"Seeing money can change behavior"

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Kathleen Vohs, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues, conducted a series of nine experiments in which people were asked to do puzzles or other tasks and the behavior of people exposed to money was compared to others who were not prompted to think about it.

[...]

In another experiment 44 students at Florida State University were each given $2 in quarters — which they were told was leftover from a previous experiment — and asked to unscramble sentences that divided them into two groups, one that was reminded of money by the sentence and others that were not.

When they left, the researcher noted that there was a box by the door for donations for needy students if they wanted to chip in, but they didn't have to.

On average, students who had read neutral sentences donated $1.34 while those whose sentences reminded them of money kept more for themselves, giving an average of just 77 cents.

[...]

Vohs research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chair Council.

clickhereforallofit

I dunno, [something about capitolism]. Its a really interesting study, I recommend reading all of it. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret the results, but they don't really suprise me. What would we do without Canada?

Will the Dems suprise me?

From the AP:

Dem scrutiny of drugs, defense expected

[...]

Generally speaking, Democrats have said they will differ from Republicans by being tougher watchdogs of corporate wrongdoing and government spending and bigger defenders of consumers and labor unions.

clickhereforallofit

Here's hoping.

Fundamentals of an Acceptable Democracy (for the United States of America)

Government leaders should put social goals above economic goals; human interests are more important than business interests.

Political candidates should not be supported by private corporations; politicians should not be allowed to accept contributions from businesses--only individual citizens, and large donations should be investigated and/or scrutinized.

Government should provide at least two years of free education for highschool graduates.

Study of the humanities should be emphasized in public school curriculum.

If they appear on more than half of all the states' ballots, third party presidential candidates should be allowed to participate in presidential debates with major party candidates.

The public should be allowed to vote on major national budget issues, i.e. considerable cuts or raises in funding for any government programs.

Personal privacy should not be infringed upon, even in established or declared national security crises or "troubled times" or "high stakes."

The public should vote on declarations of war and/or any kinds of military invasion, occupation or force against another country. Government should not order offensive military action without the consent of the public (by means of the voting process).

A truely democratic country will not use military intervention to change another country's governmental system, leadership, or philosophy.

All basic human rights that a government observes within its national borders should be equally observed outside of its national borders; war crimes are unacceptable, even if the opposing country/government has already committed them (even in greater volume or with higher severity).

Using Saddam's sentence to boost Republican votes

From AFP (Agence France Presse):

US voters weight Republican fate on election eve

[...]

Candidates in down-to-the-wire races cranked up get-out-the-vote efforts and Bush launched a final three-state campaign swing, with polls showing a tightening of a race expected to heap pain on his fellow Republicans.

[...]

On Sunday, he taunted anti-war critics by holding up the death sentence handed down on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as vindication for the 2003 US invasion.

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision, and the world is better off for it," he said.

clickhereforallofit

Its no suprise that Republicans, especially Bush, would try to use Saddam's death sentence as a last minute vote booster. Everyone hates Saddam, but will the American people be convinced that the world is better off now that Hussein is going to hang?

Lets not forget that the search for WMDs showed up practically empty, and there's no evidence that they were going to start a nuke program or supply "terrorists" with weapons or anything that extreme.

Are the American people gullible enough to keep Republicans in power just because Saddam has been sentenced to death? He's been captive for like two years now, whats really the difference? Troops are still dying, and Iraq doesn't appear to be stabilizing at all -- "Oh yay, Saddam's gonna hang!..."

If Americans are happy about Saddam's death sentence, they should remember that EVERYONE in Congress wanted to go to war back in 2003. Well, they voted for it, at least. But is his death sentence a victory in this so-called war on terror? Yeah right.

"Wrecker-in-Chief"

from nader.org:

On October 17th, George W. Bush, signed into law a bill he bulldozed through Congress that, in Senator Patrick Leahy’s prophetic words, would suspend “the writ of habeas corpus, a core value in American law, in order to avoid judicial review that prevents government abuse.” This law, whose constitutionality is in doubt and will be reviewed by the Supreme Court in due time, puts so much arbitrary and secret unilateral power in the hands of the Presidency that the ghost of King George III must be wondering what all the fuss was about in 1776.

If you want more evidence of how obsessively-compulsed George W. Bush is about his wars, their fabrications, budgets and cover-ups, consider his cue card statement on the legislation at the White House signing ceremony. “It is a rare occasion when a president can sign a bill he knows will save American lives,” he declared.

