theFrey
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I do wonder will happen the next time something like this occurs, now that the commado’s have to be careful what they say on the sci-fi board since it is no longer a totally unmoderated board.
In this last go round I was called everything but a child of god, yet they feel victimized.
Unpopular? Tolling abounds and unreasonableness is broadcast across multiple boards and chats and *we* are unpopular?
I have always been puzzled by the collective amnesia that seems to apply to trolls yet not to the boards they attempt to terrorize.
[url]http://www.workingamerica.org/[/url]
Locate outsourcing companies by location, industry or company name. Interesting…. apparently Lou Dobbs is mentioned a more than a few times as a info source.
Fry wants you…. ???
I don’t want anyone, well perhaps theSpouse and Rover the Cat, but… but…
Now, if you had said, “Fry wants you to do….” that I could work with.
Last week someone at work offered to help me any way they could, so I told them I had windows that needed cleaned and a kitchen floor that needed scrubbed. Sigh…. that isn’t want he meant. Life is so unfair some time.
P.s. it is F R E Y 😆 😆
Interesting. If there are no reports of potty humour (south park ya know) I will most likely watch it.
Part of the problem may be that most of us are already on too many boards to keep track of.
You can you know post your gamer chatter here. I would recommend using ‘RP whatever topic’ or RP Lexx whatever topic’ as the title of your threads. That would make them readily identifiable.
By posting at a main board, even the people who are not gamers can peek in and check the progress of the game. You would also be able to occassional get feed back from non-games and who knows… you might be able to suck a few of them in to hard core gamer land with you. 😉
[size=18]Saturday[/size] Day two – After waking up remarkable rested I was up and at ‘em. I packed up the convention cart (don’t leave home without it) and went down to the snack center for a very tasty, if slightly over priced breakfast. Chocolate cake and orange juice, the breakfast of champions… or at least convention goers. ;D
Since I was in the same hotel as the Fan tables, I was able to get set up in just a very few minutes. The new banner looked nice, but would have looked nicer over the table where people could see it, instead of on the front of it. But happily, Mike, Kroudelka, HDS, Tree and Todd showed up at about that time. Apparently, HDS was running late so he could not drop off the display items if he was going to make it to the parade in time. Mike and the ladies wandered out to get them and then with Todd’s help we quickly finalized the table. Having one banner overhead and one on the front of the table helped people to find us. Jkd172, Goblin Moon, Type13 Planet, Jhevz and many other Lexxians soon started popping over to help out watching the table and picking up their ‘Security Guard 4th Class’ name badges. Well except for poor Type 13 Planet, I have no clue what happened to her badge. But I did promise to send her one if she emails me an address.
Before the badges were all picked up, we had lots of people trying to buy them and the Lexx posters off of us. ;D And being major bummed that we had none for sale. Late Sunday our Travis had still not yet surfaced from the game room to get his badge, so another Lexx fan named Travis begged for it. Badges and Posters? Hummm, something else to think about for next year?
We had a steady stream of non cyber-Lexxian who stopped over to visit. They were particularly captivated by the new Kai Kaption screen saver I put together and all of the Lexx music videos we played, including some by our very own Pet. ;D We passed out tons of S3 post cards given to us by Acorn Media, as well as mini Lexx buttons and magnets made for us by Rene and Sadgeezer key chains, hats and t-shirts.
One surprise Lexx fan was a sculptor for WizKids Games. We had a nice chat about Lexx and then I think I surprised her by discussing her employer WizKids, and the monumental bobble they almost made by attempting a last minute blow off of Dragon Con. We also had many employees of the hotel stop by, including one chef who was too excited for words at picking up the post cards and a few of Rene’s buttons. He likes Lexx but apparently, his wife is a big, big fan.
What can I say? Yet another DragonCon gone by and I still have not been to any other forums but ours. My bad. There is no need to worry about your fellow Lexxians getting bored here. With twenty-eight tracks running from 10 am to 10 pm it is just not possible to be at loose ends. Couple this with the huge exhibition hall and art gallery/show upstairs, the dealers room downstairs, and the entertainment hall at the Hyatt there is lots of neat stuff to see. So much so that theFather is planning on attending next year. ;D He is a big Babylon 5 fan, but I love him anyway.
Saturday evening, after a bit of costume watching many of us attended a Klingon party at the Marriott. They had a suite of rooms on the party level…. Something to keep in mind for the future? What can I say, it was dark and hot and there were not enough chairs for my taste, but many of us spilled out on the balcony, chatted, drank and nibbled cookies while enjoying a few breezes wafting up from some open windows on the far side of the atrium below. While I am not much of a drinker, I understand from Mandara K that the Romulan ale was particularly yummy and potent. Or was it Klingon Punch? Whatever. They did have a small buffet table of normal stuff interspersed with a few odd things like the boiled eggs that looked like they had been boiled, broken and then dyed. Supposedly to resemble some kind of alien eggs I am sure. Interesting, but I passed on them. ;D Anyhow, much sooner than the others, I faded and wandered up a few floors to bed. So ends Saturday.
Have I mentioned yet what great beds they have at the Marriott? Yes? Ah well, I took this afternoon off from writing this, to go out and get new mattresses from the same company. 😀
[quote=”HisDivineShadow”]Now if I could learn to keep my mouth shut and remember shirts =p I have no idea why Patrick looked at me like I was forgetting something??? HDS[/quote]
You mean like the Shirts Mr. Lowe gave us for the Con? 🙂 I imagine that is why he was glaring at you. He very much wanted one. 😆
RPG the old fashion way are fun, but can’t they also be played online? The reason I ask is that many Lexxians are separated and may only meet up in RL occasionally.
We have lots of talented people and between original artists and photo-shop whizzes art work should not be a problem.
[quote=”Raven495″]Priest will never amount to anything, just like Stan won’t. I think the character dymanic of the two is that they are each others antithese (is that a word). They mirror each other so perfectly in character, wit, objectives, etc. but they just lie on opposite sides of the Prince line. It would be amusing to see their continuing bumbling adventures as adversaries or poorly consieved allies. I can see them joining sides to do battle with Prince only to have it backfire on them as they are each self-serving.[/quote]
Well it would be a continuation of the current Stan/Preist relation ship to have them sniping and fighting with each other. I think that Stan is a bit smarter than Preist, but since Preist has less restraining him, he can surprise Stan by doing things that Stan might feel are unthingable. 🙂 I am reminded of the POTC scene when the hero crys, “You cheated!” to which Jack replies, “Priate.”
Even as low as he can go, Stan still often follows a moral line of sorts, whereas Preist cares only about himself and possibly Bunny’s opinion of him.
[quote=”Raven495″] Imagine if you will…. Bunny, who always was a good observer at stating the obvious (“aren’t their people in Holland?”) and always stuck as to what side of the good/evil line she stood on: comes into her own and sides with the Lexx. Now with a backbone and sense of right she becomes a key participant in the final battle between the Lexx and Prince. A battle that will distory the last on the two universes. Caught in the “other zone” as the last survivor she observes time end and begin again. Knowing Kai’s past, who Prince is and observing all the souls get redistributed accross the two new universes she attains the great cosmic understanding of the universes. She sets up shop in the other zone and becomes the time profit. To conclude the tail of the lexx from end and set the pieces into motion to begin again.[/quote]
And it would also explain why the Time Prophet of Brigadoom fame was a hot chick with a bit of a skanky wardrobe. 😛 I also think that in the end, much as she loves Preist, Bunny can’t really bring herself to be evil and hurt innocent people. So I can see her evolving into someone who helps people.
[quote=”Raven495″]I like some of the work so far, and dislike other parts. Things I like… Stan and Zev, well as part of their running love/hate relationship it should be so fitting that LL’s alcholoic byproduct (from eating so many grain and cereals and fermenting in his dyestion system) should allow for classic hilarity.
Completely forgetting their experiences with berries and “Booze” in Season 4. Xev and Stan jump right in. And in such an emotional time (New ship, New Kai maybe) one thing leads to another and Stan looses the Key. But lets not loose our heads and forget some of the “commandments” of Lexx. The Love slave never finds and good outlet for her libido. (AND NEVER WITH STAN).
[/quote]Oh I agree. This should be a one time thing. For one thing Zev still can’t stand Stanley in *that* way and of course the other is… she has the key, why should she want to risk giving it back. Of course this will work against her if they meet other people. She may want to get a little, but what if she should loose the key to a stranger. Her own reluctance to loose the key coupled with Stan’s nagging would make any future whoopee a bit of a problem.
[quote=”Raven495″]…Which brings me to what I don’t like about the outline. The “commandment of the Key” is broken by allowing it to superseded. One of the continuing sub-plots in Lexx is the control (or lack of) the key. I do think that the changing of hands of the key should confuse LL and shall surely bring about some adolescent development issues in LL. I think theirs quite a little gold mine of dark humor in LL (who will shurly become smarter than her mother, rather a lot like Lexx before the wormhole) struggling with growing pains and her crew right along with her.[/quote]
One thing I have always wondered is how much of the *key* behavior was inbred into Lexx and how much was training? Possibly painful obedience training at that. Think about the structure of Lexx inside and out. the natural curve of LL straightened and confined in a metal cage. The living spaces which are living tissue pinned back to keep them open. Seems a bit painful to me.
2) Chances are if you have taken introductory economics in college,
you have either used the textbook written by Paul Samuelson or are familiar with his work to some degree.The New York Times reports today that Samuelson, 89, has written an article questioning whether outsourcing of jobs can be a net plus to the U.S. even on economic terms. The crux of his argument is that in areas in which Americans have enjoyed an economic edge, it is highly doubtful that the export of jobs will lead to
compensating incoming economic activity. Samuelson also calls for
more help for those who are left behind in this changing economy:September 9, 2004
An Elder Challenges Outsourcing’s Orthodoxy
By STEVE LOHRAt 89, Paul A. Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and
professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
still seems to have plenty of intellectual edge and the ability to
antagonize and amuse.His dissent from the mainstream economic consensus about
outsourcing and globalization will appear later this month in a
distinguished journal, cloaked in clever phrases and theoretical
equations, but clearly aimed at the orthodoxy within his
profession: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve; N.
Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic
Advisers; and Jagdish N. Bhagwati, a leading international
economist and professor at Columbia University.These heavyweights, among others, are perpetrators of what Mr.
Samuelson terms “the popular polemical untruth.”Popular among economists, that is. That untruth, Mr. Samuelson
asserts in an article for the Journal of Economic Perspectives, is
the assumption that the laws of economics dictate that the American economy will benefit in the long run from all forms of
international trade, including the outsourcing abroad of
call-center and software programming jobs.Sure, Mr. Samuelson writes, the mainstream economists acknowledge that some people will gain and others will suffer in the short term, but they quickly add that “the gains of the American winners are big enough to more than compensate for the losers.”
That assumption, so widely shared by economists, is “only an
innuendo,” Mr. Samuelson writes. “For it is dead wrong about
necessary surplus of winnings over losings.”Trade, in other words, may not always work to the advantage of the American economy, according to Mr. Samuelson.
In an interview last week, Mr. Samuelson said he wrote the article
to “set the record straight” because “the mainstream defenses of
globalization were much too simple a statement of the problem.” Mr. Samuelson, who calls himself a “centrist Democrat,” said his
analysis did not come with a recipe of policy steps, and he
emphasized that it was not meant as a justification for
protectionist measures.Up to now, he said, the gains to America have outweighed the losses from trade, but that outcome is not necessarily guaranteed in the future.
In his article, Mr. Samuelson begins by noting the unease many
Americans feel about their jobs and wages these days, especially as the economies of China and India emerge on the strength of their low wages, increasingly skilled workers and rising technological prowess. “This is a hot issue now, and in the coming decade, it will not go away,” he writes.The essay is Mr. Samuelson’s effort to contribute economic nuance
to the policy debate over outsourcing and trade. The Journal of
Economic Perspectives, a quarterly published by the American
Economic Association, has a modest circulation of 21,000 but it is
influential in the field.Indeed, Mr. Bhagwati and two colleagues, Arvind Panagariya, an
economics professor at Columbia, and T. N. Srinivasan, a professor
of economics at Yale University, have already submitted an article
to the journal that is partly a response to Mr. Samuelson. Theirs
is titled “The Muddles Over Outsourcing.”The Samuelson critique carries added weight given the stature of
the author. “He invented so many of the economic models that
everyone uses,” noted Timothy Taylor, managing editor of the
Journal of Economic Perspectives.For generations of undergraduates, starting in 1948, the study of
economics has meant a Samuelson textbook, now in its 18th edition, with William Nordhaus, a Yale economist, as a co-author since the 12th edition. Because he has taught at M.I.T. for six decades, the elite ranks of the economics profession are filled with Mr. Samuelson’s former students, including Mr. Bhagwati and Mr. Mankiw.According to Mr. Samuelson, a low-wage nation that is rapidly
improving its technology, like India or China, has the potential to
change the terms of trade with America in fields like call-center
services or computer programming in ways that reduce per-capita
income in the United States. “The new labor-market-clearing real
wage has been lowered by this version of dynamic fair free trade,”
Mr. Samuelson writes.But doesn’t purchasing cheaper call-center or programming services
from abroad reduce input costs for various industries, delivering a
net benefit to the economy? Not necessarily, Mr. Samuelson replied.
To put things in simplified terms, he explained in the interview,
“being able to purchase groceries 20 percent cheaper at Wal-Mart
does not necessarily make up for the wage losses.”The global spread of lower-cost computing and Internet
communications breaks down the old geographic boundaries between labor markets, he noted, and could accelerate the pressure on wages across large swaths of the service economy. “If you don’t believe that changes the average wages in America, then you believe in the tooth fairy,” Mr. Samuelson said.His article, Mr. Samuelson added, is not a refutation of David
Ricardo’s 1817 theory of comparative advantage, the Magna Carta of international economics that says free trade allows economies to
benefit from the efficiencies of global specialization. Mr.
Samuelson said he was merely “interpreting fully and correctly
Ricardoian comparative advantage theory.” That interpretation, he
insists, includes some “important qualifications” to the arguments
of globalization’s cheerleaders.Those qualifications are not new to Mr. Samuelson. He noted that in
a different context, he touched on similar matters as far back as
1972 in a lecture he delivered shortly after he won his Nobel
Prize, titled “International Trade for a Rich Country.”For his part, Mr. Bhagwati does not dispute the model that Mr.
Samuelson presents in his article. “Paul is a great economist and a
terrific theorist,” he said. “And in markets like information
technology services, where America has a big advantage, it is true
that if skills build up abroad, that narrows our competitive
advantage and our exports will be hit.”But Mr. Bhagwati, the author of “In Defense of Globalization”
(Oxford University Press, 2004), says he doubts whether the
Samuelson model applies broadly to the economy. “Paul and I
disagree only on the realistic aspects of this,” he said.The magnified concern, Mr. Bhagwati said, is that China will take
away most of American manufacturing and India will take away the
high-technology services business. Looking at the small number of
jobs actually sent abroad, and based on his own knowledge of
developing nations, he concludes that outsourcing worries are
greatly exaggerated.As an example, Mr. Bhagwati pointed to the often-repeated estimates that, because of the Internet, as many as 300 million well-educated workers, mostly from India and China, could now enter the global work force and compete with Americans for skilled jobs.
In their paper, Mr. Bhagwati and his co-authors write that such an
assessment of the education systems of India and China “almost
borders on the ludicrous.” In an interview, Mr. Bhagwati said, “You
have a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean they are qualified.
That sort of thinking is really generalizing based on the kind of
Indian and Chinese people who manage to make it to Silicon Valley.”The Samuelson model, Mr. Bhagwati said, yields net economic losses only when foreign nations are closing the innovation gap with the United States.
“But we can change the terms of trade by moving up the technology ladder,” he said. “The U.S. is a reasonably flexible, dynamic, innovative society. That’s why I’m optimistic.”
The policy implications, he added, include increased investment in
science, research and education. And Mr. Samuelson and Mr. Bhagwati agree that the way to buffer the adjustment for the workers who lose in the global competition is with wage insurance programs.“You need more temporary protection for the losers,” Mr. Samuelson said. “My belief is that every good cause is worth some
inefficiency.”Red Dwarf – Classic. I would love to see….
Kryton trying to reason with 790 about this whole injury to everyone but Kai problem of his. Wouldn’t work, but Kryton might pop a circuit over 790’s illogical logic.
Cat would be ripping his hair out (except for that would muss it) over the sheer waste of Kai looking so fine but wearing that ratty rug outfit of his. On the plus side they could exchange hair tips. After all, 4000 years without a split end is nothing to sneeze at. Also, if you think about it, Cat wears a slightly more refined Brunen-g ‘do. 😀
Xev and Lister would be busy for a good while. but then eventually Lister would be hiding while Xev stalked him for just one more go round.
Rimmer and Stanley sneering at each other. Perhaps Ace would show up and then Stan would have someone to buddy around with. Would be a change for Stanley to hang with someone who thinks he is a ‘jolly good chap.’
I saw several of these Republicans for Voldemort t-shirts at Dragon Con. Oh, and I wore my Kerry badge into the dealers room and was offtered discounts at several tables. Truth. Ask Mike, he was with me. 😀
[url]http://www.goats.com/store/images/rfv_preview.gif[/url]
[url]http://www.goats.com/comix/0308/goats030808.gif[/url]
You could NOT tell it to look at him though. He did an excellent job in both panels. Very calm and concise. We were all much impressed.
[quote] From: “James McCrory” Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Series Five
I’m interested in contributing to this; but I have a problem.
I only know what happening on Lexx up the Bad Carrot
The reason is I’m relying on Channel Five in the UK and they’ve only this year started showing channel five – as far as I know. This is a bit surprising given that they supposed to have been co-producing it. However it may be that they lost interest in the series and if so that may be the reason why there been no series five.These are my questions:
Little Lexx – where did it come from? What’s its properties etc. is it just a smaller version of the Lexx?
What happened to the Lexx?
Who or what is Noah – description, details of the craft?
Who is Tina?
Who is Debby and where did she come from?
How did Stan lose the key? Is this the key to little LEXX, LEXX or both – if little lex – how did Stan get the key in the first place?
Is the lady mentioned Debbie – if not who? If it is, is there a particular reason she’s called the lady?
Where did the robots come from? What numbers i.e. How many and what can they do? In terms of understanding humans and fighting i.e., are the armed, weapons etc.?
