve not had a good feeling about Blackwater for a number of reasons. If this is true, it even dwarfs my already poor view of Blackwarter]
In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
Thought for the day….
“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” ~ Leo Tolstoy
Monday, August 03, 2009
This and That
Sometimes I think constraint writing must be when my mind is drawing a big goose egg when I’m trying to write. Of course this isn’t what is generally considered as constraint writing. Janet Holmes has an interesting comparison between the twitter of today and the telegraph messaging of the 19th century. Check it out on Humanophone 2.0
Copy of The Philosopher’s Club came in from an Intra-library loan program. This is an out of print book that I need for later this month. It’s out of print & only was published in hardback used copies are running between $37 - $120 so I was fortunate to be able to come up with it in time. It’s the first book of Kim Addonizio who is an awesome poet.
I must confess that as I’m writing this I’m watching Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D List. She is so outrageously riotous. Ok, I really should be writing.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Disordering as a positive attribute…
“The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, and keeps only their quintessences.” ~ Arthur Rimbaud
Friday, July 31, 2009
Finishing off July
Oh what a week! I won’t go into the long and the short of my week, but I will say that it seemed more of the former.
Outside of my own immediate personal space the week has truly been something else.
- Governor Sarah Palin took on a new direction as a private citizen with a not so private involuntary collaborative poetry production with none other than William Shatner. Then her Twitter went dark.
- We’ve seen the birther conspiracy theorists raise their voices in a crescendo of… well, I think they really speak for themselves.
- There was a beer summit held at the White House.
- Major League baseball teams played their annual musical chairs as the trade deadline came and went.
- July had the highest death toll for US troops in Afghanistan since the war began nearly eight years ago, and the lowest death toll in Iraq since that war began six years ago.
Looking for a weekend of productive writing and less insanity.
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