Hello! He has rejected all kinds of occasions to save American lives here at home. He has refused to do anything about the widespread and preventable mayhem known as medical and hospital malpractice, while fanatically pushing for restrictions on the right of such victims or their next of kin to have their full day in court. At least 80,000 Americans die from malpractice just in hospitals every year, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

The same Presidential pen could have saved thousands of more lives and prevented many more injuries were it to alight on safety legislation and larger budgets for reducing job-related sickness and trauma (58,000 lost lives a year) and air pollution (65,000 lives a year) – to name a few categories of preventable violence. But he signaled from the onset of his Presidency that such bills would be opposed from the getgo.

And once again remember his incompetence in letting U.S. soldiers – hundreds of them die in Iraq from the lack of adequate body armor.

At the signing event, Mr. Bush called the legislation “a way to deliver justice to the terrorists we have captured.” To him all captured subjects are ipso facto convicted terrorists. It is not as if his record gives any credence to such fantasies. But he persists in his deception none the less. Out of nearly 700 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, he has charged only ten after over four years of detention. Ten! Why? Mostly, as military, civilian lawyers and other monitors have said, because the vast majority of these abused or beaten prisoners were innocent from the day of their apprehension – victims of bounty hunters in Afghanistan and surroundings.

clickhereforallofit

I don't have time to write much about this, I just think its a damn good read. If you have second thoughts about George Bush when you hear sound bites on Fox News, just read Ralph.

Cops crash a country show at Walter's

From the Houston Chronicle:

A Houston police officer responding to a noise complaint Friday night at Walter's, a popular music venue on Washington Avenue, discharged his Taser at least three times when a melee ensued after he told a guitar player to turn down the volume.

[...]

[Sgt. Nate] McDuell said [Adam] Stephens, whose guitar was hanging from a neck strap, then used a sexual obscenity and shoved the officer with his shoulder.

[...]

Stephens said he was sideways and singing on the stage just before he turned around and saw the officer, who then shined a flashlight at him and said, "Stop."

Stephens, who denied shoving the officer, said he responded, "Why?"

He said the officer moved closer to him and yelled, "Stop!"

Stephens said he again asked why and that the officer then grabbed him by the neck and forced him to the floor.

Accounts vary, but apparently several people then charged the stage, there was a lot of pushing and shoving, and the officer called for backup.

[...]

[G.M.] Rodriguez suffered bruises and cuts on his arms, at least four people were arrested, a valuable bass was broken. A tall, slender 14-year-old with shoulder-length hair was Tasered, and a University of Houston sociology student doing a "field paper on the music scene" also was Tasered.

clickhereforallofit

I heard about this from my girlfriend a few days ago, but it was second hand from a Hot Topic employee so I wasn't sure if it was true (because that store's specialty is fabrication).

What suprises me the most is that these bands got the cops called on it. WAAAY louder bands have played at Walter's before, like The Casualties for example, who are actually coming back to Walter's this Friday, and I think Youth Brigade played sometime last week.

There's no question that this cop was an asshole and was completely out of line. So I'm not going to discuss that.

My theory as to why the cops targeted Walter's is that they were actually called about an earlier, louder show, the kind that Walter's has more often than these "laid back country" shows. It must have been just a slow night for this cop and he happened to drive by Walter's and recognized the name of the place and heard some noise. Hell, the neighbor who called the cops probably does so every single night! So this Rodriguez character decides he's actually going to humor the neighbors tonight and show up.

I can imagine how confusing it would be for a cop to be so pissed off about some laid back folk rock show.

Here's how it plays out in my head: you're up on the stage playing your guitar, the bright stage lights make it difficult to see anyone in the crowd, you seem to be ignoring the cop because you CAN'T FUCKING SEE HIM, so he gets up on the stage and approaches you; if you're facing away from the crowd (to the side in this case), you probably can't see him even after he comes up onto the stage so you accidentally run into him as you turn back to face the crowd.

Basically, if Stephens really did run into that cop first, it was quite likely just an accident, and this cop flipped out.

I've been planning on booking a show out at Walter's for my loud, rowdy punk rock band, The Drafted. Luck for us, Houston cops would rather raid the mellow college crowd!

Whats wrong with this picture?

From NPR:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters the United States is open to negotiations with North Korea to "keep the crisis from escalating."

[...]