What details have you on the bimbos? Origins? Numbers? Thoughts? Speech?
Why do you want a Time Prophet? I’m ok why the idea, but how would the being fit into the storyline?[/quote]
Little Lexx – Was born after a chance mating between a south american dragonfly (?) and Lexx. this occurred while Lexx was eating it’s green leafy salad snack. Original Lexx died of old age.
Who or what is Noah – Space Ship build by Professor Noah and his students with the aid of 790 and some drone arms. Looks like a regular space rocket with a picture of an old man with a body builders body painted up the side of it.
Who is Tina? A very smart assistant of Dr. Noah who lusts after Kai.
Who is Debby and where did she come from? She was made up. The Noah left earth with a bunch of bimbettes chosen for looks more than smarts.
How did Stan get and lose the key to little LEXX? After the earth was destroyed and Lexx disingrated, little Lexx was floating there in space. They entered. Spoke to Little Lexx who asked if Stan was her captain. He guessed he was, and a new key flew to his palm.
Is the lady mentioned Debbie – if not who? If it is, is there a particular reason she’s called the lady? Nope, Don’t know, Nope.
Where did the robots come from? What numbers i.e. How many and what can they do? In terms of understanding humans and fighting i.e., are the armed, weapons etc.? Seem to be crosses between the Madrid drones and the 790 fighters for Xev. There seem to be enough of them, and they can defend if instructed to do so.
What details have you on the bimbos? Numbers? Thoughts? Speech? Seemed to be several, perhaps even a dozen or more, they seem like ditzy college students.
Why do you want a Time Prophet? I’m ok why the idea, but how would the being fit into the storyline? Who knows. It may not. I just thought it would be a cute idea that dizzy Bunny grows to be a sage. 😀
Molly Ivins, noted political humorist, has stated that the ability to see both sides may well be the downfall of the democratic party.
Think about it, how often have you ever, ever, ever heard your average ardent republican admit to party fault?
Oh, and for the record, I am a democrat some years and an independent some years, and only ONCE was I a republican supporter and that was before I could legally vote. But…. that is because, I look at the issues and do not blindly follow any party line.
Right now I am in bed with the democrats because they are the only bright spot on the Labor horizon…. they aren’t always, but they are never as bad as the republicans.
hummm, they could contract it out to Halaburton. After all why be president if you can’t be helpful to your friends.
Of course if Halaburton gets it, then the costs will rise dramatically…. after all they need to get the character assassination slush fund built back up.
Yesterday at the RNC they called Michael Moore a ‘disengenous’ film maker.
Today’s theme at the RNC was ‘the compassionate party.’ 😆
Helllllllllooooo, reality check here. On what planet has the Bush adminstration shown compassion?
Oh, my bad…. I forgot about all the compassion they lavish on big corporations. Silly me, when I think about compassion I keep forgetting that multibillion dollar companies and overpaid CEO’s need love too. 😛
Ah, werid things in walls. Now those I have had. Ask FX about the 7 or 8 huge hex head screws at chest level in the doorways of my freshly painted living room.
TheSpouse bought himself a new screwgun, and decided that the arches going into the kitchen and hallway were the best place to try them out. God forbid that the big blue bolty things sould be tested on the inside of a closet where they couldn’t be seen. 😛 👿 😛
1) With George W. Bush’s attempt to sell privatization of Social
Security justifiably floundering, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan is trying the more direct approach: Promoting a reduction
in Social Security benefits.AP reports Greenspan, who is most certainly no politician, said
today the nation will face “abrupt and painful” choices if Congress
does not trim Social Security and Medicare benefits promised to the
Baby Boom generation.Since the 2000 campaign, Bush has attempted to promote the notion
that Social Security is in trouble and needs to be replaced, at
least partly, by private accounts. These private accounts would
substitute the ups and downs of the stock market for the guaranteed
safety net of retirement income and death and disability benefits
that Social Security has provided since its inception.Every time Bush floats the plan, the slightest look between the
lines reveals its true nature. Nonpartisan analysts concede that
implementing privatization while preserving benefits for current
retirees would cost well into the trillions of dollars. And those
blessed with elementary logic concede the misdirection: How could
this possibly save the government money if it did not result in a
massive reduction of benefits paid by the system?At least Greenspan is not trying to shave the political points
finely and did not advocate privatization as the only possible
solution. Greenspan suggested that when one examines the actuarial
reality, the government simply won’t be able to continue providing
the benefits that current workers are scheduled to receive upon
retirement without significant changes.“As a nation, we owe it to our retirees to promise only the
benefits that can be delivered,” Greenspan said in remarks in
Kansas City. “If we have promised more than our economy has the
ability to deliver, as I fear we may have, we must recalibrate our
public programs so that pending retirees have time to adjust
through other channels. If we delay, the adjustments could be
abrupt and painful.”Greenspan said one way to reduce benefits would be to raise the
retirement age, which is already in the process of increasing from
65 to 67. He counseled against raising the payroll tax further,
saying it would be a detriment to hiring.“Though the challenges of prospective increasingly stark choices
for the United States seem great, the necessary adjustments will
likely be smaller than those required in most other developing
countries,” Greenspan said, noting that Europe and Japan will have
a much higher proportion of retirees to current workers in coming
years.This is one of the key economic issues in the presidential
campaign. While Bush has endorsed privatization, U.S. Sen. John
Kerry opposes it and has said he wants to maintain the existing
Social Security system. Left unsaid is the long-term need to make
adjustments of some type to maintain the actuarial integrity of the
system, and therein lies a potential congressional morass in a
Kerry administration. What Greenspan didn’t mention, however, are
recent reports on Social Security that suggest there is still time
to act. In fact, the latest reports have added years to the several
decades in which the system is expected to remain solvent. One
might argue that the need for some change is getting more urgent,
but the need to blow up the system to save it simply is not there.Yet the debate in the campaign concerns the very nature of Social
Security, not the details of how to keep it going in the long run.
