There’s a reason why Hunter S. Thompson thought fairly well of George McGovern (well, for a politician anyway…) - his idealism didn’t stand in the way of his reason. (Maybe. It’s been a while since I read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72. I kinda forget the details, except the part where Thompson talked football with Nixon). Now once-Democratic Presidnetial candidate George McGovern, a longtime Clinton supporter, has pulled his endorsement and is now backing Barack Obama.

From Times OnLine:

Senator McGovern had been a high profile Hillary Clinton supporter but today he insisted that she had virtually no chance of winning. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee said he was endorsing Senator Barack Obama after studying the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

“I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days,” he said of the Clintons, close friends from his early political career.
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“She has run a valiant campaign. Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November.”

The following is a Synthesis Weekly column penned by Bob Howard, whose written works can also be found here

…Democracy is a poor system; the only thing that can be said for it is that it’s eight times as good as any other method. Its worst fault is that its leaders reflect their constituents…”

- Jubal Harshaw from Robert Heinlein’s Science Fiction Classic “Stranger in a Strange Land.”

Here is an amazing factoid. President George W. Bush holds the record for both the highest and the lowest approval ratings since the inception of the Gallup Poll. In the days following 911 his ratings were in the 90’s - now they have sunk down to the 20’s. Do you ever imagine he must scratch his head sometimes and think “what the hell do these people want?” To me this doesn’t represent any dramatic shift in the man or his policies but rather the fickle and schizoid temperament of a population so focused on the zen of immediate gratification and the satisfaction of every conceivable urge that consequence has become not just an after-thought but a non-thought. Then we wake up and look around at the wasteland gross consumption has made of the world around us and go “hey, what the fuck? This sucks!”

So as we sow so shall we reap… I read that someplace or another. Fuck it, pop another pill, pour another drink, shovel some more processed food into our ever-fattening faces - its all going over the cliff now anyway. Everything under the sun is “green” but our level of CO2 emissions hasn’t gone down an iota since Al Gore’s eye-opening climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” came out two years ago. Lip service and clever marketing campaigns are all we have to show for an awful lot of good intentions and even a little bit of hard work.

I’m starting to think this whole thing is bullshit. The ones talking the most about climate change seem to overlap neatly with the same ones leaving the largest “carbon footprints” - the globe-trotting celebrities, the politicians in their private jets, the educated upper-middle class with their air-conditioned McMansions and their ever intact sense of entitlement. Sure it’s a lovely idea to actually cut our consumption - but that would mean we might actually sweat and feel hungry once in awhile! Intolerable. Doesn’t fit in with the whole “satisfy every craving immediately” philosophy that defines the American existence in this year of our Lord 2008.

The Thing That Would Not Die

Hillary Clinton is decidedly still in the race after what is looking like a decisive 10 point victory in Pennsylvania. I don’t know what I think about that. Ask me now and again in five minutes and I’ll likely give you two completely contradictory answers. I like that this primary is actually up for grabs but I also can’t stomach the idea of a continuation of the policies of the last eight years and it seems like the longer the democrats squabble over the nomination the more likely it is no matter who gets it will end up being defeated by another stodgy old white dude in a dark suit bowing down to the gods of corporate enterprise and industry. Wonderful.
(more…)

I promise that should the owner give me the adorable 6 legged kitten, I will love it, and pet it, and feed it, and call him George….

The adorable lil bugger, known as “Hex,” (which is a bad-ass name for a cat, six-legged or otherwise) was born as a conjoined twin that fused together in mamma cat’s womb. Now the owner is trying to raise money so that Hex can have surgery to remove the extra legs.

From CBS affiliate:

The vets say Hex will need surgery to remove the duplicate lower legs and intestinal surgery to remove the part of the colon which is duplicated.

The surgery needed to remove Hex’s duplicate hind legs will cost anywhere from $24-hundred to $3-thousand. Hex’s family say that amount is going to be difficult for them to manage.

WHAT?! This is fucking lame on so many levels!

First off,who would wanna ruin a perfectly good six-legged cat? In some Hindu villages, that shit would go over like it was heaven-sent…not to mix religious metaphors, but you know what I mean. Maybe the world needs a six-legged cat. I know I do. I will gladly take the kitten and raise it as my own to save its extra two legs.

Furthermore, who thinks it’s a good idea to pay for surgery for a cat? When human beings in dire need of medical care can’t even afford it? Spend $3,000 on a cat? What kind of misanthrope would do that?

CATS MAKE THOUSANDS OF NEW CATS EVERY DAY. Many of them end up in animal shelters, or as strays. There are plenty more. Here’s an idea: get another one. And leave poor Hex alone.

I mean, perhaps Hex having 6 legs is life threatening, but I say let fate decide if Hex was meant for this world.