Rice's trip to Asia is aimed at boosting support in South Korea and China for sanctions against North Korea.

clickhereforallofit

Maybe I don't fully understand what sanctions are, or whatever the Bush administration means by "sanctions" these days, but it doesn't seem like a form of negotiation to me. And I think the term "open to negotiations" kind of goes out the window when you're pushing for sanctions. Like, "We're open to anything, but mostly just sanctions." I can't believe Rice is actually trying to make it sound like the administration wants to negotiate.

I guess they really mean to negotiate with South Korea and China about placing sanctions against North Korea. Thats really the only way to make sense of it.

But, how dumb am I being by trying to rationalize something the Bush administration is doing?

Why I'm not scared of North Korea

Its been more than two years now since I wrote a song called "North Korea" for my punk band, The Drafted. The song was about my confusion after I first heard that North Korea claimed to have a Bomb. I couldn't understand why we were invading Iraq because they might be trying to start a nuke program (the first reason we were there) while another country, with a considerably more insane dictator, actually admitted to having such weapons and our leaders essentially ignored it.

The media paid closer attention this summer when they tested those missiles, but now that they've tested this nuke its really gotten crazy, on both sides. I mean, Kim Jong Il is out of his fucking mind. No one is disputing that; the man is insane, but he's not dumb enough to use his weapons before someone else does first. How do I know this? North Korea is all Kim Jong Il has! NO ONE likes that guy! If he tries to take the offensive and nuke another country first, he knows he's going to get creamed by one of the other several nuclear states, no matter who he nukes. Inversely, we can't do SHIT to them now, so we might as well humor them and include them in international dialogue.

The North Korean government has repeatedly said that they developed the nuclear weapons as a defensive measure. With Il's insanity aside, how hard is that to believe? Freaking out about it only displays everyone's belief that they're a bunch of animals, and maybe they will end up using them first if we keep acting that way.

Its like bees. If you don't bother them, they don't bother you. I've had wasps land on me before and I just froze; they fly away immediately. Whether North Korea deserves respect or not, we've got to give it to them now. The only way to get them to listen to dissarmament talks would be for the other nuclear nations to dissarm first, and who expects that to happen any time soon?

No one seems to be looking at the nuclear situation in the same way that I am, maybe I'm the crazy one.

A post from Nader.org

Options For Revision

Imagine the U.S. military – from the soldiers on the ground to the generals – saying publicly what they are thinking and saying privately about their two draft-dodging but bellicose rulers in the White House.

Sometimes, reporters have gathered a few excoriating statements from the frustrated, beleaguered, often body armor-less GIs. One even demanded Bush’s resignation from his barracks in Iraq, which was shown on national television.

There is also the under-reported Zogby poll released in January 2006 –
the only scientifically sampled field poll in Iraq – which showed over
seventy percent of the soldiers thought the United States should
withdraw in a time period ranging from six months to a year. And this
opinion in the war zone was registered when the situation was not as
bad as the quagmire is today.

As for the Generals, their dissatisfaction with Don Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, goes well beyond his brusque personality into the rigid and mistaken policies from the beginning of this fabricated, illegal war.

Now comes the New York Times reporter, Michael R. Gordon, with a page one story about a forthcoming Army and Marine Corps field manual with a “new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.”

Some might view this manual – drawing from the experiences of bottom to top military personnel – to be an indirect rebuke of the failed brute, force military policies of the Bush White House. Some may also wonder what took the Pentagon so long to rediscover old knowledge about what succeeded and failed in foreign military occupations. Old knowledge that says reliance on sheer military power, mistreating prisoners, and not safeguarding civilians and essential public services fails again and again.

Well, better late than never. This particular field manual went through many comments, consultations, and drafts before distilling nine “representative paradoxes” of counterinsurgency operations. Their theme is that the more force used, the less effective it is. Staying in touch with the civilian population, instead of staying in compounds, is more effective than a brute force and firepower approach. Dollars and ballots have more impact than sheer weaponry because they strengthen the host country’s restoration of basic services like police, electricity, drinking water, food, health and schools.

Other paradoxes include one that says “tactical success guarantees nothing," and that “most of the important decisions are not made by generals,” but by troops at all levels.

By now you are probably saying, “Isn’t that just repeating the obvious?” Why, yes, but when your dogmatic, messianic commanders are Bush and Cheney, shorn of history, common sense, and critical reactive thinking, the “obvious” has to be conveyed as something new, lest it be seen as what it is – a repudiation of disas trous policies from design to supply to logistics.

click here for all of it

If you're feeling confused about this whole "right and wrong" thing these days when you see all this shit about North Korea and what our responsibility is and whatnot, I recommend paying a visit to nader.org and reading Ralph's latest rants about Iraq.

I haven' read it all, as I write this, but it seems pretty entertaining at least.

I don't mean to blog once a month...

I can think of two people who read this blog, and to you two guys, I'm sorry I never post anymore.

I don't have internet at my house, hopefully once we move to our new location I will be able to get online regularly and with time to do stuff like this. I've blogged from UNO's library before but I've been doing actual work there lately for this "school" thing that I'm signed up for.

Politics: Ummmm, I'm going to be voting for the first time this year. Kind of exciting, I'm casting my govenatorial vote for independent Kinky Friedman for governor of Texas. If anyone has found a reason not to vote for him please let me know; I've read his site a few times and he seems like the best choice, suprisingly progressive. He's not some hopeless joke candidate who's doomed from the start, he looks like he could really win and he's got some good ideas despite his dumb ass ways of relating to dumb ass Texans.

Speaking of elections, I really don't think the Republicans are going down this mid term. Its okay, if they haven't dug their grave deeply enough yet, two more years should be enough to get rid of them for a while.

Keep stopping by guys (John and Ron), I'll get back in the blog habbit eventually. Haha, Ron-John.

"Islam, which I consider to be a cult religion"

I've been going to church at this place in Metarie called Calvary Chapel. Its this seemingly very cool non-denominational church that is oriented to more youthful and chilled out people. However, the particular pastor at the Metarie Calvary Chapel is a TOTAL fundamentalist.

All of the sermons that I've heard him give so far have included the following themes: 1)We're right 2)They're wrong 3)There can only be one Truth and that is the word of Jesus Christ, everything else is wrong.

This morning "Pastor Dave" (as I think of him in my mind, I can't remember his real name) once again got around to talking negatively about Islam. The exact term that he used was "cult religion" and my memory's quote is, "...Islam, which I consider to be a cult religion...". In all my life of going to church (pretty much every single sunday of my life, without fail) I have never heard a pastor blatently regard another religion as a "cult". But here's the real kicker: a few weeks ago, we had a guest pastor. I think this guy was from Colorado, he's the pastor for another Calvary Chapel. His views were not much different at all. His exact words were, "There's no life in Muhammad! There's no life in Buddha! There's no life in ME!". Once again, a Calvary Chapel minister openly disputed and denied other faiths.

I'm seriously thinking about bringing my minidisc recorder to a sermon and recording what this guy at the Metarie Calvary Chapel says. Its not suprising that these guys were from a non-denominaitonal church; they probably don't have to answer to as much authority as your standard Methodist or Baptist, or especially Catholic ministers, do.

The testimony of just two prechers probably does not reflect the belief of Calvary Chapel as a whole organization, but it does bring some questions to my mind. Particularly, could this be a church that America needs to look out for? Moreso than southern Baptist churches or the TV evangelicals?

That last blog sucked

What I was trying to say yesterday was that I started off last week with a lot of confusion about my classes. I just now straightened out my last problem and am feeling much better about my time here. I should probably be reading up on these issues that are coming up in my English class regarding the New Orleans tax assessor consolidation and the levee board consolidation, but whatever.

I just now had my first guitar lesson ever. I can't wait to kick ass. Its going to happen pretty soon.

The stuff I said yesterday about not making any friends is pretty true, but I do know a few graduate students who go to this church that my brother and I have been going to on Sundays, they're really nice.

I really do feel pretty out of control still, but at least I have a chance to get over it now that I've gotten all my class conflicts straightened out. I'll blog about political stuff soon.

My first weeks of college

I haven't blogged in a while. I am currently living in Gretna, LA (West Bank, yo!) with my brother Travis, and we don't have internet access right now. We're going to be moving to a different house in a few weeks.

Anyway, UNO has been a pretty flabergasting experience so far. I've been feeling quite out of control of my life for the past few weeks because I can't get on the net at any time that I want and I missed my first class of college because I didn't even know that I was supposed to be there! I found out the next day that there are three parts to this music theory course that I'm taking, at least I've got my schedule figured out now, I think.

I've got this constant feeling like I'm doing something wrong, like I'm forgetting something, or like there's another piece of important information that I'm unaware of. Every moment that I get to relax, I've got this fog in the back of my mind that says there's somewhere else that I'm supposed to be. And my dad keeps emailing me saying we're out of daytime minutes on our cell phone plan, haha.