The Bush vision of an “ownership society” paints the clearest path
to a return to the days when being old and being retired often
meant living in poverty, and if Social Security goes in these mean
times, living without even the meager pensions of old. The Bush
vision plays to the crowd that believes Social Security is a Ponzi
scheme, doomed to fail, and Mr. Market will take care of everyone.
Some people don’t need Social Security, but many more do, and many
of those need it desperately. American workers already have an
ownership stake in a strong Social Security system. They don’t need
a bait-and-switch scheme to reward salivating financial services
companies.The Kerry vision is concededly not going to remain pretty — people
are indeed living longer and the demographics say that fewer
workers are going to support more retirees. But Kerry starts with
the notion that preserving Social Security as a safety net that
forestalls poverty among the elderly is a choice the nation made
nearly 70 years ago and a choice worth preserving. Congress has
“rescued” Social Security before and it could do so again. But
first the folks who out of one side of their mouth say that no
retiree’s benefit should be touched and out of the other seem ready
to put the hammer on middle-aged and younger workers need to
acknowledge their real agenda for Social Security.2) A Failed Presidency
The Nation | EditorialMonday 13 September 2004 Issue
As Republicans gather in New York City, the Bush campaign will
undergo a drastic makeover, camouflaging gutter tactics with a
veneer of moderation calculated to help the President win another
four-year term. But the hard truth of this campaign is that George
W. Bush, while attempting to impose an extremist right-wing agenda
on this country and the world, has compiled a record of
staggering failure.The debacle in Iraq has already claimed close to 1,000 American and
10,000 Iraqi lives. Far from making America safer or the Middle
East more democratic, it has turned out to be what this magazine
warned it would be: a reckless abuse of power that has damaged US
security, destabilized the region and undercut America’s position
in the world. The high cost of the war is evident not just in the
number of deaths but also in burgeoning federal budget deficits
(the war has cost more than $200 billion) and in the record
gasoline prices Americans now pay. It is also evident in the
reported swelling of the ranks of Al Qaeda-inspired groups and in
the rising hatred of America reflected in public opinion polls
which show that even among traditional allies like Jordan and
Egypt, as much as 95 percent of the population view the United
States with disfavor. Meanwhile, the war has diverted resources
from urgent international problems ranging from the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the widening AIDS pandemic.And there’s no end in sight. The US occupation grinds on with both
Bush and his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, ignoring the only
intelligent alternative: a phased US withdrawal. Iraqi opposition
to the occupation remains fierce-expressed even by Iraqi soccer
players at the Olympics-while the country’s appointed leaders
display authoritarian tendencies that undermine the democracy
Bush and his aides claim is being built.If the war were Bush’s only failure, it would be enough to require
his departure. But it is not. By withdrawing the United States from
international treaties and conventions, mishandling crises in the
Middle East and North Korea and diverting resources from the
pursuit of al Qaeda, Bush has left America more isolated and less
secure. And the detention camps made infamous by the crimes of Abu
Ghraib have stripped America of the pride we once had in our
country and the role it played, however imperfectly, as a champion
of human rights, economic opportunity and the rule of law.At home, Bush’s failures are equally manifest. He has amassed the
worst jobs record of any President since the Great Depression, the
worst budget deficits ever and the most precipitous decline in
America’s fiscal position-from $5 trillion in projected surplus to
$4 trillion in projected deficit. Bush’s Administration responds to
a corporate crime wave with calls for more regulation, embraces the
flight of jobs abroad as good for the economy, and exacerbates,
with top-end tax cuts, the greatest inequality since the Gilded
Age.This Administration has also undermined the rights and policies
that social movements labored for a century to achieve. Bush has
nominated to the federal bench ideologues with a history of
antiunion and antichoice decisions. He signed into law the
blatantly unconstitutional “partial-birth” abortion ban, and then
watched as his Attorney General sought access to women’s private
medical records to defend the ban in court. He imposed the policy
known as the global gag rule, which forbids foreign groups
