Its time to admit that Bill Gates is an okay guy

From Yahoo! News

LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. founder
Bill Gates has pledged $258.3 million for research and development to combat malaria, including new cash to test the world's first vaccine against the mosquito-borne disease.

[...]

The largest of the grants, $107.6 million, will go to a vaccine initiative working with GlaxoSmithKline Plc on late-stage clinical trials of its experimental vaccine, Mosquirix.

The vaccine has already produced promising results in clinical trials but will not be available until after 2010.

Another $100 million will be plowed into work to accelerate the development of several promising new drugs, while $50.7 million will pay for research to fast-track development of improved insecticides and other mosquito control methods.

click here for all of it

See, here's a guy who knows how to be rich. He's been pied in the face just for being so damn rich, but we see now that he is a chartitable person. Sure it could just be a publicity stunt, and he does have the means to give even more, but at least he's giving to a worthy cause.

I just think Bill Gates should be left out of the left wing rants about fat cat CEOs.

Will Justice Be Served Soon?

From MoveOn.org's newsletter:

Today, the Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States was indicted by a federal grand jury.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, a Republican appointee, announced that Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied to a grand jury, lied to FBI agents and obstructed an investigation into the White House cover-up of the lies that led our nation to war in Iraq. Libby has now resigned. Top White House advisor Karl Rove remains under federal investigation.

First DeLay, now LIbby. I hope they work their way all the way up to the top. Throw all the bastards in jail, melt the key down, and make a Peace sign medalian out of it.

I agreed with a Republican today

Today in Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amid record-high earnings from oil companies, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday ordered a Senate hearing with testimony from major oil company executives on why energy prices are high.

[...]

"If there are those who abuse the free enterprise system to advantage themselves and their businesses at the expense of all Americans, they ought to be exposed, and they ought to be ashamed," Frist said in a statement.

[...]

"We need to increase refinement capacity, provide more energy resources, encourage conservation, invest in science and technology, and, most importantly, transition toward energy independence, including the use of more alternative fuels," Frist said.

click here for all of it

This is a Republican? A Republican said we need to invest in science and alternative fuels. A Republican. Said that. That we need to invest in alternative fuels.

I've heard Bill Frist's name before many times, but I can't remember why, I think he may be a big part of the religious right, but as for economics, he seems almost to be left wing, by this statement, anyway.

He's either bullshitting for approval or is a very old school Republican.

Maybe next year

Crap.

Stupid White Sox.

Come on, let us have this one, we've never had it before! We've never even played this series before!

Nah, the Astros are good enough to win four in a row....

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Rises to 2,001

From AP via Yahoo! News

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American soldier was killed Tuesday in a vehicle accident near Camp Bucca, the U.S. detention center in southern
Iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday, a day after the somber milestone of 2,000 military deaths in the Iraq war was reached.

[...]

Some Iraqis sympathized with U.S. forces as the American death toll surpassed 2,000. But others noted that many more Iraqis had died in the conflict and said they hope the U.S. "occupiers" will soon go home.

click here for all of it

Did Vietnam take revenge on the United States after we finally pulled out of Vietnam? No. Would Iraq do the same? Hopefully. Right now, I'd say every Iraqi has some pretty justafiable beef with the U.S. The whole right wing argument about pulling out of Iraq immediately is that Iraq will fall into the hands of the insurgents, who must be terrorists too, and that we'll be in more danger from terrorist attacks that way.

Lets face it, we screwed up, well, the government screwed up. Iraq was never a threat, but now they have a personal reason to hate us, and staying only makes it worse, no matter how many constitutions get "approved". So why wait? Evacuate!

Rosa Parks, rest in peace

I'm sure we've all heard by now that the most well known protestor of our time has died at the age of 92.

Rosa Park's defiance against an unjust law started the movement that ended segregation and proved more solidly than anything since then that the power of the masses is unmatched by any level of government-backed opression.

Rest in Peace, Rosa.

Two down but it ain't over

Okay, 'stros have been getting raped by the White Sox, but I think we'll pull through with our home field advantage tommorrow.

I haven't been posting anything lately because I am really really lazy.

POLLITIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICS!!!!!!

There.

'stros win, bitch

The Houston Astros are going to the World Series. The Houston Astros are going to the World Series. wait wait wait............wait........what?

The Houston Astros are going to the World Series........processing..............



..........................so.......Astros: World Series..................HOLY SHIT!

Senior Funday tommorrow

I gotta admit, as a senior, I really like the TAKS test. Mainly because we don't have to take it, and when the underclassmen do, we get 4 periods of NOTHING! And I only have five classes so its like rock 'n roll till the cows come home for gravy 'n grits, fool.

THREE DAYS of TAKS this week, super rock rock on!

'1984': Sound Familiar? part 6

Another quote from George Orwell's 1984, this is some information Orwell lets you in on about Oceania, the main character Winston's home continent.

...the Ministry of Plenty's forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at a hundred and forty-five million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions...Very likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps half the population of Oceania went barefoot.

(my emphasis of course)
This quote makes me think of all the loud mouths who boast about the "new jobs" Bush created, or will create, while we still have a considerable amount of poverty (and they know that there's still poverty, they admit it when they bitch about "all the welfare queens"). However I don't think we're to the point of lying about production, I don't think thats possible to get away with...yet.

Fuck Columbus and his holiday

"They...brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bears arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." -Christopher Columbus

Happy Birthday Thelonious Monk

If you don't know Monk's music, your life is unfulfilled. Check his stuff out. Monk was simply the most insane bebop piano player of all time.

Sorry if this is turning into a bit of a birthday blog, but Monk deserves daily recognition.

Happy Birthday John Lennon

Today would be John Lennon's 65th birthday, if I'm not mistaken. Its a very special John Lennon's Birthday for me, because my band, The Drafted, has the Track of the Day on garageband.com's punk page today. Its an anti-war/anti-Bush song called "1,000 Dead", our most angry political song that we have so far--definately a song with a message that Lennon would be behind today if he were still with us.

In memory of John, here are his most inspiring lyrics:

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Brighton Beach Memoirs

I just saw my first play at the Baytown Little Theater. It was really cool. They did a Neil Simon called Brighton Beach Memoirs. AWESOME play. FUNNY play too.

Three of the actors were really good, all teenagers.

Brighton Beach Memoirs is part of a three-play series about Neil Simon's life. This one shows "Simon's passage through puberty, as he percieved it." But its not just about Simon ("Eugene" in the play), its about two weeks of his boyhood where his family almost fell apart.

I highly recommend checking it out if a production of it ever comes to your town. If you live in Baytown, I feel sorry for you, because tonight was the last Brighton show.

Not only do I recommend checking out this play, I recommend visiting the Baytown Little Theater itself. Steel Magnolias plays in December.

Lead in Children's Lunch Boxes

From cehca.org:

Oakland, CA – The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) announced it is filing lawsuits today against makers and retailers of soft vinyl lunch boxes that can expose children to harmful levels of lead.

[...]

The levels CEH found in the lunch boxes are not high enough to cause acute lead poisoning during normal use. However, if your child is exposed to lead from other sources, a leaded lunch box would add to their health risk.

click here for all of it

I thought lead paint was illegal. The article talks about "legal amounts of lead". Why use lead paint at all? I'm sure Mr. Nader will be talking about this soon.

Oh no, Sterling could actually beat Lee this year, lets split up the district

From the Baytown Sun:

BAYTOWN — Hurricane Rita may have claimed another casualty: the annual Lee-Sterling football game. Under a plan released Thursday by the District 22-5A executive committee, the teams are not scheduled to meet.

However, there are still various scenarios that could have the Ganders and Rangers play “The Game” for the 38th year.

The new plan divides the eight District 22-5A schools into two four-team pools. Pool A includes Westfield, Beaumont West Brook, Sterling and Kingwood. Pool B is made up of Humble, Port Arthur Memorial, Spring and Lee.

Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less about football, I just thought it would have been cool for Sterling to beat Lee in my Senior Year. Now the Lee-Sterling game will only happen if the outcomes of other games decide it. Why did they make it to where the Pools split up ALL the rival teams? Humble and Kingwood: rivals, Spring and Westfield: rivals, Sterling and Lee: rivals. I don't get it.

'1984': Sound Familiar? part 5

Keep in mind that in George Orwell's "1984", the seven contenants have merged into three superstates:

"...the conditions of life in all three superstates are very much the same. In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called, Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name usually translated as Dead-worship, but perhaps better rendered as Obliteration of the Self. The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense. Actually the three philosophies are barely distinguishable, and the social systems which they support are not distinguishable at all. Everywhere there is the same pyramidal structure, the same worship of a semi-divine leader, the same economy existing by and for continious warfare."

Well, sound familiar to you?

'1984': Sound Familiar? part 4

Here are summore amazing quotes from George Orwell's "1984":

"...it is often necessary for a member of the Inner Party to know that this or that item of war news is untruthful, and he may often be aware that the entire war is spurious and is either not happening or is being waged for purposes quite other than the declared ones..." (my emphasis)

"It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist."

The term "Inner Party" won't mean anything to you if you've never read the book. In "1984", there are three superstates. One is called Oceana. Oceana is governed by one political party that is simply refered to as "The Party". The class system of Oceana (from top to bottom) is Inner Party members, Outer Party members, and "the Proles". Inner Party members would probably be like what we just call "politicians".