The weirdest thing about this experience so far is that I haven't made a SINGLE friend yet, nor even had a conversation with any of my classmates. Nor do I feel like I'm accepted by them, as if that mattered. I go to school, sit in the front, listen to the instructors, do what they say, and leave without having shared anything with anyone. The only exception would have to have been yesterday at my ensemble class. At least I actually talked to a few people.

I must seem depressed but I expect things to improve.

George Allen’s Macaca

From Crooks and Liars:

Sen. George Allen has a funny way of communicating with the only non-white at an all Republican event.

S.R. Sidarth, a senior at the University of Virginia, had been trailing Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for the Webb campaign. During a campaign speech Friday in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, Allen singled out Sidarth and called him a word that sounded like "Macaca."

"Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," said Allen, who then began talking about the "war on terror." In an interview, Sidarth said he suspects Allen singled him out because he was the only non-white face in the audience, which he estimated included about 100 Republican supporters.

He could have at least asked him his name since he’s been around his campaign. And yes, what does he mean by Macaca?

If spelled M-a-c-a-c-a, the term refers to a species of monkeys in the Eastern Hemisphere. "Is he saying Sidarth is a monkey?" [Webb spokesperson Kristian Denny] Todd asked. The word M-a-k-a-k-a refers to a town in South Africa. Todd accused Wadhams of "reaching" for an explanation for Allen’s comments. "The kid has a name. This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person," Todd said.

Click here to see the original post from Crooks and Liars.

Here's the video below. I don't need to comment any further on this because its completely clear from this video that George Allen is a complete douche bag and should be sacked.

"The best one we've had so far"

I was eating at a taquaria in Pasadena, Texas yesterday with my boss, Larry, and two of his other employees. There was a picture of "The Mexican Elvis" on the wall; I didn't catch what his name was but the story about his alleged assassination by a past Mexican president led Larry to start talking about how "everyone wants to hang Bush". He actually said that President Bush is the best president that our country has had so far! Then he went on about how we should ANNEX ALL OF MEXICO.

He didn't explain why Bush is the best, so I'll explain why Bush is the worst.

1. The tax cuts that "help the economy" are really only helping the corporate elites who benefit from them the most. A glance at some of the numbers may tell you that the economy is strong right now, but a glance at any current personal bankruptcy statistic will show you that something is very wrong. If the economy is doing so well, why are so many people filing for bankruptcy these days? Why hasn't the minimum wage increased since 1997?

2. King George has changed the purpose of the war in Iraq twice now. Before 9/11, he was perpared to go to war because of the whole "No Fly Zone" thing. Immediately after 9/11, Iraq was supposedly stocking up on nukes. Now after thousands of our troops have already died not to mention a countless amount of Iraqi civilians, we're there to "promote democracy" in the region or "restore peace/freedom/stability", whichever sounds right at the time. How he has gotten away with this is completely beyond me.

3. His first veto of his career squelched research that could likely find cures or treatments to currently incurable diseases. His explanation was that stem cell research kills innocent life, even though the research would be done on stem cells that were never going to live in the first place.

4. Lets not forget that whole "Mission Accomplished" fiasco. That was just stupid. (He's the first president to appear in military uniform while in office, only preceded elsewhere by people like Castro and other totalitarian types).

5. He has not shown any kind of concern about the coruption of the Mexican government--corruption which forces so many Mexicans to flee here (sometimes legally). In fact, Bush's relationship with Vicente Fox (Mexico's current president) is quite a friendly one.

6. His administration's shaky consistency on getting permission for domestic wire tapping (which has always been approved when they actually ask for it) is suspicious at best.

7. His old "Axis of Evil" remarks jeopardized relations between South and North Korea, as well as secular progress in Iran. There was a tremendous amout of normalization being made, but North Korea shut its doors to the South after Bush put them in his Axis of Evil. Also, many people in Iran were becoming religiously tolerant and non-violent, but after Bush's remarks they fled back to the Ayatollas and other Islamic fundamentalist leaders.

Need I go on? You could find just as many bad things about every president that we've had, but in no way could anyone in their right mind truely believe that Bush has been the best.

Roots of hardcore

Dead Boys, 1977

Chomsky: media, government, truth

Something we should all think about: Zinn on human nature and war

Happy Birthday Gorni Kramer

Gorni Kramer is on accordian. I'll be honest, I'd never heard of Gorni Kramer until I saw his name on a list of jazz musicians who's birthdays are today.

This is REALLY funny though.

Texas state bird: the mosquito

I don't know what species of mosquito this is, but they scare the hell out of me.

Summer rain brings monsters.