receiving US aid from even mentioning abortion, and vastly expanded
a misinformation campaign about the dangers of sex that has been
shown to encourage risky behavior among young people. And to secure
his place forever in the hearts of cultural conservatives, he
endorsed the gay-baiting federal marriage amendment, framing it as
a response to the activism of liberal judges rather than what it
was: an attempt to deny civil rights to millions of Americans and
to enshrine that discrimination in the Constitution. Civil
liberties, too, have suffered, as the “war on terror” has been used
to justify acts ranging from detention without trial to snooping
into citizens’ library records.The list of failures goes on. The Bush years have seen a steady
increase in the number of Americans without healthcare while drug
company profits have soared. Bush’s prescription drug bill
prohibits Medicare from negotiating a better price for seniors and
bars importing cheaper drugs-with the result, according to
Consumer’s Union, that most older Americans will end up paying more
for drugs.Bush’s vaunted No Child Left Behind education law actually leaves
most children behind. Not only has the law earned the ire of
educators; Bush’s failure to provide promised funding for his
“reforms” has prompted rebuke even from Republican state
legislatures from Utah to Virginia. Bush also broke his promise to
increase the amount of money eligible students could receive in
college scholarship grants, even as soaring tuition puts college
out of the reach of ever more families. His post-election budget
calls for yet more cuts to education funding.The Bush Administration has also failed to protect the environment,
giving us new laws written by polluters, oil lobbyists and Enron
executives. And it has politicized and distorted basic scientific
and medical research.But this President does not admit error. When asked at a press
conference whether he had ever made a mistake in office, he
couldn’t think of one.If Bush wins in November, given this record of misfeasance,
American democracy is in much greater trouble than even the most
alienated citizens imagine. A President so out of step with the
needs of the American people can only rule by sowing division and
fear. Americans have one recourse: to ignore the costume ball in
New York City and fire the worst President in modern history on
November 2.Very nicely done. 🙂 I will have to download them for dragon con.
I intend to take my laptop and have it on the Lexx Fan table displaying Lexx Eye Candy. I will have Lexx Music videos, Kai Kaptions, A Lexx vid cap slide show and when all else fails perhaps pop in a dvd.
Thank you so much for sharing. 😀
[quote=”Logan”] ……I like convoluted games with heaps and heaps of rules. Especially entertaining, in a stomach churning way, are sickeningly dizzying, mind-numbingly complex drinking games. *hick*[/quote]
Really? As you can see I moved your quote to this location…. because…. we are talking about drinking games!
Just for the record, I don’t drink much, but I tried the drinking game above using bottled water.
Hellllllllo! I thought I was going to run out of the stuff. I am sure I almost gave my self water posioning. Also, it made watching the show hard. Too many potty breaks. So how any one could do this with real alchol I have no idea.
You would have to be made of stone and peeing off the porch (because you would not be able to WALK to the bathroom) to do this.
But… I could be wrong, and I await the first report of someone who has tried it with something stronger than aqua fini.
I am not sure what the name of the bike (ladies I think) they were building last week was. But…. I do think that senior and Paulie should not go hammer and tongs at each other if they are going to start misting up in front of the camera. 😀
http://www.thefrey.com/raffle.htm
Lexx Raffle2 is Complete. Many thanks to our good angel Yakkie Jackie who bought up the remaining tickets so I could get this stuff mailed before I had to leave for the next DragonCon.The winners were Yakkie Jackie, iStan and Raven495. Ummm, good move getting those extra tickets on Saturday Raven…. could have been what clinched it.
Please send me addresses of where to mail your raffle prizes, and thank you to all who donated.
Later,
theFrey
Drawing took place in #lexx on fefnet at about 8:15 p.m. Central.
<theFrey> They are numbers between 1 and 250. I need one for the main raffle
<Amyzon> 92
<theFrey> pick one for the duckling raffle
<theFrey> between 1 and 250
<Amyzon> 168
<theFrey> and one for the
<theFrey> xenia raffle
<Amyzon> 36
<theFrey> http://www.ntape.com/raffle2.htm
<theFrey> 92
<theFrey> YakkieJackie
<theFrey> 168
<theFrey> iStan
<theFrey> pick one more for xenia
<theFrey> yakkie won the first
<Amyzon> 205
<theFrey> 205
<theFrey> raven495
<theFrey> thanks
<theFrey> 🙂
<Amyzon> no problemMany thanks to Raven495 for his donation this afternoon.
