One of my friends knows someone who was in a horrible accident in Wyoming.  His name is Jerad Hammock (not sure about the spelling) .  He slipped on a rock and fell into a river.  They have not found him yet so they do not know his condition.  I am praying that he is found and that he is alive.  Please join me if you wish. 

Here is a beautiful song by Victoria Vox for Jerad and his family and friends.

 

Red State Update

Thanks to “Kate L,” a frequent commenter on Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For, for pointing us to this video:

 

Banana Furniture

Furniture made to look like bananas:

and

and

 

Matt Wilson and “The Scenic Route”

Arts & Crafts plays “The Scenic Route.” 

Arts & Crafts is Matt Wilson (drums, pipes, bandleader,) Terell Stafford (trumpet,) Gary Versace (hammond b3 organ,) Dennis Irwin (bass.)  This performance is from the 2007 Elmhurst, Illinois Jazz Festival.  They named a 2007 album after this song.  Matt Wilson’s latest album, with the Matt Wilson Quartet, is That’s Gonna Leave a Mark.

 

The USA and Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal

Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan

The 16-30 June issue of Counterpunch carries a brief article by Andrew Cockburn about US government backing for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program.  In view of the concerns top American officials have expressed about the possibility that Pakistani nukes might fall into the hands of Bin Ladenite extremists, and of the fact that Dr. A. Q. Khan sold Pakistani nuclear material on an international black market, it is sobering to learn of the extent to which Washington has been involved in the development of Pakistan’s arsenal.  When CIA analyst Richard Barlow tried to blow the whistle on the US government’s complicity in helping Pakistan acquire nuclear weapons in the 1980s, his career was ruined.  Even the Khan affair doesn’t seem to have changed the CIA’s attitude; indeed, Khan’s shipping manager was a CIA agent.  The article lists an impressive array of malefactors involved in the business of promoting Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions.  Some of them, such as an unnamed group of “Israeli arms merchants,” are accustomed to bad press; others, such as the Dalai Lama, usually get friendlier publicity.

 

Don’t we all know how she feels?

Thanks to haha.nu:

 

Warbots

wired.com

There are no robots in foxholes.

 

An unlikely speculation about Mr O

The BBC’s outgoing North America editor, Justin Webb, writes:

The other fascinating development in recent days has been the end – or not – of the Obamas’ search for a church.

I have suggested it before but let me lay it on the line here in black and white: THE MAN IS A QUAKER. He may not yet know it but that is where his search should end. There is a lovely Meeting House somewhere around Dupont Circle as well so he could get there easily.

I think the meetinghouse Webb is referring to is the one on Florida Avenue, which was originally built so that Herbert Hoover, the first Quaker to occupy the US presidency, would have a grand place to worship. 

Elsewhere, Webb identifies himself as “the product of a Quaker school so am incapable of lying.”  So I suppose he must be in earnest, though I can’t seem to find why he thinks that Mr O is a Quaker.  Perhaps it has something to do with his ethnic background.  The country with the largest number of the world’s Quakers is Kenya, B. H. Obama, Senior’s homeland; though virtually all of them are members of the Luhya tribe of western Kenya, not the Luo tribe from which the elder Mr O sprang.  Despite the similarity in the names “Luo” and “Luhya,” the two peoples are quite unrelated.  So I doubt that would be it.

 

Crazy Cat Lady

 

The banana coffin

Banana art in the news:

MONTROSE, Colo.—Casket makers catering to natural burials have offered biodegradable coffins made of such materials as recycled newspapers or cardboard. Montrose-based Ecoffins USA is selling caskets made of banana sheaves.

They take six months to two years to biodegrade.

Marketing director Joanna Passarelli says the company sold $40,000 worth of banana-sheaf or bamboo coffins to funeral homes last year.

At least 14 funeral homes around the country offer them.

Ecoffins USA is the sister company of The SAWD Partnership, which has helped fuel the “green” funeral movement in the United Kingdom.

In natural burials, bodies aren’t embalmed and eventually decompose into the earth.