I wish we could clone our Oregon Representative, Peter DeFazio.

We have kept him since 1987 and--in a time when incumbents are losing--we reelected him with 82% of the vote. He is a feisty Progressive who drives a 1964 Dodge Dart (*) and long ago tied his own salary rais/… Read full post »

Since FDR gave us the New Deal, the wealthy in our country have actively waged war against the common working man and woman. Their goal appears to be the dismantling of all social programs and the shifting of wealth to the already wealthy. Without health care or food, the American… Read full post »

Is California Democratic Representative Maxine Waters being punished for being “anti-Big-Oil”?

A ten-term representative and senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, Waters is being charged with three counts of ethics violations related to her husband’s investment in… Read full post »

According to Jonathan Rees, a professor of dermatology at the University of Edinburgh, your butt is impervious to tanning and will only redden with sun exposure then snap back to its normal hue of dead-fish white.

Dr Rees states unequivocally that an all-over tan 'may be… Read full post »

You think they don't talk down there?

This may be only the beginning of the marine revolution. It is obvious that whales, with their long distance communication skills, have alerted all the sea creatures around the world with the message:

"These air suckers are out to… Read full post »

UPDATE: Ric has blogged Some Banner Savant History  over at his site.

I was totally oblivious to the distinction of possessing the very first of RicTresa’s excellent banners (TWO and THREE) until I read O’Really?’s great tongue-in-cheek post:

 Want to Hear About… Read full post »

Okay, Brother Catamite, you have been spotted lurking in the bushes.

An excellent website by Andy Lintner has an interactive map (based upon NOAA data) which allows a comparison view of the size of the oil plume superimposed over your own region. The embedded PBS Newshour counter, which estimates the oil spilled, has now stopped at 92,340,117… Read full post »

Watching Open Salon evolve from a human geographic perspective has been fascinating.

Human Geography is the study of the Earth as human habitat. Essentially, humans change the landscape, but the landscape also changes the humans. Culture is the process which moves change forward. Human culture is so… Read full post »

As reported in Bloomberg Business on July 2, British Petroleum and the Coast Guard have agreed to meet with environmental groups, who in turn will drop their legal suit to ban controlled burns, to work out details on plans to rescue sea turtles prior to b/… Read full post »

When Dad left India after World War II, he was given this kukri in Assam, India, by a Gurkha with whom he had become friends. My uncle later reported that my Dad had said the soldier nicked his own forearm to “feed the thirst of the blade for blood” before/… Read full post »

Sharks follow the fish,

     outrunning the oil to a

          place where death comes last.

Here they are, left to right: Shelloil, Chevron, Conocophilips,  British Petroleum America, and Exxonmobil in a House Judicicary Committee hearing in May of 2008. (Click on picture for the New York Times article where this photo appeared.)

I had written this back in May of 2008… Read full post »

Embargoes and sanctions do not work. Groups of experts on international sanctions commissioned by the UN and the US concluded this fact a decade and a half ago.

A 1997 study by the Institute for International Economics found that since 1970, unilateral U.S. sanctions had achieved foreign policy goals… Read full post »

There was a recent OS lament about being a job hunter at the ripe old age of 41.

Excuse me for snorting. Add two decades and a history of cancer for a real obstacle to employment.

With my fresh master’s degree, I have been spreading resumes around like manure… Read full post »

"Mom?"

"Yes, Daughter." 

"Guess what I have in my pocket."

"A Mother's Day card?" I ask hopefully.

"No...it's a present for you."

"Ah...is it breathing?"

There are few baby birds which are convenient. This one falls thirty feet from a nest in the rafters of the h… Read full post »

“Ultimately…women must be involved in the peace process not only because they suffer disproportionately, or because they have previously been excluded, but because their contribution to the world is invaluable.”

Jose Feliciano quoted by the AP from a statement that he released saying that he is "revolted beyond words" that the song Feliz Navidad which he wrote in English and Spanish to be a bridge between cultures was used by a conservative Website as a "vehicle for a political platfor/… Read full post »

A Fairfax, Virginia man was convicted of indecent exposure while naked in his own home. The 29-year-old man claimed that he was unaware that two women and a child viewed him naked through his picture window. He defended his right to be naked in his own home and i/… Read full post »

The case of the first-grade girl who had her braid cut off by a teacher has raised a controversy here on Open Salon as elsewhere. The teacher has been alternately reviled and given the benefit of the doubt. What most of us do not know is how prevalent this behavior/… Read full post »

After reading Marytkelly's excellent post on Gingerbread House from Hell, I was reminded that I used to do one of these every year while Daughter was growing up. So in an attempt to make Daughter's visits more than “brief” (which she will announce at the door now as she/… Read full post »

According to an AP story on Saturday (Poor Turned Away From Free Cancer Screenings), at least twenty states are citing budgetary constraints which have “forced them to focus on those considered at highest risk” by excluding free screening for those described as lower risk (i/… Read full post »

Now the Republicans are waging war on the Democrats over women’s breasts, claiming that the recent recommendations concerning screening mammograms by the United States Preventative Task Force are part of Obama’s socialist plan for health care rationing.

Rubbish.

If anythin… Read full post »

Furcula healed, Scrappy Pesterbug can fly but prefers intense interactive contact with her human family, hence the name.

 After she broke her furcula, Scrappy kept her vet flex on for four days which was three days shy of the recommended period of recovery. H/… Read full post »

The New York Times is lucky that Daughter is off camping in the nude and did not see this story: When do Kids Need a Fig Leaf?  In lieu of her dressing them down, I will.

We raised Daughter as a nudist from the age of five. She and I spent… Read full post »