We will pick the winners tomorrow in #Lexx on fef.net at around 8 p.m. central.
If you do not IRC you can use the chat portal on this site to enter.
It was pretty good. And I did think that MMM Twack looked quite rested… but then it could just be that he had a good makeup lady. 😀
The only think I didn’t like was all the handheld work. Yes, I know it is a ‘look’, but it went on longer than I was comfortable with. Too much of that will actually start making me queazy.
In honor of our own ‘geezer. ;D
[img]http://prodtn.cafepress.com/nocache/6/13029196_F_tn.jpg?r=632283981020307500[/img]
[img]http://zoom.cafepress.com/4/5067564_zoom.jpg[/img]
Back
[img]http://zoom.cafepress.com/1/5068131_zoom.jpg[/img]
[/url]http://www.cafepress.com/magicondemand[url]
[img]http://www.thefrey.com/images/Lexx415_149.JPG[/img]
[quote]‘All right, all right, I’m getting up…. geeeze you’d think a funeral home would be some place that the dead could rest in peace. – theFrey[/quote]
[quote]Kai, it’s for you. Someone named Inigo Montoya wants to have a word with you about his father. – Wordsmith
[/quote]Wait, let me re-state that so you can get the full effect….
[size=24]19 days away![/size]
There…. now that I have everyone’s is paying attention….
[size=18]Wade![/size] theBrother beseeches you to arrange a field trip on Friday evening early. When last he was in Atlanta on business he went to a place called Frank’s Famous Family Restaurant on Collinsworth Rd, in Palmetto. Apparently it was true love. He said the deserts are to die for. Apparently it is by a truck stop, but still quite popular for people looking for Italian and American comfort food.
I for one would like to see the Lexx Logo on the side of the van just one more time. 😆
Dear CONnie,
I need to get an autograph from Anne McCaffrey for my boss. Does anyone know if she does autograph sessions and if so what she charges for them?
Mandara K
Dear Mandara,
According to a poster named Gryphon, she normally does do autograph sessions, but he HIGHLY advises arriving early.. since she only does about 25 per session… at no charge.
So there ya go Mandara. All questions answered all knowledge revealed. 😀 See ya in a few weeks!
Oh my god! That is so funny Cat. And True!
I read once that there are only seven original plots in the world and that every other story is a variation of them. So this was quite enlightening to see. ;D
Ohhhhhh you are an evil puppy! I love it…. Hummmm, okay, Bush bashing….. I can top it. See ya tomorrow.
P.s. why do I suddenly hear Dueling Banjo’s playing of in the distance? 😈
Method writer? Gosh, since a lot of writers do their work in the evening that could be quite a surprise to the other members of your household.
*SHRIEK! *
Spouse sits bolt upright in bed…. Heart racing they listen…..
* AAGuuugH!*
*mutter* Geese louise, I wish he would duct tape his mouth shut when he writes this late at night!. A bit of pillow punching…. with the mental image of something other that the poor pillow… long suffering spouse flops back down and covers head with covers.
I use to watch this a lot when I was a kid. Was not Johnny always dragging poor Hadji in to trouble? And what was up with that anyhow. Who lets kids not related to the adult go into such dangerous places?
I don’t remember as much about this show as I do Speed Racer…. Which was one of my favorite shows. ;D But sadly, my cars, while they occassionally flew thru the air, they really were not designed that way. It was more due to excessive speed and inattention on my part….
[quote=”Logan”] …Incidentally, I’m also a big [i]Barbarella[/i] fan (love the Great Tyrant). You can’t do a [i]Lexx/Barbarella[/i] cross-over without getting a little dirty. 🙂 I wouldn’t mind writing a [i]Barbarella[/i] drama myself — already thought of how it would start… with screaming…[/quote]
Yours or one of the Character’s? 🙂
[quote=”thefrey”][img]http://www.thefrey.com/images/Lexx415_121.JPG[/img]
[quote]MM: Uh, Xenia… Where’s you other hand?!? – Raven495
[/quote][quote]You and the Sci-Fi logo did *what*? – Wordsmith[/quote]
Interesting. Kinda dark and hard to see, and of course my lack of German didn’t help… But was it me, or did the boy look rested. 😀
How about Lexx meets the Simpson’s? I wonder how long it would be until Bart’s bugging and bad manners get him braced by Kai, or shoved into a cryopod and flash frozen by Stan.
Of course Lisa could have a nice convo with 790. And when he starts insulting her, she could follow him arround playing her Saxaphone.
