Ingrid’s breath smells dark blue…

… when she eats chocolate (Which, by the way, is rich purple) I can see that you’re orange (confused)

Well, for Ingrid Carey, “numbers and letters, sensations and emotions, days and months are all associated with colors”.

Bad acid trip? Mental illness? Nope, turns out it’s a legitimate neurological condition where two or more senses entwine and the result is synesthesia.

The synesthesia of those in the “perceptual” category is triggered by sensory stimuli like sights and sounds, whereas “conceptual” synesthetes respond to abstract concepts like time. One conceptual synesthete described the months of the year as a flat ribbon surrounding her body, each month a distinct color. February was pale green and oriented directly in front of her.

Richard Cytowic, a neuroscientist and author of “The Man Who Tasted Shapes” (Bradford Books, 1998), has watched the scientific shift in attitudes toward the condition in recent years.

“Many of my colleagues claimed that synesthesia was ‘made up’ because it went against prevailing theory,” Cytowic told LiveScience. “Today, everyone recognizes synesthesia as no mere curiosity but important to fundamental principles of how the brain is organized.”

If this sort of thing fascinates you as much as it does me, then read more here.

 

The Pope won’t be sitting in the Oval Office

Forty-seven years ago, when JFK was running for the presidency, bigots and brigands warned that a Catholic president would be nothing more than the Pope’s mouthpiece and that the Executive power of the United States government would by fully vested in the Roman Curia.

Nearly a half century later, I’m here to put your minds at ease. The Pope won’t be sitting in that little round office in DC any time soon because the Vatican can’t handle regular website updates – let alone effectively pull the strings of a puppet government in Washington.

During the course of some research on the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (The commission that deals with the Latin Mass/Sacraments, etc) I was trolling the Vatican website [English vers.] and noticed this little blurb:

The commission has a president, Cardinal Angelo Felici, a secretary, Msgr. Camille Perl, and several assistants. A group of “permanent experts” composed of representatives of the dicasteries concerned offer their advice and expertise.

Actually, Cardinal Felici hasn’t headed the commission in more than SEVEN years and, come to think of it, he’s been dead since last June.

So if a Catlik’ wins the Oval Office next November and your fundamentalist neighbor starts spreading dark conspiracy theories about the insidious power of the Jesuits and the Pope, assure him that he has NOTHING to fear.

 

For the record

Yankee fans kill dogs.

Here’s soon-to-be former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, his death hat, and his main squeeze.

Vick’s lawyer has announced that his client is prepared to plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. (Which carry a max $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison.)

Pleading guilty to this kind of unspeakable cruelty [NB: very graphic image] means his career is over and the whole world learns just what kind of people support the New York Yankees…

 

And now for something completely different

This is Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and she talks to Angels:

But wait, there’s more! Not only does the Scandinavian princess communicate with heavenly beings but she can also teach you to do it!

Looking for a creative learning environment where your child can really spread her wings? On Thursday, Norway’s Princess Maertha Louise opened a school for students interested in contacting angels. For $2,100 per semester, the Astarte school affords pupils the opportunity to communicate with the “forces that surround us and who are a resource and help in all the aspects of our lives.”

Needless to say, none of this is going over very well with the commoners. A princess who claims contact with disembodied intelligence doesn’t really make a lot of friends in the bland, state Lutheranism of Norwegian society.

Many think she’s taken leave of her senses and have urged her to seek medical help, and a growing number want her to renounce her claim to the Norwegian throne. (She’s currently 4th in line so there’s no real danger of her ever becoming Queen)

And because this is the XXIst Century, when a royal princess (allegedly) takes leave of her senses and establishes an angel school, you can bet your last Krone (Norwegian currency; crown) that the school will have a website! In Norwegian AND ENGLISH!

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Also worth a read:

The Sopranos of the Rockies: Colorado hit men try to use rattlesnakes to whack “dems dat had it comin’ “

The plan was to build a wooden box for Sowash to stand in that would hold the snakes, and “the lid was to be built to allow Sowash’s legs to be put inside but not pulled out.” The plan was to leave the rattlesnake-bitten Sowash on a hiking trail.

And, oh yeah, the Australian (Liberal) opposition leader Kevin Rudd went to New York, got drunk in a strip club, people saw him and… Oh well, you know the rest.

 

Like rats from a sinking ship

Richard Viguerie, frequently portrayed as the Lord Voldemort of the right by hysterical libs, has had all he can stands and he can’t stands no more of the GOP under Bush.

While his name is certainly familiar to most movement conservatives, I don’t think 1 in 4 could pick him out of a lineup.  Which is truly amazing because Viguerie raises millions and millions of dollars for conservative causes and his resume is packed with references to his intimate associations with  all of the “base” organizations.

Viguerie hasn’t been too happy with Bush for a few years now but I have to admit that I was suprised when I caught him on C-SPAN’s Book TV yesterday passionately urging conservatives to bolt the Republican Party.

Here’s the blurb on Viguerie’s speech:

From FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Richard Viguerie argues that President Bush and other “big government Republicans” have betrayed conservative policies and describes how conservatives can take their party back.

That’s not entirely accurate.  He wasn’t advising the attendees on how to get their party back – he was urging them to  walk out the door.

Viguerie is not a man who is willing to continue funding the GOP because “they’re better than the alternative” or “the Supreme Court’s at stake” – he’ll take his money and run.

It’s fashionable to predict the demise of political parties when they’re kicked to the curb in any given electoral cycle (the Liberal crack-up, the Conservative crack-up, etc) but I wonder if the disintegration of the GOP isn’t already underway.  Can the Republican Party  continue to be a significant force in American politics a generation hence if its appeal is limited to discredited neocons and a brain addled mass of religious fundamentalists?

