I get a diary like the one on Obama, and in various places there are gray squares.

Is this a form of censorship?

What are they?

Boy, that really hurts... shooting yourself in the foot...

I did that a few years ago when I voted for Nader. Little did I know that it would cost us the election.

Now, a lot of people are going after the democratic nominee for president because he's not 'ideologically correct' in their eyes.

These people remind me of some old left-wing pols who marginalized themselves rather than being realistic and moving with the times.

Did you hear that some soldiers from the United States Army died today?

You didn't? well, of course! after all, something much more important happened...

If you don't know what happened, just go to your TV, or any newspaper; or just follow me below the fold...

Want to end the war in Iraq?

Easy- The Aussies, having thrown out their version of the neocons, now show the world how a civilized nation would end their version of the nightmare.

I just got a letter from Nancy P. telling me what great work they did in the last year or so... and how they need more money to keep up the great work.

Would you like to know what I wrote back?

I read today about MRAP's, vehicles that are supposed to resist the kind of explosives used now in Iraq, and how OUR army doesn't have them, but IRAQI troops have them.

You're SURPRISED? Guess what; in the army, (Yes, I'm a veteran; more about that later) this is SOP.

Perhaps you 'civilians' (read- assholes) don't know what words like SOP, SNAFU, FUBAR, and all those other mysterious acronyms mean; follow me below the fold, and I mean FALL IN! DRESS RIGHT, DRESS! BELOW THE FOLD, MARCH!

And remember, disobeying an order is an offense punishable by military jail, and time in military jail doesn't count as time served. You have been warned.

So you vote for a candidate who tells you he's a 'compassionate conservative' and he turns out to be a warmonger and an asshole; can you recall him/her?

I went to see 'pirates of the caribbean' and didn't much like it; as my wife said, "Their dental hygiene sucks!"; how can I get my money back?

See, that's the problem; we buy something, and when it doesn't work out the way we want, there's usually a warranty. But with political candidates and movies, you buy it, you really can't take it back. So what can we do?

As long as 2000 years ago, the Maya had a great empire- equal to the Egyptians.

Then suddenly they left most of their cities and moved back to a very simple lifestyle, what was left of them. They left behind brilliant cities, great art, and the remains of a very rich civilization.

The reason? conspicuous consumption. Sound familiar?

If you're as tired as I am of huge gas guzzlers, wasted resources, and other useless symptoms of excess, maybe it's time to learn some history. In fact, it may be really important.

There's been diaries on the mysterious deaths of honeybees, our most important pollinators.

They pollinate a lot of the crops that we rely on, and their demise is catastrophic for the food industry.

I believe that there's a simple reason, or set of reasons. Follow me below the fold, and let's find out...

I just heard John McCain and he said this jewel:

""We're going to keep on doing what we think is right..."

And GWB was on and said basically the same thing; that he would continue with business as usual, or whatever he thought should be done.

Well, I (And the voters) have a message for these ding-dongs, and it seems they haven't heard it quite clearly.

Here's the message:

Dateline 5 AM 21 September 2006, Chicago, IL.

A large dump truck and a few vans pull up to a warehouse and thirty people get out. They are dressed in clothes from the 1770's. They are mostly men, but there are a few women with them. Over their faces, they wear small half-masks.

The door to the warehouse is forced open, and about twenty Diebold voting machines are brought out and put in the back of the dump truck. The whole operation is recorded on video.

The whole party leaves. Since the facility is unguarded, there is no immediate alarm.

My sister is more right wing than you can imagine; before Nixon was elected, she actually wore NIXON JEWELRY.

She was one of a group of high society matrons in San Francisco who were big fundraisers for the GOP.

Today, she said that she is DISGUSTED with bush. (I refuse to capitalize that idiot's name). My wife and I heard her, and we were AMAZED.

In Buddhism, there's a picture called 'the wheel of life'. In the margin of this picture there are various people, and one of them is a man with an arrow in his eye. This symbolizes the IMMEDIATE PROBLEM. It's no use talking about small things; the first thing to do is to get the damn arrow out, and after that yopu can talk about everything else.

I look at the violence going on in the Middle east and in Iraq, and I am apalled by the tragedy of it. People are dying on all sides of the conflict and it is one of the most terrible tragedies I have ever seen. And it is complicated by the fact that the instigators of the violence are safe in their bunkers.

I REALLY want this situation to be resolved, and I want my leaders to come out right now and offer some steps toward a fair solution for everybody.

I'm sticking my neck out VERY far today because I believe that Israel (And some other countries) MAY have institutionalized racism. I'm talking specifically about Israel because the USA seems to support Israel's stance unquestioningly, for the most part.

Every time that Israel is taken to task for racist laws, it seems that people shout down the commenter with the label of "Anti-Semitic".

I fully support the right of the state of Israel to exist, just as I support the right of the Palestinian state to exist. Please follow me after the fold as I try to RESPECTFULLY explain why I feel the way that I do.

This is what separates the bull from the bullfighter:

The bull doesn't know what's happening. He's never seen a red cape before. He's easily distracted from what is causing him pain and what will ultimately kill him.

And many sheep are the same way!

Why isn't it a war?

Have you noticed that war has changed? Or rather, CONFLICT has changed, in ways that the military/political mind just has not understood.

The signs are obvious, if you know what to look for, and those signs point to the reasons for the failure of the United States in Vietnam and more flagrantly, in  Iraq.

This is rather long, but it synthesizes the change in warfare and in the understanding of conflict that has led us to the impasse we face today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just got this email from a friend- I hope that this has not been diaried.

This is the first time that I have heard of it.

Want to have some fun with certain people in Washington?

Just include three simple words in every one of your emails.

The words, of course, are 'president', 'bomb', and 'God'.