It is done.  I have started another blog.  There is a mirror site to this one on WordPress and there is another WordPress blog as well.  I honestly forget the name.

My purpose here, however, is to see if the widget I have just downloaded will post this tripe to my blog.

Here goes nothin'.

Keith Olberman - Profile in Courage

Finally, someone with the courage to speak out against the tyranny and timidity that has gripped our country by the throat. In his commentary regarding the bold-faced lies told by our President, Keith Olberman has put a chink in the armor of the secrecy, deception and venomous personal attacks of the Bush administration. Perhaps now the rest of the professional media (excluding by definition, of course, Fox News) will summon the nerve required to report the truth.

For the past six years the American people have been fed lies upon lies while the media has, for the most part, stood idly by and watched our great nation sink deeper into authoritarianism. This final piece of legislation has given the President the right to decide which parts of the Geneva Convention apply in any given situation and to detain "enemy combatants" without charge and without due process for as long as he desires. There is no oversight. No recourse. No way to find out who is held, where they are held, or what they are supposed to have done. As a nation we have given up that which we are supposedly fighting for to an internal enemy. Our freedoms are in dire peril.

It is sad indeed, as one who has held the freedoms of the Constitution more dearly than I do any other aspect of this great nation, to realize that we are now competing at the level of our enemies. We decry the lack of freedom in Iraq and Iran even as we give up our own. We decry the human rights violations of China and North Korea even as we torture and unlawfully hold those we hate. We rush to prevent the proliferation of weapons we invented and manufacture. No wonder the rest of the world sits stunned and afraid. We have become the enemy. We are the rogue nation. We can only hope it's not too late.

My hat's off to Mr. Olberman and to all those who will, I hope, follow his lead and speak the truth to the American People. Now, that's patriotic.

Ailin

This is our year-old smooth coat Collie. He barks at everyone and everything. It was only after we fell in love with him that we realized that this is a trait of the breed. Hey, the kids make noise and we keep them, right?

Been a while . . .

since my last post. Changed jobs, got married, moved to a new home, new neighborhood. Life is good. We've moved to Seminole Heights (nearly a year, now) and couldn't be happier. The kids (one of mine, two of hers) are fighting and playing as if they'd always been together. We've got two dogs now -- both collies. I'll put up some pics.

I recently discovered YouTube and will likely start to add some links to that sort of thing. I'm especially fond of some of the Jon Stewart stuff. The Clinton interview on CNN is also a lot of fun.

In any case, I just wanted to get back in the game. I'll continue to offer comments and criticisms about everything -- myself included.

Hasta la vista.