I don’t think so…

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You can catch Viguerie’s speech on Book TV/ C-Span2 on Sunday, August 26, at 1:00 PM EDT

 

They used to name them for women

Because they’ll kill you if you get in their paths but, my God, they sure are wonderful to look at!

And here’s Hurricane Dean for those of you who don’t watch American Movie Classics:

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UPDATE: Another very cool pic:

 

More on the feds, the clergy, and martial law

To follow up on an earlier post, here’s the original news clip from KSLA-12 (Shreveport, LA) on the Homeland Security Department’s Clergy Response Team [Making America safe for fascism]

If the guhmint’ imposes martial law to keep you safe (© GOP) from terrorisssss (© GWB), the Feds have clergymen trained and ready to go to help assure the masses that Jesus established civil authority and that the government response is in keeping with His holy will:

Remember when the Dems promised us that they’d rein in the Bush Administration if we trusted them with control of the Congress? What do you think happened?

 

Feds co-opting clergymen

To dampen resistance to martial law…

This one really left me speechless. Something I’d better get used to because they’ve gone from Compassionate Conservatives (sic) to reckless fascist bastards:

KSLA-12 (CBS affiliate in Shreveport, LA) reports:

Homeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever Declared

If martial law were enacted here at home, like depicted in the movie “The Siege”, easing public fears and quelling dissent would be critical. And that’s exactly what the ‘Clergy Response Team’ helped accomplish in the wake of Katrina.
Dr. Durell Tuberville serves as chaplain for the Shreveport Fire Department and the Caddo Sheriff’s Office. Tuberville said of the clergy team’s mission, “the primary thing that we say to anybody is, ‘let’s cooperate and get this thing over with and then we’ll settle the differences once the crisis is over.’”
Such clergy response teams would walk a tight-rope during martial law between the demands of the government on the one side, versus the wishes of the public on the other. “In a lot of cases, these clergy would already be known in the neighborhoods in which they’re helping to diffuse that situation,” assured Sandy Davis. He serves as the director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself, specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, “because the government’s established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”

For the record, Romans 13 reads (in part):

1

Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God.

2

Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves.

3

For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it,

4

for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.

5

Therefore, it is necessary to be subject not only because of the wrath but also because of conscience.

6

This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

7

Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

 

A nation of morons

I like money, I like Thomas Jefferson, and I readily stipulate that the minting of currency is a legitimate role of government.

The new Jefferson Dollar will be happily received by this blogger – even if, like every other dollar coin, it will be rejected by the American people until paper greenbacks are finally removed from circulation.

But here’s my problem:

WASHINGTON – Most folks can correctly name George Washington as the nation’s first president. After that, things get tricky.

The U.S. Mint is hoping its new dollar coin series will help refresh some hazy memories of Adams, Jefferson and all the rest.

That could be a tall order, however, given the results of a poll the Mint commissioned to find out just how much knowledge Americans have about their presidents.

According to the telephone poll, conducted by the Gallup Organization last month, nearly all those questioned knew that Washington was the first president. However, only 30 percent could name Thomas Jefferson as the nation’s third president, and memories of the other presidents and where they fit in was even more limited.

Where to begin…

I have a problem with the whole currency as learning aid approach but, let’s face it, it won’t work anyway. The idea that some idiot who can’t name the first three presidents will pick up a new coin and say, “Hey, teach me about this dude” is just, well, ridiculous.

The bigger issue here is that the American education system (a wholly owned subsidiary of the teachers’ unions) would give a high school diploma to someone who can’t name the first ten presidents.

The US government tells us:

The United States leads the industrial nations in the proportion of its young people who receive higher education.

It doesn’t tell us that most of those of those degrees were awarded by diploma mills and they aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on if fully 7 in 10 college graduates are unable to identify THOMAS JEFFERSON as the third president! We’re not talking about James K. Polk here, folks, we’re talking about the intellectual light behind the revolution – the author of the Declaration of Independence – THOMAS JEFFERSON!

A nation of morons…

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UPDATE: I know that at least one reader of this blog is an educator so I’d like to try a little experiment.

If you’re a teacher, consider giving your students a very brief pop quiz on American history at the beginning of the upcoming semester. Try these questions:

1. List the first five presidents
2. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
3. What was the name of the Colonial Assembly during the Revolution?
4. In which city did that assembly meet?
5. What year did the American Revolution end?
6. What was the name of the opposing General who surrendered to George Washington after the final battle of the Revolution?
7. Where was that final battle fought?
8. Who said, “Give me liberty or give me death!”?
9. How many colonies were there at the end of the Revolution?
10. Against which nation was the Revolution fought?

I wonder how many high school teachers, let alone students, could answer these very basic questions.

If you want to take a crack at this yourself, I’ve created a multiple choice online version here

 

With apologies to Massachusetts

It really wasn’t my intention to Mass-bash today — God knows the great respect I have for the venerable old commonwealth — but sometimes they just make it too easy for me to resist. Such is the case when a story involves two of my great passions: Great White Sharks and hapless libs.

The Cape Cod Times (August 10, 2007) informs us that:

[...] Chatham [Mass] harbor master Stuart Smith said that while his office has fielded plenty of reports over the last two or three years about Great White sightings, there has been no photo or video documentation.

Well, ok, but what about the 15 foot, one ton Great White shark that Massachusetts officials actually TAGGED in Cape Cod three years ago?

Does that count?