This is the Incline Railroad on the side of Lookout Mountain, first on October 21st and then again on November 17th. We’re definitely past the peak color of the season now. This morning as I was driving to work I realized that the mountain has taken on its winter gray. I think autumn sneaked the peak in while we were distracted by crummy weather the week before Thanksgiving. I kept meaning to get back out to get a final photo for the series, but the weather didn’t cooperate. Maybe I’ll do a winter one instead…
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She wrote it. She made money off it. Now she’s wants it to go away. Boo hoo. The Internet ROCKS!
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You scored as Buddhist
You are a Buddhist
You basically get lost in the sea of conflicting ideas as your mind hasn’t been developed to discern truth from halftruth. You entertain many philosophical ideas that don’t apply to your daily life or actually fulfill you in any way. Maybe you didn’t have a strong background of faith and morality growing up, which is why you have basically no convictions whatsoever. Follow your heart, it will guide you to the obvious truth and its simplicity will astonish you. Tarot cards, astrology, and witchcraft will be a temptation for you. Be careful.
| Buddhist |
|
80% |
| Jewish |
|
70% |
| Anarchist |
|
65% |
| Cult |
|
60% |
| Christian |
|
60% |
| Catholic |
|
60% |
Religion
created with QuizFarm.com
Is it just me, or is this thing dissing Buddhism?
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Sometimes it can be frustrating, discouraging, or downright embarrassing to live in Tennessee. But then again, at least I’m not in Alabama:
[On Nov 2nd, Alabama voters refused] to approve a constitutional amendment to erase segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for “white and colored children” and to eliminate references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks. [...] The amendment had two main parts: the removal of the separate-schools language and the removal of a passage — inserted in the 1950s in an attempt to counter the Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregated public schools — that said Alabama’s constitution does not guarantee a right to a public education. Leading opponents, such as Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, said they did not object to removing the passage about separate schools for “white and colored children.” But, employing an argument that was ridiculed by most of the state’s newspapers and by legions of legal experts, Giles and others said guaranteeing a right to a public education would have opened a door for “rogue” federal judges to order the state to raise taxes to pay for improvements in its public school system.
Gosh! Take racist language out of their constitution? They might be forced to improve their shitty schools? And what’s this “right to a public education” crap? Who comes up with these radical ideas?!?
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The Democrats had a chance to own these issues, but they blew it. If they don’t get their shit together soon, this is an idea that might hop across the pond…
Actress Redgrave Launches Rights Party
Sat Nov 27,10:51 PM ET
By TIM ELFRINK, Associated Press Writer
LONDON – Actress Vanessa Redgrave, her brother and the father of a Guantanamo detainee on Saturday launched a new political party devoted to human rights.
The Peace and Progress Party says it will field candidates and endorse politicians with strong human rights records in the next general election.
Organizers discussed the party’s platform and strategies at a conference that drew several hundred people.
“Our goal is to ring the alarm bells about the human rights abuses our government is sanctioning, and to act as a focus for people who want to stand up against them,” said Vanessa Redgrave’s brother, political activist Corin Redgrave.
Redgrave suggested four British prisoners at Guantanamo Bay could run as party candidates, as a means of protesting against their detention and the alleged human rights abuses at the prison on a U.S. naval base in Cuba.
“It could be one highly effective way of sending a message through the polls,” Corin Redgrave said, recalling how the Irish nationalist cause was buoyed when the 1980s hunger-striking prisoner Bobby Sands was elected to Parliament.
Working for the release or fair trial of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay will be a focus for the group, said Azmat Begg, whose son, Moazzam Begg, is one of four Britons held at the prison in Guantanamo Bay.
“The mainstream political parties have shown no interest in the human rights abuses going at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq,” Begg said. “That’s why a party based on human rights as its central issue is so vital.”
Other speakers at Saturday’s conference included Burns Weston, president of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, and prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal critic of Russia’s military campaign against separatist rebels in Chechnya.
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It’s being such a great weekend, but it’s flying by too fast! The holiday has been quiet and cozy, with lots of time with the family and good talks with DD. I wish I could hang onto this day for a while longer. We had turkey and mushroom soup for dinner, which was awesome, and laughing, games and chatting after. We’re all so busy these days, and it’s good to just stop everything and spend time together for a while.
This photo is from late September. I don’t have anything recent to put up, but I wanted to offer something after yesterday’s rather icky photo. It’s from a night of fun and frolicking that DD and I enjoyed right before the election. Chattanoogans may notice that it’s from the sculpture garden at the Bluff View.
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I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.
Does anyone have any theories about what happened to Mr. Yushchenko?
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This time, Bush’s people are worried about more than just a few eggs.
It would be the first time the military served in such a role since the Vietnam War, when 2,000 troops were deployed for President Richard Nixon’s inauguration…
Yeah, yeah. Iraq is not Vietnam. And Bush is not… you know, for someone who’s not Nixon, Bush sure does remind us of Nixon a lot. And for a guy who claims to have a mandate, he sure is a-scared of his own people.
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Good News:
Specter Effectively Wins Senate Judiciary Chair
Thu Nov 18, 5:04 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican defender of abortion rights, effectively won his battle on Thursday for the chairmanship of the committee that reviews judicial nominees.
Fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, some of whom earlier voiced concerns about him, stood by Specter as he vowed to help win Senate confirmation for President Bush’s judicial candidates.
“I have assured the president that I would give his nominees quick committee hearings and early committee votes so (Senate) floor action could be promptly scheduled,” Specter, of Pennsylvania, said in a statement at a news conference.
Specter wrote the statement with input from Republicans after an earlier draft was rejected as inadequate, a Senate aide said.
“Members wanted a stronger statement and got it,” the aide said.
Consequently, Specter’s nine fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee came out in support of him succeeding Orrin Hatch of Utah as the panel’s chair when the new 109th Congress convenes in January.
“We are unanimously in favor of Senator Arlen Specter and will vote that way come January,” said Hatch, who must step down because of Republican term limits on chairmanships.
“As far as I am concerned, this settles the issue,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican on the Judiciary Committee.
While anti-abortion rights groups have long had concerns about Specter, opposition mounted after the Nov. 2 election when he made what was seen as a warning to Bush not to offer Supreme Court nominees who opposed abortion rights.
Specter has said he was merely pointing out that nominees would need bipartisan support to clear Democratic procedural hurdles. He has also noted he had backed all of Bush’s judicial nominees so far.
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