Cast No Shadow

To follow-up previous posts, regarding upholding America's ideals, I think Rep. Jim Moran (D) summed it up best on Hardball. He was referring specifically to the 'torture report' recently released by the Senate Armed Services Committtee: "...what troubles me more than anything is not the personal culpability, it‘s the damage they did to our reputation throughout the world. These kinds of actions were more damaging to our side in the war on terrorism than anything al Qaeda has been able to achieve. That‘s what troubles me. Waterboarding is torture. Torture is illegal in terms of international law. It‘s ineffective. You don‘t get reliable information. And in fact, what we do will be done by others against us when our troops are captured. And you know, it does set us back in this war of values and principles and ideals. Our strongest weapon in the war on terrorism is our Bill of Rights, our Constitution, our values and principles. And we violate them, we lose that moral h...

How much longer must we endure King Cheney? In the latest news regarding Federal law which requires the outgoing White House to turn over records (estimated at 300 million emails) for the Nation Archives, Cheney has stated that he "alone may determine what constitutes vice presidential records or personal records" and "how his records will be created, maintained, managed, and disposed," without outside challenge or judicial review. Obviously he's got something to hide, and I hope groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ( CREW ) and the National Security Archive continue winning their legal battle for transparency in a time when many distrust the government to do the right thing. OBAMA's platform this past year has been all about unity, hope, and change, so why are so many gay activists upset about his appointment of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration? Even though their opinions differ, it should be no surprise,...

A new favorite! We had such a good lunch yesterday with Rick at the newly opened Vietnamese Garden that we had to get take out this evening! For lunch or dinner, man! The food is in generous portions, fairly priced, and very very fresh (no MSG). Tonight we did appetizers: Cha Gio (fried egg rolls) and the Potato Fritters (yam and carrot). I don't know what's in their homemade sauce, but its good on everything! At lunch Laura had the Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong (noodle bowl with chicken) and I had the Bun Bo Hue, a spicy beef/pork soup. I really like the rice noodles used in Vietnamese cooking. LA and I split a jasmine green tea, and for dessert had a coconut pudding. Before yesterday, I don't think we had much experience with Vietnamese food--mainly Thai--and we like it a ton now! Not to mention its only 1 block away! The location isn't the greatest, being around the corner from Colorado Ave, so there's not much drive by traffic from tourists...its kind of a fas...

There is a lot of fear surrounding OBAMA these days...is he a socialist, is he too liberal, is he even an American, but I don't think we've feared the current government enough. America went to war with Iraq 5 years, $580 billion and 4200 lives ago. We went to war based on information that the Iraqi government and its leader, Saddam Hussein, had Weapons of Mass Destruction. No one can argue that the information was solid: there were no WMDs. No argument. Most Americans ( 58% ) believe it was mistake sending troops to Iraq. Even former White House Adviser Karl Rove, agrees now that if it was clear that Iraq had no WMDs, we would not have gone to war: "Absent [WMD's], I suspect that the administration's course of action would have been to work to find more creative ways to constrain him like in the 90s," But asked about Rove’s comment during an interview with ABC News Monday, Cheney said “I disagree with that.” He continued "What [special intelligence...

Boy is Bush's popularity really increasing on his way out the door! And people say Sarah Palin had it bad: Bruni sues over nude bag picture Lawyers for Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have filed a lawsuit against a company for selling a bag featuring a nude image of her.

Sometimes you look at art and wonder where on earth an artist derives their inspiration from...it could be everyday life, active imagination, or in Shepard Fairey's case, matchbook covers. Good artists borrow, great artists steal. Obey Tyrant (borrowed): Cold Chillin (outright stolen): It sorta ruins the mystique of an artist, epsecially when most elements of the penguin looks to be directly ripped off. Of course, matchbook covers were rarely copyrighted, so the images are just out there for anyone to steal, copy, be influenced by, or just sell outright as their own. I read one story about an 'author' who obtained books whose copyrights had run out, changed a few key words for modern times and resold the digital books. Ingenius.

I've been busy of late, photographing and listing over 100 items for eBay. I still have listings to do today, but got all my pictures taken yesterday. Most of it is from 2 separate Craigslist purchases. I still have 2 Lego Millenium Falcons to build, but after building the Star Destroyer Monday afternoon, I need a break! I read that the best time to end an auction is on Sundays between 4-11pm PT, because I guess everyone is home at that time to bid on stuff. Otherwise they're at work and not supposed to be on eBay or out and about with better things to do. We'll see in 5 days if I timed it right, but the stuff I'm selling should do very well. I talked to my boss yesterday and it looks like we'll have work until July 09 and then it all dries up for a year or 2, so LA and I will have to figure out what we're going to do. But we have to make it through the markets first. As of right now, its looking like: Mempis, Greensboro NC, Jacksonville, Buffalo, Louisv...

Things are finally settling down after 2+ weeks without a day off...anyway, here are the photos of our new furniture straight from IKEA. First is my office--new counter height project desk and 2 side mounted Lack Bookshelves: Our designer vinyl toy collection looks great in the living room on the Expedit Bookshelf: And finally the Malm bed and headboard: